Venti sat on the sexy statue version of himself, casually playing with a leaf and drinking some wine while humming. His people below him waddled around like tiny ants, and Venti laughed at how much taller he was than everyone. Suddenly, the wind blew harshly around him from behind the statue.

Looking in the direction of the wind, Venti watched as leaves and birds followed the breeze to Dragonspine. Venti hadn't looked forward in a while: whenever he sat so high up on his statue, he was people watching, never observing the scenery. But now that he did, he couldn't help but notice how beautiful Dragonspine really was.

Venti suddenly had an idea. During Mondstadt's winter seasons, it was a tradition to get all of the kids together (and cool older siblings and relatives as well) and have a festival to celebrate the winter. In the middle of the summer, Venti found himself missing the cold temperatures.

That's when he got an idea. Dragonspine = snow! He could host the festival in summer, so long as it was on the mountain! But he knew his people didn't like winter that much and probably enjoy having it as an annual celebration.

Therefore, he needed to change the meaning of the party and invite cooler people. Yes, of course! He'd invite his international friends! And instead of celebrating winter with snowman building and hot chocolate, he'd make the celebration a battle, so that he could get more of his friends interested. Battle in winter? Obviously it has to be a snowball fight.

This idea struck him so hard he nearly tripped and fell off of his statue's head (he usually sat in the hands, but he'd fallen between the arms more than four times and that hurt like shit, so he changed locations). Deploying his windglider, he leapt from the statue, heading towards the Adventurers Guild's receptionist desk.

Quickly, he commissioned Katheryne to send the invitations out. Usually the mail service would do fine, but he wanted to get mail from here to Inazuma- he needed people willing to get into a bit of danger.

After all of it was set up, he smiled to himself as he trotted over to Diluc's bar. Wow, he was a genius.

—

A week later, it was all ready. Guests were flowing into the clearing Venti had cleared (some angry ass giant boar had owned it, but he just yeeted it off of a cliff with a tornado) and Venti had set up a drink stand (run by Diluc), an incredibly large pile of snow (thanks Kaeya!) and of course a small tent meant for first aid (Jean insisted he put one in despite him saying that snow couldn't possibly cause injury).

Amber was checking in guests, and she stared down at her sheet, trying to memorize how to pronounce the names of foreign countrymen. Venti had listed all of the people who RSVPd and she wrote their names quickly on the sheet, but now she had to memorize most of them.

From Mondstadt, there was: Klee, Albedo, Kaeya, Amber, Eula (๑꧆◡꧆๑) :))), Bennett, Razor, Fischl, Mona, Diona. Amber had memorized everyone from Liyue: Zhongli, Hu Tao, Yanfei, Xiao, Beidou, Chongyun, Xingqiu, Yelan, Xiangling. From Inazuma, Amber was still struggling to pronounce a few names: Yoimiya, Ayaka and Ayato Kamisato, Toma, Kaedeharah Kazuha, Goru, Sangonomeeyah Kokome, Aratakky Itto, Coookie Sheenobu. She wasn't very good at spelling Inazuman names.

Amber smiled as she re-read over the Sumeru list: Collei :) <33 (*꧆▽꧆*), Cyno, Tighnari, Dehya, Kaveh, Alhaitham, Layla- and then, for some reason, there was Snezhnaya: Il Dottore, Child, Sinora, Scaramuche. To Amber, that seemed very dangerous, but whatever, we all trust Venti here :).

After about two hours every single guest arrived, and Venti gathered them all into one big mass as he stood on the snow pile, announcing how it was going to work.

"Kk so basically it's a battle royale pvp free for all, Hunger Games style, no head-shot penalties," Venti began. "Heals are one-time-use to get back in when out, in form of hot cocoa, purchasable for three Ventibux. Can use as many heals as possible until you die."

Most people started nodding along, and Childe even let out an excited whoop. Unfortunately, some did not understand.

"...what?" Ayaka asked, not understanding a word of this modern language. "Die?!"

Venti thought over his words for a moment and then began to reword everything;

"Take as much snow as you want: you can team up, but in the end, only one person can win. If you get hit you have to leave the area and you are officially out. If you want to enter the game again, buy some of the warm liquid from that stall over there for ten mora (equivalent of 3 ventibux). You can buy as many as you want! But you must stop once you pass out. Also, this game will go on until someone wins, no time limit," Venti re-explained. "OH! ALSO! No visions allowed!"

Now that he got everyone there to nod in understanding, Venti clapped his hands in excitement.

"Alright then! Tournament starts NOW!" Venti screeched.

The participants paused for a moment, not knowing if he was joking or not. Childe, however, grabbed some snow from the ground and yeeted it at some random guy, taking him out. Thus, the game started.

Immediately, a few natural teams formed. Amber sprinted off to a corner, catching the eyes of Eula, Bennett, Fischl, Razor, Mona, and Kaeya: nodding at each one. Razor started scooping snow from the pile in the center and sprinting over to Amber's corner, Bennett and Fischl helping. Kaeya immediately took up the offensive, while Mona defended Amber while she started snowball production.

Other groups formed this way as well: Zhongli was kind of just standing, not knowing what to do, and Hu Tao decided to defend him. Childe saw his friends in a vulnerable position and ran to help, yeeting balls left and right. Xiao and Venti soon joined them.

