An Owl's Rise

And soon enough its form began to shift, and it no longer resembles the useful magical plant. Instead, now having taken the form of a tangle of vines.

It swiftly wrapped around Osten, and while he tried to fight it off, he was easily restrained by the numerous vines wrapping around him.

With little resistance these vines pushed through the opening in the earth armor he had formed and forced their way into his body.

'We have to do something!' Evelyn thought frantically.

But she and everyone else hesitated as there was clearly no way to attack the vines without attacking Osten as well.

Unfortunately, their hesitation proved to be enough time for the vines to completely slip into Osten's large body and he began rapidly spasming about.

Then after around thirty seconds of his body shacking uncontrollably, it became still.

'No way! Did it really just take over his body?'

Seeing what was going on this was the first thing that came to Evelyn's mind, and it soon became quite clear that this was the case.

Osten, or rather the parasitic vine tangle, took off now that it had secured its new host that was stronger than its previous one.

As this happened no one moved to do anything. This was beyond what any of them had ever seen or heard of, and it left them stunned for a few moments.

But the first to jump back into action was Evelyn. She took off into the air and began flying after Osten's retreating figure.

Did she do this out of some sort of loyalty, no. Almost immediately she realized that the loss of a member of their squad on the first day, especially after her problems with the warp gate, could have them all sidelined.

She needed to be out here in the field searching for the float stone she needed, so anything that might jeopardize her goal was unacceptable. That was why she chased after Osten.

Luckily this spurred on the rest of their squad, and they quickly began chasing after Evelyn.

Before long they had reestablished the magical connection between all of them and Hawise and Isander began asking their leader what to do.

Of course, Adolophine did not have a plan either, they were all just being spurred on and going after Osten mostly on instinct.

"We just need to restrain him. Rehni's metal magic will do the best. Once we have him captured, we can take him back to the rest and hope that another owl knows what to do." Adolophine eventually said to them all.

Yet while the others agreed, Evelyn was quite certain this would not work.

This parasitic vine had already proven that it was able to overpower Rehni's metal magic, and even if they did restrain Osten, there was nothing stopping it from killing him and then latching onto another one of them in the process.

"No, just restraining him probably won't work. We need to force that thing to leave and try to take over me. I have a way I can guarantee take care of it once it is out of his body and attached to me." Evelyn said confidently.

But as she expected, Adolophine rejected her proposal.

"That is not happening. We cannot risk another one of our members. In the worst case it would be better to put Osten down than allow him to continue being controlled." She said with conviction

Naturally this was the right call to minimize any possible casualties. If they threw everything they had at it, they could likely obliterate Osten and the parasite all at once.

Still, this would not lead to the outcome that Evelyn wanted, so she continued to push her plan while they closed in on their dominated squad member.

"I promise I can do it. All we need to do is cripple Osten so that he can no longer fly. Once we do that, I bet the plant that has taken him over will try to take over someone else if the opportunity presents itself. I will make myself vulnerable and when it latches onto me, I will burn it to a crisp." Evelyn said pushing her plan.

In the end, she was planning on going through with it whether Adolophine gave the okay or not, as she was confident it would work.

She had already risked her life many times to accomplish her goals, and she was more than willing to do so again.

"If that is your plan then it makes more sense for me to be the bait. I have fire magic as well, plus my nature magic may give me some more protection." Adolophine suggested.

Hearing this Evelyn was actually pretty surprised, since so far, she thought that their leader would honestly not risk her life for them. She had pretty much been delegating all of the most dangerous tasks to everyone else like having Evelyn pick the soothing lilies.

"That might not work. Your flames are weaker than mine. I guarantee that I can kill it before it takes me over, but it could resist you."

She was not going to pass this role up when she felt that she was the only one that could get the job done. There was simply no way she could trust it to anyone else.

And if Adolophine had anymore objections, she unfortunately did not have time to voice them, as they caught up to Osten who under the control of the parasitic vine had been trying to fly away.

Yet while it now had control of an awakened rank beast, Osten was on the heavier side and was actually the slowest member of their squad even though he was equal in beast rank to Adolophine and higher than the rest of them.

'Now you are not getting away.'

Sending out her gravity field now that she was in range, she increased it to four times the normal amount around her, and her quarry quickly plummeted under the strain.

Though this was not enough to keep him down fully, and eventually the controlled owl managed to flap his wings harder to stay airborne.

But there was no doubt his mobility had been greatly reduced, and Evelyn along with the other owls began pelting him with spells.

Even if they had not totally solidified their plan, one thing was certain. They had to clip Osten's wings and force him to the ground.

Surely it would be painful for him and would leave him severely injured, but once he was free from the control of the parasitic vine, they could heal him.

Obviously, the vine did not just take their assault lying down and began using its and Osten's magic powers to defend itself.

At this point it was clear that the platypus it had been controlling never had three affinities but only two.

This abomination of a plant had power over nature and then was able to control the innate magic of those it had dominated.

In this way it created a shell of sturdy earth around Osten's body and willed the nearby plants to come to its aid.

Their first attacks were all blocked by numerous branches swinging about and the powerful armor of earth.

However, the intended effect of grounding Osten still worked. With the heavy earth around him coupled with Evelyn's increased gravity forcing his body to the ground.

Now realizing it had no way of escape, the parasitic vine switched from defense and evasion to offense.

Huge stone spikes began sprouting up out of the ground and along with a storm of razor-sharp leaves began flying up at Evelyn and her squad.

Taking evasive actions, they all flew around to avoid the assault coming from the ground while at the same time raining spells down from above.

This went on for around a minute as they did all they could to try and cripple Osten, but his natural defensive abilities along with the power of the parasitic vine allowed him to withstand their restrained assault.

If they wanted to just blow him away, they likely would have been able to, but they were still desperately trying to save their squad member.

'Rehni now!' Evelyn said over the connection they had.

She had been making separate plans with her acquaintance, trusting her abilities more than the others.

When she gave the signal for her to go, Evelyn also launched a fire ball down near Osten, and it created a huge explosion.

This managed to blow Osten's body away from his entrenched position and burned away all the plant matter in the area.

Certainly, it was a bit rough, but they need to do something, so she used a more powerful attack.

Then while the parasitic vine was adjusting itself, Rehni came down and opened her mouth to release an echoing blast of sound.

It was by far louder than even the explosion that Evelyn had caused, and for a moment even under the forceful control of the parasitic vine, Osten's body was shaken and could not move for a few moments.

In that time Evelyn flew down and slammed her claws into his right wing and chest.

A flash of magical energy appeared for a moment before disappearing, and Evelyn flew back now that her traps were set.

Once she had gotten far enough away, she activated them, and watched the as Osten's body was pulled forward and his wing pushed back.

A resound crack followed, as even with the earth armor on his body, his frame simply could not take the opposing gravitational forces pulling him in two different directions and his wing snapped.