Sorry for not posting this yesterday, I will try not let this happen again. Anyway here's the next chapter.
Still not, and never will be Nintendo or Rick Riordan. These fandoms do not belong to me, only my imaginings of them.
Forgot to mention in the previous chapter's author note, M rating for this story is less for explicit content and more for language and graphic battle scenes later on.
Soooo...let's get back into it
Chapter Five
The Yiga Clan Makes its First Strike
It was now five months into Zelda's pregnancy and near the end of January, and the situation in the world beyond the borders of our home was rapidly deteriorating. Monster sightings were coming in both daily and from all over the place, cities were still untouched as were neighborhoods, but there had been a few cases of people who'd gone missing. It didn't look good for the chances of those people, it was likely they had been found by monsters, or possibly the Yiga, as all the missing people happened to be campers and hikers. The Yiga clan hadn't shown themselves, not yet at least.
Then just two weeks later, it happened, the day we were all scared would come. The first attack, but this report was not over any news outlet, rather it came from a pair of former campers who showed up out of the blue.
Lexa and Austin arrived exhausted and battered, they had obviously been through a rough time. Austin's quiver was almost out of arrows, and he always tried to keep at least a hundred arrows in that thing. His bow looked like it was just a couple uses away from giving up the ghost and snapping like a twig. He was hunched over, clutching his bow so tightly his knuckles had gone white as he gasped for breath. Lexa wasn't much better, she was kneeling on the ground, one knee folded under her as she gripped her side with one hand, the other holding what looked like, unless my eyes were tricking me, a forked lizal spear tightly to support herself, as though she were about to collapse. Her scabbard for her sword was empty, which must have meant that it had gotten lost or broken.
Zelda and I weren't present when they actually arrived, but we heard the commotion from the few campers that were here when they arrived. We quickly made our way over to see what was going on. We became immediately concerned when we saw the state they were in. Something had most certainly happened, and it almost certainly was connected to the prophecy.
Sadly, our suspicions were confirmed. Their home, which was in a rural region, had been attacked by a large group of monsters. They said there were sixty bokoblins, forty lizalfos, and ten moblins. Each type had been mostly blues, but there were a few black ones as well. They had lost their home, and had no choice but to flee when they saw them coming. There were far too many for just the two of them alone to fight off. They'd been on the run, making their way here for the past week or so, barely sleeping or eating. They had been fueled by the fear of being found vulnerable and defenseless and the urgency to get here as fast as they could. Every so often, they had run into smaller bands of monsters and had to fight their way out of those situations. Obviously, Camp Half-Blood took them in. They also accepted the offer to have a place for them to live in built here as well. Zelda and I certainly wouldn't mind having neighbors. It ended up being determined that Lexa had cracked a couple of ribs and had torn a ligament in her right knee.
The very day after Lexa and Austin returned here, the news outlets were swamped with the same kind of report, some remote rural neighborhood in South Dakota had been attacked the night before. Only a few people had survived, and what the survivors were able to recount sent mortals into a panic. The survivors said it hadn't been just monsters in the attack, people had been alongside them, people in red and black suits with masks adorned with an inverted eye. The Yiga clan had made quite a debut for themselves.
The country was staggering, barely able to know what to do about this rapidly deteriorating situation. To be honest, it was an utter mess, as the days passed more areas were attacked by monsters and/or the Yiga clan. Local law enforcement in the areas were no use against the forces assailing them. The losses were huge and the few survivors only just managed to escape. The country was starting to marshal the real deal units, like the army and other armed forces. They hadn't yet made any moves with these groups yet, but it looked like they would soon.
Just a few days before the six month mark of Zelda's pregnancy, and near the end of February, the council reconvened to confer on recent occurrences, as it had been doing regularly for the last few months. This meeting was far more tense than any of the others in its history. In recent days, people from Camp Jupiter had been stationed in Camp Half-Blood as a precautionary measure as Camp Jupiter's population was far larger than that of Camp Half-Blood, even in the summer time. The leading officers of the Romans stationed here had been given positions on the council as well to represent their camp and serve as a relay for information to both sides. When the topic turned to the people seen with the monsters, the mood darkened as everyone tensed at the implications. They didn't even know the half of it.
"Who are those traitorous scum working with the monsters?" Raged Clarisse, pounding the table with a fist.
