Chapter 167.1

Childe bent down on one knee and placed his hands together.

He began muttering quietly as he silently chanted a prayer, reverent and respectful, almost akin to begging

When he was finished, he stood up and looked at Yomite, perplexed by his strange expression.

"What's wrong? Are you not praying before the battle? Are you that foolish, or perhaps you're that confident? I'll have you know, I'm not someone you could beat easily."

"Why would I pray?" Yomite didn't understand his question. He merely regarded him with a neutral expression.

Childe laughed, stepping forward slightly as Yomite watched him with narrowed eyes.

"I prayed for a simple reason." He told himself. "To activate the power of my artifacts. Do you not have any artifacts on you?"

Yomite looked puzzled by his words.

"Wait...you have to pray for your artifact to work?"

"...Huh?"

"Huh?"

...

The two of them repeated themselves simultaneously, dumbfounded by the strange conversation they were having.

"Does that mean that the claymore I've been using all this time, was half defective simply because I didn't pray!?"

"...What do you mean by half defective? And what are you talking about?" Childe gave him a puzzled look, "Have you seriously never prayed before?"

He continued with a spirit of teasing, "I already knew this would be my win, yet for it to be over that fast, was outside of my expectations."

A wry smile appeared on Yomite's lips, as he pulled his sleeves up, "I was unaware that I needed to pray for an artifact to activate... that's completely news to me. Who should I even pray to?"

"..."

Childe was silent, reflecting for a moment.

"No one." He sighed, his tone implying of his disbelief about how unaware his opponent truly was when it came to such basic knowledge, "You simply have to pray to the artifact itself in order to bring it out of stasis. I don't even know why I am telling you this, maybe to make the fight a bit longer?" Childe's smile turned a bit more smug, "Then again, it really doesn't matter if you have the artifact or not. The point remains, that when you fight me, you will lose either way."

Yomite simply stared back blankly, wordlessly contemplating his next move, observing as Childe reached out towards the longbow on his back.

When suddenly, he had a brilliant idea.

"Woah, that's a nice bow there, Ajax."

"..."

"..."

"You...What did you just say?" Childe spoke through clenched teeth, somehow managing to sound surprised despite his hostile expression. His face distorted in anger as his hand grasped the leather strings of his own bow.

"How do you know my name..."

"Do I really need to answer that? Who knows?" Yomite grinned.

The only reason he called him by the name he read from his status was because he wanted to rile up his opponent. The more he would be focusing on the fact that a random guy like him knew his true name, the less would he concentrate on the battle and would eventually become enraged which could bring forth a tasty victory.

(You know, I am somewhat of a genius myself...)

Childe gritted out his question silently under his breath, "You are getting more and more interesting...This is the first time I've met someone who knew my real identity in this hole of a city..." he remarked quietly. There was a hint of intrigue, perhaps even anger to his voice that made it resonate with so much interest, "It almost makes me want to kidnap you to interrogate you, instead of killing you here..."

"...Oh? Some creep you are, talking about kidnapping someone so casually...Someone ought to call the guards!" Yomite retorted with a half hearted smirk.

Childe shook his head and snorted, "Coming from someone whose lover runs a funeral parlor and is known for kidnapping kids to bury them in her backyard... The irony. I wonder what her reaction would be, if I showed her your pale corpse."

"Okay, that was unnecessary...She knows her faults and has said that about...half of those... were just rumours...As for me dying here... She would probably get angry and curse my soul, saying how I could lose to someone so weak. Ah, I wouldn't be able to pass on at all." he murmured, giving a casual shrug. "Therefore, you dying here is only natural."

There was an unexpected sincerity to his reply that brought a smirk to Childe's lips, "Good, battle talk, I love it! Let's see you live up to it!" And with those words, Childe drew his bow and aimed it towards Yomite at a dead run. The arrow's tip was pure silver and shone brightly much like sunrays could.

The arrow, when drawn, had no feathers or quill protruding from its point but was completely smooth. He held the bow so that it hovered in the air at about chest height, almost looking as if it was a part of his body.

It was beautiful, shiny, and magnificent and pointed directly at Yomite's exposed neck.

In the next moment, Childe let go of the string, releasing a blast of soundless Hydro magic, and watched as the arrow flew forward towards its target.

'So fast!' Yomite thought to himself

With each leap forward, it grew in size until it looked more like a hurricane of Hydro than a simple arrow.

He barely saw the arrow before the sound registered on him.

A loud sound like an unstoppable tornado, but with even more powerful edge to it.

Yomite swiftly raised a hand to intercept the arrow with his claymore, blocking it with a dull thud as it clattered uselessly against the dirt underneath him, the force sending dust and debris flying into the air, and leaving him a good six feet away from where he had initially stood, unharmed.