'This is...' Jean thought as she saw what was left of what seemed to only be described as a battleground. There were numerous potholes, burned ground, and dead monster carcasses and the smell of death was prevalent in the air.
"What an amazing scene," Kaeya said as he stepped forward to examine a pillar of what seemed to be a large thick pile of sand. A very condensed pillar of sand. Under that pillar was a shield Mitachurl, dead.
'As they should be,' Kaeya snorted in disdain but there was an indescribable aura around him, it was one of sorrow at the sight of these creatures.
"It is certainly a sight for sore eyes," Diluc said as he wrinkled his nose in disgust at Kaeya's act of using his hand to touch the battlefield, he used his greatsword instead, shifting corpses as he made his way to the building, all the while his attention was focused on the children who were happily talking a couple of meters away.
'They caused this? Unbelievable!'
But Diluc couldn't help the smile that made its way onto his face, it was a good day when the enemy was slain. No matter who did it.
If one were to go back a few hours that day, then this scene would make much more sense.
*****
'My energy is a bit low, and...' Emmy looked at her friends who successfully breached the enemy lines and were making a rather hasty break for the building, 'They have already completed their part of the objective. Time to move.'
At that thought Emmy began to activate a technique she was quite familiar with using, she halted herself in the air by making a solid aerial platform. She would need it for this next plan of hers.
[Realm of Thought]!
[Activating Required Sub-Skills.]
[Sub-Skill: Focused Calculation]
[Sub-Skill: Precise Conclusion]
[Sub-Skill: Idea Generation]
Emmy took a deep breath even as her head throbbed in pain as the technique activated, it always caused her a mild headache to use this technique. But, this was also why it was so powerful.
In an instant, all her focus was on how to use explosive force to get herself from Point A, her current position, to Point B, the entrance of the building that was several kilos away. Her focus began to conjure ideas and using [Precise Conclusion] she picked the best one available.
Igniting her explosive spells or elemental attacks beneath her feet while simultaneously using mild Anemo platforms to make her flight through the air and assured venture. But she needed to know the exact amount of explosive force to use.
Otherwise, she could die.
So, that was when [Focuse Calculation] and [Precise Conclusion] began to work in tandem.
She calculated the amount of force her explosion needed, how much energy, and the degree of armor her shield would need.
The most effective way to use that shield to combat air resistance. The most effective element to use for that shield. The shape and size of it.
The angle she needed to position herself. How far she needed to be launched into the air and how would gravity allow her to maximize her effort?
Numerous calculations took place in Emmy's mind numbering in the thousands, possibly in the tens or even, as a stretch, the hundreds of thousands. Her [Precise Conclusion] gave her a result that even the system would agree with.
It really did.
And Emmy did all of that thinking, planning, and calculating in under 5 seconds.
'Energy reserves beneath acceptable range, okay 38% left. I can work with that,' While she didn't like her energy beneath 60% Emmy could accept that the circumstances didn't allow her to be picky.
"Okay," Emmy opened her eyes and smirked as she looked at the sky, using Anemo energy to angle herself appropriately, fire went underneath her and wind around her. She narrowed her eyes, counting to 10 as she prepared everything.
"Go!" Her eyes lit up and she didn't hesitate any longer.
Boom!
"Woohoo!"
The girl shouted as she blasted through the air, the wind whipped around her as she cut through it like a knife through butter.
It took her only 6 seconds to reach the clouds and go beyond them. She could hardly feel the wind hitting her in the face, another 6 seconds and she was already approaching her peak height.
In other words, she was already 3/8ths of the way to the building entrance. She had already crossed a couple of kilometers in that initial burst, and she didn't feel a thing!
'This is ridiculous! And fun!' Emmy giggled as she began to descend at an angle, once again her cheat code of a mental technique gave her the perfect calculations, regarding wind speed, gravity, and drag.
'It is certainly slower than flight or Anemo-assisted running, however,' Emmy thought as she could see the building approaching her fast, 'It also doesn't take as much energy, the energy that I have little of in my current situation.'
As she flew past, Emmy saw something that caught her attention, her friends.
"Hey!" Emmy waved cheerfully, even as she saw the early restrained shock her friends had as they saw their boss fly in the air like a bird.
"Yo! Nice ride," Andre waved as well and then he looked around, seeing no monsters even close to them, within 400 meters, he covered his limbs in electro then in a burst of speed he took off in the same direction.
Emmy who saw this smiled, then snorted her eyes containing a bit of mischief as they blanked out, a signature of her using [Realm of Thought], then they lit up once more and she ignited balls of flame beneath her feet.
