An Owl's Rise

Chapter 491: Chapter 491 Making a Statement

Evelyn sidestepped the heavy overhand blow from Wilfried.

He might as well have been moving in slow motion with a neon sign above his head announcing what his move would be from how telegraphed the attack was.

With a single step forward while her opponent was floundering from the loss of balance from missing his strike, Evelyn got into range and lashed out with the broken half of her spear.

The butt of the weapon slammed hard against Wilfried’s chin, and there was a sickening cracking sound as his jaw was broken.

He collapsed to the ground, obviously in immense pain. It seemed another deficiency of his coddled upbringing was that his tolerance for heavy injuries was lack luster. Evelyn had taken a lot worse and still continued fighting without slowing down plenty of times before.

Luckily, he was tough enough to not have passed out, which definitely would have ruined Evelyn’s plans. The durability of a peak mage truly was astounding.

’So, let’s put it to the test.’ Evelyn thought as she hooked her right foot under Wilfried’s fallen torso.

From the contact, she could feel him heaving for air and crying from the agony he must have been in.

Evelyn had not really held her strength back with that last hit. She had wanted to make sure that her objective in preventing him from being able to speak was achieved.

And judging from the indecipherable wailing sounds he was making, it seemed she had been successful.

"Get up already. The match isn’t over yet."

There was no mercy in Evelyn’s voice as she dragged Wilfried back up with her foot and kicked him onto his feet.

However, he did not regain his footing like a seasoned fighter would have and instead flopped over onto his ass.

When the stupid, stunned expression left his face, he made some unintelligible noises that almost sounded like "I Surrender".

Of course, the referee did not call an end to the duel, even though he wore a look on his face that made it obvious that he wanted to.

For a couple seconds, Evelyn waited patiently for Wilfred to stand back up, but when he did not, she began slowly casting a spell right in front of his face.

This finally woke him up and he scrambled back onto his feet and held his sword out in front of him defensively.

If there was at least one thing he was good at, it was unconsciously keeping ahold of his weapon. Honestly, Evelyn had expected him to have dropped it and needed to fumble around picking it back up.

"Wind Shot."

Evelyn finished the very basic spell she had been casting and fired a compressed sphere of air at Wilfred like a cannon ball.

It honestly did not have very much power behind it, and when he braced himself and blocked with his sword, he was only pushed back a few centimeters.

This seemed to embolden him, and Evelyn could tell what he was thinking from the suddenly confident gleam in his eyes.

No doubt he believed that she was running low on magical energy and could not muster any more powerful attacks.

That in order to have kept up with and damaged him to such a degree, she had been forced to exert herself to her limits.

Now that she was weakening though, he would have the advantage since his reserves of magical energy were still going strong. In part because he sucked at casting magic and had not gotten off many spells.

’At least that’s what I’m guessing he must be thinking. He really has no experience with a real fight. I’m not even trying that hard to trick him.’

Evelyn waited for him to make the next move so that she could counter him.

She acted like she was haggard and potentially almost out of strength.

One thing that did catch her attention was that another attempt at weakening her with magic from the stands was directed her way.

It was not that powerful because the caster was doing their best to make the magic subtle, so now that Evelyn was aware of the interference, she had no problems blocking the spells being sent her way.

With only part of her attention on Wilfred, she tried pinpointing exactly who was the one casting magic on her, but they had stopped when they noticed their efforts were not working and blended in with the crowd.

’Hopefully one of the others got a good look at them. I’m sure that Lucia should have at least seen through any obfuscation.’

While Evelyn had been focused on more important matters, Wilfred had taken the time to start tracing a spell formation.

He was even more painfully slow than before now that he was injured, and for some reason he had chosen a very complicated and powerful spell to conjure.

It was clear that he wanted to try and finish the fight with his best attack, but it was foolish of him to think that Evelyn would just sit by and let him complete the spell. Especially when he was basically giving her all of the time in the world to disrupt him.

When he was around eighty percent done, she charged towards him.

This caused him to panic and try to cast his magic quicker, but he messed up in his haste.

That made him lose the spell formation he had already traced, and his focus on Evelyn had faltered.

At the last moment, he tried to swing his sword at her, but she easily ducked under his attack and hit him with a reprisal.

She held back enough not to break any bones when kicked him in the side of his left knee, but it still caused him to collapse.

Frustration and rage on his face, he thrusted his sword towards her, but she knocked the sloppy strike aside with the remains of her spear.

Then, she did something she had been imagining since the rude bastard had shown himself.

With a solid kick, she jammed her boot directly into his groin.

The force behind it lifted him into the air for a couple of meters, before he slammed back down onto the ring.

There were several gasps from the stands, and out of the corner of her eyes, Evelyn noticed quite a few men reaching down and covering the area where she had just hit Wilfried.

A moment later a shrill cry from a woman who was demanding that the match be called already echoed throughout the arena.

One glance was all it took for Evelyn to know that she was Wilfried’s mother. It must have been obvious to her that her son stood no chance of winning at this point and did not want him to be brutalized any longer.

’I guess I had better wrap this up. No point in dragging this out any longer.’ Evelyn thought as she slowly walked towards Wilfried.

Her opponent had clearly lost the will to fight since he had finally dropped his weapon.

He was writhing on the ground while at the same time slowly crawling towards the edge fo the ring.

It was a pitiful display, but one that Evelyn believed the man deserved.

Truthfully, had it not been for where they were and the goals they needed to achieve, Evelyn would have killed him the moment he had made himself an annoyance.

So, when she kicked him in the ribs, she did not hold back much.

His bones shattered under the force, and he rolled across the ground until he was just a couple meters from the edge.

Evelyn could have just knocked him out of the ring with that hit, but she was not quite done yet.

To finish things off, she started casting one last spell.

"Wind Wave."

A four-meter tall, seven-meter wide gust of wind burst into exitance and rushed in Wilfried’s direction.

For his part, he noticed the attack coming and tried to drag himself out of the ring before it hit.

In his condition though, eh was unable to make it the last meter before he was hit by the spell.

It hit him hard, breaking more of his bones and battering his body all over.

However, the worst of it was when he slammed into the wall of the arena.

There were cracked in the enchanted stone from the impact, and once the spell had run its course, Wilfried slid down the wall and collapsed in a broken heap.

He was still alive, but only just barely. If he did not receive healing soon, he likely would end up perishing.

It took the stunned referee a few seconds to gather his wits, but he eventually declared Evelyn’s victory.

As soon as the duel was officially completed, several people rushed to collect the beaten Wilfried, though Evelyn turned away, not paying attention to them

"Is he really an immediate member of the Taidale Family? I have to say that I’m disappointed. I thought that I would be in for a good fight, but instead all I got was a bout with an incompetent. So, I’m going to extend an invitation to all of Maeve’s cousins. If you have a problem with her, I’ll take any of you on, at any time. I have no need to be afraid of fighters at that level." Evelyn said, glancing at Wilfried in disgust.

After that, she left a stunned crowd and walked back through the way she came.

She had accomplished what she set out to do, and now the entire Taidale Family knew that Maeve had come back home with some truly formidable allies.