Jake sprinted along the riverbank, knowing that if he tired out for even a second, the raptors would catch him. Energised by his own terror, he continued running while the Dakotaraptors were in hot pursuit of him. Then, Jake began to slow down, his leg muscles burning while the raptors were still going strong. Three of them were already just millimetres from his throat. A claw nicked the back of his neck, and flecks of blood sprayed out of the fresh wound. Jake was no dinosaur nerd, but he knew these creatures had refined their bodies through millions of years of continuous evolution to become some of the speediest creatures in the dinosaur kingdom. He was fortunate that he had noticed them before they had him, but even with his head start,

"Crap, crap, they're almost on me!" he yelled to no one.

Just then, an idea flashed through his whirling mind. Knowing that the raptors' feathers might bog them down in the water, he braced himself for the worst, before leaping into the brackish, murky waters of the delta. Paddling through the currents, he gasped dramatically for air, lungs nearly going to burst after the exhausting chase. In the corner of his eye, he saw two of the raptors beginning to slow down, their feathers drenched like the soggy fur of a wet dog, and they started to turn back towards the riverbank. Jake's hope returned-he might not end up as a carcass here after all!

The riverbank grew and grew in size as Jake approached it, and he knew the safety of the land was close. He just had to splash through the water a little more, and he would be fine.

Fingers finding their grip on the squelchy brown mud of the riverbank, the teenager used his last reserves of strength to clamber onto land. A fresh gulp of air entered his lungs as he took a moment to catch his breath.

Jake then heard the raptors' screeches of frustration, and whipped his head back to find his pursuers wading back to the opposite bank with empty stomachs. A slight grin crept up on his face as he saw them turn tail, before he noticed something...wrong.

"One, two, three, four..weren't there supposed to be five of 'em? Where's the fifth one?" Jake mumbled to himself as he counted the raptors swimming back to shore. He began to sweat.

Eyebrows crinkling and lips drawing back in a grimace, he was about to move when he heard a hiss. And after that came an alien clicking noise and the brandishing of terribly sharp claws. The sounds came from a large tree. "Oh God..." the words came out in a hushed, terrified whisper.

As Jake heard those animalistic noises, he knew what was behind him.

Too late.

Jake began to attempt to escape, but the raptor was far too quick for him, its lithe, feathered body on him in the blink of an eye. The teen felt the sheer weight of the predatory animal on top of his spine, and his face flushed red as he coughed repeatedly while the raptor bore down on him even more. The creature had pounced on him right next to the delta, so Jake could feel its water seeping through the corner of his lips. Guess it's a good time to enjoy a last drink...he thought.

Nearby, a Sauroposeidon had uprooted and slammed a towering, immensely heavy tree to get at the topmost leaves, but the enormous plant had crashed into the water, sending creatures drinking there running helter-skelter for cover. The forty-ton sauropod stomping into the water made matters even worse.As the tree collapsed like a fallen skyscraper building, it punched into the delta, and the currents drastically changed as the weight of the tree and sauropod bore down on them, from a few mild waves to a tiny tsunami.

Jake then caught a glimpse of the powerful currents, his eyes boggled, and he pawed at the ground with the Dakotaraptor still on him, desperately trying to find the strength in him to escape. But he couldn't! His left arm began failing him.

Lady Luck was not smiling upon Jake now, and the currents washed over him and the raptor. Dizziness overcame him as a blanket of water threw itself over his frail little body, and all was dark after that...

Just a couple yards from the delta, herbivores grazed on the plentiful vegetation, the small ones just plucking a few leaves from each plant, while the larger ones consumed dozens of kilograms of ferns, cycads and grass. The biggest of all, the titanic sauropods with their powerful, immense bodies demanding at least a ton of food a day, ploughed through acres of foliage without breaking a sweat (they actually couldn't sweat as they had no sweat glands) .

Shane kept his distance from the feeding herbivores, thanks to his cowardly nature. This time, being a coward was sort of good as many of the dinosaurs grazing near the delta were heavily armed with body armour, scythe-like spikes and horns, thick frills and sheer size to deter even the largest predators living in the area. While he lay in the shade of a large rain tree, he could not help but marvel at these creatures. No scientist, no matter how great could have known about the huge, colourful flaps of skin hanging from the necks of several sauropods, the quills running down the tails of ceratopsians and hadrosaurs, the enormous vocal sacs and the thick reserves of fat hung along the tails of others...from just the age-old bones of these creatures. They looked almost nothing like the dinosaurs Shane grew up with, dragging tails and heads with skin thinly stretched across them giving them a deathly, emaciated-looking face. Who would have known that their pelts were not just green and brown scales, but had a dizzying array of other features no man would have known about. No man except himself.

