EN | An encounter she will never forget | ᴄʜɪʟᴜᴍɪ

3 - On the way to Liyue

The next day was the day of the departure of the two fellow travelers. Lumine woke up earlier than usual without any apparent reason. Was it the fact that the ground was hard, or perhaps the excitement of discovering a new country, new landscapes, new encounters?

New clues.

Whatever the reason was, Lumine decided to get to her feet and to get ready instead of vainly waiting for the sleep to come back. After she had been busy for a few minutes packing her bag and getting nature back to normal, Lumine heard the distinctive pop of Paimon who had just appeared with a yawn. Finishing quickly to pack up everything, the Traveler invited a half-awake Paimon to follow her in the direction of Liyue Harbor-direction they had found thanks to the map they had opened this time.

Fortunately for them, the road was peaceful, with no enemies. At least, that was the case at the beginning. But it became more complicated once they passed the Dawn winery. A Hilichurl camp had been built in the middle of the road, and to get through, there weren't many choices: it had to be destroyed. Lumine and Paimon immediately exchanged complicit glances, without any words needed to understand what they were meaning. Lumine heard straight away the pop announcing Paimon's demise as she herself conjured a sword from her parallel storage.

It was a one-handed sword, light and maneuverable, its black and glowing-blue hilt curved in the shape of a cross, yet very resistant and newly sharpened. Without waiting, Lumine charged in the direction of the enemies. As she approached the camp, she saw a Mitachurl in addition to the three Hilichurls she had seen, which didn't help her, since a Mitachurl was three times stronger and larger than a standard Hilichurl, and armed with a gigantic axe on top of that.

But no matter this threat that just added to the group, one more enemy wouldn't be enough to stop her. In order to clear the way as rapidly as possible, she decided to focus on the smaller enemies first, the easiest to take out. She then ran to the group of three enemies without a moment's hesitation. Raising her sword, she began to attack one of these enemies, while dodging an attack from behind her by another with a graceful sidestep. After dodging, she struck a blow at the second one she had approached. Seeing the third opponent running towards her, she widened her blow to hit him at the same time. The three enemies were now on the ground, all she had to do was to finish all three of them off with a well-placed sword strike.

After removing the blood from her blade with a movement repeated countless times, she turned to her last opponent who began to charge.

She dodged with a sideways step done with perfect timing, and charged at him once the enemy had been stopped. However, the Mitachurl turned around with a speed she didn't expect, throwing a blow from his gigantic axe that was impossible to avoid for someone currently in the air.

Lumine, however, was not deterred. She concentrated and called upon her power, which caused a gentle breeze to blow around her. Before the sharp blade hit her, she had thrown a gust of condensed wind against the ground to lift her into the air and out of the enemy's reach. Once back on her feet, Lumine went behind his back and hit him in the legs to throw him off balance. Staggering, the enemy quickly fell to the ground, allowing Lumine to finish him off.

Once the camp was neutralized and cleared, Lumine heard Paimon reappear.

"They were tougher than Paimon thought! Paimon thought he was going to get you when he turned around! Good thing you have that power!" Paimon exclaimed.

That power.

That's how people described her ability to control the wind. Not that 'powers' were rare per se. What was rare was not being called a Vision. But Lumine couldn't blame them, she simply didn't have one.

A Vision was a stone given to chosen people by the Archons, according to Mondstadt folklore, to protect the continent of Teyvat from any enemy. This stone was recognizable by the color of the element to which it was affiliated. There were seven elements: Geo, Pyro, Hydro, Anemo, Cryo, Electro and Dendro. Thus, anyone who was lucky enough to have a Vision could control the associated element. For example, Kaeya could control ice, Lisa could control lightning, Amber and Diluc could control fire, and Jean could control the wind.

She herself could control the wind, but she had nothing in her possession that could be a Vision, which made her special to other people. Because of this, her ability to control the wind was called a 'power'. Deciding not to dwell any longer on the pixie's remark, Lumine spoke with enthusiasm.

"Well, let's get back on the road, or we won't even be out of Mondstadt by nightfall!" she said cheerfully.

❃ ❃ ❃

After walking ways, the night began to fall without warning.

"Say, maybe we should set up camp...? If Paimon doesn't eat, she'll pass out!"

"Yes, Paimon, you're right. Anyway, we won't be able to go very far with the darkness that is about to set in," Lumine replied while chuckling. Looking around for a suitable place to set up a temporary camp, she spotted a lone tree on top of a small ledge.

Perfect.

Lumine hurried to the spot before stopping short. Just below the tree was an old Hilichurl camp. However, something seemed really strange: they had all been decimated and were lying on the ground, lifeless.

And soaked!

"This looks like the same thing Katheryne told us about earlier!" exclaimed Paimon. "They are really soaked! Paimon wonders if it's a Hydro ability that did this..."

It was in fact probable that this was a feat of a Vision holder, but in any case, Lumine didn't have time to think about it right now because the sky was getting darker with each passing second. It was getting harder to see anything, so the young woman started to prepare a fire not far from the old Hilichurl's camp.

Once this was done and the meat skewers were cooked over the fire, Lumine allowed herself to reflect on what had happened in this camp. The arrangement of the bodies seemed to show a lack of struggle, and the enemies' weapons were all gathered in one place as if they had never been seized by their owners.

But then, were they neutralized before they even had time to pick up their weapons?

Moreover, not a single arrow was present, so the assailant had neutralized them in hand-to-hand combat.

Impossible. Who would be capable of such a feat?

While she was lost in her thoughts, Lumine heard Paimon calling behind her, telling her with an excited voice that the meat was cooked. Lumine decided to put aside this appalling scene and enjoy her meal before the ogre disguised as a fairy ate her share.

[1181 words]