"Beep... Emergency alert. A Triceratops and a Carnotaurus have been sighted 200 meters south of Route. All residents in the area, please seek shelter immediately."
In the dimly lit basement, only a few desk lamps remained on. Countless documents and dinosaur photographs lay scattered across the table, though the room's occupant seemed to have forgotten to turn off the radio before leaving.
"The Triceratops is a herbivorous dinosaur, easily identified by its three massive horns, two large ones above the eyes and a smaller one on the snout. It is generally docile, but its threat level is rated as Upper-Medium."
Following its integration as an official American government agency, the Department of Prehistoric Wildlife (D.P.W.) had been granted higher broad-spectrum authorities. It could now broadcast emergency hazard warnings over public airwaves, complete with brief primers to help civilians survive encounters.
"The Carnotaurus is a carnivorous dinosaur and a high-speed apex predator with the unique capability to alter its skin pigmentation for camouflage. Its threat level is rated as Extremely High."
The basement was vast, so large that the radio announcer's voice echoed off the concrete walls.
Aside from the desk, the perimeter of the room was lined with an array of civilian firearms and heavy-duty hunting gear. A small, decorative dinosaur skull, strung up on an iron chain, dangled from a heavy crossbow like a macabre ornament, sending a chill down the spine.
Bzzzz...
An old, poorly maintained lightbulb hummed under the strain of an unstable current, casting erratic, flickering shadows over the whiteboard below it.
The whiteboard displayed a massive map of the United States, pinned with multicolored tacks and various reference photos. The picture of Carnotaurus Two had a thick, aggressive red circle drawn around it, and a combat knife with a gleaming edge had been driven straight through the center, embedding itself deep into the board.
Tracing downward, the Mojave Preserve in California was heavily highlighted with a bright marker. Photos of Carlo and the White King were tacked to the left and right sides of the marked zone, framing it.
Pop...
With a sharp snap, the bulb burned out, plunging the whiteboard and the map into absolute darkness.
…
Deep within the forest, dappled sunlight filtered through the dense canopy, warming the flank of the Triceratops.
A gentle breeze rustled the leaves. The tranquility of the woods should have brought the dinosaur a sense of comfort and ease, but it did not dare let its guard down.
Because in the air, a second draft of wind had just materialized.
Inhale. Exhale.
The Triceratops couldn't see what was tracking it, but its survival instincts were screaming that something was deeply wrong.
Under normal circumstances, it would be securely integrated within its herd, but human interference had separated it from its companions. This meant there were no extra eyes to watch its blind spot.
Hoooof…
The Triceratops took a deep breath. Following the gentle breeze brushing against its hide, it sensed that it wasn't the only creature drawing oxygen in this clearing. There was another presence nearby, one roughly its own size, perhaps even larger.
Thud.
The sound of blades of grass compressing echoed from the surrounding foliage. The Triceratops snapped its gaze toward the source of the noise, but saw absolutely nothing.
The situation devolved into a tense standoff. The Triceratops did not dare make a reckless move, and the hidden predator mirrored its caution.
The wind gradually died down, but the leaves continued to rustle. The Triceratops overlooked this fatal discrepancy, keeping its eyes glued to the spot where the noise had originated.
Thud. Thud.Thud!
Bad!
A violent burst of heavy footsteps shattered the silence. The Triceratops whipped its head around, but it was a fraction of a second too late.
Carnotaurus Two reared her head back! Opening her relatively narrow jaws, she brought them down with everything she had, slamming her teeth into the Triceratops's flank.
The Triceratops's entire frame shuddered from the impact. However, Newton's third law applied; the violent, unchecked momentum bounced right back into the Carnotaurus's skull, sending a wave of disorientation through her brain.
The dizziness was fleeting. Carnotaurus Two recovered almost instantly, breaking into a sprint toward the Triceratops's tail to vanish back into the brush, though she didn't miss the opportunity to snap at the tail as she went.
The Triceratops slammed its forelimbs into the dirt, using its massive strength to pivot its body and drop its head for a retaliatory gore, but its attacker was already gone.
Carnotaurus Two had successfully faded back into the tree line, though the heavy thuds of her footsteps continued to ring in the Triceratops's ears.
Where is she?
Growl...
The footsteps grew heavier, accelerating rapidly. Carnotaurus Two lowered her skull, converting her momentum into a ramming charge, slamming into the Triceratops's side once again.
