Chapter 17: Ichthyovenator

The following day Sobek immediately resumed the hunt. This time, nothing would have stopped him from moving to a new area. The day before he had gained some skill points, but this time he was desperate to find another large predatory dinosaur to defeat and devour. He swam for kilometers, keeping clear of any spot where crocodiles or snakes might hide. He noticed several freshwater sharks on the way, but he completely ignored them: he had no intention of stopping and risking being attacked again. He had learned from what had happened to him with the alligator, and while he had been lucky that time, he was not going to risk it again; after all, if the alligator had hit him even a little, it could have damaged his delicate sail irreparably, which meant causing severe blood loss. Sobek would not have risked that much: some small sharks weren't worth it. Eventually he came to an area where the mangroves were slightly denser, forming a real forest above the swamp. He was far enough away from his islet, so he could sniff out preys otherwise out of his range of smells. Unfortunately once again he found no baryonyx, but he didn't despair. The mangrove forest was a perfect place for a fish-eating dinosaur: the water was shallow and consequently predators were scarce, while fishes abounded. Even if there were no baryonyx, he could find something new. He just had to search carefully and use all his senses to the best of his senses. In fact, very soon he intercepted a new smell. Although he had never smell something like that, he knew it came from a fish-eating dinosaur. Species very close in evolution possessed very similar smells, consequently a smell that vaguely resembled another animal belonged surely to a similar creature. And the smell that Sobek had intercepted was very reminiscent of a spinosaurus, so it certainly belonged to a fish-eating dinosaur similar to him. He found it after a while. [Prey identified: Ichthyovenator laosensis, spinosauridae. Experience: 32,000 points] The ichthyovenator was a distant relative of the spinosaurus; Sobek could immediately see it was some kind of cousin of his. In fact, it too had a sail on its back, although not nearly as impressive as his. If he didn't remember wrong, paleontologists on Earth estimated it could reach 9 meters in length, but Sobek was sure that the one in front of him was slightly longer. The ichthyovenator was fishing, so Sobek could sneak up on it using [Ambush]. However, there was a problem: the water at that point barely reached his kneecaps. The use of [Swim speed] would have been very limited: he could no longer swim at insane speed against the opponent and use his body as a bullet to kill the dinosaur instantly. And in the same way he would hardly have been able to drown it: the shallow water would have favored the ichthyovenator who, by pressing the swamp bed with its paws, could have forced him to let it go. Consequently, there was the concrete danger that that could turning into a fight to the death. The ichthyovenator was smaller than him, but Sobek feared it might damage his back sail. If the dinosaur had done that it could have condemned him to a slow and painful death. Sobek wasn't someone who liked to take risks. He had to force the ichthyovenator to leave the shallow water, so that it would have lost its position of strength. As he had already ascertained with the baryonyx, the fish-eating dinosaurs were very territorial: if they spotted a rival they didn't stop until they would have completely chased it from their area. And given the shortage of other fish-eating dinosaurs, Sobek believed that the ichthyovenator's territory spanned much of the mangrove forest, including deep water. If he showed up and pretended to be scared and then leave with his tail between his legs, the ichthyovenator would have chased him until it had completely driven him out of its zone. So he could lure it into deep water, where he could use [Swim speed] and easily defeat it. To succeed, however, he would have had to take a risk. He couldn't escape too fast and he couldn't abandon the aggressive intent, or the ichthyovenator would have been convinced that it had scared him enough and let him go. If he wanted the ichthyovenator continued to chase him, he would have had to retreat backwards, so that his intent still seemed to be threatening. Which meant taking the risk of stepping on 'things' that were not good. After all, he certainly didn't need a crocodile or an alligator to threaten him: the swamps were full of poisonous fishes and molluscs hiding under the mud. Some of them even emitted electrical discharges, as in the case of some eels. Stepping on one of these creatures in the presence of another large predator like the ichthyovenator could result in a death sentence. Sobek had to act with caution. Using [Ambush] he studied a path thoroughly, making sure there were no hidden dangers. He chose a sandy path, away from the roots of the mangroves, where hardly any fish would have chosen to hide; for further safety he rasped the ground to ward off any threat. After memorizing it, he chose to take action. The ichthyovenator stepped back slightly as it saw him emerge from the water, but it soon recovered and began to growl at him. Perhaps if Sobek had been an adult spinosaurus it would have thought twice before challenging him, but in front of one of 'just' 11 meters the ichthyovenator felt it could play it. Sobek showed a blatantly aggressive attitude: he advanced and roared at his opponent, showing his teeth and claws and pounding the ground with force. All signs that meant: 'leave now or it ends very badly for you'. Even between different species that had no language in common, those signals were impossible to confuse. But the ichthyovenator wasn't a coward. It roared even harder and advanced against him as well. Its body began to submerge slightly. That was exactly what Sobek wanted. Now was time for the difficult part of the plan. Sobek began to back away, trying to remember precisely where to put his feet. Trying not to be noticed, he constantly checked with his eyes that he had not gone off the path he had set: that plan couldn't afford any mistakes. Perhaps encouraged by his apparent escape, the ichthyovenator roared with even more force and began to wag its claws violently. Sobek reciprocated: he didn't want his opponent to think it could stop. It still had to chase him. The ichthyovenator was now touching the water with its belly. A little bit more... Sobek was already submerged enough to swim by now, so he raised his paws and avoided touching the bottom. He felt much more comfortable now. He continued to back away. A few more steps... Finally the ichthyovenator was submerged almost to the head. It was time! Sobek activated [Swim speed] and rotated his body at insane speed; the ichthyovenator was unable to dodge its tail which landed straight on its nose at 120 km/h. The impact wasn't enough to kill the dinosaur, but it was enough to disorient it just as much as Sobek needed. With [Swim speed] he was quickly on top of it and grabbed it by the neck, throwing it under the water, then he jumped on its back and grabbed it firmly with his forelimbs. Just like he had done to the baryonyx, he aimed to suffucate the dinosaur rather than kill it with his claws and teeth. The ichthyovenator had no hope of lifting a body weighing more than five tons. In addition, Sobek created even more strength by swimming with his legs. If they had been in shallow water, the ichthyovenator could have pushed itself with its paws, but now that they were in deep water it had to dive at least one meter deep before doing that, and Sobek was holding it firmly to prevent it from doing so. The ichthyovenator was strong, but Sobek was much stronger. His muscles were more developed and evolved than those of his distant cousin. After ten minutes of fighting, the ichthyovenator stopped moving. Its suffocated body floated in the water with no more resistance. Finally victorious, Sobek was able to breathe a sigh of relief. It was definitely one of the most difficult challenges he had ever encountered until now. However, he couldn't deny that despite his tiredness, he felt more victorious than ever before. Dragging the corpse to his islet would have taken too long, so he just ate it there. The water was quite shallow and the presence of the ichthyovenator demonstrated the absence of large predators, so he could enjoy his meal calmly. The ichthyovenator was slightly larger than the baryonyx, and so he earned him 5.5 skill points! He was now able to improve [Ambush] once more. He was proud of himself while he saw the skill level rise to 3/5. A couple more improvements and he would have been able to maximize it! The ichtyovenator had also granted him 32,000 experience points. Added to those he already owned, he had 51,900. He only needed 50,000 to level up. Without thinking twice, he immediatly advanced to level 12.