So they were hunting me now. That had to be why these guys bothered to chase me down so far when I was a fraction of the size of their real prey. At least the calls were far off, but I could hear as the other pack members returned them that they were approaching my location. They came from the north, a direction which the sleeping Fenrirs didn’t block.

It also sounded like the xaptors were spread out, as if they were combing the forest, using advanced search techniques that humans had to be trained for if they wanted to join search and rescue squads. They really were clever.

Now was the time for me to put as much distance between us as I could. So I kept sprinting, at least until my stamina bar had fallen to a quarter. Then I returned to a steady trot, watching the bar slowly refill.

It felt like it would take hours.

And hey, maybe it would. After all, I was moving, not just relaxing and maybe sleeping.

But the calls never lost me. No matter how far I traveled through the thick jungle, the constant cries of the xaptors made me wish it was night again.

Oh, what I’d give for an Alpha Fenrir right now…

The packs seemed to not split the territory in a traditional fashion. If they did, would the xaptors be hunting me right now? They were either trespassing or… they were safe during the day.

Could the territories be simply split by time? Whatever the case, they were on my tail.

“Skraaaw!” I heard a xaptor cry out, louder now. They were close. I glanced at my stamina. A little over sixty percent. At least I burnt what I could earlier.

I climbed up a hill, cresting it and descending slowly, placing each foot carefully. At the bottom, I crossed a rocky stream, and rapid footsteps from behind me caught my attention.

At the top of the hill, a xaptor stood, its head twitching as it looked in every direction with its hawklike eyes. It raised its snout to the air, twisted its head to stare directly at me, smiling, and cried out.

They’re tracking the meat juice I’m covered in… aren’t they?

Now I needed to move. Fast.

I shot out and away from the xaptor as I heard the others return the call. The single xaptor atop the hill gave pursuit, but it jumped delicately down the steep rise, screeching in frustration as I dashed into the woods, vanishing from sight.

It was only a matter of time before more of those guys were after me. Now that I realized how they were following me, I was scanning the area anxiously. If I could find a source of water deep enough for me to submerge in, maybe I could shake them off.

I’d watched a show with my mother once, about the most wanted criminals that somehow managed to evade authority, and how they might’ve done it. One guy literally floated down a river, and the dogs that were tracking him lost him completely.

Maybe that could work, at least, it might if I didn’t have to deal with another Torpedon. I shook my head as I imagined what other creatures might be lurking in the depths, waiting for a plump baby dino to stupidly present itself.

Well, by then I might’ve burned off all the fat with all this running!

“Skraaaw!”

They were close again, this time multiple xaptors calling at once. I guessed the small ridge hadn’t held them back for long. They were nimble hunters, after all, and I would’ve admired them… if I was watching a movie.

But for as long as they hunted me? No. They were definitely not cool. These dinos were perhaps the opening sequence of a movie, hunting some poor baby dinosaur as it struggled in vain to escape them, maybe even toying with it when they caught up.

My stamina was dropping. Fast.

I stumbled as my foot slipped on a loose rock, and slammed into a tree.

Ow!

Raucous and jittery laughter sounded out from behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder to see the xaptors approaching slowly, sizing me up with their mocking eyes.

I pushed off the tree with my front arms, glancing toward a breakage of light through the trees and putting everything I had into my mad dash. In a movie, this scene might end with the baby dinosaur crashing into its mother, and the hungry predators instantly regretting their decision to hunt it as they looked up, and up, and up into the furious eyes of the parent.

But I knew, even as I sprinted toward the light, that no mother dino would be saving me today. If I had one, she’d have been there for me when I hatched, and all shell broke loose.

I could hear the xaptors breathing. They were almost upon me. And my stamina was almost empty. The creatures clicked menacingly.

This is what they do, isn’t it? Predators that hunt in packs exhaust the prey and then get them when they’re down, don’t they?

I was only surprised that they hadn’t slashed me or something to bleed me out.

Maybe Sailboat wanted me brought back alive so he could kill me himself.

Or maybe I’d just gotten lucky, and they were cocky.

All I knew was that if I tried to fight them, there was no way I could win. I’d seen what they’d done to that worm. Maybe I could take one, if it was weakened, but their group buff was simply too strong for me to survive beyond that.

The trees broke as I scrambled away from my pursuers and into the bright open plains. I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the lack of shade, and crashed face-first into a brown pillar of muscle, tipped with talons the size of my head. I fell to the ground, trembling, and looked up into the glaring yellow eyes of what I could only imagine was another Jungle God.

The head of the monster was nearly the size of Sailboat’s, but without accurate metrics, there was no way to say for sure. It seemed a bit shorter, though. Maybe.

This monster, however, wasn’t a spinosaurus. Nope, this one reminded me purely of a tyrannosaurus rex. A tyrannosaurus rex that had been birthed from the womb of an elder god taking a vacation in the Jurassic. An elder god with anger issues.

The skin was burnt sand, the color of the brown sugar my mom used in her delectable snickerdoodles. But somehow, on this dinosaur, it didn’t look so delicious.

Black spots dotted the T-Rex’s chest and head, the design resembling a sort of tribal hunter look, and two wickedly sharp and spiked horns sprouted from its skull, curling around the head like a deadly halo. A thick white scar ran down the side of its face, and droplets of something wet dripped down on me from its mouth.

A fearsome thunder rumbled from the creature’s bulky chest.

...Mommy?

As I stared at the dino in terror, the magical boxes lent me some clarity.

Rexcelsis, Chaotic Monarch [Lvl ???]

Motherf---