I should’ve worn my brown pants.

Another earth-shattering roar drew my attention back to the titanous dinosaur standing near the edge of the woods. His massive frill sprouted from his back, reaching proudly into the sky like a massive crown atop the head of a giant king.

Sailboat.

The spinosaurus glared at the tyrannosaurus next to me. He crouched, lips curled back, and snarled. Once more, Sailboat roared, the tree branches whipping around him from the power of his howl. The earth shook as Rexcelsis pounded his foot into the ground, a direct challenge.

I’m about to witness two titans throw down, aren’t I?

The short flame of excitement that had sparked from that thought died within me instantly as I realized that if these two went at it, it was unlikely I would survive.

It was unlikely anything in a two-mile radius would survive.

I backed away as the monsters glared at each other, thunder rumbling in their chests.

C’mon, Rex, hit him with a Death Ray!

But Rexcelsis’ horns didn’t begin to glow red, the indicator that he was considering the idea. Instead, he slammed the ground again, and I tripped on the shaking earth.

His eyes turned hard, a far-cry from their previous soft and humorous appearance. He snarled, leaning forward so that his horns pointed directly toward Sailboat’s head.

Djanak, Jungle God [Lvl ???]

Sorry. He leaned forward so that his horns pointed directly toward Djanak’s head. The white titan seemed unperturbed, though, his sail rippling as he leaned forward onto all fours, glaring at Rexcelsis.

Chunks of dirt went flying as he pawed the earth.

Rex! He’s gonna charge!

I backed away faster. Nowhere was truly safe from these two. Nowhere I could get to in time, anyway. But maybe the pond could provide some cover from the death beams and… whatever Sailboat could do.

My feet touched the shallow water, but I hesitated. Neither of the monsters had moved, aside from a couple of thunderous warning growls and the swishing of anxious tails.

“GYAAAAAAOOHH!” Sailboat roared.

I winced, expecting to get a front-row seat to the clash of the titans. But instead, the red-speckled spinosaurus glared at the t-rex, eyeing me for a moment before turning around and heading back into the woods.

Rexcelsis audibly relaxed as soon as the tyrant’s footsteps faded away, but he kept a watchful eye on the woods.

That’s it? I thought, at the same time thankful and disappointed, You guys aren’t gonna go at it?

I shook off my wet feet, approaching the large dinosaur and giving him a questioning look.

If Rex could’ve raised an eyebrow, I think he would’ve. As it was, the only response I got was when he tossed the bleeding corpse of the xaptor I’d been munching on into the air, swallowing it whole.

Nasty.

He didn’t hang around very long after that, smacking me over the head with his massive tail and knocking me to the ground. Then, with steps that shook the ground, he wandered away further into the wide plains, leaving his line of heads behind to rot in the sun.

I quickly got back to my feet, trying to follow my newfound friend, but the tiny reach of my legs compared to his ginormous ones just made keeping up with him exhausting, and eventually, I had to stop running. I was out of stamina.

And Rexcelcis was gone, fading into the distance as the boiling air swallowed him up like he’d been a mirage the whole time. I dropped to the ground, staring into the bright noon sky and sighing loudly.

What a beautiful blue…

For a while, I simply sat there on the hot ground, the sparse grass providing a nice temporary pillow for my head. I watched huge dinosaurs slowly cross the plains from far away, but my Observe wouldn’t give me any information on them.

Guess there’s a range limit.

A shadow crossed my vision, large flying creatures sailing gracefully above me. I reached a clawed hand out towards them.

Flight… yeah… that would be nice.

I thought about my friend, Aaron, who I’d been planning to fly out and visit for months. I remembered being insistent about it, wanting to visit him as soon as I could afford it. I just couldn’t figure out why the rush. I shrugged. Maybe I was just excited to see him.

A flash in the air.

Wings that were flapping only mere moments ago fell down to the earth nearby, dropping out of the air mid-stroke, completely severed from the creature they’d been attached to.

A scream pierced the air. The creature the wings had been attached to hovered in the air for only a moment more before it, too, plummeted to the ground.

I watched in horror as it fell. But just before it landed, a scaled monstrosity the size of a fighter jet swooped by, the force of the winds that followed blowing dirt and grass into my eyes.

I blinked it away to see that the group of similar creatures, Pterocelaurs, apparently, had scattered. They flapped desperately in all directions, and I glanced around for the hunter I’d seen effortlessly take one out of the sky.

It was nowhere to be found.

Yeah… I thought as I stood up and blinked away the rest of the debris in my eyes. Well, that’s all the signal I needed to know it’s time to go.

I began my hike back to the woods, intent on finding another one of those brush dens I’d slept in before to spend the night, when something caught my attention from the corner of my eye.

The wings…

A furtive look around confirmed that there were no predators nearby that seemed interested, only the long-necked dinosaurs skirting the occasional trees for food, and a pack of something that seemed closely related to Deotrexaptors running in the distance, kicking up a cloud of dust. Heck, they could’ve even been xaptors. I couldn’t see them clearly enough. I tried again to observe one of the long-necks that had gotten closer as I walked to pick up the wings.

Vronterasaur of the Plains [Lvl ???]

They were impressive creatures, with huge bodies that were the equal of Sailboat in size, if not even bigger.

Things just keep getting crazier around here, huh?

I grabbed the wings, glad to see no other dinosaurs were approaching the area, perhaps due to the recent presence of the Chaotic Monarch. Maybe they knew better than to hang around him. Hey, call me an idiot if you want, but I liked him.

Maybe he’d come back to the watering hole. After all, there didn’t appear to be anywhere else to get a drink in the area I could see. I’d have to find a spot to set up nearby.

Lapping up some of the water from the pond, I reflected on the entire encounter.

I feel kind of used, to be honest.

Sure, Rex had saved me from the threat of the Deotrexaptors, and the secondary threat of Sailboat, but he’d gotten to enjoy some free snacks on my behalf. And then there was the siren. I still couldn’t determine if I’d just been used as bait, but I decided not to hold a grudge.

He had saved me, after all. I couldn’t reason any other possibility that a creature that strong would kill a siren just to obliterate her body.

Yeah, you like me too. Don’t you, Rex?

I shrugged. The inner machinations of a mega-monster’s mind were beyond me. It was an enigma.

I hauled the wings towards where the trees began near the watering hole but remembered. The siren’s head! That had been left out on the ground! Maybe I could feast on that and get some experience!

There was just one problem.

Uhhh… Where are the heads?

The line of heads, seven xaptors and one siren, was notably absent from where Rex had left them, smeared pools of blood the only evidence of their existence.

I’m just gonna… head out…

Cautiously, I skirted the bloody line, dragging the wings with me. And by the way, they were a lot heavier than I expected considering birds are supposed to have hollow bones and all.

But I guess those things weren’t birds, after all. They were dinosaurs.

Still, I felt like the laws of aerodynamics would demand a similar result. Whatever.

After dragging the things through the dirt and brown grass for what felt like an eternity (perhaps because I had to regenerate some stamina and so it became a bit harder at times. I should’ve checked, but it only occurred to me later), I reached the woods, dropping the wings on the ground to go in search of a temporary den for myself.