I glanced at Zelda and she looked back at me. I just started to open my mouth to answer but closed it again as no one was listening. The two of us were sitting there, holding hands, occasionally glancing at her now prominently bulging midsection. The feeling that we would be parents soon was unlike anything I'd ever felt before in this life of mine. Also at this stage in my wife's pregnancy, she had to forgo wearing her usual blue and white top and black pants in favor of more elastic attire made with maternity in mind. She lamented this nevertheless, wishing her usual attire was elastic enough for her to keep wearing it.
"While it would be nice to know that, that's not the most important thing right now!" Insisted one of the visiting Romans, a child of Mercury.
"Unfortunately, I have to disagree. Although for a different reason." Lexa stated, glancing at Clarisse. "It would be a tactical advantage to know this kind of information."
This was my opportunity, "Zelda and I know who they are."
Everyone's gaze snapped to us, "How?" Demanded Clarisse, impatient to know all she could.
"They call themselves the Yiga clan. When Zelda and I last lived, they were a problem then as well. They pledged their allegiance to Ganon, and now apparently they're trying their luck a second time." I explain.
Everyone gasped, "These people were around those thousands of years ago?" Annabeth exclaimed.
"Yes, that's exactly what we're saying." Zelda said, concern etched into her face.
"What all can you tell us about this group of terrorists?" Clarisse spat, disgust filling her voice, face distorted with contempt for the Yiga.
"The Yiga clan started ten thousand years before the time of when Link and I were last around. The time Ganon was defeated before our last lifetime, our kingdom of Hyrule was a flourishing civilization with the races living peacefully together. One of these specifically, the Sheikah tribe, made wondrous works of technology which had aided in Ganon's defeat. However, after the evil was sealed away, the royal family of the time of the time became fearful of the tribe's technology and ordered them to abandon it. Most of the Sheikah agreed and switched to a simple existence, the rest developed a hatred for the royal family and swore fealty to Ganon. They then took it upon themselves to try to resurrect the evil and eliminate anyone who tried to impede their efforts. Those sad souls then called themselves the Yiga clan" Zelda relayed the story of the Yiga clan to everyone.
"When we were last around, I had thought I had destroyed them, apparently I was wrong." I added. "As for the group's capabilities, they are skilled in battle and possess a few different forms of magic. They can disguise themselves extremely effectively, teleport, and some can manipulate some forms of matter. The Yiga clan also come in two divisions, foot soldiers and blademasters. The foot soldiers are slender, fast, and nimble fighters that either wield double shot bows or viciously sharp sickles. The blademasters are huge, bulky, and powerful fighters who always wield razor-sharp swords that are capable of creating winds that can affect targets."
"Although they are capable of teleportation, it is only over short distances." Zelda assured them when they suddenly looked nervous as though Yiga soldiers might suddenly appear right here right now.
"What is that we should do?" Percy asked, dead serious.
"If possible begin making outposts away from the camps, to serve as places of safety if it should ever become necessary to shelter victims and refugees. Also, make sure they are extremely well guarded, the personnel at these outposts should be ones who are willing to undergo frequent and variable tests to ensure that they are exactly who they appear to be." I responded, unable to stress the matter enough.
"Consider it done, Sir Link." The commanding Roman officer stated, nodding with approval.
"Thank you." I replied standing up. "May all the gods and goddesses smile on us and grant us success in our endeavors." I finish.
Everyone stands as well and files out of the room, either to return to their duties or whatever as the case was. As my wife and I made our way back home, Zelda keeping a hand under her enlarged midsection to support it, we both felt rising unease about the situation. We were gripped with the uncertainty about what we really should do, we felt like we didn't know the right course of action. We needed to find out what the Yiga's plans were, desperately. That wasn't the only worry in my mind though, I worried for my father as well. The Yiga clan so far at least had only attacked areas in the country's interior, but that could always change. Not only that but if they knew the legendary hero was around, they would do everything in their power to target me and those close to me. My wife was safe here with me, but my father would be terribly vulnerable if they moved on him.
I voiced my concerns to Zelda, she gave me a hug and a kiss and said that whenever we next got an Iris message to my father, we would inform him of this and discuss safety measures. I was reassured by this, and again thanked the goddesses for my wife, she always knew exactly how to comfort me when I was feeling concerned. At this point, with it being late February, we'd recently celebrated my twenty first birthday. My wife was just three months away from her twenty first birthday. Funny, her birthday was going to be in same month as our child's. It was also in this sixth month that Zelda felt the first kick from our unborn child. It was absolutely thrilling, to now rest a hand on her stomach and feel the shifting movements within.
