Chapter 60: (The in-)-between: A Brutal Lesson
Meeting the Master Arc
Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda; this is just a Fan Fiction
Featured Music: "Ranked Amongst the World's Best" – The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass OST. Chapter Briefing.
"Lost in the Rain" – Lost Judgement OST. Scene 1 (Second Half).
"Lei Wulong" – Tekken 3 OST (Arranged). Scene 2 (Second Half) and 3.
In having essentially travelled all over across Aurelia, Impa and company soon find themselves without much of a challenge anymore; indeed, in their hard-won victory over Kaius and Amalda's manipulation of Link and 'Akuma', they rest their fists and spar them together all in preparation for the world championships – a final tournament of the Prima World Tour that culminates the skills of all of its best-performing martial artists.
In his own preparation for the world championships however, Link is referred to the one and only authority left in the world that may yet have an answer for his demonic problem; they called her only by one name, a mystic and legendary name said to have existed for sheer centuries – 'Sun Hui'.
Said to be the greatest martial artist in the world and without challenge, Sun Hui has taught some of the most powerful practitioners of her art; Ragnar Romanov and a legendary figure, said to be the greatest living soldier in the world of current events. Sun Hui is also said to be a Draerithian elder woman of great hatred, directing this hatred to the race and even gender that Link himself belongs to; the Hylians and male population of his race. She displays this hatred in full view by testing Link's knowledge of both his swordplay and his knowledge of the martial arts taught to him by his first mentor, Impa of the Sheikah.
Sun Hui easily, and effortlessly destroys the poor young Link; even with all of his impressive skill and strength in qualifying for each national tournament across Aurelia, the old woman displays her superiority by breaking the young Hylian boy down to his bare essentials and even down to extraordinarily little self-confidence at all… a tactic of the brutal and cruel tutelage of Sun Hui. In an attempt to instruct the blonde boy down from the ground up, as if he had never learned a thing from any other mentor, Sun Hui hopes to instil within him her own hard and firm level of strength.
All across Aurelia, Link's success with finding an answer for his demonic problem with the holy Triforce of Courage and the 'Shinzui-et-Sanmiitai' attached to it has left him fruitless and frustrated. Indeed, within each grand finals of every national championship he has taken part in, the demonic Kage Narumono surfaces his lava and hellfire-tinted mirrored head in an effort to murder whoever he sets his hateful eyes on.
With all this in mind, and with his recent manipulation by the wise and sneaky Kaius, he turns to Sun Hui as a last resort in order to find his 'answer'; an answer to getting stronger with his martial arts that doesn't result in giving in to the demonic and satanic powers of the Shinzui.
He prepares his mental and physical fortitude for the upcoming 'training' turned torture that Sun Hui will put him through…
Scene 1
"EEEEEYAAAAAH!"
SLAM
Link watched with bated breath as the wide-eyed Sun Hui sent her fist puncturing through the hardwood board that was placed up as a practice vessel, breaking and splintering its beautiful wood all over the ground beneath them both.
"Now that your arm belongs to me…," she began firmly, briefly turning her white-haired ponytailed head to glare a single eye back at him. "I want it strong."
Link gulped down a hefty amount of saliva as he stood before her, now decked out in a new outfit to match his new position as Sun Hui's next apprentice; he wore a new looser-fitting tunic, sleeveless and comfortable to his small child-like body, shaded a light colour of green to match the Kokiri tunic he loved so dear. On the back of his new tunic sat the symbol of Sun Hui's kung-fu school; a coveted symbol worn only by two practitioners of her art in the past.
His green-coloured hat, normally sitting so well on his head was absent, replaced instead with simply his ponytailed head; much as the same way he'd wear during a national championship tournament.
"Can you do this…?" She posited forward toward him, gesturing toward the broken brown board to her left. Link lowered his oceanic eyes in light shame, shaking his ponytailed blonde head in response.
