Upon opening the dormitory door to go outside, Bennet and Kitayuu were greeted by a rather surprising but intense scene. In the centre of all the dormitories where students liked to relax or train outside, stood two students, Raiden and Keqing. Bennet and Kitayuu went to the closest person to them. "Hey what's going on?" The student looked back at them and answered. "Well it seems like Raiden is a bit salty about getting ranked second in the assessment. What a shame, it seems like he has a big inferiority complex."

As the crowd all watched eagerly awaiting for the next move, Raiden announced to everyone, "Listen here! Tonight I will prove to you that I am and forever will be the greatest!" He then pointed a finger at Keqing. "That assessment was just a fluke." Raiden went from pointing to clenching his hand into a fist. "We are going to settle things between the both of us. Right here. Right now!" Keqing didn't answer Raiden and just got ready in her battle stance. "Oh trying to be calm and cold huh? Are you implying you are not the slightest bit afraid of the pummelling that you're about to get!" Raiden swiftly with no warning used a wind current to accelerate himself, closing the distance between him and Keqing. A small saw shaped object made completely out of anemo formed in his hand. Raiden threw the wind saw with so much power that the a sonic boom formed indicating a break of the sound barrier. Keqing ducked the saw that just barely missed her. When it made contact with the ground, a huge dust cloud emerged making it virtually impossible to see. Students started coughing and struggled to keep up with the fight. Kitayuu could also feel himself being slightly blown back by the wind as he tried keeping the dust from going into his eyes. Keqing stood in the middle of the cloud. She grabbed one of her twin tailed cat ears. "Now I gotta wash my hair again, Drat." Suddenly the dust started getting blown away from behind her. Raiden was in the air getting ready for a bone crushing kick. "Focus on the fight, or else don't complain when I blow your limbs off!" He then swung his leg. Keqing responded quickly by twisting her waste and catching the kick. She then took her other hand and placed her palm on Raiden's face. Keqing then channeled electro through her arm towards her palm, an electro explosion then occurred at point blank range in Raiden's face.

Raiden recoiled from the attack but quickly regained his balanced after getting blasted back slightly. "Swirling Strike!" Small wind currents suddenly started forming on his wrist travelling in circles with incredible speed. Raiden then used the force of the current to propel his fist into a punch. Keqing seeing this last second tried to dodge. However, with just milliseconds to react she didn't manage to evade Raiden's punch, but she did manage to move enough for it to just barely miss her face. Raiden screamed as the wind around his wrist dispersed which cleared the dust by blowing it away. "DIE!" The attack sent Keqing flying into a wooden railing where everyone stood behind watching the fight. Bennet watched and struggled to form words, "I-It's like m-my Flaming Fist of F-Fate, j-just slightly weaker but i-it barely takes a toll on your stamina!" Raiden continued to go on the offensive towards Keqing launching the same attack he just landed on her one after the other. Keqing was just barely avoiding the punches but was clutching her chest in pain as the previous one that hit doing a lot of damage to her. The more she dodged, the more angry Raiden got and the more angry he got, the faster and more power he put behind his Swirling Strikes. "Enough play! This will end YOU!" He threw a punch aiming straight at Keqing's face with the intention of smashing her skull. Keqing's eyes all of a sudden glowed purple sparkling with lightning. In her perspective she was moving so fast it was as if Raiden was moving close to three hundred times slower than an avarage human. Keqing then using one hand with two fingers pointing tapped Raiden's body 5 times before dodging his punch yet again. The parts where Keqing poked on Raiden glowed a purple-ish colour. When Raiden's punch missed Keqing, he redirected it to the floor since he couldn't simply just slow it down unless he had enough space. When he hit the floor a small tornado was formed. Keqing smiled as she looked back and raised her hand. "Thanks for adding that to the party." She then snapped her fingers and the sparks glowing on Raiden's body created electro explosions. Combined with the tornado the electro and anemo elements combined to create an electro swirl reaction amplifying the damage by 10 fold.

