An Owl's Rise

Evelyn now having passed the final trial to enter the Owls Roost, sat on a tree overlooking the clearing where the remain owls did battle amongst each other.

For a bit she had thought that she would have to fight against all of them, as her soon to be mentor gave an "equal chance" to every one of the owls that had passed the second trial.

Luckily it only took Evelyn one demonstration of her power to convince all of the other owls that they did not have a chance against her, and instead they moved onto fighting amongst each other in one-on-one fights where the winner was accepted to be taken to the Owls Roost.

Currently the fifth match was going on between two owls at the peak of the fiend beast rank and both with an affinity for water.

It was an interesting fight to watch, as in terms of physical and magical power they were close to equal, and the outcome of the battle was going to be decided by which one had the most skill.

Eventually one of them did come out on top by feinting with a head on attack that was easily blocked, but by having a spike made out of water hidden behind them and out of view.

They cleverly used this spike made of water to deliver a finishing blow, as their opponent thought they had an easy opening to exploit and went all in on one final attack.

After watching this fight Evelyn was starting to get a better understanding of how other owls wielded their magic and their relative intelligence levels.

Some of them were pretty much all brute force and did not seem all that smart, but others showed pretty complex strategies and understanding of their opponent's abilities.

It was quite a bit different from how Evelyn expected things to be, since from the reading she had done, she had assumed that all beasts until reaching the awakened rank had no chance of being very intelligent.

'I suppose that the book was written by humans, and it was only one short passage. It is doubtful that the author was able to view how beast society actually works, especially since just like people, they appear to be highly varied from what I have observed.'

Taking in more information than she had before, Evelyn made sure to watch the battles carefully.

Soon, it came the turn of the owl with clear and a splattering of silver feathers that she had seen in the jungle after surfacing from the pool of water.

She was the only high tier fiend beast left, and against her opponent she looked quite frail and fragile.

In fact, even Evelyn was bigger than her, and she was the smallest lowest ranked owl left.

Still there was something about her that Evelyn felt was dangerous.

Stepping up as her opponent was an owl with bright yellow feathers that were almost difficult to look at.

Most of the owls had muted colors that allowed them to better blend in with the darkness, but this guy stood out like a spotlight.

And it quickly became apparent that his flashy coloring was not just for show, as the second the battle began, he started crackling with lighting and four bolts shot off of him towards the owl with nearly clear feathers.

Yet as they were about to hit her, they suddenly curved around her and struck directly into the ground.

It was a baffling display to watch as Evelyn and all of the other owls beside the two that were running these trials failed to understand what had just happened.

'What the hell was that!? How did she bend the lightning around her!?'

Looking intently down toward this owl, she tried to figure out what had happened. And as she really focused her eyes, she spotted something catch the slightest bit of light.

Seeing this Evelyn quickly figured out what was going on and was very impressed by the intelligence that the owl with nearly clear white and sliver feathers had done.

'This is the first time I have seen anything with an affinity for metal. But to think she would be able to create thin wires around herself and use them as lightning rods.'

Trying once again the almost fluorescent yellow feathered owl started crackling with more and more electricity, and this time unleashed one large, concentrated blast.

It honestly looked almost exactly like a true bolt of lightning this time, and it moved incredibly speed and ferocity.

However, while this world was filled with magic, electricity still followed the path of least resistance, and the large bolt was absorbed by the hundreds of threads that had created a Faraday cage around the white and sliver feathered owl.

This exchange happened over and over again, as while the small owl that had an affinity for metal seemed highly intelligent, the owl firing off bolts of electricity did not seem very bright in terms of brain power.

After nearly two minutes of futility wasting his magical energy and stamina, the yellow feathered owl resorted to physical violence instead, and rushed his much smaller opponent.

But she just stayed where she was, sitting on the ground not moving an inch.

Then not realizing until it as too late the owl with bright yellow feathers impacted into the very thin threads of metal, and his body was horribly slices all over as her rammed into them.

It was pretty brutal to see, as he went in headfirst, and his body was cut in numerous places as he slowly broke through the threads until he came to a screeching halt.

He was left tangled up and unable to move, and any discharge of electricity was simply directed into the ground.

With her opponent trapped and completely defenseless, the owl with nearly clear white feathers along with a smattering of silver, created numerous more threads in front of herself and wound them together until they had formed into a spear.

Then with the flick of one of her wings she sent it forward and it pierced right into her adversary. Sinking deep into his chest and ending his life.