Whoosh~
Gliding through the air with her injured wings barely hanging on by now, Scaly could not help feeling uneasy as her eyes focused on the blood slowly dripping down from the tip of her right wing.
By far, her right wing was the one that had been the most injured of her two wings.
Although it might not have been that serious at the start if she had time to recover, the situation had now become dire, as the injuries had only grown worse due to her forcing herself into using her wings. The blood dripping down her right wing coming from a blood vessel in the wing that couldn’t withstand the pressure and ended up bursting.
Her left wing was far from healthy either, but it managed to hold on far better than her right wing that seemed like it would be the first to reach a breaking point between her two wings- And it wasn’t like she could fly with just one wing. If one of them gave up, she would plummet to the ground below all the same.
Speaking of which, the lovely branch eaters below had already noticed her flying above after the cloud that had obscured her from sight drifted away from her.
The only benefit was that the squirming mass of worms was no longer directly below her but had been left a few hundred meters behind because of the slight distance she had managed to cover while the branch eaters were in the process of dispersing.
Of course, now that they had a target again, the ones that had dispersed earlier had already reintegrated into the squirming mass to chase after her.
In fact, the size of the squirming mass had grown compared to before and still seemed to be growing without any signs of slowing down. Truly, these branch eaters were by far the worst monster she had encountered so far.
Even if they were easy to deal with by themselves and could even be considered a great source of experience to increase her level rapidly, when the size of their group expanded to this extent, it was nothing short of a nightmare to deal with. After all, she had no large-scale attacks to deal with so many monsters at the same time...
Attacks that cover a large area... Maybe I could try creating a tornado to sweep up the branch eaters?
Thinking this to herself as she inevitably tried to distract herself from the precarious situation, she found herself in, Scaly tried coming up with different possible large-scale spells that she wanted to create in the future.
The reason why she didn’t attempt to try out something like conjuring forth a tornado to deal with the branch eater swarm below was rather simple, mana. Using such a large spell would inevitably cost an equally astronomical amount of mana, mana she needed to keep herself afloat and ensure her safety after she ended up on the ground again.
Not to mention, she wasn’t even sure the mana she still had left would even be enough for her to use such a large spell. In the worst-case scenario, she might end up overdrawing her mana by accident and end up unconscious as a result, something that meant certain death given how high up in the sky she found herself.
All things considered, her best option for continued survival remained staying in the air as long as possible trying to reach the end of the forest where she might be able to find somewhere to hide from the all-encompassing mass of worms chasing her.
Given how she had already been gliding forward without stopping for close to ten minutes since leaving behind the immortal snail, she was now far closer to the edge of the forest and could see more of what lay beyond the forest.
Outside of the road she had seen in the past, she could now see that the road itself carved through an open grass plain with what looked like the ruins of a human city barely visible from her current location.
Surprising as it was for her to find out that the road should have been made by humans instead of dungeon dwelling monsters like gnolls, she didn’t think that this was entirely bad for her, as she understood from her previous trip to a human city that human cities had countless places for her to hide in.
Even if the squirming swarm of worms continued to chase her outside the forest, she should be able to find somewhere to hide from them inside the human city ruins.
This thought alone brought renewed strength to her wings, as she soared through the sky with determination-
Whoosh~
However, just as she had a clear path to survival laid out before her, a sudden gust of wind from behind caused an unnatural shiver to run down her spine...
[Blue Moon Hawk, lvl 33]
[Blue Moon Hawk, lvl 28]
[Young Blue Moon Hawk, lvl 11]
[Young Blue Moon Hawk, lvl 19]
[Young Blue Moon Hawk...]
And turning around, she saw a flock of familiar looking monsters rapidly approaching from behind filled with killing intent. Her time of remaining undetected in the sky had come to an end, as another group of blue moon hawks had noticed her.
But maybe more important than just noticing her, it was clear they had also realized how injured she was and the simple fact that she was easy prey.
Though Scaly wanted to complain about her current situation, she understood that there was nothing she could do about it, as the reason she had ended up in this situation in the first place was her own fault.
She could have been a bit more patient and properly avoided the branch eaters, while later she should have noticed her wind magic increasing in level and avoided crashing into the ceiling of the dungeon floor. In which case, her wings wouldn’t be in such bad shape, and she would be fully confident in escaping from the blue moon hawks with her wind magic assisting her.
However, now that her wings were in bad shape, she didn’t really think they would be able to endure the required use of wind magic to avoid the attacks of these flying monsters.
So, with that in mind, Scaly decided to choose the only option still left-
Swish-!
Rapidly dive towards the ground, using the momentum to pick up speed and ensure that the flying monsters wouldn’t be able to catch up with her.
The reason why she hadn’t done this before to create even more distance between herself and the squirming swarm of branch eaters, soon enough became obvious, as both her wings were put under tremendous pressure by the sudden move.
Even if her pain resistance was high and allowed her to endure the pain, her wings couldn’t endure for long, as she soon enough began feeling her right wing, starting to give in under the stress caused by the rapid acceleration.
Crack~
And just as she reached the edge of the forest through the rapid acceleration, Scaly found her right wing finally giving in, as she found herself crashing through a few branches before crashing into the soft grass right next to the cobblestone path.
In the end, she had successfully managed to reach the edge of the forest.
The problem was that the blue moon hawks were still chasing after her and so were the branch eaters. The calm state of her surroundings had to do with her having created a significant distance between herself and the monsters chasing her.
The calm would disappear soon enough, but before that, she intended to reach the human city ruins at the end of the cobblestone road and find somewhere to hide.
Luckily, though her wings were now unusable, her legs still worked perfectly fine-
Tap~ Tap~ Tap~
Allowing her small legs to carry her forward in the direction of the human city ruins without her needing to rest beforehand. The exhaustion she felt from gliding through the sky earlier was mostly contained to her wing muscles and her mind, her legs weren’t affected. If anything, she found herself moving at a far greater speed than normal due to her life being in danger.
Even though she didn’t have any movement related skills, she moved like she had one.
As for any monsters that might be hiding in the grass surrounding the cobblestone road? She didn’t even bother thinking about this, as she understood full well that she simply didn’t have the luxury to think about potentially being attacked during her escape.
Her escape along the cobblestone road was essentially entirely based on hopefully not encountering any monsters that would slow her down along the way... And lucky as she was with the protection of unknown forces, no monster happened to be close to the cobblestone road to block her path. Allowing her to smoothly reach the entrance to the human city ruins just as the blue moon hawks and the squirming mass of branch eaters reached the edge of the forest, one keeping an eye on the sky, while the other covered the ground.