4 Unexpected Encounter

Before this chapter begins, I just wanted to give a warning that I may at some point use chants for things like Noble Phantasms. Yes, I know. He'll be able to use Noble Phantasms. If you find chants and such cringy, then I am absolutely sorry. I just want to request that you just ignore them if you continue reading if you cringe too hard. Just remember, I warned you in advance.

Don't know if he will use one in this chapter, but just wanted to give the warning.

Enjoy!

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"Talking"

'Thinking'

[System]

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"Is this the place, Amber?"

"Yep, welcome to the Temple of the Falcon!"

The group had arrived at what appeared to be a massive stone gate of sorts, there was also a stone staircase that led up to it as Valorant could also see that the gate itself was emitting a faint yet dense turquoise light from the side. The group ran up the stairs and began slowing down as they looked up and marvelled at the gate.

"It's unfortunate. These temples had been left to waste over the past few years. The people of Mondstadt pretty much never come here anymore." Amber sighed sadly as she looked at the brilliant old yet beautiful gate. "There are most likely a number of Hilichurls that may be living inside of the temple now, so we'll have to be careful."

"I see, with the abandonment of the temple, they just took residence."

"Yeah... even Stormterror has abandoned its own temple."

"Wait... did you say 'its own temple'?" Lumine blinked in surprise as she had asked this to the brown-haired girl. Valorant and Paimon both appeared to be surprised as well as they all looked at Amber for answers. Said girl looked at them for a second before giving a small sigh as she nodded her head before beginning the explanation.

"Indeed, and while I find it hard to accept... Stormterror was once one of The Four Winds." Amber sighed as she stated this. The other three appeared quite surprised as they stared at her with widened eyes at the fact, Paimon having had her jaw dropped. Valorant quickly snapped out of his surprise when he felt something strange.

"Do you guys feel that? Some kind of disturbance..."

"Yeah, it feels as if the wind here has changed... something's definitely off." Amber spoke seriously as they looked around, but saw nothing. She gave a frown before looking at the group. "Let's get going quickly so we can take a look around. We have to be careful though, the dragon's power seems to be disturbing this whole area."

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The group of four were currently rushing through the temple as a number of Hilichurls were all about the place. They had been running around for about twenty minutes now and were quickly making it through. The place itself was thankfully pretty much just outside of the city so that was a plus. The enemies here weren't that strong either, so it was pretty smooth going.

Valorant didn't really find any need for him to transform at all for the moment, he had just summoned forth Jeanne's flagpole since she was currently his soul as he was using that as the weapon. Thankfully, the knowledge and experience with using it as a weapon had transferred over to his normal mind when he wasn't using the class cards.

If it didn't, he would probably end up flailing it around stupidly. He had no experience fighting with such weapons, especially a damn flagpole.

As they went through the temple, he had been able to witness the others utilising this elemental energy. Lumine appeared to have power over the wind as she was able to create wind spirals as well blades, and at one point she even created a miniature tornado. Amber had control over fire as her arrows were embued in the flames and more.

He had already witnessed Amber using the flames, so he wasn't as surprised when he saw her channeling the fire.

Valorant quickly swung the flagpole around his body to knock back all of the Hilichurls that were surrounding him, though none died from being hit. This was understandable as he wasn't being given a power boost by the class card as he had done before. Though, he killed them with ease when he thrust the spiked top of the flagpole through each of the trolls, swiftly ending them.

"Lumine, behind you!"

"I got it...!"

"Guys, we need to move! The air current's here!" Amber had shouted at them as both Lumine and Valorant had finished off the Hilichurls as Paimon was already flying over to Amber. The two then quickly caught up to those two as they could see the rush of wind ahead. "Activate your gliders, we can ride the current up to the platform!"

"Got it!"

"R-Right!"

The three of them quickly activated their gliders as the wings sprouted forth, the strong air current soon began shooting them upwards as Paimon was also being drifted upwards by the wind. It didn't take long before they were high enough that they began gliding over to the platform on the other side of the chasm.

Upon landing, they didn't stop as they quickly advanced forwards and ran up the stairs. When they did, they were greeted by a rather blank stone room with what appeared to be a glowing strange large rock at the center. The rock having strange turquoise energy that was circling around it constantly as it emitted a glow.

"Alright... we're here!" Amber had panted as she appeared exhausted. It was understandable as they had been running and fighting the entire time they were in here. They didn't take any rest stops. Lumine appeared just as exhausted while Valorant was only slightly panting, Paimon was completely fine. She doesn't exactly fight anything and flies the whole time...

"Wh-What... do... we do now?" Lumine asked as she tried to catch her breath.

