A Date with Mona 2

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Orion stretched his arms overhead, yawning loudly as he rose to his feet. He turned and watched Mona, who had started to gather her stuff to leave. As she took a first step away from the campfire, Orion raised a hand in her direction. 

"Wait a minute," he said, his voice tinged with wonder as his brow furrowed slightly. He turned his head toward the ancient Windrise tree looming above them, squinting in a way that seemed to be an effort to focus on something just beyond sight. He raised a hand as if to grasp something out of the air. 

Mona turned round halfway through packing, an eyebrow rising. "What's taking so long?" she asked. "Did you forget something?" 

Orion slowly shook his head, staring at the tree. "No. it's just ." His voice trailed off as he took a few steps closer to the tree, eyes tracing the huge branches which swayed softly in the evening breeze. "There's something off." 

Mona frowned and followed his gaze, staring at the tree as well. "Off? It's just the Windrise tree," she said matter-of-factly. "What's strange about it?" 

Orion raised his hand once more, as if feeling the air around it. "I'm reading some kind of energy out here. Anemo energy. And not a little , it's enormous, and from this tree." 

Mona's eyes glinted, and she looked from Orion to the tree, crossing her arms in reflection. "Anemo energy? There is no storm, and it's calm here, as always. Are you sure you are not tired or anything?" 

He shook his head, his face very serious. "No, it's real. Just weird, since there's no windstorm, no elemental surge, but I can feel all of it around us like the air's humming with power." 

The moment after, Mona closed her eyes, shifting her attention to the tides of elements around them. She furrowed her eyebrows in concentration but opened her eyes after a few moments. "I'm not sensing anything unusual," she said. "It feels normal to me. Maybe you're just tired from everything today." 

Orion hesitated, looking back to the tree. "Yeah, maybe," he muttered, though quite unconvinced. His instincts had never been off about something like this. 

Mona shrugged and slung her bag over her shoulder. "Well, whatever it is, it's probably nothing. We should get going before it gets too late." She started off down the path, her back to the tree, waving a hand as she went. "Come on, we've got a Ruin Grader to track." 

Orion's lingered a moment longer, his eyes upon the tree. The rustling of the leaves was almost hypnotic in the dying light, and the soft humming of energy still nipped at the corner of his brain. He had this feeling that something was there-just beneath the surface, something he wasn't quite ready to explain yet. 

"Are you coming?" Mona's voice called from ahead, snapping him out of his thoughts. 

Orion gave the tree one last, lingering look before turning to her-a small smile played on his lips. "Yeah, yeah," he called back, starting to walk after her. "Just a sec." 

He cast a glance over his shoulder as they left the camp behind, the tree's huge silhouette still outsized against the sky. His senses stayed on high alert, but he gave a dismissive toss of his head-whatsoever it was, it was not urgent, at least, not yet. 

*** 

When the sun finally started to set, it cast a warm, golden light over Falcon Coast. The softly lapping waves against the shoreline accompanied soft crunches in the sand from footsteps. Orion and Mona crossed the coast with eyes scanning the landscape in search of the most elusive of targets-the Ruin Grader. 

Sharp-eyed, intent, Mona suddenly froze and dropped to a crouch beside a disturbed patch of earth. Her fingers, circled above massive, deep imprints that marred the ground, did not quite touch. "Orion," she called, her tone suppressed excitement itself. 

Orion hiked up to her side, peering down at the strange, mechanical-looking footprints marring the ground. These were enormous-much larger than anything a living creature might leave behind-and unmistakably heavy. "Are these.?" 

Mona nodded, slight grin tugging at her lips as she straightened up. "Ruin Grader tracks," she said confident. "They're fresh too, which means we're close." 

Orion looked up from the tracks to her with an introspective look on his face. "I gotta hand it to ya," he said as he crossed arms over his chest, giving her an appreciative nod. "Along with being an amazing astrologist, you're a pretty decent tracker, too. Color me impressed." 

the color rose to a faint pink in Mona's cheeks as she looked hastily away, flustered. "I-you're just saying that," she muttered, half thinking he teased her, though deep down she knew his praise was genuine. 

Orion lifted an eyebrow and chuckled softly. "No, I mean it. These tracks are fresh, so we're definitely on the right trail. You've got good instincts." 

She shifted a bit, her face still red from embarrassment but forcing a small smile through regardless. "W-Well, it's not that impressive. Anyone can find these tracks if they knew what to look for." 

Orion shrugged. "Still, you found them before I did." His eyes traced the large imprints once more, his expression sobering. "But something's odd. I can't pick up any elemental energy from them." 

Mona blinked once and then gave a soft laugh, the sound airy and almost teasing. "Elemental energy? Orion, Ruin Graders don't use elemental powers. They're ancient machines, relics of a forgotten era. Built for war, nothing is elemental about them." 

Orion's face remained in a puzzled expression as he processed this new information. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Wait. they don't use any elemental energy? At all?"

Mona turned to him, her brows raising up in surprise. "Wait, you don't even know what Ruin Graders are, do you?" Her voice was full of incredulity and amusement.

Orion chuckled sheepishly, scratching his head. "Yup," he said, not bothering to lie. "Not a clue. I've fought a lot of things, but Ruin Graders? Yeah, they're new to me."

For a moment, Mona stared back at him, caught between incredibility and amusement. "You've been walking around Mondstadt this whole time and didn't know about one of the most dangerous ancient machines out here?" She let out a sigh, her head shaking to one side as a smile pulled. "Honestly, Orion, sometimes I wonder how you have managed to survive this long without basic knowledge of the creatures in this world."