"Aunnng!"
The sickening crack of bone fractured the air alongside the Triceratops's pained cry. It lowered its center of gravity to maintain its footing, but the sheer kinetic force still skidded it sideways across the dirt.
Carnotaurus Two seemed highly specialized in this exact hit-and-run style of combat. Her movements were exceptionally fluid; without a single moment of deceleration, she melted back into the shadows of the forest.
"Aunnng!"
The Triceratops bellowed in pure rage. Realizing that staying in this dense cover would mean death by a thousand cuts, it ignored the searing pain in its fractured hind leg, put its head down, and crashed blindly through the brush in a bid for open ground.
It burst out of the tree line and onto a wide, vacant meadow. Breathing in ragged, heavy gasps, the Triceratops kicked up waves of green grass as it skidded to a halt in the center of the clearing, spinning around to face the forest edge.
Hoooof...
A silhouette mottled with shifting green and brown hues altered its pigmentation dynamically as it stepped from the dim canopy into the open sunlight. Carnotaurus Two exhaled a blast of hot air from her nostrils as she entered the clearing.
She was finally revealing her true form.
No, perhaps this still wasn't her natural state.
A deep, obsidian black began to bleed across the lower half of her torso, while a stark white skin tone crawled up her neck to claim her skull, punctuated by a few jagged black accents around her eye orbits.
Extended periods of solitary hunting had caused her survival skills to skyrocket. Whether it was her ambush tactics or her mastery over her color-changing camouflage, everything had become second nature to her. This newfound lethality was exactly why she possessed the confidence to challenge a Triceratops.
While a Triceratops was considered an ideal, prime target for a Giganotosaurus, to a Carnotaurus, a single miscalculation in a duel against those three horns meant instant death.
Ragged, rhythmic breathing.
Carnotaurus Two had no intention of abandoning her prize. She dropped her snout close to the soil, forcefully drawing fresh air into her lungs!
A heavy, roaring respiration, reminiscent of a galloping stallion or a wild muskox, reverberated in the Triceratops's ears. Carnotaurus Two could feel her heart hammering violently against her ribs as her lungs expanded to their absolute physical limits, bordering on a dull ache.
As the cold air flooded her chest, Carnotaurus Two snapped her head up, locking her eyes onto the Triceratops as her breathing stabilized into an eerie, silent rhythm.
Thump... Thump... Thump-thump-thump!
Carnotaurus Two broke into an explosive sprint, charging the Triceratops. Yet, her breathing remained as calm and metered as if she were at total rest, making the extreme physical exertion look like child's play.
The Triceratops stood its ground, bracing its weight and angling its massive brow horns directly at the incoming predator.
Twenty meters, ten meters, five meters...
Calculating the exact moment Carnotaurus Two would enter its strike zone, the Triceratops lunged forward a step, driving its head upward in a devastating thrust.
It was an attack that even a Giganotosaurus would have to respect, but here, it served as nothing more than a foil for Carnotaurus Two's deadly choreography.
Possessing an unnatural agility that seemed to defy the laws of inertia, Carnotaurus Two executed a sharp, 270-degree pivot-stop right on the spot.
The Triceratops's massive horns sliced through empty air, brushing past the Carnotaurus's tail as they whipped upward, leaving its entire flank completely exposed!
Having completed her spin, Carnotaurus Two was now positioned perfectly parallel to the herbivore. She did not squander the golden opportunity; dropping her body low, she lunged straight for the exposed neck.
"Aunnng!"
The Triceratops attempted to drop its weight to pin the predator beneath its massive frill, but Carnotaurus Two shifted her weight seamlessly, pressing herself tight against its side.
Releasing and re-clamping her jaws, Carnotaurus Two planted her right foot firmly onto the dinosaur's flank, utilizing her body weight to clamp down on the vulnerable section of the neck just behind the bony frill.
The immense, crushing pressure radiated through the Triceratops's entire body. Its breathing grew shallow and labored, and its vision began to dim. Slowly, its massive bulk listed to the side, collapsing heavily onto the grass.
"RoAR—!!"
The thrashing Triceratops gradually grew still. Carnotaurus Two released her bite, keeping her right foot pinned confidently to her quarry's flank. She threw her head back toward the sky, unleashing a piercing, triumphant roar of the victor.
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