Exactly two hours later Jocelyne, Jackson, Chloe and the other humans show up outside the walls at the designated spot. Sobek and Carnopo were already there, and they weren't alone: several dinosaurs were evidently eager to watch, they were evident.

The area of the collision had already been partially reclaimed and was in fact covered by a light blanket of grass. Jocelyne had chosen her precisely because it would be safer for Jackson to fight on soft, malleable ground than on hard, sandy desert ground; moreover man could have everything with the earth in his eyes lighter to accede, which is much more difficult since he was lighter.

Jocelyne had remained expressionless the whole time; as soon as she arrived she just looked for a large stone and sat on it, staring blankly at the battlefield. Not a single hint of fatigue, anxiety or tension showed through her.

Sobek walked over to her and lay down beside her. The huge reptile practically shadowed the girl, but she acted like she wasn't even there. 'What game are you playing?' thought Sobek thoughtfully.

"The fight is ready to begin. If you wish to retire, now is the time" he told her.

"We don't intend to do that. Jackson will fight"Jocelyne replied without even looking at him.

"Don't you care about the life of your subordinate?"

"Of course I care"

"So you think he can win?"

"Absolutely not, it's ridiculous. I would never bet on him"

Sobek was very confused. Don't keep up with the little girl's thoughts. What scheme did she have in mind? "If you care about your subordinate's life, why does you send him to fight a battle you know he won't win?"

"Who ever said I aim to win?" Jocelyne answered, and then finally looked at him: "I'd say it's time. Let's start this duel"

The spinosaurus squinted at the team from top to bottom, spotting to look for smell or sensation that might explain his behavior, but found nothing. Eventually he chose to play along, at least for the moment. "So be it! The contenders can enter in the field!"

Carnopo wasted no time and ran to the area where the duel was to be held. It was clear that the carnotaur was eager to fight. His entry was accompanied by shouts and cheers from the other dinosaurs.

Jackson joins him at a less convinced pace. From his facial expression it seemed that he had had his fate. Nobody could blame him: it was almost impossible for a human to face even a wolf with his bare hands, but a carnotaur was at least thirty times larger and infinitely more lethal.

"Let the challenge begin! May the ancestors lead the most worthy to victory!" Sobek roared, marking the start of the battle.

Carnopo did not have it repeated and launched himself against Jackson. Seeing the beast of more than two tons running towards him, the man was pervaded by fear and felt the instinct to flee, but he held himself back: he knew that it would be useless since the carnotaurs could exceed 55 km/h. The only hope he had of surviving was to face it!

Carnopo quickly released it and lowered his head, opening his jaws; if he had bitten him he would have detached Jackson's head, torso and arms with a single blow. However, Jackson's fighting experience and training came to his aid, as he was quickly able to spot the carnotaur's weak point: by reaching down to bite it, he had given him an opportunity.

Jackson waited for Carnopo to be inches away from him and then jumped; with a leap he jumped on his head and grabbed him firmly by the horns. He would never have been able to do this if the carnotaur had kept at his normal height, but since he had crouched down he did. Carnopo could not reach him now! The carnotaur wriggled furiously, trying to detach him, but Jackson used this movement to his advantage to rotate his position and position himself on the neck; with his legs she clasps at the base of the neck and with his arms she held firm to the horns.

Jackson's strength was certainly not enough to suffocate a carnotaur, but through his legs he could at least prevent him from breathing properly, and this made Carnopo weary much faster; if the carnotaur ran out of stamina he could no longer make a threat. Carnopo's forelegs were too small to be a danger to Jackson and the carnotaur couldn't reach him with its jaws, not without biting its neck.

In Jackson's mind Carnopo would have to keep struggling until he got tired. Unfortunately for him, however, this time it was he who made a mistake: he was in fact evaluating the carnotaur as if he were thinking like a normal animal. Too bad that Carnopo had long since reached an almost human intelligence, and it only took him a few moments to understand his game. And he wasn't willing to go along with it.

