Damian stepped onto the forest path. He had taken two buses, a train, and a taxi to get here. Normally wouldn't have even thought about going to a place like this without a group he could carpool with, but with the money that the monster dropped, he was easily able to pay for it. He was nervous at one point, when the ticket person checked the bill he gave them, but there was no problem.

What was more interesting though, was that Crow had been sitting on his shoulder the whole time, and no one had seemed to see him. Crow explained that unless someone had divine energy, they would need absolute faith or direct proof to be able to see the supernatural, otherwise their mind would just ignore it.

"How are you so sure that there are monsters here?" He asked Crow as they walked down the path.

"The missing persons reports I had you look up before we left."

"I still feel like I'm going to end up on a watch list for looking that stuff up." He complained.

"We needed a very specific set of parameters. Missing persons, a wooded area, preferably with caves, and the bodies never found, except maybe a limb or two."

"Yeah I know, I've heard of those disappearances before, they're called missing four-one-one cases or something like that. There's a whole bunch of theories about it, people have written books, made movies, written articles, and post videos online about them. Are you telling me that monsters are to blame for all that?"

"Not all, but definitely some of them are. Many supernatural creatures feed off of humans, either physically or spiritually. It's ingrained in their nature."

"Why humans though, why not just go after a deer or something? It feels like it'd be a lot less trouble, and not bring down a giant manhunt on yourself for grabbing a person."

"Two reasons, compatibility and taste." Crow said, while making an expression on his avian face like he doubted the last part.

Damian made a mental note that it was becoming easier to read Crows expressions and mood, but he filed it away for later as his companion continued his explanation.

"Firstly humans are creatures of chaos, they go against the natural order. Just by physical traits alone, humans should be a prey species, but due to their intelligence they've taken over the world. They've gone places no living thing was meant to go, and come back safely.

For monsters, who are personifications of chaos, it's like flowers are for bees, they're just drawn to you. Also, they like the taste, while they can survive on wild game, it's like choosing between cup noodles and a five-star meal. As a bonus, if the human has some demigod ancestor, even diluted, the monster will grow stronger."

"Okay, so hunting monsters is like a public service." Damian concluded, "So what are we looking for out here, are we going to fight a minotaur, battle a hydra, behead a gorgon?"

"What? No. Those were unique monsters, usually caused by someone sleeping with someone or something that they shouldn't have, almost always involving a god. But they're all dead, killed ages ago. There are some new ones around, but they're powerful and you're not ready just yet. Instead, we're looking for the more common variety of monsters."

"What kind of monsters would we find out here?"

"In the forest there are many, but we're looking for cockatrice."

"Cocka-what-now?"

"Cockatrice, it's a big chicken lizard thing, eye contact is deadly, and its breath is so bad it can kill livestock."

"And that's the first monster you want me to face?"

"Technically it's the second monster, if you remember the impromptu fight with the giant bull. But don't worry the cockatrice is only deadly to mortals. For you, eye contact will only stun you for a moment, and the breath should only make you nauseous. The perks of being a god fragment."

"So it's not that dangerous then?"

"Only as dangerous as a meter tall rooster with razor sharp beak and claws can be."

"Okay, be wary of the murder chickens got it."

"Plus, due to your spark, they're going to want to eat you more than they would normal humans. It'll be like you going through the doughnuts on the train."

"It wasn't that bad." Damian complained

"You went through a dozen donuts in four minutes." Crow shuddered, "It was like feeding them into a wood chipper, I don't know whether to be amazed or disgusted."

"I was hungry."

"People were staring. I think one guy cheered when you finished."

"Alright, so how do I kill these cockatricks?" Damian not so subtly changed the subject.

"Cockatrice," Crow corrected again, "and the best method is to pierce the heart."

"Got it, so how do we find them?"

"That's my job."

