Looking at the family of dream bears starting to wander towards the part of the floating continents edge that she still found herself clinging on to, Scaly realized that she had to get up before that family of dream bears managed to reach her. Having no plans of giving them the chance to knock her down below the floating continent, as she seriously doubted, she would have the strength to get back up to the edge again if she ended up falling out of the protective space around the floating continent.
The reason for this had nothing to do with her mana, but more so with the group of dream whales she had just spotted lingering below the floating continent.
Although the dream cloud whales seemed to be peaceful and hadn’t rushed up to attack her like she had expected, she knew without a doubt that the second she ended up below the continent, those seemingly peaceful dream cloud whales would swarm towards her. Giving her little chance to fly back to the floating continent again.
Rustle~
And so, using all her strength, Scaly climbed up onto the floating continent just before the family of dream bears could reach her...
[Dream Bear, lvl 57]
Finding herself face to face with the first dream bear she had seen.
Roar? ROAR!
Not understanding the dangerous situation, it currently found itself in, the dream bear let out a somewhat confused roar at her sudden appearance followed by one filled with killing intent. Standing up on its back legs in a show of strength to seemingly intimidate her-
Swish~
PTSH-!
However, Scaly could care less about this display of dominance from the dream bear, as her claws swept forth with a terrifying speed far too fast for the dream bear to react to. Digging deep into the soft underbelly that was on full display, causing large amounts of blood to flow out of the now massive wound that had appeared on its stomach.
Roooar!?
Thump~!
The pain alone was so great that the large dream bear stumbled backwards before falling on top of a shocked dream bear cub that had been walking along just behind it-
Splat~
Squashing the poor little dream bear cub who had no way to fight back against the much larger adult and turned into a dream cub pancake in an instant.
Huh? I didn’t get any experience!? It was clearly me that caused that dream bear cub to get squashed to death...
Watching this scene, Scaly could only grumble internally as she noticed that the dead dream bear cub didn’t reward her with any experience. Meaning that the credit of the kill had gone entirely to the dream bear that had landed on top of it.
Unfair as this was, Scaly didn’t feel too sad about it given how low level this dream bear cub was and soon enough charged forward to finish off the now heavily injured dream bear, who had entered a state of shock after having landed on top of the dream bear cub and crushed to death.
Ptsh-!
[Gained 6780 Exp]
In the end, the shell-shocked dream bear died with relative ease, as it didn’t fight back in the slightest. Only looking down towards the remains of the now dead dream bear cub with a look of shock and pain on its face.
ROOOOAR-!
Roooar!
Rooaaar!
And it was with the death of the dream bear that had accidentally ended up killing one of the dream bear cubs, that the rest of the dream bears finally noticed what was happening with the death of two of their own.
The most prominent among the now angered dream bears being none other than the elder dream bear, who wasted no time rushing forward filled with killing intent, its size alone causing the very ground beneath it to tremble as its massive body barreled directly towards Scaly, who felt like she had momentarily returned back to her time as a small lizard facing off against the far larger cave alligator on the second floor of the Howling Wind Caverns Dungeon.
Whoosh~
Of course, this state of shock at the sheer size of the elder dream bear that was more than twice the size of the dream bear she had just killed only lasted for a second before she flapped her wings and took to the sky to avoid the incoming charge of the elder dream bear. Barely managing to get out of the way as the elder dream bear continue rushing forward.
Problem was... After she got out of the way, the elder dream bear had no way to stop its charge immediately and found itself charging off the edge of the floating continent. Having been completely consumed by the anger it felt after seeing two of its family members perish, that it hadn’t realized Scaly was standing at the edge of the floating continent-
ROOOOAAAAR!?
Roaring with a clear look of panic on its face that had been warped by killing intent only a second earlier, the elder dream bear plummeted downwards without any way to fly back up to the edge of the continent in a manner someone like Scaly could thanks to having wings.
Whoosh~!
Falling through the sky until it finally crossed the boundary under the protection of the floating continent. After which its falling speed began decreasing significantly, though it continued to fall downwards.
Rumble~
Unsurprisingly, the second the elder dream cloud bear crossed this threshold, Scaly watched from above as the dream cloud whale group that had peacefully been moving through the sky of the dreamscape with grace she hadn’t seen from these deadly creatures in the past, turned into bloodthirsty fiends. Descending upon the poor elder dream bear in seconds. Tearing the dreamscape monster to pieces in a short time before consuming it in its entirety. Leaving nothing behind as they returned to peacefully gliding through the sky of the dreamscape like nothing had happened.
Only... A clear difference from before was the simple fact that they had now slowly moved closer to the part of the floating continent that the elder dream bear had fallen off earlier. Clearly filled with anticipation of another dream bear falling off.
"..."
Watching this entire scene, Scaly had no idea what to say as she just looked down towards those seemingly graceful dream cloud whales just below the edge of the floating continent.
No matter how she looked at them, she couldn’t see where the so-called peaceful part of their description came into play.
To her, they looked like a group of bloodthirsty fiends waiting for any unfortunate soul to cross the invisible boundary between the lower part of the dreamscape and the middle part of the dreamscape where the floating continent was located.
At the very least, thanks to the selfless sacrifice of the elder dream bear, she had managed to figure out generally where this cut-off point between the middle and lower part of the dreamscape was located. Making it easier for her to avoid in the future when travelling through the dreamscape.
Another thing she had to thank the elder dream bear for was the simple fact that it had selflessly thrown itself to its death to give her an easier time with the remaining dream bears.
After all, though she felt confident when it came to taking on the elder dream bear, she feared that the battle would take too long and might end up attracting other powerful monsters.
Now that the elder dream bear was gone, the remaining dream bears posed no threat to her and were essentially free experience-
Whoosh~
Something she didn’t intend to give up on, as she took the chance to dive down towards the dream bears before they had a chance to realize what had happened and run away.
[Gained 7632 Exp]
[Gained 4132 Exp]
[Gained 3043 Exp]
[Gained 532 Exp]
[Gained 1008 Exp]
[Gained...]
Soon enough, causing a large quantity of experience to flood in, as she easily took care of the remaining dream bears who posed little threat to her.
In fact, they might have been able to fight back against her if they worked together, but they were panicked following the sudden death of their elder and began escaping in all direction. Making it rather simple for her to chase them down and finish them up while they escaped.
If anything, the fact that they split up while escaping also made it more difficult for them to assess just how strong she was compared to themselves, as it had just seemed like she had been the one to kill the elder dream bear in their eyes. Most having only seen the elder heroically charge forward, before letting out a pitiful scream followed by Scaly appearing to slaughter them.
The entire situation turned out well in Scaly’s favor, as she found herself already reaping the benefits of the floating continent that had far more monsters suitable for her to hunt down. The dream bears being simple enough to deal with thanks to them not possessing any unique abilities or powerful magic. Having relied entirely on their powerful physical strength, something rather odd considering that this was the dreamscape...