fleets: First thing's first - HOLY #($* THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL OF THE REVIEWS! I'm floored by how fast this story has reached the 200th review mark, FLOORED I SAY! Great big hugs to you all for the support, I mean it! :D :D :D
Okay, I admit it. I wasn't going to share this until I forced myself to finish the half-finished chapter cover, but there's something about holding off on a completed chapter that's impossible to do. The cover will get done eventually; this chapter just had to be shared because... ! Well you'll see ;P
Chapter 21: Dragon's Wrath
The rain vaporized from Argorok's fire and surrounded Link and Vaati, obscuring their view. The mist came white and thick, and Vaati knew they were in trouble. Well, more in trouble than they had been earlier. He remembered how Argorok's eyes were covered with his black helm. "Link," Vaati squinted, trying to see through the white fog, "be careful. We might not be able to see Argorok, but Argorok can still know where we are. That dragon doesn't rely on his eyes to see."
There was a crash from somewhere where Argorok's pillar had been standing as though something had smashed into it violently. The two flinched, and then they heard a horrendous creaking sound. As Link and Vaati turned towards the direction of the noise, they noticed a long black shadow approaching them quickly. They scrambled out of the way as the broken pillar toppled down to where they had been standing moments before.
"If only we could get rid of this mist." Link quickly looked around, bracing himself against the fallen pillar. It was eerily quiet with no sign of Vaati anywhere. "Vaati?"
The mist thinned for a split second, and Link noticed the sorcerer staring at the pillar on the other side of it, stunned at how he had almost been flattened by it. Vaati was preoccupied by the pillar and hadn't noticed the looming shadow that was quickly closing in on him.
"Vaati look out!"
The wind mage snapped to attention, but it was too late. Argorok roared, parting the mist in his path. Talons outstretched the dragon snatched Vaati off of the ground and soared into the air triumphantly.
"No!" Link ran after the dragon until his leg slipped off of the edge of the roof. The hero struggled back onto solid ground while squinting urgently through the fog that was gradually beginning to clear. Even so, the wet weather and the large gray clouds made it difficult to see. Link's breath hitched when he saw Argorok flying at an unreachable distance away with Vaati struggling fruitlessly against his iron grip.
"Let… me… go!" Vaati growled between gasps. He winced when Argorok squeezed him even tighter, threatening to break his ribs.
"In a minute, Ssssorcerer Vaati. I give you my word that I will let you go." Argorok snorted a plume of fire. "I wonder what it will be like, to contemplate your inevitable end assss you fall to your death many miles above the earth."
"Rrrr…" Vaati pushed his arms against the scaly talons, but they refused to budge. He was completely trapped, and unless he thought of something he was going to have a deadly trip back down. It was hard to think clearly with the rain stinging against his face, his hair smacking his eyes, and the crushing claws around his wiry frame. In a fit of desperation, Vaati twisted against the dragon's talons once again.
He stopped abruptly when he saw something between the scaly claws. The clawshot that Link had loaned him was poking between the talons where it was hooked to his belt. Vaati had no idea what good it would do him, but at this point just having his hands on something was comfort enough. He stretched over the huge claw that was around his waist in an effort to reach the clawshot.
"You sssstruggle in vain. Accept your fate. You may have been able to defeat me if you had your powerssss, but you do not. You are assss pathetic assss any other creature before me."
Vaati ignored the dragon and continued to strain his arms to reach the clawshot. Time was running short – it wouldn't be long before Argorok flew to his chosen site to drop him. The towers of the City in the Sky became less common as the dragon flew to the city perimeters. "Almost… have it. AAAH curse everything!" Vaati waved his arm roughly, ignoring the pain in his ribs to grab the clawshot that was centimeters away. His fingers finally closed around it. "Aha! Got it!"
With a snarl, Vaati wrenched himself around and aimed the clawshot at Argorok's tail. The clawshot launched itself towards the dragon's hooked armor and became locked onto the tail. Vaati yanked it towards him as hard as he could.
"Grooaaaar!" Argorok veered into the air as his tail, now curled towards his feet, disrupted his flight. Screeching angrily, the dragon attempted to bring Vaati towards his face to torch him, but that only succeeded in bringing his tail up as well, making him unstable in flight. "How dare you, wretched cur!"
