Having a weak spot to target, the only thing she needed to do now was find an opportunity to hit this weak spot with her dragon breath and she should be able to kill the gluttonous giant ant queen. The problem was, she was far too fast for her to get an accurate hit, as she would undoubtedly move out of the way the second she sensed a powerful attack coming her way- or maybe it was more accurate to say that the giant ants moving her around would get their queen out of the way before any danger could reach her. Potentially even throwing themselves forward to block her attack with their own bodies, something she had already seen happen once before inside the howling caverns dungeon... And she wasn’t about to repeat this mistake and waste another one of her dragon breath attacks.
Because of this, as she continued to maneuver around an increasingly small area that was shrinking with the increasing number of giant ants showing up to block her path or at least delay her long enough that the gluttonous giant ant queen would be able to catch up to her, Scaly began feeling a bit pessimistic about ever getting an opportunity to strike.
After all, through what little she had observed, her strength was utterly useless in the face of this gluttonous giant ant queen. Only her dragon breath had a chance to do any real damage and for it to be lethal, it had to hit the place where the gluttonous giant ant queen’s exoskeleton had already been torn apart.
In a way, it was only after facing the gluttonous giant ant queen herself that she realized just how terrifying it was and began to understand just how helpless this group of adventurers had felt as none of their attacks seemed capable of doing anything to the gluttonous giant ant queen.
Well... Not entirely, as they seemed to have used some kind of powerful attack to finally pierce through the exoskeleton of the gluttonous giant ant queen. Unfortunately, the attack hadn’t been strong enough after piercing through the exoskeleton to kill the gluttonous giant ant queen.
Rumble~
Hm?
Just as she was in the process of lamenting over her lack of opportunities to strike the gluttonous giant ant queen, she suddenly sensed a violent mana reaction behind her. Turning around only to see a blinding wave of light heading towards the gluttonous giant ant queen.
What are they doing...?
No idea what these adventurers were up to, Scaly paused for a brief second to watch the wave of light. Realizing just what these adventurers were up to as the wave of light reached the gluttonous giant ant queen, blinding her while at the same time incinerating the giant ants below and around her-
Bang!
Causing the gluttonous giant ant queen to crash into the ground. Losing her rapid movement speed from earlier.
Knowing that this likely wasn’t an opportunity she would get again, Scaly didn’t waste a second after realizing that the adventurers had directly lent her a hand in stunning this oversized giant ant factory, gathering mana for her dragon breath attack-
RUUUUMBLE-!
And before the gluttonous giant ant queen had the time to get another batch of giant ants to carry her out of the way, Scaly’s dragon breath shot through the air directly towards the already gaping wound-
BOOOM-!
Slamming directly into it the next second, as the gluttonous giant ant queen was knocked flying alongside the group of giant ants that had been unfortunate enough to be selected as the ones to carry their queen.
But Scaly didn’t relax even after seeing this, as there still hadn’t been any notification for her killing the gluttonous giant ant queen even after it slammed into a nearby wall and nearly caused the entire underground space to cave in on itself.
Even after all this... It’s still alive!?
Feeling a sense of helplessness as she stared towards the gluttonous giant ant queen in the distance that was still somehow alive even after being hit in an already heavily injured spot, Scaly truly understood just how powerful an S Rank Monster was... And this was not even one that was focused on battle, but instead one focused on the grand path of becoming the greatest giant ant mass production factory in the world.
Even if the description had mentioned how strong it was, it was clear from the slow movement alone that it was nowhere near comparable to that of other S Rank Monsters when it came to combat and-
[Gained 128.462 Exp]
[*Ding* Reached level 36]
[*Ding* Reached level 37]
Oh... It died... Guess it just had a longer death animation...
Seeing the familiar notification showing a number far greater than any she had seen before followed by directly leveling up twice, Scaly felt a sense of relief welling up inside her as her attention shifted away from the now dead gluttonous giant ant queen towards the nearby giant ants who had all frozen on the spot following the death of their queen.
Ruumble~
But not a second later, all the giant ants became restless before suddenly starting to turn on each other or rather everything around them.
Scaly herself might have escaped due to there only being a few giant ants around her, but the adventurer group wasn’t that fortunate, as most of the giant ants were concentrated around them... And though the giant ants were now also attacking each other, their rampage made them far harder to deal with compared to before, as they had seemingly been given some kind of power up following the death of their queen.
Originally, after seeing this kind of situation playing out, Scaly had begun to feel a bit excited as she thrived in this kind of chaotic situation, but... Fate had other plans for her, as the dragon breath attack, she had used this time around was by far the strongest one she had used so far. Draining her of almost every little bit of mana left in her body.
Even the emergency mana for escaping had been used up by her. Leaving her with no real way to escape as she only now realized that she would have to wait a bit and recover some mana before she could use the gate of dreams to escape into the dreamscape.
Physically, she was still powerful, but... The giant ants on rampage were difficult to deal with.
Not because they were that much stronger, but more so because she realized that the second she got close to one of them, the rest would soon swarm over towards her filled with killing intent. Having seemingly recognized her as the killed of their queen even in their crazed rampage.
For now, it was still fine, but with time, she would almost certainly end up being overwhelmed by the giant ants before she could recover enough mana to use the gate of dreams.
Whoosh~
With that in mind, without the slightest bit of hesitation, she flapped both of her wings and arrived next to the group of adventurers. Trying her best to put on her brightest smile as she seamlessly joined them in their struggle against the rampaging giant ants.
It wasn’t that she was too weak to handle a few loose ants on her own, it was just that she thought it was only right for these adventurers to return the favor of her saving them.
As for killing off the weakened adventurers? She did think about this but held herself back for now. Intending to first wait until she had enough mana to escape through the dreamscape before doing something like that.
In the end, the struggle with the rampaging ants dragged on far longer than Scaly had originally anticipated, as it took close to ten minutes for her to recover enough mana to use the gate of dreams again.
During this time, she had essentially been forced to help save a few of the adventurers who had collapsed from exhaustion at the frontlines against the giant ants that were becoming increasingly difficult to deal with now that only seven adventurers were barely left standing along with herself who had already cut through enough giant ants with her claws to reach level 38 and at the same time also become just as exhausted as the group of adventurers.
But... Now that she had enough mana to leave, everything was over and she could leave for the dreamscape where she should be able to safely recover her strength.
Feeling a sense of joy as she thought about this, her gaze inevitably turned towards the exhausted and injured adventurers hiding in the back, before discreetly starting to activate her gate of dreams so she could escape before the ones in the front could react-
RUUUMBLE~~ BANG!
But before she could act out her thoughts, a loud explosion echoed out not too far away as the formerly blocked tunnel in the distance was blown open by a tremendous power that made everyone, Scaly included, freeze on the spot before turning towards the origin of the loud explosion...