The albertosaurus was now alone, but it still had the advantage of agility. On the contrary, there were two deinosuchus, but they were much slower and couldn't help but wait for the dinosaurus to attack first. In addition, the albertosaurus had another advantage: the two deinosuchus were quite far from each other, which meant that it could only deal with one of them at a time.Although the situation was particularly difficult for the albertosaurus, it was still the one in a position of advantage. With this knowledge in mind, it rushed to the nearest of the two crocodiles.The deinosuchus opened its jaws and tried to bite the dinosaur, but it was clear that it was too tired by now. Crocodiles out of the water got tired very quickly, and the bigger they were, the worse it was. For a deinosuchus, moving a body twelve meters long and weighing more than eight tons on the ground was a titanic undertaking; however powerful their muscles were, their body shape wasn't meant to hold all that wei
Sobek spent the whole day relaxing. He felt that after reaching that milestone he could allow himself some rest, so he found an area with shallow water and lay there, basking in the sun and enjoying the movement of the waves as if it were a massage.For the first time he was able to get a real sleep. Even if he slept in fact he always did so with his senses alert to take the slightest sign of danger. However, now that no one (apart from humans) could threaten him anymore, he could finally get a sleep worthy of the name!He slept all day and all night. The next morning he felt refreshed as ever in his life.When it was nice to be able to relax without being afraid of everything! He remembered that when he was human he had often complained about the few hours of sleep he could afford, but now he realized how precious it was to be able to sleep in a safe bed and not have to worry about anything or anyone. It was really true that humans didn't realize the gifts they had until they lost the
Sobek thought he had become familiar with that strange world by now, but one day he discovered that it could still hold great surprises for him.He had spent a whole week hunting along the lake shore and had now more than half of it explored. Unfortunately, however, he had managed to get very few preys.The problem was that he was interested in carnivores, which were much harder to find than herbivores. Unlike them, which almost always moved in packs and therefore were easy to spot even from a distance, the predators never moved in groups of more than three individuals, and when they reached the lake they tended to leave early. This was because the lakeshore was a bad place for hunting: unlike the forest that gave them cover, the lake and its surroundings were uncovered, preventing it from ambushing and thus capturing preys.As already said and verified, the idea of the carnivorous dinosaur hunting in open spaces roaring and devastating everything was simply false: any predator that
The meraxes was a predatory dinosaur that belongs to the family of giant carnivores like giganotosaurus, mapusaurus and carcharodonthosaurus. It could exceed ten meters in length and was taller than a modern house. Even if it wasn't at the level of lethality of a t-rex, it was still a nightmare for any creature smaller than a triceratops or less armored than an ankylosaurus.The Neanderthals had begun to fidget in fright, and many of them had dropped their jugs in fear. They had put their weapons on, but it was clear from their eyes that they knew they would have done nothing. Against such a large beast, spears and arrows were equivalent to appetizers. They were nothing more than mosquito bites against a dinosaur of that size.The meraxes seemed to know that they were an easy prey, and in fact it didn't hesitate to approach them. Probably it wasn't the first time it saw some Neanderthals. It opened its enormous jaws and roared. Some leaves fell from the trees for the extreme loud sound
Unbeknownst to Sobek, the Neanderthals he had encountered lived not far from the lake, on a rather high hill that soared above all the surrounding environment. The choice of that place was purely logistical: from an elevated position it was easier to see any large predators and it was possible to establish with more confidence whether it was safe to go out or not. The perfect place, therefore, to locate a city.The Neanderthals' city was in fact surrounded by a huge wooden palisade made up of layers and layers of logs, seven meters high and almost two meters thick. If a large carnivorous dinosaur had worked hard, it might have been able to take it down, but no predator would have been stupid enough to waste time and energy on such small preys. In addition, the Neanderthals would have bombarded it from above with spears and arrows, and perhaps even with stones, which, although not very efficient, would have annoyed and perhaps even wounded it if they had hit in the right places. Any pre
The mythology of the Neanderthals (or at least those of that particular tribe) was quite varied. According to them above all was Eywa, the Creator Principle, an entity who had shaped everything and everyone, and that constantly reigned over the whole universe moving the sun, moon and stars in the sky and making sure that the balance between life and death wasn't affected. Below her were other supreme beings called Lords of the World, creatures halfway between the divine and the mortal world, created by Eywa at the dawn of time to rule over the elements. Probably in the Western mentality of the Earth they could have identified as spirits, angels or even demigods. There was the Lord of the Waters, the Patron of the Mountains, the Lightning Master... The Neanderthals believed that such entities incarnated themselves in the form of legendary animals (a bit like Egyptian gods or the Native American totems). The Lightning Master, for example, was pictured as an extremely large pterosaur, so
