How to Survive a God of Deer?
Someone who knows how to survive the Deer God?
The Deer God, who had once been the owner of this forest, appeared as if he had completely trampled his own life’s territory underfoot.
He snapped the trees like dry twigs, and with each step he crushed the small animals into pulp. From the first glance, it was obvious that conversation would achieve nothing with this creature.
For Tarte, the few seconds that had just passed were the highest density of thought she had ever experienced since the day she was born.
Why, she wondered, wasn’t there a story like this?
She remembered the saying that time slows down right before death. It was an unverified tale—she couldn’t ask anyone who had actually died to confirm it—but the emotion that surged first was pure terror.
The modern world had been peaceful; this kind of deadly crisis was brand new to her.
She simply hadn’t been able to truly grasp the horror of death.
Yet now that she had survived several intense battles, her instincts had sharpened. She now had something to compare against.
This was not the fox she had barely beaten with sheer effort. It was not even the bear she had miraculously driven away. This was an overwhelmingly larger, faster, and stronger monster of another dimension entirely.
The only faint hope was that, because its scale was so absurd, perhaps conversation could still work. But she had heard from the village how insane the forest’s ruler had become.
The next wave of feeling was frustration. Why her? Why her?
She hadn’t been summoned together with hundreds or thousands of others. Only eight people had been pulled into the Tower. Of those, the A-Team had entered on their own, so in the end only four genuine summoners had come through. In an eighty-billion-strong Earth, that number was truly impossible to describe except as heartbreaking.
She wanted to grab someone and demand to know why she had to be the protagonist of this disaster.
Then she accepted it.
She gave up. She despaired. Her mind understood that there was no way she could survive against that thing.
She prayed for a savior to appear, but deep down she knew help would never come.
Time seemed to stop for a single heartbeat.
That was an illusion.
Time did not freeze. The Deer God was moving, and so was Tarte. Emotions swirled once more, then settled, and she made her decision.
She still felt it was a shame to simply give up and die. Her life had been so short.
So she opened her mouth.
“I’ll lure the creature. Everyone, run in different directions!”
She gave an order she herself did not fully understand to her team.
Was she crazy?
Luring a monster like this?
Did she actually believe she had a chance?
The team members did not believe her.
“That’s impossible. There’s no way luring against something like that would work.”
The only mage in the party who had ever managed more than a one-person show snapped back irritably.
That was perfectly logical and reasonable.
Tarte thought, This is true, but the guy is just complaining without offering any other plan. Fine, be quiet and follow me.
She was bluffing with everything she had. She made sure her voice never betrayed fear.
She had strung together so many death flags that it almost felt awkward not to die.
This was the classic cliché from countless stories: a lone member volunteers to hold back an overwhelmingly powerful enemy while the others escape.
She never imagined she would actually do it.
A helpless laugh escaped her lips.
She put the words into action.
She stepped forward and hurled the holy sword at the Deer God.
She was discarding her only weapon. What did it matter if it wouldn’t communicate anyway? One fleeting moment of distraction was enough to fulfill the sword’s purpose.
“Come on! You stupid deer monster!”
Her shout was full of bravado, yet she deliberately ran away from the Deer God.
Of course she did. Charging straight at it would have been nothing but a weird way to commit suicide.
Her teammates followed the leader’s order even though they suspected her.
They had no choice. Animals instinctively value their own lives above all else.
So they believed her.
They thought their leader was amazing and that she had found a way to survive against the Deer God.
No matter how impossible it seemed, she could not be questioned in front of a fallen god.
Doing anything suspicious there would doom them all.
Eventually the teammates left the forest without ever clearing their doubts.
The Deer God began to move.
The holy sword that had struck him was nothing more than stepping on an ant—purely symbolic.
Not even the slightest sensation registered.
It was too insignificant to compare to a mosquito bite or a bee sting.
The best analogy was simply colliding with an ant.