Argorok released his grip on the sorcerer, and Vaati felt his stomach churn as he swung with the dragon's tail. Vaati only had seconds to see a wall rushing towards him at a terrifying speed as Argorok furiously swung his tail towards one of the city towers. "Holy sh- !"
The sorcerer frantically made the clawshot release its hold of the dragon's tail, but he was still in the trajectory of hitting the wall. With a crack, Vaati's back slammed into the stone. He tried to force his eyes open as they fluttered in a daze. There was no time to think about the flashing stars that flickered along the edge of his vision: he felt his back slowly slide down the wall, and then felt nothing at all as he began to fall forward into the gray clouds below. Between his failing vision, he could make out Argorok rearing his neck, preparing to breathe fire.
To hell with it all if I die here…
When Vaati targeted the clawshot towards Argorok, he didn't really know what it would ultimately achieve. It was more of a reaction: something was attacking him, and therefore he attacked it. The hooked metal of the clawshot became lodged into the back plating of the dragon's black armor. The sorcerer narrowly avoided Argorok's fire and falling to his demise, but he was now confronted with the problem of finding himself clinging desperately to the monster's back. Vaati braced himself when Argorok screeched in rage and nose-dived into the clouds below.
Meanwhil, still up on the roof, Link craned his neck to see if he could catch where Argorok had taken Vaati. He'd heard the dragon's screams of rage, and took that as a good sign that Vaati was still alive.
Hang in there.
Several seconds later, he heard the whoosh of fire from somewhere below the tower he was standing on, as well as the dull thudding of the air from Argorok's beating wings. The air around him became slightly hotter.
"Below!" Link took a few steps away from the edge of the tower where he had been standing, just before a jet of flame erupted upwards followed by Argorok shooting towards the sky with a screech. In that split second just before the dragon flew away, he saw a trace of purple on its back. "Vaati!" Link cried. He watched Argorok spiral madly in the air in an attempt to shake the sorcerer off of him. It can't be long before Vaati falls off, Link thought as the rain rolled off of his face. The rain was going to make Vaati's hold slippery, and it was only a matter of time before he lost his grip and fell into the depths below. "I can't just stand here, there's got to be something!" He began to rifle through his inventory bag to see if there was anything he could use against Argorok. There weren't very many options…
The first thing that came to mind were the bombs because they were the only weapons that probably dealt enough damage to get through the dragon's heavy armor. The damp weather, however, was going to render them useless and it was almost impossible to hit Argorok with one of them anyway even if the rain wasn't an issue. The bow and arrows were no good because they would just bounce right off the armor, and there was the same problem with the slingshot. There was no way he could manage to hit a flying target with the heavy ball and chain, and the rest of the items like the spinning top were a mystery to use.
Think. Think think think!
His hands touched a pair of cool metal, and he paused when he realized they were the Iron Boots. It was then that an idea hit him, and he hurriedly looked around to see where the dragon had gone. Argorok had flown out of sight behind some buildings, but Link could tell that he was nearby from its furious roars. Any minute now, the monster was bound to fly back around from one of the towers and pass by the one he was currently standing on.
Wasting no time, Link shoved his feet into the iron boots and dragged himself over to the edge as he toiled against the extra weight. His blue eyes narrowed as he eyed the distance between him and a crumbling pillar on the other side. Link aimed his clawshot at the pillar, closing one of his eyes for better aim.
He wasn't sure it was going to work – if Argorok realized what he was up to, then it was over. However, Link was banking on the fact that the dragon was going to be too distracted by Vaati to notice what he was doing. Link bit his lower lip when there was an explosion somewhere to his right from where Argorok had smashed through a wall in rage.
Link took a deep breath as the dragon careened towards his tower.
He had one shot.
Just as Argorok was about to cross the path in front of him, Link fired the clawshot and braced himself. The claw latched onto the pillar on the opposite side, and Link pulled the chain taut right in front of the flying dragon. Argorok had no time to fly out of the way, and he smashed right into the chain. Link's arms threatened to snap out of their sockets as the impact pulled him roughly across, but he dug into the ground with his Iron Boots and yanked the chain as hard as he could until the veins popped up along his arms.
