An Owl's Rise

He had used his venom magic to create a half dozen jellyfish like constructs and spread their numerous tendrils out to prevent Evelyn's advance.

Along with him were two other members of the Deamhain Sect, both at the high tier of the arcanist rank which was the same tier and rank as the azure haired man.

'I guess Melisandre could not keep all of them contained.' 

Among those that had accompanied Diomed these three were undoubtedly the weakest, and Evelyn could imagine that they garnered the least of Melisandre's attention. 

With her focused on so many other threats it was completely understandable that a few of the weaker ones might be able to slip past her.

Unfortunately, while these three were no threat at all to Melisandre, to Evelyn and her companions they were practically an insurmountable obstacle.

Otis was the only one in Evelyn's group that was at a comparable rank, but his tier was two below the three members of the Deamhain Sect.

Even outnumbering them two to one, Evelyn knew that she and her companions could not stack up at their current levels.

'Can we try and push past them? No. They are certainly much faster than us since they already caught up to us after being blocked by Melisandre. Our chances of winning in a fight are also incredibly low. I already know how dangerous that azure haired man's magic is, and the other two are probably just as strong. All we can really hope to do is by time and wait for assistance to come.' 

It made Evelyn feel bitter that all she could do was rely on others to come and save her, but that was just how this battle was. At her current level of power, she was simply too weak to make much of a difference on her own.

Yet, before she could issue any orders to her companions, she was surprised to find Bylur making the first move.

"Rehni, now is the time to use those."

Without a moment's notice, Bylur activated his storage cuff and pulled out a potion with a silver liquid sloshing around inside it.

Evelyn recognized the position at once. It was something Melisandre had given to her in the past and had allowed her to reach a terrifying level of power for a short time.

'Where did they get those potions of unleashed potential?!'

She had seen the recipe for these potions before and the ingredients and necessary magical energy to create it were still beyond her.

There was no way that either Rehni nor Bylur would have been able to afford these potions, and Evelyn quickly realized that the only one that could have given these potions to them was Melisandre.

"Wait! Don't drink those, you have no idea what might happen!" Evelyn said, remembering her own experience.

After she had used the position in the past it had certainly imbued her with strength far greater than normal, but once its effect wore off, her body and soul had been broken and she only barely survived thanks to Melisandre's intervention.

Of course, the backlash of using an unleashed potential potion had certainly been worse for Evelyn than it would be for anyone else.

This was due to the Aethersphere and her heavenly flame containing far greater powers than her feeble body and magical energy could properly utilize.

The potion allowed her to wield a portion of these two items' true power, but it had been beyond her body and soul to withstand the strain.

Still, while she logically knew that using this potion likely would not kill her friends or leave them permanently crippled, she could not keep the image of their broken bodies out of her mind.

But it was too late to stop them now, Bylur and Rehni downed the unleashed potions without hesitation and disregarded Evelyn's warning.

Their magical energy began to explode an instant later, and the azure haired man sensing this initiated his attack.

The tendrils he had been weaving around them in a net all closed in at once to kill everyone but Evelyn.

Except, not a single one of these venomous tendrils reached their target.

A chilling cold emanated from Bylur, and the dangerous venom began to freeze over and stopped abruptly.

Bylur's already powerful and skilled ice magic had been brought up to the next level or maybe even higher.

As he was now, Evelyn could tell he surpassed even Otis and might be able to stand up to one of the Deamhain Sect Leaders by himself. Though she still doubted he could win by the time the potion's effects wore off.

On the other hand, Rehni felt far more dangerous to Evelyn due to the fact that she was not giving off a greater presence than usual.

After using the unleashed potential potion, she should have been bursting with extra magical energy and a heightened output, but she was not showing any overt signs of this happening.

This meant one of two things, either the potion had been defective, which Evelyn was certain was impossible since Melisandre had made it, or that Rehni was capable of fully controlling this increase in power due to her talent and skills at magical energy manipulation.

'I always knew that her control over magic was staggering, but to think she was capable of properly containing such a drastic increase in power. I don't think I could do so even with all my training and practice.' 

From the first time she had seen her, Evelyn knew that Rehni was talented, but only now did she realize just how capable her friend was at utilizing magical energy.

Feeling the tide turning, Evelyn sensed that the six of them might have a chance of victory now and gave out different orders than she had been planning on. She could not let Bylur's and Rehni's resolve go to waste.

"We are going to win this. Verrader, you assist Bylur but do not try anything risky. Aralee, you do the same for Rehni. Otis, you are with me. We are taking these three down."