Over the course of the next month, the situation continued deteriorating. Large areas in the central part of the country were becoming extremely hazardous, neighborhoods that hadn't been attacked had been abandoned and their residents moved to the large cities. Not only that, but the new danger zones had seen airstrikes by the mortal air force in an attempt to mitigate the massive numbers of monsters. This had only a minor affect somehow. The cities had all been placed under guard by divisions of armed forces and swat teams. So far, this had seemed effective at significantly reducing the impact of what was happening. Mortal society as a whole seemed to believe the Yiga and monsters were wary of contending with the front being displayed. The demigod society suspected otherwise, us Greeks and Romans were certain that they were simply bidding their time, wanting the rest of the world to think they were too scared to confront them now.
Not only that, but over that same month, we realized just how extensive the problem with the Iris messages was. That occurred when Iris herself came to Camp Half-Blood along with her assistant, Fleecy. Although she had within the last few decades or so put her assistant in charge of Iris messages, Iris tried to use her power to make one herself, she was able to make a mostly stable communication with one of the recently established outposts made by the Romans in a test. Even with all of Iris's power focused on the stability of the transmission link, there was some interference. Whatever was messing with our Iris messages, it was clearly powerful, as evidenced by how even a goddess's power wasn't enough. Radio transmissions still worked moderately well, seeming to be less effected by whatever was interfering with our communications.
After setting up a few stations around the two camps, we began regularly scanning the radio waves to get as much information as possible about the growing crisis. There had recently been a few suggestions to do something that had never been done before, reveal ourselves and offer our full help to the situation. This idea was turned down however, at least for now. The reason given was that at this point the situation was somewhat stable, the Yiga and monsters seemed to be keeping their distance for the time being. Also, it was pointed out that it was likely that they didn't know about our existence. If the situation changed and it looked like the Yiga and monsters were seriously endangering mortal society, we would discuss this again.
More importantly, the reason no other countries had sent aid was because they were all busy dealing with extremely severe monster problems of their own. The vast majority of the populations had been moved into the largest cities, completely evacuating many areas. Soon however, the crisis became even worse.
It was right around Zelda's seventh month when the news was heard on the radio waves. There had been a massive combined Yiga and monster siege of one of the fortified cities, only one tenth of the armed forces present and about one twentieth of the civilians survived to escape. Worse still was the fact that the survivors had been allowed to get away by the Yiga. They didn't pursue them, choosing to let them go.
The decision was then made to evacuate all population centers in the country's interior, pulling back towards the western and eastern coasts. This was even worse than we'd imagined, the country had now been effectively divided, undoubtedly complicating any possible attempts to aide either side. The interior was now overrun with monsters the latest satellite and aerial reconnaissance revealed, the land now dotted with countless monster camps. Hordes of bokoblins, moblins, and lizalfos inhabited the millions of camps now covering the land, they also wandered the country areas in groups of hundreds to thousands. This meant that their total population must have been in the hundreds of millions. Also, bands of hinoxes, lynels, and taluses had also been sighted wandering around. Speaking of taluses by the way, every mountain range on the planet had been completely taken over by taluses, the largest ranges like the Himalayas, Andes, and Rockies had become home to hundreds of thousands of the rocky monstrosities. Similarly, every hot and sandy desert on Earth had become literally infested with moldugas. There must have been tens of thousands of the colossal sand titans.
By the end of the seventh month of Zelda's pregnancy we finally managed to get another Iris message to my father. He looked tense and worried when the picture materialized, surely as a result of the global crisis.
"Dad! I'm glad to see you're alright!" I exclaim.
"Link, I'm glad to see that both of you are doing well too!" He answered.
"Dad, I need you to promise me that if it ever looks like the Yiga are encroaching that you will immediately somehow get here where you'll be safe." I urge him.
"I promise I will Link." He waits a moment, then asks, "So I assume the due date for your baby is within the next few months?"
"It is, the lead healer here told us that she expects our baby to be born near the end of May." Zelda replies, voice soft with happiness as she tenderly cradles her swollen midsection.
The message started to cut out.
"Dad, we'll keep you as informed as we can, stay safe!" I say quickly.
"Will do Link." He says before the message disappears.