Even though he was basically being idolized as a god, Sobek didn't notice anything.The reason was simple: the city of Thirkiom had just over ten thousand inhabitants. Furthermore, the Neanderthals had no contact with other cities: due to the large predators it had never been possible in history to establish trade routes. Even the Homo sapiens sapiens had never had contact with other tribes before the advent of firearms.As a result, the fame points Sobek had earned were just ten thousand. Perhaps he would have noticed that little change when he was still a Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, when the fame points bar peaked at one million, but now that that bar had expanded to one hundred million a change of only ten thousand points remained unnoticed.On the other hand, Sobek had better things to think about than Neanderthals. He had initially been tempted to follow their scent to see their city, but he soon dismissed that thought: he would have gained nothing from such experience. He couldn't g
For the next days and weeks Sobek remained in that area to explore it properly. Although he could have eaten quite a lot of fishes, he hadn't seen many big carnivores. Unfortunately, the presence of the large herd of spinosaurs discouraged other predators. And since he didn't like the idea to eat his own 'family', Sobek had to settle for smaller preys, such as freshwater sharks and some dwarf crocodiles. In fact, he hadn't gotten many skill points.But just when he had started to think that staying there hadn't been such a good idea, fate came to his aid again. Or rather, it hit him. Straight to the right shoulder, and with a lot of force.Sobek was swimming placidly in the waters of the lake, watching the spinosaurs feast on nearby fishes when something hit him like a train. Sobek had been pushed at least ten meters to the side by something huge. When he recovered, he saw a giant crocodile furiously biting his neck!He had been attacked by another sarcosuchus!If they had met earlier,
It took Sobek a few moments before he realized he was back in the room where it all began. That room where time and space ceased to exist, and where everything and nothing seemed to have changed at the same time. He already knew where he had to go; walking through the infinitely large (or perhaps infinitely small) room, in a few minutes (or perhaps a few centuries, who knows) he reached the familiar armchair on which was seated a woman with white skin and light hair.God didn't even seem to move since she sent him to Eden. Even her expression didn't seem to have changed at all. She was still the same, beautiful and terrible at the same time, whose gaze was both magnetic and loving on him. “Welcome back, son,” she greeted him in her crystal clear voice.Sobek advanced on her. This time there wasn't an armchair waiting for him, but a large mattress wide enough to allow him to lie down. She lay back on it and gazed intently at God. Even now, after he'd grown i
On the continent of Maakanar, near a river that was once a typical spinosaurus nesting place, something immense could be seen. A huge creature was lying on its belly, but nevertheless it was so tall that its dorsal sail towered over the surrounding masts.Sobek was now thirty-three years old. To say he had grown into a behemoth was an understatement: he now measured 150 meters from head to tail and reached 45.6 meters in height. Even without activating the mutation he was now larger than Godzilla: the gigantic atomic reptile was a tiny lizard compared to him. All kaiju would be small compared to him. Even King Ghidorah would have been forced to acknowledge its superiority.In the last five years he had hardly moved. After the death of his last loyalist he returned to his birthplace and settled there. He ate what was provided to him from the [Personal Manger] and drank the water from the river. Otherwise, he remained calm, warming himself in the sun or admiring the star
After a few days Nefertiti settled at the lake together with her father and her last remaining uncle. With the help and indications of Sobek she built a comfortable nest and there she laid her egg.Thus began the brood. The female spinosaurus never moved from above her little egg, keeping it constantly warm. Sobek and Buck brought her food and water. When Nefertiti was hot, Sobek used her huge wing as a parasol and Buck fanned her with his tail. In the rare moments when it was cold, the two of her huddled to help her warm up.That routine went on for three months. Finally, at the end of the third month, a familiar clicking sound came from under Nefertiti's paws.The female spinosaurus reared up and looked down. A small crack was opening on the egg. With a smile she moved from above it. The crack widened more and more and finally a large piece of egg broke off, showing a lively green eye that stared intently at Nefertiti.“Hello, baby. I'm your mothe