Scaramouche and Kazuha joined as a duo, pelting snowballs at people with aggression. The Kamisatos and Thoma had formed a team, but they lacked good offense: when they saw that duo, they ran up and started wordlessly helping defend them while they attacked.

Xingqiu, Chongyun, and Xiangling teamed up together, but they were a big target of powerful teams, and were swiftly defeated.

Yelan was at it alone, and Yanfei was too, so they partnered up. Seeing the Zhongli, Hu Tao, Xiao, Venti and Childe team, they decided to join them.

The group of Sumeruians was small overall, so they joined each other. Collei got out quickly, but Tighnari and Cyno avenged her by destroying Ayato. Ayato's team got pissed and started attacking them. Thus a gang war started. Ayato paid his way back in, hyped to wreck the others.

Ayato, Ayaka, Thoma, Scaramouche, and Kazuha v. Tighnari, Cyno, Dehya, Kaveh, Alhaitham, and Layla. Suddenly, though, the well-structured Mondstadt team started a war with Zhongli's team: and two wars started. The outnumbered Kamisato team was looking for help, and caught the eye of Venti, who waved his anemo brothers over, and their team as well.

With the merge of the Kamisato and Zhongli team, now the Sumeru team and Mondstadt team decided to fight each other. It was a three-way war, until the attacks from the Kamisato-Zhongli team turned out to be too powerful, so Sumeru and Mondstadt joined up together in a moment of desperation.

Zhongli, Hu Tao, Xiao, Yelan, Yanfei, Venti, Childe, Scaramouche, Ayaka, Ayato, Thoma, and Kazuha were now fighting on a powerful offense with a steady supply of snowballs (thanks Thoma and Ayaka!) and an epic distracting defense (Zhongli go brr). Their team was mostly offensive, though, so they were getting somewhere.

Tighnari, Cyno, Dehya, Kaveh, Alhaitham, Layla, Eula, Bennett, Fischl, Razor, Mona, Amber, and Kaeya made up the other team. They were incredibly well structured, and they had one more person than their enemy; but they also had a number of weaker members who didn't go on the offense.

Thus, they needed help. The Sumeru team sent their trusted buddy, Mika, who was there to help with first aid, to run and send an ally proposal with the last surviving teams:

Gorou, Kokomi, Itto, Yoimiya, Beidou, and Kuki had formed a rather disorganized team. Kokomi and Gorou had wanted a powerful team dynamic, but ended up with a few crazy offensive members and one support: it wasn't going as planned, but they whipped them into shape and came out with a surprisingly powerful little team. Upon receiving an invitation to join a larger gang, Kokomi rejected, for reasons unknown. Gorou trusted she had some super smart reason, though.

Meanwhile, Klee and Diona were fighting alone in a corner. Diona made snowballs and threw them to Klee, who yeeted them. She was struggling not to use her vision or make her snowballs into bombs, but it was going well. Nobody would attack them because they felt guilty trying to fight such an innocent duo.

That is, until the last-to-be-mentioned team showed up.

"Want to join us?" La Signora asked.

Klee and Diona looked at each other, then turned to face the Fatui duo of Signora and Dottore. Nodding, a new alliance was formed. I would call it the Klee team, but Signora insisted on calling themselves the Venti Kickers, bc they all wanted to kill Venti for some reason or another.

Eventually, Kokomi's team lost Kuki and Itto (that idiot), and they were too poor to rejoin. Looking for allies, Kokomi asked if the Venti Kickers wanted to join her team.

"Only if our team can be called Venti-Kicking Kokomi team," Klee grinned.

"Uh- okay?" Kokomi shrugged.

Suddenly, Mika came over. He glanced around to the generals and mafia members and arsonists, sweating a bit.

"Uh- are you willing to make an alliance with the team over there?" he asked, pointing towards Sumeru/Mond's base.

"No," Dottore said blatantly.

Welp that's that ig.

"EAT THIS, BITCH!" Scaramouche yelled as he hit Mona in the head. "Imagine having a weak team, losers! HAHA!"

"It feels great to fight alongside you again, comrade," Childe grinned.

"Shut up, I'm only willing for now," Scara hissed.

"Hey- want to do the thing we always used to do when we actually liked each other?" Childe asked.

Scaramouche contemplated it, then nodded.

"HU TAO, DISTRACTION!" Childe yelled.

"ON IT!" Hu Tao yelled, bringing Yanfei and Xiao on a mini-raid.

Sneaking around the slowly depleting snow pile, Childe and Scara were near the enemy team's main base. The Sumeru/Mond team's weaker members had been building a defensive wall, but this was no problem for the Fatui boys. Nodding at each other, Childe got in position.

With a running start, Scaramouche jumped onto Childe's braced hands. Launching him in the air, Childe then quickly stood up and rushed in, ducking incredibly low and sprinting at high-speed.

From above and below, the two pelted Sumeru/Mond's snowball-production team. Fischl, Razor, and Bennett were soon out. Thanks to Diluc, though, they got a way back in. He paid for their heals.

Still, the rush of adrenaline was amazing, and Scara and Childe found themselves bonding. Until they realized they were in the open.

"Idiots," Yelan tsked, running to help them escape.

Venti, meanwhile, mistook this sudden distraction, mini-raid, and support-sending person as a full on attack plan, and dragged Kazuha, Ayato, Ayaka, and Zhongli all across the battlefield. Thus, their entire team was at the Sumeru/Mond base, attacking aggressively.

