Are stairs / slopes supposed to be alligned?

So I’m trapped in a cave by an antlered horror. Using ‘peek around corners’ and looking up while standing on the slope I see “There’s an antlered horror in the way!” However if I use ; and < to look up then it seems the slope down on the level above is 16 tiles or so away from the slope up I’m standing on.

I suspect this also hinders fighting across Z-levels? The antlered horror isn’t attacking me (and it doesn’t follow me down the stairs) If I 'f’ire my gun it won’t target the antlered horror, and although I can fire into the tile above me, I’m pretty sure I’m just shooting solid rock.