Thanks so much to SithChop (Wait no longer, 'cause here it is!), Alice-Ann Wonderland (No rest for the heroic, I suppose XD), and MexicAmerichick6 (You'll see! ;) for reviewing! I hope you all continue to enjoy!
By the way! Since it's October, I'm going to be attempting (key word attempting) the Linktober art challenge over on Instagram! Look for me at sapphire_316 if you're interested in seeing some Zelda art! Gonna see how far I can take it before school gets in the way, haha.
Anyway, on with the chapter!
~ Chapter 22 ~
The moment Link stopped moving, Teba was the first to react.
"You heard him! Everyone, get the hell away from him!" he commanded, sweeping a wing out to direct Purah, Riju, and Impa behind him. "Grab Paya and Symin and get outside! Tell Yunobo what's going on and have him block the door! Now!"
"You don't need to tell me twice!" Purah exclaimed. She scooped up the Sheikah Slate and rushed Riju back to where the two exhausted Sheikah sat, both beginning to stir with all of the commotion. The scientist grabbed her assistant by the arm and yanked him to his feet, while Riju and impa more gently roused Paya.
"W-What...what's going on…?" the younger Sheikah woman questioned, fear beginning to shine through the fog of drowsiness.
"I'll explain outside - everybody out!" Purah demanded. "Come on, people, snap to it! Go!"
As the five of them dashed out the door, Teba reached out his wing and cuffed Sidon on the back of the head - not the most respectful way to treat royalty, but the circumstances called for speed, not propriety. The Zora prince, already somewhat stirring, now jolted awake, his golden eyes almost comically wide.
"What's happening!?" he immediately blurted out as he looked around rapidly.
Teba rounded on Link's slumped form once again, speaking quickly as he eyed the boy carefully. "You missed a lot while you were out, so I don't have time to explain everything. Just...I don't know how or why, but the Malice is possessing him again. I'm guessing it'll be back with a vengeance, so we need to be ready to hold him off. Can you stand?"
"Oh! Yes, of course!" Sidon hurriedly scrambled to his feet, using one of the tridents he'd brought with him to prop himself up. He followed the Rito's gaze with a nervous grimace. "I don't suppose you have a better plan than giving him a whack on the head again, do you…? I wouldn't want to cause him any more unnecessary harm."
"If worse comes to worst, we may have to," Teba grunted, reaching for his bow. He didn't actually plan on shooting arrows at the possessed knight, but it could serve as a fairly decent bludgeoning weapon if the situation grew especially desperate. "Small or not, Link's not exactly someone I'd want to chance grappling with, even under the best of circumstances. Fighting a cursed, evil version of him for longer than absolutely necessary sounds like a death wish to me."
Sidon frowned and nodded. "Agreed...that's why I knocked him out in the first place. It's still little more than a temporary solution, though…"
"I know." Teba's keen eyes narrowed as Link's body twitched slightly. "What we really need is the princess back, but apparently she's stuck up on Mount Lanayru at the moment. I don't know what's going on with her, but it seems like we're on our own right now."
"So that's where the Yiga took her…" Sidon breathed, then shook his head to clear it. "Hopefully she's alright...but I suppose we must focus on Link for now."
"Guys!" came a certain Goron youth's shout from the door. Yunobo filled the doorway, blocking it as instructed, though his expression was one of terror. "What's going on, goro!? Is Link okay!?"
"Considering the fact that he's possessed, I'm going to say no, he's not okay," Teba replied flatly, not turning to look at the young Goron.
Sidon, however, did glance back over his shoulder to address Yunobo directly. "Unfortunately, the Malice seems to have taken hold once again...Link has not moved yet, but we must keep an eye on him and ensure that his possessed self does not leave this lab! Between the three of us and those outside, I'm certain we will be able to - "
"Sidon, watch out!" Teba suddenly shouted, flinging out a wing in the Zora's direction.
With a brief cry of shock, Sidon turned just in time to bring up his trident to block the brilliantly glowing blade swinging viciously at him. In an instant, Link had leapt up, grabbed his discarded sword, and pounced, his black, flaming eyes glinting all the while.
The Master Sword gleamed a blinding silver due to its proximity to the Malice possessing its owner, and small curls of smoke rose from where his hands gripped the hilt. It did not drain Link's energy, like it had for Sidon and the others who had recently held it, but the divine blade was actively searing his skin as punishment for the evil within him attempting to wield it.
The Zora prince quickly shoved the possessed knight back with his trident, though in its empowered state, the sword had almost melted straight through the silver handle, leaving only a sliver of metal holding the two halves of the weapon together. Muttering a quick curse under his breath, Sidon tossed the trident aside and removed the second, identical one from its sheath on his back, holding it at the ready.
"Damn it…" Teba growled, tightening his grip on his bow. "You know what we have to do, right?"
Sidon nodded firmly. "Get that sword away from him!"
Link's flaming irises briefly flicked back and forth between Teba and Sidon, as though trying to determine which of the two warriors would be the greater threat - or, perhaps, the easier target. Then, with little ceremony, the boy sprang forward again, this time aiming for the white-feathered Rito.
