Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of Soul Calibur; I'm only using them to have some fun.
Thanks to all of you who have reviewed!
And if anybody wants me to talk more about the other characters don't worry, I will, those last two chapters were mainly to introduce Link and I mainly wrote them because I wanted to have a little fun using Link's skills, weapons, and magical powers to show all the potential that he has and that is not fully used even on the Zelda games, but I may use some of that stuff on major battles, and the same will happen with all the other characters, whenever there is a major battle they will become able to do stuff that they normally couldn't (like killing a hundred enemies without much effort just to say something).
And also know that Yunsung and Raphael are two of my favorite characters (at least to play with) so don't be surprised if see a lot from them.
Also thanks to J.R.R. Tolkien, my greater inspiration and Lord of the Literature, for submerging us to the world of Middle-Earth, and for illuminating this world with the story of the sons of Ilúvatar bows down and kisses a copy of the Lord of the Rings and The Silmarrilion ALL HAIL MASTER TOLKIEN! (So don't be surprised if I make any reference to his works, I mean, masterpieces)
Blades will bleed, Shields will splinter, and heroes will fall. But when evil rises once more... Will there still be a hero to fight it? - Nintendo
The Trip to Italy:
A New Companion and The Midnight Duel
It was a rainy night. The small Italian village lay in chaos. The once small but beautiful houses were now nothing more than flaming ruins. The fields and roads were covered by carcasses of cruelly-slaughtered men, women, and children. It was an image that would have caused nausea to anyone; even the bravest of men would have trembled at the sight.
But for the demonic knight that was standing in the middle of the carnage it was nothing more than another day's work. It was just another step in his quest to restore his evil sword. In fact, for this armored creature from hell, this scene of death and chaos was almost amusing.
"PLEASE! DON'T KILL ME!" said the last man alive in the village. He was once a man that called himself the bravest of the entire region, now begging for his life as the Azure Nightmare raised his sword to smite him down.
Don't do it Siegfried! said a young man's voice inside the knight's head don't let the blade control you! but the voice was suddenly quieted by that of an evil presence that had been inside the knight's head for endless time; silence! Do you want to resurrect your father? asked the diabolical voice Not if this is the price to pay! responded the voice,
which had started to fade, being slowly defeated again by the sword.
"DIE!" said in the end the knight in a cold, deadly voice, the voice of Soul Edge, the same voice that had talked inside the youth's head head.
The Azure Nightmare grabbed the man by the face with his demonic hand and lifted him while raised his sword with the other one. He then he gave a horizontal slash at the man's mid section and the body went flying about thirty feet away and smashed into one of the few standing houses, and, when the man's body crashed against the ruined construction it collapsed due to the strength leaving the man's head on his demonic hand which he crushed like a dry mud-ball.
"Lord Nightmare" said lowly a harsh voice, Nightmare turned around and saw one of his most powerful servants: "Astaroth is every single person death?" asked nightmare as if he was discussing the weather "Yes, milord, every single one" commented the golem in the same manner.
"Well then, let us leave this pitiful village since it has nothing more to offer us, call the hoards and prepare everything to depart tomorrow at first light" said the azure knight in a commanding voice.
"As you wish, milord" replied simply the golem and departed to do as his new master said. The Azure Nightmare stood there for a few moments and then disappeared into the shadows of the night, it was just another day of slaughter and massacre for him, just another day in the way to restore the Soul Edge, and just another day to the damnation of hi soul.
It had been a week since our heroes left the French port in which they had met Link and Ivy, they were about two days from the city of Venice and they were looking up to finding new clues about Soul Edge's whereabouts.
It was almost dusk and everything seemed normal, it was then that Kilik, who was standing at the front of the ship looking at the sea yelled: "Guys! I see an island! If we're lucky we might even get some supplies in there!"
Everybody got exited at Kilik's cry and went to try and get a look at the island, but as they got closer to the island their hopes were crushed. The island was nothing more than a small volcanic formation, its fire long extinguished and was covered in thick vegetation. This spit of land was about as large as the city they had just left, but its center was dominated in the center by a small mountain chain that rose sharply from the ground with high precipices, steep cliffs and tall summits that only the birds could reach., leaving only about one-fifth of the island available for plants and animals alike.
They anchored their ship about one-hundred yards from the island and took a small fleet of boats to the shore. They decided that they should look for anything important anyways and they all set out to explore the island. Since the accessible area wasn't so big, they decided to spend the night in here to get away from the ocean's motion and breathe the free air of nature.