Grazing alone in the vegetation was a Triceratops herd, consisting of about twenty-four dinosaurs with a large, bulky leader at the front of the herd. The dominant male, most likely. The beast had a towering, bony frill with a brilliant golden sheen, complete eye-like patterns on it, its back bristling with tiny quills and its robust, clawed forelimbs pawed at the grass. The other herd members were either drab-looking females or rambunctious juveniles playing while the adults fed. If there was such a thing as an unstoppable force, this herd might be it.

Everything seemed normal at first, some individuals wandered down to the delta to cool off and quench their thirst, while others continued to graze. However, as Natalie continued observing the herd, several members of the group strayed away from the others and began walking towards a clump of odd-looking plants. Their flowers resembled squid mantles and each plant had a hoodlike leaf growing just behind the flower. Just then, Natalie knew what the oddball plant was: a skunk cabbage, notorious for leaving a severe burning sensation in the mouth plus a choking effect in the throat if you tried to consume it.

The Triceratopses ambled over to the skunk cabbage, and ripped them right out of the earth, dirt flying in every direction as the cabbage was hauled out, roots dangling from the dinosaurs' beaks. They then proceeded to eat them, and somehow, they showed no sign of suffering, even going on to plough through the entire skunk cabbage clump.

Natalie gazed at her surroundings, seeing scattered clumps of skunk cabbage throughout the area, but apart from the ceratopsians such as Triceratops and Diabloceratops, none of the herbivores even went near the cabbage, preferring to munch on plants that did not pack so much of a punch. The palaeontologist knew that the ceratopsians were certainly not the only large herbivores in the vicinity as sauropods, hadrosaurs, iguanodonts, ankylosaurs and a lone Huayangosaurus made their presence clear, and they were tough competition for ceratopsians in terms of eating as all of those herbivores required vast amounts of food a day to survive. If Triceratops was going to live as a species, it was going to have to evolve ways of coping with its competitors, and one way to do that was to be able to eat food which others avoided. And to do that, the ceratopsians were going to have to become resistant to whatever those usually-avoided plants dished out.

"Oi, there's something happening here!" Alan yelled. That caught the others' attention, and they rushed Yeah over to see what it was.

An Edmontosaurus herd was, like the other creatures in the area, feeding. They were the second largest duckbill dinosaur to exist, and their mouths jammed with rows upon rows of molar-like tooth batteries, allowing them to grind tough, fibrous vegetation with astonishing efficiency.

These particular Edmontosaurus were greyish-black, with brown mottled dotting their upper body and tiny plates of bone running down their spines, a fatty but powerful tail swishing at the back and their horse-shaped heads topped with duckbills shearing through the local foliage.

The unsuspecting herbivores were being eyed by a relatively large, bird like animal. While it had feathers and the beginnings of wings on its arms, the animal also spotted a slim, gracile predatory body, and gnashing, blade-like fangs packed inside a head that suggested the animal was absolutely not a bird, and the reptilian snout poking through the feathers confirmed it. Its most formidable weapon however, were the scimitar-shaped claws on each of its second toes. A line of midnight-black feathers ran from its green eyes to the tip of its stiff, silky feathered tail. A tiny clump of orange feathers topped it head like the crown of a rooster.

"It's definitely a dromaeosaur. Shaped like a Deinonychus but twice as large..." Natalie pondered. "I reckon it's a Dakotaraptor, the second largest raptor to exist." she concluded.

"Yeah? Well, whatever it is, it ain't very smart, trying to kill such big ass things herded together." Alan said.

"H-hold on, I think I-I saw s-something m-move." Shane stuttered.

The grass wavered, and the Edmontosauruses' attention was averted. A beefy Edmontosaurus turned round and came face to face with not one, not two, but four raptors, positioned in an attack stance.

"The lil' one got some backup, eh?" Alan smirked.

