"What?" the princess asked of her mother with a quizzed look on her face.
"Zelly," the Queen started softly. "This is a solstice dinner, you did realize that didn't you? We'll be having it around midnight."
Understanding dawned on Zelda's face; understanding, and horror. Midnight? That was impossible. She had the final First Rank training session at midnight. She was going to become a Knight…at midnight.
"What…what are you talking about?" she stammered, half in a daze. There had to be some mistake. Who ate dinner at midnight? Well…maybe partiers and people celebrating…but who ate a full course meal at midnight?
But what if it was never intended to be a full course meal? A dinner…it could be just a simple gathering with snacks or something…
The Queen stepped forward silently, looking her daughter in the eye. "I told you didn't I? I'm pretty sure I did. If I didn't, it should have been understood…"
She trailed off when she heard her daughter mumble something. Hylian ears were sharp and very acute, and she caught enough of what Zelda said to become very uncomfortable. "What did you say?" she asked sharply.
Zelda gritted her teeth and looked her mother in the eye. "I said I'm not going."
The Queen of Hyrule's eyes suddenly narrowed in a cold rage.
***
The Legend of Zelda: Her Story
Chapter 5: Final Exam Surprise
By: The Kirby Kid
Disclaimer:
The Legend of Zelda®, Roy™ and all other subsequent characters is property of Nintendo of America/Japan. Buy their products. o_O
Authors Note:
Please review if you read. Thanks. –(v^-^)
************
The young brown boy in baggy pants sat patiently by the babbling river near Castle Town. The boy knew patience too, well, and he knew how to exercise it expertly. This wasn't the first, nor would it be the last time his patience would be put to the test.
He glanced up into the twilight sky, the wind tussling his short white hair around his face, and sighed. The gates to Castle Town would be closing soon, but he didn't mind. While he was filled with patience, he was also filled with worry. Worry of the consequences of all this waiting and inaction. He didn't even want to think about it…he simply wanted to get to work.
The boy had been drifting around the town for about a month now. To most it seemed like he was simply a homeless drifter, living by wandering around aimlessly. They'd only be half right. Indeed, he was homeless, but he wasn't drifting. He was studying the layout of both the Town and the perimeter of the castle. He was also studying the movements of Hyrule's knights, especially those who silently and stealthily followed their important charges around. The one with the halberd who followed the princess while not noticing that he was watching. And of course, there was the one who followed the Queen most of the time…the one they called the Invincible Knight.
The boy's eyes narrowed, and at that moment the water in the brook stilled and shimmered in front of him. The boy looked down slowly and deliberately, and watched as a mature female face appeared in the waters surface.
"Tonight," the face said, before it rippled and disappeared back into the streaming brook.
The boy got up with the grace of a panther, and stalked his way back to Castle Town.
************
Zelda tried to ignore the ice and fire in her mother's eyes, and she stared at her face adamantly. "I'm sorry, mother, but no. I'm not going."
The Queen held no visible indication of stress or anger in her slight form. In fact, Zelda would have thought that she was taking the news rather well. That was the problem. The angrier her mother got, the quieter, and the colder she got. Both her and Tibalt have experienced the Queens anger, and they both knew how to recognize it.
The silence and the iciness in her mother's eyes told the tale. Zelda gulped inwardly and prepared to defend herself against a shouting match or some huge altercation. She had never seen her mother this angry before.
"You're…not going?" the Queen said simply.
Zelda opened her mouth, but she could think of nothing to say. Instead she glanced off to the side.
The tension in the room could have been cut with a knife.
"Then," Queen Zelda began quietly, "what will you do?"
The fact that she was keeping her noise down was seriously unnerving Zelda. She crossed her arms beneath her breasts and looked down once more. "That's not any of your business," she practically whispered.
The Queen's eyes grew slightly before narrowing with a deadly intent. "What did you say?"
