Assassin Crow Evolution

"Blue Fireball!" He shouted.

[-200 mana points]

[Remaining pool: 2,000 points]

A hot mess of the sun’s prettiest shade ruptured the air, but only for a tenth of a second.

It met its target shortly after, it being the wooden hatch that Jimmy had found, below that huge crate.

Unlike earlier on, Jimmy didn’t care if he set the house on fire. He didn’t care, but his shot was still precise, targeting the wood alone, while the stone ground of the basement muffled any dropping of rebellious flames.

The Blue Fireball did what it did best. Not only was it extremely hot, but it also stuck around for a short moment once it hit its target.

In this case, it dug six inches into the wooden hatch, breaking through it, and leaving behind a one-foot wide hole, before the wood could’ve even adapted to the flames!

Vorin was spooked, and rightfully so, because Jimmy shouted like a schizophrenic magnus, however, after more than four hours of darkness, he could appreciate any source of light, even if it seemed destructive.

The brothers, and Virena, simply stood there for five minutes. They waited until the fire destroyed the hatch.

The fire had even bent the hard iron that held the hatch together. It couldn’t melt it whole, since the shade of the fire shifted to red and yellow, following the woody fuel of the flame, but Jimmy was attentive enough to once more appreciate, and slightly fear, the raw power of the flames, which horrifyingly, he could summon at his will.

He felt unworthy, irresponsible, and ungrateful.

The fact that he felt weak sometimes, looked a little bit silly now. Not every crow, and not even every human could say that they could should Blue Fireballs.

Anyway, as the flames died down, they jumped into the hole that the hatch had initially covered, and made sure to steer clear of the hot embers below. Neither one of them wanted to know what the embers felt like.

"We haven’t heard a peep out of him," Jimmy said, once they landed, "I don’t see the Chief, but be careful, brother, because if he’s around, he’s gonna throw an axe against us at the very least. Duck when I tell you to duck, don’t question it."

"I’d have to be a moron to question that," Vorin said, "I hope that I’m not."

Straight ahead, Jimmy saw a tunnel, poorly dug. Even from a distance, he could tell that the thick, wooden support beams across the tunnel were placed so amateurishly, that it was a miracle that the tunnel was still up!

If they had been as little as a meter deeper underground, the thing would’ve collapsed a long time ago.

Nevertheless, he wanted to risk it, and follow the tunnel, but then, he spotted something else that enslaved his attention at first sight!

A brazier, otherwise called a fire basket, typically used to shovel tens of pounds of coal into, for the sake of lighting it up, and illuminating hallways, was what caught his attention.

It wasn’t filled with coal, but rather, tens of kilograms of flesh, organs, that he could recognize very well. He picked up its scent as soon as he walked past it.

"Flesh Cores..." He took a sharp breath, and for a moment, he froze in place. "So many..."

"Flesh Cores?" Vorin rightfully repeated. "Are they better than Beast Cores?"

"How have I not mentioned Flesh Cores to you before?" He said, and hopped over onto the iron basket, clutching his claws around its edges, because he didn’t want to poke any of the cores just yet. "They’re also called Mana Cores, brother, and it means that I’ll be fulfilling my promise to you a lot sooner than I expected."

"Hmm... so they could give me magical skills?" Vorin said, "It’s about time."

"They’re a lot less random than Beast Cores too," He said, "But you’ll feel more pain than you ever felt in your life. I hope that’s okay?"

"I don’t mind," Vorin said.

Vorin was not intimidated. He was oblivious enough to believe that he could brave against any sort of pain that the cores could throw against him. Also, he knew that his brother would save him if anything went wrong, or, he expected such assurance, at least.

With that said, he was ready to peck at a core right now, and he almost did so.

He hit his head on the body of the basket as he tried to fly, and land on it. He couldn’t see in the dark, but that didn’t stop him, and he got it right the second time.

"Not yet," He said, "We have work to do."

"Work?" Vorin parroted, "But the cores are right here. We found what he’s been hiding."

"No, we did not," He countered, jumped off of the basket, and brought his brother along the tunnel, "If the Chief left tens of cores here, with no intention of absorbing them, then he either doesn’t need the cores, which is a big problem, or he’s is trying to sell them."

Vorin was upset, but he couldn’t say that his brother didn’t make any sense.

In fact, Vorin added, "Maybe he stole the cores from somewhere, but he didn’t have enough time to absorb them yet?"

The take he had on the matter was simple, it was practical, but without revealing it, Jimmy took that perspective and expanded it into a puzzle that he could not figure out anytime soon.

’Wouldn’t Flesh Cores make humans sick?’ He thought, ’Those cores looked like they came out of humans, but the Chief is a human himself. I don’t remember the fucking name of the disease, but him eating the flesh of humans should make him sick, right?’

As they waddled further down the tunnel, he couldn’t help but also think, ’If the Chief managed to kill, and harvest this many Mages, then he’s gonna be a pain in the arse to kill. But damn, his core oughta be delicious...’

A minute later, the brothers were pulled out of their deep contemplation, as they saw a dim source of light at the end of the tunnel.

Other than the Chief himself, they did not know what to expect.