Chapter 17
Final Battle: Nightmare
In that horrible moment, the eight eyes of the spider were suddenly upon Link, piercing through him with a savage hunger.
…He was safe…for now…the spider was too big to squeeze into the crevice he currently occupied…but that could be easily changed and that's just what it began working at…banging it's long spindly legs against the upper sides as it tried to break free a large opening big enough to reach him.
That's when it hit him…and I'm not just talking about the small rock the spider had kicked down onto Link's head…Link actually had an idea of where he was and he remembered somewhat how he had wound up here…
He was trapped in a dream...that just had to be why, and this freak of nature before him was just another one of Terra's monstrosities! This fact was quite clear to him, it had to explain why he had once again been left weaponless...that Terra had underestimated the gauntlets he wore to be anything of use just as he had.
It was pretty safe to say that the spider had him pinned in, but Link was definitely not going down without a fight...he just had to get to where he'd be able to fight... Link tried separating himself from the back wall only to have it end in no gain on his part whatsoever. You see, he was just a little bit on the stuck side...The resonating pounding in front of him wasn't helping at all as it send multitudes of rubble cascading onto him, bit by bit. He couldn't help but fix his gaze on the large crack forming on the ceiling where it threatened to give way.
Time was running short and he needed to do something…and fast.
Exerting all his strength, he pushed himself forward, breaking free from his prison…only to topple outward right into one of the many legs of the spider…
Not good, not good! Link rolled to the side just as that same leg prepared to crush him beneath it.
It took effort, but he was finally up on his feet and at a small distance away from the spider that now turned to face him.
Link was rather pissed at this turn of events…here he was once again facing such an atrocious creature without a sword…but then again, this time he had something else, something he felt could definitely be made useful…he had Power Gauntlets!
As the spider lunged for him, greedy for food, Link braced himself and threw a fist straight into where he had aimed at the side of the face…only when the spider met his fist, it had turned its head slightly to the left, and Link's fist met eyeball.
His fist, having had its punching power enhanced by the gauntlets, smashed right into one of its eyes, shattering it and sending vile eye liquid gushing onto him, covering him head to toe.
Link cringed and staggered backwards, the creature's shrieks echoing through his head. Maybe the gauntlets wouldn't turn out so useful after all, especially since he wasn't so excited about trying that again. He hurriedly spat out some of the eye guts that had found its way into his mouth, but the despicable and sickening taste still chose to linger on his tongue, nearly making him wretch in disgust.
The spider angrily struck out at him with one of its powerful legs, striking a terrible blow to Link's side and sending him crashing down to the floor. Before he was given a chance to respond to such a blow, it struck him again…and again.
Link forced himself to stand, slipping along the way because of the eyeball crap that obviously still covered him, and was eventually up, his gaze fixed on the giant spider…he had to do something, but what?
Link made his decision, much as he didn't like the option, but it was the only way. Seeing as how he was already covered in the sickening substance, he was going to try what he had done once again, and again and again until the spider was as good as dead. He ended up facing one problem however…the spider wasn't going to allow him to do so willingly.
When he took to swinging his fist at it again, the spider moved its gargantuan body aside with a mighty leap and a vicious hiss, quickly ascending up the wall and onto the ceiling above.
Link couldn't help but smirk at this action as he watched the crack in the ceiling become longer and wider, its tension stretching as the added weight of the overgrown spider weighed down upon it. Then he breathed a sigh of relief as the ceiling finally began falling apart, a large chunk falling and taking the spider down to earth with it. The spider had time to give one more shriek before it hit the ground…followed by the chunk of ceiling that smashed it into one big pile of spider guts.
Web and eyeball crap…wow…things can't get any better… Link thought to himself sarcastically as he plodded off, afraid the spider would miraculously come back to life.
It wasn't long before Link's traveling along through the maze once again became a tedious task…and he was still hungry.
Oh Zelda…I miss you… Link couldn't help but think, oh how he longed to be with her again. Screw Zen…if he wasn't here I could be with you…but if I hadn't lied he probably wouldn't be here…
So wrapped up within his thoughts of Zelda, Link found himself crashing into a wall that had suddenly loomed up in front of him. He shook himself from such abruptness and his eyes darted around only to find that he had reached a dead end…He sighed heavily and turned to walk part way back the route he had come to get here and then picked a different and new direction. At least he hoped it was new to him…it was hard to really tell much with everything pretty much looking the same.
"Ssss…" came a vibrant, but low hiss.
Link momentarily froze, "W-who's there?" he called out.
