Chapter 261: Wooden Cabin (12)
Just like that night in Tunumo Village, Buddy’s barking wasn’t particularly sharp. Sometimes it would hop to the left, sometimes to Everly’s right. Rather than a warning, it sounded more as though it was trying to convey some kind of message.
Of course, the danger was already right in front of them. At a moment like this, there was no need for Buddy to jump out and give a warning.
With the experience of the previous two incidents, Everly quickly realized that Buddy was trying to lead her somewhere.
“What did you find…? Is there a way out of this situation?”
“Woof! Woof!”
Buddy let out a loud bark. The sound was bright and excited. If she could see the dog’s spirit, Everly felt certain that its tail would be wagging enthusiastically right now.
Everly was deeply touched by Buddy’s unwavering loyalty. She glanced back at the goat-hoofed monster behind them and saw that it was still some distance away. A fresh surge of strength immediately welled up within her.
“Follow me! This way!”
She threw back her head and shouted at the others at nearly the top of her lungs. After using her voice so much, Everly’s throat had already become hoarse, but to the group—who had been running around like headless flies—the rough, unpleasant sound was as welcome as heavenly music.
Acting on the habit they had developed during their desperate flight, no one hesitated. They immediately stuck close behind Everly and sprinted toward a certain direction in the dark forest.
The route Buddy chose was anything but straight, winding and twisting through the woods.
At first, Everly’s blood was pumping too hard for her to think about anything except keeping up. But as she ran and her mind gradually cooled, she began to notice that Buddy was deliberately guiding them along a path suitable for running.
The worshipper trees, their tentacles writhing around them, became fewer and fewer until they were left behind altogether. No longer did the group have to worry about being suddenly struck by tentacles whipping out from somewhere as they ran, nor did they have to waste precious energy climbing over the raised roots that crisscrossed the forest floor.
Not only that, but most of the trees along the new route had well-developed shallow root systems. On average, these roots rose three to four centimeters above the ground. As long as one paid a little attention while running, the chances of tripping were low. They also provided solid footing above the muddy, pothole-ridden ground. Once everyone adjusted to the terrain, running became both easier and more stable, greatly increasing the group’s speed.
Even better, because the path twisted and turned so much, the goat-hoofed monster that had been pursuing them closely actually began to fall behind!
Yes, incredibly enough, the creature was terrible at taking corners.
Its upper body was probably too heavy. Every time it turned, inertia would send its bloated torso swinging through a huge arc before it slammed into a tree trunk. The impacts made the trees buzz and tremble violently. At the same time, the collisions left the monster splattered with fluids, and its fleshy body dented inward like soft clay, forming large depressions where it struck.
As a result, the group finally gained a brief chance to catch their breath.
Unfortunately, good fortune never lasted long.
As they continued running, the monster’s shattered knees somehow repaired themselves.
With an impatient roar, it retracted its tentacles, dropped both legs to the ground, and switched to running on its goat-like hooves.
“Damn it, it’s so fast! It’s catching up!”
“Teacher! Its knees—shoot its knees!”
“We can’t! We’re out of bullets!”
The moment the students heard the monster’s roar, panicked screams erupted one after another from the rear of the group.
Everly felt the pressure as well, because she knew the two teachers hadn’t brought much ammunition.
Fortunately, at that moment, Buddy ‘s loud bark brought her a glimmer of hope.
She rounded the large tree ahead and continued forward. Suddenly, the space before her opened up into a small clearing where no trees grew.
In the middle of the clearing stood a towering triangular silhouette.
“Woof—!”
As if announcing the completion of its mission, Buddy’s voice circled the gigantic triangular structure a few times before gradually fading away. By then, Everly had already sprinted up to it.
The bright beam of her flashlight illuminated the object, outlining its worn stone steps and vintage wooden handrails.
It was a staircase.
A staircase that had appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the forest.
“!!!”
The moment she recognized what she was looking at, Everly was first startled, then overwhelmed with joy.
