Failure

Commencing forward, Ras decided to first move alone, a single pawn ready to prepare a makeshift trap. In a game of chess, all pieces had power, yet even the queen could fall to a pawn if you knew how to move your pieces.

Despite his shaking body, Ras did what he would have found unthinkable before: he stepped before the ruin hunters, getting their attention. By that point, they had moved closer and closer to Mondstadt, passing Wolvendom, inching near Springvale.

Despite their best efforts to stop the machines, they were outnumbered and outpowered. Try to fight one, and the rest will soon follow, moving in like a swarm ready to prey.

Ras ran, moving through Wolvendom's terrain, waiting for the opportunity to strike. As he found an area akin to a plateau, flat and somewhat bumby, he stepped forward, rushing along the wind, moving with a swiftness that amazed even himself. His senses had been sharpened, something he tended to forget a lot of times until feelings washed over him with a fervor he hadn't experienced.

Blazing cores faced him, like the eyes of multiple cyclops focused together on one point, a target only half their size. Without much thought, he circled them, all of them at first, before moving in, restraining the number of targets he'd hold in place. Behind him, Amber shot a few arrows at the ruin hunters on the side, grabbing their attention as Diluc walked forward, blazing claymore held firmly at his side.

Eula and Kaeya followed, an icy aura surrounding both of them, with Jean walking behind all of them, the wind dashing around her in twirling breaths. Amber kept firing flaming arrows, aiming them at their cores, barely doing as much as grazing them. Ras smirked despite himself as five of the ruin hunters split apart from the group. His strategy worked, but it had become more than a simple game of divide—it was time to conquer.

"Time to show them what the Knights of Favonius are capable of," chuckled Kaeya, preparing a frosting spike at his side, yanking it like a peeble, striking true against the rusted iron that floated towards them. One by one, each knight engaged in combat, even Amber, who kept shooting arrows despite their innate nature.

"Good, now please move fast and take them down. I think that in the moment I'm going to charge my energy from one of you, the plan goes redundant."

Trying to watch them fight while moving around as large blades fell around you, hoping to cleave you in half, proved to be a grueling thing. No matter how fast his brain could think or how fast his instinct could act, it all came down to how fast he could move, which was nowhere near enough for multitasking.

Quick glimpses showed him Diluc in a flaming storm, parrying blow after blow, striking back with a tenacity worthy of admiration. Little by little, he seemed to be pilling up damage.

His eyes moved back to an incoming iron hand, then another one, soon followed by two more, and he barely twirled his body around as they flew in, thrusters aiding their movement. Whoever designed those machines must have been insane and had the brains to back up a twisted sense of destruction.

His energy was draining at a steady pace, somehow falling slightly above his expectations. Explosions followed him around, heating up his back as he felt them come closer and closer. Without much reaction, he sped up, his face straining, eyes half closed, neck flexing as he sped up.

Kaeya spared Ras a glance before dodging to the side, freezing the blade that fell before him, twirling around as he shot a flare of Cryo straight inside the core of his opponent, yet the ice wasn't enough to do anything. It melted away, leaving an exasperated Kaeya sigh as he kept dodging blows, parrying a few, redirecting them so he could get closer.

Eula moved swiftly, embracing the dance of battle as she swung her claymore around, meeting metal on metal, each hit echoing louder than the previous. Just like Kaeya, she tried freezing the ruin hunter's core, yet it proved ineffective. Instead, she switched to freezing each limb, weighing them down greatly.

Taking advantage of her opponent's inability to move, she leapt forward, running along a frozen arm, molding the ice around her feet as she moved higher and higher. Right as the ruin hunter began charging its deadly ray, she rammed her claymore inside of it, watching as the orange light faded away.

Amber kept moving around, evading a storm of blows that kept following her around. Closer and closer, each thump of the heavy blades hitting the ground was approaching dreadfully. Thump, thump, just like her heart beat. Alas, one came from the front, right where she was running.

