Assassin Crow Evolution

[-50 mana points]

[Remaining pool: 102 mana points]

As the Red Fireball pierced the air, a horrid squeal followed. It was nearly pig-like.

Agony could not start to describe the sound.

After trial, and a great deal of error, Jimmy managed to hit a target he wasn’t supposed to hit. He could only imagine what he’d achieve if he had enough points to unleash his hottest fireball, instead of his weakest.

The half-humanoid creature who held him, or was stuck to him, basically, crouched over when it suffered a burn.

It wanted to smash Jimmy against the ground, as if that could end its agony. The creature was no longer gentle.

As its fur caught on fire, its screams did get creepier. Jimmy was almost convinced that he had shot a banshee.

Predicting its offensive move, he finally retracted his razor armor, and broke free from the creature’s grip.

He landed on his feet, grabbed his hammer, and started running circles around the creature.

"You’re the torch now," He grinned.

Jimmy was close to running out of mana, but despite everything that happened, he felt that he didn’t need it.

After every few steps, he somersaulted towards his target, and struck with his hammer.

The target tried to run away, but it couldn’t get far. The majority of its fur coat was set on fire, and it tried to outrun the fire, but all its excessive movements only ended up fueling the flames.

Jimmy kept attacking it, hitting its knees, ankles, and even breaking a couple of its toes until he slowly rendered the creature immobile.

With everything he threw against it, the monstrosity he hunted lost the battle. It crashed on the stone ground like a tall oak tree.

The fire that stretched over its six-foot, humanoid body kept the chambers dimly lit. Just enough to give Jimmy a better idea of what was around him.

"Your buddy is a torch you can’t put out, motherfuckers!" He exclaimed, "Come on out! Don’t be shy!"

Jimmy’s best guess was that at least two more of these creatures lurked in the dark. He was dead set to kill them all.

[+3,400 system points]

[Total points: 9,356]

"What the fuck did I kill, system?" He blurted. "I risked so much to figure out what these fuckers are. Don’t keep me in suspense."

[You killed a rat.]

"I haven’t seen many rats who stood, and walked upright..." He said.

[You still killed a rat.]

A barrel of low-volume hisses sounded across the chambers. There was no echo. The remaining monstrosities did not want to be found.

At the same time, he considered their hisses as cowardice. A surrender.

"Oh, now you wanna talk?" He grinned, "You were quiet before!"

While he yelled at the darkness, a silent struggle within the chambers erupted.

One of the creatures was forced to start running. Panicking, it rushed towards the burning fire that was its friend.

Jimmy heard it running towards him, as it stomped its feet on the ground so hard that one would think an elephant was coming. The creature had lost its cool.

Jimmy was getting ready to leap forward, and bash his hammer against one of its knees, but before he could do so, he managed to see the creature crash, as if it tripped.

Its head then rolled over towards him, towards the fire, as if this darn thing was a toy who just fell apart.

He finally managed to get a better look of its face, satisfying a fraction of his curiosity. His curiosity got him into this battle, and it felt nice to reap some sort of reward out of it.

"Human jawline... rodent ears, rodent snout..." He said, "What the fuck is this? Evolution gone wrong? Did a human try to turn into a bear or some shit, and instead turned into a rat?"

Virena rushed out of the darkness before he could even finish the sentence. The blade of her sickle was painted with so much blood that its steel was completely red.

"I got one," She said, referring to the severed head. "You really worked them up."

"Oh, yeah they must be pissed." He smirked, "I thought you were behind me. We shouldn’t get separated."

"My sect died by the fury of hornets, but I’ll be damned if I died by the hands of a rat." She said, "I’ll put an end to this nonsense."

Virena disappeared into the darkness again. Her thin, delicate hind-wings fluttered as she took off, and her thick, leathery fore-wings remained idle at the front, behaving as an extra layer of protection.

Another source of fire shed light to the darker corners of the chambers, but this wasn’t Jimmy’s doing.

Virena’s blade was set ablaze, as every ounce of her understanding of the Arcane mustered at the tip of her sickle.

The fire whirled around her in all directions, at speeds that the common mind could not comprehend!

A few feet above the ground, a Fire Sphere formed, with a mixture of red and yellow. Hundreds of degrees of heat were concentrated in the thin lines that made the sphere!

This all happened within seconds, and as the sphere illuminated the chamber, she confirmed her conclusions as to where the remaining ’rat’ stood.

The rat, initially hiding behind a stack of wooden crates, ran around the crates once it realized that it’s hiding spot was discovered, and then charged towards Virena. It could see that she was a mantis, and its ego perhaps trumped hers, because the rat did not want to get killed by an insect!

Skree!

The rat let out a battle-cry.

Setting her eyes on the target, Virena unleashed the Fire Sphere without the slightest inkling of hesitation. She even smirked, and this response, to its core, had Jimmy’s influence painted all over it. She was nearly always confrontive, but in self defense, and nearly never because she trusted in her calculations.

The sphere pierced the air with so much precision, that the air around it started crackling!

Within the blink of an eye, it hit the creature against the chest, stunting its forward momentum.

The creature crashed on the ground like a tall oak. Dead on the spot.

A huge hole had been punched in its chest. The sphere had diminished once it reached the target’s spine, as it had not been powerful enough to tear through its chest.

Nevertheless, the attack was so effective, that it had sealed shut every blood vessel between the creature’s chest, and its spine. There was no sign of blood.

"You shouldn’t have put out the torches," She scoffed.