Carnopo dropped to one side; an animal would never have thrown itself to the ground voluntarily, since it meant exposing itself, but Carnopo was no longer an ordinary animal. Jackson managed just in time to notice that the ground was approaching and he leapt off the carnotaur's neck; if he had stayed in his place a good part of his body would have been crushed. He quickly got to his feet, knowing that the carnotaur would take a moment to get up due to his size, but he didn't have time to think about anything before the dinosaur's tail hit him straight in the abdomen.

The blow was not very strong and had clearly been thrown without thinking, and in fact left him no permanent damage; it was still powerful enough to roll Jackson five meters away. The man felt his ribs crack and thanked that the ground beneath him was soft, or would have suffered much greater damage. He looked up and was horrified to see that this brief pause was enough for the carnotaur to get up.

Carnopo threw himself on him without giving him time to get up, but this time he did not lower his head and instead tried to crush him with his hind legs; Jackson quickly rolled onto his side by leveraging all the military training he had undergone and managed to get back far enough to get up. The man grabbed a sharp stone and prepared for a new charge of the carnotaur.

Meanwhile the dinosaurs were cheering. The humans were in suspense, but the dinosaurs were acclaiming instead. But the incredible thing was that they weren't just praising Carnopo: seeing Jackson's tenacity, many had begun to cheer him too.

Carnopo had noticed this and smiled at his opponent: "Congratulations, human. You are fighting well. Apparently you are making a name for yourself"

"Aren't you angry because your teammates are cheering on me?" Jackson asked, who had also noticed the typhus.

"And why on earth should I be? We respect strength. You are proving to be capable of facing me, so it is natural that you are earning our respect" Carnopo replied. "In fact, I can say that you are earning my respect too. I admit I have greatly underestimated you so far. You are undoubtedly a warrior. Therefore I will not insult you further: from now on, I will fight seriously!"

"So for now he wasn't serious!?" Jackson yelled in his mind as he rubbed his sore ribs. "You have a strange way of expressing respect. Fascinating, but strange"

"There is no greater expression of respect than facing an opponent at the best of one's strength. It means you recognize him as your equal" Carnopo explained, then flexed the muscles of his hind legs. "Get ready now; I am coming!"

The carnotaur threw itself at the man with a roar; Jackson was again gripped by fear, but he resisted and braced himself for confrontation. Carnopo lowered his head again to bite him, and Jackson again tried to jump on his horns, but this time the carnotaur was ready and raised his head at the last moment, hitting him straight in the side.

But Jackson had foreseen that predicament too; he wasn't stupid enough to think that Carnopo would fall into the same trap twice. Despite his breath being caught by the blow he received, he raised his arm and hit one of the dinosaur's jaw teeth with the stone, breaking it neatly.

The dinosaur roared in pain and momentarily lost his attention, and Jackson took the opportunity to retrieve the tooth and try to hit the carnotaur in the eye, but the animal reacted instinctively and quickly moved its head hitting him in the side and throwing him in the air again.

Carnopo was now really furious. The taste of blood was filling his mouth and an annoying burning came from the point where his tooth was just before him. Since only his own abilities could be relied upon in a duel, Sobek had removed [Reinforced skin] and other abilities, except for [Linguistics] and [Linguistics (2)], so the carnotaur could now be injured and fully feel. the pain of wounds.

Jackson stood up gasping, spitting streams of blood from his mouth. This time he was certain he had broken a couple of ribs, and from the effort he made to breathe one of them had probably injured his lung. During the fall his left arm had dislocated and now he could no longer move it. His right kneecap must also have been damaged, as his leg was shaking and he could barely hold it.

"If we will continue like this, he will kill me!" Jackson thought, staring at his opponent in front of him, then lowering his gaze to his right hand, the only one still working, which was grasping the tooth he had pulled out. "I have to change my strategy... and maybe I know how!"

It was his last chance, the only tactic he could implement before surrendering completely to his fate. As the carnotaur approached he picked up a handful of dirt and as soon as he was close enough he threw it into his opponent's eyes.

Carnopo roared in pain as the earth hit his eyes; he quickly shook his head from side to side and finally managed to shake it off. When he finished, however, Jackson was gone!