"I mean… I can…," he began in a light smile as he re-rose his oceanic eyes to face the old woman. "But… not that close…"
"Then you can't do it!" She fired back quick as an arrow, angry and impatient. She re-narrowed her eyes down at the Hylian blonde boy and began to extend forth her right robed arm, the left hanging at her back as she did, fingers outstretched forward. "What if…," she began thoughtfully, aiming her fingers at the boy's throat. "Your enemy… is one inch in front of you…?"
Link held back from gulping down saliva again in fear as he watched Sun Hui very slowly and controlled, close her fingers into another fist.
"What do you do then…?" She posited again, furrowing her brow firmly. "Curl into a ball…?"
The old woman, ironically curling her own fist into a ball, turned it back on the wooden board a second time and rested it to within an inch of it.
"Or do you put your fist THROUGH him?!"
SLAM
Link's facial frown twitched as he felt the shockwaves of Sun Hui's incredible strength vibrate the ground lightly, easily breaking through and puncturing the wood a second time. She swung her hateful-eyed scowl on him again and re-opened her mouth.
"Now begin!" She yelled down at him, almost as if chastising her child before turning to leave.
"Yes…," Link began in respect, shutting his oceanic eyes as he bowed forward. "Sifu…"
With that, Link re-opened his eyes and stood back up, reaching for his own hardwood board. He narrowed his eyes back at it and rose up his dominant left hand to point all his fingers bar his thumb at it; all within a single inch. Very suddenly he narrowed his eyes, furrowed his brow and grunted out as he slammed it with all his force
"Agh…!"
He winced noticeably as he felt his fingers crack from the sheer strength with which he attempted to strike with, twitching his digits with light pain as he did, grit-toothed and all.
Again, he thought.
Do it again.
SLAM
He held back his pained grunt, shutting his oceanic eyes in scrunches of agony as he re-opened his fist once more to place its fingers pointing directly at the wood, revealing the skin now freshly broken within his second knuckle.
SLAM
"Nnngh…"
Link, in sheer growing torment, could only grit his teeth and stifle back the groan of agony that rent his left fist; a mistake of an escape that did not go unnoticed by the firmly-frowning Sun Hui herself, pacing back toward the entrance to the garden. She held her robed arms behind herself, glaring down at him in seeming disgust.
"Hmph!"
He widened his eyes and, as he gripped his injured fist with his free remaining one, snapped his shocked-faced head 'round to his immediate right only to find his new mentor standing imposingly over him a few yards away in the doorway to the garden.
"It is the hardwood that should fear your hand…," she began, nodding her white-haired head down at the blonde boy and his injury, gesturing toward the hardwood board as she did. "Not the other way around…," she spoke again disparagingly, using both her right index and forefingers to point from both the boy's injured arm and the board itself. "It's hardly any wonder why you can't do it…," Sun Hui huffed out again, shaking her white-haired head down at him disappointedly. "You give in to defeat… before you even begin…"
Link's brow furrowed back at her, an odd feeling of anger and adrenaline freshly filling his veins.
"Hmph!" She scoffed out a second time, disgusted as she brought up her left hand to cup her cheek thoughtfully before suddenly swiping her calloused fingers off of it, turning briefly to leave.
The watching blonde boy breathed out deeply through his small nose, cerulean eyes narrowing at her vanishing form before slowly re-raising up his injured hand; pointing its fingers directly at the hardwood board again, his eyes both twitched continuously as he readied himself to continue.
SLAM
He held back the groan and merely set his hardened frown into an angered snarl as he re-set his fingers again in position to punch.
SLAM
His knuckles began to bleed a little from the exerted force with which he used and he chose to ignore it; his eyes focused firmly on the hardwood board before him, he merely imagined the smirking face of Kage Narumono before re-raising his fingers a third time to point at an inch difference once again.
SLAM
FWOOOOOHHHHHHH…
The sound of Raynard's powerfully-billowing Aegir echoed out through the deep Gylomecian air that they travelled through, now having left the capital and out far in the field's canyons. The firmly-frowning form of Scaverin stood watching the raven-haired mercenary, his robed arms joined together as he glared on forward.