In the bloodbath, Yanfei, Ayaka, Hu Tao, Dehya, Layla, Bennett (again), and Amber were all killed. Ayaka paid her way back in, but the rest decided just to watch it go down from the sidelines. Eventually, the Zhongli team ended their raid and retreated to the ditch they'd been digging. They began production again, and started their own wall.

Now the Venti-Kicking Kokomi team had close to even numbers with each of the main gangs, but they still decided to wait for more bloodbath, and kept building their little fort in the corner. Nobody paid attention to them.

"Wow, this is crazy," Albedo muttered.

"Yeah," Kaeya nodded. "Wait- when did you get here?"

"I've been here all along. I didn't move once. Nobody hit me for some reason...?" Albedo shrugged.

"Want to join my team?" Kaeya asked.

"Nah," Albedo just sat on the ground.

Kaeya shrugged and kept making a wall.

It took thirty minutes for the teams to begin action again. Alhaitham was growing a bit bored, and Razor wanted to fight some more. Thus, Cyno started creating a plan. Crouching behind their snow fortress wall, they huddled together.

"Tighnari, Alhaitham, Razor, Fischl, Kaeya, and me will all surprise raid them," Cyno said. "That means Kaveh and Eula will stay behind; I want you guys building our wall better for when we get back. I trust Kaveh to build a structurally strong wall."

"Of course. I'll make it aesthetic, too!" Kaveh grinned, living his architect dream.

"And Eula, I know they said no visions, but when nobody is looking, use yours to help solidify the wall," Cyno nodded.

With the Sumeru/Mond team all ready and excited for the upcoming fight, they failed to remember that the Zhongli team had more members. Who were more bloodthirsty. And impatient. And talented. And amazing at withstanding the cold.

"Please Xiansheng can we attack pleaaaasee," Childe begged, buzzing with adrenaline still, even after half an hour of nothing.

"Our wall is taller than theirs, I'm sure we can raid them now," Ayato reasoned. "We could leave behind a few of us for defense?"

"I think Xiao, Venti, Scaramouche and Kazuha should all use their anemo powers to blast into the air. Ayaka can send up cryo and they can yeet it across the field," Yelan said.

"That's cheating," Zhongli sighed. "I don't think that's a good idea with the event organizer on our team."

"Okay so I'll just make a wind gust, you can jump into it and use your skills to get even higher, alright?" Venti was already plotting.

"So shameless," Zhongli shook his head.

But before this plan could begin, suddenly, they were being raided.

"SUCKERSSSS!" Kaeya shouted as he took down Ayato in a sudden attack.

Ayato, in retaliation, threw a snowball at Kaeya, and hit him.

"It doesn't count, you're dead already," Kaeya argued.

"But I just bought myself back in!" Ayato protested.

"You have to physically go over to Diluc and buy a heal," Kaeya said.

"I did! Just mentally," Ayato said. "I pictured myself doing it and did it."

While talking, Tighnari hit Ayato, and Xiao hit Kaeya.

"No questioning, we're both out now," Kaeya sighed.

The two walked off together towards Diluc. Meanwhile, Xiao was about to get hit, but Venti valiantly jumped in front of him and sacrificed himself. Being poor, he can't buy his way back in.

"Why did I even make that rule," Venti kicked the ground as he walked to the sidelines.

Childe was going crazy; pelting snowballs at everyone in sight. This way, he took out Cyno and Yelan.

"I'm literally on YOUR TEAM!" Yelan shouted.

Too late, though. Yelan was kind of mad that nobody appreciated her so she went to hang on the sidelines with Hu Tao and Yanfei. Soon, Tighnari got out as well, thanks to a lucky throw by Thoma. Fischl got mad because she'd grown to like Tighnari, and she hit Thoma.

Bennett, who had just paid to get back in, got slapped up the nose with a snowball from Childe, and sighed, turning back towards Diluc's bar area. Thoma, Tighnari, and Bennett all walked together to the sidelines. Ayato and Kaeya were about to buy their way in again, but decided to wait so they could pay for this group to join again together.

Suddenly, though, with the Sumeru/Mond team's low numbers, they retreated. Zhongli's team took this as an opportunity and chased them to their base. In this way, Alhaitham, Kaveh, and Razor all got out. Eula was the only survivor, and was hit as well. Bennett, Tighnari, and Kaeya, who were about to pay for heals, decided not to, seeing as their team was obliterated and most of them wouldn't buy heals for themselves.

Thoma and Ayato bought their way in again and joined their team in their fortress, where they were regrouping.

"Okay. Now it's just us and that other team with the Inazumans and Fatui," Xiao mentioned. "We're about equal in numbers now. But we're low on snowballs."

"I say we wait, then. See what they do first," Childe said.

"I know Kokomi must have some secret plan," Ayaka muttered. "We could send Mika to spy?"

"Or Albedo," Kaeya mentioned.

"Kaeya? Why are you here?" Childe asked.

"I stole money from Diluc and then used it to get in again. My team all gave up, but I haven't. I'm joining you guys," Kaeya smiled.

"Anyway- who's Albedo?" Zhongli asked.

"Oh, none of you are from Mond, right. Uhhh- he's an alchemist? But he's just been standing over there, taking snow samples, and hasn't been hit or noticed," Kaeya shrugged.