"Where are you?" Carnopo roared looking across the field, but he could not find the human. Unbeknownst to him, however, Jackson was approaching behind him.

The grass in that area was no taller than a foot, but Jackson was a trained soldier and he knew how to flatten himself out enough to be concealed by it. All he had to do now was go around the carnotaur and then hit it in the leg with the tooth. If he had succeeded he would have at least been able to cripple him.

But he hadn't come within two meters of the leg that the carnotaur's tail dropped without warning and hit him on the back. The blow was not very strong, but Jackson hit the ground with his face from the backlash and was unconscious for a few seconds. He instinctively turned on his back to try to get up, but the carnotaur's paw crushed his right arm.

"You are stupid. Did you really think you could fool me with such a pathetic hiding place?" Carnopo told him. "I can smell you miles away even when you're clean, let alone now you're covered in sweat and blood!"

Jackson tried desperately to move, but the carnotaur's paw held his right arm, the only one still functioning, and without it he could not use his tooth or any other blunt object. He could only throw a few kicks, but they were useless against the dinosaur's thick skin.

At that point Sobek's voice was heard: "It is clear that the challenger is no longer able to fight. His life is in your hands, Carnopo. What do you decide?"

The dinosaurs around them, noisy and excited as they were, suddenly fell silent. No one breathed as the carnotaur prepared to pronounce the verdict. The humans gasped and for the first time a flicker of fear passed through Jocelyne's eyes as well. What would the final decision be? Life or death?

Carnopo looked Jackson in the eye of him. Inside his pupils, man read a deep anger and immeasurable hatred. It was clear that the creature before him hated humans and that she would be very happy to kill him. He mentally prepared himself for his departure, but despite this he did not lower his gaze or close his eyes; if he was to die, he wanted to do it by looking his tormentor in the face, so that he would know that he hadn't been able to bend him anyway.

But to his great surprise, after a wait that seemed endless, Carnopo drew back and raised the paw that held his arm locked. Jackson let out a sigh of relief and surprise and looked down at his limb, which was incredibly still whole; it was clear that the carnotaur had not impressed all its weight on it, or there would be nothing left of his arm but a few flattened bones. Then Carnopo spoke: "As I said before, I respect you. You were a worthy opponent, and you fought hard even though you never had hope. As a token of appreciation for this time I will let you live, but try to talk to our pack leader like that again and I assure you that I will not be so forgiving yet!"

The humans breathed a sigh of relief; Chloe ran to Jackson and helped him to his feet. Carnopo rose to his full height and roared as the other dinosaurs were cheering him on. But the chorus of appreciation wasn't just for him… as the dinosaurs screamed out the winner's name, many of their eyes fell on Jackson and there was respect and admiration in them. There was no trace of the hostility they had previously shown: any tension seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Chloe brought Jackson back to the others, who began to crowd around him. Jocelyne stepped forward: "Are you all right?" she asked him.

"Coff… more or less" Jackson grumbled, feeling pain in every fiber of his body.

"The wounds aren't fatal. He'll be fine" one of the soldiers said as he examined him. "We will have to put the arm back and fix the ribs, but we can do it without problems even alone. A little antibiotics will be enough. He was lucky, the carnotaur didn't hurt his internal organs"

"Good. In that case… well done" Jocelyne said with a half smile. "You have done a great service today"

Jackson didn't understand what Jocelyne was talking about, but before she could ask any questions she Chloe exploded, "A great service? He almost died! But you have a minimum of conscience...?"

"Hey, human, congratulations! Where did you learn to move like this?"

The humans turned and to their surprise discovered that it was Buck who had spoken, who had come to… compliment Jackson? "I... well, I learned that in military school..." Jackson muttered what to say.

But Buck didn't seem willing to stop: "Not everyone can fighting like that! You really stood up for yourself. Seriously, you amazed me, and I am not one who has seen few extraordinary things in life!"

Humans didn't know what to say, Jackson in the first place. Was a tyrannosaurus really complimenting him on how he fought? And looking around the group discovered that it was not an isolated case: many dinosaurs were gathering around them and were looking at Jackson with gazes full of admiration; some of them asked about his fighting style and some even wanted to inquire about his condition.

