Chapter Text
The clouds had turned dark, and the wind had picked up, leaves and elemental energy flowing through the air and into your face. Your hair whipped around your features uncomfortably; you desperately needed a haircut. When was the last time you had one?
Nevermind. That shouldn’t be what you were thinking of right now.
An enormous entity- dragon like in nature, and filled with pure malice- loomed over liyue from the mountains. It radiated a suffocating energy and most were too afraid to approach it, including many vision holders that were near; they had ran. But you were different. You, without a vision, stood in front of the great beast’s maw with no one to accompany you but yourself and the flimsy knives you had on you. You never received formal weapon training, and could not use a thing such as a catalyst considering you did not possess a vision- so you always made due with what you had. This time, it was some flimsy kitchen knives, as the whole current ordeal had initiated while you were preparing dinner.
You gulped down the nervousness you had been keeping prisoner in the back of your mouth. You truly hoped that everyone had not abandoned you and that they went to go get help so you wouldn’t have to be alone in this.
The creature with the aura and stench of absolute decay sunken in pure hatred made a low humming sound that almost sounded like a pur- but it certainly wasn’t one. It spoke, though it’s mouth did not move.
“One small mortal to try and prevent the destruction of their home… how sad. Humans are such cowards. I’m afraid your precious Rex lapis isn’t around anymore to help, so don’t bother praying. “
The creature that was perched upon a mountain peak’s scales seemed to stand up as it made a small shimmy, a slight glow emitting from underneath the dull, cracked, spiky armor.
You still stood alone.
It opened its mouth and you could see a powerful attack charging up in its terrible throat.
You stood alone.
You moved forward, hoping that you could at least put a scratch on it as in a few seconds you’d probably be dust.
You stood alo-
Just as the light shined from its mouth, a green wind swept you out of its way, and some sort of rock lodged itself in the creature’s mouth, causing its attack to backfire a bit and fizz back into its own body.
You looked up to see that the wind wasn’t wind, but a young man with piercing amber eyes and a solemn look on his face. Over his shoulder, you could see the owner of the geo construct in the beast’s mouth, that being a tall man with long brown hair- he looked to be in formal dress, almost something you would see at a funeral parlor.
Wait, actually, he might work at the Wangsheng funeral parlor. You’ve seen him before.
Well, that isn’t a pleasant omen.
“ are you alright?”
A raspy voice from above you asked. You turned your eyes back to the piercing amber gaze that was mere inches away from your face and nodded.
“Good.”
The young man dropped you suddenly.
“ you should leave. You are not meant for this fight. “
You shook your head immediately.
“No, I-“
By the time you had started talking, the man with the harrowing look in his eyes was already up close and personal with the beast of pure decay, fighting along the funeral worker with a spear.
You got up, dusting yourself off, and ran back in to help.
You climbed up the mountain that the dragon was on, approaching it from behind while it was occupied with the two men in front. You quickly jumped onto its back- that was a mistake, it’s scales hurt and the glow from underneath them seemed to radiate off an excruciating heat- that you ignored all of. You climbed up it’s back, trying to avoid being bucked off, and searched for a weak point.
After what felt like an eternity but in reality was only a few seconds, you noticed a spot on the back of its neck where it’s sharp, scaly armor was cracked and it’s skin was exposed- taking your chance, you climbed up there, and plunged both of your kitchen knives into the beast’s neck as deep and as hard as you could, and pulled them towards you to create two long, deep slashes.
The thing seemed to notice you then, letting out a thunderous roar and catapulting you off of itself and into the side of another mountain.
A small crater was formed when your back hit the mountain, and you gasped after a loud crack from what was probably a couple of your ribs breaking rang out into the air. The hit- or more like landing- had knocked all of the breath out of you. Your head spun and you saw stars. As you tried to regain the ability to breathe, you felt someone scrape you off of the mountain with gentle hands.
Being removed from the rocks seemed to ease your ability to breathe for some reason, and as you regained your sight, you realized that the soft touch that pulled you out of that crater belonged to the same cold-eyed wind.
“I told you, this isn’t your fight,” he hissed out. His voice seemed enraged but his sharp eyes held a softness from behind their baneful gaze.
You just smiled like an idiot for a moment before responding,
“But it is. This is my home, filled with innocent people that I want to protect. “
The wind seemed to sigh at that.
You could tell he was getting rather impatient, because he was constantly looking over his shoulder at his partner in combat.
“ fine. But you need to stay out of my way. Nothing ever comes from me but death. “
He left in the same breeze he arrived in, and you stood up on your two feet with some pain from your ribs (which you ignored).
You looked over to still see your knives in the dragon's back, and realizing you don’t have any other kind of weapon, grabbed a big, heavy stick from a nearby tree as a makeshift weapon so you could charge back into battle.
The two fighters had made quite the dent in the creature while you had been preoccupied. It was bleeding and had a large gash on two of its legs, rendering it unable to run away. The man with the brown hair and nice clothing had petrified the thing’s feet using his geo vision just in case, and was both trying to contain and kill the beast at the same time. The man of the wind that saved you twice earlier was dealing massive amounts of damage with his anemo attacks, blowing off scales every now and then, offering weak points for both fighters to take advantage of.
You quickly started surveying the beast for said weak points, or ways to go get your kitchen knives. You found some areas where the scales had been ripped off during the battle, and decided to use that to your advantage. You climbed your way up until you reached your knives.
Once your knives were within reach, you opted to completely forgo the stick because you hadn’t even used it, throwing it off into some random direction and yanking your knives out as hard as you could. Some blood splattered in your face as you did this, but you didn’t quite mind, spitting out the bit that got into your mouth.
You jumped down, digging the knives into the creature so that you both cut it on your way down and so that you didn’t fall and break something else. This created two large gashes down it’s side.
The man who looked like he worked at the funeral parlor raised his eyebrows almost in awe at the sheer amount of damage you somehow did (that not even you knew how you managed), and in that moment, the beast of decay took the opportunity to quickly charge up one final attack.
It had realized it wasn’t getting out of this alive, and planned to take the three of you and Liyue harbor out with it. It started to glow a gross purple from inside, slightly expanding with the sheer amount of energy it was about to self-destruct with.
“ get out of the way!” A raspy voice exclaimed.
You looked up to see the man of the wind surrounded by a dark aura, a mask materializing on his face.
By the time you had realized what was happening and regained the ability to move, it was too late.