Argorok gurgled as his neck scrunched over the chain while the sorcerer on his back scrambled to stay on.
"Vaati, over this way!" Link shouted through Argorok's snarls.
Vaati looked up towards the hero momentarily, and then his eyes widened when Link's shouts were cut short by the low groan of breaking stone. He slowly dared to turn his head towards the pillar that, unable to support Argorok's impact, was starting to fall towards him.
"Vaati, jump!"
"Dang it!"
Not waiting around to be squelched by the falling pillar, Vaati took his chances and leapt into the empty sky. Shielding his face as bits of stone fell along with the rain, Vaati fired his clawshot towards the tower where Link was standing. He felt himself gradually relax as the item led him towards safer ground.
Vaati allowed himself to look behind him, and he watched intently as the pillar came crashing down onto Argorok's wings. There was a hideous screech as Argorok's left wing cracked and tore with the weight of the stone pillar. At the same time, the increased weight on the chain of Link's clawshot put a strain on the hero. Vaati yelled out when he saw Link's feet slipping out of his boots, following the unconscious dragon back down to the ground many miles below. "You idiot!"
Link thought he could feel his heart rise up to his throat as he accelerated down with Argorok. His clawshot was still jammed and it wouldn't come back fast enough for him to be able to ready it again to save himself. He waved his arms slowly; a reflex as though his body wished he could fly…
Sching!
"Ah!"
After a chaotic tumble through dirt, mud, and grass, Link lay sprawled onto the grassy roof of the highest tower in the City in the Sky. Even with all of the mud, Link had never felt more thankful for solid ground in his entire life. He breathed deeply for several seconds to recover, and then rolled onto his stomach to see Vaati sitting a few feet away, tugging the clawshot off of Link's tunic.
"Why must I always save you?" the sorcerer grumbled after a while.
Link didn't say anything. Instead, he crawled over to the edge to see what had happened to Argorok. Not even a faint roar could reach his ears, and all he could see was the endless stream of the gray rainclouds. It appeared they had defeated Argorok, and hopefully for good. "Haha… we did it."
"Indeed."
Link pointedly stared at the sky, ignoring the rain drops that fell on his face. His body was burned up from the fight, and the cool water was refreshing.
It was also melancholy.
"You know, sometimes I think we have the potential to make a great team…"
Now it was Vaati's turn to maintain silence. The sorcerer stood up and brushed the grass off of his pants, and blankly watched the wisps of clouds floating by.
Link sighed, and then pulled on the grass. It was a couple of days now ever since they had started working together, and a bothersome question had begun to bug him. It was something he didn't want to think about, but something that needed to be addressed. Link threw a furtive glance towards the wind mage who appeared to be very deliberately looking at the rainclouds. "When this ends, are we –"
"What do you think?" Vaati was quick to reply, cutting him off curtly. He continued to stare stonily ahead. "We continue where we left off. I'm going to destroy you, or you're going to destroy me."
It was funny how Vaati knew what Link was talking about immediately. Maybe the same thing had crossed his mind. The sorcerer's face was hidden by the bangs that washed over his eyes.
"Don't forget I'm only working with you so I can return to power. It is foolish to think otherwise." With that, Vaati turned his heel and began to walk in the direction of the way back down the tower.
Link shook his head and picked dirt off of his boot. Vaati was right; they were on the opposite spectra of good and evil, and it was inevitable that they clashed. But just how far away on that spectra were they, really? Within the last few days, Link had come to see that Vaati was a jerk, but… not evil. Perhaps a little misguided, but not evil like Ganondorf.
Unless, of course, that was simply because Vaati had lost all of his powers and therefore had little opportunity to be evil: absolute power corrupts absolutely, so the saying goes…
Link laughed to himself, troubled. That's what happens when you go adventuring. Everyone who helps you begins to appear nice.
The hero stood up and followed the leaving mage, his purple cape billowing behind him. For now, it was probably best he didn't think about the battle between them that was going to occur after all of this was over for good.
