Dromaeosaurus V.S. Zuniceratops

Once again this fight stemmed from an idea made by Alphadino65, an idea that possibly exceeds his last idea in sheer awesomeness. I'm probably going to get through his set of 4 ideas, since they are all in someway different from my usual fights, the first using small predators, this using a herbivore and a small carnivore, and I won't spoil the next ones for those who haven't seen the post from Alpha yet. With that out of the way, let's get into the fight!

15 fierce predators hide among the forest undergrowth, gazing out onto the plains. They stalk a large herd of prey grazing and nesting on the open plains. The family of Dromaeosaurus are at the outskirts of the Vivid Forests and just at the edge of the Eternal Prairies, which stretches on for as far as the eye can see. The family comprises of 6 Dromaeosaurus, the two alphas being the large, 6.5 foot long, brown feathered mother, whose name is Destroyer, and the smaller, but quicker, 6 foot long green feathered, with a red tail fan and arm feathers, father, whose name is Runner. Then there are their oldest offspring from their first clutch of eggs, the surviving 4 of their first 12 eggs. First is Dread, a 4.5 foot long brown feathered male who works as the runner and is the youngest (by minutes) of the 4. He has a purple tail fan and vivid red wing feathers and a red crown of feathers. He's also the most mischoevous of the clutch, constantly attempting to scare his older siblings, as well as his siblings from his other clutches. Next is Luna, a bulky powerhouse of a Dromaeosaurus like her mother, she has blue feathers with slight undertones of green, she is the second youngest of the oldest four. She is 6 feet long, incredibly large for a sub adult. She is incredibly playful with her siblings, but she sometimes gets a little too rough with her younger siblings. Then there is the almost-as-bulky-as-Luna-Derek, a close 5.7 feet long. He sports orange feathers with an amber crown of feathers and an amber tail fan, his wing feathers being vivid blue, and is the second oldest of the clutch. He isn't as playful as his slightly younger sister, but is much more energetic. When he was a hatchling, Destroyer and Runner could never figure out how to get him to stop running and screeching at night. He only stopped when his siblings got fed up and started tackling him. He's still as energetic as he used to be, and still occasionally stays up late, but he is always among the first to wake up. Lastly, the oldest and the one who acts as an alpha over her siblings, is the beautiful  Daniela, who is 5.3 feet long and contains nearly every shade of green conceivable on her feathers, making her a sight to behold, but only if you see her, and if she isn't hungry. She's the least playful or energetic of the four, but the most vigilant and the best leader, and keeps her younger siblings in check for her parents if need be. When her parents go on hunting trips, she watches over her siblings as alpha until they return. She is always the first one awake and the last to sleep, to watch over her siblings. When Daniela did have time to play, she would hunt down the small animals that lived with her, or pretend to hunt her siblings and tackle them, scaring them to no end. She's almost as mischievous as Dread, she's even scared him a few times. She always practiced, preparing for the day her parents would take her and her siblings for a hunt, when they could hunt and show their parents how good they have become at surviving. Today is that day. Destroyer and Runner decided to bring their younger offspring with them as well, since no one would be around to watch them. They have taught their children to hunt as best as they could, but now is the time they try to hunt for themselves. Even though the 4 are still not even full grown, they will not intervene, no matter what, and the 4 have to bring back enough food for the whole pack. Dread, Luna, and Derek are uneasy about this, but Daniela is incredibly excited. She chirps to her parents as a sign of acknowledgement, and begins to slowly prowl through the underbrush towards the herd of Zuniceratops before them. Of course, they can't take on a full grown Zuniceratops, but they can try to snatch some eggs or juvenile from the herd. It is Zuniceratops breeding season, so their is a large accumulation of adults, juveniles, hatchlings, and eggs. Daniela chirps to her siblings; she has a plan.....

