Chapter 178: Narrow Escape

Growl!?Not having expected Scaly to successfully move past it, the mountain gnoll lord let out a surprised sound as he was about to turn around to chase after her-

Boing!

However, before he had a chance to do this, the mutated dragon devouring slime arrived in front of him and attempted to devour him, something he simply couldn’t ignore, as the two powerful monsters soon began clashing with each other just like Scaly had hoped they would... And not too unexpectedly, it was clear that the mountain gnoll lord was far stronger than the mutated dragon devouring slime.

Unfortunately, because it was a slime, it was close to impossible for the mountain gnoll lord to kill it. Even if he was single handedly suppressing it and keeping it in place, there was no way for him to reach its core without risking being devoured by the slime in the process, as he didn’t really have any long-distance attacks that would be able to reach the core of the slime.

Forcing the battle to enter a stalemate not long after it began...

Growl! Grooowl...!

Growl

But of course, that wouldn’t last for long, as more mountain gnolls soon appeared in the distance rushing towards the mountain gnoll lord to lend a hand in dealing with the mutated dragon devouring slime.

[Mountain Gnoll, Great Shaman, lvl 67]

Not just normal mountain gnolls, but the mountain gnoll great shaman was also among them as it came rushing over. Ignoring Scaly who did her best to try and minimize her presence after escaping from the immediate danger posed by the mountain gnoll lord and the mutated dragon devouring slime, as she didn’t want to get involved in the battle if possible. Understanding that both sides wanted nothing more to kill her, one side for revenge, the other for both revenge and because of her dragon blood.

Contrary to what the mountain gnoll lord had expected her to do, she didn’t linger around to ambush the weaker mountain gnolls rushing over to help out, but instead began to slowly slip away from the battlefield towards a location where she could watch how the battle progressed and figure out what actions to take.

First and foremost, she understood that the mutated dragon devouring slime had a way to track her down and the fact that it would always come running after her, something that was especially dangerous considering that she clearly didn’t have a way to kill the mutated dragon devouring slime at the moment.

After all, even if there was a chance that her lightning magic would be able to kill the mutated dragon devouring slime, there was also a chance that it wouldn’t work. Only resulting in her becoming weaker and easier to kill for the mutated dragon devouring slime.

So, with that in mind, Scaly hoped that the mountain gnolls would be able to kill off the mutated dragon devouring slime

Not caring much about the potential loss of experience or danger posed by the mountain gnolls, as she understood that they were nowhere near the same level of threat the mutated dragon devouring slime posed to her.

Part of her even began considering lending a hand to the mountain gnolls by using her lightning magic to either weaken or kill the mutated dragon devouring slime while it was occupied fighting with them, but... This idea was quickly thrown to the back of her mind upon realizing that this would endanger her, as she was still an enemy of the mountain gnolls and would end up being targeted the moment the mutated dragon devouring slime was no longer a threat.

Rustle~

As she was slowly moving further away from the location of the battle while moving through the tall grass still present close to the edges of the forest, Scaly suddenly heard a loud rustling sound coming from the grass in front of her-

Huh?

Roar?

[Heavenly Lake Serpent, lvl 51]

And the next second, she found herself face to face with a rather confused looking heavenly lake serpent, who had also clearly not expected to run into her...

ROOOAR-!

Following the initial confusion, the heavenly lake serpent soon let out a loud roar that caught the attention of the nearby mountain gnolls before it opened its massive mouth and tried to swallow her in a single bite-

Swish-!

Bang~

Roar!

However, before it had a chance to swallow her, Scaly dodged backwards, causing the heavenly lake serpent to smash into the ground without catching her. Soon enough, causing it to roar angrily before lunging forward towards her again. The only difference this time around being that Scaly had already turned around and started escaping at this point in time. Avoiding the second attempt to swallow her with relative ease.

The only problem was that she was now escaping back in the direction of where the mountain gnoll lord and the mutated dragon devouring slime were busy fighting with each other.

Maybe I should just try my hand at fighting the heavenly lake serpent? After all, it’s only a single one and I should be more than strong enough to face it with my current strength. At least, it should be a better option than going back towards the mountain gnoll lord and mutated dragon devouring slime-

RUMBLE-!

ROOOAR-!

Roooaar!

Roooar!

[Heavenly Lake Serpent, lvl 54]

[Heavenly Lake Serpent, lvl 46]

[Heavenly Lake Serpent...]

Turning around about to face off against the heavenly lake serpent that was chasing after her, Scaly was suddenly shocked to feel the ground beneath her feet start trembling. Following which dozens of heavenly lake serpents suddenly emerged from the forest filled with killing intent, as several trees were either knocked flying or flattened by the massive bodies of the heavenly lake serpents charging out of the forest towards the mountain gnolls and at the same time, her.

Ah... Never mind, it isn’t that bad to go back to the mountain gnoll lord and the little slime...

Feeling her battle intent falter in the face of so many heavenly lake serpents emerging from the forest, Scaly immediately gave up on trying to fight the heavenly lake serpent trying to swallow her, as she continued escaping back in the direction of the mountain gnoll lord and the mutated dragon devouring slime.

For some reason, she had a feeling that her luck had been rather bad since she successfully made it through her fourth evolution.

Although she had managed to increase her strength by quite a bit during the last battle between the heavenly lake serpents and the mountain gnolls, she didn’t feel like she had become any stronger, as she spent most of her time either launching sneak attacks or escaping.

Something that had become increasingly clear now that she found herself escaping from a large number of heavenly lake serpents towards a slime that had no business becoming stronger faster than her and a mountain gnoll who was already stronger than her.

No matter how she looked at it, there was no way she would be able to get out of her current situation without her luck taking a turn for the better. Especially considering that there was no way that the mountain gnoll lord would allow her to easily get past it for a second time.

Even more so because he now also had the assistance of the mountain gnoll great shaman, who similarly held a grudge against her, something rather obvious given that the mountain gnoll great shaman had already take a group of mountain gnolls along with it before charging towards her while the mountain gnoll lord continued keeping the mutated dragon devouring slime occupied.

Sandwiched between an army of mountain gnolls and heavenly lake serpents, Scaly had no idea how to get out of her current situation.

That was... Until she saw it...

An opportunity to escape from all of her pursuers without any of them being able to continue chasing after her-

Swish!

And without another thought in mind, Scaly turned to the side and rushed deeper into the territory of the mountain gnolls where another large group of mountain gnolls could already be seen rushing over from the distance.

However, they wouldn’t be able to reach her in time, as Scaly soon rushed up a tall rock that almost went straight up into the air. Forcing her to use all of her strength to climb up the close to twenty-meter-tall rock, as the heavenly lake serpents and mountain gnoll were already close to reaching her-

BANG!

And as she reached the top of the rock, the first heavenly lake serpent smashed into the rock, causing it to crack and shake violently. Soon resulting in Scaly loosing her balance and plummeting down towards the open mouth of a very excited heavenly lake serpent-

Whoosh-!

However, just at the last moment before falling into the mouth of the heavenly lake serpent, Scaly opened her still small wings and managed to make use of the momentum to glide forward. Narrowly avoiding death, as she smoothly glided through the air for the first time in her life.