An Owl's Rise

"We finally caught up with that vacuous little girl."

Standing in the branches of a tall tree several kilometers away from where the young mistress of the Taidale family and her guards were camping for the night, a man wearing black with his face covered looked through a telescope.

The powerful magic device not only allowed him to perfectly see from a long distance away at night, but also allowed him to get a general read on the faint magical energy being emitted by the guards keeping watch outside and those sleeping in their tents.

Thanks to this precious item he was able to ascertain that there were fifteen individuals outside the three carriages. Unfortunately, he could not see within the three vehicles thanks to their cloaking magic, but that was of little consequence. He knew his target was most certainly within one of them.

"Lord Morden, we have checked the surrounding area and found that there are no hidden protectors deployed by your grandfather or any other members of the family. How should we proceed?"

Another man with his entire body covered in black expect for his eyes appeared next to the man spying on the camp. From his words and demeanor, it was obvious which of them was in charge.

"We continue as planned. There are only fifteen people protecting her and only twelve of them are at the mage rank. I imagine that the three acolytes are the coachmen. They won't pose any problems."

"Understood, I shall relay your orders to the others."

The second man then disappeared and the first could not help but smile.

"I've waited a long time to get rid of you. You may have been the patriarch's favorite, but now that he is sick and old he can't protect you anymore. I'm not going to let you escape and grow stronger in the Tyrannis Union. Once I dispose of you just like I did your father, all of the obstacles in my way will be gone." Morden muttered to himself with a degree of fanaticism in his voice.

…

"Lucia, Bylur, Rehni, several attackers are closing in on our position." Evelyn said, casting wind magic to carry her voice to her targets.

She figured that the three of them probably had already noticed that something was afoot, but since it was their turn to sleep, she made sure to notify them just in case.

After that she hastily walked over to the two guards Taidale Family guards that were on watch and told them to wake everyone up.

"You're certain of this? Our detection tool has not picked anything up." One of the guards said skeptically.

They had set up a perimeter alarm that would cause a magic orb in their passion to light up if anything crossed it. Since it was still dark, from their perspective everything was clear.

"My magic has a greater range and sensitivity than your device. Don't believe me if you want, but thirty-seven attackers will be here soon."

Evelyn left the guards once she had explained the situation. Her job was not to worry about them nor was she counting on their assistance in the upcoming battle. She bothered informing them simply to prevent a panic from unfolding in the middle of battle.

When she returned to the area where her companions had set up camp, she found that Lucia, Bylur and Rehni had left their tents and were looking around warily.

"Where'd Aralee go?" Evelyn asked.

"She's scouting things out from above." Rehni said, pointing upwards.

With a quick glance, Evelyn could see a small figure floating high above them.

As she did a bolt shot out of the darkness aimed for her neck.

Of course, it never reached her. Before it was within even five meters of Evelyn it froze over and plummeted to the ground.

Bylur wore a proud expression on his face as he looked towards Evelyn for praise, but she decided to ignore him here. That attack never posed any danger to her in the first place.

"It seems that our adversaries want to conceal themselves in the shadows and pick us off from a distance. Evelyn, could you go and thin their numbers. We will stay here and protect the carriages from any that slip past you." Lucia said.

"Certainly."

Evelyn rushed off with a vicious smile on her face. She finally had some people she could kill to vent the dark emotions that had been growing inside her since the day her parents were killed.

As she raced through the darkness, she headed directly towards the person that had fired the bolt at her. The shot had come from around three kilometers away, but with magic it would only take her a few dozen seconds to close in on her target.

"That's not going to stop me." Evelyn said, waving her hand and whipping up a gust of wind that blew away several attacks that had been aimed at her.

The sniper and his compatriots were launching several bolts, arrows, and spells at her, but none of their attacks were anywhere near strong enough to breach her magical defenses.

When she finally reached the person that had first attacked her, Evelyn found them scrambling to cast a spell.

From the large hand motions, she could tell that it was going to be a big one, but that did not matter. Her first victim was only at the low tier of the mage rank. Nothing they could do would harm her.

"Shard Buckshot!"

Finishing his spell, the man conjured thousands of small iron slivers and fired them towards Evelyn at high speed.

This attack would normally easily rip through any other low tier mage that was unprepared to defend against it. Surely the young woman charging towards him that appeared to be at the same rank would be shredded by this spell.

Yet, like some sort of miracle, every single one of the small projectiles missed. They warped around Evelyn and continued flying off into the distance behind her.

"That's one."

Casually waving her hand, Evelyn separated the man's head from his body with a blade of wind.

A fountain of blood poured out of the now headless body and a heavy scent of iron filled the air.

Despite the disturbing scene, Evelyn felt ecstatic. These people most likely were not involved in the attack on the Roost, but when she struck that man down, she imagined that he was one of the people that had torn those that she cared about away from her. After all this time, she at last had an outlet to unleash her rage on.

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