An Owl's Rise

\'There it is.\'

Spotting the lake that was her destination, Evelyn headed over making sure to remain cautious of any other beasts that might attack her.

She was making sure to not fly too high in order to not stand out and she made sure to swivel her head around to make sure she had no blind spots.

When she made it to the bank of the lake, she landed on one of the trees which provided her a good vantage point and a fair amount of cover.

\'There are definitely more beasts around here.\' She thought as she expanded her senses.

She could hear movement around her and there was no doubt that other fiend beasts were around.

Of course, as Melisandre had told her this place was teaming with lower grade resources perfect for accelerating the growth of wild beasts and making a great environment for fiend beasts to live in.

Luckily this meant it was the perfect area for Evelyn to gather resources in relative peace without the worry of something far stronger than her coming out of nowhere and killing her.

\'There do not seem to be any around here. I guess I should fly around the lake until I find an area with the plants I am looking for.\'

Taking back off she flew around the lake keeping her eyes out for the shallower and still areas where her quarry was supposed to be found.

Soon enough she came across what she was looking for. Though it was not a part of the main lake and was a branch area that had been created by a large stream that was filling up a pond.

In it she spotted the soothing lily pads she was looking for that were ingredients for making high quality low tier healing potions, pills, salves, and other similar items.

It was the perfect magical plant for a budding alchemist and were quite valuable.

\'Now I need to collect the roots and the flowers which are used as staple ingredients. The only problem is that they are currently being guarded.

Looking down into the water Evelyn was able to use her impeccable vision to spot what looked like three large rocks sitting at the bottom of the pond.

However, as she observed from her perch, she saw these "rocks" move and take bites out of the lily pads\' roots.

\'Those are some big turtles.\' Evelyn thought as she observed the pond.

Each of these turtles was easily eight feet long and around four feet wide, though one of them was slightly bigger and had sharp spines protruding out of its body.

\'From the looks of it I would say they resemble snapping turtles. Gah their jaws are huge. I can tell that one bite from them, and I am done for.\'

Staring down into the pond Evelyn was at a loss for how to get the lily pads out without getting injured or even killed the oversized snapping turtles.

They were currently underwater which would practically block all of her magical powers.

Maybe she could use her heavenly flames to quickly boil the water and kill or at least flush the turtles out, but that would also ruin the lily pads she was trying to obtain.

Wind magic was also a bust. She would never be able to create a powerful enough gust to hit the turtles at the bottom of the pond and their think armor would mitigate pretty much any damage her wind could do anyway.

\'I could try just ripping the lily pads out of the water, but they are pretty big and that would be a surefire way to get attacked while burdening myself.\'

For nearly an hour Evelyn worked out plans in her mind and eventually came to what she figured was her best bet.

\'I guess this is as good as a time as any to test out my gravity traps.\'

Flying down towards the pond Evelyn began focusing the magical energy compounded with the power of the Aethersphere into her left leg and flew near the surface of the water where she placed a lower gravity trap.

Of course, this caught the attention of the snapping turtles at the bottom of the pool, but before they could react Evelyn had already flown off.

She did this a few more times planting her traps jus above the surface of the water.

However, before she was able to plant as may traps as she planned on, one of the snapping turtles got impatient and rose up from the murky bottom towards the surface and launched itself at Evelyn.

Luckily, she had been paying close attention to the turtles and saw the one coming for her.

With a gust of wind, she changed her momentum and avoided the clamping jaws of the turtle that missed her by a few feet.

\'Got you.\' She thought as the turtle breached the surface.

It had hit one of the traps she had set and while its hulking form that normally would have sunk back into the water actually began to lift up like it was on the moon.

And compounding with her gravity trap Evelyn lowered the gravity around her further with the aura from the Aethersphere. Increasing the large snapping turtle\'s airtime.

There was a look of genuine surprise on the turtle\'s face as it floated up into the air, and only began to slowly descend after reaching ten feet out of the water.

Unfortunately for the turtle this was now more than enough room for Evelyn to attack now that the turtle had lost its environmental advantage.

To start she whipped up a gust of wind and sent the turtle flying higher in order to prevent any interference from the other ones still in the pond.

The snapping turtle floated up into the sky like a balloon, and now that the initial shock had worn off it took a defensive position.

It withdrew as far into its shell as it could and actually covered itself in water using its magical affinity.

This certainly would have normally been a pretty good defense as this turtle was at the same rank and tier as Evelyn, but in its current state it really stood no chance.

Evelyn charged up her heavenly flames and sent out a large blast of the crimson fire that completely engulfed the turtle.

A huge plumb of steam came off its body and it let out an ear grating pained howl as its body was cooked.

The turtle\'s vitality, however, was something else.

It somehow managed to survive the blistering heat of Evelyn\'s heavenly flame, even if it had blacked skin all over its body and its shell was melted in numerous places.

Still, it was now far too injured to put up any sort of fight and Evelyn flew around to its backside and jammed her talons through its softened shell before dragging it up into the air.

She had seen birds of prey use this maneuver in a documentary before and figured she would give it a try herself.

When she reached a height of around four hundred feet, she let the turtle go and it began plummeting towards the ground.

But she was not content to let the natural gravity work alone and flew alongside the turtle increasing the gravity around it to four times what was normal.

It hit the ground with a resounding thud and its shell cracked open as it left a crater in the ground.

The last of its life quickly faded and Evelyn came out as the clear winner.

\'Now time to take care of the other two and gather the lily pads.\'