"I said it's none of your business," Zelda restated, a little louder this time. She wasn't about to tell her that she had been sneaking off nightly and that she had been pretending to be a Sheikah while training with Knights.
The Queen's arms flattened against her sides. "None of my business?" she asked incredulously. "None of my business?"
"Listen mother, there's no point in arguing about it. You don't have to get upset!" Zelda huffed and stretched an arm out soothingly. "Just tell the guests…that I couldn't attend, that I was sick or something. I'm sure you can figure something out…"
"Huh…" the Queen breathed. "You really think I'd agree to that?"
"Well it-"
"Shut up," the Queen bit out. Zelda was so stunned she took a step back at the stinging remark. Her mother had never, ever told her to 'shut up' before. However, her mother wasn't finished. "I think I've been rather patient with your impertinence, your…your cheek, up until now, Zelda." She took a step forward, causing the girl to take a step back. "Your…rudeness, your… arrogance."
Zelda was beginning to shake, a little with fear, and a lot with white-hot rage. How dare she speak to her like this? "I-I'm just being myself! I'm not trying to be anything else! If you think-"
"You can be whomever you wish. All I ask is that I can depend on you when I need you." Her mother's voice was a harsh whisper.
Zelda didn't budge. Her mother simply wasn't being logical. She had to make her see her side of things. "Listen! This…this dinner, it's not a matter of life and death. It's just…you just need me for your image. That's not fair."
"It's amazingly fair," the Queen whispered. "You'll soon learn that as a figurehead of the Hylian monarchy, image means everything."
Zelda was breathing heavily, and she paused and glared at her mother. "Image is…I can't believe what you're saying. Whatever, it doesn't matter. I'm not going."
She continued to stare at the Queen hard, and she began to feel that tension again. It was almost palpable. Her mother was silent for almost a minute, before she spoke up again.
"I'm going to give you a choice, Zelda," she began calmly. "You'll come to dinner," she continued, eyeing the wall behind her daughter's back, "or you'll go nowhere else tonight."
"Wha-"
Before Zelda could react, the Queen erupted with a torrent of shiny threads of Wisdom that seemed to strike out at every direction. Stunned that her mother would even consider attacking her with magic, Zelda ducked and put up a crystal Wisdom shield to protect her. However, she quickly realized when her mother's blue threads flew by her shield that this wasn't an attack meant for her.
With a blazing speed and an icy demeanour Queen Zelda struck her Wisdom along the walls of the princess's room. The walls shook with a thunderous force, but nothing seemed to be happening physically to the surface. A horrendous fear crept into Zelda's heart, and she struck out with her own crystalline threads to pull at her mother's spell, but it was useless. Somehow the Queen slapped her counter-spell away with a frightening ease, and continued to work not only on the walls of Zelda's room, but seemingly the entire castle.
Zelda couldn't understand it. She was more powerful than her mother; everyone who knew of magic knew that. The raw power in Zelda's body was said to even dwarf her mother's. Suddenly she realized how powerful experience could be. She may be more powerful, and she may be more imaginative with her magic, but her mother has years of experience driving her. She was the very definition of Wisdom.
But whatever she was doing, Zelda wouldn't allow it! She would stop her!
She reached again with a multitude of Wisdom shards and wrestled with her mother's spell. The struggle ensued for about a second, before her mother gave in and let her weave fall upon Zelda's shield. The shield shorted out and Zelda was thrown to the floor, with her spell recoiling back into her with a snap.
As suddenly as it had begun, it was over. Zelda looked around the room with awe, watching as everything was tinged with a sparkling blue. A spell was covering the room, if not the entire castle. A powerful spell that her mother had not even bothered inverting to make it invisible. It was just there, taunting her, telling her that there was nothing she could do to break it.
"What did you do?" she breathed.
Her mother looked as if nothing as happened, not a single silky strand of hair was out of place. She turned and opened the door to exit the room, and before she was completely out of sight, she turned to her daughter. "Remember what I said. It's your choice." With that, she was gone. The door was left wide open.
