An Owl's Rise

For almost a minute Evelyn\'s companions sat in silence. Contemplating what they next action should be.

Otis had made quite the discovery while they were gone, and it was a hard to decide whether to avoid it or investigate it further.

"I think we should try and see what this structure is and what is hidden within it. If there are magic statues acting as sentries than their certainly must be something of value inside. No one would put up guards if there wasn\'t." Bylur said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, but it is also likely dangerous. We could easily find ourselves seriously hurt or killed. I believe that it would be in our best interest to mark the area and be on our way for now. We can always come back later if we want to." Rehni said.

Bylur seeing that Rehni was going to oppose him turned towards Evelyn\'s siblings for support. They had gone on this journey to get stronger and push themselves, so he felt that it was only right that they investigate this odd and well protected structure.

However, begin the newest and weakest member in the group, Evelyn\'s siblings did not feel comfortable putting forth their opinions and stayed quiet despite the pressure that Bylur was putting on them.

"As much as I do not want to agree with Bylur, I think we should at least take out the guards and look around a bit to understand what the structure actually is." Otis said, tipping the scales in favor of investigating the ancient building.

Rehni scowled and looked towards Evelyn. As the leader of their group she was the one to make the final choice in the end anyway.

"You both make good points, but I am leaning towards Bylur and Otis. We did not come here to play it safe the entire time. Sometimes we will need to take risks to obtain greater rewards. There shouldn\'t be anything here in this forest we cannot at least run away from. I say we give it a try and if it is too much we can flee." Evelyn said, having made her decision.

At this Rehni let a small sigh before looking at Evelyn with conviction.

"You are our leader, so I will follow your orders."

Nodding her head, Evelyn was happy that Rehni did not try to argue and instead got behind the rest of them.

"Otis, you are the only one that has fought these sentinels. About how strong do you think they are?" Evelyn asked.

With a pensive expression Otis thought back on the short battle he had with the statues. He had not fought them for very long or with much conviction so he was not sure exactly how powerful they were, but it was clear that they would not fold easily.

"If I had to say, they are not as strong as me one on one. I might be ale to beat them together even, but I did not try to very hard to beat them. Neither of the statues seem to have any sort of inherit magic affinity, but they are sturdy and are teeming with magical energy. I believe that each one is around the level of a weak low tier tyrant beast or a strong peak awakened beast."

"Hm, sounds like they are tough, but not above what we are capable of." Evelyn said, forming a plan in her head.

"Otis, you are confident that you can handle one on your own?" Evelyn asked for confirmation.

"Yes, I am certain of that." Otis replied.

"Very well. Then I want Rehni and Bylur to take on the other one while Aralee and Verrader act as support for both fronts. I will stay above and keep and eye on the situation to make sure nothing unexpected happens and jump in if it seems necessary. We have never fought enemies like these before, so stay vigilant."

After Evelyn gave out her orders, the six of them shot into the air and followed Otis to where he found the structure guards by statues.

Soon they came upon a tree that was around thirty percent thicker than the others in the area and was slightly taller.

Several low hanging branches with giant leaves sprouted out of it near the bottom and caught the even the slightest amount of sunlight that was managing to trickle through the canopy.

The structure that Otis had told them about was nowhere to be seen and neither were the statues that were supposed to be standing guard.

"It is under there. The leaves hide it well, but if we push them out of the way the statues and structure will be come visible." Otis said.

Turning her gaze to where he indicated, Evelyn created a powerful gust of wind and sent it towards the leaves and branches.

When he magic reached the area a powerful updraft blasted the leaves out of the way and for a few moments they could see what as hidden beneath.

Built into the large tree was a large stone doorway with magic inscriptions scrawled all over it. It was made of a gray stone that was cracked and crumbling. There was moss and vines growing all over the stone and parts of the tree had even grown through it.

\'I can see why Otis said it looked ancient. This certainly was not put here anytime recently. It is probably even several centuries old.\' Evelyn thought.

Yet despite how impressive the stone doorway into the large tree was, something else soon garnered Evelyn\'s attention.

Standing guard in front of the doorway was two statues that were beginning to come to life.

Each one was just under four meters tall and carried a large shield and spear.

At first Evelyn thought that they were made out of some type of metal, but on closer inspection they were made of wood that had a dark black luster to it.

Once the two statues began moving again, they turned their attention towards Evelyn whose wind magic they perceived as an attack.

Without hesitation the two wooden sentinels held their spears up and began glowing with magical energy.

Then they fired off blasts of magical energy towards Evelyn like a ground to air missile system.

"Go, take them down." Evelyn said ascending higher and dodging the attacks coming her way.

The statues were only attacking her so far since she was the only one that had unleashed any magic, so Evelyn drew their fire while her companions got into position.

Quickly Evelyn ascended outside of the wooden knights\' effective range and watched the battle begin.

To start, Otis had sent a large pillar of earth directly for one of the knights.

It looked like the massive thirty meter long five-meter-wide pillar was simply crush the wooden statue flat without resistance, but it held up its shield and received the attack.

Even at nearly four meters tall the statue seemed tiny compared to the sheer mass of earth Otis had unleased towards it, but its shield was reinforced with a great deal of magical energy, and it swatted the attack away.

A spray of dirt shot through the area as the pillar was destroyed and the larger chunks smashed into eh surrounding trees and left dents in their bark.

Of course, Otis was not perturbed that his first attack had been blocked and flew in closer to begin his next attack.

He swiftly flew in a circle around the wooden knight and the ground began to sink around it. This was the same attack he sued to finish the lead bearcupine.

His intentions were to have the ground swallow up the sentinel and crush it completely, but the magic statue was not so easily captured.

With fast movements it jumped away from the area of effect under Otis\' control and headed up the nearby tree and into its branches.

From there it began unleashing a barrage of magical energy attacks from its spear and forced Otis to take evasive maneuvers.

As he flew Otis picked up two massive pieces of earth from out of the ground and began compressing them.

By the time each of the over the over twenty-meter-wide lumps had been compressed down to just three meters wide, Otis had gotten into position above the wooden knight and began his own attack.

As if two gatling guns had opened fire, several shards of compressed rock began blasting towards the wooden knight.

Each one of these stone bullets that Otis was unleashed packed enough force behind them to rip through a tank, but the wooden sentient held firm and used its reinforced shield to block the onslaught.

The branch it was standing on began to shake, but despite taking several powerful attacks from Otis its shield was barely scratched.

Nevertheless, Otis never intended for this attack to take down his opponent, he had instead been preparing the area so that he could use the magic he was most adept at.

When he had exhausted all of the compressed earth he had prepared the wooden knight lunged towards him with impeccable timing and what should have been impossible speed for its size.

It was a sharp strike that might have been able to kill some tyrant rank beasts that were caught off-guard, but Otis was ready.

All of a sudden it seemed like a giant yellow and brown wave had erupted all around Otis and slammed into the approaching statue.

Swirling all around Otis now was an astounding amount of sand that moved completely at his whim.

While he had the wooden statue pinned down with his stone bullets, he had delivered most of his attention and magical energy into turning the ground around him into sand which he had the most experience manipulating.

Now Otis was prepared to use his strongest and most skilled magic to defeat his sturdy opponent.