3rd Pov
Aloy watched as Edith took to the sky, following her up she rose above the nearby mountain before with a mighty boom she instantly disappears from sight. Left alone on the ground Aloy looks around at the destruction, breaking into a jog she runs towards the villagers.
Looking in different houses Aloy eventually finds them all around the elders houses, outside the braves stand guard with their shields. On the roof tops Aloy can see a few more braves with bows in hand, walking up to the main house she makes her way passed the trembling warriors and into the house.
Inside she is greeted by a cacophony of sound as Resh yells with the elders, on his side are a few shady looking villagers and on the elders side stands Rost. Pushing Resh out of the way she walks straight through the standoff and approaches elder Teersa.
"Elder all the assailants are defeated you can go back outside." – Aloy
Sighing the elder looks between Aloy and the very vocal Resh.
"We would love too but the temporary war chief Resh has ordered a work stop." – Teersa
"That's right, nothing will be done until I give the order." – Resh
Looking smug Resh jabs his finger at Aloy, grabbing his finger Aloy twists it around until he squeals in pain. Ignoring the older man writhing on the ground she turns back to the elders.
"So, what you're saying is you need me to find war chief Sona to relieve Resh of his position." – Aloy
"Yes, but we haven't seen Sona since the ambush a few weeks ago." – Teersa
"I'll find her." – Aloy
Saying her piece Aloy turns and pushes her way through Resh's goons, stepping out she begins walking towards the wyvern. As she walks she stops by to ask those who returned from the ambush where it occurred.
After gathering some information Aloy slowly plots it into her focus as she walks, eventually she returns to the wyvern and sees Sylens sitting atop it. Wearing his usual smug attitude, he stands and jumps down.
"This is where we split up for now, I've already contacted Edith to arrange this. I'll head back to my base at the Gaia prime facility and work on repairing it, I'll be taking this wyvern. Edith has sent another for you." – Sylens
As if on queue with Sylens a shadow crosses the sky as another wyvern comes in for a landing, breathing a sigh of relief Aloy is secretly glad she doesn't have to stick with Sylens. She isn't used to constantly having another human nearby and Sylens unsettles her.
Nodding at him she offers small goodbyes before turning her back to him, behind her Sylens climbs back into the wyvern as it closes up. Looking briefly behind her Aloy has to hold her hair down as the wyvern takes to the sky.
Climbing up onto her wyvern, she's about to hop in when she sees Rost hobble into the clearing. Pausing she climbs back down.
"Aloy, are you trying to leave again without saying goodbye." – Rost
"I'll be back in a few hours Rost." – Aloy
"I know, but I won't be here when you return. I told you before the proving I don't fit into the tribe; I'm going to take this opportunity and become a wanderer." – Rost
"Wait, why? You don't need to leave, please stay." – Aloy
Practically begging Aloy speed walks up to Rost and grabs his shoulders, releasing a deep and exhausted sigh Rost gently removes Aloy's hands from his shoulders. Then he looks her square in the eye.
"Please Aloy, this isn't goodbye forever. We will meet again in the future, but this is my choice." – Rost
Nodding her head with tears in her eyes she pulls him into a hug.
"I know Rost, I'm not going to let you disappear you taught me how to track, I'll find you." – Aloy
Smiling sadly Rost returns her hug, after a few minutes pass Rost releases the hug. Then after patting her on the back, he turns around and begins walking away. Watching him leave Aloy wipes her tears before hardening her resolve, turning around she approaches the wyvern.
Climbing up the ladder she watches as the back folds away to reveal the cockpit, stepping onto the access elevator she gets lowered down into it. Above her the cockpit closes as she takes her seat, pulling up the tutorial she goes over the autopilot system again.
Nodding her head she begins tapping away at both the physical and holographic buttons, eventually she opens a new screen and tapping a few more buttons she locks it to a icon on the main screen. Tapping her focus the holographic map overlays with the display from the wyvern.
Almost instantly the wyvern's map changes to reflect the mark Aloy had on her own map, breathing in deeply Aloy reaches out and clicks the big green button. Twisting the display changes to show a confirmation screen, tapping the green button the wyvern begins to move.
Swiping the navigation system to the side Aloy looks outside through the omnidirectional display screen. Shifting it's mechanical muscles the wyvern tenses before leaping off the ground, inside Aloy barely feels the movement as she takes to the sky.