As the sun broke the next morning, our heroes started waking up, after washing their faces on the ocean's water and having a hearty breakfast with food they brought from the ship and cooked in a small fire, they decided it was time to explore the island.
As they walked along the shore, they saw in the horizon a small boat with a white sail leave the island and decided to look for anything the people in the boat had left. They eventually came to a small beach which appeared to be the departing place of the boat. They found a trail of footsteps and followed them in search of anything of value. Although one thing was for sure, there had just been a fight between the occupant of the boat and something or someone else, and a bloody one at that since almost every part of the trail they followed had a few drops of freshly dropped blood on it.
The footsteps eventually led them inside the island's wilderness, where they became extremely hard to follow. They followed the trail to the mountain's wall, as they went on, they found a terrible sight: a man was crawling from a crack in the mountain wall, he appeared to be a samurai and had a deep, bloody wound on his side which bled terribly, then, the man collapsed on the ground face down.
Everyone immediately rushed to help him, Yunsung was the first to get there and he immediately turned him around, expecting to see his face, but instead he met a golden mask that looked a lot like a real face.
"What the heck?" muttered Yunsung.
"No way" said Xianghua when she saw who the wounded samurai was. "Yoshimitsu?" she asked hoping that it was only an imitator of the renowned manji ninja.
"Apparently it is him" said Sophitia "But the question is how did he end up like this?" she ended.
"Wait a minute!" said Kilik suddenly "I recognize this place! This is the money pit! Which means Voldo is nearby; he's the only one who could have done this to Yoshimitsu" he said in a sudden lapse of fear, Voldo, the guardian of the money pit was very treacherous and sneaky, he could even be hiding nearby in the shadows, waiting for one to lower their guard and attack,
"Everybody, stay alert!" ordered Sophitia feeling very similar to Kilik "make a circle around me and Yoshimitsu and be ready for anything. If you see anything move, tell the others, do not attack until you see something clearly!" and so did everybody: they drew their weapons and formed a tight circle around them that had them all almost shoulder to shoulder as if they had done this many times before, and prepared to fight in a moment's notice
"He's not here" said a faint voice behind them "he left to find the Soul Edge for his master" they all turned to see Yoshimitsu sitting up, Sophitia had ripped part of her long dress and used the cloth as a quick bandage to stop the bleeding and it seemed like he hadn't lost much blood. Compared to loosing almost an entire arm, this wasn't much for the manji ninja.
They all remembered the boat they had seen a while ago and reasoned that it was Voldo on it. They all put down their weapons and directed their attention to the samurai. "What happened?" said Maxi.
"Not too long ago, I sensed the rebirth of Soul Edge, I knew that many evil things will feel it too and would try to find it, so I came down here to stop Voldo before he left for the sword.
But he ambushed me during the night and I was injured, then he took my sword again and I was forced to follow him before he went too deep inside the cave, but I was ambushed again and he departed to search for the blade, luckily I managed to retake my sword, but I was too tired to even make it back to my boat."
"Do you have any idea of where he was heading?" said Raphael.
"Probably to Italy" said Yoshimitsu and fainted.
He woke about five hours later, it had become dark and his rescuers had apparently found something to light a fire with and they were sitting around it at about 30 yards from the coast, he was laying on a bed of leaves and weeds and his wounds had apparently been tended by the sword seekers.
"And what may bring such mighty warriors to the money pit?" was the first thing he said when waking up "Riches? No, some of you have already been here and know that even without Voldo here it is far too dangerous to risk it. Trying to do the same as me perhaps?" he was glad that they had had been respectful enough not to remove his mask.
"Actually, we found this island by accident, we were on our way to Italy and decided to stop in here to rest and get all the supplies we could get" said Maxi.
"Well then, I must thank the lady luck for directing you here, if you had not been here I would have probably died of blood loss" said the manji.
"Well, I think that may have not been the only reason" said Kilik. "I mean, the same as you, we all felt the Soul Edge return and we are looking for it to destroy it for good. And while you where unconscious we decided to ask you to come with us and help us in the fight."
"My dear Kilik" started Yoshimitsu "I will be glad to join you, I will only put two conditions; first, if Voldo ever crosses our path, leave him to me, and any of you shall not fight him unless I go down" he paused to see if they agreed which they all did with a quick nod "and second, if he manages to escape, I have your leave to go and chase him unless my blade and skills are of dire need" he ended.
