novelODS Chapter 14 The Continued Growth
Chapter 14 The Continued Growth
After the cow left, the pheasant leader, along with several other pheasants, struggled to drag the carcass of the buffalo calf back to the herd.
Strong male pheasants tear off buffalo hide with their beaks, while young pheasants rush to the buffalo calves to snatch the spilled entrails.
Although the buffalo calves weigh 30 kilograms, they are quickly devoured by the large flock of feral birds, leaving only white skeletons.
If the frightened chicken hadn't lacked bite force, probably not even its skeleton would have remained.
The capture of the buffalo calves was a victory, but an incomplete one, because the entire flock of feral birds did not get enough to eat.
The leader of the pheasants called out again, gathering more than fifty strong male pheasants, who once again followed behind the buffalo herd.
This time, the chicken leader set its sights on a sub-adult buffalo that was about one and a half years old.
There aren't enough buffalo calves to go around, and hunting with adult buffalo is too risky. Facing a massive adult buffalo is like facing a powerful carnivore like a lion; a slight misstep could lead to an accident—either being run over and killed by the buffalo or trampled to death, not to mention the fear of chickens.
Therefore, sub-adult water buffalo are currently the best hunting target for the pheasant.
The sub-adult buffalo is already nearly half the size of an adult buffalo, with a shoulder height of about 1.2 meters. Although it is not yet fully grown, its strength, speed, and alertness are far superior to those of a calf.
These sub-adult buffalo have developed a certain level of alertness; although they may move around alone, they will not stray too far from the herd.
The flock of chickens, using the bushes as cover, slowly approached.
This time, they did not launch a rash attack.
The leader of the pheasants gave a low command, and the pheasant flock split into two groups: one group feigned an attack on the buffalo herd, while the other group focused on the sub-adult buffalo.
The feint attack group of over thirty dire chickens charged out first, howling as they ran, attracting the attention of most of the water buffalo.
When the buffalo herd saw unfamiliar animals approaching, they didn't just stand there dumbly. Instead, they turned around and formed a circle, pointing their large horns towards the direction of the attack, protecting all the calves inside.
This is a common defensive posture for buffalo when facing small to medium-sized predators.
Faced with those sharp horns, the dire chickens did not rush forward rashly. On the one hand, these dire chickens were feigning an attack, and on the other hand, they were preventing the sub-adult buffalo that had been targeted from returning to the herd.
The remaining pheasants, seeing that the sub-adult buffaloes were isolated outside the herd, immediately rushed out and pounced on them.
The startled sub-adult buffalo lowered their heads and ran aimlessly, hoping to shake off the dire chickens behind them and return to their own herd, but the dire chickens of the feint attack group held the breach firmly.
The leader of the dire chickens, along with the remaining dire chickens, kept forcing the sub-adult buffalo to change direction, exhausting its stamina.
The surrounded buffalo herd also wanted to help the sub-adult buffalo, but helping it would leave the buffalo calves exposed.
Therefore, they could only watch helplessly as the sub-adult water buffalo was chased all over the place.
The sub-adult buffalo were gradually forced into a muddy depression, where they slipped and their speed decreased sharply.
Seizing the opportunity, the leader of the pheasants sent its five strongest pheasants leaping from the side and rear, pouncing on the hind legs and rump of the sub-adult buffalo.
The sub-adult buffalo, in pain, thrashed its hindquarters with all its might. One of the pheasants was kicked in the breastbone and rolled away, but the other four held on tightly to its flesh.
The pheasant leader circled around to the front, leaped up suddenly, and bit down hard on the throat of the sub-adult buffalo with its mouth full of fine teeth!
The sub-adult buffalo struggled with its head raised, and the pheasant leader was thrown off, leaving only two deep, bloody gashes on its neck.
The intense pain caused the sub-adult buffalo to muster its last bit of strength, dragging the three pheasants on its back for a considerable distance before finally coming to a stop.
During this time, a pheasant couldn't help but let go of its beak, fell to the ground, and was trampled to death by a sub-adult water buffalo.
The exhausted sub-adult buffalo began to breathe rapidly and its movements gradually slowed down.
The chickens swarmed forward, tearing at the buffalo's body from all directions.
The flock of chickens was not capable of killing sub-adult buffalo; they simply took turns biting and bleeding them out.
A few minutes later, the sub-adult buffalo stopped struggling completely.
The hunt lasted nearly half an hour. The pheasant flock suffered three serious injuries and one death, but successfully hunted a sub-adult buffalo weighing over 100 kilograms, enough for the flock to eat.
The pheasant leader stood atop the buffalo carcass, raised its head, and let out a long, deep roar, as if announcing the rise of a new predator in this territory.
The cattle in the distance were restless, but faced with a large number of tactically coordinated dire chickens, they did not rashly seek revenge, but slowly retreated into the depths of their territory.
The Chinese viewers who watched the whole thing all said:
[This tactical coordination is absolutely brilliant! Feint attack, isolation, attrition, encirclement and kill—it's starting to resemble that of intelligent beings!]
The ferocious chicken's bite force and size still need further evolution. It's already struggling to kill a buffalo; how will it deal with even more ferocious predators in the future?
[Bai Zhou's strategy of "avoiding the limelight" was correct. Coming to the buffalo territory not only saved them from the pursuit of wild dogs and cheetahs, but also provided them with a richer source of meat!]
[Annam: You're all safe now, but the species that were hunted and killed were our observational species!]
Although buffalo are herbivores, their weight and large horns give them a certain ability to protect themselves, making them less of a sitting duck.
Therefore, the Annamese people did not initially take the hunting of buffalo calves by the pheasant-like birds to heart.
The death of a single cub is nothing, and besides, the dire pheasant weighs less than one-tenth the weight of a buffalo, so the Annamese people believe that the dire pheasant would not actively hunt buffalo.
Unexpectedly, within a day, a calf and a sub-adult buffalo died in succession. Is this still a chicken?
Chickens can hunt water buffalo? Are you kidding me!
The current sentiment among Annamese people is that they finally managed to get rid of lions, only to be met with a fear of chickens.
Ken Yamamoto and Jung-tae Lee also saw the current state of the Terror Chickens, but they still held onto their previous idea: to wait until they obtained the second intervention points, which was two million years back in time, before entering the Buffalo Territory to kill the Terror Chickens.
Entering the buffalo territory now could very likely trigger a three-way conflict.
If the pheasant is not eliminated, our own group will suffer losses.
.....
Time passed day by day, and three hundred thousand years had gone by since they entered the territory of the buffalo herd.
The number of chickens has reached more than 500, and their weight has soared to 30 kilograms.
Bai Zhou was very pleased with the increase in the size of the pheasant, and secretly sighed that it was indeed beef, and that eating it was very nutritious!
Bai Zhou checked the time; the timeline of two million years ago was approaching.
Li Zhengtai and Yamamoto Ken also gathered the cheetah pack and wild dog pack at the edge of the buffalo territory, seemingly planning to rush into the buffalo territory and eliminate the dire chickens as soon as the intervention points arrived.
"They really won't give up!"