A Link to the Past

Chapter Thirty Nine: The Beast Below

The first thing Link wanted to do was go back for his new friend, that horned monster, but he had become so turned around and lost during the battle with Stalfos that there was no way to even find the direction he came from. Arriving at another junction, the young man looked in all four directions that the tunnels branched off in, still struggling to see with only the small holes in the ceiling after spending all that time in the brightly lit frozen dungeon, but seeing nothing that could either be a threat or lead to a way out. He didn't like the idea of spending any more time in the cisterns than he had to, especially since the last crystalized girl had told him there was some kind of beast hunting him, so Link just picked a random direction and started walking.

Back in Hyrule he could have simply jumped into the flowing water and figured out where he was after washing out somewhere in the province, but in the Dark World what little of the clouded, murky water there was wasn't moving, at least none that he had seen so far. At least his sword arm was mostly working again, the young man leaving the Master Sword in its sheath for the moment so that he could keep rotating and stretching his shoulder and hand while walking down the eerily silent tunnel. While rescuing Princess Zelda from the castle, the cisterns beneath it were loud from the constantly flowing and splashing water, with wet stone the only smell in the air, but this place was the total opposite.

No sound at all except for Link's echoing footsteps, and the stone walls were dry, leaving a scent that was almost like the tunnels underneath the dunes of Hyrule, but interrupted periodically by the musty smell of each random pool of stagnant water. So far no great beast, though, and more good news, upon turning down yet another identical tunnel, the crystals the young man was carrying started to vibrate. That only happened whenever he was on the right track to find the next crystal, so in this case it had to mean a way out, right? With four of the seven crystals in his possession, Link was starting to imagine the end of this quest… saving the Princess, stopping Ganondorf from entering Hyrule, and most importantly seeing Maple again.

His thoughts were suddenly filled with images of that gorgeous brunette who appeared after taking the red monster through the crack between worlds, kind of absent mindedly walking down the tunnel now while thinking about holding hands with her, hugging her, kissing her, and for a minute or so this allowed Link to forget all about the dangers of his quest… right until the crystals in his pocket stopped vibrating. This wasn't much, but it was enough to bring the young man's thoughts back into the moment, realizing that he must've walked right past the right junction while daydreaming. Fine, his fantasies about the most beautiful girl in Hyrule would have to wait, grumbling to himself while slowly turning around to find the right way, but… why weren't the crystals vibrating?

Stopping for a second and then turning back in the other direction, Link sighed with relief when the crystals vibrated again, allowing him to head down another downward sloping tunnel toward the exit, where he was startled by two things: The fact that the standing water in this area was deep enough to reach his ankles, and that the crystals stopped vibrating again. This time the young man hadn't been daydreaming and he was only halfway between tunnel junctions so he couldn't have gone the wrong way… no, wait, they were vibrating again… and now they had stopped? What in the world was going on? Trudging through the stagnant water faster in order to reach the next tunnel junction, again Link had to spin around to make the crystals vibrate, but now it was telling him the complete opposite direction.

"Back that way?" He whispered to himself, looking back the way he came. "What, are the girls in the crystals lost, too?"

Now it seemed like this might be the case, since the vibrations were changing direction more and more, meaning that either those trapped girls were seriously lost, or… or they weren't moving him toward the exit at all. Now that the young man thought about it, the only thing these crystals ever tracked was other crystals, so what if… what if the nearest one was moving? It all made a lot more sense now that he was following the vibrations as a way to find whatever was moving the next one around, but then it suddenly stopped moving. For the first time in several minutes the vibration remained aimed back the way the young man came, and he was about to start walking toward it, when something made a loud splash up ahead.

Struggling to see that far down the tunnel in this dim orange light, Link stayed completely still in order to hear anything that might be going on, only to quickly draw his blue blade when the splashing sound began getting louder really fast. Soon he was able to see the movement of the shallow water being kicked up by something that was moving toward him almost too quickly for the young man to dive out of the way. Rolling across the shallow water, he got to his feet just as the strange looking bulbous creature skidded to a stop farther down the tunnel, splashing the dry stone walls as it started to come back toward him. Whatever this creature was, it was so fast that its rounded body was already on him by the time he raised his newly acquired shield.

