“You’re gonna regret touching that you brat” All of a sudden Kitayuu felt a large amount of air pressure on the sword he was holding, he then felt a gush of wind slam him against the side of a rocky wall. The sword that he was holding slowly turned and edged towards his throat as he tried as hard as he could to resist. Kitayuu was unable to let go either because if he did, the blade would immediately slice into his head clean off. The only thing he could do was fight the wind pushing it closer, but it felt hopeless as the sword was now slightly touching his skin.

“If you refuse to cooperate, then this blade,,, shall be the last thing you see”

A few more intense seconds passed as the sword started digging into Kitayuu’s skin.

“OK, I YIELD!” Kitayuu screamed.

Suddenly, he felt the pressure pushing him against the wall subside. It was at the same time that Bennet managed to regain consciousness. After regaining his vision, he saw Amber slowly get up from the ground with Kitayuu and Blade not too far away from her. He rushed over towards her to check if she was alright.

Bennet; “Who’s that guy Kitayuu’s with?”

Amber replied, “I don’t know. He said his name was Blade, but he is extremely dangerous”

Bennet turned his head to see Kitayuu walking away with the man, “HEY WAIT!” he screamed. 

They both turned their heads with Blade, giving a sinister smile. They stared at each other for a moment, and Kitayuu slowly shook his head at Bennet. When they walked off, Kitayuu started making hand signals pointing to the ground. They both noticed that he started forming small but unique rocks in his hand and dropped them to create a path. Both Amber and Bennet understood what Kitayuu was doing immediately and just silently nodded at each other as they watched the two walk off.

“Follow me,” Amber said to Bennet quietly after Kitayuu and Blade were barely visible in the distance. 

After a while, Bennet and Amber approached a tree with a few pigeons. Amber took a piece of paper out of her pocket as well as a pen. She started writing a message, and when she was done, she rolled it up, tied it to the pigeon's leg, and sent it off.

Bennet; “What are you doing?”

Amber replied, “I’m informing Jean and the knights about the situation. We can’t go back. Otherwise, Kitayuu might be way too far for us to catch up.”



They both headed back to the stone trail and followed it by running with the plan of slowing down and using the environment around them to hide once Blade and Kitayuu were in view.

Meanwhile, Kitayuu silently followed Blade and dropped small pebbles without him noticing. 

Blade; “You’re a little silent young one”

Kitayuu waited a moment before answering, “Where are you taking me?” 

Blade; “It’s nothing important, just be patient”

The two of them started walking towards a hilichurl camp. When they got closer, Kitayuu was preparing for a fight, but as soon as the hilichurls got sight of Kitayuu, they too got ready. Blade just raised his hand, and when the hilichurls saw, they immediately stopped and went back to what they were doing. 

Kitayuu immediately realised what was going on and confronted Blade, “You’re with the Abyss aren’t you!” 

Blade turned his head slightly and replied, “Clever boy” 

Kitayuu, “But why,,, aren’t you human? They’re supposed to be our mortal enemies!” 

Blade turned around and placed his finger on Kitayuu’s mouth, “It’s a bit complicated but you see, there’s a few of us that have been rejected by society and despise the Archons and their followers. Our goals align similarly, and if that’s the case, then we have every reason to work together to wipe out humanity. Of course, we are an exception.” He turned around again and started walking off. 

Kitayuu followed quietly, thinking to himself, "So this guy is part of some sort of group." I can guess he’s taking me to them right now. 

Back at Monstadt, Jean had received Amber’s letter, and in panic, she informed Diluc all the way at the academy about the situation as well and gathered a few knights together. She had also sent a letter in return to Amber, and when the pigeon finally returned, she opened it up and read it to Bennet, 

“Thanks for informing us about the situation, Amber. We have made this our top priority and also sent a message to your tutor, Diluc, to come as quickly as possible. Please try and stay close to Kitayuu and do not engage in combat with Blade. He is an extremely dangerous and wanted individual and should not be taken lightly. I will tell you more after we rescue Kitayuu.”

Bennet; “So all we can do is follow them and pray, I suppose” 

Amber nodded, “Yeah, based on what Master Jean is saying. We stand no chance against that guy. It’s as if he was just toying with us.”

Bennet clenched his fist, “Just wait till Diluc and the knights arrive, and he will surely get it!”

Whilst they continued to follow Kitayuu, staying out of sight, Blade turned around to ask Kitayuu a question, “By the way. Do you know about Raiden, Keqing, and Aether?” Kitayuu was shocked upon hearing this question and looked up at him angrily 

What does this guy want with Raiden and Keqing? Aether is just an ordinary person in our class as well. It seems I’m not the only one he’s after.

