The dwarfs looked at Tatehan with viciousness burning in their eyes, but he was unfazed. Their short statures and the ridiculous manner in which they stood didn't let him think highly of them as opponents who would give him a hard time in battle.
Although they were small in height, they were still tall enough to pass for normal short humans, they weren't as tiny as actual dwarfs would be.
And even though they had thrown many hammers at Tatehan earlier, they still held more in their hands, an average of one each. Some gripped two, gnashing their teeth together and slamming the weapons against each other like mad maniacs preparing for war.
The scan of them had shown that they were normal dwarf brutenecks. If they had been lunatics, Tatehan might have been reconsidering his decision to think lowly of them as threats.
Even now, he probably shouldn't underestimate them, their profile had clearly shown that they fought much better together as a coordinated unit. But Tatehan smiled anyway, confidence radiating from behind his visor. Better together or not, he would smoke them all to shreds.
Literally!
He didn't move forward, but his rock sword remained pointed directly at them, steady and unwavering.
He had been expecting them to at least make some kind of move. Take the initiative and fight him head-on. But they didn't do that. They only stood perfectly still and watched him with those piercing eyes, staring like they were trying to look straight into his soul.
Tatehan didn't know exactly what to do at this point. Part of him was afraid to make the first move himself. He wanted them to be the ones to attack so he could simply aim for their exposed necks and kill them efficiently.
But then, it seemed the creatures somehow knew they had a critical weakness. They knew the sword Tatehan was holding was powerful enough to send their necks clean off their bodies. So they hesitated, calculating their options. And then Tatehan caught them exchanging quick glances with one another.
Exchanging glances?
They seemed to be giving each other some sort of silent direction, communicating what to do next without making a sound.
Tatehan quickly glanced at the massive boulders arranged beside him. For creatures like these to have built something this well-constructed, this perfectly arranged?
When he had scanned the carving hammer the previous night, the system had shown that its main purpose was to build and carve stone, but it was also really excellent as a weapon in battle.
Tatehan looked back at the dwarfs standing before him. The creatures were clearly excellent fighters just as much as they were excellent builders. And for supposedly "dumb" monsters to be this skilled at constructing elaborate structures, that could only mean one clear thing:
They were smart.
Not just the normal baseline type of smart that some animals showed, but genuinely SMART. Like, very smart and capable of complex thought. It seemed that creatures living in this particular part of the bruteneck area possessed real intelligence, completely unlike the mindless ones he'd encountered back near the spaceship.
Well, if they were going to be too smart to simply come rushing toward him so he could kill them easily with his rock sword, then he'd just have to do this the hard way instead.
By the hard way, he meant fully utilizing his gravity manipulation powers. He would send some heavy rocks flying over to them at high speed. Bring them crashing down hard.
But most importantly, he needed to aim directly for their goddamn exposed necks!
Tatehan focused his power and raised all the scattered hammers lying on the floor around him using his gravitational abilities. Before the dwarfs could even begin to process what was happening, the hammers launched forward and struck viciously at their vulnerable necks.
Mind you, they had thrown quite a handful of hammers at him earlier when his back was turned and he was caught off guard. Now those same weapons would be used against them, able to kill at least half of these dwarfs if his plan worked exactly as intended. There were almost a full dozen of them facing him down, by the way. An "almost dozen" of supposedly smart yet fundamentally dumb creatures.
The flying hammers found four exposed necks with deadly accuracy and sent those bodies crashing down to the ground, tearing through flesh and piercing the life right out of them in an instant.
This brutal result was exactly why Tatehan had mentally labeled them as smart yet dumb creatures.
They were smart because they clearly recognized that he was a serious threat—obviously, and understood that he was pointing that deadly sword at them because he fully intended to separate their heads from their bodies. Smart because they had paused cautiously and exchanged meaningful glances with their companions.
But wait, were those actually smart decisions to make in combat?
This hesitation was precisely what made them so incredibly dumb!
This right here!
When you see a clear enemy standing before you, there's really only one very obvious thing to do: either attack that enemy immediately with full aggression, or turn around and run away as fast as possible. It's simple as that.
But these dwarf brutenecks had instead paused awkwardly in place, wasting precious time exchanging uncertain glances for what purpose exactly? Did they honestly think this was somehow a good place and time to have strategic prep time and hold a planning meeting?
Seeing that the heads of their comrades were now completely off and their bodies lying lifeless on the ground, the remaining dwarf brutenecks suddenly tried to make a desperate run for it. This panicked reaction only further heightened Tatehan's firm belief that they were ultimately quite dumb despite their intelligence.
But Tatehan was already positioned right in front of their escape route, his sword raised and ready to strike...
His sword was raised low, positioned at the perfect height as he systematically sent their heads flying off one after another. He did so with natural style, with practiced grace, with undeniable charisma. Doing so with remarkable fluidity in his movements, with surgeon-like precision in every strike. Doing so with pure concentrated aura, almost like he had somehow inherited the legendary fighting style of the knight brutenecks simply because he was now wearing a refined and perfected version of their iconic armor.
"Pfff," Tatehan scoffed dismissively in the middle of the ongoing fight.
'And I had honestly thought these things were going to be some kind of serious threat?'