LeeAnn heard there was a dinosaur hunting contest from the guildmaster of Emphyrean Divine. She grinned like a chesire cat. Hunting dinosaurs? Oh, boy. This will be fun. LeeAnn simply agreed to take on this hunt. She was ready to grab the head of a dinosaur and mount on her wall. It would be perfect. That was a simple enough motivation. The jungles of Stella were thick and dense. For most people, the heat would be the killer. People like LeeAnn were used to the summer heat due to her fire magic. The slayer licked her lips. She was careful with where she stepped hearing rumors of venomous snakes and creatures on the forest floor. Though, she didn't know much about dinosaurs only there were fossils of them and they weren't dragons.

"Kid, do have any idea what you're doing?" Ragtime already knew the answer to this, but he wanted to be sure. Lee shook her head. She could hear a groan and a sigh before he spoke again. "Dinosaurs are much different than your average theif" he scolded. Lee rolled her eyes. She knew the basics of hunting and concealing your scent. Though, he was forgetting she was a dragon slayer. She had the abilities of a dragon. LeeAnn simply walked looking for any carnivorous dinosaurs that would look good as a trophy. A monument to her time in Stella. For some reason, that was the true fixation.

She sniffed the air, a strange scent as she lowered herself with Lector on her shoulders. A large tremble shook the earth beneath them. Ragtime and Lee knew this was a large creature. She peeked her head out of the bushes to see a heard of Triceratops pass through. A small huff of disappointment. She pushed herself out of the bushes and decided to follow the herd. There had to be a predator nearby. She kept her distance away from the heard at least 25 meters back just to be sure. Lector took to her shoulders. He would fly when she gave the signal. The herd was traveling to find water. Water. Lee shivered at the thought. She could not swim and did not want to get into the water unless of Lector flew her above.

"Lector we will stick close to this herd and see if anything comes up. Though, not close enough" she whispered. The exceed smiled with excitement. They had never been hunting for something this large ever. Both would have a story to tell of how they both took down a huge dinosaur.

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She decided to keep walking silently. The fire mage would scan the area. Lector fly up, scanning the area for the direction the herd was going. Lee watched him above then he flew in front of her. He pointed his paw as he spoke. "They are going that way. There's a large lake there. We might be able to find some other types of carnivore dinosaurs there" he spoke. She kept a close eye as the hard moved in that same direction. Thwre was a clearing where less foliage grew. May mbe some more plants like small ferns and tree stumps. Nothing much more. The herd gathered around the edge of the lake shore and started to drink.

She had Lector fly her high into the air, keeping her distance away from the herd. They flew 15 meters into the air to spot anything. So far there were not disturbances yet. They saw not sudden movement from the tops of the trees. "Lee, I think there's some movement off to your left. You just overlooked it" Ragtime reminded her. She snapped her head off to her left and spotted trees rustling in a large area. It seemed to be more than one dinosaur. She began to nod to Lector as he flew into a tree. They both landed on a thick branch that settled with their weight. Both, Lee and Lector, stared at the large beast. There were multiple of them. She gulped. They all hunted in packs much like wolves. She did not want to to think what these beasts are capable of.

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The genetic basis of carnivores were wired to hunt. She observed the large beasts from the highest branch in the trees the foliage was enough to conceal them. She stared. There were five of them. Two looked smaller so they must be young walking along side what looks to be their mother. The other three looks to be the same height. There was one Lee stared with several scars across his face. She grinned, wanting that one as a trophy. Though, she was within reason. This was probably the pack leader, one of the two. She didn't feel as guilty seeing as there were two pack leaders. They hissed and grumbled with their bellowing voices. The whole pack stopped and turned to each other. All them were communicating with one another.

The two young ones dash out of sight, probably to hide. The mother ushered them to a place where they would be safe. She would walk with the other three to the watering hole. Lee dash througjt the branches, keeping up with them. Lector hid in her pack. The noises from the swaying branches made one of the pack leaders stop in their tracks. They stared at the trees. The scarred one roared to one of them to check it out. A full grown dinosaur walked up and sniffed the air. He saw a tip of Lee's tail. He turned his large head to the leader and called out. Initially, she pulled her tail towards her body. Biting her lip, she sat on the branch

BOOM! BOOM!

The tree shook violently. She clung to the tree and poked her head to lookat  downward. Two of the beasts were head butting the tree. They seemed to not only try to take her down, but knock the tree over as well. She had to hand it to them, they were super intelligent. Each headbutted the tree it cracked a little. It was a thick base and sturdy. Ragtime insisted on one move as well as Lector as well, but she wanted to see what they would do. Right in the nick of time, she leaped off the branch and landed in the next tree over. Slightly terrified, she inhaled sharply and held her breath as if that was going to do anything. What did she get herself into? LeeAnn watched the dinosaurs as they observed her carefully. They seemed to try to figure out exactly what she was doing. All this time, she didn’t know much about dinosaurs all too much, but she did know some lived in packs. Though, they were much smaller. Ragtime cleared his throat inside her mind.