She quickly turned into a small dot that was on a collision course with the ground in front of the building but by the joyous laughter that was heard, Aries concluded that she would be fine.
"Wait-" Aries who was about to stop him looked on in exasperation as his boss and his brother started racing mid-battle.
"Keep moving, we're almost there," Harlin said and Aries glance at the boy. It was rare to see the stamina beast covered in sweat but he was relatively uninjured, his sand protected him from the shots.
'The boss also took out more than 3/4 of the ranged units on the opposite side and Fischl took out a significant amount as well,' Aries looked at the aforementioned girl, whose fingertips were a little bloody as she knocked another arrow, 'She barely missed as well.'
It only took them 3 more minutes to reach the entrance of the building where they saw Emmy sitting on the ground cross-legged with her arms crossed. She rested herself on the wall as she meditated, not one to miss a chance to recover her strength.
Andre was nowhere to be seen but by the purple light and the growling of monsters that came from the rooms inside, it could be deemed he was a bit busy.
They all sat down and avoided disturbing her as they all watched the place they came from. They were waiting for Andre to finish clearing the house and for the monsters to show up.
'It seems that those monsters aren't as persistent as I thought, or did they just become tired?'
"Nope," Sebastian said and Aries jerked, did he say that out loud?
"Yep, but back to what you were saying. Those monsters do tire but not this easily, they are likely under no command and thus are in confusion. It's always like that with Hilichurls, if you run far and fast enough they give up."
He took a break from talking to drink from a water bottle and promptly threw a bag containing their supplies at Harlin and Noelle, who began to distribute them.
"Also due to our heavy resistance, they have likely begun to cower. Their numbers have halved after all and they haven't been able to kill any of the perpetrators. I too would retreat in the face of those losses," Sebastian said as he looked at Emmy, who now opened her eyes.
They shone a clear crystalline blue, nothing like the hazel during the kidnapping or forest blue from a few months ago. Did her eye color change because of her strength or was it something else?
She blinked and the forest blue returned but Aries was certain he saw black, silver, and maybe a little gold in her eyes, but they too quickly disappeared.
Was it his imagination?
"I wouldn't retreat," Emmy said suddenly looking into the horizon as if waiting for the Monsters who stood still to come charging toward them.
'Why didn't they? They came charging so fast before, what made them change?'
"Why do you say so?"
'Think, why did they charge before? It was because they spotted us obviously but is it because of that or...'
"They sustained significant losses but it wasn't without merit. The enemy leader was in the sky but her power was drained, they slowly wore down the main force. If they made the next moves right, we could have died or at least would have been in a stalemate spanning a few hours.
"But they just retreated, which wasn't a wise move but typical for a group of monsters without human levels of intelligence. They let us go when they could have kept going, kept us in a trap, then call for reinforcements while they wore us down. But now?
"Now we can make traps and trenches, we can place bombs in the ground, electric patches, and dendro thorns. We now have time to reinforce our defenses and plan a counterattack while we all sip on water and eat some rations leisurely."
Emmy looked at them, and there was a special frustration in her eyes, "The enemy had us where they wanted us but due to the absence of a leader and sufficient intelligence, they blew their chance. I advise you all to never expect such a reaction from a human, it could kill."
They gulped and nodded, not understanding why she was so angry.
They didn't know she was from a military family and received training in strategy. So it frustrated her knowing an enemy basically had the ability to corner another and then just threw it away.
It was her enemy but still, there was a special feeling in her heart when she saw an opposing force just drop the ball like that.
When she received her family's teachings, Emmy held a faint hope for a battle of wits between commanders, traps, and counter traps. Stratagems and stressful situations would push her ability to protect and guide her friends to the limit.
'I was naive. To expect anything from Hilichurls.'
How disappointing.
She felt a poke on her cheek and saw Fischl offering her a piece of bread, a smile on her face. Emmy looked at it for a while before she took a bite, it was a bit cold but still retained a bit of warmth. There was an indescribable feeling in her heart but it was good.
Emmy smiled as Andre jumped from the window of the building, landing some distance away from Emmy and Fischl, but it still shook the poor, blonde-haired girl into crashing into her friend.
Andre scratched his head as he looked at the position the girls were in, "Oops?"
The glare that was sent his way spoke volumes of his situation.
*****
"So here's the plan, we lure them in, they activate our traps and then we kill them," Emmy said in her improvised "war" room, with the wooden table made from dendro she had Aries make. On it was a map he used dendro to carve into the wood.
