Assassin Crow Evolution

The poster got Jimmy rattled. He didn’t expect to ever run into a problem like this one, and overall, it tainted the inner peace he cultivated over the past day. He hardly knew how to work around it.

However, his attention was quickly drawn away from the poster once he saw a rat jumping around, deeper into the alleyway.

Instinctively, his glorious, overwhelming wings spread wide as he got ready to chase the rat. He was sure that he could catch it, even though he was a few meters away, but he fought his instincts, and decided to pull his greatly evolved black wings back towards his body.

Instead, he relied on what he had recently learned.

"Red Fireball," He whispered.

A raging blob of fire shot towards the rat right after. He hit the target within a second, and burned it alive!

He could hear the rat squealing in pain, and this almost made him regret his decision, but the rat didn’t suffer for long. It could not withstand the heat of even his weakest fireball.

[-50 mana points]

[+37 system points]

[Total points: 1,264]

"Oh, this is a big one," Jimmy said as soon as he saw the carcass. "Are you hungry, Virena? I have a feeling that toasted rat tastes better than the raw ones."

"I prefer them alive... but we’re changing things up a lot recently, so sure, I’ll give the rat a try." She said.

Virena cut out a large piece of meat, and chewed on it. Large for her, at least, but she hardly took a fraction of the meal.

Jimmy then grabbed the rat by the head, tossed it upwards, and then swallowed it whole. The rat may have been big, but he was bigger. He barely considered this rat a good, fulfilling breakfast.

"Fucking hell, if I keep evolving, I’m going to have to eat a cow a day to keep myself from starving." He spoke to himself, frustrated.

Evolution came with challenges that he couldn’t have ever expected before. He kept paying for every advantage he had, and he paid for it with great, daily effort.

"Toasted rat does taste better, though," He said, "The burnt fur tastes like charcoal, but the fireball cooked some of its flesh, and that really brought out its flavor. It’s not bad, is it, Virena?"

"I prefer toasted bugs over rats," She said, "I like it more when the bugs are alive and kicking, yes, but I can’t really warm up an insect without killing it on the spot. Toasting things is fun, but I think we should stick to what we’re used to. My guts have been fighting for their life since last night."

"There’s no shame in experimenting with food," He chuckled.

Virena was delightful. Her vicious loyalty aside, he thoroughly enjoyed getting to know her, as she brought a perspective that he, as a crow, would never have thought of otherwise.

Anyway, a minute after they tore through the rat, Jimmy spotted something exciting near-by. A rat hole.

Rats were intelligent, he was well aware of this. They made use of the city by tearing through the stone, and making nests underneath buildings.

Jimmy could never figure out how they could move large slabs of stone and dig below buildings to begin with, but he found it impressive. He figured that this was why it was generally hard to run across rats in a city that should be infested by them. They were great at hiding within the city.

In this case, however, he was sure that he outsmarted them, because he decided to camp out in front of the rat-hole.

"We should hang around here for a little while," He said, "I don’t plan on wasting our morning here, but maybe we’ll get the chance to pounce on a rat. They’re smart, but I doubt they’re expecting us in front of one of their exits."

"Are we sure the rats haven’t abandoned this nest?" She pointed out, "I mean, we saw that the crows had made some rat nests their own. What if this is another one of them?"

"If that’s the case, then I killed a very brave rat a moment ago, one that tried to take its nest back." He chuckled, "But maybe you’re right? Let’s just go in there. I heard it’s a bad idea to corner a rat, but I doubt the bastards can kill us."

With their plan set, they approached the hole at the side of the building.

Jimmy quickly ran into the first problem. He had to squeeze through the hole, as he was a considerably big crow.

He had to duck just to slip through the entrance, but the snug width of the hole was what gave him the greatest challenge. He could feel its rough exterior pull some of his feathers off already. It irritated him beyond bounds, but he pushed through nonetheless.

Virena, thanks to the fact that she couldn’t be riding along on Jimmy’s back right now, zig-zagged below him, avoiding his legs, and eventually leading the way.

"I forgot how dark these nests can be," She sighed.

With a mere effort to tame the seemingly endless darkness, a dot of light engulfed the blade of her sickle. She made herself a torch, in exchange for a few mana points every minute.

The blade lit up the rat-hole quite well. They could see what was in front of them, up to three feet ahead.

The fact that they could see up to three feet ahead, slowly introduced them to their next problem.

What Virena assumed to be a nest, turned out to be more of a tunnel.

They squeezed through several meters of hardened stone, and surprisingly, hardened mud, but they still did not find the end of the tunnel.

"I feel like we’re in an ant’s nest," He grumbled, "What possible use could the rats get out of a tunnel?"

Mere irritation was not enough to get him to quit. The two of them kept pushing through, and after what felt like three times the distance they already crossed, they had to start crawling downwards. They had to be several meters below ground level by now, and yet, the tunnel got even steeper.

"What’s that light?" Virena was prompted to whisper, "Please tell me that rats don’t know how to shoot fireballs..."