An Owl's Rise

Thanks to his ability to feel the vibrations in the ground near him, Krunnen felt Evelyn\'s landing and immediately knew that things had calmed down.

A moment later the dome of earth and water protecting him fell apart and revealed Krunnen who was still tucked inside his shell.

Cautiously he stuck his head out and surveyed the area, and once he was certain that the coast was clear, he fully left his shell.

"I thought that I would not be surprised by your capabilities anymore, but I never expected you to be capable of this." Krunnen said as he saw the carnage left in the wake of Evelyn\'s battle with the mind slaves.

The entire landscape was scorched and shattered beyond recognition, and there were several corpses of beasts strewn about.

Among these bodies were the three peak awakened rank beasts that Evelyn had killed with her heavenly laser attack. Each of their bodies were cleanly sliced through by the focused beam of intense heat and proved just how powerful Evelyn\'s magic was.

\'Could any of the peak awakened beasts that are apart of the Great Shell do this?\' Krunnen thought.

However, even when he pictured the strength of his organization\'s greatest genius, he was certain they would not be able to replicate what Evelyn had just accomplished. In fact, he was pretty sure that even most of the low tier and mid-tier tyrant rank tortoises in the Great Shell would have a hard time copying what Evelyn had just done.

It was not just that she had come out victorious, but she had done so without receiving a single scratch. From Krunnen\'s perspective she seemed to be an invincible goddess of destruction.

"Well, I went just about all out there. So, you shouldn\'t have to worry about any other surprises from me." Evelyn said while eyeing the remining forces of the Mind Manipulating Mushroom.

They had all pulled back and were standing as guards to protect their master\'s main body instead of continuing to fight against Evelyn who had decimated them.

Still, if she and Krunnen pressed the attack, these beasts would certainly fight them without any concern for their own lives.

\'Hm, it might be a little tough for me to break through them on my own right now. I took some magical energy replenishment pills and drank a stamina recovery potion, but I\'m pretty mental exhausted. I think I need a distraction.\' Evelyn thought, looking up at Krunnen with a devious expression on her face.

Suddenly, Krunnen felt a chill through his body, despite the fact that the temperature around them had already exceeded eighty degrees Celsius.

At first, he could not understand where this feeling was coming from. At least, not until he looked down at Evelyn could tell from the look on her face that she was scheming something.

"Now that the path is clear and I have already fulfilled my objective and successfully placed the tracker, let us get out of here. There is no telling if that infernal fungus will decide to attack us again. We should get to safety before that happens."

Krunnen then tried to turn around as quickly as he could, but Evelyn landed on his back before he could.

Feeling her presence, Krunnen froze up and felt that he could not move a muscle.

"Let\'s not be so hasty. I already took out the majority of the Mind Manipulating Mushroom\'s army. Since we are already here, we might as well finish it off. Just think about it, you\'ll be considered a hero if you accomplish this. Plus, I\'ll be willing to split all of the beast cores with you. How about, I take seventy percent and you get thirty percent.

That sounds fair, right?" Evelyn said, exerting a bit of pressure on Krunnen with her magical energy.

The giant tortoise knew that he was being bullied, but despite wanting to lash out at Evelyn, he knew that she had helped him quite a bit.

Certainly, she did not shy away from using her greater strength to coerce him to do what she wanted, but her approach was fairly tame compared to most beasts.

Krunnen knew that if she really wanted to, she could have just forced him to submit and tell her everything she wanted to know and then kill him afterwards.

Also, her assistance had gotten him out of several difficult situations. Without her here he likely would have had to face the duplicator fire elemental and Mind Manipulating Mushroom alone.

"Okay, I agreed." Krunnen said in resignation. "So, what is the plan?"

Evelyn smiled brightly now that Krunnen was onboard, and quickly told him about the strategy she had come up with.

Of course, Krunnen audibly groaned when he found that Evelyn basically wanted to sue him as bait to lure most of the beasts away from the Mind Manipulating Mushroom\'s main body.

Nevertheless, he still agreed. After everything he had seen, he felt that Evelyn could not fail. Plus, the offer of beast cores and prestige were too tempting for him to pass up.

"I have an attack that will undoubtably get their attention and keep it on me, but I won\'t be able to keep it up for long. Once I reach my limit, I\'ll be a sitting duck, so I would appreciate if you finished up swiftly."

Nodding her head, Evelyn assured Krunnen that she would end the Mind Manipulating Mushroom within just a few dozen seconds.

Once their short strategy meeting had finished, Evelyn jumped off Krunnen\'s back and floated in the air.

Floating above Krunnen, Evelyn watched him tuck his head and legs back into his shell.

At first, she was unsure how he was going to use his strongest attack while hiding in his shell, but she soon found out the answer.

The earth around Krunnen began to move and wrapped around his shell until he was wearing stone armor that had several spikes protruding out of it.

