"… and therefore, I think the best choice is to fortify the border. We cannot know if humans will respect peace, so it is better to leave with caution"

Sobek snorted. He had been listening to Pierce speak for half an hour, who wanted at all costs to establish a further line of defense.

"This would be dangerous. It would give humans the impression that we want to reopen hostilities" Old Li noted. "Humans are fickle creatures. If they perceived a danger they would not hesitate to react"

"I know, but we have to think about the worst" Pierce said. "Currently our borders are uncovered. To the west there are the mountains that provide us with cover and are easily defensible, but the coast is a weak point. A fleet could easily dock there"

"So what do you propose to do?" Sobek asked.

"We build obstacles. We fill the shallow waters with rocks, so that it is impossible to dock where we do not want to. And we fortify the entire coast by building walls and plumes" Pierce replied.

"I repeat: this would be a mistake!" Old Li exclaimed. "Humans will immediately sense danger!"

"But if we don't, we will be in danger!"

Sobek stamped his paw on the ground; calm was restored in an instant. "You are both right. We need more defenses, but we can't give humans the impression that we want to reopen hostilities" he said. "Here is what we will do: we will focus on reforesting mainly the coast, so that the trees and vegetation can hide our defenses as they do in the forest. We will also fill the sea with large rocks, but we will do it secretly and protected by [Ambush], and these rocks must not be visible out of the water. That way, humans won't notice our fortifications. Objections?"

Old Li and Pierce pondered, but no one found anything to complain about. "Then let's get to work right away. Old Li, tell reforestation teams to focus on the coast. Pierce, you coordinate the construction of the new defenses"

The two dinosaurs nodded and started to move away, when suddenly Buck made the appearance of him: "Pack leader, someone asks to speak to you"

Sobek raised an eyebrow: "Who is it?"

"He claims to be called Snock"

"Let him pass"

Buck let out a slight growl, and a large figure appeared behind him. An even larger figure than the tyrannosaurus itself.

It was a giganotosaurus. One of the most powerful carnivores to ever appear in the history of the world, even larger than the t-rex, although it possessed a weaker bite and a more fragile constitution.

A lethal and destructive predator that in any environment would have placed itself at the apex of the food chain and could have hunted and devoured anything it wished.

Sobek studied the dinosaur carefully. In appearance it remotely resembled a tyrannosaurus, but it had a longer and less massive skull; it also had three toes on each leg, like allosaurs, and its body was more streamlined. It was dark gray in color, suitable for blending into the trees; he had no feathers except for a few protrusions in his arms. His eyes were yellow, a sign that he probably saw very well both day and night; within them Sobek read a strange feeling, a confused mixture of anger, fear, hatred and resignation. "Why did you come? Do you need something?"

"I don't need anything. I came to challenge you, pack leader"

Silence fell over the whole area. Nobody dared to say a word in the face of the giganotosaurus declaration. The other dinosaurs present watched Snork as if he were a madman. Not that he wasn't right: challenging Sobek was practically suicide.

The spinosaurus himself barely believed that his opponent was sane. "Are you sure of these words of yours?" he growled at him, deliberately lowering his voice to sound more threatening.

But Snock wasn't intimidated. "I'm sure. If I win, I will become the new pack leader and you and everyone else will obey me. If I lose, then you will probably kill me. The terms are clear, and I want to fight"

Sobek snorted deeply. For a pack leader a direct challenge was the worst of shame; it meant that his leadership was not considered fair and that his strength was questioned. Sobek felt the intense urge to tear apart the giganotosaurus, but he managed to restrain himself despite the anger that burned his heart like an unquenchable fire.

He rose to his full height. Snock was nearly 14 meters long, a record even for a giganotosaurus, but Sobek was at least three times the size. Anyone wouldn't have bet a cent on Snock. "Last chance" Sobek growled. "Step aside, and I will forget your affront"

"I don't mean to" Snock answered

Anger raged even more in Sobek's heart. Now more than he ever did he wanted to arrange the cheeky one for the holidays. "Then I'll give you all my fighting skills, so you can't be at a disadvantage" he hissed. Even though that would actually make things complicated, he didn't want the dinosaurs to claim that he had won only because of his powers. If there was to be a challenge, then it was a fair challenge.

Through the [Contract] he switched to Snock [Reinforced skin], [Devastating roar], [Powerful bite] and [Deadly claws]. They were now on par, at least in terms of fighting skills. The rest would be decided by the strength of each of them.

