An Owl's Rise

'Whoa!'

Along with the grand fire elemental's increasing rage, an intense pressure burst from its body as the heat around it rapidly increased.

Most beasts at Evelyn's rank would have found their bodies burning from the heat in the air, but luckily Evelyn could not be harmed by the rising temperature and was only blown back by the shockwave.

Finding it difficult to fly, Evelyn had to use her wind magic to stabilize herself and fly higher to put some distance between her and the grand fire elemental.

From above Evelyn launched a spray of fire balls down on her opponent, but not a single one reached.

Before her magic could hit its intended target, the grand fire elemental released a truly gargantuan blaze from its body.

Evelyn's flames, while stronger, were consumed by the immense volume of fire being generated by the grand fire elemental.

Soon the white-hot inferno expanded into the air where Evelyn was and caught up with her even as she attempted to flee.

'Damn it!'

Unable to escape, Evelyn was engulfed by the blast and disappeared from sight.

Inside the inferno, she could not see anything but an all-encompassing bright white light.

Nevertheless, even being surrounded by flames as hot as the surface of a star, Evelyn only felt like she was submerged in a warm bath.

'I'd better make the best of this. Once this attack dies down, it will have certainly figured me out.'

Evelyn knew that the grand fire elemental was no mindless monster and would understand that the heat of its flame was unable to hurt her once she emerged from its current attack without a single burn on her body.

Thankfully it had put a great deal of magical energy into its current flare up and Evelyn was still hidden from it.

Turning her head towards where she last saw the grand fire elemental, Evelyn compressed her heavenly flame within her mouth and prepared to launch one of her strongest attacks.

'Heavenly laser.'

Opening her beak, Evelyn let lose a thin beam of crimson fire that tore through the white flames around her.

"BOOM!"

Concentrated into one spot, a colossal explosion erupted around the area where Evelyn's attack hit. White was quickly overtaken by crimson and the intense blaze created by the grand fire elemental began to fade.

For a few seconds Evelyn wore a pleased expression on her face, believing that she had finally killed her target, but the white flames that had vanished erupted from the ground around the crater Evelyn's heavenly laser had created.

Within an instant the grand fire elemental had fully reformed and looked barely any worse for wear.

'It's a real tough bastard isn't it.' Evelyn thought as she panted heavily from exhaustion.

That last attack had used up most of the remaining magical energy she possessed, and she could tell that even the replenishment items she had taken were reaching their limits. Soon she would not have the strength left to continue fighting at this level.

Still, she had no intention of losing and began thinking up new strategies to combat her seemingly invincible enemy.

Unfortunately, before she had solidified her plan, something wholly unexpected happened.

A pool of fire spread out from the grand fire elemental's feet and covered the ground around it.

Then once the ground had melted, the grand fire elemental waved three of its six hands and the molten earth rose into the air.

Evelyn could not hide the surprise on her face when she saw this. Certainly, she had expected the grand fire elemental to have some tricks hidden, but never did she think that it would be able to manipulate lava.

'I might be screwed here.'

Several tendrils made of molten rock shot into the air towards Evelyn like speeding whips.

Of all the attacks that they grand fire elemental had sent her way; this one was by far the most dangerous. While the heat of the lava would certainly be ineffective against Evelyn, the force behind the blows certainly would not be.

Taking rapid evasive maneuvers Evelyn darted around to avoid being stuck and at the same time started formulating a counter strategy.

'Gravity Hammer.'

Just before being hit, she massively increased the gravity around the lava whips that were closing in and forced them back towards the ground.

Unfortunately, the instant her gravity magic wore off, the lava whips launched back into the air and contoured to pursue her relentlessly.

Feeling the pressure, Evelyn attempted a number of things until finally found a decent counter to the grand fire elemental's lava manipulation.

Using her wind magic she cooled the molten rock down until the grand fire elemental could no longer control them. Clearly it could not control earth by itself, or it already would have. In order to use this technique, it had to melt the ground with its flames.

'This isn't enough though. I'm not going to win at this rate even if I don't lose. I really wanted to get through this by using only my magic, but I can't afford to keep being stubborn.' Evelyn thought, a defeated look on her face.

However, she was not going to let pride get in the way of her victory and pulled out a talisman from within her storage cuff.

Once she released the item, a powerful blizzard burst out of the spell sealing talismans.

The cold wind and snow cooled all of the molten whips the grand fire elemental was controlling and delivered a powerful blow to it body.

While the first talisman was still in effect Evelyn pulled out another one that she dropped and allowed to fall towards the ground.

When it touched the earth, fire resistant foliage that lived in the area gathered and turned into three large wooden knights.

'I think that two should do it. I don't want to waste any of the spell sealing talismans I collected from the Verdant Warlord's Domain. They cost a stupid amount of tokens after all.'