The very canyon itself he directed his odd technique on had become even further desolate and dilapidated due to Raynard's assault upon it; the wind-elemental magic-like attack was enough to cause shockwaves and small earthquakes around the area. Scaverin stood a few meters above, watching down in some form of disapproval.
"Hmph…," the robed summoner began, curling his frown up as he did. "That's not nearly enough," he stated. "Not nearly as strong as lord Ganondorf's was…"
Raynard's sweat-stricken brow began to twitch in a hardened grit-toothed scowl of his own, frustration and anger growing in his own temperament.
"But at least your technique with it's getting a little better…," Scaverin added hesitatingly, lowering his eyelids as he spoke, drawing out a surprised-eyed frown from the listening Raynard. "Now get up here. I suppose you deserve some rest."
Grateful for the man's words of praise, even if they were essentially back-handed compliments, Raynard held back the smile on his face and leapt up from the rocky platform he stood on to land gracefully next to his Hylian mentor. As Scaverin lowered himself to a seated position on the cold rock beneath him, eyes shut in a hardened frown, Raynard followed due, pulling out some rations to begin eating.
As he hung out one of his hard biscuits for the man to take, Scaverin merely re-opened one of his eyes half-way and, realising what it was, merely shook his bald head back at the black-haired boy as he re-shut his eyes. Raynard pulled his hand back and began to nibble away at it, a little hurt inside but as always opting not to display it. Instead, he turned his inner thoughts to the older man's strange motives.
A former bishop of the Hylian clergy, now on his own little pilgrimage with him in tow, having subjected himself to even stranger tortures and self-anguish in some maddened effort to 'ascend'; something he mentioned not only to him but their enemies, a similar group of warriors, most of which hailing from their own home country of Hyrule.
"Um… Scaverin-sensei…?"
The frowning-faced summoner opted not to open his eyes in response, merely responding with something simple. "Mm?"
"What… what is all this for?" Raynard pressed again, curious as he shot up his head to face the man's before him. "I… I don't understand why-"
"What does it matter…?" Scaverin opted to interrupt the boy with, visibly irritated as he re-opened his eyes at last to re-focus on him. "It is I that this shall affect… no more than that."
The watching Raynard tilted his head curiously at the former bishop, eyes narrowing suspiciously. Scaverin rolled his hazel-shaded eyes in frustration.
"Yes…," he admitted with a sigh. "I suppose if I do ascend then I'd be affecting other ways of life… very well."
The frowning-faced Raynard waited and listened intently, oddly and unusually patient for a change.
"I plan to ascend in order to become one… with the gods themselves…," he began explaining zealously, a kind of fanaticism that fits well to his former occupation as a bishop. The listening Raynard could only narrow a single eye back in scrutinization, unable to follow or even understand his mentor's ramblings. "Why do you think I've been focusing so firmly on emulating their old testaments…?" He fired back, this time with a knowing smirk on his face. Raynard furrowed his brow back at his mentor curiously, frowning as he did.
"How's it really gonna… help though…?"
"Help…?" Scaverin parroted back, similarly puzzled as he cropped up an eyebrow. "The only one I expect to help with this… is myself," he answered coldly before soon piquing up another smirk. "And the rest of the world with it I suppose…"
Raynard tilted his head. "How will you… help the rest of the world with it…?"
"Haven't you seen this heretic land of Aurelia young Raynard…?" He posited forward, eyebrow rising up curiously. "Haven't we both travelled all over, watching how pathetically barren of morals it's all become…?"
Raynard lowered his chestnut-brown eyes in thought and his hardened frown twitched.
He's right, he thought.
Finding homeless people being forgotten about, children having been kidnapped and used as plots…
Even finding slavery as actual policy being utilised in Stralanavia was enough of an argument to the black-haired boy.
"Fret not my young prodigy."
Raynard rose up his silent-faced frown and blinked back at his older mentor, lightly surprised.
