An Owl's Rise

Evelyn coming out of the tunnel that led deep into the mountain prepared to shot off like a jet immediately.

With such a looming threat nearby, she decided to completely prioritize her own safety and was going to abandon the rest of her squad.

She knew that at her full speed none of them would be able to keep up and was not willing to slow her escape down for them.

At the end of the day, she valued her own survival above any of her squad members.

'Hopefully they will be fine anyway. It did not seem like that thing was pursuing us.' Evelyn thought as she prepared a gravity trap.

When it was done, she set it behind her and active it.

Suddenly a powerful force began pushing on her, and she went with it. launching herself at and incredibly speed.

As she picked up momentum, she moved the air around her to lower drag, coiled it around in three miniature twisters behind her, and funneled her heavenly flame out like rocket boosters.

This sent her flying at truly fast speeds that exceed that of what even most peak awakened beasts could reach.

Of course, she had no real means of steering herself and was just explosively traveling in a straight line as fast as she could.

Yet when she was about to cross past the base of the mountain, she crashed into an invisible wall and was knocked off course like a ricocheting bullet.

Before she could even figure out what happened, she crashed into the snowy ground below her and carved a deep trench in it until she came to a stop.

'Ugh, what the hell just happened?' Evelyn thought as she pulled herself out of the snow.

All at once her momentum had been blocked and the next thing she knew, she was crashing headfirst into the ground.

By some miracle though she managed to come out from her crash without too much injury and was mostly just rattled.

This was thanks to all of the buffs from potions and talismans that were still on her, as well as the loose snow making for a fairly soft landing in comparison to what the hard earth would have been.

'I do not think anything is broken. Ow, but I have a few scrapes and bruises.' Evelyn thought as she examined her body.

Once she was certain her body was fine, she looked towards the area where she had suddenly impacted something.

At first it looked like nothing was there, but upon closer inspection she could see a barely visible light blue shimmering barrier.

Seeing this Evelyn began to panic quite a lot and flew over to try breaking through this barrier.

Shooting out a stream of her heavenly flame she tried to blast a hole through the barrier.

But while she was damaging it as her heavenly flame burned through it, the barrier was constantly fixing itself to the point that she could not break through.

Quickly it became apparent that she was not going to break out and was only wasting her magical energy.

'Damn it. What is this?' She thought in frustration.

Still, she did not completely give into panic and began flying upwards. Hoping that maybe this barrier did not extend all the way into the sky and that she could fly over it.

Though along the way, she spotted the rest of her squad that was still alive flying towards her.

"Evelyn what are you doing? Why did you take off like that?" Adolophine said when they got back into range of their magical connection.

"I was trying to get away as quickly as possible. I hate to say this, but I am faster than all of you."

Hearing how cold Evelyn sounded, Adolophine frowned but could not berate her in this situation.

They had just come across a creature that easily killed half their squad and they barely managed to get out of the mountain alive.

"So, what is the problem? Why have you not gotten further away?"

"There is some kind of barrier blocking the way. It completely stopped me, and I cannot break through it." Evelyn responded while jerking her head towards the barely viable shimmer.

Looking at it closely Adolophine noticed it as well. And soon so did Braulia, Rehni, and the snowy owl.

"How is this possible?!" Adolophine said once she was finished analyzing the barrier.

She could tell that it was made out of pure magical energy and that it dwarfed the power that any of them had.

"Let us try going up. It may only extend so far." Adolophine said, having the same idea as Evelyn.

Sadly, when they reached a few thousand feet into the air they found that the barrier had a domed ceiling that prevented them from escaping.

Desperation creeping in, Adolophine told all of them to try attacking the same point of the barrier all at once with their best attacks.

However, none of them other than Evelyn were able to so much as put a scratch on the barrier, and it proved to be no more fruitful than Evelyn's earlier attempt.

'Why is it not coming after us?' Evelyn thought after a while.

It had been quite sometime since they escaped from the central chamber in the mountain, but the creature there had not made any attempt to come after them.

Still, it had created a massive barrier that encompassed several miles of area in order to keep them from escaping.

"Let us try flying around and search for any sort of opening. A barrier this large is sure to have some sort of weak point we might be able to break through." Adolophine said, trying to keep them looking for a solution.

"Wait, I might be able to get us out. I just need a moment." Evelyn said to stop them all.

She had one last trump card to play, even if she did not want to.

Opening her storage cuff, she pulled out a certain potion that was mostly silver in color with a few blotches of green and purple mix in.

Bewilderment came over Adolophine's face as she saw this, since it was something she had never seen before.

"What is that?"

"My strongest potion given to me by my master. It may give me the power I need to break through this barrier."

After saying this Evelyn moved to break the top off the bottle, when the entire mountain began to shake.

Then, where the crater on the side of the mountain began to crack, and the massive membranous pod that had been in the center broke out into the open.

Staring out in terror the five remaining owls froze and held their breaths, as the creature that had killed their other squad members and trapped them, emerged from the depths of the mountain.

An instant later it began shifting and the pod that was containing the creature within began to split and reveal what was inside.

Thousands of gallons of a green liquid began pouring out as the pod opened, and when it hit the ground, it began eating through it and causing the land to sizzle and smoke.

Within just a minute the entire pod had peeled away to reveal the torso of a giant green woman whose lower body was a massive bulbous purple flower that attached into the ground with the thick black root.