Shaking her head a bit from the pain of crashing straight into a rather thick pine tree, Scaly slowly got back up as her gaze shifted towards the massive dead crocodile now laying motionless on the ground in front of her. Its gaping maw filled with razor sharp teeth having shut closed as it collapsed only a few meters from her. Making it clear that she wouldn’t have been able to get out of the battle unscratched had the wind blast been a normal wind blast instead of the ball made up from thousands of small wind blades.
But... Having ultimately succeeded in taking down this powerful monster with only a little difficulty and a few broken scales, Scaly felt happy with the overall outcome. Especially so when she looked at just how much experience this single monster had provided her with.
Even if it hadn’t been enough to directly increase her level, she was already close to reaching level 21. Close enough that killing the other S Rank Monster would undoubtedly push her past the limit and allow her to reach level 21 by essentially only killing two monsters, a kind of fast progress she wished would be possible for her to achieve every day. After all, with that kind of progress, it wouldn’t take her more than a few days to reach the limit of her current evolution.
Unfortunately for her, she understood powerful monsters like this weren’t exactly easy to encounter. Not to mention, they wouldn’t always be as easy to kill as she had just done by taking advantage of the already exhausted monster and an ambush to accomplish her goal of killing it without expending too much of her mana in the process.
Yes... Exhausted.
From the instant she clashed with it, she could tell that the swamp trampler crocodile was far from an optimal state. Coved in countless small wounds that had yet to heal, while at the same time also showing clear signs of exhaustion in its movements that made it feel like it had been in a great battle not too long ago and hadn’t had the chance to take a proper break to rest and recover.
If it hadn’t been exhausted, it would have been difficult for her to accomplish what she had, though Scaly herself wouldn’t ever admit something like that. Feeling far better thinking about how she had taken down such a powerful monster on her own with little to no difficulties and injuries.
In a sense, it was also because of this feeling of superiority that she didn’t linger around the dead swamp trampler crocodile for long and almost immediately set off to try and catch up with the other S Rank Monster still chasing after Verdell. The living log, as the unreliable description had referred to it, or living swamp log for accuracy.
Hoping that the dwarf would at least be able to hold it off long enough for her to catch up, as she really didn’t want to end up failing the quest that could increase the purity of her dragon blood.
...
A few minutes earlier, before Scaly launched her attack on the swamp trampler crocodile and the group of adventurers had just resumed their escape after the initial clash with the two S Rank Monsters, the group was far from safe as the living swamp log in the shape of a wolf soon enough emerged behind them, causing the expressions of those at the back of the group to visibly change. Fear emerging to replace the relief everyone had felt upon seeing the swamp trampler crocodile being sealed up in a sea of fire.
"This thing truly doesn’t give up."
"You don’t say! Even after that senior... what was it... Verdell and the sea of fire he created didn’t do anything to it, it just dissolved into a pool of algae and continued chasing like nothing happened."
"Truly terrifying... Worthy of being an S Rank Monster."
In the end, everyone could only voice out their fear and awe at the uniqueness of this monster they found themselves facing, as even the sea of fire that had been conjured up by Verdell using most of his remaining mana, had been helpless in stopping this monster from continuing to chase after them. Barely buying them a few seconds... And that was only because of how it had been slowed down by changing forms. Not the sea of fire itself stopping it...
What kind of cheat like monster is this!? Able to directly ignore my magic!
But maybe the most affected by the deadly situation wasn’t the adventurers having found the strength to chat with each other even as the deadly S Rank Monster grew closer but instead Verdell himself, who had no way to comprehend why his most powerful spell had simply been bypassed with little to no effort from this S Rank Monster while the other was left struggling to escape.
Calling it cheating was understandable considering just how powerful this sea of fire capable of restraining an S Rank Monster was.
Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it, as the S Rank Monster continued to close the distance.
Even if he wanted to use another powerful spell to try and restrain it, he was simply unable to do so as the mana flowing through his body had almost completely dried up after that last powerful spell.
The only thing he could do was hope his companions had some means to slow down or restrain the approaching S Rank Monster as he himself wasn’t useful in defending them this time around.
"I will take care of this monster!"
And just as he was planning on relying on the others to step up and slow down the approaching S Rank Monster, one of them did indeed step forward with a confident look on her face-
"WIND COME! HEED MY CALL AND DESTROY MY ENEMY!"
Rustle~!
Yelling out what could be perceived as some kind of incarnation that caused the surrounding trees to shake as a massive quantity of mana gathered to form some kind of massive wind blade that made not just Verdell and the other adventurers gasp in amazement at the magic that seemingly far exceeded what the one responsible should be capable of, but even the S Rank Monster paused in surprise before getting into a defensive stance. Clearly not daring to underestimate the wind blade that had by now grown more than a dozen meters wide.
"GOOO!"
WHOOOSH-!
And along with one final yell, the towering wind blade surged forward towards the S Rank Monster that had come to a complete halt in preparation to defend against the terrifying attack.
A response that Verdell alongside the rest of the still escaping adventurers understood full well, as they would have done the same in the face of this kind of terrifying attack. At the same time, everyone also began looking more respectfully towards this hidden dragon that had suddenly emerged in their moment of need.
"What are all of you looking at!? I’m not anywhere as powerful as all of you imagine, I happen to dabble in a bit of illusion magic and decided to use it to buy use a bit more time to escape! Speed up before it figures out the wind blade isn’t real!"
Faced with this kind of attention, the adventurer behind the terrifying wind blade quickly corrected the misunderstanding and explained what was happening, urging everyone to keep going.
"Wha- illusion magic!?"
"First time seeing this kind of illusion magic in person... So damn convincing, even had me fooled thinking you were some kind of hidden master..."
"Hidden master... Come on, we have been grouping up together for the past half year... What kind of hidden master would be hiding around you lot for that long?"
"Well... You never know..."
As the situation became clear, everyone once again sped up after having slowed slightly in anticipation of the S Rank Monster potentially dying to the terrifying wind blade that they now understood was nothing more than an illusion.
Disappointing as the reality might be, everyone couldn’t deny the fact that this single illusion had ended up buying them a lot of time. The adventurer behind it having deliberately made the wind blade somewhat slow, but impossible to dodge.
Rustle~
Something that even ended up buying them more time, as the living swamp log attempted to shake off the wind blade for a good twenty seconds before finally realizing something was wrong. Taking another five seconds to realize the terrifying wind blade was nothing more than an illusion as it shattered the second it touched it.
Awwwoooooo-!
To say it was an angry log would be an understatement, as the wolf shape it had taken let out all of its anger in a single loud anger filled howl before setting off to catch up with the group of adventurers who had dared to make a fool of it and made it flee from a mere illusion.