As it takes to the sky a small time display appears inside the cockpit, on it says twenty seven minutes. Using this time Aloy pulls up the basic arithmetic courses Edith designed for her and begins going over them.
Twenty five minutes later Aloy closes the lesson as she arrives over her marker, activating the wyvern's in built scanners it instantly picks up traces of an old battle. Selecting these markers the wyvern begins to descend.
Hovering ten metres above the ground the sensors pick up a trail, tagging the trail as a point of interest the wyvern instantly begins following it. Inside the wyvern Aloy enjoys the comfort as the wyvern quickly flies tens of kilometres as it follows the trail.
Eventually after crossing the valley the wyvern pings the remnants of a camp, feeling she's being a bit lazy Aloy decides to personally investigate this sight. After deciding this she pilots the wyvern to land, jumping out she walks the few metre distance to the camp and begins looking around.
Littered across the ground Aloy finds traces of people cooking food, bandaging wounds, and preparing arrows. All these markers are only a few hours old as well so, scanning the area with her focus she finds a trail leading away.
Opening her focus menu, she sends the wyvern back up into the sky, watching from the side Aloy can only feel awe as the massive machine rapidly climbs higher into the sky. Leaving the wyvern be her attention turns back to the trail.
Breaking into a light jog she begins climbing over logs and under bushes as she follows the trail, jogging for about half an hour she comes across a clearing above a cliff. Approaching the edge, she finds a dead machine littered with arrows.
Investigating closer she matches the arrows to the remains of the arrows back at the camp, hearing a mechanical growl behind her she rolls to the side as a sawtooth lands on the corpse. Whizzing from behind her an arrow impacts directly behind the machines head.
Instantly the machine collapses as Aloy spins to look at who shot the arrow. Walking out of the bushes behind her a small group of heavily injured Nora warriors spread out, in the centre of the group a older black woman steps to the front.
Recognising the woman Aloy steps to her feet and approaches her.
"War chief Sona, I've been sent by the elders to find you. You're needed back at Mother's heart." – Aloy
"No, I can't return yet. Me and my men have been tracking the assailants from the proving for weeks, we've recently found one of their camps and are about to attack it. Why don't you help us girl." – Sona
Looking around at the heavily injured warriors Aloy can only imagine the worst. Sighing she decides to other her aid.
"Sure, I'll help, where's this camp." – Aloy
Smiling Sona asks for her to follow before taking off in a jog, following close behind the two of them continue running for a few more minutes before reaching another cliff side. Scattered around the area Aloy can see most of the missing war party.
Moving closer to the edge of the cliff she looks over the edge, there down below is a large camp. Surrounding the camp corrupted machines roam as cultist intertwine the area, within the actual camp Aloy see's a large stockpile of blaze littering the area.
Most concerning of all is the large number of half unearthed corruptors buried within the confines of the camp, moving away from the edge she approaches Sona.
"Sona I have a plan, let me go in first I'll detonate the blaze stockpiles and take out as many of them as possible." – Aloy
"Sure, but if you fail it's on you." – Sona
Nodding Aloy breaks off from the group and begins scaling down the cliffs, reaching the ground she begins tagging enemies with her focus. Sitting in the bush Aloy waits for the perfect time before loosing an arrow.
Travelling silently the arrow breaks quietly through one of the barrels of blaze, leaking down the blaze slowly spreads to the nearby barrels. Marking the last of the targets Aloy looks up into the sky, there hovering hundreds of metres above is the wyvern slowly charging its weapons systems.
Swiping up on her focus the targets are quickly transmitted to the wyvern as a new button appears to the side of her vision. Breathing in deeply Aloy nocks arrow after arrow on her bow, once she has five resting on her bow she silently lights the tiny blaze canister on each arrow.
Then pulling back hard on the bow she releases the arrows, whistling through the air each arrow accurately hits a blaze barrel. Rushing for cover Aloy dives behind a rock, for a few seconds nothing happens before with a catastrophic explosion the camp explodes in a cloud of fire.
Staying behind cover Aloy remotely connects to the wyverns cameras, using these she observes the sight from above. Doing a quick scan the blaze killed most of the humans and machines but there is still some left.
Reaching out Aloy taps the button at the edge of her vision, then with a high pitched whistle Aloy hears a few small explosions from behind the rock. Nocking an arrow Aloy stands and rolls out from behind the rock, scanning the area she releases the arrow when she doesn't find anyone.
