The dark creature paced back and forth across the room, the tap of feet across stone and the splash of water underfoot echoed and amplified by the stone walls it couldn't quite see. A growl rumbled in its throat, frustration driving its steps harder into the ground as it grew ever more impatient. It felt like it had been days since it first arrived in this wretched place, weeks since it had seen what may still remain outside this damned temple. Was this his intent? Leave it here, trapped and eager until it couldn't bear another moment in this simultaneously cramped and endless room? Did he think this would sharpen its hunger? It couldn't imagine its desire for blood growing any stronger, hands curled into fists as it glared at the still unmoving door across the room.
When would this supposed Hero finally make an appearance? Every passing moment made the creature surer he would never actually arrive despite what it had been told. There was reason to draw him to this temple, this room a necessary obstacle on his path. It was never told why he would come, though. Perhaps there was no reason. Maybe this was all some ploy to keep it trapped in this room, forgotten far away in a long-abandoned temple at the bottom of an isolated lake. Did he merely wish to be rid of it?
It only grew angrier as its thoughts continued to whirl. There was no way out of here, the door in front of it locked from the outside and the door behind barred by metal far too thick for it to ever break through. Then it froze in its frustrated pacing, its full attention on the locked door. The echo of a key turning a lock far too large to be practical. The sliding sound of chains retreating from the door.
Someone was finally here.
Almost automatically it slid to the center of the room, knowing the illusion's tree would hide it from the intruder. The angry growl that had moments ago echoed from the shadowy creature was swallowed, the room now silent short of the creak of the door behind it sliding open and then shut again, the hiss and click of metal bars trapping the intruder inside with a monster they couldn't yet see.
"Guess I shouldn't be surprised…"
The creature turned its head a fraction at the muttered words, able to make out the amplified echo of what he said. It strained for any further comment past the first, but only the sound of a fist pounding against the wood of the door reached it. It couldn't help a smirk, pleased its prey had finally arrived. It didn't need to see him to know. It could feel it. This was him. His footsteps echoed around the chamber as he made his way across, abandoning the door as the creature remained frozen against the bark at its back. Finally, hardly even daring to move a muscle to look, he came into view.
It really was him. Link. The child that led to his downfall.
But this was no child. Not that it was surprised. Almost seven years it was told it had been. Almost seven years for his power to grow while Link remained absent. Then he had just appeared, full grown and beginning to beat back his progress. It was here to stop that. He wore a similar tunic to what had been described to it, though the fabric was dyed blue instead of the green it had expected. He carried the sword and shield it did already know about on his back, though as he crossed the room he pulled both out as though he expected a fight. Perhaps he did. This room wasn't exactly subtle.
All that moved were its eyes, bright scarlet gaze locked on him as he stopped halfway to the other door, the bars preventing its own escape from its confines now trapping this Hero as well. It only sensed disappointment in his posture and annoyed sigh, however, not the panic it had hoped for when he realized he was trapped. No matter. He'd be panicked soon enough.
Suddenly he turned to face it, eyes immediately turning towards where it lay in wait, crouched against the tree. It hardly dared to breath, hoping he would be unable to make it out in the shadow of the tree. And yet he moved closer, seemingly staring straight at it as though he knew it was there. However, there was only confusion on his face regardless of if he really could make it out. He took one hesitant step after another before he reached the edge of the island centering the illusion. Only then did it finally move. He was close enough. He might know it was there, might've already seen it, but he had nonetheless wandered far too close.
It gave no warning as it lunged towards him, weapon drawn in its left hand in a moment. Link hardly had time to react, stumbling backwards and raising his shield just in time to deflect his sudden opponent's blow, metal ringing loudly against metal as its sword bounced off his shield. He looked almost dumbfounded at its assault, but it didn't think long as to why that might be, lashing out in a low strike that the Hero flipped backwards to avoid. It paused for a second as both fighters properly looked over their opponents, a sneer on its face as it met Link's wide-eyed gaze. Its moment of surprise was over, its chance to land a blow before he knew what hit him passed, but he was still obviously surprised by the sight of this dark creature. As he watched it pull a shield seeming to mirror his own from its back, he opened his mouth as if he was about to question this monster that had just attacked him. What a fool.
