dmims Chapter 23 unlocked successfully
Chapter 23 unlocked successfully
It lasted for about seven or eight seconds.
Then came the rapid, receding sound of water, faster and shallower, towards the riverbank, culminating in a dull thud as claws dug into the mud upon reaching the shore, after which the sound of water ceased.
A short, menacing roar came from the direction of the old territory, but it contained an element that Chen Fei was very familiar with.
Panic!
Lightly caught off guard by a crocodile, it hastily retreated to the riverbank.
Chen Fei slowly lowered the angle of his right ear, returning both ears to a symmetrical position, and redistributed his body weight on the grass.
The river calmed down again, with only the sound of flowing water, even and steady, as if nothing had happened.
When Chen Fei got up, the sun had just climbed to about a hand's width above the reeds.
The window has reopened, but it won't stay open for long.
Lightly was chased back by the crocodile today and won't go back into the water for a while, but "short time" in the context of the two heroes is at most one day. Tomorrow, once it recovers and figures out the crocodile's activity patterns, it will try again.
He shook his four legs to shake off the morning dew and walked toward the middle of the island.
Big Head sat next to the acacia tree, his right foreleg resting on a rock, licking his paw pads with great concentration, as if he could heal his sprain.
Hearing Chen Fei's footsteps, he raised his head, perked up his ears, and instinctively pushed off the ground with his right foreleg. He stood up and took two steps, but on the third step, a limp appeared. He looked down at his right foreleg, his expression somewhat bewildered.
Chen Fei stopped in front of him, lingered his gaze on his right foreleg for two seconds, then looked up and nudged him toward the acacia tree with his eyes.
Big Head twitched his ears but didn't move. He glanced behind Chen Fei, then glanced again, his meaning clear.
Chen Fei ignored him and turned to continue walking towards the middle section.
A deep groan came from behind, followed by the rhythmic gait of three legs walking, heading towards the acacia tree.
Sair, standing under the tree, shifted his gaze from Chen Fei to Da Tou and took over.
...
In the middle of the isolated island, there is a wide grassland, which is Chen Fei's regular patrol route these days. Today, he is walking here not for patrol, but to confirm a certain aura.
Yesterday evening, he smelled a scent here that did not belong to the animals that lived on the island. It was faint in the wind, but the composition was unique. It was not a bison, not a leopard, and not any of the animals whose scent profile he had compiled during his nearly three weeks on the island.
That smell contained a special component, the kind of smell that only animals that have traveled long distances on the grasslands have. It was a mixture of sweat, dust, and metabolic waste products from muscles after a long run, forming a specific layer of smell. Chen Fei had smelled it when he was in the old territory, during the annual Great Migration season when wildebeest herds passed through.
But there shouldn't be wildebeest on a deserted island.
He kept this on his mind all night and came to confirm it today.
The scent was still there in the middle of the meadow, even fresher than last night, indicating that the thing was still on the island and hadn't moved much.
Chen Fei lowered his nose and walked north along the gradient of scent concentration, where it grew stronger and stronger until he stopped at the edge of a patch of tall grass.
There was movement in the tall grass, subtle and scattered. Something small was standing there, breathing rapidly, carrying a persistent smell of stress.
Chen Fei circled halfway around the outside of the tall grass, roughly estimating the size of the source of the scent.
It's not big, a bit smaller than a calf, but its legs are long. Judging from the density of its leg bones, it's an ungulate, and a young individual, with its skeleton not yet fully developed and its muscle layer thin.
It's likely a wildebeest foal.
He stopped at the edge of the tall grass and went through the whole situation in his mind.
Every year during the Great Migration, wildebeest herds are separated from the group by the currents while crossing rivers. Young wildebeest are small and weak, making them most vulnerable to becoming separated from the herd during the chaotic crossing process.
After breaking away from the group, these individuals will search for the group's presence along the riverbank. Sometimes they may accidentally wander into sandbars or isolated islands in the river. Getting in is easy, but getting out is difficult because they will not actively cross the river. They will wait in place, but if the group does not come, they will be exhausted and usually die within three days.
Chen Fei didn't know how long the cub had been inside, but the stress concentration in its scent indicated that it had been under high stress for quite some time and had expended a lot of energy.
This is today's window.
499 points, just a little short, that's right in the tall grass.
He checked the position of his limbs again, shifted his weight back, steadied his breathing, and began to move closer to the edge of the tall grass.
...
When the wildebeest foal burst out of the tall grass, it was almost a body length faster than Chen Fei had estimated.
It probably sensed Chen Fei's presence in the tall grass. Without waiting for Chen Fei to get close, it rushed out from the right side of the tall grass, spread its four legs at full speed, and ran towards the north side of the isolated island. Its hooves made a dense thumping sound on the grass. It ran straight without any detours.
Chen Fei followed.
For the first twenty meters, he was half a body length behind. The wildebeest foal was faster than he expected. Its leg length advantage was very obvious when it was running at full speed. Its stride was longer and its frequency was not slow either.
Thirty meters later, the gap had widened to almost a body length. Chen Fei pushed the heat to his right front paw, accelerated, and caught up halfway.
Forty meters away, he realized a problem.
At this rate of energy consumption, after chasing for more than 80 meters, his energy loss will begin to exceed his gains, making it a bad deal.
He adjusted his breathing, shortened his stride, and increased his pace while running, trying to exchange rhythm for efficiency, but the effect was limited. The long leg length advantage of wildebeest calves is almost natural in a straight line, and the longer the chase goes, the harder it is to make up for the gap.
Fifty meters later, the wildebeest calf turned left, cutting towards the west side of the isolated island, attempting to change course.
Chen Fei followed its turn and cut off its inner side in advance, narrowing the gap again, but it was still not within the attack range.
Sixty meters.
At that moment, the heat began to flow.
It wasn't something he actively pushed; the evolutionary system acted on its own, as if some critical threshold had been triggered.
The heat flow started from the right forepaw, spread up the forelimb bones, to the shoulder blade, to the back, and then split and pushed towards the hind limbs. The whole process lasted about two seconds. As Chen Fei was running, he suddenly felt that all four legs were not right.
It's not that it's wrong, it's that it's changed.
The speed of muscle contraction increased, not just a little bit faster, but on a completely different level. He could feel the reaction force from the ground being absorbed and transformed more completely by his limbs with each step he took. His stride length increased on its own without him having to increase it, and it was lighter than before. The impact of the landing point was reduced, as if there was an extra layer of cushioning between his feet and the ground, but the propulsive force did not decrease, but increased instead.
[Host: Chen Fei]
[Identity: Sub-adult male lion]
[Energy Points: 500↑ - Unlocked when heat flow coverage is applied to all four limbs]