"Run!"
"Aunnng-roar—"
The deafening roar of Scientificus Tyrannosaurus exploded right beside the duo on the hillside. Perhaps it lacked the ancient, regal majesty of Rexy, but it was a true, ear-splitting shriek capable of shattering a creature's eardrums.
The crossbowman leapt and rolled, throwing himself clear of her immediate attack radius. He scrambled to raise his weapon and aim, but the sheer acoustic shockwave slammed into his brain, forcing him to drop the crossbow and clutch his ears in agony.
The net-gunner, utterly helpless in his panic, had no time to flee. Being closer to Scientificus Tyrannosaurus, the monstrous sonic blast knocked him flat on his back, leaving him screaming and desperately squeezing his hands over his ears.
The roar was loud and traveled far, but it was also brief. Yet, its echo seemed permanently seared into the minds of every living being present, refusing to fade.
Before the lingering dread of her roar could dissipate, Scientificus Tyrannosaurus brought her right foot crashing down onto the fallen hunter. Under the colossal weight, his bones instantly pulverized with a sickening crunch. Blood erupted from beneath her foot, spraying outward like a bursting piece of ripe fruit.
Witnessing this, the crossbowman was faced with a split-second choice between fleeing and killing. Once again, he chose the latter.
He yanked out a bolt and slowly drew back the heavy string of his crossbow, only to find his hands shaking so violently that he couldn't lock the bolt into the groove.
Thud...
A massive shadow completely engulfed him. The misaligned bolt slipped, snapping forward harmlessly and bouncing off the forehead of Scientificus Tyrannosaurus, who was now staring directly down at him.
The hunter didn't look up immediately. Instead, he stared blankly at his own trembling hands, paralyzed by shock.
I'm... afraid?
Why? Ever since he watched his own family get swallowed alive by dinosaurs, he had sworn an oath to slaughter every last one of them. So why was he feeling fear now?
He let out a self-deprecating laugh and forced himself to look up at the behemoth before him, only to be greeted by a yawning maw of razor-sharp teeth.
Compared to Carlo, Scientificus Tyrannosaurus might have possessed a somewhat more innocent and endearing appearance, but she was not a creature of mercy, especially not for a slaughterer like him.
Fangs tore deep into his flank, and blood flooded his throat. The crossbowman's vision went pitch black, but before he could even choke on his own blood, a sudden, blinding flash of light pierced his eyes.
Scientificus Tyrannosaurus watched as the human who had dared to attack her traced a graceful arc through the air, finally crashing hard onto the unyielding earth.
Letting out a low huff of satisfaction, she slowly built up momentum and charged down the slope toward the two vehicles still trying to corner Carnotaurus Two.
Clang!
Ignoring the violent shockwave vibrating through her own body, Carnotaurus Two slammed her flanks hard into the side of the pickup truck. This time, she had figured out the trick. Striking from a low angle upward, the force of her impact lifted the pickup high off its wheels, nearly flipping it on its side.
These hunters were infuriatingly persistent. A distance of less than 200 meters from the safety of the forest had been stretched into what felt like an eternity.
The humans had used their armored steel vehicles to block her path time and time again, completely exhausting her patience. Similarly, her agile, graceful dodging under the pincer attack of the two vehicles was pushing the hunters past their breaking point.
They were here to slaughter dinosaurs for sport, not to be humiliated and played by them.
"Stop messing around. Kill it."
"Agreed. By the way, why haven't we heard back from John and Doe?"
The hunters inside the two battered vehicles coordinated via their onboard comms.
Their vehicles had been heavily modified with soundproofing to better handle dinosaur tracking, and with the roar of their own engines drowning out the environment, they had completely missed the distant shrieks of agony.
The bolos-equipped truck locked its sights onto Carnotaurus Two, aiming to create an opening even if the shot missed. The whaling-harpoon truck did the same, ready to inflict a critical wound even if it wasn't a lethal blow.
"Roar—"
Unaware that the humans had shifted to lethal tactics, Carnotaurus Two braced herself for another collision as the two vehicles closed in on her again.
But at the final second before impact, a look of sheer bewilderment flashed across her face.
CRASH!