Time had passed again. Sobek couldn't even figure out how much time had actually passed now. One year? Two? Maybe three? He didn't know.After his retirement, Sobek had gone deep into the forest of Maakanar. It was hard for him to move his huge body through the trees and very often ended up destroying them: his passage was evident as a trail of uprooted trunks was always behind him. He had moved permanently to the lake where he had met Buck and where he had established his first army. And he hadn't gone there alone.Carnopo and Buck had joined him just a month after his departure. They, too, had decided they'd had enough and abandoned their roles entirely. After all, in the new world there was no longer a need for either an army commander or one of the shock legion. Now there was peace, and the old war veterans had no reason to try to find their place in their world. So they had decided to do what they had always done: follow their pack leader.The trio spent th
Another year had passed. In Sobek's eyes, time seemed to have begun to flow more rapidly. The months and weeks all passed almost the same and in a flash the morning turned into evening.Humanity had continued its advance. By now, Aphrodites had been fully colonized. Whole cities had sprung up on it and millions of settlers had begun to live there. Davis had now reached more than a billion inhabitants and Hermes now owned thousands of mining establishments.Thanks to teleportation technology it was so advanced that traveling between planets was even easier than going from one city to another. Since energy and material consumption were now no longer a concern thanks to solar panels on Hermes and mining plants on asteroids, everyone had a portable teleportation device. By now, being hired to work a mine on an asteroid was no different than being hired to work at the local convenience store.Colonies on the moons of Leviathan and Behemoth had multiplied, providing e
More time, more changes. In just one year, many things had changed.Nefertiti had assumed control of the entire astrophysics division of the dinosaur pack, effectively acting as acting pack leader for them. After the first shared mission, she had begun to promote more policies of integration and union between humans and animals. She had facilitated interspecies interspace operations, sending animals and humans to work together in the new worlds to be colonized. Furthermore, there was still much to colonize, as human attention was slowly shifting beyond the outer Solar System to the dwarf planets and comets of the Oort Cloud.The work was not cheap and with it the possibilities of working together. With the Dyson Sphere nearing completion, energy was no longer an issue. After determining which moons to colonize, the Eden Union had begun an intensive mining program in the asteroids of the main belt in order to be able to build huge lenses to capture the sunlight and also
One more year, more innovations. The more time passed, the more progress seemed to accelerate. It was like a speeding train that multiplied its speed every second: first slow, then faster and faster, until it turned into a giant projectile.Sobek knew that progress was bound to accelerate more and more, after all it was his nature. For each new discovery, countless doors open. And every door leads to other doors. This was the nature of progress. It was no coincidence that it took humanity less than two hundred years to go from horses to aircraft capable of leaving the orbit of their home planet.He recalled that on Earth, where he came from, progress had become so fast in the 21st century that it was enough to be born even a generation later or further back to find oneself in a completely different world. While in 1990 the main communication system was the satellite phone, in 2020 people used social networks for the most disparate things. While in 1990 movies were watc
More time had passed. This time it was a year… or maybe a year and a half? I don't know. Not that it mattered much, actually.The world's attention to the inner solar system was gradually waning. Now that three planets had been terraformed, even if one of them still wasn't enough, and Hermes had become a stable colony that was continuously producing large panels of glass that joined in the orbit of the Sun to form the Dyson Sphere, the humanity was beginning to anticipate new challenges. From the inner solar system it was time to move to the outer solar system.Although some colony outposts were already present on some moons of Behemoth, they could not be defined as true colonies. However, now that energy consumption was no longer a problem thanks to the Dyson Sphere, which although not completed already released enormous amounts of energy, the Eden Union decided to start an exploration program of the entire outer solar system, or at least of the space between B
Two more years had passed. The advance of humanity towards the stars continued inexorably.The hypotheses of the scientists had proved to be correct: using a combination of gravity control technology and energy obtained from the Dyson sphere, although still incomplete, they had managed to accelerate the rotation of Aphrodites. The planet was slowly accelerating, though not too fast. There was generally talk of an hour each week. At this speed there was no risk of destroying the infrastructure already present on the planet. Yes two years, the rotation period had gone from 2082 hours to 1978 hours. Continuing at this rate, it was expected to reach 24 hours in 'just' another 38 years.Once this process was completed, the huge orbiting mirrors could finally be taken off. The day/night cycle would no longer be artificially determined and there would no longer be the risk that something would go wrong due to the impact of a micrometeorite. In addition, the accelerated rotati