Give a Doe, Take a Mal
The truly terrifying thing about feline predators isn’t limited to claws and teeth.
Their athletic ability that casually outstrips any human, their dynamic vision sharp enough to dodge an arrow the instant they lock on—those are problems, sure. But the real nightmare is their flexibility.
They explode forward, latch onto their prey by any means necessary, then ignore every thrashing, desperate struggle while they clamp down on the throat. That single technique is why a tiger can stand toe-to-toe with bulkier monsters like bears.
Of course, once you reach Siberian-tiger size, technique stops mattering and they just crush everything flat. Luckily this one was only a Bengal.
The problem was that even so, a tiger is still a tiger—especially one that had already died once and come back upgraded.
Crash!
Grrrrrrr…
It lunged before I could even think about dodging, slammed its full weight across my upper body, and drove me straight to the ground.
Rotting fangs snapped toward my throat with a snarl. In the same instant I dropped the iron bar, both hands locking onto its jaws.
I poured every ounce of strength into holding that closing maw open, then slowly—agonizingly slowly—forced it back.
“You fucking… cat bastard…”
My arms trembled violently, on the razor edge of giving out, yet this body’s limitless stamina kept the power flowing without pause.
Over four hundred kilograms of bite force drove those teeth deep into my palms until blood poured freely—but that blood became my opening.
Hissssss—
“?!”
The moment the blood hit open air it flash-froze like liquid nitrogen. The tiger flinched on pure reflex. I ripped my hands free and twisted my torso sideways out from under it.
Red crystals exploded as its jaws slammed shut on empty space where my neck had been. I shoved its foreleg with my shoulder and rolled free of the mount.
I spun for the iron bar without looking back—then Chaeyeon’s scream cut through the air like a knife.
“Oppa! Watch out!!!”
The second my fingers closed on the bar I twisted hips, shoulders, and arms in one continuous whip.
Whoooosh—
CRACK!
Inertia and rotational force turned the iron bar into a blur that carved the air and smashed dead-center into the tiger’s flank just as it tried to pounce on my back.
Kyaaak—!
It hit the ground with a sharp cry, then rose again as if nothing had happened, lips peeling back from those fangs.
I spat a mouthful of dust, roughly shook the ice crust from my hands, and reset my grip on the bar.
Crystals scattered like snowflakes. For a heartbeat both Chaeyeon and Soeun forgot the tiger entirely and just stared.
“…Oppa?”
Chaeyeon’s dazed murmur was the trigger. The tiger dropped into a crouch.
Crack— crack-crack-crack—
Rotting muscle and bone bulged under impossible force. The instant before it launched, I struck first.
I ripped the shredded remains of my shirt free and flung the bloody cloth straight into its face. Vision blocked, it swatted the fabric away on pure reflex.
I was already swinging for the raised foreleg—but the beast knew. It twisted clear, jaws yawning wide, and leapt.
Crunch!
“Hhk—!”
Fangs punched into my neck. Soeun clapped both hands over her mouth in horror—
and blood fountained from my carotid.
Hissssss—
I watched the cold flood its mouth, eyes rolling sideways while still clamped in its jaws, and snarled.
“First time eating ice cream, you furry piece of shit?”
I seized the frozen fangs still buried in my flesh and wrenched them the wrong way. The canines snapped free like pulled teeth.
“Too cold for you? Then fuck off!”
I drove the broken fang straight into its eye.
Kwaaaaang—!
The tiger howled and tore itself free. It staggered back several paces, shaking its newly one-eyed head as if even a corpse could feel pain—or maybe it was just pissed beyond reason—and glared at me.
I ignored it, rolled my stiff neck, and waited while the claw-raked torso and the gushing neck wound began to knit.
I clapped a palm over the ketchup-thick blood still bubbling out, then spoke to the two speechless high-school girls.
“Back up a little more. If either of you gets hurt, killing this bastard still counts as a loss.”
“…And you’re fine getting hurt?”
“Well. You’ve got eyes.”
I answered Chaeyeon’s murmur without looking away from the tiger. She slowly lowered the blade she’d been holding ready.
After that she just stared at me—me, coated head to toe in rose-red frost—and kept staring.
Endlessly.
“…Did you guys hear something just now?”
“Sir? What kind of sound?”