A vehicle was violently struck, sent airborne, and flipped 180 degrees through the air before slamming roof-first onto the grass. But it wasn't Carnotaurus Two's doing.
"Holy shit!"
The driver of the harpoon truck slammed on the brakes, stopping just short of his partner's rolling wreckage.
"Aunnng-roar—"
With a casual, effortless strike, Scientificus Tyrannosaurus had flipped the pickup truck, and she now bellowed a fierce threat at the remaining, undamaged vehicle.
She completely exposed her flank to Carnotaurus Two, a gesture that firmly established her alliance while demonstrating absolute trust in her fellow dinosaur. But...
Are you serious, sister?
Carnotaurus Two suddenly felt the same crushing sense of helplessness she used to experience back in the Primeval Ecological Zone, whenever a young Carlo would corner her to be his playmate. She had spent so much time ramming that truck, meticulously figuring out the physics and angles, only for this newcomer to flip it like a toy with a casual nudge.
Well... at least that meat she had shared hadn't gone to waste, right?
Shifting her weight, Carnotaurus Two circled around and blocked the remaining truck's only path of retreat.
Now, the hunters had become the hunted.
"Requesting backup! Requesting—"
Click.
Lucian cut off the emergency transmission. It wasn't that he was entirely indifferent to the lives of his men; he simply had far more important matters to attend to at the moment.
Namely, his cooperation with the head of the Department of Prehistoric Wildlife (D.P.W.), Dudley Cabrera.
Did he hate dinosaurs? Of course he did. Like most members of the Whitemask organization, he had lost family or friends to those prehistoric monsters.
However, through his extensive experience in the hunting grounds, he had come to face a grim reality: they could never kill every dinosaur.
The so-called prehistoric wildlife protection laws were nothing but a joke to the wealthy. To satisfy their own selfish desires, the elite would endlessly clone and resurrect these creatures in the shadows. That was the real reason why the dinosaur population kept growing instead of shrinking.
So, Lucian had pivoted. Aside from hunting dinosaurs for quick cash, he had established a lucrative partnership with Dudley.
On the surface, Dudley was a public champion for dinosaur conservation. In reality, he was one of the most notorious figureheads in the dinosaur smuggling black market.
Lucian wanted to cause a massive sensation. He didn't expect to rewrite the global order overnight, but he wanted to force humanity to realize that they were still the dominant masters of this planet, encouraging more people to take up arms and hunt down these creatures that should have stayed extinct.
But before any of that could happen, he needed to secure his alliance with Dudley.
Creak—
"What the hell did you do?!"
The moment Lucian stepped through the door, a furious roar greeted him. A cylindrical object rapidly expanded in his field of vision. Lucian caught it with practiced ease and realized it was a tightly rolled newspaper.
The headline blared: The Nublar Six Survived Months on an Island Full of Dinosaurs, Only to Perish in the Human World?
From the title alone, he understood exactly why Dudley had summoned him. Having navigated the cutthroat underworld for years, Lucian responded smoothly without missing a beat.
"I did exactly what you asked. I used the dinosaurs to put a little scare into the people who were poking their noses into your secrets."
"I told you to scare them, I didn't tell you to go and kill Brooklynn!"
"Dinosaurs are nothing but beasts; accidents happen. Besides, no one is looking into it too deeply anyway, right?"
Dudley slumped into his office chair, taking a deep, shuddering breath to compose himself.
"You're right. I lost my temper. I just hope the five who are still alive know how to keep their mouths shut."
Lucian nodded subtly, his expression remaining perfectly neutral as he offered a word of reassurance.
"Mm... we've been working together for a while now, and I trust your expertise," Dudley said, entering the core topic as his composure returned, a flicker of avarice crossing his features. "Your crew operates purely for the thrill of the slaughter. It just so happens I need a job done, and price is no object."
"What are the details?"
"The Mojave Preservation Area. Because of those 'Primeval' activist groups, my hands are tied. I need you to flush the dinosaurs out of hiding. Someone has their eyes on the big game in there."
Lucian nodded in agreement, maintaining his professional smile as he sat across from Dudley's desk to hammer out the details. Internally, however, he was ecstatic.
Well, well... it looks like the grand sensation is coming much sooner than expected~
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