[Note: Because Pyroraptors are not cold-resistant, the species here has been replaced with Imperobator.]
Hummm—
The dashboard inside the transport plane spun crazily. Having lost power, its altitude plummeted continuously, and the red warning lights flashed relentlessly.
"This plane is going down! We have to eject right now!"
The pilot, Kayla, issued the ultimate ultimatum. For Owen, who had once served in the U.S. Marines, skydiving wasn't quite second nature, but he was certainly well-acquainted with it. Except... wasn't there something missing from your ejection seat?
"You don't have a parachute?!"
"I didn't expect to have passengers!"
Sound of crunching snow.
Carlo walked unhurriedly along the frozen riverbed across the snowfield. The transport plane trailing black smoke swept across right above his head, aircraft debris scattering across the landscape. Red firelight carrying a pungent gunpowder odor wafted into his nasal passages, yet Carlo acted as though nothing had happened at all, single-mindedly pushing forward toward the dam.
What, never seen a plane crash before?
Sizzle—
Tiny sparks drifted into Carlo's nasal cavity, only to instantly ignite the residual gunpowder left behind from when he had swallowed an artillery shell raw earlier!
The flame flared up in an instant, causing Carlo's cheeks to flush faintly red!
Puff...
Carlo simply felt a tickle in his nose and violently sneezed, instantly blasting two long streams of fire straight out of his nostrils!
Maybe it was time to clear out his nasal passages.
Carlo halted his steps, turned to face the river, looked at the frost blanketing its surface, and simply lifted his right foot to step down gently.
Bang! Crack-crack-crack...
The ice sheet was far more fragile than Carlo had imagined. No... perhaps his physical strength was just too terrifying?
The entire ice sheet, a full forty meters wide, shattered directly into pieces. In the center where Carlo had stepped, not a single fragment of broken ice was larger than ten square centimeters.
Carlo nearly stepped into the freezing icy water due to momentum, though his expression remained entirely unchanged, as if he had long grown accustomed to his utter incongruity with this world.
Swish—
He submerged his head into the icy water, then slowly leveled his skull, letting the bone-chilling cold sweep through the interior of his nasal passages before slowly straightening his body up and violently blowing the water out onto the nearby snow.
After finishing all this, Carlo subconsciously shook his body. After all, what he had just done was practically the dinosaur equivalent of choking on water, and the foreign sensation inside his nasal cavity was still somewhat uncomfortable.
Hm? There seems to be a familiar scent... No, it feels like more than one.
Carlo raised his head, intending to sniff out the scent he had just caught, but instead spotted a white mushroom drifting high up in the air.
Not gonna lie, this was definitely his first time seeing such a thing.
The transport plane had already brushed against the dam and plunged into the upstream riverbed. Claire, with the unanimous agreement of Owen and Kayla, had deployed the ejection seat and parachute.
However, Lord Quetzalcoatlus apparently wasn't pleased. How could such an ugly abomination be allowed to appear within my territory?
With a steep dive sweeping across the sky, its slender, sharp beak tore an opening right into the parachute, causing it to accelerate its descent!
Hahaha! This belongs to my—
[Aerial Deterrence System Activated]
A sharp, electric-shock-like tingling sensation surged through its brain. The Quetzalcoatlus was prohibited from flying at altitudes exceeding 150 meters, but the mountainous terrain generally sat at a high elevation, leaving it no choice but to land back on the ground.
And as luck would have it, it landed right in front of Carlo once more.
Uh... Hello? Just call me Little Wind.
Sound of a low growl.
Carlo's gaze followed the creature back down to the ground. Though he couldn't understand it, nor could he sense the Quetzalcoatlus's emotional fluctuations, judging by the creature's vividly shifting expressions, it had pretty much surrendered to cowardice.
Sound of a muffled grunt.
Carlo let out a light chuckle unique to dinosaurs, then slowly resumed his stride, bypassing the Quetzalcoatlus to continue moving forward.
If it were in the past, he definitely would have found a way to scare the living daylights out of the creature. But right now, he seemed to have lost that spark of interest, projecting an air of complete apathy toward everything.
His retreating silhouette across the desolate snowfield looked somewhat forlorn. A place untouched by humanity and utterly devoid of life appeared to be his true home.
Sound of sniffing.
Carlo sniffed half-heartedly, but this very action caused him to instantly straighten his posture, a look of utter disbelief washing over him before he violently sniffed the air toward the sky twice more.
