Courtship Period

The huge monster appeared silently above the jungle, and the animals in the jungle did not realize its arrival until its shadow was cast on the ground.

The long-haired beast, which had been hesitating in place because of the roar, was completely silent.

They seem to have discovered a natural enemy, all of them stilled and even let their breathing lighten, lest they attract the attention of the other party.

This moment seemed to be stretched for a long time, Ban Xia looked at the monster in the sky, his heart was beating like thunder.

The monster had golden vertical pupils as bright as fluorite and night-like wings obscured the sky.

Its body is extremely long, covered with obsidian-like scales, and its dark long hair extends from the back of its head to its tail.¹

Huge and beautiful, it seems to be the creation of Gods.

Ban Xia has the illusion that it has returned to hundreds of millions of years ago. Humans are still in the barbaric era of consuming blood and fur. There are countless giant creatures on the planet. Human tribes wearing animal skins using tools to hunt prey, or be hunted by prey.

The shadow didn’t move away, but instead, the shrouded area became larger and darker.

——The monster flew down towards this direction.

“Ang-“

The voice of the leader of the long-haired beast resounded through the jungle. It understood that the monster had discovered them and regarded them as hunting targets. As the leader, it made a judgment in an instant and led the group to flee.

Ban Xia hurriedly grabbed the thick long hair on the back of the giant beast to stabilize his figure.

The long-haired beasts ran with great momentum, the ground was shaken and countless birds and beasts were startled.

Just as the approach of the long-haired beasts made the long-necked birds by the lake fly away in a panic, the arrival of this huge monster made the creatures in the entire jungle panic.

Birds chirping, beast roars, running sounds, crashing sounds, trees breaking…

The tranquility of the jungle was disturbed at this moment, and countless birds and beasts fled.

What exactly is this monster?

Doubts flashed through Ban Xia’s mind, but in this area that was not connected to the Star Network, he couldn’t get an answer.

The long-haired beast ran extremely fast in the jungle. Ban Xia had never sat on such a bumpy and unstable means of transportation before. He lowered his body and used all his strength to grab the hair of the giant beast, so as not to let himself be thrown off.

The shadows cast by the sky followed closely, Ban Xia heard wind sounds of different frequencies above his head.

He looked back nervously and saw that the monster had landed above the jungle, flying almost against the treetops.

Ban Xia met the pair of golden vertical pupils again. At such a close distance, the pair of vertical pupils seemed even bigger, and just staring at them made people tremble.

–It’s staring at me.

Ban Xia suddenly had such an idea in his heart.

But how come? Their size is completely different from the same order of magnitude. Even if it’s hunting, it should keep an eye on those giant beasts and giant birds, right?

He is less than 2 meters tall and less than 0.5 meters wide, he should not attract attention at all.

Ban Xia didn’t think that the monster was looking at him, but only thought that the other party was staring at the long-haired beast he was riding.

The leader of the long-haired beast is the largest in the herd, and it is indeed easy to be targeted.

This is not good. The monster is staring at this long-haired beast, and he is on the back of this long-haired beast. If the monster makes a move on the leader of the long-haired beast, he has to hang with it.

Ban Xia turned to look at the long-haired beasts beside him. The long-haired beasts were all running at high speed, and each of them was a long distance away from him.

If he was in his prime, Ban Xia could still try to switch to other giant beasts, but now he is too weak to complete such a difficult movement.

Once the transfer attempt fails, he will be trampled into a pool of blood by the giant beasts fleeing behind him, and the end will be worse than being preyed upon by monsters together.

With the sounds of various animals screaming and running away, Ban Xia temporarily pinned his hopes on the leader of the long-haired beast he was riding, hoping that the other party could escape the monster’s pursuit.

The monster above their heads is obviously a dakini². This is a jungle with lush trees, canopy by canopy, and the crossed branches are natural barriers.

Ban Xia smelled blood. Part of the smell came from the slightly smaller animals that were trampled to death by the long-haired beast, and part of it came from the birds that were killed by the monster above.

