Hiding not too far away with the intent of potentially taking advantage of a weakened heavenly lake serpent or powerful mountain gnoll, Scaly began to observe the large battle taking place in front of the tunnel entrance to the valley surrounded by small mountain.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Of course, from the loud sounds of the heavenly lake serpents and the mountain gnolls clashing with each other, Scaly was sure even before seeing the scene that the rest of the mountain gnolls had learnt about what had happened inside the valley, as it was clearly far louder than it had been back when she had been hunting down the weaker mountain gnolls inside the valley. Especially so considering that she was currently further away from the battle than she had been when she had still been inside the valley.
However, when she finally laid eyes on the battlefield itself, two massive monsters far larger than the rest instantly caught her attention...
[Heavenly Lake Serpent, lvl 67]
[Mountain Gnoll Lord, lvl 72]
Just inspecting them from afar, it was certain that these two were the respective leaders of the two sides clashing with each other.
The only problem was that she had no idea if this was the pinnacle strength of the two sides or if there was an even more terrifying mountain gnoll inside the tribe and larger heavenly lake serpent observing the situation from afar.
After all, even if she had identified the strongest mountain gnoll present to be a mountain gnoll lord, she had no idea whether or not it served a higher-ranking mountain gnoll king who might still be hiding away in the depths of the tribe... And on the side of the heavenly lake serpents, she truly had no clue, as she didn’t know how many of them might have been hiding beneath the surface of the water without emerging back when she had escaped from the crater.
All she could be clear of from her observation of the battle taking place at the moment was that she was still a bit too weak to participate in the battle with those two, as for the rest of the powerful monsters... Scaly felt confident that she should be able to fight them without too many problems after her recent increase in level.
However, even if she had the strength to fight them, it didn’t mean she intended to try and rush in to join the battle, as she full well understood that while dealing with one or two of the more powerful mountain gnolls or heavenly lake serpents might be fine, dealing with any more would be impossible.
Not to mention, if she ended up joining the increasingly chaotic battle, she would undoubtedly end up being targeted by both parties wanting to eliminate any outsiders trying to fish in troubled waters.
Of course, this didn’t mean that she intended to give up on trying to kill the increasingly weakened powerful heavenly lake serpents and mountain gnolls, it only meant she would have to act a bit more cautiously when approaching and try her best to avoid detection before striking.
Killing the target in a short period of time was also important, as she wouldn’t be able to risk them retreating back to their own when she attacked. Understanding that this would only result in a failed strike.
No matter! If everything ended up going perfectly, Scaly was confident that she would have the strength to kill a weakened heavenly lake serpent or mountain gnoll. Even more so given how close her magic was to 1000 after her recent massacre of the weaker mountain gnolls.
Rustle~
Slowly starting to move back in the direction of the battle after coming to her decision, Scaly soon locked on to her target-
[Mountain Gnoll, Grand Teacher, lvl 62]
Who just so happened to be the mountain gnoll grand teacher.
The main reason behind it being the fact that he had exhausted himself and sustained countless injuries after he went on a rampage. Although he did manage to level up from 61 to 62 due to him killing two of the heavenly lake serpents in the process, he was essentially out of the battle at this point in time and was only barely continuing to fight through sheer willpower alone. Proving just how formidable of a fighter he was...
Huh?
However, as she was making her way through the forest silently, she suddenly froze at the spot as she looked down at a small puddle of water in her path filled with shock. More specifically, she was looking at the figure reflected in the water.
Deep blue scales covered in a beautiful wave pattern now with hints of purple in them, a far larger wingspan compared to the past and a uniquely cute pair of horns on top of the head.
Her appearance had changed a lot following her evolution this time around, something she hadn’t really paid attention to before and only noticed at this moment.
Of course, from everything she saw that change compared to the past, the most striking change was the small pair of barely visible horns that could barely be seen growing on top of her. Even causing her to gently prod at them to ensure that they were really there and not just something she was imagining.
Although... Even though her size seemed to have increased significantly along with the size of her wings, the new pair of cute horns on top of her head somehow ended up making her look even younger than she had been before for some unknown reason. Making Scaly momentarily wonder if her evolution had gone backwards when she first saw herself in the pond.
Not that this thought was that realistic considering her rather large increase in size following her fourth evolution.
BANG!
Huh? What was that!?
Suddenly jolted awake from her momentary thoughts by a loud sound coming from directly in front of her, Scaly rapidly turned her head to look in the direction that the sound had come from-
[Heavenly Lake Serpent, lvl 47]
And ended up staring directly into the massive eyes of a heavenly lake serpent that was flying directly towards her, violently smashing through any trees in its path without slowing down in the slightest.
Even worse, with the size and speed of the heavenly lake serpent, Scaly understood that there was no way for her to avoid it at its current distance. Even if she tried using all of her strength to escape...
CRACK-!
Bang!
And so, as the heavenly lake serpent broke through the final layer of trees in front of her, all she could do was brace herself from impact, as she was suddenly sent flying alongside the heavenly lake serpent. Crashing through several trees in the process before landing heavily on the ground a few hundred meters away from her original location. The heavenly lake serpent right beside her, as both of them painfully rolled around on the ground.
Even with her pain resistance at level 2, there was no way for Scaly to just ignore the pain that came from several wooden splinters penetrating between small gaps in her scales and directly piercing into her skin. Not to mention, one of the wooden splints even managed to pierce through an area in her head close to her eye. Almost killing her with the power of a single wooden splinter.
The power she had been thrown with allowing the small wooden splinters created from crashing through close to a dozen trees to pierce through her normally tough skin and even find weak points to exploit.
At the very least, when she turned around and looked over at her companion who was also painfully rolling around, she could at least say that she did far better, as the heavenly lake serpent in question hadn’t managed to avoid getting its eyes pierced by countless small splinters, causing them both to bleed profusely, as the serpent continued to writhe around in pain.
If not for the fact that she noticed it slowly pushing the splinters back out of its body with some kind of powerful body skill of some kind, she would have thought it might have been begging to be put out of its misery.
Swish-!
On that account, Scaly didn’t intend to wait for the heavenly lake serpent to recover, as she brought down her claws even under the terrifying pain brought by the splinters still left in her body-
Ptsh-!
[Gained 6745 Exp]
[*Ding* Reached level 13]
Almost the moment she brought down her claw, did the heavenly lake serpent fall motionlessly to the ground. Dead without any real resistance, as it was already in a heavenly injured state without any strength to fight back.
In process, giving her a large amount of experience that far surpassed anything she had ever seen before. Even manging to directly bring her up to level 13, while also making her even more set on trying to hunt down more weakened monsters.
Of course, before that, she would first have to remove the countless wooden splinters now stuck in her body...