A man with dark skin and short military-cut hair floated, catching his breath on the edge of a lake.
Talon turned his gaze around and noticed a small island in the center of the lake. He was at the edge, had just fallen off a cliff, and escaped from Mama Cero.
More precisely, from one of her legs and a horn, because that was all he saw. And it was more than enough to make him run for his life.
"Honestly, I better be careful. If something like that exists out-" before Talon could finish the thought, a chill ran down his spine and the water began to stir.
His instincts made him use the baby Cero's carapace, which, even though it wasn't a full set of armor for him, was enough to protect Talon's entire arm.
Boom!
The impact came fast and he was thrown against the cliff. His body slammed hard, rocks crumbled, and he dropped back into the water.
"Holy shit, I didn't even see what the hell that was! Fuck, my arm," the pain radiated like he'd been hit with a hammer.
Another small wave formed again, but Talon had already survived his fair share of ocean attacks during his diving days.
The water was his territory too.
He kicked off the submerged cliffside and launched himself toward the small central island.
Just in time, he was only a few meters ahead. Talon turned his face and right where he had been, a fish tail with some greenish scales destroyed a large chunk of the cliff.
"FUCKING HELL!" Talon started swimming like his life depended on it, and in this situation, it definitely did.
He was already a few meters from the small island. The shore was full of moss and algae, but the massive skull-shaped cave was chilling. Still, the monster that was about to attack him was even more terrifying.
"No time!" the ex-sailor realized he wouldn't make it to the island and had only one option left. He dove, just as the huge fin slammed into his previous spot.
The water forced him even deeper, but that was exactly what he wanted. His feet touched the muddy lake bottom, and down that deep, all he could see was greenish water, but not for long.
Just as he was about to use the ground as a springboard to push himself toward the surface.
He saw the face of the creature hunting him. A fucking short snout, small greenish scales, fins that blended into limbs perfectly adapted for swimming, and a tail that ended in a fin.
"This thing is a goddamn crocodile fused with a giant fish????"
The creature's jaw, more than three meters wide, opened and lunged at Talon.
His mind recalled diver emergency protocols.
Normally, a diver had a knife or a harpoon.
Also, normally you were fighting a shark and not the ancestor of crocodilians, but it would have to do.
He wrapped his fingers around the horn and waited for the attack to hit. As the jaw was about to crush him, Talon punched the bony shield right into the creature's short snout and used his feet as leverage to launch himself to the side.
The massive beast, weighing hundreds of kilos, smashed into the lakebed and displaced so much water that Talon was thrown upward. But he knew that wouldn't be enough. It was just bait.
A beast with a wounded snout wouldn't try the same trick again. The next attack had to come from another part of its body...
In this creature's case, its fucking tail-fin.
Talon positioned himself with his back to the beast and used the bony shield to protect his chest. Just in time for the beast to strike.
The impact threw him to the surface and he heard his arm make a terrible sound, and soon his back was scraping against the ground of the small island.
"Hahahahahaah, fuck you, you stupid beast. I've survived more than half a dozen great white shark attacks, some almost twice your size. A fucking extinct monster won't be the one to kill me," Talon laughed loudly while catching his breath, lying on his back.
Until a bad feeling made his face go serious.
If this was some kind of fusion between crocodiles, and he had already fought a Cero.
A close relative of triceratops,
Could this creature already be an ancestor that evolved enough to walk on land?...
A snout slowly emerged from the water. A thin trickle of blood dripped down from it, but soon the whole body of the creature surfaced.
Now Talon could see clearly the creature he was facing.
It was a bit smaller than the baby Cero he killed. But the sharp teeth sticking out of its mouth were a big red flag not to underestimate its size.
The limb-fins were a well-adapted fusion for both land and water, and its hide had small scales in several areas, all pointing to it not being easy to pierce.
Rhooooooooooouuuuuu
The few birds that had returned to their nests flew away again, startled by the beast's roar.
"Well... You seem pretty good at fighting both on land and in water, you stupid beast. So let's see who's more adapted!" Talon said as he stood up from the ground. His toned, tanned body gleamed with the sun rays piercing through the tall vegetation.
"Come on! Bring it!"
The creature attacked like it understood Talon prepared to use the same trick.
Only to be caught off guard when the tail-fin sliced through the air right toward his ribs.
Boom!
Crack!
At the last second, Talon raised the bone shield made from the Cero, and the sound of bones breaking filled his mind.
His body was thrown against the skull-shaped rock, crushing the crawling plants and moss clinging to it.
The taste of blood reached his lips and he could swear his bones were about to snap and still...
What scared him most was seeing the shield shatter and fall into fragments on the ground.
Now, he had nothing left to absorb the force of the creature's brutal attacks.
"This thing is smart... I'm fucked," Talon cursed loudly in his mind.