Assassin Crow Evolution

Chapter 14: Fear

Jimmy flew towards his family’s nest as fast as he could.

Fueled by rage, guilt, and his barrel of evolutions, this was the first time he flew faster than his brother Vorin.

The frame of his bruised, cut-up father landed before his eyes.

For once in his short life here, a tear ran down his eye. He tried his best to hold his storming emotions behind his beak. He wound up speechless.

"Did a bug fly in your eye, brother?" Riva, his sister, asked, utterly offended, "The elders punished our father because of you, and you won’t even bother to clean yourself before you meet him? Look at all the blood and twigs on you... you look disgusting!"

Jimmy’s siblings nodded in response, but he ignored them, and focused on his father.

"I’m sorry..." he held in his breath, "I was just hungry... I didn’t know those old farts would come and beat you. I never thought that any crow could even beat you."

Gnegor, his father, responded faintly. His wounds sapped the energy right out of him.

"It’s alright," he said.

"I told you it was too early to let him go out on his own!" Gaya, his mother, screamed, "How was he supposed to know that he wasn’t supposed to bug the humans?"

"I thought he’d avoid them, like most of us did," Gnegor coughed up a bit of blood.

The two of them continued to argue. Love, and their many years together could not suffocate the panic that took root within the nest.

Jimmy could only watch. He too was panicking, but internally.

’I want to skin those geezers alive... how dare they cut my father?’ he grumbled.

[Other crows may hunt your family down if you hunt, and or kill those three crows who hurt your father. Not to mention, they appeared to be practicing assassins. Old, yes, but their feet evolved the same way yours did. They ought to be skilled with their daggers, so you may lose the battle, get killed, and your family will follow the same path after you. Except they will be butchered, and won’t fight back.]

The system was as direct as ever, and Jimmy did not like the fact that she made sense. He hated that he had this minor fear towards the elders brewing in his gut, and he hated that he’d essentially would have to fight the whole community of crows just to right one wrong.

This time, he started panicking on the outside as well. He was no longer silent.

"I promise, I’ll behave from now on!" He blurted, interrupting the argument between his parents. "I was just hungry, I never meant any of you any harm!"

Gnegor did not care for this conversation anymore. He was beyond tired, and fell asleep. Blood slowly dripped out of his wounds.

"Did he die?" Vorin panicked.

"No..." Gaya’s voice shook, "He’ll sleep this off like he always did. I hope."

’Can I help him somehow, system? Please!’ Panic sunk so deep into his soul that his feathers went upright.

[You can purchase the Helping Hand skill. It revolves around the Arts of the Arcane, a branch you’re barely versed at, but it might work.]

At that moment, his eyes lit up with hope. He instantly demanded to buy the skill.

[The Helping Hand skill costs 500 system points. You only have 129.]

"No..." A dark claw of twisted luck pulled his mood down for the worse, but it didn’t manage to tug on his hope.

"I’ll be right back..." he said under his breath, and dropped down from the nest.

"Where the fuck are you going?!" Riva shouted behind him, "Come back here you big, ugly bastard!"

Gaya looked at her daughter, defeated, but she did not utter a single word.

Vorin actually felt bad about his brother for once, and although he didn’t want to leave his father alone at this dark hour, he still flew after Jimmy. Concern could not ever grasp the emotions he felt at the moment.

"That moron is going to get himself killed," He whispered.

...

Jimmy sweeped from alleyway to alleyway. He killed everything in sight.

However, he only managed to find and kill bugs. Cockroaches were common, but he didn’t stop there, and killed other bugs that he had been too soft-hearted to kill before. He even killed a few ladybugs, just to accumulate points.

It wasn’t enough.

[Total points: 180]

He was far from achieving his goal. He needed a full five hundred if he was to heal his father, and although he had made the city a little bit cleaner with all the cockroaches he killed, the aching fear in his stomach thumped like a hammer. This was the worst time to lack bigger targets.

"Come on..." he said, "I just need a few rats..."

The sun was about to set. He had roughly half an hour of time to get the rest of the points, before the enveloping darkness of the night rendered him immobile.

He could not see in the dark, and he was even surprised that he managed to find so many bugs to begin with. The dark alleyways hid their content very well.

Vorin followed after his brother, trying to talk some sense into him. He could not understand his brother’s frantic motives, and figured that he had gone insane.

"Leave the bugs alone, Jimmy," he had repeated this so many times that he devolved to shouting, "Let’s go home!"

Jimmy did not listen. He rose from the ground, and scouted for his next hunt.

Alas, he could only find bugs. Nothing else.

[Total points: 187]

[Iron Beak skill: Level 1 >>> Level 2]

Jimmy ignored the level up. He didn’t even register it.

At one point, he saw two humans fighting within a dark corner of an alleyway. They had no weapons, no magic, and were simply using their fists.

"What if I kill one of them?" he asked himself, evermore desperate for a large sum of points.

Afterwards, he landed on a rooftop, analyzing the humans, looking for a weak spot. He hoped that one of them would get beaten close to death, so he could swoop in and land the final blow.

"You aren’t killing shit!" He heard Vorin shouting behind him.

A split-second later, the two of them clashed once more, tumbling down from the rooftop together.