The others either stood at the table or supervised the windows, though the two main brains of the operation were Aries and Emmy.
"We will use the layout made by Aries to hold them back," Emmy pointed at the several holds and maze-like structures littered around the map, there were several "Xs" on the map.
These were kill zones and they were going to use them to kill the remainder of the beasts.
It was a basic trap-and-kill strategy, it took them barely over 2 hours to get all of it ready. They killed several of the strays that came from time to time.
"Plan clear?"
"Yes ma'am!"
"Good, let's get it done. Andre and Sebastian, lead them here. Ansgar and Fischl man the areas under your jurisdiction. The rest of us, being the ones to move around and control the tide, make sure no monster tries to hop off the other's shoulder and climb up the walls."
"Yes ma'am!"
Emmy smiled and she went and jumped out of the window.
'Let's get this party started!'
She licked her lips, a playful light in her eyes. The mischievous demon in her heart danced in joy at the wonderous toys the world brought to her doorstep.
'You missed your chance to kill me, shouldn't you play with this poor little girl to make it up to her? You really scared me you know? Let's play for a while, don't worry, it'll only cost you your little life. It's a small price to pay, wouldn't you say?'
Emmy grinned.
*****
"So that's how we got to this point," Emmy said as she drank some Sunsettia juice, she sighed in contentment as the Knights and adventurers looked at them slacked jawed.
"Wha-, huh? How?"
Emmy looked at the young Knight who asked the question and she grinned, "I'm just built differently."
"Constructed alternatively," Fischl quipped.
While Emmy was going to say more and shout alerted them all in the distance.
"Dark-red flare! Code 4!"
'Fuck!' That was all that was in Emmy's thoughts at this moment. She looked at the sky, the sun was beginning to set and the fire had long since died down.
It was going to be night soon and that came with its own amount of problems. One that would be very severe for the nation of the Anemo God.
But it would merely be the first nation to undergo such a trial but would it also be the first to fall? Or would it, in its namesake retain its title of the city of Freedom? The Nation of Wine and Song?
*****
YiHuiliang
That is the Finale of SF. Time to weep under the sunlight.
On a side note, do any guesses on who Emmy's new family member is? It's fairly obvious. For those who play the game of course.
'This is...' Jean thought as she saw what was left of what seemed to only be described as a battleground. There were numerous potholes, burned ground, and dead monster carcasses and the smell of death was prevalent in the air.
"What an amazing scene," Kaeya said as he stepped forward to examine a pillar of what seemed to be a large thick pile of sand. A very condensed pillar of sand. Under that pillar was a shield Mitachurl, dead.
'As they should be,' Kaeya snorted in disdain but there was an indescribable aura around him, it was one of sorrow at the sight of these creatures.
"It is certainly a sight for sore eyes," Diluc said as he wrinkled his nose in disgust at Kaeya's act of using his hand to touch the battlefield, he used his greatsword instead, shifting corpses as he made his way to the building, all the while his attention was focused on the children who were happily talking a couple of meters away.
'They caused this? Unbelievable!'
But Diluc couldn't help the smile that made its way onto his face, it was a good day when the enemy was slain. No matter who did it.
If one were to go back a few hours that day, then this scene would make much more sense.
*****
'My energy is a bit low, and...' Emmy looked at her friends who successfully breached the enemy lines and were making a rather hasty break for the building, 'They have already completed their part of the objective. Time to move.'
At that thought Emmy began to activate a technique she was quite familiar with using, she halted herself in the air by making a solid aerial platform. She would need it for this next plan of hers.
[Realm of Thought]!
[Activating Required Sub-Skills.]
[Sub-Skill: Focused Calculation]
[Sub-Skill: Precise Conclusion]
[Sub-Skill: Idea Generation]
Emmy took a deep breath even as her head throbbed in pain as the technique activated, it always caused her a mild headache to use this technique. But, this was also why it was so powerful.
In an instant, all her focus was on how to use explosive force to get herself from Point A, her current position, to Point B, the entrance of the building that was several kilos away. Her focus began to conjure ideas and using [Precise Conclusion] she picked the best one available.
Igniting her explosive spells or elemental attacks beneath her feet while simultaneously using mild Anemo platforms to make her flight through the air and assured venture. But she needed to know the exact amount of explosive force to use.
Otherwise, she could die.
So, that was when [Focuse Calculation] and [Precise Conclusion] began to work in tandem.
She calculated the amount of force her explosion needed, how much energy, and the degree of armor her shield would need.
