Assassin Crow Evolution

Regardless of their constant bickering, the fish that Vorin brought was quite plentiful.

The team assumed that Jimmy would devour it whole. He was the biggest crow here, and the lack of food made him dumber than he was when he was a hatchling, but still, he couldn’t manage it all.

Jimmy didn’t discriminate between flesh, scales, and bones. He ate every part of the fish, because he knew his stomach acid would destroy it.

Almost half of the fish was left over, which the rest of the team shared. They were all full, but as for the next meal, Jimmy insisted that they’d be more cautious about it.

With dusk being only a couple of hours away, they could hold on long enough to fish directly from the lake next time, once the villagers went home. Jimmy felt guilty about his brother getting trapped, just for the sake of this meal, and so he wanted to exercise excessive caution.

For now, they focused on their task at hand. They kept stalking the Chief, flying from rooftop to rooftop as they followed him.

What was concerning about their task, was that despite the widespread gossip across the village, the Chief hasn’t done anything suspicious yet. He was cautious, as if he knew that he was being watched.

Odds were, the villagers watched his every move as well.

Jimmy felt like he wasted an entire day, but he held on to the fact that he could see in the dark, thanks to that upgrade he got his claws on when he visited the Summoning Circle around a week ago. If the Chief wanted to hide his secrets in the deep, dark canvas of the night, Jimmy would be the one and only creature in this village who’d spot them.

"Can’t take naps," He repeated, "No matter how tired I get."

Night followed suit a few hours later.

The murder of crows waited on top of the Chief’s wooden house, trying to get comfortable on the arched roof.

Zoey fell asleep. She felt like her talents weren’t needed right now, as she could not see a thing in the dark, for one thing, and she doubted that Jimmy would need her to entrap the Chief within her telekinetic grasp.

Julia also fell asleep for similar reasons. Despite her deadly skills with a blade, she was still the weakest crow here in terms of arsenal, with no foreign skill to call her own. Past dusk, she knew she had nothing to contribute.

Jimmy, and Vorin were the only ones who remained awake. The brothers shared the same goal in mind, especially since he told the team why he was stalking the Chief to begin with. Vorin saw his brother’s goals as his own.

In this case, one would assume that their treasure/power hunting ambition was genetic, because they weren’t willing to give up regardless of the circumstances. The burden of the lack of sleep that weighed down on their eyebrows by the passing minute, was not an obstacle that they were willing to give in to.

Then again, midnight arrived, and the Chief has not yet left his house, ever since he stepped into it four hours ago, past dusk. It was tiresome to stalk a man that did nothing suspicious for the moment.

Hunger bothered Jimmy once more. His stomach had devoured the fish meat from earlier on, and they had avoided fishing past dusk too, because there still were too many villagers hanging about at that time, drinking. The team didn’t want to draw any attention to themselves, so they abandoned their fishing plans.

Now, they were stuck.

Vorin couldn’t catch fish in the dark, and likewise, he couldn’t see in the dark either. Worse yet, he wouldn’t be able to spot the Chief, if he left the house.

Both tasks depended on Jimmy, and the problem was that he refused to leave this roof, because he poured too much time on this task already.

After twenty more minutes of indecisiveness, he broke. He had enough.

Burdened by his hunger, his IQ points got drained out of him so much that he followed the first plan that came to mind, even if it was a poor, and destructive one.

"I’m robbing this bastard," He said.

He floated towards the door of the house without a second thought, and Vorin followed after him, repeating the word ’robbing’, as he didn’t have the slightest clue what it meant, nor what his brother’s plan was.

With the intention of not alerting the entire village, Jimmy didn’t blow the Chief’s door wide open with a fireball. He was tempted to, but he hadn’t exactly lost his mind, and so he knew that the entire house would catch before he could break through the thick door.

"Virena, wake up," He whistled in her language.

Resting on his back, and of course upset that she was woken up, she stretched her legs, and squinted repeatedly. She tried to figure out what Jimmy wanted.

"I need a hole here," He said.

"Hole?" She repeated.

"Yes," He nodded aggressively like a chicken, "We’re breaking into this motherfucker’s house, and I don’t feel like picking the lock. Also, if you can, don’t set the house on fire."

Virena was confused as to what Jimmy was trying to do here, but she was used to spoiling him with odd favors. In her eyes, this particular favor was hardly tiring.

She leaped towards the door, grabbed her sickle, and mustered a tiny bit of flame at the tip of her blade.

Once her sickle heated along with the flame, she sunk into the thick, wooden door like a knife through butter! The door was hardly a match.

To maintain her balance, she sunk her feet in the few, small holes within the woodwork.

Afterwards, she ran her heated blade across the wood, following a circular trajectory.

Wherever she ran her blade, black char was left over as residue. The flame she mustered was so tiny, and sunken so deep into the wood, that it couldn’t possibly set anything ablaze. The flame was oxygen deprived.

Five minutes later, a two foot wide, and one inch thick piece of wood fell to the ground.

It wouldn’t have fallen off on its own, no, Jimmy ripped it away with his claws. Hunger chipped away at him by the passing minute, so he didn’t care to preserve his often sensitive claws. He was no stranger to getting hurt, after all.

"More wood, okay," He said.

The blade of Virena’s sickle was only one inch long. It couldn’t sink above that length into the wood, but she was willing to cut another circle out, because she was far from being exhausted.

Jimmy wasn’t as patient.

𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"Good enough," He said, "You’ve weakened it."

Afterwards, he clutched his hammer, and swung it at the half-hole in the door as hard as he could.

It didn’t work, so he tried again, and again, intentionally oblivious if the Chief heard him or not. Despite insisting otherwise up until now, he was done being subtle.

After the fifth hit, the shallow hole in the door split open, just enough for Jimmy to slip through.

Of course, he rushed inside without the slightest sense of fear. He didn’t even bother waking up the rest of the team, and it was not because he relied on Vorin’s protection.

Essentially, he was ready to break the Chief’s knees for something as little as an apple.