Obsessed
Chapter 10: Brawl!
Zelda put her hands to her mouth in horror as she watched her superior struggle to move. Master Hand was lying face up in the middle of his office covered in cuts and bruises from the tips of his fingers all the way to his wrist. Ike knelt by his side, defeated, as if the one and only hope that he had for killing Dark Link was gone. Zelda watched in silence from behind as the swordsman attempted to communicate with the hand.
"Master Hand…how did he do this to you?" Ike asked, putting hand on the large glove.
The great being twitched a little before coughing out a reply.
"Ike…he's more powerful than we thought. I could feel the energy draining from me…" He coughed again. "He was unarmed…but he had claws...he tore me to shreds…"
The hand moaned in pain again as he struggled to get up, but fell back down into his original position.
"Don't move!" said Ike, holding him steady. "You're going to hurt yourself."
"It's too late, Ike," said the hand. "I let you down…Please don't tell the others I had to go this way…"
"You're going to be alright, you hear me?" said Ike loudly, tears forming in his eyes. "You're going to be alright."
"Listen to me, Ike," started the hand. "You need to get out of here…" He took a deep breath before continuing. "Dark Link is too strong for any of you. Run…and take the princess with you."
Ike shook his head.
"No! I'm not leaving you!" he cried. "We're all trapped in this mansion anyways because Dark Link is free. We need to find a way to kill him!"
"There is…no way…" mumbled the hand. He exhaled a bit as he trailed off, finally relaxing his body. "I won't die. But the least you can do is save yourselves before he gets you."
"But Master-"
"I said go! Ike…"
With that, the large hand fell silent, falling asleep on the floor. Ike sat there in silence, weeping for the one who had trained him and all his friends. His heart jumped when he heard a girl sniffling behind him.
"I'm sorry," said Zelda as she began crying as well.
Ike rose to his feet and quickly wiped the tears from his eyes before running over to the princess and embracing her in the best hug he could give.
"It's okay, Zelda," replied Ike, regaining his composure and pretending that the princess did not see him crying. "I promise you that we'll make it out of here. And we will stop Dark Link."
Zelda looked up at him, wiping away her tears.
"Right," she said. "We can do it…together."
They both gave a small smile towards each other before hugging again; it was a little warmer this time.
After a few moments of silence, Ike adjusted his headband and raised a fist.
"Let's go," he said. "We need to find Meta Knight and I need to get my sword."
"Meta Knight?" asked Zelda as she quickly followed her friend out of the room and down the hall. "He's here?"
"Yes," replied Ike, going from a walking pace to a slight run, "we're going to need all the help we can get if we're going to stop Dark Link. This way."
They both rounded a corner and maneuvered into Ike's room, which had been empty for almost the entire evening. Ike never bothered to lock his door however, since no one in the mansion ever dared to steal anything from him. He could easily break anyone's arm if he really tried.
Ragnell was lying on the bed, to which the swordsman immediately grabbed and sheathed. He noticed the Kokiri knife strapped to his belt and took it out momentarily.
"He's probably going to want this back," muttered the swordsman as tossed it up in the air and then replaced it on his belt. Zelda stared at the shining metal object, her heartbeat rate increasing a bit.
"Please," she said, closing her eyes in frustration. "Don't play with that thing." She walked out of the room ahead of Ike. The mercenary, being the thick-skulled individual that he was, just shrugged it off and followed her.
The two friends ran to the foyer, Dark Link's laughter echoing through the mansion yet again.
"Where the hell is that coming from?" asked Ike as they approached the top of the staircase.
"Hello!"
The two friends looked over the banister railing of the second floor to find Dark Link standing in the middle of the room on the first floor. He was waving at the Smashers childishly, almost as if he had been expecting them.
"I've been expecting you!" said Dark Link with an evil smile. "You have something that belongs to me, Ike."
Ike gripped the knife on his belt before letting go and standing tall.
"Dark Link," he stated, "your plan ends here!"
Ike unsheathed his Ragnell and swung it around professionally, gaining a feel for the heavy weight of the weapon.
Dark Link unsheathed his own weapons as well: A Hylian Shield with dark engravings embedded into the metal and a shadowy counterpart to Link's Master Sword. Dark Link clanged his sword on the tiled floor in anticipation.
"I'll get rid of you first," he said, "then there will be nothing to stop me from getting to her." He glanced at Zelda, who glared back menacingly. "Zelda will be mine."
"In your dreams, you creep," replied Zelda, taking a stand next to her trusted friend at the top of the stairs.
"Enough chit-chat! Let's make this quick while the night is young!"
"It'll be a pleasure," said Ike before hopping onto the rail and sliding down to meet his foe.
He leapt off the end as he reached the bottom, lunging at the waiting swordsman with his broadsword. Dark Link immediately raised his shield, sliding back a few feet from the force of the impact. Ike followed through with a horizontal slice, to which the other fighter responded with yet another block, this time with his sword. Dark Link then slashed forward, forcing Ike to jump back to recover. Zelda watched helplessly from above as the epic duel was about to unfold.