Everyone gasped at the sudden explosion. Kitayuu stood leaning on the edge of the railing. He admired the way Keqing was holding her own against Raiden. Wow! It's not just Keqing's power and physical capabilities that are amazing. Her strategies, analysis, awareness and battle IQ are all there and it's just simply amazing. I would hate to fight her any day of the week. In fact I think that even if Bennet, Barbara, Noelle and I were to go four on one against her, she would still beat us. The fact that she just managed to outplay Raiden with ease proves it. I didn't see what happened but from the looks of it, in those swift movements she placed electro mine like particles that could detonate on command. She also took the opportunity to do that when Raiden started losing his cool and over focused on offense by wanting to finish the fight in one blow. This left an opening for her. I think that she also must've waited on purpose for Raiden to redirect and land his attack on the ground, just so that she could take advantage of the tornado that formed and by doing that the detonating her attack an elemental reaction between electro and anemo formed to cause more damage. I can't help but admire her quick thinking! Marvellous I must say!

Raiden slowly got up leaving everyone surprised that he held out against the attack. His breathing was heavy and his throat was raspy. "Hey... now you've really pissed me off." Once again he threw wind saws that Keqing managed to avoid. While Raiden was midair going around Keqing and trying to create an opening, Keqing managed land a solid kick on his stomach. Raiden however did not fly back from this attack but instead he grabbed on to her leg and swung her to the ground. When he was about to fall on top of her he charged an attack in his palm. "Swirl Slash!" He then swiped the air which caused Keqing's one arm to get a big cut as she tried blocking it. Raiden then charged another one of his attacks and Keqing responded with a similar move with electro to block it. "Tsk you're really getting on my nerves." She said a bit annoyed. The battle raged on with attacks flying everywhere. Barbara got worried and turned towards Noelle saying; "This has gone way too far, I'm getting Diluc before one of them actually gets killed." She then ran off into a hallway.

Kitayuu noticed that Keqing started adapting to Raiden's fighting style and it looked like she was effortlessly dodging attack after attack. Raiden went for yet another punch but instead of dodging this time, Keqing caught his fist leaving Kitayuu shocked. It seemed like Raiden had lost his cool and went to grab her face but before he could do so, Keqing swiped the air and Raiden was blown back by a lightning slash attack similar to his own anemo one. Raiden stumbled back and was full of injuries.

For a few seconds there was silence... It looked like Raiden was about to give up. He looked to the ground, his nose dripping in sweat and his palm with a massive cut that had blood leaking out. Raiden looked at his hand and slowly started menacingly laughing. "Hehe... Ha- HAHAHA!" He took a deep breath and put his fingers in front of his face. Bennet leaned closer to look. "That stance! He can't be!" Kitayuu replied, "there's no doubt about it... he's using that move..." A sinister smile went across Raiden's face. "You know when I joined the academy... I never thought anyone would impress me a slight bit... but you Keqing... REALLY ARE WORTH DEFEATING!" Raiden's power suddenly surged and the wind around started picking up speed. A girl from the side screamed as everyone felt the massive spike in power, "KEQING GET OUT OF THERE!" After charging up Raiden looked at Keqing with his eyes glowing, "I will admit... your raw power and skill has impressed me a lot." The wind around only started getting more chaotic and Keqing had to cover a face a bit. "Thanks to you Keqing... I will finally get to prove my point when I inevitably crush you with this next attack!" The atmosphere around was intense, everyone was being effected by Raiden's surging power but they did not want to miss a single second of what was about to happen next. When Raiden peaked with energy he grinned saying the following phrase:

