The crocodiles played happily in the mud.
To them, the Blackwater Swamp was a paradise of food. Thanks to Famu's careful cultivation, it had no large predators occupying the same ecological niche. The water held only some herbivorous fish, and most of the toothed fish were still juveniles. The larger ones had long since fled, leaving the crocodiles free to hunt animals that came to drink.
They were a small species called Orbital Ridge Crocodiles. They resembled spectacled caimans, with a pair of protruding eyes and a bony ridge running between the eye sockets. Of course, they were small only by Typhon standards. Adult males were usually three to four meters long, with a few reaching five.
They were widespread predators, highly adaptable to their environment, and their diet included the vast majority of rainforest animals. They particularly liked hunting crustaceans, perhaps because Orbital Ridge Crocodiles enjoyed the sound of their teeth crushing hard shells. There were so many of them that they could be seen everywhere, so they were called rainforest admirals, meaning these annoying little things were everywhere.
Take the Blackwater Swamp, for example. After Famu fell asleep, these rainforest admirals had eagerly occupied it.
Famu had left no marks of his own, so as far as the Orbital Ridge Crocodiles were concerned, this was unclaimed land, occupied by no large predator.
Famu swam out of his nest along the bottom.
He could feel the heat even down there. It was easy to imagine how hot it was on land.
He found the Orbital Ridge Crocodiles, but could work up no appetite for them.
Those creatures had no nutritional value to him.
More precisely, they had no value for the Furnace Core's growth. The Furnace Core needed species higher up the ecological ladder; these lower creatures were like a pile of useless dry firewood, good for filling his stomach at most.
So Famu ignored them and swam east along the riverbed, close to the silt.
There lay the Mara River, the nearest bountiful land to the Blackwater Swamp.
Xing Rui was not the only one in the Mara River basin. There were also those born of the bloodline of the noble Muerjia. In the dense network of waterways centered on the Mara River, who knew how many great snakes lay sleeping?
Then a dangerous idea occurred to Famu.
Typhons were a super species of the rainforest.
Could he obtain what he needed from his own kind?
Furnace-Core Creatures were the most exalted beings, and they seemed to be the only creatures Famu had never tried to hunt or eat.
The swamp puppies did not notice Famu. The Black Typhon swam quietly beneath them, a gigantic shadow passing under the yellow-and-black crocodiles.
Famu climbed out of the water and made his way along the route he remembered.
The waterway had dried up, but he could still make out traces of the riverbed. The baked mud was like a sheet of iron, so hot that Famu bared his teeth. Without the waterway to support him, mosquitoes and other insects swarmed above his head on land, buzzing constantly. It all made Famu increasingly irritable.
As he moved from the parched land into a damp region, the noises around him began to multiply.
Famu's Furnace Core began to respond, relaying the activity in the surrounding forest to him.
The Mara River was still wide, its waters flowing onward. The mudflats on both banks were crowded with creatures seeking refuge. Turtles lay stacked upon turtles in the sun on the shallows, motionless. Waterbucks craned their necks to sip at the water's edge, their ears turning alertly in every direction. Shoals of fish and swarms of shrimp crowded together in deep pools, forming a dense, dark vortex.
This was a haven during the dry season, and for that very reason, it had become the most dangerous hunting ground.
At least three Nightmare Leopards prowled nearby, showing hostility and threatening one another.
Three Nightmare Leopards from different factions meant that three Nightmare Leopard families were established here, with dozens of rainforest phantoms behind them eyeing this bountiful land hungrily.
During the previous dry season, Famu had not needed much food, so he had never left the Blackwater Swamp. The plentiful prey in the swamp had been enough to support his growth.
This was the first dry season Famu had faced in the true sense.
The dry season in the Samei Rainforest was nothing less than a gladiatorial arena.
Scarce water, dwindling food, and sweltering heat brought together species that would never otherwise meet in the rainforest. Countless creatures of different species gathered and fought around the rivers, scattered like loose grains of sand.
The three Nightmare Leopards confronting one another narrowed their eyes. They made no more provocative sounds.
Because Famu had arrived.
The Black Typhon shattered the balance on this stretch of riverbank. His body, like molten iron, emerged from the dense forest. His enormous size needed no display of intimidation; the riverbank fell silent at once.
Famu glanced at the creatures scattering in flight. Even the Nightmare Leopards hiding themselves were within his sight. If he wanted to, he could burst into action and bite one of them to death within half a minute.
