Chapter 91: A footprint and a mystery

With one last bite, Sobek completely swallowed the last remnants of a sinraptor. The flesh and the organs quickly disappeared down his throat. "I don't understand why we don't split up" Buck grumbled lying nearby. "With the strength you gave me I could hunt alone, and by dividing us we would catch many more preys" Sobek cleaned his muzzle with his claws. After spent a lot of time together, the relationship between him and Buck had intensified to the point that the t-rex no longer merely followed orders but also gave advice. Very often in hunting it was he who suggested the strategies that then they used. Sobek had been right: a relationship of fidelity between two individuals was much better than the simple one of master/servant. Of course, that didn't mean Buck had become his equal: the hierarchy was well known to both of them. Sobek knew that he was in charge and Buck knew that his duty was to serve: their difference in strength determined these roles, according to the inviolable and eternal laws of the pack and the nature. But at least on the formal level the two had come close, to the point that Buck was not afraid to propose different plans and strategies, which is absolutely impossible in a normal relationship between a pack leader and a member of the pack, where he was only the first to decide everything. The advantages of this were evident: Buck knew the forest much better than Sobek and it was only thanks to him that the spinosaurus had managed to progress so much in such a short time. However, there were cases in which Sobek did not admit exceptions. This was one of them. "I have already explained to you, I must be the one to kill them. Otherwise they are not worth anything" he said with an authoritarian tone. "You don't worry about that and keep helping me hunt them" Sobek had tried to explain to Buck that he possessed abilities, but the tyrannosaurus had not been able to understand, so he had in the end held on to the excuse of 'special powers'. Unfortunately, Buck couldn't remember that to improve Sobek's powers he had to kill his preys himself. After all, since Buck didn't have a System from his point of view they were just hunting and eating normally. Sobek was now very close to the finish line. In the past weeks he had already upgraded [Linguistics] to level 4/5 and only needed 16 more skill points to reach level 5/5. As far as experience points were concerned, he hadn't earned too many, since he only ate carnivores and left all other preys to Buck, but he had already accumulated 230,000 points. Even though the threshold for leveling up was now 560,000 and increasing by 100,000 with each level up, leveling up at that rate was not a so much distant milestone. The largest dinosaur (and animal) that ever existed was the argentinosaurus, a sauropod at least 35 meters long. Sobek already reached 29 meters, so the record for the largest animal ever was was about to pass to him. Of course, that didn't mean he would be also the tallest: some sauropods, like the sauroposeidon, reached 18 meters in height! Advancing only 0.3 meters in height with each level up, Sobek would have had to reach at least level 60 before reaching that incredible figure. However, he didn't care much about obtaining such records. They were a personal satisfaction, sure, but nothing more. After all, he was already big and powerful enough to not have to fear anything, except the humans obviously. Just as he was thinking about humans, a familiar smell crept into his nostrils and alerted him. He stood up and immediately activated [Ambush]. "Uh? What the...?" Buck exclaimed sensing a change in Sobek's appearance. He hastened to explain: "I activated one of my powers. When I disappear from your field of vision you will no longer see me. Stay here and don't move". His tone was clear and firm, one that did not allow for replies. Buck nodded and lay down on the ground, still remaining alert: if there was anything capable of worrying his pack leader, then it must be a rather dangerous enemy. Buck wondered what it was: maybe another giant dinosaur? Sobek hurried to the lake following the scent of the humans. He couldn't be wrong: his senses had refined too much since the last evolution, he knew where they were with pinpoint precision. Humans so deep in the forest? It seemed absurd... When he was on the shore of the lake he saw a very large ship stop and drop anchor near the beach, while several lifeboats were lowered into the water. There were at least a hundred humans. "What did they come here for?" ****** "The bones are broken in several places. It is clear that it was eaten" Nick murmured looking at the huge vertebrae. Sarah nodded, but she wasn't going to throw hypotheses so quickly. "This proves nothing: dead animals are always eaten by scavengers. Look, there are several footprints near the forest: many animals have passed this way" When the group spotted the huge skeleton of a recently dead mamenchisaurus, they initially thought it was dead of old age or some sort of sickness. However, its position and the fact that it had died right by the lake, as well as the fact that most of the bones had been broken, had sparked doubt in the group, who had