A Murder Of Crows

"So she's a killer then," Vincel said.

When Vincel said 'Killer' it was clear to all those in the group that he was not talking about taking the life of beasts like they had all done mere minutes ago.

They all knew he was referring to the taking of actual human life.

Aidan inclined his head.

"Not necessarily. Assassins are Masters of stealth and precision. They also practice the art of secrecy by doing their best work under the shadow of darkness.

They may or may not dedicate their skills to the taking of human life."

As Aidan spoke, Vincel looked at Kleon but the black-haired lady was no longer paying attention to him.

[0:01]

[0:00]

[Arcane Augmentation deactivated]

Vincel immediately grabbed his head as the woozy feeling returned.

'I feel even weaker than I did the last time Arcane Augmentation deactivated.' Vincel thought as his movement stumbled.

He fell off from being by Aidan's side and almost stumbled into Lea who was walking behind.

The brown-haired lady placed a hand against his back to give him support.

"Thanks" Vincel mumbled and pulled away from her supportive hand so that his weight would not be a burden.

Almost as soon as he pulled away, her hand thrust out from behind him, holding something wrapped.

"You look starved. Here, eat this."

"Thank you," Vincel said and he truly was grateful.

It was hard to ignore how hungry he was thanks to all the excitement and confusion of the day but holding the wrapped ration brought his hunger to the forefront.

"You're welcome," Lea said softly with a smile.

Vincel unraveled the ration, and without any hesitation, he took a bite and was almost shocked at the burst of sweetness in his mouth.

"This is-- so good" he mumbled while still chewing the bite in his mouth.

'It's like vanilla-strawberry ice cream but warm and chewy like bread. Maybe a vanilla-strawberry-flavored bread? Nah, no bread could ever melt this sweetly... Oh my goodness!'

"It's meant to speed up energy recovery." Lea said as Vincel hurriedly took more bites.

The more he ate, the stronger he began to feel. His fatigue began to fade and he was sure he would be able to support his own standing weight now.

[User has consumed Energy-recovery rations]

[HP +10]

[HP 39/50]

'Well, makes sense eating food recovers HP but why only ten though? Is it because I'm not full?' Vincel thought as he finished the ration.

'Should I ask for more? Nah, she was already nice enough to give me this much'

The group got back on the move and just when Vincel was about to ask where their destination was, sounds came at them from the top of the trees.

*Caw* *Caw* *Caw*

Out of the thick bushy branches of the trees flew black birds that Vincel quickly identified as;

"Crows!"

'Crows with metal beaks and claws?'

Within a second of the many arrivals, a crow charged at him with its metal talons glinting with malice.

*Thwack*

Before the crow could make contact, an arrow struck it, and it flopped to the ground. Flightless and dead.

[One Arcane Shard detected]

[One Arcane Shard recovered]

Vincel would have loved to say thanks to Knowle but more crows were flying at them.

Lea thrust an arm in front of his chest as though to push him back and protect him.

She thrust her free hand upward and a spell circle appeared in front of it. Out of the spell circle charged two balls of water that moved as fast as a bullet... At least to Vincel's eyes.

*Dumm*

*Dumm*

Two crows were hit on their heads and after a second of disoriented flight, they flopped to the ground as well.

[One Arcane Shard detected]

[One Arcane Shard recovered]

[One Arcane Shard detected]

[One Arcane Shard recovered]

Vincel moved back and allowed Lea to get in front of him while he called out his Status screen to specifically, look at his Arcane Mana reserves.

[Arcane Mana reserves: 10/100]

"Nowhere near enough," Vincel said quietly, and then he saw something dark flash by with the corner of his eyes.

He turned his head and saw that the dark flash was Kleon who had gathered momentum and leaped into the air where she cut down at least three crows before gravity forced her to return to the ground.

In fact, she looked like she would have cut down even more crows than that but her other targets shielded themselves either with their metal beaks or with their metal talons.

The *Clang* sounds were proof of this.

Knowle was notching arrows onto his bow at head-spinning speeds. He shot down the crows with a focused gaze and a bright smile.

'He's in his element' Vincel realized.

Previously, with the Grim Wolves, Knowle had had to adapt and use his bow less and his arrows more like daggers because the Wolf he fought was very good at evasion and getting in close.

With the Matal-beaked Crows though, things were much more direct.

The crows did not move through shadows and always flew directly at their target so all Knowle had to do was shoot them down before they could get close.

There was a danger that he could get overwhelmed but that never happened because he had support.

Any Crow that got too close would quickly get a taste of Jilan's mighty club. Metal claws/beak or not, the target crow always got crushed all the same.

For the crows Jilan was too slow to strike, Aidan was always there to cut them with the swift action of his sword.

*Clang*

"Ngh"

On occasion, Aidan made contact with a metal beak or a set of metal talons, and the impact of his sword against the Crow's protection hurt his arm but he always recovered from the effect fast enough to get back to cutting down more crows before he got slashed. Or pecked.

Lea was now completely in front of Vincel. She had her two hands thrust forward and was casting her water ball spell to consistently bring down crows.

Vincel just watched it all happen while he kept receiving notifications for every crow killed in his vicinity.

His Arcane Shard counts were rising but his attention was on taking in as much information as he could from the fights all around him.

Kleon began using trees to her advantage to always get high up and cut down the crows.

Rather than wait for the crows to come to her, she went after them first.

As he watched her use her dagger efficiently, Vincel understood what Aidan had been saying about Assassins.

The crows never saw it coming.

Whenever Kleon pushed herself off a tree trunk, she became a dark figure the eyes of the crows could not follow.

The crows did not have human-like expressions but Vincel could have sworn every single one Kleon killed looked surprised she had been able to strike them.

Even the ones who were able to deflect her dagger with either their talons or their beaks looked shocked she had even gotten that close to ending their lives.

Vincel gave an appreciative nod.

'She's good'

With the way she moved and twisted in the air to get the better of the crows, Vincel wondered if that was what an increase in agility would eventually get him.

Even now, Augmentation of his Agility stats with Arcane Augmentation didn't allow him to move that effortlessly yet.

"That's the last of them." Aidan said as he cut down yet another crow with his sword and the air finally cleared.

With the battle over, the group got about to reaping their spoils from the Crows.

The Crows also possessed beast cores just like the Grim Wolves, theirs were just a smaller size.

Unlike with the wolves, no one had a designated kill so everyone in the group just went about taking Cores out of any of the crows around them. Knowle and Jilan especially just stuffed a bunch of dead Crows into their Satchel/pouch to save time gutting every single bird.

Once the ground was cleared, Aidan announced to the group.

"Alright, let's keep moving. It can't be far now"

Just like before with the Wolves, Vincel took no part in the core harvesting. This time, it was more because he had no part in dealing with the Crows.

Once the group was walking again, Vincel got back into conversation with Aidan by asking a question.

"What can't be far?"

Aidan answered with a solemn expression.

"The end of the Forest or more accurately, the end of this dimension"."

"And what will we find there?" Vincel asked.

"The Gate-Ranker" Aidan replied.

Aidan said the term as though it were meant to be ominous but to Vincel, it just sounded like a strange-sounding name of no real importance.

"What's a Gate-Ranker?"