They set out early in the next morning, nervousness in the air. Apparently most of the humans were noncombatants, a concept she really struggled with. Stranger still, even some of the combatants hadn't hatched - awakened - a second time, most humans didn't even try. Interestingly humans had more mages than them, perhaps one in seven was a mage.

The nervousness affected her too - at least until they caught up to Arvog - once her familiar was her eye in the sky again she calmed down fast. The two bandits that stayed back yesterday were still tailing them, taking care not to enter their sight.

The two would probably report their camp to their friends, so made sure the two stayed out of sight. They came upon a suitable location for a camp early in the evening - a small hill right next to the road. The caravan master had the wagons form a protective circle around the hill's top. Ves'ra told Arvog to rest out of the way of the bandits, far behind their lines. Depending on the bandit's numbers they would either encircle them, or storm in from one side.

They lit the fires quite early, the other mage making sure they would burn as hot as possible. Ves'ra started her magic immediately after, using a spell to store as much heat as possible.

Once night fell she jumped up on one of the wagons and watched the night, eating smoked horse and keeping watch. She used her magic to augment her sense of heat, so she was the first of the watchman to notice their approaching enemy. She used the agreed upon signal - extinguishing one of the fires - to warn the caravan. She didn't look back - that would destroy her night sight - she heard the mercenaries getting ready behind her.

She woke Arvog and started heating his blood, inceasing the density of air around him, simultaneously holding it in place around him. She added a spell that would allow him to see in the night - as a purely diurnal animal his sight in the night was atrocious.

She would hold off attacking for now, she had to take care of any mages that popped up while the other mage would take care of any enemy concentrations. She counted about a hundred bandits before they stopped coming.

That was the upper limit of what they would be able to take - though they’d have some real problems if Arvog hadn't found the scouts. As it was the fight would be hard, she had been told that a mercenary was worth two average bandits but that still meant they were outmanned - they only had about thirty mercenaries and adventurers defending the caravan.

Arvog spotted her targets soon after, five of the attackers stayed back on top of the hill they came from.

She didn't attack though - she decided to take out the mage first, ignoring the others for now. It didn't take long to spot him - apparently no one taught him how to properly use magic because he decided it was a good idea to lift his arm and point at them before starting his spell. She had no clue what he set out to do, but resolved to kill him before he had a chance. About a fourth of the water on Arvog’s back left its confines and formed a spike of ice about a third as tall as she was.

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The spike shot off with a small flex of her mind, piercing the man’s chest and killing him instantly. As people around him were showered in blood, Arvog finished his dive and started savaging the face of another, his screams alerting the bandits they had been found out. The third was hit by one of the defensive enchantments she laid on her familiar’s wings as he move to attack him, collapsing with twitching muscles.

As the last two men moved to kill their attacker Arvog jumped from the human he just killed, quickly vanishing in the dark sky - aided by her magic.

Ves’ra raised from her position as the last two leaders screamed insults in the sky. Looking in the direction of the attack she could see the bandit grunts sprinting in their direction. She ignored them for now - she had more important prey to kill and the caravan would take care of them - none of the enemies seemed to have hatched a second time.

While she would like to wait until Arvog regained his energy - something that wouldn't take too much time as she could already feel his body drawing in all energy from his surroundings, purifying it and refilling his pool as fast as possible, that wouldn't be possible, that would still take several hundred breaths seeing as he had yet to hatch a second time.

She gathered a full third of her energy - the maximum she could hold at this time - and formed a complex spell, anchoring it in a small drop of water. She propelled it forwards, already knowing that it would gather all water in its surroundings and searching for a source of heat once the spear of ice had fully formed.

Once the spell hit a target - one of the two leaders - the second part would activate, scorching everything in its surroundings with lightning. It worked just as intended - the spell flew over the bandits heads, not yet big enough to target their heat and homed in on the leaders moments later.

The hill she targeted suddenly lit up, accompanied by a sharp loud crack - releasing the power of lightning all around it.

That bulk of the bandits arrived at their wagons only moments later, knowing something went wrong, but they wouldn't do anything without prompting by their leaders. The wagons were massive so they could only try to swarm in between the gaps where they were waited for by angry mercenaries. The few people with bows unleashed their arrows into the mass of bandits, felling the first of them.

Now that the bandits were all bunched up, trying to force their way into the camp with sheer mass it was time for the other mage to act. Streams of fire left his hand, curving above the wagons and raining down onto their attackers.

The fire formed into balls, bursting like water upon impacting the ground and setting fire to all surrounding bandits. Those hit collapsed on the ground, screaming out their throats in pain, rolling on the ground and trying to extinguish themselves.

The rabble attacking broke down, running from the hill they rushed moments later. Some unfortunate souls trampled over the burning bandits - catching fire themselves. It didn't take long for the fleeing bandits to vanish in the night.

The mage stopped his flames only moments later while the mercenaries swarmed out, swiftly killing everyone that remained alive. She was called down from her perch moments later, the leaders of the caravan wanted to conclude the business.