"Be careful, Ike!" she called, completely aware of the potential power that Dark Link could be holding back. She was surprised to see that Ike wasn't fighting very cautiously and was instead going with all-out attacks on the enemy. Even after seeing the state Master Hand was left in, Ike was not intimidated at all by Dark Link's power. In a way, this was a good thing, but the main disadvantage that Ike had was that he had no magic of his own. If he were to slip up just once, it would give Dark Link the perfect opportunity to come in for the kill and drain the Crimean of his ox-like strength.
"Aether!" shouted Ike as he chucked a rapidly spinning sword at Dark Link. Dark Link narrowly dodged the attack with a side-step; however he did not anticipate the second part of the attack. Ike rushed to his sword at lightning speed as it was still spinning and slashed Dark Link on the side, causing dark blood to spill into the air. The evil being cried in pain.
"Argh! Lucky shot," he snarled before retaliating. Dark Link dashed to the left and then to the right, faking the first dash and swiftly striking Ike in the arm with his sword, causing more blood to spill and Ike to flinch.
"Ah!" The blue-haired swordsman swung far, causing his foe to jump back and making some distance between them. He paused for a bit as he gripped his wound tightly, blood seeping between his fingers and dripping to the floor.
Dark Link licked the edge of his blade sickly.
"Heh. Some kind of armor that is," he said. "I'm surprised you haven't tripped over your own cape yet."
Ike gritted his teeth in response, but said nothing. Shaking the pain off, the swordsman got back into a fighting stance and ran at his opponent. He lunged forward again, but this time, Dark Link dodged it by jumping high into the air and over his head. He then kicked Ike the back as he landed, causing the mercenary to stumble a bit. He then slashed again with his sword, but Ike was able to react on time and deflect it with his own weapon. The next few attacks consisted of them lunging and blocking with their feet remaining in relatively still positions. It appeared as though these two swordsmen were of equal levels when it came to sword fighting. Unfortunately, due to the nature of Ike's weapon, it was a lot harder for him to keep up with Dark Link's attacks. He soon found himself to be on the receiving end of the assaults, finding only enough time to react instead of initiate.
"What's the matter, Ike?" teased the dark entity between attacks. "Getting tired?"
Ike did not respond, but just kept blocking attack after attack. Eventually, Dark Link had knocked enough energy out of him to pull off an even dirtier tactic. He slammed his shield into Ike's sword, leaving the blue-haired mercenary wide open for an attack. Dark Link slashed across his chest, causing Ike to wail in pain as he fell to the ground. Zelda gasped in horror.
"NO!" she cried.
Ike tried to strike back, but Dark Link gave a swift kick to his stomach, forcing the swordsman to drop Ragnell onto the floor. Dark Link then kicked the broadsword across the room and out of both of their reaches before pointing his own sword at Ike's throat.
"Well played, Ike," said the dark creature with a smirk. "But it looks like I came out on top in this one."
Again, Ike was silent, his eyes staring not into the eyes of his enemy, but at his boots. He was breathing heavily, awaiting his inevitable fate.
"Game over."
Dark Link raised his sword up high, preparing to bring it down on the mercenary's head, but was interrupted by the sound of a booming male voice.
"3…
2…
1…
GO!"
"What?" said Dark Link in confusion.
Ike immediately jumped to his feet and swiftly slashed Dark Link in the face with the Kokiri knife. No blood loss resulted from the attack; however, Dark Link was sent flying across the room and slamming into the wall before collapsing on the ground and dropping his weapons. A spark of hope soon surged through Zelda's body.
"A Brawl?" she asked. "But how? The only one who can initiate such a thing is-"
"Master Hand," said Ike, retaining a serious expression. "Thank you, Master Hand." The swordsman ran over to his Ragnell and brandished the weapon. Dark Link finally rose to his feet.
"Oh no, not this shit again," said Dark Link, a frustrated tone in his voice.
"You know the rules," replied Ike. "As long as a Brawl has been initiated, neither of us can bleed nor die. It will only end when one of us falls out of bounds." He paused for a moment before continuing. "And by the looks of it, it will be impossible for either of us to fall out of bounds since we're all locked in this mansion."
Dark Link sheathed his weapons and dusted his hands off.
"I swear, whoever came up with the concept for this game had no imagination whatsoever," he said, rolling his eyes. "No matter. There's no point in wasting my time fighting you if we can't die." He laughed. "You're wrong anyways. For I know of one spot in this mansion that is out of the boundaries of a Brawl." Suddenly, Dark Link vanished, teleporting in an instant behind Zelda on the second floor. She shrieked.
"Zelda!" cried Ike.
Dark Link quickly grabbed Zelda around the waist and forced her into a kiss. She struggled at first, but soon fell limp in his arms after a few seconds.
"Ike…" she muttered before falling into a deep sleep.
Dark Link slung the princess over his shoulder like a rag doll and laughed triumphantly.
"It's been fun, Ikey-boy, but now I simply must be going!" he said. "I got a hot date tonight with a beautiful princess!"
Ike hastily ran up the stairs in an attempt to stop the maniac, but by the time he got to the top, Dark Link had already teleported again, a trail of his laughs fading into the air. Ike sheathed his sword angrily as he looked about the room, hoping that he would spot his enemy as he escaped. The resulting announcement only caused his heart to sink even more.
"PLAYER 2, DEFEATED."