"We have to smash it, and hopefully that will cut off this source of power." Amber managed to say as she had regained her bearings as well as her breath. Valorant nodded his head simply as he then rushed forwards before jumping up and swinging down the flagpole onto the rock, this successfully smashed the rock to pieces.

It was surprisingly fragile if the fact that he could destroy it so easily was anything to go by.

"That should be it, right?" Paimon wondered.

"Yeah, we've definitely helped Jean out by doing this. We were at least capable of defending the city and keeping it safe in the past." Amber replied as she walked on up to Valorant with the other two beside her. The smashed rock soon began dispersing into particles. "Now, all we need to do now is going and do the same for the other two temples."

"Right, let's get on out of here!" Paimonn stated as they all nodded before running towards a strange portal that seemed to magically appear at the end of the room. Upon having entered, they soon found themselves running out and onto the grassy plain in which the Temple of the Falcon was located at.

"Alright, Kaeya and Lisa have probably already begun their journey towards the other temples. We should go ahead and catch up with them in case they need any help." Amber suggested as the three nodded in agreement with her. "I'm going to go ahead and head back to Mondstadt to report that we dealt with this temple to Jean. You guys go on ahead."

"Gotcha, then I'll head on over to the Temple of the Wolf with Kaeya." Valorant nodded with a serious look on his face. He then turned his head to look at both Lumine and Paimon. "Lumine. Paimon. You guys head on over to the Temple of the Lion to help out Lisa."

"You can leave it up to us!" Paimon smiled brightly as Lumine nodded her head with a smile. Amber smiled and nodded her head in approval with the plan. She then decided to add. "If that's the plan, then you'll need to head East, Valorant. You should be able to see the temple easily if you keep going. Lumine and Paimon, you'll need to head on South. You'll find the temple high up on a cliff."

"Alright, adventure!"

"I'll see you guys afterward, good luck." Valorant voiced. They all nodded before they all separated and began going in their separate directions.

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Valorant was quickly making his way through the plains, he decided to use this chance to train his stamina as well as legs since the place was probably a good distance away from the Temple of the Falcon. He did quite a bit of running training back in his old life, so he was pretty confident that he could probably run or jog the entire way if he really pushed it.

He didn't use his class card, even though he knew for a fact that he could get there much faster. Though, he was uncertain about that last bit. He wasn't sure or not if his current magic reserves would last long enough for him to run such a distance for long enough, and he pretty sure he would be exhausted if he were to end up changing back.

Even if he covered most of the distance quickly with his class card powers, it wouldn't mean anything if he couldn't move to cover the rest afterward.

"Eh? What's that...?" Valorant had stopped his advance and looked around in confusion as he panted. He could have sworn that he heard some kind of loud bang, and listening closer, he could hear a voice. Though, it was hard to distinguish whether it was female or male due to how quiet it was. "There's the bang again!"

Valorant quickly ran up the hill that he was on to get a better view, and when he did, he looked around quickly before catching sight of what appeared to be a rather large Hilichurls camp. He saw quite a number of them inside, consisting of ones that were throwing large orange balls of flames that exploded like a grenade, the normal he's faced, along with the ones that looked like shamans.

Not only them, he widened his eyes when he saw a group of what appeared to be six of what looked to be big hulking forms that looked like the normal Hilichurls but had black fur all over and had horns and a variety of different weapons. The weapons ranged from shields and axes, along with a few of the axes being on fire.

These figures were easily over three meters tall.

"Who the hell is that..?" Valorant narrowed his eyes as he tried to see who in the world was the crazy person who happened to be inside the camp. He couldn't see them clearly due to all the Hilichurls, but he could see that whoever they were could utilise flames much like Amber could. The difference is that they didn't have a bow as their weapon. "Damnit, I should help them...!"

Valorant could easily see that they were pretty decently skilled in combat, but due to the vast number of enemies they were facing, they would eventually fall. He was concerned since he was supposed to be rushing to Kaeya, but he was pretty sure he'll be fine since he was a Cavalary Captain after all. Plus, when he first looked at the guy, he was obviously experienced.

He quickly summoned forth Jeanne's flagpole as he rushed down the side of the cliff before he began swinging and stabbing a number of Hilichurls. This garnered the attention of the others as they soon took notice of his presence, the same was with the person who had been fighting them before as they seemed to also take notice of Valorant's presence.

Valorant quickly began mowing his way towards the person that was being surrounded by a number of Hilichurls. When he arrived, he began taking them down alongside the other person who he had yet to look at yet. It took only a few seconds for them to knock back the Hilichurls that had surrounded them a few moments ago as they now stood back to back.

"Thanks for the help! These guys are stronger than I thought."

"No problem." Valorant responded. He could hear that the person was obviously female from their voice, or they were a male who just hadn't gone through puberty or whatever. "Not exactly the best time to do this, but let's introduce ourselves. My name is Valorant, nice to meet you."

