Turi’s body felt weak and frail. Around him were the remnants of an egg; slime covered his body and the shell clung to parts of his body. His Tome hovered a few feet away; judging by the fact he had never seen anything similar around Four-wings and the stone-clad squirrel, it was likely invisible to everybody else.
The moonlight was practically blinding to his eyes after so long inside the endless void, and, by extension, the egg. Gradually, the feeling of weakness left him, and he shook off the egg shell and started cleaning himself off.
The Tome flew a few feet in front of his face, and opened at the slightest exertion of Turi’s will. He had learned a lot about it in his time in the void, and had even reorganized it. The first page, which had been an introduction, was gone now, replaced with his assessment, which looked different now. His species now read ‘Ascended Crow’, and his Aspects of Ascension, as the Tome had called them somewhere on the introductory page, all made him seem significantly stronger than he had been before, even if he did feel awfully weak right now.
His strength and senses read ‘prodigal’, which was a word he had not come across yet. His durability was still above-average, and his intelligence remained abnormal. These weren’t as important as his other gains, though.
Turi could feel the essence core in his chest better now, too. A network of pathways extended from it, reaching out into every part of his body. With a thought, Turi infused essence his entire body, and used it to feel every minute change in his body. His talons were more articulated to allow for him to use them more precisely. His irises were golden, and his beak was as sharp as a spearhead. He felt the tension in his muscles with every minute movement he made, and he felt his lungs expand as he inhaled. He could feel the changes to his body that allowed him to be more expressive for the purposes of diplomacy.
Turi retracted the essence into his core and instead infused it into the muscles in his neck and his beak itself, and then struck the roof of the human nest that he currently stood on. A deep indentation was left behind, and Turi’s beak was fine; his brain had been rattled around quite a bit in his skull, though.
Turi tried again, but this time, it was a bit more efficient, and he protected his brain using essence, too. He struck the roof again, and this time, he was completely and utterly unharmed; on the other hand, the concrete had a deep gouge in it now.
Turi would need to experiment and practice with controlling the essence a lot, but right now, it was already incredibly valuable.
Next, Turi channeled essence into a small organ in his throat. Suddenly, an ear-piercing sound resounded, despite his beak not having opened an inch.
Turi ruffled his feathers in annoyance and tried again, infusing only a small trickle of essence into the tiny sound-producing organ. This time, there was a low hiss. It would take Turi a long time before he got a hang of his new sound-producing organ, but, once he did, he would be able to speak.
Turi shook with excitement at the mere thought, but he quickly regained control of himself and focused on what was perhaps the most pertinent to his immediate survival.
Turi channeled a trickle of essence into his eyes. He glared at a small fragment of concrete that had come loose from his pecking, and tried to force it to levitate. Nothing happened, though, and Turi channeled a bit more essence into it. Still, nothing happened, and Turi steadily increased the flow of essence until, finally, the fragment trembled. Turi channeled a tiny bit more essence into his eyes, and the fragment lifted unsteadily into the air.
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His concentration wavered as a wave of joy struck him, and the fragment fell to the ground. Turi could feel that the essence contained in his core had decreased by a not-negligible amount, but he hoped that, as he became more proficient with his newfound abilities, that would change.
Turi hopped over to the edge of the human nest and stood on the ledge, and overlooked the destroyed mess that had once been a city. His vision sharper than ever, Turi saw dozens of creatures and thousands of bugs.
It was midnight, and while Turi would have ordinarily gone back to his flock, right now, he was hungry; really, really hungry.
Turi hopped off and flapped his wings, simply going with the breeze for a few seconds before gliding downwards. His gaze swept over the nearby area, and Turi spotted his first meal since becoming an Ascended Crow; a stone-clad squirrel, just like the one that he had nearly lost his life fighting. It seemed that this one had taken the variant species of another rather than make its own- either that, or the one that he had killed was the knock-off, but Turi didn’t particularly care.
Turi dove down at it, opening his beak and letting out a caw as he approached. He wanted the stone-clad squirrel to know that he was coming.
It looked up at him, and the concrete moved to cover its legs. Turi’s thoughts doubled in speed as a chunk of rubble nearby shot towards Turi, and he saw through its trajectory perfectly. His thoughts returned to their regular speed almost immediately after, he was so confident. Turi made only a minor adjustment in his flight path, and he could feel the air ripple from how close the rock whizzed past him.
He had been a bit surprised by how much more proficient this squirrel was in its stone-manipulation abilities, but it made sense. Days had passed since he had encountered the other stone-clad squirrel.
Turi balled up his talons into a fist and infused essence into them. He struck with the speed of a peregrine falcon, and neither his leg nor fists were damaged in the slightest.
On the other side of the equation, a net of cracks spread through the layer of stone that covered the squirrel. He saw its eyes widen, and he saw the cement that covered its legs push the squirrel several feet away.
The squirrel was uninjured, but its stone carapace was riddled with cracks and damage. He was surprised to see the squirrel’s stone exterior repairing itself, and he was even more surprised when two stones lifted from the ground and shot at him.
His thoughts tripled this time, and Turi sent essence into precisely the feathers, bones and flesh that needed reinforcement. He didn’t even move, and instead let the stones strike his chest and neck respectively. No damage was dealt, but Turi could feel that his essence core was only half-filled now.
Turi hopped forward and, with a flap of his wings, crossed the five feet that separated him and his opponent. Essence shot into his neck, beak and skull, and he struck out with his beak, intending to skewer the squirrel’s neck. The stone that encased its fur shifted rapidly, though, and his attack merely shattered stone.
Logically, the squirrel beneath the stone should have been severely injured, but it wasn’t. The squirrel beneath the stone was just fine.
Turi’s thoughts sped up suddenly, and, with his prodigal eyesight, he saw the stone just beneath the squirrel ripple. Turi flapped his wings and propelled himself backwards several feet, just in time to dodge an admittedly very blunt spike that had been aimed at his throat.
Turi wasn’t really in that much danger. The stone-clad squirrel, while significantly stronger than the other stone-clad squirrel, wouldn’t be able to stop him from escaping even if it did win. For that reason, Turi felt safe to test something.
For a brief heartbeat, almost every drop of his essence was in use. His essence-infused wings made him shoot forward like a missile with a single flap. Turi’s golden irises flashed with energy as he willed the air to not only move aside, ridding him of the air resistance, but to also push him forward. His body as a whole had to be reinforced massively to withstand the shock, but especially his beak and neck.
The world blurred, even Turi’s prodigal senses unable to keep up with his speed, and Turi slammed into the stone-clad squirrel, a sharp crunch resounding through the air.
Turi rolled across the ground at high speeds, disoriented. He had expanded all but a small trickle of essence, and once he stopped, his unreinforced body was hurting all over.
Feathers had been torn out and blood leaked from his skin, but Turi couldn’t be happier. He was certain that feeling would disappear once the adrenaline wore off, though.