Chapter 376

Chapter 376: Hunting Without Intent

Let’s rewind time a little…

At this moment, Magaxia was still pinned under the foot of the Giant Spirit God.

The leader of the Armored Dragons locked eyes with Trilobite.

Trilobite was quite pleased.

He thought he spotted anger, irritation, and even a hint of "hatred" in the Armored Dragon’s eyes—yet those emotions seemed dull and hazy, as if they barely understood what they felt.

Truthfully, Trilobite’s calcite compound eyes weren’t sharp enough to read so much from the imagined "windows to the soul" of the Armored Dragon.

These "emotions" were pure imagination.

But they still boosted Trilobite’s confidence.

"Good!"

"Come at me!"

"Let’s duel!"

Trilobite reckoned predators loved prey that didn’t flee but stood their ground.

Like that donkey from Qian—until the tiger learned its limits.

Of course, the prey couldn’t be too large.

Compared to Trilobite the postosuchus, the four-meter-long, six-hundred-kilogram Armored Dragon was manageable—almost his equal in size.

Though its knobby hide and bony bumps looked tough to bite, Trilobite had saber teeth.

Theriodonts evolved extreme saber teeth for the "saber teeth instant kill style," likely specialized to pierce the armor of creatures like the Saw-toothed Lizard and Armored Dragon.

The documentary "Walking with Monsters" captured this perfectly.

"I’ll mimic that tiger king’s instant kill of the wild buffalo—clean and swift."

But the next moment, disappointment struck.

"Roar—!"

The Armored Dragon Leader took one look at Trilobite and bolted, forgetting all about "dominance," "hatred," or "agitation."

Fighting back? Never an option. Running was its only move.

Though these "Vast Dragon Gods" seemed dim-witted, their instincts stayed sharp.

The bloody aura and killing intent Trilobite built up from slaughtering high-ranking demon gods, plus his top predator presence, shattered the Vast Dragon Gods’ defenses instantly.

The first to face him panicked.

"Run! Run! Run!"

Shame? Dignity? Meaningless concepts some odd being had mentioned. The "Vast Dragon Gods" trusted instincts over strange ideas.

And now, instinct screamed one word—run!

So run they did!

…

"Ah, I completely forgot about that."

Watching the group of Vast Dragon Gods flee farther into the distance, Trilobite sighed.

Though he’d hoped to encounter herbivores bold enough to charge at predators head-on—a scene often featured in documentaries—such behavior remained exceedingly rare in nature.

Herbivores maintained an inherently cautious mindset.

African buffalo outweighed lions by two or three times, yet there were countless scenes where a few lions sent entire herds scattering in panic.

Zebras typically weighed a hundred kilograms more than lions, yet they invariably fled at the sight of one.

Given that the weight ratio between these Armored Dragons and Trilobite the postosuchus mirrored that of lions and zebras, escape was their only logical choice.

Naturally, the prey’s deviation from expectations didn’t trouble Trilobite much.

After all, life rarely followed scripts; one might hope for predictability but shouldn’t count on it, lest they become like that "main base" fiasco.

Was it the Armored Dragon’s armor protecting them?

Impossible!

Hadn’t Trilobite inherited saber teeth from Duncker’s fish, investing heavily in their cultivation and evolution? Were they mere decorations!?

Catching up meant an instant kill.

What truly provoked Trilobite’s fury was…

"Damn it!"

"How much longer must this tedious chase drag on!?"

Still, Trilobite refused to abandon the hunt. As a postosuchus equipped with air sac lungs,

he felt "gas" continuously streaming into his body, supplying his whole body with a steady source of energy.

Endurance? That primitive Secondary Reptile with its chaotic internal and gas circulation dared challenge the "true dragon" of reptiles—the "King’s Path" lineage!?

But the postosuchus’s body structure simply wasn’t built for speed.

Though capable of bipedal standing, their anatomy prevented actual "running"; their legs couldn’t leave the ground simultaneously, forcing them into a fast, racewalk-like gait.

Thus, the spectacle unfolded: the "postosuchus" and the "Armored Dragon," both speed-deficient slowpokes, engaged in a mutual slog—like watching a snail race a slug.

"If I were a real dinosaur, I’d have caught them by now!"

"My current weight must be around six hundred kilograms?"

"Damn it! Six-hundred-kilogram dinosaurs like Dilophosaurus or Utahraptor possessed remarkable agility!"

"Each could sprint impressively fast."

"Why does the same weight feel so utterly inadequate in Loricatosauria?"

"Ah…"

Amidst the monotonous pursuit, Trilobite’s mind began to wander.

Tracking such massive Armored Dragons posed no risk of losing them, especially since they traveled as a herd.

That’s when he spotted something genuinely intriguing.

A large head popped up from the water, blinking at Trilobite; after he spotted it, it "shyly" splashed back into the shallow water, leaving only its rough, scaly back.

Trilobite knew this thing.

"That was a type of fully-vertebrate amphibian; it should be called the Panuto Crocodile."

"This creature looks like a ‘short-legged, big-eyed crocodile that ate too much.’ It’s a rather unconventional amphibian."

What impression do current amphibians give us?

Slippery, slimy, scaleless, and can’t handle dryness.

They live in humid, warm places and can’t stay away from water for long; toads are the only ones that last a bit on land.

Sure, in Australia, some frogs, like the "water-storing frog," can live in the desert.

But these frogs can’t stand the hot sun of the Australian inland for long.

They usually hide in cool underground caves, slowing their metabolism and using water stored in their bladders to survive long droughts. They only get active after rare heavy rains water the desert.

But many fully-vertebrate amphibians were very unconventional, quite different from modern ones.

Many of them likely had scales to hold water!

Creatures like the Panuto Crocodile might have had scales, and even armor made from bone under their skin!

Though by size and build, the Panuto Crocodile still lived in freshwater; these two-meter-long beasts had a huge range!

During the Permian period, when the continents were joined and the inland was super dry, they spread all over the supercontinent. Even the driest inland areas had traces of them.

This showed these tough creatures could endure the blazing sun and drought, crawl over sand dunes, move from one water pond to another, and spread across the world!

Some relatives of the Panuto Crocodile even went back to the sea.

Yes, the first land vertebrates to return to the ocean weren’t ichthyosauria, Phantom Dragons, or earlier Mesozoic Dragons, but fully-vertebrate amphibians.

"The Panuto Crocodile’s story is pretty inspiring."

"But it’s too far from me."

"I can’t catch it while chasing Armored Dragons."

"Plus…"

"Tsk…"

Trilobite scoffed with disdain.

"This thing is white."

"It has no Chaos Energy."

"It’s not an ally or a spawn."

"White exceeds the max size for its species, growing over three meters long."

"Useless thing."

In the System, white or colorless things were like rocks to Trilobite.

"Too bad I had such high hopes for you."

Trilobite sighed with regret and ignored the "Panuto Crocodile."

But his gloom didn’t last long; he soon saw something good.

"Wow!"

"This thing in system vision is…"

"All red! Bright red!"

"That group of Armored Dragons is only light orange."

"And it’s injured?"

"Awesome!"

"I am a predator."

"Bullying the weak and sick is my favorite thing!"