Zhongli's team all glanced at each other, and decided that this made sense. They didn't want to risk one of their main offensive members or valuable supports, so it made sense to send someone dispensable. Meanwhile, Mika was obvious. People had been bribing him to spy this whole tournament: they'd know what was happening.

Thus, Kaeya went over and spent a whole ten minutes convincing Albedo to help, and when he agreed, he set off towards the incredibly-well-build fortress. Ten minutes later, Albedo returned.

"Their team consists of a dog boy, a fish girl, some pyro-firework-themed girl, an electro pirate, the Fatui doctor, Signora, Klee, and Diona. They have a large pile of snowballs and their fortress is impenetrable. They are planning on waiting for you guys to raid them," Albedo reported.

The group took this information in and nodded, all plotting ideas.

"I say we wait until they are forced to raid us. They have a pretty weak offense; with a mix of literal children, a few crazy Fatui, and a firework maker. Plus, reigning in Beidou would be hard for anybody; meaning her powerful attacks would be misused," Ayato reasoned.

"Yoimiya often gets too excited and might cause a slip up if she were to attack," Ayaka added.

"Gorou would try to defend Kokomi, who has little offensive power. If we singled her out, we'd get Gorou too. But only if we can distract the others and corner Kokomi swifty," Kazuha leaned forward, laying out ideas.

"Knowing Dottore, he'd get distracted by anything interesting for his experiments. And Signora is incredibly proud and confident; her ego is as big as Teyvat," Scaramouche mentioned. "We could take out Signora and she'd get pissed and rage-quit."

While this group of geniuses did their thing, the other geniuses were plotting.

"Klee wants to go BOOM BOOM POW!!" Klee exclaimed.

"No, Klee, visions are banned from the tournament, we must remain true to the rules, like noble, respectable peopl-" Kokomi began.

Suddenly, she was interrupted by shouting.

"COME OUT YOU COWARD!" Childe screeched at the fortress, standing in front of his own wall.

"I'M LESBIAN!" Beidou yelled.

"NOT LIKE THAT, MOM!" Kazuha yelled.

"IT WAS FUNNY THOUGH!" Beidou shouted back.

"YOU'RE EMBARRASSING ME!" Kazuha protested.

"GOOD!" Beidou laughed.

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT, IDIOTS!" Scaramouche hissed. "COME AND FIGHT US; IF YOU DON'T, IT MEANS YOU SURRENDER!"

There was silence in both bases for a moment. Kokomi started contemplating those words, and took her idea to her team.

"They have some sort of trap set up. Luckily, they don't know how many members we have, or our ammo numbers, because Mika can't be commissioned anymore after getting frostbite," Kokomi reasoned. "They must have underestimated us."

"Which means we should raid them anyway? Overwhelm them? Like an unsurprising surprise attack," Gorou suggested.

"I'm down," Signora said.

"KLEE WANTS BLOOD!" Klee exclaimed.

"Who taught you how to say that?" Diona rolled her eyes.

"Venti said it's what Klee should say when Klee wants to continue a game," Klee grinned.

"Anyway, are we all ready for battle?" Kokomi faced her team.

"I'll be willing to die by your side, your excellency," Gorou bowed.

"Our alliance shall never fail," Signora responded.

"I don't know why I'm here, but I'm down," Il Dottore shrugged.

"I want to help Klee achieve her surprisingly bloody dreams," Yoimiya grins.

"Alright, sounds great," Kokomi nods. "Grab your weapons, we're attacking. Don't let fear take you, for our cause is greater than you can comprehend; keep it in focus: the image of our victory!"

The team started clapping, readying themselves, and getting into battle stances. Soon enough, Kokomi's team snuck from around the walls of their intense snow fort, keeping to the ground. At Gorou's nod, everyone started sprinting, hoping to reach the enemy base before they noticed them.

They all arrived outside of the walls, crouching low at the base of the enemy wall. Their lookout seemed to be helping with something, so the Venti-Kicking Kokomi team weren't noticed. At another nod, they all slammed into the wall.

Except it didn't break. Their wall must've been thicker than they thought. Trying again, they all rammed their shoulders into the ice cold barrier. They were confused. Nobody was coming out of the fort, and the wall wasn't breaking. How was it so strong?

Suddenly, however, they felt the wind pick up.

Looking upwards, they were momentarily blinded by the sun, but could make out the outline of Kazuha using his anemo powers to launch into the air. Scaramouche, Ayato, Xiao, and Childe all vaulted over the wall while the distraction was in place, slamming the enemy with snowballs.

They took out Signora, Dottore, and Yoimiya this way, leaving the rest confused at what happened.

Signora stood up and slammed her ammo to the ground, stomping off, just as predicted. Dottore started laughing at her, and she got even more mad. She refused to buy her way back in and cursed at Dottore, who didn't want to play anymore either, because his entertainment was gone.

Yoimiya, meanwhile, was glaring at Ayato as their teams stood still. She knew she was out, but she hates that Ayato, one of her closest friends, was the one to do it. The entire Zhongli team soon surrounded Kokomi's: they were left defenseless; their main offense crumbled.

"I felt the wind. There was no way somebody could jump that high," Kokomi began. "You're cheaters."

"We're on a mountain," Childe shrugged. "It's windy."

"You totally cheated," Klee cried.

"If so, I don't mind," Beidou shrugged. "It means my Kazuha's finally got some balls and started learning the pirate way."

Kazuha face-palmed in the background.

"Anyway, cheating or not, you lost," Zhongli interrupted formally. "Surrender, or suffer the consequences."

