Feeling the corner of her lips twitching in annoyance at the sight of the adventurers about to descend to the fourth floor coming to a sudden stop, Scaly couldn't help wondering if she should just charge past them while they weren't paying attention to their surroundings. Knowing that she should be able to get past them without any problems with her current strength. Especially if she decided to make use of her wind magic to enhance her own speed.
This thought, while reckless, began growing inside her head as the adventurers showed no sign of entering and had instead entered another discussion about the safety of the fourth floor for those C and B Rank Adventurers among the two groups.
Only the first group she had encountered, made up of either A Rank or S Rank Adventurers, seemed to be close to making their way to the fourth floor of the dungeon, though they still seemed somewhat indecisive because of the other two groups of adventurers. Not because they were fearful of descending to the fourth floor of the dungeon, but instead because some of the reluctant adventurers brought up the possibility of her not yet having descended to the fourth floor of the dungeon.
Originally this kind of suggestion would have been ignored, but the other party brought up the fact that the third floor of the dungeon was difficult to navigate and the fact that she might not have found a passage to the fourth floor yet. Even using the few traces, they had found of her on the third floor so far to indicate that while she had moved in the direction of the passage, it was clear from the lack of traces left behind that she shouldn't have reached the passage itself.
This thought earned so much validity in everyone's eyes that it had turned into the main reason why the three groups of adventurers hadn't descended to the fourth floor yet. Even dragging in the group of stronger adventurers who would originally already have descended to the fourth floor of the dungeon if not for this new possibility that had been presented.
This… How long are they going to chat with each other about going to the fourth floor!?
In the end, as a fourth group of adventurers ended up joining the party after another ten minutes of indecisiveness from the adventurers, Scaly felt her patience reaching the limit.
No matter how oblivious these adventurers were to the fact that their target was watching them and listening to their conversations only a short distance away from them, there would be a time when her presence was detected if she didn't create a bigger distance between herself and these adventurers.
But… If she created a larger distance between herself and the adventurers, she would end up having no way to hear what they were talking about. Making it even more painful to wait around in the sandstorm that seemed to be growing increasingly powerful with each passing second.
Instead of that, she would much rather prefer just taking the chance and rushing straight through these adventurers to the fourth floor of the dungeon. After all, from what little information she had managed to gather on the fourth floor of the dungeon from them so far, it was clear that there wasn't any sandstorm around to prevent her from flying like the third floor of the dungeon.
Because of this fact alone, she felt confident in being able to escape from these adventurers after she got to the fourth floor of the dungeon. Only those powerful adventurers above level 150 she had encountered would be enough to make her hesitant, but luckily, none of these powerful adventurers seemed to have appeared so far amongst the adventurers chasing after her.
However, as she thought about the existence of those powerful adventurers, she also realized that she might not have as much time to escape from the adventurers as she had originally thought. Knowing that the second one of those powerful adventurers appeared, it would be far harder for her to escape.
In a way, it was the thought of such a powerful adventurer showing up that caused her to rethink her earlier plan of waiting around for the adventurers to descend through the passage to the fourth floor and instead feel like forcing her way through the adventurers to the fourth floor was the only way.
"Huh? There seems to be some kind of monster watching us from the side…"
But it was the words of one of the weaker adventurers at the edge of the fourth group of adventurers that ultimately forced her to make a choice, as he seemed to have noticed her and had already begun to close the distance between them to investigate what he saw closer.
Even worse, his words weren't exactly silent. Drawing the attention of several other adventurers who were curious about what he had seen and decided to follow behind him. Essentially making it impossible for her to silently kill him. Not to mention how difficult it would be to accomplish in the first place so close to so many adventurers-
Whoosh-!
Because of this, before the adventurers had the chance to identify her and then team up on her, Scaly took the chance and jumped forth. Using wind magic to enhance her own speed as she charged forward through the group of approaching adventurers.
"Huh!? D-d-d-dragon!"
"What!? The dragon is here!? Stop- Stop it! Fast! Don't let it get to the passage!"
"Aaah-! Help me! The tail hit me!"
"Careful! The dragon is too powerful, don't try to recklessly stop it without being strong enough!"
Catching all of them by surprise, as they could only helplessly call out trying to stop her before being thrown to the side the second they touched her scales. Most of them, being weaker adventurers around the C and B Rank, meant that they stood no chance of stopping her and only ended up injuring themselves in the process.
Still… Their cries of pain did end of drawing the attention of the other adventurers, though it was already too late at that point…