An Owl's Rise

Slowly but surely, Verrader and Aralee, began whittling down the Ramil ants that were milling outside of the nest.

They easily swooped down stealthily and killed the unsuspecting ants quicker than they could respond. Before and carrying their lifeless bodies away.

As tough as their carapaces were, at only the peak of the fiend beast rank, the ants could not hold up to the piercing power behind Verrader and Aralee's talons.

Still, the ants they had taken out were only fiend beasts and not any sort of challenge. But after they had killed twenty-one of the weaker Ramil Ants the nest finally noticed something was afoot.

Without any warning eight ants that were four times larger than the workers that had been moving around outside the nest burst out.

With quick head movements they survived the area and looked for the perpetrators that had been picking off the weaker members of their colony.

Unfortunately for them, Verrader and Aralee were currently high in the sky and well out of the detection range of any of these soldier ants senses.

'Looks like they finally flushed out some of the ants at the awakened rank. None of them seem particularly strong, but as a group they are certainly dangerous. I wonder how Aralee and Verrader will handle them?' Evelyn thought as she observed the situation from above.

After just a minute Evelyn finally got her answer, and it was clearly the wrong one.

Verrader had tired a sneak attack that was exactly the same as what he had been attempting against the workers, but was in for an unpliant surprise.

While his talons could easily piece the fined beast rank works, they were not nearly as effective against these solder ants.

As he tried to sink his claws in, he found that they only pierced into the ants carapace by a couple of inches and were far from dealing a fatal wound.

The attacked ant then lashed out at Verrader with its sharp mandibles and released a pheromone that alerted the other soldiers of an enemy.

Backing off, Verrader avoided the sharp pincers that nearly clamped down on him, but found himself stuck by a searing acid from behind.

The other soldier ants were already rushing in and each one began flinging acid towards Verrader.

In attempt to get away he began flying up, but a large ball of hardened sand flew at him. Created by one of the Ramil Ant's magic.

Being knocked to the ground, Verrader found himself the target of all eight of the solder ants, who were rushing to finish him off.

It was at this point that Aralee, snapped out of her daze and began assisting him.

Flapping her wings, she sent down a barrage of wind blast that pushed the Ramil Ants into the ground and immobilized them for a few moments.

This gave Verrader a bit of a reprieve and now that he was back into a corner, he finally used his magic. As he should have from the start.

Flashes of electricity began coiling around his body, and when he had built up an impressive charge he launched multiple bolts of lightning around himself.

All of the Ramil ants that had been swarming towards him found themselves blasted by electricity and their bodies began to seize up and smoke came off their bodies.

Two of them died instantly and the others were paralyzed for long enough for Verrader to ascend back into the air next to Aralee.

Once there he pulled a potion out of his low-capacity storage ring and drank it in one gulp.

The acid burns on his body and the bruising from being hit by the ball of sand quickly began to heal thanks to the potion.

'He is definitely strong. His magic fried two of them and incapacitated the others with relative ease. The problem is his battle sense. He is a bit too reckless. Aralee on the other hand is more timid. It is good to be careful, but not when it leads to inaction until something ahs already happened.' Evelyn thought, analyzing the way her siblings fought.

Neither of them was weak by any means, but they definitely lacked experience. They had almost never fought any enemies that were stronger than them or had them outnumbered.

Watching intently, Evelyn wanted to see how they would handle the current situation. Which was actually becoming worse for them.

More ants had poured out of nest and were getting into position to defend their home.

In only a couple of minutes there were now twenty of the solder ants. One of which were larger and at the mid-tier of the awakened rank.

With the increased number of defenders, Verrader and Aralee found it impossible to get in any decent attacks.

If they got low enough to make an attack they would put themselves in danger and if they attacked from too high their magic was easily blocked.

Eventually, Evelyn's siblings realized that they were just wasting their energy and ascended to where Evelyn, Bylur, and Rehni were waiting far above.

"I am sorry. We were unable to do anything once their solders appeared." Aralee said with a downcast expression.

Verrader though unlike Aralee looked incredibly frustrated that he had to turn back. And while it was only for a moment, he cast a jealous gaze towards Evelyn.

Disregarding the look, Evelyn told her siblings what she thought they had done well and what they had done poorly.

"Frankly you have little to be disappointed about. You did fairly well in the beginning. You were heavily outnumbered by beasts at the same rank as you. It only makes sense that you would be unbale to easily beat them." Evelyn said.

This helped to perk Aralee up, but Verrader seemed to still be just as sour.

"Anyway, it looks like you both really riled them up. So, I think it is time that we take them on instead. Watch carefully to how we fight and coronate. Knowing how to maneuver and best use your magic is more important than simply raising your rank."