But he had no appetite whatsoever. Even imagining tearing a Nightmare Leopard apart and eating its delicious flesh made him feel a little sick.
He had to find more valuable prey. None of these lower species were on his menu at the moment.
The Black Typhon slipped into the water, undulated, and soon vanished.
Only then did the animals on the bank breathe a sigh of relief.
In the forest, a pair of eyes slowly opened. They belonged to a solitary Nightmare Leopard, its face covered in savage scars and its strength enough to make the other Nightmare Leopard families wary.
Populations that survived with families as their foundation rarely produced loners. These creatures were either castoffs who had been abandoned or individuals of extreme ferocity and strength.
It was Headscar. After Famu fell asleep, he too had come to the banks of the Mara River.
He was clearly the latter.
Headscar occupied a spot alone, and the other three Nightmare Leopard families all made way for him.
He had spotted Famu and recognized his lord, but Famu paid him no attention and sank into the river on his own.
Headscar would be of no use on this hunt.
It would very likely be a fight between opponents of the same level.
Famu dived into the deepest bend of the Mara River and sank to the muddy bottom, leaving only a pair of pale eyes in the shadows beneath the surface. He quietly surveyed the river that did not belong to him.
He was an intruder, and he knew it. Xing Rui's mother held territory farther upstream, ruling over and measuring every drop of water that flowed through this place.
This was not the tributary where Xing Rui roamed. This was the main river, the territory of a Muerjia.
Famu was not yet bold enough to challenge a Muerjia's authority. According to Xing Rui, every Muerjia was a large individual who had lived past fifty. Their bones and muscles were unbelievably strong, to say nothing of the increase in power brought by a Furnace Core that had grown for decades.
For all he knew, these Muerjia could take on the heavy tanks of human civilization.
Headscar stopped among the roots of a fallen old tree on the bank, curling up into a dark brown shadow, only his eyes remaining alert.
Even though Famu had given no order, Headscar had still left the stretch of riverbank he occupied and followed Famu's trail upstream.
To stand watch for Famu.
He scanned the edge of the forest, then the riverbank.
Then he heard a thunderous cry.
The sky.
It was a domain Headscar had not been guarding against. He looked up in confusion, mistaking it for thunder, but there was nothing in the sky.
Headscar kept looking. The next moment, his fur stood on end.
There was something in the sky: golden lightning! Something was tearing through the clouds themselves.
Headscar froze. Sensing a terrible threat, he pressed himself into the shadows among the roots.
In the water, Famu raised his head.
The water was vibrating.
But an even greater roar drowned out the vibrations in the water.
The sound bore down from overhead, immense and overwhelmingly dense. Famu could make out the sound of beating wings, like metal scraping against metal!
But how could the rainforest have such a sound? Famu rose a little from the bottom so he could see what was happening outside.
Golden lightning tore across the pale daylight.
It was a flock of birds.
A flock of golden birds.
This was nothing like one or two birds of prey patrolling. It was an entire army.
An army Famu had never seen before!
Magnificent giant birds were covered from head to toe in golden feathers, their wingspans broad enough to cast shadows on the ground. Their beaks were like curved battle-axes, their talons like hardened iron hooks.
Like densely packed bolts of golden lightning, the giant birds swept over the rainforest, circling, diving, and climbing above the river!
What the hell are those things?
Famu froze.
The Sky-Rippers bore the name "Ra," a name as ancient as Typhon.
They had another name, born of the fear the rainforest's species felt for them.
Sunbirds.
Looking up from the ground, one could see a Ra spread its wings with the sun at its back.
They came to the Samei Rainforest during the dry season. Judging by their size, Famu had no doubt these giant birds could hunt orcas in the sea.
The Ra had certainly not come for the fish, nor for the lower species on the ground.
They were doing something terrifying: circling over the river during the dry season, hunting the Typhons that had been exposed.
The dry season had forced the female Typhons on both sides of the river to abandon their safest nests. Much of their bodies lay exposed in the increasingly shallow water, placing the rainforest's most powerful rulers in a precarious position in the food chain.
Headscar hid in the dense forest.
Beasts whimpered across the land.
Golden light descended with them. The flock dived, and the ground shook.
Famu saw a Typhon of considerable size, a mature female. She was a full size larger than Xing Rui, with tough scales and several scars crossing the scales on her head. She was a seasoned warrior.
