Volvagia's cavern was near the foot of the volcano and so was unsurprisingly hot even with the Goron Tunic. There was no evidence of Darunia's attempt on the fire dragon, and no evidence of the dragon itself for that matter.
A short piece of stone led down from the door to a huge chunk of basalt that rested, bobbing and turning slightly in the lava below. There were lava vents on top of it, arranged in a simple square grid.
I could feel the presence of the dragon in here, at the moment resting somewhere beneath the vents. Darunia's presence was gone, either because of Volvagia or masked by it. Warily, I headed down the stone slope that led onto the basalt, where it fell away to leave it freely floating on the lava lake below.
The Triforce of Courage might have taken up residence with me, but at the time it felt like it wasn't doing much. Facing an ancient legendary dragon on your own tends to do that to you, but no matter what the chances were, I had no choice but to fight this thing – as soon as it showed itself.
I kept clear of the vents, warily making my way across the basalt until I stood not far from the central vent. Something rumbled below, shaking the rock and making the lava vents start to slop lava over the nearby rocks. I quickly moved clear of those to avoid burning my boots or worse, my feet.
Then the center vent gave rise to a plume of flame that seemed almost like a cloud, and from it burst up the great dragon, Volvagia – a kind of dragon better known as a Wyrm, a long worm-like red dragon reaching up into the air on impossibly stubby wings, had it not been for the magical ambiance this world had. A flare of fire behind its head gave it a long mane that whipped about in the air currents with every move it made, and as it turned its baleful gaze on me its pure green eyes stared out of the horned rock-like mask, giving it an intimidating visage.
Two short arms reached back as it gave a short screeching roar, fading to a short cloud of fire aimed for where I had been, had I not moved. The entire thing seemed to be nothing but orange fire and red lava except for that face. How was I meant to fight this monster?
All I had to go on was what Darunia had said – the Megaton hammer had been used to defeat it once before. What good was that going to do me now though?
Volvagia meanwhile dived down again, flattening arms against its body to drop into a corner vent. My sword just bounced off the scaly hide with no effect in the slightest.
"A little help here, Navi!" I called over the cracking and rumbling from below.
"Soon as you tell me how!" she replied.
"I don't know, I thought you knew about these things!"
"Legendary dragons aren't exactly my best point, Silver – watch out behind you!" she added, as another plume marked Volvagia preparing to exit another vent. I took a chance, quickly readying the Megaton hammer and starting to swing it down hoping it would get the dragon just as it emerged.
The rocky face started to emerge, the green eyes suddenly going very wide as it saw the metal head of the hammer descend, but it was either unwilling or unable to stop itself emerging now. The two collided with a great crack, echoed in the stone face with a crack that ran from between the twin horns down to one side. The two forces collided, somehow nullifying Volvagia's movement as the stunned dragon fell limply over the edge of the vent, stunned.
With the mask still in place there was only so much I could do, but I had to do whatever I could. Rather than try to put the Megaton hammer away I simply dropped it, drew the Master Sword from my back and hacked away, carefully avoiding the mask. Here near the head it was still tough, but slightly more vulnerable at least. Part of the mane fell away to my slashes, though there were no remains – it just stopped burning and vanished – but I had little enough effect before it recovered and drew its head back into the vent.
I sheathed the sword, picking up hammer with a slight strain again – even using my mind as well as my hands, it was still an effort to wield this thing, not the most ideal situation for a boss fight with a dragon!
Volvagia shot out of a far vent quicker this time, with no warning plume or chance to beat it over the head. This time it rose up, higher even than it had when making its first appearance before me until it hit the top of the cavern, causing a shower of rocks. Those that came close to me I shoved quickly aside with my mind, though Navi quickly seized them with her own and shoved them down hard on the vents until only the center vent was clear.
The great dragon wasn't done yet though, diving down not for the vent but for the surrounding lake of lava. When it reached the same level as us it rammed the huge basalt rock, making it tip back from the impact. Where it had been only floating on the lava it now moved around, tipping wildly from side to side as it tried to regain some balance. Navi's rocks had made it top-heavy though, and it started to tip further and further. I had to stow the hammer away and leap into the air lest I fall in the lava myself, and gods forbit I lost the hammer to the lava!
The basalt continued to tip, first on its side, then upright to show its still glowing base – with nine similar vents in the exact same position.
"Two can play at that game," Navi muttered, having not taken this counter-strategy well. She didn't elaborate though and I couldn't tell what she was doing, but my attention was still on Volvagia. As the rock stabilised and cooled enough for me to safely walk on, Volvagia finally descended back down again, diving into one of the vents.