It attacked again with a stab to hopefully end the fight quick, but he shut his mouth again after only a twitch and retaliated before it could land. He knocked its sword away with apparent ease, something that earned a growl of frustration from the creature before he cut downwards with his sword at its head. Its shield was raised just in time, but it felt the shock of his blow through the metal, its arm stinging for a moment after. But the ache was quickly ignored as it continued its assault, hardly giving the Hero time to breathe.
Perhaps this would be a harder fight than it had anticipated. He seemed to have almost no issue avoiding and deflecting its blows, the creature only just matching its sword and shield against his own to avoid injury. Regardless, it remained confident it would only be a matter of time before he'd be lying dead by its hands. It just needed to find a weakness.
Its thoughts began to get lost in the clash of metal against metal, the monster's attention drifting long enough that it had hardly a moment to prepare itself, sword swinging up instinctively just in time to interrupt another blow from the Hero that otherwise would've dealt more damage than the shallow gash it earned for its slipped attention. Lifting its shield to take its weapon's place, it retaliated with a slash that connected in Link's side, confidence lighting in its eyes at the landed blow. It tried to force its weapon loose a moment after, but he snatched it with a gloved hand before it could do so successfully, his sword moving around its shield while it was focused on its own weapon. The sword's pommel slammed hard into the side of its head and sent stars flashing across its vision. Even dazed, though, it refused to let go of its sword, not-quite avoiding a slash across its face that left dark blood dripping into one eye before it pulled the blade from between his fingers, stumbling back several paces as its head continued to spin.
The Hero was already preparing for another swing by the time it even somewhat recovered from the blow. Its shield came up again to deflect his sword, but he bounced quickly off its defense and changed direction, the monster barely holding back a cry of pain as his sword connected in its arm. Blood welled around the blade and began to pour as Link tore his sword back, his opponent grabbing at the wound to cover it as it still glared at him. It would not lose. It couldn't.
The monster launched forwards, hoping to overwhelm Link with a barrage of attacks one after another. It managed to land one or two shallow blows, but nothing dangerous and nothing that Link didn't match with hits of his own. It could tell Link was waiting. The growing ache and eventually agony in its sword arm made it clear enough what he must be waiting for.
Dropping its shield and swapping its sword to its opposite hand, it charged forwards, aiming for his uninjured side, but his shield again knocked it away. It tried to mimic his own redirected strike, turning around to attack the side not so quickly protected by his shield, but with the sound of metal against stone it was stopped halfway by something wrapping round its throat. Link had dropped his shield and caught it in a choke hold, clinging on tight in the hopes to suffocate it. It clawed with its unarmed hand at his arm, trying to struggle its way loose, but its attempts seemed to be in vain. This would never get it free. It debated using its sword to cut him off, but that would carry the risk of hitting itself, so instead it stopped its desperate struggle and jabbed at him with its elbow, its arm wetting with blood as it hit the injury it had already dealt. The Hero gave a yelp, letting it go as he covered his side with his arm. That gave it ample enough opportunity to whirl around and shove him to the ground. For once it had the upper hand, its blood-covered arm lifting to clear more of the stuff from its eyes as it straddled the Hero's torso. It began to laugh, thinking this was it. It had won, of course. Then, with the Hero seemingly helpless underneath it, the creature finally spoke.
"How the mighty have fallen. The Hero Link, about to be slain by a mere shadow…" it sneered, a hint of a growl to its tone. Its voice got the reaction it wanted, surprise lighting again in Link's eyes as it talked. A pleased smile crossed its face as it raised its sword in one hand, blade pointed straight at his chest. Its smile turned to a sneer, mouth opening to offer Link a final, snide comment before he died. But it was interrupted.
