Roar!?
As she flew through the air and heard the confused and surprised roaring coming from the heavenly lake serpent that had smashed into the rock she had been standing on seconds earlier, Scaly was filed with joy as she felt the air beneath her wings for the first time.
However, this joy of flying for the first time was short lived, as she soon discovered that she was slowly moving closer to the ground without gaining any height.
Flap~! Flap~! Flap~!
Even worse, as she tried flapping her wings like she had seen the drake or other winged monsters do in the past, she quickly found herself descending at a far faster speed compared to before. Forcing her to stop what she was doing as she continued floating over the heavenly lake serpent that were getting dangerously close to her at this point in time.
Rooooar!
Rooar-!
Below her, the heavenly lake serpents also saw her predicament and some of them began to eagerly open their mouths in anticipation. Hoping that she would end up landing inside their mouths and give them a free meal.
The one thing that did end up working out for her was the fact that the heavenly lake serpents were far too close to each other to turn around and try to follow her with their mouths.
Thump~
In the end, because of this, Scaly managed to safely land without it being inside the mouth of one of the hungry heavenly lake serpents who were looking at her like an easy snack.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t entirely out of the heavenly lake serpent attack group and had actually ended up landing on top of one of them.
Roar!?
Because of this, the heavenly lake serpent she had landed on top of and those around it tried moving around so they could move around and swallow her up.
Swish-!
Of course, Scaly wouldn’t just sit around and wait to get eaten by the heavenly lake serpents, as she instead decided to make a run for it. Dodging beneath one of the heavenly lake serpents approaching from behind the one she had landed on top of before using her relatively small size in comparison to theirs to her advantage.
Slipping out of sight of the ones targeting her, as she climbed up a second heavenly serpent before rushing in the opposite direction of where the heavenly lake serpents were moving. Back in the direction of the forest that they had emerged from a short time earlier.
Roar!
In the process of doing so, angering no small number of heavenly lake serpents, as she climbed around on top of their massive bodies and skillfully used their lack of mobility against them to stay out of sight and avoid getting eaten.
Soon enough managing to get out of the blob of heavenly lake serpents she had been trapped inside of. Safely reaching the forest, while the heavenly lake serpents focused back on their original objective of killing the mountain gnolls still busy fighting with the mutated dragon devouring slime.
"It’s over here! One of my little ones tracking the mutated dragon devouring slime informed me that the mutated dragon devouring slime should be over here before it was killed off!"
"Good! Everyone, get ready to- Eh?"
"..."
However, just as she was about to rush into the forest and try to hide away and observe the battle from afar like she had originally been planning to do after the mountain gnolls and mutated dragon devouring slime were left busy fighting with each other, Scaly suddenly came face to face with a group of humans.
[Human, Crimson Flame Knight, lvl 77]
One of them was none other than the one she had seen causing a devasting scene inside the mountain range back when she had first entered the mountain range. Now, capable of seeing that he was a terrifying level of 77 after her fourth evolution. Even stronger than the mountain gnoll lord suppressing the mutated dragon devouring slime not far away...
[Human, Slime Tamer, lvl 61]
[Human, Slime Expert, lvl 62]
[Human, Slime Exterminator, lvl 67]
[Human, Slime...]
And worse, behind him was a large group of powerful humans of at least level 60. Ignoring the fact that all of them seemed to be related to slimes in some kind of way, Scaly understood that she was in no state to face off against such a large group of humans-
Swish-!
So, without a second thought, Scaly turned around and ran back towards the heavenly lake serpents she had escaped from second earlier.
No matter what, it was safer with these heavenly lake serpents compared to the group humans that had just shown up all of a sudden.
At least she had an idea of how to combat the heavenly lake serpents and even intended to take advantage of their size to try and possibly hide among them before looking for a chance to escape when the humans joined in on the battle that seemed to slowly center itself around the mutated dragon devouring slime.
Luckily, the group of humans was far too shocked at the scene in front of them when they emerged from the forest to jump forward and stop her from retreating back towards the heavenly lake serpents.
By the time that the group of humans seemed to have recovered, it was already far too late, as she had managed to successfully hide herself among the heavenly lake serpents.
ROOOAR-!
However, something she didn’t expect to happen, happened, as the heavenly lake serpents suddenly seemed to freeze up following the appearance of the humans, before seemingly turning around to charge at the humans filled with killing intent without a second thought.
Wait... Don’t tell me... Did these snakes mistake the humans for mountain gnolls...?
As this thought emerged inside her head, Scaly soon confirmed it, as she watched the heavenly lake serpents attacking the group of humans with the same ferocity and killing intent that they had attacked the mountain gnolls with.
Even when the humans were so obviously different from the mountain gnolls, it looked like the heavenly lake serpents couldn’t differentiate between the two.
Considering that both races were two legged and the main difference was that one was a bit taller and hairier than the latter, Scaly could understand where the heavenly lake serpents were coming from.
However, the strength of the humans that had appeared was nothing to scoff at, as they managed to easily repel the heavenly lake serpents with the crimson flame knight leading the charge in cleaving down the heavenly lake serpents with ease.
Almost the moment the two clashed with each other, the death toll on the side of the heavenly lake serpents doubled compared to the deaths they suffered during their hour-long clash with the mountain gnolls not long ago. Showing just how much stronger this group of humans were compared to the mountain gnolls currently busy fighting with the mutated dragon devouring slime.
Although, this was mostly due to the presence of the crimson flame knight, who managed to single-handedly hold back most of the heavenly lake serpents with his overwhelming strength.
Even if this did give Scaly a perfect chance to slip away and enter the forest without being discovered, she could not help feeling a bit of sadness when she watched the heavenly lake serpents being cleaved down and slain one by one under the blade of the crimson flame knight.
Understanding that her chances of getting her hands on another heavenly lake serpent hearts was decreasing with each heavenly lake serpent dying at the hands of the crimson flame knight.
Having long since understood from observing other humans and during her time inside the human town, that humans used every part of the monster they killed and wouldn’t leave behind something like the dead body of a heavenly lake serpent.
Similar to the mountain gnoll who also dismantled and brought back the parts of the dead heavenly lake serpents they had killed.
Thinking about this as she observed the battle between the humans and the heavenly lake serpents, Scaly felt that they might not be as different from the mountain gnolls as she had first thought.
In a way, she felt that the humans were indeed a bit like the mountain gnolls and could understand why the heavenly lake serpents might have thought about them as being the same.
Especially when considering their size, there might not be that much of a difference between humans and mountain gnolls.
Both used weapons and were around the same size, while both were also clearly trying to kill them.
The bit extra hair on one of the two and more animalistic features could clearly be ignored in the eyes of the heavenly lake serpents.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
And so, the battle between the humans and the heavenly lake serpents continued, with the heavenly lake serpents rapidly decreasing in numbers, while the humans didn’t suffer a single casualty due to the presence of the crimson flame knight.