An Owl's Rise

"Looks like things are clear today." Evelyn said, looking out at the forest around their temporary abode.

On their first day, they had encountered a tyrant rank beast that had interrupted their rest. With their coordinated attacks the six of them had managed to kill the lizard without suffering any major injuries and secure themselves many valuable resources.

After the battle they had found anew place to rest and taken the entire night off to recovery. It was now dusk on their second night in the Forest of Giants, and they could finally begin searching it for valuable items.

'Though I suppose I should give both of them a bit longer to rest.' Evelyn thought, turning her head to look at her siblings.

Both Verrader and Aralee were still a bit sluggish after Evelyn had forced them to eat just a bit more than they could of the lizard's meat.

It was an extreme form of training that would help increase their magical energy quickly, but put a strain on their bodies. Nevertheless, Evelyn knew that it was necessary if she wanted her siblings to catch up to the rest of them.

Until just before midnight Evelyn allowed Aralee and Verrader to rest, while she, Bylur, and Rehni scouted out the area.

Luckily since they were still on the fringes of the forest most of the beasts were not at a high level and proved no threat to them so long as they kept their guard up. The tyrant rank lizard had been an exception and was likely the only powerful beast that frequented these outer areas where the magical energy in the ground and atmosphere was not as thick.

Seeing as this was the case Evelyn figured that it would be the perfect training ground for her group, with the exception of Otis.

When she returned from scouting she found that her siblings were looking a bit more alive, though it was clear that the excess magical energy and food they had eaten the day before was till being processed by their bodies.

"From the look of things most beasts around here are content with hiding and are not very strong. It should be ideal for us to ease back into our expedition and training after the battle yesterday." Evelyn said, before taking the lead into the woods.

Slowly gliding from branch to branch their groups stealthily moved through the forest in search of other beasts, magical plants, and any other types of treasures that they could find.

Normally they would fly out in the open, but the area they were in was populated by beasts that knew how to hide and if they made their presences easy to sense it would make it harder for them to locate prey.

However, by acting stealthy which they were adept at due to being owls, they were able to get the drop on other beasts.

'Looks like we finally spotted some suitable contenders.'

Looking down from her perch near the canopy of the forest, Evelyn spotted a group of what looked like rats scavenging through the underbrush.

It seemed that they had unleashed some magical mushrooms that were growing on a decaying stump that had been swallowed by years of falling leaves.

'There are fourteen of them in total. All of them being at the low tier of the awakened rank. This should be perfect for Aralee and Verrader.' Evelyn thought.

She then told her siblings her plan and directed them to attack the rats.

Unlike against the tyrant rank lizard neither of them showed any hesitance, and in fact their eyes looked sharper than normal. What was below them was rats who were an owl's natural prey.

Barely making a sound Aralee and Verrader descend towards the forest floor and before the rats knew what was happening two of them had bene picked up by Aralee and Verrader and carried away.

Naturally the rats noticed the loss of two of their comrades and began squeaking in distress, looking for their attackers.

Yet it was not until Aralee and Verrader attacked again and effortlessly took out two more of their members that the rats knew what was happening.

Immediately the remaining rats scattered. Showing no sense of unity anymore and simply running for their lives.

'Hm, I really thought that they would try and stand their ground and fight since they had greater numbers.' Evelyn thought.

In the end the rats were unconfrontationally. They were more than willing to sacrifice some of their numbers in order to flee themselves.

Fortunately, Evelyn was not personally interested in slaughtering the rats and was just using them as more training fodder for her siblings.

By the time Aralee and Verrader returned they had managed to kill eight of the original fourteen rats between them.

"Go ahead and take out their beast cores. We have no need for anything else on them." Evelyn said.

In terms of meat to eat they still had plenty from the tyrant rank lizard that was far higher quality and none of the other materials from the rats were of any value.

Still, there was something else on the forest floor that the rats had so generously uncovered for them.

While Aralee and Verrader took out the beast cores from the rats' bodies, Evelyn along with Bylur and Rehni descend to the ground where the rats had uncovered a group of mushroom.

"Oh, some Pove Mushrooms!" Evelyn said excitedly.

She recognized these as an ingredient that could be used in higher level awareness potions that increased ones' senses temporarily.

There were exactly thirty-four mushroom growing of which nineteen had enough magical energy in them to be considered suitable ingredients for brewing the position Evelyn wanted to.

Of course, they could also be eaten as is to increase magical energy and heighten ones senses a minuscule amount for a bit.

Though what Evelyn had in mind for most of them was to actually use them for some alchemical cooking. That way she could bring out their properties without going through the trouble of making a potion, even if it would not last as long or be able to be preserved.

"Those rats must have good noses to have found these. They put out almost no scent and only grow in areas that are completely covered." Evelyn said happily harvesting the mushrooms that were located by the hard work of the giant rats her siblings had just killed and chased off.

With their spoils retrieved, Evelyn with Bylur and Rehni in Tow returned to find Aralee and Verrader carving out the beast cores from the last two rats.

"This was a pretty good haul for our first hunt, but we still have a long way to go. Fighting weaklings is not going to get us much experience." Evelyn said, before taking back off.

Her goal now was to find some suitable opponents that would actually fight back, and this meant she was on the search for other predators rather than scavengers like the rats.

For nearly the rest of the night Evelyn and her compassions searched the forest for suitable opponents for Aralee and Verrader and came up short.

It was not until just before dawn that Evelyn finally spotted a group of beasts that were not content with running and hiding.

What lay below them brazenly walking along the floor of the forest were three giant beasts the likes of which Evelyn had never seen before.

Their faces and legs resembled those of bears but their bodies had sharp quills all over them like a porcupine.

Their were three of these beasts and two of them were at the mid-tier of the awakened rank while the one in the lead was at the high tier.

The leader was easily ten meters long and six meters tall, while the smaller ones at the mid-tier of the awakened rank were about eighty-five percent that size.

Even Bylur, the largest among their group was not as big as any of these creatures.

'I suppose that this is why it is called the forest of giants. Many big beasts roam the area.' Evelyn thought staring down at the beasts she had dubbed bearcupines.

None of them were even close to the size of the tyrant rank lizard they had fought, but that was likely because of the difference of rank. She imagined that if any of these bearcupines managed to evolve that they would be far larger than even the lizard.

The problem now was how Evelyn wanted to do things. She was pretty certain that if she just sent her siblings to fight the three bearcupines that they would have a hard time if not get completely routed. Ideally she would have each of them take on one of the two mid-tiers while someone else occupied the high tier.

Eventually Evelyn descried that it was time to utilize Otis. He had not had much of a chance to do anything and while it was not going to be much of a fight, he could at least test his new abilities against the lead bearcupine.

Having descried on who would be attacking Evelyn relayed her instruction.

"Do not worry Evelyn. I will make sure to keep the strongest one occupied and look out for you siblings." Otis said stoically.

Finally he was going to have his chance to shine and he was not going to waste it.

After that the three of them descend upon the bearcupines and began to do battle with them.

Otis easily used his earth magic to fling the leader away from the other two and Aralee and Verrader flew in to face their opponents.