Stomping on the already dead member of the Holy Flower Sect a few more times out of spite, Scaly didn't even notice the large number of monsters that had been swarming towards her following the death of the Holy Flower Sect member and the rapid escape of the beastkin adventurer. Only realizing it when the monsters had already reached her, but… Instead of attacking her like she had expected, the monsters all let out cheerful roars as they passed by her before continuing forward without slowing down.
Turning lifting her foot from the dead human on the ground in response to this odd turn of event, Scaly found herself turning around. Only to see the reason why these monsters had been so excited to the point of cheering her on in their own unique way.
The defensive line that had barely been held together by Nelic a few seconds earlier, had completely collapsed the second he had escaped, as none of the remaining adventurers dared to stay behind and fight the monsters that had seemingly overwhelmed an S Rank Adventurer from their point of view.
Injured as Nelic was, it made no difference to these adventurers, as all they understood was that the person who had been holding the frontlines had run away… And if someone like that decided to run away, it was obvious that they, much weaker than him, should do the same. Unless they had a death wish…
For this reason, the monsters who would originally still have to struggle for a bit to breakthrough the eastern district of the city, found their path completely cleared because of what they assumed to be Scaly's heroic actions of killing one of the powerful adventurers guarding the eastern district while scaring off the other.
After all, in the eyes of these monsters, there was no difference between the human from the Holy Flower Sect and the beastkin adventurer, as they looked to be on the same side in their eyes. Never would they have imagined that the now dead human was one of the people who had helped ensure they had been able to leave the Howling Caverns Dungeon in the first place.
Although… Considering how Scaly had helped advance the progress of the monster stampede back in the dungeon. Be it the time she ended up breaking the barrier guarding Fish Stone City or just a few minutes ago when she had been a major reason why the barrier guarding the dungeon entrance had been broken. From the looks of it, she was indeed one of the main supporters of these monsters who wanted to break out from the confines of the dungeon.
This time around, it was just her lending another hand to the monster horde's advance. Nothing out of the ordinary, even if she didn't intend on helping these monsters break free from the confines of the dungeon in the first place.
Shaking her head as she thought about this to herself, Scaly stomped on the dead Holy Flower Sect member one last time before spreading her wings-
Flap~ Whoosh~
Flapping her wings once, as she rapidly ascended into the sky with the assistance of her wind magic making it difficult for anyone inside the city to notice her sudden ascent. Everyone found themselves far too busy dealing with the monsters or in process of panicking after learning about the dire situation of the eastern district that has already fallen.
Of course, there were still a few individuals brave enough to step forward to try and slow down the advance of the monsters, but they were far too weak and couldn't do much when it came to slowing down the advance of the monsters through the eastern district. Observing from above, Scaly found herself guessing that it would at most take another three to four minutes before the monsters officially managed to reach the edge of the city and start their exploration of the world outside the dungeon.
Before this happened, the situation in the eastern district would remain relatively calm, as the adventurers she had spotted outside the city seemed to be gathering towards the outer walls connected to the eastern district. Preparing to make a last stand there.
Not because it was better for them to try and hold the walls, but more so because choosing the walls would buy them a bit more time to gather as many people as possible for the defense.
Whoosh~
With that in mind, Scaly didn't intend to linger around waiting for time to pass and another opportunity to kill a powerful target. After all, the sole target beyond her current capabilities that she had an actual chance of killing had disappeared completely after the failed ambush just now.
Instead, she flew over to the nearby southern district where a female S Rank Adventurer was leading the battle in the face of a powerful S Rank monsters that had only emerged after she had passed through the dungeon entrance. In fact, a lot of powerful monsters had begun to emerge since she had passed through the dungeon entrance. So many that it was impossible for them to have shown up on the first floor after her.
Horrible as this might be for the adventurers who were bleeding heavily trying to hold the city and prevent the monsters from getting out, it was great for Scaly, as she suddenly had far more targets to choose from now that there was no lack of A Rank Monsters as the adventurers called the monsters around her strength level.
Not just an abundance of prey for her to hunt down, but these stronger monsters had clearly become more reckless after leaving the dungeon, as they pushed forward even at the risk of suffering every step of the way.
Bloodied and exhausted, these monsters were a perfect target for someone like herself with little mana to waste.
Tempting as it would be for her to hunt down the adventurers as well, they were simply far too organized for her to think it would be worth it to put in the effort to hunt them down.
And so… Without any hesitation, Scaly began hunting down any weakened monsters she found throughout the southern district of the city.
[Gained 8216 Exp]
[Gained 982 Exp]
[Gained 2644 Exp]
[*Ding* Reached level 20]
[Gained 227 Exp]
[Gained…]
Sparing not a single monster she encountered along the way, as she managed to go all the way up to level 20 during the six minutes it ended up taking the monsters in the eastern district to break through the defensive line that the adventurers had put together at the last second.
During this time, outside of keeping her distance from the place where the S Rank Adventurer and the equally powerful monster were fighting each other, she had ended up saving a few adventurers by accident when she dived down from above to take care of an injured monster. Even reaching the point where some of the adventurers didn't even show any fear upon seeing her but instead seemed to cheer her on.
Weird as this was, Scaly decided to ignore these weird adventurers and continued taking care of any weakened monsters she encountered.
Not that she only ended up killing monsters, as a few adventurers still ended up being killed by her, but overall, she did kill far more monsters than adventurers, which did help stabilize the situation in the southern district of the city. Allowing the one in charge of the place to send more people to the eastern district, something that had in turn been the main reason why the adventures had been able to hold on in the eastern district longer than she had originally anticipated.
But in the end, none of this mattered, as the monsters still managed to break through the outer wall at the eastern district in the end. Soon enough starting to swarm out of the city. The adventurers, no longer able to realistically stop them, as they began dispersing in all directions. No longe limited by the countless defensive lines and traps that had been placed throughout the city to stop them.
Rumble~!
In turn, the second the eastern district had been successfully broken through, the rest of the monsters throughout the city began to retreat from their original battles before converging towards the eastern district. Reacting far too fast for the adventurers, as by the time they rushed after the monsters, they had already reached the eastern district and no longer had anyone or anything blocking their charge as they all rushed out together. Forming a single monster stampede that even an S Rank Adventurer couldn't stop and might even get squashed to death by if they attempted to do so.
The situation had grown completely out of control at this point and Scaly was more than happy to watch this unfold from above.
After all, the more chaos these monsters ended up causing, the better it was for her, who would silently reap the benefits of their hard work when they grew too weak to continue fighting…