Hey guys! I'm starting this week off with an entirely new chapter ready for you all to read! We go back to Link, Pit, and Kirby as they get ever closer to their destination. However, they have no idea what is in store for them along the way. As always, don't forget to fave, follow, and review. Without further ado, let's get into this brand new chapter!
Barren Desert, World of Trophies
Link, Pit, and Kirby were walking through the harsh and seemingly endless dry landscape for a few days already, taking breaks and pushing on through to their apparent destination.
The Hero of the Wilds was keeping cool with meals and elixirs he had in his bag and was generous enough to let Pit have a few.
He did give about a quarter of these to Kirby, but the puffball swallowed them up in a split second. After that, Link decided to hold off on feeding anything to the Star Warrior until they reached an abundant resource of food.
"How much more do we need to go until we find this tower?" Asked Pit through exhaustion.
Link took a glance at his Sheikah Slate. "About 17 more miles. Just hang on."
After a few more hours, the sun was setting, and the trio soon found themselves exhausted for the third or fourth time since they began their trek toward the Sheikah tower.
Pit then noticed a rock that had an overhang. "Looks like we can set up camp there for the night."
Link couldn't help but agree. "I'll get us a fire started."
However, before he could lay down some wood, something fast and sharp was coming at him. The hero pulled out his Hylian Shield and blocked the shot. From what he saw, two arrows came at him from the same direction and he managed to keep both of them from hitting his body.
This got the attention of the two allies as they came running over to him.
"Link!" Shouted Pit. "You okay?"
"Keep your guard up!" Shouted the hero. "We're not alone!"
The angel got out his blades and into battle position.
Kirby followed Pit as he got ready for any attacks.
The air was silent around them. The only thing the trio could hear was the wind blowing away nearby sand.
Then suddenly, about fifteen small clouds of red dust appeared all around them out of thin air. However, this wasn't any ordinary sand the fighters were seeing. When the red dust fully faded, there were strange people standing in their place. They wore red and black stealth gear with a white mask adorned with a red eye symbol. Additionally, they were armed with razor sharp sickles and bows that were capable of firing two arrows. There were also a few larger people who had a similar looking uniform, except it was more heavily armored and they wielded single edged greatswords.
When Link saw the people surrounding him and his friends, he knew the odds that he was in. "You've got to be kidding me."
After a few seconds, one of the larger fighters, presumably their leader, stepped forward. "Hero of Hyrule! Did you think you could escape the wrath of the Yiga Clan?"
"I don't have time for you right now!" Said Link aggressively. "There's a bigger threat out there that demands our attention!"
"Spare us your lies!" Shouted the clan member. "You and your friends are outmatched! Surrender, and our new master will be pleased!"
"New master?" Muttered the hero under his breath.
"Who are these people?" Asked Pit confusedly.
"They're assassins. They've always gone out of their way to kill me." Responded Link, "I defeated their old master, but it seems like they have a new one I have no idea about."
"We would prefer to kill you, but our master wants you alive, so like it or not, you're coming with us!" Said the clan member.
Link, Pit, and Kirby planted their feet firmly on the ground as they faced their opposition from three different directions outward.
"Well then it looks like we're gonna have to fight our way out." Said Pit.
The hero concurred. "I couldn't agree more."
The Yiga members soon all ran towards the three fighters, with Link raising his shield to block any incoming arrows. He also used Daruk's protection to further fortify his defense. Pit raised his orbitars to block any incoming fire before clashing blades with a Yiga sickle wielder. Another one was coming behind him before getting knocked back by Kirby.
The puffball soon took to the skies to gain the upper hand. Once he floated up there, he transformed into a pink stone and dropped back down onto the ground, utterly crushing three Yiga clansmen. When he turned back to normal, he inhaled an enemy sickle and turned into his sword mode with the sickle replacing the normal blade. He went toward a larger blademaster and started to hold his own against the brute.
Link was using his shock arrows to disarm any archers that caught him by surprise before pulling out his sword to clash with an incoming blademaster. They soon traded blows and slashes that could be echoed throughout the desert.
Unfortunately, this left Link stuck as another archer was aiming at the hero. However, Pit was able to break his bow in two with a well placed arrow of light.
After a few more moments, more assassins appeared and surrounded the group. This left the fighters overwhelmed as the odds were stacked against them.
"There's too many of them!" Shouted Pit.
The lead blademaster then approached the heroes once more. "You three can't keep this up! Surrender now!"
"Never… " Said Link through exhaustion. "For all the power you have… you won't win."
One member then looked at the hero's arm. "We didn't need to."
The hero then took a look at his right arm and found a cut there. He soon started to feel disoriented. "What… did you… do…?"
An assassin was quick to respond. "We tipped our blades and arrows with a powerful sleeping agent. You'll be out in a matter of seconds."
With this new realization hitting him, Link promptly collapsed onto the ground, but not before grabbing his Sheikah Slate. He tried to activate an ability on it and started pressing buttons, but it proved to be pointless as he abruptly dropped it onto the sand next to him.
"Link!" Shouted Pit as he ran toward his friend.
Unfortunately, this left the angel wide open as a Yiga archer took aim and fired.
Pit reacted quickly and deflected one of the double arrows with his blade bow. However, the other arrow stuck itself deep inside his shoulder.
"No… Not like… this... " Uttered Pit before collapsing alongside his comrade.
Two blademasters then decided to lift the two fighters. As they were about to head out, one member asked something that caught the other members off guard. "Hey… wasn't there someone else with these two guys?"