She closed her eyes, expecting the blow, a single tear rolling along her cheek.

Clank 

Hesitantly, she opened her eyes, watching as Eula held firmly against the blade. More blades joined, turning it into a four-on-one: human against machine. She grunted, gritting her teeth as the pressure kept increasing. Her legs were barely holding, her arms bending slowly.

"Amber, run." muttered Eula, a single breath lost weighing more than the weight of the iron above her.

Amber felt lost, unable to act. In that moment, hope appeared, soaring through the air. A bright phoenix, it's heat enough to heat the ruin hunter to the point it was glowing red. From behind, Diluc thrust his sword through the soft iron, wrecking its insides. Eula let out a heavy breath, trying to find the strength to breathe.

"Thank you, Diluc."

He nodded, moving on to help Jean, who was valiantly swinging her blade around, using the wind to strike. With enough pressure, even the air could cut through steel, explaining the state of the ruin hunter she was taking on. One on one, she could take her time cutting bits of her enemy, slowly bringing it down.

Diluc then glanced over at Kaeya, who was imitating Eula, yet his sword wasn't strong enough to pierce through the core in one motion. Instead, he gathered as much Cryo as he could, freezing the core until it shut off on its own. He motioned for Diluc to come over and finish the job.

Ras kept running, watching as his comrades were slowly clearing up the ruin hunters. They were winning, slowly but surely. He watched, dodging strikes, as Jean managed to deliver one last blow aimed at the core, cutting it in half with a strong Anemo-imbued slash.

"Great teamwork back there, yo! Now lend me a hand, please!" Shouted Ras, glancing at his wrist. His energy was at around 10%, dangerously low. He felt his legs wobble as he kept running, his adrenaline keeping him going only for that long.

In a split second, he was between the rest of the knights, ready to face the last batch of ruin hunters. Instead of coming at them, the ruin hunters floated in place, looking over at the remnants of their kind.

"Analysing..." 

Everyone watched, careful, weapons ready, as a voice came from one of the ruin hunters. It seemed to scan around, as if searching for something.

"Analysis complete. Best course of action: relocate."

Instead of fighting, the ruin hunters fled together, moving towards Mondstadt.

"Follow them!" Ordered Jean as she gave chase, not even turning back. The others soon followed, and Ras used what little energy he had to keep up. No matter how fast they were running, the ruin hunters kept moving further and further away, not even turning towards Springvale. They simply aimed for Mondstadt.

"Last resort it is."

Ras charged his legs with as much energy as he could, throwing back dirt and gravel as his legs pounded against the ground. He gained ground, moving near with each passing breath, almost reaching them, until his legs gave out; he had run out of energy.

He fell to the ground, toppling for a few meters before stopping in place.

"Keep running!" urged Ras, trying to get up and follow along. It was too late. The ruin hunters were passing the bridge. Screams were already filling the air as helpless knights tried to resist, only to fall back as the shadows of the ruin hunters loomed closer and closer, growing in size. Everyone began running, shouting in fear. Children cried out for their mothers, while grown men tried to hide their families inside. Mondstadt became chaotic as five large machines of war, perhaps older than the city itself, roamed freely.

Some people fled, while others were left behind. Shouts mingled as a few adventurers stepped out, hoping to at least buy some time for the others to escape.

One child, left alone, curled up in the middle of the road, crying for his mother. A ruin hunter stood before it, blade rose high, ready to strike.

"NO!" 

That was all Jean could do as she reached the gate, horror on her face. Sweat fell on her face, mixing with tears of regret—tears that spoke more of her failure than she would have liked.

The blade fell, and in that moment, time itself seemed to freeze. Her heart beat frantically, pushing one single feeling through her blood: she had failed.

Clank 

The single sound echoed, silencing everyone, their very beings frozen in that very moment. A cacophony of sounds filled the air as a lone person, barefoot, stood before the ruin guard, their chest bare.

"All that shouting had me rush out, barely grabbing my sword. Now, I think that demons around is enough to make my blood boil."