Alright, so remember how I said last chapter was really long? Well, this chapter is really, really long! My longest one yet! It was very interesting and pretty hard to write, so I hope everyone enjoys it. Sorry I haven't been updating as frequently as I had been before, I'll try to get updates out faster! For now, enjoy!
Coming closer by the second, the looming bird flew towards the two stunned figures at the top of Death Mountain. Vaati and Lexi stood stock still, eyes wide and mouths agape. Lexi had never seen a monster of such ferocity before and was scared out of her wits to be facing it, whereas Vaati just couldn't believe that the goddesses would make him go through with this battle.
As much as he didn't want to, he would have to fight. It was either that or fail the power task and be sent back into the dreadful four sword for eternity. The goddesses had told him that if he wanted forgiveness he would have to work hard to get it and prove that being forgiven was really what he wanted. Vaati knew that he was willing to achieve it by any means, even if it meant destroying one of his closest allies and friends.
The Helmaroc King flew gracefully to the top of the mountain and landed right in front of Vaati and Lexi, sending a slight tremor through the ground. With a deep voice, he spoke first.
"It's been a while since we last saw each other, wouldn't you agree Vaati?" Helmaroc asked with a slight tip of his head. "I'm ever so glad the goddesses granted me life again, and now I'm stronger then I ever was before. Practically unstoppable, wouldn't you say?"
Upon hearing these words and the casual, if somewhat antagonistic way this humongous bird had greeted Vaati, Lexi gasped. A thousand questions swam in her mind, but one particular question stood out above the rest. How did this monster know Vaati? When they were done with this fight, he was going to have some serious questions to answer.
Vaati was still in denial, and at a complete loss of what to say. "Helmaroc," he choked out. "Why have the goddesses made you the monster I will have to face?"
"Why Vaati," the Helmaroc King said, pretending to be offended. "I thought you would be glad to see me again. I was dead, and now I'm back! You should be happy.
"I should be happy about having to fight you!?" Vaati cried indignantly. "Why would I be happy? We were allies, even friends, and now we have to fight! How good is that?"
"But I'm back," Helmaroc said sourly. "My death wasn't pleasant, and neither is a monsters afterlife, but now I am alive and well again with just one catch. To stay alive I must defeat you, and although I will regret having to harm you and your little friend," he paused, taking a moment to glare at Lexi before continuing on. "It is what I must do, therefore I will stop at nothing to destroy you. As you know very well, a fight isn't over until the last death blow has been dealt."
Vaati looked away from the Helmaroc King's cold gaze with hurt in his eyes. He was having trouble processing this information, and it was destroying him to do so. His former friend had just made it remarkably clear to him that his main goal was to see him laying dead upon the floor, and even though there was nothing Vaati wanted to do more than call a truce he decided against it. Just like Helmaroc, Vaati was going to fight his hardest and wouldn't dare to loose. He wasn't known by all monsters as the Lord of the wind and sky for nothing.
"Will this little girl be fighting as well?" The Helmaroc King asked Vaati with a slight sneer. "I don't care either way."
"Absolutely," Lexi said, standing tall. "I'm fighting, because you're a threat to Hyrule and it is my duty to protect this area for as long as I live! I dont care about disagreements between you and Vaati, because you two seem to have quite the history," Lexi shot Vaati an accusatory glare. "You are dangerous and evil, and you must be destroyed."
Laughing aloud, the Helmaroc King replied humorously. "Haha, so I'm dangerous and he isn't? I'm only about as much of a threat to Hyrule as he is!" Helmaroc began laughing again, looking back and forth between Vaati and Lexi.
"What do you mean? Vaati's not a threat. Bad tempered and rude, sure, but not evil and threatening!" Lexi replied, looking confused.
With a shake of his head, Helmaroc looked at Vaati with mock pity. "Oh my, how little you've told her about yourself. Does she really not know anything?"
Glaring, Vaati responded shortly. "I've told her before, some things are better left... Unsaid."
Lexi didn't know what to make of this exchange between the two foes. She was so lost, and didn't understand why Helmaroc would insist that Vaati was threatening. He hadn't shown any signs of being a threat, but the Helmaroc King was a big monster who would know who was threatening or not. Maybe she should listen to him... But she had known Vaati a bit longer. Why would she take the word of a monster over a Hylian? It made no sense, but something in her mind was warning her that there was more to the lavender haired Hylian then met the eye. She just wasn't sure what it was yet.
