Chapter 69: In the Palm- Claw? of her Hand...?

Seeing the second person disappearing below the water, the remaining humans began to panic, as they looked towards the direction that the water spears had appeared from-""Nothing?!""

However, having already expected this ahead of time, Scaly had already hidden herself to prevent the humans from finding her exact location and give her a chance to launch another sneak attack towards them.

"How is this possible!? Those spears clearly came from the flat piece of land we are moving towards... How did the other party manage to hide themselves so quickly...?" Feeling that the entire situation was becoming even more unpredictable with each passing second, the cautious human who had taken charge of the group and called out to warn everyone earlier, could not help muttering this to himself as he calmed everyone down before resuming their movement through the murky water while fighting off the relentless attack of the swamp alligators.

At the back of his mind, he couldn’t help feeling like he was walking in the palm of someone’s hand. All of his actions being easily predicted while he hopelessly walked headfirst into a trap intended to kill him and his companions.

Although this thought didn’t seem reasonable considering that he was dealing with a monster, he couldn’t stop it from emerging.

Even more so, after recalling the sudden ambush that landed them in the murky swamp water followed by the magic spears that came flying towards them the moment, he had managed to get the situation under control...

Ah!? I only one of them!?

At the same time, back on land, Scaly could not help showing a surprised expression on her face after seeing how only a single person ended up dying to her water spears.

Given how much mana she had used and the fact that she had been able to launch an attack without being discovered, Scaly felt that she should have at least been able to kill four or six of the humans.

Not just a single one!

It’s all because of that damned human! He also noticed me earlier when I tried to sneak up on them... Hm... I have to find a way to deal with him, or the humans might be far too strong for me to kill when they get back on land again.

Narrowing both her eyes as she thought this to herself, Scaly narrowed both her eyes as her attention focused on the cautious human leading the rest of the humans through the constant onslaught of the swamp alligators. Hoping that she might be able to spot something useful that she could use against him.

[Human, lvl 35]

[Class: Monster Hunter]

[Description: A human monster hunter going by the name of Carl. He grew up outside the city and spent most of his life hunting wild animals with his father before later leaving for the city where he took on the hunter class and became an adventurer. Later, due to his experience hunting animals, he grew quickly and managed to advance his class to the rare monster hunter class at the young age of 17, becoming a well-known young talent in the guild. Cautious by nature and hard to ambush. Does not taste good due to his bad hygiene and is best avoided by anyone other than the most starving animals and monsters.]

Looking through the description of the cautious human, who seemed to be named Carl, Scaly could not help frowning as she didn’t find anything she could use when fighting him.

On the other hand, she found out that he was bad at keeping himself clean and tasted so bad that even the description warned her against taking a bite out of him.

What to do... I can’t continue using water magic to try and lower their numbers and weaken them, as I will run out of mana far before I can get them to a manageable level because of that Carl human...

Having no clue what to do, Scaly could only stare resentfully towards Carl, as she wished for nothing more than to kill him and cause the rest of the humans to start panicking and give her a chance to weaken them enough that she would be able to easily kill them when they reached land.

"Everyone! Keep an eye out for more attacks from the monster hiding at land!"

Unfortunately for her, it didn’t seem like such a chance was going to present itself, as Carl kept the other humans cautious of her launching another surprise attack towards them.

Even if she decided to try and use her water magic to attack them again, it was unlikely that she would even be able to kill a single one of them in this kind of situation.

If only I could keep them in the water for longer- Ah...

Suddenly having an epiphany as she was complaining to herself, Scaly looked down at the land below her feet and an eerie smile slowly made its way to her face.

Similar to the dried mud ground mixed with branches, plants and other things that had made up what the group of humans had been standing on before plummeting into the water, it just so happened that the ground she was standing on at the moment was the exact same.

The only difference being that there were also a few large stones poking up from the ground below helping stabilize the ground and make it more difficult for it to collapse like the first had done.

But... Even with this, I should still be able to collapse this area!

Happily smiling to herself as she thought about this, Scaly didn’t waste any time as she got to work loosening the dried dirt around the few rocks poking up from below before leaving the area to avoid falling into the murky water like the humans had done.

After all, compared to the group of humans who could still fight for survival after falling into the murky water filled with swamp alligators, she had no idea how to swim. Having never done so since she had been born as a lizard...

Deciding not to think too much about her inability to swim, Scaly soon arrived a safe distance away from the piece of land that the group of humans were now less than a meter away from.

Hehe, I really want to see if that human can keep calm after the land in front of him and his group collapses directly in front of him!

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Whoosh!


Chuckling with a sense of superiority, Scaly didn’t hesitate as she used a large part of her mana to create dozens of large water balls that landed precisely in areas around the stabilizing rocks poking up from the bedrock below-

Rumble~

Soon causing a chain reaction to take place, as the massive piece of land that looked stable as a rock began to sink into the murky swamp water below before disappearing. Leaving behind only a few rocks that menacingly poked up from below.

"Huh?"

"Wha... This... Why!?"

"The land... Is gone...?"

Different from Scaly who was happily patting herself on the back for a job well done, the group of humans who were just about to crawl onto the land and escape the endless attacks of the swamp alligators froze on the spot without knowing what to say.

Not only did the land that they had been working towards disappear in front of them, but the few rocks poking up from below that were left behind were far too small for them to seek refuge on. Even if they did try to do this, the rocks themselves were not that high off the ground and they would be forced to have half their body dangling above the murky water. Easily accessible to any swamp alligator passing by below.

"This again... As if it predicted our every action..."

Different from the rest of the adventurers who had reasonably started to panic after seeing the land disappearing in front of them, Carl, the monster hunter, didn’t panic and instead just turned to look in the direction that the water balls behind the sinking of the land had come from with a thoughtful expression on his face.

However, it did not take long before this expression disappeared, being replaced by a more commanding one. "Everyone let’s continue forward towards the next piece of land, we can’t waste any time around here or our enemy might launch another attack on us!"

"Yes..."

"Sure, I just hope the next piece of land won’t collapse like this."

"Indeed, we will really die if that happens!"

Not long after, the group of humans once again calmed down significantly as they began making their way towards the next piece of land without any hesitation. This time around having made sure that it wasn’t another dried dirt, branches and random plants type of land that they were moving towards.

The only problem with it, was the fact that they had already spent a long time in the water and exhaustion of swimming in thick leather armor and fighting a constant onslaught of swamp alligators was starting to set in.