Then Let Me Finish It

The battlefield trembled under the weight of clashing wills as the Shadow Operatives tightened their formation. Victoria Shade's blade glinted with a faint blue aura as she wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth, her cold, calculating gaze fixed on Ashusriel. Behind her, Marcus Steele rolled his shoulders, his bruised knuckles glowing faintly with his internal energy, while Elias Gray darted back to regroup, his sly smirk undiminished despite the growing tension.

Ashusriel stood unshaken, his violet eyes gleaming with an eerie light. Owen moved beside him, his movements sinuous and deliberate, his feral grin now tempered with a sharper edge. Alaric loomed like a storm, his fiery gaze sweeping over the operatives, his stance tense and crackling with suppressed power.