An Owl's Rise

Days passed by as Evelyn and Rehni waited around the magic crystal deposit they had secured.

They were unable to do anything but secure the area until Bylur returned with the specialized equipment they would need to start mining the magic crystals.

During the time he was gone they did actually have to face some probing attacks from a couple other powers that resided in the desert.

It seemed that news of the brass jackals falling had managed to spread out to the nearby areas and some of the other beast groups that ruled the desert were seeing how secure the burrowing owls' new acquisition was.

Thankfully with Evelyn's leading the defense they easily wiped out any sort of attack and sent a clear message that trying to take the magic crystal deposit would be a harsh and costly battle.

Still, it was not until the sixth day that Bylur returned to the Velinis Desert.

'Finally! I figured he would need a few days maybe four at most, but I am really surprised that it took him six.' Evelyn thought as she watched his silhouette approach.

When he landed it was clear immediately that something had happened to him.

The expression on his face was not as carefree as usual and he was wearing a deep scowl that was uncharacteristic of him.

"I am back. I got the mining equipment we need." Bylur said without giving any kind of greeting and began taking the items out of his storage item.

Evelyn, however, stopped him immediately and wanted to get to the bottom of what had happened.

"Bylur stop. It took you longer than I expected, and it is clear to see on your face that something happened while you were at the Roost." She said with a sharp tone that offered no way out.

She was going to get Bylur to talk whether he wanted to or not.

He hesitated for a bit and tried to deny that anything was wrong, but under Evelyn's scrutinizing gaze he eventually broke.

"I am sorry. I was not strong enough." Bylur said with his head hung.

This still did not explain exactly what had gone on and Evelyn told him to elaborate.

"When I returned to the Roost a faction of owls ambushed me and started insulting you. They said that they were going to crush your shop and make sure that you did not sell another item again. They also told me to quit your team or else they were going to crush me too. In the end I challenged their leader to a duel and tried to put an end to them, but I was not strong enough. He was at the peak of the awakened rank, and I could not do anything but act as his punching bag." Bylur said with a dark grimace on his face.

It was clear that he was upset with himself for not having been able to defend Evelyn.

"I see. Did anything else happen?" Evelyn asked, wanting to hear every detail.

"Yes, they said that when you returned, they were going to challenge our team to a match. If we want them to leave us alone, we are going to have to beat them. But their entire team is made up of peak awakened ranks and they are in the top two thousand of the Ranking Hall. I am so sorry Evelyn, if only I were stronger, I could have put that guy in his place for you. Instead, I just made myself and you by extension look like a weakling and a fool. If you had not teamed up with us none of this would have happened."

"There is no need to blame yourself. In fact, it is I who should be apologizing. From what you have told me it is more than likely that they are targeting me rather than your or Rehni. You said that they mentioned my shop first, right? They more than likely are affiliated with one or more of the shops that are my competition, and they are trying to nip me in the bud. Another possibility is that they want to pressure me into joining their faction. I have heard of up-and-coming owls that had little or no backing being harassed until they caved in one way or another. Either quitting and becoming recluses or giving in and joining their aggressors or some rival for protection. I was warned about this by Anneli and Katrina who have seen it happen firsthand." Evelyn explained.

She could tell that Bylur was blaming himself, when it was obviously the faction that had attacked him that were at fault.

'I am long since done blaming myself for the violence others enact toward me.' Evelyn thought as her anger started rising.

She had remained calm to hear all of Bylur's explanation, but now that it was over her rage was beginning to surface.

"We simply need to crush them then. If they want a fight, we will give them one. If you were not strong enough than all we need to do is become powerful enough to beat them." Evelyn said with unwavering determination.

Bylur on the other hand did not have her confidence having already experienced a crushing defeat.

"Evelyn, you do not know how powerful they are. Their faction is led by multiple peak awakened ranks. And the digging I did into them revealed that they probably have the backing of a group of tyrant ranks." Bylur said, a twinge of fear in his eyes.

At this Evelyn just scoffed. She was not going to live in fear of some supposed tyrant rank beasts backing the group that was harassing them.

"If it come to that I doubt that they have more power than Melisandre. Did you forget she is my master. If they want to get beasts that are at a higher rank involved, we can do the same. They will surely lose in that case." Evelyn said confidently.

Bylur still did not seem completely convinced and seeing that he needed another push Evelyn said, "Bylur if you are so afraid then you can leave our team. No one is forcing you to stay if you are scared of getting hurt again."

This managed to light a fire under him, and he shook his head rapidly in disagreement.

"No, I am not afraid for myself, I only want to protect you." He said resolutely.

"Good, then this is not a fight e cannot run away from. If you want to protect me, you are going to have to get strong enough to do so. This is likely not the last time that others in the Roost will come after us." Evelyn said.

Luckily this seemed to bring Bylur's spirit back, and since Evelyn was determined, he was as well.

It was at this point that Rehni, who had been quietly listening came forward and asked the questions she had to Bylur.

"You said you investigated this faction a bit. Would you mind telling me what you found out? We need to know the strengths of our enemy."

Nodding his head Bylur told both of them what he had found out about the faction that had ambushed him and seemed intent on being hostile.

"From what I could gather they are a faction composed of two hundred ninety-three owls all in the awakened rank. A majority of their members are in the low tier, but they have plenty of mid-tiers and high tiers as well, along with eight peak awakened ranks at the top. In terms of their faction's strength, they are ranked in the top three thousand in the ranking hall, but as I told you earlier their top three that are in a team together are ranked in the top two thousand in terms of the team rankings. Rank number one thousand five hundred sixty-eight to be precise." Bylur explained.

The amount of concise information he had gathered actually impressed Evelyn and Rehni, since normally Bylur was more of a meathead and did not gather proper intelligence.

Yet this time, since Evelyn was the one who was being threatened and there was no one else to gather intel he had taken it very seriously and done all he could.

At the end he had initially thought that trying to fight against such a group would be foolhardy, but Evelyn had already shown him her resolve and he was going to follow her to the end if that is what it took to protect her.

"Well, this at least explains why you took so long to get back. You have done a good job gathering all this information for us. Now we know who we are up against. And lucky we do not have to fight all two hundred ninety-three of them, but only their three leaders. Once we crush them the others will likely back off. But if things really do escalate, I can always get help from my master, so there is no need for us to worry. All we have to do is get stronger and defeat these idiots that think they can bully us into doing what they want."