Faced with the mountain gnolls rapidly approaching her following their sudden and spontaneous increase in strength, Scaly was left with no choice but to use her water magic to prevent the mountain gnolls from getting too close and possibly delaying her escape for long enough that the powerful mountain gnoll had a chance to catch up with her-
Ptsh-!
[Gained 1424 Exp]
As a result of this, one of the rapidly approaching mountain gnolls ended up being pierced straight through the eye by one of her water spears. Killing it instantly.
However, even with this clear display of strength and the large number of water arrows and blades that injured the rest of the mountain gnolls to varies degrees. None of them showed any sign of slowing down, as they continued charging towards her filled with killing intent without fear. Making Scaly almost feel like they had been possessed by something.
Possessed by something...
Narrowing both her eyes as she thought about this while continuing to escape, Scaly turned to glance back at the powerful demon beast that was chasing after her before inspecting it.
[Mountain Gnoll, War Shaman, lvl 52]
[Description: A mountain gnoll that first became a shaman before evolving into a war shaman. Known for their mysterious spells capable of increasing the strength of other mountain gnolls on the battlefield. Turning them into fearless warriors unafraid of death.
The war shaman is a rare evolution of mountain gnoll shamans and can normally only be found in larger tribes that has a lord or king present. Avoid at any cost inside a dungeon. If outside a dungeon, avoid it if possible. Most tribes big enough to give birth to a war shaman is in trade relationships with other civilizations and is normally friendly, but entering the areas controlled by these tribes is still not recommended without official trade business.]
Reading through the description of the powerful mountain gnoll that was currently chasing after her, Scaly could not help frowning to herself as she seemed to find out why the weaker mountain gnolls recklessly chasing after her had suddenly become so unafraid of death.
Outside of that, she also managed to learn a bit about the larger tribe that the mountain gnoll war shaman should be from.
Although she had never encountered a mountain gnoll lord or king, she could at least guess what they were from her previous interactions with similar monsters.
For example, the forest rabbit lord was a lord monster and seemed to be the ruler of the forest rabbits, while the forest gnoll chieftain held a similar position.
With that established, the mountain gnoll lord should be a similar ruling figure. Only that it was obviously stronger than the forest rabbit lord that she had encountered back on the third floor of the dungeon.
As for the mountain gnoll king that had also been mentioned, she guessed that it should be a stronger version of the lord given that the lord was the first mentioned between the two.
Hm? I can continue inspecting the mountain gnoll part of the description?
Suddenly noticing something odd about the description that had appeared in front of her, Scaly realized that she could actually continue focusing on the mountain gnoll part of the description, something she hadn’t been able to do before.
Groowl-!
Chiing~!
However, before she had a chance to check out the new feature that seemed to have been unlocked, one of the mountain gnolls crazily chasing after her finally caught up, as she was forced to turn around and block its crude axe before it had the chance to reach her body.
Grrr-!
Taking the opportunity, another one of the mountain gnolls soon caught up to her and seemed to have gone crazy as it abandoned its crude weapon before opening its mouth to bite down at her-
Whoosh-!
Not intending to become a meal herself, Scaly jumped off the ground with all of her strength. Using her strong scales to smash directly into the open mouth of the mountain gnoll-
BANG!
Crack~
Shattering the teeth of the mountain gnoll while also knocking it out in the process before landing on the ground and just barely dodge the axe that came swinging down towards her before she continued escaping.
Although the situation had been dealt with rather beautifully and had left one of the mountain gnolls chasing after her incapacitated, Scaly didn’t feel the slightest bit happy, as the powerful mountain gnoll war shaman had managed to further close the distance during the short brawl that had taken place.
The only positive thing was the fact that the mountain gnoll war shaman had accidentally stumbled into the muddy field she had created. At least ensuring that the distance between them would take a bit longer for it to cross, as it couldn’t go around the mud after landing in the middle of it.
ROOOOAR-!
