Chapter 68: Hunted in the dark

The grasslands were massive. The grasslands were basically flatlands, mostly, that were sandwiched between the rocky mountains from the north, the forest from the east, the High Grasslands from the south, and a series of hills from the west, which led towards a consistent drop of elevation.

The world around them looked as massive as a world would look to cavemen. It seemed endless, and since it supported large dinosaurs as well, the world seemed all the more endless.

The tribe was quite isolated, as not only were they sandwiched between mother nature’s beautiful landscape, but they also lived up north within the rocky mountains. The latter made them even more isolated, they hadn’t run into ’foreign’ humans in decades.

The tribe almost lived like monks, and if they wanted to explore the world further, they’d have to follow the descending hills westward, and risk meeting with dangers that they were not used to. It was a tough task, but if they didn’t find any more survivors tonight, they might as well migrate, because the grasslands were no longer safe for them to hunt in.

Their platoon of hunters were mostly wiped out, so they no longer held the advantage over their common prey, not to mention the roaming giant humans. They’d need years to bring up new hunters, and since their population was low, inbreeding became more and more possible, which would only cripple the future generations. Inbreeding didn’t usually result to great hunters.

The tribe risked getting wiped out by mother nature, and their own biology, so if Jimmy and his group returned home empty handed, the tribe might have to consider migrating.

This thought pierced Jimmy through the back of his head. It bothered him, because if the tribe chose to migrate, he’d have to follow them, and he’d essentially have to leave advanced technology behind, the very same that was locked away within their home cavern. He did not want their situation to come to that, so he locked in, and tried his best to find any survivors at all.

The overall lack of success they had throughout the night discouraged him a little bit, but he didn’t want to give up. The odds of hunters surviving for more than two days in the wild, if they escaped the massacre, was great, even if they weren’t highly trained.

The survivors were likely holed up somewhere, he just had to figure out where. The lands were vast, but he did not give up.

Eventually, after they made it out of the High Grasslands, they ran across the winding river that stretched across the grasslands, and then west towards the hills.

Each of them were quite thirsty. Their supply bags were bone dry, so they stopped, and filled their hand-made leather flasks with water.

“Looks clean enough,” He grunted, and then took a gulp. “I hope Dysentery hasn’t been invented yet.”

Water powered the human body better than anything else could. The cold river water already made them feel refreshed, but the fact of the matter was that the common land creature did not have a good relation with large bodies of water.

Too many predators lurked in it, even in the rivers. This river was large enough to house monsters, stretching thirty meters, or nearly a hundred feet wide.

Only the gods knew how deep it was. The gods, and the aquatic creatures, that is. Bottom-line, the river was gravely dangerous to approach, and this was the main reason why the cavemen in this era practiced hunting, and not fishing.

No tackle in the world could beach a one-ton beast without special equipment attached. It was impossible.

Anyway, the three of them had lit their torches before they approached the river, so they could spot if crocodiles were stalking them. They took precautions, and they were fine. Neither of them got snapped in half.

The three of them relaxed as they walked away from the river, but just as they were about to climb on top of Gutaxun, they heard this low-pitched growl.

The torches in their hands didn’t provide much illumination beyond ten meters, or roughly thirty feet, so they could not see what was around them right now.

When they heard Gutaxun growling back, they knew they were in trouble. He refused to lower his head too, and this was likely because he didn’t want to be caught in a vulnerable position by whatever approached them. This was a problem, because they could not climb on his back in time, unless he lowered his head.

The low-pitched growls continued, and moments later, they developed into four separate growls, mainly coming from the north. Or, right in front of them.

Unfortunately, Jimmy couldn’t hear their heartbeats yet. He usually had to be quite close to creatures to hear their heartbeat, and since he couldn’t see them either, he couldn’t focus his magical abilities towards them! He couldn’t amplify them, so they did not know what approached them.

Odds were, they’d get jumped, and torn apart before they could even react. Eni would be the only one who could dodge the predators, but then again, she couldn’t risk sprinting in the middle of the night, because if she didn’t end up in the river, for example, she could still trip on a rock, or bump into a tree. At great speeds, any mistake of that sort was a death sentence.

“God fucking damn it!” He held his head. “We don’t have any spears.”

Unarmed, the only thing they could depend on now were their magical abilities, and Gutaxun. Their chances of survival looked dim, much like their surroundings.

The three of them held their breath as the growling got louder. Albeit slowly, predators were approaching them, and they didn’t doubt this fact one bit.

Seconds later, a head was visible close to the borders of the illumination their torches provided.

Neither of them recognized the species, since it was too far away for them to tell its species apart in the dark, but judging from the size of its head, they feared that they were being hunted by creatures as big as Gutaxun himself!

Then, the scaly predator took a few more steps forward, and this was when they realized that they’ve overestimated its size. These predators were a couple of inches shorter than the Red Heads that Jimmy had recently tamed, except, they were a lot fatter.

The predators had big heads, they had mean jaws, but that was where the dangers they posed met with a brick wall. Jimmy and Nechi were already prepared to attack.

“Okay, let’s make this quick,” He whispered. “Dinosaurs hunt in packs, so I doubt that these bastards are different from one another.”

Afterwards, he targeted his blood-boiling magic towards the only dinosaur he could see. His target was a bit far away, but he could still see it, at least, so he focused his abilities, and tried to launch an attack!

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