“Hey! Did I scare you, deer?!”
Its voice roared as it charged. The mad Deer God didn’t realize it was intentional provocation; it simply decided to chase the noisy intruder.
Tarte ran and desperately asked in the chat window.
“Does anyone know a way to survive against the Deer God?”
But even after thinking hard, Tarte could not find any method to survive against this colossal, speedy, and terrifyingly powerful mad deer.
“Deer! I’m sorry for destroying nature, human! That’s not it!”
She tried talking, desperately searching for a way to stay alive.
She thought it would be smarter to conserve her breath while running, but simply sprinting away from a monster of that size was impossible.
Her stride was completely different. This creature didn’t even obey normal physics.
Seeing an elephant-sized monster move with the agility of a horror film was simply unpleasant.
It felt as bad as death itself.
“If you want something, say it! Speak! You violent deer!”
The sound of footsteps grew louder.
The closer the source, the louder it became.
The Deer God was approaching.
“Ugh!”
Just as she thought it would be the same whether it stepped on her or collided with her, Tarte turned around.
As expected, the Deer God had caught up to her at point-blank range.
It was close enough to crush her instantly.
Even so, she wouldn’t give up!
Don’t underestimate humans, deer!
“What are you doing?! Keep running!”
At that moment, a mysterious hand suddenly grabbed her arm.
Tarte, pulled along without thinking, ran with that hand.
Her vision, a little slower than her judgment, locked onto the person leading her.
A figure wearing clothes made entirely of leaves. A primitive?
“Follow the path of the wind.”
When the primitive gave the order, Tarte felt her body become incredibly light.
It wasn’t an illusion.
Even with the same steps as before, her body moved farther and faster than ever before.
Agility and speed doubled. Stride length increased significantly.
‘Buff!’
Only now did her thoughts clear.
The woman in leaf clothes in front of her wasn’t a primitive—she was the Forest Druid!
But escaping the Deer God’s pursuit came first.
Luckily, with the buff she ran faster than the Deer God and barely managed to lose it after a long chase.
“Hic! Huff! Kheuk! Heuk!”
Tarte had run until her heart felt like it would explode. She had nearly died.
A strange liquid poured into her mouth.
She had no choice but to swallow or choke, so she drank it.
Her breathing suddenly became steady, and her wildly racing heart slowly calmed.
“Thank you… hick!”
Was this medicine or a strategy? A blade entered Tarte’s neck.
No, it wasn’t a blade—it was an arrow.
The cold metal touched her throat.
“You’re the ones who started the forest fire?”
“No!”
“How am I supposed to believe that?”
“Even if you say so, there’s no way to prove you didn’t do it.”
“Hmph.”
The Druid finally lowered the arrow and took a step back.
She was still on full alert, an arrow already nocked and ready.
Tarte finally got a clear look at the Forest Druid in her leaf clothing.
‘Elf? No, wait…’
Her lithe body, beautiful blonde hair, and clothes that were the very embodiment of nature. She looked like an elf, but her ears were too short.
Even though the arrow had threatened her, the Druid had saved Tarte’s life at the very last moment. Tarte expressed her gratitude.
“Thank you for saving me. I wouldn’t be alive without you.”
The Druid gave a cold order, as if she didn’t care about thanks.
“Leave the forest. And never come back. This is the territory of a fallen god. If you value your life, you must never enter here.”
“I came here to purify that god.”
Her sharp, aggressive tone actually fit perfectly with the elf setting.
As Tarte answered with regret, a sudden bright light began to shine behind her head.
‘What kind of light is this?’
Tarte turned her head to look for the source.
But she couldn’t find it.
Because the light was coming from behind her head.
Not a fixed point in the horizon coordinate system, but from the exact spot behind Tarte’s head.
This was a halo.
The Hero’s Light
Aura of absolute holy power. No creature with evil intent can approach within a certain range.
She had activated the legendary Hero’s Light halo.