An Owl's Rise



Evelyn suddenly felt a sense of weightlessness, and the scenery around her turned into a blur.

It took her several seconds to realize what was going on, but eventually she managed to deduce she was surrounded by water and flying off at a high speed.

Thankfully she realized that this was not an attack, but was a hasty maneuver from Melisandre to separate her from the ensuing battle between her and the leader of the Deamhain Sect.

With a quick glance around she saw five other figures floating within the water bubble and a sigh of relief escaped from her mouth.

Melisandre had not only protected her, but her companions as well.

Unfortunately, their safe trip in the protective water bubble did not last long.

Once they had traveled around a dozen kilometers away it burst into a spray of mist and released them in the open air.

'That is magic for you.' Evelyn thought as she regained control of her body.

Despite having been engulfed in water, the second the bubble had dispersed she was not left with a single drop on her.

At first, she had been expecting to need to pull a fast maneuver to dry off, but Melisandre's magic had not caused them any inconvenience.

However, while they had escaped immediate danger thanks to Melisandre's quick thinking, the four of them were left exposed without their powerful guard. If even one of their pursuers caught up to them now, they would be hard pressed to fight them off.

'We need to reorganize and head towards the nearest bastion of owls just as Melisandre said. I don't know how much longer we need to hold out for, but hopefully it is not much longer.'

No longer having her reliable master around, Evelyn took charge of her team that had been flying around with her. She was the leader after all, and it was her job to stay level-headed in a situation like this.

"Form up. I will take point with Otis bring up the rear. We need to hurry before any attackers reach us." Evelyn commanded.

The confusion on her companions' faces faded fast once they heard her orders, and they moved into a formation that they often used while exploring.

Their current goal was to evade attack and go on the defensive so Bylur, Rehni, Verrader and Aralee were grouped up in a diamond formation and ready to focus fully on defense.

Only Evelyn and Otis were poised to attack depending on if they were assaulted from the front or back.

'It looks like we are not going to make it without a fight.' Evelyn thought, a scowl forming on her face.

A group of eighteen humans had spotted them and were flying to intercept.

At the very least these were not the high-ranking people that had been chasing Evelyn around but just a ragtag group that had been retreating after failing their assault on one of the Major Halls that the Roost was using as fortresses.

None of these humans were above the mid-tier of the arcanist rank which was equivalent to a tyrant beast at the mid-tier, but their overall power was definitely above Evelyn's team thanks to their superior numbers.

Luckily the humans were injured and worn out, so all they needed to do was break through.

"Make sure to stay close to me. I will push us through them. Once we have left them behind, I will be counting on you Otis to keep them off us." 

After relaying her orders, Evelyn spread out her heavenly flame in front of her in the shape of a bullet.

She then utilized her wind magic to keep her flames stable in order to prevent it from burning her friends and lowered the gravity around them to lessen the energy they needed to fly.

At the same time Bylur, Rehni, Verrader, and Aralee created shields of magical energy around them, and Otis amassed a swirling mass of sand to attack with when the time was right.

Several of the humans attempted to blast through Evelyn's shield to force them to stop, but she focused her all on maintaining her magic and charged ahead.

Some of the attackers that were confident in their durability decided to disregard her flames since she was only an awakened beast. 

They jumped in with weapons drawn and defensive magic ready to protect themselves, expecting to easily push through Evelyn's magic.

Yet when they reached the crimson flames surrounding her and her companions, their magical defenses quickly burned away, and they were scored pretty badly.

Most of them flew back the moment they felt their skin burning, but a couple were completely immolated and fell from the sky as nothing but charred corpses.

This was simply how powerful Evelyn's heavenly flame was. It was able to burn through just about anything it came into contact with.

"Otis, you up."

Once they flew by the scattered group of humans like a flaming meteor, Otis launched a huge blast of sand behind them.

This not only blinded the people chasing after them, but also forced them to fall back farther as the sand flew at high speeds and easily sliced through unprotected skin.

Having forced their way through, Evelyn continued leading the way towards the nearest Hall where the owls of the Roost had solidified their defenses.

When they arrived Evelyn was sure that the location would become the main target for the Tyrannis Union to attack, but hopefully it would not be long until what remained of the Roost was warped away.

Sadly, their success was short lived.

Not long after breaking through the first group of humans they were assaulted by another. But this time it was not just rabble that had been retreating to lick their wounds.

"It seems that we finally caught up to you."

Several dozens of liquid tendrils spread out to cut off Evelyn and her team's escape and Evelyn came to an abrupt stop when she saw this.

This magic was familiar to her and when she looked ahead and saw who was creating it, her face twisted into an expression of rage.