Chapter 8

PALACE 3

This next palace was a red brick. You may have seen reddish brown soil in our world but Hyrule had some soils that were actually red. The Ironknuckle statue had another one of those slots. Good, that fairy spell had taken a lot out of Link. Boy was he in for an unpleasant surprise. No sooner had he stabbed in than a Red Ironknuckle appeared instead of a red jar. Link was startled but fought it off and killed it. As luck would have it, the Ironknuckle left a red jar behind when it died. Maybe it wasn't that much of a gamble. Link told himself he'd have to be careful from now on and proceeded to the elevator.

It was down there that Link faced his first Doomknocker. Fortunately he had already been warned about these things. He knew their hammers couldn't be blocked and that they had a boomerang effect. At least this creature didn't have a shield. What it did have was a lot of endurance and since it didn't move a lot, a stationary thrust was out of the question. Link had to jump around like a frog to beat the freakish demon and had quite a few close calls. Ever had a forty pound hammer come within a hair width of your temple?

No sooner was the Doomknocker dead than Link had another first encounter. This time it was a Blue Stalfos Knight. It was far more aggressive than a regular Stalfos and a better jumper too. Luckily, it could also be lured quite easily and that was how Link beat it. He made it fight on his terms.

The next room was a real pain in the ass. Not that it was dangerous, but it was irritating. The floor was almost entirely made out of those rocks that could be destroyed with the glove but there were Myus and Goatheads all over the place which meant every time he attacked he'd fall through the floor.

The next two rooms had their share of irritation and peril but little of interest to discuss. First he had to deal with a flame-throwing Moa and a ceiling that was collapsing then he had another room with a breakable floor. Through the cracks between the bricks he could actually see a key and a P-Bag but he had to face a Doomknocker first. It sure didn't hurt having a chance to get some lower footing than the Doomknocker. Stupid thing couldn't seem to throw downwards.

More breakable rocks awaited him further on but not in the form of flooring but as platforms. He had to be careful. He could tell what would happen if he broke through. He could see Red Ironknuckles between the cracks. This was to be challenging since there were also a couple Myus in the room. He had to pull up immediately after thrusting. This gave him less than a fraction of a second to react.

Beyond the platforms was an elevator but the hall went onwards. Link's instinct told him to take the hall first. To his amazement, the hall led outside into a courtyard. This was a first for certain. In this yard he was accosted by a Moa and a Red Ironknuckle. There was a key waiting for him by the outer wall.

Now it was time to take that elevator. Link wasted no time slaughtering the Red Stalfos Knight and heading down. There I can honestly say that he met the most annoying enemy ever: free floating Wolf's Heads. These things bobbed up and down firing beams at him. Didn't I say that enemies that attacked in a pattern were trouble? And these things liked to attack in large groups too. Killing a few (and I do mean only a few), he headed east.

Leaping over several lava pits, he came upon another Red Ironknuckle with almost no room to fight it. He grabbed a key nearby, bounced over its head with the thrust and finished it off with the extra space he had gained.

The treasury was up next and it was no surprise that he had to face a Red Ironknuckle. What was surprising was that a Blue Ironknuckle stood in front of the gate. Link had never seen one before. He had assumed it was like the others only more able to take a beating. He couldn't have been more wrong. As soon as he approached he made a terrible discovery. It could use the Sting spell! Immediately he backed off. A magical creation that could create magic. Hmmm, interesting…

"AFE!"

Link applied the Shield spell. Not knowing what else to do he ran up and attacked as fast as possible. The Ironknuckle went down in a few strokes but Link got cut up pretty good in the process. Oh well, nothing life-threatening. At a certain point one's expectations drop and you settle for less. The raft that was waiting for him behind the gate made up for it. Or did it? Man, he was certainly bleeding pretty good.

Heading all the way back west, Link found the next elevator that he had not already taken. The room that lay beyond was guarded at its entry by an Ironknuckle. He could handle that. What he wasn't willing to handle were the Wolf Heads in the next room. There were dozens of them. Sure the room had a key but it just wasn't worth the trouble. He took the elevator without bothering to get the key.

As soon as the elevator reached its destination, Link had to use the Fairy spell. A gate was obstructing his way and he was still totally unwilling to get that key. He carefully floated past a Red Stalfos Knight. A Doomknocker stood near the exit. He carefully and patiently waited for it to get out of his way. Yes, you heard me correctly. Link actually displayed some patience. In his shoes you would have done the same. Those Doomknockers were intimidating enough when he was at his full size but they looked enormous when he was only a couple inches tall.

The last room before the guardian's lair was a challenge to say the least. There were multiple platforms with multiple Ironknuckles and no jumping room in between. The fact that Link's instincts had led him to the right one didn't completely solve the problem at hand. First of all, as I stated there was to be no jumping. Second of all, if he had pulled west to get some jumping room the Blue Ironknuckle nearby would have cut him to ribbons. He had to approach his Ironknuckle in an aggressive manner getting it to back down a little. He tried to bob up and down as fast as possible to fake it out but it was no good. He had to bash his head against the ceiling jumping just one inch to throw it off enough to get an opening. It dropped a red jar when he finally managed to kill it. He healed himself and refilled most of his magic at once. Time for the guardian.

At first Link thought there had been some sort of mistake. He entered the lair but found no guardian. And yet the force fields were up. What gives? It was just then that he heard a ghastly horse's neigh.

"What the hell was that?"

If only I had a dime for every time Link uttered that phrase. Well he certainly had enough unpleasant surprises to keep him startled for a while.

Out of nowhere, a Blue Ironknuckle that was holding a lance and riding a ghost horse came charging at him full fury. Quite sensibly, Link jumped up and used the downward thrust on the horse instead of the rider. There was no chance to hit the Ironknuckle while it was mounted and so armed.

The strategy worked well. The Mounted Ironcknuckle turned around and almost seemed to glare angrily at Link. That was odd, these guardians had never seemed to display emotion before.

It came at him with another pass and once again Link thrusted with the same result. Hey, this was easy! It turned around again and just stared him down for several seconds. Then it came for one more pass, much faster this time. One more thrust and the Ironknuckle was dismounted. The horse ran away from its rider. Link never had a chance to mistakenly believe he had won. The Ironknuckle picked itself up at once and attacked.

"AFE!"

Link applied his Shield spell and viciously counter-attacked. Did I say this was easy? This thing was much tougher than a typical Ironknuckle. It was savage, it possessed amazing endurance and it could retreat behind the force fields. Luring it out far enough to attack was difficult as well. This thing had strategy.

Yes, it was defeated like the others but at a bad cost to Link's health. This time he had been more than merely cut up. One blade beam had cut right through his lower abdomen and exited through his back. He grabbed his bleeding gut first and the key second and raced over to the statue. He impatiently waited and as soon as the crystal got to its place he was healed. With a raft in hand it was time to leave the mainland and set out for Eastern Island.

Little did he know the devastating price he was about to pay in order to continue his mission. Evil strikes deep…

End Chapter 8