"It seems like you have yourself a deal, Yoshimitsu of the Manji Clan" said Xianghua happily.
"Well then, let us rest tonight and leave tomorrow, I will get my belongings from my boat and load them into your ship tomorrow, also if it is possible that we carry my boat on your ship I will be thankful."
"Of course, there is more than enough room in our ship, we could put it in the storage room if you don't mind" said Maxi who, as the owner of the ship, decided what went and what didn't go in it, "Not at all" said Yoshimitsu.
"Well, if that is all, I'll suggest that we go to sleep, tomorrow will be a long day" said the young Sorél master. Everyone agreed with him and they sat up a camp, there was no need to set any kind of barriers or protections because it was more than impossible to be attacked in an island in the middle of nowhere whose only inhabitant had just left that same day.
The next day they all woke up at dawn, first of, they decided to try and check if they could get inside the money pit. Yoshimitsu had talked about an armory that was not too deep inside the cave and they decided that it was worth at least going and checking if they could find anything of use to them.
It had been about five minutes since they entered the cave and they met their first trap, but it was nothing more than a simple net that was easily destroyed by their swords, then about ten minutes later they came to a hallway and Yoshimitsu stopped them with a hush "Be careful, I sense danger" he said softly, the he took a stone from the floor and threw it to the middle of the hall, when the stone hit the floor the walls poured spikes and went together at incredible speed.
"Just as I thought" said the thief and then turned and started to trace the wall until he founded a loose brick on the wall and pushed it, then they heard a roar like thunder and the wall started moving, then it went inside and revealed a hidden passage, they followed the passage and eventually found the armory.
They all went inside and started analyzing the different items that they found in there, Yunsung found a leather chest-plate that he put over his silk shirt, he also got a pair of black pants that were more comfortable than his and appeared to be more resistant. He also took some dark-leather boots since his shoes were pretty worn out.
Raphael only took a dagger that he put inside one of his boots just in case, Kilik didn't find anything but a pair of light shoes that he took and some black finger-less gloves that he ended up giving them to Yunsung, who just wanted them because he thought that they looked cool on him.
Maxi found a dagger that he equipped in the same manner as Raphael and also a pistol, Yoshimitsu didn't even bothered looking for anything since he had already taken all he wanted the first time he came in, right before Voldo attacked him. Cassandra found a feminine armor that included a green chest-plate, some metal shin guards and also metallic gauntlets that came with a winged helmet that she really didn't like so she didn't took (third costume without the helmet).
Link found a new quiver that could hold up to an incredible number of 100 arrows and also the arrows to fill it, and even though they were too long for his bow, he took them anyways saying he would fix that as soon as he had time on the ship. They told him to get also some armor for himself but he said that his white undergarments were the best armor that he could ask for, resistant and light, plus the Kokiri Tunic that was already of reinforced material and others he had among his belongings in the ship.
Talim found some finger-less gloves that were pretty much like the ones Kilik had given Yunsung except that those gave the owner a better grip on their weapons and were excellent for her to have both grip on her elbow blades and at the same time be able to spin them at will in her hand.
Sophitia found a pink and yellow armor that fit her incredibly well and came with an extra shield that she decided to keep just in case and she strapped to her back (second costume with the shield on the back and the original one in hand).
Ivy didn't even bother to take anything, saying that taking an extra weapon would be an insult for her Ivy-Blade.
But the biggest surprise came when Xianghua found a weapon that she found suited for her, and when she examined closely, she found something she did not expect.
"Krita-Yuga!" she yelled in excitement, "It's here! Guys come here! This is the sword I used to fight Nightmare four years ago!"
"Really? That's awesome! Maybe it will turn again into the Soul Calibur when we fight whoever has the sword! This is great!" Kilik ended unable to contain his joy.
And with that they all left the armory of the money pit, how had Krita-Yuga ended up in there? They did not know nor cared, as long as they had found it, and from that moment Xianghua tried to adapt her style so she could use both her newly-found Krita-Yuga and the sword she took as a replacement for the former (No Name) at the same time, she practiced all the way to the Italian coasts and she was able to adapt that modification to her style in no time and her dance-fight became even more beautiful and way deadlier.
After they left the armory they went directly back to Le Messeger de L'Espoir, they prepared to leave while Yoshimitsu, Raphael and Link went to get the ninja's boat and carry it back to the ship.