The beefy one backed away the moment he saw the five carnivores spring from the grass, as did his herd mates, their hoofed feet raised in defence. Undeterred by their prey's threat display, the raptors took a few more bold steps forward, singling out a suitable individual to satisfy their appetite.

Seeing this, most of the herd bolted off, wanting to leave the most vulnerable of them behind for the carnivores to eat so that they would not be a burden to the other, healthier ones. As the herd stampeded off, drawing attention from the other herbivores with their wild honks and grunts of intense fear, only the beefy one was left, daring (or stupid) enough to fight for his life.

The raptors surrounded their prey, a tactic they used to hunt large, powerful creatures. Hissing and snarling, their eyes glinted menacingly as their claws twitched and their breathing becoming a rapid pant.

"So they do hunt in packs." Natalie said in awe.

Suddenly, the alpha raptor squawked like an agitated macaw, giving the rest the signal to pounce, and they did, springing from the ground onto their prey's back, jaws clamped around their victim as the Edmontosaurus helplessly flailed its limbs around, freaking out as the five-meter assassins tore out raw muscle, sinew and skin from its body. Most of the other creatures in the area were not interested in getting involved in the bloodbath, so they slowly, but surely dispersed from the area, leaving the trio as the only ones left to spectate the battle for survival in front of them.

As the fight got dirtier, one of the raptors got thrown off by the bucking and thrashing hadrosaur, and the Edmontosaurus began to escape, with three raptors clinging to its flanks and the fourth one stumbling up from the ground before glancing at its quarry, which had begun to flee into the thicket. "That was something." Alan mumbled. "A paleontological breakthrough, if there was anyone else to share this with." Natalie said in awe as she recollected the events that just occured.

"If you mean something to work up my appetite then, yeah, you're dead right." the paleontologist added.

"H-heh..." Shane chuckled nervously.

Alan began digging in the bushes and shrubs growing near the riverbank and soon enough, was clutching a multicoloured handful of plump, juicy berries. "I guess this'll have to do." he said. "Man, my meat cravings are getting the better of me though!"

As if nature had heard the man's words and granted his fervent wish, from the murkiness of the delta, the currents washed up a raptor corpse. The carcass was completely intact, save for one eye and two toes that had been ripped off by ravenous fish and crustaceans. Of course, having been in the water for so long, the entire raptor was drenched, but that wasn't going to stop Alan from setting up a skewer and campfire and roasting the corpse. Using the sharp rock that he used during the hunting trip, he began hacking away at the dead raptor's wings, and after a good few minutes finally sawed then off.

"I'm a self-confessed fried chicken lover, but THIS, this is heavenly..." he said dreamily while he stuck the raptor wings onto the skewer. The others ambled over to savour the roasted wings, and they were almost able to taste them as they watched them roast on the skewer.

As they ate, the men washed up in the riverwater. Shane was quite hesitant to enter the water, but a wry snicker from Alan set him off enough to begin wading in the river, soaking his shirt and wringing it dry. He smelt it, and let out a splutter of disgust.

Just then, Shane saw something else wash up onto the riverbanks. But this time, it was moving slightly, chest heaving and eyes shut. As if it was...still alive. Curiosity piqued, he stumbled off, and when he saw what that something else was, he knew he had to alert the others.

"G-guys...th-there's...theres..."

"Yeah?" Alan replied.

"Th-there's a p-person here...and I think he's still alive..."

The person was unconscious, but very much alive . With a face and body that looked like a transition from a child to adult, it was pretty clear that he was in his mid teens, pimples infesting his hairline and his arms having more defined muscles. His chin was rather handsome, chiseled and full. He was not and his pulse was...almost non-existent.

"CPR anyone?" Natalie asked. "He mightn't be dead."

Shane shrugged.

"I'm no medical expert but CPR should be simple enough. Just gotta..." Alan said as he bent down towards the unconscious teenager, his mouth right above him, before the Navy officer inhaled and breathed out air into the teen's lips.

The teen's eyelids began to flutter, lips trembling as if he had something to say, before he took a few ragged breaths. Then, his eyes, angry red veins streaking across them, opened up.

Suddenly, the teen's eyes bulged as wide as saucers, from groggy slits to nearly popping out of their sockets. "Holy shit!" he yelped.