Valorant stabbed another Hilichurl that got close as well as kicking another one away. The other person also fought back more Hilichurls that came from their direction as well. Valorant then heard the female give an amused giggle as she then voiced.

"Not at all! My name is Xiangling, I come from Liyue Harbor. Nice to meet you!"

'Xiangling? Isn't that a Chinese name?' Valorant thought to himself before he did a one-eighty spin kick to another Hilichurl as he turned to look at his new ally. When he did, it revealed to be a girl who appeared the same age as himself. Just like he thought, she was wearing clothes that did look quite a bit like the traditional Chinese attire.

The girl had dark, indigo-black hair that she was keeping in a pair of panda-like braided buns. She had a pair of golden eyes as well as pale skin, though not unhealthy pale. She was also wearing a golden paw-shaped hair clip on one side of her bangs. The weapon she was using appeared to be a polearm of sorts as she swung it around and thrusted it forwards at fast speeds towards the Hilichurls.

He knew for a fact that this world didn't have China as a nation or country, so the plausible explanation was that they had a nation that was very similar to China. That was probably this Liyue Harbor place or whatever that Xiangling just spoke about.

"Why are you in this Hilichurl's camp? It's suicide..." Valorant decided to ask as the both of them were fighting. They made sure to stay back to back as to allow them to watch over each other's back far easier. "Didn't you notice the massive number of Hilichurl's?"

"Well... not really. I saw an ingredient and just went for it!"

"Hold on... just for an ingredient?"

"Of course, I am chef and a chef must do what a chef must do!" Xiangling announced with pride as she took down another Hilichurl. He wasn't sure if he would call this girl stupid, insane, strange, or all of the above. Even chefs knew restraint... "What are about you, Valorant? What brings you out here to these parts? I'm visiting Mondstadt for the delicacies!"

"Huh? Oh, I was actually heading somewhere before I ran into you here."

"I see, then I am grateful for your presence!"

"Just glad to hel- look out!" Valorant quickly shouted as he tackled Xiangling out of the way as he saw one of the large ones suddenly charge at them at full force with its shield raised. He could feel the strength these things had as the stomps it made shook the ground. The only enemies that remained were the six massive figures and a few other smaller Hilichurls.

"That was a close one. Thanks for the save against that Mitachurl!"

"No problem." At least he learnt the name of what these massive things were at least. He knew for a fact that these things might be as strong as Mid-Tier Servants in terms of physical power. He remembered seeing one of them easily knocking one of the Hilichurls a few meters away as well as into the air with a simple swipe when it had begun running at them. "This isn't going to be easy... Install Class: Ruler - Jeanne D'arc!"

He didn't care that he was showing his powers to Xiangling even though they just met, he wouldn't care about showing it to anyone since it wouldn't exactly affect him much in any way aside from probably being questioned. It's not like seeing him use his powers would give them intel on how they worked or what it entailed at all.

Xiangling widened her eyes in surprise when Valorant's magic circuits appeared glew a bright blue colour on the right side of his face, the ones on his chest even shined through his clothes. He was then soon covered by a dense light before appearing in his armour as he gained a narrowed expression while standing in a stance against the Mitachurls. She didn't get to question him as he ran forwards before swinging his flagpole at one of the Mitachurls that wielded an axe.

When he struck the beast on its arm, it released a pain cry before trying to smash him with the axe. Valorant easily avoided the swing kicking the Mitachurl in the stomach, causing it to lose its air as he then plunged the tip of the flagpole into its abdomen. Valorant gritted his teeth as the skin of these beasts was a lot stronger than he initially thought.

"That won't work, we need to hit them in the more vulnerable spots!"

"Got it!" Valorant quickly jumped back beside Xiangling as he glared at the Mitachurls that were gathering. "Would the vulnerable spots be the eyes?"

"Yes, that is the most efficient place to aim."

'I see... so the mucous membranes are the best spots to hit.' Valorant quickly then charged back into towards the one that he attacked previously, it still had the wind knocked out of it. He took the chance and rushed in front of it before narrowing his eyes before plunging the top of the flagpole straight through the whole of the mask and through into the eye.

The flagpole had definitely pierced all the way through to the brain, and the creature had died just like that as it twitched a bit and flailed around before falling to the ground lifeless. Valorant pulled the flagpole out as the blood dripped off of the tip. Valorant didn't appear at all affected by the blood as he looked back.

"Xiangling, setup!"

"I got it!" Xiangling nodded as she held her polearm before whacking and piercing the other axe-wielding Mitachurl a few times before seemingly tossing the stuffed-animal panda that she had on her belt out in front of her. Valorant had a blank expression on his face when he saw the stuffed animal suddenly come to life and grow exponentially.