"We will never surrender," Gorou bared his teeth.

Yoimiya was still in silent pissy-mode, Diona and Klee were both fuming in childish anger, Beidou was laughing, Gorou was angry, and Kokomi was calm, as always. Meanwhile, Zhongli's team were all grinning in victory, even Xiao.

Suddenly, small bubbles of water emerged from the snow. Everyone glanced at Kokomi, who looked innocent as ever, despite being the only hydro-user on her team. Gorou grinned; this was the moment. Kokomi was willing to break the rules to win, which means Gorou was too!

At that signal, the Venti-Kicking Kokomi team rose to their feet and used their visions to help defeat Zhongli's team. But it was to no avail. Their entire team was blocked by a geo barrier in an instant. Zhongli had predicted their actions.

In that moment, Xiao and Childe leapt through the barrier from the outside and obliterated the enemy team. As Kokomi's team accepted defeat and slowly walked away towards the sidelines, Zhongli's team grew tense.

Venti had mentioned it being Hunger Games style. Their team would dissolve any second now; no team could continue existence throughout the whole game.

"Why don't we give each other a minute before we start the bloodbath?" Thoma suggested.

Everyone nodded.

"Starting in three, two..." Thoma counted. "One."

The whole team scattered. Childe kept with Zhongli while Ayaka, Ayato, and Thoma ran off together. The rest ran away individually.

Kazuha had been expecting this the whole time, and had already thought it through with a plan. He sprinted towards Kokomi's base and claimed it as his own. Unknowingly, Xiao had the same plan. They surprised each other as they entered through the main archway at the same time.

"Ally?" Kazuha asked.

Xiao nodded, and the two started checking out the base, searching for the snowball supply.

Meanwhile, Scaramuche decided to target Kaeya, who was once again pestering Albedo on the sidelines, the both being forgotten. He swiftly took them out while they suspected nothing, and then turned to hide in the deserted Sumeru/Mond base. Kaeya decided that he was bored and never bought his way in again.

Ayaka, Ayato, and Thoma all took over Zhongli's team's original base, while Zhongli and Childe found the remains of the original Mondstadt team's base. Thus, a standstill commenced.

It lasted for an hour and a half. Each team was growing rather hungry, for both physical food and blood. Which could be physical food if you're a bat. But I don't think any Genshin characters are officially blood-sucking bats...? I'll leave that unanswered because we honestly don't know yet.

Anyway, another hour passed, and Scaramouche was incredibly lonely. He was used to being alone like this, fending for himself, but he'd grown accustomed to the annoying company of many people.

This left him in a lonely emo depressing state that Xiao could sense from across the field.

"Because one of your boyfriends is in danger of a depressing mood, we should make him join our team," Xiao suggested.

"He's not my boyfriend. Also I don't have multiple boyfriends. I'm literally not romanti-"

"Shut the hell up," Xiao hissed. "Go get your man."

Kazuha glared and then decided to scout the area, looking for a safe passage. No other person was in sight, so he took off sprinting at Scaramouche's base. Suddenly, he was pelted with snowballs from Mondstadt's original base.

Kazuha looked over and saw Childe, a gleaming murderous hunger in his eye, as he snowballed Kazuha to death. Kazuha expertly flipped around and dodged most of them as he ran, but he found himself hit at some point, seeing as he isn't invincible despite ninja skills. Unfortunately, even after pausing, Childe kept hitting Kazuha.

"If I've been hit five times, do I have to buy myself five times?" Kazuha asked the general public, standing in the open field, covered in snow.

Childe paused and considered that.

"No, because you buy yourself in after getting out, and you get out once you get hit once," Thoma reasoned, peaking over his wall.

Immediately, Childe yeeted projectiles at Thoma. Quickly, Thoma used his pyro abilities to shield himself. Sucks for him though, because Childe coated the snowballs with hydro. The hydro put out the pyro on contact and nearly broke Thoma's shield before he ducked back down into his base.

Kazuha just shrugged and left the match.

Another standstill began.

It took another hour, and the candidates were getting rather hungry and bored. Yet another hour, and Scaramouche considered giving up because of pure boredom. Xiao considered a kamikaze, but decided he wanted to prove himself.

Another hour, half of the people were freezing to death. Ayato, Ayaka, and Zhongli were all very bad with the cold. Fortunately, the Kamisatos had Thoma to warm them up with his vision, but Zhongli had Childe, who could only tolerate due to his natural tolerance.

At this moment of boredom, hunger, and shivering, a few people grew a bit reckless. Childe craved action, and decided raiding the people who didn't group up would be fun. He prepared himself for battle, dragging Zhongli along with his geo shield.

First, he wanted to take Kokomi's team's old base, which was occupied by Xiao. Zhongli protested taking out Xiao and proposed that they made an alliance instead.

"So boring, Xiansheng!" Childe huffed. "But okay. With his anemo, we could leap over the base's walls and pelt our original base, I guess."

Thus, they walked up to Xiao's place and asked for an alliance.

"Only because Zhongli asked," Xiao shrugged, lowering his snowballs.

Thus, this new tiny team decided on a plan to take out the team of the Kamisatos and Thoma. Due to Kokomi's base being incredibly tall and well-structured, climbing up the walls would give Childe a good vantage point of the nearby bases. Zhongli's team's original base was partially see-into-able, perfect for a good snipe.

