After devouring the young hadrosaur that day, Haoyuan didn't hold back, immediately channeling all of his energy into the Large Body Size evolutionary path.
Using his dragon head to tear apart larger prey made harvesting energy significantly easier.
Sustaining his growth through continuous hunting, Haoyuan's length exploded to six meters in just two short weeks.
This was largely thanks to his exceptional digestive system. With rapid digestion and a voracious appetite, he naturally grew at a blistering pace.
The increase in his body's girth was equally gratifying. Perhaps to complement the formidable weapon that was his dragon head, the rest of his body had gradually evolved to become thick and powerfully sinuous.
Before long, Haoyuan began to exude the presence of a divine dragon—just one without limbs.
With his strength vastly improved, his appetite had expanded as well, and he was already setting his sights on herbivorous dinosaurs two meters in length.
Today, luck was on his side; he had managed to catch a predominantly herbivorous, semi-omnivorous roundhead dinosaur.
That was a name he had coined himself.
This kind of dinosaur had a completely spherical head, its brow covered in thick, stubby spikes like a spiked club helmet. It loved headbutting other dinosaurs. It appeared somewhat pugnacious—and definitely hardheaded.
Thus, without the slightest effort, Haoyuan had successfully ambushed it.
His much thicker and more powerful coils wrapped tightly around the creature, pinning it firmly in place.
His razor-sharp teeth tore open its belly, and he relished the tender, fresh viscera within.
“Ahhh, so satisfying! This is what life should be!”
Haoyuan narrowed his eyes in contentment. Following his evolution, his dragon eyes were now capable of a wide range of expressive nuances.
Looking back, he had once been just a tiny snake foraging through dirt for bugs and lizards. Now, he was serving dinosaurs at his dinner table.
It was a feeling intoxicating enough to thrill any dragon!
Both of his dragon whiskers drifted lazily through the air in pure relaxation.
A gentle breeze brushed past, carrying the fresh fragrance of ferns.
The freely drifting dragon whiskers suddenly stiffened.
His pleasant mood vanished without a trace.
Haoyuan's brow furrowed slightly.
Involuntarily, he turned toward a cluster of fern-covered rocks a dozen meters away.
There, a small-to-medium feathered carnivorous dinosaur was secretly peering at him.
It was a little over three meters long, its maw lined with fine, sharp teeth, its claws lethal, and each foot tipped with a raised, sickle-shaped toe claw. Fluffy and predominantly covered in blue-green plumage, it bore a splash of vivid crimson on the crown of its head.
A dromaeosaur!
This was another name Haoyuan had coined. Knowing very little about dinosaurs, he could only name them based on distinguishing features.
He called them dromaeosaurs because these small-to-medium carnivores were agile, exceptionally fast runners, and notoriously difficult to deal with.
The Velociraptors he had seen on movie screens in his past life were likely a type of dromaeosaur, given their striking resemblance.
Furthermore, the dromaeosaur family was remarkably diverse. In this hunting ground alone, there were at least five or six different species of dromaeosaurs, ranging in size.
These dinosaurs had already begun exhibiting avian traits. Agile as they were, their lethality was equally impressive, and they preferred hunting in packs.
Haoyuan usually steered clear of their hunting grounds. Unfortunately, his luck had run out today; no sooner had he caught a meal than he ran straight into one.
Should he retreat?
Haoyuan hesitated.
These dinosaurs were like the hyenas on the African savannas of his past life, fond of calling in their pack mates. If one appeared nearby, several others were bound to be on their way.
If he stubbornly held his ground for the sake of the roundhead dinosaur beneath him, he would likely find himself flanked from the front and rear, which would spell serious trouble.
He had a golden finger, so playing it safe was the smarter move. Staying alive was the ultimate victory!
Gazing at the meal beneath him, of which he had only taken a few bites, Haoyuan let out a frustrated sigh.
