Nobilis Custos

Karma

Bennett's POV

These days Mond has been pretty busy. Events that could easily be called miracles keep occuring, and people begin to theorize Lord Barbatos' return. I can't blame them, an unknown individual bewitched Stormterror with a song and effortlessly quenched the dragon's wrath. The Holy Lyre, Lord Barbatos' instrument, was stolen and is still missing, the Knights of Favonius who are working their butts off to keep the city safe from not only monsters and scammers, now even the Fatui are starting to press regarding the Stormterror's crisis.
Speaking of Knights of Favonius, this morning I saw Captain Kaeya cheerfully humming while he walked around the city like he forgot how Mondstadt looked like. I found it strange but I didn't give much thought either, I'm sure he could resolve his problem by himself or someone else would do it for him, Captain Kaeya is trusted by everyone after all.

I wanted to take this day to go around and buy new gears, but my dads received a request to take care of an hilichurl camp located in Dragonspine. I usually take missions with a lower level since my bad luck tends to make things difficult to handle and predict, but this one seems pretty easy.

"On it!" I exclaim as I quickly prepare to head over the coldest place in Mondstadt.

I decide to walk there to stuck up on ingredients in case something goes bad and it will take more than a day to complete my mission. And today must be my lucky day! I bump into Razor and his pack, it seem they also are trying to find something to eat.

"Razor~" I wave to make sure he spots me more easily. I smile happily too when the wolves howl wagging their tails when they recognize me.

"Bennett... where going?"

"I have a mission at Dragonspine, I'm heading there." when I say so, Razor frowns his brows. "What's wrong? D-did I say something wrong?"

"There dangerous.... Go alone....?"

"Well yeah, it's an easy one this time. Also the others members of the Benny's Adventure Team were not available at the moment, so as their leader, I took the lead, hahaha."

Razor seems thinking hard about something, nevertheless I give him the time he needs to process what he wants to understand and/or say. I know he grew up with wolves so he struggles with a few things, and that's fine with me! Everyone has their own time to do things, we shouldn't rush it.

"I come too..." he says while reporting to the pack that he will come back later. "Two people... Quicker..." I can't stop him because after the wolves barked, Razor takes my hand and drag me to the closest teleport available to us.

-Dragonspine-

The details of the mission said that the camp is near the Starglow Cavern. The stinging cold of the mountain slaps in the face, putting our bodies in a tensed state that almost hurt our muscles. Despite the harsh environment, me and Razor start our search, stopping from time to time to warm ourselves near torches.

"I don't like..." Razor whispers when we enter the cave.

"Same. Something feels off." I whisper too, lowkey scared that something bad might happen if I use a normal tone of voice. What rings my inner bells is the fact that along the way we have met not a single monster. "I don't think it was a scam either though, Kather-"

A rumble catches my attention on the lower levels of the cavern. When I approach the edge to have a visual of the underneath paths, my jaw falls, as cold sweat wet my back.

"That... not like the mission..." Razor crouches to avoid being spot and I mimic him once I realize that now we have to survive. "We retreat... Bennett..."

I agree. The mission specified a hilichurl camp, at worst I expected to see a mitachurl, this goes beyond my bad luck. The camp in question has not a single hilichurl, it's a colony of ice shield mitachurls and their leader is a buffed frostarm lawachurl. We need a whole unit to take care of these buffed monsters when the field of this battle is completely theirs. "Let's move silently, if they find us we're gonna have a bad time."

Razor nods to my words, and together we begin to move backwards. One step at the time to make sure nothing that could produce a noise is under our boots. When we start to feel the strong, cold wind on our backs, the hope that we are close to the exit makes the both of us release a sigh of relief.

"Grrr..." the wind may howl, surely never I have heard it growl like now. The ground slightly starts under my feet as a shadow obscures the light.

"Bennett... Run..." Razor stares at the ground, his sweat visible to my eyes. I dare to slowly move my eyes to the corner and spot what or who is behind us. "Go..."

Another damn frostarm lawachurl!?? I push Razor out of the trajectory of the monster's attack and the blasing wave makes the both of us slide back inside the cave. Fuck, this is bad. The monster's roar triggered the ones underneath and now are running up here. "Let's go this way!"

I take Razor's hand and hold it for dear life while I run towards an edge to lunch and glide to the another side. We manage to get a hold on some rocks and while we climb as fast as we can, the distance we put between us and the monsters is a joke for the lawachurls. How do I know? Well, both of them covered the distance with a single jump and the landing make me and Razor lose grip. We fall into a pond of water that thank the archons softened the landing, but at the same time it makes us scream our lungs out. The moment our whole body was submerged the intensity of the freezing sensation got so high I feel like crystals are tearing me apart from the inside. I'm sure Razor has the same feelings since I can hear his muffed yet loud scream underneath the waters.

"Come on, buddy!" I'm the first one to climb back out of that mortal cage and I extend my hand to my friend whose gums are bleeding for how tightly he's clenching his jaws. I know I have a high pain tolerance, but this hurts so much!!

The contact with the air and our wet bodies is worse than being struck by a lightning. My lungs are on fire, making hard to breathe and not hyperventilate, my teeth slam against each other so hard the sound echoes straight into my brain, and is making me go crazy. Fighting the mitachurls is more than we can take right now, and I'm well aware because both me and Razor keep taking heavy hits as minutes pass by.

At least one of us need to get out of here alive! On the spot I decide to take a huge risk for my friend's sake. With my bad luck I won't last, but if he's away from me he has high chances of survival. Call me selfish, mad, however you like, but I don't want Razor to die here; so I grab him by the hood and throw him away from me.

"What-" I watch Razor's burning face as he turns into a shocked one. An expression I never saw on him before, I have to admit. "Bennett!!"

I use my vision to block the way between me and the wolf boy. Rocks mixed with heavy snow and ice are now diving the two of us. Razor has freedom on his path, I probably have a horrible death awaiting, but I won't give up so easily!

"Go into town and call for help!" I scream to make sure my voice penetrates the deep layers that separate us, even if it brings me so much pain through my ribcage and to every extend of my freezing muscles. "I saw Captain Kaeya this morning, he must be around still! I'll make my way to the top of the mountain, you got it? I'll wait for you, Razor!"

The only thing I can hear is him screaming 'don't die!' before the storm silences him and leaves me with a constant white noise of growls and roars. How do I make my way up without dying from hypothermia? I scan my surroundings and I spot an empty spot in the monsters' formation.

Oh boy, this is gonna be tough as hell! I grip my sword tighter and with a grin, I brace myself for the incoming misfortune. "If I get out of here alive, man that will be my luckiest day ever!"