Finding herself essentially observing the battlefield from above without joining in after having decided to wait for a few minutes to see if an opportunity presented itself for her to take advantage of, to potentially kill one of the stronger monster or adventurers if the opportunity did end up presenting itself to her, Scaly didn’t waste her time just lingering above the battlefield and instead used the time while waiting to try and get a better understanding of the different attacks and magic being used by both the monster and adventurers below. Especially so for the magic, as she herself hoped that she might be able to copy some of it and use I herself in the future.
Because of this, even though she found the entire experience of just waiting around rather boring, it wasn’t entirely pointless, as she did manage to watch the countless unique ways that both the adventurers and the monsters used magic.
Outside of this, she also found herself growing curious about what the adventurers were planning, as it was clear from a glace that they wouldn’t be able to hold off the monster stampede indefinitely. At some point, the beastkin adventurer holding back the terrestrial beetle lord would reach a point where he would be forced to retreat unless he had a death wish. At which point the stability that existed on the battlefield would be broken, as the terrestrial beetle lord would have no one to hold it back.
In fact, having already realized this, Scaly had partly also decided to wait for a few minutes to strike because she believed that the beastkin adventurer would be forced back during the next few minutes. A process that would also present her with the best opportunity to strike, as the strongest individuals on the chaotic battlefield below would have their attention focused on the terrestrial beetle lord. Wondering what it would be up to after the one blocking it retreated.
Not only would it be a perfect opportunity for her to strike, but if she went about everything well enough, she might even be able to take down one of the adventurers above level 100, who would momentarily have their attention drawn elsewhere or an equally powerful monster.
Of course, instead of just taking down a single enemy during her ambush, she hoped for a best-case scenario where she would be able to take down both an adventurer above level 100 and an equally powerful monster. After all, killing two powerful opponents would always be better than one.
And so, Scaly found herself settling in above. Feeling her gaze wandering between the beastkin adventurer fighting with the terrestrial beetle lord and another pair fighting with each other, the latter having become her potential target for when the beastkin adventurer would be too inured to continue fighting and end up being forced back.
...
At the same time that Scaly found herself quietly waiting in the air above the chaotic battlefield without being noticed by any of the people and monsters locked in combat below, the Archmage that was keeping an eye on the battle between the beastkin adventurer and the terrestrial beetle lord, quietly frowned to himself as he watched the increasingly bad state that his companion found himself in.
"I never imagined the monster stampede to bring out such a powerful monster... Even if it’s still S Rank, it is far stronger than a normal S Rank Adventurer..." Muttering this as he sent out a small icicle to block what would have been a deadly blow from the terrestrial beetle lord and buy the beastkin adventurer enough time to move out of the way, the human Archmage slowly turned his attention towards the other battles playing out along the city walls.
Outside of the terrestrial beetle lord, the rest of the battle was going well and without that overpowered monster lord having joined in, they would have been more than capable of taking care of the monster stampede without any assistance from the rest of the adventurers sent over by the main headquarters.
From the start, it wasn’t expected to be possible for them to deal with a monster stampede on their own, so the fact that the only thing that prevented them from doing so was a single monster, was rather frustrating. Especially considering that the reward for completing a monster stampede on their own without any more assistance would be far larger, as them dealing with the situation on their own before reinforcement arrived would give the ones about to show up from the capital of the Great Sky Kingdom a chance to potentially catch the Holy Flower Sect off guard when they showed up to potentially try and make the dungeon breach happen.
As an S Rank Adventurer, he was all too aware of the conflict between the Adventurers Guild and the Holy Flower Sect and had learnt about their involvement in the current situation playing out throughout the Great Sky Kingdom. Also knowing the reason why most of the people for this expedition to help the dungeon situation taking place in the Great Sky Kingdom had ended up going to the capital city instead of the dungeons that had been affected.
Although he didn’t have any idea about the current situation taking place in the capital, it wasn’t hard to guess that the Holy Flower Sect would take advantage of the current situation in the Howling Caverns Dungeon to cause trouble.
For this reason, outside of being the one in charge of the overall situation and ensuring that no S Rank Monster ended up killing his fellow S Rank Adventurers, he also had the wonderful task of keeping an eye out for any members of the Holy Flower Sect who might show up at any time to cause trouble.
In a way, if it wasn’t for him having to keep an eye out for the Holy Flower Sect’s people, he would have been more than capable of joining the beastkin adventurer in fighting the terrestrial beetle lord. At which point it would have become a far more equal battle with two against one.
Even if the terrestrial beetle lord was a level above normal S Rank Monsters, it still wouldn’t be able to deal with two S Rank Adventurers working together. Especially considering he himself, as an Archmage, could inflict far more damage than his beastkin companion, who had mainly been chosen to take on the terrifying terrestrial beetle lord due to how difficult to kill he was.
Covered in blood from head to toe, he firmly understood from having worked together in the past, that this companion of his who looked like he was about to fall over at any second could still hold on for at least another hour or two in his current state. Showcasing the terrifying physical strength of a wolf beastkin, while also demonstrating his equally terrifying recovery abilities.
Although an hour or two wouldn’t make much of a difference when it came to winning the overall battle against the monster stampede, the goal was never to win, but just hold on long enough for reinforcement to show up... And given the distance between the Howling Caverns Dungeon and the Capital City of the Great Sky Kingdom, it should take around an hour for this reinforcement to show up.
In the worst-case scenario where the beastkin adventurer found himself unable to hold on for that long in the face of the terrestrial beetle lord, they could still retreat behind the towering city walls and rely on the barrier in place to fend off the monster stampede.
Although... Strong as the barrier might be, it wouldn’t be able to hold on for long in the face of multiple S Rank Monsters.
But... It should still be able to buy them a bit more time.
And if even that wasn’t enough, there wasn’t much more to do other than proceed with a slow retreat trying to hold back the monster stampede for as long as possible. Hoping that reinforcement would be able to show up before they were pushed out of the dungeon, as the second that happened, a dungeon breach would take place.
Just thinking about all of this made the human Archmage adventurer feel like an increasingly heavy burden had been placed on his shoulders. After all, at the end of the day, he was the one in charge of the current situation in the Howling Caverns Dungeon and if anything ended up going wrong, he would end up being blamed for it in a similar manner as to how he would be praised in case things went well.
Originally a position he had happily taken on after learning about the potential rewards, while he only now realized why no one had fought him for this leadership position earlier. Strong as he was, he was still rather inexperienced when it came to situations that involved one of the Adventurers Guild’s three major enemies, while his companions at least knew that taking on a leadership role was far from simple, as a situation could quickly spiral out of control like it already had.
And that was without any involvement from the Holy Flower Sect...