Faced with the sudden army of dream floaters rushing towards her, Scaly felt herself starting to panic a bit, flailing her legs and wings in the sky as she struggled to push herself back towards the floating island that was only a short distance away from her.
Originally, the short distance between herself and the protective barrier that had been formed around the small floating island should have been simple enough for her to reach in a few short seconds. Ensuring her own safety in case she encountered a dangerous situation like the one she currently found herself facing.
However, she had unknowingly ended up moving a bit further away from the floating island during her practice, thus increasing the time it would take her to get back to safety from five or so seconds to a little over ten seconds. Not that big difference, but now that every second mattered, it was like the difference between getting to safety and being stuck in the sky of the dreamscape facing off against the small army of dream floaters.
Whoosh~!
Whoosh~!
Whoosh~!
And indeed, a little over six seconds after she began her retreat, the first of the dream floaters managed to reach her and began their relentless attack. Forcing her to turn around and fight back before they could do any serious damage to her-
Bang! Bang! Bang!
[Gained 32 Exp]
[Gained 106 Exp]
[Gained 72 Exp]
[Gained 22 Exp]
[Gained...]
The outcome of this first clash played out as expected, as the dream floaters stood no chance against her. Perishing with little to no effort from her claw that had come down on them along with the slight turn of her body.
Still, using her claws to kill the dream floaters wouldn’t be possible more than this one time, as her movement in the sky of the dreamscape was far too slow under normal circumstances to even get close to catching them. Meaning for future battle, she would essentially be forced to rely on her magic to fight back against this small army of dream floaters that had decided she was their target.
Even worse, by turning around to face the dream floaters attacking her, she had also ended up stopping her approach of the small floating island. Trapping her in the sky of the dreamscape as a few of the smarter dream floaters decided to take advantage of the situation and placed themselves between her and the floating island to cut off her escape path.
In the end, although a few of the dream floaters had ended up dying, they had bought the rest of the dream floaters enough time to catch up and cut of her escape path, a clear and deliberate plan that had completely caught Scaly off guard, as she didn’t expect the dream floaters to capable of that kind of coordinated attack that even sacrificed a few of them to ensure their plan went off without any problems.
Still, there was no way for the dream floaters to realistically approach her without dying, as she still had more than enough mana to fight back against the large number of dream floaters-
Ptsh~! Ptsh~! Ptsh~!
[Gained 122 Exp]
[Gained 168 Exp]
[Gained 182 Exp]
Directly using her water blade spell to conjure up a single water blade that directly cut through three stronger than average dream floaters that were among the first to try and approach her, causing the rest to pause for a brief second as they realized that it wouldn’t be as simple as they originally expected to take her down.
Still, the hesitation lasted only for a split second as the dream floaters soon enough surged forth like an endless tide closing in from all directions. Leaving no openings for her to escape through as they planned to simply overwhelm her by relying on numbers alone.
Bang! Bang! Ptsh~!
[Gained 12 Exp]
[Gained 164 Exp]
[Gained 365 Exp]
[Gained 412 Exp]
[Gained 143 Exp]
[Gained 54 Exp]
[Gained...]
Even then, Scaly had no intention of just giving up to these ugly floating eels, as she wildly attacked everywhere around herself. Killing dozens of dream floaters with every attack she launched into the mass of dream floaters that had engulfed her.
Not just relying on her water blade alone, but also going back to using some of her weaker spells like the water ball or bubble that had been her first magic spell, as it was more than powerful enough to deal with the weak dream floaters and required far less mana compared to her water blade or water spear spell that ended up being reserved for the slightly stronger dream floaters.
Even then... She found herself unable to resist the sheer number of dream floaters that formed an almost endless wave of body surging towards her. Breaking through her defensive line before starting to bite wildly at her scales in an attempt to pierce into her flesh and start doing some real damage to her.
Chiiiing~
Unfortunately for the first few dream floaters that managed to reach her, her scales weren’t just pretty to look at but had a terrifying defensive power that wasn’t simple to break through for these weaker monsters no matter how they tried.
In a way, the failure of the dream floaters to break through her scales left Scaly feeling somewhat relieved as she began dedicating part of her strength away from defending herself and instead towards slowly moving towards the floating island, she had given up on approaching earlier to defend herself.
Of course, this sudden shift didn’t escape the notice of the dream floaters, as even more dream floaters surged forward to bite her, but in the end, none of them could get through her scales.
Leaving them somewhat helpless until one of the slightly stronger ones managed to sneak through her defenses and bite into one of her legs. Using some kind of unique magic to strengthen its teeth to successfully crack one of the scales before piercing through it and into her flesh.
Rooar~!?
Aaah!? It Huuurts!
Something Scaly instantly noticed, as she let out a somewhat cute yet pained roaring sound before turning her attention toward the dream floater that had managed to bite through her scales and directly into her skin. From it, she not only sensed that it was far stronger than the rest of the dream floaters, but she also sensed that it had used some kind of unique magic to enhance itself to the point where it had been able to bite through her scales-
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Ptsh~!
[Gained 1528 Exp]
Still, this didn’t stop her from using a large water ball to smash several times until it ended up dead under the constant attacks. Giving a far larger quantity of experience compared to any of the other dream floaters she had killed so far. Showing that it was a superior one compared to the rest of the dream floaters.
But... Even though she had successfully killed it, Scaly didn’t feel the slightest bit relived. Understanding that now that the dream floaters had managed to find a way to break her defense, the rest would surely copy their successful companion-
Ptsh-!
And indeed, only a second later, Scaly felt the same feeling of her scales being broken as another pair of sharp teeth pierced her skin.
Bang!
[Gained 524 Exp]
Forcing her to turn back around to wipe out this second successful dream floater. Only, from the experience gained after killing it, it was clear that this one was far weaker than the latter. Indicating that the method that the stronger one had used to break her defenses didn’t rely on its superior strength, but instead some kind of unique ability inherent to the dream floaters.
Ptsh! Ptsh! Ptsh!
A fact that became set in stone, as several other weaker dream floaters soon enough managed to pierce her scales and sink their teeth into her flesh, causing her blood to leak out and paint the sky around her a bright red.
Still, Scaly wasn’t entirely helpless now that the dream floaters had managed to find a way to break through her scales. Instead, she discreetly stopped approaching the floating island that she had been charging towards earlier.
Not because she had given up on escaping from the dream floaters, but instead because she sensed a unique magic starting to circulate through her body whenever the teeth of the dream floaters pierced through her skin... And after a quick investigation, she realized this magic was dream magic.
Following the path of the dream magic used by the dream floaters, Scaly realized that she could slowly start utilizing her own dream magic to coat herself in a layer of dream magic that made movement through the sky of the dreamscape possible.
The problem was, she needed the dream magic of the dream floaters to circulate through her body several times in one location to remember the circulation and utilize it herself.
In other words, she needed these dream floaters to continue biting into her...