'What can I gain if I eat them?'
The thought came naturally as Lily watched the raptors tear into the deer-like creature they had brought down.
Not because she was starving, not in the normal sense at least. Her body could survive without eating for far longer than a human could, and the Hive had already started to build a way to feed itself through the Harvesting Well.
But hunger for her wasn't about surviving, it was about growing, about curiosity. It was the simple question of whether something before her had value, and if so, how much of that value could be taken.
The raptors were not like the basic animals she had eaten before; they were much older and were from a period in which animals developed very differently. Not to mention, in quite a few Marvel comics, dinosaurs had odd origins.
She stayed hidden while focusing on them; they were lean, dark-feathered creatures with narrow snouts and long tails that barely stopped moving. Beneath the feathers, she could see rough greenish-brown scales around their legs and necks; their feet were the most interesting part to her.
Each one had a large curved claw that dug into the dead creature's body when they stepped on it, holding it down with ease as they tore into the meat.
One tried to drag the liver away from the others, only for the largest of them to snap at its neck and force it back. It was clear to her that they weren't just hunting wildly; they had some sense of planning and even structure.
'The large one seems to be the leader of the pack.'
She didn't move right away. Before, she may have simply attacked and eaten them; that would have been faster, but this place was not the forest she had first woken up in.
This was the Savage Land; a mistake here could cost her more than she wanted to spend.
Her body remained hidden behind thick leaves and roots, her scent lowered and mixed with the wet soil around her. She had already begun to spread out her hive around the area for when she decided to act.
She had her Swarmlings spread out around the area and stay hidden under various leaves and logs. She also had her Direworms slowly begin digging over.
Though she kept them at a distance, afraid that the raptors would pick up on the vibrations and get alerted. Soon enough, though, the raptors finished eating most of the meat, and one of them lifted its head suddenly, blood dripping from its jaws.
Lily narrowed her eyes slightly as she looked around. It seemed as if it had noticed something; she was sure it couldn't be her, she had covered herself fully.
Perhaps they were more sensitive than she had thought; perhaps they had picked up on the vibrations of the Direworm even from a distance. Whatever it was, the raptor noticed, and it clicked its jaws together twice.
In response, the pack began spreading out. They didn't move far from each other; instead, they seemed to be investigating the area. Circling around the bushes, watching trees, all while the largest one stayed near the corpse.
'Smart enough to even have such organized movement.'
While, in truth, it wasn't anything particularly impressive, to Lily it was still an interesting sight. Many animals behaved similarly, but she had never seen it in a dinosaur before.
Well, she hadn't seen Dinosaurs before to begin with.
She sent a small command through the Hive, and the Swarmling nearby moved just enough to make the leaves rustle.
The closest raptor snapped its head toward the sound immediately, but it didn't charge toward it. Instead, it circled, stepping softly through the ferns as it tried to come at the noise from the side. Another raptor moved with it, taking the opposite direction.
Lily watched with interest as they moved as silently as possible while getting closer to the source of the sound. Curious what they would do, she had the Swarmling move again.
This time, the raptor lunged through the fern, foot claw coming down first. The curved claw pinned the Swarmling into the dirt, tearing into its body before it could fully move away. The Swarmling twisted and bit into the raptor's leg, its teeth sinking into scale and muscle.
The raptor shrieked so loud that the nearby birds flew away wildly, and the other raptors shifted their attention to it. The second raptor came in right after, biting into the Swarmling's side and trying to rip it apart.
'They're not too bad.'
Having had her amusement appeased, she stepped out from the bushes, and the largest instantly turned toward her. For a few seconds, everything was oddly still; neither side made a move.
Its eyes locked onto her, and she could almost see the moment its instincts failed to understand what it was looking at. She was smaller than some of the things it likely hunted, but they could feel the instinctive fear most animals had when facing her.
The fear of a predator staring at her prey.
Lily didn't wait for them to come to her or run; instead, she moved forward with a calm pace. She was making it clear that a threat was present to see how they would react to it.
The raptor pinning the Swarmling released it and lunged at her side, while another went wider, trying to circle behind her. The first raptor jumped, claws reaching for her stomach.
Lily shifted to the side and let it pass close enough that its feathers brushed against her arm, but she didn't let it go freely. Her hand snapped out and grabbed onto its tail, jerking the entire body towards her and into the air.
She twisted and slammed it into the ground.
The impact cracked the dirt beneath it. Its ribs broke, but it still did not die. It twisted almost instantly, snapping its jaws toward her wrist, forcing her to pull back slightly.
That alone made her raise a brow.
Its body was damaged badly enough that a normal animal should have been stunned, but it still tried to fight. While she was focusing on it, the second raptor came from behind and slashed at her leg.
Its claw dragged across her skin, but it did not break her skin in any meaningful way; the wound was shallow, barely enough to matter, and had begun to heal almost instantly.
Lily glanced down at it.
'Pretty sharp.'
The fact that they could leave a mark on her current body meant they were worth more than she expected; most animals couldn't do such a thing.
She grabbed the injured raptor by the neck before it could bite again and squeezed until the bone and muscle collapsed beneath her fingers, and the body finally went limp.
The second raptor tried to pull back, but she turned and kicked it in the chest.
It flew into a tree with enough force to shake the branches above. She could hear something crack in its body, but even then, it struggled to rise, claws digging into the dirt as it tried to drag itself away.
Finally, the largest of the raptors decided to make a move.
It rushed low, using the second raptor's body as a distraction. The two remaining smaller ones moved with it, not as cleanly as trained soldiers, but with enough coordination that Lily saw what they were trying to do.
One for her leg. One for her arm. One for her throat. They had seen what happened to the first one and adjusted.