Incoming Attack

Before Wang Zhifan and the Tracksuit Helmet Girl could respond, the relatively short Hooded Cloak Middle-aged Man vanished swiftly into the mountain forest like a shadow melting into the night, clearly giving neither of them any chance to refuse.

"Uncle, should I hide in that patch of grass?"

Seeing the person she had trusted to rely on run off so quickly, the girl was left dumbfounded. She had wanted to confirm the details of their cooperation with him, but received no response. She could only crouch down and hide in a nearby thicket with some unease.

Wang Zhifan, however, was not as obedient as the girl. Rather than following the man's instructions and remaining where he was to face the enemy head-on, he also found a concealed thicket and carefully hid inside. His position formed a horn with that of the Tracksuit Helmet Girl, allowing them to support each other at any time.

That middle-aged man definitely has bad intentions. Even if I'm a melee class and can only fight enemies up close, there's no need for me to stand there as bait and risk my life, right? I can't treat him as some dependable teammate. From now on, I have to adapt to the situation and rely on my own strength as much as possible to clear this Dungeon.

The reason Wang Zhifan decisively chose to ignore the middle-aged man's arrangement and hide instead was that his trust in that teammate had fallen very low. He had already disliked the man's manner, and judging by the role he had assigned Wang Zhifan, the fellow probably wanted to set him up. He clearly did not see him as an equal teammate at all.

Only a few seconds after Wang Zhifan hid himself, the Gunslinger Girl's voice came from a thicket not far away.

"Handsome, you don't need to hide! You should come out and face the enemy!"

She was not speaking very loudly, but her tone was somewhat hurried. Clearly, Wang Zhifan's unauthorized action had caught her by surprise.

But why would Wang Zhifan care about her nonsense? He immediately lowered his voice and replied mercilessly, "Quit talking nonsense! If you want to clear this Dungeon, remember to shoot the tiger in the head when it comes! I'll help you kill it!"

Wang Zhifan's response was decisive and carried a hint of Baleful Aura. Whether the girl listened to him or not, he made his meaning clear first.

"Oh... but..."

The girl was startled by Wang Zhifan's sudden rebuke, and for a moment, she seemed completely at a loss.

But before she could decide whom she should listen to, several soul-shaking tiger roars suddenly erupted from deep within the dim mountain forest, nearly frightening her into collapsing onto the ground.

Wang Zhifan was also intimidated by the sudden roar of the tiger. His heart began pounding violently on its own. It was not because he was timid. Tiger roars really were that terrifying. The majesty of the forest's apex predator was etched into every animal's genes; few people could feel no fear at all.

Once the tiger's roar emerged from afar, it did not stop. Its roars grew increasingly ferocious as they came closer and closer, rapidly approaching Wang Zhifan and the girl.

Seeing this, Wang Zhifan quickly took several deep breaths to keep himself from becoming too nervous. At the same time, he did not forget to warn the Tracksuit Helmet Girl nearby.

"Watch out! It's almost here! Get ready to shoot it in the head! I'll help you kill it!"

"O-okay!"

At this tense moment, the Gunslinger Girl, who had never had much of an opinion of her own, seemed to find her backbone when she heard Wang Zhifan's voice. The continuous, terrifying tiger roars had frightened her into a blank state of mind, and she had already forgotten what she was supposed to do next. But Wang Zhifan's timely urging eased her tense state somewhat.

Before long, accompanied by increasingly furious and terrifying tiger roars, Wang Zhifan saw a huge beast with tawny fur striped in black racing toward them through the mountain forest to their side, chasing a nimble black shadow. Both were astonishingly fast. The moment Wang Zhifan managed to see them clearly, they had already reached the nearby area!

"Shoot! Shoot!"

Realizing that the tiger was much faster than expected, Wang Zhifan immediately told the Gunslinger Girl to fire while rapidly shifting position within the thicket himself.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! The girl was probably at the height of her panic. The moment she heard Wang Zhifan urge her again, the top of her Steel Helmet poked out from the thicket, and she gripped her silver-white Handgun with both hands and began firing at the huge beast charging in from the side.

In that instant, she completely forgot Wang Zhifan's earlier advice to shoot the tiger in the head. Or perhaps she simply lacked the Shooting skill. Her Handgun's bullets swept toward the tiger's body in the blink of an eye, kicking up fallen leaves and dirt around it, but not a drop of blood appeared!

"Damn, she missed every shot!"

Having already shifted positions, Wang Zhifan immediately sensed that things were going badly. He had not expected the girl to hit the tiger's head with a single shot, but she had emptied her entire magazine without harming the tiger at all. That development caught him completely off guard.

"Run! Don't reload!"

At that moment, the large tiger, which had been chasing the suspicious shadow ahead, saw someone ambush it and then suddenly cease fire. It immediately shifted its hostility, leaping toward the Gunslinger Girl's position!

Its body was enormous, yet it possessed agility and nimbleness that did not match its size. In the blink of an eye, it had darted around several tree trunks and closed in on the Tracksuit Helmet Girl!

The girl had just emptied her Handgun's magazine and was trembling as she tried to load bullets into the empty magazine. Suddenly, she discovered that the huge beast had rushed right in front of her, and she was nearly frozen with fright. Several bullets she had just taken from her Personal Space immediately rolled from her palm toward the ground.

This disastrous situation had practically pronounced the Gunslinger Girl's doom. At that distance, she could not escape the tiger's attack with her speed, nor did she have the presence of mind to flee.

But just as the large tiger lowered its body slightly and prepared to leap at the girl, it suddenly noticed a figure rush out from behind a large tree to its side! The figure was sprinting very quickly and held a long weapon in its hand. In nearly the blink of an eye, it reached the tiger's side! But a tiger was still a tiger. Its dynamic vision was far superior to a human's, and its reflexes were also better. Faced with this second ambush, it immediately arched its body to dodge sideways while extending a thick tiger paw toward the attacker's head!