Diablos—a powerful Flying Wyvern species renowned for its immense strength and resilient physique.
Though herbivorous, its power is anything but "vegetarian." Never assume it's easy prey. That explosive temper drives it to charge any intruder in its territory, only stopping after goring and crushing them with its massive horns.
Black Diablos is what a female Diablos becomes during mating season, when hormonal changes darken its carapace. Compared to a regular Diablos, a Black Diablos is even more aggressive. It would fearlessly charge a Deviljho head-on without hesitation.
Right now, standing before Logan was exactly one such black-skinned "pregnant lady." He couldn't help but lament his rotten luck—just drying some jerky, and he runs into this kind of trouble.
Seeing those scarlet little eyes lock onto him from afar, head already lowering, Logan knew it was time to bolt. Before the Black Diablos could charge, he let out a short roar and split off from Zhu Peiniang, fleeing in opposite directions.
His powerful limbs pounded the yellowish-brown earth. Each footfall recycled over 50% of his kinetic energy through the robust tendons along his limbs and spine, plus the thick pads under his paws. The faster he ran, the easier it became—he wasn't worried about being caught.
Not only that, he deliberately slowed a bit. His discharge organs activated, sending arcs leaping joyfully across his sleek scales with constant crackling to draw the Black Diablos's attention.
It worked perfectly. Highly sensitive to sound, the Black Diablos barely shifted its gaze from him.
Coal-gray smoke billowed from its fang-filled maw. Excited, blood-red patterns glowed along its massive horns. Then it charged like a heavy truck. Its enormous feet thundered across the barren land in endless booms.
An adult Anjanath is about 10 to 13 meters long and weighs 7 to 9 tons. This Black Diablos conservatively exceeded 20 meters; with its thick armor, it likely weighed tens—perhaps over a hundred—tons.
Imagine a colossus like that sprinting over 100 km/h on land, still capable of sharp turns and leaps. What monstrous power, what incredibly tough muscles and bones that required!
Logan clearly felt the ground tremble with each charge. Tiny pebbles bounced as if in a minor earthquake.
Mass times velocity—plus that rock-hard carapace and huge horns—could punch through and flip a main battle tank in an instant.
Facing this mounting pressure, Logan wasn't overly worried. He even had leisure to adjust his posture mid-run to keep the drying jerky secure on his back.
After all, accelerating a loaded truck is easy—just floor it. But turning?
In the next moment, his foreclaws dug deep into the ground. His rear followed the massive inertia, arching his spine into a shocking bow-like curve.
As internal forelimb muscles twisted, a subtle spiral force emerged, whipping his hindquarters sideways.
Like a drifting car, Logan's forward momentum executed a perfect 90-degree turn. The pursuing Black Diablos wasn't so agile—greater mass meant greater inertia. It plowed straight into the dirt.
A deafening crash. Its twin massive horns gouged deep furrows in the hard ground, extending twenty to thirty meters before halting the charge. By the time it regained posture, Logan was long gone.
Enraged, the Black Diablos refused to let it end. It lowered its head sharply. Powerful forelimbs dug furiously, vanishing into the hard earth in a blink.
A special organ within Diablos activated efficiently. An invisible energy field enveloped it. Miraculously, soil and stone it touched flowed like water, parting smoothly along its body.
In an instant, the 20-meter-plus behemoth disappeared, leaving only a huge crater—as if the earth had been torn open.
Witnessing this, Logan felt a rant stuck in his throat. This defied all reason—even a tunnel boring machine couldn't match that speed.
Holy crap! How does something that huge burrow like that? I didn't see any specialized digging organs. Its body isn't even streamlined—it's got those cumbersome wings—yet it loves living underground?
He grumbled inwardly but never slowed. He paid no mind to the vanished Black Diablos.
It couldn't catch him on the surface—how could it underground? Wishful thinking.
Soon, he reunited with Zhu Peiniang. They'd deliberately looped through the marsh area—its abundant groundwater acted as a natural barrier, making burrowing extremely difficult for Diablos. An easy escape.
After the fierce Lavasioth battle, baking all afternoon under the sun, then this chase—even Logan's robust physique was exhausted.
Back in the nest, he flopped lazily, unwilling to move. Zhu Peiniang beside him was even worse—sprawled like a dead dog, tongue nearly lolling to cool off.
Still, the trip wasn't fruitless. Besides several hundred pounds of jerky, the Lavasioth yielded 8 evolution points: 5 from the hunt, 3 from eating.
Logan already had plans for these points—all into digestion, absorption, and nutrient storage.
The jerky-drying ordeal taught him a hard lesson: no more of that next time.
Working hard all afternoon—and likely tomorrow too—for mediocre results. Dried meat tasted poor anyway. Better to just hunt fresh prey.
But creatures here were universally massive—even ordinary Kelbi dwarfed his previous life's cows, let alone Aptonoth larger than African elephants. Casual hunts often yielded more than he and Zhu Peiniang could eat—wasteful. Increasing their capacity was urgent.
(End of Chapter 35)