Teyvat's Mailing Dove (Genshin OC Storyline)

10. The masked man (4)

 Her heart rate increasing, she slowly approached the camp. Seems like they haven't noticed her yet. Is it really safe? Should she back down? No. She wanted to prove herself. The moment the hilichurls growled, her eyes gleamed. She rushed forward, releasing two tornadoes swirling on each side to release the tension on the field. While the hilichurls were dragged away, she formed a distraction for the metachurls while she dealt with the smaller enemies first. However, it seems like one averted that distraction and launched his axe at her. She managed to stop it just in time to soften the damage, but it still knocked her to the ground. Her reflexes allowed her to roll over to avoid the next hit. Priorities first, she sent two wind slashes forward to destabilize the enemy and laid the final blows to the confused hilichurls. They are indeed way stronger than the ones she used to fight. It took some time to land the final blows, but they were all now lifelessly lying on the ground. To her surprise, the next hit is the one she didn't see coming. Flashes and flames rushed towards her and the impact made her drop the spear. She attempted to create more tornadoes to divert the metachurl's attention but it was faster. It aimed straight at her feet which made her lose balance and fall right next to an explosion barrel. Any wrong move and it's over for both of them. The metachurl raised his axe above her. She chuckled, which angered the beast even more. She moved a few inches to the side, to which case, made the metachurl hit the barrel instead. Her wings created a shield that partly protected her from the explosion. Seems like the enemy passed out. Perfect opportunity. She slowly approached it, raised her spear, and as she was about to hit, a shadow hovered over her. She quickly turned around to see another metachurl, falling to the ground next to the first one. The moment it fell down, Xiao was now standing in its place. Emotionless as ever. She must've missed that last enemy. If Xiao hadn't intervened...It might've turned out pretty ugly.

"Was the performance...anyhow...okay?"

"Not in the slightest"

He can't get any harsher can he?

She sat down on the grass in front of the corpse, trying to catch her breath as Xiao slowly walked around her.

"First of all. You failed my test"

"What?!"

"You really went doing everything I said without a proper self-jugement did you?"

"But you said-" She tried to protest but got interrupted again.

"In real life. Naivety, obedience, intimidation. These are all the feelings that will bring you trouble. Because of your complete trust in me, you ended up in danger. Although you knew that something didn't feel right."

"I just thought you wanted to test my limits..." She pouted in disappointment.

"You went straight ahead because I wanted to test your limits? Or because you wanted to see for yourself?"

His words made her fall silent. The image of Childe and his trainings suddenly reappeared in her head.

"I suppose... A bit of both"

"Wrong"

"Huh??"

"First. The test in question was to test your capacity to think for yourself. You went into the fight knowing that I'm watching from afar, that I would be able to stop the fight if it got out of hand. Now. Pretend I'm someone else. You should never let your guard down. In this world, anyone can betray you, put on a mask and present convincing motives."

"..."

Just like Dottore huh..

"Second. Imagine if something nearby came up and I had to shift my eye to another direction"