The abyss mage didn't respond to the profanity the little girl spat, it brandished its staff and immediately began to charge a spell, which just so happened to be one of its deadliest. After all, it was now surrounded by stunned children, might as well kill them all in one fell swoop.

Emmy's eyes widened when she saw the 3 dragon heads that rotated in a circle, swiftly using an elemental sigh she could see the buildup of pyro-energy within each of their jaws, ready to spit on the unsuspecting children.

'This, this would kill them!' Emmy didn't waste time, with a vigorous shout she conjured her energy, the time constraints allowed her no time for finesse and she spread out her arms. A massive explosion of Anemo energy went out and scattered the children.

A moment later the dragon heads began to spit fire at her and the girl clapped her hands, forming a red barrier around herself in the form of a pyro shield thus, even as the heads spat fire at her, her shield, with its built-in immunity to its own element, held firm even against the vastly superior opponent.

"Wiek, keke!" The abyss mage made a weird sound and its shield began to vibrate, then, it disappeared.

'Teleportation?' Emmy began to swiftly look around as her friends got up from the ground in groups of two or three, guarding each other's backs. Emmy looked at the charging army of hundreds of hilichurls, her thoughts a mystery.

'There is an army in the front and a teleporting arsonist in the surrounding area, this flat area is not safe but neither is the forest,' Emmy glanced at her friends, 'We are capable of fighting but not here, that abandoned building would be good but it is on the other side of that army. What a conundrum.'

'Still,' Emmy looked at a small slope that was located at the side, 'We aren't entirely without options for combat.'

"Listen up! We will now be heading to that small hill in that on the right," Emmy tilted her head to that side, "However I don't expect our enemies to allow us a chance to escape. Harlin and Noelle, I want both of you to remain in the rear and on the left flank."

They both made a mock salute and Emmy chuckled, 'Did they think this was a military operation?'

"Aries, you and your brother should go along with them, you would be our harassers, move in and out of the enemy lines while being sure to take care of any archers or mages. Using the corresponding elemental reactions to your benefit. I would like you to conjure barricades and shock patches."

Andre smiled and rubbed his hands in excitement, while it wasn't what he wanted, which was to charge into the battle and rip his enemies to shreds with his sword. It would be a much wiser choice.

Shock patches were something Emmy had taught Andre to use as a trap in one of their training sessions, it was 90% theoretical but in practice, it was dangerously effective at stopping enemies by paralyzing them.

She had tested it to full effect in the learning space. Their size could be adjusted freely, but they were costly to keep up. So Emmy installed into them another, "special" effect.

"Use the spread and explosive effect well," Emmy turned to the others, "Ansgar, Sebastian, and Fischl would be in the front. Fischl would be between the twins and the two boys at the front, we will make her support that would guard you all front enemy archers."

Emmy walked up to Fischl and patted her shoulder and then she looked toward the encroaching army, her team forming up to their positions. She leaned down and said.

"You'll have to spot and snipe the archers while moving, are you confident?" Emmy asked, it was a different story to shoot a moving target from a distance but for her to be moving as well and to be so under pressure.

Fischl merely nodded and touched her bow, the one her parents fully upgraded for her. It would be instrumental in taking the heads of the monsters. Although it still made her a bit queasy, she wouldn't let that stop her from protecting her friends. 

Their conversation didn't even take a few minutes but the army was slowly drawing closer. Emmy narrowed her eyes, she could see several mages, dozens of Mitachurls, and hundreds of hilichurl variants.

In hand-to-hand combat, she would surely falter, however, the art of battle didn't always rely on CQC. Elements and their reactions played a key role in combat in teyvat as weapons that hit from a long distance were not very well developed or even at all.

'What I would do for that large artillery in Liyue right now,' Emmy thought, that thing could hit all of these monsters and kill them all before they even arrived at 200 meters within her position.

That crossbow could auto-reload and auto-target monsters based on what the historical records said.

The so-called "Peak" of adepti technology.

'Too bad it doesn't work now,' Emmy snorted, 'It seems even the greatest of technologies cannot withstand the test of time without routine maintenance.'

"Okay," Emmy stretched, using elemental sight in passing and she frowned, the abyss mage wasn't anywhere. Did it escape?

She shrugged, "I'll go first, spreading chaos through enemy lines by bombing them is the role of the main guns after all."

She cracked her neck and started walking toward the army that was still a little over 700 meters away from her position and 300 meters away from the slope that fed into the area the building was in. 

They were going to go on that slope, onto that hill, and go around into the building that was about several kilos away, hopefully, it didn't contain any more monsters. It wasn't the best plan.

Emmy would like to hold that hill they were using as a path but since it would be easy for them to climb it, it didn't need to be said for those monsters that seemed to not tire out.

