Whale and Dragonfly // OC x Childe Genshin Impact fanfiction

Chapter 11: The Final Practice

Next 2 months were a total hell for young girl. 11th Harbinger would drag her out for extreme training multiple times a day. Bad mood, sore muscles, headache, 'that time of the month' – it didn't matter to him at all. "If you want to become the 12th, then give it your all." was a qoute often heard from Childe's lips

Despite having an apprentice to train, Tartaglia had his own Harbinger duties he had to attend. Times like these felt like heaven for Charlotte because it meant she'd get 2 hours or even more to rest and relax at least a little bit.

Yet, here she stood, right in front of her master, on the stone platform in the middle of forest, ready to put her new skills to the test.

"Now then, 2 months have passed. Tomorrow is the grand day, so show me all you've got!" said the orange-haired Harbinger, summoning his shiny yet rusted black bow with golden and crimson details.

Charlotte got out her own sword, deciding to start from the basics. Childe has taught her how to use many weapons, but she still seemed to be best at wielding sword and bow. Bow was still difficult as she kept missing her target or even fire the arrow into the wrong direction.

Tartaglia, without further ado, squatted a bit, aiming and firing pure hydro arrows into the brunette in front of him. Charlotte not only has worked on her battle skills, but also reflexes these 2 months: quick reaction let her get dodge just in time.

Using her sword to slice last arrow in half, she charged forward, delivering a pretty powerful, pyro-infused hit to her opponent. Harbinger easily blocked it as his bow immediately materialised into a pure-hydro polearm. A small pillar of smoke started rising from the spot where they weapons collided, pyro and hydro vaporising together.

"Well done, girlie!" Tartaglia laughed before quickly stepping aside and breaking the contact of weapons, making the girl lose balance a bit.

"Jerk..." Charlotte hissed at him and only received another laugh for the answer.

It went like this for a few more minutes. Ginger guy kept firing arrows, testing Charlotte's dodging skills. Little did she know, it was only the first and the easiest part of her dodging test her master has prepared for her.

Childe stopped for a moment, his back facing the brunette girl as he raised his arm, making a water circle form on the ground. All of sudden, the circle started rising, forming a giant bubble around him.

After a few seconds, the bubble exploded, revealing now dressed in black Childe, his Fatui mask covering most of his face. This surprised Charlotte, but she understood what was happening – Tartaglia activated his Delusion.

His once pure-hydro polearm was purple, indicating that it was now made from electro. It only made girl smile a bit, but also get worried. If pyro meets electro – huge explosion occurs. This elemental reaction will help her push her opponent away. Sadly, there was no guarantee that she won't be the one who'll fly off and hurt herself from explosion...

There wasn't too much time to overthink as Childe charged himself at her, delivering a powerful hit. Luckily, Charlotte managed to block the attack right in time. Otherwise, the electro polearm would have sliced her in half.

Tartaglia retreated, giving her time to prepare for the next attack or letting her be the one to attack first. Girl couldn't really tell which one was the case.

Deciding to try something new, she made her sword disappear, summoning her bow. Bow was black with red details, similar to her master's, and just like her sword - warm to the touch.

Seeing that she has switched to ranged weapon, Childe didn't wait longer to charge right at her in moments, basically teleporting right in front of her, ready to deliver a powerful slash. Before 2 electro twin blades could take away her life, Charlotte infused her arrow with pyro and shot it at the ground, resulting a giant explosion.

Both, the Harbinger and his apprentice were pushed away from each other by a powerful wave. Luckily, both of them managed to land safely and didn't break their bones. Yet, the explosion made girl's muscles ting quite a bit.

Standing up and panting from the battle being too intense, girl carefully eyed her opponent. Her eyes widened as the ginger started rising into the air, electro and hydro particles circling around him. Before she knew it, a 3 meter, maybe even taller, monster stood in front of her, giant polearm thrown over his shoulders. Charlotte couldn't even describe what she was seeing in front of herself now.

"Your skills definitely are impressive. Let's see if you can beat me once I'm all out... Foul legacy, the devouring deep!" Childe's voice was super low and hoarse.

While girl was still trying to convince herself what she was seeing was real, the terrifying giant in front of her thrust his polearm into the ground, releasing hydro waves. Hydro was followed by electro, making the girl immediately jump up and land on one of stone platform pillars. Hydro and Electro mixing together at their feet didn't mean anything good – just touch it and you'll lose all control of your muscles and get electrocuted in the end.

She looked back at her scary looking opponent who was now standing on the other platform pillar across her. After a moment, he swung his polearm twice, releasing 2 hydro slashes. Charlotte successfully dodged them by jumping on other platform, nearly falling into the electro water underneath them. Only now has she thought: how hydro doesn't freeze in such cold weather of Snezhnaya?

Her sword won't work out in any way here, so it was time to switch to ranged weapons once again. Each of her arrow would infuse with pyro before release, flying towards her target, who skillfully blocked them with his gigantic polearm.

Situation seemed to be quite monotonic as all it consisted was Childe firing arrows at her and Charlotte dodging by jumping from one pillar to another. In the end, girl came up with a plan which might result a complete chaos, but will finish the long-lasting battle.

Successfully dodging another series of his arrows, she stopped to catch her breath, looking down at the water underneath them. Taking a deep breath, she switched back to her sword, gathering as much pyro energy into it as she could.

Feeling a bit dizzy, she gripped her sword's handle tighter, pointing blade's tip at the ground. Making a pretty high jump in the air, battle cry escaped her lips as she landed and thrust her sword deep into the stone platform...

A huge explosion lingered through entire forest, leaving the nearby trees branch-less. Overload reaction was successful. Right after, a giant cloud of smoke rose, covering the whole arena. Vaporise was just as great.

Charlotte opened her eyes after a minute, looking around. Smoke was slowly settling down, but it was still almost impossible to see what's ahead of you. Finally, a pretty small, kneeling figure on the other opposite side of the stone platform could be seen.

"AJAX?!" leaving her sword in cold as ice stone, girl sprinted straight to her friend who was now back to normal. He was breathing quite heavily, grunting as if he was in pain.

"Ajax?! Ajax are you okay?! I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" girl was starting to panic but immediately shut herself up, her eyes wide as she heard a laugh coming from the ginger head.

"That... Was fucking impressive... hahaha..." boy nearly collapsed, leaning to her body. Charlotte immediately hugged him, trying to know what was wrong.

"Stop talking nonsense and answer me! Are you okay? What happened?!" it only earned her another painful grunt before the boy finally leaned back, standing up.

Sadly, his legs weren't yet as strong to support his body weight, making him wobble and nearly fall over. Luckily Charlotte has already stood up too, throwing his arm around her shoulders to support him and keep balance better.

"That's it, we're going to the hospital. Now."

"Nooo... I'll be fine..." hurt 11th Harbinger grunted again as the girl started dragging him away. "Foul Legacy... The form you saw me use in the end of our battle... Leaves a great strain on my body... I'll need a bit of time to recover..."

"If it hurts you, why the hell are you using it?!" Charlotte snapped at him, dragging him through the forest.

"So mean..." pouted the barely able to walkginger.