They departed a little later than noon and they hurried to the Italian Peninsula. They arrived five days later at a rural port-city much like the one they had docked in while on France, they didn't bother to rent any rooms either for they could sleep on the ship's rooms.
It was late at night, Cassandra was trying to sleep, but she just couldn't, her mind just didn't let her, so much had happened in so little time; first she had embarked in her quest to destroy Soul Edge in her sister's place, then six weeks later her sister had found her and in the end they decided to go together, they met Talim first, then Kilik, Xianghua and Maxi and lastly Raphael, Ivy, Yoshimitsu and that elven guy named Link not less than a month ago and she barely knew anything about any them.
It's not like she wanted to know anything about Ivy that her sister hadn't already told her, besides she looked like a cheap whore and she didn't wanted to be seen with someone like her unless she had to, and apparently, she had, luckily she had the descence of wearing a cape over her scandalous garments, which made some of the males on the group a little sad but they got over it and went back to normal.
She decided to go for a walk along the ship's deck and maybe look at the stars for a while, but when she was on her way she decided to go and train a little, so at least she would use her time in something that could actually save her life if it was needed, she took her new armor and Sophitia's old weapons and went to the "training room."
The training room was nothing more than one of the two great vaults of the ship, the other one was used to storage food and such goods, it was located on the ship's lowest level and it covered half of the ship's base, the other half was the storage room, but when she opened the door she found Link with his back turned to her, his bow in hand, and he was shooting at some targets made up of circles that were on the other side of the room; to her surprised he made a bull's-eye almost every time, and the distance had to be at least forty yards!
"Wow, how can you do that?" asked Cassandra when Link made yet another bull's-eye. He then noticed he had company and turned around to face the Athenian, he looked straight into her eyes, she looked so much like her, but at the same time she was different, very different, besides of the ears, this one had the looks of a warrior rather than a princess, yes, she was also beautiful, but in a more rebellious way.
"Hi, I didn't knew I had company" he said simply after a few seconds of looking in her eyes, when their eyes met Cassandra could've sworn that she saw love in his eyes, but that love had also a dreamy and sad expression, like that of a lost love, but then that light faded away and it gave pass to a battle hardened look, the look of a warrior that has overcome and slayed many enemies, but at the same time the look of a child, the look of complete light, and a strange holy aura that seemed older than the world itself. She would always remember that overwhelming mix of power, ruthlessness and innocence deep within her heart.
"How long have you been watching?" he asked, dragging her out of her reverie
"Enough to see you out-do every archer I've met" she said trying to hide the slight blush that formed on her face. Did she notice her staring at him so deeply? She hoped not.
"Well, I've had more than ten years of practice with these, and when you have as much need for a weapon like these like I had during my quest to defeat Ganondorf you become as used to shooting an arrow as you become used to walking." He said trying to downgrade his skills; he knew he was the best archer, swordsman and essentially the best damn fighter of almost any other kind in Hyrule but he didn't like to brag about it, he had always been as humble as he could.
"Can you teach me how to shoot with a bow? I always specialized myself in hand to hand combat and never tried to learn any other than the Athenian fighting styles." She said trying to have an excuse to spend time with this warrior that had charmed her without even knowing.
"It's actually quite simple; it's only a matter of practice. Here, have this" and then he gave Cassandra his old quiver that could store up to 40 arrows and a bow that he had taken from the armory when no one was looking, he didn't knew why he did it that way though. He had thought that maybe someone of the group at least knew how to use it and could come in handy for sneak attacks on the enemy and stuff like that.
They stayed up for about an hour and by that time Cassandra was already a fairly good archer, enough to make a bull's eye at about 15 yards and had a decent aim at 25, but from then on her aim started to decline.
"Don't worry" said Link after they were done "Not much people have such good results in their first lesson, you should be proud of yourself, now go to sleep, apparently we set sail in three days" he said trying to get her to go to sleep so he could have some time to practice.
"What about you? Aren't you going to sleep?" asked the Athenian girl. "Actually" replied Link "I was planning on doing some practice with my other sword since I still don't have complete control over it since it is incredibly heavy"
"Really? What kind of sword is it?" asked Cassandra with a sudden urge to know more about Link
"It's a sword that was forged by Hyrule's greatest smith: Death Mountain's Big Goron. It is a large, double-edged sword that is incredibly resistant and powerful but is heavy as it is strong and quite hard to use effectively." he said with slight embarrassment for being unable to use a sword correctly, even if it was a sword meant for beings dozens of times stronger than humans, well, hylians.
