Chapter 434

Chapter 434: Another Oddity in Earth’s History

"Help me!"

"As long as you save me…"

"I’ll give you anything!"

Guxin no longer held any hope.

Both his hind legs had been crushed by the Vast Dragon God. Though broken limbs meant little to a core councilor—healing took mere hours—the vicious Giant God wouldn’t grant him those hours.

It advanced relentlessly.

Truth be told, Guxin’s frail divine body mattered little. As a deity relying on magic, he could plant himself like an artillery piece. Yet every magic cannon needed a shield.

Though Guxin’s core councilor status let him cast most forbidden spells instantly, such magic proved useless against the Giant God’s scale.

Observe that armored hide!

Even direct hits from instant forbidden spells would merely scratch it, failing to slow its charge.

Note its bipedal stance and powerful legs!

It could rush through magical barrages even without dodging.

An old adage applied: "Three arrows before battle’s joined." On open fields, archers loose thrice before foes close in.

So too for gods.

Guxin could unleash three instant spells before the Giant God reached melee range.

He needed chanting time for his ultimate move—a devastating strike requiring a shield’s protection.

Magaxia, though low-ranked, possessed a decent divine body. It could stall the Giant God briefly.

*Boom—Boom—Boom—*

Seconds bled away as the Giant God neared.

"Hurry!" Guxin roared.

"I haven’t punished you for defying orders! For abandoning your ambush post!"

"Know what crime this is?!"

Unauthorized actions causing mission failure, endangering a core councilor…

Mercy still meant stripped divinity and exile from the Chaos Council.

"But there’s time. Follow my plan…"

"Your desertion? I’ll overlook it now."

“And I’ll give you a generous reward!”

“I… I swear!”

At last, under threats and temptations, Magaxia stirred.

It dragged its massive divine body forward, crawling slowly past Guxin. It seemed to accept the core councilor’s terms, preparing to hold back the Giant God!

When Magaxia faced the Giant God, Guxin finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He slowly turned, as if gathering energy for a powerful spell to blast the Giant God!

Meanwhile, the Giant God gradually halted its steps, observing both Guxin and Magaxia.

“Heh.”

“Keep watching!”

“If you hesitate any longer, my magic will be ready!”

“Huuu—!”

Vast magical energy gathered in Guxin’s abdomen, flowing into his elongated neck.

Once this power erupted, it would…

But just then, Guxin noticed Magaxia looking back.

Its eyes glittered with greed and cunning!

—-

“Hmm…”

“This creature… truly one of Earth’s historical oddities.”

“Another star from a BBC documentary.”

“It’s a plesiosaur!”

The plesiosaur appeared in the BBC documentary *Walking with Sea Monsters*.

There, Nigi Marvin and his companions traveled through oceans across geological eras using a time machine.

One episode featured the Triassic seas.

In those waters, Mr. Nigi Marvin—wearing diving gear—swam among Phantom Dragons and ichthyosaurs; later he even caught a plesiosaur.

According to the film, the plesiosaur was a gentle giant that “strolled” along the seabed. No matter how the revolting naked apes harassed it, the creature never resisted fiercely.

Finally driven to desperation by those Horror Upright Apes, the plesiosaur broke off its tail to escape—just like a gecko.

Though the documentary’s special effects amazed Trilobite, much of its content was sheer nonsense.

Take the plesiosaur’s gecko-like short tail…

No academic paper ever mentioned such a trait. Who knows what the BBC producers were thinking.

After watching it, Trilobite once believed plesiosaurs were ancestors of ichthyosaurs.

That…

was utter nonsense, of course.

Although the name "Plesiosaur" sounded easy to confuse with the long-necked Sauropod Dinosaurs or the ichthyosaurs, they were actually not related to either group.

They weren’t even true dragons but belonged to a more basal group called "primitive dragon-like archosaurs."

The primitive order was essentially a classification dumpster.

Paleontologists often tossed in basal but not very basal lizard-like animals close to true dragons into the "primitive order."

These creatures appeared in many varieties during the Late Permian period, but they were all small, only about half a meter long, with no special features.

