Assassin Crow Evolution

The petty, anger-addled storm of fireballs Jimmy unleashed against the Wyrms would make one think that the sun exploded.

If the sun was white, that is.

The sun actually is white, except most see it as yellow.

In this case the term was correct, because he unleashed seven White Fireballs against the Wyrms. One after the other.

One thing worked at his advantage. Both of his claws were free, as he wasn’t carrying his hammer right now, so he was able to shoot two fireballs at a time.

Paired with the fact that he didn’t wait for his first couple of shots to hit before he shot the next round, he managed to overwhelm the Wyrms quite quickly!

It took two seconds to hit all seven of them!

[-1,050 mana points]

[Remaining pool: 650 points]

Jimmy’s mana pool had recovered a little bit ever since he used a third of it to toss the staff out of the ruins. A task which he failed before, but nevertheless, he had spent so much time dragging the staff that his mana had recovered by a hundred points.

In a battle like this, a hundred points made all the difference. He was aware of this, which was why he chose his second hottest fireball. He wanted to preserve his mana pool.

The Wyrms screeched. They were forced to halt their very painful attack.

He scoped each and every position of theirs, and was ready to attack once more.

However, his common sense insisted otherwise. His Think Ahead skill worked just as it was supposed to.

He thought ahead.

"Heh, I thought so!" He exclaimed. "Run away you big, cowards! Well, they don’t have legs. So, slither away?"

Jimmy noticed two things. The first being that his White Fireballs, although otherworldly hot, had not been enough to kill the Wyrms.

"Maybe their scales are fire resistant?" He figured, "Or at least very tough."

He settled on the latter, as the second thing he noticed was the fact that the Wyrms were fleeing.

They were slithering away, avoiding the Summoning Circle, and the crow that flew above it as if they spotted the devil himself!

"I managed to hurt them, at least." He said. "If I had enough mana, I would farm the shit out of them."

Jimmy distracted himself to the point where he had completely forgotten about the three spiky scales that were lodged an inch deep into his chest. Initially, he was even surprised how the scales hadn’t killed him in the first place.

They hit him in the chest, where some of his vital organs were. He was also sure that he heard his ribs crack upon impact.

Surviving such an attack was mental.

His attention was drawn back towards the spikes when he noticed them sliding out of his body.

His body was pushing them out, absolutely rejecting him like a popular girl rejected a nerdy guy. It knew that the spikes weren’t supposed to be in him, it knew it, as if his flesh itself was sentient!

"Sentient Feather at work there," He grunted, "The system totally under-stated how effective those damned feathers could be. I’m like, almost unkillable, haha!"

It may be the on-setting delirium talking, but he was feeling great. Beyond that, his wounds sealed the very moment his body pushed out the spikes.

Blood poured out of his wounds like a fountain, but one spooky dark poof later, his wounds were sealed shut.

[-180 mana points]

[Remaining pool: 470 points]

"Yup," He said, after a heavy grunt, "My rib’s back in place."

Jimmy then looked up, and noticed that Virena was chasing after the Wyrms. She was forming a Fire Sphere on top of her head, sharp and hot enough to burn a hole into hard steel, not to mention some presumably tough serpents, and she was nearly ready to shoot!

"No!" He exclaimed, "Get back here!"

Virena heard him at the very last moment, and shot her sphere towards the sky instead. She hardly had any idea why her friend interrupted a perfectly good attack.

"Why did you stop me?" She asked, and she was a bit frustrated. "I don’t understand. Do you want to spare them?"

"Yes, I do," He said, "Look down, Virena, the Summoning Circle looks exactly like them. The Wyrms are supposed to be here, and actually, I would love to farm them for cores, and meat, but we’ll spare them. If they eat a Summoner or two, then I’ll be happy."

"If you say so," She nodded, though, it was obvious from the tiny look on her face that she had no idea what he was trying to say. "What do we do next?"

"Follow me," He said.

A moment later, they landed near the Summoning Circle.

Jimmy felt a sharp pain in his claw right after. As he looked down, he noticed that he had stepped on an old bone, and it had impaled the soft-ish part of his claw by an inch.

"Motherfucker!" He shouted, "See, this is what I’m talking about! Summoning demons and shit like that is very interesting in its own, but the fucking Summoners are so greedy and selfish that it goes beyond sins! Who the fuck doesn’t clean up after themselves after they gut a fucking animal for a sacrifice? Humans are supposed to be smarter."

"So, you’re letting the big snakes live, because you want them to eat messy humans?" Virena asked.

"Yes, exactly," He nodded, "I know it sounds petty, but they deserve to be eaten."

His flesh pushed the bone out of his claw shortly after.

Poof! A dark mist surrounded him, all because of a simple claw wound.

[-10 mana points]

[Remaining pool: 460 points]

After that mildly stressful cut, he tried to focus, again, and got back to his mission.

Jimmy suffered through so many unnecessary obstacles so far, that he started second guessing if the treasures that Gundor promised him were even worth it!

Nevertheless, there was one more thing left for him to do, and it was a fairly simple step, so he went through with it.

"It would be silly to quit now," He said, "That damned staff gave me too much trouble."

He walked towards the middle of the six-foot wide Summoning Circle, retracted his armor, and then he did the simplest, most natural thing he could do as a crow.

Rousing.

Jimmy shook his entire body, and threw what was left of his feathers back into place.