Bang!
Feeling the rocky path beneath her shaking violently as the heavenly lake serpents below once again slammed into the rocks below her, Scaly grabbed hold of the ground to stop herself from tumbling over the edge and into the water below.
Compared to the first time around, she could clearly feel that the shaking of the ground beneath her was far more intense this time around because the heavenly lake serpents were directly below her instead of slamming into the rocky wall a few meters behind her where she had been a little while earlier.
Crack-!
However, as she was about to move forward before the heavenly lake serpents had the time to slam into the rocks below her, a loud cracking sound could be heard from beneath her, as she saw a clear line appearing in the rocks that made up the path below her.
Even worse, the crack was rapidly growing larger beneath her.
If she didn’t move any time soon, she wasn’t doubtful that she would end up tumbling into the water below together with the section of the path that she was currently standing on, something that she didn’t plan on doing with the two heavenly lake serpents eagerly eyeing her from below.
So, with that in mind, Scaly wasted no time in rushing forward along the narrow path. Hoping to get as far away as possible from the place where the crack had appeared before it ended up causing the section of the path, she had been standing on to collapse-
BANG!
Craaaack-!
Splash! Splash! Splash!
And just as she managed to move a dozen or so meters away from the crack, another loud banging sound could be heard below as the heavenly lake serpents once again slammed into the rocks, causing the section of the path behind her to fully break apart and fall into the lake water in a small rock avalanche that ended up scaring the heavenly lake serpents into retreating.
Clearly, although they were trying their best to break the path that she was standing on and cause her to fall into the water, they had not expected for the rocks to break off from the path to create a small avalanche of rocks in the process. Even though they were strong, they were still scared of getting crushed by the rocks.
After all, though they might be larger and powerful, they would still end up dead if they ended up being hit by a significantly big rock. Especially so if the rock in question happened to sharp enough to pierce through their skin.
If that was the case, it didn’t need to be a large rock and instead just needed to land in a vital location.
Scaly also understood this, as she felt a bit of pity when looking down at the heavenly lake serpents who had acted almost immediately when there was a threat to their life.
From the looks of things, she couldn’t count on trying to use the falling rocks to her advantage and try to kill the heavenly lake serpents with them, they were far too aware of the danger that the rocks posed for her to do something like that.
Although she had hoped for a way to deal with the heavenly lake serpents or at least a way to scare them off and stop them from destroying the path she was moving along, it looked like she could only continue along the path out of the crater and hope that she would be fast enough to get out before the heavenly lake serpents had a chance to destroy the path.
At least for now, it looked like the heavenly lake serpents weren’t smart enough to destroy the path in front of her and cut off her escape path.
If they figured out that they could do that, she would really be in for a troublesome situation, as her only other way out of the crater would be to try and climb out on her own, something that had become significantly harder to do after her third evolution.
Not to mention, she would also have to deal with the constant shaking caused by the heavenly lake serpent slamming their massive bodies into the stones below her.
Though she might have felt confident in doing something like that back when she was still in her lizard stage, she didn’t have the confidence to hold on properly to the rocks in her current larger and arguably chubby dragon shape.
Following the path was her best option and it should work out just fine as long as the heavenly lake serpents didn’t realize that they would be able to cut off her escape path by trying to destroy the path in front of her.
Not just that, but as she climbed higher by following the path, the impact of the heavenly lake serpents below reduced.
If anything, the only thing that worried her was the fact that the water level of the lake had been rising rapidly and was constantly taking the heavenly lake serpents closer to her.
Although she managed to ascend faster than the speed at which the water could rise, she understood that she wouldn’t be able to keep this up when she got to some later parts of the path where she would have to either jump over a large hole in the path where it had collapsed or try to climb alongside the wall to reach the path on the other side.
Jumping would be riskier, but wouldn’t take long to accomplish, while climbing alongside the wall would take a long time. Especially considering that she would have to be prepared for the heavenly lake serpents below causing trouble for her in the process.
Continuing up while thinking about which way she would deal with these holes in the path, she finally reached the first already collapsed section of the path.... And unfortunately, from a quick glance, this was also the largest collapsed part of the path.
Even if she wanted to try and jump over it, she understood at a glance that she wouldn’t be able to do so, as the collapsed section covered an area of close to a dozen meters. Far from a length that she felt confident in jumping over at the moment.
I have to climb...
Narrowing both of her eyes as she realized she would be forced to climb along the rocky wall, Scaly decided to not move immediately and instead waited for the heavenly lake serpents to collide with the rocks below-
Bang! Bang!
Only after hearing the two heavenly lake serpents colliding with the rocks and feeling the path beneath her violently shaking as cracks began forming beneath her feet, did Scaly grab the side of the wall and began climbing towards the next part of the path located on the other side of the massive collapsed section she was now climbing over.
Rooar!
Roar!
Seeing her climbing over the large collapsed section as well, the heavenly lake serpents who had just recovered from colliding with the rocks began happily roaring to each other before they rushed forward towards the rocks-
BANG!
Rumble~
Not a second later, Scaly felt everything shaking violently around her as smaller rocks tumbled down from above before hitting her. All she could do was dig in and hold on for her life before the shaking came to a stop so she could continue climbing along the wall towards the path that now seemed extremely stable when compared to the rocky wall she was holding on to at the moment.
Even more so considering that parts of wall she was holding on to had already started breaking off after she let go.
Roar!?
ROAR!
Of course, seeing how she had managed to hold on, the heavenly lake serpents below were less than pleased as they roared up towards her filled with anger. Momentarily forgetting to slam against the rocks as they were continued to angrily roar at her, something that Scaly was more than happy with considering that she had feeling that the rocks she was holding on to while climbing along the wall, would not be able to hold on if the heavenly lake serpents slammed into the rocks below again.
Even more so considering that the rising water had brought them a lot closer to her during her climb. Almost reaching the point where the heavenly lake serpents could just try and jump out of the water to reach her.
Thump~
Luckily for Scaly, none of this ended up happening, as she managed to safely cross over the large collapsed section of the path and reach the far more stable path that she could walk on without too much worry that she would end up falling into the water below.
Swish-!
Of course, considering how close the water was getting to her, Scaly didn’t waste any time standing still, as she instead rushed further up the path to create some more distance between herself and the heavenly lake serpents who were about to get close enough to directly grab her off the path and pull her into the water.