One flower, One sword

The Begining

A few weeks passed since Aether and the others escaped the Chasm's Bed. Itto and Shinobu had returned to Inazuma a week ago, Yanfei after dealing with her client got back to her usual schedule. Yelan continued to work in the shadows, as for Xiao, he seemed to be lost in his thoughts lately, so the traveller didn't bother him.

It was evening, the traveller and Paimon decided to take a stroll in Guili Plains when they came across a monster. It seemed similar to the lectors from the abyss, but diffirent. Abyss Lectors were a pain to deal with, but weren't too hard. Since this new monster looked like a lector, although dressed in black, Aether thought he could get the job done wihout too many casualties.

When he drew his sword preparing to attack, Paimon asked: "What is this lector doing in the middle of the Guili Plains? It's creeping Paimon out. Could he be here to do some bad things? We must stop him Aether!"

Aether also had though that it's weird for a lector to be in the middle of Liyue. If there was any 'small' business, they would send an abyss mage - if a lector was here then it must be serious. Lectors are a big threat that have to be eliminated upon sight. Aether didn't want to act rashly and attack first, but he couldn't just stand there.

"It is really suspicious for a Lector to be here, we must proceed with caution"

But once Aether finally responded in a quiet voice, the creature seemed to notice him. It slowly turned towards him, for a few second the creature seemed to hold no malice, but as soon as Aether wanted to relax, it attacked.

"Aether!"

Paimon didn't expect the creature to act so unpredictably and couldn't help but be shaken to the bone. Paimon was very worried for the traveller, but not like Aether would let the creature just kill him. Once it attacked, despite Aether having let his guard down a little, he quickly blocked the lector's attack with his sword.

What was unusal was that the Lector fought with a sword - it didn't use catalyst like the others did. It made Aether think - maybe this so-thought-lector isnt a lector and has another name? After all it was similar to a lector but wasn't like one. It didn't float and the circle thing behind the heads of other lectors - it didn't have one.

While defending from the monster Aether realised that the creature was a lot more impulsive and unpredictable than the lectors he had met on his journey. The traveller raised his guard even more than he had. After studying his oppoment's moves bit more, Aether began attacking, calculated hits came at the lector-like monster.

One could tell the creature didn't expect to come across such an opponent, it was already taken aback by how well the human defened himself. And now that it attacked, the lector-like monster had no choice but to retreat at least 10 steps back.

Paimon was watching from the sidelines how the traveller managed to gain the upper hand cheered in exciment: "You can do this traveller!"

Hearing someone cheering for the other side, the monster felt a spark of anger and sadness ignite within it. It didn't plan on losing, so it fought back. The sound of blades crossing could be clearly heard. As this fight dragged on, Aether seemed to be at a disadvantage. Paimon on the sidelines seemed to sense it wasn't going well for her companion and was frightened.

As the traveller continuously fought, he realised he wasn't going to win this. He looked at Paimon's frightened face. He had never seen her so scared. While he was looking at Paimon, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. When his eyes met his chest, he saw a sword pierced near his heart. It was the same blade that the lector-like monster fought with. The whole weapon was black with miniature gold details.

Not fully giving in to the pain, Aether made quick work of his sword which he tightly held in his hand and stabbed the monster with all his strengh. The monster felt immense pain and screamed in agony. Aether didn't think the creature's voice would sound so terrible - he felt like going deaf.