Chapter 30: Ley Line

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Bennett was still embarrassed. When the group found him and Razor tangled underneath a tree, the adventurer woke up so quickly that he hit his head on the tree and an apple fell on top of him, even though he didn't remember it being an apple tree. Then he had to deal with Xingqiu teasing him endlessly, since Razor didn't care about the mocking, he had to be the victim. Chongyun told the other to stop but he smiled at his jokes anyway, Amy didn't help either, she just laughed. The group passed through Liyue's territory until they reached Wangshu Inn. The hydro user said that they'd be having lunch there before continuing their journey, he got everyone some food and they chatted while eating. When they were done, the group attempted to continue the journey, but only managed to walk a few miles before getting attacked by a group of hilichurls and a mitachurl.

One of the monsters shot an arrow at Bennett, but Razor pulled him away and made it miss. Another one swung his club at Xingqiu who also dodged, not only that but he also attacked it back with his hydro vision. Chongyun noticed the opportunity and struck the same creature as the other, using his cryo vision to freeze it and the incoming monsters. Amy was occupied shooting the batch of enemies on her side, she managed it pretty well even without Oz to support her, but as more and more enemies started coming, she had to step back and join the Mondstadt boys. The group fought intensely, but the enemies didn't stop coming, it felt like they were cutting Hydra heads, everytime one was chopped, two grew back.

Bennett was melting a Cryo mages shield when he started to wonder why the monsters didn't stop coming, at first he thought it was his bad luck making everyone's life miserable again, but when he had to escape from one of the mages attacks, he noticed that there was a Ley Line Monolith relatively close to them, and it was attracting the monsters. The boy swiftly finished the abyss mage off, ran up the cliff where the Monolith was and started attacking it. Unfortunately he quickly noticed that the closer he was to the Ley Line the more creatures there were, and they rudely showed him he wasn't invited by shooting an arrow at his shoulder. The adventurer flinched, but continued to hit the Ley Line Monolith, alternating fire and normal attacks. But the monsters were catching up on him faster than he could attack. He looked down from the cliff, looking to call for anyone who could aid him, but the hilichurls and their allies had surrounded his friends from all sides, even though Xingqiu and Chongyun kept some from moving by freezing them, Amy and Razor had no way of keeping them away, he knew the girl wasn't much of a close ranger, the boy could see she was struggling, but if he ran there to help them, the enemies would just keep coming and they'd be fighting forever. The best he could do was to break the Monolith, that was his mission.

Suddenly a mitachurl broke him out of his thoughts by swinging a giant axe above his head; if that had hitten him, he'd be decapitated. Bennett struck him back, but decided it would be better if he ignored the monsters while the Ley Line was still up. The adventurer slashed through the pedestal, but it just wouldn't break, "stupid piece of rock" the boy thought, but cursing at the Monolith in his head wouldn't do anything to it, he wished it did, then he could just think "die" and it and all of the monsters would fall to the ground, but then again, most things he wished for didn't come true, so there was no use in dreaming.

All of a sudden, it literally struck him. As soon as the Ley Line Monolith broke, a crossbow-wielding electro hilichurl shot him at the ankle, the lightning energy made him tremble and the arrow stinged like a snake bite, but only ten times worse. He turned to look at the creature that had hit him, which was a big mistake, since that gave a pyro hilichurl time to shoot the boy in the arm. Bennett cried as he felt the two elements join together in his body, it felt like he was combusting. The feeling was terrible, he was thrown out of his stance and fell to the ground, where he was absolutely vulnerable to all of his enemies attacks, the boy twisted and turned in pain, he'd overloaded plenty of monsters in his journeys with Razor, but being overloaded was completely different, he kind of felt sorry for the creatures he had struck with that elemental reaction, it felt awful. The adventurer attempted to get up, but the mitachurl who was nearby didn't feel like he should, so it charged at him with a giant shield, strike that sent the boy flying down the hill, he prayed to fall at least in the small circle where his friends were at, but that didn't happen, instead he fell in the middle of the hilichurl crowd, the enemies around him stopped attacking and instead just looked at the fallen boy. Bennett started to find it harder and harder to breathe and stay awake, he wondered if this was how dying felt like, but at least if he died he'd die knowing he saved his friends. The adventurer heard Razor shouting his name, he really wanted to get up and run to him, but his body wouldn't let him, so he gave up and closed his eyes, listening to the cries of his boyfriend and the annoying sounds that the hilichurls made.

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