The hiss sounded again and was then followed by silence, deep utter silence. Link stepped back as he was now at an intersection, afraid something would possibly jump out at him. An odd sound then proceeded to reach his ears, sounding like something…sliding along a hard surface? The sound was faint, but Link's ears were very acute and Link's ears had picked up the noise. Something was out there very near to him, that much Link was convinced of…but what?
Link wasn't about to wait on anything to get him, he was going to take his chances and run. If there was something within this pestering maze even bigger and worse than the spider, he didn't feel necessarily up to it…especially since he was still covered with the sickening remnants of his last battle.
Whether he liked it or not, Link wasn't going to have things his way…
Before Link even had a chance to calm his bouncing nerves, something suddenly bulldozed into him…and that something was a snake…a very big snake.
Link's eyes widened in shock as he was sent flying into a nearby wall, unbelievably leaving a small dent in the stone as his body slipped limply down onto the floor. Pain echoed through every limb in his body as he struggled to stand, his body protested to this course of action loudly but he finally managed to do it…Regrettably, such a 'great' accomplishment on his part only made things worse.
Before him was a snake. Just as the spider, this thing was a freak of nature. Its body was silver with black stripes tracing along it, it was impossible to tell just how long the snake was as the rest of its huge body curved around the next bend, its large head rested directly in front of Link, its tongue flicking in and out. The snake possessed the normal snake type eye, large and yellow…holding death in its ravenous gaze, a gaze that currently held Link hypnotized.
The feeling of being held under control came over Link and he found himself swaying with the bobbing head of the snake, his thoughts telling him to run away went unheeded by the rest of his body. Closer and closer the massive snake inched, the tips of its forked tongue now touching Link, unfazed by the gunk he was covered in and not sticking to the remainder of web left on him.
You nitwit, the Master Sword is yours by right! Summon the dang thing, you are its lord and it will come! a sharp voice suddenly rang through his head, sounding familiarly like the childish Nayru…
This voice just happened to break the hypnotic stare Link had been locked in with the snake and he turned and dashed around the next turn before it could realize what had happened. His mind raced as he contemplated over how the heck he was supposed to follow the advice given to him. Summon the Master Sword? How the heck does she expect me to do that? It's not like I have magic pow--…
Totally forgetting about the snake, Link froze. How the heck had he forgotten! Reaching into his pocket and feeling around the ocarina that still resided there, he grabbed the three crystals, Din's Fire, Nayru's Love, and Farore's Wind. It would have certainly come in handy if he had remembered these things earlier...
Now to summon his sword…
"Uh…oh Master Sword, come here…?" Link tried feeling like an idiot. …nothing happened…at first that is.
The Master Sword suddenly appeared in his hand, startling him on top of the fact that the snake had recovered from surprise and was now barreling towards him with its long fangs glittering as they stretched towards him.
Link abruptly went into action and first threw down Din's Fire, and then charged forward into the inferno that he was confident would do no harm to him. Link skipped nimbly to the side, his confidence building with the mere knowledge that he finally had his weapons…back. In one swift movement, he swung his sword in a downward chop and it struck true. Then again, it was kind of hard to miss when the thing was that big…
Blood spewed everywhere and the snake turned it's head on him and hissed, many of its silver scales blackened by Din's Fire and it was now the 'proud' owner of a burnt smell. Like a flash of lightning, the snake struck with its fangs, burying them into Link's leg. Venom or no venom, it sure as heck hurt! Link found himself as if by reflexes, stabbing the snake repeatedly with his sword, and he didn't stop until it was dead.
In dying, its fangs had released themselves from their painful grip on Link's leg and its head plopped to the floor in a limp form. Link backed away, blood pumping from the fresh wound impaled into his leg. That had certainly been easier with more weapons than the power gauntlets...but of course it had obviously come with a price...
Link tried to stench the flow of the blood, but to no avail...it just kept coming...
In trying to walk away from the dead body of the snake, Link suddenly found the room spinning. Not just in his mind's eye, but literally. With the spinning, his surroundings changed, changed to the room he remembered being in before he had been forcefully knocked out...at least a dream world version of it...
"Hmph, how dare you destroy my creatures!" Terra snapped, an angry glint sparkled within her empty eye sockets.
"Better them than me…" Link retorted back in a much quieter tone.
Terra gave vent to an agonizing scream at this comment and the next thing he knew, she was upon him, clawing away at his face with her rotted hands.
