Chapter One

Summary-

Diluc runs into Kaeya, delirious and severely injured by a rifthound in the woods of Wolvendom. Kaeya is in a pretty bad way and Diluc is unable to help much because of the corrupting nature of the injury. He's going to have to wait and watch until the corrosion has run its course to tend to Kaeya or else neither of them will be strong enough to survive a night in the forest. But for Kaeya that might be too late.

Kaeya begins to consider the fact that he could possibly be in over his head.

The trio of abyss mages lurking between the trees, dancing around him in the late afternoon light, are far more than he expected to encounter on an otherwise uneventful meeting in a domain with treasure hoarders.

The presence of powerful Abyss mages in the vicinity of a treasure hoarders hideout, seems sloppy even for them.

Hydro, pyro and cryo shields fill the surrounding forest with the hum of ley line energy. The only combination Kaeya can imagine being more problematic than this, would have to be the addition of an electro one as well.

Might as well get to work.

He finds that the best strategy to avoid being taken, is to take out the hydro one first, staying clear of its drenching attacks as much as possible.

Evading the menacing bubbles of water without being frost bitten or burned alive is exhausting, but Kaeya chuckles untroubled as he darts forward to finally shatter the hydro's shield with satisfaction.

The provocative chanting and singing they do as they float, takes on an angry edge.

Good.

Sweat that has gathered on Kaeya's brow irritating slides down the side of his face by the time the pyro mage is the only one laying on the ground before him, no longer protected by its shield. His muscles burn with exertion but not alarmingly so.

He looks down on the creature swaying unsteadily on its feet before him, with scorn. "You should cut it out already." He steps forward. "Its starting to get rather boring." He runs it through with his sword.

As it crumbles before him, he surveys the area. Satisfied, he raises his sword to dismiss it, but hears an unearthly growl behind him; very close, low and deep.

Kaeya whirls around uncharacteristically frightened; such a sound can only herald the arrival of something unbelievably dark. He's heard it before.

Just behind him in the open space between a few tall fir trees, hovers a large thundercraven Rifthound. The look of murderous hunger in the shape of its eyes, chills Kaeya with real terror. Its deep purple mane shifts slightly in the damp, cool breeze common to Wolvendom as it remains still, regarding him.

He has heard stories, even reports from other knights and Razor, that such creatures were possibly stalking the area, terrorizing Wolvendom and hunters from Springvale, but no sightings had been confirmed nor any attacks.

The stories he'd heard as a child in Khaenri'ah are worse. They were terror filled tales of these sorts of demons of the Abyss, where they were amongst the many horrors that terrorized and eventually annihilated most of the survivors of the initial disaster.

Kaeya grew up learning from his parents, that if he did not want to be ripped to shreds, and wither away into the Abyss itself from their corrupting venom, he was never to venture far from his home. or wander the barren corridors and avenues like the very few other children his age liked to do.

By the time Kaeya was sent away on his mission to Mondstadt, he'd been the only child left that he had known of.

Up until this moment, he had never seen a rifthound before, only seen grainy, incomplete pictures taken with old cameras or heard unearthly growls as they prowled the vast ruins or caught another unfortunate soul. The stories did not do them justice.

He tries to back away slightly, not wanting to engage, not knowing what to expect in combat. The only thing he knows for sure, is that he must not let it touch him.

He makes it two steps backwards before the hound growls again, low and menacing, shifting aggressively in the air before it darts forward and disappears from sight. Kaeya shouts involuntarily and shifts to press his back against a nearby fir tree.

Faint, dark wisps of abyssal energy seem to mark its invisible trajectory, but Kaeya can barely track it. Suddenly he senses it to his right just before it reappears to strike. He dodges out of the way with no time to spare. Its massive claws sinking into and gorge the trunk of the tree where his neck had been.

He nearly stumbles on the uneven terrain of the forest floor but retains his footing and dodges a vicious follow up swipe.

He darts forward while it reorients itself, trying to take the offensive to shut down the battle before he can wear down completely. His muscles burn angrily as he lands a flurry of strikes before leaping back out of reach, but the creature shows no sign of slowing.

Kaeya bombards the hound from all sides with bitter cryo energy and the hound reels back in apparent pain from time to time, but progress is painfully slow.

Kaeya retreats slightly, evading contact, charging his strength for a devastating blast of icy daggers that mercilessly crash into the side of the beast. It howls and retreats a few paces,but before Kaeya can press the advantage, it darts to his left suddenly. Its flank strikes a tree splintering some of its trunk before it rebounds, becomes invisible again.

The low light of evening makes it infinitely harder for Kaeya to see. He turns in a rapid circle, trying to track the movement of the black-purple wisps.

Out of the encroaching darkness between two large old firs, it sweeps toward him with incredible speed and searing pain blooms across his right side. Kaeya yells in pain and lurches sideways out of the way of the following attack from the opposite paw.

He touches the pulsing gouge, and his hand comes away soaked in red. He shoots off another ferocious blast of blistering cryo, so cold the air cracks as it streams into the face of the hound.

It staggers back and Kaeya pushes forward as hard as possible, knowing even as he feels an insidious sickness begin to flow through him, emanating from the wound, that if he lets this surge of desperate adrenaline wane, he won't survive.

He strikes repeatedly, knowing he is close to the end. The rifthound retreats. It's menacing exterior is shattered and broken in places. But Kaeya forgets to keep sight of its sizeable tail. Out of nowhere, it whales him in the same side as his profusely bleeding wound, knocking him sideways into a tree. He isn't able to stifle an agonized scream this time.

He grabs on to the trunk of the tree he's collided with, arms shaking. He drags himself to his feet, his back pressed to the bark of the tree. He tries to force the searing pain back, clear his vision, finish this. But the burning tackles him in waves, surging to a crescendo until he can master himself and quiet it, before overwhelming him again.

He groans loudly and bullishly clenches his teeth against another wave. He pushes away from the tree even as the timer on his endurance rapidly ticks its last seconds towards zero.

He takes a stumbling few steps away from the tree as the beast picks itself up from the ground as well, growling. He spreads his arms, calling on his vision to aggregates the moisture in the air unto himself, coalescing into as many icy crystals as he can manage; making them larger and heavier and colder by the second. They begin to revolve around him in a blur and once there's enough of them, he sends each as a projectile with murderous intent into the face of the hound.

When the last one strikes and Kaeya has fallen to his knees in the damp moss, lighted headed with blood loss and exertion, a rift hisses open in the air before him. A sour, cold wind sweeps over him suddenly. It rakes at the ground, drawing loose debris and an unfortunate small animal inwards to itself. The rifthound especially, is targeted and violently sucked in, desperately clawing at the ground to no avail. While it howls in protest, Kaeya watches, open mouthed, as the tear in space itself, snaps shut just as suddenly as it had opened and the forest is silent once again.