An Owl's Rise

"I'm sorry Aralee. You are right. Now is not the time for me to be wallowing in self-pity." Verrader said, his head hung low in shame.

He had gotten used to Evelyn or one of the others taking charge when they were in a group. 

When he was alone, he had no problems taking care of himself, but this was the first time he needed to step up and look after everyone in their time of distress.

"The first thing we need to do is scout out the immediate area and make sure that things are safe. We got lucky that there weren't any strong beasts that had claimed this patch of trees, but I am sure you can tell we are not in an environment that will be devoid of powerful threats." Aralee said, wearing a serious expression.

Verrader took a few moments now that he had calmed down a bit and took in the feeling of the magical energy that was naturally within the area. 

It did not take him long to realize what Aralee meant. There was enough magical energy permeating these rolling hills to support the growth of tyrant ranks beasts. This wasn't going to be a place that was merely populated by fiend beasts and weak awakened beasts. It was undoubtedly just as dangerous as the Forest of Giants they had carefully traversed when their entire party had been at full strength.

With just the two of them, they would be hard pressed to turn away any tyrant rank beast that saw them as easy prey.

"I will go scout around. You stay here and guard our sister." Aralee said, taking the more dangerous job for herself. She could tell that Verrader was more rattled than she was and figured he could use more time to recover before doing anything strenuous.

However, to her surprise, he stepped up with a resolute look in his eyes and shook his head.

"No, I should be the one to go. Your magic is better at defending an area. You can protect everyone better than I could. My lightning magic is also more effective in an offensive capacity in case I get into a fight."

"Are you sure? I don't want you going out there without a clear head." 

"Yeah, I am fine now. You helped me get my thoughts in order. There will be a point when we need to unpack what has happened, but now is not that time. We need to worry about staying alive for the moment and I will do my part to make sure we do not lose anyone else."

After assuring Aralee that he was up for the task, Verrader flapped his wings and lifted off the ground. 

He quickly ascended to around two kilometers in the air and began patrolling the area in order to locate any nearby or approaching threats.

Luckily there did not appear to be any dangers lurking in the sky at the moment, so Verrader focused his search on the ground.

At first, he did not find anything threatening, just some smaller beats that were scrounging around in the tall grass.

Yet, as he extended his search perimeter, he spotted what looked like an area of grass that was moving up one of the hills.

As he focused Verrader, realized that what he was seeing was not a patch of moving grass, but a large beast that had fur that blended in with the surroundings.

He was uncertain what it was, but its body was short and low to the ground, but quite wide. Had Evelyn been here, she would have recognized it as being a badger. Though one far larger than its counterpart on earth and sporting fur far removed from their normal coloration.

Verrader kept his eyes trained on the clearly predatory beats for a few minutes, before he watched it stop and vigorously dig up the ground.

The hill it was train exploded with life and dozens of gopher-like beasts began fleeing from their burrows.

It did not take long for the badger to kill the strongest specimens living in this burrow and claim them as its meal.

All the while, Verrader watched and analyzed its fighting style and the magic it used. It had not been moving on a direct path towards where his sisters and companions were held up, but it was moving in the general direction. 

'Hopefully, now that it captured its prey it will move away.' 

Unfortunately, as if the world had something against him, the badger began leisurely trudging along towards the patch of trees where Aralee was keeping guard over Evelyn, Bylur, and Rehni.

Verrader did not know if it was heading home after securing a large meal, or if it was continuing gone in search of more prey. Either way, this was a stroke of horrible luck.

Normally, they could all simply fly in the sky to avoid this low tier tyrant beast, but currently three members of their party were in no condition to move.

Still, it was better that Verrader had located this threat before it arrived. Had neither he nor Aralee gone out to scout, they would have been taken by surprise and likely lost at least one of their team members.

'This is nothing compared to what we just got through. I only need to draw it away.' Verrader thought as he steeled himself.

Once he was ready, he turned his body downward and dove directly towards the tyrant rank badger.

The closer he got, the clearer it became how big his target was.

From the sky it had not seemed so impressive, but now that he was almost on top of it, he could see that it was about eight meters long and three meters wide.

It was far larger than him, and one good hit from it would almost certainly mean his death.

Nevertheless, Verrader continued his charge until the gigantic badger noticed his approach.

Then, right before it responded to him, he released the magic he had been preparing.