Chapter 36: Carcharodontosaurus

Once he finished to consume the carcass of the allosaurus, Sobek returned to the river and walked away. That area was no longer safe: the carcass of the maiasaura would have soon attracted more and more predators. Sobek could have just eaten it, but he wasn't going to waste time on something that couldn't provide him any experience points. He would have eaten a carcass if he was desperate, but he wasn't so at all since his skills allowed him to obtain fresh food every day. That carcass could therefore be left to the other carnivores of the forest; as he left, Sobek had even been able to see one. [Prey identified: Acrocanthosaurus atokensis, carcharodontosauridae. Experience: 65,000 points] If Sobek didn't remember wrong, the acrocanthosaurus was an apex predator during the Late Jurassic period; it was at least 12 meters long and since its size it probably weight more than 6 tons. Despite the promising investment, Sobek had preferred to not take the risk. That predator didn't seem much stronger than the allosaurus, but it was better to mantain the distance anyway. The battle against the allosaurus, even though he had been victorious, had still shown him how difficult it was to take down such predatory dinosaurs. The acrocanthosaurus was even bigger and more massive, so it was better not to face it or he would have risked being injured and consequently contracting serious diseases and infections. Before fighting such dangerous carnivorous dinosaurs again he wanted to at least increase [Regeneration] one more time. Once his body gained the ability to heal quickly enough to prevent bacteria and viruses from spreading, he would feel confident enough to face such predators. So he continued his journey across the river. He had been lucky enough to come across some crocodiles named purussaurs. Sobek remembered that purussaurus was the animal with the strongest bite ever existed, even stronger than the one of the t-rex or the megalodon; however, they weren't too big. An adult purussaurus could reach mor than 10 meters in length, but this ones were probably juveniles or young adults: none of them surpassed 5 meters. With [Ambush] and [Deadly claws], Sobek could kill them before they could even notice his presence. Each of them had given him 5 skill points, and so he was finally able to update [Regeneration] to level 2/5: this time he had no second thoughts. In the following days he didn't have much luck, managing to catch very few preys. His current experience level was just 112,000 points, so he still had a long way to go to level up. Luckily, given his current size, he didn't need to grow too quickly since he was already huge, but he still wouldn't have minded growing so big that he would have discouraged any opponent before he even got to fight. If he had started hunting herbivores on land he probably would have increased rapidly, but he hadn't been lucky enough to cross other hadrosaurids, and he had no intention of fighting armored creatures such as stegosaurids or ceratopsids. Despite his strength and skill, fighting creatures armed with giant spears, armored like tanks, and as big as African elephants (if not bigger) frightened him more than a little: if a triceratops had hit him in the chest, it could easily kill him, and if a stegosaurus or ankylosaurus had hit him with their tails, they would have crippled him. However, one day he had an unexpected stroke of luck. As he swam in the river he saw a large figure protrude from the forest. Sobek immediately hid with [Ambush] and prepared to escape with [Swim speed] in the worst case scenario, and kept an eye on the situation almost without ever blinking, waiting to see what it was. And soon, the huge body of a stegosaurus came to light. From what Sobek had learned during his stay in that world, the stegosaurs behaved a bit like elephants: the females lived in large herds, but the males preferred a more solitary life, at least until came the time to mate. Judging by the size of the stegosaurus and the color of its plates, Sobek was pretty sure it was a male sub-adult who had just fled the nest. He considered attacking it. That stegosaurus wasn't as large as the adult specimens, and it certainly had neither the experience nor the skills that it would have acquired with age; therefore, if Sobek had attacked it from the water he could have dragged it into the river easily. All he had to do was jump on him and push him into the water, and at that point the victory would have been his without a shadow of a doubt. However, before he could decide what to do, a roar shook the air. Sobek felt his spine quiver, thinking it was a tyrannosaurus, but the creature that appeared before his eyes was quite different. It had three fingers for each paws and it was much more slim, all in contrast with the bulky body of a t-rex. It had just a little mantle of feathers and its muzzle was longer and thinner than the one of the king of dinosaurs. It wasn't a tyrannosaurus... but it was still a predator that could only be called an apex. [Prey identified: Carcharodontosaurus saharicus, carcharodontosauridae. Experience: 80,000 points] Sobek felt short of breath. The carcharodontosaurus was one of the largest predators ever, even bigger than the t-rex, even if only in length and not in weight. With its 13 meters of length, it was an apex predator during the Late Jurassic period. In its natural habitat, it had no rivals. Unlike the tyrannosaurus, which hunted in pairs, the carcharodontosaurus was an abelisaurid's cousin and like them had a more solitary lifestyle. Its bite wasn't as strong as the t-rex's, but it was still capable of lacerating and killing. In short, it was lesser deadly than the king of the dinosaurs, but that didn't mean it wasn't very dangerous. For Sobek, it was far better to avoid fighting with such monstrous beast. The carcharodontosaurus pounced on the stegosaurus, which took a defensive position by twirling its spiked tail. Unfortunately for the poor herbivore, however, being a sub-adult it was still very inexperienced and had had the misfortune to come across an extremely specialized predator, who on the contrary seemed to know perfectly well what it was doing. The carcharodontosaurus attacked by pretending to aim for the animal's neck; the stegosaurus panicked and rotated its body to remove its delicate throat from the carnivore's teeth, but in doing so exposed its blind spot. Without being able to see the carcharodontosaurus anymore, it wagged its tail without any strategy, allowing the carnivore to easily overcome it. The predator bit one of the stegosaurus's legs and dragged it up, opening a deep wound. The stegosaurus bellowed in pain and frantically wagged its tail, but the carcharodontosaurus had already let go and walked away. It no longer needed to fight: it just had to wait for the stegosaurus to bleed to death. Very often predators acted like this: fighting to the death between preys and predators was rare, because the predator often retreated after inflicting a fatal wound on the prey and then just let time do its killing. The stegosaurus seemed to be aware of this and tried in vain to get away from the carcharodontosaurus, and dived into the river as if hoping that the water would stop the bleeding. Several fishes began to crowd around the wound, feeding on the blood and damaged tissue, and also cleaned it of bacteria. Sobek noticed that the fishes appeared to be performing some sort of wound healing: the blood had already stopped coming out and there didn't seem to be any signs of infection. If the stegosaurus had managed to escape, maybe it could even survive... However, an evil idea began to form in his mind. He would never have dared to attack a stegosaurus in its prime on land... but now the animal was in the water, injured, and it wasn't even an adult. He couldn't miss such an opportunity! With a leap, he canceled [Ambush] and emerged from the water jumping on top of the stegosaurus. Both the poor herbivore and the carcharodontosaurus were visibly confused, but Sobek didn't care. Thanks to [Swim speed] he quickly reached the stegosaurus's neck and ripped it clean. The animal died within a few seconds. The carcass of the large herbivore remained floating in the water, and Sobek grabbed it greedily. Behind him there was a series of splashes and roars: it was clear that the carcharodontosaurus hadn't taken this theft well. How to blame it: it was as if someone were going to rob an employee the same day he got his pay. But Sobek was certainly not the type to be scared of. "Sorry, man. In ths world, the first to take it is the one that enjoy it!" he said in his mind, then he dragged the stegosaurus away and used [Swim speed] to outmatch the carcharodontosaurus. Hearing the angry animal roar behind him, Sobek almost burst out laughing.