The humans didn't know what to think, but suddenly a deep laugh broke out next to them. In a moment all attention was turned to Sobek, who was staring amused at Jocelyne. "That was your plan from the start, wasn't it? Making the two hotheads fight to dampen the tension and bring dinosaurs and humans closer"

The humans, especially Jackson and Chloe, widened their eyes and looked at Jocelyne. Then, to everyone's surprise, a broad smile broke out on the girl's face. "I just took advantage of the situation" she replied. "When two unknown cultures meet, an initial clash is inevitable, but later bridges can be built to better understand each other. In the short time spent in your company, I realized that yours is a people that respects strength, intelligence and courage. So what better way to show you that we too know how to be examples of these qualities than with a duel? And which man would have been better suited to this role than my security officer? I know Jackson and I knew for sure that he would never give up, that he would never let himself be blinded by despair and that he would use any tactics he had to fight, and in doing so he won the sympathies of your people"

"Really smart" Sobek laughed. "Tell me, how did you know that Carnopo would have spared him?"

"Because he is loyal to you. I guessed it from many factors: the way he looks at you, with which he poses himself, with which he moves and even with which he walks. Besides, he was the first to challenge Jackson after he offended you"Jocelyne replied. "You don't want war, lord Sobek, and your subjects know it. Therefore Carnopo would never have risked exacerbating tensions between humans and dinosaurs by killing Jackson. You could guess it from the start: his attacks weren't really aimed at killing. So I knew that at the time of the verdict he would have pulled back"

"But you weren't sure"

"I'm talking to a dinosaur right now. What can I still be sure of?"

Both humans and dinosaurs were in awe. Had Jocelyne foreseen the entire outcome of the duel from the very beginning? It seemed absurd. Chloe herself, who had met many intelligent people in her life, was surprised by the girl's intelligence. The dinosaurs' gazes returned to be full of admiration, but this time it was directed towards Jocelyne.

Sobek stood up: "But now how do we want to put it? We won the duel, so humans have to accept our conditions"

But Jocelyne smiled mockingly at him in response: "And why should we? We never set any deadline for the duel"

"What? This duel was done for..."

"… because Jackson had offended you and Carnopo wanted to defend your honor. If I remember correctly, he asked you to fight for this reason. After that, no one dictated further terms in case of victory of the clash. At least, I didn't; I simply requested the duel. Did someone else do it?" Jocelyne asked rhetorically, as the smile on her face widened. "Now, Carnopo has won the match, so according to the agreements that we made Jackson will never offend you again. To prevent this, do you know what I will do? I'll lock him up in the house we're staying in. After all, after being injured in that way, he will need to rest, so what reason is there that he still shows up in front of you? Indeed, even better... to prevent you from being offended again, from now on ALL of these people will be put aside. Only I will negotiate with you from now on. How about this? It seems to me that I have respected the terms of the duel enough"

Silence fell around them. The dinosaurs looked at their pack leader without moving a muscle, obviously unsure of what to do. Indeed, Jocelyne was right: they hadn't set any deadlines for the duel negotiations. Sobek just stared at the girl with a searching gaze and a blank face.

Jackson and Chloe glanced at each other, wondering the same thing: was it wise to talk like that to the spinosaurus? Their thoughts seemed to be shared also by the other humans, who expected to see the girl being devoured at any moment. But fortunately, an epochal laugh broke the tension: "AH AH AH! Very clever, indeed, very clever! AH AH AH!" Sobek laughed in full hilarity. His laugh wasn't an evil laugh: he was genuinely amused by the pattern Jocelyne had put in place and he admired her for such intelligence. "Okay, I gladly accept these conditions. From now on we will negotiate alone. I won't mind spending some time with such a clever mind at all!"

