Yawning, Aether sat up, rubbing his eyes. Glancing around, he spotted Amber and Paimon resting on the ground near him. Moving closer to Amber, he nudged her shoulder.
Aether whispered, "Hey, wake up. Come on, we gotta get to Mondstadt."
In a desire to not wake up, Amber simply turned away from him and tried to continue her sleep. Chilling his hands with Cryo, Aether touched his finger to Amber's neck. With a yelp, she quickly shot up, looking around for Aether.
"Hey! Why are your hands so cold?" exclaimed Amber.
Aether shrugged and turned to wake up Paimon.
Leaning close to Paimon's ear, he yelled, "Wake up!"
"Urghhh Aether..." Paimon groaned as she floated up from the ground.
Amber looked at Paimon curiously, "When did she get here?"
Paimon seemed like she had just remembered something, "Oh yeah! You guys left Paimon all alone! When I came back. you two were already asleep. How could you two abandon Paimon like that?"
Aether answered simply, "You took too long."
As Paimon pouted, Aether turned to Amber who had finally gotten up from her sleep.
"So..." Amber asked, "Are we heading to Mondstadt now?
Aether nodded.
Paimon exclaimed, "Oh this is going to be so exciting! Let's go to Mondstadt!"
The three of them then started heading to Mondstadt. However, their relatively peaceful walk was interrupted when they came across a hilichurl camp.
"Hey!" Amber whispered to Aether, "I'll take down the Dendro samachurl with my bow. Then it'll be up to you to take down the axe mitachurl. Then we'll go from there. Sound good?"
Aether shook his head, "Look over there."
Seeing the area Aether was indicating, Amber noticed a Cryo abyss mage behind a tree.
"They were probably planning an ambush, waiting for someone to underestimate their forces." Aether explained.
Amber then revised her plan, "Alright, so I'll take out the samachurl first, then the Cryo abyss mage. You'll still need to hold off the mitachurl though. Try to stall it as long as you can until I can help you."
Aether smirked, 'Hold it off? Heh, I could take this thing in my sleep.'
He nodded anyways, and they got into position. Loosing an arrow, Amber's aim was true, sending an arrow straight towards the unaware samachurl. Striking it in the head, the arrow vanquished the samachurl, sending its lifeless body crashing towards the ground. Seeing that Amber had accomplished what she said she'd do, Aether rushed out towards the mitachurl, ready to make quick work of the enemy. Letting out a roar, the mitachurl raised its axe in preparation to attack Aether. Swinging the axe with enough force to be fatal, the mitachurl was prepared to feel its axe slice through the flesh of its opponent.
Dodging to the right of the axe, Aether scoffed, 'That attack had no chance of even coming close to me. Even if it's just a dumb monster, surely it should know that such attacks are easy to dodge.'
Snapping out of his thoughts, Aether felt a gust of wind blow past his face. It was an arrow? Instantly jumping away from the mitachurl, Aether scanned his surroundings for the archer who had shot that arrow. Farther away, he spotted a hilichurl archer behind a rock, nocking another arrow.
He nodded his head in understanding, 'So this is what they were planning. Having a mitachurl distract me, while others shoot from my blind spots. It's a pretty smart plan, I've gotta say. Well, for dumb monsters anyways.'
Sprinting past the mitachurl, who let out a roar at seeing its prey escape, Aether sped towards the unprepared hilichurl archer, who hadn't even finished nocking their arrow. Slashing his sword, Aether completely destroyed the hilichurl, who had raised its bow to block. The steel of his sword cut straight through the wood of the bow, making its way to the hilichurl's head. Spinning around after killing the hilichurl, Aether came face to face with the mitachurl, who had chased after him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Amber dealing with the Cryo abyss mage. It's elemental shield was destroyed, and it was stunned. It was now up to Amber to finish it off.
Turning his attention back to the mitachurl, Aether swiftly dodged the axe that had been swung at him. The mitachurl's axe was now lodged in the ground, after it had used too much force. Itching to use his elemental abilities, Aether ignited his sword with Pyro. Bursting into flames, the sword unleashed an ethereal hum, feeding off the elemental energy. Aether sliced towards the off balance mitachurl and felt his blade slide into the mitachurl's flesh, aided by the flames. Knowing that this was the end, the mitachurl let out one last roar that tapered off until it was quiet. The body fell towards the ground with a thud.
Looking around for Amber, he saw that she had finished off her opponent too. Her eyes were seemingly lit up as she ran over to Aether.
"That's so cool!" Amber exclaimed.
Searching around for what she meant, Aether asked, "What do you mean?"
Amber giggled, "Your sword, dummy! How does it do that?"
Raising his sword to eye level, Aether could see what she meant, "Oh that?"
Amber nodded, "Yeah, how does it stay lit on fire like that? How is it not melting? I can only apply Pyro to my arrows since they're enchanted with Hydro, so they don't burn up."
Quickly coming up with an excuse, Aether lied, "Well, you see... I also had my sword enchanted with Hydro."
"Huh? But then why can't I see any traces of Hydro on it?" Amber questioned, eyes narrowing as she activated her elemental sight.
Aether began to sweat, 'Shit, I forgot about elemental sight!"
Aether pretended to be confused, "Wait really? Let me unlight it real quick."
Rather than cutting off the flow of Pyro energy, Aether replaced it with Hydro. Coating the blade with a thin layer of Hydro, he showed it to Amber.
Turning on his elemental sight, he said, "What are you talking about? My blade's definitely enchanted with Hydro."
"Huh? No it wasn't," Amber muttered before turning on her elemental vision again, "Wait what? I could've sworn that there wasn't any."
Attempting to make an excuse, Aether explained, "Maybe it was just overwhelmed by the Pyro energy? I did infuse a lot into the sword."
Shrugging her shoulders, Amber replied, "Eh, it doesn't matter. Let's get to Mondstadt! I'm craving Sticky Honey Roast from Good Hunter!"
Aether looked at her, confused, 'How can this girl be so perceptive at times, and yet get distracted so easily?"
The duality of the one called Amber confused him. She completely forgot about the thing she was interrogating him about in favor of thinking about food. She was... unpredictable. Shrugging his shoulders, he turned to follow her. At least his secrets were still safe.
Floating towards them, their fairy companion asked, "Did you guys take care of them already?"
Amber nodded, "You know it~! Our teamwork is unstoppable!"
Letting out a small smile at his teammate's cheerfulness, Aether headed off towards Mondstadt.
Mondstadt chapter is next, let's goooooo! Sorry for this chapter's length, I was gonna make it longer, but I couldn't think of a way to end the chapter if they had made it to Mondstadt. Improved my time, though! This chapter only took 1 month, and when I say it took one month, I mean it took one month for me to motivate myself to write. This chapter was really just written in a day. Anyways, see you guys next time!
Thanks to Bro bust, Soulbow109, Mr. Haziq, and Ce soir la lune est magnifique (why is your name so long) for the reviews!