"Let's get started, shall we?" Helmaroc asked, stretching his wings.
"Certainly," Vaati replied. Even though he sounded overly confident, there was an unsure glint in his eyes that was easy to miss and well concealed. Vaati stood in a readied stance to preform magic, while Lexi unsheathed her silver sword and got into a fierce battle position.
With a screech, the Helmaroc King flew into the air and nose dived straight towards the pair on the ground. Expecting something like this, Vaati summoned a cyclone around himself and was swept out of the monsters range. With a snarl, Vaati noticed Lexi was still in the area the Helmaroc King's attack would hit and sent a strong gust of wind at her, knocking her off to the side at the last second and out of the bird's mighty reach.
When she was out of the way Vaati ran straight past Lexi, who was looking dazed on the floor, and went right at the Helmaroc King.
Thinking on his feet, Vaati created two powerful energy spheres and shot them towards Helmaroc with great force. Helmaroc saw at the last second what Vaati was doing, and leaped into the air, barely avoiding the glowing spheres.
Vaati narrowed his eyes in concentrated thought. He personally knew that the Helmaroc King was practically indestructible, for his body was covered in razor sharp feathers that hurt to touch, and he wore a strong mask to hide his only weak spot. Remove the mask and he was vulnerable, but it was getting close enough to him without him ripping you to shreds that was the problem.
Up on her feet again, Lexi gripped her sword tightly and readied herself to strike. She had promised Vaati that she wouldn't be a burden, and so far she noticed that she wasn't doing a very good job at that.
Dive-bombing again specifically towards Vaati this time, the Helmaroc King flew downwards with amazing speed, his sharp beak directed at his opponent. Vaati got out of the way while shooting more energy spheres at the bird but they did no damage upon impact, much to Vaati's major disappointment. He had hoped that they would have had some sort of effect on him, but they didn't at all.
Just as Helmaroc was about to fly into the sky for the third time, Lexi took her chances and jumped with her sword above her head, sending it crashing down along the Helmaroc King's flank. Though his strong, sharp feathers made it harder to cut into, it didn't block the attack completely and he was left with a long but shallow gash.
At this, Helmaroc turned abruptly towards Lexi. Unafraid, Lexi gripped her sword tighter and held it at the ready, waiting for an opportunity to attack. "I've got to pay more attention to you," he said angrily, disgruntled because Lexi had actually managed to deal a blow to him.
Now that the Helmaroc King had his attention focused on Lexi, Vaati figured it would be the perfect time to strike. Now knowing that his energy spheres wouldn't work, he used his wind magic to lift up big, surrounding rocks and hurl them hard at the unsuspecting monster bird.
Yelping in surprise as a bunch of boulders pummeled him from every direction, the now bruised Helmaroc King left Lexi alone and flew into the air out of Vaati's range. This time, instead of diving at the duo head first, he fiercely beat his wings and sent a slew of razor sharp feathers raining down upon them. It was as though it was raining recently sharpened daggers.
Lexi winced as she felt a feather slice her arm, and ran out of the way of the falling feathers. Frantically she looked around for Vaati, and was relieved to see him okay with only a few minor cuts and scratches. Lexi had to admit that she was surprised with how well Vaati was faring, for she had honestly thought that after the electric chu incident he would be a weak and inexperienced fighter. Maybe he just had a bit of bad luck with the electric chus and was really stronger than she originally thought.
Noticing Lexi watching him, Vaati decided to give her a taste of just how powerful he was. He wouldn't miss this perfect chance to show off! He wanted her to realize just how strong and utterly powerful he was, for it hurt his pride to have her doubting his superiority.
Gracefully leaping into the air with powerful gusts of wind at his side, Vaati created a perfect tornado which he sent spiraling upwards at the unsuspecting Helmaroc King. Loving the feeling of power that came with displaying his abilities, Vaati created a few mini cyclones and thrust them around Helmaroc to keep him in place. Now that he had him where he wanted him to be for a moment, Vaati had time to prepare a humongous energy sphere, his strongest attack, and sent it up at Helmaroc's beak in a vain attempt to loosen his mask and reveal his one vulnerable spot.