Zelda rose to her feet, and followed her to the door, only to be shocked stupid when the door slammed shut on its own.
She stood blinking at the door, before reaching for it with a trembling hand. She turned and pulled, but the door didn't budge.
"No…" she breathed.
Pulling harder on the door proved to be useless. It might as well had been Moto pulling on the large oak wood. Becoming increasingly frantic, Zelda struck at the door with her magic, but the spells either dissipated on contact or bounced harmlessly off of it. Finally she began to call for help.
"Rocco!" she cried. "Rocco help me! Get me out of here!"
There was a loud crash against the door, and the doorknob turned uselessly before her Shadow Knight answered. "Princess, it won't budge…." came a cheerless voice from the other side.
"Get help, Rocco! Please…"
There was a period of silence, before Rocco answered again. "I've been told to let you be, Princess."
Zelda's eyes widened, and her mouth opened and closed wordlessly. "Rocco…" she finally squeaked.
"I'm sorry Princess. You'll be safe here. I have to go…"
She couldn't hear him, even with her advanced Hylian sense of hearing, but she knew he had left her. Tears began to well up in her eyes, and she blinked them away angrily and rushed over to the other side of the room. On her bed, Moto was watching her anxiously with sad eyes. "Ku", he mewled, but Zelda didn't hear him.
She instead moved to an open window, the same windows she used to leave the castle as Sheik at midnight, but as she approached, the windows slammed shut. Zelda stepped back in alarm, and then she attempted the pull them up or smash them with her magic. Nothing worked. "No!" she cried. She moved to another window, and another. They all slammed shut as she neared, and the ones that she moved away from opened once again. She tried every method of transportation and quick movement spell she knew, but every time she was denied an exit.
Finally she rammed one of the windows with her shoulder, and kicked at it hard using one of the techniques she had learned in the training session. She tried hard, but was bounced off like a rag doll. "This isn't fair!" she cried telepathically, slamming her fists hopelessly against the windowsill. "You can't do this to me, you witch! You have no right!"
There was no answer. Not even a whisper.
Zelda sobbed fitfully and slid her forehead down the wall before she crumpled into a trembling heap. Moto jumped on her shoulder and tried to console her, but she felt nothing. All she felt was despair and rage she had not known since Er Chike in the Dark World kidnapped her.
The countdown to midnight rolled down, and that despair was all she could feel.
************
Roy glanced at the miniature clock bound to his wrist. Nearly midnight, he gathered, about a quarter of an hour to midnight. In the thick brush of the forest around the clearing, they couldn't see the lights of the celebrating city, nor could he hear the voices and sounds of festivities coming from the town.
There weren't many others around. The rest had decided that they weren't ready for the final test, especially knowing it's high failure rate, and decided to become Knights instead. Not a shabby choice, Roy mused. The Knights of Hyrule are highly skilled and well paid. However, those who remained endeavoured to be something more than a Knight.
He glanced at Don and Exuberant Paris. (Not his name, but that's what they called the hyper-active teenager.) Roy had never bothered to learn the kid's full name, as he didn't really spend that much time with him throughout the sessions. Roy shrugged at the thought. Well he wasn't perfect…nor was he here to make friends.
Still, some friends he did make. He became pretty close to Busy and Don, and he even thought he had some sort of weird unspoken friendship with Sheik. This was the main reason why Roy's mind was churning impatiently as he waited also for the Knights to arrive. Where was Sheik…and Busy at that?
Half of his questions were answered when Bixenta walked into the clearing. Roy smiled; the girl seemed dressed for war. She had a large pouch that held small throwing daggers strapped to her side. Metal plates guarded her forearms and shins, and a special metal plate with the Hylian symbol for 'Wolf' guarded her forehead. Her waist above her bellybutton and below her breasts was wrapped up in tight bandages, and her shorts were of tight leather, bound at the knees. She wore curious sandals that allowed her toes to breathe.