[Mountain Dwelling Troll, lvl 57]
However, as if to crush her hope of escaping following the sight of the mountain gnoll war shaman struggling through the mud, the loud roar of the troll echoed out from inside the mountain gnoll camp.
Rumble~!
Following which, Scaly was horrified to discover that the massive troll had been injured and was now escaping in her direction.
Resulting in not just the mountain gnoll war shaman moving towards her, but also the troll that had the rest of the powerful mountain gnolls chasing after it.
And... To make things even worse, the speed of the troll and the other mountain gnolls far surpassed the speed of the war shaman that seemed to be rather slow in comparison.
Why!?
Only able to cry out loud in her head as she saw this and watched how the massive troll easily moved through the mud, Scaly tried her best to increase her speed to no avail as the troll only got closer and closer.
Growl!?
Thump~
On the positive side of things, the troll did end up stepping directly on the war shaman as it escaped through the mud. Submerging it below the mud with its life and death unknown.
In the end, this caused the mountain gnolls chasing after her to regain some clarity, as they stopped relentlessly pursuing her and instead looked around themselves filled with confusion about what had just happened-
Growl!?
The confusion did not last for long, as the slowest among the mountain gnolls soon discovered the troll charging directly towards them. At this point, only a few meters behind the one to discover it.
Whoosh~
Unfortunately, the reaction of the slowest mountain gnoll was far too slow, as it had no time to evade the troll before it suddenly felt itself being picked of the ground by the troll.
GROWL!?
Only able to let out a panicking growling sound as it was hurled in the direction of the powerful mountain gnolls chasing after the troll.
Swish~
Seeing this, the powerful mountain gnoll that was target of this mountain gnoll projectile, skillfully stepped to the side to avoid being hit before continuing to chase.
As for the mountain gnoll projectile that had ended up missing its target...
SPLASH-!
It turned into a rather colorful artwork on a nearby blue colored tree. Turning its trunk and the surrounding soil into a bright red.
Growl...
Seeing the fate of their companion who was only a bit weaker than them, the remaining mountain gnolls who had been chasing after Scaly only seconds earlier all began panicking as they moved to the side in an attempt to avoid the troll.
ROOAR-!
Unfortunately, they were already too close to the troll at this point in time and had no way to jump out of the way in time. Resulting in all of these formerly fearless mountain gnolls finding themselves flying towards their fellow mountain gnolls-
Splash! Splash! Splash!
Who all avoided them. Allowing their blood to bring a brand-new color to the blue colored forest...
Back to Scaly who was similarly escaping, she saw clearly the fate of the mountain gnolls and didn’t intend to follow in their footsteps, thus resulting in her moving to the side to avoid the approaching troll. Thinking that she had more than enough time to avoid it, as the distance between herself and the troll was quite a bit larger compared to the unfortunate mountain gnolls.
Roar!
However, something that she had not expected to happen, happened, as the troll that had been rushing in the same direction so far suddenly turned to follow in the same direction she moved. Seemingly having set its sight on her.
Does it also want to use me in an attempt to throw off the mountain gnolls!?
Not able to understand the behavior of the troll, Scaly could not help panicking as she saw the rapidly approaching troll.
Even if it wanted to use her to slow down the mountain gnolls, it should not be beneficial for it to chase after her like this!
Wanting to figure out what might cause this, Scaly decided to once again inspect the mountain dwelling troll chasing after her, this time around also taking the time to look through its description, something she hadn’t done the first time around.
[Mountain Dwelling Troll, lvl 57]
[Description: A troll that dwells in the mountains. Powerful and strong, it has a unique ability to sense dragon blood and has a distinct taste for any dragon related creature. Facing a real dragon, this unique ability causes it to become overwhelmed and unable to think of anything other than eating the dragon.]
"..."
However, after a quick glance at its description, Scaly suddenly understood why it was chasing after her.
Not just that, but it also explained the hungry and greedy look that it had suddenly started giving her all of a sudden.
Thinking about it, the troll might not have escaped from the mountain gnoll camp, but had instead just been attracted by her...