Now aware of the fact that the troll was indeed targeting her, Scaly wasted no time as she dived into the thick foliage of the blue colored forest. Hoping that her normally hard-to-hide scales would allow her to blend in with the unique environment for once and allow her to escape from the troll barreling towards her with a group of powerful mountain gnolls following closely behind it.
Roooar!
Unfortunately, the unique ability of the mountain dwelling troll to sense dragon blood made this impossible. At most, the thick foliage and trees would at most buy her a bit more time, as the troll was forced to slow down to chase after her whenever it encountered a tree that it couldn’t just knock out of the way.
Not just that, but the mountain gnoll constantly attacking it from behind also proved to be extremely useful in slowing down the troll. Essentially providing her much needed support and giving her an opportunity to widen the distance between herself and the troll whenever this happened.
In the end, after continuing through the blue colored forest for a little over five minutes in this kind of desperate situation, Scaly found a small path leading out of the valley with the blue colored forest in an attempt to get closer to the mountain gnoll tribe and hopefully attract more mountain gnolls to deal with the troll.
Even if there was a risk in doing something like this, as she was also an enemy of the mountain gnolls, Scaly felt like it would be her only chance to get out of her current situation.
After all, she was in no condition to fight with the mountain dwelling troll chasing after her from behind. Much less the group of powerful mountain gnolls that had been chasing after it all this time.
Hm? This-!?
However, as she continued up the narrow mountain path leading out of the valley, Scaly was shocked to discover that the path suddenly ended abruptly.
Well...
The path didn’t end so to speak, but there was a giant boulder blocking the path forward. Essentially preventing her from continuing forward.
If it had been before her third evolution, she might have been able to squeeze through somewhere along the edge of the boulder where she could already see a few animals and monsters easily moving through the gaps left by the boulder, but, now that she had grown larger and her climbing ability had worsened, she could only stare helplessly at the boulder in front of her as she listened to the sound of the troll’s loud steps growing closer and closer to her.
Looking around herself in an almost desperate manner after hearing the sound of the troll getting closer to her, Scaly didn’t take long to realize that she had truly screwed up by trying to leave the valley in an attempt to escape from the troll.
No! I have to find a way out!
Knowing that she wouldn’t be able to escape her current situation and would most likely end up like the many mountain rabbits she had killed during her time exploring the mountain range of the fourth floor of the dungeon, Scaly turned towards her last possible chance at escaping from her current situation. Climbing up the rocky walls to her left and right.
Although this should have been something easy to accomplish, her change in size following her third evolution made it far harder for her to accomplish even something simple like that... And given that her wings were pretty much useless when it came to flying, the loss of agility from evolving into a dragon only showed itself now that she was in a life and death situation.
Even then, she didn’t really have much of a choice, as she didn’t really plan to just wait around the troll to catch up to her and take advantage of her weakened state to kill her...
Clack~ Clack~
Soon causing a few loose rocks to make a distinct clattering sound as she accidentally knocked them to the side and caused them to tumble down to the ground.
However, Scaly didn’t care about any of this as she pushed herself to the limit trying to climb up the rocky wall as fast as possible with her now rather difficult to climb body. Intending to at least get far enough up the rocky wall so that the troll couldn’t reach her.
As for it throwing something at her, like it had done with the mountain gnolls... Scaly didn’t think it would be possible, as the mountain gnolls would be following it and would for the first time have it cornered in a place where it couldn’t continue running from them.
Essentially, the troll would end up in the same situation as her and be without anywhere to run. Forced to confront the mountain gnolls who had been chasing after it all this time, something that Scaly was getting excited to see after the painful chase she had been forced to endure.
Of course, at the back of her mind, she had also begun thinking about how she might be able to take advantage of the fight between the mountain gnolls and the mountain dwelling troll to increase her own level to 10.
At the same time, she had also begun wondering about whether or not the mountain dwelling troll had any dragon blood in its body that she could consume.
After all, from the description, she got the feeling that it should at least have some dragon blood flowing through its body. Giving her a perfect chance to confirm whether or not consuming dragon blood would really help increase the purity of her own dragon blood.
Roar?
Feeling excited all by herself about the future, Scaly was momentarily forced back to the present by the loud roar of the troll that found itself in front of the boulder and had begun to search for her with a terrifying expression on its face that told her just how much this troll wanted to eat her.
Luckily, her wall climbing skills were still good even with her now more difficult to move body and she had managed to just barely get out of range of the troll’s arms by the point that it arrived in front of the boulder. Allowing her to also avoid being noticed by the troll immediately. Buying her a bit more time to climb further up the rocky wall that she had now managed to climb halfway up.
Though out of range of the troll’s arms, Scaly still didn’t believe she would be safe before she climbed all the way up the rocky walls and made it over the edge.
The main reason for this soon showed itself, as the troll suddenly looked up and discovered her rapidly climbing up the side of the rocky wall.
ROOOOAR!
Roaring loudly seeing this escape attempt, the troll didn’t waste any time as it picked up a large rock and threw it towards her with all of its strength-
BANG!
Giving her no chance to dodge at such a close range, as the rock smashed directly into her scales, causing her to almost lose her footing under the extreme pain of the rock, almost shattering her scales and digging into her skin.
Whoosh~!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
However, this one rock was only the beginning, as the troll continued picking up even more rocks before throwing them towards her filled with killing intent. Trying its absolute best to knock her down from the rocky wall so it could happily devour her before the mountain gnolls appeared.
It huuurts!
Feeling the searing pain of the rocks colliding with her scales, Scaly was forced to stop climbing as she essentially used all of her strength to grip the side of the rocky wall.
Even though she had been through a lot, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to continue holding on for long under the constant barrage of rocks from the troll.
Not just because of the pain, but also because she couldn’t clearly feel that her scales wouldn’t be able to continue holding on faced with the constant bombardment. Eventually, they would be overwhelmed and shatter. Exposing her far softer skin beneath.
Groooowl~
Luckily, things did not go that far, as the low growling sound of the first mountain gnoll sounded out from the only way out of the blocked path for the troll. Heralding the arrival of the mountain gnolls that had been chasing after the troll so far. Forcing the troll to give up on continuing its attack against Scaly, as it had to face the mountain gnolls.
Groowl~!
Grrrr!
Growl!
However, different from what Scaly remembered, the number of powerful mountain gnolls present seemed to have doubled compared to when she had first seen the group of powerful mountain gnolls.
Then again, Scaly had no time to care about this at the moment, as she pushed down the pain that had already spread throughout her body and continued climbing up the rocky wall. Intending to first get to safety before daring to investigate the situation below.