Keqing getting caught by surprise at the mention of this technique shot towards Raiden at full speed. Letting him pull this move off could cause catastrophic damage, not only to her but the area around or anyone caught in the crossfire. She dashed with lighting speed catching Raiden off guard. "WHAT!?" She then elbowed him in the throat causing a bit of blood to spew out of his mouth. As Raiden went flying back he immediately charged back in with Keqing also charging, both equally as fast and powerful. Then a bright blinding light came from the centre as they clashed. Kitayuu couldn't see a thing and was blown away hitting his back on the door. He grunted in pain as it only got brighter with many sand particles flying into his eyes, it was as if they were all getting flash banged. Just after a few more seconds the wind and light started dying down. There was dust and smoke everywhere and no one was able to see a thing. The surrounding area seemed damaged along with a few wooden railings in front of the room. Kitayuu saw Bennet get up as he lifted a piece of debris off that he was trapped under. He coughed a bit slowly going closer to Kitayuu and putting his hand on his shoulder to try and support himself "I knew those two were powerful." He said as he gasped for air. "But I never expected anything like this." He then let go and walked slowly towards where the blast was, clutching his arm that had been hurt a little but was nothing too serious. The dust slowly cleared leaving everyone greeted with an unexpected scene:

Everyone gasped and a few seconds later Barbara came running with Diluc following shortly behind her. Even he was shocked at the aftermath of the battle. Raiden was struggling on the ground standing on all fours grunting in pain and trying to stand up while Keqing firmly kept her foot on top of him. "I refuse... I REFUSE!" He used all his might trying to get up but Keqing launched an electro pulse through her foot that caused Raiden to collapse and lie flat on his stomach on the ground. Keqing turned slightly seeing Diluc. She immediately lifted her leg and walked towards his direction back to her room. "Apologies sir... I'll accept whatever punishment comes." Diluc stopped her and looked back towards Raiden on the ground gasping for air and with tears rolling down his cheeks dripping to the ground. In a rather serious and angry tone he asked the rest of the class, "Anyone care to explain?" A boy named Xingqiu quickly raised his hand. Kitayuu noticed that the boy was the top achiever for studies in class and also liked to spend his free time reading books in the library rather than training or talking with his friends. Xingqiu spoke loud so everyone could hear. "While everyone was going back into their dormitories, Raiden here still seemed a bit pissed off regarding the results of the practical assessment. When Keqing was walking to her room and minding her own business, Raiden decided to attack her from behind which she barely blocked. Both of them were pushed back and as a result of the attack there was a loud noise that drew everyone around out of their rooms. The two started clashing and yes this is the result of it." He then turned around in a circle showing the destruction in the area. Diluc looked back at Keqing then to Raiden and with a disappointed sigh he said, "Both of you spend the night in the nursing room and check for injuries. We will talk in my office tomorrow first thing in the morning. As for the rest of you get in your rooms now and get prepare for lights out. I'll give you all 15 minutes." Everyone silently went back into their rooms, with not another word coming out of their mouth.

When Bennet walked he kicked a table leg frustrated. "What a bummer! Lights out is now 2 hours early because Raiden's ego couldn't handle coming second! Ugh I had plans to relax because we weren't able to do so since the assessment put so much pressure on us!" Kitayuu calmed him down and told him to not be so loud or else the people next to them will complain. "Man it really is, but hey at least we have the rest of the week off. It's just that we might have to dedicate some of our time into studying for the theory assessment." Bennet sighed, "Yeah it's more of a study break rather than one where we can relax, but I have an idea." Kitayuu looked up at him as he sat on the couch. "That being?" Bennet lit up with excitement. "How about we go to Monstadt for 2 or 3 days! It's my home town. We can explore and relax for a bit there. I'm pretty sure we might bump into Barbara and Noelle as well since they also come from the region. Kitayuu gave it a little thought, going with Bennet did mean he also had to dedicate more time studying when he came back. He then turned back to Bennet with a big smile. "Alright, I'll come with you, I've never been to Monstadt before. I come from a rural area in the Sumeru region." Bennet's face lit up, "All right! Trust me you will enjoy it, Monstadt was ruled by the Anemo Archon until he suddenly disappeared leaving his people free to do whatever. That's why it's called the city of freedom! It has a castle like infrastructure, pretty dope if you ask me."

Kitayuu got up from the couch and climbed on his bed. "Well then, first thing tomorrow? I heard it's pretty close to the academy." Bennet replied excitedly, "Yeah! pack your bags in the morning, eat and we will set off on our adventure."