An Owl's Rise

"Okay today we are going into the mountains above us. This is likely to be the most hostile area we have been in, mostly due to high-speed gusts of wind and the cold. To help deal with that we are relaying a lot on you Evelyn so that everyone else does not have to expend their magical energy." Adolophine said as she gave a quick speech before they departed.

At this point Evelyn's ability to manifest heat over a large area as well as her expert control over wind magic had her being used as a counter to the harsh climate the expeditionary unit found themselves in.

This was so far a great boon for any of the owls that could not handle the cold weather as well as others.

'I just wish my job had not been completely relegated to a space heater though.' Evelyn thought while internally sighing.

As she was able to control a far larger area than any other owl in her squad, and by using less magical energy thanks to how powerful her heavenly flame was, she had been placed to be slowly on controlling the weather around them.

By doing this she would allow all of the other owls to not need to expend magical energy to mitigate the harsh cold and heavy winds.

On the other hand, it meant that unless she was under attack herself or the situation was desperate, she was not going to be participating in any battles so as to not waste her precious magical energy that was being used as climate control.

When it was time to go Evelyn moved into the center of her expanded squad that was now ten owls instead of six and included the snowy owl that was infatuated with her.

"Here you go." Evelyn said to the entire group.

In the next instance she created a ball of her crimson flame that was about three feet in diameter above her head and a gentle warmth filled the freezing area.

Around her for around three hundred feet now there was a pleasant warmth that all of the owls that were more adapted to hotter climates enjoyed.

After that Evelyn's squad began flapping their wings and they ascended in the sky.

They began wrapping around the mountain, going all the way to the far side in the north which was their designated area to explore.

It had been determined that with the snowy owl's resistance to cold and Evelyn's heating abilities' that their squad would be most suited for taking the farthest and coldest area.

Their group continued to fly at a steady pace going around the left side of the mountain until they came around the back of it which had been so far unseen to them.

Looking around with their bird's eye view the located a nice opening in the trees at the base of on the mountain and headed down.

In order to get any sort of close examination they needed to be closer to the ground and began weaving their way through the trees that shot up five hundred feet into the air and had thick trunks.

'This is kind of weird.' Evelyn thought as she examined the trees.

All of them seemed to be the same species, but their leaves were all drastically different.

Some had needles like pine trees while others had small and short leaves like a live oak.

Yet others had huge leaves that were nearly as big as Evelyn and did not seem to fit in such a cold and snowy area.

Except what was most unusual was the some of the trees had leaves of multiple types on them.

'I guess it must be helpful for the trees in some ways.' Evelyn thought without being able to get a clear answer.

Naturally her group collected samples from a number of the trees as they were a before unknown species and could have some useful properties. Even if it was unlikely since they seemed to have almost no magical energy in them.

Though this presented another slight oddity as they continued to explore the area.

While the magical energy in the atmosphere seemed to be at the level they had been expecting, the land itself was pretty low.

Any magical plants they found growing were at best barely suitable for use for a fiend beast and most of the time they were more in line of something a wild beast would consume to get stronger like the ones the humans fed to Evelyn when they had her captive.

To that end, the number of fiend beasts in the area was a bit low. Though since there was enough magical energy in the air, they were more abundant than the magical plants.

And to that regard all of the beasts were far more aggressive than normal as their greatest resource was eating each other.

'Damn, how many of them are there.'

When they had moved up the mountain a bit, they had come across an area with dozens of burrows in the snow.

Naturally the went to investigate and lured whatever was inside out, and were now faced with hundreds of beats that were like a cross between a badger and a chipmunk.

They had long sharp claws just like a badge and long pointy teeth meant to tear through meat, but also the incisors like chipmunks had to crush nuts with.

Their other features were mismatched as well. With them having a face more resembling a chipmunk but with the coloring and more elongated body of a badger.

Though what made them incredibly annoying was their ability to climb trees exceptionally well.

This had allowed them to surround the Evelyn's squad by getting above them by climbing up the trees in swarms and jumping down without any care for their safety.

Along with that, the stronger ones that could use any form of magic were attacking them from below. With the majority of them having either an affinity for ice or earth, thought the occasional one had a nature affinity which made them really annoying.

However, while they were numerous and tenacious, most of them were just wild beasts and honestly throwing themselves at the owls like cannon fodder.

Only twenty of them that had appeared so far were even at the fiend beast rank and of them only three were at the peak.

With only this much power behind them, they were not much of a threat to Evelyn's squad that was composed of seven peak fiend beasts and three low tier awakened beasts.

Whenever they were attacked, magic spells went flying and dozens of these beasts died in the process.

Quickly they began whittling their numbers down, all while avoiding the few attacks that could actually hurt them.

Still, even though they were stronger in overall power, they began to lose magical energy with each attack and were slowly losing their strength.

And when they thought they had nearly won, as the attacks started to stop. The ground began to shake, and a larger badger chipmunk came out of the borrow.

It as easily fifteen feet long and had a thick and stout body that exuded the aura of an awakened rank beast.

There was no doubt that this was their leader, and they had now shown up to deliver the finishing blow to the exhausted owls.

Except this is exactly what they had been waiting for.

"Evelyn now is you time to shine. Take them out." Adolophine said.

Smiling, Evelyn was happy that it was finally her chance to get in on the action.

Throughout the fight she had kept up her job as a heater, and only attacked when absolutely necessary to defend herself.

So, she still had plenty of magical energy and was given the go ahead to unleash a devastating attack.

At this point all the other owls knew she was the strongest in their group regardless of her only being a fiend beast and trusted her to deliver the finishing blow here.

'You never should have shown yourself. I have been waiting for this.'

Charging straight ahead, Evelyn began spinning her body around and creating a torrent of wind which she released flames into.

'Crimson twister.'

Using her current strongest attack, the same one she used to feel the giant stag that had attacked her when she first arrived, Evelyn crashed into the surprised lead badger chipmunk.

Naturally it and its subordinates tried to stop Evelyn's full power attack. But everything they threw at her melted away and turned to pretty much nothing when it reached her heavenly flame which was being rapidly spun around by her wind magic.

When she collied with her target the area around them began to steam, and the snow turned into water vapor immediately creating a number of pressurized explosions in the area.

In fact, the damage to the area was far greater than any of the owls expected. including Evelyn herself.

Also, it was safe to say that the target of her attack was utterly destroyed. With not even a trace left from being engulfed in Evelyn's crimson tornado attack.

'Maybe I should have held back a little more.' Evelyn thought while looking at the destruction she had caused.

Not even the beast cores were left as they had been burned away as well.

The remaining badger chipmunks that had survived began fleeing and the other owls in Evelyn's squad used this time to hunt down the few remaining fiend beast specimens so that they could be brought back to be studied.

Yet it was not long after Evelyn's attack that the entire mountain began to rumble, and as all the owl's looked up they saw an avalanche like a tidal wave rushing down towards them.