The bulbous part that stuck out above the shallow water was taller than him, but soft and rubbery in a way where the impact threw Link backwards so hard that he slid across the shallow water, and then… and then something on this monster's body started to move. It was like the outer coating on its frame was starting to move, before launching out in all directions, revealing a lighter colored skin hidden below while all of the pieces shot outward. They didn't impact the walls like a cannon, but it was more like each one was on some kind of tether that the young man couldn't see as it made them all swing around the main body protectively like a flail, and when the creature got close enough to Link the nearest one struck his shield hard.

With enough force to lift him off his feet, the young man was sent sliding much farther down the tunnel this time, and it took him a moment to shake off the numbing sensation in his shield arm as he struggled to get to his feet. Boy, it was a good thing he had gotten this shield from Stalfos or that last hit might have killed him, but that bulbous creature was still approaching, and each armor piece was moving too fast for him to make an effective strike with the Master Sword. He still tried, getting to his feet, and swinging the blue blade at the nearest armor piece, only to have his timing be off so that the flying piece struck the flat part of his blade instead, making Link stumble back while the creature just kept coming.

Each hit was really hurting his arms, with the young man knowing that it was just a matter of time until he was unable to even hold up his weapons, but what choice did he have? Even if running away from this fight had been an option, the bulbous monster could move so fast that there was just no way, leaving him with no choice but to keep backing away and trying to defend himself… until remembering about the freezing rod that was tucked up into his sleeve. Link still didn't completely understand how that weapon worked, but there was no other choice, so he aimed his shield arm toward the beast, and felt that same tingling sensation as a silvery plume of mist was launched toward his enemy.

Because the armor pieces were moving so fast, three or four of them had entered the mist, freezing solid by the time they came out the other side, and shattering when they hit the wall instead of bouncing. The bulbous monster let out a kind of roaring shriek as it backed away, retracting its other armor pieces back onto its frame, but now leaving obvious holes in its protective shell. Not wanting to give this monster a chance to recover or get away, Link shot another plume of mist, forcing the beast to send out a few more pieces of armor to avoid getting hit itself, with those ones shattering just as easily as the first group, and the third shot of mist left the shrieking, back peddling monster with only a single piece of moving armor left to protect itself with.

"Not so strong now, are you?" The young man asked, aiming the freezing rod one more time. "Don't worry about disappointing your boss, Ganondorf's next."

Now that he had a weapon capable of simply freezing his enemies in place, the Dark World felt a lot less scary as if Link could now just walk through the place and take whatever he wanted. Nope, Ganondorf and Agahnim didn't stand a chance now that the ice rod or whatever this thing was called was in his possession, so he aimed the blue diamond and focused its freezing power toward the bulbous monster… and nothing happened. No silver mist, no chill in the air as everything in front of him was frozen solid, no nothing. But what happened? It was working fine a minute ago? Had it gotten broken somehow? Could it only be used a few times a day? Stalfos couldn't answer that, and the only other person he knew who was experienced in magic who didn't want to kill him was Maple's grandmother, so maybe…

Suddenly a loud roar echoed throughout the tunnels, interrupting his thoughts as the bulbous monster started moving again, probably realizing that it could no longer be frozen. The last remaining armor piece was shot outward, swinging around the beast as it approached Link, but now that there was only one flail going around it, maybe there was a chance to end this quickly. Yes, one single armor piece moved much slower than the whole group, so with a pulse of energy from the glove, the young man dashed forward, having to use the shield to deflect a glancing blow from that armor piece, and then stabbing the Master Sword right toward what he assumed were maybe the monster's… eyes?

Whatever they were, without the protection of it's rubbery armor the blue blade sunk right through the pinkish colored under layer, causing the beast to make a kind of startled squeaking noise… and then the armor piece just stopped swinging. It fell into the shallow water with a soft splash, and now the bulbous, rounded part of the rest of the creature was slowly leaning back, sort of sliding off the Master Sword while leaving a coating of slime along the blue blade until it splashed down in the water. When its main body fell over, Link was able to see that it had a dozen little legs, explaining how it was able to move so fast, and wrapped tightly inside the grip of one of those legs was another crystal.

The other trapped girl had been right, and without her warning and the other crystals warning him about the beast, it probably would have been able to ambush him. After seeing Stalfos and this creature, the real dangers of the Dark World were starting to become apparent, and now as he caught his breath, looking at the nonfunctional freezing rod and feeling that lingering pain in his arms, Link couldn't help but wonder if he was truly ready to face any more of them.