CLOSED HELLS YES
The next few minutes were a blur. The elemental dissipated in a flash of light and water, and something small and glittering rolled up against Peony's foot. A stone, she saw, glowing with magicks; one of the beast's sources of life, and likely very valuable, but if she bent to pick it up, she knew she would not stand again.
They seemed to be in the eye of the storm, in a sense - the battle raged on around them, though it seemed slower now, but far from over. She heard Darius shout something, and the next thing she knew, he was gone. She would have to thank him later; she knew that she had nearly died. Her back was aching dreadfully, and she would not be walking well for days, but she was alive.
Maria was nearby, but she no longer saw the blonde woman - perhaps she had been distracted by another monster, perhaps she had quit the field, but she did not see a body, so she had to believe that she, too, was alive. Thank Faram, all of them were alive. She swayed, her vision going in and out, her legs trembling.
Siana was at her side as though she had read her mind; Peony indicated the stone and said, in a voice that sounded weak even to her own ears, "We must take this." Hopefully Siana would be able to reach it.
Slowly, painfully, they would make their way from the battlefield. The night had been a victory.