Childe coated his snowball in hydro, sitting atop the wall along with Zhongli and Xiao. Because it was covered in water, he was able to control the snowball's motions. While Zhongli had a protective wall surrounding the sitting ducks, Xiao prepped his own powers to launch Childe as high as possible into the air.

At an affirmative nod, Childe was launched upwards on a draft of anemo. With a clear shot at Thoma, the target, Childe threw the snowball. Curving his aim with his hydro powers, he managed to smack Thoma in the shoulder before Xiao dropped him back onto the wall.

"HEY!" Thoma gasped.

"That was uncalled for," Ayato's voice could be heard.

A moment later, another snowball was prepared, aimed, and fired at Ayaka. The goal was to get rid of the heat source and then the innocent one. Unfortunately, they forgot the Kamisatos had visions too, and were battle smart. Ayaka swiftly created a wall of ice to block the oncoming attack.

Thoma began walking towards Diluc, who had been sitting in his stall for hours, bored out of his mind while every other vision bearer present watched or chatted on the sides. On his way, he caught Scaramouche's glare. Scaramouche, upon seeing someone out, decided that maybe looking above his pit for once would be good.

When he noticed there was an attack happening, he ducked down.

This whole time, he'd stockpiled so many snowballs he could build a snowman out of them- in addition, he had dug deep into the frozen earth beneath the Sumeru/Mond base, creating a pit. He was basically invincible, but bored, so he decided to use his projectiles for good use.

He had carved and shaped a large crossbow structure out of snow. Using some of the rope accessories of his hat, he finished off the firing mechanism. Loading in snowballs, he shot Ayato square in the face while he was focused on the Chili and Xiao team.

Ayaka was alone on her team, but knew her team would be paying their way back in soon enough. Keeping this in mind, she bunkered down, using her Elsa powers to create a full-on dome.

Childe got bored of shooting from the wall and leapt off of it, storming Scara's base. Scara was quick enough to launch a snowball with an electro-powered shot, zooming by at insane speeds, visibly knocking over Childe. He stood up quickly and sprinted so fast over to Diluc that he beat Thoma and Ayato, paying his way in immediately. He arrived to his team within a minute.

Eventually, it turned out like this: Zhongli was knocked off of the wall by Ayaka, and he was too poor to buy his way in again. He would ask Childe, but the Snezhnayan was way too enthusiastic to know how money works at the moment.

Scaramouche was slowly getting pissed about being targeted, so he let his inner rage win. Using his electro powers and anemo vision abilities, he swirls spikes of electro at Childe, the snowballs basically just electro orbs.

Childe grins, activating electro powers of his own.

"Xiao, make a mold!" Childe quickly yelled at his living teammate.

"Of what?" Xiao asked.

"A sharp thing, I don't know? A weapon," Childe explains quickly, dodging Scaramouche's attacks.

"Okay then," Xiao shrugged, jumping into the base.

Xiao began making the general shape of a spear. He dug the point, using a pocket knife he snuck in to make sure the mold was pointy. Before long, he had the mold of his signature spear he'd left sitting where Venti forced everyone to leave their weapons.

"Done," Xiao said.

"Perfect," Childe smiled.

Childe leapt into the base, using his hydro powers to fill up the mold. After a bit, the water had melted into ice, and a spear was made. Xiao cleared away the snow and polished off the weapon, sharpening the tip.

"Now, can you use that to sneak up at Scaramouche and cut a hole in his base? I need it to fall apart," Childe explained.

Meanwhile, Ayaka was being pummeled with Scaramouche's lighting-fast assault. Mad that her stupid brother and housekeeper were walking slow as snails to Diluc, laughing and poking at each other, she decided to bring out her full force.

She hid herself well within her walls and took off her left boot, where she kept a shotgun.

Loading it with pellets of ice, she readied the weapon. Cutting a small circular hole in her fort's wall (it was very thick, but using her cryo vision helped manipulate it), she stuck the barrels through and made another hole for purposes of being able to see her target.

Childe was standing atop his wall again, although this time he was moving at insane speeds, focused intently on Scara, who was very intense. Ayaka didn't fail to notice Xiao sneaking around towards Scaramouche, a weapon of ice in his hands.

Ayaka decided to take out Xiao first, as a test run.

"HOLY SHIT!" Xiao screeched as ice slashed through him.

Holy shit indeed. He was actively bleeding. Everywhere.

"Sorry!" Ayaka gasped, running out of her base. "I didn't know it was that powerful."

"I'm fine," Xiao hissed, struggling to stand.

"Here, I can take you to Kokomi," Ayaka offered, helping Xiao walk.

"No, I'm fine-"

"XIAAAOOOO!" Venti cried running onto the field. "Are you DEAD?"

"I'm perfectly okay-"

"You need serious medical attention," Zhongli said as he walked over.

Xiao sighed, knowing there was no way out of it. Ayaka, incredibly guilty, insisted on being with Xiao until he was healed. Ayato and Thoma were so busy goofing around with each other that they hadn't even reached Diluc yet: realizing that Ayaka would be out of commission for the rest of the game, they decided to never buy their way in.

There were only two survivors.

Or were they?

"YES! SUCK IT! I-I mean, sorry, that was rude," Bennett rubbed the back of his neck.

"No, it's fine," Diluc sighed.

"Um- good game," Bennett stuck out his hand.

"Agreed," Diluc packed up his TCG cards.