Link immediately reacted to this odd course of action and plunged his sword straight through her middle. She only backed away and stared down at the sword, a bewildered expression set upon her face as she yanked the sword from her frail body.
Link's eyes bulged. Now was definitely the time to forget about his leg wound and finish her off…but how the heck was he going to do that when she had gone unfazed when stabbed with his sword?
Her hands were suddenly surrounded by an odd blue light as was the hilt of the sword and she gave a wailing shriek as she let the sword clatter to the stone ground with a metallic bang.
Link dived in and picked the sword up, not entirely sure what had just happened, but hey, it was pretty ok with him.
Terra furrowed her brow as if in deep thought and out of nowhere, Link was hit by a black beam that sent immense pain ringing throughout his body upon striking. Well, it proved Terra actually did have some power…
Terra gave a slight smirk, "You're playing by my rules now, there's no way you can win."
"We'll see about that!" Link exclaimed, having recovered a little bit by the blast. He tightened his grip on the sword in his hand and charged forward.
Just as he reached Terra, she suddenly vanished. Link skidded a bit before coming to a complete halt. His baffled gaze searched the room in confusion…what trickery was this?
A loud high-pitched screeching suddenly filled the room, painfully ringing through Link's head…so much so that he was forced to drop the sword in his hands and tightly place each hand upon each ear and close his eyes tightly in a pathetic attempt to block out the terrible noise.
Having his eyes shut like that, he didn't realize what was happening at first when it did.
By some mysterious force, he was lifted off of the ground and levitated around in quick circles…it wasn't until that mysterious force threw him down onto the ground quite hard that the noise stopped and his eyes snapped open. He had landed far from his sword and Terra had reappeared before him, a malicious sneer spread across her face.
Link gave a small moan as he pushed himself upright, but he didn't even have a chance to stand as he was lifted off the ground again by that same force. It was quite obvious all this was Terra's doing and Link fixed her with an agitated glare that she ignored.
He was flying around the room…Yippee… he couldn't help but think this sarcastically. It became clear that she was just messing with him and trying to make him mad as she slammed him into the ground once again…right next to his sword.
Just as he reached to grab it, he was abruptly up in the air again, jerked away viciously from the weapon he sought. She was definitely trying to make him mad…But then again two can play at this game… he thought with a slight smirk of triumph.
He was still in a sitting position as he was tossed about in the air like a rag doll…He finally managed to steady himself and stood, his legs shaking as he tried to balance on Terra's power that had gotten him up there in the first place. Terra only folded her arms across her chest at this action, intrigued by what the heck he was attempting to do.
Link only winked at her, which of course did nothing but confuse Terra, and then he put his plan into action. If she just wanted to piss him off, then he wasn't going to let her…he was going to fully enjoy himself.
Bracing himself on the unsteadiness he was forced to balance on, he went into a series of back flips and all kinds of things that would have been even harder had he been earth bound. …And it actually did turn out quite amusing…for him at least.
Terra's expression that he managed to catch a glimpse of was a classic. Her jaw was dropped and she was twitching as agitation bubbled beneath the surface. Link stifled a small chuckle and continued with his strange antics. Spinning in the air, he pushed off the force and flew up and latched onto the ceiling before dropping down and landing back into midair after performing a multi-spinning front flip.
Terra waved her hand and much to his dismay, Link suddenly found himself free falling down to the ground. In no time he had landed with a loud thud that echoed throughout the room.
"Ow…" he groaned. The blow had done enough to make him feel like not moving for a little bit until the pain resided…
"You think you're so funny now don't you? Well I'll show you!" Terra screamed and Link found himself forced back into the air again and spinning at an unnatural speed, so unnaturally fast that dizziness soon over came him…But he could use this for an advantage and he knew it deep in the recesses of his mind…he just had to take advantage of this advantage and that's exactly what he did.
He had been able to summon the master sword to him, what would be keeping him from summoning the shield Nayru had given him? It was hard with the dizziness consuming him, but he managed to center his mind into deep concentration and voila, the shield appeared in his hands. Link had great accuracy and he knew it, he wasn't about to let some overly-fast spinning stop him.
Basing things off the raspy laughter that could be none other than Terra's, Link positioned the shield as if it were a boomerang. The whirling around and around again was beginning to make Link feel just a tad bit queasy and by the blood rushing to and from his head, he knew she was spinning him around upside down as well…that was something that was definitely going to make things even more difficult.
