"Hm? Isn’t that the dreamscape lifeform from earlier?" A few minutes before the inevitable clash, one of the adventurers belonging to the group that had unknowingly been moving behind Scaly called out to one of the adventurers standing beside him with a somewhat surprised look on his face. Obviously not having expected to see Scaly after the brief encounter where she had essentially escaped before they had the chance to do anything.
"Wow, it really is... And from the looks of it, it does seem to be a dragon of some kind. Maybe a special dreamscape dragon of some kind." Hearing what his companion said, it didn’t take long before similarly looking off into the distance where Scaly could be seen locked in battle with a powerful dreamscape monster that had little strength to resist against her powerful claws.
"Is that a dragon?"
"Dreamscape dragon? I didn’t know dragons existed in the dreamscape."
"I wonder how strong a dragon from the dreamscape is..."
Not just that, but along with the two adventurers catching sight of Scaly, it didn’t take long before the rest of the adventurers discovered her fighting in the distance. The lower density of dreamscape monsters making it far easier for them to spot her from afar...
"Isn’t this great!? Everyone should know just how valuable dragons are!"
"Indeed... This might be a great opportunity. Not to mention, it seems like a new species that haven’t been recorded yet. If we take it down, we should also get a reward for discovering a new kind of dragon from the guild!"
"Not just a good reward, but our reputation within the guild will be passed down for a long time to come. Maybe reaching that level and surpassing the S Rank won’t be a dream!"
And along with that, it didn’t take long before some of the more profit driven individuals rose ahead of the rest alongside those aspiring for greater things, causing the adventurer group that had originally been about to focus on dealing with a powerful dreamscape monster about to escape underground to instead focus their attention on Scaly off in the distance. Not wasting any time as they began approaching. Knowing that it would be far more difficult to catch someone like Scaly given her ability to fly.
All this without even mentioning the simple fact that Scaly was completely unknown in their eyes regarding her abilities or magic, as they only saw her using her claws.
Although this might indicate that she didn’t wield magic, she was a dragon in their eyes and dragons, no matter how physically focused, could always use magic to some extent.
For this reason, even as they got within range, they didn’t carelessly attack from afar but instead attempted to get as close as possible before launching an attack. Bringing them almost directly below her as she flapped her wings and ascended into the sky after killing her opponent.
"Now! We can’t delay any longer!"
Rumble-!
And because of how they were essentially exposed when she began looking around herself after taking to the sky, the leading adventurer wasted no time in calling for the mages who had long since been prepared to launch a powerful magic attack that could hopefully finish her off before she had the chance to escape.
Whoosh~
"Wha-"
Ptsh-!
But before the magic had the time to finish, a barrage of sharp water blades suddenly descended from above at a terrifying speed. Giving them little time to defend even though they had already been prepared for a potential retaliation, something that ultimately ended up with three of the mages who had placed all their focus on working together to launching a single powerful combined attack, collapsing dead on the ground as they didn’t have any defense up and the adventurers guarding them reacting too slow.
Part of the reason for the failed defense also had to do with the fact that none of them had expected for the magic used by a dragon from the dreamscape like Scaly to be water magic, one of the most common kinds of magic that almost every mage learnt at some point due to how useful it was to have the ability to conjure up water whenever needed.
Even more so water magic that had reached the point where it was powerful enough to easily slice through the magic barriers that these mages had put up beforehand.
RUUUUMBLE-!
Still, though three had ended up perishing to the sudden barrage of water blades from above, most of the mages had been protected in time and were thus able to finish the magic they had been conjuring up, but... The magic itself had been slightly delayed due to the deaths. Giving the little dragon of the dreamscape more than enough time to widen the distance between herself and their group.
Although it wasn’t enough for Scaly to avoid the combined magic attack that shot out in a straight beam of light reminiscent of her own dragon breath, it was more than enough to weaken the strength of the beam attack that one of the leading mages loudly proclaimed to be the light of five elements along with some long winded name she didn’t exactly hear as the beam of light collided with her midflight.
BOOOOM-!
Paaaain-!
And with only that simple thought going through her head as the beam of light that seemed to be a combination of the four main elements of water, earth, wind and fire hit her, Scaly felt her vision darkening as she was flung far off into the distance by the terrifying attack that almost certainly exceeded any attack she had ever found herself facing in the past. Barely keeping herself conscious as she crashed into a tree after flying for what felt like hours.
Luckily, as she came to a stop, she realized that she hadn’t ended up dying and her strength was already starting to rapidly recover thanks to her powerful vitality.
By far, it could be considered the closest she had ever been to death, as she understood full well after taking that attack head on, that if she hadn’t been lucky enough to kill off three of the mages and weakened the overall strength of the attack in the process, she would undoubtedly not have been able to survive the attack just now.
Powerful as she was following her sixth evolution. Faced with over a dozen powerful mages ranging between the A Rank and S Rank in strength, she stood little chance when they put their strength together for a single attack, something she made sure to remember in case she encountered another large group of adventurers in the future.
Even if their overall strength might not be that much compared to her, combined, they might be able to threaten her life like what had just happened.
Of course, she wasn’t entirely in the clear yet, as she understood that those adventurers would undoubtedly chase after her and she still had to find somewhere to hide away and recover her strength.
Problem was, she didn’t exactly have that many places to hide following her sixth evolution as her size had become a bit too large to hide in a tree or a small hole in the ground. Making her wish that she had some ability to adjust her size for this kind of situation.
Unfortunately, abilities don’t appear just because she wished for them and she had to find somewhere to hide... And fast, as she spotted the figures of the adventurers rapidly approaching her current location that was somewhat hidden thanks to her having landed somewhere outside the bloody battlefield that had mostly emptied out at this point and turned into a desolate battlefield.
The only positive to her entire situation was the massive quantity of experience she managed to gain from killing those three mages who had clearly been unprepared for the barrage of water blades she had sent flying towards them during her escape...
[Gained 13.252 Exp]
[Gained 10.542 Exp]
[Gained 26.854 Exp]
[*Ding* Reached level 10]
Looking at the notifications that she had ignored so far, it was clear that two of them should have been powerful A Rank mages, while one of the three should have been the first S Rank Adventurer to die to her.
Anticlimactic as her first kill of an S Rank Adventurer had ended up being, she wasn’t one to complain given how she had essentially managed to go from level 9 to level 10 in a single step thanks to the sacrifice of those three adventurers.
If anything, she felt that her injuries would be worth it as long as she managed to avoid the adventurers searching for her.
The main problem of course being that she didn’t have anywhere to hide and didn’t have much strength to fight back at the current moment.
Flying was always an option, but... In her current state, she had a feeling that doing so would just turn her into a target and make it easier for the adventurers searching for her...