With the last of the two mountain gnolls and the gecko now dead, Scaly only had the heavenly lake serpent left to face, but different from the three already dead monsters, it was clear that the heavenly lake serpent would be far harder to deal with. Not just because of its larger size making it difficult to kill, but also because it was now fully aware of her and had its full attention focused directly on her.
Launching any kind of sneak attack or trying to take it out in one swift attack was pretty much impossible at this point in time and Scaly could only reluctantly start thinking about how to face this massive monster on her own in another way. One that would be short enough that she would be able to eat the heart and escape before the rest of the monsters on the battlefield noticed her.
Roooar!
Unfortunately, before she had the chance to come up with such a brilliant plan of attack, the tail of the heavenly lake serpent already came swiping towards her in the same manner that it had come towards the now dead gecko only a few seconds earlier.
The main difference being that Scaly was nowhere near as dumb as the gecko, as she decided to wisely step back and avoid the powerful tail before using the more mana draining water spear together with her wind magic that was useful in increasing the speed of the water spear-
Ptsh-!
Roar?!
Giving it just the strength it needed to be capable of piercing through the thick scales that covered the heavenly lake serpent, causing it to roar in both confusion and pain. Not understanding how her attack had even managed to pierce through its scales with such ease.
Not that this lasted for long, as the heavenly lake serpent soon understood the seriousness of the situation and just how much of a threat Scaly was.
Rumble~!
In turn, causing the heavenly lake serpent to not only stop its attack, but also turn around and escape in the direction of a more powerful heavenly lake serpent who was currently dominating a 5v1 battle against a group of unfortunate mountain gnolls barely left standing.
Not good! It wants to escape!
Seeing how her opponent just opted and left. Completely ignoring her the moment it realized that she wasn’t that easy to deal with, Scaly could not help panicking as she chased after the scaping heavenly lake serpent.
Although she had thought about the possibility of this happening when the heavenly lake serpent began clashing with her, she had never expected it to act so decisively and escape at the first sign of danger. Not showing any of the ferocity or pride she had seen a second earlier when it had faced off against the two mountain gnolls by itself and then the gecko.
Roooar!
However, cowardly as it was, it proved to be the correct choice, as before Scaly had a chance to catch up with the escaping heavenly lake serpent, she realized that the powerful heavenly lake serpent it was charging towards had already finished all of its opponents and was charging over towards her.
If she continued staying on the battlefield, she would undoubtedly soon find herself being ganged up on by two heavenly lake serpents at the same time with possibly more in the near future. Not even mentioning the fact that the mountain gnolls might lend them a hand to get rid of any third-party meddlers.
This damnable snake! Why is it so smart?! Isn’t supposed to be dumb or... Is it just me that is unlucky...?
Feeling like she was about to cry as she watched her target escape to safety, Scaly could only reluctantly turn around and escape back into the forest before she ended up becoming the number one enemy of all the monsters on the battlefield.
Even if she wanted nothing more than to tear apart the heavenly lake serpent that had just escaped from her claws, there was nothing she could do about it.
At the moment, she was still far too weak to run rampant on the fourth floor of the dungeon and couldn’t ignore the threat posed by the rest of the monsters present on the battlefield.
Of course, this didn’t mean that she intended to give up on her target, it only meant that she would have to retreat for now, as she continued looking for an opportunity to strike at either the mountain gnolls or the heavenly lake serpents. Making sure to keep her attention on the heavenly lake serpent that had escaped her in case it made any mistake she could take advantage of.
However, given that the gecko and Scaly’s earlier attack ended up with two mountain gnolls dying, the rest of the monsters on the battlefield became far more cautious and aware of their surroundings, as Scaly could constantly feel a few of them glancing over in her general direction every now and then.
The only monsters that seemed to be completely unaffected by this were the mountain gnoll lord and the massive heavenly lake serpent that it was fighting.
No matter what happened, these two seemed to not care the slightest bit about their surroundings, as their battle continued devastating the area around them, causing no one to dare approach the two, as the few who did try to approach in an attempt to lend a hand ended up either dying or being sent flying.
Focusing her attention on these two powerful monsters every now and then as she continued looking for an opportunity to strike, Scaly suddenly noticed something odd about the fight.
The mountain gnoll lord... It’s clearly stronger than the heavenly lake serpent, but for some reason decides to be on the losing side. Even allowing the heavenly lake serpent to injure it...
Indeed, the thing she noticed was the strength of the mountain gnoll lord, or to be more accurate, the strength that it seemed to be deliberately holding back.
Even if she was unaware of the reason behind this, she also understood that the mountain gnoll lord wasn’t dumb and wouldn’t allow the heavenly lake serpent to injure it for no reason.
The only question was... What reason would the mountain gnoll lord have to allow the heavenly lake serpent to injure it? After all, the injuries it received were by no means small and even made Scaly grimace.
Rustle~
The answer to this question came in an unexpected way, as Scaly suddenly noticed something silently moving through the forest not too far away from where she was currently hiding while observing that battle that was taking place.
[Mountain Gnoll, Great Shaman, lvl 67]
And the moment she inspected the familiar-looking monster slowly making its way towards the battlefield, she realized what was happening.
The mountain gnolls were trying to trap the heavenly lake serpents and prevent them from escaping and causing even more damage than they had already done.
Even if the number of heavenly lake serpents currently partaking in the battle wasn’t all of them, it was still a good portion of them. Not to mention the stronger one capable of fighting the mountain gnoll lord. Killing them would certainly be great news for the mountain gnolls, even if they did end up incurring some losses in the process.
But... If the heavenly lake serpents become weaker than the mountain gnolls, unable to challenge them, it will make it more difficult for me to continue rapidly increasing my level. Not to mention... The heavenly lake serpent hearts will become even harder to find!
Realizing just how detrimental a mountain gnoll victory on this battlefield would be to her newly established goal of eating as many heavenly lake serpent hearts as possible, Scaly narrowed both of her eyes as she looked towards the mountain gnoll shaman sneaking through the forest not too far away from her.
This mountain gnoll, even though it was beyond the level she would consider safe to attack, had turned into a target that needed to be killed before it had a chance to ambush the heavenly lake serpents.
Even in the case her attack failed, it should at least alert the heavenly lake serpents about the danger and give her precious heart containers a chance to run away before they ended up dead at the hands of the mountain gnolls.
Of course, the best-case scenario would be for even more and stronger heavenly lake serpents to come to the rescue and a few of them getting killed in the process and landing somewhere in the forest where she would be able to safely and easily go and eat their hearts without any worries of being attacked in the process.
But... There was little chance of this happening, and it was more likely that the heavenly lake serpents would just escape and regroup before preparing for another attack.
In that case, she planned to try and see if she could pick up one of the weaker ones among them while they escaped.
At least, it would be better than all of them falling into the hands of the mountain gnolls...