Biting back a curse, Teba lifted his wings and slammed them back down again, propelling himself a few feet into the air. When Link's momentum carried him directly under the Rito, Teba grabbed the young knight's shoulders with his talons, lifting him up and throwing him roughly into the opposite wall. Frustratingly enough, despite the impact, Link maintained his iron grip on the Master Sword's hilt.
"That seemed a bit...excessive," Sidon commented with a wince. "Shouldn't we be more careful with him?"
Teba scoffed, touching down on the floor again. "You've seen him in battle, you know he can take it. Besides, I doubt that Malice in him plans on going easy on us either."
"Fair point…"
With a low growl, Link charged once more, taking a few steps towards Teba before abruptly turning to swing his gleaming sword at Sidon. The Zora swiftly sidestepped the attack and shoved his trident forward, managing to catch the Master Sword's hilt between two of the silver prongs. With a sharp twist of the trident, he managed to wrench the sword out of the young man's burning hands, sending it clattering to the floor.
Link, however, did not need a sword to put up a fight. He spun on his heel and slammed his fist into Sidon's abdomen, heedless of his own still-healing fingers. Thanks to the knight's inhuman strength, Sidon was briefly sent staggering backwards, doubled over in pain. Link lifted his arm to strike again, but Teba was behind him in an instant, grabbing his arm with a wing and his opposite leg with a set of talons. The Rito yanked the Hylian's leg out from under him and shoved him to the floor, leaning heavily on his back to keep him there.
"Quick, help me hold him down!" Teba shouted to Sidon, who immediately stumbled over to do just that.
"So," the Zora prince panted, gradually recovering his breath as he added his own strength to Teba's. "What exactly is the plan from here?"
"Working on it," Teba grunted while Link struggled viciously beneath them. "We can't do this forever, and we don't know how long this is gonna last. I'm thinking we need to knock him out again."
Sidon nodded grimly. "I hate to say it, but that may be our only - ah!" The Zora suddenly flinched back as though he'd been burned, releasing his hold on Link.
"What the hell are you-!?" Teba began to shout, but stopped short when he caught a glimpse of the small amount of magenta and black sludge dripping off of the prince's red-scaled hands. Not enough to seriously wound him, but definitely enough to sting quite badly.
Teba's golden eyes slowly lowered back down to Link, dreading what he knew he was about to see.
Flaming irises framed by black scleras stared back at him, but they weren't only from Link's actual eyesockets. The Malice had evidently seized its opportunity to poison his entire body, and had now reached the point where it was once again oozing from his eyes, his nose, his mouth, his ears, hell - it even bubbled up from the pinprick wounds Teba had been the first to notice. The demonic gunk hissed and gurgled as it crept across the knight's skin, closer and closer to where Teba's wing pressed down on his back.
Most disturbing of all, however, were the eyes.
Malice eyes were not a new concept to Teba - he had seen them appear in pools of the vile stuff, and as creepy as they were, he had never paid them too much mind before. To see their bulbous forms gradually growing and attaching themselves to Hylian skin, however, immediately made his stomach turn.
"...shit," he whispered faintly, relinquishing his grip and backing away from the possessed Champion. The air felt oily and thick, and Teba's head spun. The Malice had turned Link into a walking hazard, and it would be impossible to maintain a hold on him now.
Link's blank expression did not change as he rose to his feet and headed for his fallen sword. He staggered the whole way there, as though his body was on the verge of giving out, but he reached down and picked up the Blade of Evil's Bane without complaint, even when it began searing his palms once more.
He rounded on Yunobo, who stood in a stunned silence, blocking the door with his impenetrable shield, a terrified expression on his face.
In that moment, Teba and Sidon both shook off their shock. With a grave glance at one another, the two warriors darted forward in a final attempt to bring their possessed friend to his knees.
There was a blinding flash of silver.
With only a single slash, both of them were down. Teba lay gasping, staunching the blood flow from a gash on his abdomen with his wing, while Sidon toppled over, unable to stand with the wound that had torn open his thigh. The cuts were relatively shallow - perhaps Link had retained enough control to hold himself back from actually killing them? - but they were enough to keep the two of them out of his way.
"Y-Yunobo!" Sidon shouted, gritting his sharp teeth against the pain. "Do not let him through!"
"R-Right!" the young Goron stammered, standing his ground despite the way his whole body shook.
Link observed the translucent shield silently for only a few seconds before turning away and heading for the wooden wall beside the doorframe. Teba's eyes widened. Certainly he couldn't be planning to…?
He swung the fully-powered Master Sword once again, this time aiming straight for the wall. For anyone else, it would have taken more swings with a heavier weapon, but for Link, the wood shattered instantly under his sheer strength.
Screams of shock sounded from outside and a bitter scowl came to Teba's face as he was forced to uselessly watch Link sprint out of the lab. "Damn it…" he hissed, struggling to keep his mind clear through the bloodloss. "That princess had better get herself back here fast...otherwise, we're all dead."