"NOW LET'S FIGHT!"

Sobek lunged at Snock and lowered his right paw violently, with such force that if he hit the giganotosaurus it would at least break his spine. But Snock quickly dodged the blow and even grabbed the leg and bitten it.

Sobek gritted his teeth in anger as he felt the power of [Powerful bite] facing him; he couldn't hurt him thanks to [Reinforced skin], but that didn't mean he didn't hurt him a lot. He lowered his jaws to bite Snork, but Snock was quicker and backed away before he could hit him.

The giganotosaurus was smaller than him, but he was also more agile and faster. Sobek was furious to see him sneak out of his grasp so easily.

Then it was Snock who attacked. He ran towards him with her head down and threw herself under Sobek's paws, and with his claws struck his left foot. Sobek growled as he felt [Reinforced skin] being violated by [Deadly claws]; even if it wasn't a deep wound it still hurt him. He lowered himself violently and nearly crushed the giganotosaurus, who managed to avoid him by pure miracle; part of his tail, however, ended up under Sobek's claws, which severed it cleanly.

Snock roared in pain as he watched the stump that was now at the base of his tail. He struggled to get to a safe distance this time. He had lost at least a third of his tail, and without it his body had lost its proper center of gravity. Carnivorous dinosaurs used their tails to be able to keep their huge body in balance, so even losing a piece of it was very deleterious. Snock needed some time to get used to his new center of gravity, time he didn't have at the moment.

The giganotosaurus staggered trying to regain his balance, but Sobek didn't give him time. He was on top of him and bit his neck. Snock roared and wriggled fiercely, but instead of trying to free himself he tried to rotate his body to reach the spinosaurus' neck with his claws.

"Damn! In't this madman fear death?" Sobek thought looking at the giganotosaurus who nearly snapped his neck on his own by dint of turning it. "There is something wrong here. There is no strategy, there is no self-preservation. He looks like a wounded and cornered animal moved only by fury. I have to finish this immediately, or someone could get seriously hurt"

He put his paws on Snock's back and gave it a snap; the legs of the giganotosaurus gave way and the animal fell to the ground. Snock tried to get up, but Sobek's jaws wouldn't have let him. In addition, the spinosaurus had positioned himself on top of him, preventing him from moving.

Snock didn't give up. He continued to fidget for several minutes, trying to free himself from Sobek's bite, but the more he moved the more the spinosaurus increased the pressure on his neck. If it weren't for [Reinforced skin], the giganotosaurus head would not have been attached to the body for some time.

They continued like this for ten, twenty, thirty minutes. As much as Sobek imposed himself on Snock, he showed no sign of stopping. "Fuck!" the spinosaurus thought. "Will he ever give up?"

As if wanting to contradict him, just at that moment the giganotosaurus gave in and abandoned any attempt at resistance. His body collapsed completely to the ground and he never tried to free himself again. Deep gasps emerged from the dinosaur's throat, then he found the strength to speak: "Kill me, pack leader. I can't beat you"

"No" was Sobek's dry reply. "If you want to die, find someone else to kill you. I fought by the rules of the pack, so now you will accept the defeat by the rules of the pack; which dictates that your life now belongs to me. Answer me: why did you challenge me to a battle that you knew you were going to lose?"

The giganotosaurus growled softly: "I didn't know for sure that I was going to lose. I had a little confidence that I could win"

"That doesn't answer my question" Sobek retorted. "Speak out"

Snock bared his teeth, and his yellow eyes flared with hatred. "You betrayed me" he hissed.

The spinosaurus remained expressionless. "Betrayed? I don't remember meeting you in the past, or sealing any deal with you. What would my crime be?"

Snock stared at him even more intently. "I understand why you don't remember me. When I came to you to join the pack I was a nobody, a dinosaur among many who came to you for the protection you provided. You certainly have not paid attention to this very common predator that came to ask you for asylum. Otherwise you would remember that when I came to join the pack my body was covered with scars, my right front paw had been cut and that several needles were stuck in my skin"

Those words were enough to make Sobek understand everything. "You are a survivor. A prisoner of humans who managed to escape"

