Chapter 43: Ruin Sentinel

// Content warning: Cuss words//

The glowing eye of the Scarecrow flashed brighter as it registered two unfamiliar entities in front of it. It had a database of authorized personnel which it would not attack, and neither of these faces were in it.

The piston on the back of its lance extended, shifting the center of gravity of the weapon into one better suited for combat. Panels of its shield extended, increasing its coverage by a third as the core in the center of it started to glow.

Ryuzu swiftly grabbed onto Carman and pulled him away from the machine and back around the corner. Carman hurriedly shoves the container housing the feather back into his storage not wanting to accidentally break it and let the built up Karma spread.

The Scarecrow's garbled screeches echoed after them as Ryuzu carried Carman back down towards the gate they had walked through.

On his part, Carman was trying to call on the ambient Hydro energy in the air. Unlike in Fontaine and Chenyu Vale, there was barely any hydro energy around them for him to manipulate. It was frustratingly slow as whisps started to form, wrapping themselves around Carman, vague outlines of his skill flickered in and out of existence.

As Ryuzu passed a table with various elemental machines Carman had an idea. He opened his storage and pulled out a Condessence Crystal he had received from the gatcha.

' I've only got 30 of these, but with the amount of hydro energy I can sense from this that should be more than enough.' thought Carman as he felt the crystal in his hand. Using Hydro manipulation, he started to draw power from the crystal, energy flowing from it into his hydro construct.

"Ryuzu, that thing isn't going to just let us go. We will have to fight it." Said Carman

Ryuzu had a frown on her face but nodded her head, "I was having similar thoughts, but you don't have anymore of those annihilation bombs, so what is you plan?"

"I'll face it head on while you circle back and deal damage as I stun it. It's defences should lower a bit while it is down while chill allow you to deal more damage." Said Carmen.

"But that would leave you vulnerable to its attacks." Said Ryuzu.

"Yeah, but I can make a shield remember, and it's not like it can attack the same way as the Ruin Guard we faced earlier." Said Carman.

Ryuzu sighed, "fine, but if you are hit or in danger, we are leaving."

Carman nodded in agreement, mentally shifting parts of his construct. With the amount of energy he had gotten from draining the Condessence Crystal, he had enough to power his shield and shoot three bolts from the mechanical crossbow, or the shield, one bolt, and a moderate amount of healing.

While he looked at the drained Condessence Crystal, which had changed from a bright blue to a clear glass like Crystal he tossed it into his storage and pulled out an Electro Crystal. "I wonder...."

As Ryuzu crept along the tables preparing to circle around the Scarecrow walking towards them, Carman did a few stretches. He could feel that he was much stronger than he was before. Flexing his hands, he felt a new strength that wasn't there previously, squatting down, he was able to jump much higher than he could before.

It seems that leveling up had drastically increased his capabilities. After the quick assessment, Carman pondered the Electro Crystal and tossed it into the bolt storage of his hydro construct, immediately, the entire construct thrummed with electricity.

' I'm lucky that this construct doesn't affect me with hydro. Otherwise that would have been very unpleasant.' though Carman as he mentally commanded one of the bolts to load itself into the fairing mechanism.

As the bolt lifted itself up, the Electro Crystal was pulled from the bolt storage and fixed itself to the head of the bolt like an arrow head.

The Scarecrow was walking slowly towards Carman, it's shield was down, but as it got close, it tapped it's shield onto the ground and started rushing towards Carman in a straight path. Carman seeing this quickly dared onto a table and jumped over the charging machine.

The construct continued charging until it suddenly stopped in front of a wall. It tuned around to face Carman,but as it did it lowered its shield.

Carman aimed his crossbow and fired, the bolt sailed through the room, bathing it in bright blue and purple light. And it crashed into the eye of the construct causing the crystal to shatter upon impact, the bolt of water splashing onto it immediately after.

The Hydro and Electro elements interacted with one another causing the Electrocharged reaction to take place, but Carman wasn't finished yet as he chucked a red crystal at the eye of the construct. It was one of the Blood Flame Rubies he had gathered earlier, a crystal infused with pyro energy.

There is an interesting thing that happened in Genshin when people cause the Electrocharged reaction. Within a few seconds of the reaction, the being affected by the reaction will still be inflicted with Hydro and Electro Energy. This means that theoretically you could introduce another element that would interact with both of these elements and inflict more damage on the target.

As the Blood-flame Ruby shattered against the construct, the pyro energies it contained burst out of it. As the Pyro energy affected the machine, it reacted with the Electro and Hydro Energies that were still present. As they reacted, steam and smoke rose from the Scarecrow as the Pyro energy caused the overload and vaporize reaction at the same time.

This unfortunately was not enough to stun the machine as when the smoke and steam cleared, it had already raised its lance and was charging at Carman.

Carman tried to sidestep the charge, but as he did, the machine swiveled it's arm mid step to keep the end of its lance pointed at Carman. It made contact with the Hydro Shield, grinding against the surface, causing chips to fly off but no substantial damage.

As Carman was starting to feel relieved, he watched the piston on the back of the lance suddenly move, and as it fully retracted and made contact with the back of the lance, there was a glow along the length of the weapon accompanied with a sudden burst of force, causing large cracks to form and spread along the shield. Carman after seeing the piston move had dove for the ground as his shield was beached and the lance swung over his head.

Taking out another Condessence Crystal, Carman began to siphon the energy from it as he aimed his crossbow at the construct's eye as it turned to face him after it's charge.

The bolt of water struck true, sailing and colliding with the glowing mechanism. As it did, something short-circuited.within the machine and it fell to its knees. Upon seeing this, Ryuzu swiftly moved out of hiding and attacked the back of the machine. Metallic screeching noised could be heard as her sword and claymore tor up the back of the Scarecrow. Clearly this Khaenri'ahn device didn't have as much physical resistance as the Field Tiller, and with her attack speed, she quickly reduced the back panel of the machine into scrap and drive her claymore into its vitals, ending the fight.

[Your party has defeated Khaenri'ahn Ruin Device: Scarecrow. You have received 200 exp]

[You are at max level, experience points have been pooled for use after ascension]

"That was somewhat anticlimactic..." Said Carman as he looked at the downed machine. "Then again.. it's not like this was going to be a boss level construct. The pile bunker gimmick was cool though, obviously a means to counteract elemental and regular shields. I wonder why it hasn't exploded yet?"

Upon hearing the word explode, Ryuzu quickly pulled her claymore out of the back of the construct and dragged Carman behind a could of desks. "Those things are supposed to explode?" She said glaring at Carman.

"Well in the game, after you defeat a Khaenri'ahn construct they would typically self-destruct and drop various parts. I didn't notice it when we defeated the Field Tiller, but it didn't explode either, but I didn't notice since we used bombs to defeat it and because I was distracted by the treasurer chest and the entrance to this place." He replied.

Ryuzu facepalmed, "You really need to stop basing most of your assumptions off of the game. Not saying you should discard it all, but it would be strange if all those game mechanics were represented in this reality."

Carman shrugged as he picked up a chunk of ore from.the desk and chucked it at the collapsed machine, making a plinking noise. "Well it doesn't seem like it's going to explode, let's go check it out. I always wanted to root through the guts of those machines."

After a few minutes of digging through the Scarecrow's internal workings, Carman stored it in his Item Storage for later use. "Fascinating... Well let's get back to finding that stolen divine power."

-to be continued