An Owl's Rise

Squaring off, Melisandre and Hollis stared each other down as they waited for the other to make the first move.

Both of them understood that they were fighting an opponent they could not take lightly and needed to be as alert and cautious as possible.

In the end though, Hollis broke their stalemate. Realizing she needed to finish this battle fast.

It was clear that all the owls that had showed up here were part of an organization, and if any more fighters as strong or even stronger than Melisandre showed up, she knew that she would be unable to win.

To start things off the empress dryad unleashed and attack far more viscous than any she had thrown at Evelyn or Bylur.

Now that she was no longer maintaining such a large-scale barrier, she was able to use more magical energy, and knew that only her best was going to be able to defeat Melisandre.

Huge thorny vines that were as thick as shipping containers burst out all around her and began lashing out past the speed of sound.

Each of these frenzying vines on their own packed enough force behind them to leave scars in the mountain where they hit and would have been devastating blows to Melisandre. If they could connect with her.

With extreme grace Melisandre flew around with a swirl of water under her, allowing her to move around unpredictably and at odd angles.

Then as she saw an opening, she swiped her hand froward, and a thin line of extremely hot flame cut through the vines and into Hollis like a hot knife.

'Boiling meteor shower.'

Following up on her first attack Melisandre slammed her hands together and a wave of magical energy proliferated out from her body.

Controlling this energy, she formed it into hundreds of giant fifty-foot diameter balls of water above her head and conjured extremely hot flames within each one.

The water instantaneously began boiling incredibly hot and would have vaporized if not for Melisandre's expert control that kept the water in its liquid form despite the fact it should have become a gas.

All of this happened in only a single second before she unleashed the spell, and it began raining down upon the area.

In response, Hollis surrounded herself with an even greater number of light bullets and fired them off at the falling boiling meteors.

Yet she could not wholly focus her attention on this as Melisandre gave her no time to rest.

A huge lance over three hundred meters long made of spiraling water appeared above Melisandre's head and launched itself towards her enemy's chest.

In order to block this Hollis held out both of her arms and conjured a large glowing flower which absorbed the water on impact.

It then began glowing even brighter and redirected the force of Melisandre's attack in the form of a beam of light.

Unable to avoid this wide ranged and fast-moving attack, Melisandre instead created a multilayered barrier in front of her composed of fire, water, aand pure magical energy.

As she took the blast of light her shields began to shake and crack, but she managed to hold out till the end.

'Looks like its time.'

When she had finished blocking the powerful attack directed at her, Melisandre smirked and cast her gaze upwards.

While all of her boiling meteors had been destroyed, that was not enough to stop this spell's second form.

Now instead of the large spheres of water the attack had stared as, it came in a downpour of rain which was still superheated thanks to Melisandre's immense control over her own magic.

This boiling rain began falling down around the mountain. Causing the area to melt or catch on fire.

It was almost implausible for rain to be starting fires and melting the earth, but this was just how good Melisandre was at combining her magical affinities into spells.

"AUGHHH!"

With the boiling rain falling down upon her, Hollis screamed out in pain as her skin began melting like it was acid and not water falling on her.

She had paid not mind to the shower coming down on her, that she figured would be harmless after she disrupted Melisandre's earlier, and far flashier attack that served as its prelude.

"I can see that you simply rely on brute force for the most part. Your attacks have no finesse about them." Melisandre said as she began weaving more spells.

This served to only anger Hollis even more and led her to unleash a number of attacks that while powerful, never had a chance of hit Melisandre.

Shooting around like a jet Melisandre was constantly in an ebb and flow of attacking and defending. All while setting up for a decisive blow.

She had created numerous smaller magic phenomenon around her during the battle and now they had added up into one major attack.

Fireflies.'

Suddenly thousands of tiny flames began flying around the area at high speeds and irregular patterns.

Each one of these little flames did not pack much punch, but against a massive opponent like the empress dryad, they were practically impossible to block or evade.

At the same time water that had been shaped in the form of small lizard began crawling up the giant black root that was connecting Hollis to the ground and would explode periodically into sharp blades of water.

Hollis could do nothing about Melisandre's nimble assault that took fully advantage of her opponent's bulk.

"Enough!"

Screaming out loud the empress dryad had reached the limit of her anger and exploded in a giant burst of light all around her.

This powerful attack quickly disappeared all of the little attacks Melisandre had been using and forced her to create some distance to avoid begin caught up in the blast.

When it receded, the mountain they had been fighting on no longer had its upper two thirds and had been shaved completely flat.

'Oh, she is trying to be sneaky.'

After the light was gone Hollis' large form was nowhere to be seen, and Melisandre surmised that she had hidden herself underground.

It was a pretty obvious strategy to avoid her attack, and she had wondered how long it would take her enemy to try it.

'Looks like she is attacking again.'

Coming up from the ground thick trees began spouting with their branches snaking out in sharp points and heading straight for Melisandre.

Under this assault, she took evasive action, and when unable to dodge would use a highly compressed flame shield to incinerate any branches that got near her.

But as she was moving around while planning her next move, Hollis' large form suddenly shot out of the ground, and she grabbed ahold of Melisandre with both of her hands.

"Ha, you got sloppy. Did you think I would not attack you personally? Your magic skills may be great, but I can tell your physical prowess is well below mine.

The empress dryad then smirked as she began squeezing. Planning to crush Melisandre before she could retaliate.

However, the supposedly caught owl just smiled.

"You really are just a brute. Anyone with half a mind could have seen through your plan. You never should have touched me."

The instance after Melisandre said this, her wings burst into black flames which cut through Hollis' hands.

Then with the flap of her wings the black inferno shooting out of her in the form of two blades sliced right through the body of the empress dryad.

Feeling her body being cut into four sections, Hollis could only stare out in shock at what had just happened.

"It was a big mistake for you to assume I did not have a power that could easily break through your defenses at close range. This technique may be hard to use, but so long as I am in physical contact it is my strongest weapon."

With another flap of her wings, she sliced the head off the tyrannical being that had nearly killed her disciple.

"How could this happen? I, a being that has lived for millennium is to die on such a pitiful continent, in this state. If only you and silver dragon had never appeared. I could have been the ruler of this world and ascend beyond it." Hollis said as her head burst into black flames.

The remains of her large form then crashed into the ground with a resounding thud that shook the earth.

'I should put it out before it all burns up. It is not often I can get such high-quality material.' Melisandre thought as she diminished the flames eating way at Hollis' body.

Once that was done, she placed the entire body into her storage cuff which had a far greater capacity than any Evelyn had even heard about.

Melisandre then turned towards where she had left her disciple, and Bylur who had saved her life.

'Good, they are still fine. For a moment I was afraid that the empress dryad might decide to go after them. But she really was a straightforward and simple creature.'

Touching down on the ground, Melisandre could see that the two potions she had handed over had been taken, and that both Bylur and Evelyn had all of their injuries healed.

"Melisandre, that was amazing. What were those black flames?" Evelyn said, the astonishment clear on her face.

Now that her injures had recovered, she was able to communicate without taking long pauses in between each word.

"Ah, I guess I have not shown you that yet. I also have an affinity for darkness magic as well, and I combined it with my flames for my strongest power. Though it is difficult to control so I can only use it as an extension of my body. But enough about that. We need to move to collect the rest of your squad. Some of the others might still be alive."