Gathered at the edge of the forest, the branch eater swarm didn’t immediately rush forward, but instead remained in place for a few seconds before a smaller worm accidentally ended up rolling onto the cobblestone road.
Only after the worm managed to get back up and join the rest of the branch eater worms did the rest seem to gain the courage to surge out of the forest and onto the cobblestone road in the direction of the human city ruins in the distance.
As for the blue moon hawks above...
Screech-!
There wasn’t the slightest bit of hesitation, as they rushed towards the human city ruins. Soon enough crossing the distance between the human city ruins and the forest.
However, with how close the ruined buildings of the city were to each other, it was difficult for them to find any sign of Scaly. The only clue they had was the blood track she had left behind and following this clue, they soon found it coming to an end at the entrance to a large building located a short distance away from the broken-down gate that had once blocked any monsters from easily accessing the city from outside.
Screech...?
Seeing this, the leading blue moon hawk came to a stop before turning around to face the other blue moon hawks...
Screech!
Screech! Screech...
And after what could only be called a weird screeching competition in the eyes of anyone who didn’t understand the blue moon hawk’s language, the group of birds ascended back into the sky before flying away.
Clearly, they had decided to give up on trying to hunt Scaly down after realizing she had hidden away inside one of the buildings. Understanding very well that they wouldn’t fare well in combat inside such a narrow space.
Instead of risking their lives continuing to chase her down, the blue moon hawks decided to give up early. After all, outside of Scaly herself, they also had to worry about the swarm of branch eaters rapidly approaching the human city ruins.
If they took too long hunting down Scaly, they might end up joining her in facing off against the branch eater swarm.
Not to mention, they didn’t really have any grudge with Scaly and were just looking for easy prey. Now that the prey turned out to be more difficult than they had imagined and even came with a rather significant risk involved, they decided it would be better to just give up and leave before the situation ended up becoming dangerous.
How unfortunate... I really wanted them to stay and potentially draw the attention of those worms away from me...
Observing all of this through a small crack in the wall of the building that had once been the guard post of the human city, Scaly could not help sighing internally to herself as she watched the blue moon hawks disappearing back in the direction of the forest. Having originally planned to trap them inside the building while she herself slipped away to another hiding place. Hopefully causing enough chaos trying to break free to draw the attention of the branch eater swarm when it arrived.
Now that she couldn’t rely on this plan of hers, she would have to go with her secondary plan of finding a good enough hiding spot inside the human city ruins that the branch eater worms would never find even if they tore the entire place apart searching for her.
In fact, she already knew the perfect location before she had even reached the human city ruins, the underground tunnel network beneath the city ruins!
From past experience escaping from a human town, she was certain that the tunnel network located underground would be the best place for her to hide.
At first, she had felt uncertain whether every human settlement had this kind of underground tunnel network, but after only a glance around the interior of the city, she already spotted several passages leading underground. Making it clear that this larger human settlement also had an extensive tunnel network underground... And given that this human city was larger than the human town she had escaped from in the past, it was clear that the tunnel network located beneath it should also be larger and more extensive.
Even if the branch eater worms could also follow her underground, the complex nature of the tunnels made it difficult for them to easily find her. Not to mention, she could easily find a small corner to hide away in underground.
Together with the strange magic suppressing miasma that came from the underground river flowing through the tunnel, she was certain that the branch eater worms wouldn’t dare to stay in such a place for long. After all, their ability to go invisible required mana, without mana, their strongest ability would be rendered useless, something that those worms would undoubtedly fear.
Whoosh~
With that in mind, Scaly decided not to waste any time lingering around inside the broken-down guard building after the blue moon hawks disappeared. Rushing straight into a nearby hole in the ground before the branch eater swarm could reach the human city ruins-
Thump~
Soon enough, finding herself back inside the narrow tunnel, she remembered clearly from her time escaping from the human town. The main difference was that the water that should be flowing freely through the tunnel was now completely stagnant.
Not just that, but she also realized that the disgusting smell from the past wasn’t there. Instead, looking down at the stagnant water, all she saw was normal water with nothing special about it outside a deep purple color.
This... Where did the strange miasma go!? Don’t tell... The miasma only forms when there are humans living in the city!?
Feeling herself starting to panic upon seeing that the miasma she had wanted to rely on to intimidate the branch eater worms was nowhere to be seen, Scaly wanted to rush back up and find another place to hide-
Rumble~!
But the rumbling sound coming from above made it clear that she didn’t have the time to do so, as the swarm of branch eater worms were already far too close to the gate of the human city ruins.
This is bad...
Feeling a shiver run down her spine realizing how bad her current situation was, Scaly began looking around herself trying to figure out a solution to her current problem. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do to create the miasma she wanted to rely on.
So, with nothing better to do, Scaly decided to follow the tunnel she had rushed down into. Intending to try and see how far it could take her, while silently hoping that the branch eater worms would be too busy looking for her throughout the ruins above to explore the massive complex of underground tunnels below ground.
As for the branch eater worms giving up on chasing her down like the blue moon hawks had done? She didn’t have much faith in that happening, as the sheer number of branch eater worms, she had killed numbered close to three digits, a significant loss to this swarm considering she hadn’t even been dealt with.
The only positive to her current situation was the fact that she could clearly sense that the strange stagnant purple colored water was extremely poisonous, to the point where even she would likely end up dead from swallowing a tiny droplet.
Even if she didn’t swallow the strangely colored water, touching it would also place her in a poisoned state and potentially kill her over time...
Whoosh~ Splash!
With that in mind, to try and prevent the branch eater worms from chasing after her, she dedicated some of her attention while running to using her water magic to make the strangely colored stagnant water splash onto dry parts she had walked past. Ensuring that it wouldn’t be that easy for the branch eater worms to chase after her.
At the very least, even if they decided to chase after her, it wouldn’t be that easy. Maybe if she was lucky, they would deem the underground tunnels too dangerous to explore and would leave the human city after scouring through the aboveground ruins.
Of course, in case that didn’t happen, she still needed to find another way to ensure her own safety... And from the looks of it, the key to survival lay with the purple-colored poisonous water.
The problem was, she couldn’t directly manipulate the purple-colored water through her water magic but essentially had to drop a ball of water conjured through her own water magic into the stagnant purple colored water to make it splash up and cover the sections of the tunnel she had already moved through...
RUMBLE-! BANG!
Continuing to move deeper underground through the intricate tunnel network, Scaly suddenly found herself freezing on the spot as a loud tremor ran through the tunnel she was moving down followed by a loud bang.
Even without seeing the situation above, she instinctively understood that the branch eater worms had entered the human city ruins!
And... The sound just now should have come from them tearing through the small building that she had first hidden inside of to avoid the blue moon hawks...