Of course—the Forest Staircase! Wasn’t this exactly what they needed right now?!
“Hurry! We need to get onto the staircase! The staircase can’t be damaged by external forces. As long as we can get up there, we’ll be safe!”
Her spirits lifted immediately, and she shouted at the top of her lungs to the people behind her.
Everyone had heard Harriet talk about the staircase during their journey. The moment Everly mentioned its unique properties, they remembered the story and their eyes lit up. Driven by the instinct to survive, they summoned the last reserves of strength in their exhausted bodies and raced desperately toward it.
Misha, Teacher Harriet, the curly-haired boy, Martina…
Everly stood beside the staircase. Whenever someone reached it, she would grab their arm, yank them forward, and shove them onto the steps.
Before long, the old staircase was packed from top to bottom with people standing shoulder to shoulder.
And gradually, the terrifying supernatural influence of the Forest Staircase began to manifest itself among them.
“I-I… I feel so uneasy!”
“Are we really safe here? What if it takes us to another world?”
“N-No, I can’t do this anymore! The staircase isn’t the right choice! We’re going to die—we’re all going to die! Aaaah! Let me get down!”
The commotion at the top of the staircase threw the group into brief chaos.
Fortunately, Misha and Teacher Harriet were standing at the very top of the stairs.
Someone beside them panicked and shoved through the crowd, trying to rush back down the stairs. Misha frowned, stepped forward at once, and brought her hand down in a swift, decisive chop to the neck, knocking the person unconscious on the spot.
Teacher Harriet, meanwhile, forced herself to endure her terror. Grabbing a student’s arms in a firm hold, she used her body weight to pin him to the staircase.
“No one goes down! Remember this—everything you’re feeling is an illusion. The staircase is safe. If you go down, you’ll die!”
She shouted at the students through clenched teeth that rattled audibly.
“That’s right! D-Don’t go down… The monster’s right there below us. I’d rather die on the staircase than be eaten by that thing!” one student replied in a trembling voice.
“It’s fake, it’s fake… Don’t go down…”
“I’m not scared, I’m not scared…”
Inspired by those words, the students glanced toward the goat-hoofed monster in the distance.
After the series of chases and battles, its body was now covered in thick, viscous fluids. The tentacles protruding from its surface resembled the spines of a sea urchin or the writhing legs of a centipede, twisting freely through the air. Merely looking at it was enough to trigger trypophobia, raise goosebumps across their skin, churn their stomachs, and make them want to vomit.
Faced with such a horrifying appearance, it genuinely felt as though dying on the staircase would be preferable to being eaten by the monster.
The creature was simply too ugly.
Suddenly, the staircase seemed downright pleasant by comparison.
For a time, even the students who had been causing the biggest commotion fell silent. No matter how frightened they were, they merely shut their eyes, cried quietly, and tried to hypnotize themselves into staying calm instead of demanding to get off the stairs.
At the same time, below the staircase, Everly successfully helped the last two companions reach safety.
They were the unlucky boy who had earlier been captured by one of the tentacle trees, and Teacher Ted, who had been supporting him as they fled.
The boy was injured, and without realizing it had gradually fallen behind while running. It was only because Teacher Ted had stayed by his side the entire time, helping and supporting him, that he had managed to hold on until now.
“Move aside, quickly!” Everly shouted.
Seeing the two of them stumbling forward, only moments away from being seized by the goat-hoofed monster charging out of the forest, Everly sprang forward in a single bound. With one hand, she yanked up a dead tree trunk nearly two meters long from the ground, bracing one end against the earth while aiming the other at the oncoming monster. Lowering her stance and putting all her strength into her arms—
Boom!
A dull, thunderous impact rang out.
Unable to dodge in time, the goat-hoofed monster’s massive, fleshy body slammed straight into the log.
The situation had been too urgent for Everly to properly adjust its position. As a result, the end that struck the monster was not a sharpened branch but the blunt root end.
