Assassin Crow Evolution

It was a pain to wake up fighting. Thankfully, Zoey and Julia did not have such bad luck. They did not wake up in the middle of some battle, because Jimmy had unintentionally prevented it, by fleeing from an odd, one-sided battle.

And they said that chivalry was dead?

Nevertheless, the ladies woke up to a deep panic that Jimmy had brought with him.

The ladies were drowsy, they hadn’t had enough time to get any REM sleep, so likewise, they were infinitely confused in regards to what he, and eventually they, were panicking about.

Their confusion, when they barged into the same house they’ve been sleeping above, was beyond frustrating. It did not line up with the older version of the plan, as the excessive measures of caution they had taken up until a few hours ago, were nullified.

Nevertheless, they cooperated. They made their way to the basement, jumped into the hatch within the basement, and sunk their claws into some flesh.

The flesh, in this case, were the Flesh Cores that only Jimmy and Virena knew the value of.

Virena couldn’t carry a core by herself, but the murder of crows could.

Each and every one of the cores weighed around a pound. Some might weigh more, but these ones looked like they used to belong to humans exclusively. They weren’t that big.

The problem was that the lady crows, and Vorin, could only carry one core at a time. Even that was straining for them, because they were normal, small crows.

Jimmy was more greedy, and bigger, so he grabbed three. He could barely carry them, since the third one was tough to hold without falling off, but that never stopped him before. He had carried more, under much more uncomfortable positions.

Thankfully, unlike Beast Cores, the Flesh Cores the team thoroughly sunk their talons on, did not break upon contact. In order to be absorbed, they had to be eaten, and in such a situation where they could not afford to lie motionless, and in pain for hours just to absorb the cores, the fact that the Flesh Cores didn’t break was a gift from the Gods.

Jimmy almost felt the presence of the Gods.

Anyway, the team rushed out of the Chief’s house, and hit the sky.

They were over-encumbered, burdened, and they barely knew what direction they were heading, they just knew they couldn’t stay in the village anymore. The ladies saw no point in asking questions.

However, as they made it a hundred meters away from the village, or over three-hundred feet, enjoying the complete safety that such distance from the threat promised, Zoey felt that something wasn’t right.

She had the privilege of finally waking up fully, and so she took another look at their situation. That’s when it hit her, she could not believe how much of a stupid move she had made.

She flew closer to Jimmy, and said, "Why in my mother’s old feathers are you making us carry these things with our legs? It’s exhausting! You know that I can lift things with my mind, right? What did you call it, teleke-nieces?"

"Telekinesis..." He muttered, "My fuck! Why didn’t I think of that?"

Jimmy was naturally debating if the team, or at least he and Zoey should fly back, and carry that whole basket of cores out of the Chief’s house. If Zoey couldn’t lift the metal basket itself, he was sure she could lift each and every one of the cores at the very least.

It seemed like a sound plan, but then again, the team had already spent three of the five minutes he predicted they had, before the Chief got to the village. Spending another minute just to get back to the village was incredibly risky.

Leaving Vorin and Julia to keep flying towards some random direction was also very risky. Bringing them along to the village was simply a bad idea, no doubt about it.

Apart from their ’tactical retreat’, no other course of action was safe.

Despite his greed of biblical proportions, Jimmy quickly decided that he could not risk anyone’s lives for the rest of the cores. He may not be smart in every area that was important, but he rapidly made every calculation he had to make on the matter, and not a single plan guaranteed success.

Virena and Zoey might be able to hold off the undead Chief for a while, but even that had the great risk of suffering a thunderbolt to the head, chest, claws, or suffer simple, horrific electrocution. He knew that he couldn’t hide the whole team behind his elemental shield, and if he was to keep Vorin and Julia from getting lost in the Lakelands, he knew that he had to bring them to the village, if he decided to head back to it.

It was at times like this that he wished he had invested in the Think Ahead evolution. It had twenty-four levels, and he figured he’d be able to make a much better plan if he could think at least ten steps ahead, instead of two.

Nevertheless, he decided to play with the cards he had been dealt. The team had snatched, stolen really, six cores in total, and Jimmy already claimed three as his own. He wasn’t willing to share.

He forced himself to believe that the six they stole were enough.

He thought, ’Let’s hope that bastard killed some very strong Mages, because if not, this was a spectacular waste of time. For fuck’s sake, I’m not a beginner anymore, three weak cores won’t help me as much as they did in the beginning. I’m a fat-ass all around, so I hope they don’t feel like absorbing one core instead of three.’

The murder of crows kept flying towards God’s Spine Mountain. Jimmy could see in the dark, so he was fairly certain they were heading towards the right direction.

Exhausted, over-loaded, and fairly sleepless, they still pushed forward.

There may not be a safe place to land for a while.

Jimmy knew that the odd creature that resurrected the Chief was slow. The fact that they hadn’t been caught confirmed that, but he had this odd fear that the creature could somehow teleport.

If it could, the sky was their safest bet right now.

They left the village on bad terms. So many puzzles remained unsolved, which bothered him as much as the fact that he couldn’t steal all those cores.

What deal did the Chief have with that creature? What was that creature exactly? A demon? A God?

Jimmy may never know. At the same time, he wished that he would not have the displeasure of figuring it out.