Link rushed to confront him as did Darbus and several other warriors of all races but none could get close as he swung his heavy weapon round and round. A moment later, though, Impaz speed past Link, rolled forward underneath the ball and chain and rammed her large body into his knocking him off balance. Everyone present charged to overwhelm the downed juggernaut but the monsters around him came to his aid, stopping even Darbus and the twili in their tracks with ferocious retaliation.

Impaz found herself severely outnumbered and had begun to form a retreat plan when a deeply graveled voice called out.

"Sssstop!"

The monsters, even the looming darknuts, immediately stopped their assault on Impaz. Darkhammer rose to his feet.

"Thisss one'sss mine."

He had the same snake like voice of the lizalfos and dynalfos except that his was very deep, heavily graveled and somewhat raspy. One by one the monsters all sulked off to fight other foes for none would go against The Darkhammer's word.

Impaz looked at him with malice and said confidently

"You underestimate me, my friend. Or is it that you overestimate your own abilities?"

She posed in a defensive formation, ready for anything.

Darkhammer readied himself as well saying with deep throated chuckle.

"It'sss been a long time sssinccce I fought a sheikah. And the lassst one I fought ended badly for me. Time for a little payback."

He swung the heavy ball up and around his head before casting in her direction. She rolled to the left to avoid it, and began to sprint at her opponent while he was venerable. With a backwards jerk of his arm he yanked the chain back to him. Impaz dropped flat to the ground as the ball 'whooshed' over her head from behind, returning to its master.

With difficulty, Impaz rose to her feet. Link could tell that even the great sheikah leader was not without limit. Like many others, he fought fiercely to come to her aid but there were still too many enemies holding them back. Darkhammer's presence was having the same effect on the monsters as the sheikah's and twili's did on them. The monsters fought with renewed hope and determination.

Impaz and Darkhammer exchanged a few blows testing each other's strength and skill. Impaz could never get in a good position to land a decent attack and she was too fast for Darkhammer's heavy weapon.

Impaz, realizing just how very alone she was for this battle, stepped back, sighed and said,

"This would be fun and all, just me and you but I don't have time for you monsters any more so I'll have to stop toying around and kill you quickly."

"You forget who'sss toying with who." Darkhammer growled back but then he let the comment go and relaxed.

"Look," he said casually throwing the length of chain of his shoulder.

The heavy ball rested on the ground next to his boot covered feet.

"I'm not here for you. Where'sss your companion, Impton?"

Impaz froze in disbelief. Her eyes widened as she stared, slack-jawed.

"H-how do you know him?"

"Ha! Ha! Ha! Heh, heh, heh. Ssso you ssstill haven't figured it out? Allow me to remove my helmet. Not that it'll do much good."

He unclipped his headgear and let it clatter to the trampled, blood stained grass, revealing a chainmail mask with round eye holes. His right eye was obviously reptilian as it was dark yellow and had a slit pupil. His left eye, or more accurately, the space where his left eye should have been was simply vacant. Gripping the mask by top he pulled it off to reveal his face.

It could hardly be called a face. He was obviously a large dynalfos or very large lizalfos of some kind but his face was so mutilated it was no longer recognizable. Several deep jagged scars crisscrossed his it with most of them originating from his left eye socket. The socket itself was almost none existent. Much of the flesh in that area was gone creating a small concave dome on the left side of his face. The brown/gray discolored skin had grown over it covering even the socket itself. Most of the scales on that side his face were gone. The few that were there had lost their dull brown iridescent sheen for a sickly yellow and green mix.

Impaz flinched at the sight. Her memory of the darknut's face flashed back to her for a moment.

"Wha-"

"You ssstill don't know? Maybe thisss will help. "

His voice took on a higher insulting tone as he mocked the words he spoke.

"Niccce move by the way. That lizzzalfosss won't be ssseeing with that eye anymore."

By the end of the last sentence he was spitting the quote with spite.

"What about that? Do you remember that, Impazzz?"

"Are you-?" she said in jaw-dropping shock

"Come on. You can do it. Remember me."

"Dirkon? No, Dreeko. No, no. …Dryko! Yes, that was it!"

The lizalfos smirked in satisfaction.

Then she remembered. The scout from all the years ago had told them that there was one survivor of Impton's wrath. She never thought twice about it. Someone who had gotten lucky, she had supposed at the time. The teenage Impaz could have never guessed that sole survivor would be Dryko. Let alone that he was the Darkhammer.

"I was Dryko, but that was a long time ago. Now, as you already know, I'm called Darkhammer. You can thank Impton for my good looks."

"Wha-? Impton didn't do that to your face. He only-"

"It got infected." he spat.

"And you survived? …Great Din of Fire."

"Now tell me. Where isss that worthlesss companion of yoursss? It'sss time for sssome payback."

That caused her to snap. She ran at him roaring furiously,

"HE'S DEAD, YOU BASTERD!"

She brought both her swords above her head and used her entire upper body as her swung them down in her most powerful strike yet. But Darkhammer held chain taunt in front of him and blocked the attack with it. The enraged sheikah's swords flashed as they hit the indestructible chain of Darkhammer's weapon. With a grunt of effort, he swung the ball up and around it at her. Impaz dodged it with a back flip.

Looking up, she screeched,

"You monsters drove him insane!"

Tears were pouring from her eyes. A twisted look of pain and sorrow contorted her face almost beyond recognition. The bandage around her chin had come loose and the wound was bleeding again. Her long wild hair no longer even resembled its previous ponytail.

Darkhammer rolled his single eye and said causally,

"Oh and while we're on the sssubject, I wasss the one who chunked that ssspear and killed poor little Fern"

Impaz froze in a heart wrenching mix of sorrow, shock, and rising anger. Whatever amount of hope, rage, or sorrow she had felt was immediately extinguished. Her red eyes lost their fire; her swords fell from her hands and splashed in the red mud around her. Her trembling lips parted as her jaw slowly fell. The sheikah leader's proud muscular shoulders slumped as she fell to her knees and stared the trampled grass and mud. Impaz's breaths came slow, heavy, and struggled. Her eyes were beginning to burn with tears.

Darkhammer chucked at the sight.

"That's right. I'm the murderer of both your best friends and you're powerless to do anything about it. Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Her mind flashed back to Impton's smiling face, his determination in battle and finally the crazed look of madness that had eventually consumed him in the end. And then Fern's silly antics. Her innocent clumsiness and ignorance. She had been in love with Impton. Impaz had always known that and felt more protective of him because of it. Not that they weren't a good couple or that she wanted Impton for herself. She just didn't want to lose him to Fern's happy-go-lucky attitude. Her stern, serious nature tended to push people away but not Impton. He had always been eager to be by her side. The spear that had come through Fern's chest from behind... And then the look of terror and pain on her face just before she died…

The emptiness in Impaz's heart began to fill with heavy heartbroken sadness. It threatened to pull her down to the ground and keep her there until she died and for a moment she felt herself giving in but then the sadness began to change, to morph into something different. It was like that stagnant pool of despair had begun heat up. And as it heated, it began to evaporate into a wild hot steam. The hotter it got, the lighter she felt until there was a great burning fire in her heart.

It was then that Impaz knew what she had to do. She couldn't do this alone after all. She was going help and she knew just the pair for the job. She had only used them twice before and the last time was over a decade and a half ago.

Looking up to the moon and starlit sky she screamed through her heavy tears and heartache. "Rosso! Dycete! Please! Come to me!"

After a long moment, there was a frigid gust of wind that carried the scent of roses in its wake and Impaz knew they had heard her.

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