[The Kylian Empire can now be found on WebNovel, by the author The_Great7777. For people on WebNovel, The Kylian Empire can be found on Royal Road by the author The Great.]
The New Rosian Mountains rose before Kylia like jagged teeth against the azure sky, their peaks capped with snow that shimmered like scattered diamonds. It had taken several days of travel from New Rosa City over 2,000 kilometers southwest.
Scouting from a height of 5,000 meters above sea level, her view started to drastically narrow as the ground came up beneath her. Not before too long she was only 100 meters above the surface.
"Whoosh!" Three glimmering lightning arrows suddenly flew right at her. Recognizing the threat, Kylia veered left only to be met by three more lightning arrows, two hit her top wings and another her torso. While the arrows did not penetrate or cause any injuries, they were able to knock Kylia from the sky.
"Whoa!" At nearly 300 km/h, Kylia tumbled into the mountainside. After rolling down the snowy slope for a couple seconds she came to a stop at a rocky ridge. Scrambling to get up, she pushed herself onto her hands and knees, chest heaving. Before Kylia could fully regain her balance, a blinding flash erupted from her right.
A Golden Lynel, its white mane shimmering like molten gold, charged straight at her. Without much time to think, Kylia threw her right fist out as her Маньоко span furiously. Four tonnes of force barreled towards the Lynel's head at Mach 1.
"Wha-!" To her surprise, the moment her fist collided with the Lynel, felt searing pain in her arm. A punch of that caliber can completely pulverize a human skull yet only slow down the incoming Lynel.
"Argh!" Kylia roared as the Lynel continued on its path with nearly 50 tonnes of force, shattering her entire right arm.
Kylia stared at her right arm, a grotesque parody of its former self. The limb was a mangled mess. Smoldering black blood, thick as tar, oozed from the shattered remains. Fragments of composite bone, like jagged shards of obsidian, jutted from the wound. Yet, miraculously, the sleeve of her garment, crafted from strands of her own hair, remained intact.
"Blayt!" If Kylia was annoyed at the Lynel shooting her out of the sky, then now she was furious at the Golden Lynel. Unlike Humans, Valors take longer to heal as rare elements need to be ingested for the formation of new cells and Valor cells split slower than Human cells. And with the severity of the injury, she would need even longer to heal. Luckily, because Valors live so long, they have slow yet astounding healing abilities, even being able to grow new limbs in decades. However, Kylia's combat effectiveness will now be temporarily reduced for a couple of years.
The Golden Lynel, indifferent to Kylia's fury, turned and roared before lifting his club over his head. The beast's eyes, burning like blue embers, fixed on Kylia, radiating extreme bloodlust and power.
Kylia, not wanting to take chances, backed away at Mach 1, twenty meters from the upcoming attack. Her form blurred, a fleeting afterimage against the snow-dusted rock. Her arm was hanging limply and pulsed with agony. If she tried to block this strike, she may lose another arm, or even lose her life.
The Golden Lynel then swung its club down with such force that a shockwave ten meters in diameter formed around its weapon. The air crackled, a visible distortion of the atmosphere. At the same time, a dome of fire radiated from its body. With temperatures of 1,600 degrees Celsius, everything in the area was turned into ash. The snow nearest the Lynel instantly vaporized, leaving behind a patch of blackened earth. The rocky ridge where Kylia had landed now glowed with an eerie orange light.
The Golden Lynel, disoriented from the tremendous impact and exertion, found his club lodged deep within the earth. He grunted, struggling to pull the massive weapon free. The ground around him was scorched, and the air shimmered with residual heat.
Kylia, fueled by a potent mix of pain and rage, sheathed her anger and drew out her saber, the blade shimmering with a deadly light. With a swift motion, she focused her left arm, swinging around her signature 100-meter-long plasma blade towards the Lynel.
"Eat my slash!" Kylia's voice rang out, her words accompanied by the sound of her saber slicing through the air. However, despite the slash traveling at Mach 1, the Golden Lynel was able to free its weapon and dodge the attack, its agility and quick reflexes allowing it to avoid the blow by a couple of centimeters.
The slash continued on its path, forming a deep gash along the mountain side, the rock face shattering and crumbling as the plasma blade bit deep into the earth.
The Golden Lynel pivoted, his blue-ember eyes fixing on the Valors left arm as he roared for another strike. He had survived her previous attack and was prepared to end this annoying battle.
Kylia, still enraged, closed the distance in milliseconds. Her multi-pupil irises span so fast that they started to project a single black sideways K in each eye. The air around Kylia shimmered as electromagnetic fields generated vast amounts of plasma.
A three-meter-tall, three-million-degree-Celsius plasma Susanoo erupted around her, throwing a single blue fist with thirty tonnes of force towards the incoming Golden Lynel. The Golden Lynel, in response, had already begun swinging its club down for the final, decisive blow.
The instant of impact between the Golden Lynel's crusher and Kylia's Susanoo fist was the very moment Kylia realized her catastrophic error. While the plasma Susanoo possessed a temperature of three million degrees, it did not radiate heat with the same aggressive efficiency as her plasma slash. Her plasma slash was designed for destruction, its electromagnetic containment fields intentionally weakened to allow heat to bleed through readily. In stark contrast, her plasma Susanoo was primarily a defensive construct, boasting exceptionally robust containment fields. The heat generated by the plasma Susanoo was merely sufficient to melt the Lynel crusher before the rest of the weapon, unhindered, broke through the arm and penetrated the blue rib cage.
"Wham!" Thrown like a discarded rag doll, Kylia slammed into the steep, rocky mountainside. The Golden Lynel's blow, partially mitigated by Kylia's defenses, was still enough to embed her slightly into the stone face. Though no new bones had been broken, she was now coughing up blood, recoiling from the brutal internal injuries inflicted.
"Urh…" Kylia's strength ebbed, and she collapsed completely, utterly exhausted and woozy. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't be so weary after such a confrontation, but at this point, she had sustained multiple severe injuries and lost a significant amount of blood. In this state, achieving a tenth of her peak combat effectiveness would be difficult.
"Snort!" The Golden Lynel pranced towards Kylia, its hooves clattering against the ground as it adopted the classic Lynel stance, its face showing a sneering look and its eyes stared condescending at her.
Intimidated, Kylia's broken arm throbbing with an agony that threatened to consume her consciousness, she struggled to scramble to her feet.
The Golden Lynel, impatient, scooped up Kylia in one smooth motion in its large, golden, furry arm. Kylia struggled, but ultimately could not escape the grasp of the Golden Lynel.
"Arg!" Reaching out with its large hands, the Golden Lynel gripped Kylia's black sideways K-shaped horn, claws digging in at the base. With a heavy snarl, it wrenched the horn free. Blinding pain coursed through Kylia's head as cartilage and bone tore apart with a wet, sickening crunch. The horn, slick with black blood and still faintly pulsing with smoldering blood, dangled from the Lynel's grasp.
The Golden Lynel turned the severed horn over in its palm, eyes glinting with satisfaction. Valor horns are a very valuable and exotic material, even rivaling other monster parts such as Dragon horns. With a final, approving snort, the Lynel slipped the horn into a pouch at its side, already imagining the weapon it would soon create.
Turning its attention to Kylia's now unconscious body hanging limply in its arms, the Lynel had a hint of bloodlust, before clarity filled its eyes. Shaking its head, the Lynel separated Kylia from her sword, as her sword was also quite valuable too. Placing Kylia's sword with her horn, the Lynel spent a couple of minutes trotting towards the border of its territory. There, it tossed Kylia into a snow laden ditch and the Lynel then made its way back to the center of its territory.