Dammed crows

"These b*states are evolving"

He was desperate, trying not to worsen the situation he closed his eyes.

Now blind and panicked he heard what was happening right beside him, they were eating the carcass of the presumed boss while fighting over the mana stone in its neck.

Hearing this he lost the hope they would leave him there and not care about him, if they were so starved that they even had to eat some of their own.

Then they wouldn't have let him rot on the ground.

Escaping also wasn't an option, he was now blind, badly injured and unable of fighting them.

The only hope he had was to camouflage for long enough and exit the gate once they left.

With this in mind, and the little energy left in his body, he crawled towards a tree, tall grass was hiding it's log all around, and that was the last thing Bruno had hope in.

Once in the tall grass, he couldn't be seen from the outside and his smell was covered from the mud, he now felt relatively safe, and still tired to the extreme, he fell asleep again.

When he woke up for the third time that day, standing about ten meters(33feet) beside him, were the bones of the beast that nearly ended his life, rotting on the ground, deprived of all their meat.

He couldn't care less about the end of that dumb crow, but he was worried he would end up in the same way.

He remained motionless for more than an hour before taking his first few steps towards the gate.

Everything was going smoothly, until, just as he was passing under a quite sturdy tree trunk a loud CAW was heard from above him, he immediately run, trying to get away before it would start the chase, but in just twenty seconds the crow was behind his back, ready to attack.

He activated Superhuman motion again, this time, using it to flee, he also stopped the time over and over again, trying to figure out the best route he could take, his mana tank was almost empty when he crossed the gate, falling on the floor unable to stand up, he now couldn't feel the thick mana in the air anymore, and was worried that the gate was on the verge of breaking, so he looked back, hoping to find the gate still stable.

The gate, however, was more stable than ever, that wasn't the problem.

But the gate rank…. That had changed.

It was now totally green, and the orange gate that spawned beside it had become red.

"What the hell is happening here"

The gate wasn't releasing mana, it was absorbing it, to be precise, it was absorbing mana from the other gate.

What could've caused something like that? Bruno was now using every brain cell in his body to figure it out, but as he grew tired, he decided to try and reach for his home, hoping that Elsa would heal him and not kill him.

The walk from there to home was exhausting and the only thoughts that kept him going were the ones related to his family, how good would it be, to be able to return home without any worries, if he didn't manage to grow strong, he would've never be able to do something like that.

When he arrived in front of the waterfall he had no strength left to pass through it.

He tried to throw his dagger and assist it with telekinesis so that it could warn Elsa.

Without even seeing the results of his throw, he fell in the little lake under the waterfall, luckily with his mouth and nose facing upwards, or else he would've drowned without doubt.

….

It was 8 a.m.

Elsa woke up and slowly made her way to the kitchen stretching a few times on the way there.

Her favourite part of the day was now approaching, she lifted the cloche open, and a pair of fluffy pancakes were waiting to be eaten.

She took some maple syrup, and then sprayed it all over them.

To make things even better, she headed out, just as she was about to seat, she saw a dagger impaled in the ground right beside her.

Not giving it any attention she continued eating her pancakes.

~soo good, I can't believe this were made by him, There's no way.

Also, where is he? He's never here when I wake up. I should probably go outside for a bit while he's not with me. Wait, that dagger on the ground, it was his, right? Then why did he leave it there?"

Unable to figure out the situation, she went to inspect the dagger on the ground, it wasn't impaled vertically, but very inclined.

As if it was thrown, following this train of thought, she reached the supposed location of the thrower, it was beyond the waterfall, and she thought two times before crossing it rethinking of the injury she got last time.

Her curiosity won over her and she crossed it, not noticing anything strange.

She soon watched down and saw the body of her travel companion lying on the ground, she had a few moments of realisation before screaming.

After calming down a bit, she dragged him across the waterfall, that washed him clean, and positioned his body on the warm sheets of the bed after drying him a bit with a towel.