An Owl's Rise

After her first attack failed to finish the battle against the osprey matriarch, Evelyn created some more distance and prepared for a prolonged battle.

It was clear that in terms of magical energy quantity she was a bit outmatched and would need to use all of her tricks to win.

Still, her increased gravity kept her opponent pinned to the ground and she used her superior maneuverability to launch numerous attacks from multiple angles.

This put the osprey matriarch mostly on the defensive, since if she failed to block Evelyn's heavenly flame with pure magical energy, she was certain to be horribly burned.

However, this did not mean that she could not use some of her focus for attacking and Evelyn found new bolts of lightning chasing after her every couple of seconds.

For nearly two minutes they kept up the exchange until Evelyn finally got a solid hit to connect and one of her wind blades sliced deeply into the osprey matriarch's side.

Red blood began pouring out of the wound and crashing against the ground faster than normal thanks to the immense amount of extra gravity Evelyn was still pushing onto her enemy.

She then prepared to push the attack and deliver one final powerful blow but found that she had walked into the osprey matriarch's trap.

The bolts of lightning her enemy had been firing off had coalesced above Evelyn and began raining down around her.

Taking evasive maneuvers, she dodged the lightning that was falling onto her and used her magical energy barrier to block those that she could not.

It seemed that she managed to weather the attack but once the lightning stopped moving, she realized how wrong she was.

'How good is her control over magic!?'

Evelyn found herself completely trapped inside a cage of lightning after evading being directly hit.

This level of control was beyond what she was currently capable of, and it showed the difference in her experience controlling magic.

Truthfully, she had not been able to really manipulate her own powers for an entire year, but the enemy before her was decades old and had fought through many more battles than she had.

Caught with no way-out, Evelyn could only watch as the cage surrounding her swiftly began to close around and leave no avenue for escape.

A large flash filled the chamber as all of the lightning connected with Evelyn, and when her gravity magic ceased, the osprey matriarch smirked, believing she had killed Evelyn.

Yet when the bright flash from the lightning cleared, Evelyn was still flying in the air and was far from being dead.

Nevertheless, she had not escaped unscathed and felt her body reacting much slower after being shot full of electricity.

'Ow, ow. That really hurt.' Evelyn thought.

At the last second, she had stopped using her gravity magic to reinforce her barrier to prevent herself from taking a fatal blow, but she still got hit with enough lightning to cause her some damage and slow her movements down.

Unfortunately, she did not have much time to recover, as now that the osprey matriarch knew she was still alive, Evelyn found herself under attack again.

'Reverse Press.'

With her enemy flying right at her Evelyn used her gravity magic on herself and lowered it as much as possible to give herself a burst of speed.

Her body was practically as light as a feather and just one flap of her wings was enough to launch her away.

She narrowly avoided being caught in the osprey matriarchs' claws and electrocuted by the lighting surrounding her opponent's body.

The lowered gravity also served to cause the osprey matriarch to fly well off course as the normal amount of force she needed to fly caused her to go much faster and further than anticipated.

Tch! 'She almost crashed into the ceiling.' Evelyn thought while clicking her tongue.

Her suddenly lowering gravity had nearly ended up with her enemy taking a hit and becoming disoriented, but they managed to recover and use the ceiling as a springboard to launch back at Evelyn.

'I suppose that is probably my best option.' Evelyn thought as she began fleeing.

She could tell in a head-on battle that she would be at a disadvantage and needed to set the area up for her victory.

Her matchup was pretty bad against lightning magic and physically she would never be able to overpower the osprey matriarch, who was more than three times her size.

Instead, she spent the next few minutes zipping around the same area and moving unpredictably to not get caught again.

Of course, she was not just flying around randomly for no reason and soon enough was ready to set her plan in motion.

'It certainly was not easy leading her around by the nose and preventing her from running into any of them early, but I finally have everything set up.' Evelyn thought as she abruptly stopped.

Seeing this, the osprey matriarch pressed on towards Evelyn, thinking that she would be able to catch up and end the little pest that had been running away.

Yet before she could reach Evelyn an unexpected glyph appeared in the air, and she felt herself knocked back by a sudden force.

'You are not the only one that can set up a cage.' Evelyn thought as a vicious smile formed on her face.

For the last few minutes she had been leaving numerous gravity traps around and had enclosed the osprey matriarch within them.

Now her enemy had no recourse and was being bounced around like a pinball by dozens of gravity traps.

Still, this would not be able to kill such a sturdy beast as the osprey leader, but all Evelyn needed her traps to do was keep her enemy pinned down for a bit.

No longer having to worry about being attacked, she focused her magical energy and began forming a massive sphere of her heavenly flame in front of her.

This was the same attack she had tested out on the desert sheep and the most powerful she could currently use.

Fire, wind, and gravity worked together in tandem and when her last gravity trap was used up Evelyn launched her greatest attack.

The osprey matriarch was unable to dodge the blast after just having been bounced around by Evelyn's gravity traps and could only brace herself with the strongest magical barrier she could produce.

A grand explosion erupted in the burrow and waves of intense heat filled the area. Causing even the far away battles to be affected.

In the immediate area of the attack the ceiling and floor turned to magma and the burrow began collapsing.

Thankfully Evelyn was quite far from the magical spring, otherwise her attack likely would have destroyed it.

'If that did not do it than I am out of options and will have to flee.' Evelyn thought while throwing a magical energy replenishment pill into her mouth.

She had used up pretty much all of her power creating numerous gravity traps and unleashing such a devastating attack.

If she needed to fight anymore, she would be unable to do anything meaningful.

Luckily her worry that her opponent might have survived proved to be for nothing.

At the bottom of the large crater that was filled with magma was the charred corpse of the osprey matriarch.