”Hehem, that is an Allosaurus. Don’t you know anything you uncultured swine” insulted Ragtime. LeeAnn growled in response to the insult. ”Not everyone is as smart about dinosaurs as you are,” she thought. Ragtime chuckled a little.

”Well, when you have nothing to do like I have for many years, you tend to pick up on a few things. Mine just happened to be about dinosaurs since it was the only interesting book I had at the time. I am a bit rusty on these guys, but from what I know they are extremely intelligent as far as using tools to get things done” he explained. That explained the headbutting of the tree. Giving them time, she leaped from the tree and stared at them. The two of them started to circle curiously at her, but the alpha male hissed a little. It’s call caused the two to back off, making way for the large one. The alpha didn’t feel threatened at all. It was curiously checking LeeAnn out then bowed a little. LeeAnn bowed back, maintaining eye contact with her, as she did the same. There was a lot of silence before it started to circle her, she did the same thing. LeeAnn was trying to understand what it was doing. She just imitated the same behavior as the dinosaur before her. There was not a single understanding between her and what was going on. Ragtime decided to take over. Her eyes turned a slight shade of frost blue. He was not going ballistic as that could easily result in death or a limb torn off. [i]”This seems to be a battle to the death”[i] spoke Ragtime inside her mind. Internally, she let out a loud groan. The alpha made the first move by charging at LeeAnn, quickly dodging out of the way by leaping 5 meters to the left. Quickly, she left Lector out of the pack and told him to stay out of it. There was some wordy in his eyes, but when he saw Lee go into action. Forming a fist with both hands, she put them in front of her mouth. A large magical circle appeared in front of her face. A large stream of fire about 2 meters in diameter hit the alpha Allosaurus on the legs causing the flesh to burn. A loud roar came from the beast, one of the other members took a step forward. She noticed as the others blocked him from going further. As if they were saying “This is his fight, not ours to win. He must do this himself”. It amazed Lee how much these animals respected their alpha and tradition.

The alpha struggled to get up with the injured leg. The flesh singed, flecks of embers flew from his skin and into the air with the direction of the wind was going. There was nothing she could do for him besides win. She didn't want to die either. It seemed the alpha was already accepted his fate a little. Honestly, she felt bad for the beast, but they did this on a daily basis. His lengthed arms reached over and quickly grabbed her leg. LeeAnn was thrown the ground, causing the wind to be knocked out of her. Catching her breath, she stared at this allosaurus. It's eyes were studying her heartbeat. Ragtime controlled Lee's body to point her finger with her right hand under the beast. A magic circle was placed, shining a bright red color. This caused the beast to look down and before he could react, a huge explosion sent him and LeeAnn flying backwards.

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"You have to stop doing that, Lee. Seriously, that's my job, ya idiot" complained Ragtime. She laughed a little, knowing he was the one wanting to do that instead of her. He had slipped control of her for a moment before resuming. She had casted that spell in offense in order put the odds in her favor. Ragtime was not going to think of it without her performing or mentioning it. He was good at preventing somethings, but future thinking was not a strong suit. The Alpha was being pretty beaten as she huffed a little from coughing and regaining her normal breathing.

The alpha attempted to get up, but could not. LeeAnn gotten out Sting, sheathing her sword showing the blade. She hesitated seeing the beasts before her not tensing and for some reason gave a slight nod of approval. It was as if they understood what she needed to do. Leeann had observed they comminucate with tradition. She stared into the eyes of the beast. He closed his eyes and grumbled a little. She couldn't do it. They were so intelligent..."I am so sorry to you and your pack. Are you sure" she whispered. The Allosaurus stared into her eyes as she saw it simply give a trill of approval. It didm't budge or resist when she shoved her sword into his neck. The creature went limp, seeing he went a peaceful death. The other Allosaurus pack members stared at the dead body of their former alhpa then stared at her. She blinked.

A larger one took a step forward and nudged at her. "What are they doing?" Ragtime laughed hysterically at her. They didn't realize what she accidentally gotten herself into. "Kid, you accidentally fought for the Alpha position! HAHAHA, you're the new alpha. They respect you" he laughed. LeeAnn froze.

Shit.

They all looked at her for an answer while she nervous laughed. "This...is not how I pictured how this will turn out" she spoke. She grabbed the body of the dinosaur and had the help of the other Allosaurus lift it for her with her help.

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