Placing the arrow back in her quiver she approaches the flaming ruins, tapping her focus it pulses before it pings a data file. Digging through the rubble she pulls a data file out and scans it, the file contains an audio log she previews as she waits for the war party to come down.
Two minutes later a shocked Sona walks up to her.
"How did you do that?, what were those secondary explosions?" – Sona
"I detonated the blaze. The secondary explosions don't matter as much, what matters is I found evidence of another camp in the Sacred lands." – Aloy
"You're right, where is this next camp and the evidence." – Sona
"The camp is somewhere called the metal ring, and uhm… I can't really show you the evidence." – Aloy
Looking confused Sona continues to ask Aloy about the evidence, eventually though Aloy manages to convince Sona and they move on. Keeping their discussion going Sona eventually comes up with a rough idea where the next camp could be based on Aloy's descriptions.
Agreeing to meet up there Aloy calls over a strider and jumps on, taking off she uses the wyverns overhead mapping to find her destination. Arriving in another ancient ruin the wyvern pings some cultist camps.
Jumping off the strider she climbs the nearby building overlooking the camps, drawing her bow she rapidly begins silently shooting off arrows. After a few minutes, the last cultist drops obliviously to the ground, hooking her repel cord to a nearby solid structure she makes her way down.
On the ground Aloy looks around a bit before jogging through the ruins she heads towards the large metal ring; from the wyvern a file tells her this is the ancient ruin of a stadium. Looking at the ancient structure she spots the least injured members of the war party waiting outside.
Approaching them she slinks up next to Sona, and after a brief discussion Sona agrees to let her head in by herself first. Stealthily climbing into a broken section of the ruin she performs a quick scan with the wyvern.
Marking the blaze stockpile, she plots a route, and following this route she makes her way through the ruins silently assassinating any cultists that block her path. Getting close to her target she hears some shouting from back along her path, speeding up she continues her path while cautiously watching the cultists.
Reaching a good place to shoot she steadies herself before nocking a new arrow, lighting the blaze canister she draws her bow before loosing the arrow. Soaring through the air the flaming arrow leaves a trail of sparks as it accurately hits the small exposed blaze canister.
Instantly the shack the canister was peeking out of explodes in a ball of flames, the explosion blasts a hole in the stadium wall and kills a bunch of cultists. Seeing no more need for stealth Aloy begins rapidly firing off arrows, each arrow accurately hits a cultist as the war party rushes in through the breach.
Seeing some corrupted machines moving towards the Nora warriors Aloy tags them with her focus, swiping up she transmits the targeting details to the wyvern before smacking the button that pops up. As she does a high pitched whistling sound rings out followed by small explosions.
Dropping to the ground the dead machines slide for a bit before stopping, each of the former cultist machines falls dead with a small hole embedded in their heads. Rallying the war party Sona releases a war cry before doubling her efforts against the cultists.
From the side Aloy plays a pivotal role sniping off cultists, eventually though she runs out of arrows and has to drop down to join the melee. Slicing through cultists Aloy eventually meets up with Sona as she kills the last cultist.
Breathing heavily Aloy wipes her spear before sitting on the fallen corpse of a machine, breathing just as heavily Sona makes her way over and sits next to her. Stabbing her spear into the ground she turns to look at Aloy.
"What were the small explosions." – Sona
Sighing Aloy ponders briefly before looking back at Sona, pointing up she notions to the small black dot high in the sky.
"That's a new machine, I have control of it and by tagging a target I can call down a weapon strike. Do you want to see it?" -Aloy
Thinking Sona seems to consider before shaking her head.
"No, not at the moment you'll scare my men if you're telling the truth. For now, we need to return to Mother's Heart." – Sona
Thinking some more Aloy considers the distance to Mother's heart from where they are, realising with Resh as the temporary war chief they'll have some issues she decides it can't wait.
"Are you willing to leave your men here and return with me? Resh is acting as temporary war chief because of your disappearance, and he's not doing good." – Aloy
"Shit… If that's the case we need to get back quick." – Sona
Standing up Sona begins shouting out orders, moving back to Aloy, Sona looks her dead in the eyes and asks.
"How are we going to get back quickly." – Sona
"Follow me." – Aloy
Standing up Aloy begins leaving the metal ring, following behind her Sona continues shouting orders. Stepping away from the main group Aloy hits a button on her focus display and sends out a signal, to the side Sona looks confused at Aloy's weird actions.
Suddenly a shadow sweeps over them as a large machine lands behind Aloy.
"This is how we'll get back quickly." - Aloy
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