Roooar!
Roar!
Seeing that she was getting further and further away from them, the heavenly lake serpents began to roar angrily at her as they thrashed about in the water in anger. Not having expected that the small monster that they had originally just considered to be a delicious snack had actually managed to elude them for so long.
Splash~!
Roar?
Roar!
Roooar!
Not long after the tantrum thrown by the two heavenly lake serpents came to and, did it get replaced by even more roars, as close to a dozen heavenly lake serpents slowly emerged from the lake before joining the two heavenly lake serpents-
Roar~!
And seeing the many new faces that had appeared, one of the two let out a happy roaring sound before moving its head in the direction of the path that Scaly was climbing up with all of her strength.
Rooooar!
Roar!
Roar!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Understanding what the heavenly lake serpent was trying to convey, the heavenly lake serpents who had just emerged from below all let out angry roars before throwing their massive bodies into the rocky walls of the crater.
Rumble-!
Wha-What is happening!?
As a result of this, Scaly was left hanging on for her life as the path beneath her feet began shaking violently as countless cracks formed all over the path, with part of it starting to directly break off from the violent force of the heavenly lake serpents throwing themselves into the rocky wall below her.
Only when she had barely managed to stabilize herself and look over the edge of the path did she discover the close to a dozen heavenly lake serpents that had gathered below her and were now all looking up towards her filled with killing intent.
Compared to dealing with two heavenly lake serpents, this kind of experience was far scarier.
Not just because of the increased number of heavenly lake serpents, but because she understood that it would be far more difficult for her to escape from the crater with so many heavenly lake serpents working together to try and knock her into the water.
After all, even though she might be able to hold on, she wouldn’t be able to stop the path beneath her feet from crumbling and falling into the water below.
If anything, the only reason why she had even managed to hold on and not end up in the water was because the section of the path that she was currently on was by far one of the most stable areas that had been directly carved into the side of the crater walls.
For the heavenly lake serpents below to collapse the part of the wall that she was currently on would require them to essentially collapse part of the crater wall itself, something far more difficult to accomplish compared to destroying the more fragile parts of the path that were essentially just a stone path secured to the walls of the crater hanging over the lake. Far easier to collapse.
But... Even if it’s far harder for them to collapse, it wasn’t impossible and would only take a bit longer time...
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Feeling the heavenly lake serpents once again slamming into the side of the rocks below her once again, Scaly helplessly watched as part of the outer section of the path collapsed and fell into the lake below.
Undoubtedly, it would fully collapse during the next time that the heavenly lake serpents slammed their bodies into the rocks. The little extra time she had to think about how to get out of her current situation didn’t really help that much and only allowed her to slowly crawl a bit further away from where the heavenly lake serpents were slamming their bodies into the rocks. Making the shaking a bit easier for her to endure.
But... Even if I managed to get a bit away from them, I’m still inside the part of the path about to collapse. If I want to survive, I will have to get out this section without being noticed...
Narrowing both her eyes as she thought about this to herself while moving closer to the next section of the path.
The next section of the path out of the crater was the longest and steepest of them all, but also the last section. Leading her directly out of the crater itself.
Although there were now far more heavenly lake serpents below trying to knock her down and get her into the water, she felt confident in being able to escape as long as she could make it to the last section of the path, as the steep ascend would allow her to rapidly ascend and lessen the effect of the heavenly lake serpents slamming their bodies into the rocks to try and knock her into the water.
The only problem was getting to the section before the one she was on at the moment collapsed... And doing so without the heavenly lake serpents noticing her.
After all, if they noticed her, they would change their location and might cause the far more fragile last section of the path to collapse before she had a chance to reach it.
So, with all of that in mind, Scaly slowly came up with a rather daring plan for escaping the already collapsing section she was still on.
Wait until the large number heavenly lake serpents next attempt to knock her into the water and try her best to rush to the next section of the path before the one she was currently standing on top of ended up fully collapsing into the water.
Though this came with quite a few risks, Scaly understood that she had no other way out of her current situation and could only hope that the part of the path the collapsed first wasn’t below her or in front of her, as if that happened, she would be doomed without any way out and would be forced into the water below where the heavenly lake serpents were waiting...
Bang! Bang! Bang!
RUMBLE-!
As the heavenly lake serpents once again slammed their massive bodies into the rocks for a third time, Scaly immediately saw that the section of the path she was currently standing on had begun collapsing at a terrifying speed.
Luckily, the collapse started behind her and not below or in front of her. Giving her the opportunity to use all of her strength to rush forward. Trying her best to reach the next section of the path that would allow her to easily escape from the crater before the heavenly lake serpents would have a chance to catch up to her.
In the end, she soon reached a small hole in the path spanning a little over two meters in length that separated the two sections of the path-
Whoosh-!
And without the slightest bit of hesitation, she jumped forward. Soon finding herself flapping her small and rather useless wings for flying in an attempt to keep herself airborne for just that little bit longer-
Bang~!
Ultimately resulting in her managing to just barely cross over the hole and landing on the next section of the path out of the crater, as the section behind her collapsed into the lake below. Forcing the heavenly lake serpents to retreat to avoid getting hit by the avalanche of rocks tumbling down from above.
ROOOOAR!?
ROOOAR!
Roooar!
However, as the heavenly lake serpents retreated, they also noticed Scaly who had managed to successfully reach the next section of the path.
Not that Scaly cared that much about the heavenly lake serpents, as she soon discovered a problem with the section of the path that she was now standing on top of... And that was the fact that the path was far more fragile than she had first expected, as a crack had formed beneath her where she had landed before starting to spread around her-
CRACK!
And following the now all too familiar loud cracking sound, Scaly felt the path beneath her feet starting to collapse into the lake below.
Nooo!
Knowing just how dangerous her situation was, Scaly barely managed to gather herself in time and launch forward before she fell into the lake along with the collapsed part of the path-
Crack~
Unfortunately, this was not the end, as the path beneath her once again began to crack. Showing that it wasn’t just her landing on top of the path that had caused it to crack and collapse, but simply that her weight was too much for this last section of the path.
Run... I need to run, fast!
Knowing what had to be done if she wanted to have any chance of escaping from the crater, Scaly wasted no time in getting up again before rushing up the steep path with all of her strength. Only glancing back occasionally to see if the heavenly lake serpents were up to anything outside of trying to assist the collapsing path in breaking fast by slamming their bodies into the crater walls every now and then.