Interlude: Lynae Kyanos

Soil, rock, boulders, mountains. These four creations share strength in the face of all adversity. Kagera, the Guardian of Earth, blessed the lands of Sokkitia with the divine strength to move mountains. The faunus who worshiped her unparalleled strength viewed her as an unbreakable shield over all of Vastel.

Never before has a Guardian been so feared yet so loved. For Kagera's heart was as solid as the rocks beneath our world, but her love for another warmed her heart. Kateus, the Guardian of Fire. Though they were worlds apart, Kagera longed for an eternity of happiness with him, but the Guardian soon learned that despite all her power, even she cannot control destiny.

After Nerulia, the Guardian of Thunder, removed knowledge from the lands of Sokkitia, an unknown force corrupted the Guardian's heart. The Guardian of Earth heard the cries of her family throughout the lands, but could only watch helplessly as the guardian she has known all her centuries succumb to the darkness but with one plea.

"…Sokki….contr…protec…one…"

(Torn Pages)

##

On the day of the Alisen Industries incident.

In the underground caverns of the Sadarian Desert east of Sovaka Mountain, a colosseum as wide as a sports stadium held a fighter competition known as 'The Underground' where once a year the toughest faunus from the cruel desert come together to fight for prize money.

A dark-brown-skinned faunus girl practiced her punches on the wall, leaving bits of cracks on the surface. The right side of her hair was short, spikey, cyan-blue hair with dark blue highlights on the edges while the left side has been completely shaved off. No one is able to find a single sign of makeup on her oval face. Instead, she had light freckles dotted all over with a lightly faded scar on her left cheek. The color of her irises matched her hair and carried a steadfast aura within the slit pupils. Another scar, deeper than the other, ran across her left eye. She stretched out the defined muscles on her arms before stretching her long, slender legs.

Short, black dragon horns stuck out of her head. Two tattoos rested on her body—one being green vines and red roses extending from her left shoulder down to her hand with the word 'Beauty' on it. The other side's tattoo had chains and barbed wire going down with a bullet casing that had the word 'Deadly' written.

She wore a light blue top with gold lining and a dark blue jacket with gold pauldrons over the top. Her pants were black and blue decorated with crystal markings with spikes on the side and black tights with blue and light blue boots.

As she took a long sip of her water, she caught a male mercenary walk up to her.

"Lynae Kyanos, your elevator will be here soon."

Lynae, the faunus girl, let out a smirk. "No time like the present." She tossed her empty water bottle to the mercenary. "Throw that in the trash for me, alright?" She didn't give the man a chance to answer as she entered the elevator that had just arrived on her floor.

As the elevator makes its way upward to the battleground floor, the dragon faunus heard the loud announcement from the casters.

"Ladies and gentlefaunus!" Shouted the caster, "The time has come to end this year's Underground Brawl with the final round!" The cheering of the crowd boomed throughout the stadium. "Without further delay, introducing the unstoppable force of earth! Conqueror of the piercing sandstorms of Sadarian! She punched and kicked her way into all our hearts these past two years as the undefeated Underground Queen! LYNAE! KYANOS!"

The elevator arrives on the battlefield floor. Lynae smiled and whispered to herself. "Show time…"

The dragon faunus walked across the hot, sandy arena as the packed stadium seats around her cheered for her arrival. She raised her hands up into the air, signaling for the crowd to get loud as possible.

"There she is, folks!" The caster announced, "Pumped up and ready to take names as no self-confident champion should! And this year, her opponent is a rebel who's worked his way up from the sand storms of the south. A mysterious man from lands unknown with the eyes of death itself! The Aegir!"

The elevator on the other side of the arena opened up. A man with long, silver hair stepped forward from the shadows. His eyes as red as blood as he wore a black hunter's outfit unlike any known in Vastel. The most distinct feature about his accessory was the black hunter hat on his head and two rings resting on his right fingers—one blue and the other purple.

Some of Lynae's fans boo'd at the mystifying man while others gave mixed cheers.

Lynae examined the newcomer from top to bottom as he approached. "What's with that get-up?"

"Fighters!" The caster shouted, "Please make your way to the center, please!"