If caught today, one might seem just like a slightly long-necked lizard.

However, during the Middle Triassic period, the climate turned humid, and some primitive dragons found an Ecological Niche not yet taken by other lizard-like or archosaurian creatures.

So, they all moved in and specialized their key strength—their necks—becoming the first leaders of the "long-necked faction."

In appearance, they resembled the later plesiosaurs and Sauropod Dinosaurs quite a bit.

At least, many kids and parents at museums couldn’t tell them apart.

Trilobite often saw children pointing at a Brachiosaurus skeleton and yelling "Plesiosaur," while pointing at a "Plesiosaur" reconstruction and calling it "Brachiosaurus" and "plesiosaurs."

Even without explanations, uninformed parents would give wrong answers.

Still, this couldn’t be fully blamed on them.

Looking at static reconstructions, if they focused only on the long neck and small head without noticing the limb-body connection, it was easy to mix them up.

But comparing skeletons side by side made the differences clear.

Though Plesiosaurs had long necks relative to their bodies, their neck-extension method differed greatly from Sauropod Dinosaurs and plesiosaurs.

The others used many cervical vertebrae—plesiosaurs had up to 70!

In contrast, Plesiosaurs lengthened their cervical vertebrae; they had only twelve, but each was very long.

This made the Plesiosaur neck look odd—long but not flexible.

The plesiosaur neck with dozens of vertebrae wasn’t agile either, struggling to lift or sway much; Plesiosaurs’ mere twelve vertebrae were worse.

Worse, like other early dragon-like forms, they had ribs on their cervical vertebrae…

This further limited neck movement.

All this made the long neck’s purpose more puzzling.

What was the point of an extremely long, stiff neck?

Some scientists thought Plesiosaurs were herbivorous animals; they’d cling to trees with their limbs and stretch their necks to eat high leaves, like giraffes.

But growing evidence showed Plesiosaurs were highly aquatic, and their teeth suggested they mainly ate fish.

Yet as aquatic animals…

Their limb structure told paleontologists they weren’t good swimmers, at least not fast, only doing "gecko-style strolling" on the seafloor…

How could fish-eating aquatic animals be so poor at swimming?

So, other scientists imagined they raised their necks in giant Sea Lily colonies, lurking among them to ambush passing fish.

Or, by suddenly tightening neck muscles, they could expand their throat cavity, creating suction to gulp down water and fish…

But these were just hypotheses.

However, for the time traveler Trilobite, who had already seen the "real thing," hypotheses were no longer just hypotheses!

"Hmm…"

"From what’s happening, these creatures likely lived in coastal marshes and swamps. They only had to move in shallow waters, using their long necks and small heads to sneak into schools of fish. They could either suck fish or squid into their stomachs with negative pressure or just bite them right away!"

"Great!"

"If I get a chance to go back, I’ll write a paper for *Nature*, and it’ll have a huge impact factor!"

"Hahaha! If I publish a bunch of top papers, I’ll be the best!"

"Who knew, I’d actually get to be an academic big shot!"

…

Trilobite proudly thought, hands on hips.

But…

"Gru…"

The rumbling of his guts reminded him it wasn’t the time to worry about that.

After eating so many sea dragons, Trilobite was hungry again!

"Sea dragons are like noodles, not much meat."

"Plesiosaurs might be skinny, but they’re over six meters long."

"There should be plenty of meat!"

"And… "

"Hmm!?"

Trilobite spotted a "little guy" at his feet; it seemed to be the Panuto Crocodile he’d saved earlier.

"It might not be the same one; could be a relative."

"Hey, you’re still my customer!"

Seeing his customer face to face excited Trilobite.

"Very good, very good."

"Let me see what changes I can make to the Panuto Crocodile…"

"But what do you really want to become?"

The calcite eyes met the little eyes of the Panuto Crocodile.

The crocodile’s small eyes stared at Trilobite for a moment. Trilobite thought he saw admiration in its look, whether real or not!

Then…

"Roar…"

He gave a deep roar and turned away!