A/N: Sorry for the wait guys, it was a truly hectic week for me at work, thankfully I solved the issue with the import contract, so I get to keep my job and can now focus on writing again :D
.............
The next morning, the warm sun's rays streaked through the dense forest, creating a warm and ambient atmosphere at the fireplace where three figures were making breakfast.
Well, only one was truly busy. Alexander knelt by the fire, his focus entirely on a sizzling pan where strips of bacon danced alongside diced potatoes. The other two were engaged in a far more leisurely pursuit.
Seated on a makeshift bench of weathered wood was Xianyun's graceful figure. A black kitten batted and pounced at a golden wheat ear she dangled just out of reach, its violet eyes wide with playful fervor.
A faint, almost imperceptible smile graced her lips.
With a definitive clank as Alexander secured a pot of water over the fire, Xianyun finally let the morning silence be broken. "The logistical constraints of your current objective have been resolved. What are your subsequent plans?"
"Hmm… I was actually planning on going back to Inazuma for a little bit," he answered, now deftly chopping a handful of wild onions with a small, sharp knife. "Been a while since I've seen Saiguu. I bet the shrine is even noisier without me around."
"...But?" she prompted, not looking up from the kitten's antics. She had learned to hear the unspoken word in his pauses.
"Too busy tracking down a large group of savages." Alexander concluded, his tone dropping, becoming flat and hard.
"Savages?" It was the first time she had heard him use such a term. Her mind, ever-logical, conjured images of primitive tribes, perhaps cannibals from the dark corners of Teyvat's history.
"Beasts in human clothing," he clarified, the words sharp and precise. "Criminals of the lowest sort. Not desperate men, but predators. I've seen the villages they've pillaged." He returned to his chopping.
Thump-thump-thump
The knife hit against the cutting board. "Very grim. They don't just take. They break things. People included."
A heavy silence settled over the camp, a stark contradiction to the gentle morning. Even the kitten, Loki, seemed to sense the shift, pausing its play to blink up at Alexander.
"How long have you been tracking them?" Xianyun asked. No further details were needed. She was intimately aware of the atrocities both mortals and immortals were capable of.
"A month, probably. Eradicated a couple of their smaller groups," he said, the clinical term 'eradicated' falling from his lips without a hint of boastfulness. It was a statement of fact. "But I can't find anybody important enough to finish off and get a solid lead to their heart."
"Why do you think they have a base of operations? Perhaps you have already gotten rid of them?" she inquired, not in the least put off by his statement, such is the way of life.
Alexander took a moment to collect his thoughts in order to better explain, "They are trained, even the newbies I've come across have a semblance of internal order and hierarchy. They are also too fitted to not have some support. Perhaps a wealthy merchant, perhaps something more."
He gestured with his knife towards the sizzling pan. "But I think I've narrowed their location. There's no evidence of them buying supplies in any village or Mondstadt. They also avoid raiding the outskirts too often, lest they draw the full, organized attention of the Knights."
"Supplied from the sea?" Xianyun deduced, her sharp eyes meeting his.
"Yeah, wow, you really guessed it just like that, huh? It took me a while to come to this conclusion…" he rubbed the back of his head in a gesture of mild embarrassment.
"You spent the time collecting the raw data," she stated, dismissing his self-deprecation with a wave of her hand. "I simply performed a deductive analysis on the compiled information. Besides, the hypothesis remains unconfirmed."
"Sure, anyway, I think they're hidden along the 'Falcon Coast'. The cliffs there are riddled with sea caves." he took a pause again, collecting different ingredients and preparing to throw them into the boiling pot.
"But, there's also a possibility they're based further out, on the 'Musk Reef', but there have been no consistent rumors of ships sailing to and from there. Too conspicuous." Alexander finished.
"When do we commence the reconnaissance of these locations?" she asked, her tone rather eager.
"Calm down teacher, have a meal first, haha" he chuckled at her enthusiasm, as he stirred the contents of the stew with a wooden ladle.
Xianyun nodded, noting down that they would start today. It would be the first time they fought together, shoulder-to-shoulder. They had only sparred lightly before.
.
.
.
On the windswept cliffs, overlooking the Falcon Coast, the air was thick with the salty tang of the sea. Below, the waves crashed against jagged rocks. The weather was taking a turn for the worse.
A strom was approaching.
Alexander lay prone at the cliff's edge, his form perfectly still. Beside him was Xianyun. Their sharp eyes were narrowed in concentration, scanning the coastline with a precision that rivaled any telescope.
It was their third day here and suspicious activity has been confirmed. A few times, the banners of these bandits had been seen. Yet their location was yet to be confirmed.
