Magician School for the Elementally Inclined

22

A masked image hovered over a lake. It stared at Childe and held an Electro spear in hand. Its constellation cape flowed behind it. Come. 

"Who are you?" Childe squinted. He blinked and the image came face to face with him. He was much bigger than Childe initially thought. He staggered, nearly falling backward. The masked image pointed and Childe could almost make out his eyes. 

Electro radiated off of him as the water from the lake rose to form narwhals that swam in circles around the Electro vines. You.

Childe took off the mask hanging on the side of his head and stared at it. He looked it over and brought it to his face. The Electro energy that it had been collecting appeared to explode and he winced, dropping the mask but it didn't fall. It clung to his face instead, wrapping itself around his head with electric vines. He yelled, trying to take it off but it just clung to him harder. Didn't you want to be stronger?

"Not like this! Not like this!" Childe scratched at his face until he bled, unable to remove it. He ended up walking on the lake, without realizing he was doing so, but didn't fall into the water. 

...

Scaramouche stormed the halls and kicked the door open to the Headmaster's office. "Reveal yourself you godforsaken bastard!" he snapped. "It's happening again. You are letting it happen again!" he snarled and kicked the heavy desk so hard it smashed against the wall. "Teleport me there right now! I am not going to allow someone else to sacrifice themselves to the Abyss just so you can fail another attempt at opening the gates to Celestia! Dainsleif!" His eyes glowed and he grabbed a bookshelf, knocking it over. "Teleport me!" 

"And what will you do if I refuse?" Dainsleif's voice echoed in the Headmaster's office. 

"I swear upon Signora's mask," Scaramouche curled his hand into a fist and dug his nails into his skin so much that his palm bled. "Teleport me this instant or I will claw the good half of your face into oblivion."

"You think you can make such requests of me?" Dainsleif chuckled. "Threatening me is useless, Scaramouche. You should know nothing you can do will harm me." 

Scaramouche gritted his teeth. He felt someone grab his hand and drag him out. His attention was too focused on Dainsleif to notice. It wasn't until he exited the office completely that he turned his head to look at who was holding his hand. "Kazuha?" 

"We don't have much time." Kazuha opened the window using Anemo and picked Scaramouche up. He used a burst of wind to leap into the air and opened gliders. The Headmaster's office was at the very top of the academy. With this height, they should get to their destination in no time. Kazuha used the wind to propel himself forward. 

"Where did you get these from?" Scaramouche looked over his shoulder at the gliders and clung to Kazuha. 

"Albedo was working on them as a side project." 

"Working? So they're not done?" Scaramouche clung to Kazuha tighter. "You're carrying me with a prototype?!" 

"Calm down, I will ensure we have a safe landing." 

"How am I supposed to trust that?" Scaramouche snapped. 

"Hm, you don't trust me?" Kazuha stared. 

"I barely even know you!" 

"Would you prefer if I dropped you now?" 

"NO!"

Kazuha chuckled. "Relax, I'm not going to."  

...

"What's going on?" Bennett chased after Zhongli and Razor. 

"Trouble," Razor explained. 

"Do you need help?" 

"How talented are you in healing?" Zhongli asked. 

"It's about the only thing I'm good at," Bennett laughed awkwardly. "I'm rather unlucky so I get injured a lot but have no one around to heal me except myself." 

"Bennett..." Razor glanced at him, a bit disheartened. "I protect Bennett. No hurt self." 

"I don't do it on purpose!" 

"I beat up Bennett's bad luck," Razor huffed. 

"Pick up the pace, please," Zhongli didn't want to interrupt them but they did have pressing matters to attend to.