“I dunno. Sounded like a tiger from one of those nature documentaries. Must’ve been my imagination, right?”
“C’mon, hyung-nim. A tiger in the middle of the city? That’s ridiculous.”
“Yeah? Yeah, you’re right.”
Do Wangu nodded, agreeing with his subordinate. Then he irritably raked greasy fingers through his hair and jabbed a finger forward with stress-reddened eyes.
“Okay, tigers are bullshit. But what the hell is that?”
“….”
The gate sentries had no answer. Because the thing he was pointing at—hanging from a utility pole—was a beast every bit as out of place as a tiger. Maybe worse.
“Never in my life did I think I’d see a goddamn anaconda downtown. Where the hell do those even live? Africa?”
“…Mostly Central and South America, hyung-nim.”
“This is fucking insane. Completely insane. I’ve already got enough headaches from the cannibal freaks. Haaah.”
He ground his teeth and pressed hard on the bridge of his nose with a thumb. One of the sentries—the same one who’d first reported the anaconda and still half-doubted his own eyes—spoke in a trembling voice.
“…Uh. Hyung-nim? That anaconda… something’s off about it.”
“What else could be off? The fact it exists is already off.”
“It’s coming this way. I think it just made eye contact. Hyung-nim? Hyung-nim?”
“…Fuck. Everybody inside the gate, now!”
The snake had already slithered down the pole and was staring straight at them. Even Do Wangu recoiled and bolted.
No matter how high he ranked among humans, that thing was out of his league. It was the kind of monster that simply coiled around most predators and popped them like balloons.
Once every sentry and hanger-on had scrambled inside and caught their breath, Do Wangu muttered,
“…Until that thing disappears, sentries stay inside. Got it?”
“Yes, hyung-nim.”
He exhaled a bone-deep sigh, fished out a cigarette—and a voice yelled for him.
“Hyung-nim! Hyung-niiiiim!”
“Fuck! What now?!”
Do Wangu ground his teeth, already regretting everything. His so-called friends were upstairs lounging around, groping tits, while he—the “boss”—got dragged into every single problem and had to bark orders one by one.
Goddamn it all!
The man who approached was already flinching under that murderous glare. He opened his mouth carefully.
“Uh, hyung-nim. Those people you sent up earlier just came back down.”
“Oh yeah? They said they needed to check something on the roof. Took ’em long enough. They bring anything down?”
“…Clothes, a few supplies, and some black box. But, uh…”
“What? Spit it out.”
The man looked extremely uncomfortable.
“A tiger… a dead tiger… is hanging from that guy’s hand…”
“…What kind of bullshit is that?”
Do Wangu’s face went through several unnameable expressions before he turned toward the stairwell where a crowd was already gathering.
I sacrificed one hoodie and acquired a tiger. Problem was, the only thing I actually got out of it was jack shit.
I stared at the ruined skull while my body—clawed to ribbons—slowly put itself back together, then pinged the crow. She told me to haul the carcass over myself. Special corpses like this, she claimed, came with extra services.
What kind of services?
All sorts of things! Master just has to bring it!
That’s exactly the problem, you bird-brained bitch.
I grumbled internally, then decided to drag it anyway. I’d worked hard killing the thing; might as well see what the crow would cough up.
So I heaved the tiger’s upper body onto my shoulder and half-dragged, half-carried the rest of it downstairs like I was hauling gear after a concert.
The two high-school girls looked like they had a thousand questions. I told them I’d explain later; they shut up and followed.
The moment we hit the first floor, people swarmed with saucer eyes. I swallowed my irritation and asked the open-mouthed Ju Minho,
“Where’s Do Wangu?”
“Uh… he’ll be here any second. But… that thing… what the hell…?”
“It just showed up on the roof out of nowhere. I killed it.”
“…Right.”
He clearly wanted to refuse belief, but one look at my blood-spattered face and the tiger’s caved-in skull made refusal impossible.
The hangers-on who’d been needling me earlier now froze solid and couldn’t even meet my eyes. I ignored them.
Do Wangu came pounding over, eyes as wide as if he were watching Planet of the Apes for the first time. I spoke first.
“Lend me a few guys. Just to help haul this back to our place.”
“…No reason I can’t.”
From the dazed look on his face, he looked ready to carry it himself.