The sudden arrival of the dweller of the deep mist, a serpent more than a hundred meters in length made entirely out of what on the surface looked like a thick mist, completely drew the attention of everyone participating in the battle for the dungeon core.
All except the dragon and dwarf that had been targeted by this terrifying mist serpent that was now barreling towards them even as Scaly dove towards the ground to hide herself amidst the undead, skeletons and monsters that were numerous across the vast battlefield. Knowing that in the face of this kind of powerful monster that had already exceeded the SS Rank in terms of strength, she could only hide away and hope it wouldn’t be able to catch up with her... And Verdell’s thoughts were much the same, though he didn’t have the ability to do much to help and could only cling onto Scaly as she dove downwards. Doing his best to not fall off in the process.
The original goal of taking advantage of the chaotic battlefield to grow stronger had been forcibly throw out of the window by the sudden arrival of this old acquaintance who seemed to have timed their arrival just a second before she could join the battle and start killing off weakened undead, skeletons and monsters alike.
To say Scaly had developed a growing discontent against the mist serpent would be an understatement, as the grudge of losing her such a valuable opportunity to increase her strength had already been carved into her bones.
If she ever had the opportunity, she would do everything in her power to end the damnable oversized mist snake casually crushing what she viewed as her targets. Ensuring that she wouldn’t be able to get any experience from any of the undead and skeletons it crushed along its path, as none of those standing in its path survived, let alone injured enough for her to take advantage of in the future.
Luckily, thanks to the distraction created by the absurdly large mist serpent, the undead and skeletons below that would have originally noticed her during her dive, saw nothing and instead had their attention focused on the approaching mist serpent. Not something the undead and skeletons themselves were focusing on, but more so because the attention of the necromancers controlling them had been completely captivated by the emergence of the mist serpent and had in turn affected them into turning around and following the gaze of their necromancer.
All of this served as the perfect opportunity for Scaly, as she smoothly hid amidst the large number of undead and skeletons, out of sight for the mist serpent that had been barreling towards her and Verdell without showing the slightest bit of regard for the monsters and undead that were unfortunate enough to find themselves blocking its path...
Rumble~!
And unsurprisingly, the second it lost sight of her and Verdell, the mist serpent that had been charging forward mindlessly so far seemed to enter a state of anger. Flailing around the battlefield in a chaotic manner, that caused far greater losses to both the necromancers of the Eternal Life Sanctum and the monsters under the dungeon core than the little charge forward ever did.
The only positive to this sudden turn of events was the fact that the leading necromancer and the stronger monsters were clashing far enough away from the mist serpent to remain unaffected by the sudden chaotic flailing of the mist serpent.
Still, the only ones who made it through the entire situation without suffering a single loss in the process happened to be the group of adventurers, who were still staring towards the enormous mist serpent flailing its massive body around the battlefield in the distance.
None of them knew what to do in this sudden turn of events and could only look towards their appointed leader for this little mission of theirs, throwing the burden of having to think about what to do in this kind of troublesome situation over to him.
After all, great as a powerful monster joining the battle would be under normal circumstances when ensuring a dungeon core wasn’t seized, it was clear from a glance that this monster was simply far too powerful. Powerful to the point where even the dungeon core that should have called this powerful monster over couldn’t control this powerful monster.
Or in other words, there was a very real chance that this monster ended up doing more harm than good and in a worst-case scenario even crushing the dungeon core by accident while flailing around in a seemingly meaningless manner.
"Don’t look at me like that! How would I know how to deal with this kind of monster!? You should all know that upon reaching that level, one has already taken the first step into the divine domain. Even a monster, at this level, is close to impossible to kill off with our strength." Shaking his head as he reached this point, the leader who had become the focus of attention for his companion let out a quiet sigh before continuing. "Not only that, but this monster has also evolved using mist itself to construct its body. Normal attacks are essentially useless in the face of this kind of enemy and even magic has a difficult time doing any real damage to it below that level..."
Following these words that seemingly put an end to any thoughts of trying to take down the mist serpent, the group of adventurers quietly lowered their heads. Understanding that there was indeed little they could do against this kind of terrifying monster.
Not only because of how powerful it was, but more so because of the simple fact that it was already an existence that existed on a completely different level from them.
Even if they did everything in their power to try and kill it, they might not even do enough damage to draw its attention if they were unable to harm or forcefully disperse the mist that made up its body.
The only path to figuring out just how far along the path this mist serpent was, would be to personally attack it and see how much damage they could cause, but doing so ran the risk of offending a monster that might be strong enough to easily kill them off.
Instead of that, the smarter choice was of course to do nothing for now and leave the testing of this powerful mist serpent to the necromancers of the Eternal Life Sanctum. After all, they would be far more desperate than them to kill off this towering mist serpent that had shown up and blocked their path.
Even if the mist serpent ended up helping their side, there was always a very real chance that it might end up destroying the dungeon core, something that could render the entire operation of the Eternal Life Sanctum this time around a waste of time.
Roooar!
Roooar-!
Roooaaaaarrr!
At the same time, the monster under the control of the dungeon core showed a similar level of impatience, as this powerful assistant had seemingly turned into an enemy in the blink of an eye. Forcing the dungeon core to use the monsters under its control to try and block the mist serpent before it accidentally broke the dungeon core.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Because of this, the battle that had been between the necromancers of the Eternal Life Sanctum and the dungeon core soon enough turned into a combined effort where both sides turned their full attention to the powerful intruder. Working together to get rid of this chaotic third party that had shown up and thrown a wrench into the orderly battle between the two sides.
The most regretful of the two being the dungeon core, who was undoubtedly starting to regret luring this powerful monster that it had no way to control over.
The entire situation had been flipped, as the group of adventurers watched in awe as the vast armies of undead and monsters alike teamed up to take on the mist serpent.
A mist serpent that didn’t seem to mind this new attention it had garnered, as it was rolling around the battlefield while trying to find Scaly and Verdell. Not even bothering to spare the hardworking necromancers and monsters a single glance in the process. Showing just how much this mist serpent looked down on both parties, as neither had the ability to pose a real threat to it.
Monster claws? Arrows fired by skeleton archers? Magic shot from all directions exploding around it?
None of the attacks did anything beyond stirring the mist that made up its body for a bit before the mist settled back into place.
Of course, this also had to do with the fact that the strongest amongst the monsters and necromancers still hadn’t made a move, fearing they would end up as the target once they drew the attention of this terrifying monster.
Originally, both sides had wanted to use the vast armies of weaker undead, skeletons and monsters under them to test the situation before making a move, but from what could be seen, it was clear that this was useless, as the mist serpent directly ignored the hundreds of thousands of different attacks raining down on it from all around.