Giganotosaurus Number Four screamed and hunched her spine like an angry cat with a bee on her back, but Scoob hung on like a champ and let out a loud hoot as he began to climb his way up her spine. I wanted to watch the troodon hack and slash his way to her neck, but Number Two needed to be dealt with, and I guessed that Number Four would be occupied for a few seconds.
At least until she threw Scoob from her back and went after him.
Or she just rolled over and crushed him.
I pushed the negative thoughts away as I directed my attention back to Number Two. She had advanced a few steps toward us cautiously, and I could see twin holes leaking blood from her chest where Nicole’s horns had pierced as well as the two holes on her nose where Emerald and my spears had landed.
The wounds look like they had done nothing more than piss the female Giganotosaurus off, but she wasn’t charging forward to attack, so she was obviously cautious.
“Grab another spear!” I shouted at Emerald, but she was already reaching for it, so I pushed Nicole forward a bit so that she could jab her horns at Number Two.
The trike shuffled toward the massive carnivore, but then the giganotosaurus surprised me by darting to our left side so that she was closer to the water and biting toward Nicole’s shoulder. The move might have been effective if Nicole was thinking just for herself, but I was only caught off guard for a moment, and my trike managed to twist her head up and to the left just in time to lance her horns into Number Two’s nose.
The giganotosaurus reared back away from the pain and let out a shriek of anger, and I instructed Nicole to retreat a bit so that her back right side was closer to the grove of palm trees. Then I glanced back over my shoulder and saw the male, Number Three, lurching toward us while the last female, Number Four, tried to twist her neck around so that she could bite at Scoob.
I still couldn’t see what was actually going on with Grumpy and Number One, but I figured that the big purussaurus would emerge victorious. I was still juggling three other assholes, and I didn’t have a clear path to victory yet. Yeah, Number Three was hurt, but he wasn’t down for the count.
“Get sand on this one!” I shouted back over my shoulder to Emerald’s second body and Bruce while I pointed at Number Two.
I heard an affirmative honk from the Pteranodon behind me, and I quickly glanced over my shoulder in time to see Emerald’s second body raise the basket up in the air above her head in time for Bruce to grab it.
Number Two and Number Three both were back in the fight, and they shuffled forward a few steps as they tried to spread out a bit so that they could come at Nicole from two different angles.
“Emerald, we are going to spear the one on the right!” I shouted a moment before the two giganotosauruses darted forward.
I commanded Nicole to twist her horns and crest to the left to meet Number Two’s advance, but that left her right flank exposed to the injured male. I figured this was the best scenario since he was injured, but the fucker still moved crazy fast, and Emerald and I barely were able to push our spears out in time to jab them into his nose.
His jaw snapped shut like a white lightning strike a few feet from our faces, and each of his teeth were as long as my arm. I actually saw Emerald’s green hair fly back from the force of his mouth slamming closed, and I again realized that there was zero room for error. One bite from any of these three massive dinosaurs would probably kill Nicole. Maybe not instantly, but she’d lose too much flesh and just bleed out in a minute or so.
I wasn’t going to let that happen.
The male was pissed that he’d gotten stabbed in the nose again with our spears, and his giant yellow eyes finally seemed to focus on Emerald and me. There was a cleverness in the oval shaped pupils, and I could almost see the gears turning in his lizard brain as he started to realize that we were somehow helping Nicole fight off his attacks.
That probably wasn’t good.
Number Two’s attack had been interrupted by Nicole’s horns, and she hissed angrily at the trike as she tried to weave back to our left. It was a good strategy, since it meant that the two could come at us from wider angles, but I saw a shadow fall across the sand, and then Bruce slammed the basket full of sand right into her face, just like he had with Number Four.
Number Two screeched, twisted her face up, and bit at Bruce as he climbed up from his dive.
And her teeth snagged my buddy’s leg.
“No!” I screamed as my heart stopped beating for an instant.
The world seemed to stop, and Bruce opened his mouth to honk. I watched the massive carnivore twist her head to the side, and then the big Pteranodon’s leg seemed to tear free of his torso.
