Chapter 33: Stalemate

A giant spider with one yellow eye in the center of its head, with a dark gray exoskeleton that looked almost like metal, and eight legs that took up nearly the whole ballroom floor—there was no denying that the monster in front of them was a full-grown Gohma. It was missing one of its fangs, however, and patches of its hard covering were gone, strangely reminiscent of peeling paint. As it shifted and turned, surveying its surroundings, Link took a deep breath. If it were just her and her sword, she'd probably be close to screwed in a fight against this thing.

Lucky for her, she had one very powerful Mage with her.

"If you are considering departing," Ghirahim called, walking into view from behind the Gohma, "I would really ask you not to. As you can likely surmise, walls would be no obstacle if our arachnid friend wished to crawl outside the castle and take a tour of your dear capital and sample on the citizens."

Link and Vaati kept their distance from the Gohma, walking slowly to the side as it continued to look at them, turning as well. Vaati muttered, "Why would something like that be kept under the castle?"

"Something this big, it was probably easier to just bury it where it died," Link offered weakly. "They probably didn't expect a demon lord to summon it back to life..."

Suddenly, the Gohma hissed and lunged towards them, with unexpected speed. The two dashed in opposite directions. Link came up next to one of its legs and swung her sword at the joint. It only made a dull whack, not even scratching the spider's exoskeleton. She ran away again as it turned towards her, likely irritated with her attack.

So, physical attacks would do nothing unless she found a weak spot in its armor. There were missing pieces, but none of them were easily accessible. Her guess, then, would be either the Gohma's giant eye or its underbelly. No way did she plan on running under that thing, though.

She saw Vaati on the other side of the ballroom, keeping his distance and looking frustratedly unsure of what to do. He may have the magic, she realized, but he wasn't experienced in using it in real-life combat. "Try attacking its eye!" Link called out to him, nearly getting interrupted as the Gohma rushed her again.

It came to a halt when its prey suddenly vanished, and it turned side to side, looking for her. Just as it spotted her again, using its legs as hiding spots, Vaati hurled chunks of marble at the Gohma, drawing its attention to himself. The giant spider turned around and hissed.

Vaati glared back, eyes glowing. More chunks of broken marble rose into the air around him. As the Gohma started to crawl towards him, he sent the projectiles flying at its face. It screeched as one hit it dead in the eye. Rather than halting, however, it rushed at Vaati even faster in anger.

"Get out of the way!" Link cried. Vaati was already moving, though—straight up into the air. His eyes were almost as wide as hers as he soared up above the Gohma and then over it. He started to grin as he gained control of the wind lifting him, and he came to a stop just above the Gohma's abdomen.

The giant spider lifted its gaze to the Mage floating above it just in time to see a massive rock plummeting down onto its head. Link flinched at the ear-piercing shriek it gave as it crumpled under the block of stone, legs flailing. Seeing her chance, Link darted forward, leaping up onto the Gohma's thorax, right by its eye. She didn't hesitate—with a shout, she plunged her sword straight into the Gohma's giant yellow eye.

It screeched bloody murder and heaved itself to its feet, throwing both Link and the block of marble flying off. The Sheikah agent crashed into the wall, slamming her left shoulder, and knocking the breath out of her. As she blinked the spots from her eyes, she saw the Gohma head for the opposite wall—and start crawling straight up it.

Vaati, looking at Link in concern, only whirled around when she shouted out in alarm at the spider quickly approaching him, now crawling upside down on the ceiling. He dropped down to the ground, neck craned to watch his enemy.

It halted exactly above him. Something like blood oozed from its eye, rimming it with purple. It screeched and its eye began to glow. Then, suddenly, a beam of energy erupted from its eye, blasting down towards Vaati.

Link lurched forward, but she was too far away to do anything. She could only watch, heartbeat skipping, as Vaati narrowed his eyes and lifted his hands as the Gohma's attack plummeted towards him. The beam crashed down, too bright for Link to see clearly at first whether it had hit Vaati or not.