It was inevitable…
XXXXXXXXXXX
Far, far below the City in the Sky, Lake Hylia rippled with the waves created by a falling dragon that had hurtled through the air and shot through the water, hitting the surface with a painful crack. The clown Fyer dared to peek, only for a second, at the lake before he went back indoors and locked his door shut. Earlier, Falbi had shouted from the Flight-by-Fowl shack sitting on a cliff by the lake. He'd claimed that some block had fallen from the sky and into the lake, but Fyer hadn't believed him. The clown stubbornly refused to admit that something larger had fallen from the sky – that would only get Falbi excited.
Out on the lake and sinking deeper into the depths of the water, Argorok hung his head limply. His body was no longer responding from all of the damage it had taken, and there was a tremendous pain from his left wing.
Correction: where his left wing had once been. Most of it had been pierced and ripped violently off of his limb after it had taken the brunt of the pillar's weight.
Now, just barely conscious, Argorok debated if death by suffocation or death by inhalation of water was the least painful way to go. He was surprised that a shred of consciousness still remained at all, and he growled, thinking about how merciless fate was.
Lord Ganon. I have failed you.
A sense of dull aching spiked through his chest, and Argorok wondered for a moment if it was his body demanding oxygen or if it was from shame.
If only I could have a ssssecond chance… I am a disgracccce…
XXXXXXXXXXX
"Lord Ganon, Master Argorok was last seen falling into Lake Hylia."
From where she was chained, Zelda looked up slightly at the Imp Poe that had materialized in the room to announce the news. A small flicker of hope blossomed in her chest as she thought about how Link must still be alive. Ganondorf snapped his head sharply over to where the lantern was floating and he scowled. "When was this?"
"Less than a minute ago, sir. I came immediately to report the news."
Ganondorf muttered under his breath. He'd judged the dragon to be useful, especially with its undying loyalty to him. Argorok was the type to blindly follow his orders, and the dragon also wasn't stupid like some of his other minions: those were qualities that were somewhat rare among the more powerful monsters. The powerful ones were either a little rebellious or extremely stupid. Ganondorf waved a hand roughly at the Poe. "Well go find some Wizzrobes or something and get Argorok back if the dragon is still alive."
There were a few seconds of uncomfortable silence from the Imp Poe until the ghost finally shrunk away from the dark king's critical glare. "Er… Wizzrobes, my lord? What could those be?"
Ah. So they must not exist in this era. Ganondorf snapped his fingers at the possessed Opal who immediately stood to attention. "Summon a few Wizzrobes and get them over to Lake Hylia to find Argorok. That dragon may still have its uses."
"Yes Lord Ganon," Opal bowed.
"And summon the best ones. We have no need for the weak and useless."
"Yes Lord Ganon," Opal repeated in a flat voice, and then warped away out of sight.
After she was gone, Ganondorf went back to his throne and leaned his head against his hands. He paid no attention to Zelda who had resumed looking down with a troubled expression. "Argorok's no fool," he gave a wicked smile. "He may have failed once, but he won't fail again. And if he does, I will personally destroy him."
XXXXXXXXXX
"I knew you two gentlemen would be able to defeat the dragon, gracious yes!" Ooccoo greeted them as Link and Vaati returned from the tower. "You caused us quite a fright when it began to crash into the towers, but I see you're safe."
Link nodded, but didn't say anything as he was deep in thought. Ooccoo continued on, not noticing the slight tension between Link and Vaati.
"Gracious, but were you two quick! We haven't finished preparing lunch yet." Ooccoo clucked away, and then she turned her head from the quiet Link to Vaati. "Did something happen between you two? You look quite depressed… gracious yes."
"We're fine, just tired. Thank you for your hospitality. We'll be going off now," Link mumbled to his shoes. "If you have any more trouble, please let us know."
Ooccoo stared after the leaving hero in surprise. "Well. I hope the dear is feeling all right. Gracious!" She turned to Vaati who stood coldly a few feet away. "Be a good friend and make sure he's taken care of."
Vaati scoffed, grinning as though he'd taken offense. With a faint, "hmph," he walked out the door after Link, leaving Ooccoo staring at his back with her beady eyes wide in surprise.
The sorcerer's footsteps squelched in the grass, wet with rain. He stopped just for a little bit when he saw Link standing by the edge of the pool where they had first landed when they had arrived at the City in the Sky. The hero appeared somewhat depressed after bringing up what was to come after this mess was over with. Vaati sneered. It was stupid of Link to think they could actually be allies after this was done, when Vaati had no more need to take advantage of him.
