104 Sylvomurkuwar Fortress (3)

After turning around to face the pack behind her Yun prepared herself for another round of combat. Judging by how fast they typically learn she was fairly confident that another set of slashes like her last one wouldn't succeed.

Knowing that didn't really stop her from trying though.

She slashed out, sending out another set of Crescent Moon Blades with the help of the Ardent Spears. This time she only heard a very small number of thumps from the pack in front of her, indicating that the vast majority of them evaded her attack. She followed up her lightning assault extremely quickly by charging forwards into the fray.

As she advanced on the group in front of her they began to come into focus. The vast majority of them were twice her size with mottled coloration that allowed them to blend in perfectly in the deep shadows of this forest. She got close to one of them and began to fight viciously, using brute force and the flexibility of her weapon to stop each attack from the large wolf-like creature she was dueling.

Clang!

Slash!

Thwack!

Their conflict continued on for a few minutes while Yun learned how the Lynmurku body could move and react. Armed with this knowledge she felt she could more easily dispatch these foes in close combat. Yun parried each attempt to use it's paws with her spear, pressing them down with the spiked end, and stopped the attempts to use it's powerful jaws by smashing into the side of it's face with the blade, though typically the flat of the blade impacted due to the clever actions of the Lynmurku and it's high speed movements.

After managing to severely disorient the Lynmurku with repeated head-shots she managed to put her body behind a blade thrust below the jaw, driving her blade up into the Lynmurku's brain, killing it. As one fell the others growled menacingly at her, but she paid it no mind and charged another one.

Body after body fell as she grew more and more adept at creating openings in their defenses to kill them. With each fight she had to rely on sheer speed to compete with these ferocious creatures, and bit by bit she came to understand more about Lightning energy as a result.

Yun even began to infuse some lightning energy into her spear actions, numbing the Lynmurku she was fighting to make her work easier. Before long she had felled half a dozen of the beasts, but she was going to tire out soon as well. There were still over a dozen living Lynmurku surrounding her, but she was undaunted. She activated her Dragon Aura in a small area around herself to draw in physical energy to supplement her body from the fight.

After nearly two incense sticks of time Yun was starting to get towards the last few enemies. She was now facing off against three of them at once, and they were close enough together that they were preventing her from reaching them. She stopped and faced off with them, recovering her energy a little while she racked her brain for good methods to deal with this that wouldn't consume all her strength. She was too low on Qi to keep using her Dragon Aura or to use a Crescent Moon Slash, and she could at most release one of her Argent Spears before she was at her limits.

Slowly both parties moved, one step this way, one step that way, seeking a chance to break through the other side and survive. Suddenly Yun heard the snapping of a few twigs. She didn't move to check on it, but the opponents did. She darted forwards as they glanced in that direction and managed to slip her blade into the neck of one of them before another one smashed her in the side with it's large paw. She was sent flying to the side, impacting on a tree trunk a dozen meters away.

Yun coughed up a small amount of blood from the impact, but she still stood strong, noticing that she likely had a few cracked ribs from that attack. She advanced towards the remaining two Lynmurku again, this time confident that she could win the battle. As they reached a point of parity she took a risk and threw a spear hard towards one of them, then dashed forwards towards the other. As the first one was batting the spear out of the air she reached the second and parried it's first attack before slicing it's throat. Her strike was not immediately life threatening, but it would definitely cause this beast to bleed out within a few minutes. She could stall that long.

She backed up and waited for the one whose throat was slashed to lose enough blood to be useless in a fight, then as she was preparing to move in and finish off the last one she heard a branch crack much closer than the last time. She glanced to the side, confident that the last remaining foe couldn't cause her harm at this time, and was a little frightened by what she saw.

To her right, prowling forwards, was another Lynmurku. However. . . This one was larger than the rest, and it's colors contained hints of fiery red. This must be a mutated beast born from battle or some kind of triggering event. Yun was worried about this beast's interference, so she immediately dashed forwards to dispatch the remaining normal type Lynmurku.

Within two strikes she had severed the spine of her last opponent before she stood with her back against a large tree, catching her breath as the mutated Lynmurku stalked forwards almost silently.

Their eyes locked onto eachother, their breath syncronized, and neither of them moved a muscle.