Good Hunter. A decent restaurant and a place where you can buy packed meals in Mondstadt. It is highly popular to travellers, adventurers and Knights of Favonius as they usually couldn't afford time to cook their own meals. Currently a young man in a basic Knight of Favonius get up sat one of its chairs. Young man had a basic face, not ugly but not handsome. Either. He was currently busy with running his hands through his messy dark hair as his grey eyes was struggling to keep themselfs open. He wasn't able to sleep for last 4 days as Hilichurls surrounding the city kept increasing. What are Hilichurls you say. A scholar would probably explain it with a deep voice as humanoid and semi intelligent species of creatures that lives in small tribal communities although their size and intelligence can greatly change between individuals. However if you were to ask what a Hilichurl is to this young man he would drag you one of their communities and make you watch as he slaughtered and split their guts open. How I am privy to inner machinations of this young knight named Flynn I hear you ask i. It has a rather simple answer. I am the Knight Flynn who did nothing but attack to Hilichurls in last 4 days along with other knights to no avail. Their numbers simply didn't lessen. For every Hilichurl I stabbed with my silver sword 3 more jumped from the bushes with a club, fully intending to crush my cranium like a watermelon.
As I was going on my inner rant I didn't neglect the soup in front of me. It's sweet aroma melting in my mouth and a feeling of vitality passing through my body. I could almost feel the wounds I have accumulated over last few days lessen. Metaphorically of course. Soups can't heal people. As I enjoyed my soup however, I saw Otto, another fellow knight of Favonius, jogging towards me. Before even he got to me I knew that my restless days wasn't going away any time soon. I guessn I have to keep being a sleep deprived hero ehh. Great inner monologues are getting worse.
Otto, unaware of my mental stress, told me we were still low on men as Knights either were fighting against the hilichurls or searching why hilichurls were this near to Mondstadt. Luckily for me he appointed an adventurer from Adventurer's Guild to aid me so we could cover more hilichurl settlements. Which is something I would think as a sensible decision from the Knights of Favonius. Except...
"Alright Knight Flynn, the adventurer we picked for you is Mr. Bennett. He and you will clear the 3 camps we marked on your map. You can wait him near the city gates he shall soon show up."
I nodded and left with a very strained smile in my face. In truth I had nothing against the Bennett guy. But everyone heard about the grey haired kid who always shows up in bandages and wounds as he drags his unconcious teammates. He was , according to rumors, so unlucky that no adventurer even teamed up with him unless mandatory. I just sent a quick prayer to Barbatos and hoped for a quick death.
Bennett was already at the gate, nervously glancing from side to side. I guess he was aware of his own fame. Still it felt unfair to be rude to him just because of some rumors so I shouted his name as I waved my hand. He flinched at the shout as he turn towards me, then realised I was probably the guy he was looking for and started jogging towards me.
"Bennett right?"
"Yeah."
"Alright we are tasked with clearing out 3 hilichurl camps and maybe break their stuff so they dont show up again. Which one do you want to start with."
Perhaps he was used more rough treatment or no treatment at all but after realising I am actually asking for his opinion a smile bloomed on his face along with him straightening his posture.
"I say we take the east one first. It is the closest and smallest one. We can also see how our team work goes without too much risk."
Gotta hand it to kid, he did act like he is used to adventuring. Maybe rumors were baseless all along. We both agreed on the east camp and started to jog towards it. Perhaps the mission will be easier than I thought.
It was a small camp of Hilichurls with two archer towers set up around a bonfire and a total of 5 hilichurls, two of them being the archers. Thankfully they didn't seem to realise our presence as we hide in the bushes. Though it could easily change. Bennett and I shared a look and nodded to each other, both of us stealthly approaching to the towers from behind and starting climbing to the hastily made wooden ladders and making me glad to the fact knights wear gauntlets as I saw the stray pieces of sharp wood sticking out. I called it a tower but it was barely 4 meters long. Still tower is the best way to describe it. I quickly threw my self upwards with a mighty push and grabbed on the last part of ladder, Hilichurl being none the wiser. Although it did flinch when it heard the small noise of sword being pulled out of its sheath it was too slow to react as I stabbed my silver sword through its torso. It stilled and convulsed while doing it but didn't made any noise as it gave its last breaths. I slowly put its body down without making much noise as I glanced to Bennett. He also did manage to silently kill its prey and gave me a thumbs up with a grin, making me smile too.
This shared joy didn't last long as I caught the bow that was in the archer Hilichurls hands with my peripheral vision. I couldn't catch it as it slipped from its cold fingers directly on top of another Hilichurl sleeping near to the tower.
