Chapter 590: Joining the Battle

"This... An unexpected turn of events. Didn’t expect the guild to have already expanded to the point where a new city popped up in this place since I last visited. But... Looking at the current state of things, this city might not be around for much longer..." Spotting the city surrounded and under a relentless attack by the snow wolves around the same time Scaly did, Verdell couldn’t help himself from commenting at the situation currently unfolding before his eyes.

As for the city not being around for much longer... That was indeed the truth, as he could clearly see that even if the magical barrier guarding the city could hold on for a few more hours, the sheer number of snow wolves alone would inevitably end up overwhelming the defenses of the city and burn through whatever supplies of mana stones and crystal it had stored up to keep the magical barrier running.

Even if mages could help alleviate the pressure to some extent, without a truly powerful mage around, those present within the city would at most be able to help the magical barrier endure for another few hours.

In other words, the city was truly doomed to fall in the face of the snow wolves without any outside assistance.

Unfortunately for the inhabitants of the city in need of outside assistance, the assistance that they had been counting on had been caught off guard and surrounded by the more powerful snow wolves before they could get to the city and currently found themselves in a deadly situation no better than those trapped inside the city.

Truly, a worst-case scenario...

Rustle~

"Ah! Wait up! Don’t attack the adventurers or I will end up with a wanted poster throughout the northern region!" Feeling the dragon below him stirring in excitement at the sight before them, Verdell found himself calling out in a somewhat uneasy tone. Aware that if Scaly started killing adventurers in this kind of situation, he wouldn’t be able to get away without the guild coming after him.

After all, the situation back in the Swirling Sands Dungeon was different from the current situation, as the adventurer killed by Scaly back then had been chasing after her trying to kill her along with him. In that kind of situation, the guild wouldn’t generally get involved as it was just a struggle between adventurers.

But... If Scaly ended up attacking adventurers guarding one of the cities under the guild, that would be a different situation he would find it difficult to get out of.

No attack the adventurers? Sure...

In response to hearing the warning from the dwarf on her back, Scaly could only silently roll her eyes in agreement.

Not because she was especially thrilled about giving up on the free experience that was the adventurers unlucky enough to find themselves trapped by the snow wolves outside the city, but instead because the sheer number of snow wolves around were more than enough for her to reach level 50... And after she reached level 50, it wouldn’t really matter much if she killed a few more adventurers, as she would have reached the maximum level of her current evolution anyway.

"Good... Just stay away from the adventurers and focus on the snow wolves on the side..." Seeing Scaly had agreed, Verdell couldn’t help letting out a quiet sigh a relief knowing he had managed to save the trapped group of adventurers from ending up dead at the hands of a greedy little dragon eager to increase its own strength.

Swish~

Not paying too much attention to what Verdell said, Scaly happily began charging towards the snow wolves that had surrounded the city in the distance.

Only stopping herself from rushing forth with all her strength to avoid drawing any unwanted attention from the more powerful snow wolves before she had the chance to start a massacre amidst the weaker snow wolves. Hoping those powerful adventurers trapped outside could continue keeping those stronger snow wolves occupied while she happily reaped the weaker snow wolves.

Luckily for her, though her scales didn’t completely blend in with the surrounding environment, they did reflect the sun at just the right angle. Making her almost invisible to the snow wolves focused on trying to bite their way through the magical barrier surrounding the city.

Grrr? Awooo-!

It was only when she was a little over a dozen meters away from the snow wolves that one of them happened to spot her- or more accurately the dwarf on her back, who didn’t exactly have the scales needed to better blend in with the environment.

THWACK-!

[Gained 2098 Exp]

Unfortunately for said snow wolf, it barely had the chance to howl before Scaly’s claw arrived and crushed it. Painting the white snow in a brilliant red color as it stood no chance in the face of Scaly’s strength. Dying the second her claw grabbed hold of its head and smacked it into the ground.

Awwoooo!

Grrr!

Still, the short howl before it found itself crushed to death beneath Scaly’s claw was more than enough to alert the rest of the snow wolves that something was happening behind them, as Scaly soon enough found the snow wolves before her shifting their attention away from the magical barrier towards her instead...

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Some of them not even wasting any time as they directly leaped forward towards her filled with killing intent after seeing their dead companion on the ground-

Thwack! Thud~

[Gained 2443 Exp]

[Gained 1982 Exp]

[Gained 2002 Exp]

[Gained...]

An action that didn’t exactly work out for them, as they soon joined their dead companion in becoming experience for Scaly.

But...

AWOOOOOO-!

This only seemed to anger them even further as they all came swarming towards her the next second. Throwing themselves at her without the slightest bit of care for their own wellbeing. Startling not just the dwarf on her back, but even Scaly herself, as she hadn’t anticipated the snow wolves would be so willing to throw themselves at her with everything they had. Having partly expected them to be awed by her strength before trying to run away.

Swish~ Ptsh!

Fwoosh-!

Not that it stopped her from responding to the aggression with her water magic cleaving down a dozen of them in a single strike, while Verdell sitting on her back similarly sprang into action using his fire magic to ignite a small fire storm that quickly swallowed up close to a hundred snow wolves at once.

Of course, this sudden chaotic entry into the battlefield soon enough caught the attention of not just the stronger snow wolves, but also the adventurers who were sitting on the walls of the city trying to fend off the seemingly endless waves of snow wolves from behind the cover of the magical barrier...

"What is that?"

"Reinforcement?"

"Isn’t the reinforcement caught up with those stronger snow wolves over there?"

"True... Maybe it’s an individual adventurer who happened to stumble upon our situation and decided to lend a hand?"

"Makes sense, though we are rather lucky, this adventurer should be a powerful monster tamer. Having even tamed some kind of dragon..."

The main conclusion of these adventurers who had originally been struggling to fend off the snow wolves being that Verdell was some powerful monster tamer who happened to have spotted the city struggling from afar and had decided to jump in and lend a hand in dealing with the snow wolves.

Given the sheer power he was currently displaying in the form of the dragon beneath him rampaging through the vast armies of snow wolves with little to no effort while he himself also had the time to use fire magic from time to time to blow up a large group of snow wolves, it was also a given that the stronger snow wolves that had noticed him upon his first entry into the battle turned their focus towards him instead of the group of adventurers that they had surrounded and were slowly exhausting.

After all, compared to the adventurers that had been trapped in one spot by them, Scaly and Verdell were far more destructive, as they were essentially running rampant through the weaker snow wolves mostly composed of snow wolves between level 50 and 60.

The rare few snow wolves whose strength exceeded level 100 among them didn’t exactly end up posing much of a threat to Scaly and Verdell either, as they instead ended up becoming a priority target for Scaly whenever they popped up and tried to fight them. Barely even raising their head up to howl in anger before a water blade came flying chopping off their heads.

Although this wouldn’t normally be that simple to accomplish with a water blade, with Scaly’s increase in strength, she was now more than capable of chopping off the head of an S Rank Monster with a single water blade if she set her mind to it.

Then again, one of the main reasons why it worked also had to do with how these snow wolves loved howling before engaging in combat. Giving her the perfect opportunity to take advantage of their lack of attention to throw out a water blade to end them before their howling came to an end...