Legend of Zelda: Breaking the Cycle

Next chapter of my Legend of Zelda story, enjoy.

Reviews

grandshadowseal: Thanks, glad you enjoyed it, yeah, it's a nice place, well, it's only gonna appear briefly in this chapter but it will appear again at the end of the story so don't worry :)

Now onto the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of Zelda or its characters.

Running Battle

Link rode carefully out into the Haunted Wasteland. He looked around; in various stages of decay were several bodies, clearly of people who had fallen foul of the Titan. According to Saddia however, these bodies were only half of those who had fallen by this Titan, Link had a nasty feeling that the other half had been eaten.

"Easy girl." He whispered to Epona, "We don't know where this thing is."

Epona waked cautiously, Link knew that her senses would be sharper and her sixth sense would alert her of any danger a lot quicker than him. He was relying on that in order to find the Titan before he became its next meal. Epona suddenly became nervous and Link realized the Titan was close; he quickly drew his bow and notched an arrow as he scanned the horizon. A nearby rumbling sound caught his attention, then, from the desert floor, only about four feet to his right, the Titan burst out of the ground. Saddia's description hadn't done it justice. The creature was huge, a large serpent, easily a minimum of twenty feet long, with purple scales that looked very resistant to damage. On its head and along the length of its body Link spotted the seven crystals, they were covered by a layer of scales which briefly retracted and then closed again.

"This is what she meant by brief time." Link realized, "I have to strike just as it opens those scales, only then can I strike the crystals."

Link prepared himself, grateful for wielding a Gerudo bow. It was well known that Gerudos fashioned the strongest and most elegant bows in Hyrule, so he knew his current bow was stronger than the one he had been using previously. With a roar the Titan dived back into the ground and the battle began.

Epona took off at a gallop and Link held on. Taking careful aim with his bow, ready to strike at a moments notice. The Titan leapt out of the ground and attempted to devour Link and Epona but missed, it hissed in anger and Link let his arrow fly. Right on cue the scales covering the crystal briefly opened and the arrow struck home, piercing the crystal and destroying it, the Titan howled and roared again, attempting a second devour. It missed and instead burrowed back underground. Epona veered around, changing course, avoiding a cliff as Link notched another arrow. He kept a careful watch, this time the Titan came up from the right hand side and attempted another dive. Link fired and knocked it off course by taking out the second crystal. Link prepared to repeat the process but the Titan seemed to have smartened up and Link's third arrow instead imbedded itself in the Titan's left eye. Growling at this he took advantage of the momentary agony that stopped the beast in its tracks to fire again and this time destroy the third crystal. The retracting scales opened and closed rapidly as the beast went to burrow again, Link fired and only just destroyed the fourth crystal before it burrowed back underground. Link then realized that the cliff wasn't the only obstacle. He couldn't escape the Titan now, apart from the cliff the rest of the area had been covered in an impassable sandstorm, trapping Link in an arena like area. Epona continued to circle around the outside as the Titan reared up again. Link fired but the Titan twisted in midair and he missed. Gritting his teeth he fired again and struck the scales, the arrow bouncing harmlessly off. He shook his head and focused, he only had one more chance before the Titan burrowed again. He fired and finally struck the fifth Crystal. The Titan burrowed quickly and Link realized that now, the dark energy leaking from the shattered crystals was revealing its location underground.

Taking advantage of this he readied his next arrow and positioned himself carefully. When it came back out he reacted instantly and shattered the sixth crystal. He then took aim at the seventh but only struck the Titan's second eye. Although blind the beast was in agony and lunged forwards with surprising speed. Epona narrowly avoided it. Link, on the other hand, landed on its head. He sheathed his bow and attempted to pierce the last crystal with his sword but instead the sword got stuck in the scales. It was then Link realized the horrifying truth. The Titan had overshot its mark. It wasn't burrowing underground, it had gone over the cliff, and he was going with it. Before he could react the Titan hit the water and the current swept them away over the waterfall and into the river below. The moment he hit the water again Link blacked out from the impact. When Link recovered he was aware that his entire body was in pain. He was also aware of the lower half of his body being in contact with water. He recovered and looked around, he was lying on a small sandbank, ahead of him were his sword and shield along with his bow. His quiver was still on his back but most of the arrows had fallen out onto the sandbank. He was aware that he had several injuries but none of them seemed fatal. It was then he noticed that, to his dismay, his sword was snapped in two. Groaning he gathered up the rest of his equipment and strapped it all back on before sitting at the top of the sandbar, where it met the grass. He then looked around and realized where he was.

'This is Lake Hylia.'

Link smiled at being surrounded by such abundant life and vitality. The lake was almost crystal clear and apart from a few islands in the centre there was nothing to interrupt the water. He noticed many natural rock formations and a few man made structures were visible, but they seemed to add to the beauty of the area. Just then however the lake began to bubble and the Spirit Titan emerged, blind, enraged and still having one of its life crystals intact.

'Not good.' Link thought as he tried to grab his bow but found he was in too much pain to move quickly.

Before the Titan could strike however a magical bolt struck the crystal and vaporized it. The Titan shrieked and then disappeared. Link turned to see who had saved him and gaped in shock, it was Ganondorf.

Ganondorf smirked as he lowered his hand and casually dusted his cape off.

"Well, that was fun." He remarked, Link struggled to turn around, "You…what are you…?"

"It was of no further use to me," He replied, "But you still are, dear boy."

"What are you talking about?"

"You'll find out soon enough, you're getting closer." Was the enigmatic reply. "Well, I have somewhere else I need to be."

With that Ganondorf teleported away. Link groaned again and finally managed to get to his feet. Link then spotted, to his relief, some whistle grass. He picked some up and blew into it. Within moments Epona arrived and he mounted her before riding cautiously back to the Hyrule field and from there to Gerudo Desert. He soon reached the fortress and saw all the Gerudo cheering and saluting his return. It was clear they knew about the Spirit Titan's demise. They led Link to Saddia and, while the doctors treated Link as best as they could, Saddia awarded him with the Spirit Seal. Finally, once Link recovered sufficiently to walk she led him out to the Haunted Wasteland again, leading him to the Desert Colossus where Anima resided.

End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.