As the mole lord escaped through the narrow tunnels it had dug in the past, it could not help feeling a wave of exhaustion washing over it.
During the battle with the heavenly lake serpents and the oversized spider, it had pushed itself far beyond its limits to escape and now it had no strength left to continue forward, as it slowly dragged the dead body of the heavenly lake serpent into a small opening it had created for sleeping in the past.
The reason why it had dragged the dead body of the heavenly lake serpent along with it even in its exhausted state was rather simple, food. It needed something to eat to recover its strength and the dead body of the heavenly lake serpent was perfect to fill its stomach. Especially so considering the dragon blood flowing through its body.
Chomp~!
And so, without a second thought, the mole lord bit into the dead body of the heavenly lake serpent. Soon devouring around a third of the body before drifting off to sleep, the exhaustion of the earlier battle washing over it and overwhelming it in an instant, as it no longer had a reason to worry now that it had managed to fill its stomach and get to safety.
...
Mhmm~
Mhmmm~? Wha~? Where am I...?
Slowly opening her eyes with a still drowsy expression, Scaly looked around herself in a dazed state, still not fully awake...
[Mole Lord, lvl 45]
Wawawaa- That is the mole lord! What is that doing here!?
However, when she spotted the mole lord that she had personally seen easily kill off a heavenly lake serpent like it was some random Fatty Yellow Cave Fish, she quickly woke up and began to examine her current situation.
Not taking long to realize that the mole lord was sleeping, causing her to calm down somewhat understanding that she was not in any immediate danger.
At the same time, she also noticed the torn apart body of the heavenly lake serpent behind her.
If she was not wrong, she should have been inside the heavenly lake serpent’s body, but now that she looked around herself, she realized that she was lying in a corner of the underground space she now found herself in.
Although... From the state of the heavenly lake serpent’s body, it was rather obvious that she should have been thrown out of the body while the mole lord had been busy devouring it and had somehow managed to not get noticed in the process, something that should have only happened because of the mole lord’s exhausted state after the battle with the oversized spider and the heavenly lake serpents.
As for how the mole lord had even managed to escape alive in the first place? Scaly had no idea and didn’t plan to find out.
After all, even if the mole lord was asleep for now and presented a great opportunity for her to launch a sneak attack on it, she didn’t feel confident in taking it down with a single attack... And with the mole lord’s skillful mastery of earth magic, she had a feeling that she would end up buried underground the second it woke up and fought back.
Fighting it underground, even in an injured state, was simply not an option. Even if she was lucky enough to take it down, there was also a chance that it would bury her underground alongside it...
Deciding to avoid the mole lord for now, Scaly began examining the underground space more closely, looking for a way out and back up to the surface again. Soon enough spotting the tunnel that the mole lord had come through.
That should be the way out of here, but... The mole lord is blocking the path...
As she identified the path out, Scaly was soon troubled to discover that the sleeping mole lord was blocking the path.
Even if she attempted to sneak past it, the massive body of the mole lord essentially blocked all paths for her and the only way to get through it would be to climb over it, but doing something like that would almost certainly wake up the mole lord.
Waiting around wasn’t an option either, as the mole lord would undoubtedly discover her when it woke up, even if she tried to hide. After all, the reason for her avoiding being noticed the first time around should have been entirely due to the exhausted and weakened state of the mole lord when it had started tearing into the heavenly lake serpent.
So... My only path forward is to try and kill the mole lord or climb over it and hope it doesn’t wake up...
Narrowing both her eyes as she thought about the two options before her, Scaly could not help feeling a bit of helplessness washing over her as she understood that the chances of either path succeeding were low. Especially the path that had her climbing over it, as her claws were by no means soft and fluffy to the touch.
Rumble~!
However, as she thought about the situation and what path to choose, she was suddenly awoken from her somewhat dazed state by a loud rumbling sound from above.
R-Roar...?
Not just that, but the mole lord in front of her also seemed to be waking up from the sudden loud rumbling sound. Forcing her to jump back and hide behind what was left of the dead heavenly lake serpent to avoid being detected the second it opened its eyes.
Rumble-!
As the mole lord began to fully wake up, the rumbling sound from above became even louder and she could even see the ceiling above trembling like something was about to breakthrough the surface at any moment-
Crack~!
BANG!
And then it happened, something massive broke through the ceiling of the underground space, bringing along with-it massive amounts of water that quickly filled up the underground space and swept her out through the tunnel together with the dead body of the heavenly lake serpent.
Looking back, she could barely make out some kind of massive tentacle grabbing hold of the injured mole lord before dragging it away.
[Baby Kraken, lvl 79]
So... It was you...
Using her inspect on the tentacle, she quickly discovered the owner of the massive tentacle was someone she was rather familiar with. Although she had never expected it to appear here of all places...