Lynae walked toward the center to meet her unfamiliar opponent. The two eventually stopped at least ten yards away from each other and proceeded to stare into each other as the air between them grew still and silent.

"Not from around here, are ya'?" Lynae broke the ice between them, but the silver-haired man didn't respond. The blue-haired faunus let out a sigh. "Silent treatment. That's fine with me, but I'd like to know your real name before we start. Fighter's honor and all that."

Silence once again from the man for a moment before he opened his mouth. "…Unknown." He spoke in a bone-chilling, deep tone.

Lynae raised an eyebrow at the response. "Come again?"

"Unknown. That is my name."

The dragon faunus tilted her head as her face twisted. "What kind of name is that? You trying to get cool points or something, because I'm afraid names like that don't bring a net positive for you, dude." But when 'Unknown' went silent again, Lynae shook her head. "Welp, I hope we have a fun match, Unknown. Your strength and skill better match that awesome title. Aegir, was it? Honestly, I think that is a much more fitting name." No response from her opponent. She slumped her posture. "Back to being silent, I see. Alright, may the best fighter win!"

The referee of the match stepped forward between the two. "I am sure you are both aware of the rules of this match, but I shall repeat them for the sake of this being the final round. You have five minutes to drain the aura shield of the opponent. The winner is the first to bring the opponent's shield to 10%. Usage of weapons or semblances is prohibited. Failure to halt the match after the ten percent threshold has been reached will result in immediate disqualification."

"Underground Queen! Aegir! Are you ready?!" Asked the caster.

Lynae smirked and smashed her two fists together. "You're damn right I'm ready!"

Unknown did not respond to the question and stood silently like a scarecrow that could move at any second.

"…BEGIN!" The referee shouted before quickly running in the opposite direction.

Lynae's Theme Song: "Undefeatable" Sonic Frontiers.

Lynae swore she only blinked, but in that time, Unknown burst from his spot like a bullet towards her with a roundhouse kick. She quickly reacts by blocking the attack with her two arms. "Whooh, right out of the gate? Calm down, big boy, we still have five minutes."

"Less talking." Unknown circled around Lynae to deliver a strong punch on her left side.

Lynae rotated counterclockwise and intercepted with her right leg blocking the attack. "Clearly, you must be fun at your friends' birthday parties."

The two began to enter into a fistfight where each punch and kick was countered with a block. Punch for Punch. Kick for Kick. This feud of endless barrages on both sides caused their aura to slowly decrease evenly without a sign of one having the advantage over the other. A strong punch from both sides ended the quarrel, causing both to skid back a couple of yards from each other.

Lynae noticed her knuckles bleeding from the vendetta and whistled. "Damn, you're not playing around. I like that in a man." She cracked her knuckles as a brown aura surrounded her body. "Time for me to get serious then!"

"What is this?!" The caster shouted, "The Underground Queen is already starting her dust infusion?! But we're only a minute into the match!"

Unknown examined the dust affinity Lynae released from her body. "So your dust affinity is Earth. It's no wonder they call you the Underground Queen here." The silver-haired enigma began infusing his fists with water dust. "Show me the depths of your strength."

Lynae's eyes widened upon seeing Unknown's water dust aura. "Water dust infusion? Are you human?" But her opponent did not answer, making the dragon faunus narrow her eyes. "There's no way…"

The Underground Queen rushed at her opponent with her earth-infused fist. She jumped high into the air before slamming down on the sand to create a mini earthquake.

"There it is, folks!" The caster shouted, "Kyanos' famous Earthshatter attack! Hold on to your seats and valuables!"

Unknown inhaled a deep breath as he performed a hand motion resembling that of a magic sigil with water surrounding his body. His blood-red eyes shined like that of a predator from the depths of the ocean. "Sand and earth are meaningless in the eyes of Mother Laut. Come to me, Paus."

A sigil with the symbol of a whale appeared beneath the ground in front of him. From that sigil, a giant water whale jumped high into the air, much to the shock of the audience.

"Wh-what on earth are we seeing?!" The caster screamed, "A water-made whale just appeared out of nowhere!"