Strange, but not unexpected. Busy used throwing daggers and her fists and kicks as weapons, so Roy supposed a change in gear was necessary. Roy and Don just came in the same armour they had worn since the beginning. The gleaming Sword of Seals sat lightly at his hip. Roy didn't figure they needed more armour. It wasn't as if they were going to be any fatal injuries.
At least he hoped.
Invincible walked into the clearing, along with another knight they haven't seen before. Everyone rose quickly to their feet, well everyone except for Roy. He did get up a tad slower than the others.
"What is this?" he drawled lazily as the other knight entered their field of vision. The knight wasn't a knight at all, Roy recognized him as the princess Zelda's shadow: Rocco, son of First Rank Knight Rocky.
Invincible looked up as if surprised. "Er.. What?"
The Prince of Etruria placed his hands on his hip and leaned back on his heels. "I thought you weren't going to allow him to take the exam."
Rocco's look could have shattered glass, but Invincible simply smiled and stretched his back. "Yes! You're right!" he exclaimed, before letting out a breath. "But…things change. It's the nature of things. Rocco won't be needed to guard the princess tonight…and since it's the night of the final exam, I thought he might as well take it, if he wanted."
Smiling darkly, Roy jabbed a look over at the teen. "You must really want this. I've seen that girlfriend of yours, very fine if you ask me. I would have assumed that you'd want to spend this special night with her."
Rocco's face took on a look of surreal rage, and Invincible smiled weakly. "H-hey…that's my daughter you're talking about you know?" he said pleadingly.
"No insult was intended Sir Link."
"Ah, good then. Rocco, get over there with the others." Rocco did as he was commanded, and stood next to the foreign prince. Roy brushed a hand through some flashy red hair, closed his eyes and smiled.
"So, why doesn't the princess need protecting tonight? Tell the truth, you just lost your job didn't you? Sneak in when she was chang-"
Without looking at him, Rocco reached over and snatched the human's tunic with a fist and pulled him up. Rocco was at least a foot taller than Roy, so the boy was actually lifted off of his feet. There was no amusement in the Shadow Knights eyes.
"Don't talk about what you don't know about," he growled venomously.
To infuriate him further, Roy put on the goofiest grin he could muster and put his hands up pleadingly. "Hey, hey," he cajoled, "I'm just joking brother! No need for hostilities."
Busy, Don and Paris were standing back, aghast at their behaviour, and Invincible was just rubbing his head with an expression of mild irritation. Finally, the Knight put his hand down and called to the others.
"Yo, save it for later. If you think you're frustrated now, wait until you take my final exam."
Rocco released Roy, who fell roughly to his feet. Roy didn't mind, he was excited that the test would finally begin. He glanced at his wrist-mounted clock again, around ten minutes to midnight. All of a sudden he realized that one of them wasn't there.
Where was Sheik? He was expected to be here. There's no way a guy with his talent and confidence would be satisfied with simply becoming a Knight. Then again, Roy didn't really know the guy. Maybe he did opt out.
He put up his hand and spoke without waiting for Invincible to acknowledgement. "Er, Sir Link? Where is Sheik? Did he opt out?"
Invincible shrugged. "If he did he didn't tell me. He might have abandoned the exam, or he might be trying to be fashionably late. Whatever the reason, if he misses tonight, he'll leave with nothing."
Roy grimaced in worry. "Maybe we should wait for him then?"
Again, Invincible smiled and waved dismissively. "Nah. If he wants to show up anytime he can. Now, for the test!"
Everyone got into a defensive stance, as if expecting an attack. Well, once again everyone except Roy. He could see that from Invincible's posture that he had no intention of attacking. Instead, the prince crossed his arms and waited.
"Okay trainees, here it is." Invincible started loudly. "To pass this test, you must…"
Everyone waited with baited breath. Yes, even Roy.
"Grab My Hat!!!!" Invincible exclaimed, pointing to his silver, long-tailed toque.