'Another sentient stuffed animal...'

The panda then suddenly ate a massive chilly pepper before spewing out flames at the Mitachurl, causing the said enemy to stumble back in pain from the flames.

'And eats chilly peppers... what has my life come to?'

Valorant just shook his head before rushing past Xiangling and jumping up into the air before plunging the flagpole once again into the eye of the Mitachurl, easily piercing all the way through to the brain, thus killing the beast instantly. Valorant kicked off of the dead body of the beast and landed back beside Xiangling.

The panda had disappeared and reappeared on Xiangling's belt... what?

"Oh crap!" Valorant widened his eyes when the other Mitachurls, who were all wielding shields, as well as the remaining Hilichurls suddenly attacked them simultaneously. The four Mitachurls charged at the two from all sides while the twenty remaining Hilichurls lept at them from above with their weapons pointed downwards at them. 'There's no time to act...!'

"Wh-What do we do?"

'Crap...' Valorant gritted his teeth as he saw the Mitachurls charging at them. While he would normally be capable of easily escaping from this situation, he had foolishly given them too much time to start their run that he wouldn't be able to escape even if he tried. They could try bursting through the Hilichurls above, but he doubted they would go unscathed due to the number of weapons pointed down at them. 'I don't have time to activate the Noble Phantasm either... wait...'

That's it!

'System! I still have a Spirit Crystal, right?'

[Indeed, you have one in possession]

'Use it!'

[Understood]

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[Class Card Roulette]

- Restoration Shard [x6]

- Energy Shard [x4]

- Class Card: ---

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'Just install whatever it is!'

He could only hope that whatever the class turned out to be and who would be able to assist him in getting through this mess. He would be able to get out maybe if he got a physically powerful class card, though he didn't really mind what he got if it could get him out of this situation they have found themselves in.

[Installing Class: Shielder - Galahad]

As soon as this was spoken, Xiangling was blinded by a powerful light that radiated off of Valorant's body. As soon as the light died down, something miraculous happened. The Hilichurls were sent flying off into the sky more than fifty meters before dying from impacting against the ground. The Mitachurls were sent crashing backwards, their shields destroyed and their bodies seemingly scorched by a strange blue fiery energy.

Xiangling stared in shock at the scene before turning her head around to stare at the position in which Valorant had stood. To her shock, Valorant stood tall and firm with what appeared to be a massive black shield that was shaped like a cross with a circular base that Valorant held with one hand, the shield was easily as big as Valorant himself. The shield emitting energy that looked very much the same as the energy that scorched the Mitachurls.

She then looked at Valorant directly and she was even more surprised if that was possible, the armour that he wore before disappeared and was replaced with a different set. The lean armour he wore now was entirely black in colouration, the armour covering his entire body aside from his head and neck, though the armour did reach only halfway up his neck.

Over his armour was also a purple garment that reached down to his ankles and draped over his shoulders.

Xiangling wasn't sure what she had just witnessed. She was obviously shocked the first time she saw him transform into that first set of armour, though she hadn't expected him to do it again! She had never seen an ability like this before in her entire life. Just what kind of element did he utilise? What else could he do?

'I didn't see a Vision on him... so how?'

Valorant had his eyes closed as he stood tall with his armoured feet planted firmly on the ground with the shield held and placed standing on the ground in front of him as he had a straight mouth on him as he slowly opened his eyes. His eyes appeared a bit dead honestly, but you could see the determination and perseverance held within them.

He then raised his free hand that wasn't holding the shield as he stared at his armoured hand, clenching his fist a few times as he kept his calm and determined expression. 'It seems as though I took on the same armour as Galahad has in the series. I guess I'm not complaining at all, his armour is pretty cool looking. Though, it seems I'm missing his sword. Whatever.'

Valorant then bent his knees slightly.

"Xiangling, let's go."

"E-Eh? Oh, r-right!"

Xiangling was startled by his serious tone before she got ready to attack. Valorant charged forwards with his shield held in front of him, which he used to easily deflect a punch sent by one of the Mitachurls that managed to get back up. He then used one of the sharp ends of the shield to pierce into the eyesocket of the mask.

Since it didn't go all the way into the brain, the Mitachurl flailed around and screamed in pain before finally falling to the ground in a pool of blood as Valorant rushed towards the second one that was still lying on the ground and slowly getting up. He jumped up and landed on the beast, causing it to crash back onto the ground.

"Goodnight." Valorant glared before crashing the bottom of the shield down onto the Mitachurl's face, destroying the mask and slicing through the eyes, swiftly killing the Mitachurl. He turned his head without saying a word as he saw that Xiangling had also swiftly dealt with the remaining two Mitachurls whom both had not managed to stand back up.

[Class: Shielder - Galahad has been added to the roster]

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