"There," Alexander said, his voice low and devoid of any excitement. It was a simple statement of fact. He pointed a gloved finger towards a seemingly unremarkable section of the cliff face, nearly a kilometer away. "The water pattern is wrong. See how it swirls and breaks about fifty feet out? There's a submerged shelf leading to a cave mouth. A perfect landing for small boats, hidden from casual view."
The young man had forgone his heavy armour, instead he was hooded, his gambeson providing the best possible mobility for archery.
The woman beside him however, remained in her usual silks, somehow not at all dirtied from the muddy ground or their days being stationed there.
Loki, the kitten, had been left behind in Wolvendom, where he could be kept safe by the wolves. A standard procedure by Alexander.
Xianyun followed his gaze, her mind cross-referencing tidal data and geological erosion patterns. "Your assessment is correct. There is a cavity." She glanced at him, a note of clinical appreciation in her tone. "The resolution of your ocular data gathering is... exceptional."
Alexander didn't respond to the compliment. His focus was absolute, his [Eagle Eye (Adept)] perk allowing him to pick out details that would be invisible to anyone else. "I count two lookouts. Not in the open. One is tucked into a crevice about twenty meters up from the waterline, the other is in the scrub at the top of the adjacent bluff. They're good. Professional."
He continued his scan, his eyes tracing invisible paths up the cliff. "There's a path. Steep, but manageable. They've cut handholds. It's their emergency exit or a secondary patrol route." He finally shifted, rolling onto his side to look at Xianyun, his black eyes holding a cold, resolved light. "A frontal assault from the sea is out. They'd see us coming a mile away. We go down the cliff, neutralise the lookouts silently, and go in through the front door."
"The tactical advantage of surprise is paramount," Xianyun agreed. "Their numerical superiority is irrelevant if their command and control structure is decapitated at the onset." She looked from the distant cave back to him.
He pushed himself up into a crouch, "Let's go pay them a visit."
The bandit camp's location was on the other side, so they would have to circle around and descend down the hidden paths filled with crooks he would be able to hide in.
When they finally reached their desired spot, the sun had already set, which worked very well for Alexander due to his [Witcher Sense] and the natural cover the night provided, allowing for a faster descent with more room for error.
"This One will change form and circle around to see if anything has changed in the surroundings." Xianyun spoke up.
"Okay, be careful teacher, see you down there." Alexander nodded in affirmation, it was a solid idea.
The descent was silent, Alexander moved with a fluid, practiced ease, as his gloved hands found holds in the rock.
Soon he found a rest not far above the entrance, close enough for the torch fire held by the two lookouts to brighten the surrounding area, while he crouched, hidden.
It didn't take long for Xianyun to appear beside him in her crane form, "No patrols in sight, the lookouts are still playing dice instead of guarding" she whispered.
"Okay, are you going in with me?" He asked, as he equipped the rest of the archer set: the bow, a quiver of arrows, two daggers and the lucerne hammer.
"Of course." Xianyun wasn't one to mince words, shifting back into her human form and fixing her glasses in place.
Swoosh
They converged on the first lookouts with brutal synchronicity. The men died without a sound, Alexander's dagger finding the gap between the helmet and collar of one, while Xianyun shot a silent gust of sharp wind in between another's eyebrows.
Before moving on, they checked the lookouts' equipment: good wool, sharp and clean steel swords, as well as well crafted leather upper armour.
"The support of a wealthy patron is undeniable." Xianyun confirmed, her voice low, as she fixed her glasses.
Alexander only nodded, his expression hidden by the hood, they stood before the dark, gaping maw of the cave, as he looked inside with his piercing eyes, searching for his next prey.
Within the cave he sensed the murmur of voices, more clatter of dice, rough bursts of laughter. It smelled of salt, rot, and cold smoke.
The air wavered, and Alexander equipped his full knight armor, a kite shield in his left and lucerne hammer in his right hands. Their weight settled into his grip with a comfort brought by months of using them.
Using them in situations not that different from tonight's.
He glanced at Xianyun, a single, sharp nod.
She did not arm herself, but the air around her hummed, ready to be shaped to her will. "I will secure the rear. Do not let them pin you in the entrance."
No more words were needed, just as there was no longer any need for sneaking around. Alexander made his choice.
Together, they stepped from the storm-grey light into the consuming darkness of the cave. The roar of the sea faded behind them, replaced by the growing, unmistakable sounds of the den they had come to cleanse.
The transition from the cave mouth to the first chamber was a descent into another world. The air grew thick and heavy, the stench of sweat, cheap alcohol, and something fouler…
The metallic tang of old blood and waste, it was as if tangible… clinging to the back of the throat. The sounds of crude revelry were louder now, echoing off the damp stone walls.
