The fight between the ape and the bird was brutal in the way that only unrestrained predation can be.

Strictly on metrics, the bird had the edge — larger body mass, greater ferocity, aerial superiority. Both were Near-Heavyweight class, but the bird controlled the sky. What the ape had done was negate every advantage with a single ambush, locking its jaw onto the bird's neck and refusing to release regardless of what happened to it afterward. A creature that can't maneuver can't win, regardless of what it was built for.

Shen Cong and Li Kun's group watched from the vehicle feeds.

Then the ape let go.

Before anyone processed why, the ape had already leaped away toward the south and was disappearing into the trees. The bird thrashed upright, bloodied, on the verge of flight.

The sound arrived first. A sustained, multi-layered hum that seemed to come from everywhere at once.

Dragon Hornets. A swarm of them converging on the wounded bird, surrounding it before it could lift off. The bird fought. It was powerful — beak driving, talons raking, wings hammering — and none of it changed anything. The Dragon Hornets didn't engage in exchanges. They simply cut, withdrew, and cut again, each contact opening a new wound, each wound slightly larger than the last. The bird kept fighting until it physically couldn't anymore.

When it stopped, the Dragon Hornets caught the carcass and began dragging it back toward the colony.

Shen Cong and the soldiers from the armored vehicles were all silent.

This was what they had come here to understand. This was what they were planning to kill.

"Hu Colonel—" Even the steady Li Kun didn't have anything ready to follow that with.

"Hold." Shen Cong watched the swarm shrink into the distance, the enormous bird carcass being towed through the air by creatures individually smaller than his fist. He didn't show whatever he was thinking about. "Continue five kilometers west. Stay close to the Pishui River. Reach Hengshan Town, launch the drone for final reconnaissance, then we pull back."

Current position: Dongcheng Town, eastern Huoshan County…