It took us a solid hour to ride a couple horses along the fresh tracks that Amber made chasing Klee. It turns out, running through wet soft soil in high heels makes extremely visible tracks.
Finally, we caught up with Amber and Klee and it was a rather funny sight, to be honest. "Klee come on! Get off that ice before you fall into the icy water!" Amber yelled at Klee who was stubbornly sitting on a large block of ice drifting down the icy river that separated the Dragon Spine Mountain and Mondstadt.
The Dragon Spine Mountain range was a scary thing to look upon as not even a hundred meters away from the river it was a comforting seventy to eighty degrees but as we came closer to the river, the ambient temperature violently dropped to just above freezing temperatures on this side of the river. It was obvious that there was some weird magic going on in the Dragon Spine Mountains with how Mondstadt had mostly clear skies but in comparison, the sky around the Mountain was pitch black with powerful winds that visibly carried enough snow to knock a person on their ass.
"No, I want Albedo!" Klee yelled and I couldn't help but almost giggle at the sight of the child stubbornly drifting down the river but thankfully I knew there wasn't any major waterfalls or things that could prove all too dangerous.
"Albedo is busy freezing his butt off in the mountain Klee! If you don't come over here then you will lose your toes to the cold!" I called out making the little girl's face scrunch up and even as she was sitting there on the ice, I could see her trying to move her toes in her boots but ended up shivering heavily as she realized that her toes were already numb.
"Waaa!" Klee surprisingly screamed and began shooting a small jet of flames out of the magical book floating beside her and the ice block she was on was thrown onto our side of the bank.
By the time me and Lumine ran over to the crashed ice block she shattered onto the shoreline, Amber was already standing over Klee lecturing the girl.
"If you fell in that icy water and I wasn't there, you could have died Klee!" Amber lectured but the bomb-loving child was in her own world as she hurriedly pulled off her boots and began shooting little puffs of flames at her clearly soaked socks.
"I don't wanna lose my feet, Amber!" Klee cried out on the verge of tears cutting off anything Mondstadt's Outrider was going to say.
"Woah... Jake is really good at coaxing children." Paimon muttered to Lumine who was behind me, but I could still hear her.
Like should I take that as a compliment? It kinda makes me sound like the worse kind of pervert...
"Alright, Klee let's just dry out your socks and your feet will warm up nice and quick," Amber said picking up the girl and her stuff so we could move away from the frigid cold coming from the mountain.
But I couldn't help but pause as I felt something wasn't right and then my American senses kicked in as I heard a loud thrum roaring in the air making the other girls look around nervously.
"No!" I yelled and a large sphere of powerful Anemo energy swirled around us as a series of powerful missiles smashed into my Anemo barrier and briefly ignited the winds before the additional winds I was outputting pushed back the flames and the laser.
I couldn't help but kneel as my whole body felt wrung out to the point that my vision started getting black spots in the corner of my eyes.
A loud whine rang out as, out of the river and just below where Klee blasted out of the river with her ice block, three large Ruin Guards fully climbed out of the water from their hunched-over position where they launched their payload of missiles at us.
Each of the Ruin Guards was five meters tall and robotic monsters capable of using their large whip-like arms to smash into their poor targets as well as powerful claws fully capable of ripping limbs off of people without issues.
But Amber was able to stagger two of them with beautifully placed Pyro-enhanced arrows straight into the Ruin Guard's singular eyes making the two slip and fall on the ground as I staggered back to my feet and Lumine dashed at the last Ruin Guard.
Even as I felt the Elemental energy within myself rendered to all but nonexistence, I could feel another form of energy within myself and I realized it was my Aura just bubbling within my soul waiting for me to call upon it, but my divine gifted Anemo energy seemed to smother its presence.
I exhaled deeply as a silver glow overtook my body which drew the eyes of Klee and Amber who were behind me fighting from a distance.
I drew my sword and dashed towards the two Ruin Guards that Amber dropped and were being pelted by Amber and Klee's Pyro abilities, so I used the Ruin Guards as shields from the small explosions and began slashing at the knee joints as they began swiping at me but keeping the Ruin Guards between me and the Pyro users as Klee began making bigger bombs out of her magic.