Following that, he subconsciously parted his jaws slightly, inhaling deeply, only to realize he wasn't preparing for combat, but rather calling out. He blew the newly inhaled cold air right back out, shifting instead into a roaring bellow.
"ROOOOAR——!"
The roar echoed through the snowy mountain peaks, piercing through the clouds and carrying across thousands of miles, causing every single creature within the BioSyn sanctuary to involuntarily raise its head.
For reasons unknown, Giga Dad stopped the sand-collecting work he was engaged in; Karl, who had been gnawing on a bone to grind his teeth, froze instantly; Katyusha, attempting to converse with a Saurophaganax, abruptly whipped her head around; even Kafka, sleeping soundly during the day, lifted her groggy head at the sound of the familiar voice.
"ROOOAR!"
A roar forged from the combined might of nearly three tyrannosaurs shot straight into the clouds. As for why there were three... because Kafka hadn't quite processed what was happening yet.
The roar of the Giganotosaurus family was packed with sheer presence, but it lacked the range to reach Carlo at full strength; by the time it traveled all the way to him, it was reduced to a negligible ripple that could easily be mistaken for a hallucination.
Regardless of whether it was a hallucination or not, it was enough to snap the current Carlo back to full alertness.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Stomping through the accumulated snow and cracking the ground beneath, Carlo launched himself forward with the momentum of collapsing mountains and shattering earth, charging straight toward the dam!
The transport plane was wedged firmly into the solid ice sheet, several chunks of broken ice covering the fuselage that hadn't completely split apart, each block standing well over half a person's height.
Bang!
Before long, the skylight hatch on the cabin roof was kicked wide open. Though it remained a mystery why an aircraft like this had been fitted with a skylight, right now, it was a lifesaver.
The aircraft's cockpit had already filled to the brim with icy water capable of inducing hypothermia within seconds. Owen and Kayla scrambled out of the fuselage one after the other, seizing the moment before the freezing water could completely engulf them.
The ice sheet near the crash site teetered on the brink of total disintegration. The two could only step gingerly across the ice, perhaps chatting away simply to keep themselves from tensing up so much that they exerted too dangerous of a force.
Is this that veteran gamer kind of relaxed nonchalance?
"Where'd you learn to fly?"
"Air Force. My mom comes from a family of pilots."
"What a coincidence... I'm Navy. How'd you end up mixed up in all this?"
"I was working as a contract pilot for a while, but... you know, the pay doesn't cut it for family. So I took on some high-paying 'gigs.' But honestly? I'm done after this."
"So that's why you came to help us?"
"...I watched them hand your daughter over to BioSyn's people. I might be a criminal, but... a person has to draw a line somewhere. I probably could have done something back then, but I didn't…"
Sound of cracking ice.
Without warning, the ice sheet beneath Kayla's right foot shattered! Her boot sole brushed against the icy water; if her whole body tipped over, she would inevitably plunge straight in!
Clutch!
With lightning-fast reflexes, Owen grabbed her arm, arresting the crisis before it could worsen.
"Thanks."
He casually accepted her expression of gratitude, truly a veteran player's composure.
"Aok!"
Sound of the ice sheet fracturing slightly.
Accompanied by a high-pitched cry and the clacking sound of ice splintering, a dinosaur completely covered in blue-white feathers slowly revealed itself.
It possessed a robust physique identical to the Velociraptors of the Jurassic World series, and its entire body was covered in plumage far thicker than that of a Pyroraptor. One look told you it was no friendly neighbor.
Sound of a blade drawing.
Sound of electrical current.
Owen and Kayla drew their weapons in unison. The silvery-white hunting knives reflected a chilling, ghastly gleam in the sunlight, making one's skin crawl.
?
You guys smash a giant iron bird into my home, and now you're drawing weapons on me?
Am I some kind of pushover dinosaur?
"Aok... Bang!"
No sooner said than done! A massive stone wall shattered overhead, gravel raining down across the sky to fracture the ice sheet and interrupt the standoff between the two humans and the dinosaur.
"Oh God, why is it you? Dammit..."
Owen and Kayla instinctively turned their heads back, only to find the very last silhouette they ever wanted to see.
Carlo strode across the dam, though he didn't press forward immediately, appearing to hesitate over whether to step directly onto the ice sheet.
Talk about jumping out of the frying pan and into the... hm?
Owen looked back the other way, only to find that the Imperobator had already vanished, leaving behind nothing more than a retreating figure fleeing in utter ignominy.
Looks like this place is your home now.
———————
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over here ——— pa-tre-on.c-om/AlexandrusTL [remove the hyphen for normal access]