Chapter Text
Chapter I: Act I: Part III
We followed Amber for a short distance away from the forest, headed in the direction of Mondstadt.
“There, we’re almost done with my patrol. Just a few more areas and then we’ll be…”
“What’s wrong?”
“Shh…”
Amber shushed me, suddenly cocking her head to listen. I stayed silent as well, and could vaguely hear some unknown chanting.
“What’s that chant?”
“I think… it’s a group of hilichurls.”
Hilichurls? I suppose that’s the name of some monster in this world.
“They usually don’t appear so close to the city. Even if they do, our knights would be sure to get rid of them quickly.”
“Do we need to do anything about them then?”
“Of course! It is the duty of every knight to remove any threats to the city.”
Amber replied righteously.
“Come on, Traveler, let’s go beat up some hilichurls!”
Amber dragged me towards the direction of the chanting. As we approached the hilichurl camp, I could finally see for myself what the monsters of this world are like. The hilichurls eerily resembled humans, but with much shaggier hair and more tribal like adornments. They also wore masks to cover their faces. As we snuck closer, Amber extended her hand to stop me from going closer.
“See that hilichurl on the tower? It’s a lookout for the rest of them. That hilichurl will sound the horn to alert the rest if it senses anyone approaching. If we want to destroy their camp successfully, we need to take out that one first.”
“Got it.”
I immediately aimed my wooden sword like a javelin straight at the hilichurl.
“Whoa whoa whoa chill out! There’s no need for that! I can use my bow to shoot them down!”
Amber hurriedly stopped me, and pulled out a well crafted bow, nocking an arrow while doing so. She then took a deep breath and aimed her arrow. With a small spark, the tip of the arrow suddenly burst into flames. Leaning her head slightly, Amber let the flaming arrow loose and it flew straight and true for the hilichurl lookout, killing the hilichurl in one shot.
“YAH!”
The hilichurls exclaimed in surprise before getting up and readying their weapons, which were just as odd looking as their clothing. Most of them had clubs made out of a random branch, but many had crossbows and held pyro slimes in their hands. There was even one with a large wooden shield. Of course, there were those that had nothing and just picked up a pebble instead. What odd creatures these are. But more importantly, what was that flaming arrow about? I didn’t see any sort of flammable material on the head, and neither was there a clear spark. It just…came alive, like magic.
“Hey Amber, what was that about? How did you light the arrow?”
I whispered to Amber sharply.
“I used my vision, see?”
She pulled out a glass orb in a metal case, fitted onto her waist belt like an accessory. I could feel the heat radiating off the orb despite it not having any visible heat source. It was very pretty, and engraved within was a symbol that looked like a fire. I could even see flickers of flames spark from time to time within the orb.
“What’s a vision?”
I cautiously asked. Having not seen anything like it before, it was an object that I should keep my guard up around.
“How about we save this for later, when we have more time? We gotta deal with the hilichurls first.”
Amber cut the conversation short, and stood up to aim another fiery arrow at the hilichurl approaching us before letting it loose. With a satisfying thunk, the arrow buried itself deep into the monster, and the monster let out a shout before disintegrating into dust. I sucked in a breath. Was that also because of the ‘vision’ that Amber mentioned? This wasn’t the time to be stuck on these questions, however. With Amber already rushing ahead into the battle, I only had one choice, to follow her.
“Paimon, stay right here.”
“Alright, be careful!”
I dashed into the battle, stabbing and slashing with my wooden sword. I was cautious not to use my new wind powers, as I was still unsure of its mechanics and did not want to draw attention to it. Despite that, Amber and I made quick work of the remaining hilichurls, thanks to her impeccable aim.
“Whew! Glad we got that done quickly. You were amazing out there, Traveler! Where’d you learn those sword techniques from?”
“Someone once taught them to me, but they’ve long since left .”
“I see…”
As Amber pondered in silence over my response, I bent down to pick up the mask of the hilichurl after it disintegrated. As I held it in my hand, I could feel a sinister aura coming from it, as if there was a curse of sorts that was placed on it. Not knowing what to do, I decided to bring it along with me for now.
“Right, anyways, back to what we were saying. How about I tell you about visions as we continue heading towards Mondstadt?”
“That would be much appreciated.”