"Oh dear... Caelus escaped again."
Only after the Young Pyro Archon vanished from sight did Mualani react, scratching her head in regret.
"The Pyro Archon's way of leaving is so special," Paimon said. "This is the first time we've seen someone leave like that."
"That Caelus guy just loves to act cool," Mualani said with a smile. "Every time he arrives or leaves, he has to pull some special tricks. Simply turning into fire to leave is already considered quite normal for him."
Paimon's curiosity was piqued: "Then how did the Pyro Archon leave before?"
"Well..." Mualani thought for a moment, then extended an arm, curling her middle and ring fingers while keeping the other three upright. "For example, he'd make a gesture like this and suddenly spit out a harmless fire rope to hook a Qucusaurus in the distance, letting it fly him into the sky."
"Or, for instance, flames would erupt from his hands and feet simultaneously, using the propulsion of the fire to fly into the sky in an instant!"
"And sometimes, he even uses flames to generate a pair of wings on his back to carry him aloft."
"In short, Caelus has a lot of tricks. I've watched him for so long and never gotten bored," Mualani said with a laugh.
[What kind of Archangel Wings is this...]
[This Pyro Archon looks so chuunibyou.]
[It's normal for a Pyro Archon to be chuunibyou. He's only about 15 years old at most, which is the prime age for it.]
[Wait, could this be foreshadowing planted by HoYoverse?]
[Natlan people all have specific talents for map exploration. Could what Mualani just described be the modules the Pyro Archon uses for exploration?]
[Uh... you mean the Pyro Archon can spit out a grappling hook like Kinich, then spray fire from his feet to fly, and then grow wings while flying?]
[Having one exploration talent is already ridiculous. Even if he's the Pyro Archon, he can't have so many exploration talents at the same time, right?]
Some players were focused on Caelus's exploration talents.
But soon, these people stopped paying attention.
Because the plot moved to the next stage: the Traveler was going to take Paimon to participate in the Holy Night of the Return of Fire.
Players would have to control the Traveler to complete the Holy Night of the Return of Fire.
Before the event started, every player received a notification from the game system.
"This thing actually has an Easy Mode and a Normal Mode?"
Seeing the system's introduction, Xiao Mu was a bit surprised: "Isn't this a Honkai: Star Rail mechanic? Has it been optimized into Genshin Impact now?"
In Honkai: Star Rail, when players encounter boss battles during the story, the game specifically offers two modes, considering that some players' character builds aren't very high.
Easy Mode focuses on experiencing the story; the monsters' strength is significantly weakened, ensuring that even newbie players can progress through the plot.
Normal Mode is the same as before. Even for old players, if they haven't raised their characters well, they'll be thoroughly beaten by the story boss and become veteran prisoners.
Genshin Impact hadn't released this kind of mode before. After all, Genshin's character power control was very good, and after the Powercreep came out, character strength far exceeded the Spiral Abyss.
A mere story boss, if not relying on mechanics, would find it hard to survive for 10 seconds in the hands of a pro player.
"Is this Holy Night of the Return of Fire that hard? They actually released an Easy Mode for it."
Xiao Mu chose Normal Mode without hesitation.
Just kidding—he had pulled so many characters and raised them to such a high level. Passing the main quest and fighting some Natlan locals should be a breeze, right?
However, once the event began, he realized he had been a bit naive.
"Traveler spotted!"
"Open fire!"
As soon as the Holy Night of the Return of Fire began, the Traveler seemed to become the target of everyone. Many Natlan warriors targeted the Traveler and attacked.
It was fine if he ran into Natlan people with melee weapons; Xiao Mu could just use the Dragon King to spray them to death.
But there were actually people in Natlan who used machine guns and sniper rifles!
He saw Natlan warriors using machine guns to spray and attract fire, while snipers in the distance finished him off with massive damage.
"Wait, I thought you guys were primitive people, and you're even using machine guns?" Xiao Mu's eyes almost popped out.
It couldn't be helped; the clothing of the Natlan people and their architectural style were so misleading that at first glance, their technology level seemed low.
But in reality, in terms of technology, Pyro Element-driven machine guns and sniper rifles didn't even rank. Chasca's gun that could fly and Mauvika's Flamestrider that could go anywhere were the real high-tech gadgets.
He had treated the Natlan people like country bumpkins, but it turned out he was the one from the countryside.
"Sigh, nothing for it. Our Dragon King can only use a Catalizador, not high-tech, so he just has to spray."
Fortunately, Xiao Mu was using a C6 Dragon King with massive HP. Even though he'd lose health while attacking and took so many hits, his Dragon King's health bar remained solid.
But just then, someone with a water cannon appeared.
He saw that person apply Hydro to the character with a water bubble, and then the sniper dealt Pyro sniper damage, actually triggering a Vaporize reaction.
"No way... Natlan people can trigger Vaporize reactions too?"
In an instant, bad memories were triggered for Xiao Mu.
Scenes of being solo-killed by a Cryo Gunner on a rainy day during Childe's legendary quest, and being blown up by Thunder-Fire Swordsmen while farming the Spiral Abyss in the Inazuma version.
No wonder HoYoverse thought the Holy Night of the Return of Fire was difficult and specifically provided an Easy Mode.
For players with poor builds, that single Vaporize hit just now would have killed a character instantly.
After dealing with the surrounding Natlan warriors, he hadn't controlled his character for long before encountering new enemies.
Good news: This time the enemies were using cold weapons.
Bad news: They all had Visions.
Vaporize, Melt, Burning, Overloaded... Elemental reactions that were usually used to trap monsters were now all being used on the player.
Xiao Mu once switched Kazuha in, wanting to rely on his Elemental Skill to group enemies and shred Anemo resistance, but the moment they were grouped, he was hit by Pyro and Electro in succession, triggering an Overloaded reaction that blew Kazuha up.
"This Normal Mode is way too hard, isn't it?" Xiao Mu's brow furrowed into a knot.
According to Genshin Impact's style, Normal Mode shouldn't be this hard; it should ensure that 80% of players can pass it in one go.
But now, it was likely that 80% of players wouldn't be able to pass this event.
"Could it be that because they released an Easy Mode, they shamelessly ramped up the difficulty of Normal Mode?" Xiao Mu guessed boldly.
"Let's see what it's like in Easy Mode."
Xiao Mu exited the game, re-entered, and started the challenge again.
When the system pop-up appeared, he chose Easy Mode.
Then, he couldn't keep a straight face.
"The warriors are only level 20, and they even kill each other."
"No machine guns, no sniper rifles, and no Vaporize reactions."
"You call this Easy Mode? This is clearly a Guaranteed Pass Mode!"
...
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