Metal tearing sound…
Snap!
Carlo tore through the side of the freighter's hull, stepped out, and planted his foot on the yellowed sand.
Solid ground at last... what a joy for a dinosaur!
With a sense of ceremony, Carlo bit down on the roughly five-ton ship anchor, dragging it and its heavy iron chain out of the hull, then dropped it to let it crash onto the beach.
He had arrived!
After indulging a bit of his remaining childlike curiosity, Carlo stood tall and scanned his surroundings.
The tourists who had been near the beach had completely vanished, likely seeking refuge in nearby buildings. On the road bordering the beach, cars zipped by every now and then, the sounds of their frantic honking trailing behind them. Further out lay the coastal city of Rose Tooth... or perhaps its suburbs?
The area seemed quite different from the U.S.; the houses were mostly clusters of one- or two-story villas. There were few high-rises, and the houses were packed together, giving off a distinct sense of congestion.
The roads were typical two-lane affairs, which meant several houses were destined for misfortune; given Carlo's massive size, even with deliberate control, it was impossible for him to pass through completely unscathed.
The next question was... where to go?
Not only were the traces left by Dad and the others long gone, but even the signals Beta had left in the sky had vanished.
Carlo remembered the direction the plane had been heading, but after the long time spent at sea, he had lost his orientation, not to mention the fact that the plane might have changed course.
"Aok!"
Blue and Echo leapt off the ship one after the other. Thanks to Carlo tearing open the side of the hull, they didn't have to jump too far, otherwise, they'd be looking at a fracture.
Delta didn't jump directly, perhaps due to the nagging, hidden injury in her leg. Instead, she carefully crawled down the anchor chain onto the sand. It was fortunate that Carlo had been the one to pull it out; if it had been dropped vertically onto the sand, Delta truly wouldn't have been able to climb it.
Shortly after, the three Velociraptors gathered to discuss their next move.
"Aok?" Where are we going? — Delta
"Aok..." Humans, dangerous. Here, too many people. — Echo
Both raptors looked instinctively toward their leader, Blue. As for Blue, she had no idea what to do next.
Her child had been kidnapped by dinosaur traffickers. She had gone to pursue them, failed to catch them, and ended up bringing her pack onto a one-way ticket to who-knows-where. She didn't even know where they were now.
It was almost too miserable to bear.
"Aok..." Follow him. Following him means meat.
With that single chirp from Blue, the three Velociraptors fell silent and looked at Carlo. As for Carlo? He was still contemplating their destination.
Sniffing…
Carlo lifted his head slightly and inhaled sharply, searching for the lingering scents in the air.
It was time to use his "Super Radar." Carlo figured that since he couldn't find where Dad and the others were, he would just hunt for any dinosaurs. Surely, he would stumble upon poachers at least once or twice, and perhaps by following them, he could find the others.
Click, clack, click, clack...
Even on the sand, Carlo's footsteps remained powerful and steady. He didn't just sniff for fun; he caught a scent that made his heart skip a beat. The nearest dinosaur unit was less than a kilometer away, and naturally, it wasn't the raptors.
He quickened his pace. Upon seeing this, the three raptors exchanged a look, and after a soft chirp from Blue, they followed suit.
Up the steps, across the highway, and into the city.
Carlo sprinted down the narrow streets, each step triggering violent tremors and faint, panicked human screams.
The Velociraptors used low walls as springboards to scramble onto the low roofs, racing across the tightly packed houses. This mitigated the impact of the vibrations while allowing them to avoid obstacles in the narrow roads.
The four moved in formation: Carlo in the center of the road, Blue and Delta on the rooftops to the right, and Echo on the rooftops to the left.
This formation was designed to anticipate Carlo's turns; it was the same arrangement they had used when they were a four-dino squad. Back then, they could tell if Blue was going to turn based on their synergy, but now...
"Aok!"
Delta chirped loudly, lagging two paces behind Blue, positioned behind Carlo's right side. However, her job wasn't to judge if Carlo was turning, but to confirm if Carlo showed any signs of stopping.
Sniffing…
The scent grew stronger. Carlo stopped and lifted his head to sniff, narrowing down the target's location.
The raptors waited quietly. Carlo tilted his head and blinked, noticing that the asphalt road he had walked on was shattered.
Uh... well, it was already like this when I got here.
He took a step, weaving through the narrow passage between houses. His massive frame brushed against the adjacent buildings and perimeter walls from time to time.
The raptors followed him at a leisurely pace along the rooftops. After moving forward another few dozen meters, they finally stopped.
Low growl…
Carlo locked onto a two-story house. There was a large sign in front, the writing on which he couldn't understand, but he felt it was likely a shop.
He lowered his body and gently bit down on a corner of the roof, applying a bit of pressure. The opaque glass windows shattered instantly!
Then, Carlo slowly rose, tearing off the entire ceiling in an irregular shape!
He politely placed the "borrowed" roof onto a flat roof nearby and peered inside.
Hmm... glass was scattered everywhere, and many items had toppled over due to his earlier arrival. But several iron cages displayed in the room caught his eye. Each one was labeled with the Rose Tooth word for [SOLD OUT].
It seemed nothing was wrong?
Carlo sniffed again, realizing he hadn't hurt anyone innocent, then bit into the first-floor ceiling/second-floor floor. He applied slight force, ripped it away, and stacked it next to where he had placed the roof.
Still nothing, but the scent was growing thicker.
Carlo tilted his head, pressed his side against the ground, bit into a few load-bearing pillars, and ripped them out, tossing them aside. After repeating this a few times, Carlo finally pried open the entire floor of the house!
The basement was fully exposed. Inside, it was filled with the same iron cages as the second floor, but these were all packed with dinosaur hatchlings!
Many were already dead, some from illness, some simply because they were considered "too ugly." The humans who trafficked them didn't want to care for them. For the unwanted dinosaurs, they were all tossed into the basement. Since there was still a market for the specialized parts of dinosaurs, killing them seemed more profitable than raising them.
The hatchlings inside were all dead. Carlo stared at the scene, stunned for a long while.
"ROAR—"
He let out a deep, mournful roar toward the sky as a send-off for the hatchlings, then stepped forward, following the scent once more.
Humming sound…
The Velociraptors followed Carlo, and behind them, a drone shadowed them, capturing the scene on camera.
———————
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over here ——— pa-tre-on.c-om/AlexandrusTL [remove the hyphen for normal access]