He snorted, remembering Ooccoo's outrageous request. "Be a good friend and make sure he's taken care of." Pah. What did she expect him to do, go and talk to him? If only she knew who he was…
Speaking of talking, it had been a while - two hundred years? Five hundred? - since Vaati had last exchanged words with someone. Not "Die, fools!" and "I'll defeat you, Vaati!" exchanges; those didn't count as conversations. Now that he had lost all of his sorcery, he'd actually needed to take the time to talk to some people during the adventure so far. It reminded him of his miserably innocent days with Ezlo, the last period of his life where he had really talked with someone:
"Stupid boy! I told you not to wander off by yourself. You could've been killed!"
"I just wanted to see what the big people were doing, Master Ezlo."
"The big people are dangerous, Vaati. They may accidentally kill us without knowing what they're doing."
"Then why do we help them?"
He didn't really know why he thought about his old, hateful master, but he wondered what the old geezer was doing all the same. Vaati grunted, probably dead by now, old man. The sorcerer couldn't help but give an ironic chuckle as he thought about the position he was in right now. If you saw me as I am now, you'd probably die from shock.
He looked at Link again, sneering cruelly. Pity he was going to have to kill him when their little adventure concluded.
XXXXXXXXXX
Just along the edge of Lake Hylia next to the waterfall that eventually led towards Zora's Domain, a group of voices squabbled excitedly over something. It was an unusual disturbance in the normally quiet lake, and the small group that had gathered on the sand bank was more noticeable than Fyer's colorful little house floating on the water some distance away.
"Argorok's down there. Find him and retrieve him immediately," Opal spoke loudly within the chatter amongst the group of seven robed figures who were busy talking to themselves. They became quiet as soon as she spoke.
"He's taken a swim, has he?" one of them turned to the possessed girl and snickered, apparently not in the least worried that she could be counted as the Dark King himself since she was being controlled by him. The comment garnered more half-suppressed sniggers from the others.
Opal nodded while narrowing her eyes slightly at the creatures she had revived from the past. The seven figures gathered by the edge of the lake all wore long robes of an identical fashion with long trailing sleeves that concealed their fingers. The tips of their long sorcerer's hoods drooped past their collars, and they covered their faces with a brightly painted mask of a bird. They were nameless sorcerers known only as Wizzrobes by those who encountered them.
Three were garbed in a dark blue and three more were garbed in a rusty red, and they clumped together in their respective color groups as though they preferred not to mingle. The last one, however, stood between the two groups and stood proudly with a slightly dismissive air: it was also the one who had made the comment earlier. Unlike its other brethren, its robes were a slightly paler color between red and blue. A light purple the color of thistle.
"It's nice to enjoy a good swim," the odd colored Wizzrobe mused. "Not that I've tried it myself. But I endorse it." There were more snickers from the less-than-serious group.
"Lord Ganon would like to have him found before he's dead because Argorok can still be useful," the possessed girl pressed.
The Wizzrobe waved his floppy sleeve in the air. "Silly of him to jump into the water without knowing how to swim. An ignoramus."
A blue Wizzrobe chuckled behind his bird mask. "Hear, hear! Let the fool drown I say!"
"Maybe he's having a jolly good time with the fish down there. It wouldn't do to spoil that for him," a red one chipped in. There was more laughter as the two groups of Wizzrobes babbled and joked about the whole situation.
The trouble with Wizzrobes was that, though they were aligned with the Dark Faction, they only did so out of convenience. People had told them they needed to pick a side, and so they'd done so with a big shrug and a lot of giggles. The more powerful Wizzrobes were the worst as they took the whole conflict between Light and Dark as one big joke where no one got mad (or madder than they had been) if they "accidentally" set a few people on fire. The Wizzrobes Opal had summoned were one of the best, as per Ganondorf's orders: they were of The Seven, a group of Wizzrobes who'd successfully demonstrated that sorcery worked well under a gathering of seven.
