Charlemagne collapsed onto the warm metal floor of the helicopter, which was now slick with not only the blood of the humans but also his own. He was a wreck: his flesh had been pulped, his organs crushed, and even his bones had splintered under the point-blank assault. Blood oozed out from everywhere, but thankfully most of his major blood vessels were intact. He also hadn’t taken too many shots to the head, leaving his skull cracked but intact. The two facts taken together meant that instead of dying immediately, he had the luxury of bleeding out slowly. As his consciousness wavered, something shuddered beneath him. Despite his injuries, the rooster suddenly felt lighter.
One of the humans twitched and let out a weak groan, proving that it was still alive. Charlemagne’s ancient instincts kicked in and he managed to drag himself over to the unprotected vitals of his opponent. Then he dug in, ignoring the screams as he consumed the human’s richest nutrient deposits first. He didn’t notice when the cries died out, but then something happened that did catch his attention. The squiggles returned.
Charlemagne divided his limited attention between trying to understand the squiggles and continuing his meal. His ability to use his beak and claws had increased, and he felt that he could now sprint faster. The squiggles also made his skin feel funny in a good way.
As Charlemagne consumed his enemy’s flesh as fast as he could, his wounds started to close. Additionally, his core reached out, finding the trace amounts of mana stored in the body of his victim and absorbing it. Although he was still in a vast amount of pain, his body rapidly regained health. His right-wing, which had almost completely fallen off, sent a sharp jolt of agony through him as it reconnected. And still, he continued to eat, moving over to the body of the man who had injured him so badly so that he could absorb his power as well. His Mana Core quickly drained the man’s mystical power, making him feel almost weightless. It was then that his body left the ground, and he began to slowly ascend.
Charlemagne caught a glimpse of the outside world through the window as he floated by it and finally realized what was going on. He was falling.
The rooster instinctively flapped his wings, feeling a sharp stab of pain as he did so. His right wing was still barely functional, but the powerful beat from his left-wing pushed him up and to the right. His vision swam for a moment as he slammed his head into the helicopter’s ceiling. As he reeled from the impact, his feet landed on something softer than the metal floor of the helicopter. Looking down, he realized it was the one human that he hadn’t started eating yet. Charlemagne reached down and pecked deep into the corpse’s abdomen, ripping into the juicy organs with gusto. Another surge of healing nutrients and nourishing mana flowed into him. The influx of power was enough to finally restart the circulation of his Mana Core.
Waves of power pulsed through Charlemagne’s body as his core began beating again in time with his heart. The flow served as a catalyst: significantly increasing his body’s already supernatural recovery speed by allowing the rooster to absorb and utilize a greater percentage of the protein, fat, and other fuel that he consumed.
Charlemagne was so busy reveling in his meal that he did not notice that the corpse was floating away until it was almost halfway out of the helicopter. He started to yank it back in but stopped as a host of neurons recently formed in his brain all fired at once. The rooster had an idea.
Longclaw averted her eyes from the screen, refusing to watch Charlemagne’s latest exploits.
“I don’t think I want to see this part,” she complained to Grimfalk. “Can you change the channel?”
“Aww, come on, this is awesome!” her companion argued as they followed Charlemagne’s adventures vicariously. “He finally got a defense that will help him against those things the humans carry, the uhhh…”
“Guns,” Longclaw supplied helpfully.
“Right, the guns. Anyways, I was worried for a moment there after he used up all his mana, but boy did he come through. He’s almost to the point where he can pick his class! I can’t believe he’s leveled up so much since he woke up.”
“Well, he was surrounded by an entire army.”
“The army of a small, peaceful nation,” Grimfalk retorted with a dismissive wave of his claw. “But that’s beside the point. What he’s doing right now is so amazing I don’t even have words for it. True apex predator stuff right here.”
“It’s gross and unnecessary,” Longclaw said with disdain.
“Your mom is gross and unnecessary.”
Longclaw was up on her hind legs in a flash.
“Care to say that again,” she asked, claws and teeth glinting menacingly in the soft white light that filled the room.
“Your mother was a wonderful woman, rest her soul. None better.”
The theropod returned to her former posture.
“I just don’t understand why he took it with him,” she complained as if nothing had happened. “Didn’t he already eat the other two humans?”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Grimfalk shrugged.
“It looks like his body is still very inefficient when it comes to healing. He’s eaten what, twice his body weight in the past three minutes? And he’s still not all the way back to full health. He’s a growing boy and needs to keep his strength up.”
“All right, I’ll buy that. But does he have to stand on top of it?”
“No, I guess not,” Grimfalk admitted. “But you have to admit, it looks so cool.”
Longclaw sighed and turned back to the screen, where Charlemagne was surfing on top of a corpse while eating it. Beneath him, the helicopter continued plummeting to the ground below. It slammed into the ground with the sickening sound of metal on metal and then erupted into a fireball as its fuel tank ignited. The explosion burst upward and engulfed the plummeting rooster and his grisly ride.
A long moment passed before Charlemagne reappeared, having launched himself off the corpse and riding the explosion’s shockwave upwards to quickly gain altitude. The pilot’s body slammed into the ground as a hail of gunfire erupted, further desecrating the already ravaged corpse. Charlemagne escaped the worst of the assault and broke past the circle, heading due west, towards Cotonou and Porto Novo.
“Haha, he did it! He totally escaped from the human’s trap,” Grimfalk crowed as Charlemagne continued to power through the sky in an unsightly manner, still favoring his hurt wing. “I wonder what he’ll do now.”
Longclaw frowned.