They all tripped over something and fell hard to the ground, and when they got back up with bumps on their heads, they were angry. "Grab your hat!!!" Busy shrieked. "What kind of test is that!?" The others nodded their agreement.
Invincible was holding up his hands pleadingly. "Wait, it's not as easy as it looks. Now let me tell you the three important rules."
From a pouch that sat at his feet, the Knight produced a small cuckoo clock with a timer. He placed it at a rock near the sidelines and pressed a button. "I got this from my friend Saria's husband, a tinkerer of sorts," Invincible started with a smile. "It's a clock, but also a timer. It will go off in one hour." He then pointed at the other trainees. "You have until then to take this hat off of my head."
Then Invincible pointed to his sword. "The first forty-five minutes will be your real chance, because I will not unsheathe my blade during that time. However, after the first forty-five minutes, then I will defend with my sword! As you know, that'll cut your chances significantly, so you'd better hurry."
The others looked to themselves nervously. The second rule didn't make any sense. What did he mean 'after the first forty-five minutes?' Didn't he say that there was only an hour for everyone to take the exam? Finally Roy spoke up. "What the last rule?"
Dusting off his hands, Invincible rose and grinned again. "The third rule," he began, "is that everyone must try to take it at once. No one-on-one here. One hat, one chance!"
The others were thunderstruck. They murmured and glanced at each other until finally, Donnelly spoke up. "But…but there's only one hat."
"Yup," the Knight said with a smile.
"S-so…" Busy began to conclude, her eyes shimmering with regret. "So…only one of us can pass…"
Invincible said nothing.
Roy shrugged and unstrapped the Sword of Seals from his side. "In that case," he stated with a brilliant smile. "I quit."
"WHAT!!!???" shrieked Busy and Don.
Invincible winced and put a pinkie-finger to his ear. "Hey…try to keep it down will yeah?" he pleaded. "I'm still a bit hung-over," he added inaudibly.
Busy ran up to Roy and grabbed him by his tunic. His eyes bulged as the girl pulled him close. "WHY ARE YOU QUITTING!!!?YOU'VE BEEN HERE SINCE THE BEGINNING! YOU'VE ALWAYS ENCOURAGED US, AND NOW YOUR ABANDONING US? WHAT KIND OF PRINCE ARE YOU!" Roy's body swayed limply in the wind of her convictions. Invincible sat down and held his head in his hand.
"Please…Busy," Roy choked. "I'm doing this for you." Busy blinked, and then Roy swore she blushed a bit. "A-and everyone else!" Roy added quickly. He got out of her grip, picked up the Sword of Seals, and walked to the sidelines.
"I know exactly what this test is about," Roy shouted to the others. "And I think if you're honest, you all know that I'm on a different level than the rest of you, even Mr. Shadow." At this, Rocco grimaced, but said nothing. "It wouldn't be fair for me to take this test, and take your chances away from you."
The silver Knight was nodding his head to nearly every word. Finally, as Roy approached him, he rose to his feet. "Prince Roy," he began with the Eturian monarch standing tall before him. "I regret to say that you fail this test, and you'll not become a Knight, or a First Ranked in the Kingdom of Hyrule." He then put a hand on the prince's shoulder and smiled. "But, it's obviously safe to say you would have made a great one of either."
Roy returned his smile, nodded to the others, and took a seat near Invincible's timer.
Looking up to the dark sky, Invincible looked at each of the rest of the trainees: Bixenta, Donnelly, Paris and Rocco.
As Roy unfortunately noticed, Sheik was nowhere to be seen.
What could have happened to him?
Looking at the Silver Knight, Roy had an unsteady feeling that Invincible knew exactly what was up with Sheik.
In any case, if these four trainees thought that that only one of them could pass this exam, they were very, very wrong.
"The final exam," Invincible roared, "begins, NOW!"
