"Gasp!" The frigid air stabbed at Kylia's lungs as she jolted awake, half-buried in snow at the bottom of the ditch. Sprawling up, Kylia limped anywhere but towards where she believed the Lynel's territory was. Nearing a low lying tree, she snapped off a sturdy branch aligning it to her right arm as she grabbed some flimsier branches to use as twine.
After taking a couple painful hours to properly secure the makeshift splint, Kylia went off to continue her journey in the secluded mountains. There was no need for her to rush back to the frontlines, as winter was approaching, slowing the already far away Hylian advance. Kylia would have a few months to herself to recuperate and train once the war really picks up next year.
Plus, Kylia was in a terrible condition to be seen by her men, almost unrecognizable. Her once Royal blue hair was now blotched with blacks from uncleaned blood. Her most iconic feature, her black sideways K shaped horn was nowhere to be seen and her entire right arm was crippled.
Steeling herself, Kylia trudged through the mountainside for hours, unbothered by the cold and thin air. Arriving at a snowy ridge with a hill providing cover from the chilly winds, Kylia set up a campfire.
"Rustle." A sound from some snow covered shrubbery not too far away from Kylia's position rang out.
"Who's there!" Kylia, startled, jumped up shouting.
"Wham!" Suddenly, a small weird Chuchu appeared in all its glory, glowing a vertical tricolor pattern, featuring three bands of equal width: blue, white, and red. It frosts and burns the ground with an icy, charcoal mist, making it look more divine than it really is.
"Scram!" Kylia ordered the Chuchu with a wave of her sword, only to realize her sword was missing from its scabbard.
"Blyat!" Cursed Kylia as the Chuchu, its eyes smug like, wiggled in front of the enraged Valor in a teasing motion. Grabbing a tree branch she swung it horizontally at the persistent little thing.
Unexpectedly, the Chuchu did a backflip, dodging Kylia's swing by millimeters, before accelerating towards Kylia at Mach 0.87.
"Wha-!" Horrified, Kylia shouted out as the Ice Chuchu slammed into her face, blocking her mouth, freezing and burning her tongue at the same time. She stumbled backwards as the little creature then bounded to her shoulder, clearing her airway. For a moment, the two stared at each other.
"Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!" The ground vibrated as, from the swirling mists and snow-laden trees, ten Large Ice Chuchus emerged—each one 20cm shorter than Kylia in height but many times wider in diameter. Their bodies glowed with a deep, icy blue, exhaling clouds of frost that made the air crackle and sting. Their eyes locked not on Kylia, but on the tiny, defiant Chuchu on her shoulder.
The tri-color Chuchu let out a nervous wiggle, its blue, white, and red bands flickering with urgency. Then it glanced a pleading look towards Kylia.
Kylia: \(o -o)/ ?
French Chuchu: (.> -<.) !
Kylia: (=_=)#
"Fine…" she muttered, extending her left arm. A swirling plasma ball—blue, red, orange, yellow, and white forms in her palm as she confronted the group of giant blue balls* surrounding them.
"Eat my Balls!"* Kylia charged at the nearest Large Ice Chuchu to the right, closing the distance in nano seconds. The Chuchu, too slow to react, was hit square in the center of its jello-like body.
The Chuchu's body rippled, its surface fracturing as frost and vapor exploded outward. Shards of frozen gel scattered across the mountainside, hissing as they struck the ground. The other nine Large Chuchus recoiled, their glowing blue bodies pulsing in alarm, but their focus remained fixed on the tri-color Chuchu clinging desperately to Kylia's shoulder.
Meanwhile Kylia was left dealing with the after effects of the exploding Ice Chuchu. While it could not freeze her like what it could do to link, having something explode in your face is not a situation you want to be in.
The nine Icy Chuchu, seeing Kylia temporarily stunned, jumped at the opportunity, literally.
"Squish!" Kylia found herself in the center of a horde of aggressive slimy iceballs trying to freeze her alive. While ineffective at first, the center of the crowd slowly got really cold, so cold that the air around her started to freeze and fall down to the ground.
