𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖 || 𝙫𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨!𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙣 𝙭 𝙛!𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧

[𝟑]. sea of clouds

"A— oh, hey! It's you again! Thanks!" The boy rubbed the back of his neck bashfully, embarrassed that the second time you had met, it was under the same circumstance.

"Huh..." You hummed, lifting the boy up to his feet as Venti plucked his lyre delicately, floating with the power of anemo as the unlucky male introduced himself.

"I'm Bennett! Leader of Benny's Adventure Team! You?" Bennett smiled, holding his hand out as your eyes widened briefly at the amount of bandages and scrapes that littered his arms.

"[Y/N]. This is Venti, but he's irrelevant," you returned his smile, a shocked gasp from Venti as he plucked a string loudly.

"Oh, okay! Nice to meet you, [Y/N]! Venti! Your anemo is really powerful, Venti!" Bennett excitedly grinned, earning a sly smirk from the bard to you.

"Aw, thank you, adventurer!" Venti strummed his lyre, happy melodies leaving with each vibration of the strings.

☆

"Bennett, huh? Isn't that the infamous 'super bad luck don't go near him' boy that we heard the ladies talking about?" [Y/N] asked, glancing up at Venti whose arms were wrapped securely around her stomach, pressing her form to his chest as the two of them glided to Stormterror's Lair with his anemo.

"Hmm, you're right! Now that I think about it, I've heard some gossip surrounding the adventurer!"

". . . You knew all along, didn't you?"

"Ehe!"

☆

"It's a storm barrier!" Paimon cried, hovering next to the traveler as a transparent blue forcefield blocked the rest of the path.

"It looks so dangerous..." Paimon retracted her entire body away from the barrier, hiding behind the traveler as Venti stepped forward.

"Leave it to me," the bard smiled, materializing his lyre as [Y/N] deadpanned at his sudden smugness.

"Although, this wooden lyre is all I have... I don't need the lyre to break through this kind of storm barrier— ah wait, what was that?" Venti glanced up, the sound of incoherent gibberish interrupting his little speech as the former-adeptus formed her sword from flames.

"Enemy attack! Prepare yourselves!" Jean yelled, her sword in the palm of her hand as the group got into a battle stance, masked hilichurls rushing towards them as their weapons were recklessly lit on fire.

"The stage will need to be cleared before my performance..." Venti facepalmed, his lyre idle in his free hand.

"Generally speaking, such chores are not the concerns of the performer himself..." The bard smirked smugly, sparing a side-eye to [Y/N] as she traced her thumb over her neck, gesturing that she was going to slit his.

"Ehe...!" Venti blinked innocently, a huff leaving the [e/c]-eyed girl's lips.

"Wait... what's going on? Something's not right. There shouldn't be any hilichurl camps in the vicinity of Stormterror's Lair..." Jean pondered for a brief moment, looking over to the bard.

"Talk less, we have some hilichurls to fight," [Y/N] grimaced, pyro infusing into her sword as she slammed the nearest enemy's skull inwards.

Merely nodding, Jean followed suit, covering the traveler as Diluc set the camp aflame.

☆

"Ah... Hilichurls do not usually venture into areas with high elemental concentrations. It puts a heavy burden on their bodies," Venti acknowledged, a finger on his chin as the traveler was picking up damaged masks from the fallen enemies.