An Owl's Rise

A large bolt of lightning shot off from Verrader's body and slammed into the humongous badger below him.

The low tier tyrant rank beast that was obviously the apex predator of the area was unused to being suddenly attacked and was a moment too slow to react.

Its body began to convulse and sizzle as the intense electrical current traveled through its body.

However, while Verrader's magic had landed a solid hit, it was far from enough to kill such a sturdy beast.

Of course, Verrader himself had no aspirations of taking down a tyrant rank beast by himself, He simply wanted to garner its undivided attention.

After launching his initial attack, he used his wind magic to quickly fly higher into the air, and not a moment too soon.

It did not take the badger long before it fired a counterattack and a large pillar of earth shot up from the ground.

Had Verrader remained he would have been crushed by the heavy impact and had most of the bones in his body shattered.

'Well, I certainly got its attention. I just hope it is not so mad it is willing to follow me to the end of the world.' Verrader thought as he continued to rise.

Once he reached an elevation, he felt he could dodge any attack from, but not so far that he was out of the badger's range, he began flying in the opposite direction of where Aralee was guarding, Evelyn, Bylur, and Rehni.

As expected, the irate badger took off after him. Firing large clumps of earth into the air in an effort to knock Verrader out of the sky.

Thankfully, the badger was a beast that had lived its entire life in the wild and was not a particularly skilled user of magic. All it was capable of using were crude attacks that relied solely on power.

'This should be far enough. I do not want to be away for too long, less another threat approaches.'

Once he had led the badger several kilometers away, Verrader flew higher into the air until he was just a dot in the sky.

He tested to see if the badger would continue to follow him, but it gave up when it realized that Verrader was not going to be easily caught.

'Good, it is not heading back the way we came.'

Letting out a sigh of relief, Verrader was happy to see that the badger was wandering off in a different direction from where his companions were.

Still, he did not rest on his laurels just yet. He needed to head back and finish his sweep of the area do what he could to make sure that Evelyn, Bylur, and Rehni could recover.

On his return trip, Verrader found a group of wild dog beasts that were scouring the hills in search of prey. While earlier in the evening when he first started things were quiet, now that it was late into the night the nocturnal predators were out in full swing.

The group of nine wild dogs was not even close to the threat that the badger had posed, but pretty much any beast would pose a danger to the weakened members of their group.

Luckily, Verrader spotted a larger serpent winding through the grasses and hatched a plan.

He swooped down low and picked up one of the weaker wild dogs on the edge of the group in his talons and began flying away.

It was a bit cruel, but he made sure not to kill his target and let it howl and yelp in distress to get the attention of the rest of its pack.

The wild dogs keyed in on him quickly and he began flying low to the ground as they chased after him.

When he was a dozen meters from the hunting snake, he dropped the injured wild dog in its path.

While it was startled at first, the snake did not take long to attack the injured prey in front of it, just in time for the rest of the pack to catch up and watch one of their own being eaten.

A fierce battle ensued that left the wild dogs down several members and the snake ultimately dead. Two more threats in the area were eliminated.

Verrader continued his perimeter around the area, diverting or killing any beasts he deemed could pose a serious threat to his party in their less than perfect condition.

'That should do it for now. I think things will be safe for a while.'

With a satisfied look on his face, Verrader returned to the small patch of trees that rested in the dip between multiple hills where his companions were waiting.

Everything was peaceful when he arrived, and he could see that Aralee had laid Evelyn, Bylur, and Rehni on some cushions to make them more comfortable. In their conditions they could not even perch like normal.

"How did things go? Are there any major threats we need to worry about?" Aralee asked upon Verrader's return.

"I only encountered one low tier tyrant rank beast, but I lured it away so I think we should be safe from it. There were some other awakened rank beasts I dealt with or sent in other directions as well. For a bit at least, I do not think we will have anything trouble us." 

Verrader then gave a detailed report of what sort of beasts he encountered and what he did to drive them away.

Yet the moment he finished, he felt his head grow fuzzy and he started to sway unnaturally.

Now that the tension of the incredibly long day had left, the immense fatigue Verrader had built up hit him all at once.

"You have done your job, so go ahead and get some rest. I will keep watch until you are rested. It may only be the two of us for now, but we just need to hold out until Bylur and Rehni recover from those potions they drank. Hopefully, that will be soon." Aralee said as she cast a concerned glance at their unconscious companions.