Descending the Spiral Staircase, Clouds and Birds

Making her way down the spiral staircase while keeping an eye out for any monster that might be lying in wait to ambush her, Scaly soon arrived in front of a thick layer of mist that made it impossible for her to see through.

Swish~ Swish~

Cautiously using one of her claws to touch the mist and ensure that there wasn't anything wrong with it, Scaly soon continued to make her way down the spiral staircase. The main difference compared to before being the fact that her speed had slowed significantly after entering the strange mist, as she was being extra cautious in case a monster happened to be lurking somewhere inside the mist. After all, it was far harder for her to see anything inside the mist.

No matter how much better her eyesight became after her latest evolution, it didn't help much when it came to seeing through the thick mist that now covered the entire spiral staircase. Growing thicker and thicker as she continued to slowly descend towards the next floor of the dungeon.

Soon enough, five minutes passed like this until the mist finally began growing thinner. Making it easier for her to see her surroundings-

Hah? Nonono-

Swish-!

Unfortunately, the moment she saw her surroundings, Scaly could not help freezing on the spot as she rushed towards the central pillar of the spiral staircase with a fearful expression plastered all over her face.

The main reason for this sudden change was that she realized that the mist she had been trapped inside of for the past few minutes was in fact not mist. Instead, it was a cloud that happened to be passing through the spiral staircase… 

At the current moment, Scaly had just realized that the spiral staircase leading to the next floor of the dungeon was several thousand meters above the ground of the third floor of the dungeon!

Even though she had become far more confident in her own strength after her last evolution and was on the path to becoming a dragon, she still felt terrified when she suddenly realized that she was thousands of meters up in the air.

After all, she understood very well that she would have no way to survive if she ended up falling from such a height- No, not to mention surviving, she would undoubtedly end up turning into a pancake if she fell over the side of the spiral staircase!

For the first time since she had encountered the staircases of the dungeon, Scaly felt thankful for how large they were when compared to her current size.

Screech!

Screech!

Screech!

However, by the time that she managed to calm herself down and was about to continue moving down the spiral staircase, she heard a terrifying choir of birds screeching echoing out not too far away from her-

[Cloud Nest Bird, lvl 13]

[Cloud Nest Bird, lvl 9]

[Cloud Nest Bird…]

And by the time she turned around to see where the sound had come from, she was horrified to discover a massive flock of birds rapidly flying towards her filled with killing intent.

Screech-!

[Cloud Nest Bird, lvl 23]

Leading the charge was a rather big bird that seemed to be far larger than the rest. Looking especially interested in her.

Run!

Whoosh-!

Even though she was stronger than the cloud nest birds that were rapidly approaching her filled with killing intent, she understood that she had no way to fight back against them while trapped on the spiral staircase where a single wrong move could make her turn into a rather peculiar looking pancake-

Swish-!

Bang!

[Gained 40 Exp]

Of course, this didn't mean that she intended to just sit back and do nothing while being chased by the cloud nest birds, as she used the simple water bubble to fight back while also ensuring that she didn't end up running out of mana. Only using her water magic when a cloud nest bird was about to reach her.

Even then, she was still over a thousand meters from the ground and the number of cloud nest birds attacking her was seemingly endless as they continued rushing towards her no matter how many of them ended up falling to the water balls, she threw at them.

[*Ding* Reached level 2]

In the end, the only thing that saved her was the fact that she managed to level up during the chase down the spiral staircase. Allowing her to instantly recover some of her mana and strength to continue fighting back against the cloud nest birds-

Huh?

SCREECH-!

However, it was at this moment that the powerful cloud nest bird suddenly appeared behind her-

Ptsh-!

And before she had time to react and dodge, the sharp talons of the bird dug into her as she suddenly found herself being dragged towards the edge of the spiral staircase.

Even without thinking, it was obvious that the cloud nest bird intended to throw her off the spiral staircase and have gravity do the rest of the battle for it!

No!

Swish!

PTSH-!

Understanding just how dangerous her current situation was, Scaly didn't hesitate as she directly used her strongest move, her enhanced claw strike, to cut off the legs of the cloud nest bird currently dragging her towards the edge of the spiral staircase. Not caring about the fact that she ended up exhausting the rest of the mana left in her body doing this, as she would end up dead if she didn't do anything.

SCREEEEEEECH-!

[Gained 500 Exp]

Luckily, the large cloud nest bird died after having its legs cut off, as its body soon plummeted over the edge of the spiral staircase towards the ground below.

"""…"""

The sight of their leader dying momentarily caused the remaining cloud nest birds to freeze on the spot. Not daring to continue attacking her.

R-roar~!

Knowing that she stood no chance fighting against the remaining cloud nest birds, Scaly decided to use the last bit of her energy to stand back up to roar threateningly at the frozen cloud nest birds-

Screech!

Screech!

Screech!

Even though the roar didn't sound that threatening and seemed more cute than anything else to anyone who hadn't witnessed the death of the large cloud nest bird, it still ended up scaring the frozen cloud nest birds away…