But he kept ascending, and I let out a gasp of relief when I saw that the giganotosaurus had missed his foot by mere inches and had instead snagged the bottom lip of the basket he was using to hold sand.
“Go, Bruce!” I shouted as Number Two thrashed her head from side to side like a doggie with a chew toy. Her eyes were closed, and she hissed angrily, so I guessed that she’d been blinded by the sand and didn’t actually realize that she’d missed Bruce.
“Hit that asshole again, Nicole!” I shouted as I leaned forward onto her crest and readied my spear.
Nicole snorted, hunched her ass, and launched herself again at Number Three. The giganotosaurus’ eyes actually opened wide for an instant, and he tried to step back, but I aimed Nicole’s charge at his left forefront foot, and she actually trampled over it an instant before she made contact with his torso again.
It felt like I was driving a car that just slammed into a brick wall.
Fortunately, Emerald and I had both grabbed onto Nicole’s crest so we weren’t thrown off her and into the giganotosaurus. Unfortunately, half our pots ripped free of their cord latching in the trunk, flew forward, and then collided with Number Three’s chest.
The spears Emerald and I held were also victims of the impact, and they both were flung forward and buried themselves into the chest of the Giganotosaurus right above the massive holes that Nicole’s horns made. Because the trike had stomped on top of Number Three’s foot when she charged, he actually wasn’t able to tumble back when she hit him, so her horns had actually torn through his entire torso, and I guessed they must have hit his vitals.
Then Nicole kept pushing her bulk forward like a train trying to plow its way into a mountain.
Number Three’s yellow eyes opened wide, but he didn’t even scream, he just groaned and then seemed to collapse back on himself as the top part of his body separated from the bottom part.
Then there was a fucking tidal wave of blood.
It sprayed across Nicole’s back, covered me and Emerald, and almost made me slide off the saddle. The trike had practically plowed through the giganotosaurus, and pieces of his stomach, bits of ribcage, and broken pieces of bone scattered around us like macabre party favors. I actually had to choke out some blood I had breathed in while steering Nicole to the right so she could go after Number Four, and I saw Emerald trying to grab one of our bows from the back while she also wiped the blood from her eyes.
I was about to slow down so that we could recover, but then I noticed that the rest of the troodons were swarming in between the giganotosaurus’ legs while Scoob rode her back. She still hadn’t managed to shake him off, but that could have been partially because Shag, Fred, Velma, and Daphne were nipping at the feet of the monstrous carnivore like a pack of angry ferrets at the hooves of a pony.
Then the giganotosaurus got smart, and I saw her twist her side toward the ground.
“Scoob! Watch out!” I yelled as the giganotosaurus rolled on the ground, but the tiger-striped troodon was already moving, and he sprinted across the back, around the flank, over the tummy, up the other side, and then came back up on top of giganotosaurus when she once again stood on her feet. The troodon’s parkour ability was absolutely amazing, and it reminded me of those lumberjack games where the dudes sprinted on top of the floating logs.
The giganotosaurus wasn’t nearly as delighted as I was by Scoob’s spider-monkey abilities. She let out a roar that made my brain vibrate, and then she tried to throw herself on the ground again. I got the feeling that Scoob was going to make another attempt to bronco ride her, but I gave him the order to eject.
The troodon let out a hoot, sprang from Number Four’s side when she flopped on the ground, and then the rest of the gang scattered just as Nicole’s horns slammed right into the neck and skull of the laying down giganotosaurus.
There was another thunderous smack as the trike buried her horns into the predator, and Number Four started to death spasm almost instantly as soon as Nicole’s horn ripped through the back of her skull. We didn’t hit her quite as hard as we had just plowed the male, but the placement of Nicole’s weapons had been perfect, and the massive carnivore was dead only a few moments later when Nicole was able to back up and shake her face free.
“One more,” I growled as I turned Nicole back to Number Two.
