Identify
Species: Giganotosaurus
Disposition: Hostile/Predator
Age: Sub-Adult
Species Information: ?
The beast’s massive, angular head turned left, then right, inspecting the small clearing where the fight had taken place. Its scaled hide was a deep shade of amber, fading to a dull orange along its belly. A row of short spikes crested its back, giving it a streamlined and savage appearance. It bent low, sniffed the raptor corpses briefly, then rose to its full, monstrous height without even bothering to snap up what remained of their hunt. A deep rumble rolled from its throat, so powerful Erik felt it vibrate through his chest. When its jaws parted, they revealed rows of curved, serrated teeth, nothing like a Tyrannosaurus’s conical railroad spikes.
It took a booming step toward the swamp, moving at an angle away from them. Erik barely dared to hope it hadn’t noticed them. His thoughts spun wildly in the silence that followed.
Sub-adult? FUCKING SUB-ADULT?
He had known dinosaurs were big. Documentaries, museum exhibits—those had all told him as much. But none of that had prepared him for the sheer presence of this creature. It was a force of nature, defying logic with every movement. Its footfalls shook the earth, each step landing like a boulder dropped from a height. It rumbled again, the sound accompanied by the crack of tree branches foolish enough to get in its way. It entered the swamp with a sloshing splash of footsteps, apparently unconcerned with the depth. Lost to sight through the trees, the three juvenile dinosaurs sat shivering as they listened to the monster depart.
Sounded was slow to return to the jungle around them, as if even the smallest animals were scared of catching its attention, and bringing it back to where they all hid. Slowly, and with careful steps Sarah moved from Erik’s side to poke her head out of the bushes.
“You know,” Marcus whispered, “If we were any bigger that thing would’ve seen us for sure.”
It was true. If they’d been another growth stage along, hiding wouldn’t have been an option. The only viable strategy would have been to run away. Erik wasn’t sure how fast a Giganotosaurus was, but he expected i twas faster than a triceratops of any age. He was not and would likely never be a paragon of speed.
“You know ton for ton,” Erik whispered back, “T-rex is heavier than Giga.” It was heard to believe, even as he said it. Almost impossible to imagine that Marcus’s diminutive Rex would ever grow to be as big as or bigger than the titan that had just instilled a deep, primal fear in all of them.
“That does tell me they don’t care about accuracy though. The Giganotoasaurus had been extinct for 30 million years before the Rex came along.”
“Why does that matter?” Marcus asked, his rex’s grumbling making Erik’s skin prickle uneasily as he reached a more normal volume. Not even particularly loud, but Erik supposed he was on edge.
“Because it means they’ll throw anything at us.” Erik said.
“Coast looks clear.” Sarah said, poking her head back into the small clump of undergrowth they’d flattened.
“It never is though, is it?” Marcus said as he moved forward, pushing himself back into the clearing. “There’s always something out here, waiting to eat us.” His Rex rumbled bitterly.
“No time to worry about that.” Erik said, as he followed his friends out into the open. “We need to find an objective.”
“What, like more meteors?” Sarah asked, turning a large yellow eye on him.
“For now, “ Erik confirmed, “I’m certain the game world has other objectives but I don’t know what they are, or if they’ve been introduced.”
“Can’t you ask that Primarch guy you’re always chattin’ to?” Marcus asked.
“I- I don’t know.” Erik said, glancing around and giving a shrug before trying it out. “Primarch.” Erik didn’t expect the AIs dino-persona avatar to pop up there in the jungle, but he was still a little surprised to get the notification on his UI
Primach:
How can I be of assistance?
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“Are there any active objectives besides meteorite sites?” He asked.
Primarch:
There are 4 active objectives in the game world at this time:
Meteorite Collection
Boss Defeats
Aberrant Boss Defeats
Player Killer Defats.
“We killed players on our first day.” Erik said, but he already suspected why they hadn’t received evolution energy.
Primarch:
No objectives were activated at that time.
The notification window vanished, and Erik relayed what he’d learned to Marcus and Sarah.
“I don’t see us defeating any bosses right now, aberrant or otherwise.” Erik said, making a sharp click sound with his beak-like mouth. “Even that Giganotosaurus wasn’t classified as any kind of boss.”
The discussed it back and forth a bit, before agreeing that meteor sites were probably still the best bet, but if they came across another team and assessed they had a decent chance at winning, they would go for it.
“I also have some unpleasant news.” Erik said, flaring his nostrils in the triceratops version of a grimace.
“Is it that we have to go wandering into the swamp?” Sarah asked, her lips peeling up to show rows of curved, needle-like teeth.
“That is correct, yes. The death wall will be approaching this location sooner rather than later. We need to be traveling away from it, directly toward the center if we can manage it,” Erik turned his head to look between the tree’s towards the murky water, visibly through the gap that the Giga had created in the foliage, We also aren’t like to find anything by moving parallel to the wall simply because all the players spawned around the edge and have likely claimed most of, if not all, of the objectives. Our best shot at finding objectives or players is to move toward the middle.”
“I expect that’s also our best bet at finding boss’s and whatever the hell else this game has laying around waiting to kill us.” Marcus said.
“So you agree then?” Erik asked, unable to grin but his juvenile triceratops gave a throaty sort of chuckle.
“Yeah,” Marcus said, “time for a walk in the swamp.”
“I played in a swamp once when I was little, totally ruined my shoes,” Sarah said, “My mom was furious.” For a moment Erik didn’t say anything. When he first met on Battle Arena Online, she’d mentioned her mom had passed away the year prior and never brought it up again. Erik had no doubt the loss had hurt her deeply, but Sarah was always a vision forward kind of person. So this offhand mention took him off guard, and he wasn’t sure what to say. Marcus however turned his head toward her and glanced down at her feet.
“Good thing raptors don’t wear shoes. Can you imagine putting them on with that big ass toenail?” Sarah laughed on the mic, and her raptor chittered with amusement. Her head bobbing in time with the sound like she was some sort of giant bird. Tension diffused, Erik prompted them to gather up as he led their way towards the waters edge.
“We’re going to have to be careful. I can’t imagine they’d make this swamp impossibly deep when we’re this small. That would be bad game design, but some parts of it are certainly going to be deeper than others. His friends agreed and they formed a line behind him as he took the first steps into the murky water, trying to angle towards a growth of trees he saw in the distance.
He realized then, as he trotted through belly deep water, that something had shifted between his teammates. Between all of them perhaps. Maybe it was the shared action of bringing down the deinonychus, or the shared danger of hiding from the giganotasaurus, but things between them seemed… smoother. He wondered if that would hold up, or if their teamwork would require additional shots of both action and danger, like they were a bunch of adrenaline junkies.
Then again, he thought, as ripples spread outward from where they walked, sliding smoothly over the surface the greenish-brown water that could’ve hid anything, in a world that contained the most dangerous animals that had ever existed,maybe we are.
In the far distance, unknown animals called to one another, howled, roared and occasionally Erik would spot a stretch of disturbed water, as if something had moved beneath the surface.
Adrenaline junkies indeed.