"That's right. I was born in a bleak place where the sun never shone. I never knew my parents, nor did I ever know if I was part of a pack. I was fed by artificial tubes and often there was not enough food. I was forced to eat the other pups in the litter to survive" Snock said. "Then, when I turned five, the humans came for me. One of them bought me and dragged me to an arena. There I fought, day after day, month after month, year after year, never stopping. I killed so many opponents that I lost count and suffered so many injuries that sometimes I couldn't even get up. And when I tried to refuse to fight, humans whipped me or shocked me with sticks that sent electric shocks. I knew that if I didn't obey I would be killed or subjected to worse punishments, so I fought and tore any opponent to pieces. Even when I got sick from wounds or the loss of blood made me weak I didn't dare refuse to fight, because I knew that otherwise they would punish me even more"

Sobek understood everything. The giganotosaurus below him was an animal that had been used for illegal fighting. If money got in the way, humans were willing to do anything, even force other living creatures to fight to the death. Even on Earth, illegal fights were quite frequent, even if they involved other animals such as dogs or chickens; they were widespread in the less wealthy and civilized nations, but even in the more 'advanced' nations they were by no means few. It was only natural that dinosaurs would suffer a similar fate on Eden.

Sobek knew that illegal fighting was bad for the psyche of any living creature. Often the animals used for this were raised from an early age to hunt and kill, were kept in poor sanitary conditions and were extremely undernourished to increase their desire to kill. Many animals after having remained in that hell for more than a year showed clear signs of mental imbalance and often had to be killed since they became a danger to themselves and to others. Some went completely crazy, others let themselves go to depression, still others turned into real serial killers who killed whatever they saw. The simple fact that Snock had managed to maintain his clarity despite what he had been subjected to was an indication of extreme willpower.

If a human being had been subjected to the same treatment, it would have been a miracle if he had got away with forty years of therapy and a lot of PTSD. Sobek wrinkled his nose as he imagined that cruelty. Humans knew how to be really evil, especially the people who engaged in that sector, who were generally criminals and mobsters.

"I spent a year doing nothing but fighting" Snock went on to tell. "Then one day the rusty chain holding my leg broke, and I ran away. I don't even remember how I did it, I just ran, letting the survival instinct guide me. In one way or another I managed to sow my tormentors. After that I continued east and eventually reached the forest. I was finally a free animal, but my wounds tormented me day after day"

The giganotosaurus had probably been used as a wrestler in some slum of Odaria or some neighboring country, because he certainly hadn't been able to swim across the ocean.

"And then you came. I have come before you and you have healed me, restored my old strength and guaranteed me food and shelter. For the first time in my life, I was happy. I was part of a pack and even though I was struggling to relate, the nightmares were finally gone. Finally I was no longer afraid that something would jump on me from the shadows. Finally I no longer feared for my life. I was happy to be part of the pack. And then, when you told us about what humans were doing and what they would do, and that you would lead us into battle against them… you seemed extraordinary". Snock's eyes glittered. "As you stood in all your immensity on that rock, tamed the fire and swore to stop the humans, I thought: 'Yes, he is someone I could be happy to serve'. I believed that finally someone would stop humans forever, and that no one would ever have to suffer what I had suffered. But I was wrong"

The giganotosaurus's gaze lit up with anger. "You preferred to let them live! Instead of eliminating them all as they deserve, you are letting them live! You even accepted peace with them! I thought you were the one the ancestors sent us to stop the human plague, but I was wrong. You too, like everyone else, were afraid and pulled back!" Snock growled furiously. "That's why I chose to challenge you. I knew I had little chance of winning, but I didn't care. So much this life has very little to offer me now. I have learned that I will only get one disappointment after another. I chose to try my luck: if I had won, then I would have led our people against humans, and now that I have lost... well, at least I will die for something I believe in"

Sobek's eyes met the giganotosaurus defiant gaze. It was clear that he had no interest in living and wanted to die. Sobek snorted deeply. When he accepted the peace he knew that there would have been dissent: dinosaurs still had their personalities, and some did not like the idea of living with humans. Snork was probably just the first of a long series.

The best choice for Sobek was to eliminate him as an example for everyone. If he had heeded his instincts, he would have torn the giganotosaurus apart and then he would have hung his head on a pike in plain sight, so that everyone would know what fate was up against whoever dared to challenge him. But the human part of him, more rational, stopped him. If there was one thing that human history taught, in fact, it was that commanding with terror was a bad idea. Even though Sobek had always made it clear that he was the highest authority in the pack, he had always avoided episodes of ferocity. An army that does not trust its pack leader is an army doomed to fail; if dissent had remained among his troops, even if he had made Snock an example, his war machine would have suffered greatly.

So he chose to beat Snock with the deadliest weapon of humanity: words. "Afraid, huh? Is this what you think? That I have accepted peace because I was afraid?"