Another thing of interest about Wizzrobes was their sense of loyalty to The Guild. They strictly follow rules set by their own group, The Guild of Wizzrobe, though it might sound surprising to most folks since Wizzrobes rarely appear to take anything seriously with their ringing laughs. All real Wizzrobes shed their names, limit their individuality, commit themselves fully to magic, and swear not to touch any other types of magic besides the one that they'd decided to specialize in. The last rule had been made much more lenient where Fire Wizzrobes occasionally shared knowledge with the Ice Wizzrobes and vice versa, but it was still rare and was still frowned upon. A Wizzrobe who failed to follow the laws of the Guild was considered renegade and blacklisted.
And being blacklisted was a serious and often fatal deal.
A blue Ice Wizzrobe was the first to break the humorous mood. "We're only joking about letting Argorok drown, of course," the bird mask bobbed towards Opal. The other two Ice Wizzrobes nodded in agreement while the Fire Wizzrobes shook their heads as though to disagree. The mysterious Thistle colored Wizzrobe simply stared at the sky and muttered while tracing his fingers across the clouds in an eccentric fashion.
The three Ice Wizzrobes raised their arms and chanted a spell simultaneously. Blue fire appeared in the palm of their hands, and it froze the water in a straight path when the sorcerers shot the fire towards the middle of the lake. One of the Ice Wizzrobes snapped his fingers at the Thistle Wizzrobe. "Hey Summoner Wizzrobe. Give us some Floor Masters."
"Feh." The lone Thistle Wizzrobe shrugged, taking a moment to look away from his progress of following the clouds. He summoned a dark purple cloud just above the ice on the lake. From within the cloud, there was a popping noise and three large, floating hands lowered onto the ice until their shadows appeared to latch onto the surface. They waved, and the Wizzrobe waved back. "There should be a large lizard fellow drowning in the lake. He might already be bloated with water by now. Find him please!" The Thistle Wizzrobe laughed. "Take your time, there's no rush!"
"Lord Ganon would like you to hurry," Opal cut in as coldly as the ice on the lake.
The summoning specialist scoffed, as did the other Wizzrobes. "What's a mere possessed puppet like you doing, ordering us about? You apparently drag us into this era, wherever this is, so we can revive failures like that Argorok? The 'elite' ore-class thinks too highly of themselves."
"You are here to serve the Dark King, and you were revived under his request."
The Ice Wizzrobes suddenly cheered when the Floor Masters returned with a battered, half-drowned dragon from the bottom of the lake. The Fire Wizzrobes set to work trying to warm Argorok up with fire to revive him, while the Thistle Wizzrobe clapped briefly before turning back to Opal. "Then surely he should be ordering us, not you? Though since you're like his proxy because you're possessed, I suppose he's the one who's really bossing us around." Then, the sorcerer tapped the edge of his bird mask thoughtfully. The Summoner Wizzrobe tilted his head. "I wonder how difficult possession sorcery is…"
A Fire Wizzrobe jumped into the conversation from where he was setting fire near the dragon. "You're talking like a renegade, Wizzrobe!"
"We will obliterate renegades with swift action," an Ice Wizzrobe giggled.
"Of course, how silly of me. Guild rules."
The Wizzrobes giggled amongst themselves. Then, one of the Fire Wizzrobe's giggles stopped as suddenly as they'd come when it noticed something about the dragon it was trying to revive. "Uh oh. Now that won't do…"
"What's that?"
"Look at his wing. He's not going to be able to fly." The red robed Wizzrobe pointed at Argorok's left wing. It was bent hideously out of shape, and most of it had been torn off savagely. Though the dragon might live, there was no way he was going to be able to fly again on his own.
Opal stared at the unconscious dragon for some time. Argorok's breath was slowly returning in ragged, labored gasps that still rattled a little from the water he had inhaled. Some parts of his armor were bent out of shape from a heavy impact as well. Even though they had managed to recover him from the depths of the lake, it was going to take a while for him to make a full recovery. "I will report this to Lord Ganon."
"Ah ah! Not so fast." A tutting noise stopped her, and she turned to see that it was the lone summoner Wizzrobe. She could just imagine the grin from behind the bird mask, and she could see his green eyes twinkling deviously. "This is a wonderful opportunity for all of us. Isn't that right, Wizzrobes?"