“He’ll probably mate with every hen between Ouidah and Lagos, assuming that he can even do that with his current size. Roosters are not known for their long-term planning, nor are they known for their restraint. Maybe we should watch some of the public feeds on this screen for a while. Let Charlemagne do his thing.”
Grimfalk shook his head.
“I can’t imagine that the humans will leave him alone. Besides, the public shows are dumb. It’s all weird stuff like seeing how many fish a shark can eat at once or watching two slightly different-shaped cells pummel each other with pseudopods. I’d rather watch protons decay!”
“Fine,” Longclaw said, “but really, I should get going anyways. We actually have a lot of work to do, you know. If we sit around all day just watching your two Champions, we’ll never get anything done.”
“Ricardo needs a lot of attention, too,” Grimfalk whined. “I can’t just ignore him while he still needs my guidance!”
“You’ve appeared to him all of two times,” Longclaw retorted. “And I still hate that name. Look, he’s doing well enough right now. He just hit level four. I’m pretty sure that his next ability will enable him to take advantage of his above-average size. You won’t want to miss that.”
“I just want to watch a bit longer, and then we can get some work done,” Grimfalk promised his companion. “Charlemagne is level nine! Only one more to go before he gets his class choices!”
“No, no, I should get to work. You too, actually. You’re not taking care of your body or your mind. Come on, go hit the hunting grounds for a while, and then have a shower. We can look over what boons we can afford once integration day arrives. It will be here before you know it.”
The larger theropod brushed some squirrel crumbs off his stomach and stood up.
“Okay, I’ll go hunt for a bit, get the old blood pumping. But can you set an alert to tell me if Charlemagne hits level ten?”
Longclaw smiled as she stood as well.
“Will do. Now come on, there’s a lot to do.”
Charlemagne cleared the enemy lines and continued flapping his wings, reveling in their strength. The assorted small arms fire that reached him didn’t faze him. In fact, he took only a few glancing blows as he streaked through the sky high above the human soldiers. After a few minutes of flight, he allowed himself to descend, realizing that what he wanted was on the ground. He had eaten, he had fought, and now it was time to find some mates.
Contrary to Longclaw’s expectations, Charlemagne had little difficulty catching, pinning, and mating with the hens he came across. That is, once he learned not to accidentally hurt them with his considerable weight. He was following the beach road that stretched between Ouidah and Cotonou. Aside from fellow chickens, he saw largely goats and humans. The goats were happy to ignore him. The humans, at least those who got a good look at him, did not stick around to bother him.
While jogging along, Charlemagne passed by a small fishing village. The entire population was split into two large groups, and each group was tugging on a rope. The process intrigued Charlemagne, and he followed the two ropes with his eyes until they disappeared into the ocean. He decided to get a closer look, subconsciously dipping into his Sneak skill to remain unobserved as he approached the crowd. The villagers were engrossed in their task of pulling the wet ropes further and further out of the water. The ends were so long that some of the humans had to stand on the other side of the paved road, which was set well inland from the beach. Occasionally, a car would find its path blocked by the rope stretched across the road. When that happened, the humans that were pulling on the rope would lift it high into the air, allowing the car to drive under it.
Charlemagne soon saw that the two ropes were connected by a net that had been cast out into the ocean and that the villagers were slowly pulling the enormous net into shore. A dim memory sparked from deep within his subconscious, reminding him of a time when he was little more than a chick. He had seen a group of humans perform this exact same ritual and pull a huge haul of fish out of the water. There had been so much that no one bothered him when he ran out past the tideline and claimed a small fish for his own. Granted, he had almost choked himself to death for his troubles, but he had feasted well that day.
The rooster, feeling a bit peckish due to the demands of his regenerative Special Ability and the lack of ambient mana, decided to accept the humans’ gift of fish. He ambled out toward the beach, stepping lightly through the hot sand littered with pieces of plastic that had made their way from Lagos all the way to the beaches of Benin. It was then that one of the humans spotted him and screaming ensued.
The sight of so many humans fleeing in terror, combined with the realization that they were abandoning the task of catching a fish dinner for Charlemagne, caused the rooster’s predator instincts to kick into high gear. He ran down over a dozen of the humans, stopping just long enough to ensure they wouldn’t be able to get away before dashing off to disable another with a swift peck or claw to the back of their long, weirdly shaped legs. After a minute or so of pursuit, Charlemagne magnanimously allowed the rest of the humans to escape and turned his attention back to food. It was then that he realized something wonderful. The humans had almost finished pulling their net in before noticing him. Fish of all shapes and sizes leaped out of the water, trying to bypass the obstacle, while even more were in the net itself or stuck beneath the surface of the water.
Leaving his human victims alone for the moment, the rooster loped back across the beach and into the shallow water, planting his powerful legs to withstand the undertow while grabbing fish one after the other with his beak. Using a cunning never before seen in any chicken, he tossed each fish behind him, not stopping until he had a substantial pile flopping on the sand just beyond the water line. Once he was satisfied with the size of his haul, he ate until he was satisfied. And it seemed that the squiggles were satisfied as well.
For dessert, Charlemagne took a few bites out of the humans he’d captured. Although most were rather tough and stringy, some of the larger ones had easily accessible fat deposits on their chests. These were his favorite. He sauntered up and down the road for a few minutes to help him digest the enormous meal he had just consumed, feeling a bit sluggish as his body stopped absorbing nutrients as soon as they hit his digestive tract. Thankfully, that meant he was finally at full health. His Mana Core was also happy, and Charlemagne felt that it was a bit more responsive after absorbing the trace amounts of power from the fish and the humans. For some reason, the humans held a lot more mana for their size than a fish did. Charlemagne noted the fact without trying to figure out why that might be, but he did resolve to prioritize eating humans above fish in the future.