***
The door to princess Zelda's room opened, the Queen appeared beyond the extravagant archway. She looked radiant, regal, everything you'd expect from the illustrious Queen of Hyrule. Small jewels of infinite quality adorned her silky blonde hair and neck, and a wispy cream coloured gown was draped elegantly on her form.
It was just past midnight, and the Nice's were to arrive at any moment. Zelda wasn't sure what her daughter had decided, but she decided there was no harm in finding out.
No further harm could have been done.
Locking Zelly up in that imprisonment spell wasn't the wisest thing she's done, and she had enough people telling her that after the incident took place. Link, Malon and Impa all thought that Zelda had gone way too far. She had to wonder what they would have done if they were in her place.
She just didn't understand why Zelly just wouldn't talk to her, why she went out of her way to avoid conversation, and encourage confrontation. Zelda's frustration reached an insatiable peak at her daughter's words a few hours ago.
Still, it was no excuse for using magic on her. It was almost an unspoken rule, that they never use magic against each other. Even though she didn't attack Zelly directly, she did overwhelm her with the Imprisoning spell. Zelda knew she only made matters worse with her daughter. She would not be forgiven easily, and she didn't expect her to participate in the gathering with the Haiken regents. Zelda was pretty sure her daughter would rather be locked in her room for a week, than look at her in the face.
So imagine her surprise, when her daughter was not only looking at her in the eye, she was astoundingly dressed. The necklace worn around her neck was deceivingly simple, but exquisite for the special occasion, and she wore a wide strapless white dress that flowed elegantly from her thin form.
Though none of her daughter's beauty was reflected in her eyes. Her eyes were sad and angry.
"Zelda," the Queen began.
"Let's go then. I assume they'll be here soon."
"Zelda, listen to me…" Her daughter just brushed by her and exited the room. The Queen followed her, and walking by her side, tried again to reach her. "Zelly, I'm sorry but I had to discipline you. You're far too old for me to bend you over my knee, you know," she told her telepathically.
Zelly didn't respond, she didn't even look at her. The Queen kept a check on her temper and reached for Zelda, but she brushed her off.
"Let's just get this over with," she hissed, before moving off towards the greeting room.
"Zelda," the Queen thought crossly. "Please think. Do not mess this up."
***
As soon as Invincible announced the beginning of the exam, all of the trainees vanished. Roy smiled, if he was involved, he would have done the same. It was obvious that they didn't want to take the Silver Knight head-on. Taking his toque by surprise would be the best course of action.
But not everyone had disappeared into the surrounding trees. Bixenta stood in front of Invincible defiantly, not a muscle trembling in the brisk cool night.
"What is she thinking?" Roy thought as he leaned forward to pay attention. He then saw her suddenly bring up her arms and clasp her hands together. Then her fingers splayed themselves in an interesting pattern, index finger-to-finger. She had her eyes closed, and her body was perfectly still.
"A Seal!" Roy figured. He didn't know that they had these in Hyrule.
In Etruria, some people preformed strange types of magicks by performing a special hand gesture that either connected the user to the ambient energy in the air, or by releasing a prayer to the Gods, or both. Roy learned that Hyrule was a land filled to the brim with all sorts of magic, and it made sense that some people here would use a similar method to seal magicks in their fists so that they could use them.
Where did Busy learn this? She had never displayed any skill like that before…
And what Seal was she going to use?
That question was answered when Busy's eyes flew open, releasing a great amount of energy from her small body. "Farore!" she invoked. Roy noticed an immediate change in the air. He couldn't pinpoint it, it wasn't any denser, nor did the temperature rise or fall, but there was a change.
Invincible seemed to notice it as well. His body seemed to become more relaxed, even though the bored expression on his face didn't change.
He didn't even move when Busy suddenly blasted towards him with frightening speed, leaving an explosion of dust in her wake. Before Roy knew it, she was on top of him, about to deliver a deadly kick to the face with a fierce right leg.
Invincible calmly brought an arm up to block the advance, and became wide-eyed when Busy suddenly burst into clouds of smoke.