hurried to stop the ship and go down to check. "Maybe broken bones don't prove anything, but the marks from these teeth do" Ian said. "I am not an expert on the subject, but I know for a fact that even tyrannosaurs don't have such big teeth. The predator that left them must be very large" Sarah looked at the signs Ian indicated and couldn't help but agree with him. She felt a shiver down his spine: those holes were so large that even the marks left by a megalodon would pale in comparison. The creature that had left them must have been at least twenty-five meters long. Sarah touched the broken bones. "It's impossible. There is no predator SO large" she muttered, looking at the teeth marks. "Why do you say so, love? Can you prove it doesn't exist?" Ian laughed. "Science doesn't know it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist" "Oh, come on, Professor Malcolm. If there was such a big animal, we would not have noticed it for some time?" Eddie retorted, not at all convinced, even if you could see from his expression that he was rather scared. Nick began to check the surroundings. He noticed that there were very large footprints behind the skeleton. "Do you recognize them?" he asked Sarah. The woman hurried to join him. She didn't need to inspect the footprints to find out what they belonged to. "Of course: tyrannosaurus. But it's impossible that it killed the mamenchisaurus. It probably just came later to steal the leftovers..." "Hey, scientists" Roland's voice shook them. "I think you missed a little detail" The hunter was calling them from a short distance away, practically at the gates of the forest. The group joined him and there they became paralyzed. Sarah nearly choked on her saliva, Eddie nearly tripped and passed out, Nick was stunned with his camera in hand, and even Ian dropped his amused air. Before them was a footprint of enormous size, so large that a man could lie down in it. "Probably the owner continued along the shore and the water erased the other footprints, that's why we haven't seen them before" Roland said. Sarah knelt before the giant footprint. From her expression everyone could clearly see her dismay. How to blame her: the creature that had left that footprint must have been gigantic! Nick started photographing the footprint. Ian knelt beside his girlfriend. "Tell me you know what it is" whispered in the ear of the biologist. Though she couldn't stand it at times, Sarah had known Ian for years and knew when the man was afraid even if he played tough. "I haven't the slightest idea" she admitted. "I can't even classify it. From the shape of the footprint, I say that it is neither from the tyrannosaurus nor the abelisaurs family..." "And what could it be then?" Roland grumbled approaching them. Even if he was there to hunt, it was still his duty to protect Sarah's group, so he had to know what they were up against. "I think a dinosaur at least 28 meters long, structured and built to hunt and kill. But..." Sarah started scratching a spot on what should have been the sole of the dinosaur's foot. "There is something wrong. Such a large animal should have to weigh several tens of tons, but the footprint is too shallow. Based on its depth, the animal should weigh about only fourteen tons. And not only that: there is also the shape. Such a large tarsus is typical of fish-eating dinosaurs, since it makes it easier for them to swim. Yet the structure of the paw is different from that of normal fish-eating dinosaurs: the phalanges are more robust and massive and the metatarsus seems more flexible, suitable for moving on rough terrain, typical characteristics of an exclusively terrestrial predator". Sarah nibbled at her own saliva. "If I had to guess, I would say that it is an evolution of some fish-eating dinosaur that has abandoned the water for the mainland. An evolved baryonyx, suchomimus or..." "A spinosaurus" Nick said. "I think this is the evolution of a spinosaurus. Look at the position of the fingers: only spinosaurs have them so wide, because they help to support the weight" Sarah had already thought about it. The shape of the footprint was very reminiscent of that of spinosaurs, but it certainly belonged to something much larger and more dangerous. "Could it be the spinosaurus we're looking for?" Roland asked. "I doubt it. The Spinosaurus superior would never have been able to kill an adult sauropod" Sarah replied. "It must be something else. Something bigger and much, much more dangerous" "And for sure lethal" Ian concluded while he stood up. "I don't know about you, but I return to the ship" "I agree" Sarah said, promptly followed by Eddie and Nick. Roland was staring at the footprint with a strange light in his eye. Nick shook his head and said: "Let it go. These footprints and remains are several weeks old. Whatever left it behind is no longer here, it is useless to look for it" Roland gave him a murderous look, but then replied: "Yes... you're right. It would be useless". He was a hunter and he was able to see how old the footprints were. "Let's go back to the ship. Do we proceed with the original plan?" "Yes" Sarah replied. "Groping around is useless. The natives know the forest better than we do: they will know how to help us"