The two put away all of the materials before turning towards each other again.

"As for the deal," Diluc slides over six cups of hot chocolate.

"Thanks!" Bennett grins, running towards his friends, somehow balancing all of the cups. "Razor, Fischl, Xingqiu, Xiangling, Chongyun!"

The group of teenagers look up to see Bennett sprinting over with six cups of hot chocolate balancing delicately in his hands. Quickly, they all stood up to relieve him of the load.

"I bargained our way back in. There's a way to win now!" Bennett gave them a thumbs up.

"But there's no chance against those two..." Chongyun muttered.

Bennett glanced up at Childe and Scaramouche, who were both bleeding somewhere or another, practically foaming at the mouth, eyes focused. The two of them were standing on their walls now, dodging and striking powerfully. The two were doing flips while making elemental combos, sending projectiles at the speed of light.

"Nah, we'll be fine!" Xiangling insisted, chugging her hot cocoa. "This could use some squirrel meat."

"I- okay," Xingqiu drank his own.

Chongyun realized they were supposed to be drinking and quickly followed suit. Before long, they were all ready to head back in.

"We ready?" Bennett asked.

"Yup!"

"Of course."

"Always, my liege!"

"Yes."

"Thy Prinzessin expresses an affirmative opinion on Bennett's point of confusion."

Thus, a new group entered the match. Taking over Ayaka's base, they use their wide variety of visions to set up their attack system.

Following Childe's example, they made molds and created ice weapons, thanks to Xingqiu's hydro and Chongyun's quick freezing ability, weapons were made in minutes. Half the snowballs that Razor and Bennett were making were filled with electro-charged water, while the others were filled with pyro: those snowballs covered in thick ice so that they wouldn't melt super fast.

When ready, they started yeeting the snowballs all at once. They wanted to target Childe, who they were better defended against thanks to Ayaka's ice wall between the two bases.

Childe was basically vibrating through time and space, delusion activated and abyss form ready to roll. Despite this, they landed multiple hits due to the elemental interaction; when the snowballs of different types collided, they created an overload effect on Childe and his base.

Tartaglia's wall crumbled at the explosions, and Childe found himself without a base. Scaramouche grinned and took advantage of this, hitting Childe while dazed. But he didn't waste a moment. Immediately, he turned on the teenager's in Ayaka's old base, pelting them.

"Eek!" Xiangling ducked below their wall. "We need a new plan."

"Yeah, Scaramouche's base is dug into the ground, much less a wall like Childe's. Also, it's incredibly well-built and thick thanks to Kaveh's previous engineering and Eula's reinforcement," Xingqiu was analyzing this intensely.

"Might as well use our weapons, now?" Bennett asked.

Suddenly, they heard commotion. Looking over their wall, they see Childe dead-sprinting back into the battle area, hiding within his base once again, behind the only standing wall. Using his Hydro powers, he began re-creating the wall out of ice.

A standstill began. Two teams were hiding, so Scaramouche didn't attack, meaning nothing was going on.

Fischl, Razor and Xingqiu huddled around Bennett and Xiangling, trying to warm up. Chongyun was just vibing and eating a popsicle. Scaramouche froze alone. Childe was warmed up by adrenaline and cold-resistance.

Three hours passed. Three more. Eight hours more. The competition had lasted more than 12 hours now. The sun set, and Scaramouche officially deduced that he had frostbite. The few years he spent in Snezhnaya had built up his resistance to extreme cold; but not enough to prevent shit like this. Childe is in the same position (regretting his stomach window now)-

The two Fatui looked with envy through small sniper windows at the teenager team's base. A steady smoke stream slowed out of it, signaling that there was a campfire. The smell of roasted meat wafted through the air, and laughter could be heard.

This is because Fischl shot an arctic fox with a bow made of ice and hair and Xiangling decided to cook it over a pit in the ice, the fire fueled by Bennett alone, no wood needed (or available).

Scaramouche was too frozen to move, and at that point, officially passed out. Immediately, Mika informed the people still watching, who sent Kokomi, Barbara, and Shinobu to retrieve him. He was officially out of the competition.

Soon, tensions arose between the teenagers.

"Once Childe leaves, we'll have to fight each other," Xingqiu brings up.

"Why don't we just say we all win?" Bennett asked innocently.

"Natural human ambition would soon prove you wrong," Chongyun shoots that down.

"Suicide pact?" Fischl suggested, too cold to talk fancily.

"I say we have a nice, fun, average snowball fight and have no hard feelings for whoever wins," Xiangling said.

The group started tensing up and moving closer to those they trusted most. Eventually, Razor's hand came in contact with a random snowball on the fort's floor, and he gripped it. Everyone stared hard at the weapon that could end in their failure.

Xingqiu automatically grabbed an ice dagger, holding it to his chest as a warning. Chongyun neared him further, protecting him from the left, while Bennett went to slowly stand in front of Razor.

Nobody was breathing, the tension was way too intense. Suddenly, Xiangling yeeted their friendship to the flames and slammed a snowball into Fischl. She passed out. In that moment, Razor let loose, his snowball missing horribly past Xingqiu, who threw his dagger.

The dagger bounced off the walls and stabbed Bennett perfectly in the shoulder blade, rendering his throwing arm and consciousness unavailable. Razor gasped and tried to help Bennett, but was taken out by Chongyun.

