From Robinson Crusoe

The pack of cave hyenas is closing in step by step.

The darkness of the grassland could not obstruct Chen Zhou's vision. The cave hyena's short, thick muzzle, large head, eyes that gleamed in the night, and ears with rounded outlines were clearly visible.

Their bodies are exceptionally robust, with shoulders higher than hips, giving them an overall appearance that is higher in the front and lower in the back. Although they are somewhat thin, their well-developed muscles can still be seen under their fur when they take small steps, making them appear powerful.

Leading the way was a female cave hyena. The night on the grassland wasn't hot, but she slightly grinned, revealing a set of sharp teeth, with a string of saliva hanging from the edge of her dark lips.

Not far away, Chen Zhou could even smell the stench of rotting meat in their mouths, which showed that they were extremely hungry.

……

Paul hurriedly broke off several large branches from the tree next to the campfire and put them into the fire. As the pine resin burned, although thick smoke billowed out, the fire also grew much stronger.

How much further?

Paul asked the question as he untied his shoelaces, unfolded his folding saber, and tied it to the top of the long stick.

Chen Zhou did not answer, because the cave hyena pack was close enough, about twenty meters away. They stopped and watched the bright campfire in the darkness and the two humans by the fire, then silently dispersed.

Call ~
Chen Zhou wielded the wooden spear in a sharp circle, bent down slightly, looked directly at the "queen" of the cave hyena pack, gripped the spear tightly, and took a step forward.

Roar!
The cave hyena let out a low growl from its broad throat; it clearly could not tolerate such provocative behavior from humans.

At the Queen's command, the cave hyenas that had been lingering at the edge of the woodland and grassland immediately began to move forward in unison. If they hadn't been afraid of the flames, they probably would have pounced on them long ago.

……

Seeing the cave hyena getting closer and closer, Chen Zhou did not panic.

Extreme sports have given him incredibly strong nerves and a big heart. In life-or-death situations, panic not only fails to help him escape danger, but also brings more trouble and danger.

His trip to Africa gave him some understanding of spotted hyenas.

Hyena packs have a rich "language". During hunts, the hyena queen usually does not fight herself, but directs from the rear.

Their bite force is amazing, but their explosive power is far less than that of felines.

Compared to big cats that seek quick victories, hyenas prefer to rely on their endurance to chase their prey, creating a sense of pressure and crisis to cause the old, weak, and sick to fall behind, before surrounding, intercepting, and killing them.

Hyenas have robust bodies, but their shoulder height is insufficient, and their short hind limbs limit their jumping ability.

Their canines also differ from those of felines. In order to improve their bite force and ability to manipulate bones, they evolved larger teeth and conical premolars, but lost the ability to kill prey by piercing their throats with their canines.

Therefore, when hunting, hyenas prefer to bite the thighs, buttocks, and abdomen of their prey, which not only depletes the prey's energy but also inflicts more wounds.

During this process, their relentless attacks cause the prey to constantly flee, increasing blood loss. Once the prey loses too much blood and becomes weak, it can only be slaughtered by the hyenas, powerless to resist.

Based on the hunting process of African spotted hyenas, Chen Zhou estimated that the cave hyena pack was currently in the stage of intimidating its prey.

Prehistoric humans and cave hyenas competed fiercely. While cave hyenas certainly killed many humans, the ferocious upright apes were no pushovers either. In the tens of thousands of years of cave battles, prehistoric humans ultimately prevailed, causing the cave hyenas to become extinct in the northern continent.

Humans, as the cave hyena's long-time adversary, have caused them no small amount of trouble.

Even though they were only facing two humans, the blazing campfire around them and their towering figures still posed a significant threat to the cave hyena pack.

The cave hyena queen wouldn't rashly command her pack to charge. Out of respect for humans and her inherent cunning, she would first probe the enemy before using her most skilled tactics to kill her prey.

As the grasslands grow colder, smaller prey are gradually migrating south.

To obtain sufficient food, they must either fight against ferocious cave bears and lions, or risk hunting the robust and large woolly rhinoceroses.

With the harsh winter approaching, it must preserve the hyena pack's strength and avoid losing hunters during hunts in order to ensure the pack's survival.

……

As he continued forward, Chen Zhou observed the size and posture of the cave hyenas, trying to catch the sound of their heartbeats and the rhythm of their breathing.

Since cave hyenas are larger than spotted hyenas, it is obviously inappropriate to apply the attack methods of spotted hyenas to the attack habits of cave hyenas.

The higher forearms give the cave hyena the ability to lock its throat. Once the cave hyena launches an attack, he not only has to keep a close eye on its lower body, but also has to be constantly aware of whether the cave hyena will attack his throat and shoulders.