Jocelyne lowered her head in thanks: "You flatter me" she said, but in reality she was laughing under her breath. "Since the day is almost over and my subordinate is in need of treatment, I propose to postpone any discussion until tomorrow if that's okay with you. I would say that this day was quite full of emotions"

Sobek nodded: "Okay, you managed to surprise me, so I have nothing to object to. I'll wait for you tomorrow, where I hope we can start some real negotiations"

"Hope well, lord Sobek. In one way or another, we'll do it" Jocelyne answered, and then she nodded to the others: "Let's go!"

The security soldiers carry Jackson on their backs and although the dinosaurs offered to help them they politely refused. The humans made their way back to the motel they had stayed in the night before and there they laid Jackson down on a loveseat in the lobby.

"The rest of the warrior" Jocelyne teased him.

Jackson smiled, happy that the girl had finally regained her usual personality. "I'm glad I was your stress ball, my lady" he laughed, despite it causing pain in his ribs. "Did you really foresee everything from the beginning?"

"Did you think I was going to send you to die?"

"Well, you came close. I'm basically a living bruise..."

"You asked for it. Next time, don't talk out loud. It's your fault you're on this sofa now"

Jackson pretended to sulk: "Well, I'm glad you used me to lessen the tension with our interlocutors, even though it might have cost me some ribs"

"She did more than that". Jocelyne turned to look at Chloe: the woman was staring at her with a mixed look between the worried and the investigator. "She has shown them that we are not afraid to face them even according to their rules, she has shown them that we are tough fighters, she has made many dinosaurs admire you and her and she has earned the benevolence of the pack leader" she explained, then raised an eyebrow: "And apparently she also used the winnings to exclude anyone but her from the negotiations"

"Since you have done nothing but damage so far, I would say that we will not lose much" Jocelyne replied mockingly.

"The NMWA will not be happy"

"And what do you expect me to do? Will you take back the word I gave to lord Sobek? I don't think it will make us look good. It would mean spitting on their customs"

Chloe bit her lip furiously. Not so much for being excluded from the negotiations, more than the fact that a 14-year-old was able to play like that with them made her mad. "Could you at least have warned us? We feared for hours that Jackson was going to die!"

'You mean that YOU feared it' thought Jocelyne amused, only to justify herself: "We are under surveillance twenty-four hours a day, remember that. Also I needed Jackson to fight as if he went away in his life, or it wouldn't have the same effect"

"Seriously, do you have a minimum of shame!?"

"I am a girl born in a country where women are treated as if they were bargaining chips. I'm afraid I don't have a shame. I've learned to manipulate people for quite some time now. It's the only way for someone like me to survive"

Chloe was silenced by Jocelyne's comment. The girl took the opportunity to change the subject: "Let's get serious again. Are you sure he will be fine even without going to the hospital?"

"Of course. We are trained to care for injured comrades. Fixing a dislocated arm and a few broken ribs is child's play for us" one of the soldiers replied. "The medicines we brought with us will be great enough"

"Good. So from now on don't disturb me and keep quiet. I have to do some calculations and I need to concentrate" Jocelyne said, then walked away without waiting for an answer and quickly disappeared into the corridors.

The rest of the group was stunned, unable to realize what had just happened. In the end it was the first soldier who broke the ice: "How can we keep silence? Arranging an arm isn't exactly a painless operation..."

********

Markus Jersey was working on his estate when suddenly the phone rang. He took it and found that it was a message from his daughter. Worried he opened it and what appeared on the screen was just a long text where Jocelyne assured him that he was fine and told him roughly what she had seen in Marsala, without mentioning how the negotiations were going.

But Markus Jersey wasn't stupid and he knew that was more underneath it. Like any family, the Jersey family had their own special code to be able to send messages safely even if they were being intercepted. Surely their phones were under surveillance at the time, so Jocelyne must have used the code. Very quickly Markus deciphered the hidden message and what his daughter had actually written surprised him.

BUY ALL THE MEAT AND ALL THE FARMING IN THE COUNTRY. POSSIBLY ALSO SOME ABROAD. DON'T BE NOTICED. BIG PROFIT.

Markus stared at the message with an inquiring gaze, not understanding what her daughter had in mind, but he had learned to trust her and therefore wasted no time, and he immediately contacted the largest breeders in the nation.