The energy sphere crashed into Helmaroc at full force, painfully knocking his mask but not fully loosening it. Vaati cursed under his breath when he realized that the only thing he had managed to do was slightly stun his enemy. Now what should he do? That had been his most powerful attack! Sure, he could transform into his demon eye and smack that mask away with his claw, but then Lexi would see his as a monstrous threat and recognize him as the evil wind mage who had recently terrorized Hyrule. He didn't need to get rid of Helmaroc and Lexi, two of his allies, on the same day.
Lexi stood open mouthed in shock as the scene that had just played out before her. Had her eyes been playing tricks on her or had Vaati really just preformed magic? It was hard to believe, but she knew that her eyes hadn't deceived her. There were a million things she wanted to ask Vaati right now, but it wasn't the time to do so because she noticed then that the Helmaroc King was about to send another round of sharp feathers down upon them.
Now she was ready and swiftly rolled out of the way of the array of feathers, wincing because of the stress it put under her deeply cut and now heavily bleeding arm. This time however, Vaati wasn't as lucky.
She watched in horror as a multitude of feathers fell around Vaati. Looking up, Lexi saw the Helmaroc King preparing to send another round of knive-feathers down, and frantically wondered why Vaati wasn't moving out of the way. She silently shouted in her mind for him to move, but he didn't.
Now that she looked closer, she saw that Vaati seemed to be struggling to move. In shock she realized that Vaati simply couldn't move due to the fact that several fallen feathers had pinned his cape to the ground. Gulping, she looked away as she saw the one that had gone through a foot, still sticking out and gushing with warm blood.
Thinking fast, Lexi ran at Vaati and knocked him out of the way just as the latest batch of feathers rained down, tearing the end of his cape in the process. She tried to ignore his scream of pain as the feather that had been stuck deep in his foot was suddenly wrenched loose, and she just muttered, "sorry, but you'll thank me later."
Gritting his teeth, Vaati tried to stand strong, hiding his new limp, and prepared to summon another hurricane when Lexi spoke to him. "This isn't working, and unless we do something soon that bird I guarantee it will make a lucky hit with some of his feathers and stab us to death!" As Lexi said this Vaati noticed she was clutching her arm to stop the bleeding from her cut as much as she could. It looked painful, yet Lexi hid her discomfort well.
"Well darling, what do you suggest we do," Vaati asked arrogantly while trying to conceal the pain coming from his own foot wound. "We don't really have time to come up with some big plan - watch out!" Vaati finished hurriedly, forgetting his arrogance and creating a sudden cyclone to rush him and Lexi away from the newest downpour of feathers.
Panting, Lexi gasped, "and how did you even do that!? You've got magic, sorcery! What are you?"
"This is no time for questions!" Vaati snapped. "Ask me later if you're so curious, but for now we've got to focus on the battle at hand, thanks!" He muttered something frustratedly under his breath and turned to face the Helmaroc King.
Suddenly, Lexi made a sharp intake of breath. "What is it?" Vaati asked, already annoyed at her and trying to focus on making the next move. "Seriously, just shut it."
"No, no, no," Lexi said quickly. "I've got an idea that'll work!"
"Great," Vaati grunted, making a protective shield so to block the next set of oncoming feathers. "I can only keep this force field up for so long, as it drains my power pretty quickly, so tell me what your idea is fast. It better work..."
"Okay, so you've got these magic powers, correct?" At this Vaati nodded his head and gave her a look that said to hurry up. "Good, so it seems to me you control air and wind, so would it be possible for you to lift me up in the air?"
"Wait, how far are we talking about?" Vaati asked suspiciously.
Lexi answered abruptly, "up to where the Helmaroc King is. If you send me up there, he won't expect it and I can take my sword and slice it at his mask. Hopefully he'll be dazed enough to come down here, where you could deal the last blow with an energy sphere or whatnot."
Although he had to admit it was a good plan, Vaati really didn't want to be the one to deal the last blow to this monster who had once been a friend. That would be too much for him, so he suggested another plan.
"How about this, I don't want to send you up flying because its too risky, if you get hit off balance by Helmaroc you could easily tumble down and fall to your death. How about this; I can send a huge boulder or two up at his wings to knock him out of the sky, then when he comes down you can use your sword to get off the mask and deal the last blow. While you're doing this, I'll have the wind raging down upon him so he can't move an inch."
