Chapter 51: That was an Easy Rift
The cavern still echoed faintly with the aftermath of battle—smoke coiling through the air, scorched stone glowing with residual heat, and the scent of gunpowder mixing with burnt flesh.
For a long moment, no one moved.
Then Kael sheathed his blade with a metallic snap and turned toward the party. "We need to keep moving. The rift will start closing in under two hours. If we’re not out by then..."
"We get folded into the void," Reina muttered grimly, her earlier cheer fading.
Marianne helped Shade to his feet, his movements stiff but conscious now. "I’ll patch him as we go," she said.
Kael gave a short nod, then turned to the center of the chamber where the warlord’s body lay broken.
"Scavenge what you can. Rift materials fetch ten times the usual market value. Let’s not waste this kill."
Everyone moved.
The team fanned out, weapons still drawn as they approached the battlefield’s remains. The larger Draconute elites lay scattered—smoking, bleeding, their armor still faintly glowing with cursed energy. Even in death, their forms were intimidating. Kael began carefully removing armor plating from one, storing fragments in a rune-marked bag. Each piece shimmered faintly, runes etched deep into the material.
Darius cracked open a claw with a hammer, whistling low. "These things are built like siege weapons."
Reina moved to one of the elite guards she’d helped pin down. Her fingers sparked with arcane light as she traced the creature’s blood, drawing a circle before carefully lifting a scale the size of a dinner plate. "Rift-forged scale. Alchemists would kill for this."