A large herd of horned beasts feast on vegetation, while also tending to odd, circular, crater-like mounds filled with their offspring. Zara is one of the mother Zuniceratops of the herd. She's 10 feet long and has a clutch of 15 eggs in her nest. She's a grayish-black herbivore, her scales varying in shades of black in different areas, and her quills are a striking white color. She grazes on some grass that used to cover almost the entirety of the prairies, but are now practically being wiped off the face of the prairies due to the influx of herds of herbivores. Numerous herds of Parasaurolophus, Maiasaura, Shantungosaurus, Triceratops, Zuniceratops (of course), and many more. They were all drawn by the trees, ferns, bushes, grasses, and other plants that cover the entirety of the region. Of course when such a large amount of herbivores migrate to a single area, carnivores are bound to follow. As she's grazing, she hears a cracking sound. She peers into her nest and sees a green Ceratopsian slowly emerging from the egg. She's about to help her new child out of the shell when she hears another egg start cracking, and then another, and many more in a chain reaction. By the end of the hour, all of her offspring have made their way out of the shells and are chirping for food. Zara walks over to a patch of ferns to gather some softer food for her young when she hears her herd mates bellowing and a screeching sound. She turns and sees a brown Dromaeosaurus harassing some of the adults. Zara charges towards the attacker when she hears something behind her. 3 somethings. She turns and sees 3 larger Dromaeosaurs sneaking up to her nest. She charges towards her nest, aiming after an orange Dromaeosaur that was closest to the nest....

Luna, Daniela, and Derek sneak up on an unoccupied nest. They can hear many chirping sounds coming from the mound and will probably find an immense amount of hatchlings within it. Derek reaches the mound first and gapes at what he sees within the nest. 15 whole hatchlings!!!! It's well more than he expected to see and he simply stares at it, shocked. It was then Daniela heard something coming towards them. Fast. She calls out to Derek to look out and he jumps to the side. Incredibly quickly a Zuniceratops charges through, just barely missing Derek. The Dromaeosaurs squawk in alarm as the angry mother turns to face them. Zara is incredibly angry (rightfully so), and charges at them again. The Dromaeosaurs all leap out of the way to avoid the charging beast. As they prepare to run away since the hunt has failed, Dread leaps onto the side of the Zuniceratops and begins to kick into its side; stabbing his sickle claws into the gut of the animal. Zara begins to buck to try to shake the animal off, but Dread holds fast. Seeing their little brother in danger, Daniela, Derek, and Luna also leap onto its side. If they were full sized, the animal may have toppled, but it stands tall and proceeds to buck. The longer this goes on, the wearier she gets and the more she bleeds. Eventually, she realizes how she can get them off. She aims herself, and runs into a tree, at the last second she turns and slams her side into it, obliterating the ribs of two of the Dromaeosaurs. Before she can do the same to them, Daniella and Dread jump off and regroup. Luna escapes the wrath of Zara, but Derek can't flee from the fury of the mother. As Derek begins to run, Zara bites his tail with her horned beak and drags him backwards, forcing him to lose his momentum. Zara then slams her horn into him and shoves it downward and out of him, gutting him. As he lies on the floor, barely alive, she rears back, and lets gravity bring her back down, crushing him under her weight. The 3 remaining raptors grieve their brother's death, but don't have more than a second to mourn as Zara charges at them again. They jump to the side and leap back onto the Zuniceratops, and begin kicking again. Zara shakes and bucks as hard as she can, but to little avail. Meanwhile, the three Dromaeosaurs climb closer to her neck. They can't quite get to where they want to go because of her frill, but they can still do some immense damage. The three raptors resume kicking, and Zara keeps bucking. Dread's claw reaches the ribs of the animal, Luna's foot digs deep into the mother's gut, and Daniela's sickle digs deep into the shoulder and leg of the beast. Zara bellows in pain while her herd mates simply watch in fear, protecting their own nests. The siblings jump off to regroup and rest as Zara can no longer buck. She simply limps back to her nest as she bleeds out. She rests next to the mound as her children feast on the leaves that kept them warm in their eggs....

