The field stank of blood and smoke, the last embers of the bandit camp flickering against the night sky. Arden gave his orders without raising his voice.
"Kill the beasts. Don't waste time."
Rael and Nyra moved first, spells flashing as they brought down the half-starved beasts left chained to the wagons.
Zephyra leapt from the shadows, her cerulean flame scattering across the dirt as she tore into one of the larger ones. Her strikes were swift and merciless, not the play of a human hand but the clean kill of a predator.
It didn't take long. The camp was already broken, the beasts weaker than the men who had commanded them.
Soon the wagons were theirs. Nyra wiped blood from her cheek and gave a nod.
"All clear."
Arden glanced once at the corpses, then at the crates of herbs stacked inside the wagons.
The faint glow of preserved aether clung to them, rows of sealed boxes heavy with value.
He motioned for them to load everything intact.