Its gaze shifted at a blur of movement from the corner of its eyes a moment before a spike of pain shot through its chest. It was so caught off guard that it didn't even make a sound, frozen short of its eyes shifting down to the sword stabbed into its heart. No. It couldn't lose. It couldn't be killed by him. There was little it could do to stop Link from kicking it off rather unceremoniously, the creature falling limp into the water. It barely registered when Link pulled his sword free, gaze blank as its heart's attempts to keep pumping only made more too-dark blood flow from the wound and turn the water the same color. The illusion faded as it began to fade as well, gaze growing unfocused and even the more serious injuries becoming little more than a dull ache. It couldn't fail like this. It couldn't fail him. But there was little else it could do, the Hero staring down at it. It tried to force itself back to its feet – even if it died, if it took Link down with it that would be worth it – but its arms and legs refused to listen. Everything began to blur together, the edges of its vision darkening until the creature faded. The last it heard was a softly murmured, "…shadow?" from the Hero it had failed to kill before it was gone, the body disappearing into the shadows it had come from.
It sat up with a gasp, eyes quickly adjusting to the light of the colorless plane it found itself on. It failed. Now it was back trapped within the shadow realm. Cautiously it got to its feet, the pain of its injuries lingering in an ache across its body but visible signs seemed to have disappeared, even the horrible blow that had ended it gone. One hand still instinctively reached for where Link's blade had struck not long ago as if to make sure they really were no longer injured. Of course it expected this to happen. It understood enough of its own kind to know that. That didn't make this any less strange, though.
It didn't dwell on its revival for long. It was stuck in this world of shadows again after all after having just managed to escape with his help. Maybe it could find a way out again. Maybe he'd be willing to offer it a second shot.
Landmarks were vague things, but it had treaded this place for forever. It knew where to go, remembered the exact spot where it had been summoned. Scarlet lights in the dark of this realm clung to every corner, the only color in this place, but it paid them no mind. It had no reason to fear them. Its strength in this place was why it had been picked from the other shadows trapped in this place, and hopefully its strength would be enough for him to see the logic in bringing it back.
The presence it felt, like another conscious in the back of its own mind, was a familiar sensation. This was a place where the line between light and shadow blurred, colors muted and dull but there. Maybe it was simply the nature of this place, or maybe it was his mere presence that caused this.
It dropped to one knee, head bowed as the presence in the back of its mind strengthened until the vague shape of a man separated from the blurrier shapes around him. He only spoke two words to it, the words filled with disdain.
"You failed."
It flinched, just a bit. He wouldn't notice the movement. Probably. "He was stronger than I expected. Bring me back, though, remove me from this place again, and I'm sure I won't fail again." The words were odd on its tongue. Even the first time, it hated having to submit to this man, hated having to curb its instincts by his command, but it was the only way to escape this land of shadows.
He laughed, low and menacingly, at its words. It didn't like the sound of that laugh. "You have already failed me one time too many," he sneered, stepping towards the creature. "I have no reason to believe you will not fail me yet again."
One hand curled into a fist, the monster realizing perhaps its hope had been misguided. It shouldn't have let that Hero overcome it. But now that it had faced him once before, it was certain he wouldn't get the upper hand again. It lifted its head, mouth opening to claim as much, but the man before it spoke again before it could get out a word.
"You are of no use to me. You can spend the rest of your days in the gap between dimensions for all I care."
A blend of shock and confusion shot through it in the moment after he spoke. He wasn't willing to even offer it a chance, and what sort of place was the gap between dimensions? It seemed it was about to learn no matter if it wanted to or not.
At its feet a swirling vortex of purple appeared, the creature trying to stand up again and step away from the strange thing. But already it had begun to draw it in, its foot and knee seemingly stuck to the portal. It began to panic, eyes turning onto the one doing this. "Let me go!" it snapped, trying to wrench itself free as its body seemed to crumble before its eyes. "I am not yours to toss aside like this!" He paid its protests no mind, however, turning away and fading from view.
It continued trying to struggle free to no avail. It reached for anything that could save it, anything that could spare it from this gap, and just when it was about to give up it found something far away and faint. Nothing physical. It was like a spark, a tiny flash of power that it clung to without a second thought. It was familiar in a way, but it was very strange in others. It was not of this time, but this realm didn't care about time. And even if it was far in the future, if it could get free through this spark it would exploit it however it could. So as the man's magic tried to swallow up the last bits of the monster, it reached to cling to the spark, hoping it would be enough to spare it.