Ptsh!
[Gained 86.143 Exp]
[*Ding* Reached level 44]
Cutting through a third spider as Verdell found himself fully occupied dealing with the vast number of rolling stone armadillos attempting to jump forward to interrupt her little killing spree, Scaly couldn’t help feeling a sense of admiration watching how Verdell conjured up a small sea of flames and used it to force back the seventy or so rolling stone armadillos that were still fighting.
Even if they had already burnt through their mana earlier during the battle with the dark forest lurkers she was now cutting down with relatively little effort, they were still S Rank Monsters and had a certain level of physical strength that made them difficult to deal with even if their strongest earth magic wasn’t usable any longer.
Luckily, difficult as these rolling stone armadillos might be to handle even for Verdell with his powerful fire magic, they had been forced entirely on the defensive and weren’t able to do much to join the battle. If anything, they had started to retreat in the face of the terrifying flames and didn’t dare to face them head on after one of them had been caught off guard and ended up being reduced to ash by the terrifying flames. Unable to rely on the tough armor covering its body that could be further strengthened by earth magic in time before the flames swallowed it up.
If not for this early death of one of the rolling stone armadillos, Scaly had a feeling that their current situation would be far from optimal, as those armadillos would undoubtedly have made full use of their powerful defensive strength to charge through the flames and launch an attack towards Verdell.
But now that the early death had scared them, they didn’t dare to even think about something like that and had already switched all their strength into defending themselves. Ensuring that there was no need for them to worry about the rolling stone armadillos until Verdell ended up running out of mana-
Crack~ Bang!
[Gained 78.124 Exp]
Something Scaly found herself taking full advantage of as she cracked the head of a fourth spider that had found itself pinned to the ground by three large rock spike that had erupted from the ground below not that long ago. Offering little to no resistance beyond attempting to raise three of its legs to block her, a rather vain attempt on the side of the now dead spider, as those flimsy legs had been easily pushed aside before she crushed its head.
And with the death of the fourth dark forest lurker, the original nine spiders that had emerged from the forest trying to ambush Verdell had been reduced by almost half.
Even worse, amongst the still living spiders, two were still pinned to the ground with no way to free themselves in the short term while a third looked like it was about to burn out at any moment thanks to a stray fireball from Verdell accidentally landed on it during his attempt to use everything, he had to hold back the armadillos.
The remaining two spiders were the luckiest of the bunch, as they had not only freed themselves by now, but had also taken the opportunity to rush back towards the forest in the distance in a clear attempt to escape from the terrifying battlefield that had already claimed close to half of their companions. Showing no sign of wanting to remain behind to continue the battle and attempt to help their fellow spiders escape from the deadly situation they found themselves in.
Unsurprisingly, the fast movement of Scaly and the simple fact that she had already killed off four of them had been more than enough to scare these two spiders silly and make them give up on even trying to fight with her. Having clearly mistaken her for someone far stronger than she was. Unaware that if they joined together to fight her, they would be more than capable of holding her back and would be more than capable of helping their remaining three companions escape from the deadly situation they had found themselves in-
Boom!
Or rather two companions, as another stray fireball flew out and landed on the already burning spider. Officially killing it. Leaving Verdell mightily confused as he felt his own strength surge for seemingly no reason as his level increased. Unable to shift his attention elsewhere to figure out where this surge in strength had come from. Only able to guess that he might have somehow pierced the defensive line of the rolling rock armadillos with a stray fireball and ended up killing off a group of the weakened armadillos that had retreated to the back of their formation.
Nooo! How does he still end up stealing my prey in this kind of situation!?
The only one who saw everything that happened was Scaly, who became visibly depressed upon seeing how a stray fireball had ended up landed on the same unfortunate spider twice before killing it. Not even giving her the chance to throw out a water blade to finish it off, something she had been just about to do only to be left in the dust by some stray fireball.
Swish-!
[Gained 87.244 Exp]
[Gained 88.782 Exp]
In the end, to ensure that the last two spiders that had yet to escape didn’t somehow end up getting killed off by Verdell as well, she rushed forth with all her strength and finished off the two still struggling spiders within a few short seconds. Almost causing the little dwarf on her back to fall of her back in the process as he had to stop channeling his fire magic for a bit to properly hold on and avoid a situation where he was flung into the nearby group of rolling rock armadillos, something he wanted to avoid considering just how much these little monsters hated him to the bone thanks to his lovely fire magic blocking their path and preventing them from finishing off their prey.
Not just that but essentially forcing them to watch as someone else finished off the prey they had worked hard to weaken and lock down.
If there was some kind of title system active, Verdell would undoubtedly have ended up receiving one that was like...
[Congratulations! Earned the hatred of over a hundred S Rank Rolling Rock Armadillos!]
[Title Unlocked: Hatred of the Armadillos]
[Effect: Attract the hatred of any nearby armadillos and make them chase you down no matter the strength difference.]
[Bonus Effect: Armadillos enter an enraged state fighting you. Unlocking their sleeping potential. Increasing their strength by 10% - 50%]
The reason for that kind of bonus effect was because it truly seemed like the armadillos he had been fighting so far suddenly ended up unlocking some kind of sleeping potential deep within their bodies following the death of the final remaining spider that had been pinned to the ground by them not that long ago.
From originally having been able to hold them back with his fire magic, Verdell found himself struggling as the rolling rock armadillos surged forth with renewed strength and relied on their powerful external armor and earth magic to charge straight through the flames. One even taking a fireball head on without flinching as it continued charging forward filled with killing intent.
Rumble~
Even worse, as he thought things were about to get better with Scaly shifting her attention towards these rolling rock armadillos and helping him out in dealing with them, a loud rumbling sound from the mountain that these armadillos had come from almost immediately caused the originally excited Scaly to take to the sky and get out of there.
An action that Verdell wasn’t the slightest bit unhappy about after he saw what had made that earlier rumbling sound...
[Rolling Rock Armadillo, lvl 197]
To call it a rolling rock armadillo was a bit too much, as the thing was essentially a giant boulder rolling down the side of the mountain. Even worse, it wasn’t just a single large boulder that had come rolling down, but dozens of similarly large boulders alongside hundreds of smaller ones. Making it look like a rockfall.
Confident as Scaly might be in her own strength, she had no intention of facing off against so many powerful monsters at once.
Not to mention...
[level: 44/50, 49%]
Looking at her progress that had already increased by an entire level thanks to the generous donation of the rolling rock armadillos that had helped doing the hard work in dealing with those spiders, she was more than happy with the outcome of the situation. Feeling that even if she couldn’t kill of these rolling rock armadillos for now, she had already benefited from them and shouldn’t have a difficult time finding another group of powerful monsters again.
All she needed to do from what she had just experienced was find somewhere to land and wait for another group of monsters that had originally remained in hiding charge towards her.