The giganotosaurus was still trying to shake her face free of the sand, but one of her eyes was opened, and the bright yellow orb looked as if it was full of malice.
Then the female turned back to the river just as the splashing stopped. Grumpy was there, and he slowly climbed out of the bloody water with an entire giganotosaurus arm hanging out of his mouth. The purussaurus looked like someone had spray painted red paint across every single one of his scales, and he let out a menacing rumble as he crunched down on the arm between his jaws.
The bone cracked, and a few gallons of blood poured out onto the sand as he swaggered toward the lone giganotosaurus.
Number Two lowered her head and let out an angry screech at Grumpy, but my big friend didn’t even blink, he just continued chewing on the arm as he slowly swung his body up the sand toward her.
It was a perfect opportunity for me to charge her flank.
I commanded Nicole to sprint forward, and the trike seemed to realize I wanted a bit of stealth and didn’t do her usual stomp before she began pumping her legs forward. We gained speed like a bullet train, and I aimed the trike’s blood coated horns for the giganotosaurus’ rear.
Then we slammed right into her thermal exhaust port.
The predator let out a screech of agony as she tried to twist away from us, but then Grumpy was there, and his massive jaws clamped onto her left leg. He executed his deathroll, but because he was on dry land and not in the water, it just ripped Number Two’s leg off with the sound of a thousand celery stalks being peeled apart. Blood, bone, and sinew sprayed everywhere, and the Giganotosaurus screeched again, but she was already falling on her side, and Nicole was already yanking her horns out of the predator’s asshole.
A moment later, Nicole charged forward again and buried her horns into the trashing giganotosaurus’ skull. Our last enemy thrashed a few times as she finally died, and then the river was quiet once more.
“Holy shit,” I said, barely above a whisper as I looked around at the carnage. “We are alive.”
Emerald patted me on the shoulder, and I threw my bloody arms around her blood soaked torso so that we could hug.
“We are alive!” I said again, and I felt her fingers run through my bloody hair as I squeezed her firm body against my bare chest.
I let go of Emerald, leaned forward, and patted the trike’s crest. “Great job, Nicole! You are a super star! I knew you had it in you! Wow!”
Nicole snorted as if to say “Yeah, of course I’m awesome,” and then she stomped her foot, but I knew she had been super scared.
We had all been super scared.
“Bruce!” I shouted as the pteranodon landed a few yards away and hopped over to Nicole’s side.
The pteranodon let out a happy honk, and I slid off Nicole’s back so that I could give him a big hug.
“Great move with the package dropping,” I praised him as I patted his long neck. “You really came through for everyone. I’m so proud of you.”
Bruce let out a soft, but very happy honk, and then he moved his wings around me lightly to return my hug. Then I heard the hoots behind me, and I broke off the hug just in time for the troodons to all dogpile on top of me.
For half a minute, I gave them each compliments and pets. Finally I got to Scoob and fluffed up his feathers as I looked into his intelligent eyes.
“That was quite daring, young man,” I said.
He let out a soft hoot and nodded a bit.
“You could have seriously gotten hurt. That big beast probably outweighed you by nine tons.”
He hooted again and then he looked down and away from me.
“I’m not mad,” I chuckled as I scratched the back of his neck. “We all would have been in trouble if you hadn’t distracted her. It was a giant effort for such a small guy. I’m really proud of you and the gang. You are a good leader and a good friend.”
Scoob let out a happy hoot, and then he pushed the top of his head into my bare chest so that I could administer some deep pets. I did so, for a few seconds, but then I noticed that both Emeralds were standing behind him, and I let him go so I could stand up and talk to them.
“You, ahh, both did great,” I said as I looked at the two women. Then I turned to the one who wasn’t covered in blood. “Great job with the sand. That was a great idea.”
Both of them shrugged with an identical movement, and then I laughed and turned back to the blood covered Emerald.
“Do I need to address both of you? I don’t really know how this works. Does she, uhhh, like, think for herself?” I knew I’d already talked to Emerald about this before, but I figured it wouldn’t have hurt to ask again.
