Location: Magicon Empire; Song Duchy; Vexton System; Vexton 2

We all stop what we are doing when Clara announces her discovery in our helmets' speakers. "You found them?" I ask her with a mix of excitement and a little bit of uncertainty in my voice. I mean we're talking about predators here. Who knows what kinds are there… The ones in the movies were pretty scary after all. Especially the big one!

"Yeah, I did. It's pretty far away though. But I found a good place to teleport to where we can set up camp for the night as well."

"Perfect, thank you, Clara!" I reply, then look at Nick. "Are you all done here?"

"Yeah, we just have to pack everything back up. But with you all helping, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes."

With that, we all help him pack the equipment back into the crate. Once we're finished, we do another short talk about our exploration report. Both Alina and Lydia tell us that it's coming along nicely. I thank them both, then have everyone and the crate gather around me.

"I'm ready, Clara. Do you have the coordinates?"

"Coming right up…"

She locks them in, and I cast the Teleportation spell. Less than a second later, we arrive at our destination. It's dark outside. Are we on the other side of the planet?

"Ugh, where are we?" Lucy asks the obvious question.

"This is the other continent on Vexton 2, sorry, I forgot to tell you that it's going to be dark here. We're on the other side of the planet, currently"

Yeah… Of course, she forgot… Sometimes there are moments like this when I notice that Clara has spent way too much time with my parents. At least this means that we're safe here at the campsite. I still decide to play it safe. "So we're good here to cast a few Light spells and set up our tents?"

"Yeah, absolutely. I think this spot here is dedicated to camping. If you look closely, you'll notice another of these barriers around this location. But otherwise from what I managed to check out so far, the dinosaurs are free to go wherever they want here on this continent."

I send a quick feeling of gratitude toward Clara with a spell and then continue to cast a Light spell. Tim and Alina do so as well, which lights up our camping spot quite nicely. It's different from the other one, as we're not in an elevated position this time around.

Instead, it's just a flat, circular area, that is surrounded by bushes and trees. I walk over there, and as Clara said, there is another weird barrier, just like around the valley we've just been.

"Alright, let's set up the tents… Not that we can do much more in this darkness."

The others agree, and we get to work. This time we're much faster, as each group sets up their own. After that, I ask Clara to watch the perimeter with her drones just in case the barrier doesn't hold the dinosaurs away. Then we enjoy another nice meal made by Lucy and go to sleep right after.

The next morning comes quickly and as it's the last day of our exploration in the Vexton System, we also pack up the tents again. Then we're ready to head out. Before that, Clara shows us a hologram of what's around our camping spot.

Looks like it's mostly open land with a few smaller hills. Otherwise, the terrain is flat. There's a big river about two kilometers away from us and here and there are small gatherings of trees. Partly, the grass is almost waist high though, so despite the flat terrain, our view can be restricted.

But we're not here for a ground survey… Nick and Lydia already took care of that. We might take a few samples to compare the two continents, but that's it. No, we're here for the dinosaurs! And there are a lot of them. They're mostly close to the river, but there are also a lot of them running across the open grassland.

That there are predators among them is also without question, as I notice a small herd of bipedal dinosaurs latch onto the neck and legs of a much bigger quadrupedal dinosaur. The bigger one opens its maw wide to roar in pain and it shakes itself. A few of the smaller ones get thrown off, but most hold on and bite deeper and deeper.

"Is this live?" I ask Clara and she confirms.

"Yeah, it's also pretty close. About 500 meters southeast of you."

I shudder. This is different from what we saw yesterday! The hunt or rather takedown continues. The bigger dinosaur seems to be on its last legs and desperately throws itself to the side. It crushes four of the predators and almost gets the one latched to its neck as well.

It twists at the last moment and avoids being crushed. That also seals the fate of the quadrupedal one, as it's too weak to get back up. The remaining predators capitalize on that and kill it within seconds. Then they start their feast. I avoid my gaze.

"Brutal," Tim mutters.

I gulp. And we want to go out there… Maybe that isn't that good of an idea after all. "Do we really want to go out there?" I ask the others. "Maybe a low-altitude aerial view from the yacht is better?"

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"I can get the yacht down here if you want."

I deactivate my microphone and answer Clara. "Please do so, but keep the ship in the air for now."

Meanwhile, Lucy answers my first question. "I'd really like to go for a quick trip there at least. I mean when if not now are we able to see something like this? Also, I'm able to hold back a full-on assault by multiple starships with my magic… Sure, down here without a ship, my magic is weaker, but what's a few dinosaurs compared to that?"

"She's got a point there," Lydia chimes in.

Everyone else nods along. I sigh in defeat. "Fine, but when I decide it's too dangerous, we're out of here! So please don't try to resist when the spell reaches you." Not that I need them to, as I should be able to overpower them quite easily. But besides Lucy and Lydia, no one knows about my true power level.

The others are quick to agree, and we start to form up in our usual formation with Lucy up front. "Alright, here's what we're going to do!" I call out right before we cross the barrier, and our small group comes to a halt.

"We'll be slowly heading toward the river as there will be the most dinosaurs to see. Before that, we'll check out the place where the takedown just took place. Maybe we're lucky and Lucy manages to catch one of those bipedal predators while they're still there. I think that would be a good specimen for Nick to study. If not, it's not that big of a detour. Now, let's go!"

