[Gained 5424 Exp]
Unaware of the conflicted noble lord that she had ended up unknowingly creating an escape path for, Scaly cut down a stronger than normal ant that had rushed up in front of her with her water blade spell. Cutting through the larger and stronger giant ant with ease, as though it was stronger than the rest, it had close to no resistance in the face of her water magic. Only able to struggle for a bit before being cut in half by the water blade.
Even then, the fact that it had even been able to struggle in the first place was troubling, as the surrounding giant ants had made full use of the opportunity to close the distance and attack her. One of the giant ants moving closer than any of the giant ants had done before-
Chiiing~ !
Directly scratching her scales before she instinctively reacted to the attack-
BANG!
[Gained 2135 Exp]
Spinning around before slamming into the giant ant with a terrifying momentum that directly launched it into a nearby boulder that directly split apart and crumbled on top of the now dead giant ant.
But even as the only giant ant that managed to get through her defense and scratch her pristine scales had been knocked flying into a nearby boulder by her and died in the process, Scaly felt clearly that the situation had changed compared to before, as the giant ants attacking her were becoming stronger.
Her situation that was a one-sided slaughter before had slowly started to change into a more equal battle, as she found herself starting to struggle with killing the giant ants in a single attack like she had been able to do before-
BANG!
And before long, a towering giant ant twice the size of the largest one she had encountered so far appeared in front of her and seamlessly blocked not just her claws, but also her water magic. In other words, a giant ant that she couldn’t simply deal with in a single attack.
[Giant Ant Royal Guard, lvl 71]
[Description: Among the strongest giant ants in a giant ant nest, the giant ants in charge of personally guarding the ant queen. Known for their exceptional coordination with other giant ant royal guards. Strength wise only at the lower end of A Rank, but their coordination and numbers make them a feared opponent even to S Rank Adventurers.
Normally the first A Rank Giant Ants that appear inside the nest of an ant queen that has recently reached the S Rank. It is recommended to run on sight, as their appearance means the giant ant queen isn’t far away.]
Reading through the description of this powerful new giant ant that had appeared in front of her, Scaly could not help freezing for a second as she examined her surroundings.
[Giant Ant Royal Guard, lvl 72]
[Giant Ant Royal Guard, lvl 76]
[Giant Ant Royal Guard, lvl 79]
[Giant Ant Royal Guard...]
And indeed, outside of the giant ant royal guard that had just blocked her path, there were dozens of other equally powerful giant ants rapidly approaching her from the tunnel entrance leading deeper into the giant ant nest- no, looking closer, it would be more accurate to say that there were hundreds of them.
Hundreds of giant ants this powerful... Scaly understood full well that while she might be strong. Facing over a hundred monsters almost comparable to the magic earth cow lord in strength wasn’t an option.
Not to mention, from the description of these giant ant royal guards, they were also good at coordinating with each other for attacking, while their presence also meant that the so-called ant queen was nearby.
As for how strong this ant queen was... Scaly could only compare her to the other S Rank Monsters as the adventurers had called them, she had seen before and the S Rank Adventurers themselves.
From that, she knew that her only way to deal with that kind of powerful enemy would be through her dragon breath skill, but she didn’t exactly plan on using that kind of skill in this kind of situation. Not just because she had a feeling it would be difficult to hit or buy herself enough time to launch the attack in the first place, but also because her mana wasn’t enough for her to launch that kind of powerful attack after her extensive battle with the giant ants.
Because of this, as the giant ant royal guards began moving towards her in increasingly large numbers, Scaly decided to start retreating towards the entrance of the giant ant nest while still fighting.
Not because she intended to escape and let all the precious experience in the form of this endless number of giant ants escape, but instead because she planned to take the battle outside where she would be able to fly into the air and easily avoid being surrounded and overwhelmed by the sheer number of giant ants.
Something that soon proved to be more difficult than she had originally anticipated, as the weaker giant ants she had been fighting so far literally threw themselves in front of her to prevent what they assumed to be her attempting to escape.
A job well done, as it did end up delaying her, though– It might have had more to do with the simple fact that Scaly was happily reaping the benefits of having all the weaker ants throw themselves at her without any care for their own well-being...
[Gained 2002 Exp]
[*Ding* Reached level 25]
[Gained 562 Exp]
[Gained 1352 Exp]
[Gained 1435 Exp]
[Gained 3124 Exp]
[Gained...]
[*Ding* Reached level 26]
Just looking at her level jumping from 24 to 26 in a short time was more than enough to make her feel unwilling to continue making her way towards the entrance to the giant ant nest, but she understood that this good time was limited, as the giant ant royal guards were rapidly starting to surround her and had partially succeeded while she had been distracted killing off the weaker giant ants that so willingly jumped in front of her to their death.
Standing of her was none other than the strongest of the giant ant royal guards she had seen so far. Blocking her path completely and rendering her rather helpless on what to do when it came to getting past.
That was...
Whoosh~!
If she didn’t have wings and couldn’t just jump into the air and glide over it seamlessly inside the large underground space more than large enough for her to accomplish this, as she soon enough landed on the ground a few meters behind the towering giant ant royal guard who looked completely bewildered by what had just happened. Not knowing what to do as it watched her stroll right out of the cave entrance it had been blocking.
Rumble~!
Only after she had already made her way outside the underground space did the towering giant ant royal guard react and began to chase after her closely followed by its companions who had caught up with it.
Something Scaly was more than happy to see, as she had never intended on escaping in the first place and had instead hidden just around the cave entrance leading inside the giant ant nest for them to charge out-
Swish-!
Ptsh-! Ptsh-! Ptsh-!
[Gained 12.568 Exp]
And before the leading giant ant royal guard had the time to react, that his neck had already been cut through by a dozen water blades. After all, though one water blade might not be able to do much, it still had some effect and a dozen water blades working together was more than enough to pierce through the defenses of the towering giant ant royal guard who had been caught off guard.
Boom!
Resulting in the towering figure crashing down dead on the ground just at the entrance of the cave that was by far the smallest section of the passage out of the giant ant nest. Essentially blocking the cave entrance by falling and rolling over sideways. Leaving the giant ant royal guards rushing from behind scrambling, as they didn’t know what to do with their path suddenly blocked, some rushed back to use another passage out of the nest, while others tried to dig their way out through their now dead companion or the areas around the body.
After all, though there was still a lot of space around the giant ant royal guard killed by Scaly, the sheer size of the giant ant royal guards made it impossible for them to squeeze through, causing the current rather awkward situation where Scaly found herself with no new opponents appearing for some time, as she silently waited for the giant ants to find their way out to her after she had accidentally blocked their path.
Unsurprisingly, the first giant ants to show up weren’t the giant ant royal guards, but instead weaker ants that had rushed over from elsewhere. Returning her battle with the giant ants to the same state of easy experience farming that it had been before the giant ant royal guards appeared...