"Calm down, kid. We're good folks, don't need to get yourself worked up." Alan said reassuringly, very different from his usual gruff voice.

The teen's pupils still shifted around, before getting ahold of himself, calming down. "M-my name's Jake, Jake Stark. I'm pretty sure you guys might find my surname familiar."

"Heh, g-good one." Shane said.

"All joking aside, how did you end up here in the first place?" Natalie asked.

"I don't remember much. All I can think of is that I was running away from a bird thingy, then a wave swept me and it into the river, and after that, bam, I don't recall anything else." Jake admitted.

"Wait, who are you guys anyway? How do I know you're not, well.." the teen added.

"I'm Alan, Navy officer, this one's Natalie, and the stutterer, he goes by the name Shane." Alan said.

"Aight." Jake grunted.

"How Long have ya been here?"

"Dunno. 'Bout five days, I reckon. Where is this place anyway?"

"

Sniffing the air, Jake smelt something cooking, before noticing the skewered subadult raptor roasting above the crackling, spitting flames of the campfire. "Help yourself." Alan said to the teenager.

"Thanks mate!"

"Woah, you got a pretty thick accent, kid, heh." Alan chuckled

"I'm from Australia." the teen explained. The word Australia sound more like "Strawlian" when he spoke.

The others went over, and what would've been a hearty, scrumptious meal had become a lump of charred feathers. "S-shoulda watched the f-fire." Shane stammered. "It's good, berries should do in the meantime." Natalie grunted with a taint of displeasure in her words.

Evening began to set in, and the almighty red sheen of the sun faded to a mild orange, the light reflecting against the grey, mildly rippling water. Azure as the sky was, it began turning from blue to a twilight purple, the last vestiges of the setting sun barely noticeable in the velvety, cloudless skyline. As they watched, hypnotised by the awesome scene, the permeating smoke smelt a little better.

"Damn. Nice way to end off a crazy day." Alan said, the beginnings of a smile forming on his face."

"Yeah." The others said in unison.

Then Alan had flashbacks of the night before, when the three of them were attacked by a pack of Guanlongs. They're probably gonna be back. Best to be prepared, he thought. While the others were gazing at the sunset, Jake decided to make the most out of the charred remains of the campfire. Rubbing a pair of sticks together, he channeled all his strength into creating a spark.

Five minutes later, his efforts bore fruits. Several red-hot sparks flew from between the sticks, attracting the others' attention. His hands already raw and aching from the process, Jake continued, furiously scratching the two sticks together. Then a flame, about the size of a birthday candle's, burst onto one of the sticks. "Niiice." Alan cooed.

The flame soon grew larger as it continued to burn, and soon it clearly illuminated everything within a five meter radius. Now, with the aid of their makeshift torch, they could make out the outline of dozing hadrosaurs and a sauropod ambling away from the delta. A raptor pack was scampering away, possibly to find shelter for the night.

Suddenly, Shane felt something was amiss. Recalling the events that had transpired yesterday, he whirled round to investigate what was going on. There seemed to be nothing. No, he thought, he had been through enough to know better. He scrambled behind the others in his usual cowardly manner, arousing the others' suspicion.

Then, the noise of crunching leaf litter resounded through the air. A twig snapped, but otherwise the darkness-draped wilderness seemed undisturbed. Crickets chirped their nighttime melody, and occasionally, one could hear the sound of a frightened Guanlong scurrying away or the wingbeats of a colourful Darwinopterus. Moonlight lit the area in its warm presence, calming the quartet's palpitating hearts.

"A-are we...s-safe?" Shane stuttered fearfully.

"Could be, might not." Alan said bluntly.

Out of the blue, the tip of what seemed like a long reptilian jaw pierced the foliage. A sinuous red tongue poked through a jail of razor fangs. Natalie clutched Alan's shoulders with quivering, clammy hands, while Jake and Shane crept anxiously away.

The jaws then moved back into the trees.

"This thing is playing mind games, I swear it is!" Alan growled.

"Or maybe, it's really left us alone if it's own accord," Natalie said with a tinge of uncertainty in her words. "It's probably best we find a place to settle down for the night."

"Hm, yeah, I agree. Let's get moving." the Navy officer beckoned the rest. Shane, still shaken from earlier, was lagging behind.

