Chapter 37

As Fares was thinking of what to do, the Saltasaurus charged at Smooka, ignoring him and Zena.

However, to its dismay, the Saltasaurus could not catch it with how fast it is trotting. As Smooka kept running and jumping between branches, Zena finally grouped up with Fares. Fares quickly shouted, "Smooka, keep drawing its attention for a while."

Then he turned to Zena and continued in a lower voice, "Zena, I need you to protect me, take care."

Fares then closed his eyes and thought, 'Think, think. How does one take down a tank?' From Fares' point of view, everything around him just froze in place, even his body.

Meanwhile, his brain had started working in overdrive. It was like taking a 5 minutes nap after waking up, only to dream months into the future. However, this time his thought process took seconds to minutes, as he went over the possibilities in his head.

Normally, a brain can function this way, however, the brain limits itself when it is awake so that it does not burn out from the excess stimuli from all active senses plus a few extras from the dream. 

Fortunately for him, Fares had more than enough brain capacity from the energy of the single brain node enlarged from the walnut.

Meanwhile, Smooka started to get tired, even though it is quick on its feet, it had to move at its full speed just to barely evade the giant monster. 

One would think that a monster this large would be slow, but it is not at all. With one step it could cover a few meters, meanwhile, Smooka needed a few to cover the same distance more rapidly.

Zena noticed the fluffy squirrel's movements slowing down, and hesitated whether she should help. After a quick thought, Zena grabbed Fares in one hand and climbed to the top of a tree, placing him on its largest branch.

All the while, Fares had toned down his senses so that he could focus even more. Following that, Zena dropped from the top of the tree onto the Saltasaurus' back. Before, she could only leap a distance of 15 meters unharmed, but after jumping two more minor realms she felt she would be fine from even a 30 meters high tree.

This was the difference in achieving the late-stage Body Training, her power had more than doubled. With its back as high as 20 meters off the ground, Zena fell a distance of approximately 28 meters onto its back.

She then grabbed her sword and ran across its huge back and long neck to reach right above its head. Only then did the beast finally gave Smooka a breathing room and turned its attention to the tiny person over its head.

It kept shaking its long neck wildly left and right trying to force her off, but Zena grabbed onto the groove in the skull above its eyes and pinned herself to it.

Getting frustrated from the creature not falling off yet, the Saltasaurus drew its neck backward like a string and smashed its head onto a robust tree in front of it.

Before its head reached the tree, Zena released her hands and dropped sliding over its long neck, evading the blow. As soon as the beast hit the tree, a huge dent appeared on it, while the Saltasaurus' body wobbled and its head going around in circles.

Smooka had finally recovered enough and jumped over the dizzy beast's head, stabbing its left eye with its claws.

Roaaaaar~

The Saltasaurus screamed in agony, as blood spurted out of its eyes, which had now become a pool of watery-blood material. However, the pain woke it up from the dizziness as it looked at Smooka in pure anger in its healthy eye.

It immediately charged at Smooka, much faster this time, and swung its tail with the supersonic speed at Smooka's direction. 

Smooka quickly ran out of the way, when it felt the bloodlust seeping out of the monster. However, it had not anticipated that the Saltasaurus would be much faster this time around, and the long tail brushed by Smooka's side, increasing its speed towards a tree.

Smooka smacked into a tree, spurting blood out of its mouth due to a few broken ribs, as it slid to the ground. "Noooo!" Zena screamed at Smooka.

She slid down the giant Saltasaurus' body and ran quickly towards Smooka. The Saltasaurus having lost one eye, its vision had been impaired and had already lost half of its field of vision. It took the beast a while to find Smooka, by this time Zena had already reached its side and went down on one knee to check up on it.

Roaaar~

The giant monster roared and ran towards them in anger. Zena heard the roar and her face showing a hint of fear, what should she do now? Smooka can not run in this state, and the monster was hell-bent on killing it. As if clarity finally dawned on her, she grabbed her sword and stood in front of Smooka with resoluteness on her face. 

Fares gave her a mission, to buy him time, and she had to carry it even if it meant she had to die.

Seeing someone standing in its way, the Saltasaurus was enraged and used its head as a flail to attack Zena.

Zena raised her sword towards the monsters and attacked them at the same time. As the head and sword clashed, Zena's arm cracked, and she slid a few feet as she pushed even more against the force of the monster attacking her.

Zena felt unimaginable pain from her arms, but she gritted her teeth, sucked them up. She had to do this, she can not just be a burden to Fares, he kept on helping her time and time again, never asking for anything in return.

When the momentum finally came to a halt, Zena had blood seeping out of her mouth, nose, and ears, and her arms dropped by her side limply. But she still did not fall to the ground and looked at the Saltasaurus in even more determination.

She has finally begun to be useful and was not going to stop that now. The monster looked at her with annoyance that she was still standing, and used its head as a flail once more.

 This time, however, Zena had no more power left in her body, but she still stood upright. At this time, the Saltasaurus felt a great danger coming from behind it and retreated slightly.

As soon as it did, a gale of wind passed by the place where its hind legs were and continued forward, cutting down a tree in front of it in half. "Sorry, I am late." Fares said as he approached Zena and Smooka.

As soon as he saw the state they were in, his blood boiled as he looked at the Saltasaurus in anger.

Smooka tried standing up to fight, but with a wobble, he fell back down. Fares pat its head and said, "You can relax now, buddy. I have got it from here."

Smooka looked at Fares' resolute eyes for a while before it finally relaxed and left it all to him.

Roaaaaar~

It was then that the Saltasaurus found what was it that sneak attacked it and roared furiously.

"Come on. Let's get this over with." Fares said his fighting spirit ignited.

He only fought Raptors since he came that he forgot how tough dinosaurs were to beat. 

Each had many unique traits, this Saltasaurus specifically had a tough pelt that several top-of-the-chain predators can not even wish to hurt.

Unfortunately for it, Fares found a weakness, even that weakness was useless if it were not for his new fighting techniques.

The Saltasaurus charged at Fares, using its long tail snapped at Fares like a whip, trying to obliterate him in a single hit.

However, Fares predicted this and raised his hand, palm facing upwards, in a quick gesture. Along with his hand movements, the earth shook under the dinosaur, alarming it, causing it to halt its tail mid-air.

A moment later, the earth around Fares' teammates rose and surrounded them in a dome-shaped, sturdy structure. Fares had already used half of his energy to make it sturdy enough to withstand an attack from this dinosaur.

The Saltasaurus saw that it got tricked and resumed attacking Fares with more fervor than before. However, Fares was nowhere to be seen. It looked around with its working eyes but still found nothing.

Fares supplied his leg nodes with more energy, which through his wide vessels passed with ease, causing his speed to soar to a whole different level. Still, he was not that much faster than the beast. 

 Using the time when the Saltasaurus let its guard down, Fares sped towards its blind spot. After that, he kept moving along with it to stay in its blind spot. Only when he found the perfect timing, did he attack.

Fares used half of his remaining energy to make a giant wind blade, by compressing the surrounding air as thin as possible. When it reached the perfect size, he released it towards the cut Smooka had already left.

Whoosh ~

As it passed through the air making a cutting sound, the beast finally noticed the danger. But it was too late, the wind blade was already at its neck and entered through its wound.

The wound widened considerably as pain shot through the dinosaur's body, making it shriek in pain. After passing halfway through, it stopped and could not go on any further.

Fares clicked his fingers together and the wind blade suddenly heated up and expanded in a boom. The Saltasaurus' head fell on the ground, it died in agony with its normal eye showing unwillingness.