This left the group in panic. "Yeah! You're right! He was round and pink!"
The member holding Link initiated the order. "Fan out! He can't have gone far!"
They were about to search for Kirby when one member spotted a shooting star bursting out of a dune with something pink on top. It didn't take long for that member to figure out who that was. "Guys! He's getting away!"
"Not for long." Said a Yiga archer with confidence.
He then readied his arrow and pointed it at Kirby before focusing his concentration.
After a brief moment, he fired, and surprisingly hit his mark, knocking Kirby and the star he was using out of the sky. This sent the puffball plummeting back into the sand.
"Go to where he crashed and finish him off! The boss only wants the hero alive. The others are expendable." Said the lead blademaster to a few footsoldiers and scouts.
They were more than willing to carry out their mission. "Yes sir."
The squad that went to go look for Kirby and kill him consisted of five normal assassins and three archers. Certainly more than enough people for a single person to take on alone.
After a few moments of reorienting himself, Kirby woke up in the middle of a dune after being knocked out of the sky by a well placed arrow.
He wasn't poisoned by the sleeping arrows, but he was lost without the aid of Link's Sheikah Slate.
He started wandering around until something followed behind him. Kirby looked back, and saw about three Yiga assassins. They had their weapons fully drawn.
Three clouds of dust then appeared in front of Kirby to reveal the remaining assassins. The archers finally appeared at nearby higher dunes, making them snipers fully focused on puffball.
"Give up, pinky!" Shouted the lead scout. "We have you surrounded on all sides! You have nowhere to go!"
Kirby realized he needed to act quickly, so he widened his mouth and sucked in the air like a powerful vacuum cleaner.
This not only engulfed the sand in front of him, but also the the three assassins, leaving their comrades completely bewildered at what they were seeing.
After Kirby was done inhaling, he coughed up some sand before he turned back toward the rest of the Yiga group, only to have them sweating from fear of their lives. "What in Hylia's name are you?"
The Pink Puffball then prepared to inhale once more. However, before he could do so, he saw what looked like needles disarm one of the faraway archers from his bow. He soon collapsed from a well placed hit from an unknown individual that appeared next to the archer. This caught the group off guard. "You lured us into an ambush!"
Kirby was confused at what the Yiga member meant. However, the Star Warrior could barely see the individual that knocked out the archer. It was a bit blurry from the immense evening desert sunset, but it looked to be a slender figure in some sort of stealth gear.
The Yiga members also noticed this before the figure disappeared in a cloud of white smoke. "Who is that?"
"Well, whoever that is, they're coming for us!" Shouted the remaining archer.
"Stay alert!" Said the disarmed assassin before picking up his blade once more. "This new enemy can't hide from us forever!"
A few more suspenseful seconds passed. After that, a white cloud of smoke set off right in the middle of the group, greatly disorienting the enemies and hindering their sight.
"She's beating us at our own ga-" Said an assassin before being knocked out by a swift strike.
This put the assassins at even more unease. But their opponent was clearly skilled, and picked off each Yiga member one by one, leaving them terrified and confused.
For the last remaining Yiga archer, it was impossible for him to get a clear shot on the new enemy. Unfortunately, he forgot about Kirby and remembered about him too late as the puffball approached him and pulled out a hammer, knocking the assassin out of commission.
Once the last clan member inside the white cloud was dispatched, the smoke dissipated to reveal the entire Yiga squad unconscious. As for the figure, she was standing in the middle of the defeated group.
Kirby had an easier time seeing her and what she looked like. She wore white and blue stealth gear as well as cloth to hide her face. She had a similar eye symbol as the enemy, but it was flipped 180 degrees.
"Don't be afraid, little one." Said the figure. "You're safe now."
Kirby was relieved, but was unsure whether to call this person a friend or enemy.
"You may call me Sheik." Continued the person. "I'm on your side."
Kirby looked like he was about to speak something, even if it was not understandable.
However, before he could get a word out, he regurgitated something that didn't really sit well in his stomach.
Once Kirby saw what he spat back out, he was immediately caught off guard. This looked to be none other than Link's Sheikah Slate, shocking not only him, but Sheik as well.
"Where did you get that?" Asked a surprised Sheik with eyes as wide as saucers.
Kirby then immediately remembered how he got it. He remembered how after Link collapsed, he dropped his Sheikah Slate. Kirby, letting his curiosity and appetite get the better of him, grabbed the device and inhaled it when nobody was looking. When Pit collapsed, Kirby got underneath him to avoid cover. Once he was fully under the angel, he started burrowing his way under the sand with his mouth. He did this for a good while before escaping with his warpstar out of a nearby dune clear of enemies. However, he couldn't communicate any of that to his new ally.
Sheik picked up the slate, much to the dismay of Kirby. After looking through it, she saw what looked to be a colored icon on the device's map that marked a location not too far from them.
"I need to go over there." Muttered Sheik
Kirby decided to tag along with the stealth warrior and follow close behind her.
When Sheik saw what the puffball was doing, she stopped in her tracks. "I'm sorry little one, but this place isn't really safe. You should get back home."
Kirby ignored this and still continued to walk behind Sheik, prompting her to look back once more. This time though, the puffball was giving a begging look that would melt the hearts of even the most hardened warriors.
After seeing that expression. Sheik caved in and allowed Kirby to come with her. "Fine. Just stay close and don't do anything reckless."
They then set off toward the marked location on the Sheikah Slate.
With a new ally with him, Kirby knew he had a chance to save his friends. However, he also knew that it wouldn't be easy.