As for walls and barricades on the hill? The monster could just jump over, so it wasn't as effective as the tall reinforced walls of the building.

It was simply the more defensible position. If it wasn't to her standard, she could simply enhance it with Geo to strengthen the concrete and stone.

She sped up into a jog mildly noting she was getting further away from her team, who were beginning to go on the side, she didn't mind it, she sped up once more into a run and then she was outright sprinting to the army. 

Balls of compressed flame rotated around her, if one looked carefully they could see a bit of blue within those flames, two months ago she couldn't even dream of this type of power and control over the elements but now?

Emmy grinned, dodging arrows both normal and infused, with a laugh she went into an energy-infused jump, using the Anemo energy to discreetly boost her into the air, and with that, she went a little over 7 meters into the air.

Once again she used Anemo to create a platform that slowly descended as one that simply stuck in the air would drain her energy reserves faster but it would make enough time for her to do damage here.

The monsters continued to shoot her and Emmy then released her balls of destruction on her foes.

Each of them goes toward key positions in the enemy formation, where their mages or shamans(samachurls), archers, and otherwise squishy but very destructive units were located.

Emmy was cutting off her enemy's ranged capabilities, which were the greatest threat to her own team, so she bombed them from the sky where their arrows couldn't touch her and their AOE spells couldn't reach her.

In a way, she was an artillery battery, one that was in the sky, where they were no one could intercept her. Indeed, to her enemy, Emmy was currently a lethal bird that they could only take the harassment from.

As in the sky, there were few opponents that could challenge her rule.

'What an interesting way of combat,' It spawned new ideas for warfare in Emmy's young mind. The military teachings of her family came to mind as to how she could implement that into their armies.

But now was not the time.

The bombs she spawned on her enemy were now going into effect, she began to make more keeping in mind her dwindling reserves.

They had an immediate effect, the balls in reaction with the smaller amount of concentrated hydro within created a vaporized reaction.

'But instead of a damage increase, I tweaked it to do more of an explosive increase in range,' Emmy laughed.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Emmy laughed, "Let's play~" 

At those words, more balls descended from the sky.

This was her playing ground.

*****

In the Favonius headquarters, the moment Varka saw the smoke coming from Wolfendom he immediately mobilized the Knights. It didn't take long for them to be rounded up and ready for battle, by that time they could all see a red flare shoot into the air from that same direction.

'An adventurers danger flare?'

"Danger Level 3," an adventurer began, "It indicates disaster by a mysterious cause, it warns of schemes from malicious forces like the abyss order, cults, and other nefarious organizations. Such a situation means a threat to a nation or something on that scale. The good news is that Code 3 means there is a means to stop it and an adventurers team is already on site."

"An adventurers team? But there aren't any teams stationed in that area- fuck!" An old adventurer cursed in the formation.

"What is going on," Varka asked all of the Knights standing at his back on their horses, the citizenry talking in low voices.

"The children that were going to take their test today are the only ones who..." The old man whispered at the end, everyone could piece the clues together and Varka rubbed his face.

That little girl really liked to follow death around. It was the same with the kidnapping, she didn't seem to hesitate at all to risk her own life.

"Grandmaster, we are all sorted and ready to go," Jean saluted him on her own horse and he could see Diluc at his side as well, his squad behind him. His [Favonius Greatsword] on his back. 

"Very well, but you," Varka said to the man, Bently raising his head, "What does Code 4 mean by any chance, and is there a Code 5? What are the colors for those."

Bently'e eyes shook, "In the case of Code 4, it means that a country rated threat in the form of a large number of abyss monsters and the color for that is a blood red, but a Code 5? If I didn't go into the records, I wouldn't even know it existed, that black flare only flew 500 years ago."

500 years ago?

'The cataclysm?'

Varka couldn't spare any more of his time on the thought, after he took note of his standing army, leaving 1/2 of them to guard Mondstadt he commanded those with him to move out immediately. Their supplies were only scheduled to come a few hours later.

After commanding the 1/2 he left there to reinforce the city and a few things Varka left with his army.

With that Varka was off, he and the others not taking note of the Abyss mage that was located in the corner of an alleyway, watching as the strongest soldier of Mondstadt left the city with barely any defenses.

The abyss mage chuckled darkly as it teleported away somewhere deep in the woods, however, it wasn't burning. It looked on at the cider lake and the walled island city that was on it, it ran a finger across its neck and pointed.

"You first," It was now in the Whispering Woods while it watched the main combatants of Mondstadt leave for Wolfendom, numerous abyss mages and other monsters came from the shadows.

"Luring the tiger from the mountain indeed."

It didn't notice the shadow with a white mask that looked at it from a tree just behind it, and neither did it notice that shadow slipping away.

*****