“Damned dromaeosaurs. Just wait until I grow a few sizes thicker—I'll definitely avenge the humiliation of having my food stolen today!”
With that thought, he released his prey, preparing to depart into the distance.
Yet fate had other plans. His drifting dragon whiskers stiffened once more.
A heavy gravity settled over Haoyuan's heart, and he warily coiled his flood dragon body.
“I'm not going to bite the dust here today, am I?”
“My life as a dragon has barely begun...”
Before the thought could even finish, two more dromaeosaurs of similar size flanked him from the left and right, forming a pincer encirclement alongside the one lurking behind him.
They crept closer with tentative, probing steps, their eyes brimming with blatant greed. Judging by their posture, they had probably been watching him for quite some time.
Haoyuan's expression darkened.
Birds were natural predators of snakes, and dromaeosaurs happened to represent the transition from dinosaur to bird. They shared the same agility, the same nimble swiftness, and an unpredictable array of tactics. Their lethality was formidable, their size wasn't small, and on top of that, they hunted in packs, making them as troublesome as wolves or hyenas.
“Every single advantage is stacked in their favor...”
Haoyuan sighed inwardly. Of all the eras to be born into, it had to be the age of dinosaurs. In almost any other era, laying low and surviving would have been a breeze.
He gritted his teeth. His only choice now was to stay calm and react to whatever came his way.
This pack of dromaeosaurs had likely had their eyes on him for a while.
At first, he had merely been an egg-stealing snake, with virtually no overlap in their ecological niches. But as his size ballooned, he had gradually encroached upon the niche of small-to-medium dromaeosaurs, drawing their attention.
Both preyed on creatures of similar size, so a confrontation had been bound to happen sooner or later. He just hadn't expected this day to arrive so quickly.
In his original plan, his body was supposed to rapidly grow so he could seize an even higher ecological niche, making any encounter with these dromaeosaurs merely a passing phase... Yet before he had even grown to that stage, they had already become mortal enemies.
Resource competition within the same ecological niche was almost always a fight to the death. There wasn't even enough food to go around among the dromaeosaurids themselves, so how could they tolerate an outsider encroaching on their territory?
He simply hadn't had enough time to evolve. Otherwise...
Haoyuan shook his head. Dwelling on what-ifs was useless now; his only option was to wait for them to make the first move.
If he attacked rashly, he would leave an opening for the other two dromaeosaurs, allowing the trio to kite and harass him. Even if he didn't sustain a fatal wound, he would eventually be exhausted to death.
By holding his ground and conserving his stamina, he might just convince them that the fight wasn't worth the risk and force them to back off.
Seeing him coiled in a defensive posture, the three dromaeosaurs also grew cautious.
What Haoyuan didn't realize was that his current body looked utterly delectable.
His lustrous, translucent white scales gleamed with a brilliant sheen, and his body was powerful and muscular. He looked succulent and juicy, healthy and nutritious, packed with firm meat.
Moreover, he possessed an inexplicable allure, as though devouring him would grant immense benefits. It made the dromaeosaurs salivate.
Consequently, while they had originally intended only to snatch Haoyuan's prey and leave, his plump, appetizing form rooted them firmly in place. There was simply no helping it—Haoyuan had evolved himself to look far too delicious. It was nearly impossible for any dinosaur to resist.
Haoyuan was completely oblivious to this, his mind wholly focused on devising a countermeasure.
“I definitely can't strike out to constrict one of them. That would leave an opening for the other two!”
If he took the offensive, he wouldn't necessarily catch an agile dromaeosaur. But on the defensive, if a dromaeosaur dared to lunge in with a bite, his current speed would guarantee a successful constriction.
Yet doing so would leave him wide open, turning him into meat on the chopping block in the eyes of the remaining two. And attacking proactively would only result in being kited to death.
Pondering his options back and forth, holding his ground was the only viable path.
He just had to endure until they realized the risks outweighed the rewards and were forced to give up.
Rate on N.U.
