Knowing that she might be running out of time as the adventurers had already been losing against the gluttonous giant ant queen when she had managed to enter the dreamscape, Scaly didn’t linger around the edge of the small floating island she had found herself on and jumped back into the pristine blue lake water before swimming towards the general location of where she had first found herself upon entering the dreamscape.
Although it was difficult for her to remember the exact location, she couldn’t afford to use any of her mana trying to peer into the material place. Not just because of how much mana it required, but also because she needed all the mana she had for a potential battle with the gluttonous giant ant queen.
Confident as she was in the strength of her dragon breath skill after it had shown itself to be her strongest means of attack, the sheer size of the gluttonous giant ant queen was enough for her to feel that even her strongest attack might not be able to kill this massive monster.
Outside of that, there was also the very real possibility that she ended up incorrectly guessing her location within the dreamscape and ended up somewhere in front of the gluttonous giant ant queen or another location far away from the giant ant nest. After all, she still had no clue about how the dreamscape reflected the material plane. For all she knew, it could reflect completely different locations right next to each other. Meaning a single wrong step and she might end up all the way back at Howling Cave City, a situation she would very much like to avoid.
In the end, though she wanted to avoid wasting her mana just before a deadly battle, Scaly ultimately found herself unable to risk her life by leaving the dreamscape from a potentially deadly location. Using the gate of dreams to peek at the material plane for a short moment before closing the connection.
This single act that didn’t even last a single second had already drained close to a tenth of her mana, but it did at least reassure her that the area around herself was still within some kind of underground space.
If it was the same underground space with the gluttonous giant ant queen or some other underground space... She had no idea, as she didn’t religiously sit down to memorize the rocky surface of the underground space beforehand.
Even if she did, she had a feeling that it wouldn’t make much of a difference, as she would undoubtedly have forgotten any little rock she tried to remember the second she entered the dreamscape.
Rustle~
Shaking her head as she felt her thoughts starting to wander in a rather rock oriented direction, Scaly focused herself back on the matter at hand and began to activate the gate of dreams to return to the material plane. Knowing that she might be dragged into the battle that was playing out the second she returned, as she was at least certain that her current location wasn’t the same hiding spot where she had hidden when originally entering the dreamscape.
Whoosh~!
And only a few seconds later, Scaly felt herself engulfed by what looked like the colorful just smaller, as everything within view was soon consumed by these colorful clouds before a feeling of weightlessness spread through her body as she was pulled through what felt like a thin barrier that separated the dreamscape from the material plane–Passing through it with ease as her vision that had been obscured by colorful clouds returned.
First thing she saw was a rather confused looking human staring up at her in disbelief, while the second was the gluttonous giant ant queen that froze with what could be described as a bewildered look.
Third was her location after leaving the dreamscape, on top of a human, who had been covered in thick plate armor who had seemingly stepped forward to defend against the gluttonous giant ant queen before she had suddenly plopped down on top of her.
This human had clearly not been around when she had gazed into the material plane from the dreamscape, but then again, this was understandable, as it took a few seconds to use the gate of dreams and she didn’t exactly have enough mana to keep looking into the material plane for that long.
Her location could only be considered her bad luck, as it was now clear that there was no chance for her to launch an ambush with her dragon breath against the gluttonous giant ant in this kind of position.
Not to mention hitting would be difficult with the gluttonous giant ant queen now aware of presence, she was almost certain from the rapidly growing killing intent in the eyes of the little ant queen, that she had recognized her as the one that had... Turned her little nest into an experience farm over the past week...
To say she was angry about this would be an understatement of the hatred that the ant queen felt towards her.
Even the adventurer, covered in thick plate armor firmly pinned to the ground by her by sheer accident had already been completely forgotten about, as the only person in the eyes of the now rather angry-looking ant queen was Scaly.
This is bad...
Feeling a shiver run down her spine as this S Rank monster that she really didn’t want to face head on was now looking like it was about to rush forward and attack her, Scaly wasted no time as she used her wings to fly backwards just in time to avoid a deadly attack from the gluttonous giant ant queen-
"Aaaaah-!"
But the sound of the gluttonous giant ant queen slaming into the ground with a terrifying force powerful enough to crack the rocky surface below and crater a small crater around the impact zone didn’t even register with Scaly, as she instead only heard the panicked screaming of the human woman she had ended up landing on top of after leaving the dreamscape.
Looking down, she soon discovered why...
Unknowingly, because of the deadly gaze from the gluttonous giant ant queen, her claws had unknowingly tightened and gripped into the thick plate armor of the human woman below her, causing her to carry the other party along with her as she made the quick escape to avoid being crushed by the powerful attack of the gluttonous giant ant queen.
Whoosh~
Finding both the sound of this human deafening, Scaly released her the second she realized what she was doing, causing her to carry the momentum from her rapid acceleration along with her-
"Let go of Elise you-"
Bang!
As she crashed into another heavily armored adventurer with a pair of catlike ears sticking out the top of his helmet.
To be honest, he seemed to be yelling something, but Scaly didn’t manage to catch it, as he had the air knocked out of him from the impact. Leaving him barely breathing as he did his best to catch his breath with the metal ball that had slammed into him now flopped onto the ground a few meters away with an equally painful expression on her face as she struggled to catch her breath.
It was only after getting rid of this extra baggage that Scaly finally had a chance to take in the state of the underground space that she had essentially been absent from for a minute or two... And the situation she saw was far from optimal, as the original 50 strong adventurer team had already been reduced by more than half, while those left seemed to be struggling hard to hold on against the endless tide of giant ants.
Of course, it was not to say that half of the adventurers were dead, but more so that only half were left fighting, while the rest were either knocked out or injured to the point where they couldn’t swing a weapon or cast even the weakest of spells. No different from just waiting for death while their remaining companions were becoming increasingly exhausted in the face of the endless swarm of giant ants.
Still... In that kind of state, they wouldn’t be able to offer her much help in dealing with the gluttonous giant ant queen.
The only positive in her current situation was that the battle that played out in her absence didn’t seem to have entirely gone in the favor of the giant ants, as she also noticed that the giant ant queen rapidly closing the distance between them thanks to the smaller giant ants carrying her forward, had a large gaping wound on her chest.
Although this injurie didn’t seem to have any real effect on the gluttonous giant ant queen herself, it did provide her with a clear weakness to target, as the large gaping wound also meant that the exoskeleton that had protecting that part of her body had been blown apart by whatever attack the adventurers had used on the gluttonous giant ant queen during her quick trip to the dreamscape.