The monster had no interest in the birds flying in front of him, and simply and rudely removed them without any intention of eating them.

The opponent’s goal is very clear, that is, this long-haired beast group.

The gorgeous sunset gradually faded, and the sky was getting darker. Ban Xia silently prayed that the monster was not a nocturnal animal.

“Ang—”

Ban Xia heard the whining of the long-haired beast behind him, he looked back, and a few small long-haired beasts fell far behind the beast group.

There are cubs left behind…

For hunters, straggling animals are undoubtedly the best to catch.

I’m afraid those cubs would not survive. 

As soon as this idea came to Ban Xia’s mind, Ban Xia felt that the speed of the leader of the long-haired beast had slowed down.

The giant trees and the tangled branches didn’t stop the long-haired beast’s team, but the cub’s cry stopped these big men.

Some of the female long-haired beasts at the back of the line turned around, rushed away from the other animal groups, and ran towards the cubs.

The leader of the long-haired beast turned his head and raised his long nose high towards the sky: “Ang–“

It was… provoking the monster.

Ban Xia’s eyes widened, he looked up at the sky, only to see the monster ignoring the straggling cub. And with a pair of golden vertical pupils staring at the leader of the long-haired beast, chasing after him with flapping wings.

“Ang–“

The leader of the long-haired beast roared, turned sharply, cut a path through the fleeing herd, and ran to the other side of the jungle.

Ban Xia felt a shudder in his heart, then he looked up at the sky above the jungle, and as expected, the monster ignored the herd of hundreds of long-haired beasts, twisted its body, and ran after the leader of the giant long-haired beast.

“It’s over…”

That monster was completely eyeing the giant beast leader.

Wouldn’t it be nice to walk slowly by yourself? Why should I take this “free ride”?

I regret it now, really regretting it.

The monster above his head seemed to fall a little further, Ban Xia heard the sound of its wings scraping across the branches.

It’s useless to regret anymore, he has to find a way to get out.

Ban Xia emptied his thoughts and stopped thinking about other things. He observed the surrounding terrain with high concentration, ready to “jump from the car” at any time.

Before finding a suitable jumping point, Ban Xia heard the crisp sound of branches breaking overhead.

He turned back suddenly and saw the monster’s head sticking out, only a few meters away from him.

“!!!” 

Ban Xia’s pupils dilated in horror.

He also finally saw the outline of the monster. It was a dragon-like creature. It looked a bit like the western dragon in the ancient legend of Blue Star³, but it had the mane of an eastern dragon⁴ from the top of its head to the tip of its tail.

The other party is obviously not the guardian totem of the ancient eastern country, but the hunter who targets the long-haired beast is more similar to the western dragon.

If this kind of dragon monster opens its mouth and bites, the long-haired beast may not die immediately, but Ban Xia himself is definitely dead.

It’s too late.

Seeing that the head of the dragon-like monster was getting closer and closer to him, Ban Xia could no longer choose the landing spot, so he directly leaped on the back of the giant beast and jumped to the side away from the dragon-like monster.

[The Light Brain J03 reminds you, please do not attempt dangerous actions. 】

If he doesn’t try, he will die!

“Roar—” 

A deafening roar came from behind him, and it was only then that Ban Xia knew that the “thunder” he heard at first was actually the monster’s roar.

During the hunt just now, this dragon-like monster had not made a sound and flew over the jungle-like playing in a leisurely manner, but he didn’t know what went wrong, its roar was suddenly filled with obvious anxiety and urgency.

Is it in a rush to hunt for food? Fortunately, I have come off the longhaired beast.

Ban Xia was so shocked by the roar that he almost vomited blood, he failed to adjust his landing posture in time. Seeing that he was about to slam his face to the ground, he suddenly felt something like a long metal whip wrapped around his waist.

What is this?

Before Ban Xia could see what was entangled in him, the backward pulling force suddenly came from his waist, Ban Xia was directly pulled and flew towards the dragon-like monster.