I heard Lumine cry out and as I looked over barely dodging one of the Ruin Guards attacks, Lumine smashed into me, as she had obviously taken a strong hit from the machine with how hard she was thrown into me.
I flared my Aura, and our momentum was almost instantly stopped as black and white glyph bloomed into existence beneath our feet and we were both launched into the air.
"Lumine help me take out those two!" I said in a hurry seeing the two now weakened Ruin Guards advancing on Klee and Amber but unfortunately, Klee's inexperience was showing as even with her using more powerful explosions she was visibly beginning to panic which distracted Amber and made her arrows inaccurate.
"Yes!" She called out and she laid her hand over the back of mine threading her slim fingers through my own I felt her pouring Anemo energy above my hand, so I matched it with the scraps of my own Anemo energy and a large bright green ball of roaring winds exploded into existence as we were falling at the Ruin Guards and with a valiant war cry, we smashed our large Rasengan into the two Ruin Guards which made the machines crumple into the ground.
Our Rasengan acted just like its name's sake and the violent winds literally began grinding down the machine's parts in the countless chaotic wind blades held within the ball of elemental energy while the escaping winds kept me and Lumine at an even height simply using our body weight to push our attack into the Ruin Guards.
"Here is the big Boom!" Klee cackled insanely and I watched with mounting horror as Klee threw a child's hands-sized ball of flames at our massive ball of wind that had dragged in the last ruin guard.
"Fly!" I yelled and Lumine seemed to understand as she helped me explode the wind ball we were thrown several meters into the air with our gliders but that paltry distance didn't seem to do much when the fireball Klee sent met the remnants of our Anemo energy.
Even as I coated me, and Lumine with my Aura I could feel the brief insane heat from the explosion and the howling winds that met us as I lowered my Aura from around us as the spots in my vision and nausea faded.
Holy moly it's so cold!" Paimon cried out and I realized she was right as my face was still buried in Lumine's hair. I looked around and couldn't help but deadpan as I saw where we were.
"Klee's bomb pushed us past the river..." I muttered and I could feel Lumine shivering against me as the Antarctic-worthy winds blew across her bare legs and otherwise uncovered parts of her body.
"Why couldn't we get a pyro vision first." Lumine groaned as she rubbed her hands against one another after we finally managed to land back on the right side of the river. She glanced at me as Amber and Klee seemed to notice us from where they were perched on a large rock outcropping and began to make their way over as I leaned into a tree while Lumine hovered around me.
"Jake why aren't you cold... We were in literally below-freezing winds for like five minutes. I can't feel my knees for god's sake." Lumine hissed with a frown before a mischievous grin overcame her face.
I didnt notice her face as I just leaned my head against the tree and focused on breathing and recovering my energy as that fight was out of control and we if it wasn't for them getting the drop on us with the barrage of missiles, we would have won the fight easily by simply by splitting the Ruin Guards apart and allowing Amber and Klee to repeatedly attack the machines weak points.
I couldn't help but girlishly shriek as Lumine shoved her cold as-ice hands under my jacket laying her hands against my stomach making me jump in surprise as I was so relaxed with my eyes closed. I looked down at the short blond-haired girl that was wearing a smile that spoke of her comfort derived from my suffering even as she ignored my actions to pull her hands out from under my jacket.
"Lumine stop! Amber and Klee are almost here." Paimon hissed and Lumine gracefully pulled her now warm hands out of my jacket and lost her carefree smile as she wore her normal cool expression looking like nothing was out of the ordinary.
Amber made it over to us first and had to hold her sides as she gathered her breath as she checked us over briefly. "Whew, I am so glad you are both alright." She said clearly exhausted as she slid down to sit down at the base of the tree where Lumine violated me with no mercy.
When Klee ran over to us and began franticly apologizing, I subtly moved closer to Lumine, and just as she accepted a quick hug from Klee, I gave her soft backside a harsh pinch making her hiss over Klee as she straightens in surprise throwing me a surprised look.
"Oh Lumine, you must have pulled a muscle in your leg as we landed... How clumsy." I said with subtle mock sympathy that flew over Amber and Klee's head.
Paimon on the other hand began giggling at Lumine as we all made our way back to Mondstadt, when Lumine couldn't help but palm that spot where I pinched her.