As Scaly was left completely alone and by herself, she managed to quietly sleep without anyone disturbing her.
Unknowingly, the boggator roaming the wetlands outside her small temporary home ensured that no one even came close to the place she was sleeping. Even forcing the mountain gnolls who had chased after her to retreat. Not daring to move even a single step closer to the bog, as they understood that the boggator ruling the bog was far too powerful for them to deal with.
Like this, a few hours quickly flew by, as Scaly’s injuries recovered at a speed visible to the naked enough. Soon enough recovering back to normal by the time she woke up, while at the same time also recovering her mana in the process of her recovery.
Roll~ Roll~
Rolling around a bit inside the small dirt cave after waking up, Scaly decided to think about her next move now that she had been chased away by the mountain gnolls and had little chance of succeeding in launching another sneak attack against them.
Hm... If not the mountain gnolls, I guess its time that I seek out and kill the heavenly lake serpents. Even if they are large and hard to kill. My current strength should be more than enough to kill them. Especially so given that they might not all be gathered up in one single location like the mountain gnolls...
Narrowing both her eyes as she silently decided on her next target, Scaly slowly made her way to the entrance of her small dirt cave before digging herself out and looking around for any mountain gnolls who might still be out searching for her.
[Boggator, King of the Bog, lvl 81]
However, what she saw wasn’t the mountain gnolls, but instead something far more terrifying casually sunbathing on a nearby large rock sticking up from the bog.
Not only was it stronger than any monster of human she had encountered so far, but it was also right next to her at this moment... And reading through its description with a quick glance, she understood that it would almost certainly attack her if it noticed her.
After all, given its title as king of the bog, it was clear that the bog itself was its territory and she was inside its territory at the moment, one of the only ways that this described docile swamp puppy would become aggressive and attack others.
No wonder there aren’t any mountain gnolls around.... They were clearly scared away by that oversized swamp puppy!
Only now understanding how she had been able to enjoy such a peaceful sleep without being interrupted, Scaly could not help silently crying to herself upon realizing that she had a much more dangerous monster than the mountain gnoll champion to deal with.
Even more dangerous because she had no idea about how strong the boggator was, as she had never seen it in battle before like she had with the mountain gnoll champion.
Given the lack of description regarding its way of fighting, Scaly feared that it might be powerful when it came to water magic or something similar, as it would be far harder for her to escape from it in case it had powerful ranged attack at its disposal.
The best-case scenario was that the boggator didn’t have any kind of long-distance attacks and was completely melee based like the mountain gnoll champion she had escaped from not long ago, as she would be able to keep herself safe by keeping her distance in that case.
Sneak away... Just like the way I entered the bog; I will leave without being discovered!
Almost instantly deciding on her next action, Scaly made herself as small as possible before slowly leaving the dirt cave entrance and stepping on to the unstable ground of the bog. Silently praying that she wouldn’t fall into the water, as she understood that it would alert the boggator to her presence and cause it to chase after her, something she wanted to avoid if possible.
Thump~ Thump~ Thump~
And so, moving as quietly and safely as possible, Scaly slowly began crawling across the unstable ground of the bog while doing her best to keep her head low and avoid getting detected by the boggator.
Growl?!
[Mountain Gnoll, Hunter, lvl 43]
Unfortunately, just as she was about to reach the edge of the bog and make it back to the safety of the forest, she was shocked to see the similarly shocked face of a mountain gnoll whom she hadn’t expected to still be out searching for her. Especially so close to the bog where the boggator was located.
Roar?
In turn, because of the sound created by the mountain gnoll it didn’t take more than a few seconds before the boggator lazily turned to look in the direction of the sound. Giving Scaly a few short seconds longer to rush towards the edge of the bog.
Unfortunately, she was still too slow, as the boggator still ended up discovering her before she had a chance to rush back into the forest-
ROOOOOOOAR-!
Instantly causing the formerly cute looking oversized swamp puppy to let out a terrifying roar before jumping up from its formerly lazy sunbathing position and rushing towards Scaly, who had completely abandoned trying to hide herself at this point in time.
Growl!?
Realizing that not only Scaly was rushing towards it, but the terrifying boggator also headed towards where it was standing, the lone mountain gnoll soon let out a terrified growl before it followed what Scaly was doing and turned around to escape-
Whoosh-!
Unfortunately, it was far too slow when it came to escaping, as it was directly overtaken by Scaly, who flew past it and disappeared into the forest.
ROOOOAR!
In the end, this caused the boggator to turn even more enraged than before, as it soon caught up with the now desperate mountain gnoll-
BANG!
Splat¨
And before the mountain gnoll even had time to turn around or react to what was happening, the enraged boggator casually crushed it beneath one of its massive legs before continuing to crash through several trees as it moved in the direction that Scaly had escaped in.
In the short time of a few seconds, it managed to close the distance between Scaly and itself. Showing that even with its massive size and strength, its speed was in no way lacking behind, as it even surpassed that of the mountain gnoll champion.
On the lucky side of things, Scaly did spot a group of mountain gnolls that she soon rushed past. Hoping that they would at least delay the enraged mountain gnoll for a few seconds.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Splaaaat~!
Unfortunately for Scaly and this group of mountain gnolls, they didn’t really have much time to react before all of them ended up turning into rather funny looking pancakes beneath the powerful body and legs of the boggator that directly crushed all of them without the slightest bit of resistance.
On the positive side of things, the mountain gnoll tribe wasn’t that far away from her at this point in time. Filling her with hope that she could dump this massive problem on the mountain gnolls and have them deal with it instead of her.
Hopefully, she could also take advantage of the situation to kill a few mountain gnolls during the chaos.
As for the boggator destroying the mountain gnoll tribe... She didn’t think that this was possible, as she not only felt that the mountain gnolls were still hiding someone more powerful than the mountain gnoll champion, but also because of the terrifying number of mountain gnolls present at the tribe at the moment.
Even if the mountain gnolls didn’t have a secret powerhouse behind them, they still wouldn’t end up dead at the hands of the boggator.
Growl!?
Like that, the first mountain gnoll scout that had been wandering around the edges of the forest close to the mountain gnoll tribe soon spotted her coming with the boggator right behind her. Instantly causing the poor mountain gnoll to start panicking, as it jumped out of the way. Barely managing to avoid the boggator that had its full attention placed on the one who dared intrude into its territory.
As a result of the singular focus on Scaly, it didn’t even notice that it had arrived at the mountain gnoll tribe before it crashed through the flimsy wooden wall that surrounded the tribe that Scaly had climbed over just a second earlier.
Growl!
GRooowl!
GROOOOWL!
Only when it found itself surrounded by mountain gnolls on all sides did it realize that it had made a mistake in rushing into the mountain gnoll tribe.
Even more so because it noticed that the monster it had been chasing after had already disappeared into one of the nearby wooden houses. Leaving it alone to face off against the mountain gnolls surrounding it that were slowly growing in numbers.
Even worse, it also noticed a certain enraged mountain gnoll champion rushing over with weapon in hand in the distance...