With that Crow took off from Damian's shoulder, and flew over the treetops. Every few seconds Damian felt something in the back of his mind, like a pulse. This continued for about ten minutes as Crow circled further and further away, and then feeling in his mind grew less and less. Eventually Crow came back and landed on his shoulder.

"Okay I found a small group of them to the east, you should be able to handle them."

Damian started in the direction Crow indicated.

"So what was that you were doing earlier, I think I could feel it?"

"I was sending out my senses with magic, it doesn't surprise me that you could feel it though, I am part of you, so my magic should be easier to feel. Over time, and as you become stronger, you should be able to sense magic more easily."

"So it was some kind of spell?"

"Nothing so complicated as that, it's more of an inmate ability, like your summonings. Magic needs to be learned and we probably won't find a teacher any time soon."

"So we can learn how to do magic." Damian said excitedly. He Imagined blasting his enemies with fireballs and lightning.

"I wouldn't count on it for now. Plus you're trying to become the god of war, not magic. Learning a couple of spells might be useful, but if we learn too much Hecate may be upset with us."

"Hecate, who's that?"

"Goddess of magic and spells, not someone who you want to be on the bad side of. Plus the more sparks you absorb, the more you can affect reality with just your will."

"I see your point." Damian conceded. The rest of the hike was fairly light on conversation. The direction of Crow took Damian off trail and over treacherous terrain. Even with the physique of a D-grade or C-grade superhero, it still wasn't easy.

Crow had him slow down and move in a crouch when they finally got near the cockatrice. Crow guided him around the group until he was down wind of them. Crow hopped to the ground so he wouldn't get in the way.

Damian waited as he watched the cockatrice, there was three of them. They really were strange creatures, bodies and heads of chickens, lizard tails, and bat-like wings, or maybe they were dragon-like. They were big too, larger than a turkey, and Damian could see their talons as well, he definitely wanted to avoid them.

What felt like the perfect moment appeared, the monsters were spread out, one was in front of him, facing away. Damian rushed out from his hiding spot, summoning a breastplate and helmet along with his sword. He thrust his sword down through the back of the first cockatrice, the point coming out through the front of its chest.He left the sword in its back and rolled forward, when he was back on his feet, he already had a new one in hand.

His element of surprise was gone, but there were only two of them left. The first one confirmed dead by the golden glow its dissolving corpse gave off. The monsters seem startled for only a moment before seeming to sense his power and let out a screech somewhere between a roar and a rooster's crow.

Damian took the initiative and charged towards one of the remaining monsters. He saw a flash of green, and collapsed to the ground, tumbling forward with his momentum. He tried to move, but his limbs weren't responding. He realized that he must have looked directly into the cockatrice's eyes.

He could slowly feel sensation coming back into his extremities, but it wasn't fast. The cockatrice weren't waiting either, they seemed surprised that he wasn't dead immediately, and were circling him. Just as he could move his arm again one of the cockatrice leapt at him, talons extended. Damian swung his sword, that he'd thankfully held onto in his fall.

The sword connected with the monster's neck, severing its head from the rest of its body. It still collided with him, but crumpled against his breastplate, instead of ripping into him with its talons. He pushed it off of him, getting up clumsily, trying to prepare himself before the final cockatrices could attack.

To his surprise the headless cockatrice got back up and started running around. It had yellow gas spewing out of its neckhole like some kind of nightmarish smoke bomb. Damian caught a small whiff of the gas and gagged, if he caught a full face of the gas, he'd probably vomit uncontrollably.

Damian decided to end this as quickly as possible. He transformed his sword into a spear, feeling his divine power coming close to his limit. He rushed the last cockatrice focusing on its chest and not the head. It must have realized that it wasn't going to be able to stun him again, so it breathed out its own stream of toxic gas. Damian held this breath as he rushed through the noxious cloud, though it still made his eyes burn. He reached the final cockatrice, and stabbed down his spear with all this strength, cleanly penetrating through it and into the ground beneath. With some effort he extracted his spear from its body, being unable to waste his sparks power to summon a new one.

