Chapter 14: Underway

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A/N: Another update on this book?And it's another chapter? Hell yeah! Anyways enjoy!

Another month has passed since you left the Magnorite village with Agate and currently y'all were climbing a steep mountain with great difficulty, so you decided to pull of a plan, that was not without dangers. 'You want me to go with you?' Ganyu asked you. 'Yes, Agate is literally made up of titanium and Itto is quite the tough guy himself. I don't want to offend you Ganyu, but logically speaking you're physically the weakest out of all of us, so it's safer for you to come with me,' you explained. 'I guess you're right then,' the blue haired girl admitted reluctantly. Who would like to be called weak, anyway? So you checked if the straps were tight enough around Abaddon to be sure the baggage won't fall off while you would go. You then mounted your Ender Dragon for the first time and almost immediately regretted that you didn't do it before. You then held out your hand and helped the goat like demon girl up, who then seated herself behind you. 'Yo, (Y/N)! Be careful out there!' Itto said and waved you two off. Agate stood silently besides him and only said: 'Be save.' Now that you thought about it, she hadn't spoken that much anyway, since she joined your party, nor did she show any emotion. She was strong, that was for sure. Especially after that incident with a giant wolf the size of a normal size elephant. She broke that thing's skull with one well aimed punch, effectively killing it.

The plan was that you and Ganyu would fly over the mountain with Abaddon and the baggage, while Itto and Agate take the lizard mount and climb over it and then rendezvous on the other side. And after your goodbyes, you gave Abaddon the sign and he spread out his enormous wings, which were as black as the night and started beating them, kicking up snow with powerful bursts, causing miniature blizzards that blew into the faces of your friends on the ground. Ganyu wrapped her arms around your waist startling you a bit, but you knew it was mainly for her safety, so you didn't mind. Luckily for the both of you, the weather was remarkable and the sun shone bright in the sky. However, after ascending for 10 meters, you suddenly fell back to the ground. 'Whaah!' screamed Ganyu. 'Well shit,' you said, while Abaddon roared loudly. You acted quickly and cushioned your fall by using wind magic, but then landing was still a rough one as you weren't that experienced with it yet. 'Ow!' you said, as you rubbed your head. 'Are you ok, Ganyu?' Itto asked, concerned for his first travel companion and friend. 'Yeah, I'm fine,' she groaned, about 5 meters from his right. You got up and saw that Abaddon had an apologetic look on his face, like he was trying to tell you he's sorry for what happened. 'Don't worry about it, buddy. We should have done it sooner,' you said and turned to your group. 'It seems that we'll all have to walk,' you announced and they all nodded in confirmation. And so you set off, through the mountains on foot, after gathering your scattered supplies.

It took about 2 days to get through the mountains and its relentlessly cold climate, luckily you could use fire magic and you had a literal dragon with you, so that made the voyage a lot better. After that you set up camp on the foot of the mountains to rest up after those almost unbearable two days. You were setting up your tent together with Itto, as you shared one with him and Ganyu and Agate were setting up theirs, when you spotted a lone figure approaching you. It was wearing a suit of armor that covered most of his body, except for his bright blue eyes, which were clearly visible. On its back was a large iron scythe that glowed weakly, indicating that it was enchanted. Itto directly grabbed his club, Ganyu her bow and Agate got in a battle stance. You looked at the oncoming figure and saw that he didn't make any move to grab his bladed weapon from its back, so you waved your hand to your companions, signaling them to stand down. Everyone did, as they trusted your judgment, but Agate was still on edge. You could sense by its spiritual energy however that it was a male and powerful warrior and knew its way around with the scythe it was carrying. 'Can we help you with something?' you asked him, but the only response you got were some incoherent noises and him pointing at his belly. Since it wasn't that hard to understand and y'all were hungry anyway, you decided to cook and eat first and then continue putting up the tents.

Ganyu had cooked a delicious stew from simple ingredients and the newcomer devoured the meal and the next bowl. 'Looks like someone's hungry,' Itto said jokingly. 'Say, what's your name actually?' you asked because even though he couldn't speak properly, if there's one thing he can say it would be his name, you figured. The armored individual made a bunch of humming noises, but you could make out a distinctive 'grm' sound. You pointed at him: 'You're Grm?' He grunted and hummed again, while slightly shaking his hand, indicating you were almost right. 'Grim?' You tried guessing his name and he happily nodded his head, while making happiness noises. (A/N: isn't Grim just adorable and badass at the same time?) 'The hell you talking about?' asked Itto, confused as to what was going on. 'I just asked his name, turns out he's called Grim,' you answered him. 'Welcome aboard then,' Ganyu said. 'He's quite the interesting individual, I suppose,' said Agate.

After meeting your new teammate, you continued eating dinner and then went to sleep, with one person keeping watch, but you didn't trust Grim enough yet to do so, so he could sleep the entire night, which passed by peacefully. The next morning went by smoothly, with everyone packing up the camp and soon you were on your way further into the lands behind the mountain range, until you came to an seemingly impassable river. It was a stream of water of about 25 meters wide with no bridge in sight to cross it. 'We have to cross this body of water to get to next town, according to the map it's a big one too, a city actually,' you told the rest. 'Well, I don't see any way to cross, so how are we going to do it?' Ganyu asked. 'We could just try to swim across,' Itto suggested. 'You do realize that I will sink, if I try to swim?' said Agate, facepalming at Itto's idea. 'I can try to make a bridge myself with earth magic,' you said. 'Yeah let's try it,' Ganyu supported you. 'Well, here goes nothing,' you muttered and stomped with your right foot on the ground. The ground was rumbling and slowly but surely stone pillars rose through the water surface, creating a dry and save passage to the other side. 'It worked!' exclaimed Itto, only to be proven wrong when several light beams, seemingly coming from underwater, hit the newly created bridge and blew it up. A loud BANG resonated throughout the calm plains and against the mountains behind it, followed by a strong pressure wave that made you skit back a meter. After all the smoke and dust had settled down you could see your passageway was no more, but you saw movement in the water.

Cube-like creatures with a tail sticking out from one end and ribbled with big, sharp spikes. Their epidermis (for the people not great at biology: its the upper layer of skin) seemed to be made up of blue stone and they had one big eye on the middle of the plain opposing the tail. These creatures didn't have a particular name, as no one knew what they were, or of they are even alive in the first place, but everyone called them "guardians". This is mostly because of what they did here and a tiny detail you overlooked. They guarded the way to next town.

'How are we even supposed to cross now?!' Itto yelled. 'Calm down, there has to be a way somehow,' Agate said. 'Is it possible to even reach the other side?' asked Ganyu. 'I'll check,' you said and walked slowly to the edge of the water, but before you could do anything one of the stone like creatures in the water turned towards you and shot its lazer at you. You felt like you were pulled towards something by your belly button and you fell forward into the water, you barely had enough time to gasp for air. The last you could hear were your traveling companions screaming your name.

You opened your eyes and saw a vague blue surrounding you, with a streak of orange quickly passing by, but still retaining distance between them and you. After 15 seconds a bigger Guardian came up to you, with a white skin and blue-purple spikes. It remained in front of you, unmoving, unblinking. Your spiritual energy detection told you they this creature was very old compared to the others, who were also at least a century old. It was still gazing at you, when all of a sudden it fired its lazer at you too and everything turned white, again.

A/N: So, what do you think? Let me know. As always, I'll see you laterrr - Dodominic2021

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