Continuing her battle with the cave spider champion while Verdell did his best to hold back the spiders that managed to force their way through the wall of fire he had erected at the mouth of the cave cutting straight through the mountain, Scaly found the opportunity to cut off another of the cave spider champions legs. Turning it into a six-legged spider instead of a seven legged one. Making it even harder for it to keep up with her, let alone take advantage of its powerful strength.
From having at least managed to clash directly with Scaly, it was soon enough reduced to it running around without any chance of getting close, causing the already bad situation to grow even worse with injuries starting to pile up.
Great as its resistance to water magic was, the power of Scaly’s water magic wasn’t something it could just outright ignore and by the time the wall of fire blocking the cave behind it finally died down after running out of mana, the cave spider champion found itself unable to continue pushing forward towards Scaly.
Originally having rushed forward with great momentum and a clear show of power, it now didn’t even have the strength to lift its remaining legs to continue forward.
Injuries it had ignored had now worsened to the point where they couldn’t be ignored any longer. Forcing it to an abrupt stop, as it did its absolute best to not collapse outright from the overwhelming exhaustion and pain coursing through its body.
Hehe~ Finally ran out of strength!
And of course, Scaly noticed this sudden shift, as she happily shifted away from escaping and instead went on the offensive against the now stationary cave spider champion. Giving it little to no time to prepare before countless water spells rained down on it from several different directions at the same time. Leaving it with little to no choice but to once again try and raise its legs to defend its body-
Ptsh! Ptsh! Ptsh!
Something that didn’t end well for the cave spider champion, as the already bloody legs raised for defense were soon enough cut off as its already mangled body collapsed to the rough ground barely clinging to life-
Swish~ Bang!
[Gained 30.987 Exp]
A clear opening Scaly took advantage of to directly close the distance and crush the weakened cave spider champion with one of her claws. Ending the already dying cave spider champion with this final attack. Feeling a great sense of satisfaction as she saw the clear notification popping up after the death of the cave spider champion.
Although the experience she gained wasn’t enough for her to directly level up again, it undoubtedly made her get closer to her next level up.
Not to mention, she wasn’t done with her battle yet, as there were still a lot of other cave spiders left for her and Verdell to deal with before this battle could be considered to have concluded. More than enough spiders for her level to increase more than just one time.
Whoosh~
And it was with this in mind that she turned around to join Verdell in his battle against the cave spiders he had been holding back on his own so far. Not daring to only use her claws this time around, as she understood her physical strength wasn’t anywhere close enough to take on so many spiders without the assistance of her magic. Not to mention, she would be far slower at killing spiders without her magic. Meaning Verdell would end up killing more spiders. Reducing the experience, she would be able to obtain.
Difficult as the battle was, with the strongest spider gone and the two of them working together, these spiders that mostly ranged between the C Rank and B Rank in terms of strength stood no chance in the face of a dragon and a mage that had already crossed into the S Rank. Especially so with the dragon being covered in a layer of scales that was close to impossible for them to break through with their current strength.
In the end, the battle that Scaly had accidentally started came to an end around twenty minutes after it had started with the two of them working together to grind down the spiders until only a few dozen remained. Spiders that had long since come to understand they stood no chance at winning, as they took the opportunity before they were targeted to escape back into the cave and disappear.
Successful as the escape of these few spiders were, it didn’t really bother Scaly or Verdell much. One because he was just happy that the battle had finally come to an end and he no longer had to waste any of the remaining mana rich herbs left in his now almost empty herb bag, while the other was busy admiring her increase in strength to notice those few weak spiders that didn’t even reach the C Rank in terms of strength escaping.
At the end of the battle, Scaly’s level had gone from 30 to 33.
A smaller increase than she had originally anticipated, but one she was happy with given how it had essentially only taken a little over twenty minutes to increase her level by three.
As for Verdell, he had surprisingly found his level increasing by four. Jumping from level 102 to level 106, something that was partly due to his lower level compared to Scaly who had already gone through several evolutions that had reset her level, while another had to do with the fact that his fire magic proved to be incredibly powerful when it came to dealing with a large number of enemies at the same time.
In the end, he had ended up killing off close to two hundred of the cave spiders on his own. Claiming half if not more than half of the cave spiders for himself, something Scaly did feel somewhat unhappy about, but was unable to do anything about, as it was her own fault for still not having learnt any proper large scale attacks like the massive explosions and fire storms Verdell had been able to create through his fire magic.
In fact, because of the clear power Verdell had shown through his fire magic during their battle against the cave spiders, Scaly had begun to seriously consider if she should pick up fire magic at some point in the future and maybe learn some those terrifying fire spells he had used on the cave spiders.
Then again, this thought didn’t last for long, as after going over everything and making sure that no more cave spiders were about to come running at them, she resumed her journey towards the mouth of the cave cutting straight through the mountain and out on the other side that the undead legion had once traversed through.
At the end of the day, the cave spiders were only a side dish before the main feast that was the undead legion filled to the brim with countless undead and skeletons for her to kill off to rapidly increase her own level. Not to mention the monsters that would be clashing head on with the undead legion.
The thought of it alone was more than enough to fill her with excitement as she could already see herself taking advantage of the struggle between the two sides to raise her level all the way to 50, the current limit of her current evolution.
"..."
Of course, while Scaly was already getting excited about catching up to the undead legion, Verdell was far less excited knowing that things were unlikely to go the way that Scaly wanted them to. After all, in his eyes, this should involve forces beyond the SS Rank. Not something that a dragon like Scaly nor a little adventurer who had barely reached the S Rank in terms of strength like himself could meddle in.
But then again, he also understood that there wasn’t anything he could do to stop Scaly and even if he could, they would still have to catch up to the undead legion to stand a chance at finding the group of adventurers from the guild coming to put a stop to the necromancers from the Eternal Life Sanctum.
In the end, he silently picked himself up and followed Scaly into the cave. Taking the opportunity to climb up on her back after getting close enough before silently closing his eyes to enter a state of meditation to prepare himself for the difficulties that awaited the two of them once they got to the other side of the mountain.
Luckily for him, with the relationship between the two of them having improved significantly, Scaly didn’t mind and just ignored the dwarf on her back. Knowing that he should be in an extremely exhausted state after all the magic he had used just now during their battle against the cave spiders, while at the same time also knowing this meant all the monsters, they encountered moving through the cave would be hers.