Lucy crosses the barrier first and we're quick to follow. I've got my shielding device ready to activate at a moment's notice. Tim, Nick, and Lydia ready theirs as well. Additionally, Lucy goes all out this time and has the whole group hidden behind a low-powered transparent Shield spell.

Then I suddenly remember something. I've got the perfect spell for this situation! How could I forget this? "Guys, hold up for a moment. I can hide us with the Cloaking spell. That should make it easier for us to approach the dinosaurs."

"Brilliant idea, Sara! Please do so. I think I should take the time and learn it myself once we're back…" Tim replies.

I nod at him and cast the spell. It's kinda difficult to cloak the six of us in such a way that we can still see each other, but after a few moments, I manage to tweak the spell enough and make it work. Unfortunately, now the spell isn't perfect anymore and there is a slight distortion in the air around our group. It shouldn't be too obvious though, at least as long as we move slowly. But hey, better than nothing. Still, I should probably talk to Professor Flood if there is a better way to do this. Probably another spell, I guess.

Anyway, now we're ready to head out, and I tell Lucy to do so. She follows Clara's map, and we get closer and closer to the recently killed dinosaur. The tall grass is very annoying, as every step we take sends ripples in every direction. So much for approaching unnoticed.

Once we're only 150 meters away, Lucy lifts a fist to make us stop. "I don't know how sharp their senses are, but I think we should be more careful now. So please follow in my footsteps and move slowly! Sara's spell doesn't prevent the sound that the grass makes when we strife through it."

Nobody disagrees with her assessment, so we follow her in a single file. We make it to about 50 meters distance from the carcass when one of the bipedal predators suddenly stops feeding and lifts its head into the air.

Lucy immediately lifts her fist again and we stop moving.

As the grass is trampled down before us from the earlier fight, we get a good look at the dinosaurs. The dead one is even bigger than I thought earlier. It's about ten meters from head to tail and has massive spikes along its back – not that they were of much use as the small dinosaurs attacked its unprotected neck and legs.

Speaking of the smaller ones, they stand at about one and a half meters in height and are between two and three meters long. They've got vicious claws at their hands and feet, and their teeth look dangerous. Especially with all the blood, there is now.

The one on alert looks around, but thanks to my Cloaking spell, it doesn't notice us standing some 50 meters away. Still, it stays alert for a few minutes and even walks around a bit. Here and there it sniffs, and I've never been so glad that we're all wearing airtight spacewalker suits, as we're all sweating buckets!

Finally, the dinosaur gets back to feeding but I don't think that we manage to get any closer without alerting them again. Nick clears his throat and says exactly what I thought right now. "I don't think we can get any closer… But I've got an idea."

He takes out a large syringe from his suit's pocket and points it at a small boulder to our right. "Lydia can lift this boulder over there with her Telekinesis. Then she can throw it toward the dinosaurs to scare them away. At the same time, Tim or Sara can teleport one of them over to us, while Lucy or Alina put a small cage of barriers around it as soon as the teleportation is done. Then I can sedate it with my tranquilizer here."

Alina nods along. "That's a good plan, Nick! I can cast the barriers, that way Lucy can react if one of the scared dinosaurs runs in our direction after Lydia throws her boulder." She looks at Tim and me. "So who's going to do the teleporting and to where?"

I look at Tim. "It's better if you do it… That way I can still function as our escape plan in case everything goes south. And how about close to Nick? That way he doesn't have to move too far with his syringe."

Tim nods and points at the ground close to Nick. "Alright, I'll be putting it right there then. Just tell me when you're ready to go."

Lydia lifting the boulder is the signal to start. She throws it toward the carcass, then everything happens almost at once! The boulder lands with a loud thud, and the dinosaurs all jump as a reaction. Or maybe even a bit earlier. It's hard to say, as everything happens so fast. As we're still cloaked, they decide to run away and regroup… At least that's what it looks like. Pretty smart of them, I'd say.

Anyway, Tim catches one of them with his Teleportation spell and places it close to Nick who's already moving his syringe into position. The dinosaur is quick to react and tries to bite Nick's arm. Alina is faster though and encases the reptile with a set of barriers.

Everything is already done after a few seconds. Waiting until the tranquilizer works actually takes the longest. Still, the dinosaur is unconscious in under one minute. The plan was a complete success!

Nick and Lydia both take out a lot of measurement devices and start examining the dinosaur. Up close its teeth look even sharper, especially once Nick pries open its maw and measures their length. Once they're finished with their devices, Nick also casts a few spells. I recognize them as variants of his Analysis spell.

All in all, it takes about thirty minutes until we're finished with examining the dinosaur. After a quick talk with the others, I teleport it back toward the carcass of the bigger one, then Nick casts a spell that dissolves the tranquilizer in its blood so that it'll wake up almost immediately. We don't want it to suddenly become prey after all!

Next, we slowly backtrack our steps until we're far enough away. Then we fall back into our formation and head toward the river. Along the way, Nick informs us of his findings.

Apparently, our small predator is very closely related to the ancient Velociraptor just a lot bigger. Nick muses that whoever created the dinosaurs here took the example shown in the movies to model his dinosaur after. He switches into full-on nerd mode and explains for a solid ten minutes that the real raptors were much smaller in ancient times on Earth.

The other information isn't that important and goes straight into our report. Then, after thirty minutes of walking, we're almost at the river and slow down again.

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