Sai was running glued to the wall of the mountain, and on the other side of the path was the robot (if it could be called that). Dirt was falling from its body like a river as it was standing up. Further ahead, Sai managed to see a dilapidated castle adjacent to a rocky hill, which became his target for escaping.
Hardly had he seen all that when he heard the heavy footsteps and electricity again. He made himself run faster, even though his muscles burned and ached like crazy. Exhaustion was taking a toll on him, but he convinced himself that he would be able to rest if he got to the castle.
Obviously, Sai's plan this time was to use the Ruin Guard to beat or scare away the Fatui pursuing him. It seemed to be working, because after ten more steps or so the brute with the hammer couldn't be heard anymore.
Warily, Sai didn't stop running but quickly peeked behind him, to discover the Fatui frozen in place while staring at the guard. Sai found the reaction funny, but then realisation downed on him.
'If even the Fatui are that scared of the Ruin Guard… How strong is it actually?'
Sai turned his head slightly to face the guard, his pace slowing down a lot, on time to see a bright red light appearing on its face, ominously foretelling destruction. It was facing directly at Sai, who was precisely at the shortest distance possible to it if someone stuck to the opposite wall.
At that point, both the exit with the Fatui and the castle, his only cover, were too far away for him to try anything. Thus, Sai just stuck to the wall, subconsciously holding his breath while hoping he wouldn't be detected.
He was thinking inside:
'I completely played myself! Again! What kind of terrible luck is this!'
He looked right again, trying to see what the Fatui would do, to discover that they were gone.
Cold sweat started pouring on his back.
A serious of mechanical sounds brought his attention back to the guard, who started slowly walking to the entrance whence Sai came. Dirt was falling off with each of its loud, dust-raising steps. Despite its lethargic movements, the sheer size of the machine helped it reach its destination fairly quickly.
It had completely ignored the immobile Sai, who knows for what reason, and went after the Fatui that had just briefly entered its area. It started shooting missiles as soon as it turned the corner. Sai heard explosions echoing in the distance, together with the creaking of metals and yells, the latter probably from the Fatui.
"Swiiillll! BooBoBoooom!"
"Creaak! Craack! Thump!"
"Don't run back to the base—Argh—!"
He couldn't believe that the Ruin Guard simply ignored his presence and went for his enemies instead. He started thinking that he might actually be somewhat lucky. Nonetheless, he didn't want to push it, so he quietly (safe to say that was unnecessary, but whatever) made his way to the rook in ruins further down this path.
He got there no problem. Feeling a little safer when covered by four walls and a roof, Sai took his time to decide his next plans.
"I have to get out of here in case the Ruin Guard attacks me next, but if I can't find cover before it comes back I'm literally dead. Wait, this is reality, right? Can it really detect me here? I should be fairly away from where it awoke, right?"
At that moment, his sight blurred, space rippled and he fell down from a small height.
Facing him was a bush, and further ahead was Noelle frantically hitting a Geovishap Hatchling.
"Oh, you must be kidding me…"
Noticing him, Fatty Rick exclaimed:
"Oh! There is the useless 3-star character that couldn't even delay one enemy! What a waste of money." His voice was both disgruntled and mocking.
Sai was cursing him internally, but had no way to deny it. He had no power, after all. Therefore, he obviously wouldn't join the fight against the annoying Geovishap, he wasn't eager to die.
But fate had other plans. Sai felt extremely compelled to attack the monster, so much that he immediately ran towards it, sword in hand. When he got close enough, the hatchling dropped close to ground and started spinning, sending both him and Noelle flying away.
"Arrghhh!" Sai wasn't used to the pain at all.
Luckily for him, the weird power forcing him to attack also made him raise his sword in defence, avoiding a fatal wound. Nonetheless, the spiked tail opened a huge wound on his left arm.
He used his right hand, now devoid of weapon, to hold his bleeding arm tight. The good news was that the pain increased his control over his body. Meanwhile, Noelle kept hacking whenever the monster surfaced from the ground.
"You slippery prick! Stop digging around!" Rick was very annoyed.
Despite the high difficulty of the monster for new players, Rick used his second strongest unit, as well as the only he currently had, and kept swinging the greatsword until it eventually died. It appeared that Noelle had already taken a big chunk of health when she 'ulted' previously.
Because of the healing properties of the shield talent, Sai felt his arm improving with every hit she gave the vishap. When it died, his wound had already coagulated under all the dripping blood.
Sai stood up with difficulty, the pain lingering in his memory, and looked around the new place. It seemed that he was teleported to something like a hill. A little behind them, a teleport waypoint stood.
He recalled that Geovishaps usually appeared in pairs, so he stood on guard, trying to determine if it was really safe.
"Bahh! All I'm fighting are annoying mobs. Might as well just do the Main Quest at this point." Fatty complained.
And as Sai expected, the world went greyish, the wind stopped blowing, and a small white-haired fairy in glittering clothes appeared besides Aether, whom Sai had just noticed.
Not long after, Aether, Paimon and Noelle all disappeared at the same time, and time flowed again.