An Owl's Rise

With her new gear purchased, Evelyn could not wait to try it out.

When they returned ack at Melisandre's mansion, she enthusiastically asked Katrina to spar with her a bit so she could get used to her armor and weapons.

Luckily, Katrina agreed, and soon enough they were battling it out in the training room.

'Whoa!'

Dodging a bolt of lighting by a hair's breadth, Evelyn could feel the pressure that Katrina was putting on.

She was going much harder on her than usual after Evelyn had started the match off by accelerating as fast as possible and nearly slicing into Katrina with the new blades that extend from the tips of her wings.

Also, with her armor on, Evelyn could take more punishment than before, and Katrina showed no signs of letting up.

Eventually Evelyn went down for the count, as she felt her muscles seize up from a powerful lighting attack and was subsequently hit by a huge explosion of fire.

Of course, the heat of the attack did nothing to her, but as Melisandre had shown earlier, the explosive force still could harm her.

"That was a pretty slick move you pulled at the beginning. I really did not think you could accelerate that quickly." Katrina said as she came over to Evelyn who was laid flat against the floor.

It was clear with her last attack that she had won, and now she was praising Evelyn for her speed.

However, from Evelyn's point of view, Katrina was far more impressive. Even when caught off guard. she had somehow moved fast enough to get out of the way by wreathing herself in lightning.

"Yeah, that was my fastest attack, but you still dodged it. How does your magic work to let you move so quickly?" Evelyn asked.

But Katrina just gave her a smile and told her that she would tell her if she ever beat her in a fight.

After that the two of them went to eat dinner along with Anneli, before retiring for the day.

…

Around two months later it was time for the expedition to the new continent to begin now that all the members had been selected.

It had apparently been a grueling process for most that wanted to participate, but for Evelyn, she had simply spent the time training her magic skills and practicing her alchemy thanks to Melisandre's recommendation.

'This is the place.' She thought as she stood in front of a large door.

Currently she was in the mission hall where the details of the expedition would be explained in a large meeting room before they headed out.

Entering inside, Evelyn found that there were currently only eight owls that had gathered for the meeting since she was a bit early.

'They are all low tier awakened beasts except for one who is at the mid-tier.' Evelyn thought as she analyzed them.

Seeing this, she figured that they must have been the leaders for the mission for lower ranking owls like her.

She already knew that the group of seventy-two owls that would be a part of the same expedition were fifty peak fiend beasts, with the other twenty-two being recently low tier awakened beasts. Well except for the group's commander, who was obviously the mid-tier awakened beast.

Not long after Evelyn entered, one of the members the leader's squad flew over to Evelyn and extend a thin strand of magical energy to communicate. Which she naturally accepted.

"If you would not mind showing me your identification cuff so that I can confirm that you are a member of our team?" The owl with emerald green feathers asked.

Doing just that, Evelyn held up her cuff and the owl brought forth a magical device that began glowing blue.

"Okay. you are confirmed. Please go ahead and find a seat and wait until we begin." They said before heading back over to the others and continuing their discussion.

Looking around, Evelyn toiled with where to sit, and eventually decided that at the edge of the third row would probably be best. That way she would not stand out or be in anyone else's way.

Slowly a few more owls trickled in until it was just ten minutes from the start of the meeting when most of them arrived at the same time.

All of them similarly had their identities checked like. Evelyn and a few were turned away for not actually being a part of the mission.

Soon enough the last few owls came rushing in, and to Evelyn's surprise she recognized two of them.

One was the owl with white feathers that were almost clear and had a smattering of silver, while the other was the snow owl that had originally told her about the Roost.

Spotting them, Evelyn was pretty surprised. This meant that they were likely some of the best fiend beasts in the Roost even though they had not even been here for a year.

'I am pretty sure that the clear feather owl was only a high tier fiend beast last time I saw her in the Glowing Woods. Well, I guess I was as well so it makes sense that she would have advanced since then.' Evelyn thought as she looked at the two familiar owls.

Though as they noticed her staring, she went wide eyed and ducked her head in embarrassment for being caught.

She hoped that they would just forget they saw that and go about their business without coming up to her.

Unfortunately, her wishes went unanswered, as the snowy owl came flying over to her in practically a frenzy.

When he arrived in front of her, he had bright gleaming eyes and he got uncomfortably close. which caused Evelyn to abruptly back off.

Realizing he had startled her, the snowy owl back off and slowly extend a thin magical thread to communicate properly with Evelyn.

'Do I have to?' Evelyn thought, not wanting to accept.

She was still a bit mad about how the other owls targeted her because of their jealousy of the snowy owl who was picked over them even though they were the same rank.

Still, since they were going to be going on a long-term expedition together, she could not simply ignore him and accepted the connection.