Assassin Crow Evolution

Virena dug into the body of the human-like rat she killed.

It took her a while, because her blade was tiny, however, she did eventually get a good view of its organs.

The problem was that she could barely tell the organs apart from one another. She never dissected a rat before, nevertheless a rat whose organs were lined up, and nearly identical to that of a human’s. They seemed alien to her.

Jimmy had to jump in and help her.

The biology classes he took as a kid from back on Earth, came in handy. He knew what a heart looked like, kidneys and guts even more so, so he knew to avoid those, as he didn’t need them.

While he helped, his body nearly disappeared into the carcass. His claws were damp with the blood of the enemy, more than they initially were.

Tink!

One of his claws touched something tough.

At that moment, his heart sank down to his leg. He feared that he activated the core, and for a moment, he cursed himself for being so careless.

"There were no magically beating organs... of course this bastard was hiding a Gem Core, or Beast Core, or whatever the fuck it’s called." He nearly broke out in a sweat.

Thankfully, since the gem did not interrupt his self-scolding rant, it meant that he didn’t break it. He didn’t absorb it.

"Alright, Virena, get down here," He said, "It’s that red one."

"Red one?" She repeated, "But everything in here is dark, Jimmy. Its blood, organs... all dark."

"Oh damn," He shook his head, "You’re color blind, aren’t you?"

"No, I’m not blind, your eyes are just bigger." She insisted.

"So blood looks black to you, instead of red?" He followed along, "I have to admit, that’s pretty badass!"

"Which one is the core, Jimmy?" She asked, albeit irritated. "I don’t want to step on it."

"It’s that small one," He said, "Smaller than the other organs, at least. Poke it with your blade, you should hear a klink sound. Don’t worry, it shouldn’t break no matter how hard you hit it with your blade."

Virena gathered her nerves, and poked around deep within the rat’s gutted body. Eventually, she heard the sound that she was supposed to be listening for.

"You call this small? It’s bigger than I am!" She exclaimed.

"But you can lift it, right?" He asked.

Within a blink, the gem flew out of the rat’s body, and landed right in the sack that Jimmy had brought.

"Nice!" He nodded, "Okay, let’s get to work on the next body."

"What’s the rush?" She asked.

A moment later, another gem flew out of the body, and landed in the middle of the sack.

"It had two cores!?" The feathers at the back of his head jerked up. "God damn!"

"Who’s blind now?" She smirked.

"Hey, everything looks messy to me as well," He excused himself, "Just in red."

After the initial successful harvest, Virena started cutting into the two other bodies as well.

The results across the other bodies were consistent. Each one had two Beast Cores within them.

In total, they harvested six cores. It took Virena two hours to finish the job.

She managed to speed up the process, because she knew where to look for the cores after the initial harvesting. Just like that, she cut out several hours from this already lengthy harvest.

"So much for staying clean," She sighed, soaked in the blood of the enemy.

"We’re knee deep already," He added, "Might as well check this big motherfucker for cores. If it does have cores, then maybe you can copy its insane growth?"

"That sounds risky," She said, "Compared to the rat, I’m smaller than an ant. Although I’d like to be bigger, I don’t think I’m supposed to absorb its core."

What they were supposed to do with the cores remained open to possibilities. With the threats across the chambers neutralized, they weren’t exactly in the position where they had to rely on mystery cores to save their lives. They had the luxury of waiting, and experimenting.

The giant, fat rat that Virena cut through next, served many purposes.

It fed them through the past couple of hours already. They’ve eaten massive chunks of nearly well-roasted, and a bit charred meat to keep themselves energized, and it wasn’t getting them sick either, which was what encouraged them to fill their bellies to begin with.

Jimmy hadn’t felt this full in a long time. A tear nearly dropped from his eye, as he finally found a single meal that he could not beat.

Hundreds of kilos of the rat remained, and he was sad that he couldn’t take the entire thing along with him. The rat would sooner rot before he’d have the chance to eat through it.

"I guess it’s enough that I don’t have to be hungry today?" He said. "It feels nice to eat something that isn’t a bug, or a tiny rat. I should probably risk it, and start hunting in the meadows for rabbits or some shit? Fuck the ravens. I’ve been out-numbered by them before... It’s the squirrels I’m worried about. Eh, I can probably grab a rabbit before the squirrels find me."

Virena heard Jimmy caw and cackle in his own language. She heard him speak to himself, but she was so deep within the guts of the huge rat that she wouldn’t be able to make out a thing he said even if he spoke to her in her own language.

Liquids, be it blood or otherwise, kept hitting her in waves upon waves. She couldn’t afford to be distracted right now.

Eventually, she did find a core. This too was made of a gem, so evidently, it was a Beast Core. It was a bit bigger than the core she had fetched out from the other bodies, but she didn’t care to analyze it right now.

She tossed it around with the tip of her blade, until she pushed it outside the gutted, rat body.

Afterwards, she went back to where she found the initial core, and just as she suspected, she found another one.

Then, another one.

"Three cores?!" Jimmy exclaimed, "What was this fucker up to? Did he want to get as big as a house?"

"I don’t know," She said, "But I’m starting to think that it wouldn’t be too cruel to have some other crows try the cores first. Things are getting too confusing. I don’t like that these three cores are bigger than the others."

"I’m sure we can find a couple of crows for the gig," He said, "Let’s throw some meat in the sack, and get out of here. We shouldn’t let this big boy go to complete waste."

"I’ve been cutting through bodies all day. Can’t you look for a knife? I could use some help." She complained.

"If there was a knife here, I would’ve grabbed it already. Hammers are cool, but they’re horrible when it comes to, erg... quiet assassinations." He said, "Cut some meat for me, please. I’ll be dragging the bag up that long-ass tunnel anyway, and I have a feeling that I’ll be hungry once we make it to the top. I need meat."

"Fine," She sighed.