An Owl's Rise

Taking off from the burrowing owl's home, Evelyn set off with Bylur, Rehni, and the squad of burrowing owls that were accompanying them.

They had time to kill and the Velinis desert still had resources that they could use.

One of which was a magic crystal deposit that was currently under the control of a pack of brass jackals.

"Lady Evelyn we are getting close to their territory." Po, the leader of the burrowing owl squad said to her.

"Got it. Then let us fly up higher. We do not want to be spotted." Evelyn responded.

Soaring up into the air to the point that even Bylur appeared to just be a dot to those looking up from the ground, Evelyn and her team began scanning the area.

None of the current burrowing owls knew exactly where the brass jackal's den was, so they began searching for their target from high in the sky.

'Nothing so far. I have spotted a few wandering beasts, but nothing that resembles a jackal in any way. Still as far as Otis knows this is still their territory, and it is unlikely they have been kicked out. Though I suppose it is possible, since the burrowing owls were.' Evelyn thought, running through a few possibilities.

Nevertheless, while she was coming up with explanations for why they had not seen any jackals yet, the answer was simple.

The brass jackals excelled at stealth in the desert and were not easy to spot so high up from in the sky.

Eventually though Rehni did manage to catch a glimpse of one of their targets, but only because she spotted the beast it was attacking in destress.

'Damn they really blend in. Their fur blends in well with the sandy and rocky desert, and it seems that they almost have a quality to them that makes them hard to spot.' Evelyn thought as she tracked their target.

In order not to lose sight of them she had taken a visual enchantment potion which made her already spectacular vision even better.

Without it she would not have been able to accurately follow the brass jackal from how high up she currently was.

'Looks like they move in groups. The weakest one is currently hunting on its own, but four stronger jackals are trailing not far behind it. I suppose that this might be how they train those that have recently evolved.' Evelyn speculated, watching what was going on from above.

She was also able to gauge the strength of the group of brass jackals from above and while she could not feel their auras from so high up she could get a relative approximation for the jackal's strength.

"I believe that only the leader of the group following the one that is hunting is at the mid-tier of the awakened rank. The others are all low tiers" Evelyn said to her party.

This at the very least was not bad news as if they had come across a group that was entirely made up of high or peak ranked beasts, they would have had to completely call off the mission.

Still, just observing one group was not enough to accurately gauge the power of the brass jackals and they continued to watch the group they had spotted through the night.

'They are finally returning.'

After following the group of brass jackals the entire night, Evelyn's team had finally been led to their home.

Like the burrowing owls' home, it was underground, but the entrance was far larger, looking like a meteor had smashed into the ground and carved it out.

Sitting at the entrance were a contingent of six jackals all at the mid-tier of the awakened rank.

These were obviously the guards keeping watch in case of any sort of attack.

"Okay we have found their base. Now let us wait and see what level the jackals returning are at. We need to have at least a general idea of how many they have above the mid-tier of the awakened rank before deciding on our plan of action." Evelyn instructed.

For the next couple hours as the sun began climbing into the sky, they kept watch over the entrance to the jackal's home and counted how many there were.

'We saw at least thirty unique individuals, but most of them were at the low tier. Of them there were nine mid-tiers including the guards and only one high tier. I would guess that at best they are about as strong as the ospreys were and at worst a bit weaker than the burrowing owls are now. It might be a bit difficult, but it is possible that we could take them out.'

Making numerous plans in her head Evelyn tried to come up with the best plan of attack that would give them the best chance of victory and fewest possible casualties.

'I suppose our best bet would be for me to use that. But I will need to be very careful with it' Evelyn thought, shuddering at the prospect of using the most dangerous item in her possession.

Still, she could not think of anything better, and if it seemed that it would be too difficult for her team and the burrowing owls to take out the jackals with their own strength then she would be willing to use it.

However, before she committed to actually killing the jackals and taking their home, she needed to make sure it was really worth it.

A small deposit of magic crystals of lower quality would not be worth the effort.

"I am going to go in and check out the magic crystals myself." Evelyn eventually said.

Except as she moved to fly towards the den of the brass jackals, Rehni, Bylur, and all of the burrowing owls moved to stop her.

"Evelyn you cannot be serious! I know you are strong, but a frontal assault by yourself would be suicide!" Rehni said frantically.

All the other owls were in agreement with her and asked Evelyn to reconsider.

"I do not plan on getting into any fights at all. I will use an invisibility and scent dampening talisman and fly in undetected. And if I am noticed I will get out as fast as possible. I simply want to see exactly how valuable this deposit of magic crystals is for myself.