The rounded root ball was like an enormous boxing glove, smashing heavily into the creature’s body. The impact caved in part of its flesh, leaving a deep depression. Unfortunately, it failed to pierce the monster’s body and skewer it through.
Instead, the tremendous force of the collision traveled through the root end and down the length of the trunk. The straight log bent downward like a crescent moon under the strain. Finally, the thinner end could take no more.
Crack!
With a sharp snapping sound, it split apart at the center.
Screeeech—!
After the log broke, the goat-hoofed monster’s momentum carried it forward. Its enormous body, together with the shattered trunk pressed against it, surged ahead for quite some distance.
The jagged break in the wood scraped against the rocky ground like a giant shovel, producing an ear-piercing grinding noise as it plowed across the clearing. It bulldozed everything in its path from the edge of the open space all the way to the foot of the staircase.
The instant Everly saw the log beginning to bend, she wisely released it and retreated to the base of the stairs.
By the time the monster, pushing the broken trunk before it like a battering ram, came crashing up to the staircase, the final three people—including Everly herself—had already climbed onto the steps.
“Hurry! Get up there! Don’t run back down!”
The two newcomers who had just stepped onto the staircase were already beginning to feel its side effects. Fear was taking hold of them.
Worried that they might mess things up and end up getting her into trouble, Everly shoved the two of them forward from behind, urging them to hurry up onto the staircase.
At the top of the stairs, the teachers and students cooperated, reaching out their arms to pull the two newcomers in, shielding them and keeping them under control at the same time. Everyone clung to one another, crouched like frightened quails at the upper landing, trembling uncontrollably while looking down at Everly with eyes full of hope.
Even though she stood at the very bottom step, in that moment, the silent figure of Everly seemed incomparably tall in their eyes—so much so that it was no exaggeration to say she carried everyone’s hope.
But the team’s last hope was far from as calm as she appeared.
This staircase was truly toxic.
Not long after stepping onto it, Everly felt waves of panic surge over her like a tide, completely engulfing her.
Just as the teachers had described, it was a terror beyond what a normal person could endure. It was a deep, bone-deep loneliness, a panic as if she had been forcibly stripped away from the entire world. It was an ancient fear buried in the depths of instinct, both nature and something no one could resist.
Realizing her hands were trembling, Everly exhaled slowly.
“Haa…”
Don’t be afraid. Don’t panic. It’s all fake. The staircase is safe. All this fear is just an illusion.
It was difficult—but it had to be done.
Over and over, she adjusted her emotions, forcing herself steady. Straightening her back, she widened her stance and lowered her center of gravity. One hand gripped tightly onto the wooden handrail, while the other clenched the metal sphere she had found in Dees’s bag.
Even though the fear inside her was already close to breaking its limit, she still clenched her teeth and did not rush to open the sphere.
Not yet. It wasn’t time yet. She had to wait until it came closer—two meters, one meter, half a meter…
Standing on the third step, she fixed her eyes on the goat-hoofed monster ahead, silently calculating the distance—until the dead tree in front of it slammed into the staircase like a cannonball.
Under the immense force, the thick trunk snapped once again.
The seemingly fragile staircase, however, remained as solid as iron. Not a single crack appeared. More than that, everyone standing on it felt completely disconnected from the outside world—as if even the thunderous impact had been muted, unable to reach them.
Only sight remained unaffected. More than a dozen flashlight beams shone downward in unison, converging at the base of the steps and casting Everly’s figure in a halo of light. Not far in front of her stood the grotesque goat-hoofed monster.
After two consecutive collisions, it looked slightly dazed, stumbling in place several times before finally shaking its kelp-like mass of flesh and tentacles and roaring as it charged toward the staircase once more.
And at that very moment, Everly gripped the handrail beside her with one hand, leaning forward and extending half her body beyond the staircase’s protective boundary. With her right thumb pressing down on the button of the metal sphere, she thrust her elbow forward and, with all her strength, hurled it straight into the monster’s gaping maw.