An Owl's Rise

Unfortunately, her opponent was not one she could simply overpower and let loose a wave of destructive energy that erased her attacks.

'Extreme press.'

Once she was in range Evelyn used her strongest gravity magic and pressed down on the pitch-black wyvern with all her might.

This caused her foe to falter for a moment as their body became several times heavier.

However, Evelyn had already shown off her gravity magic and the large wyvern was prepared and braced itself.

It was an incredibly strong beast and even under an intense amount of gravity more than forty times normal it was able to stay airborne, though it could not ascend any higher.

'Damn it.' Evelyn thought as she dodged a breath attack from the wyvern.

Normally after she had sealed an opponent's movements with her gravity magic she could use her wind and fire magic to finish them off with ease, but the wyvern she was fighting was a juggernaut of pure destructive power and not something she could just outmuscle when she was two tiers below it.

Quickly she realized that staying at the distance she was currently was detrimental since she had to focus on evasion, so even though she had to move out of range of her gravity magic she flew further away to regain her bearing.

Freed from its gravitational restrains the wyvern let out a loud roar and pursed Evelyn while launching numerous projectiles of black energy towards her.

'I have beaten peak awakened beasts before, but this guy is in another league. Still, I have fought plenty of enemies that were stronger than me. I just need to make some space and buy some time.' Evelyn thought, swiftly making a new plan.

She began leading the wyvern around while moving her claws around in practiced motions.

When faced with a tough opponent she could not take head on, Evelyn ad another strategy she could utilize. Though it took time and luck to set up.

With careful planning she set a number of gravity traps in the air and making quick motions away from them to prevent the wyvern from crashing into the prematurely.

Eventually she had set up a cage that its large frame could not hope to escape from, and she flew out with the wyvern on her tail.

Yet despite her slowing down to allow her enemy to nearly catch her, the wyvern thinking it was about to sink its jaws into its tired prey was suddenly shot backwards.

A glowing rune in the air activated and it was hit with a heavy gravity.

This started a chain reaction as it was pinballed into the next gravity trap and launched around without being able to stop itself.

Evelyn had used this exact strategy against one of the osprey's leaders and it was working just as well against her current enemy. At least, it was at first.

As Evelyn charged up her strongest attack, the pitch-black wyvern opened its mouth and began spraying a wide beam of destruction all around itself in a desperate attempt to stop what was happening to it.

And though it could not destroy gravity itself, it was able to blow away the hidden runes that Evelyn had left in the air.

Shock and horror in her eyes Evelyn watched as the web of gravity traps she had painstakingly set up were disintegrated.

Unable to finish charging up her attack to full power Evelyn decided to prematurely launch the giant sphere of fire and wind she had been conjuring.

It was currently at only about half of its full power, but she would have to discard all of her efforts if the wyvern began attacking her since taking even one of its attacks would cause a grievous wound.

In response the wyvern turned its breath attack towards, Evelyn sphere of wind and fire and attempted to destroy the attack.

Nevertheless, despite Evelyn not having been able to fully charge up her attack, it still overpowered the wyvern's breath and engulfed the incredibly powerful beast.

Them moment it did Evelyn pulled out two bottles of pills and took one of each.

One of the pills was to restore her magical energy and the other her stamina.

During this fight she had been burning through her energy reserves faster than she had in a long time and was starting to feel faint and needed a moment to recover.

'I knew that would not be enough.'

Once the power behind her attack had dissipated the wyvern appeared out of the smoke and let out a thunderous roar.

The powerful beast was far from dead, its strong scales and thick skin having protected it from being incinerated by Evelyn's attack.

However, it had not gotten unscathed.

While it was difficult to tell at a glance since its body was naturally black, it now had several areas where it was badly burned, and a slight bit of smoke was still coming off of its skin.

'If this was just the two of us, I could probably win in a war of attrition, but the others are still fighting and Verrader is severely injured. I can hear the sounds of fighting still going on, but I do not dare let my attention slip to check how they are doing.' Evelyn thought, her mind racing for what to do next.

She thought about trying to deploy more poisons, but that likely would not work at this point since the wyverns had already seen her use that trick.

Except as she was preparing to charge back into battle after staring down the wyvern's leader for a few seconds, the deadly beast let out another roar.

Unlike the others that had been meant to intimate, this time Evelyn did not feel the same ferocity.

It was but a moment alter that the pitch-black wyvern began to retreat and the other surviving members of its group began following.

After having suffered several losses and finding that their prey could put up an incredible fight, the lead wyvern had decided to retreat. It could tell that that continuing to fight would only cause him to lose more subordinates or even his own life.

Of course, as they retreated the wyverns kept a close eye on Evelyn and her group to make sure they did not try to retaliate.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Evelyn was grateful that the battle was finally over. Even if it could not be considered a victory.

'I am reminded once again just how dangerous this world is. All it takes is one unfortunate encounter with power enemies to end up dead.' Evelyn thought as the wyverns became little dots in the distance.

Once she was certain that they were not coming back she looked up towards her siblings and friends to make sure that all of them were there.

Thankfully, not a single one of her companions had lost their lives, though they certainly looked a bit beat up. Especially Verrader, who was being carried on Bylur's back so that he did not plumet to the ground.