The most effective way to use that shield to combat air resistance. The most effective element to use for that shield. The shape and size of it.
The angle she needed to position herself. How far she needed to be launched into the air and how would gravity allow her to maximize her effort?
Numerous calculations took place in Emmy's mind numbering in the thousands, possibly in the tens or even, as a stretch, the hundreds of thousands. Her [Precise Conclusion] gave her a result that even the system would agree with.
It really did.
And Emmy did all of that thinking, planning, and calculating in under 5 seconds.
'Energy reserves beneath acceptable range, okay 38% left. I can work with that,' While she didn't like her energy beneath 60% Emmy could accept that the circumstances didn't allow her to be picky.
"Okay," Emmy opened her eyes and smirked as she looked at the sky, using Anemo energy to angle herself appropriately, fire went underneath her and wind around her. She narrowed her eyes, counting to 10 as she prepared everything.
"Go!" Her eyes lit up and she didn't hesitate any longer.
Boom!
"Woohoo!"
The girl shouted as she blasted through the air, the wind whipped around her as she cut through it like a knife through butter.
It took her only 6 seconds to reach the clouds and go beyond them. She could hardly feel the wind hitting her in the face, another 6 seconds and she was already approaching her peak height.
In other words, she was already 3/8ths of the way to the building entrance. She had already crossed a couple of kilometers in that initial burst, and she didn't feel a thing!
'This is ridiculous! And fun!' Emmy giggled as she began to descend at an angle, once again her cheat code of a mental technique gave her the perfect calculations, regarding wind speed, gravity, and drag.
'It is certainly slower than flight or Anemo-assisted running, however,' Emmy thought as she could see the building approaching her fast, 'It also doesn't take as much energy, the energy that I have little of in my current situation.'
As she flew past, Emmy saw something that caught her attention, her friends.
"Hey!" Emmy waved cheerfully, even as she saw the early restrained shock her friends had as they saw their boss fly in the air like a bird.
"Yo! Nice ride," Andre waved as well and then he looked around, seeing no monsters even close to them, within 400 meters, he covered his limbs in electro then in a burst of speed he took off in the same direction.
Emmy who saw this smiled, then snorted her eyes containing a bit of mischief as they blanked out, a signature of her using [Realm of Thought], then they lit up once more and she ignited balls of flame beneath her feet.
She quickly turned into a small dot that was on a collision course with the ground in front of the building but by the joyous laughter that was heard, Aries concluded that she would be fine.
"Wait-" Aries who was about to stop him looked on in exasperation as his boss and his brother started racing mid-battle.
"Keep moving, we're almost there," Harlin said and Aries glance at the boy. It was rare to see the stamina beast covered in sweat but he was relatively uninjured, his sand protected him from the shots.
'The boss also took out more than 3/4 of the ranged units on the opposite side and Fischl took out a significant amount as well,' Aries looked at the aforementioned girl, whose fingertips were a little bloody as she knocked another arrow, 'She barely missed as well.'
It only took them 3 more minutes to reach the entrance of the building where they saw Emmy sitting on the ground cross-legged with her arms crossed. She rested herself on the wall as she meditated, not one to miss a chance to recover her strength.
Andre was nowhere to be seen but by the purple light and the growling of monsters that came from the rooms inside, it could be deemed he was a bit busy.
They all sat down and avoided disturbing her as they all watched the place they came from. They were waiting for Andre to finish clearing the house and for the monsters to show up.
'It seems that those monsters aren't as persistent as I thought, or did they just become tired?'
"Nope," Sebastian said and Aries jerked, did he say that out loud?
"Yep, but back to what you were saying. Those monsters do tire but not this easily, they are likely under no command and thus are in confusion. It's always like that with Hilichurls, if you run far and fast enough they give up."
He took a break from talking to drink from a water bottle and promptly threw a bag containing their supplies at Harlin and Noelle, who began to distribute them.
"Also due to our heavy resistance, they have likely begun to cower. Their numbers have halved after all and they haven't been able to kill any of the perpetrators. I too would retreat in the face of those losses," Sebastian said as he looked at Emmy, who now opened her eyes.
They shone a clear crystalline blue, nothing like the hazel during the kidnapping or forest blue from a few months ago. Did her eye color change because of her strength or was it something else?
She blinked and the forest blue returned but Aries was certain he saw black, silver, and maybe a little gold in her eyes, but they too quickly disappeared.
Was it his imagination?
"I wouldn't retreat," Emmy said suddenly looking into the horizon as if waiting for the Monsters who stood still to come charging toward them.
