A/N: Seriously, re-read the previous chapter first
Chapter 22
"So much for that."
Ganon strode forward, each heavy step throwing up a small cloud of dust.
"The champions of Hyrule stand to meet their fate," Nabooru called, beside Link. "Behold the greatest of the Hylians!"
Ganon threw out his hand. A line of dark powder extended forth. The wind caught it, swirling up, and the powder formed into four blades, tumbling through the air.
The two white-robed Gerudo guarding the Sages extended their arms. The swords righted themselves mid-air, and floated into the guards' open hands.
As one, the pair turned to the prisoners and slashed down. Four ropes fell from the Sages' wrists to the arena floor.
"Our gift to you is the chance to die well," Nabooru said.
The guards knelt, presenting the hilts of the swords toward the Sages.
Ganon continued his advance.
With a sharp cry Aghreal sprinted forward, so fast Link could not even see her take the dark sword. He just saw it trailing behind her, as she made her charge.
"Damn. Bloody. KIDS!" Rusl took a sword and hobbled forward. Kafei came next, quickly overtaking him with a determined stride. Irene remained behind, trembling. Beside her, Flueckli, trapped in a bottle.
Ganon stood almost unmoving under Aghreal's assault. Most of her strikes simply clanged off his thick armor. He laughed.
"You were born a few latitudes too high, girl," he said. His firm voice carried easily, as though magnified by a microphone with no distortion.
Kafei joined them. He wielded his sword as a rapier, thrusting at Ganon's face and the gaps in the armor. His weapon formed itself to match his style; the end had narrowed to a deadly tip, near to invisible.
The Rusl caught up, and for the first time Ganon stepped backwards.
He grinned, then wound back, and with one broad stroke sent all three leaping away.
"They send a cripple against me," Ganon said, striking low through Rusl's knee. "A frail Lieutenant who fights like a fire dancer-" His armored boot rammed into Kafei's ribs, throwing him to the ground. "-and the worst insult of all, one who should have been mine from the first."
Aghreal screamed, hoarse and visceral, and stabbed at Ganon's face. He laughed, stepped to the side, and severed her head.
He raised his hand, and spears of dark magic shot through the struggling bodies of Kafei and Rusl.
"Now, the coward and the fairy."
Irene still stood where she had been brought in, though she had taken the final sword from her guard. Ganon stood inches from her and peered down.
"You will not fight for your life?"
Irene let the sword drop. "I can't fight you," she said, her voice trembling. "But I still defy you." The last work came out half a croak, as fury mingled with fear.
She spat upon him.
He stood, frozen. Then, in the space of half a break, he snapped her neck.
"Last, the little one." He raised his hand, and the bottle containing Flueckli floated into it. "We all forget the little ones, but I know them to be most dangerous." He released her. "Will you fight, fairy?"
She sped upward, and north. Ganon craned his neck up, tracking her. Then a ball of violet flame surrounded her, eating her to nothing.
No one moved. No one breathed. Time had frozen even his tears. The space in his mind the Sages had filled now held only Zelda, shining beside him. Zelda and…. there, still behind Ganon's veil, one other.
He had brought them all so far for nothing.
"React later," said Zelda, through both her voice and her mind. "Later, damn you. We stand before Hyrule."
Then, she took his presence in hers, and guided him beneath the torrent of his mind, leaving but a shade.
"Care for your dead, Hero. Our reckoning comes later. The rest, return to your duties."
A/N: Heh, remember when Nabooru said an amputation was scheduled? :)