The hyena pack is clearly in a probing phase right now. He must try to launch a preemptive strike and inflict casualties on the cave hyenas in order to possibly force the hyena queen to abandon her hunt.

Animals also have their own calculations. If the risks far outweigh the benefits, they will wisely choose to give up when given a choice.

Cave hyenas, as social hunting animals, are particularly adept at making choices; otherwise, they would have been eliminated by nature long ago.

Chen Zhou's keen senses endowed him with extraordinary observation skills. He looked around and quickly chose the "chicken" to make an example of.

It was a male cave hyena acting as a vanguard. It was small and thin, and when it walked, its left and right forelegs moved unevenly, probably due to a previous injury that had left it with a chronic condition.

Its heartbeat is not strong enough, and its breathing rate is faster than that of other cave hyenas, making it a rare easy target in the hyena pack.

Chen Zhou was not confident that he could kill a healthy, strong adult female cave hyena with a single blow.

But if he gets close, he's 99% confident he can pin the male cave hyena to the ground with a single spear thrust.

The hunt has not yet descended into a life-or-death struggle. This rapid attrition could create a deterrent effect similar to that of a lion suppressing a spotted hyena, causing the hyena queen to reconsider whether continuing the hunt is worthwhile.

On the other hand, Chen Zhou left the campfire because he didn't want to be dragged into the familiar fighting rhythm of the cave hyenas.

His physical abilities are extraordinary; in a one-on-one situation, even the strongest female cave hyena would be no match for him, even if he were unarmed.

But Paul just looks like a trained soldier.

In a 2v16 situation, they have no chance of defeating the hyena pack in a head-on confrontation. Even if Paul had a modern short military knife, he would still be unable to avoid being devoured alive when facing three or four cave hyenas at the same time.

Climbing a tree to hide is certainly a way to save one's life, but it's too passive; he prefers a more risky approach.

The more chips you have, the greater your profits.

……

The male cave hyenas that were targeted clearly did not expect that humans, whose numbers were far fewer than their own, would dare to take the initiative to attack.

It lowered its head, revealing the steel-like mane on the back of its neck, and grinned, emitting low growls—

As soon as the queen gave the order, it attacked without hesitation, biting off the human's leg bone and securing the first prey of the day for its clan.

"Chen Zhou!"

When General Paul tied his knife tightly to the end of the wooden stick and looked up, he found that Chen Zhou had already left the campfire by about 5 meters and was heading to the grassland alone.

The bright red firelight only illuminated Chen Zhou's broad back and his taut, cheetah-like body.

Knowing how dangerous the hungry herd of beasts was, even with enough trust in the returning participants, Paul couldn't help but call out Chen Zhou's name in broken Chinese.

The instant Paul shouted, Chen Zhou, positioned outside the campfire, charged towards his target. His honed athletic skills, combined with his exceptional physical abilities, made Chen Zhou as swift as the wind.

The thick military boots kicked up a trail of dust on the dry, hard grass, and the tender, short grass was broken by the impact of the galloping run.

Faced with the menacing Chen Zhou, the male cave hyena instinctively chose to dodge, a habit ingrained from years of hunting.

They usually deal with strong and threatening animals such as wild boars, giant deer, and woolly rhinoceroses.

Don't be fooled by the fact that herbivores often become their prey. If they were bitten by a wild boar's tusks, or gored by a great antler deer or woolly rhinoceros's antlers, even the strongest animals would likely perish.

Cave hyenas that don't know how to avoid danger have long since died during the hunt.

Male cave hyenas, acting as vanguards, face far more danger than female cave hyenas who perform the finishing work, and therefore are more adept at surviving.

……

Grass blades flew, and dust rose.

The male cave hyena nimbly dodged out of Chen Zhou's reach, but it overlooked the spear in Chen Zhou's hand—

Those are the fangs that humans use to execute their prey, the first step on the long ladder that the most intelligent of all beings ascends to the throne of dominance.

Despite the inferior material of the wooden spear, Paul had already sharpened its tip to a point sharp enough. With Chen Zhou's terrifying strength, it pierced through the male hyena's ribs in an instant, penetrating its body with unstoppable force. The spear, dripping with blood, shot out from the other side and embedded itself deeply in the grass.

Hey!
The excruciating pain of having its lung pierced caused the male cave hyena to scream uncontrollably. It kicked and thrashed its thick limbs in an attempt to get up from the ground, while shaking its head and opening its mouth wide to try to bite Chen Zhou's calf.

However, Chen Zhou gripped the wooden spear tightly, pinning it firmly to the ground. No matter how hard it tried, it could not withstand Chen Zhou's superhuman strength.

The wooden spear that pierced the lungs prevented the male cave hyena from breathing properly; it gasped for breath but felt its body growing weaker and weaker.

