Typhon, the ancient great serpent, the death god of the rainforest.
Whenever the species came to mind, the shadow always arrived before the painful memories.
Just as it did now.
The monkeys were like his subjects, praising the arrival of the king of the swamp.
The enormous black creature filled the mated Nightmare Leopards' entire field of vision. Their hearts raced and their muscles tensed, but a foul wind struck them in the face before they could dodge. Typhon was an ambush monster; once one appeared, its prey had no chance of escape.
It was completely different from the scene when he had been drinking at the edge of the swamp.
Famu's muscles surged with power, and the moment he burst out of the swamp, his eyes locked onto the adult male leopard.
Famu clamped his jaws around it. Rows of fine, sickle-like backward-pointing teeth pierced its skin and sank into its muscles, locking the male leopard firmly in his grasp.
With a thud, he smashed the male Nightmare Leopard against the ground like a giant hammer. At the same time, he lashed out with his tail, sending the female leopard, who was trying to flank him from the other side, flying.
The young Wanderer, originally their prey, seemed to have lost its strength. It stood in the mud, staring blankly as the monster easily crossed over it and unleashed terrifying, incomparable brutality.
In its field of vision, Famu's fearsome head, covered in backward-pointing teeth, was almost as large as an adult leopard's torso. His thick body, winding and coiling across the sand, looked just like a Sa Mei Su Mu tree as thick as a person's outstretched arms, cut in half and laid across the swamp.
The male leopard's eyes bulged from the intense pressure inside its skull. A single bite from Famu had left it unable to move; that bite and impact alone had shattered the connection between its thoracic and cervical vertebrae.
This was a creature that stood at the apex of the rainforest.
The female leopard lay on the sand, convulsing in agony. She tried to get up, but she couldn't. Famu's long tail had struck her abdomen, crushing not only the fetus inside her but several of her ribs as well. Splinters of bone had pierced her lungs, leaving her able to make only a hissing sound like escaping air.
"Roar!"
Pinned to the mud, the male leopard revealed its ferocity. It swung a forepaw with all its might, striking Famu on the side of his face.
It was a furious blow powerful enough to shatter a giant tapir's skull, but when it struck Typhon's black scales, it produced only a series of piercing screeches. Sparks flashed and vanished in the dim night, and several pale scratches appeared in the keratin beneath Famu's pale eyelid.
Famu tilted his head slightly.
Holding the male leopard by the throat, he slammed its body hard into the mud. Then Famu raised the front half of his body off the ground and yanked the predator, which weighed over three hundred kilograms, wildly through the air like a rag.
Centrifugal force and inertia pulverized everything inside the male leopard. It was more terrifying than a giant python's constriction.
The male leopard's organs shifted inside its body cavity, and the vertebrae connected to its skull snapped into several pieces. Another violent yank sent thick black blood spilling from its mouth and nose, slowly running down Famu's scales.
One of its eyeballs was also shaken loose from its socket and rolled to a stop at the subadult's feet.
Famu didn't care how much psychological shock this would cause a young Nightmare Leopard. He opened his mouth and swallowed the male Nightmare Leopard in one motion.
As for the collapsed female Nightmare Leopard, her fate was much better. Famu merely strangled her and then swallowed her.
He successfully reunited the Nightmare Leopard couple in his stomach.
He nodded in satisfaction, his scarlet tongue flicking out into the air as his cold vertical pupils slowly turned.
The Wanderer could have fled immediately, disappearing into the dense forest without looking back.
While hunting, Famu was more interested in fully grown individuals and wouldn't have cared about the little one. Yet it ran to a flat stretch of ground not far from the swamp and looked back at Famu.
Nightmare Leopards were feline groups with highly social behavior.
The presence of a pair of rulers in their breeding season meant that somewhere deeper in the dense forest, on a plateau, there had to be a large settlement made up of dozens of individuals.
The news made Famu's mouth water.
Typhons were less giant pythons of the order Squamata than monsters wearing the shells of snakes. They were highly aquatic, but even on land, they remained predators other creatures could not hope to match.
The reason was an ability.
The ability to control their muscles.
Not long after Famu came to rule this swamp, he discovered that he could alter his own bones and muscles, and even certain organs.
It was a specialized evolution that gave the enormous creature, far larger than a normal green anaconda, agility and explosive power on land that rivaled those of mammals. A giant python's constricting muscles could become explosive, and when bitten by other carnivores, he could tighten his muscles to reduce further injury and even stop the bleeding.
In short, a Typhon was like a tank with limitless strength. With such attributes, dealing with a population of Nightmare Leopards on land was naturally no difficult matter.
Famu looked at the subadult.
Could it have been scared out of its wits?
Famu hoped the terrified subadult leopard could serve as a guide and lead him to the leopard group's den hidden deep in the forest. After a young animal encountered danger, its first thought would naturally be dictated by instinct: return to the safety of its den.
However, after meeting his gaze, the Wanderer still disappeared into the dense forest without looking back.
Famu wasn't disappointed. Today's haul had already been plentiful enough.
He turned his head, his black body leaving a wide drag mark in the sand as he sank into the swamp that could contain all bloodshed.
In the tranquil water below, the bodies of the two Nightmare Leopards were digested by Famu.
Nightmare Leopards clearly had less fat than Long-snouted Tapirs, yet a single Nightmare Leopard provided far more energy than a Long-snouted Tapir. With two of them churning and digesting in his stomach together, even Famu felt somewhat full.
The muscles in his abdomen were churning, his bones were growing thicker, and every cell in Famu's body was devouring the newly converted amino acids and lipids.
The Spiral Tree parasitizing his body got to work at the same time. Perhaps because he had never preyed on Nightmare Leopards before, the Staff of Life also began feeding frantically.
Judging by the speed of digestion, Famu quickly realized that the two Nightmare Leopards could give him only a moment's peace.
The benefit was that another portion of the rootlets beneath the Spiral Tree lit up. The two Nightmare Leopards provided more points of light than Famu's prey did in a month.
And, seemingly finding the Nightmare Leopards' meat exceptionally delicious and rich in energy, the Spiral Tree began drawing even more nutrients from Famu. All at once, Famu's stomach felt empty, the plentiful gains from this hunt exhausted in the time it took him to swim back to his den.
But it wasn't just the Staff of Life that needed food. Famu could clearly feel his bones craving calcium and his muscles calling for protein. He was still growing, but his stomach was empty. Even though he had eaten, it was almost as if he hadn't.
Damn it, is fighting a young Typhon for food all humanity's supreme wisdom taught you?
Cursing and grumbling, Famu coiled himself up and finally chose to fight his hunger with sleep.