I needed a way to take these fuckers out before they even got to our walls, but they were coming at us from three sides, and I realized I was going to have to split my team up to engage the enemy. The trikes were my only real offense. Their horns would easily rip through the bodies of these carnos, but I worried that their horns would get stuck. If that happened, then the carno they had impaled, or the second carno in the group could get a bite on them. As soon as I lost one of my trikes, I’d be out a third of my offense, and it would be easy for the carnos to overwhelm us. The parasaurs could kind of fight, but all they had going for them was size, strength which came from that size, and speed. Hope didn’t even have the size and strength when compared to the carnos, but I knew from experience that my faithful mount could outrun one.
Then I got an idea, and my strategy fell into place around it.
I paired Hope and Nicole together and sent them toward the two carnos in the northeast. I paired Cher and Katie together and sent them charging toward the two carnos advancing from our worksite. The three big boys, Sonny, Bob, and Tom, ran around the north side of the fort and sprinted toward the three carnos approaching from that direction. My first orders were simple, and I mentally tried to push them to each of the groups as quickly as I could.
The parasaurs were to run around the carnos and distract them while the trikes kept them from advancing toward our fort.
I didn’t know how well each group would follow my instructions, so I focused my attention on Hope and Nicole first. The parasaur was galloping toward the two massive carnivores, and they actually seemed to look a bit surprised that their prey was charging. I imagined Hope darting to the side of them at the last second, and my heart jumped into my chest when the closest carno shot forward to bite her.
Hope dodged to the side as if she was a pro football player and then twisted to the left of the carno. The beast tried to jerk its massive maw around so that it could bite her again, but its teeth closed on empty air.
I still heard the snap of its jaws from almost two hundred yards away.
“Go Hope! Go!” I hissed under my breath as the parasaur kept running toward the forest, she turned right at the tree line and angled back up north toward the cave where the orange birds were.
The carnos turned around to follow her, and I almost let out a shout of joy. Their backs were to the fort and Nicole, so I knew that my strategy could work.
As long as Hope could keep up her speed.
I turned back to the east and commanded Cher to dodge out of the way of the carnos just like Hope had. The bigger parasaur female was a bit less graceful than Hope, but she still twisted her massive body away from the carnos a moment before one bit at her. Cher’s dodge took her to the left of the leftmost carno that faced me, and it tried to turn around just as the one who attacked Hope did. However, the second carno also made a lunge for Cher as she sprinted by, and the two carnos ended up slamming their heads and upper bodies together. The giant predators growled at each other, and I saw a perfect opportunity to try the second part of my plan.
While the carnos were distracted by each other and were turning to chase after Hope, Katie the triceratops charged up behind the one on the left and rammed her horns into the carno’s ass.
The massive predator let out a screech that I was sure dinos all the way by the lake could hear. It tried to turn around and bite at Katie, but the trike’s horns were buried all the way into the carno, and it couldn’t twist its body around.
The second carno had sprinted after Cher, but then stopped and turned around to look at its friend. It seemed confused as to what it should do, but then it turned back toward the trike. The carno began to jog back toward its struggling friend and my trike, so I quickly adjusted my commands. This carno wasn’t even looking at Cher. It was focusing completely on the trike, so when the female parasaur shoulder checked it, the carnotaurus went down like a skinny referee getting tackled by a two hundred and fifty-pound linebacker.
As the second carno went down, I turned my eyes quickly to the boy squad, they were still sprinting around the fort, so I glanced over to Hope. She’d outpaced both of the carnos, and Nicole was holding her ground between them and our fort. I wanted to have the red-crested trike get in there and do some damage like Katie, but I knew that Hope wasn’t big enough to pull off a play like Cher just did, so I needed to drive off the east group of carnos. Then I could send Cher and Katie to help out Hope and Nicole.
I shifted my focus back to Katie. The trike still had the first carno impaled with her horns, but she couldn’t really pull free without risking a bite. The other carno was rolling on the ground trying to squirm to its feet, so I knew I had a few seconds of freedom to mount an offensive. I commanded Cher to run back a bit, and then I told her to sprint forward and slam her shoulder into the carno that Katie impaled.
The maneuver worked way better than I had planned. The carno was occupied with its attempt to free itself from Katie’s horns, so it didn’t even notice Cher until the parasaur was right next to her. The hit knocked the carnotaurus free of the trike with a tidal wave of blood, bone, and screams. The big predator obviously had a mortal wound, and it crumbled to the ground as if it had lost muscle control in one of its legs.
The other carno had gotten to its feet, and it snarled at Cher. I commanded the parasaur to run away before the carno could snap at it, but their enemy didn’t give chase. Instead, it turned back to Katie and dipped its head down a bit so it could bite her face.
I instructed the trike to backpedal a bit, and she did so as the remaining carno stepped toward her. The predator was ignoring Cher, probably because it didn’t think the parasaur would try to knock it down again, and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to show this fucker who he was underestimating.
Cher was sprinting around the rear of the carno, and I ordered her to rush toward the asshole’s back. The parasaur picked up some frantic speed as she tore across the grassy field, but the carno’s attention was totally focused on Katie.
I commanded Katie to dart forward as if she was attacking and then quickly back away again. The carno took the bait, leaned down to snap at the trike, missed, and then let out a roar of frustration.
Then Cher slammed right into the fucker’s back and knocked him flat on his face.
The carno let out a surprised shriek, but it didn’t last long. Katie charged forward with her horns down in “fuck you, asshole” position, and they punched through the carno’s skull like a kabob stick through a tomato. The carno didn’t even let out another screech; it just started twitching death spasms.
I commanded Cher to stand on the chest of the dying carno, and then Katie yanked her horns out. As soon as they were both free, I sent them after the carnos chasing Hope and turned my attention back to the boy team of Bob, Sonny, and Tom.
The males were rushing across the clearing toward the three carnos. Bob and Sonny were running abreast of each other, and Tom was bringing up the rear. They looked like a reverse triangle galloping across the open field, but the two parasaurs were much faster than the trike, so Tom was being left behind a bit.
The three carnos to the west of the camp exhibited the same sort of confusion the other groups had. Parasaurs were supposed to be prey. They were supposed to run away, and the carnos were supposed to give chase. The big horned eating machines didn’t really know what to do when their food attacked, so they kind of bunched together as they slowed their run.
I gave Sonny and Bob the command to split so they would run around the carnos, and the predators seemed to regain their senses. The ones on the end tried to dart forward and snap at the two parasaurs, but I’d ordered them to run around with enough space, so the carnos’ chomps just closed around air.