Assassin Crow Evolution

"I fucking hope that rats can’t shoot fireballs," He grunted, "This would be the absolute worst place to fight them."

Their fears, which were likely prompted by the continuously decreasing levels of oxygen as they went further down the tunnel, slowly died down. Paranoia creeped in on them, Jimmy began to feel a bit claustrophobic too, but they could still separate fact from fiction.

The suspected fireball was more of a light source. It wasn’t approaching them, but rather, they were approaching it, slowly.

Upon realizing this, Jimmy gave a sigh of relief, and said, "Oh, thank god, it’s literally a light at the end of the tunnel."

Any sense of claustrophobia he had felt, dissipated right away. He didn’t feel as threatened anymore, and so the tight tunnel switched back to feeling inconvenient, rather than nerve wracking. He only feared tight holes momentarily.

They headed towards the light. It took them half an hour to reach it, as it was further away than they initially anticipated, but they powered through.

The end of the tunnel led them to a large opening. Jimmy didn’t even bother to shake the dirt and tiny rocks off of his feathers once he made it out of the tunnel.

Instead, his beak frantically jerked around in all directions as he tried to stake out potential threats.

Internally, he was hoping that he didn’t have to pop out his Elemental Shield skill anytime soon.

The opening they walked into, seemed like the combination of a chamber, and a basement.

Old wooden crates filled half of the room, seemingly untouched for years, rotting. Filled to the brim with old, iron goblets.

Bags of wheat grains, most of them torn up by what could likely be rats, gave the chamber a horrid stench. The smell filled the room, and slapped them in the face as soon as they stepped in here.

Some wheat grains had sprouted, and appeared to be half grown, and yet slim, malnutritioned. They weren’t supposed to grow in a basement after all, neither ferment.

"What a fucking rat hole," He referred to the stench.

Jimmy waved his wing as to flap the stench away from his nose, but his wings didn’t bend that way. Even if they did, his efforts would do very little to fight off the stench.

Torches, mounted on the walls, kept the place illuminated. It wasn’t fireball-shooting rats after all.

Any sense of threat left their body seconds a minute later. Jimmy figured that the biggest damage a place like this could cause them, was if it infected them.

His body had suffered a few minor cuts while he had squeezed through the tunnel behind him, but his Help Yourself skill had already erupted into a black mist, healing his cuts far before they could’ve become dangerous.

He was sure that he didn’t have any open wounds, and this was one of the best ways to avoid some infections, but just to be safe, he made sure to avoid touching, or stepping on to anything gross.

"Are you sure the crows haven’t discovered this place?" Virena said, "It looks disgusting, yes, but it’s a large, hidden space. Your friends love to move around undetected, and this spot could go a long way."

"I never heard of this place before," He answered, "I’m guessing that if the crows knew of it, they’d already be hiding here to avoid the squirrels."

"Should I fly out and lead some crows here?" She asked. "I wouldn’t mind."

"Let them fight their own battles," He said, "If White Blade’s scouts hadn’t bothered to check on a rat-hole as deep as this one, then it’s their problem, right?"

"I suppose," She gently nodded.

A horrid screech caught their attention shortly after, and made them forget all about the crows.

This chamber had three layers of elevation. He noticed this the moment he got here.

Within the darker corner of the chambers, spots that he couldn’t possibly see from where he stood, high-pitched screeches continued.

Jimmy and Virena got ready to fight. They fully expected to exchange claws with a rat, and rightfully so, as this space seemed like the perfect breeding ground for them, but then Jimmy noticed movement coming from the ceiling, rather than the ground.

A pair of wings, half as big as his, absolutely massive, fluttered across the chambers! Whatever this was, it was heading towards them and fast, and he doubted that it was a friendly figure.

"Yellow Fireball!" Jimmy shouted at the top of his lungs.

[-70 mana points]

As he swiftly stretched his claw outwards, a fireball erupted out of it. Its raging beauty sizzled the air in front of it, and one would think that it was burning through the stench as well!

It was amongst his weakest fireballs, but it still burned hotter than any monster’s fury!

Before the fireball hit its target, it illuminated the room far more than the wall-mounted torches ever could.

In that fraction of a second, Jimmy’s eyes snapped a great image of the charging creature, as if he had a photographic memory. He had a great view of what he was dealing against!

Skree!

The creature went down in a blaze of glory. If one could call suffering a massive burn wound as glorious.

[+131 system points]

[Total points: 1,395]

"A bat?" Jimmy lifted his head, and approached the creature, "I didn’t know they could grow this big. Damn flying rat."

After getting a closer look, Virena said, "It’s not that big, but bats should be able to evolve as well. There used to be bigger ones, I remember fleeing from them when I was young, but I think the humans killed them all."

"Hmm..." He shook his head, "I can see why they got killed. Look at this motherfucker, its jaws are bigger than a damn cat’s!"

The bat died. The shock from the burns killed it in mere seconds after it hit the ground.

Its fur maintained the fire as if it was a big, gross candle. It burned the bat into a crisp before the fire died down.

"Don’t eat that," Jimmy abruptly said, "I know we ate a gross rat earlier, but I think that bats could make us sick a lot easier."

Virena had already pushed the blade of her sickle into the bat. She was a bit hungry, but upon hearing that warning, she pulled it out, and backed away. She didn’t want to know what it would feel like to get sick because of a bat. The very idea instantly horrified her.

As for Jimmy, he hoped that this was the first, and last battle that he had to fight down here, but further away, on the ground, he caught a glimpse of something that shook him down to his core!

"What the fuck!" He exclaimed.

Jimmy saw a rat, or rather, its head.

Its buck-teeth horrified him. They did, as they stood in front of a head as big as that of a crocodile’s!