Kylia knew she had to act fast. Her plasma techniques mainly revolved heating up air into plasma. No air, no plasma. Plasma balling each Chuchu one by one was just too slow and Plasma susanoo was too energy intensive for such a… small threat. So she decided to use one of the techniques that she made but hadn't really used in actual combat yet.
"Whoosh!" Plasma arced along every strand of Kylia's hair, each glowing filament snapping with blue, red, and gold light. The Chuchus hesitated, their icy bodies pulsing in alarm, but it was already too late.
With a flick of her head, Kylia created 10,000 plasma hair-like filaments that lashed at a 10 meter radius around her. Each strand pierced through the gelatinous bodies of the nine remaining Ice Chuchus, the plasma sizzling and vaporizing frozen gel on contact. The air filled with the sharp scent of ozone and the hiss of melting ice as the Chuchus melted, their forms smoldering and collapsing inward.
"Hmm… Not bad!" Kylia exclaimed, brushing a stray lock of plasma-charged hair from her face, the cold mountain air swirling around her bare forehead. The ridge was silent once more—except for the soft, grateful wiggle of the French Chuchu, safe at her side.
…
After the Ice Chuchu battle, Kylia and the weird looking Chuchu who she now named Frenchy, scoured the New Rosian Mountain range for months. No monsters were spared, from the weakest chuchu's to the strong Silver Lynels, all had either become monster parts or left the area.
In fact, Kylia and Frenchy had fought so many monsters that she even made a tier list of their rankings to help steer clear of nasties she would prefer not to tussle with.
S+ Tier (Top-Tier Threats / Boss-Level Enemies)
Golden Lynel
S Tier (Below Gold Lynel, but Top Regular Monsters)
Silver Lynel
A Tier (Strong Minibosses and Elite Enemies)
Black Hinox / Silver Hinox, Rare Stone Talus / Frost Talus, Silver Moblin, Silver Lizalfos, Silver Bokoblin
B Tier (Mid-Level Threats and Swarmers)
Wizzrobe (Ice), Horriblin
C Tier (Common Enemies, Low Individual Threat)
Chuchu (All Types), Bokoblin (Red/Blue/Black), Lizalfos (Green/Blue/Black), Moblin (Red/Blue/Black)
D/E Tier (Minimal Threat, Swarmers)
Keese (All Types), Octorok, Chuchu (Smallest)
From these battles she significantly improved her combat experience. At first, she could only have a 30% chance of defeating a Silver Lynel. Now, most of the time she can kill a Silver Lynel within seconds, achieving a strength that is Peak S Tier. If she wasn't injured, she may even move into the low S+ class Tier.
Her sideways K shaped horn had largely grown back, some of the corners still round though. Her right arm is still in a splint, but looking much better and she had cleaned up any other sign of injury from her battle against the Golden Lynel.
Frenchy had also become much stronger, as he/she (who knows?) has a talent that surpasses most (possibly all) Chuchu. Wielding a crude wooden spear and a bark shield, Frenchy would parry or flurry rush opponents and add some elemental attacks in the mix. He was a Peak B Tier monster, only constrained by his poor equipment, small size and low health.
During this time, Kylia had not come across any Gleeoks to her bitter disappointment. But she is also grateful for that, as she would likely put them in S+ Tier along with Golden Lynels, a bit too powerful for her liking.
Trained and recuperated, Kylia plans to go back to New Rosa City, as the 2nd Brigade should be arriving at the city soon in a few weeks. There, Kylia and Rosa can properly discuss defensive measures against the Hylians as equals, instead of pushing Yuter into a position where he had to coordinate with an possibly unwilling superior.
Kylia stood at the edge of the snowy ridge, the same one that she had met Frenchy all those months ago. "I will be going now. I expect you to be stronger when I return. Got that?"
Frenchy nodded, then, with surprising dignity, planted its spear in the snow and stood at attention.
"Okay… Well, I'll be seeing you!" Kylia said her goodbyes as jumped off the ridge before the updraft caught her wings. Looking back, Kylia saw Frenchy waving its spear against the white backdrop. Taking one last glance at her only friend for months, Kylia rose above the cloud line, losing sight of the world below.
*Whistle.