Assassin Crow Evolution

Jimmy was shocked. He didn’t expect to be literally slapped by water, but for once, his confusion didn’t last for long.

"Good move, fish, but still lame." He smirked, "Fire magic exists, so it doesn’t surprise me that water magic exists too."

To taunt the fish, Jimmy walked back to the shallow parts of the lake, and stepped in. His claws sunk in the water, but he didn’t intend to take another step. He wanted the huge, potentially twelve-foot long fish, to get closer, as he was dead set on killing it.

"You may be the king of your lake, but you’re still a damn fish! Hell, even calling you the king is a stretch!" He went on, essentially talking to the water, rather than the fish, "I see plenty of other fish, far away, who look bigger than you. You mean nothing to me, you’re not special. You’re literally a fish in a pond!"

Jimmy kept his feet loose, he wanted to shoot at this monster as soon as he got a clear shot. His rage festered by the passing moment.

If he hadn’t been slapped with piss-stained water, he wouldn’t be as mad, but the piss tipped the bucket. He wanted to fry this thing whole, and eat its liver, perhaps? He hasn’t decided yet.

Even though he knew for a fact that he’d need at least two hundred more crows, who were as big as him, in order to eat this whole fish today, before it could rot away, he still wanted to kill it for food. He believed that the world would not change if this one fish was wasted.

"Come on..." He smacked the water with his foot, "I look delicious!"

The fish wouldn’t get any closer. The waters were too shallow, and so, the fish knew that it would beach itself if it went for the kill. Much like the hunter it was, it waited for Jimmy to make a mistake instead.

In that minute, behind him, floated Vorin. He landed, frustrated, as he had been looking for his brother for the past ten minutes.

To him, it was alarming to wake up and see that his brother was missing, and it wasn’t only because Jimmy was the only one who knew the way home, down to the last detail. Hundreds of kilometers from home, Jimmy was the only family he had.

Vorin’s confusion, when he found his brother manically smacking the lake with his foot, was beyond words. It was too unusual, even for Jimmy!

"What are you doing?" He yelled, slightly, "Are you alright?"

Jimmy leaped up like a spooked chicken. For whatever reason, he briefly believed that another fish had snuck behind him.

It was a good thing that he didn’t immediately start shooting, but his feathers did switch colors like an indecisive rainbow.

Worse yet, as soon as he leaped up, the lake waters abruptly arose once more. The water slapped him, hard this time, and threw him six feet, further upwards!

"Why the hell are you awake?" He asked, as soon as he realized who it was, and then landed. "Did the screaming crow wake you up?"

"Screaming crow?" Vorin repeated, "What’s going on? Why are you yelling at the lake?"

"I was yelling at a fish," He corrected him, "The son of a bitch just sucker punched me, for the second time!"

Vorin took another look at the situation, but it didn’t help. He didn’t see any fish, and likewise, he was still confused.

Jimmy then looked at the lake again, and saw the fish swimming away at full speed!

Pissed off, as well as irritated, he hit the sky, and followed the fish from above. Naturally, Vorin followed suit, but this time around, although confused, he was happy that he wasn’t flying blindly in the dark.

The two of them followed the fish for a minute, but the lake was massive, and the fish seemingly knew that it was being followed, so it swam towards the deeper portions of the lake, and swiftly escaped Jimmy’s line of sight. Even with his Enlightened Eyes skill cranked up to the maximum, he couldn’t see past the ten meter, or thirty feet mark, underwater.

The skill didn’t work like that.

"Man... what a bitchy move!" He squawked, "What sort of man backs down from a battle that they started?"

"What? How do you know it’s a man?" Vorin flew by, "It’s a fish."

"It’s a bitch!" He clacked his beak.

Jimmy was livid, absolutely livid, but despite his rage, he could eventually realize when he was wasting time. In this case, it took him fifteen minutes of circling around the lake, waiting for that specific fish, for him to agree that he was indeed wasting his time.

𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

There was a lot going on right now, with the cores and all. A fish was the least of his worries, and he repeated to himself that even the biggest fish here, could never be considered special to him.

"Fester in your little pond for all I care," He said, "I’ll come shit on it later."

After that, they left, and headed towards the tree, where the ladies slept.

Virena remained tuckered away in the feathers on Jimmy’s back. The piss, water, and all of the commotion in general, did not interrupt her beauty sleep all that much.

Well, she woke up twice, but in her eyes, she figured that Jimmy, a young crow, was being child-like, playing with water. She did not understand where the piss came from, but she couldn’t bring herself to care either. She was getting old, and therefore, more tired than usual.

Anyway, as Jimmy landed back, all of his previous strands of anxiety returned.

The timer bugged him.

A constant stream of fear gushed at the back of his mind, as he still feared that the odd creature they fought last night was somehow following them.

Everything revolving around the cores made him anxious, and to top it all off, he had to deal with his brother now as well.

"I think it’s time I try a Flesh Core," Vorin said.

"Yeah, well, pull your core out of that hole over there, by the trunk. It’s behind those cores I ate." He said.

"Looks like you didn’t eat them all the way," Vorin said, "Was it that painful?"

"Painfully confusing," He sighed, "But you should be careful. If I remember it right, and I do, even the tiniest bite from the core will make you faint."

"I haven’t slept enough anyway, so I could use a nap." Vorin said, and tore off a piece from the core.

Afterwards, he jerked his beak upwards, throwing the slice of meat up in the air, and then he swallowed it whole.

The slice was a single inch wide, but he could already feel it twisting his stomach!