Wh-Why did things turn out like this all of a sudden!
Feeling the mountain gnolls and the boggator now having stopped clashing with each other and instead started chasing after her instead, Scaly could not help panicking as she wasted no time in dashing in the opposite direction of the mountain gnolls and the boggator.
The only problem being that the direction she ended up moving in was not towards the edge of the tribe where she had first entered it through, but instead deeper into the tribe where she had to do her utmost to avoid being attacked by any of the strong mountain gnolls that tried to jump in front of her and block her along the way.
Only positive thing about her current situation being that the mountain gnolls and the boggator chasing after her had a quite hard time catching her, as she took full advantage of her smaller body to dash in between the different buildings and hide from their sight whenever she got the chance to do so.
Of course, she wasn’t able to escape their sight for more than a few seconds at a time, but it was at the very least more than enough for her to continue keeping a certain distance between herself and the monsters chasing after her.
At the same time, as she continued moving deeper into the tribe of mountain gnolls, she also managed to discover that there were far more powerful mountain gnolls than she had first expected from the ones she had encountered so far.
Although she did expect there to be a mountain gnoll stronger than the mountain gnoll champion inside the tribe, she had never thought she would end up encountering more than a dozen or so level 60 mountain gnolls during her escape through the mountain gnoll tribe. Especially so because these mountain gnolls were ones that she had never seen before and seemed to have completely ignored the commotion that had taken place at the edge of the tribe.
Even the death of hundreds of mountain gnolls at the edge of the tribe didn’t move any of these mountain gnolls into action, something incredibly weird...
[Mountain Gnoll, Royal Guard, lvl 63]
[Mountain Gnoll, Royal Guard, lvl 66]
[Mountain Gnoll, Royal Guard, lvl 61]
And glancing over their classes as she passed through some of them, they seemed to be guards of some kind. Possibly explaining why not a single one of them had moved so far, but that didn’t change the fact that it was still weird in her eyes.
To make sure that these motionless, but powerful mountain gnolls, didn’t join the rest in chasing after her, Scaly made sure to not go anywhere near them and avoided them like the plague.
In the end, they kept their distance and just watched her being chased around from afar without moving from their post.
Because of this, Scaly managed to smoothly and skillfully avoid getting caught, as she crossed through the entire mountain gnoll tribe before reaching the familiar looking wooden walls of the tribe.
The only difference compared to the past being that this wall wasn’t facing a forest, but instead faced the massive mountain that the tribe was built on the base of.
In other words, it was the mountain that she had seen the drake flying on top of back when she had first arrived at the fourth floor of the dungeon.
A dangerous place, but Scaly didn’t really have time to think about this, as the monsters chasing after her were closing in by the second-
Swish-!
And so, without a single bit of hesitation, she jumped on top of the wooden wall before jumping down from it and starting to rush up the side of the mountain without looking back towards the monsters chasing after her, who seemed to freeze for a short moment upon seeing where she was escaping to before hesitatingly chasing after her.
Of course, Scaly was not intending to continue moving up the side of the mountain and encounter the even stronger drake that should be residing on top of the mountain, but instead just wanted to get as high up as possible before finding somewhere she could jump off the side of the mountain and make use of her newly acquired gliding ability to escape from the boggator and the mountain gnolls chasing her.
Even if it was a dangerous thing to do considering that she would need to get rather high up to stand a chance of escaping, she felt confident in her ability to climb up the mountain faster than the mountain gnolls and the boggator. Especially so the boggator, as it was already struggling to move its massive body up the side of the mountain.
Together with the fact that Scaly deliberately chose a path that would be hard for larger monsters like the boggator to move through, it didn’t take that long before it was forced to let out a reluctant roar and turn around. Unable to continue following her up the mountain. Leaving only the mountain gnolls to continue chasing after her.
Of course, given the sheer number of mountain gnolls chasing after her, Scaly didn’t dare have any thoughts of trying to kill them with her current strength, as she would also need to have some mana for wind magic when she carried out her escape plan.
ROOOOAR-!
However, just as she was about to reach a ledge that she deemed perfect to take off from not too far away from her, Scaly and the mountain gnolls were both taken aback, as a terrifying roar suddenly echoed out from above them.
In the end, Scaly, along with the mountain gnolls all froze on the spot, as they simultaneously turned to look at where the roar had come from. Fearing the worst, as they all prepared to scatter and escape.
Luckily it wasn’t the drake that they had been fearing, but instead a bird type monster that was also living on the mountain-
[Winged Death Raven, lvl 75]
Unfortunately, the bird type monster was in no way weak, as it could also take advantage of its ability to fly to drag them off the mountain and drop them to the ground or just use its terrifyingly sharp claws to harass or kill them without any of them being able to fight back against it.
At the same time, it also ruined Scaly’s plan of jumping off the side of the mountain and gliding to safety, as she understood that there was no way she would be able to do something like that with the winged death raven flying around.
Jumping off the side of the mountain at this point in time would only turn her into a target that could easily be attacked. Especially considering that she didn’t really have any idea how to fight midair and couldn’t really fly.
GROOOWL!
Roooar!
On the more positive side, Scaly quickly realized that the winged death raven didn’t directly target her, but instead decided on attacking the mountain gnolls, as there seemed to be a clear enmity between the two side. Allowing her to sneakily continue further up the mountain, while she began looking for a place to hide instead of trying to jump off the side of the mountain to escape.
If she could find somewhere to hide while the winged death raven and the mountain gnolls fought against each other, she should be able to escape, as there was no way that the mountain gnolls would continue staying on the mountain side and chasing after her for long with the winged death raven around.
After all, they had no real way to deal with it, as the only one proficient in ranged attacks among the mountain gnolls was only around level 60. Far from the level 70 winged death raven, that easily avoided any attacks thrown in its direction.
Rumble~
However, just as Scaly felt like things were moving in a better direction with the winged death raven and mountain gnolls being focused on fighting with each other, a slight tremor moved through the mountain, as she looked up to see a large number of rocks rolling down towards her.
Even worse, behind these large rocks rolling down the mountain, she also spotted a dozen or so rabbit shaped monsters that looked like an evolved version of the mountain rabbits she had encountered and eaten on several occasions since she had ventured into the mountain range.
SQUEEEAK!
To make the situation even worse than that, it seemed like the target of these large mountain rabbits was not the winged death raven or the mountain gnolls, but instead seemed to be her!
Maybe the mountain rabbits I killed and ate so far weren’t entirely defenseless and one of them informed the stronger ones about what I did...?
At this thought, Scaly could not help smiling wryly. Knowing that it wouldn’t be that simple for her to get out of her current situation as she had hoped upon seeing the winged death raven and mountain gnolls fighting with each other...