Locked in a silent staring contest with the group of adventurers who had suddenly appeared in front of her, Scaly’s brain worked overdrive trying to figure out a solution to her current situation that involved her getting rid of the group of adventurers in front of her as fast as possible without creating any noise that might get noticed by the group from earlier.
The problem was that the group of adventurers wasn’t exactly easy to deal with. Especially the man standing at the front who seemed like he would take some time even for her to deal with.
Because of this, the silent staring contest ended up dragging on for longer than she had ever anticipated it would. Only being interrupted when one of the weaker adventurers seemingly nudged the leaders should before whispering something in his ear. After which the group seemingly came to some sort of decision as they began silently backing away. Not saying a single way as they disappeared back up the way they had come from.
Listening silently for them, it soon enough became obvious that they had decided to leave the giant ant nest for some unknown reason, as Scaly listened deeply for a few minutes until she sensed that the group was truly gone. Having silently left the giant ant nest. After she had seemingly won the silent staring competition.
Odd as all of this was, Scaly didn’t really have anything to complain about as the group of adventurers had truly left and wouldn’t be able to sneak up on her like they had done now that she was fully aware of their presence.
Not to mention, even if they decided to try and ambush her later, their strength was hardly enough for her to feel worried about her own safety. Only the one that should be the one in charge of the group of adventurers posed any threat to her and even then, it was minimal.
The main problem with that little group of adventurers came from the fact that it would have been impossible for her to kill them off silently. Leading to the earlier staring contest.
Now that she was certain they were gone, Scaly’s attention returned to the battle that was playing out deeper in the giant ant nest. From sound alone, it was obvious to her that the group now ahead of her was far stronger than the group of adventurers who had caught off guard. Able to slowly progress deeper into the nest even under the constant attack of the giant ants.
Possible as it might have been for her to do something similar, she understood full well that engaging in that kind of battle so deep underground would essentially leave her with no escape path. Forcing her to fight to the death with the giant ant colony until they ran out of giant ants or she ran out of strength.
Avoiding that kind of situation when she could hunt down the giant ants without that kind of danger in the past was a given. Even with them hidden underground, she could still go to some other part of the mountain range and wait for them to think she was gone before returning to cause more chaos.
That aside, with the group of weaker adventurers gone, Scaly didn’t hesitate as she followed behind the stronger group that had already started fighting the giant ants. Curious to see how strong they were and potentially the giant ant queen that had managed to completely evade her so far.
...
"That was close... Almost ended up dead back there..."
At the same time Scaly began making her way towards the battlefield between the giant ants and the group from the Red Dawn Legion, Thomas let out a quiet sigh of relief as he remembered the brief encounter they just had with Scaly.
"Yeah, that... Divine messenger, should have come alongside the Red Dawn Legion and should have showed up to warn us to leave." Hearing his quiet mumbling, the leader nodded his head in understanding. Having been similarly terrified just a few minutes earlier.
The appearance of Scaly along with the presence of the Red Dawn Legion having entirely convinced him that Scaly was some kind of divine messenger that was following alongside the group from the Red Dawn Legion.
Another factor to this conclusion was also the simple fact that Scaly hadn’t attacked them when it was clear from his point of view that the divine messenger was more than powerful enough to kill all of them.
Of course, this was just a misunderstanding on his side, as the reason Scaly hadn’t decided to kill them was simply because she had her eyes on a far larger and more valuable prey that she might lose out on if she killed them and alerted the group from the Red Dawn Legion ahead of time that she was behind them.
But this wasn’t something the leader nor Thomas who had been the one to suggest they retreated would learn about, as they had clearly realized that this wasn’t something they could get involved in.
With a divine messenger also directly involved and stepping in to chase them off, it was clear that the church didn’t want any unnecessary interference.
At the same time, it had also become awfully clear that the situation inside the giant ant nest might involve something far beyond just the giant ant queen secretly reaching the S Rank.
After all, with the direct involvement of what could only be described as a divine messenger, a rare kind of being that was extremely rare even within the Holy Light Church, it was obvious that accidentally getting involved might cost them their lives.
For this reason, after leaving the giant ant nest, the group of adventurers didn’t dare look back as they decided to leave before they ended up getting themselves killed by accident. Understanding as experienced adventurers when it was time to prioritize their own lives over potential profits that they might not even be able to get their hands on in the first place.