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| SHINYUN X XIAO |
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oc - canon
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Shinyun treaded along the pathways of the rural of Liyue. With her catalyst summoned next to her and her guard up, she carefully watched the “trees” of Huaguang Stone Forest, using her bird form to glide along the edges of the stone. Her gaze caught sight of a figure in the distance, their teal hair blowing softly in the cool wind. Shinyun subtly accelerated her speed, her body spinning around as she transformed back into her human form.
“Alatus,”
She said, her voice was monotone. The adeptus idly stood there, with his weapon in his hand and with his sight set on the view below him.
“Snow Catcher. I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”
He responded, his lips moving only by a little. Shinyun nodded, even though he clearly couldn’t see.
“Indeed,”
“What’re you doing?” Xiao asked, turning around finally to strike up a proper conversation.
“One was simply patrolling around the scenery.” Shinyun responded, moving her eyes to look at Xiao.
A silence came sauntering in, in which the only sound heard was the rustling of the trees below.
“It’s been long since we’ve met,”
Xiao started, crossing his arms while his gaze slid down to the green grass beneath their shoes. Shinyun nodded.
“It has been, yes.”
The adeptus awkwardly stood there, for a second, Shinyun thought of turning back into her bird form and gliding away. The thought was shattered by Xiao’s voice again.
“The last time we sparred, I wonder..”
“About a century ago,”
Xiao nodded, he remembered now. On the tips of the same Mt. Aocoung, they fought. He could recall the bitter taste of blood running down his tongue, and his torn gloves from handling his polearm.
Shinyun could feel it too. Her arms and hands hurt from the cryo energy being emitted from her catalyst. The ribbon of her hair coming loose as it unveiled another dilemma.
The duel, was a tie. And it went unfinished until this moment.
Xiao wielded his polearm properly, his amber eyes sharply gripping Shinyun’s blue ones.
“Then, we shall begin.”
-
Shinyun in an instant summoned her catalyst and floated back as Xiao came plunging forward. She raised her left hand, sucking in cryo energy and sending waves of it to Xiao. He leaped up, dodging the bittersweet coldness coming from her catalyst. Shinyun bit her lip, her position was open and easy to attack, Xiao noticed it too when he slammed him polearm into Shinyun’s side. He wasn’t so surprised to be just hitting air, seeing that she had moved aside. She got regained her composure and flew back, sending cold slices of cryo towards Xiao. Xiao fell back down into the ground, thrusting his polearm forward in hopes that it might impale just a little of Shinyun. Snow Catcher furrowed her eyebrows, as good as her experience was in the Archon War, her skills were nearly almost no match to that of Xiao’s. She flew aside, barely dodging the polearm which now he retrieved. She groaned internally, of course he wouldn’t have threw his polearm up if he knew that he would lose it. Her hands directed more cryo infused attacks, sweat rolling down her body nervously. Xiao kept his keen eye on her, inducing more and more attacks that soon enough would place her in temporary unrest. Shinyun cleared her throat, transforming into her bird form and gliding towards Xiao at full speed. Her wings infused with cryo, the energy swirling aggressively around her wings. Xiao bit his lip, thrusting backwards to avoid the airy ice.
-
Her stamina was surely a lot, but even amongst adeptus, will their seemingly everlasting reign end. She took a gasp of air, feeling the gravity push her down. Her skills were good, but not good enough.
As expected, Alatus came to help, wrapping his arms around her body and bringing her back to the ground.
“Good job, Alatus.”
Shinyun said, earning a tiny smile from her lips.