Chapter 54: On the verge of downfall

Sobek concluded that this was absolutly not his day. If he still had the gift of speech he would probably have cursed God and any other deity known and not known to humanity in at least fifty different ways. His greatest fear had come true: two large carnivores were in front of him ready to fight, and he had no way to escape because behind him were humans armed from feet to teeth. He was literally in the middle of a crossfire. If he had at least maximized [Regeneration] he would have been calmer, because he could have at least healed immediately from bites or gunshots; he would just have had to be careful to not get hit in a vital spot. Instead, the skills was still only at level 3/5. Even though his healing speed was already much faster than that of any normal living creature, it was still too slow to be of any use to him in that moment. Sobek screamed of anger in his head. God had said she wasn't going to intervene in his life, but sometimes he had the impression that someone was having fun making things difficult for him! Was he really sure that the mad creator of that messy universe hadn't been making fun of him? Seriously, couldn't he sometimes have had a little luck, instead of running into one problem after another? Of course, it was also his fault. He should have gone away immediatly as soon as the little girl was delivered, but instead he had remained to watch. Watch for what, after all? That was everything alright? That the humans take the girl? That they weren't bad people? It was obvious that they would have taken care of her, after all why on earth would so many humans have been in the forest if they weren't a rescue expedition? He simply had been an idiot to worry about it. And when the humans had spotted him, instead of turning back, what had he done? Had he run away as quickly as possible? No! He went out from the forest to greet the little girl who was coming to say goodbye to him! How could he have been so stupid? If he had left immediately, he would have been in the river by now, moving away from that place; the little girl would have returned home with her family and the torvosaurs would have never found him. It would have been a happy ending for everyone. Instead, he had wasted too much time! And now he had the torvosaurs on one side and the armed humans on the other. He had no way to escape and now he could only face the opponents that he had worked so hard to avoid! He looked at the two carnivores in front of him. By cutting the terrain he had shown that he was a extremely dangerous opponent, absolutely not an easy prey. This had made the torvosaurs desist from a frontal assault, but they were recovering quickly and were studying a new strategy. Sobek knew that a win was very difficult. It had the size advantage, and not only that: in terms of strength, agility and endurance it was superior to the torvosaurs in every respect. And he also had the skills. Even if [Regeneration] wasn't at its maximum, he could still care less about injuries than a normal animal and he didn't have to fear infections or septicemia; and with [Deadly claws] at level 4/5, one single shot was enough to kill or at least seriously injure whatever creature that didn't have an extremely hard bone shell or that wasn't made of steel. In a one-on-one battle, he would surely have been the winner: a lonely torvosaurus wasn't nearly as dangerous as a carcharodontosaurus, and Sobek had already proved that he was capable of defeating that giant. But this time, that was not the case. He was alone, while the torvosaurs were two; this meant that they had many more attacks and strategies available, ranging from attacking him from multiple fronts to taking him from behind.. He couldn't even try to back away or the humans would shoot him in the back. Apparently he had no choice: he could only face his new deadly opponents. Sobek concentrated. His claws were now capable of bending iron. If he had managed to hit one of the torvosaurs even for just one single time, he would have sent it to the ground and perhaps even smashed its skull. The problem was that the torvosaurs were very agile and they could avoid his blows. Also, since there were two of them, a single second of distraction or hesitation from Sobek could cost him his life. Either way, he couldn't let them make the first move or he wouldn't have had hope. Like the harsh and ruthless laws of nature taught, whoever made the first move almost always had the advantage. As that wise man once said, the best defense is attack! He let out a roar and hurled himself at the nearest torvosaurus; the carnivore backed away, evidently frightened to see a dinosaur twice its size coming up against it, but it recovered quickly and charged with the help of its companion. Sobek waved his claws trying to hit at least one of them. The two torvosaurs quickly dodged the blows and attempted to bite him from below. But even Sobek wasn't in bad shape in terms of agility and avoided the attack, taking advantage of the opening to try to inflict a deadly claw. Unfortunately, the target torvosaurus dodged at the last moment and it was hit only by grazing; three deep, one meter-long wounds opened along its side making blood gush like a red-water fountain. The wounds were so deep that not only the skin and flesh of the torvosaurus had been ripped off, but also the underlying muscles had been cut and exposed to the air as if they were butter cut by a knife. The torvosaurus roared in pain and seemed to lose its balance; Sobek had no intention to miss that chance and he wanted to take advantage of its weakness and disorientation to give the final blow to the dinosaur, but its companion got in the way and forced him to turn his attention to it. As he had predicted, two dinosaurs, even if smaller, had the advantage over a single one. Size and power could only lose against cooperation and mutual help. If he hadn't been able to eliminate at least one of them, Sobek would never have been able to reverse that dangerous situation. The wounded torvosaurus charged back furiously. It roared and showed its knife-sharp teeth. It was evident that it was angry; clearly, he hadn't liked being hurt, especially with wounds so deep and painful. The two predators lined up on Sobek's sides and began attacking him at the same time. Fortunately, Sobek had a very large field of view, so he was able to see both of them clearly; he could thanks his spinosaurus' inheritance, which granted him a view from both sides. Due to this and his first evolution, he only had a small blind spot in the centre of the head, while all the other sides were completely under his gaze. With this characteristic, the torvosaurs struggled to overcome his defenses even if there were two and they were attacking him from two different sides. Using also the tail he tried to manage them, but it was impossible to concentrate on two fronts at the same time. In fact, very soon the torvosaurus he had already injured managed to find an opening and bit him in the shoulder. For Sobek it was as if thousands of sharp knives pierced his skin. He clearly felt his shoulder blade crack. He roared in painful; never in his life had ever felt so much pain. Everything that hurted him before was nothing. The powerful carcharodontosaurus' bite on his sail now seemed like a wasp sting. It was like a hydraulic press was crushing him, with the exception that the press wasn't flat like the one in factories, but it was covered with blades that penetrated his flesh as if they were giant needles. The other torvosaurus, seizing the opportunity, bit him in the neck. Sobek roared again for the pain. The jaws of the torvosaurs weren't strong enough to break its bones, but the wounds were deep and they became more serious every second. Using their weight, the two carnivores forced Sobek to low. The spinosaurus realized with horror that they were aimed at preventing him from using his claws, his best weapon, making him to fall to the ground. In that moment he was truly panicked. It didn't care how much he could resist, he couldn't free himself: the strength of the two carnivores was too superior to his. Even with all his power, there is no way he could lift more than nine tons of weight that were pressing on his neck and shoulder. He had no hope. At that moment he was convinced that he would die. For the first time since he was reincarnated, Sobek felt the real fear. But suddenly the torvosaurus that was holding his neck let him go. Sobek didn't know what had happened, but he didn't care: he rolled onto his side and moved his claw towards the one who was still biting his shoulder. The torvosaurus didn't have time to see the attack: before it could do something a curved claw of almost half a meter pierced its skull. The dinosaur gave a few spasms as its eyes widened and a rattle emerged from the depths of its throat; it struggled for a moment to cling to life, then its body became soft and heavy and its eyes lost their light. It was dead. Sobek shook off the torvosaurus corpse from him, then he concentrated on the other one. He discovered that it was nearby and that it was dripping with blood as it roared in pain and struggled to not fall to the ground, blood emerging from the holes left by a barrage of large-caliber bullets. Bullets that kept coming from the human camp faster than the speed of sound, followed by the roar of the rifles that had dropped them. Sobek needed a moment to understand what was happening. "Are the humans fighting the torvosaurus?"