"Not only will you receive your chance at revenge in the world championships…," he began before re-raising his head up to the sky and smirking widely. "But I will ascend…"
Raynard nodded dutifully, thinking hard and long on his next go-around with his blonde-haired rival.
2
SLAM
SLAM
SLAM
Link, at long last, pulled his aching left hand back and held it with his other, sucking in air through his teeth in a pained cringe of agony. The firmly-frowning form of Sun Hui sat seated up atop the larger stand holding the hardwood board, overlooking him and his progress. She narrowed her golden-shaded eyes down at him in disapproval before grunting out as she shot down the small staff she carried in punishment, slapping the gasping boy atop his sweat-stricken ponytailed head, eliciting an abrupt gasping yell from him as he dropped down to the dirty ground beneath him. Sun Hui opted not to speak and voice down to the fallen blonde boy beneath her, instead, rising up the small staff she carried as a silent gesture in her hardened-faced scowl; in reaction, Link slowly and painfully dragged himself back up to a standing position, re-raising up his left fist to the board.
Once again he narrowed his oceanic eyes directly forward at the hardwood board and, as he lined his fingers up within a single inch of it, grunted out with gritted teeth as he slammed it back in continually to the beat of Sun Hui's whips at the air with her staff.
SLAM
SLAM
SLAM
Sun Hui chose to gracefully hop off of the board and the frame it was placed on, frowning firmly as she began to stab her small staff into the grassy dirt-ground beneath them in tandem and in time with the sweat-stricken Link's strikes, spiced with his yells of effort.
SLAM
SLAM
SLAM
Sun Hui about-turned mid-way through her march, watching the boy carefully as she stabbed her staff in time to his one-inch punches.
SLAM
SLAM
SLAM
For the first time in months, in having started his training, the Draerithian elder chose to upturn her usual miserably-faced scowl into a small and satisfied little smirk.
SLAM
SLAM
SLAM
She nodded as she kept her staff in tandem with his yelling strikes, an odd sense of pride developing within her seen only within two former students she once taught.
"嘿!"
Both Sun Hui and the surprised Link both swung their wide-eyed heads to the source of the sudden noise; an abrupt angry yell directed seemingly at her and spoken in Draerithian's more traditional way of speaking.
"老婊子!" The voice yelled out urgently and angrily a second time, seemingly a man's voice. "滾出去!"
The listening Sun Hui glowered, her scowl only growing worse as she listened and as the standing Link briefly halted in his duties, he could only exchange a look between his mentor and the direction she began walking in.
Maybe I better go help her, he thought.
I wish I knew Draerithian though.
"Like this… I'm useless…"
As he followed her weak, fatigued and sweat-stricken from the effort of constantly practicing, Link did all he could to keep up and as he began to approach the robed white-haired woman, he soon found the entourage waiting for her and widened his oceanic-eyed gaze at it in shock; a group of around ten young men, all dressed similarly in casual-wear.
"是時候為你的所作所為付出代價了!"
The standing Sun Hui, as she began to approach the main temple area, merely stuck her staff into the ground as she rose her head distastefully at the ten young men and their ringleader, a hateful-eyed scowl as ever on her wrinkled expression.
"你總是把自己的失敗歸咎於別人嗎…?" She shot back, cool as ice and yet spoken with a hardened tone to her authoritative contralto. "還是你輸的時候沒看到...?" Sun Hui began again, tilting her white-haired head at the men as she did, before soon lowering it and glaring hatefully. "你們這些可憐的小屁孩."
The ten young men all exchanged an angered look even fiercer than the first before their ringleader swung his hated-eyed glare on the old woman a second time and re-opened his mouth to speak, setting his legs apart and pointing up at her threateningly.
"你怎麼敢!" He called out indignantly, as if insulted. "我們他媽會殺了你!"
As if in reaction to his words, the surrounding men all began to adopt fighting stances and the watching Sun Hui merely huffed in some form of amusement and disgust, a half-smirk on her face.