"Shit." Was all I could say as I jumped behind the bow, sword in my hand , ready to plunge into the Hilichurl's cranium. It did woke up from its sleep and unluckily for me bolted right up with a anxious scream as I missed it, only managing cut some if its hair. It did turned back after hearing my loud thud. It was also much better warrior from the previous one as it did swung the club in its right hand towards me while turning to me. I quickly raised my left gauntlet, blocking and parrying the blow despite the burning pain both the impact and stress of parrying a hilichurl without a weapon caused but I didn't falter. I was never going to fail parrying a hilichurl after the previous accident. Call me petty I don't care. I quickly raised the sword in my right hand did a quick thrust, catching the hilichurl right from the throat and stabbing into it. I didn't waste time as the blow landed and quickly went for a roll towards my right side. Hilichurl did try attacking again but collapsed down as blood poured from its neck. I turned ny attention to the screaming hilichurl who was running towards me but I didn't had to left a finger as Bennett appeared from nowhere as the sword in his hand burst into flames, slicing through bones and flesh alike, severing the connection between its legs and rest of its body. My eyes searched for the last hilichurl and found it leaning to a tree as it struggled to stand up. It quickly fell down and failed to get back up. A quick search in their camp proved some fruits and a few valuables, most likely stolen from humans. First camp was done without any problems but it was still quite tiresome. And I needed to check my left arm to see if the damage was worse than I thought. So I decided to rest a little and asked Bennett if he would like to sit for a while. Thankfully him having a Pyro vision reigniting the bonfire which was extinguished during the fight somehow. So I found a sharp stick, grabbed some of the apples hilichurls dropped and sticked them with it and put it on fire to have some baked apple.
As the apples heat up I removed my gauntlet and winced as a dull pain flared on my left arm. Slowly peeling away the black shirt I wore under my atm showed me a purple bruise over it. I guess Favonius steel wasn't as good quality as I hoped. I wonder if that was why Grand Master Jean, or was it acting Master meh who cares, didn't wear the standart armour but a custom one. I was too wrap up in my thoughts and didn't realise Bennett was talking with me while I was pulling the left arm of my shirt up. He had bandages and a box of lotion in his hand.
"Hey come on, focus. Use these for bruises. From my experience these works best until you get to see a doctor or get healed by Barbara from Cathedral. " He said with a cheerfull smile. I grabbed the bandages and lotion as I thanked him.
" These are great Bennett. I have to admit even Knights aren't this prepared usually. Good to have you around." I meant it of course. One could assume that Bennett was truly unlucky and that was why I was wounded but at the same time it was me who failed to check or grab the bow before it fell. Perhaps this was how rumors started. People was careless Bennett. It made some sense. Bennett meanwhile was busy with scratching back of his head with a expression mixed with relief and some tinge of regret. But you could see a gratefull smile on his face. Probably because I wasn't rude towards him. Perhaps I can give a report on this. It would at least make Bennett more accepted by Knights at the very least. I honestly regretted ny previous assumptions about him and this seems best course of action for some redemtion. With our apples done and eaten, with our arms rested and somewhat healed we geared up and left for the second hilichurl camp in our list.
Second camp didn't had any archers. But it had 12 hilichurl equipped with clubs and 4 of them carrying a shield. All wooden of course. Fortunately for us though , half of them were busy with trying to catch some fish while others just took naps under a small shadow they could find to hide from the heat of afternoon. I am glad these creatures are mostly lazy. It made the sneaking much more easier compared to a few deer hunts I had been a few years back.
"Hey Flynn... I have an idea. Would you be willing to listen?" Bennett whispered to me as we were hiding behind a few bushes and a tree. After I gave him a nod which was something he didn't expect, he really needed a better reputation or friends in my opinion, he explained it to me. While it was dangerous it still had some merit so I agreed as we put it into motion. Which included me screaming from the top of my lungs as I sprinted towards the Hilichurls and going past the sleeping ones, not without stepping on the ones in my way, and running at the edge of lake with water only coming up mu knees. The hilichurls of course followed me, dropping everything else they were doing. Which was what we wanted them to.
"NOW jump Flynn, jump to back to ground and roll." I didn't wasted any second and jumped away from water and rolled away as fast as I could. Bennett appeared from sky, climbed a tree and jumped fown for the attack as we planned, his right fist glowing crimson before suddenly bursting ablaze and plunging down into lake water, instantly heating it up and causing it to violently burst as hot steam. Heat didn't seem to damage him as he drew the power of his vision but I couldn't say the same for hilichurls. Water suddenly heating up that much caused them to jump up, lost their balance and fall back into the boiling water again. Not to mention steam also burning their skin. Using water the power up a fire attack. If I had any doubts on Visions being a gift from Gods before I had none now. Only 2 hilichurls survived the attack but they were in no shape to fight after the burns. I used my sword to end their suffering.
"Good work Bennett. We can proceed to third one and wrap this mission up." He gave me a thumbs up and smile as he approached.
"I got to admit though, you are a pretty decent adventurer Bennett. I do wonder how those rumors started." He stilled for a few seconds before answering.
"I guess it was just bad luck. I am used to it and pretty well prepared but not everyone is that ready I assume. Well adventurer is the adventure no matter what."
"Perhaps it was just bad luck but honestly seeing only bad luck we had which might not even be a bad luck I would say people are just exaggrating the events to hide their incompetence. Don't worry too much." He smiled to me again but this time it seemed more strained as if he had hard time believing my words. Rest of the journey for third camp was mostly silent. But honestly how bad can it be?