The possessed girl stared blankly at the group of seven who were circled around the wheezing dragon almost predatorily. The Wizzrobes gathered exchanged looks with each other, and then fell into a fit of eerie laughter. The Thistle Wizzrobe waved her off with a few knowing nods.
"Tell the King that we'll take good care of Master Argorok. Soon he will have a marvelous ally. It will be wonderful!"
"Grand!"
"Fantastic!"
"Incredible!"
"Hilarious!"
"Don't tell him it will be hilarious," the Thistle Wizzrobe interrupted. He cracked a grin, "even though that might very well be true." The Wizzrobe waved his sleeves hastily, "but again, don't tell him that. Anyways, off you go! Ta ta!" The summoner Wizzrobe hurried the possessed girl away. Once she was out of sight, he whirled around with a sweep of his robes.
"Well now my sorcerous brethren, I would like to embark on a project revive Master Argorok as a living weapon under our complete control. Any objections?"
The chuckles of the easily amused Wizzrobes echoed over the lake. There were no objections. As long as, one of them reminded, they weren't going to have to do anything renegade.
The Thistle Wizzrobe tilted his head so that it looked as though his bird mask was smiling crookedly. "I'll take full responsibility. You can boil me alive once this is done if I break any Guild Laws."
The Wizzrobes laughed again at their comrade's comment, and even the Summoner Wizzrobe joined them though his words had been serious. The world was so full of amusement if you just changed the way you looked at things. Life and Death was full of chuckles for the good-humored Wizzrobes.
fleets: First off, I think some of you may recognize one very, very obvious Easter Egg in this chapter. If you're thinking, after reading the last segment of the chapter, something like: "No way, he can't be... ?" then hesitate no more because he IS. Of course this is only relevant to those who've read my other stories since this is an Easter Egg (and this is what I meant when I said you guys will know more about a certain character after the next update - remember I never said what update for what story hehehe).
Second off, this fight was so hard to write I can whine about it all day, but I won't (the problems stemming from the fact how completely outmatched Link and Vaati should be, logically speaking. Argorok should've won...).
Thridly, the Summon Wizzrobe who should be called Thistle out of convenience (but won't be since Wizzrobes aren't supposed to have names) finally made an appearance! (cheers) I waited so long for this. And no, he's not supposed to be yellow like the Summon Wizzrobes from the games because he's... queer (lawl no, that's not the reason. Remind me to tell you guys before the TP arc ends hehe).
Midna Hytwilian: The clawshot was one of my favorite items in TP, mostly because whenever I didn't feel like walking I could just zip around if I could find something to use it on XD. And oh noes TRIPLE!
TwilightWakerofTime: Mortal Draw was such an overpowered move lol. Nothing stood a chance against it, suckers! Haha, I don't intentionally try to be evil with updating, but sometimes it just turns out that way when, on a whim, I feel like updating one story over the other (like, if I recently updated one story I usually need a break so end up writing the other story instead. Other times I just take an art break :3). Vaati just has the basics to make him interesting to write about (for me, at least) :). I never really expected Avilux to hit it off so well (even better than Rend/BC) because it was in a modern setting, but I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome! :D
msfcatlover: Haha, that's because it was never there in the original ;) Vaati is so luffable (shot)
henslight: Don't worry, I've actually already planned for that to happen in Occult Ascendancy. ;) Can't give out the details on when it's going to happen or for what reason, but it's going to happen hehehe. Argorok's battle was really short in the game (imo). I thought the Stallord battle was more memorable. I wanted to give him (and the Aeralfos) a little more character since they had some of my favorite monster designs.
Reily96: Oh he's totally showing off. XD But he's also not stupid; he knows it'll also be an advantage to him. Too bad he was super unlucky this time (because he totally could've won). I remember when I first wrote it, I'd anticipated that line at least three chapters before it. It was too good to pass up XD
Bishieluver01: Poor poor Vaati. Then again, he just might be in deni -
Vaati: OH NO YOU DON'T!
Fwoom!
Random person: We are sorry to inform the author fleets has been murdered by a large magical explosion. We believe the suspect is a short, purple wind mage named Vaati.
Lord Siravant: Aw, Siravant, I placed bets on the dragon too! (sobs) He should've won! Ah well. At least he ain't dead (whispers)... though now he's got a few crazies with him... hmm.