Both of the women nodded, pointed at their chest, nodded, but then they each pointed at each other’s heads and shook their heads in the negative.
“So, you are both Emerald, but you each think for yourself?” I confirmed.
Then both nodded and smiled at me.
“Well, I guess two is better than one,” I said as I smiled at both of them, but then I pointed back to Grumpy. “Let’s go talk to the big guy.”
They both nodded, and we walked over to the big purussaurus and found him munching on the leg of the massive dinosaur we had just killed.
“Hey, buddy,” I said as soon as I rounded the corpse. “Thanks for the help.”
Grumpy let out a low rumble, and then he opened his massive maw to show that he had a big chunk of leg in it.
“Okay, first, I don’t need to see your food. That’s kind of rude. Second of all, yes, you are a spectacular guy, and I should have come to thank you first.”
Grumpy rumbled, and then his jaws closed with the sound of two pieces of plywood falling together.
“Hey, they have a saying where I come from called ‘save the best for last,’ but you shouldn’t really get a huge ego about it. If Nicole didn’t take out two of them, and help you with the third, then you might have gotten eaten.”
Grumpy grumbled, and it looked like he actually rolled his eyes.
“What do you mean, ‘what did I do?’ I had to help Nicole deal with the attack.”
Grumpy rumbled again, then he rumbled four more times in a row as he scraped his front foot across the sand.
“Yeah, okay,” I laughed. “So, you saw Bruce dive bomb, and then you saw Scoob ride on the other one’s back, but I told you that I was helping Nic--”
Grumpy interrupted me with a rumble.
“No, see, where I come from those are called ‘Emotional Support Animals,’ and I’m definitely not Nicole’s emotional support animal. I was the one telling her what to do so that--”
Grumpy groaned, and then he actually shook his head.
“Just because you didn’t actually see me do anything doesn’t mean I wasn’t busy. Come on! I attacked with my spear, and I told Nicole when to charge.”
Grumpy rumbled three times in a row and then rested his head on the sand.
“Lazy?” I asked with mock outrage. “Now you a
re just being mean. Ask Emerald, she knows I did a bunch of stuff, or ask Bruce or Scoob. Hell, ask Nicole!”
Grumpy let out a long and loud gumble, and then Bruce honked from the other side of the giganotosaurus corpse, Nicole let out a soft French horn sounding blast, and then the troodons all hooted.
“See? I did stuff.” I laughed and then moved to pet his long snout. “And you did too, buddy. Thanks for fighting for us.”
Grumpy let out a rumble that almost made the sand quake beneath my boots, but then both of Emerald’s bodies began to pet his snout, and his rumble turned into what could almost be described as the purr of a thousand cats.
“I know everyone just ate some fish, but we should get as much of this meat as we can,” I said as I gestured to the corpses of the giganotosauruses.
The troodons hooted in agreement, and they began to use their toe and arm claws to cut into the massive corpses. The Emerald with the blood covered shirt pointed to the pots and baskets that had fallen from Nicole’s saddle, and I nodded to her.
“Yeah, I’ll help you pick them up,” I said as I joined both of her on the other side of the massive bodies.
Five of our pots and two of our baskets had fallen from Nicole’s saddle during the battle. Unfortunately, one of the pots that contained our filtered water had broken in the fall, but we still had a bunch more to drink from, and although Trel had warned us about drinking from rivers, none of us had experienced any diarrhea or stomach viruses since we’d gotten to Dinosaurland, so it might not have been that big of a risk to drink from a stream.
“So, uhhh, are you just going to keep both bodies out?” I asked as I took a pot from one Emerald and handed it to the other Emerald that sat up on Nicole’s saddle.
The Emerald with the bloody shirt shrugged, and then she pointed at me, frowned, and then held up one finger.
“No, I don’t mind you both being out. I just didn’t know if it taxed your energy or anything.”
I glanced back and forth between them as I grabbed the next pot from her, and both of the bodies shook their heads and smiled at me.
Tamer- King of Dinosaurs Book 6 Page 11