An Owl's Rise

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After having dispatched one of the owls that was targeting her, Evelyn hurriedly caught back up to the examiner and the main group of owls that were following behind her.

However, the demeanor of all of these owls had taken a shift, as they now looked at Evelyn cautiously.

She had quite easily dispatched a beast two minor ranks above her, and there was not a scratch on her from the experience.

Many of them had seen her engulfed in fire, yet she had come out of it like it had not been real but only an illusion.

They were all now quite wary of her, and none of them wanted to be the first to approach her again. At least, not during this trial.

Taking time to attack a fellow trial goer would only lead to them possibly losing the examiner, or maybe even getting killed.

No, for now all of the other owls were acting civil in order to get past their current goal of getting through this trial. For those few who still wished to, it was likely that they would have a later chance to vent their frustration.

Quickly Evelyn made it back to her position at the front of the flock, only trailing behind the black feathered owl who was leading the way.

She had to expend a bit of her magical energy to do so, but she definitely felt more comfortable being right behind the examiner.

Over an hour went by as all of the owls followed after the examiner, and to the this point only one owl had died during this supposedly harrowing trial, and that was the one Evelyn had killed.

Yet as many of the owls were beginning to lull into a sort of relaxation as they figured this trial was just a test of endurance, they were proved to be terribly wrong.

In this fog it was difficult to see, but Evelyn noticed the examiner fly out of the way of seemingly nothing.

Looking closely, she saw a thin thread that was connected between two trees and doing as the examiner had she flew around it.

But as they moved deeper into this area, she began to notice more and more threads, some of which were connected together in a large net like shape.

Her eyes going wide, Evelyn realized that they were now in the territory of what must have been some very large spiders.

Though while she realized this, unfortunately for some of the other owls, they had gotten too complacent.

Within just a minute of noticing that first web, Evelyn who was keeping and eye on her surroundings, heard the distressed screeching of another owl.

This large owl that was eight feet tall and had entirely blue feathers had gotten himself caught in the webs as he had not been paying attention.

Thrashing about the blue feathered owl tried to break free as he shot out blasts of water which was his elemental affinity.

Unfortunately, it was a poor match against these threads that were very sturdy and each as strong as a steel cord.

Its physically strength also proved to be of no help, and only made matters worse as he became more entangled in the webs.

Except begin caught in this web was the least of this owl's worries, as the creature who had spun it descended down from the trees slowly and quietly from behind.

Then when it was right behind this owl, the large spider that was the stuff of nightmares, sunk its fangs into the struggling owl and began wrapping it up in its web.

When it had finished this, it dragged the now paralyzed owl higher up into the tree where this spider's lair was.

Many of the owls witnessed this happen and began flying around much more carefully to avoid these death traps.

However, this first owl being captured set off a chain reaction through this part of the forest, and the hundreds of spiders that made it their home began descending from the trees.

These beasts were not only trappers with their webs, but also proactive hunters. And when so much prey presented themselves to them, they were not going to pass up the opportunity.

'What the hell is that thing?' Evelyn thought as she saw one of these spiders for the first time.

Naturally she had already suspected that this kind of beast were responsible for these webs, and she had heard the unfortunate end of that blue feathered owl, but this was the first time seeing these nightmare fuel spiders.

Not only were they ten feet long from head to end, but they also had long spindly legs that looked sharp like blades, and a dark green patterning on their mostly black bodies that allowed them to blend in better with the jungle.

Yet the worst part definitely had to be their head, which had eight piercing eyes that made Evelyn shiver, and two long fangs that looked like curved daggers with venom dripping down them.

Turning to the side she barely was able to avoid the web being shot at her as she was incredibly distracted by these spiders' perturbing appearance.

But her troubles were far from over, as this spider that had dropped down and was targeting her leapt from the web it was dangling on right towards her.

Seeing this she was surprised, as they were currently hundreds of feet above the ground, but this thing showed no regard for its safety and single-mindedly jumped at her.

Still while its reckless move might have worked on some, it was going to be wholly ineffective on Evelyn.

She simply created a large gust of wind that batted the mid-tier fiend beast rank spider away and continued after the examiner who had not slowed down at all.

Of course, she was being attacked as well, since these spiders were practically mindless creatures, not having gained any greater intelligence than what a normal spider might have, even as they had reached a higher rank.

Though in turn they had gained more ferocity and were a social group of spiders that could work together to some degree.

Nevertheless, the attack of these spiders were child's play for the examiner to deal with, and any webs or spiders that got close to her seemed to bounce off an inviable wall.

In fact, now she was not even attempting to dodge the webs, having only done so at the beginning to give a slight warning to the owls behind her, even if only a few had noticed.

Swiftly the number of owls that were able to keep up dwindled drastically as they were caught in the spiders' already laid web traps, or were hit by the constant barrage of webs being shot at them from these spiders.

Cries of distress resounded through the area, and within just a few minutes those that were still keeping up with the first trial had dwindled to just a bit over seventy.