Knowing that she couldn’t stay and continue consuming the dead heavenly lake serpent any longer as well, Scaly wasted no time as she rushed towards the hiding spot the narrow ravine that she had already picked out as her hiding spot earlier on. Soon enough finding herself rapidly crawling down the still wet rocks of the ravine-
Huh? W-Water!?
However, before she could reach the bottom of the ravine, she suddenly discovered that the ravine had been partly filled with water. Making it impossible for her to continue down far enough for her to avoid the heavenly lake serpents rushing towards her current location.
Diving into the water and holding her beath was an option, but it was also dangerous, as she had no idea how long she could hold her breath for and would have to move up through a part of the ravine that the heavenly lake serpents could move around in to reach the surface of the water and breathe in new air.
All things considered, Scaly felt like this was far too big of a risk, as she quickly made her way back out of the ravine filled with an increasingly nervous expression on her face.
Although the heavenly lake serpents were still rather far away from her and it would still be some time before they would reach her and the rest of the monsters that had been eating the dead heavenly lake serpent, it didn’t mean she had a lot of time on her hand. At most a minute or two given the speed of the heavenly lake serpents. Far from enough time to find a proper hiding spot.
In the end, she decided on the next best option-
Swish-!
Chasing after the closest escaping monster in the hope that it would know about a good hiding location.
Even if it wouldn’t want her to follow along, there wasn’t much the monster in question could do, as stopping to fight her would only end up with both of them being caught by the heavenly lake serpents.
So, with all of that, Scaly soon found herself inside a small cave located close to the surface together with a few other monsters that had similarly chosen to hide inside the small cave. All of them belonging to different races. Meaning that it would be safe to assume that the cave wasn’t owned by a specific monster race. Making it far safer to hide inside of, as any of the other monsters would be cautious about making a move to kill any of the other monsters, as they ran the risk of being targeted by the rest of the monsters as a result.
Though not the possible safe place for her to go through her fourth evolution, it would at least be able to keep her safe until the heavenly lake serpents left. For now, the most important thing was staying alive. Even if it did hurt her dignity as a dragon to be hiding away inside a small cave together with a group of random monsters that she normally viewed as nothing more than easy prey...
RUMBLE-!
Only a short time later, the terrifying sounds of the heavenly lake serpents rampaging above could be heard from the entrance to the small cave, as Scaly and the rest of the monsters all tensed up nervously. Although the cave entrance was far too small for the heavenly lake serpents to squeeze through, the cave itself was still relatively close to the surface itself.
Roar? ROOOOAR!
Because of this, it didn’t take long before one the heavenly lake serpents found the cave and began roaring loudly just outside the entrance-
ROOOAR!
ROAR!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Soon followed by other heavenly lake serpents who began violently trying to either squeeze their way inside the small cave or forcibly collapse it, causing even Scaly to feel a hint of fear as she backed up as far away from the cave entrance as possible to avoid getting spotted by the heavenly lake serpents who seemed like they would soon make their way inside the cave-
ROOAR!
And it was just at this moment that one of the smaller heavenly lake serpents that had been trying to squeeze its way inside managed to push its massive head inside the small cave. Staring at Scaly and the rest of the monsters present filled with killing intent as it tried to get even further inside the small cave where Scaly and the rest of the monsters had already squeezed themselves tightly up against the cave wall the furthest away from the entrance of the cave that was now blocked by the head of one of the heavenly lake serpents.
Though a part of Scaly wanted to try and take the opportunity to kill the heavenly lake serpent, she hesitated on doing so, as her current state was far from optimal, and she risked exposing just how weak she was at the moment to the rest of the monsters inside the cave.
No matter how bad their situation was, they were ultimately still monsters and would undoubtedly take the opportunity to kill her if such an opportunity ended up presenting itself.
With that in mind. Even if she succeeds in killing the heavenly lake serpent, it will likely end up with her getting stabbed in the back by the monsters behind her...
Crack-!
As she was struggling on what to do with the heavenly lake serpent head getting closer and closer to her and the other monsters, a loud cracking sound suddenly spread throughout the small cave-
Rumble~
R-Roar?
Bang! Bang! Bang!
And before the heavenly lake serpent, Scaly or the rest of the monsters inside the small cave could react, the ceiling above them suddenly collapsed on top of them. Crushing several of the monsters standing next to Scaly in an instant, while also forcing the heavenly lake serpent to rapidly retreat to avoid being buried alive.
In the end, when everything came to an end a few seconds after the collapse started, Scaly found herself alive.
Different from the rest of the monsters around her, who had all been crushed to death.
Looking around herself to assess her current situation, she quickly found out why she had managed to survive the cave collapse.
The rocks that had collapsed around her and landed on the other monsters formed a perfect structure to catch the large rock above her that would have normally fallen on top of her. Creating a small rocky prison instead of crushing her alive.
Although this was a better situation than her being killed by the rocks, it wasn’t that much better, as she was far from strong enough to dig her way out through the solid rocks that now imprisoned her.
As for trying to squeeze through the small cracks that had been left between the large rocks? Maybe if she had been a cockroach, but at her current size, that was impossible.
The only positive thing about her situation was that she didn’t have to worry about running out of air, as the cracks in the rocks allowed air to flow to her, while water wasn’t a problem either, as she could make her own with her water magic.
The real problem was food, as all she had in that department was the few crushed monsters next to her that would at most give her food enough to survive for another day or two.
Hm... Maybe my evolution will give me some way to escape from my current situation?
In the end, the only thing Scaly could think about when it came to getting out of her current situation was for her to go through her next evolution and try to get a method to get out of her current situation that way.
Although it was not a foolproof method considering her direction wasn’t in the specialty of earth magic, she would at least be safe inside her small rocky prison from anyone outside reaching her during her evolution.
At least when it came to safety alone, it was definitely a top-notch location that couldn’t compare to nay of the other locations she had chosen to go through her evolution in the past...
So, with that in mind, Scaly decided to spend the next few hours slowly recovery to an optimal state while also eating all of the monsters around her in the process. Knowing from past experience that leaving them around wasn’t a good idea as they would end up turning into something similar to the maggot mountain she had seen after waking up from her last evolution.
Name: Scaly
Race: Water Dragon Hatchling
Dragon blood: 12% (Common)
Level: 10/10, 0%
STR: 248 |VIT: 405 | DEX: 200 | M: 536
Skills: [Dragon Bloodline, lvl 4], [Dragon Flight, lvl 2], [Dragon Water Magic, lvl 3], [Poison Resistance, lvl 3], [Dragon Claw Strike, lvl 5], [Swimming, lvl 2], [Dragon Breath (Water), lvl 3], [Corrosion Resistance, lvl 2], [Ice Magic lvl 1], [Pain Resistance, lvl 2]
Looking at her status one last time before going through her fourth evolution, Scaly ignored the change in her dragon blood for now as she decided to wait until after her evolution to check it out.