Assassin Crow Evolution

Chapter 44: Hunting the dead

Jimmy spent hours sitting, recovering. The pain from the burns slowly dissipated, but it wasn’t gone just yet.

Nevertheless, it was bearable. Compared to how much pain he had felt earlier on, the current mark on the pain-scale was a breeze for him.

As the sun set over the horizon, gentle gushes of wind did help him feel better. In fact, he had sat under the shades for so long that he felt quite numb now, past sunset. His body temperature had tanked a bit too much, so he was prompted to stand up and stretch.

"Man, I’m sore," He groaned.

Virena had done an excellent job at keeping him well-fed. Healing didn’t only drain his mana throughout the day, but it drained his energy as well. He had to eat a lot, and throughout the day, his stomach behaved much like a bottomless pit!

He and his friend had eaten so many bugs today that they may have reduced the pest problem in the city by a tenth!

"It’s getting dark," He said, "I should probably move around for a little bit before I take another long nap."

Jimmy quickly noticed that he could walk without feeling immense pain in the process. He felt good. He was ready to fly as well, and he wanted to at least find White Blade before it got too dark, so he could inform the crow of the mission he completed.

Firal, the horribly feared Fire Mage had been killed almost twelve hours ago, and the crow community was none the wiser. They likely followed their daily strategies that only served to avoid Firal.

Before he could take off, however, a crow circled overhead, and landed in front of him.

It was Vorin, his brother. The same brother that he had shared a nest with for nearly a month.

"Where have you been?" Vorin exclaimed, "We’ve been looking all over for you!"

"Why’s that?" He asked, "Crows don’t usually care enough to look for me. My family especially."

"You brought that on yourself, brother," Vorin said, "I’d love to respect father’s wishes, but I’ve been helping White Blade nowadays, and he believes that you’re important. He’s looking for you."

"He believes?" He parroted, and then he couldn’t help but snap, "This is getting very annoying, brother. I killed ravens, squirrels, and I even killed the Fire Mage that has been terrorizing us crows for ages, and that doesn’t help you believe that I deserve some respect? I didn’t kill all those bastards for myself, you know? Forget that, but what in the everloving fuck have you done in your life to match my contributions, eh? You’ve made such a great hobby at hiding so deep in our father’s ass that it should be called a skill by now! You didn’t do shit!"

Vorin did not expect to be scolded. He had gotten so used to bad-mouthing his brother, that he had long crossed the line that stood between fact and fiction.

Fiction, in this case, dissolved in the claws of a man who barely had anything to lose. He didn’t care to entertain Vorin’s deluded ideas that he, and the rest of his family shared.

In the end, all Vorin could respond with was, "Careful, brother."

"Oh, fuck you," He sighed, "Fuck off out of here, and go tell White Blade that I killed the mage. No one saw me kill him, so the war with the humans should be over."

"Alright," Vorin nodded, and flew away.

Vorin left the scene conflicted, and offended. Besides berating him, he never intended to fight his brother, that was never his goal. Considering how big Jimmy had gotten, it was suicidal to fight him as well.

All Vorin could do was abide by the verbal commands, and swallow his pride. He took comfort in the fact that barely any crow respected Jimmy to begin with.

Jimmy did not care to indulge with his family, or the crows any further tonight. He started flying.

Once he was in the air, he got an idea that went past simply stretching his wings. He wanted to see if the humans had discovered the body of the mage he killed.

It took a few minutes to get to the murder scene. Once there, he discovered that the body of the mage had been moved.

Jimmy landed at where the body used to lay, and only saw the blood that had dried over the stonework.

"The humans move fast, I’ll give them that." He said, "Did this fucker have any family? Where do they bury the dead anyway?"

Jimmy was up in the air again. He scouted the city from above, and then he flew past the city’s walls, looking for a cemetery.

There wasn’t one, which he found quite confusing. He figured that if crows buried their dead, humans should be doing the same. The cityfolk were civilized enough to follow such traditions.

"Maybe they have tombs?" He said, "Would that fucker be worthy of a tomb, though?"

Jimmy spent the next hour looking for unique buildings within the city. Buildings that stood out from the rest.

With an estimated five-hundred buildings to look over, his work was cut out for him.

It was night time now. The fact that he couldn’t see in the dark, staggered his progress, and the fact that most stone buildings looked the same, did not help his search either.

"Are you looking to pay your respects?" Virena asked, "You crows seem to love honoring the dead. Us insects never have the chance to do that, because other insects usually eat our fallen friends."

"I have no respect to give." He answered, "A man who measures his strength with tiny crows is no man worth respecting. He’s just a sadist."

"He didn’t look sad," She innocently said.

Jimmy chuckled, "Let’s see if we can find his body. I have a plan in mind."

At last, he found a building that resembled a tomb. Or at the very least, the symbolic statues in front of the building hinted that it could be a religious establishment.

Its door was wide open, even this late at night.

Since there barely were any people around, Jimmy fearlessly landed on top of one of the statues. The statue honored a muscular man with a torn, oval-shaped head.

The man it honoured looked like he came from ancient times. Its well-sculpted robes gave it away.

This messed up with his internal clock, because he had never guessed that seemingly medieval cities could preserve ancient history.

Nevertheless, he did not care to inspect the statue any further. Instead, he tried to make sense of what was past the open doors in front of him.