The first chamber was a guard post, a natural antechamber widened by pickaxes. Four men were there, gathered around a barrel-top playing cards. They were well-armed, alert enough to not be completely drunk, but not alert enough to notice death walking in.
Crunch
They noticed only when the first man died. Alexander didn't break stride. A single, powerful swing of the lucerne hammer caught the nearest bandit in the temple. The sound was not a crack, but a wet, definitive crunch, his head exploding in a grimy matter of waste.
For a heartbeat, there was stunned silence.
Then, chaos.
Alexander was already moving, a storm of steel and motion, as the rest scrambled to get up with fear in their eyes.
Thud
His kite shield bashed another one's head in, the force breaking the skull in the very moment of the impact.
Clang
Then, his motion went along with the force of bash to deflect a wild sword swing, the impact making a loud clang that reverberated in the confined space.
He didn't push back and continued flowing with the force, turning the deflection into momentum for his hammer. The flanged head smashed into the attacker's chest plate, denting it inward with a shriek of tortured metal. The man crumpled, gasping blood and air.
Thud
Squelch
Alexander never stopped, changing the direction of the swing into an overhead bash. Ending the misery of the bandit.
One more remained.
Alexander searched for him, his stance ready, but Xianyun tapped his shoulder in a signal to stop. She had already taken care of the last man and was busy watching Alex work.
"The last one fumbled for a horn at his belt. This One made it so he never reached it." she spoke softly, voice embracing Alexander's focused and cold state as if trying to soothe.
"Thank you." he answered softly, in answer to his teacher's concern.
He took a look at the men he killed, nobody older than him, maybe even younger. Although their heads were ruined, in an unrecognisable mess, he would remember their terrified faces before dying for the rest of his life.
But he felt nothing, only the flat necessity of the task. There would be no prisoners here.
There was no mercy for beasts.
They moved forward, into a larger cavern that served as the main living quarters. Tattered bedrolls and stolen finery lay scattered about.
Their entrance did not go unnoticed this time.
Instantly, laughter died down, hands stopped shuffling cards and dice. Cups of wine and mead were set down or thrown away.
A score of bandits were forming up, their faces hardening into a fury.
There were no words exchanged, there was nothing to say.
Only the roars of charge.
Alexander met theirs with tempered silence and cold eyes.
Clank
Shatter
The lucerne hammer became a blur, supported by the fast gusts of wind, all aiming for weak points. Shattered swords, broken arms…
Wailing and screams of terror
Shields were broken and heads hacked open…
Gurgle
Thud
Bodies fell while Alexander shrugged off any hits that dared to reach him. Either with his own shield or his plated armour.
He moved with an economy of motion that was terrifying to behold, every step, every pivot, every swing calibrated for maximum efficiency.
But most importantly, his mind was calm, unshaken. The [Warrior: Blooded (Adept)] perk held him in its cold embrace. The screams, the spray of blood, the chaos, none of it touched him.
A crossbow bolt ricocheted off his pauldron. Another whizzed past his head. He didn't flinch. His gaze locked onto the crossbowmen clustered on a rocky ledge across the cavern.
Reinforcements had come.
"Xianyun."
"Already processed."
A gust of wind, invisible but tangible, shot through the cavern. It didn't blast the men away; it twisted, snatching the very air from their lungs for a crucial second, making them stagger and cough. It was all the opening Alexander needed. He lunged forward, using his shield as a battering ram to clear a path through the melee, his focus solely on the ranged threats.
After immobilising the rangers, Xianyun turned her focus to finish off the stragglers of the first encounter.
Even if somebody wished to, they would never reach her, her millennium of experience a testament to her skill.
It was not a battle or a test of mettle, for either of them. It was a purge.
Alexander left a trail of broken bodies in his wake. The bandits fought with the ferocity of cornered rats, but they were disorganized, their morale shattering against the unmovable object that was the fully armored monster and the unseen, cutting wind that harried them from the shadows.
Xianyun ensured none fled, her precise gusts of Anemo tripping up runners, deflecting stray arrows, and creating openings for Alexander's hammer to fall with finality.
Soon, the only sounds in the cavern were the drip of water, the crackle of an overturned torch, and the rhythmic sound of Alexander's breathing within his helm. He stood amidst the carnage, his armour and weapons slick with gore.
He looked at Xianyun. Her silks were still pristine, her expression one of calm analysis. "The central chamber appears to be ahead. The leadership will be there."
"Let's finish this," Alexander said, his voice a low, metallic rasp. There was no triumph in it. Only the grim certainty of a job half-done.