Lynae's blue irises shrank. Her body froze for a split second before her survival instinct kicked in and made her dash to the side to avoid the incoming sea creature that devoured her earthquake, turning the field into a muddy plain. The dragon faunus panted heavily as she witnessed the result of her opponent's unexpected move. "I've never seen anything like that. Who the hell Is this man?"

"Now that the field is even, Underground Queen." She heard Unknown's deep voice from behind. "Let's make these next three minutes one to remember for our audience."

Lynae kicked up a rock shield behind her and managed to block the stealth strike from Aegir. She jumped back, immediately feeling the effect of the wet sand beneath her. She looked ahead and saw Aegir rushing ahead toward her by using water dust to ease his travel.

"So that's why he used that whale. He must be using the water particles in the sand to his advantage. In that case…" Lynae focused her breathing and infused her arms and feet in solid rock. She then smashed the ground, creating a tidal wave of wet sand onto Unknown.

Unknown remained unfazed by the massive sand wave before him. "Hmph, a cheap trick is unlike an Underground Queen." He circled around the sand tidal wave, but when he looked in the direction Lynae was on the other side, she was gone.

"Nope!" Lynae shouted from above, "I just used my own brain this time!" She descended upon Unknown to land a swift, stone-encased kick.

The silver-haired man quickly intercepted the attack with a swift punch, but at the cost of a decent amount of his aura and the stability of his hand bones.

"Ooh, that's going to hurt three weeks from now!" The caster shouted, "In an unexpected turn of events, Lynae somehow managed to bypass Aegir's aura shield to cause some physical damage. As bad as this is for Aegir, such happenings are common in this arena."

Unknown winced as he retreated several yards from the dragon faunus and soothed his now-wounded hand.

"Sorry about your hand, my good sir, but this match is mine!" Lynae rushed towards Unknown at breakneck speed.

"Thirty seconds left! The final countdown is upon us!"

"Hmph, clever trick…but!" Water-made hands began to appear and grabbed onto Lynae before she could close the distance.

"What the-?!"

"I can spare one hand for two more." At the motion of his other hand, the water hands began to squeeze the life out of Lynae's aura shield, bringing her levels down lower than his own.

Lynae struggled to break free of his hold, but her arms and legs moved as if she was submerged underwater. She deduced that her opponent must have planned to lose his hand to her to set up his trap via the water particles beneath them. "Ngh, looks like you got me good, Aegir."

"A hunter must account for all possibilities on the battlefield."

"Absolutely…" Lynae then smirked. "…however…you made an error in your preparation?"

For the first time, Unknown's stoic expression broke with the simple raising of his eyebrow.

"The worst foundation to construct anything on…" The ground beneath them began to shake. "Is sand!" In an instant, the area around them exploded like huge sand geysers, sending them both flying into the air.

Unknown attempted to rebound himself as the last ten seconds wound down. "Come, Paus!" The silver-haired hunter attempted to summon the whale again to buy time, but Lynae quickly closed the distance by infusing her feet with the sand particles in the air to give her a boost to close distance. She pulled her arms back and closed her hands into a fist before quickly launching them forward to hit Unknown's abdomen with heavy force, causing tremendous damage to his aura shield.

"And...TIME!" The caster announced.

Both fighters landed on their feet and halted all movement.

"Now, let us compare and see the results! The winner of this year's Underground Brawl is..."

On the results screen displayed below the caster's booth, the results of the match appeared with the current aura shield level of the fighters—Lynae: 19%. Aegir: 5%.

"…Our Underground Queen and defending champion: LYNAE KYANOS!"

The entire arena erupted into loud cheers from the faunus crowd. All of them changed Lynae's name with proud vigor.

Lynae smiled as she basked in her victory.

"Whew, that Aegir sure put up one hell of a match for our queen! May the fighters please report to the center for their reward."

Lynae glanced over at her opponent, who was wiping off the wet sand from his clothes. She walked over and extended her hand to him, receiving a blank stare from the man. "I've never fought an opponent as efficient and smart as you, Aegir. Or...Unknown."

His expression did not change, but Unknown shook Lynae's hand regardless. "And you exceeded my expectations, Underground Queen."