"A shadow?" Invincible gasped.
Roy blinked and gaped when Busy appeared out of the blue behind the tall knight, hanging upside-down in mid-air and reaching for the toque. The Knight almost seemed to be standing still compared to her speed, and couldn't seem to move as Busy reached for the prize. Roy leaned forward in anticipation.
Not to his surprise, Invincible then vanished. Busy fell hard to the ground where Invincible was, and rolled to her feet with fists clenched.
"Not bad," Invincible said from behind her. He was crouched at his knees and he wore a small smile. "You almost had it."
"Not good enough!" Bixenta turned around and levelled a backhand that was easily deflected by the silver Knight. Roy was astonished as he watched the girl wail at the Knight with several linked and highly damaging moves. However, right kick, left punch, right elbow, right stab, everything she threw at him was parried. Roy never knew Invincible was this adept in hand-to-hand combat.
Busy delivered a roundhouse kick that caught nothing but air, and then clasped her hand together into another Seal.
"What?" Invincible started.
"Farore! Din!" she invoked, and the air changed again, this time also becoming denser. From the mist jumped out several other Bixenta's, and each of them were flying towards the Knight with an attack at the ready.
Roy grinned and smiled inwardly. He understood now. The Goddess of the Wind and the Goddess of Fire working together to create illusions that could actually attack; it seemed like it was a very complicated skill for anyone to make. Busy must have been some sort of a natural…or a genius when it came to this kind of magic.
However, the illusions wouldn't last long. One flew by Invincible as he moved to the left, one flew over his head as he ducked, and one exploded on contact when he punched it straight in the gut. He was disadvantaged when each one exploded, as it emitted a very thick cloud of dust.
Then in the midst of the chaos, Invincible spun and kicked out straight. From the dense cloud of dust burst Bixenta, and she hit the ground and rolled to a stop. Cursing under her breath, she finally got up and faced the Knight again. Invincible had his back to her.
The reason he wasn't facing her was because he had other things to worry about. Don burst out of the trees to his right and tried for a straight tackle. When the Knight calmly reached over to take him, Don skilfully dodged to the right and hit the ground running. Again he leapt at Invincible, and again as he reached for him, Don dodged. Then Don was behind him. When he turned his head up and reached for the toque, he ended up grabbing at nothing.
Roy grimaced as he watched this. "So fast," he thought grimly. "He's almost unnatural."
Don and Busy looked around the clearing for the Knight, and as they did they bumped into each other. Busy turned around to face the black elf and growled menacingly.
"Stay out of my way, Donnelly."
"Hey, it's everyone for himself," Don retorted. This brought out another growl from the throat of the young Bixenta, and before she could spit back a response, Invincible was on them.
"The time is…12:15. You have forty-five minutes left. Do you think you have any time for this?" he whispered with a smile.
Busy and Don's faces blanched, and they immediately jumped into the woods for cover. Invincible shrugged, crossed his arms and waited.
"Wow, this guy's impressive," Roy thought grimly. Maybe taking the test wouldn't have been as easy as he thought. Still, the trainees just weren't doing it right. If they were…
A large Halberd shout out from the canopy and sped towards Invincible's toque. He spun around and snatched it from the air with ease, only to be blasted in the stomach with a hard punch from Rocco.
Invincible doubled over, and Rocco reached for the toque with a quick hand. It wasn't quick enough though, and Invincible roared forward with a vicious head-butt to Rocco's forehead. The halberd was flung aside as Rocco tumbled to the ground with an ugly bruise.
"Hmm… maybe I went too far," the knight said to himself as Rocco rose to his feet.
"It…. isn't over yet…Sir Link," he spat.
Smiling kindly, the Silver Knight reached over, picked up Rocco's Halberd and tossed it back to him. "Maybe not. But in thirty minutes, I draw my sword."
His smile was actually frightening. "Then it will be."
Next Time: Final Exam pt 2…. plus…. Assassin!