The lack of oxygen was rapidly drawing it to its death, and the flowing blood only accelerated its descent into mortality.

……

Contrary to Chen Zhou's expectations, the male cave hyena's miserable state not only failed to have the desired deterrent effect, but instead aroused the ferocity of the other cave hyenas.

The two cave hyenas closest to the male cave hyena, one a robust female and the other a male cave hyena slightly larger than the male, both charged towards Chen Zhou almost simultaneously.

The hyena queen and the two largest female cave hyenas stood at a distance, while the remaining ten cave hyenas rushed towards Paul at the campfire from different directions.

Fortunately, after Paul finished making the spear, he picked up a burning stick and waved it around, forcing the cave hyena to hesitate to advance.

The situation was urgent, and Chen Zhou had no time to return to help the critically injured Paul.

Because the two cave hyenas had already closed in on him.

……

Female cave hyenas are not only large in size, but also faster; they can stand up to 1.8 meters tall.

Although its short, thick hind legs limited its jumping ability, it still managed to reach Chen Zhou's throat when it leaped to attack, thanks to its height advantage.

Just as Chen Zhou guessed, thanks to their larger size, cave hyenas can not only attack the lower half of their prey, but also, depending on the situation, attack the upper half.

Long-term hunting within the same group has fostered a tacit cooperative relationship among cave hyenas.

With a female cave hyena holding him back from the front, another male cave hyena launched a direct attack on Chen Zhou's rear end. If the two of them got entangled, the prey would suffer several wounds even if he didn't die, and the blood loss alone could kill him.

"grass!"

In the blink of an eye, Chen Zhou couldn't pull out the wooden spear at all. So he simply strangled the male cave hyena and, like swinging a giant hammer, swung the wooden spear at the female cave hyena in front of him.

With less than 1.5 meters between them, the female cave hyena had no way to avoid the blow and was knocked to the ground by the still groaning male cave hyena.

The two cave hyenas were huddled together. Chen Zhou took the opportunity to drop the wooden spear in his hand and rolled on the ground to avoid the other male cave hyena's attempt to rip open its anus.

The female cave hyena struggled to push the male cave hyena off her, but before she could launch another attack, the male cave hyena, having failed to tear open her anus, pounced on Chen Zhou as he fell to the ground.

In its view, this was a rare and excellent opportunity.

Humans are both ferocious and vulnerable animals; once they are engaged in close combat, they always emerge victorious.

Sharp teeth and strength do not lie.

However, the male cave hyena did not expect that the human it was facing was far more advanced than those primitive humans.

Chen Zhou possesses beast-like strength.

……

The broken blades of grass and the flying fur of the cave hyenas could not obstruct Chen Zhou's view.

The scavenger's body odor mingled with the smell of blood, the cave hyena's ferocious gaze, yellowed, cracked teeth, and foul-smelling saliva, accompanied by its heavy breathing, the hyena queen's growl, and the groans of the wounded hyena, all combined to create a primal and rugged symphony.

The long-awaited surge of adrenaline gave Chen Zhou a sharper sense of perception and a faster reaction speed.

The male cave hyena that pounced at him moved at an infinitely slow speed in his eyes; he could even distinguish the traces of every dry, yellow hair on the cave hyena's chest as it flew.

It's too late to say.

The male cave hyena's body, suspended in mid-air, seemed to be restrained by an iron clamp, coming to an abrupt halt.

What interrupted its attack was not the iron clamps, but Chen Zhou's iron-like large hand.

As the cave hyena pounced, Chen Zhou adjusted his angle and reached out to grab its thick neck.

Heh...heh...

The male cave hyena kicked its front legs, its front paws striking Chen Zhou's chest, attempting to break free from the human's grasp.

Its neck was so thick that it made it extremely difficult for Chen Zhou to strangle it. After a brief attempt, Chen Zhou realized that he couldn't kill the beast with just his hands in a short time.

After several kicks, Chen's clothes were stained. The combat uniform that Ivan had prepared for him was of really good quality, and it actually withstood the scratches of the cave hyena.

Seeing that the female cave hyena on one side was about to break free from her companion, and not wanting to fight two cave hyenas on the ground at the same time, Chen Zhou let go without hesitation.

Having finally escaped the human's grasp, the male cave hyena, as if granted a pardon, instinctively twisted its body and ran to the side, preparing to create distance before launching an attack.

But before it could run two steps, it felt a heavy object press down on its back, and then its throat was tightened, bringing a strong feeling of suffocation—

Taking advantage of the cave hyena's back being turned, Chen Zhou pounced on its back and reached out to choke the cave hyena's throat.

Now, he had truly grasped the male cave hyena's lifeline.

With all four of its legs pinned to the ground, no matter how much the cave hyena struggled, it was unlikely to escape certain death. (End of Chapter)