Chapter 16: Giants among giants

THUMP. Sobek was awakened by a vibration. THUMP. Memory reminded him of the t-rex's footsteps, which made him shiver. However, he quickly understood that it couldn't be the case: a tyrannosaurus wasn't that heavy. Those footsteps seemed to have been produced directly by a mountain that had been magically given legs and had begun to walk. THUMP. Sobek stood up, eager to find out what was causing that sound. However, when sleep completely abandoned his eyes and he was able to focus, he almost jumped back! Next to the islet tha he had turned into his home there were a group of real behemoths that were peacefully crossing the swamp. They had huge necks at least nine meters long and just one of their legs was taller than him! [Prey identified: Dreadnoughtus schrani, titanosauridae. Experience: 200,000 points] Sobek was stuck. For the first time he met the giants of prehistory: the sauropods! Sauropods were the largest land animals ever to appear on Earth. Elephants and mammoths were just little cows in comparison. The largest sauropod ever known, the argentinosaurus, measured 35 meters in length, more than a blue whale! Some of them could even exceed one hundred tons! Sobek couldn't take his eyes off them. They were wonderful animals and their every trait evoked a sense of might. Looking at them, Sobek felt very small, even though he was still a ten-meter-long predator. Who knows how the little humans would have felt next to such enormous beasts! The sauropods in front of him were dreadnoughtus, gigantic herbivores which, although not the largest in their family, reached 25-26 meters in length. The neck alone could exceeded 11 meters. No wonder they were walking in shallow water without the slightest worry: which predator would have been insane enough to attack them? Even the largest crocodile would have thought twice before messing with those giants. Such animals had no natural enemies. Sobek feared for a moment that they would have approached his islet, since in that case they would have surely destroyed his bed; even though he could easily run away - he was much faster than them, after all - the sauropods would have ruined his little outpost and he would have had to do the job all over again. But fortunately, they passed at a safe distance: apart from a little tremor from their heavy footsteps that caused some leaves to fall from the mangroves, they did no other damage. Even though each one of them could provided him 200,000 experience points, Sobek had no intention of antagonizing such large animals. Although they seemed slow and vulnerable, they were actually very dangerous creatures: even one little push of their shoulders could have broken all his bones. Sobek then chose to stay on his islet until they passed over, so as not to risk frightening them. It still had a long way to go before it could afford to challenge a pack of adult sauropods. Even so he was still able to get his breakfast: the water near the islet had begun to fill with movement, as the fishes fled frightened by the huge sauropods. Sobek just had to reach out to grab an onchopristis. It was nearly eight meters long, but Sobek's jaws and claws were enough to hold it back. It didn't take long for the fish to suffocate. Sobek found that even though he only upgraded it to level 1/5, [Rapid digestion] was indeed an efficient skill: it would normally have taken a full day to him to finish such a large prey, as he would have had to eat the pieces separately and wait digesting them one by one, but now he finished eating the fish around just eleven in the morning, much faster than the usual. He hoped that the onchopristis, since it was a very big fish, could give him some skill points, but no: apparently its mouth was too small and its body not suitable for catching animals due to its long snout, and consequently it couldn't eat land creatures, so it wasn't classified as a carnivore. At least it granted him 13,000 experience points. With them, Sobek's experience points rose to 47,600, allowing him to advance to level 11. He was now a predator 11 meters long and 3.9 meters high. A little longer and he would have grown up to be as big as his parents. Sobek could have easily advanced hunting a group of onchopristis, but the experience points weren't just what he was aiming for. He wanted to improve his skills, so he had to hunt other predators. With this plan in mind he tried to track down another baryonyx, but unfortunately the range covered by his nose was limited and apparently there wasn't one nearby, so he could do nothing but search for it manually; so he dived into the water and began to search. First he had to get out of the range of his nose: he had determined that there were no baryonyx there, so there was no point in looking for them there. While traveling he kept well away from the reeds, fearing to alert some crocodile or alligator. In any case, during his swimming he was able to find something palatable: in front of him appeared a grayish-colored fish with the unmistakable shape of a shark. [Prey identified: Glyphis gangeticus, carcharhinidae. Experience: 3,000 points] The glyphis was a species of freshwater shark still existing on present-day Earth. It was two meters long, so Sobek hoped it could provide more skill points than a stethacanthus. With [Swim speed] it was very easy to catch. The glyphis granted him 1.5 skill points. As he was intent on finishing devouring it, however, his instincts screamed: the water was moving behind him. He stepped aside just in time before a large brown body hit him. The creature swam in front of him and then charged back, displaying a rectiliform body and a face bristling with teeth. [Prey identified: Alligator mississippiensis, alligatoridae. Experience: 12,000 points] "Shit!" Sobek exclaimed in his head. That was the exactly situation he hoped to avoid. If he hadn't dodged in time, the alligator could have bitten his sail and caused him internal bleeding! He thought of running away, but then he changed his mind. The alligator was 'only' four meters long: he could beat it. That stupid reptile had probably attacked him because he looked awkward and clumsy, but he would have discovered how in wrong it was! Sobek was no easy prey, not for an animal like that at least! The alligator was only half the length of an onchopristis, but its lethality meant it provided an almost identical amount of experience points. However, just as Sobek could easily kill an onchopristis or a baryonyx, he could also defeat an alligator. Seeing that the reptile was about to attack again, he activated [Swim speed] and disappeared from its sight. His speed had reached such level that the water moved with so much force that it stunned the alligator. On Earth, some sharks had evolve long tails to hit the water and create shockwaves that stunned the fishes. They were call thresher sharks. Sobek now had used the same principle against the alligator. While the reptile was intent on recovering Sobek attack it from behind and grabbed it by the neck, locking its forelegs with his claws to prevent it from kicking. The alligator recovered as soon as it felt something was choking it and it squirmed hard, but Sobek didn't give up. The two of them continued that wrestling match for quite some time. It was an endurance contest, the one who kept the most strength won. However, Sobek had no intention of prolonging the fight for long: he couldn't hold his breath for very long. His plan was another. With one of his claws he began to tear apart the base of the alligator's front legs. The reptile's skin was hard and thick, but Sobek had very strong forelimbs. Although with a little effort he managed to open a hole. At that point he let it go and used [Swim speed] to get away and he returned to the surface, but not too far away from the reptile. Finally free the alligator tried to swim again, but it found itself unable to do so: the muscles that moved its front legs had been severed. It could no longer swim: its hind legs were insufficient to direct a long, tapered body in a certain direction. Sobek had to do nothing but wait. After an hour the alligator stopped moving completely: it was suffocated to death. Even though it could hold its breath for a long time, it couldn't do it forever. Seeing this, Sobek dived again and carried the carcass to the surface. That was enough meal for the day. It would have taken him a long time to finish it, even with [Rapid digestion], so he might as well go back to the islet and eat calmly. However, he could be satisfied: the alligator earned him 3 skill points. In a single day, he had gained 4.5 skill points. Sure, it was still less than the amount he would have gotten from hunting a baryonyx, but at least it was almost half the amount needed to improve [Ambush]. For that day he could be satisfied.