Lynae smiled. "Ah, don't oversell my performance. Had you chosen the other direction when I made that sand tidal wave, I would have lost. I relied on sheer luck to beat you."

"Then I won't. You beat me by sheer luck."

Lynae's humility evaporated when she realized he took her words seriously. "That...was just me being modest. You can sell my performance a little."

"You should say what you mean then, but joking aside-"

"That was joking?"

"-you are a strong individual. Lynae Kyanos, was it?"

Lynae nodded. "Yep, nice to meet you."

"What will you do from here on?" Unknown asked. "Continue fighting in this arena?"

"Nope. I gotta go home after collecting the prize. Nothing like another year of hard training to keep my champion title intact." Lynae smiled. "One day, I will find a worthy opponent who will put my skills to the ultimate test…no offense to you, by the way."

As usual, the silver-haired man's expression didn't change. "A commendable goal."

"What about you? You gonna find the true name that you forgot?"

"I am no amnesiac."

"Heh, I figured. Was wondering if that was your angle."

Unknown closed his blood-red eyes. "You will learn my name in due time. To have the attention of one such as I is no easy accomplishment."

Lynae raised an eyebrow. "What does that-"

"A spectacular performance, you two!" The caster from the booth interrupted their conversation as he and some mercenaries approach them with two boxes. "You both manage to blow the audience out of their seats! I haven't seen a match like that in the past five years working here!"

Lynae smirked and let out a proud huff. "Glad to hear everyone had a blast. Aegir here really pulled out all the stops."

"Indeed." The caster said as he signaled one of the mercenaries to hand Unknown a silver box. "Here is your constellation prize, Mr. Aegir."

Unknown took the box and placed it in his pouch. "Thank you. May your days in this land be ever peaceful." He bowed to the people before he proceeded to leave the area.

Lynae stepped forward to face his back. "How about a rematch next time? No limitations or rules. Weapons and all!"

Unknown stopped in his tracks. He turned his head slightly to her to reveal a tiny smirk. "I will look forward to that day, Lynae Kyanos." With that said, he left the arena.

Seeing the stoic's smile made Lynae smile as well. "What an interesting guy..."

"I'll say," The caster said, "You only heard it from me, but he really isn't from around here."

"Is that so?" Lynae asked.

"On the last day of registration, he showed up out of nowhere and signed up at the last minute. Most of the contestants made fun of him, saying he wouldn't make it past the preliminaries."

"Yet he almost took my champion title from me…" Lynae looked back in the direction where Unknown exited.

"With that strange name and all that craziness he pulled with his dust affinity, his mystery vibe helped in making this final match one hell of a ride." The caster signaled the second mercenary to hand Lynae a golden box, "Anyways, your championship prize, Miss Kyanos! I hope you'll return next year to defend your title!"

"Oh you know I will!" Lynae accepted the prize and looked at her audience and waved. "Thank you all for your support these past two years! I promise I'll be back to defend my title and kick more ass!" And the crowd let out a loud cheer and chanted Lynae's name.

##

Lynae returned to her home on the outskirts of the Sadarian Desert. "Mom! Dad! I'm home~!"

Lynae's mother, Indra Kyanos, glanced up from her book and gave her daughter a welcoming smile. "Welcome back, Lynae."

"Lynae," Before Lynae could say anything, her father, Carmine, walked towards her and scanned her top to bottom, "Look at you.! Sand and bruises all over. You were at that Underground place again, weren't you?"

Lynae answered with a cheeky grin. "Hehe, I sure was and I won! Third time in a row too! Aren't I the best or what?"

Carmine shook his head. "The best at making a complete mess of yourself, perhaps." He then sniffed her, "Ugh, and you smell like the inside of a whale for some reason. Hurry along and get yourself cleaned up before you get an infection."

"Alright, alright, Dad." Lynae scurried to her room, hopped into the shower, and cleaned herself before dressing up in simple clothing to return to the living room with her parents, who were in the middle of a conversation.

"Come now, Carmine, isn't it about time?" Indra asked, "She's won a championship in a fighting ring three times now."

"You don't have to remind me...Indra...I know we came to this decision but..."

"What decision?" Lynae cut in.