The path arrowed into a tunnel, the rough-hewn walls closing in around them. Here, the roar of the sea was a distant memory, replaced by a profound, chilling silence broken only by the drip of water and the squelch of gore under Alexander's armored boots.
Along the way, makeshift cells began appearing, one by one. Crudely fashioned from rusted iron bars driven directly into the stone, they lined the corridor like macabre stalls. The first few were empty, their gates hanging open. But the floors were stained dark, a permanent record of filth and suffering that no amount of seawater could ever wash away.
The next cell held bones. Not a clean skeleton, but a scattered pile, as if the remains had been unceremoniously kicked aside. A skull, picked clean, stared out from the shadows with empty sockets.
Alexander's pace, which had been relentless, slowed. His grip on the hammer tightened, as he remembered the first time the illusion of being in a game being broken.
Before he had only stopped treating those around him as NPCs, they were beings with their own feelings, ambitions and dreams.
But the dark reality of the world is the pursuit of greed, in whatever shape or form.
No game would ever present or explain such atrocities committed by the fellow human kind. But here and now? It was real and it was painful to realise.
Just like now, a repeat of a sight he had seen countless times already…
Xianyun's own face was cold, flat in stillness, but she had lived far longer, so her eyes were watching her precious student.
They moved further. The next cell held a more recent occupant. The naked body was in the early stages of decay.
Alexander stopped completely.
Xianyun placed a hand on his armored shoulder. The gesture was brief, but it was heavy with a shared understanding.
"The leadership," she said, her voice soft but sharp as a blade.
Alexander lifted his head with a cold ember in his eyes. He looked towards the end of the tunnel, where a heavy, hide-covered doorway blocked the way to the final chamber. Flickering firelight and the sound of tense, low voices seeped from around its edges.
He hefted the lucerne hammer, still dripping with cold blood. Without another word, he strode forward, not with a charge, but with the grim, inevitable pace of an executioner approaching the block. Xianyun followed, the air around her beginning to crackle with a building storm.
BOOM
The gust of wind was no longer small or silent, as it crashed into the door, taking it off its hinges,
BANG
And slamming it into the wall on the other side, crushing those fortunate enough to have a quick death.
The rest will have to pray for their end soon enough.
The final chamber was a grotesque parody of a lord's hall. Fine Liyue rugs, stained with wine and blood, lay over the stone. Crates of Fontaine luxuries and Snezhnayan fire-water were stacked haphazardly. And in the center, around a large table scattered with maps and loot, were the ones in charge.
They were not brutes. They were well-dressed. A man in a rich merchant's robe, his face now a mask of terror. A huge woman wearing something akin to a berserker and a hulking Snezhnayan ex-military type, hefting a massive axe.
They had time to draw their weapons. They did not have time to use them.
Crush
Squelch
"AUUUUUUUUUURGH!!!!!!!!"
The brutes knee was shattered, as he fell on the floor in tears at the unimaginable pain.
The woman wanted to swing her axe in a mighty cleaving arc, to deter the knight from coming closer, so she and the merchant would be able to recover and think of what to do.
But Alexander didn't block. He stepped inside the swing, the axe head whistling past his back, and drove the hammer's beak into the woman's bare shoulder. The crack of shattered bone was louder than the war cry that died in her throat, which was followed by a reverse swing that also crushed her knee.
But just like the huge man, he didn't finish her, letting her blooded wails echo through the room.
Terrified out of his mind, the merchant looking man held out his sword surprisingly fast, as its movement became a silver dart aiming for where the gaps in Alexander's armour would be.
He was met not by his hammer, but by his shield which he bashed forward, not to block, but to smash. The steel rim caught him in the face with a wet snap.
He staggered back, blind and screaming, until a shard of condensed wind from Xianyun took him in the throat, ending the misery.
"Don't lose yourself Alex, end their lives, no torture needed." her stern voice echoed within the room filled with wails of pain and horror.
Alexander stood motionlessly, staring at the remaining two leaders. He stood there and watched them, knowing full well what had transpired inside the cave. Who those bodies belonged to. Who would never see their daughters ever again.
Swoosh, swoosh
Xianyun took matters into her own hands, and swiftly ended their already burnt out lives.
She then grabbed Alex's shoulder, but the expected reproach never came, instead she hugged him, "Do not forget the sense of self and humanity, even in pursuit of justice."
Alexander physically took off his helmet with a sigh, the event heavy on his mind and shoulders.
He didn't let the tear roll down his cheek in pity of himself or the kills he had committed. But for the souls that were too good for this world, locked behind the cages and countless others undoubtedly dumped into the sea.
This unfair and cruel reality… it didn't matter where he was, back in his homeworld, in Teyvat or anywhere else, these things happened every day, every hour, every minute.