Chapter 431: Planning a Path Forward

After watching the pack of coyotes run off with their prize while leaving their one dead companion behind for the elk to trample over, the group had a little bit better of an idea of what they were going to have to deal with. From what Joshua could tell this prairie was the perfect example of a fish in a fish tank. The bigger the tank, the bigger the fish would grow. The size of this prairie let all of the beast inside of it grow to such enormous proportions in comparison to the other side of the prairie where the horses and prairie dogs were the biggest animals around.

At the moment they were just on the fringe of the prairie and they were already running into beast almost as big as Tank and Titus let alone Cinder. They were going to have to be careful while making their way through the area. It wasn't as if they wanted to avoid all fights entirely. In the end they did want to gain experience and materials from the creatures they faced, but they didn't want to be reckless and end up fighting against beast well out of their league.

For a while everyone was still stunned in silence as they watched the pair of elks finish stomping out the poor coyote that was left behind. Since the elks didn't eat meat they left the body alone after they had felt as if they had killed it off for good. There were several beast in nature that liked to play dead in such a situation and the elk seemed to know not to leave anything up to chance. They both went back to the herd of elk in the distance quickly so that the rest of the herd wasn't attacked.

Joshua turned towards the tall grass where the rest of the coyote had run off too and was surprised to see one of them coming back as it watched the pair of elk leave the dead body behind to head for their herd. The coyote silently made its way to the dead body and started pulling it by the neck towards where the rest of the group had already left. By the way the coyote had no qualms with how hard it bit down on its dead partner's neck Joshua felt that it planned to eat the carcass along with the elk that they had taken down earlier.

It wasn't too rare to see predators eating other predators even if it wasn't the normal scenario in nature, but Joshua felt that wouldn't be the case anymore. There were two main reasons why predators didn't go after other predators and they were both none issues with the changes that the world had gone through.

The first was the fact that it was more of a hassle to fight against other predators. In the past that was the case since most prey would prefer to flee than fight back, but now any beast could have some special ability like the glowing horns that they had seen the elk use. With that being the case predators had to be just as careful against herbivores as they were against other carnivores. The second reason came down to nutrition. Herbivores were always bigger and filled with more nutrients than other predators would be, but with mana and aura all beast would be worth killing and eating to gain strength. Of course there were still stereo typical relationships around in the animal kingdom, but prey weren't just going to hide and flee anymore.

While Joshua was thinking of this he took notice of another creature that was slowly positioning itself in front of the coyote's path waiting for it to come by. The coyote was slowed down since it was dragging around its meal, but the other creature seemed ready to pounce the moment the coyote got within range. Because of the creatures larger frame Joshua's group were all able to get a good look at it from up above. From what they could tell it seemed to be some kind of bobcat of sorts with its feline features and stubby tail. It crouched down in the grass hiding as much of its frame as possible at the coyote got closer.

Once the coyote reached a sudden point the bobcat lunged out preparing to tear into the creature. The coyote was spooked by the sudden attack, but surprisingly it reacted in an intelligent way that no one expected. The coyote tossed its dead partners carcass into the path of the bobcat that was lunging at it, this bought it enough time to avoid the first attack and back away from the larger creature. Now that the bobcat wasn't trying to hide its form Joshua was able to get a better look at it.

The bobcat had dark greyish fur and its teeth and claws looked particularly ferocious as it bared them openly in a threatening fashion. The bobcat was at least the size of one of the larger elks that they had seen earlier and its body seemed to be full of muscles that were bursting with energy. At the moment they were taut as the creature looked as if it was preparing to launch itself at the coyote once more. The fact that a bobcat which was one of the smaller feline creatures in the past could be so large worried Joshua about the other big cats they might come across in the future.

The two creatures were now close enough to the group that Joshua was able to observe their levels and strength and he wasn't surprised by the disparity between the two. The coyote was level eighty-two which was probably fairly good for a creature that tended to stay in packs. It had only two stars next to its name which gave Joshua a good idea of its overall strength although he suspected it had some sort of secret ability to make it stand out since it had to survive in such a high level area. The bobcat on the other hand was level eighty-four with three stars next to its name. It would be a one sided slaughter if the two creatures fought it out.

The coyote seemed to know it was at a great disadvantage since it was split off from the rest of its group as it slowly backed away from the creature in front of it. At the moment the bobcat could easily lunge across the distance between them so the coyote couldn't tip its hand right away otherwise the cat could predict its path and lunge after it. Just when Joshua and the rest of the group thoughts things were coming to an end as the coyote was about to get killed its fur started to stand up as a large dirt cloud exploded off the creature's body covering it up from view of everyone around it.

The little dirt cloud gave the coyote the chance to run with a good head start on the bobcat. The bobcat had to run around the dirt so that it could see the coyote before chasing it. The cat was faster as it started closing the distance and the entire time it made sure to stay between its prey and the rest of its pack so that it couldn't get any help. "It looks like the bobcat is trying to go for two meals today." Henry said while watching the spectacle. It already had one dead body left behind, but was still trying to kill the escaping coyote.

Just when it looked like the bobcat was going to catch the coyote it suddenly stopped outside the edge of some shorter grass which surprised everyone. The coyote seemed to stop just inside of it far enough to where the bobcat wouldn't be able to lunge at it. This surprised everyone that was watching the scene. Joshua decided to look ahead of the two creatures further into the area to see if there were any other beast that claimed the territory. If that were the case then he could understand why the bobcat seemed careful of entering the area, but the only thing Joshua could spot out were a lot of birds.

The birds in the area were enormous in comparison to regular birds and they looked like some sort of wild chickens. They stood at around one story tall which was small in comparison to the two creatures that were encroaching on their territory but there were dozens of the birds all strutting through the shorter grass and pecking away at the ground. These birds had a brown hue to their bodies with black and white striped feathers that seemed sleek at the moment, but knowing most birds they could probably puff their feathers up to make themselves seem larger. The birds were also fairly loud with their cries to the point Joshua could hear them clearly from such a distance.

The bobcat didn't leave the fringe of the territory as it paced back and forth while watching the coyote. The coyote was forced to cut through the prairie chickens' territory otherwise it would be running right into the jaws of the bobcat that was stalking it. With slow movement the coyote was forced to be as silent as possible since it didn't have tall grass to hide in as it tried to walk around the group of birds, but soon enough its large body was going to be the cause of its death. Several of the nearby chicken turned and noticed the coyote and the second it tried to step around them they all started to puff their feathers up as their usual cries went silent.

The coyote was like a deer trapped in the head lights as the birds started to rush towards its direction as they fluttered into the air or ran along the ground. When the prairie chickens puffed up their feathers two large orange areas appeared near their necks that sucked in a lot of air. At first Joshua didn't know what the creatures were going to do, but the loud shrieking sounds that came next answered that question. Loud sonic screeches would erupt from the chicken's mouths in the direction of the coyote and they weren't just noise. They were highly pressurized blasts of air that tore the coyote to shreds with the amount of chickens doing the same attack in its direction. All that was left was a bloody mess and a big crater formed from the quick and decisive onslaught.