However—
Just as Childe was deep in thought, a voice sounded from behind him.
"How… did you do it?"
Hoarse. Exhausted.
Gone was the former arrogance and flamboyance—only the naturally sweet timbre of her voice remained.
The voice came from behind Childe.
Hearing this, both Bai Ge and Tartaglia turned to look.
At this moment, Signora's slender fingers were slowly brushing across her cheek, as if wiping away a small cut left by sharp ice fragments when her cocoon shattered.
"How did you do it?"
"How did you break my ice cocoon?"
Seeing that Bai Ge hadn't answered, Signora asked again.
This time, her previously unfocused eyes locked tightly onto him.
After a brief rest, her spirit seemed to recover. Her gaze sharpened, her presence turned imposing once more.
It was clear—
She truly wanted to know the answer.
"Cough—then let me explain."
Worried that Signora and Bai Ge might start fighting again, Childe hurriedly cleared his throat and stepped forward.
The previous clash had barely stayed restrained. If it broke out again, restraint would be impossible—Childe needed to prevent that.
"By the way," he added, "we've already exchanged blows, but I still don't know this friend's name."
"Bai Ge," Bai Ge replied.
"Ah, Bai Ge—good name!"
Childe smiled broadly.
"I'm the Eleventh of the Fatui Harbingers, 'Childe,' Tartaglia."
Then he gestured toward Signora.
"And this is the Eighth Harbinger, Signora. You probably know more about her than I do, so I won't say much."
He coughed lightly.
"Bai Ge, if you don't mind, let me give an explanation?"
"Go ahead," Bai Ge said indifferently.
He put away the Thousand-Rock Greatsword, casually pulled over a chair that hadn't been destroyed, and sat down.
"Alright!" Childe nodded, encouraged.
He turned to Signora.
"Actually, the key lies in the very first strike!"
"The first strike?" Signora repeated, recalling the moment.
Indeed, that was when she had first felt something was wrong.
"That's right—the first strike. If I'm not mistaken, Bai Ge's sword carried Geo petrification at that moment."
"You didn't notice any damage then, but the moment the sword hit, the petrifying force had already begun to seep into your ice cocoon."
"Then came the first heavy slash without any elemental power!"
Childe explained animatedly.
As a battle fanatic, he almost wished he'd been the one fighting instead.
And in his eyes, Bai Ge's fight against Signora could be summarized as—
No brute force. All technique.
Growing more excited, Childe looked at Bai Ge.
"Here I really have to praise you. As expected of the land of the Geo Archon—your understanding of Geo is far ahead of ours!"
"People think that Geo and Cryo don't really react, but that's not entirely true."
"When Geo strikes Cryo, besides Crystallize, there's also a very subtle ice-shattering amplification effect!"
"Once the petrifying Geo energy soaked into the surface of the ice cocoon, your blade shattered it slightly—creating a tiny breach!"
"Then comes the part I really want to praise you for!"
Childe wore an expression of sincere admiration.
So genuine that even Bai Ge couldn't help but acknowledge it—
Tartaglia really knew how to lower his pride when he wanted to get close to someone.
And, honestly… being praised so logically felt pretty good.
Childe continued:
"I've studied Signora's ice cocoon. It's incredibly tough—and it constantly regenerates!"
"In other words, even if someone managed to chip it, they couldn't make use of it!"
"But Bai Ge was different!"
"Six consecutive strikes—three neutral, three Pyro—almost in a single instant!"
"Three horizontal, three vertical, all landing on the exact same point!"
"Such exquisite swordsmanship, such seamless chaining without any recovery window—
even I can't match that!"
"And remember—he was using a heavy greatsword!"
Childe paused, then looked straight at Bai Ge.
"By the way, Bai Ge… how did you manage that?"
This time, his curiosity was genuine. He looked at Bai Ge expectantly.
Hearing this, Bai Ge fell silent for a moment.
The truth was simple:
His uninterrupted attacks came from the hand-switching techniques of the Yunlai Sword Art—methods specifically designed to alternate between right and left hand.
He'd used this "lightspeed QA" once before when saving Keqing, but it hadn't been nearly this fast.
He hadn't expected that what he once thought to be useless one-handed sword techniques would end up being applied here.
But of course—
He wasn't about to explain all that.
"Nothing special," Bai Ge said calmly.
"Just practice."
Nothing more than being.
Hearing those four understated words, everyone present showed looks of admiration.
"Good—what a 'nothing more than practice'!" Childe exclaimed loudly.
In his eyes, wasn't a warrior's body, tempered through countless battles, exactly that?
Bai Ge—
Truly worthy of being a rival acknowledged by Tartaglia!
And so, Childe grew even more enthusiastic.
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