An Owl's Rise

"Two low tier tyrant ranks. I wonder how they were hiding them so well."

Osvaldo had just arrived at the warehouse where one of the informants Uriah had hired said two owls were being kept in secret before being moved to a more secure location.

He had been ordered to round up all of the owls that the Miris Sect had captured during the raid on the Roost.

Unfortunately, Ellison and Vivienne, the leader and grand elder of the Miris Sect had been uncooperative.

Despite Osvaldo offering reasonable compensation for the beasts, the two had been doing everything they could short of resorting to open hostility to impede him.

It had truly been aggravating, but things quickly turned around.

While the first information broker that Uriah went to turned out to be a bust, the ones that came afterwards were spot on.

The information that they proved had been correct every time, and now there were only three more owls left in the Miris Sect for Osvaldo to collect. Two of which were currently in front of him, locked up in cages, while his subordinate Uriah was retrieving the last one.

"Once I've completed this tedious mission, Lord Diomed is sure to reward me. Perhaps he will even gift me a technique that will allow me to reach the magi rank." Osvaldo mussed; an avaricious smile plastered on his face.

He slowly approached the two caged birds as he appraised them.

They were by far the best specimens he had found in the Miris Sect. It was surprising that they had stayed hidden for so long.

For just a moment Osvaldo stopped and stared at the pure white owl in one of the cages. Yet his hesitance lasted only an instant and he began walking forward again.

With practiced hand motions he cast a spell the produced several viscous tendrils that wrapped around the cages.

"All that's left to do is bring them back to our base and send word to those waiting back at home. Then I just have to wait for the retrieval team, and I can be finished with all of this."

Osvaldo turned around and carried the cages back to the vehicle he had waiting outside.

Except, as he was misstep, several fast-moving icicles and wind blades came flying towards his back.

"I was wondering when you'd cease this façade." Osvaldo said as he leapt to the side and avoided the attacks coming for him.

At the same time, he manipulated the tendrils wrapped around the cages to crush the two owls that were inside.

The unenchanted metal buckled with almost no resistance.

It seemed that those inside would be crushed, but instead, the two large owls rapidly shrunk and used magic to open a path between Osvaldo's toxic tendrils.

"Oh. Two tyrant rank owls with humanoid transformations. That's certainly rare."

There was a look of mild astonishment on Osvaldo's face when he saw his two would be assassins transform.

Both were clad fully in black and had hoods and masks covering their faces to obscure their identities.

"You've grown quite a bit since the last time we met, white owl." Osvaldo said, his gaze locked on Bylur.

During the Tyrannis Union's attack on the Roost, Bylur and Verrader had fought Osvaldo.

And while his appearance had changed somewhat since their last encounter, Osvaldo still recognized Bylur as the annoying owl that used ice magic to freeze his venom magic.

"If you're here, does that mean your partner is the one we've been looking for? Her owl form certainly had a striking resemblance to what I remembered."

Osvaldo turned his eyes on Aralee. He had only briefly looked her over, but when she was still in her owl form, she certainly looked similar to the owl that the Deamhain Sect's divine item was bonded with.

Of course, he was wrong. Aralee reminded him of Evelyn because the two were sisters and their appearances were quite similar in their owl forms.

Still, if one looked at them side by side it would be easy to spot the differences in their plumage. And in their humanoid forms, their hair and eyes colors were completely different.

"I truly must be blessed by a god of fortune. To think that the two of you would deliver yourselves to me." Osvaldo said, a confident air around him as he grinned widely.

It seemed that he was completely undaunted by the two powerful beasts that were after his life. He only viewed them as unruly goods that needed to be detained before collection.

With quick movements of his hands, Osvaldo controlled his already conjured toxic tendrils. At the same time, he began casting more spells with quick casting times to barrage Bylur and Aralee before they had a chance to react.

"You're still a slippery bunch aren't you." Osvaldo said with an unconcerned smile.

Bylur had frozen the whiplike venom coming for him, while Aralee had used her momentum magic to slow them down and slip away without issue.

Then once the two of them had escaped from Osvaldo's initial assault, they began their counterattack.

A thick blanket of snow erupted around Bylur, and Aralee used her wind magic to whip it up into a frigid blizzard.

For the first time Osvaldo seemed a bit disconcerted. The whirlwind of snow was quickly freezing his magic and heavily restricting his vision.

Still, he kept his calm and continued to cast spell after spell to counteract his opponents' moves.

"Vitriol Wave."

As Osvaldo fished casting his latest spell, a massive surge of purple liquid rose up around him until it reached the ceiling.

At the zenith of the building, the giant mass of poisonous liquid came down with a resounding crash and flooded the entire area.

When the wave had finally settled down, the interior of the building was drenched in venom except for a single corner that was covered by a dome of ice.

"Did you truly think such an obvious trick would work?"

Turning away from the dome of ice, Osvaldo faced down Bylur and Aralee as they attempted to catch him off guard.

Even though they had been spotted, both of them pushed forward and launched a volley of attacks.

Osvaldo was slowly pushed back by their coordinated assault.

He possessed more magical energy than either of them, and his experience in battle far surpassed theirs, however, his casting speed was far slower.

Someone that relied slowly on the easier method of conjuration using hand motions to trace magic formulas could never keep up with those that were adept at true magic manipulation.

Nevertheless, Osvaldo never once started to panic. And the reason for his confidence soon became apparent.

"Looks like it finally started to work." Osvaldo said, his lips twisting into a devilish smirk. Experience new tales on empire

Aralee had suddenly fallen to one knee and her entire body was shaking as she fought to move.

Notice this, Bylur tried to move to her side, but soon found himself in a similar position.

Slowly both of their bodies became unable to move, and in spite of their best efforts, the two of them lost the ability to stay upright and slumped down onto the floor of the warehouse.