With the rock stable I picked out the hammer once more, trying to keep track of where it was. A plume appeared on an edge vent, so with a burst behind me I propelled myself toward it only just in time to slam the hammer down on its face once again. The crack on the rock mask grew wider, showing the true lava face behind, and another one appeared straight across, but still it remained attached to the stunned dragon's face.
This time I left the mane, wedging the sword into the crack to stab at the snout beneath, setting one foot against the mask and heaving back, trying to force even a single chunk of it off. It howled and writhed as the tip of the sword scratched into its vulnerable nose, thrashing about to throw me off and only narrowly missing sending the hammer into the lava had I not reacted quick enough to retrieve it. One chunk of the rock mask was gone, revealing a thin angry red line where I'd cut into it.
Rather than retreat back into the vent as it had done before, it breathed fire to keep me away then hauled itself out and up into the air once again, headed up for the cavern roof in preparation for another rock shower.
"Need any more rocks?" I asked Navi quickly.
"Going to need all I can get," she replied. "If you need them, try to use only one until it breaks up."
"What are you up to?" I shouted over the sudden roar of rock, but it was lost in the noise.
I took the first rock I saw before Navi stole it, guiding it around in an attempt to hit Volvagia with it. The dragon was suspicious of this strangely behaving rock though, circling around to keep a watch on it.
At Navi's quick prompting she took the rock off me in exchange for another one that was closer to Volvagia, one I could use to better effect by bringing it crashing down onto its head from above. It gave a furious scream when the rock hit, almost falling out of the air before it caught itself and dived for another vent, not even attempting to tip the rock this time.
It caused three plumes of fire to appear at different vents, so I quickly put my mind to use figuring out which was the real one – only to find it was trying to deceive me anyway, shooting up out of a completely different vent behind me. Rather than trying to make another rock shower or breath fire it flew right at me. It was fairly easy to evade the increasingly frustrated dragon as its body wasn't suited for tight turns no matter how much it tried. I did try to swing the hammer around into its face at one point, but it simply changed course and angled up over the hammer instead.
Then it flew back out over the lava again, planning to ram the platform again. I steadied myself in preparation for the effect of the ramming attack it would do, but I caught an odd tinkling sound that came from Navi, who was actually shaking with quiet laughter.
"What are-"
"Wait and see," she cut me off.
Volvagia collided with the rock – and nothing happened! It didn't move about in the slightest, not even a hint of a tip. Now I understood what Navi had been doing with the rocks, building a stable base underneath to nullify this attack.
The furious dragon rose up with another enraged screech, another part of its mask missing after that impact. It breathed fire in short bursts at the both of us, but Navi took cover in the red cap that had come with the tunic, as it was as heat-proof as the rest of it. Some slight heat might get to her, but not enough to harm her.
I tried to keep clear of the fire all the same though, waiting for my chance. There was only a small piece of the rock mask left now, covering one side of its face only. If I timed my strike right, I could remove it, stun it, and deal a hefty blow to it all in one go.
Once again it dived into a vent, and once again three of them flared. It wasn't trying to trick me this time, only try to throw me off which one it was emerging from, a tactic made useless by my tracking the dragon's presence. I readied the hammer, tried to calm my racing heart and hoped this worked the way I wanted it to.
The two flares marking the vents it wasn't using faded moments before it emerged before me, so I took that as my opportunity to strike a blow, not entirely downwards but at such an angle it would catch the remains of the mask. The blow struck true; Volvagia emerged, the hammer impacted, the angle sending the mask flying off as the full force of the blow slammed the dragon's head down onto the rock below. Rather than fall back to my sword I kept hold of the hammer, hitting it again and again, pounding rhythmically down on its head with all the fading strength I had left until at last it managed to recover and retreated back into the vent.
I was breathing hard from my exertions by now, definitely feeling the aches forming from my repeated attacks. I hoped I had enough left to finish it off, but as Volvagia emerged, flying into the air for the last time, I realised I'd done it. The tough red scales of the body were turning white-hot, searing even this great dragon to burn away its body until nothing but a charred chain of bones hung limply in the air before they lost cohesion and fell apart, landing if not in the lava, then in a vent or bouncing in to one or the other.
It was with great relief I stepped into the blue circle of light to leave. This had been by far the most exhausting battle I'd had yet, and I welcomed letting something else get me around for a chance to recover.