Lexi nodded her head in agreement. "Okay, sounds like a plan." She noticed Vaati's arms starting to shake from the effort of keeping the force field up around them for so long, and the attacks Helmaroc was trying to deal were becoming more forceful. Vaati wouldn't be able to hold up much longer.
"I'm going to let down the force field in a second, and when I do so get out of the way," Vaati said. Not giving her a chance to respond, Vaati lowered his arms in exhaustion and the protective force field around them dropped. As soon as this happened, Lexi did as she had been told and ran.
Vaati sprung into action, and using his magic he summoned two of the biggest boulders and shot one at each of the Helmaroc King's wings. Not expecting an attack, Helmaroc was unprepared and didn't have enough time to get out of the way of the boulders. They hit his wings hard and this put him off balance, sending him plummeting to the ground. With the wind at his command, Vaati stayed true to his word and sent it crashing down on Helmaroc so he stayed immobilized on the ground.
Lexi then rushed in with her sword. Going straight up to the monstrous bird, she slammed her sword down hard on his mask a couple times until it was completely off his face, leaving his vulnerable spot exposed. With a deep breath, Lexi closed her eyes and slashed her sword straight into his head.
Eyes wide, the Helmaroc King let out a strangled breath and a few final words. "I-I've lost again... But at the hand of a friend. Vaati, well played. You always were Lord of the sky for a reason."
With that he exploded into a puff of black smoke as all monsters do when they die. Vaati and Lexi now stood, sides heaving, as they let the news sink in. They had won, which was great news for Lexi, but bittersweet for Vaati. He tried to forget the look in Helmaroc's eyes as he spoke his final words, but he was sure it would haunt him forever.
Little did they know that behind a large rock hidden in the shadows, a lone figure had watched the entire fight unfold before him with much interest. Looking very much like Link, a man with a hat and tunic of pure black, bright blue eyes and dark purple hair stood stock still, letting what had just happened before him sink in. After a few moments of pondering silence, Shadow Link turned away and began heading down Death Mountain with one goal in mind. "My," he said softly. "Lord Ganon will be interested in hearing about this."
Shadow Link? Lord Ganon? Woah, who knew huh? Good job to the few of you who noticed Shadow Link last chapter, I tried to make it clear it was Shadow and I'm glad you got the hint! Sorry for my inability to write battle scenes, I tried! *cries* Now it's time to answer to my fantastic reviewers!
Legendoffun ~ Yay, was this chapter as good as you expected? I sure hope it was, I did my best to write an action packed chapter filled with the right amount of violence and emotion. I can only hope it turned out as such. Lexi didn't have much of a chance to react to Vaati's powers this chapter, but she definitely noticed and will be seriously questioning him about it next chapter, just you wait! Hehe, that should be interesting *evil grin* Thank you!
Lovely Kiridia ~ I agree, he was a wonderful boss! I loved him in Wind Waker especially, and was very glad he was one of the most important bosses in that game. I've actually never played four swords either, so I had to do my research and see which boss would not only be the most physically challenging for Vaati to defeat, but one that would cause some emotional scarring as well. I saw that Helmaroc was a boss who worked closely under Vaati so I just thought "hey, I could make this work!" Thank you very much!
Melkor'sOnlyLeitenant ~ Really? I'm glad you liked that line, I was quite a fan of it too! You've got to admit he is pretty emotionally insensitive XP Haha yes that was pretty silly of him. Come on Vaati, of course she's going to notice if a bunch of Keese suddenly drop from the sky as stone statues! I would have reacted the same way too :) You were right, it was Shadow Link! But why is he working solely for Ganon now? Hmm suspicious... I love her happy-go-lucky attitude too, thanks!
purplepanic ~ I know, I'm such an evil author *laughs* haha sorry Vaati, it just wouldn't be as interesting if you only had to fight a physical threat, may as well make it hard emotionally as well :D Vaati didn't want to fight, but he knew he had to, so he just tried to make the best of it I guess. I hoped you liked this chapter!
Midna213546 ~ Thank you so much! I'm glad to hear it was suspenseful and there was ample detail :) It's kind reviews like yours that keep me writing!
Also, if like to give a thanks to Regallo, Staraline Sane, and my new Guest reviewer for reviewing to previous chapters :) Your support is truly appreciated!
