An Owl's Rise

Feeling her throat being clogged and her stomach bloating as mushrooms rapidly grew inside her, Evelyn began falling from the air.

Her body felt heavy, and her mind was fading quickly as her body was assaulted by the deadly attack that was eating her from the inside out.

Yet before she completely lost consciousness and crashed to the ground, Evelyn engulfed her entire body with her heavenly flame.

She opened her beak and sent a torrent of flames down her throat and into her body to incinerate the mushrooms invading her body.

As swiftly as the mushrooms had propagated inside her body, Evelyn burned them to nothing but ash.

For several seconds she coughed up the charred remains of the mushrooms and had to use her wind magic in a way she had never tested to clear the ash out of her lungs.

'How is everyone else?' Evelyn thought once she regained her senses.

In the middle of a fight being incapacitated for several seconds could easily be fatal and she could only hope that her companions had not met the same fate as her.

The trick she used with her heavenly flame was not something she could do for the rest of them, and if they got infected, she was unsure of what to do.

Luckily when she looked around the others were still fighting and seemed to have avoided breathing in any of the spores.

Verrader and Aralee, after having witnessed what had happened to their sister, had tighten their wind shields to not let in even the smallest of particle.

The pack of mushroom wolves were continuing their assault, by firing more exploding projectiles, or jumping up the side of the nearby trees and launching themselves at Evelyn's companions.

'Looks like they are not all that strong physically. Their danger comes mostly from their spores.' Evelyn thought watching the battle that had moved away from her.

This was a conscious effort by Rehni to protect her, since it had been impossible for any of them to come to her aid while the mushroom spores hung in the air. All they could do was attack from within the wind barrier that Verrader and Aralee had created.

Luckily Evelyn had managed to make a recovery on her own, and feeling an intense fury, she charged towards the mushroom wolfs, still clad in her heavenly flame.

There were several millions of spores spread throughout the area at this point, but Evelyn simply did not care. She burned everything in her wake and when she reached the nearest mushroom wolf, she plunged her talon into it and immolated its body from the inside.

After the flames disappeared a single bronze token appeared from thin area and fell to the ground. Proof that Evelyn had killed her target.

The other mushroom wolves turned towards her and began firing off projectiles, but not a single one hit Evelyn.

She was brining her heavenly flame to full force and known of the mushroom bullets coming towards her could hope to pass through the flames without being turned to ash.

At this moment Evelyn's allies launched their own attacks.

One of the mushroom wolves was crushed under a pillar of sand, the next was pierced by several spears of ice, and its body was frozen over. While another was wrapped up by thin wires and its body was sliced into several dozen pieces.

Watching their comrades being taken out quickly, the remaining mushroom wolves turned and fled.

However, Evelyn was not simply going to let them get away. Especially not after what they had done to her.

Activating her gravity field, she brought down the full weight of her power on the mushroom wolves to slow them done.

Then she flapped her wings and crimson feathers made of her heavenly flame fell off her body before flying towards the mushroom wolves like heatseeking missiles.

All at once Evelyn brought a fiery end to their assailants, and in each their wakes a single bronze token was left.

'Are there anymore?' Evelyn thought, looking around while breathing heavily.

After the first ambush she was expecting the commotion to bring on more enemies, but everything around them remined quiet. At least, for the moment.

"Sister, are you alight now? She just suddenly collapsed before bursting into flames and we had no clue what was going on." Aralee said, flying down with a look of concern.

"Yeah, I am fine now. Some of the spores that were released into the air got inside me and began turning into mushrooms. I used my fire magic to burn them all away. Sorry that I caused all of you to worry." Evelyn said to her companions who were landing around her.

Naturally they were all distressed by what had just happened. Evelyn seemed like their indomitable leader, but she had already taken several injuries since they entered this domain.

"Only one per enemy, huh." Evelyn said, disappointed.

Each one of the mushroom wolves they had defeated had left only a single token after being defeated.

"I suppose that we can take this to mean that each enemy is worth only one, or that these enemies were considered weak and less valuable." Rehni said.

"What do you mean that these things were weak?! They nearly killed Evelyn and breathing in their spores once is as good as a death sentence to most of us!" Bylur said, still on edge from watching Evelyn getting injured.

"No, I think Rehni is right. Those mushroom wolves were not all that impressive. Certainly, their spores are dangerous, but other than that, they are not much of a threat. Their defenses are low, and they are not very physically strong. They were fairly agile and fast, but not to the same degree as that moss creature. That thing was far stronger and able to keep away from the six of us for several minutes before leading us into a trap. I would say that it was far more dangerous in a fight. If we assume that the quantity of tokens is awarded on how dangerous a creature is, I believe that monster would be worth far more." Otis said, giving his own opinion.

As much as the mushroom's unique spore attack was deadly, everything else about them was nothing to write home about.

Glaring at Otis, Bylur did not appreciate his opinion and lax attitude. Evelyn had nearly died, and he felt that Otis was not sowing enough concern for her.

However, this was a difference in how they viewed Evelyn.

When Bylur first met her, he had been the one to lend a hand while she was in danger, even if she did not want his help. On the other hand, Otis revered Evelyn for how she saved his flock when they were at their lowest. To him she was basically invincible and infallible.

To Otis, he never felt that Evelyn was in any real danger. That she would surely pull through no matter what.

"We can discus this more later. For now, we do not have enough information to know whether the creatures in this forest are worth different amounts of tokens, or what criteria they are judged on if they are. Let us head back to the crystal dome and rest a bit. We do not know what is out here, and it is clear that every creature is dangerous in its own way." Evelyn said, getting between Bylur and Otis.

Thankfully this eased the tension between he two of them, and they fell in line behind Evelyn. Though they did continue to send the occasional glare at each other.

Taking back off through the woods, Evelyn did her best to trace back the way they came and bring them back to the crystal dome which she assumed was a safe zone.

Along the way, one of the trees came to life and attacked them, but while it was strong, the six of them defeated it easily enough.

This battle also managed to confirm to them that not all creatures were worth only a single token as this hiding tree as Verrader had named it was worth three.

Fortunately, this was the only other encounter they had before returning to the crystal dome.

"Now we have fourteen tokens. What should we do with them?" Evelyn asked looking at her companions.

Currently, they had enough for two of them to leave which was not even close to enough, but there were still some tests that they could do.

It was uncertain if they would return to the exact entry point, they had come in, or if they would be able to come back to the domain if they left.

"I will go out and see what happens. Worst case scenario if I cannot return, I should be able to go back to the Roost and bring back Melisandre. I am sure she will know what to do." Rehni said, volunteering herself.

After a great deal of deliberation, they collectively descried to send Rehni out of the domain along with the rest of their tokens. It was unclear if they would need the same number to leave and return, but luckily, they had fourteen tokens in total. Enough for a round trip if that was the case.

With the fourteen tokens in a beg tied to her left foot, Rehni interacted with the terminal in the crystal dome and paid the price to activate the warp pad.

In and instant she was engulfed in light and vanished.

For a few minutes, Evelyn and the others waited with baited breaths, before Rehni returned in another flash of light.