“?!!”

What’s this situation?!

Bang—

Boom—

The dragon-like creature fell to the ground and its huge figure collapsed the trees into pieces.

“Cough, cough…” Ban Xia coughed while covering his mouth and nose, and when he was finished, he narrowed his eyes and looked around.

It was dark, very dark, as if it was covered with a black screen and he couldn’t see anything, but he could feel the dust flying in the air.

Where did I get pulled?

Ban Xia heard a dull “bang, bang” sound, as if a huge heart was beating, that kind of dragon creature should be nearby.

Gotta leave now!

As soon as Ban Xia moved, he found that his waist was still entangled with that thing.

What exactly is this?

Ban Xia raised his hand to his waist, it was cold and hard, covered with fine scales, about half a meter in diameter, like an enlarged version of a long whip.

These scales…are part of that kind of dragon monster’s body?

Ban Xia frowned slightly, he didn’t understand why the dragon monster wanted to arrest him, he was not part of the long-haired beast.

If you can’t understand, try to leave.

Ban Xia’s right hand flicked from the space bracelet, and a small dagger appeared in his hand.

His fingers trembled slightly.

When Ban Xia was on the back of the long-haired beast, in order not to be thrown off, he had been holding on to the long-haired beast’s hair.

The arm muscles were tense for a long time, and his body was already in a weak state, so it was difficult for him to even clench the dagger at this time.

Ban Xia endured the soreness in his fingers, held the dagger in both hands, pressed the edge of the blade against the “whip” wrapped around his waist, and slashed down hard.

The clear sound of slashing sounded, and Ban Xia’s complexion changed slightly. Although he couldn’t see clearly, he could feel that the dagger could not cut into the “whip” at all.

Is this thing made of diamonds? It’s so hard!

Ban Xia put away the dagger and was about to find something else to try. Suddenly, Ban Xia noticed that something seemed to be moving in the surrounding darkness.

The “black screen” was lifted, and a warm light shone in.

Ban Xia’s breathing stopped, the “black screen” that enveloped him was actually the body of the giant dragon covered with black fine scales and the wings of the black dragon that were as wide and gorgeous as butterfly wings.

After the dragon-like creature landed, it shrouded him under its wings.

Ban Xia felt that everything in the field of vision suddenly “moved”, no, it wasn’t the things in the field of vision that were moving, it was him.

He was picked up again by the “long whip” on his waist, moved quickly, and was finally placed in front of the dragon-like monster.

During the movement, Ban Xia completely saw the appearance of this huge monster.

It has huge golden vertical pupils and is covered with black scales. Its wings are similar to butterfly wings. The outer side of the wings is pure black, but the inner side is as gorgeous as a starry sky.

It has upward-curved horns on its head and several long tentacles floating on top of it. The tips of the tentacles have blue diamond-shaped spikes, which are really sharp⁵.

The “long whip” that wraps around him is one of the tentacles of this black dragon.

Ban Xia’s feet landed on the ground, and the thing around his waist that was more like a whip of steel than animal tentacles slowly retreated.

With a dark shadow shrouding, Ban Xia raised his head nervously and saw the black dragon lowering his head and opening his mouth to him.

Notes

• Its body is extremely long, covered with obsidian-like scales, and its dark long hair extends from the back of its head to its tail- [它的身躯极长，遍布着像是黑曜石一样的鳞羽，暗黑的长毛从怪物脑后延绵至尾部] yes, it really says hair

• Dakini- [空行] or [空行种], Also known as warrior Dakini, is a special kind of god in Tibetan Buddhism.

• Blue Star- in an interstellar setting, they often use this term to describe or call Earth.

• Mane of an eastern dragon- yes, most depictions of dragons in Eastern Asia are like this. Just look at the image below 👇(⌒▽⌒)
  a dragon with fur/hair

• Which are really sharp- 尖銳而鋒利, this is like an emphasis.