Continuing to get pushed back by the mountain rabbits, while taking advantage of her strong scales to block most of the attacks that landed on her, Scaly was about to try and make a desperate move and escape from her current precarious situation-
Huh!?
Thump!
However, she accidentally tripped over a few smaller rocks when turning around. Falling to the ground.
Squeeak-!
Bang!
Following which, one of the larger mountain rabbits slammed into her the next second, causing her to start rolling down the side of the mountain in a rather familiar manner that reminded her of her earlier escape from the heavenly lake serpents.
Of course, the main difference this time around was that she had no control over where she was rolling and also didn’t really have a way to stop herself, as doing so would result in the mountain rabbits getting an opportunity to launch a fatal attack towards her. None of them stopped their attack, as they were now closely chasing her down the side of the mountain.
In turn, it didn’t take long before she ended up rolling past the winged death raven and the mountain gnolls who had been fully occupied with fighting each other while slowly descending down the side of the mountain.
Growl?
Roar...?
Earning a rather surprised sound from both parties, as they just stared at the small dragon rolling past them with the dozens of large mountain rabbits chasing after it. Neither of them knew how to react, as Scaly managed to pass through the most dangerous part of her journey down the mountain without any problems.
GROOOOWL-!
It was only a little after Scaly ha successfully managed to make it past the group of mountain gnolls that the mountain gnoll champion realized that the thing that had just rolled past them was actually the monster they had been chasing after before being faced with the winged death raven.
Growl!
Grooowl!
Groowl!
And so, after recovering from the shock of what had just happened, the mountain gnolls wasted no time as they also turned around and chased after Scaly who just so happened to be heading directly towards the mountain gnoll tribe together with the larger mountain rabbits chasing after her.
Roar?
In the end, only the winged death raven that had been fighting the mountain gnolls to the death a few seconds earlier was left behind with a confused expression on its face. Not understanding what had just happened as it stared at the massive group consisting of mountain gnolls and mountain rabbits rushing down the side of the mountain.
Roar...
Whoosh~
Determining the current situation to be too weird, the winged death raven decided to not get involved in whatever was happening, as it casual flapped its wings and retreated further up the mountain.
Although it did have a grudge with the mountain gnolls and wanted to kill the group that had been bold enough to rush up the side of the mountain, it also understood that there would be little chance of it killing any more of the mountain gnolls after its first ambush. Deciding to just safely retreat instead of getting any closer to the mountain gnoll tribe and endanger itself.
...
As Scaly continued to roll down the side of the mountain with an even larger number of monsters chasing after her, the boggator that had already given up on continuing to chase after her was currently about to reach the mountain gnoll tribe again. Planning on heading back to its bog now that it had lost its original target.
Not intending to continue fighting with the mountain gnolls, as it had clearly felt that continuing to do so might end up drawing the attention of the real leader of the mountain gnolls. An existence that even the boggator didn’t want to fight. Especially outside of its bog.
Rumble~!
Roar?
Suddenly hearing a loud rumbling sound behind it, the boggator, about to step back into the mountain gnoll tribe and return to its bog, turned around with a confused expression on its face to see where the rumbling sound had come from-
BANG-!
However, it was far too slow to do this, as all it ended up seeing was a certain dragon, who slammed directly into its face before bouncing off and being launched flying into the air above the mountain gnoll tribe.
I’m... I’m flying!?
As for Scaly, she suddenly felt herself slamming into something hard before finding herself floating in the air above the mountain gnoll tribe... And not wanting to plummet into the mountain gnoll tribe and end up being cornered by the now enraged mountain gnolls, Scaly barely managed to unfurl her small wings midair. Allowing her to continue floating in the air for a bit longer. Saving her from landing in the mountain gnoll tribe.
At the same time also gave her a chance to get a better view of the mountain gnoll tribe from above without being so far away that she couldn’t see much more than the silhouette of the tribe.
From up high, she noticed that the mountain gnoll tribe seemed to be split into two sections, one where the normal mountain gnolls lived and another palace like area that the unmovable royal guard mountain gnolls seemed to be guarding.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t see the mountain gnoll inside the wooden palace that had been constructed in that area, but she now became absolutely certain about her earlier prediction of there being an even stronger mountain gnoll present somewhere inside the mountain gnoll tribe.
Now it seemed that this powerful mountain gnoll should be somewhere inside the wooden palace guarded by the royal guard mountain gnolls.
The only odd thing was that the royal guard mountain gnolls and this supposedly powerful mountain gnoll hidden inside the wooden palace didn’t seem to care the slightest bit about all of the chaos that was taking place just outside.
But...
Scaly didn’t really care about any of this and only noted down the fact that there was indeed a more powerful mountain gnoll hidden inside the mountain gnoll tribe. Meaning that her revenge against the mountain gnolls and destroying the mountain gnoll tribe would have to wait possibly until her next evolution.
Growl? Growl!
Just as she was lost in her own thoughts slowly gliding through the air above the mountain gnoll tribe with several large cuts that had been created while rolling down the mountain and fighting the mountain rabbits, one of the mountain gnolls walking around below was suddenly hit by some of the blood dripping from her wounds, causing it to look up and spot her.
Groowl!
Growl!
Grooowl!
As a result, it didn’t take long before all the mountain gnolls below realized she was above them, causing a large number of them to take out bows to shoot at her, while those proficient in magic began launching magic towards her.
Bang! Bang! Ptsh!
Ahhh!?
Soon enough, Scaly soon found herself being hit by several magic spells and arrows, one of the arrows even managing to lodge itself inside one of her legs, causing a painful yelp to escape her mouth.
I-I can’t just stay like this, or I will turn into an extra-large dragon skewer!
Thinking this to herself as she watched how the mountain gnolls below her began preparing for another wave of attacks, Scaly decided to do the only thing she could think of to get out of her current dangerous situation-
Whoosh~!
And that was to use her wind magic like she had practiced earlier to not only keep herself in the air, but also increase her gliding speed, as she barely managed to dodge the second wave of arrows and magic that came flying towards her.
Of course, it wouldn’t allow her to fly indefinitely, but it would at the very least keep her in the air for longer, while at the same time also making her a far harder target for the mountain gnolls trying to hit her from below.
One positive thing was that the stronger mountain gnolls were still stuck outside the mountain gnoll tribe itself and now seemed to find themselves trying to stop the boggator and the mountain rabbits from rushing into their tribe and causing even more damage.
As a result, Scaly managed to safely glide over the mountain gnoll tribe after using her wind magic to assist in flying. Soon landing a few hundred meters away from the mountain gnoll tribe itself, before forcibly pulling out the arrow stuck in her leg and rushing into the forest to find somewhere to hide and recover from the injuries she had suffered.
At the same time, silently promising that she would not return to the mountain gnoll tribe before her next evolution, as she had no good memories to speak of when it came to the mountain gnoll tribe.
Even if her strength had increased by quite a bit after this little visit, she felt that with the constant life and death situations, it was far from worth it!