Damian rushed through the malodorous clouds to find an unaffected part of the clearing he was in, and took a deep breath. He looked around for the decapitated monster, finding it fairly easy as it was doing a decent impression of a smoke stack. Without a head it was fairly easy to dispatch, and Damien walked out past the clearing to where he had left Crow.

"That wasn't that bad." He told his feathery companion.

"It could use a little refinement, but that's the point of these outings. Good job." Crow congratulated him.

"Now we just have to wait for the gas to clear and I can go pick up the loot."

"I'll see if I can help with that." Crow told him and flapped up into the air.

Crow used his wings with a strength that no actual crow would have, and within a couple minutes the foul gas had been cleared away. Damian went to collect the items they had dropped. The first one only dropped gold, but he got items from the other two. One item was a silver necklace with a pendant that looked like a green reptilian eye. Crow examined it and said it would prevent evil eye abilities like the cockatrice had. What perplexed him was the other items.

"It's a fart cushion." Damian said, the incredulity evident in his voice.

"It's a magic fart cushion." Crow corrected.

"Why would it drop a fart cushion as loot? What kind of magic would do that!"

" I'm not really sure how the looting magic works, maybe it's affected by your subconscious. So if you thought the breath smelled like a really bad gas, out comes a fart cushion. Probably the worst part though, is that it has a lot of enchantments on it."

"What kind of enchantments does it have?" Damian asked, now curious.

"When placed underneath a cushion it becomes invisible and intangible to everyone, except for the one who put it there. When activated, aside from the noise, It lets out a less deadly version of the cockatrice breath attack. And there are unlimited uses of it."

Damian was stunned, to say the least, it was like an item you'd find in a wizard's prank shop. Unfortunately for him it was completely worthless, as he was pretty sure prank wars wouldn't fall under his purview as a god of war candidate.

"So what do we do with it?" He asked Crow.

"Probably sell it, or give it to a trickster god as a gift in case we need some good will." Crow froze for a moment then shouted, "DAMIAN DUCK!'

Damian tried to do as Crow said, but a moment of confusion made it too late. Damian was knocked forward, lines of white hot pain opening on his back. He landed several meters away from where he had been, tumbling across the ground. Damian looked up to see what appeared to be a giant mountain lion, but with a viper for a tail.

The monsters didn't wait for Damian to recover, and pounced towards him again. He didn't have time to summon a new weapon, so he used the only thing that he had. He shoved the fart cushion towards the creature's muzzle and squeezed.

Aside from the unfortunate sounds it made, it also released an absolutely rancid odor. While Damian thought it smelled bad, the monster was obviously affected more. After landing on his chest, denting his breastplate and cracking a couple of ribs, it rolled off of him and started gagging. Damian thought it looked like a cat hacking up a hairball.

Not wanting to waste his chance, Damian summoned a short spear, he thrust it through the creature's eye. With what remaining strength he had, swept the spear through the vipers body, beheading it. Having its brain skewered and tail chopped off, it collapsed to the ground spasming, then it finally stilled and began to dissolve.

Damian lay on the ground panting, he was bottomed out. If he had summoned one more thing during either fight, he would have gone unconscious from magic fatigue. He knew that would have been it for him. Crow came over to check up on him.

"Are you alright?"

"Not really, but I think I'll live."

"If I'm still here then you'll be fine. We just have to wait for your spark to recharge, once you heal we'll head home, I think that this has been enough practice for today." Crow went quiet for a moment then spoke again more softly, "I'm sorry I didn't sense the chimera sooner, if I had you might not have gotten hurt so badly."

"It's fine," Damian said, reaching over to pat crows head, "you were born this morning."

Crow nodded, "I just wish there was somewhere safer to train you though."

Damian paused for a moment, then smacked his forehead, "I got so caught up in everything I didn't even consider it. I know someone who can train me."