Bright red blood instantly gushed out, dyeing the rainwater red.
But this was not the end.
“Thud—!!!”
Just as the Indominus Rex tried to turn its head and bite due to the pain, a thick dragon tail covered in black crystal spikes, carrying the terrifying whistle of a swung hammer, slammed squarely into the back of its skull.
This was a solid critical hit.
The Indominus Rex’s massive body was struck into a staggering lurch forward, its chin hitting the ground hard and splattering a large amount of mud.
It let out a groan filled with pain and humiliation.
Its entire head was rattled by the blow.
Its limbs carved deep trenches into the earth before it barely managed to halt its momentum, not directly knocked flat like the old Triceratops earlier.
It shook its head, flinging off the mud and dizziness clinging to it.
When it raised its head again, the mockery and composure in those orange eyes were gone.
In their place was pure, insane killing intent, like a volcanic eruption.
It was injured.
This was the first time it had bled since its birth.
“Roar—!!!!!”
The Indominus Rex threw its head back and let out a piercing roar.
The three wounds on its flank were still bleeding profusely, but it paid no heed.
It stared fixedly at the black figure circling in the air.
The muscles in its hind legs bulged, and it began running through the jungle at an unprecedented speed.
Using a tree trunk for leverage, it leaped, actually attempting to jump into the air to drag Balthazar down.
And as the Indominus Rex leaped into the air, Balthazar moved again.
That thick dragon tail covered in black crystal spikes, like a battering ram, traced a perfect black arc through the downpour.
Wrapped in the sound of wind and thunder, it landed squarely on the Indominus Rex’s pale, newly-lifted face.
“Thud—!!!”
An extremely dull sound of flesh colliding even drowned out the thunder in the distance.
The Indominus Rex’s massive body in mid-air was like a baseball hit for a home run.
Its originally ferocious pouncing posture instantly disintegrated.
Accompanied by the crisp sound of displaced neck vertebrae and a spray of saliva and blood, this ten-ton white behemoth lost its balance and crashed heavily back to the ground.
Worse still, its landing spot was a narrow gap between two ancient Redwoods.
Its immense momentum made it act like a wedge, forcing its way between the two trunks, thick as iron towers.
Bark splintered, wood chips flew.
Its broad hip bones and dorsal spines were firmly stuck between the tree trunks.
No matter how much it roared and struggled, aside from violently shaking the trees and causing more leaves to fall, it was, for the moment, completely unable to move.
“Huff…”
A heavy gust of wind pressure descended.
Balthazar folded his wings.
His dark iron, steel-like body landed lightly on a large boulder mere meters from the Indominus Rex’s snout.
Sharp dragon claws gripped the rock, emitting a teeth-grating scraping sound.
He did not press the advantage to tear at the exposed throat of his opponent.
Instead, he slowly lowered his head.
Those dark golden vertical pupils narrowed slightly.
With a critical and contemptuous gaze, like an artist examining a failed work, he looked through the pouring rain at the hybrid monster before him, still writhing madly and screaming in rage.
Rainwater slid down his fearsome horns, dripping from the corner of his slightly parted maw.
“This… is…”
The vocal organs in Balthazar’s throat vibrated.
Each syllable was as rough as sandpaper, but this did not hinder the aura of a superior being emanating from the depths of his bloodline.
He extended his tongue, casually licked away a drop of the opponent’s blood clinging to his snout, then disgustedly expelled a puff of hot, sulfur-scented breath.
“…the so-called… Indominus?”
He tilted his head slightly, as if waiting for a response.
But the only reply was the Indominus Rex’s even more hysterical, impotent fury.
“So… ugly.”
It was a pure rejection of this genetic freak cobbled together from bits and pieces.
Balthazar raised a front claw, his fingertips lightly brushing against the two redwood trunks trapping his opponent, leaving behind a deep scorch mark as if reinforcing this makeshift cage.
His gaze was terrifyingly calm, like a person watching a rat caught in a mousetrap.
“No… dignity.”
“Only… madness.”
The moment the last word left his mouth, he suddenly spread his wings.
His Dragon Might erupted once more, pressing down on his immobile opponent like a massive mountain, forcing its roar to get stuck in its throat.
The rain poured down, and mud splashed everywhere.
Balthazar opened his mouth, revealing his fangs.
Just as he was about to lunge forward to taste the fruits of victory, a strike came without warning from the shadows on his side.
“Clang—!!!”
The tooth-gritting sound of metal grinding exploded through the rain.
Balthazar felt his vision shake violently.
His original target vanished from sight, replaced by a purple-grey jaw covered in wrinkles and scars, inches from his face.
Intense pain followed.
Although his [Steel Dragon Scales] blocked most of the lethal piercing damage, that terrifying bite force—enough to instantly flatten a small car—still made his neck muscles scream under the unbearable pressure.
Only then did Balthazar see the full appearance of the ambusher.
It was an Indominus Rex, ten meters long.
It was much smaller than the pale one, but its muscles were tighter and its eyes more sinister.
Its skin was darker, a sickly purple-grey.
Because the heavy rain and the massive commotion from the 15-meter Indominus Rex had diverted Balthazar’s attention, he had failed to notice this ambusher.
The suffocating sensation of being bitten by the throat and the sudden pain did not send the young tyrant into a panic; instead, it instantly ignited the most violent powder keg in his bloodline.
In that instant, his pupils turned so red they almost seemed to drip blood.
Without any hesitation, the wings on Balthazar’s back snapped open to their limit, the broad wing membranes making a loud “bang” in the rain.
A powerful airflow, combined with the explosive muscular strength of a dragon, forced his massive body to pull upward and to the side.
“Screech—”
Accompanied by the tooth-gritting sound of metal grinding and several black scales flying off, Balthazar used this brute force to break free from the lethal throat lock.
Several deep tooth marks remained on his neck, seeping dark red, scalding dragon blood that hissed as it dripped into the muddy water.
Flapping his wings, he quickly ascended to a low altitude of thirty meters.
The cold rainwater washed over his wounds, bringing stings of pain, but this instead made his mind clearer than ever before.
He circled in the air, looking down from above at the hellish scene below.
The Indominus Rex that had been stuck had now taken advantage of the chaos to break free from its restraints.
Though it was stumbling and its flank was still bleeding, the fear in its eyes had been replaced by the ecstasy of the arrival of reinforcements.
Beside it, the smaller but more muscular Indominus Rex was staring intently at Balthazar, its eyes gleaming with greed.
Two of them.
In the Jurassic World movie, only one Indominus Rex appeared, but now two had actually shown up.
[The diversity of… parallel worlds?]
“…”
Balthazar hovered in mid-air, his chest heaving violently.
The wound on his throat throbbed with pain.
Logic told him that facing two opponents of this caliber, retreating was the safest choice.
He held the absolute advantage in the air.
As long as he flew away and left this world with the trophies that already met the requirements, nothing could stop him.
But…
run away?