Suddenly, Shane took a fleeting glance at the trees, just in case. "W-wait, isn't t-that...I've s-s-seen those eyes..eyes...!" A glinting yellow orb appeared for a split-second, before vanishing without a trace.

"Say what?" Alan spat.

A branch disintegrated into a million splinters underneath the hulking allosaur's enormous weight, leaves bursting out in a storm as the dinosaur zeroed in on the four humans as they were reminded what a powerhouse of an animal they were looking at. It began looking at them with intense scrutiny. Even one of them would make the perfect midnight snack for its young, which were waiting back at the nest for their food.

"Stand back!" Alan hollered at the others.

"No, mate, I can do something." Jake boldly said.

"What can you do besides getting yourself eviscerated?!" Natalie yelled.

Jake then raised his makeshift torch, and grimaced. That seemed to catch the Allosaurus' attention, and it locked its eyes into its new target.

Oh no, it's not fleeing. Aren't animals afraid of fire? Jake's internal monologue cried. He thought of an idea, but discarded it a moment later. It was a stupid, messed up one.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jake sighted a squat, heavily built, spiked creature drinking from the delta by the light of his torch. The animal, with its formidable-looking spikes, seemed it could do some real damage, and an idea formed in his mind. But perspiration dribbled down his forehead and his hands quivered, as he knew full well that if he did not angle this right, it could very well be the end of him as he gazed into the still-distracted allosaur's maw.

Hurling the torch at the spot which the spiked creature was lapping up water from, Jake lured the fascinated allosaur away from the quad, the beast sprinting towards the torch which landed safely in the river with a 'plop'.

The spiked creature, which in truth was a Gastonia, caught sight of the approaching carnivore, and instantly switched from a passive, drinking pose to an intimidating defensive stance, the enormous scythe-like spikes on its shoulders giving it a frightening profile. Halting in front of the Gastonia, the Allosaurus sized its victim up, and raised the porcupine-like quills studding it's spine up to intimidate the herbivore. Like the Diabloceratops, however, the Gastonia stood its ground, grunting defiantly at its predator.

As enormous as its courage was, the same could not be said about its nighttime eyesight, though. The allosaur, with its far superior night vision, could recognise this creature had armoured scutes on its back, coupled with machete-like spikes studding its flanks and it would be an extremely tough nut to crack. It circled the slow-witted Gastonia, trying to find a chink in the herbivore 's armour. Surely there was one, there was no such thing as a foolproof defence. It tried to penetrate the creature's shield, enlarging its jaw gape to accommodate a bigger bite, but recoiled as five of its fangs shattered once they came into contact with the armour. Seemingly unaffected by the blow, the Gastonia hugged the ground, crouching down to protect its tender underbelly from a well-delivered bite. Now there was no way to reach the underbelly, the odds stacking greatly in the herbivore's favour.

The allosaur decided to investigate the back of the Gastonia. The herbivore was unable to see clearly in the gloom of the night, and all it could do was wildly swing its spike-edged tail around in hopes of striking its opponent, whilst the Allosaurus continued to target its rear.

Deadly mistake.

Too near came the Allosaurus to the Gastonia's tail, one whose edge was laced with spike-shaped, flesh-shearing blades. The herbivore swung its flexible tail towards the carnivore's ankle, and you would expect the tail to score a deep, blood-soaked gash across its target. But no, the results were much worse.

The blades clasped themselves neatly around the Allosaurus's scaly ankle, and pain; unbridled, raw pain hit the allosaur's leg like a 20-pound sledgehammer. Slicing through flesh, rupturing blood vessels, the blades worked like scissor blades, ruthlessly cutting away at the predator's ankle. At first, they were only superficial, but the blades kept cutting, skin ripped away, shreds of it dangling on the Gastonia's tail spikes, and red bloody flesh was revealed, soon to also be scissored off to show the bone.

One of the spikes had severed a vital artery, causing tremendous blood loss. Echoing through the night were the carnivore's pitiful moans of anguish, a sound torn from the pits of its soul.

Unable to keep its balance due to its severely injured ankle, the allosaur collapsed in a thrashing heap of muscle, teeth, claws and crests, kicking up a cloud of dust in its wake, digging its claws into the ground. Its mind, all thoughts of hunger clouded over by desperation, panic and pure fear.

It knew this was going to be its final hunt.