She sprang up from her nest in the half-dried shallows, her enormous body rolling and twisting in the mud as she tried to burrow back into deep water, but she had nowhere left to retreat.
The first set of talons tore through the scales on the side of her neck, impairing its flexibility. A second bird followed close behind, its sharp beak driving into her back like a steel nail, at the location of her Furnace Core.
A third, a fourth, and more and more golden figures plunged from the sky like lightning, like a torrential downpour. Mud sprayed everywhere, yet the wings of the Ra remained spotless.
They were skilled hunters who knew the Typhon's weaknesses well.
The Typhon struggled, lashing her tail fiercely into the air. She caught a giant bird that had dived too low and constricted it until its bones broke and it fell into the mud.
But that victory gave her only a brief respite. More talons had already fastened onto her body, tearing strips of flesh from her skeleton.
Her wails pierced the dry air of the season, and her frenzied roars sent out repeated vibrations.
A Typhon was a super individual, but she was no match for the threat from the sky that came in flocks.
Famu lay hidden in the distance.
After a long time, the sky fell quiet again.
The densely packed flock rose from the mangled body, wet scales and chunks of dark red flesh dangling from their talons and sharp beaks. They fought and tore at one another in the air. Some of the flesh fell from above, striking mud and shallow water and sending up little splashes.
The body that had once been capable of ruling an entire stretch of river was now reduced to a skeleton gnawed to pieces.
Her stark white bones lay spread across the mudflat. Incredibly, she was still alive. With her body almost entirely hollowed out, she continued to roar and bit a giant bird to death when it landed and let down its guard.
Then an iron claw descended, gripped her head, and crushed her skull to pieces.
It was the largest bird in the flock, their leader.
Having crushed the Typhon's head, the giant bird stood on her remains and surveyed the riverbank.
It was a behemoth fully four meters tall even with its wings folded, twice the size of the other giant birds. Like a demon statue cast in gold, it took in every detail of the riverbank with its fierce eagle eyes.
"Hum—"
The water boiled.
A low-frequency vibration came from upstream on the Mara River, spreading through the water and the ground.
The giant bird withdrew his gaze and exerted force with his other iron claw, lifting the Typhon's skeleton with ease. Then he spread his wings, and with a tremendous boom, a gale blasted outward from him in every direction.
The demonic giant bird climbed straight into the air and flew away without the aid of an air current.
The leader led the flock away.
But apart from their leader, the birds did not seem particularly disciplined. They played and scuffled, and a great many fragments fell.
Chunks of flesh, scales, and even some broken joints.
The giant birds fighting over these Typhon fragments dragged them across the river's surface, then let them slip at the occasional misstep. They fell around the waters where Famu lay hidden, raising ripples and staining the murky water with threads of dark red blood.
A golden giant bird landed on the bank not far away, folded its terrifying talons, and lowered its head to pick up a loose piece of scale-covered flesh with its beak in one deft movement.
But as he ate, his eagle head, with its axe-like beak, suddenly paused.
He tilted it.
His raptor eyes looked across the mudflat, past the water plants and forest, and settled on Famu's hiding place.
The surface was calm, too calm.
There was something underwater, he decided.
The giant bird stopped eating and remained alert as he took a few steps forward, his wings slightly spread, ready to launch himself into the sky at any moment.
Damn it.
He's noticed me.
Famu gave him no chance.
The water erupted. Famu had first dived to the deepest part of the river, like a shark diving before an attack, and then he leaped up.
This was Famu's fully charged strike. Every muscle in his body was driven to its limit, and even his immature Furnace Core rumbled inside him.
His speed was overwhelming, his strength crushing.
This was how an ambush hunter killed its prey in one strike!
Famu's serrated teeth pierced muscle and clamped down on the bird's magnificent golden plumage. Then he heaved, coiling his upper body around it. His enormous weight pressed the giant bird into his embrace in an instant. Without pausing, he rolled his huge body back into the water, dragging the still-spasming creature down into the depths.
The water strangled the giant bird's cries for help.
A cloud of ink-dark blood spread through the murky water, blotting out the daylight from the surface.
On the bank, the other giant birds might have heard the strange sound, or they might have noticed nothing at all. Still caught up in the aftermath of the feast, they fought one another for the Typhon's remains. Not one looked down at the calm water.