"Well then, why don't we have a little sparing? It will be useful for both of us and I want a rematch from last time" said the blonde with a smile.
"You want to get beat up again?" said Link with a confident smile.
"Beat up? You cheated last time!" replied Cassandra "If I remember well you ambushed us in the middle of the night while we were resting!"
"Yeah but I was outnumbered and still managed to defeat you and your friends"
"Whatever!" said Cassandra "Let's go then if you are so confident, no tricks, only our swords, shields and hand-to-hand tactics, if anyone uses anything other than that he or she forfeits" said Cassandra confident that she'll beat Link, or at least give him a good fight.
"When do we start then?" said Link boosting with confidence while he drew his Biggoron's sword and Mirror Shield.
"Now!" said Cassandra who had already taken her weapons and jumped at Link with a vertical strike. Link sidestepped and kicked Cassandra on the stomach and then pushed her away. "Starting before time? That's such a dirty trick!" said Link taunting the blonde girl who was rubbing her stomach where Link had kicked her.
"You looked so confident that I thought you wouldn't mind, and apparently you don't" she said and rushed at him. She stabbed at him but he blocked the Omega Sword with his shield and then slashed at her but she blocked with her shield and charged at Link and hit him with her shoulder which almost made him fall but he back flipped and regained his balance just in time to block another slash from the Omega Sword, but that was only a distraction for her real blow: a punch in the face with her shield that he barely dodged by going down into a bending position.
He then came up with a knee to her gut and used the same punching attack that she had just attempted but this time it made impact and she went down and fell on her back, she then looked up and saw Link jumping at her with a powerful vertical slash that would be deadly if it hit, but she managed to block it with her sword and then, while she was still on the floor she put both her feet on his stomach and then pushed him away towards the wall, he then rolled over and turned to face Cassandra.
She got up and ran towards him; she gave a vertical slash which Link, who was barely getting to his knees, barely blocked with his sword, he then punched her in the stomach again and got up, but Cassandra wouldn't give up so easily and charged him again with all her strength, they clashed swords and she managed slashed furiously and relentlessly, making the elf back down, until he was about 5 foot away from one the walls, then the Athenian stabbed at him; big mistake, Link had been counting on that and sidestepped, then pushed her towards the wall, she tried to turn but it all happened to fast, the Omega Sword stabbed into the ship's wooden wall and got stuck in there, and thanks to the thickness of the wall she didn't made a hole through, then Link twisted her left arm behind her back and she let her shield go, and Link's sword was on her throat, the match was over.
"Do you give up or do you want another beating?" asked the elf letting his ego drip from his voice.
"Okay, okay, I give up! You won" said Cassandra reluctantly but feeling incredibly bad.
"There you go!" said Link in a triumphant manner "That wasn't so hard, right?" said Link sarcastically taking his sword away from her neck.
"It's not hard to admit defeat when there is a six-foot long sword pressed against your neck!" exploded Cassandra, this defeat was getting on her nerves, or was it the way he was acting about it? Maybe it was both, maybe it was only her pride crumbling to dust or maybe it was the attraction she was feeling towards him that made her angry since she had always thought of herself too tough to feel that kind of affection for someone.
"Well, that proved to be good training, you're a worthy rival Cassandra, good night" said Link and took his stuff and left before Cassandra even got over the battle and pain; leaving her in a state of confusion, especially when she remembered how close their bodies had been just moments ago. She blushed furiously at this
Eventually she recovered from the shock and packed all her stuff and went to sleep realizing that the fight with Link had taken all she had and more, she had fought like if he was a true enemy that she had to defeat and she still lost.
The whole night she was plagued by this, what if that was to happen on a real scenario? Will she die? No, she won't, she couldn't, she wouldn't let herself die….Link wouldn't let her die.
There you go people! How was it? I'll try and update soon, and thanks to all of you who have reviewed, and to those who haven't PLEASE DO!
I have chapters 1 – 8 written out already, I just have to edit them a little and will probably post them with a two week intervals.
How did you like Nightmare's little performance? There'll be more of him in future chapters, also know that I'm trying to introduce a new character to the story every chapter but it either won't work or I'll run out of characters eventually.
Well, see you later and thanks for reviewing
Yours Truly:
Jastul