Undercover in Snezhnaya, My Teyvat Spy Life [35]

The three Abyss Mages actually summoned such a massive horde of hilichurls.

That, Artem Vetrovski had not expected.

But there was no time to think—reality was crashing down fast.

As his hesitation passed, the Stonehide Lawachurls’ eyes cleared; they immediately spotted the intruder in their midst.

All three Stonehide Lawachurls roared in unison. Towering over five meters tall, they leapt at Artem with the force of an avalanche.

Unlike ordinary hilichurls, the Stonehide Lawachurls’ bodies were infused with dense Geo energy—muscle and skin hardened into something closer to hewn stone.

That made their defense far tougher than any other elemental Lawachurl.

And with all that Geo, they were even stronger and heavier than their peers.

With that kind of weight, their charges and slams packed several times the punch of a regular Lawachurl.

A direct hit from that? Even Varka himself might hesitate.

At that critical moment, Artem became the wind—narrowly dodging three enormous slams that shook the very ground.

When the first assault failed, the Lawachurls hunched low, then charged like a trio of freight trucks.

Each massive footfall sent tremors through the earth.

Seeing their kings on the attack, the other hilichurls erupted in support, chanting: “Lawa! Lawa! Lawa!”

A thousand hilichurls roared together, the sound echoing for miles, scattering wildlife in terror.

Even the reconnaissance squad, still some distance away, heard the monstrous chorus.

The captain, veteran that he was, heard the sound and instantly paled.

“Hilichurl language! It’s a hilichurl tribe!”

“Their voices are carrying this far? There must be over a thousand of them!”

“How can there be such a massive tribe out here?”

There was no way a squad like his could handle such numbers.

He made a snap decision: send everyone else back to the city for reinforcements; he and the other two [Vision] bearers would scout the situation.

Back at the battlefield, Artem was locked in a fierce struggle with the three Lawachurls.

Unlike the dull-witted Meat-Loving or Sleep-Loving clans, these hilichurls—summoned by the Abyss Mages—were clearly of the Eclipse Tribe: numerous, disciplined, led by their own shamans, and chanting as one.

The so-called Eclipse Tribe:
One of the three great hilichurl tribes—by far the strongest. Unlike the original “Meaty” or “Sleepy” tribes, the Eclipse Tribe had its own faith, a certain human-like intelligence, and even practiced smithing, fishing, and cooking.

They were also the most skilled at channeling elemental energy.

Now, with three Stonehide Lawachurls rampaging, the forest was caught in a disaster—like a hurricane and earthquake striking at once.

Trees fell by the dozen, the ground shook, and Artem could only keep his distance, weaving through the chaos with arrows and every elemental trick at his disposal.

But the Lawachurls weren’t so easily deterred. Enraged by his tactics, they summoned even more Geo power, covering themselves with armor of solid stone.

Their attacks grew even more terrifying.

Worse still, their new weight didn’t slow them down—they kept up with Artem step for step.

Geo armor could only be broken with the right elemental reactions, but Artem could only hammer away at it with raw power, cycling through every element he had.

Dendro—vines snapped in an instant.

Cryo—frost shattered as soon as it touched their feet.

Pyro—walls of flame couldn’t even scorch their armor.

Anemo? No chance. He’d hoped to lift them off the ground and break their connection to Geo, but not even a category-12 hurricane could budge them.

Electro—ineffective.

Geo—completely immune.

Hydro—useless.

Combining elements, he managed to chip away at the armor here and there, but with every pulse of Geo, it reformed in an instant.

It went on like this until Artem finally lured them to a marshy patch.

He combined Hydro and Geo, turning the ground to deep mud. All three Lawachurls sank in, stuck fast with only their massive heads poking out.

“You three can sit tight for now,” Artem grinned wolfishly.

Then, he turned a savage gaze on the oncoming hilichurl mob, screaming for their kings.

There was something Artem knew that few scholars in Teyvat did:

The Eclipse Tribe hilichurls were actually descendants of Khaenri’ah—humans, cursed five centuries ago by Celestia.

Before the curse, the Khaenri’ahns had been innocent.

But many of their descendants, led by the Abyss Order, had become truly monstrous—pillaging, killing, destroying villages.

The mob before him were exactly that sort: not deserving of pity.

Artem conjured twin elemental blades—one of fire, one of lightning.

He even mimicked the Lawachurls, covering himself with Geo armor. To keep up his speed, he channeled Anemo as well.

Icy spears floated around him, ready to fly at his command.

When he was done, he launched himself at the hilichurl horde—a tiger among sheep.

Arundolyn’s legacy of swordsmanship, modified for twin greatswords, became an art of massacre.

Overloaded reactions from lightning and fire sent even giant mitachurls flying—then Artem finished them off with a single clean blow.

With Geo armor shielding him, not even ranged attacks or elemental bursts could hurt him.

The flying Cryo spears cut down any who got close.

Cryo froze and slowed the enemies, while Electro and Pyro devastated them. Some fool shaman even summoned a rain cloud, making the Electro shocks even deadlier—whole swathes of hilichurls went down, crispy on the outside, tender on the inside.

In just half an hour—

With the Lawachurls watching in helpless fury, a thousand hilichurls were reduced to corpses.

Only a few dozen terrified survivors managed to escape, screaming and running for their lives.

Artem, covered in blood, looked every inch a demon torn straight from hell.

With a wave of his hand, a violet-red magic circle appeared, launching dozens of chains to snare the fleeing hilichurls, binding them tight.

With a clench of his fist, the chains squeezed—every last one strangled where they stood.

The slaughter was done.

The forest, once lush, was wrecked—hilichurl blood ran in ragged red streams across the ground.

Artem staggered, breathing hard, toward the struggling Lawachurls.

His Geo armor was crumbling, his body caked in sticky blood, his elemental spears long since vanished, and he couldn’t even hold both greatswords anymore.

He’d burned through every scrap of elemental energy, pushed his body to the brink.

In the final stretch, he’d even drawn on the [Delusion] from Crepus—channeling the power of a deceased god for the first time.

As he’d hoped, the backlash of the [Delusion] didn’t affect him.

But the price in stamina was beyond belief.

Before using it, he’d still had enough left to fight the Lawachurls; after, he could barely stand.

The Lawachurls, seeing him so spent, raged harder, one of them almost breaking free from the swamp.

“You want to kill me, don’t you?” Artem bared his bloody teeth in a wicked smile.

“Too bad—you’re out of luck.”

He reached into his coat, pulled out three orange orbs.

Activating them with Pyro, he hurled them into the midst of the trapped Lawachurls.

Then, burning the last of his strength, he blasted himself away with Anemo.

BOOM—

A second later, a monstrous orange-red mushroom cloud shot into the sky.

The shockwave tossed Artem hundreds of meters.

As darkness claimed him, Artem’s final thought was a bitter laugh:

Alice, what the hell did you make—bombs or nuclear warheads?!

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T/N: NOOOO NOT ALL OF THE JUMPTY DUMPTIES!!!!

This is a fan translation of 提瓦特之我在至冬做臥底 by 曉風殘月聽荷 All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!