Falling for You

Chapter 30 - Growth, she said

 Xiao's POV

 "Where is he?"

 She said he's east, but I can't seem to find him. Maybe I should try-

 "Whoa!"

 I spread my elemental energy to try and sense Childe, but the distance it was able to spread completely baffled me. 

 "It definitely wasn't this big last time..."

 There is no way I wouldn't have known if my elemental energy was able to spread this far. It almost felt like the range doubled.

 "Not like it's bad, but it's a little overwhelming, to say the least."

 Let's try this again.

 I tried again, this time controlling the amount I spread out so I wouldn't get overwhelmed by all that information.

 "It's fine like this, but I should practice some more later. Now, where is Childe?"

 East, east, but where in the east?

 "Found him. What the hell is he doing over there-?"

 Crazy bastard! Does he want to die?!

 Fine, I admit that he's quite strong for a human, but what the hell is he thinking fighting five ruin guards in the state he's in right now?! Strong or not, right now he's just a kid who can barely walk and a human child at that.

 From where I am now, I would need at least ten minutes to get there. There's no way he'll hold out that long. I'm starting to regret not going around this place the first time I was here, then I could have just teleported over-

 "Huh?"

 This feeling... Impossible, I've never been to that place-

 Then I remembered a conversation I had with Morax not long after I met him.

 'Your teleportation ability? What about it?'

 'I was just curious what you think the limit would be.'

 'Well, since you can teleport anywhere you've been before or anywhere you can see, wouldn't the limit be your imagination?'

 'Imagination?'

 'Let me ask you this: what do you do when you teleport?'

 'Hmm... I just picture the place I want to go to.'

 'In other words, you imagine the place where you want to be. If we look at it like that, then technically it would be possible for you to teleport to places you haven't been to if you can get a clear enough picture.' 

 'If I've never been there before, how could I get a clear enough picture?'

 'That is exactly what puts a limit on your powers. If you were a God, you would be able to sense very far with your elemental energy, but because simply do not have the quantity of energy required to do that, you would have to find some other way.'

 'And what would that be?'

 'That, is something even I don't know. I suppose it's something you'll have to figure out on your own, Xiao.'

 'Ugh.'

 'What is it?'

 'That name..., I'm not used to it still.'

 'Maybe one day you'll be happy when someone calls you by it.'

 'I would be happier if they just left me alone.'

 'We'll see in the future if that remains so. Let us go now, the others are waiting.'

 Right now, I might have enough...

 "It's worth a try."

 Sense it and imagine it.

 I concentrated, trying to picture what I sensed a while ago.

 Floating island, a small lake, two trees, six broken ruin guards, five working ones, and Childe.

 "Here goes nothing."

 I felt the space shift around me and the next moment I was nearly punched in the face by a ruin guard.

 "Fuck! What the hell are you doing here?" Childe shouted as he dodged another ruin guard.

 "I'm here to save your ass you stupid fatui."

 "Who are you calling stupid? At least I don't jump into a fight without knowing the situation."

 "I knew what I was getting into."

 "Said the one who was almost punched in the face." He mocked.

 "The keyword being 'almost'. What are you doing getting into a fight you clearly can't win anyway? This is a little too stupid, even for you." He is reckless, but this is a little too much.

 "I forgot that my body is too weak to handle my delusion in this state, five ruin guards would be nothing otherwise."

 "Morax would scold you if you did that anyway."

 "Hah?! What right do you have to say that? That reminds me, I haven't seen you pull out your mask as of late, could it be that the great yaksha is afraid to be scolded by his lover?" The tone he was using made me want to ignore the ruin guards and punch him in the face instead.

 "...Venti is not my lover."

 "But you don't deny being afraid of getting scolded"

 "..." Why the hell was he so sharp in moments like this?

 Sadly enough, he's not wrong though. The last time I used Bane of All Evil in front of Venti, he got extremely angry and he scolded me till I promised him I wouldn't use it unless it was absolutely necessary.

 "Even if I used it, I wouldn't be able to do much with my body like this."

 "Sure, sure, oh great adeptus." He clearly didn't believe me.

 "Do you think I just swing my spear and the enemies get cut in two?" I asked mockingly as I  imbued my spear with anemo energy at the ruin guard.

 The spear was heavy in my hand. With my body like this, it was already a wonder I could lift it even if it shrunk. I really hated it, being this weak.

 "Damn it!"

 I swung my spear at the ruin guard, hoping for at least some effect from the imbued energy. What happened next, however, left both of us baffled.

 The ruin guard who hadn't even flinched from our normal attacks was split cleanly in two by just one swing, along with the other four.

 "What the hell...?"

 "You really weren't joking about cutting your enemies in two, huh?"

 "This never... It shouldn't be like this..."

 Even normally it would take at least 5 hits to kill a ruin guard, but in the state I'm in right now, it should be impossible to kill it in five hits, let alone kill five of them with one.

 I did notice that I had a lot more elemental energy than before and that I was much stronger, even as a child. But why is this happening?

 Maybe I should ask madam Ping... Wait, madame Ping!

 Oh before I forget it, you might want to give him some of your anemo energy every day. It would be good for his growth.

 Good for my growth she said. Well, I did spend most of the past week in Venti's inner world which might as well be made out of anemo energy if you look at the pure quantity in there, and that's if you ignore the times he gave me his energy. But still...

 Isn't this a little too much?!