 The teasing in her tone made Orion smirk. "Hey, I get by just fine. But now that I've got a walking encyclopedia of Mondstadt, Astrology, Adventuring with me, maybe I'll start learning a thing or two.

" She couldn't help but smile at the self-deprecating humor. "You're so lucky you've got me to explain everything to you. Ruin Graders might not use elemental energies, but don't sell them short. They're really resilient, and their mechanical attacks are intense. If you let your guard down, even someone like you could end up in a bad way."

Orion nodded, a pensive expression crossing his face. "Got it, so they are huge, strong, and made of metal. Anything else I should know before taking it down?"

Mona turned back to the tracks, her eyes narrowing in concentration. "Just stay on your toes. Ruin Graders are slow, but once they start attacking, you'll want to avoid their ranged lasers and ground smashes. If we can disable its legs, that should give us a huge advantage."

Orion grinned, his knuckles cracking in anticipation. "Sounds like a challenge. I like it." Ahead, he took the trail that seemed to follow all the way toward a cluster of boulders in the distance. "Let's track this thing down and take it out."

As Orion and Mona followed the trail of the Ruin Grader's tracks, the sun was all but a glow over the horizon, casting an amber hue across the coastline. The mechanical footprints kept them in constant motion further and further away from the beach and toward the rocky cliffs. After several minutes of walking, the trail abruptly ended at the entrance of a shadowy cave. Before them, the cave yawned dark and forbidding.

Orion frowned, his shoulders tightening with irritation. "Great. Another cave," he growled, running a hand through his hair. "Why is it always caves?" Mona smirked, giving him a sidelong glance. "Getting tired of them, are we? Orion let out a sigh, stretching his arms overhead. "It is always a cave. Can't we fight things in the open for once?" He shook his head before pressing on. "Just let's get this over with."

The two entered in cautious steps, the echoes of their footsteps resounding through the cool damp air. As they proceeded further inside, the flickering light from Mona's scryglass lit the way until they saw a just-recently abandoned camp near the entrance to the cave. It was a roughly-made camp, nothing more than some scattered supplies, a number of footprints, and a dying fire.

Orion knelt beside the fire, running his fingers through the warm ashes. "Someone's been here recently," he noted, eyes scanning the remnants. "Looks like they didn't leave too long ago." Mona, too, inspected the area, her brow furrowing in thought. "You think someone else took on the same commission?" she asked in a low voice.

 Orion stood up, dusting his hands. "Could be. Either way, clearly someone got here before us." His gaze returned to the trail leading deeper into the cave. "Whoever they are, might still be inside. They moved on, the tunnel going deeper into the earth.

The farther in they went, the more the cave opened up into a larger chamber; faint sounds of movement echoed off the walls. Orion's sharp eyes narrowed as he peered into the shadows. Suddenly, several hilichurls plunged out of the darkness and plowed towards them with crude weapons upraised.

Orion's face hardened, the knuckles clamping around his polearm. "Get back," Orion told Mona, easing another step forward as if his very intent was command. Orion's flicking wrist sent his polearm flying. And in one deadly arc, it pierced the first hilichurl with such ease that it had already crumpled to the ground well before it could even get a chance to react. The polearm didn't stop there but instead continued to slice through the air at the behest of Orion's will as it threaded between the attacking hilichurls, impaling them one by one as if controlled by some sort of invisible force.

The fight was continuing, and at the same time, Mona watched in a dazed fashion, her mouth hanging in mid-air. Orion didn't move into even the slightest attack; instead, his eyes radiated bright yellow without showing a shred of emotion. Super focused, he used his mind to handle the polearm. Darting and spinning in the air, it seemed like a living thing that every strike was accurate and definitive. One after another, the hilichurls fell to the ground with consecutive muffled thuds, their bodies hitting the stone floor. When the last one fell, Orion extended his hand, and the polearm flew back to him almost as if it was drawn back on some unseen thread. He caught it with ease-the weapon glimmered faintly in the poor light of the cave.

The eyes of Mona widened in amazement. "My, you look even stronger compared to before," she said with a full sense of surprise and admiration. Orion shrugged as his features softened a little, his fingers casually playing with the shaft of the polearm. "I've seen a lot of action lately," Orion said nonchalantly. "Guess it's starting to show."

A faint smile crossed Mona's lips, and she said nothing more as they went deeper into the cave. The path grew narrower and ascended in serpent-like motions through the tunnel ways; the air grew thinner, and rays of sunlight, after filtering through cracks and crevices of the rock, served as guide lights in their journey.

After what seemed to be an eternity of walking, they came upon what could have been a dead end. A large pile of debris lay in their path, yet on the other side of it, sunlight filtered through the cracks. The exit wasn't that far away. Orion's eyes scoured through the rubble, his eyes lingering on every particular detail. "This is recent," he whispered, bending down to take a closer look at the rocks. His hand hovered above the rubble as his senses sparked. "Something-or someone-did this. Not too long ago either."

Mona furrowed her brow as she moved to stand beside him, squinting up into the choked pass. "You think whatever was in that camp ahead of us did it?" Orion straightened, dusting his hands off before turning back to her. "Might have. But whatever it was, it'd have needed to be strong enough to bring this much stone down." 

The two looked to each other and readied to blast their way through the rubble.