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They work fast and coordinated as a well-oiled machine. Just like wolves, they descend cloaked by the darkness of the night, silent, precise, and deadly over their prey, and they fall to their blades before they even notice it.
Enemy after enemy, no matter their rank, strength, or abilities, all of them find themselves unable to even defend themselves before their life is ended.
Lumine can’t see it, that with all of their faces covered by masks and the like, but she can still imagine the way in which their eyes go blank, and the light, that which tends to be on the eyes of the living goes out, and is lost forever, (that is, of course, if their eyes even held life in them before their death, after all, in her personal experience, those that belong to the fighting rank of the Fatui aren’t usually the kind to still hold that shine in their eyes.)
In the middle of the night, another camp falls, and in the end, only it’s attackers remain standing.
Around, now, the only sound to be heard is the howling of the wind, a storm may fall at any moment, and so, on this night the winds are violent and when they blow, they sound like rage and cries, a haunting melody befitting of the bloodshed that they have unleashed.
She wonders if the wind will carry the cries of their victims.
Seeing as no more enemies appear, and now being certain that the zone is free of danger she proceeds to send her sword to her dimension bag and then starts to look around the camp.
Inside the tents, on boxes and crates, desks, tables, and hidden compartments that she is able to find. She looks and searches anywhere she can think and her partner does the same. They work in silence and still alert and with their guards high.
She has no doubts that after hours of the same kind of work, by this point that Fatui are more than aware of their nightly activities, and after all the destruction and losses they have cost them it is inevitable that they will begin hunting them down any moment now, that’s if the hunt for their heads hasn’t already started.
“Hey, come look at this.”
To any other soul, the writing on paper in her hands would read as nothing more than unintelligible nonsense, but luckily after a long time of snooping around Fatui’s camps and her crescent knowledge of the world she lives in, the code used on the documents now comes easily to her.
She feels Diluc peeking over her shoulder, and as he goes translating the text he enters a pensive mood.
“It’s close by.”
If the information is to believe the camp is not that far, if they keep a quick pace they would be arriving at its outskirts in half an hour.
“Yes, but its position worries me.” A cave that had been carved inside a cliff, it’s sole entrance and exit only accessible by climbing a specific and well-guarded path, a wrong step and the fall would be deadly.
That was of course, if the guards didn’t spot them first and the most probable outcome would be that they would find themselves unable to defend themselves in the narrow path.
“I know the cliff where this is. And I know away to get to the top of it, that way we should be able to drop from the top, instead of risking being discovered ascending the established path.”
He parts from her side and starts walking, she just sends all of the documents that she picked and other papers inside her dimensional bag, and trails after Diluc.
“Am I correct in assuming that your plan involves a lot of climbing right?”
“Indeed. But considering that climbing is one of your specialties I don’t think that this will be a hard thing for you to accomplish.”
Oh, this man!
“Well. Maybe, and just maybe, if you tall people stopped putting the things that I need in the upper cabinets, then maybe I wouldn’t find myself in the need of climbing on the counters to open them!”
He just laughs and starts giving longer steps, she has to run to stay at his side, and once again she finds herself cursing all the tall people she knows.
But in the end he’s right, she is good at climbing, and hopefully what is to come won’t become a hard thing for her. But she doubts it, her energy is still high, and even after almost a full night of fighting and running around she’s nowhere near tired.
But as she watches over him, she realizes that the same can’t be said about Diluc.
His steps aren’t as firm as usual, and sometimes his legs look like they might give upon supporting him at any moment, his arms sometimes spam and his hands never stop shaking.
She’ll need to keep a close eye over him at all moments, right now he’s in a state in which nothing will make him stop, so she knows that trying to get him to rest will be a useless endeavor.
So, for now, she follows, her eyes never straying away from him, not now, and much less once the fight begins anew.
***
“Here.”
The whispering may be unnecessary, that with the howling of the wind the occasional thunder that resonates through the land, and the fact that their closest enemy is some hundreds of meters above them.
Still, they risk nothing, and still, silent they move, it’s hard to see in the darkness of the night but on the other side of where they are standing, she can make the part in which the path to the hideout was made. And totally ignoring it she just follows where Diluc goes.
The climb they have to make is high, and the fact that they are about to climb in the middle of the night and that they have to stay quiet so that they aren’t discovered will only make it harder.
But not even that is enough to stop them.
Diluc is the one that knows the way, so he’s the one to start climbing first, and just behind she follows, and as he’s unaware of her stare, busy guiding then through the correct path she takes the opportunity to take note of every sign that he gives that deletes his true state.
And when they’re about halfway to the end she notices the way in which his hands struggle more and more to get a grasp over the rocks. Sometimes his feet also slip and have a hard time supporting his weight.
But if he wasn’t willing to stop before they even started their climb, then now he will be even less willing to. So she says nothing, but she makes the elements she controls run through her body, ready to be used at any moment. A Geo platform won’t be hard to create, and Anemo will be quick to respond to her call.
And she silently prays to the stars above to allow them to get to the top with no incident she continues.
In the end, they are able to make it, even after what Lumine thought were going to be moments in which disaster struck against them. But here they are, standing above the hidden camp, and with weapons at the ready.
Here they are, ready to descend upon their unsuspecting prey any moment now.
Diluc’s whole body is trembling, and now Lumine knows that his collapse won be a maybe but a when, right now the only thing she can do is keep an eye over him, and make sure to end the fight as fast as possible.
Below the guard positioned at the entrance of the cave turns and enters and they know it’s the moment to strike is now. She’s the first to jump, she lands in the mouth of the cave and even before the Fatui takes note of her presence she unleashes over them her attack. The Anemo tornado traps them and makes it impossible for them to exit the cave, as it drags them to the back. Behind her Diluc falls in a crouch and as he stands she goes down, and immediately over her head a bird made of fire flies.
It combines with her tornado and the Fatui have it even harder to escape, their victory has been secured.
Inside the combination of Anemo and Pyro still runs strong but she wastes no time and runs to the inside of the cave, behind her Diluc doesn’t follow and she knows that he has finally reached his limit.
But as she gets rid of the last of the Fatui she knows, that now, she doesn’t have a motive to worry.
The last enemy falls to her sword and she allows her guard to lower, she makes her way to the outside, and just like she thought, sitting down on the floor, all of his body laying against the walls, Diluc waits for her.
When she stands and his side, he just sends a little nod and then forsakes his sitting position and allows himself to fall to the floor, now laying down completely on it.
His whole body shakes, and his accelerated breathing sometimes is shaky, he closes his eyes and just stays like that. With nothing else to do she sits down beside him and takes her eyes to observe the outside.
The night sky is slowly being forced away by the rising sun, and the black clouds that hung heavily before are gone.
A new day will begin soon, and as the world outside starts to wake, she guards over Diluc who just until now allows himself to fall asleep.