154
JUAN FRANCISCO BLANCO
“Incoming, Bardala, you take the beasts to the right. Zorin,
you and Ronú aim for the center pair. I’ll take the ones on the
left side,” Tital yelled out as he let loose his first arrow.
“THWISS!”
Even as they rapidly racked up six more kills, three additional
Gigantoraptors shook the hard ground, running up from behind
them. These were not young ones, like the first encounter they
had had a while back. These were full grown adults. Trees were
thrashing and snapping around the huge beasts. They ran right
over smaller trees, pushing them violently aside trying to get to
the fresh meat, which is what the archers were in the eyes of the
Gigantoraptors. Brilloso was excitedly barking, and running
around, trying to help spot the stray raptors that the group had
not yet killed. Barking loudly to attract Tital’s attention, he was
the first to spot the Gigantoraptors flying in the air overhead.
There were three of them, coming in from different directions.
Bardala was the first to bring one down, with a well-placed shot.
Tital’s next arrow found its mark deep in the second beast’s
heart, as it dived screaming, with talons outstretched towards
the group of archers. They could hear the massive bones snap as
it hit the hard and rock-strewn ground of Vivia, with a terrible
sound.
“CRUNNNCH!”
The third flying raptor used the Sun’s bright light behind it to
hide its approach, and weaved in; dodging the onslaught of razortipped arrows launched its way. It wove a defensive pattern,
high in the cerulean-blue sky, as Tital warned, “We can’t leave
here until we kill that flying Gigantoraptor. It could lead a whole
group of them against us.” In response, all four archers sent
arrows flying skyward simultaneously. Bardala’s arrow struck
first, with Zorin’s and Ronú’s landing hits, but it was Tital’s brainshot that brought it down to join the other dead. It had been so
high up that the bows were almost at their limit of lethal range,
so when it died in mid-flight it swirled down like a leaf falling