After a few moments of staying silent, Blade turned around again. However, Kitayuu got careless and dropped a pebble on a rock that was sticking out on the path, which made a loud noise in the silence. Blade immediately turned around, “What are you planning boy” He looked up above Kitayuu’s head slightly and noticed the pebble trail. “How could I be so stupid!” He said angrily.

Blade grabbed hold of Kitayuu’s throat and squeezed it tightly, “You plan to lead a path to our hideout, don’t you?” He squeezed Kitayuu’s throat tighter as he was unable to form words and just struggled in his grip. “You know what.” He said, “I’m just gonna kill you right here, right now. You should’ve behaved and taken the chance to join us, but of course, you’re a stubborn one.”

Bennet watched horrified in the bushes and could not watch it any longer. Without warning Amber, he jumped out of the bush and focused all his power into one arm, “FLAMING FIST OF FATE!” He yelled. 



Blade was caught off guard and was struck, right on the side of his face by Bennet dropping Kitayuu to the ground in the process. Amber also jumped out of the bush, “Bennet you careless bastard!” She then lit the grass in front of Blade on fire to separate them and pulled both the boys back onto their feet, “Well change of plans, I guess we gotta run back to Mo-“ All of a sudden, the three of them felt something grip their ankles and pulled them all back face planting them and dragging them on the ground towards the fire that Amber made, before they were tossed in, Kitayuu used hydro to quickly extinguish it and found Blade walking towards them slowly clapping, “I must admit, you all surprised me quite a bit there, but you won’t be let off the hook that easily.”

Kitayuu; “Shit, I forgot, there’s no running away from this bastard.” 

All three of them stood up to face him, Bennet clutched his shoulder in pain after the heavy impact from his punch, “Well then, I guess we show him what we’ve got!”

Amber interrupted the both of them, “We stand no chance!”

Kitayuu; “But we have no choice! Or else we will die faster if we try to run away.”

Amber thought for a moment and found herself agreeing to Kitayuu, “Jean and the knights are on their way, let’s hope we can hold out until then.” 

The three of them stood their ground, getting ready for the inevitable battle. 

Blade slowly approached and crossed his arms, smiling.

A few silent moments passed by as the sun was almost set over the horizon, and the soft breeze could be heard with a faint whistle.

Bennet; “GO!” 

Kitayuu and Amber darted towards the sides as Bennet remained in the middle with his stance ready. As Kitayuu and Amber came towards him from left and right, Blade set off a gust of wind to try and blow them away. However, Kitayuu managed to set up a geo wall in front of him and Amber just in time to block the wind.

They both jumped over with Kitayuu using Dendro and hydro to create a Dendro core. Amber ignited her fist and got ready to detonate it like a bomb to create a burgeon reaction. Blade quickly read their plan and grabbed Amber's other arm. He then used the wind to redirect the core and threw Amber at Bennet, who was now also charging in. 

With the now leftover pyro particles, Blade caught hold of the Dendro core with the wind and tossed it towards Kitayuu through the particles. Kitayuu formed a hydro crystallisation reaction with Geo and Hydro to shield himself from the burgeon reaction. He was tossed back from the force of the explosion, and Blade, without any hesitation, charged towards him. 

Kitayuu tried to get back on his feet but felt air pressure strike him back onto the ground. As Blade rushed in to strike him with a punch similar to Raiden’s swirling strike, Kitayuu used dendro to make branches arise to restrain him, but with zero effort blade released a strong anemo shockwave to both slice and blow away the branches. Kitayuu rolled out the way just as Blade struck with his fist. Blade immediately turned and prepared a second punch. Kitayuu kicked his foot to try to make Blade stay back by infusing electro with it.

As he stumbled back a bit Kitayuu kicked, got back to his feet and reached his palm out to charge a pyro attack, Blade effortlessly dispersed the flames and grabbed his arm then slammed him against a tree. Kitayuu screamed in agony as his back slammed on the trunk whilst Bennet rushed from behind with a pyro punch ready. Blade, however, managed to move out the way just in time, and Bennet ended up striking Kitayuu right in the gut, and both boys fell over as the tree snapped from the force. 

Kitayuu puked out all the food he had eaten that morning. 

“I’M SO SORRY!” Bennet exclaimed as he tried to help Kitayuu up. 



When they looked back at Blade, he was busy dealing with Amber. 

Amber kept trying to place mini doll bombs, but the flames simply did not affect Blade's anemo shield. Blade went for a swirling strike, to which Amber responded by unleashing a huge burst of flames onto him.

Blade smirked, “Thanks for the power boost, I would’ve hoped you guys would have known how to fight better, but my god, is this disappointing.”

A swirl pyro reaction resulted in Blade's swirling strike now having pyro infused with it. 