Timing things to where he hoped was just right, he used the extra strength generated by the power gauntlets and released the shield as though it were indeed a boomerang. Link's aim proved true and the shield connected with Terra's neck. There was hardly a more surprised being that day than Terra as one moment she was laughing, the next her head was laying disconnected from her body and on the floor.
Link was released from his revolving prison and dropped to the floor. He snatched up his sword quickly, afraid something else bad might happen and glanced at Terra…even without a head, her body continued to move and her head was screeching curse after curse…
Ok, so apparently she wasn't going to go down that easily, but Link had a plan for what he hoped would finish her once and all. Barreling towards her, he whipped out the crystal for Din's Fire and threw a blast of it at her. The spell burst out into flames as it should have upon impact with Terra's withered body…and head.
She had time for one final yet all together short wail before the flames consumed her body as if it were dry leaves…with nothing left to burn, the fire went out and Terra was left as nothing but two piles of ashes…
Link breathed one huge sigh of relief and collected his shield from close to where Terra's remains lay…well the coming back to him part of his makeshift boomerang hadn't exactly worked…but it had certainly done somewhat of the job he had first intended…Although, now that he thought about it, technically he could have used Din's Fire in the first place…but too late for that.
In one blurring moment, Link's vision went black and then he found himself lying on the floor, in the exact same position he had fallen into when he had been knocked out…he was still in the same room as he had been in facing Terra just recently, but there was no longer any sign of her.
Behind him the limp forms of Vera and Nabooru were just now coming to.
"Ugh…what happened?" Nabooru moaned struggling to get up.
"Terra's gone…" Link said as he helped her stand.
Nabooru smiled, "I knew you could do it."
"Heh…tha--…"
Vera suddenly shot up into the air, her glow had returned to its full intensity, "Yes! Haha! That'll show that witch!" she exclaimed.
"I'm…sure…it…will…" Link said slowly, slightly put off by her burst of excitement.
There was a sudden low rumble as the ground and the walls began to shake.
"Eep! The temple is going to collapse, we gotta get outta here!" Vera snapped.
"And how exactly do you propose to do that?" Link indicated the bars in front of their only exit.
"You'll see…" Vera said softly and there was suddenly a bright flash following these words, and the next Link could see, they were all standing outside the temple right in front of the entrance.
"How did you do th--…" Link tried to ask but was once again cut off by the annoying fairy.
"There's no time for talk, it looks like you guys are going to have your hands full…" Vera muttered softly as she flew up higher, leaving Link and Nabooru to ponder her words and survey what lay before them…
All the enemies that had been killed in the Moon Temple were there…including the snake and spider. However, Terra was not…possibly because she had already been dead and Link had just permanently exterminated her.
Nabooru was left speechless as he laid eyes upon the monstrous snake and spider of Terra's creations.
"Looks like this is an attempt to try harder to keep us here…" Link mumbled, fingering the hilt of his sword.
"What about your ocarina, play it and get us out of here!" Nabooru said frantically. Even with that order, she drew out her scimitars as if preparing for battle.
Link quickly whipped out the ocarina and played the Requiem of Spirit…it had warped him to Gerudo Valley last time…why shouldn't it now? Vera was soon seen again flying around him as the orange light engulfed the three of them and they were lifted off…
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The warp pad out in front of the Spirit Temple was where they ended up…not Gerudo Valley, but there…
Link mentally cursed…now they had a whole desert to cross. What was out there that hated him so much? When he had needed to end up here he had ended up in Gerudo Valley and now that he needed to be in Gerudo Valley…he had ended up here!
Nabooru breathed a sigh of relief and Vera circled around, observing the wound that had slightly slowed its bleeding on Link's leg.
"Gee…this is great…now you're both wounded…" she grumbled.
"I'll be fine!" Lin and Nabooru both exclaimed at once before glancing at each other with weird expressions.
"Well whatever, let's get out of here," Nabooru stated following this.
"I second that," Link said.
There was no response from Vera…in fact it was almost as if she had disappeared.
"That was nice of her," Link said sarcastically as the two set off towards the stretch of desert known as the Haunted Wasteland…
Link became very wary of his surroundings…Din had said the next temple would reveal itself to him and that's exactly what he was looking out for…
One temple down…one more to go…and then Zen would be in over his head.
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Everyone should give Uber Spoonz a high five for her help on this chapter…whether it was a little bit or not…lol. : )
Um…Merry Christmas! This chapter was almost 4,000 words fyi…lol : ) Thank you reviewers, be sure to check out reviewer replies by clicking the homepage icon on my profile page!
-blondie91
Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of Zelda.