The Tyrant's Roar: Chapter 4

Chapter 4:  Exile

As Hades screamed again, he heard another roar and fast-approaching footsteps.  He looked back and saw the young female Giganotosaurus charging towards the Andesaurus to help her pack.  But she came too close for Hades’ comfort, and he shifted his attention to her.  As she roared her way forward, Hades changed course and bit her on the shoulder.  Stunned, the youngster backed off and Hades turned to face her.  He was disgusted that she got too close, and the number one rule in his pack was to stay a healthy distance away from him.

The confrontation between Hades and the omega caught the attention of the rest of the pack, and the Andesaurus.  With her pursuers’ attention somewhere else, she saw her chance to escape.  She charged, surprising the female Giganotosaurus in front of her and causing her to back off.  The Andesaurus saw a clear path ahead, a means of escaping the Giganotosaurus.

But as soon as she started to move, a massive weight leapt onto her back.  It was Achilles, who had stayed on the ridge for the whole time that the Andesaurus had been surrounded, and was the first to see that she was escaping.  Her flesh was shredded by his large teeth and claws.

The jolt of having a five ton, forty-three foot-long monster jumping on her back had startled the Andesaurus.  The sudden increase in weight was too much for her weakened front leg, and she toppled over.  This was her end, and exactly what the Giganotosaurus were waiting for.  They pounced on the fallen seventy-foot titanosaur, hacking away with their serrated teeth and claws.  They went for the flanks, the belly, and the neck, wanting to spill as much blood as possible, so that their prey would bleed to death.

With their victim’s blood on their faces, the Giganotosaurus stepped away and waited for the death throes to cease.  One wrong move and there would be more than one creature down; getting hit by one of the Andesaurus’ swinging legs in the right place meant certain death.

Once the Andesaurus expired her last breath from the blood loss and shock, the gang moved in for a rich and bloody feast.  At least, until Hades stepped between the carcass and his pack and roared.  As alpha, he felt entitled to be the first to get his fill, and intended to get the best cuts of meat for himself.

All but one Giganotosaurus backed down; Achilles held his ground and hissed, his eight inch teeth flashing in the morning glare.  His head and neck went from a steel grey to a coal-black with iridescent blue stripes along his snout.  Then he thrust his head toward Hades and snapped his jaws.  He was tired of Hades’ abusiveness and poor judgement.  After all, he was the one who sensed the Andesaurus’ infrasound before anyone else, and he was the one who single-handedly took their prey down while Hades distracted everyone.  As well, Hades’ treatment of the females was appalling, and attacking another pack member during a hunt was just never done; all it did was break up the pack’s cohesiveness and could lead the hunt to fail.  Finally, after six years of enduring Hades’ brutal regime, he was now physically capable of challenging the alpha for dominance.

Hades knew this was coming; he had been worried for the last two years that Achilles might want to bring him down.  Now that Achilles had nearly reached adult size, it was only a matter of time before he had the nerve.  But Hades would have none of it.  He has lead this pack for six years, and did not intend to stop.  He may not be as agile as his younger challenger, so he had to rely on his brute strength.

As the females backed away from the battleground, Hades and Achilles charged towards each other and rammed heads.  After a brief stalemate, Hades’ strength began to show as he slowly pushed Achilles back.  But just as Hades thought he had him, Achilles managed to turn his head parallel to Hades’.  For a split second, the two combatants eye-balled each other, mere inches away.

And just like that, Achilles snapped his head back.  He brought his upper jaw down like an axe, driving his serrated teeth deep into Hades’ neck, penetrating through thick skin, fat, and muscle.  Hades howled in tremendous pain, blood pouring from his neck in torrents.  He saw Achilles back up and roar at him.  Hades bolted forward, swung his head to the side and snapped his jaws, simultaneously bashing the side of Achilles snout and slicing through sensitive facial skin.

Achilles stepped back shrieking in fury, spitting out blood, broken teeth, and mangled pieces of skin from his gums.  The two engaged in a head-swinging battle, the air filled with the hissing of the bucks and the cracking of bone and tooth.  Millions of years from now, present day humans would see a similar combat technique in crocodiles.

Soon, both Achilles and Hades became exhausted from the agonizing fight.  Both of them were covered in each other’s blood, and have suffered some serious jaw fractures.  It had gone on too long, and both have lost a lot of blood.  Both combatants needed to end this fight soon, and in an effort to do so, Hades lunged and grabbed hold of Achilles’ neck.  There was no time however for a hatchet bite, but he did have Achilles at his mercy.

Hades started to use his own body to pin Achilles as he shook his head, tearing through deep tissue in Achilles’ neck.  But as he did so, Achilles shifted his body so that he and Hades were parallel to each other.  Before Hades knew what had happened, a shooting pain erupted in his arthritic left ankle; Achilles had swung his thick tail with tremendous force and had found its mark.

Hades backed off, hissing madly and hobbling on one leg.  Now he knew that he had lost the fight.  He had sustained too many serious injuries and was no condition to out-endure Achilles.  His reign as alpha had ended, and Achilles had taken over.

But Achilles wasn’t finished just yet.  He roared at the top of his lungs and charged the fallen leader.  Hades could only watch in as Achilles caught him in the throat with his large eye crests.  The only protection Hades had was the thick dewlap that was characteristic of all male Giganotosaurus, but the blow stung nonetheless.

All of a sudden, the four females lined up shoulder-to-shoulder with Achilles and joined him in a series of growls and hisses, driving Hades away.  If there was ever a time to leave, it was then.  When healthy, he could easily have handled one female, but not four.  And in his current condition, Hades didn’t want to risk being ripped apart by four angry female Giganotosaurus lead by their new, younger, stronger alpha.

And so the once-proud Hades limped away in a trail of blood and deep shame, away from the only pack he had ever known.