But... No matter how much she wanted to let this fellow foodie who knew what kind of monsters were delicious, go, it was the first monster she encountered that was of a level of strength that would provide her with a significant amount of experience from killing. A fact that soon enough became clear, as she took her time to inspect the monster gobbling down forest boars on top of the snow-covered mountain.
[Mountain Dwelling Ogre, lvl 76]
[Description: A normal ogre that evolved to live on mountains. Powerful physical strength that surpasses most A Rank monsters and able to use simple earth magic, though not the smartest monster around places it lower in terms of danger than its strength would normally suggest.]
Although far from being among the strongest monsters she had encountered so far, the mountain dwelling ogre still had decent strength and would pose some challenge to her without her using magic, but... Her mana wasn’t low enough for her to challenge it without her magic. Not that she wanted to challenge this monster that was clearly focused almost entirely on physical strength into a brawl without magic in the first place.
After all, outside of just this mountain dwelling ogre, she also had to worry about a potential battle taking too long. Allowing the group of adventurers chasing after her from behind to catch up with her.
So, even if she might be able to beat it in a physical battle, she would prefer using her magic to finish off the battle as fast as possible, so she didn’t have to worry about those adventurers.
The main reason why she hadn’t yet attacked the mountain dwelling ogre was simply because part of her didn’t want to kill this fellow foodie.
Whoosh~!
But this sense of friendship with a random monster that also enjoyed eating like she did could only last for so long, as she decisively conjured up three larger than average water blades that flew down towards the mountain dwelling ogre. One of them heading for its throat, while the remaining two flew towards its chest around the area Scaly guessed its heart would be located-
Chiiing~ Ptsh-!
Rooar!?
However, different from what she had originally expected to happen when the three water blades reached the mountain dwelling ogre, two of the three water blades bounced off without doing much damage, while the third cut deep into the mountain dwelling ogre’s chest. Giving it a chance to let out a surprised roar of pain before it rolled over in pain. Ending up inside the small pit it had created for the forest boars.
Nooo!
And before she had any time to launch a second attack, Scaly watched as the forest boars jumped the already severely wounded mountain dwelling ogre. Using their sharp fangs to finish it off. Stealing what was supposed to be her kill. Leaving her with a feeling of anger she hadn’t felt before, as this could be considered the first time a kill had been stolen from her instead of it being her stealing a kill from a stronger enemy.
Even worse...
[Forest Boar, lvl 35]
She could easily spot the forest boar that had ended up landing the killing blow on the mountain dwelling ogre, as it had seemingly reached the limit of its current evolution and only needed to find somewhere safe to undergo its evolution to evolve into whatever it was a forest boar could evolve into.
Unfortunately, Scaly had no intention of letting this little thief get away with stealing her prey. Directly conjuring up another deadly water blade before sending it flying down towards the now far more powerful forest boar just as it broke free from the enclosure that had kept it and the rest of the forest boars trapped.
Bang!
However, just as the water blade was about to reach the now far stronger forest boar, something large burst forth from the ground in front of the stronger forest boar-
Ptsh-!
[Gained 2626 Exp]
Taking her attack instead of the stronger forest boar in a manner similar to when a human back in the Howling Cave Dungeon had jumped in and blocked her dragon breath attack from killing the S Rank Adventurer that had then ended up somehow surviving another attack from her in a similar manner later.
Rustle~
Allowing the now bewildered forest boar to stumble away in shock before finding itself triping over a large rock that then ended up causing it to roll down into a ravine that caused it to disappear completely from view.
All this taking place within the span of no more than a few seconds, as Scaly barely had time to register what had happened before the forest boar disappeared into the depths of the ravine that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere beneath the snow.
As for the culprit who had ended up blocking her attack at the last second... It was large snake that seemingly had the ability to easily dig through rocks, though it didn’t matter much to her as it had already died to her attack. Landing on the ground with a large thump that caused the still shocked forest boars still inside the pit they had been trapped inside of to start running away in fear.
What in the world just happened...
Not knowing how to react to this situation, Scaly could only stare somewhat helplessly towards the escaping forest boars.
Part of her still wanted to chase after the forest boar that had ended up stealing her kill, but as flew over above the ravine it had fallen into, she quickly came to the realization that she was far too large to fit through the gap that the forest boar thief had fallen through. Not just that, but she couldn’t even see any sign of it. Meaning there also wasn’t any way for her to launch an attack down the ravine to finish it off.
The more she thought about how to deal with the thief, the more she realized that there was absolutely nothing she could do to the forest boar thief, as it had somehow ended up successfully escaping from her. Making her feel a new unique feeling that she guessed the monsters she had stolen from in the past had also felt when she had done something like the forest boar thief.
But... If she couldn’t let out her anger at having her prey stolen on the thief, she would instead target the remaining forest boars that had been left behind!
Wait, why are they gone as well!?
But the second this thought occurred to her, she realized that all the remaining forest boars that should be in the process of escaping had already disappeared... And out of the corner of her eye, she barely managed to catch the glimpse of one of the weaker forest boars disappearing down the same ravine as the forest boar thief. Having been slightly larger than the rest of the forest boars. Found itself struggling a bit to get down into the ravine.
Still, it had managed to fit before Scaly had the chance to catch it. Escaping alongside its fellow forest boars into the ravine.
In the end, Scaly was left silently staring down at the snow covered mountain peak that only had the bones of a few unlucky forest boars who couldn’t escape in time alongside the mountain dwelling ogre and the snake that had suddenly out of seemingly nowhere with the sole goal of saving the forest boars and serving as a distraction that would buy the rest of the forest boars enough time to escape.
To say she was feeling angry at how the situation had ended up playing out would be an understatement, as Scaly truly felt like trying to dig her way down through the narrow ravine to chase after the forest boars.
Unfortunately for her, she didn’t have the time to do this with the adventurers still chasing her from behind, while at the same time not really wanting to spend that much time chasing after a forest boar that would at most provide her with a little over a thousand experience.
In a sense, the snake that had suddenly emerged to guard the forest boars might have ended up providing far more experience than all those forest boars could have combined...
Silently gazing over towards the narrow ravine one last time, Scaly ultimately decided to not pursue the forest boars that had successfully managed to escape from her through what could be considered dumb luck.
Whoosh~
Flapping her wings as she continued moving deeper into the Thousand Spire Mountain Range. Hoping that she would be able to encounter a monster of similar strength as the mountain dwelling ogre to make up for the experience she had ended up losing out on thanks to the forest boars.
On the one positive side of things, she had managed to kill a monster that provided her with a bit of experience beyond what most of the monsters roaming around the mountain range could provide...