"U-Um… sifu…"
She turned her frowning-faced head 'round to eye the blinking, sweat-stricken Link behind her.
"D-Do you need help…? Should I…?"
She scowled back at him, almost as if insulted before her white-haired eyebrows rose as if she had just thought of an idea; Sun Hui swung her scowl up into a satisfied little smirk as she nodded back at him.
"Yes…," she responded to him, at last speaking in modern Hylian once again. "Yes, actually… fight these men for me… won't you?"
Link's oceanic eyes widened as she began to saunter slowly past him; he could only exchange his horrified-eyed frown with the ten young men all now glaring at him, his panic growing.
"B-But s-sifu I'm-" he began with a pained wince, darting his eyes between them. "I'm weak, I'm tired, I'm-"
"You're pathetic," Sun Hui spat out venomously and uncompromisingly, golden-shaded eyes narrowing firmly as she did. "Any true man would revel in this kind of challenge."
Link breathed back at her in another cringe, turning back to face the ten young men before nodding forward his matted ponytailed head back at them, re-affixing his usual Loftwing-style defensive formation. The words of his first mentor, Impa, rung out clearly within his mind as he did.
"Whatever… whatever Sun Hui says… you obey her."
The ten young men all slowly began to circle him as he narrowed his oceanic eyes 'round at them all, carefully eyeing and waiting for their first opportunity to attack. The first came at the side in a wide and deft horizontal roundhouse kick; Link widened his eyes and ducked to avoid it before replying by grabbing his exposed leg. He yelled out in effort as he swung the yelling man 'round in a quick-twisting manoeuvre, eventually tossing the exclaiming man far to his right, knocking him into and successfully dropping the other men around him.
The remaining Draerithians all rushed the blonde boy directly, one attempting to hit him on his blindside; Link darted his head out of the way and managed to avoid the man's recklessly-lunging strike, watching as it struck one of his companions square in the face. The poor youth grunted out as he was sent stumbling back a few steps from the ferocity of his friend's punch, leaving the initial young man wincing and apologetic.
FWIP
He gasped out as the narrow-eyed Link swept the older youth's legs, successfully knocking him up and over into the air, before the former Hero of Time soon followed up with a yelling rave spin; a swinging roundhouse air-kick directed at the young man, his blonde ponytail swinging beautifully with him as he did. He screamed out in pain as he was sent tailspinning through the air, slamming and smashing directly into the poor group of eight young men previously knocked down and reaching to get back up. It was only when the last remaining two moved to him that Link swung his sweat-stricken and fatigued head 'round to catch one approaching his side; he reached up with one right arm to catch the angered youth's outstretched arm – a basic punch. The young Draerithian widened his eyes before being counter-attacked by the small Hylian's high vertical right boot; a counter that would have sent him stumbling back if the blonde boy wasn't still holding on to his arm. He followed it up with a series of five strikes; four horizontal chops directed at the man's lower stomach spiced that finally sent him stumbling and, finally, a single kick that fired the yelling man careering back whence he came.
Before Link could even recover from his earlier kick however, he gasped out when he felt his side being struck; while the blow itself wasn't surprisingly enough to knock him off his feet, the small blonde found himself gasping and stumbling back from the sheer pressure of the dive-kick his last opponent offered to him. Link gasped out continually and near-weakly, finally giving in to his massive fatigue from practicing most of the day, rising up his forehead-drenched head to find the last Draerithian glaring back at him in hatred, adopting a basic fighting stance similar to his own.
This is too much, Link thought.
I can't fight this guy too.
"S-Sifu-"
He widened his oceanic eyes and darted his straw-haired head out of the way as the young martial artist left to his front attempted a swift dive-kick at his head. While he attempted to counter by reaching up for the man's exposed leg, the man followed up by using his own arms to reach for the boy's head and, with impressive levels of speed and manoeuvrability, somehow managed to arc his jump through the air and grappled the young Hylian's ponytailed head into a sidewinding fall together.