“AMBER!” Kitayuu screamed as he quickly set up a geo wall between the two of them. Kitayuu then dashed over with electro, trying to get as close as possible, and managed to get within range to implement a small crystallisation reaction with Amber’s pyro to shield her wrists 

Meanwhile, Blade’s punch shattered the geo wall that Kitayuu made and was coming in hot towards Amber. The best she could do was put both her arms up, in front of her face, and hope for the best. 

Upon impact, there was a massive firestorm that wiped out the area behind Amber. She felt and heard a crack in one of her arms and was thrown back.

Before Blade could continue going after her, Bennet lunged in to try to get another hit with his flaming fist of fate.

Bennet; “THERE'S NO WAY YOU CAN HANDLE ANOTHER ONE OF THESE!”

Blade smirked and raised his hand. The next thing he knew, Bennet was stuck midair with his fist just inches away from Blade’s palm, “You should be saying that about your shoulder” 

Bennet grunted as he felt the air pressure holding him midair quickly tighten.

Kitayuu rushed in from the side to try and help but was immediately stopped when Blade drew his sword and pointed it towards him, “How would you like it if I crushed your friend right in front of your eyes?”

Kitayuu looked angrily at Blade as he increased the pressure on poor Bennet, who was in agony. He looked back at Amber, who was clutching her broken arm in pain.

There was nothing he could do

He was too slow

And

Too weak…

Suddenly…

Everything went blank…

“Leave… my friends…”

“ALONE!!!”

An overwhelming spike in Kitayuu’s power quickly got Blade worried as he watched the ground beneath him shake. Blade dropped Bennet and held his sword with both hands, getting ready for what was to come.



Kitayuu let out a roar which sent a shockwave in all directions, Blade was surprised at the massive surge in power observed closely at Kitayuu as he became more and more unstable by releasing shockwaves of every element in his arsenal, but despite the massive threat, Blade just stood there and smiled. 

Kitayuu slowly looked up whilst being hunched over his eyes glowing with a white colour and within the blink of an eye, he was now face to face with Blade after he had lunged forward, decimating the ground around him with sheer force. 

Kitayuu used the force and prepared to use an electro punch on Blade. At this point, it was clear that Kitayuu was losing control and had gone berserk. Bennet and Amber watched from the side, amazed at the sheer power Kitayuu had inside of him. 

Blade managed to barely dodge Kitayuu’s punch, but it wasn’t too long after when Kitayuu managed to set his palm flat onto Blade’s chest and push him to the ground with anemo, what followed were massive spikes of ice that Kitayuu used to flash freeze blade. The spikes must’ve reached 200 feet at its peak before Blade tore it apart from the inside. A huge shockwave sent Kitayuu flying back, but to Blade’s surprise, he quickly recovered by using his legs to launch himself off a tree and struck Blade right in the face.

As Kitayuu followed up with his attack and landed behind Blade, a crater was formed from the impact. Kitayuu immediately got back up on his feet, grinding his teeth, eyes glowing with a sense of hate and anger. Blade stood up slowly but not facing him and picked up his sword. He didn’t say a word but just stood there, calm and silent. 

Kitayuu dived in towards him to try and hit another massive blow. Water particles surrounded him as a mini tidal wave was formed, carrying him towards Blade.

But then…

All went silent.

The once massive and powerful aura surrounding Kitayuu quickly diminished.

And Blade was no longer in front of him like he was just a second ago. 

Instead, he was behind Kitayuu with his one arm holding the sword out to his side. 

The next second…

Kitayuu snapped back to reality and felt an excruciating pain as blood started splashing out from one side of his lower abdomen to his shoulder. 

Kitayuu slowly looked down. His body had a massive cut that was caused by one slash of Blade’s sword.



As the blood continued to gush out, Kitayuu started losing his balance and felt drowsy, but he didn’t want to give up. He wobbled, turning himself towards Blade whilst trying to block the blood from leaving his body with both arms. 

Blade also turned around with a now serious and stern look, striking fear in Kitayuu. Blade slowly walked towards him, “I must say, that power of yours sure is something.”

He lifted his sword, preparing to slash Kitayuu with his blade, “But now, it all ends here”

Suddenly, a huge inferno came towards him, and Blade had no choice but to deter it with the wind. With no time to process what was going on, Blade suddenly met his eyes with someone who emerged from the flames with a claymore. Blade held his sword immediately in front of his face to be pushed back slightly by the sheer weight of the claymore and the force behind it. 

Kitayuu then fell to the ground, his vision now blurry, but before he passed out, he saw the person who had come to his rescue standing right in front of Blade in a standoff.

“D-Diluc?”



To be continued…