'Why didn't they? They came charging so fast before, what made them change?'
"Why do you say so?"
'Think, why did they charge before? It was because they spotted us obviously but is it because of that or...'
"They sustained significant losses but it wasn't without merit. The enemy leader was in the sky but her power was drained, they slowly wore down the main force. If they made the next moves right, we could have died or at least would have been in a stalemate spanning a few hours.
"But they just retreated, which wasn't a wise move but typical for a group of monsters without human levels of intelligence. They let us go when they could have kept going, kept us in a trap, then call for reinforcements while they wore us down. But now?
"Now we can make traps and trenches, we can place bombs in the ground, electric patches, and dendro thorns. We now have time to reinforce our defenses and plan a counterattack while we all sip on water and eat some rations leisurely."
Emmy looked at them, and there was a special frustration in her eyes, "The enemy had us where they wanted us but due to the absence of a leader and sufficient intelligence, they blew their chance. I advise you all to never expect such a reaction from a human, it could kill."
They gulped and nodded, not understanding why she was so angry.
They didn't know she was from a military family and received training in strategy. So it frustrated her knowing an enemy basically had the ability to corner another and then just threw it away.
It was her enemy but still, there was a special feeling in her heart when she saw an opposing force just drop the ball like that.
When she received her family's teachings, Emmy held a faint hope for a battle of wits between commanders, traps, and counter traps. Stratagems and stressful situations would push her ability to protect and guide her friends to the limit.
'I was naive. To expect anything from Hilichurls.'
How disappointing.
She felt a poke on her cheek and saw Fischl offering her a piece of bread, a smile on her face. Emmy looked at it for a while before she took a bite, it was a bit cold but still retained a bit of warmth. There was an indescribable feeling in her heart but it was good.
Emmy smiled as Andre jumped from the window of the building, landing some distance away from Emmy and Fischl, but it still shook the poor, blonde-haired girl into crashing into her friend.
Andre scratched his head as he looked at the position the girls were in, "Oops?"
The glare that was sent his way spoke volumes of his situation.
*****
"So here's the plan, we lure them in, they activate our traps and then we kill them," Emmy said in her improvised "war" room, with the wooden table made from dendro she had Aries make. On it was a map he used dendro to carve into the wood.
The others either stood at the table or supervised the windows, though the two main brains of the operation were Aries and Emmy.
"We will use the layout made by Aries to hold them back," Emmy pointed at the several holds and maze-like structures littered around the map, there were several "Xs" on the map.
These were kill zones and they were going to use them to kill the remainder of the beasts.
It was a basic trap-and-kill strategy, it took them barely over 2 hours to get all of it ready. They killed several of the strays that came from time to time.
"Plan clear?"
"Yes ma'am!"
"Good, let's get it done. Andre and Sebastian, lead them here. Ansgar and Fischl man the areas under your jurisdiction. The rest of us, being the ones to move around and control the tide, make sure no monster tries to hop off the other's shoulder and climb up the walls."
"Yes ma'am!"
Emmy smiled and she went and jumped out of the window.
'Let's get this party started!'
She licked her lips, a playful light in her eyes. The mischievous demon in her heart danced in joy at the wonderous toys the world brought to her doorstep.
'You missed your chance to kill me, shouldn't you play with this poor little girl to make it up to her? You really scared me you know? Let's play for a while, don't worry, it'll only cost you your little life. It's a small price to pay, wouldn't you say?'
Emmy grinned.
*****
"So that's how we got to this point," Emmy said as she drank some Sunsettia juice, she sighed in contentment as the Knights and adventurers looked at them slacked jawed.
"Wha-, huh? How?"
Emmy looked at the young Knight who asked the question and she grinned, "I'm just built differently."
"Constructed alternatively," Fischl quipped.
While Emmy was going to say more and shout alerted them all in the distance.
"Dark-red flare! Code 4!"
'Fuck!' That was all that was in Emmy's thoughts at this moment. She looked at the sky, the sun was beginning to set and the fire had long since died down.
It was going to be night soon and that came with its own amount of problems. One that would be very severe for the nation of the Anemo God.
But it would merely be the first nation to undergo such a trial but would it also be the first to fall? Or would it, in its namesake retain its title of the city of Freedom? The Nation of Wine and Song?
*****
YiHuiliang
That is the Finale of SF. Time to weep under the sunlight.
On a side note, do any guesses on who Emmy's new family member is? It's fairly obvious. For those who play the game of course.
