Thousand Winds Temple, second floor of the secret realm.
The torchlight resembling fiery dandelions filled the entire domed circular room. The rust-colored steel body of the ruin hunter floated in midair. The tip of its lance-like right arm nearly touched Nolan and the others.
It was a close call, thankfully.
Fischl patted the dust on her skirt. The pantyhose on her legs tore a large hole in the back, revealing fair soft skin, probably cut by the rocks on the ground.
Her silky golden hair and the fair back revealed by the one-piece short dress had a bit of dust, but there were no other injuries.
After all, she may look like a soft and gentle girl, but her physique was far from ordinary, not to mention the power of the artifact.
As for Nolan who had Fischl's body to cushion him, getting injured was even more impossible.
"Miss, are you alright!"
Oz hurriedly flew over, also not having expected a ruin hunter to suddenly appear.
Fischl put down her skirt, partially covering the tear in her pantyhose. She folded her arms and glanced at Nolan beside her. Facing Oz, she spoke with quite some dignity:
"Ahem, thanks to my attendant's timely protection, I am unharmed."
"Thank you, Sir Nolan!" As the princess's companion, Oz was naturally extremely grateful.
[Fischl Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 285 Affection Points. Current Affection Level: Lv.4 (5/400)]
Although little Amy pretended to be aloof on the surface, she was quite thankful inside.
Her favorability rose substantially, surpassing the other girls Nolan knew and reaching Lv.4 first. Which meant that she considered Nolan to be a pretty close friend.
"Well, It's only natural to protect Her Highness after all." Nolan said with a smile.
Fischl was very satisfied with Nolan's reply. She looked at the ruin hunter about to attack again and summoned a light purple longbow. Its overall design looked like a musical note - the bow's name, Skyward Harp.
Then she angrily said:
"Hmph, never has anyone made me so disheveled before. Oz!"
"Yes, Miss!"
Oz flapped her night-colored wings to arrive right in front of the Ruin Hunter. His beak spat out clusters of Electro balls rapidly bombarding the ruin hunter.
Since the Ruin Hunter had yet to reveal its center core at this point, the continuous bolts only inflicted Electro on it. The actual damage caused was not high.
After all, it didn't have a health bar. The defense of its steel body was formidable.
Even so, this successfully drew the ruin hunter's attention to Oz.
Its four arms, two with lances and two humanoid hands, reached out for Oz while also thrusting a lance at him.
However, Oz skillfully dodged them.
At this time Fischl had also drawn Skyward Harp, charging an arrow with Electro energy aimed at the ruin hunter's "eye" and firing.
Like a purple meteor, unfortunately, without exposing the core of the Ruin Hunter, any attack had to face its steel body.
So, the effectiveness of Fischl's attack was not significant, more like a venting of frustration.
"Humph!"
Fischl ceased her fruitless efforts.
Meanwhile on the other side Bennett also imbued his single-handed sword with Pyro and rushed up close to the ruin hunter, jumping up to slash it.
Teyvat's seven elements interacting with each other led to various elemental reactions.
The reaction between Pyro and Electro was called Overload, creating an explosive effect.
The very instant Bennett's Pyro sword and the Electro collided, an Overload reaction erupted, blasting the ruin hunter back half a step and slowing its motions significantly. It did have an impact.
But Bennett himself got blown much further away.
Fortunately, with his ample experience, Bennett adjusted his body in mid-air, allowing his feet to land first.
The explosive force of the Overload reaction was tremendous. Even after landing, Bennett slid back several meters with his shoes scraping the ground.
Of course, most adventurers' shoes were durable enough.
"It seems we're helpless against it for now. We need to wait for a chance when its core is exposed!"
Nolan also shot it with an armor-piercing arrow. Empowered by Silent Shadow, his arrow seemed to teleport, bypassing spatial distance and air resistance to abruptly impale the ruin hunter's hand joint and successfully jam it.
Yet it had no effect. The ruin hunter lightly moved its steel hand and bent the steel arrow.
"This princess knows of these ruin machines. If we move away so it can't attack us, it will float up high and attack with missiles. That's when its core will be revealed!"
Fischl said in a slightly rising tone.
"Well, that seems to be the case." Nolan also thought about the method of dealing with the Ruin Hunter in the game, and it was indeed almost the same so, he continued suggestively, "I'll go with Bennett towards the iron gate, distancing ourselves from it, then have Oz retreat."
After confirming the plan, Nolan and Fischl ran to the location where Bennett was. They briefly explained the plan, and the three of them ran to the iron gate at the entrance of the passage.
They were at least several dozen meters away from the Ruin Hunter. The distance was sufficient!
"Oz, come back!"
Using the Elemental Skill Nightrider, Fischl directly summoned the Oz who was skirmishing with the ruin hunter back to her side from afar.
As expected, after suddenly losing its target, the ruin hunter began floating up, reaching near the ceiling before searching for its target again.
It quickly discovered the three at the iron gate. The ruin hunter did not rush over. Instead it detached its four arms and reversed them, revealing dark muzzles like four unmanned drones encircling it.
"Here it comes!"
Nolan's gaze was fixed on the ruin hunter high in the air nearly poking out of the fragmented dome.
After separating its arms, the core within its body was exposed, the same dazzling yellow light as on Ruin Guards.
At this moment, Electro still lingered on its body from Oz's Thunder-bolts earlier. Hitting it with Pyro would surely Overload its core and shatter it.
The opportunity was fleeting and couldn't wait for Bennett to imbue Nolan's arrows with Pyro. This time he directly used a not-so-cheap Pyro-imbued arrow(fire-quenched arrow).
The dark red arrowhead, crafted from a rare ore containing Pyro elements, released a large amount of Pyro elements upon friction with the air, enveloping the arrow.
Like the sound of breaking glass, the ruin hunter's core was even more easily shattered by the triggered Overload reaction before it could fire missiles, and it crashed down from the air.
Bang!
The steel body smashed into the rubble pile, kicking up huge clouds of dust.
[Defeated A Powerful Enemy, Obtained 1088 Adventure EXP.]
This ruin hunter provided far more experience than the previous ruin guards. The threat it posed to Nolan and the others was indeed worth the price.
Right after the Ruin Hunter fell...
Suddenly, a loud clanging came from behind the three. The iron gate used to seal off the only path here besides the damaged ceiling opened.
(End Of Chapter)