An Owl's Rise

He had chosen to charge straight at her, and she could see he had his glaive gripped with both hands and trailing behind his body.

From that position it was fairly obvious he was preparing for a big swing from close range that Melisandre could not avoid.

Currently her body was in her owl form, and she was a massive target.

The size she was using to control the area now seemed to be a detriment in the face of Diomed's space severing attack she had no means to block. Her only recourse was to dodge, but that would be impossible for her giant body. Or so it appeared.

'He is clearly not used to fighting beasts like me.' 

Once Diomed had initiated his attack, Melisandre watched the line of light come out of his swinging glaive.

It was aimed at her center of mass and no matter how fast she flew it was going to at least take one of her wings off and leave her terribly wounded. 

Yet, despite the incoming danger, Melisandre did not move to evade, but instead dove towards the attack.

She watched as the confident sneer on Diomed's face twisted into confusion, and then, for just a moment he let his guard down when he imagined Melisandre being cleaved clean in two as she barreled towards his attack that could not be blocked.

Except, right before she was hit, her body morphed at an unbelievable speed, and she shrunk back down into her humanoid form and slipped past the line of light which barely scratched her.

An explosive force then propelled her body forward as she used her fire and water magic to cause a steam eruption behind her to blast forward at an unprecedented speed.

'I've finally got you in range.'

A burst of black flames covered Melisandre's right fist, and she struck out at the still stunned Diomed.

The man that was at the center of this entire attack attempted to bring his glaive down on Melisandre, but his momentarily lapse in concertation when he envisioned his victory put him one step behind.

Melisandre' fist was met with multiple protective barriers around Diomed, but she broke through each of them until she reached the last one.

This one was something special and she felt a terrible pain in her arm the instant she touched it, but she still did not let up.

As she pushed forward her arm bent unnaturally as the space around Diomed warped to protect him from physical attacks.

By the time she reached the end of the barrier her arm had been twisted around like a corkscrew and her bones had been shattered, but her pain had not been in vain.

She felt her fist finally connect with Diomed and a burst of black flames engulfed him as he rocketed away from her due to the impact.

It was a solid hit, and she knew that her most destructive magic had reached her target.

'That won't be enough to kill him, but it should give me a bit of time to clean up some of the weaker ones.'

Melisandre turned her head towards the members of Diomed's sect that had been fighting alongside him and sent a bone chilling smile their way.

Not a single one of them was as strong as Melisandre and the look on her face made them all shudder.

To add to her intimidation, her mangled arm was already twisting back around and healing itself at a rapid pace. To all those who saw this it would seem that they were fighting a monster that could heal from even the most severe injury.

"Blast her with everything you've got. We need to hold her back until our leader comes back." The highest ranking of Diomed's subordinates shouted.

However, as a rain of magic attacks came towards her Melisandre did not waver and flew up towards her targets.

Any attack that would not cause her much damage she simply took, only blocking or dodging those that would slow her down.

Once she had closed the distance, the members of the Deamhain Sect began to scatter, but it was too late.

Just as their sect leader had failed to account for Melisandre's seamless shift between forms, so had his subordinates.

Without warning Melisandre's form began to expand once again into a gargantuan owl.

Both of her wings burst into blades of black flames, and with a single swipe she cut through over half of the Deamhain Sect leaders.

Several of the weaker targets hit by Melisandre's attack were reduced to nothing but ashes in just a few moments, while even the lucky ones lost a limb or two that would be all but impossible to grow back.

In one fell swoop she had dealt a crippling blow to the upper ranks of the Deamhain Sect, and she was already preparing for her next attack.

With talon, beak, and magic, Melisandre ripped through a dozen more people before abruptly backing off and gaining some distance.

A glimmering line of light flew past where she had been a moment prior and had she attempted to go for another kill she would have been cleaved in two.

'Looks like he is back already.'

Looking off in the distance Melisandre could see Diomed racing back to continue their fight after she had blown him away.

His glaive was at the ready and Melisandre could tell that he was prepared to attack her should she continue going after his underlings. Her time to move about as she pleased had already ended now that the biggest threat had returned.

"You are more of a nuisance than I could have ever imagined. I see now that it was a mistake to treat you lightly." Diomed said, his voice laced with fury.

In the next instance a syringe appeared in his hand, and he jammed it directly into his neck and emptied its contents into his veins.

Watching this, Melisandre could tell with a glance that the liquid he had just injected into himself was bad news and did not hesitate to pull out her own final trump card.

It was the same type of potion she had once given to Evelyn as a last resort, a potion of unleased potential.

Drinking it in one gulp Melisandre felt an explosive increase in her magical energy and for a short time she could wield far greater power than normal.

Of course, this power came at a cost, and she was sure to face a debilitating backlash after its effects had worn off. But she knew that without employing this potion she would stand no chance against Diomed now that he was truly serious about killing her.

A golden shimmer passed by Melisandre, and she barely turned away as Diomed's glaive tore through space and sliced into her.

Blood splattered through the air as Melisandre felt her side being cut into, and had she been a moment later on her reaction, she surely would have been sliced cleanly in two.

'If not for the unleashed potential potion I would have definitely died there.' Melisandre thought as a cold shiver ran down her spine.

The second round of their battle was about to start and neither of them would be holding anything back as they attempted to kill each other.