After that, powerful jets of water blasted out of the holes in his shell where his head and limbs retracted.

Krunnen\'s body then began to spin and he was soon hovering off the ground.

Without any warning he launched himself like a bowling ball aiming for a strike towards the remaining beasts in Mind Manipulating Mushroom\'s army.

These beasts that were prepared to protect their master fired all manner of magic at Krunnen to stop him, but the power behind his charge was not easily overcome. Even Evelyn did not think she could stop him head on and would have to dodge his attack if it was aimed at her.

Unfortunately, the beasts that Krunnen was barreling towards did not have the luxury of evading as the main body of the Mind Manipulating Mushroom was right behind them. They could not let Krunnen pass.

With the force of a speed train, Krunnen smashed into the wall of beasts that had positioned themselves to stop him.

Several barriers created by all manners of magic stood in his way, but none of them held up for long.

The largest beasts used their bodies and physical might to try and black Krunnen, yet their efforts were in vain. Most of them were easily knocked away when Krunnen impacted them, and the truly unlucky ones were crushed and turned into meat paste.

\'I guess I misjudged him. This is a pretty impress trump card he has kept hidden.\' Evelyn thought impressed by the destructive power of Krunnen\'s ultimate attack. It expertly utilized his two magical affinities, as well as his immense size and weight.

Though, as much as Evelyn praised Krunnen\'s move, she knew that it was a do or die technique.

Currently he was burning through his magical energy at a prodigious rate and his body was under a great deal of stress spinning around at such high speeds. Once Krunnen ran out of steam, he would be incapacitated for a while.

Nevertheless, he was doing an exceptional job acting as a distraction. Nearly all of the remaining beasts under the Mind Manipulating Mushroom\'s control were attempting to halt his rampage.

Evelyn made sure to take advantage of this opening and flew up and forward until she was right above where the main body of the Mind Manipulating Mushroom was.

From her vantage point she could see that the strongest beast the aberrant fungus still had was standing above it, ready to intercept any sort of attack.

\'Hm, a peak awakened rank giant star nosed mole. I am sure it has some impressed defensive magic, but I wonder if it can take what I have in mind.\'

Luckily the last remaining protector of Mind Manipulating Mushroom was blind and did not notice Evelyn in the sky. It was focused on Krunnen and ready to intercede if the giant tortoise got too close to its master.

Having free reign to do as she wished without worry of being attacked, Evelyn pointed her head downwards and began to spin.

Soon a vortex of powerful wind had formed around her.

Evelyn took the rapidly accelerating wind around her body and molded it into eh shape she desired.

Normally she would have added her heavenly flame to compound with her wind magic at this point, but she wanted the Mind Manipulating Mushroom relatively intact. If she were to use her fire magic, it would simply be burned to ash and fail to serve her purpose.

\'Earth Rending Sky Drill.\'

When Evelyn had amassed the greatest force she could control, she unleashed her attack and launched a compressed blast of wind she had shaped into a drill towards the Mind Manipulating Mushroom.

Even being blind, the giant star nosed mole felt the incoming attack coming from above.

Hastily it erected several thick walls of steel in front of it and its master.

Yet, as tough as the walls created by its metal magic were, they served as little more than speed bumps against Evelyn\'s wind magic.

Evelyn\'s Earth Rending Sky Drill punched through the steel barriers like they were wet paper and impacted the giant star nosed mole.

The powerful peak awakened beast did not last a second before its body was shredded into thousands of pieces by the powerful rotating winds.

The ground below it was the next to face the power of Evelyn\'s magic and it fared no better than the star nosed mole.

Large chucks of earth and a spray of dirt erupted from the force of the wind magic.

It was not long before the Earth Rending Sky Drill had traveled several meters under the ground and reached the main body of the Mind Manipulating Mushroom.

The aberrant fugus was powerless to resist the might of Evelyn\'s magic. Its abilities were focused on controlling its army of mind slaves and it had no means with which to protect itself once its pawns were out of the way.

Within just a few seconds the powerful mushroom that had commanded a large army of beasts found itself with a massive hole bored through its body.

Surprisingly the monstrosity managed to survive the damage it had taken, but it likely would have been better off if it had not.

The damage to its body was so severe that it could only barely function and the corrupted signals it was sending out caused the beasts it had infected to experience intense pain.

At the same time these same beasts sent the pain they were feeling back towards the creature that had taken over their minds, causing the Mind Manipulating Mushroom to feel what all of its slaves were experiencing.

\'Looks like when the Mind Manipulating Mushroom suffers, it makes all the creatures it has taken over suffer with it.\' Evelyn thought, watching what remined of the aberrant fungus\' army fall over and continuously shudder in pain.

Not wanting to prolong their suffering, Evelyn descended into the hole in the ground her magic had created and finished off the Mind Manipulating Mushroom.

All it took as a few wind blades to carve up the giant fungus and finally bring its tyranny to an end.