The room was quiet. Indra and Carmine looked at each other before the father took a deep breath.

"Lynae, your mother and I had a long talk last week about...a certain proposition we'd like to make for you," Carmine said.

"Proposition?" Lynae raised an eyebrow. "It better not be dressing up in those maid outfits. I'd rather be covered in skunk spray than-"

"That's not even what we are proposing here, Lynae." Carmine let out a deep sigh, "And you didn't have to mention the skunk part, you know."

"Hehe, sorry, Dad. Still not over that fiasco, huh?"

Indra let out a giggle. "You know how clean-fanatics like your father are, Lynae."

Carmine cleared his throat. "Well 'clean-fanatics' like me are the reason your weapons aren't rusty by now. Moving on, have you heard of Oroseia Academy, Lynae?"

"Oroseia? That place in the middle of Vastel?" Lynae crossed her arms. "Can't say I'm a city person, what with all those girls in make-up and dresses, but I heard they had an academy that makes people strong hunters. Ooh, what I wouldn't give to go there!"

Indra smiled. "Then you're in luck. I got a call from an old friend of mine asking for me to fill in as the librarian there. The current one is looking to retire before the semester starts."

Lynae's eyes widened as her mind began to race fast, realizing what her mother was about to say. "Librarian...? At the academy?"

"We've told you this before," Carmine said, "Your mother and I graduated from that academy. Loath as I am to admit, your mother had stronger connections there than I did."

"So does that mean…?" Lynae asked.

Indra smiled and clapped her hands together. "That's right, Lynae. We'll be moving to Oroseia in a few months!"

"Wh-wh-wh-wh-"

"I know! Exciting isn't it?"

"Thankfully you want to go to Oroseia Academy," Carmine said with a smile, "so what better time to move to our new home than before the Academy's semester starts? You will be attending this year, right?"

"Wh-wh-wh-wh-WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"

##

Later that night, Unknown stood alone on the sandy cliffs of the desert watching over the closed Underground Brawl arena. To his right side was a tiny water-made whale making whining noises to him.

Unknown glanced at the whale and caressed it with his finger. "You did your best in that battle, Paus. Don't beat yourself up."

The whale whined again to him.

"Victory was not the goal today, you know that. We've accomplished our task today."

That was when a tiny, purple sea leopard appeared from Unknown's other side and whined to him.

"My apologies, Macan. You were looking forward to unleashing your power in that fight, but m'lord ordered we not show our hand yet." He then summoned a dark blue scythe that appeared old and covered in coral, barnacle, and seaweed. "Thankfully, weapons were prohibited in our fight."

The two tiny animals whined to him again.

"Do not be sad." Unknown mounted his scythe behind his back. "Had we not complied, the girl would have died along with the Vastelians in that arena, and we can't have that."

The two animals nodded and disappeared into dust.

Unknown turned his attention back to the arena. His broken hand began to move back into place as the sounds of cracking bones echoed until his hand eventually became unbroken. "Lynae Kyanos...her fighting style is exactly what we were searching for." The sands began to pick up speed as Unknown began to walk away. "Let us pray to Mother Laut that she grows to her full potential...for our next battle..." He then disappeared into the sand-covered wind.

...

...

...

"...will be the true test."


Lynae Kyanos

Race: Faunus

Affiliation: Reigning Champion of Underground Brawl

Dust Affinity: Earth

Weapon Name: Storm

Submitted by KaijuFenrir


Jurabi: Hello again! I'm back into 2023 with the first chapter of the year! I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. For this chapter, we now have Lynae Kyanos, a character I worked hard to try and get a full grasp on. Thankfully, I had KaijuFenrir helping me along the way. I truly appreciate all of you who submitted your characters sticking with me for this long. That means so much to me and makes me want to work hard on this story to make it fully bloom. We have two more Interlude's left and two more OC's to introduce.

Anyways, many thanks to all of you for your love and patience. If any of you are loving this story, please stop by my discord server. I'm always happy to chat with my readers. If you loved what I had to offer this fine day, please leave a review, a follow, and a favorite. I would really appreciate your support of this story. I'll see you all in the next chapter~!

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