Chapter Six: Messenger of the Forsaken

Link quickly ducked to avoid the assassin's blade. He started to rise, but went back down after seeing the assassin attack again. It seemed to Link that his day was very unlucky, especially now that he was in combat with an extremely skilled swordsman, and he did not have his gear. Cursing under his breath, he rolled towards a table. Taking cover behind it, Link scanned around and saw what he was looking for: a small alchemy lab.

Running towards it while dodging the assassin's attacks, he snatched a bottle of boiling liquid. Link threw the bottle as hard as he could at the attacker, who screamed in pain. Link used this distraction to run out of the room, and headed towards a guard. Out of breath, he leaned against the wall and gasped "Assassin… killed Kaleu… need to get to the…armory… immediately."

The guard, after a short pause, nodded and said "Understood, your lordship. I'll hold him off until you get back."

Sprinting through numerous halls, Link eventually came to the armory, where he told the two guards standing watch "I need to get my weapons. It's an emergency." The guards acknowledged, and one went in to retrieve Link's sword, shield, bombs, bow and his other weapons.

"By the way, what is the situation?" asked the guard who stayed behind.

"An assassin has made his way into the castle and killed a wise man before going after me. Last I saw him, he was fighting another guard," answered Link.

"We'll come with you!" exclaimed the guard. "You could use all the help you could get, right?"

"No," Link responded. "It's more important to man your duty station, especially if there are more of them; If there are, we can't let them get into here. But one of you needs to raise an alarm, alerting patrolling guards to the Moon tower's corridors."

The first guard returned with all of Link's weapons: his sword, shield, bow, bombs, and many of the items Link had acquired during his travels.

"Here you go, sir. Good luck," he said.

Link equipped himself for battle, and kept his bombs and bow at the ready. "Thank you," he said, and ran back to the castle.

When Link returned to the hallway where he had last seen the assassin, he saw the killer standing over the body and blood of the guard who had offered to protect Link. The assassin noticed Link and said "So, you did choose to return here. That's fifty rupees I owe the poor fool who blocked my way. I thought I'd have to track you down to kill you, but this I like more."

The assassin removed his mask, showing an aged, heavily scarred and burned face. "Allow me to introduce you to my sword. This 'Snake Sword' began as a prototype blade that acted as a "chain sword" with two forms, a standard, solid sword, and its chain blade. However, I made it much more. Using powerful black magic, I bonded it with my mind, effectively making it a part of my body. It now can do anything I command it to, including a particularly interesting attack where it- well, you'll have to find out for yourself, won't you?"

Link started to ask "How have you already healed from-"

"The bottle you threw at me?" The assassin cut him off. "I can absorb a dying person's life force. It's painless for them, and so it eases their passage while healing me from recent injuries. However, it works only to a certain extent, as I'm sure you have noticed." At this, he motioned to his facial wounds, including a nasty-looking slash that ran from the right corner of his mouth, across his right eye, up to his forehead. "Now, let's see if you are as good as they say you are, or at least as good as you were."

At this the assassin brought his sword to an offensive stance, while Link readied his sword and shield.

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