It was a sweltering, clear night, without wind or clouds.
Silvery moonlight spread quietly over the Mara River's channel like molten lead.
The current flowed thick and sluggish as Famu patrolled these waters.
His thick serpentine body lay beneath the water, his broad head cutting through its mirrorlike surface as his pale eyes surveyed the river.
He had evidently come to regard this narrow bend as his own hunting ground.
In just one week, Famu had ventured into the Mara River five times.
He made the White Forest to the west his temporary habitat, resting in the gaps between tree roots during the day and roaming the Mara River's waterways at night in search of suitable large prey.
There were no other Typhons, nor any flocks of birds.
Perhaps the female Typhon the giant bird had killed had been the ruler of these waters. After she was killed, these bountiful waters had been left without an owner.
He had claimed the place and was feeding voraciously.
An overwhelmingly strong smell of blood drifted in on the wind.
A massive carcass, as large as a small hill, floated in the deep water at the center of the channel.
It was a giant-toothed beast five or six meters long. Its thick body had been torn open, exposing its internal organs and broken ribs to the moonlight, while blood spread across the water in widening layers.
This was definitely not a Typhon's handiwork.
A Typhon would not have left such a mess of shattered bones and mangled flesh.
The torn edges of the carcass were covered in jagged wounds from a brutal ripping bite. The curve of those marks was outrageously wide: they belonged to a monster with a snout fully two meters across.
If there was a comparable bite to be found in this rainforest, it existed only in the designs of Famu's dragonization blueprint. But his heterodont teeth had yet to grow in, and a Typhon's head could not grow two meters wide.
A sense of danger rang wildly deep in his spine.
Famu realized he had entered another predator's hunting ground.
Something had entered this river bend, just as he had.
"Hummm—!"
Famu's core vibrated as he searched for the monster.
But the vibrations on the river's surface were abruptly interrupted!
"Boom—!"
The water exploded, sending white spray flying.
Beneath Famu, a vast, pitch-black shadow surged upward through the murky undercurrent!
He had spotted Famu in advance and hidden himself, then launched a sudden attack just as Famu was about to find where he was hiding!
It was a gaping, blood-red maw.
"Crack!"
Sharp teeth bit through iron scales. The monster clamped its jaws around Famu's neck, its sharp, serrated teeth easily piercing his skin and sinking into his taut muscles.
Vibrations spread across the water as Famu roared. The force of those massive jaws nearly shoved his upper body clear of the surface.
But Famu's neck was too thick. His locked vertebral joints, his reinforced line of ligaments, and his hard muscles, swollen several times over—the armor created by his dragonization blueprint—met that terrifying bite force head-on. Those great teeth failed to inflict a fatal wound on him.
The counterattack came swiftly.
Famu coiled his body tight and swung his thick neck sharply, meeting his attacker's gaze.
He got a clear look at the beast from the abyss.
It was a pitch-black giant crocodile more than ten meters long.
Its back rose in a high ridge, covered in rows of rough bony protrusions resembling miniature volcanic craters. It was an incomparably ferocious predator, the largest and most hideous crocodilian overlord Famu had seen since his birth.
Famu bit down on the pitch-black crocodile in turn.
Force poured down like a heavy hammer.
But Famu's teeth went numb from the bite.
Damn it, those feeble serrated teeth couldn't pierce its tough hide.
The attacker sensed that something was wrong too.
In its long career as a predator, no Typhon, nor even one of its own kind, had ever counterattacked so calmly after it had bitten down on the vital point of their neck.
This black Typhon's neck was harder than it could have imagined.
"Rumble—"
A whirlpool rose on the river's surface, and two enormous black shadows could be seen tearing at each other.
It grappled and fought with Famu, churning the river into a frenzy as scarlet blood dyed the waters red. At the same time, it attracted another kind of monster.
They mingled with the blood, slender and sharp, like streaks of red meteors.
A school of red-bellied piranhas.
They were the carrion vultures of the waterways and ruthless executioners as well, gathering above the battleground in their hundreds and thousands.
The school watched the two giants fight, waiting for the victor to tear off the first piece of mangled flesh, or for the loser to be reduced to bare bones.
Famu had the advantage in size. His body was thick and powerful, his spine as hard as refined steel.
Underwater, he jerked his body, using his powerful frame to break the crocodile's grip on his throat. But the crocodile was battle-hardened and enormous as well. Famu and the crocodile fought with all their might, and his dragonized torso defied all reason. Ignoring the crocodile's repeated bites, Famu forced his way free of its sharp teeth.
The two pulled apart.
What followed was the close-quarters fight with a predator of comparable size that Famu had anticipated.
His nimble serpentine body could dodge attacks, yet strike his opponent first.
It was only that Famu's teeth weren't up to the task, limiting the damage he could do.
The piranhas circled the two giant beasts.
The water roared and tore apart.
The pitch-black crocodile snapped at empty water, the muffled thud of its great jaws closing deafening underwater.
A surge of terror suddenly rose within it. This black Typhon's fighting instincts and techniques were far too seasoned, but the adult Typhon that had ruled this place should have been dead, killed under the claws of that flock of Ra.
Before the crocodile could sweep its tail and retreat, a black shadow wound around it!
The shadow of the swamp, a silent reaper.
The giant crocodile had been ensnared, as good as having the reaper descend over its head with a scythe in hand.
Famu's thick body wound around it layer upon layer, constricting its raised back and ribs.
He squeezed.
His muscles contracted ceaselessly.
The muscular strength of the child of the earth poured forth in full force. This was a gallows that could never loosen.
"Crack... crack..."
Famu heard the muffled sound of bones breaking.
The crocodile's hard bones could not withstand Famu's constriction, and the air in its chest was squeezed from its lungs. Famu stared coldly at the giant crocodile trapped in his coils.
It's over.
Overhead, the red-bellied piranhas swarmed restlessly, waiting for the feast to begin, filling the waters with colors like a starry sky.
Tighter, tighter. Black iron scales rubbed against crocodile hide, generating intense heat between them.
Intense heat?
Famu froze.
The surface of the giant crocodile's body, caught in his constriction, was beginning to reach an abnormal temperature.
"Boom!"
The next moment, a blazing red-hot torch of flame erupted!
Crimson, searing flames bloomed underwater, the intense heat vaporizing the current and filling the water with steam. For an instant, Famu even thought he had seen a sun plunge into the river.
The streams of heat came from the bony protrusions on the giant crocodile's back.
Those craterlike protrusions released terrifying heat. The blazing, brilliant torches of searing flame exploded underwater like cannon shells, and Famu, still coiled around the crocodile, took the full blast at point-blank range. Three streams of heat pierced his belly scales, traveling through his muscles and even damaging the organs inside his body.
With Famu unable to maintain his grip, the giant crocodile seized its chance. It broke free of his coils and used the force of the explosions to plunge swiftly downstream into the dark river channel, vanishing without a trace.
Famu's muscles twitched. After being struck by the heat, he controlled his core's operation and tightened his muscles, containing the extent of the burns.
What the hell was that thing? Did it even count as a living creature?
A crocodile-shaped biological torch?