Chapter 69: Jaguars?

Jimmy focused his abilities towards the only dinosaur he could see. As the predator took a couple more steps forward, he got a sense of its heartbeat. It was faint, the heartbeat could be mistaken with a footstep, it was low and irregular since the target was far away, but he heard it.

Right now, it was imperative to work with the heartbeat he could hear. He had to tap into it, and attempt to stop the predator’s heart.

If he could kill one of them, silently, then perhaps it’ll be easier to manage the other three predators that approached. The predators in front of them were small, relatively speaking, but they were still two meters tall, or six and a half feet tall, and they were fat. In bleak examples, they were like mini tanks!

Seconds later, another one of them poked its head out of the darkness. Thankfully, it belonged to the same species as the prior dinosaur. If it had been a bigger species, then the team would’ve sunk into troubles that they could never survive.

Anyway, there was something peculiar regarding how these dinosaurs approached. Eni was the first to notice this, as she was under the most stress and anticipation, on account of the fact that she was the most vulnerable one here.

Likewise, she pointed it out, and asked, “Why are they walking so slow?”

“They’re sizing us up,” Nechi said, as a ball of black light floated on her hand. “I just need them to get a little closer…”

“Wait a minute,” Jimmy loosened his tense stance. “They’re not sizing us up, they’re being cautious. Gutaxun is scaring the living shit out of them, they don’t want to get bitten.”

At this point, a certain puzzle in his head pieced itself together so fast, that the puzzle pieces could cut one’s finger off! He has seen behaviour like this before, and he recognized how rare it was amongst dinosaurs, even amongst carnivores!

Jimmy started losing all hope, because he knew that he couldn’t walk close enough to them in order to attack them, or even tame them. They’d back away if the risks were greater than the rewards, and thanks to that, when paired with the fact that they will not flee, they’d always have the upper-hand, regardless of what plan he concocted.

The two other predators stepped in within the illuminant reach of the torches, and afterwards, the four of them started circling around the team. They steered clear of Gutaxun, with their necks bent towards him as they slowly circled around Gutaxun, and the team.

Within the dim reach of their torch lights, they could finally get a goodish view of what these dinosaurs looked like. They were a lot longer, and fatter than originally anticipated. The fresh color of their scales hinted that they had recently grown into adults, so by all odds, this was not even the maximum size they could grow into!

Head to tail, they were six meters long, or nearly twenty feet. Comparing their sizes to the Red Heads he recently tamed was a clumsy error.

These creatures weighed three times as much as the Red Heads did. Their body fat, and strong legs hinted that they weighed close to one tonne, or above two-thousand pounds!

Bottom-line, if they attacked, they’d likely win. Gutaxun should be able to kill two of them after some time, but by then the rest of this pack could either tear through the humans he was trying to protect, or shred through his legs, rendering them immobile!

“No wonder Gutty’s scared,” He mumbled. “This is my fault. He hasn’t slept since this morning, he’s tired.”

Desperate for an advantage, Jimmy tried to strengthen his grip on the only dinosaur he had locked-in on, but they were keeping their distance, so he could not control them. Nechi faced similar troubles, as her special, necromantic magic could not reach the pack even if she tried to attack them.

The three of them stood on their toes. They didn’t know when to expect an attack, so they were getting more and more worried by the second.

The orange, black, and few white stripes across their pale green scales were an advocate of their violent nature. They were predators, and to Jimmy, they seemed like the jaguars of the Jurassic Era, and the fact that they were noticeably strategic did not help him calm down!

“We’re fucked. They’re smart, too smart.” Jimmy said, and afterwards he started to walk forward. “Don’t follow me. I want to see how smart they really are.”

Considering that the team was already at risk of getting torn into pieces, Jimmy decided that it was time to push his luck. If he was going to die either way, he’d rather take great risks to give his friends an inkling chance of survival.

He asked not to be followed, because he wanted his friends to think that he was brewing some great plan. In reality, he was hoping that these predators would go away once they snatched him, which in turn would give his friends enough time to climb on top of Gutaxun.

Jimmy approached the predators directly. He walked slowly, as to not to spook them, and so far, they didn’t seem to consider him a threat. They were actively ignoring his ’sacrifice’ and kept circling Gutaxun, as he was the main concern these predators had.

In their eyes, if Jimmy actually became a problem, they could break his spine with one head bud. They certainly had the muscle to cause great damage!

Gutaxun noticed Jimmy walking away, so his growls deepened, and afterwards, he started following him. Gutaxun was tired, intimidated, and perhaps even scared, but he was not about to stand idly by, and let his master get torn apart by these stripped predators.

Gutaxun’s deepened growls roughly translated to, “Mamma ain’t raised no bitch!”

Eni and Nechi had to follow suit. If they stood behind like he asked them to, they feared that they’d get rammed through in seconds, because they weren’t nearly big enough to intimidate one tonne predators.

The ground shook as Gutaxun followed suit, and his sheer size still seemed to be an advantage, because the predators kept their distance. They kept backing up, as they calculated the best time to attack.

“Of course,” He sighed, after he heard the heavy footsteps. “What fucking command can I even use to make him stand here?”

Jimmy’s plan had been sacrificial, he wanted to give his friends a chance of survival, but his plan was thrown to the ground the moment Gutaxun followed him.

However, since the predators backed up, he made a couple of realizations. First things first, his friends did have enough time to climb on top of Gutaxun, because these predators weren’t going to attack anytime soon, so he and Gutaxun stood their ground, and he prompted Eni and Nechi to climb up.

Granted, Gutaxun still wouldn’t lower his head, so they had to slowly climb up his leg. Eni could’ve beamed up in a split second, but she was scared that it would startle the predators, which in turn could break into a bloody fight.

Jimmy was supposed to climb after them, but he did not. Since he realized how cautious these predators were, he wanted to figure out a way to use their paranoia against them. He wanted to push past their deadly circle, and follow them until they hopefully gave up, and walked away.

Jimmy had lost the small connection he had with one of their heartbeats, but that didn’t matter anymore. He had given up on attacking them, and since his friends were now safe, he was confident enough to push his luck to its borders.

“Come with me, Gutty.” He said, and started walking towards the striped predators. “Let’s see how tough they really are.”

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