A cracking sound is the only indication of any life in the Eternal Prairies. The sound is so faint that only one creature arises from its slumber. Zara mentally hated herself for falling asleep, even though she was exhausted from the fight and the blood loss, and it was late at night, she should have remained awake to watch out for predators. Once she's done mentally cursing herself, she realizes that through the pitch black of night, a light sound cuts through the darkness, and one can just barely view the outline of three huddled figures. Zara begins to rise as soon as she realizes the danger, but her leg gives out from the injury Danielle gave her. She gets up again, but by then the raptors are already on top of her, kicking into her gut and trying to push her back down. Zara fights valiantly, bucking despite her injuries and grazing the raptors with her horns. Eventually, though, her injuries become too much for her. She collapses. Danielle sprints full speed and gets to the collapsed Ceratopsian. She reaches the now exposed neck of Zara and kicks it many times, severing many arteries and veins, including the jugular. After a long while of this, she gives the mother an extra bite to the neck, just to make sure the beast that killed her brother stays dead. Once she is certain the prey has been killed, Danielle, Dread, and Luna make their way to its nest and kill all the hatchlings. The only sound that is heard are the afraid and pained cries of Zara's hatchlings and sickening, crunching sounds. The raptors swallow most of them whole before setting off to find the rest of their family. It doesn't take long though. Their family was hiding in the forests not too far away; watching the hunt. Once they make it back to the many kills the raptors made, Destroyer and Runner, along with their children, congratulate the three for their accomplishment; killing a Zuniceratops is a tall task even for fully grown Dromaeosaurus. They then all mourn for Derek; their spirited orange ball of energetic fluff is now gone, being consumed by scavengers and insects in a pile of his own internal organs. They soon begin to feast on the new kill, however, and they all chirp happily and content. After the family of now 14 Dromaeosaurus sleep contently in the nest that used to belong to Zara and her short-lived family. Tomorrow they will eat what they can and return to their own nest within the forests with as much delectable flesh as they can carry. However, as the children are sleeping, Destroyer and Runner discuss what this hunt means. First and foremost this means they can bring their children on hunts with them. Secondly, although their children aren't full grown, they will be by the end of the year. By that time, or maybe a few months after that, they should be ready to leave the nest. They glance at their sleeping, oldest three offspring. They are far from ready for living alone in the world, but today just proved that soon, they will be.

Winner: Dromaeosaurus!!! While Zuniceratops was larger and could easily crush a single Dromaeosaurus in a fight (which is what happened to poor Derek), there were 4 Dromaeosaurus because this was a family group of sub adults. This isn't a full blown pack of adults, which I believe to be unlikely in raptors and if they did happen were probably rare (just my own opinion), so their lesser strength and weight aided the Zuniceratops. Since they were subadults on their first hunt, I could put as many Dromaeosaurus as I see fit, if Destroyer and Runner were incredibly successful parents, there could have been up to 12 or 13 sub adult Dromaeosaurus in this fight. I chose 4 because it made more logical sense as most of the eggs wouldn't survive, so that the Zuniceratops would stand a chance, and because I wouldn't have to write as many character descriptions (sorry, I'm kinda lazy XD). While Zuniceratops had a protected neck, a key point for any predator to attack, large horns and was over 3 times the weight of an adult Dromaeosaurus, the Dromaeosaurus had numbers, speed, agility, and plenty of weapons that were well equipped for causing immense damage, especially their sickle claws which may have been able to get past the ribs if the raptor kicks enough times and hard enough. Of course, being  a small animal, Zuniceratops would have been a fairly fast animal too, but nowhere near the speed necessary to keep up with the Dromaeosaurus. Not to mention the intelligence the Dromaeosaurus had over Zuniceratops (while still only being as smart as a chicken, about, it was still MUCH smarter than any Ceratopsian known as of May 2019, and likely throughout time). Had their been 2 Zuniceratops guarding the nest, this could have gone MUCH differently. There was only one though, so this fight was in favor of the Dromaeosaurus.