"Damnit, these monsters are endless! If things keep up like this, it won’t be long before this city is overrun and those zealots from the Holy Flower Sect targets another dungeon while we are occupied dealing with this mess..." Sitting inside a medical tent located just outside the Howling cave city, Nelic, the beastkin adventurer who had been left in a half dead state in his battle with the terrestrial beetle lord yelled out loudly as he shot up to his feet even as his entire body ached.
Rustle~
"Nelic! You can’t go! In your current state, it will be hard to do anything more than add another target for those monsters." But before he could rush out of the tent, an older woman in her late fifties rushed forward and stopped him in his tracks with a stern expression on her face. Clearly not planning to let him leave.
"Senior Mari... You know as well as I do that how strong your healing magic is. Although I’m far from fully recovered, I’m still more than capable of facing a few B and A Rank Monsters. In the worst case, I can always retreat. Don’t forget, Valz is already here and is keeping the big one occupied. If I can lend a hand dealing with the weaker monsters, we will have a far higher chance of holding on long enough for reinforcements to show up."
"That..."
"Don’t worry, nothing will happen to me, you know more than anything how tough I am!"
"True... And regarding the reinforcements, I recently received news that they are about ten minutes away. So, try your best out there, I still have other patients to tend to." Nodding her head in the end with a somewhat reluctant look on her face, Mari turned around and left the tent after delivering the news she had just recently received.
"Ten minutes... Hmph! Even thirty minutes wouldn’t be enough to bring me down!" Smiling confidently upon hearing the news brought by Mari, Nelic didn’t linger around any longer than necessary and quickly charged back towards the chaotic city filled with renewed battle intent after the short rest.
Soon enough, he found himself on the frontline in the eastern district of Howling Cave City holding the line...
"Everyone! Hold the line! We can’t let these monsters get past us! I have already received a message saying that the reinforcements from the headquarters are only ten minutes away! We just need to hold on a little longer!"
Calling out to the adventurers around him. Encouraging them to keep fighting as he took the lead, causing the collapsing defensive line to stabilize again as he led the charge in facing a group of A Rank Monsters on his own. Overexerting himself to ensure that those behind him didn’t have to face any of these powerful monsters, as that would undoubtedly cause the defensive line that had barely stabilized to collapse again.
Unaware that someone had already targeted him from the shadows as he bravely fought against the monsters and worsened his already bad condition that had barely started to recover thanks to the assistance of Mari.
However, unknown even to Scaly lurking on top a nearby building waiting for Nelic to get close enough for her to launch an ambush, she wasn’t the only one targeting this fluffy adventurer, as a second pair of eyes watched the increasingly bloody figure of Nelic with similar intentions...
"Hehe, to think that old man succeeded in breaking the barrier and cause a dungeon break, I have to say, I admire him. Now, all that is left to do is ensure this dungeon break is a successful one. By then, even if the main headquarters of the guild wants to send over more people, it will be too late!" Watching Nelic from a nearby empty alleyway just out of sight for both Scaly and Nelic, a shadowy figure chuckled darkly to himself as he eyed Nelic’s increasingly worsening situation.
From a glance, it was clear that this person wasn’t an adventurer from the adventurer guild, but instead someone like the human Scaly had accidentally ended up killing inside the dungeon during her failed ambush of Nelic.
The main difference being that this person was far weaker and clearly didn’t dare to make a move on Nelic carelessly even in an extremely weakened state. Instead, waiting silently for his situation to worsen even further.
After all, the goal of this person wasn’t just to kill Nelic but cause the defensive line in the eastern district to collapse, as it was the most vulnerable location in the city and most likely spot for the monsters to break through the encirclement before reinforcement showed up from the capital.
"The Ancestral Wolf, Nelic, to think someone like me would have the opportunity to kill someone like. Praise be the Holy Flower!" Silently reciting a prayer to himself as the opportunity he had been waiting for arrived, the shadowy figure watched as Nelic was now only a few meters away from him and rushed out using a special movement technique to propel himself forward at speed far greater than what would have normally been possible for his level. Knowing that any hesitation would mean certain death.
After all, Nelic was a wolf beastkin and though he had hidden his scent with special powders and other things beforehand, he understood that it wouldn’t be useful upon getting that close. Forcing him to use all his strength to launch a single rapid strike before Nelic managed to pick up on his scent and realize that he was being ambushed-
Swish-!
"Wha-!?"
And indeed, everything worked out exactly as planned, as Nelic barely noticed the unfamiliar scent and felt something rapidly approaching him before his poisoned dagger was no more than a few centimeters from his throat, a distance far too short for even an S Rank Adventurer to react in time.
Chiiing~
However, before the dagger managed to reach its target, it hit a claw that was heading for the exact same stop, causing the sharp dagger and claw to collied with each other midair before bouncing backwards just a few millimeters from Nelic’s throat.
"Huh?"
Caught completely off guard by this sudden unexpected turn of events, the shadowy figure from the Holy Flower Sect found himself freezing on the spot as he made eye contact with the owner of the sharp pair of claws. An almost translucent dragon. Even though its sleek appearance and translucent wings gave off a somewhat harmless image to the onlooker, it still towered over him. Standing more than two meters tall.
"..."
Even without having seen this kind of monster before in his life, he understood immediately that it was far beyond something he could deal with.
Not just that, but from what had just happened, it was clear that the translucent winged dragon had either protected Nelic from his attack or he had just tried to steal this terrifying dragon’s prey. In which case, his ambush of Nelic could have been completed without him risking his life just by waiting for this translucent winged dragon to do his job for him.
As for now... Nelic had already reacted and pulled out some kind of magic talisman that had attached to his legs. Allowing him to rapidly escape before either of them had a chance to stop him. Showing that although reckless on the surface, this was still a seasoned adventurer who knew when to retreat and had countless survival methods up his sleeve.
Now that the target had escaped, there was no chance of him getting another chance, as he had already been exposed.
But... That was considering he managed to get out of his current situation alive, as the translucent winged dragon next to him looked rather pissed at missing its prey and seemed to look at him as the party responsible for the failure. Meaning, he would likely suffer the fate that should have originally belonged to Nelic...
Oh Holy Flower, save this doomed soul from the sea of suffering and show me a path out of this damned path...
Reciting a silent prayer in his heart, the member of the Holy Flower Sect who had ended up messing up Scaly’s ambush wasted no time as he turned heel and ran-
Swish-!
But there was no way Scaly would allow this person to escape after missing her target twice in a row.
Ptsh-!
"Aaah! Nooo-"
Bang! Thump~
Not even bothering to save her mana in a state of anger, as she directly used three water blades to cut off both his legs and one of his arms before landing directly on top of him with one of her claws firmly pressed against his chest-
Crack~
And with a little push, she directly crushed his ribcage. Destroying his heart and killing him in the process.
But even this was far from enough to calm her down, as she stomped on him a few times more to let out her anger. Feeling truly pissed for once over having missed this priced target that had seemingly been right in front of her before that damnable dagger popped up out of nowhere and blocked her perfectly timed claw strike.