Despite the unusual and abrupt end of the battle the guards did not lag in reacting to the fact that their foes had been incapacitated. They quickly used sleeping spells on their weakened and held opponents. Though usual these kinds of spells would have a harder time affecting others unless a large amount of mana was used to overpower any resistance, this time the weakening of the bandits allowed for the effects to take hold quickly and with little effort.

Once the bandits were asleep the guards took their time to cut them free of the hardened vines and then moved to put them in chains after thoroughly disarming them. While this was going on Lord Losler rushed back to Jien's side. He quickly but gently turned his son over to check on his wounds. Though they were not light and were starting to bleed more heavily than when first inflicted Earl sighed in relief after seeing Jien breathing normally. He was a bit pale, but nothing that proper treatment wouldn't be able to fix.

Lord Losler drew a potion from the pack connected to his waist. Being prepared was always important when taking on missions that may involve battle and Lord Losler being a veteran always kept a certain list of supplies on his person during such times. One of the items in question would be these healing potions. The bottle was a slender crystalline phial filled with a light green liquid that seemed to glow lightly in the dark of the night.

He quickly removed the stopper and placed his thumb over most of the opening to stop all of the potion from pouring out at once. He used a weak water spell to clean the deeper wound on Jien's shoulder before sprinkling half of the phial on the cleaned wound before stoppering it and setting it to the side. He took out some bandages, quickly tore Jien's shirt to better expose the wound and then with practiced ease wrapped bandaged the shoulder tightly. He followed roughly the same procedure for the wound on Jien's leg and then picked up his son to bring him back to where the others had gathered.

Though potions and elixirs were miraculous for assisting in healing they were not a cure all. Not even normal healing magic would be able to just heal wounds, they mainly assisted in the healing process by adding energy among other effects such as the ability to staunch bleeding. Lord Losler had used a potion that was made to stop bleeding and provide energy to assist the body in natural healing. If a series of different potions would be applied over time and care was taken in applying certain other salves and healing magic one could usually avoid having obvious scars or if very lucky, they wouldn't have any scars at all.

While Lord Losler was attending to Jien the guards had secured all of the bandits that had been a part of the battle. The used manacles created to restrict mana flow to ensure that the captives wouldn't have the chance to use magic to break free. Still their mood dampened when they saw some of their companions laying lifeless. Those that had been killed were two of the melee fighters and one of the pure mages. The guards had taken care of their own wounds before gathering the bodies of their companions and laying them together by the lake, closing their dull eyes for the last time.

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Though the mood wasn't great they still had a job to do. They had captured the bandits which was great overall. They would be able to present them to those noble families they had stolen from and hurt and allow them to pass judgement. They now only had to check if the stolen property was here and if so to retrieve it.

Lord Losler not wanting to sit on the back lines of the mission while the guards did all the work got some assistance from one of the remaining guards to strap Jien to his back. He was careful to make sure to not jostle his son's wounds as they started their march into the cave. It was only a small patrol of three melee fighters, a pure mage and one archer who had knowledge of traps and how to disarm them.

They weren't sure if the bandits they had fought against were the only ones, but it was always better to be careful. They approached the mouth of the cave with caution, letting the archer cast the occasional detection spell as they started their descent into the hideout.

The path was wide enough for two full grown men to walk side by side and they used that space to create a formation with the archer up front as a scout for traps, two melee fighters just behind, followed by Earl and Jien and ended with the mage being covered from behind by the last melee fighter. This formation was to ensure that if there were branching paths that it wouldn't allow for an ambush from behind so easily.

Despite their caution there didn't happen to be any traps along the way and the travel downward, though twisting and turning was uneventful. Soon they ended in a cental chamber some ways down the path. What they saw when they arrived on the scene worsened their moods even more. Though they could see two caved in tunnels proving the original plan had indeed succeeded they soon found the corpses of the two guards who were sent in to scout and collapse the tunnels. Beside their bodies were the corpses of three other bandits, but that didn't make the group feel any better about the situation.

In the chamber, beyond the bodies there was a fire pit in the center that had dying embers still burning in its coals. Along the edges of the chamber were several blankets and bedding, half empty bottles of liquor and food. The bandits had likely been eating prior to settling in for the night.

At the far end of the larger chamber was a smaller alcove that looked to have been manmade rather than formed by nature. In the alcove was a number of wooden crates and a few chests of various sizes. The group of guards was sure that this was what they were sent to reclaim. The archer quickly took the initiative to search thoroughly for traps before anyone could do anything else. It was lucky that she had because the area with the stolen goods appeared to have a rather large number of traps set, both physical and magical.

While they archer and the accompanying mage worked to disarm all the traps so that they could reclaim the stolen goods the others brought their fallen companions back up to the others. Though they had succeeded, and in an excellent time as well, it would still be a long trip home.