The Miraculous Bolas

The children were all dumbstruck. Screaming in terror, they covered their eyes and burrowed deeper into the cave. None of them had ever gone more than a kilometer from the cave, much less taken part in a hunt. How could they have seen anything so terrifying? Only two or three particularly bold boys kept watching, and Luo Chong was among them.

Luo Chong was actually terrified too. He had killed plenty of enemies in his previous life, but that was his previous life. With his current tiny body, he was not even as tall as that Terror Bird's leg. Trying to fight it head-on would be courting death. He had that much self-awareness.

The two adults who had run back with the Chieftain saw that the Chieftain was dead and hurriedly threw away the egg. Then they turned and ran to the edge of the forest, climbing up into the trees.

Those two were lucky to be alive. The three of them had run back together, but the Chieftain had shouted the loudest and worn a green Feather Crown on his head. He had been the most conspicuous target of the three, drawing all the hatred toward himself.

The two men had climbed into the trees, and the Chieftain was dead. The Terror Bird had lost its target, but the children's cries had caught its attention. Instantly, it turned its head toward the cave. Seeing several people inside, it spread its legs and charged straight for them.

Caw! Caw!

The piercing cries scared away the other two children who had been standing at the cave entrance with Luo Chong. The pregnant women inside ran to the entrance and began pushing a huge round boulder, preparing to block the cave. But they were not very strong, and they pushed too slowly. Luo Chong hurried forward to help.

"Come on, push the Stone!"

The boulder slowly began to roll, but the Terror Bird was charging fast as well. Luo Chong quickly called for the others to help, but the children were still huddled in the hay, trembling. Some were sobbing loudly in fright. In the end, only the two bold boys from before came to help. Together, they pushed the boulder, making it roll a little faster.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The heavy footsteps drew nearer and nearer. Just as the entrance was only thirty centimeters from being sealed, there was a crunch, and a huge beak thrust through the gap.

With a shrill caw, the Terror Bird cried inside the cave. The children in the hay began screaming again.

"Shut up, all of you! Whoever cries again gets thrown outside!" Luo Chong roared at the children in the hay.

The children did not understand what Luo Chong was saying, but his fierce expression frightened them anyway. The hay pile immediately fell silent. Even the tearful children did not dare make a sound, their bodies twitching as they held it in. Luo Chong was satisfied with the result. He and several adults quietly hid behind the boulder at the entrance, bracing it with their bodies.

For a time, the cave was utterly silent. No one made the slightest sound. They did not even dare breathe loudly.

The Terror Bird could only stick its beak through the gap. Entering was impossible. Its neck was incredibly powerful; even an adult Saber-toothed Tiger would not dare provoke it lightly. With a downward peck from that enormous beak, it could easily snap a Saber-toothed Tiger's neck. But that required force from above. It could not swing its neck sideways and shove the boulder aside.

The Terror Bird cawed several more times. Unable to force its way in, it could only give up reluctantly, turn around, and search outside for another target.

Hearing its footsteps recede, everyone let out a breath of relief. The children wanted to speak again, but Luo Chong silenced them with a glare. Then he held one finger before his lips to tell them to keep quiet. But when he looked at the children, their eyes were full of confusion. They had no idea what that meant.

Luo Chong frowned and made another gesture, covering his mouth with his hand. This time, they understood. Several children copied him, covering their mouths with their little hands.

That was human instinct and nature. Children always imitated the adults around them, just as little girls secretly put on their mothers' high heels. When they thought someone was impressive, they could not help but imitate and learn from them. Luo Chong's fierce display had already intimidated them, and he was always doing things no one else understood. So in those children's eyes, Luo Chong was someone very formidable.

Once he saw that the situation was under control, Luo Chong quietly walked to the gap at the cave entrance and peered outside.

The Terror Bird had not left yet. It was probably searching for the other two egg thieves. But those two were still up in the tree. The Terror Bird rushed over and jumped to peck at them, but they had climbed too high for it to reach. Eventually, it ignored them, turned toward the Chieftain's corpse, and began pecking at his body.

Luo Chong watched for a while and decided to keep the Terror Bird there. That thing had already tasted human flesh, and it knew where their tribe lived. If they did not get rid of it, there was no telling when it might come here to forage once it got hungry. By then, who knew how many more people would die?

But they had no weapons now. Spears were out of the question. Going over with wooden sticks to fight it head-on was simply seeking death. Throwing stones from afar would not do much damage if the stones were small, while large ones were too heavy to throw. Luo Chong looked again at the Terror Bird. Those two long legs made his eyes light up, instantly reminding him of an ancient tool for capturing prisoners.

That was right, bolas. There were actually two weapons called bolas. The first was the more common kind: a rope with a slightly wider piece of cloth in the middle that could hold a stone. After swinging it around several times, centrifugal force would fling the stone out, giving it a high initial speed and increasing its striking power.

But Luo Chong wanted to make the other kind. A stone was tied to each end of a rope. Holding the middle of the rope in both hands, one spun it. The stones at both ends would pull the rope taut through centrifugal force. When spun, it looked like a helicopter's rotor. Then the spinning bolas could be thrown at a column-shaped target. The two stones, carrying the rope with them, would swiftly wind around the target several times and bind it. Luo Chong's target was the Terror Bird's two legs.

This type of bolas was generally used to capture prisoners, because it would not harm the target. It merely restrained them. It also did not require much practice and was very simple to make.

Luo Chong quickly searched for materials. There were stones at the Fire Pit in the middle of the cave, used to surround the fire. He picked out two that were a little larger than fists, but he could not find any rope. The vines gathered that morning were still outside the cave, and those vines were not soft enough anyway. They could not be used.

Every adult and child in the cave watched him, not knowing what he was doing. This child had been doing inexplicable things all day.

Luo Chong gritted his teeth and glanced at his companions, who were still bare-bottomed. Gritting his teeth, he untied the snakeskin he used as a loincloth. For the sake of future safety, he would put things like dignity aside for now. The snakeskin was three or four meters long. With a stone tied to each end, there were still more than two meters in the middle. That would be enough.

With his weapon ready, Luo Chong carried the crude bolas and squeezed out through the gap at the cave entrance. A pregnant woman tried to grab him, but failed. She did not dare shout, afraid of drawing the Terror Bird back, and could only watch outside anxiously to see what Luo Chong intended to do.

Many of the children also curiously gathered at the entrance to watch. A row of heads was stuffed into the gap from top to bottom, clearly determined to be spectators watching the show.

Qing Shu shamelessly begged for recommendation votes, clicks, comments, ratings... Give whatever you have. Nothing will be turned down.