The three surviving Liyueans began in intense fire; some throwing snowballs, some weapons. Eventually, Xingqiu got smacked in the head with a hammer of ice. Chongyun got pissed and attempted to kamikaze Xiangling, but ended up getting hit before he made it to her with the lasting explosive snowballs.

Xiangling now stood alone, bleeding from shards of ice stuck throughout her, shivering in her stupid goofy ahh outfit. She ducked close to the fire, watching her friends leave the premises. Then she remembered; holy shit, wait. Childe was still in the match. This whole fight was useless until Childe was out, but he's still there.

With little ammo and weapons remaining, Xiangling needed to get back on production, but she also needed to keep the wood-less fire going with her vision. She couldn't do both at once; so she decided to prioritize being warm and outlasting Childe.

Five hours later:

"Vroooom," Childe said as he made his sculpture run around the floor. "You can't catch me!"

The ice sculpture darted around, dodging the piece in Childe's other hand, which depicted himself, although as if taken with the quality of an iPhone 1 with 1k resolution.

The truth was that while Xiangling shivered beside her fire, barely saving herself from frostbite, Childe was vibing. He might have been going a bit insane, hence the playing with ice sculptures like a literal child, but he wasn't really that cold. Insanity stems from the strangest of things: which would, in this case, be loneliness. He hadn't been alone in the cold this long since his time in the Abyss.

"I can hide in my palace, you can't reach me there," Childe muttered to himself, just above a whisper. "Then I'll break through the walls! There is no escaping me."

Childe made the first figurine, which appeared to be a human of some sort, hesitate before sprinting into a mini igloo Childe had made earlier.

"Tartaglia, you can't abandon me!" the second figure said.

"But my life is too different from yours, it could never be," the first figurine, apparently Tartaglia(?), said. "I would put you in danger every day, Zhongli."

"I don't care, for my love prevails over the idea of danger!" ice sculpture #2, Zhongli, cried.

...Yeah okay maybe Childe was going insane. I can't make any more excuses for this man.

"CHILDE SNAP YOUR GOOFY ASS OUT OF IT!" A sudden yell interrupted his play time.

It was Scaramouche on the sidelines, having been watching Childe slowly be taken by insanity. He watched as the ice sculptures progressed from enemies to lovers, and he couldn't take it anymore. Unlike Signora and Dottore, who were watching while eating snow with Xiao, Albedo, Kaeya, Kaveh, Diluc, and Venti.

"S-Scara?" Childe's eyes grew teary as he looked up at Scaramouche on the cliff ledge.

"Yes, idiot, we've been watching this whole time. I'm done with it. Just take out the chef and stop torturing me," Scaramouche huffed. "You're acting like you're drunk."

"It's because most of his nerves have been burnt, numbing all feelings, and his blood flow has greatly slowed, making him slow to process information. It is actually quite similar to being drunk, especially when you contemplate the pain he must be in, which would add to the delusional- that reminds me, the previous use of his delusion might also be affecting his capabilities to think," Albedo ranted.

"Sounds like an opportunity for experimentation," Dottore grinned.

"Scara why do you hate me?" Childe asked.

"Because you suck ass," Scara reasoned. "And you're so gay it's making me homophobic."

"That's sexist," Childe insisted.

"...No?" Venti pitched in, thinking it over. "What?"

"What?" Childe turned to Venti. "Who're you?"

"TARTAGLIA OF THE FATUI!" Xiangling's voice suddenly rang out. "COME OUT, COWARD!"

Childe snapped his head in the direction of the sound.

"Duty calls," Childe stood, wobbling, saluting to Signora, Dottore, and Kaveh in turn.

Childe managed to hop onto his wall, looking around for Xiangling. She stood in the middle of the battleground, ice weapons attached to every part of her outfit, snowballs in both her hands.

"Let's 1v1 to get out of this hell," she said, shivering where she stood.

"Okay," Childe responded.

Thus, the two began fighting. Childe seemed to have forgotten weapons, but luckily his natural instinct was in tact, and he automatically dodged the hits. Xiangling, however, can barely dodge as Childe sends water splashing towards her, which is instantly frozen in the night air of the mountain and made into hard weapons.

In the end, Childe was the only survivor.

Covered in blood from a variety of reasons, including his fight with Xiangling, he chuckled. That turned soon into a full-out laughter, fueled by pain, insanity, and joy. He looked like a madman, standing in a field with Xiangling's dead body at his feet, head facing the sky as blood flowed into his eyes.

"Ladies, gentlemen, and other-gendered peoples of Teyvat! We have a winner!"

—

In the aftermath, we can see Childe being transported back to Liyue on a stretcher, Xiangling beside him. Once they both reached Liyue Harbor, they were rushed to the most renowned hospital in Teyvat.

Anyone else who required medical attention got it from the local team of healers, and turned out to be fine on the physical aspect. Everyone else learned a lesson or two about camaraderie, battle tactics, and the nature of human beings.

Venti sat on the head of his statue, staring at the people below, watching their movements. Ah, what an amazing idea that was. Next year, he's planning on repeating the tournament, but different. What's different? Opposite. What's the opposite of snow? Sand.

He grinned, remembering his conversation with the Sumeruans during the afterparty of Childe's victory. They had nodded along in agreement when he suggested a wet sand fight on the beaches of the desert.

Sighing contently, he leaned back, taking another sip of his wine. Hopefully the next tournament will be less traumatic.