Link called out in a mixture of shock and light pain as he fell the floor with the man, their heads soon back-facing one another.
THUD
The gasping young Hylian attempted, with great difficulty, to get back to his feet in a recovering position but the narrow-eyed Draerith martial artist above him had no such plans; he back-rolled toward the wide-eyed boy before straddling him, presumably to finish the fight, and widened his own eyes as he slammed down a vertical punch directed at the youth's chest.
SLAM
Link coughed out in sheer growing agony, oceanic eyes bugged out as his limbs splayed out and the man rolled forward back off of him to stand back up again. The Draerith native turned to look down at the fallen and beaten blonde before leaning his head down to spit at him disgustedly; Link winced, opting instead not to stand back up again in defiance.
"Hmph…,"
The sound of Sun Hui's own disgusted contralto made the listening young man widen his eyes again and swing his black-haired head 'round to scowl back at the old woman. Her robed arms still held joined behind herself, she began to march slowly forward, almost as if she was summoned.
"Pathetic…," she spat down at the fallen Link, disgusted. "As usual… a woman has to clean up your mistakes…,"
The young man watched her carefully as she began to approach the fallen Link; she narrowed her eyes down at the groaning blonde boy before grunting in effort as she kicked him, sending him yelping and rolling across the dirt ground away from the fighting.
"Fucking Hylians…" She cursed out crudely and hatefully, golden eyes narrowing after him before slowly and gradually revolving to meet the last foe threatening her. The man glared similarly hatefully back at her, seemingly a rather large bone to pick with her; Sun Hui opted not to speak to him, choosing instead to affix herself into a basic battle stance. The man furrowed his brow suspiciously before doing the same.
3
"YEAAAAGGGH!"
WHOOSH…
As the man recklessly attempted to go for a dive-kick, the narrow-eyed Sun Hui merely shot up her robed arms to catch his exposed legs before swiftly tossing him back down into the ground, glaring on down at him as she did. The watching Link widened his eyes as he gasped and forced himself back up to his feet, still catching his own breath from fighting off nine of the young Draerith men.
The man, angered in having been unsuccessful in his attempt earlier, swung his legs back up to a standing position before rushing forward and going for a quick series of upward and downward strikes with his fist, all of which the narrow-eyed Sun Hui parried and blocked fairly easily. Sun Hui received the first confirm in; a simple yet quick jab to the young man's lower left side, forcing him to grunt and gasp out as he leaned back a little in pain, before she continued her counter-attack – a deft downward slap to his defending left arm that left the youth open.
THUMPTHUMP
THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP
THUMP…!
In a blinding series of super-fast strikes and back-handed swipes with his fist, the glaring Sun Hui managed to hit the young man back so badly in the chin he found himself staggering back in sheer dizziness and disbelief. As Link could only watch in bated breath, Sun Hui pressed the attack forward by shifting ahead swiping down the gasping young man's desperate defending strikes in her approach; a quick offensive manoeuvre that bridged to a quick slew of offensive and defensive chops the pair of Draerith martial artists shared together. As the young man began to grow impatient and angry, his rage enhancing his strength, the old woman moved wise to back-dash in relative safety to avoid most of his brief enhancement, glaring back at him.
The young man bound forward in a swift pair of spinning kicks that the glowering Sun Hui parried and blocked before issuing out a further challenge with her right index and forefinger, tilting her white-haired head at the man as she did. His scowl intensified and he re-affixed his battle stance by lowering his left arm to hang horizontally under his vertically-pointed left, holes of hatred boring their glares of the abyss directly into the elderly woman before him. Link could only dart his incredulous oceanic-eyed gaze between the pair, sheerly-grateful for being able to watch his new mentor work from a more neutral standpoint.
The scowling and bleeding young man glared back at his elder before, very slowly and cautiously, beginning to approach; as he came within range at long last, he yelled out in effort as he shot up a wide diagonal roundhouse kick – an assault that the narrow-eyed Draerith woman easily evaded. She ducked under swiftly before grappling the man's exposed limbs in a savage tackle, taking him down into the dirtied ground beneath him. She dropped down atop him and widened her golden-hellscape eyes above as she began to rain down upon him a lightning-fast season of blows, all at first focused toward his lower left stomach as he lay on his side.
DRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDR
In desperation, the horrified young man could only attempt to lower his arms to block his area of assault; a reaction that saw the murderous-eyed Sun Hui merely quickly turn her attacks to the gasping and near-crying form of her opponent's head below her. He began to cry out from sheer distress and agony as she mercilessly and brutally beat him down to within an inch of his life, his arms breaking eventually from the incredible velocity and strength with which she laid down upon them.
CRRRRRACCCCCCK
"AGGGGGGGHHHH!"
The watching Link could only flinch in sheer revulsion and an odd addition of reverence as he watched his mentor shamefully pick apart a naïve young man, simply for insulting her.
Impa-sensei wasn't jokin' around, the wide-eyed Link thought, sweat dropping from his brow now not just from fatigue, but consternation.
"She really does kill at will."
Almost as if she was reading his very thoughts, Sun Hui finished her final assault by bringing down her small shoe on his head and, as she did, the air around them all suddenly grew silent and even the birds themselves stopped singing.
CRRRRRRACCCCCCKKKKK
Almost immediately the effects were in place; the poor youth's neck was broken and, thus, his fleeting life had come to an end. Even as the remaining nine unconscious forms littered all around them groaned in pure agony and pain, Sun Hui kept the hardened scowl on her wrinkled face and nose as she reached down to grasp at her bloody and wide-eyed victim's head of black hair beneath her. She raised him up to glare back into his lifeless dead eyes, re-opening her mouth to speak.
"Call me an ugly old hag… will you…?" She spoke out quietly in modern Aurelian dangerously, sheer hate and pure venom filling up her authoritative contralto. Sun Hui tilted her white-haired head at the dead man's blood-filled eyes, his mouth hanging open as if in eternal shock, before re-opening her mouth again. "This…," she began again, spitting her words with pure unbridled hatred. "This is the price you pay…"
THUD
She dropped his corpse wordlessly to the ground as if he were a mere bag of trash, making the watching Link flinch a second time in undiluted fear. Sun Hui re-joined her robed arms behind her before slowly and eerily turning her ponytailed white-haired head 'round on the wide-eyed Link's spectating one, brow furrowing suspiciously back at him.
"What are you looking at Hylian…?" She posited forward rudely and demandingly, her scowl re-appearing soon on her facial expression. "Speak!"
A third time Link flinched and winced, deftly and desperately shaking his straw-haired head, soon lowering it and re-asserting his subservient stance to her.
"N-Nothing… Sun Hui-sifu…"
Satisfied with the answer she was given, she merely lightly narrowed her golden eyes at him before briefly eyeing the rest of the fallen young men, hands still hanging at her back.
"Hmph…," she began in a scowling-faced huff. "You did well… considering the odds…," she stated, drawing out a shocked-eyed frown as he darted his head back up. "Well done."
Her words of praise; something he had never received before in the past months having trained at her temple, was something he also never expected to receive. He could only widen his oceanic-eyed gaze back at her dumbly, mouth hung open unintentionally rudely. She glared back at him.
"What's wrong with you now Hylian?"
He shook his head and chose to smile in gratefulness this time, nodding back at her. "N-Nothing… th-th-thank you… Sun Hui-sifu…"
She watched him curiously for a moment before turning her eyes from his wordlessly, arms still joined at her back thoughtfully. "Tomorrow… I believe we will change up your routine."
He blinked back at her curiously, his attention very briefly gained by the humorous groans of his former enemies littered around him. "S-Sifu…?"
She revolved her golden-yellow eyes back on his ocean-blue and glared back at him. "This 'Shinzui-et-Sanmiitai' that Impa spoke of…," she began curiously, drawing out a quiet-voiced gasp from the wide-eyed Link. "We will confront it tomorrow."