Her heart skipped again—he was still standing, with his hands held up against the Gohma's beam. Some sort of dark energy emanated from his palms, protecting him from the beam of energy. He stood there without flinching or wavering, almost as though holding his hands out to keep a pesky child away from him. The red of his glowing eyes contrasted with the shadowy shield coming from his hands.

The Gohma's attack abruptly stopped, like it wanted to check to see if its prey was a pile of ashes yet. Unfortunately for it, Vaati was still very much alive, and very much about to return the favor. The darkness formed into a large ball above him and shot upward, crashing into the Gohma's weak point.

It shrieked and lost its grip on the ceiling. Vaati vanished, reappearing by Link's side as the Gohma plunged to the rubble-ridden floor. The ground shook. Stranded on its back, the Gohma's legs flailed, but there was nothing for it to grab for leverage. She may have imagined it, but it looked like more of the arachnid's hard shell had cracked and flaked off.

Link turned to Vaati with wide eyes of awe. "Have you always been this badass?"

The Mage shook his head, sighing. He glanced at her left shoulder, which she was holding. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"This? Oh, yeah, I'm fine! I don't think it's dislocated, just super bruised. Good thing I'm ambidextrous!" She shifted her sword to her right hand, grinning.

Her friend opened his mouth to reply, but just at that moment, the Gohma's movement caught their eye. They turned to see it curling its abdomen up towards the ceiling. A stream of webbing shot from the spider, latching to the marble dome overhead. Vaati muttered a curse as the Gohma lifted itself up into the air by the web until it could get its footing once again.

"I'll draw its attention," Link said quickly. "You keep in its blind spots, try to pin it down again for me." She pushed Vaati to one side and trotted towards the Gohma, jabbing her sword at its legs tauntingly. When its gaze fixed on her, she started running in the other direction, drawing it after her.

Seriously, the thing was way too fast for its size. Link had to go nearly at a sprint to keep out of reach, only pausing every so often to make sure it was still focused on her. It kept hissing at her angrily. At one point, it stopped following, and she had to get a little too close for comfort to jab at it, afraid it was looking for Vaati. She had no clue exactly how intelligent it was, but she wasn't going to take any chances.

Vaati carefully lifted a block of stone into the air, holding it as he waited for the Gohma to slow down just enough. Link came to a halt and braced herself. The spider kept on going towards her—right until it got squashed again.

Once again, Link rushed onto the Gohma. She plunged the Four Sword into its eye all the way up to the hilt, and, for extra damage, twisted it, drawing the most pained, painful screech yet. Hastily, she pulled the sword out and leaped off of the spider.

Much weaker than last time, the Gohma pushed itself to its feet, throwing off the block of marble. Its entire eye was stained purple now, and it darted back and forth with its gaze, shifting its feet side to side as though drunk. Link and Vaati uneasily watched as the arachnid staggered backward, then forward, crawling past Link up the wall, up to the ceiling once more. There, it stopped, hissing weakly. And then it fell.

It landed on the broken ballroom floor without any screeches or shrieks, just with a thud that sent shudders through the ground. Its eight long legs curled in towards its stomach as pieces of its exoskeleton peeled away and flaked to the floor. A stain of purple could subtly be seen beneath the Gohma.

Link cautiously approached. Even if it was in the classic dead-spider pose, she didn't trust the Gohma to be dead just like that. She poked its leg with her sword, gently at first, then practically whacking it when there was no reaction.

"I think we killed it!" she shouted, turning to give Vaati a smile and a thumbs-up.

He shook his head with a sigh and started walking over to her, the glow of magic finally fading from his eyes. But he halted when Ghirahim's voice rang out.

"I suppose I can only confess that choosing a half-rotted corpse was—for once—underestimating you both." They turned their attention to the demon, who had been temporarily forgotten in the midst of the battle. He was seated on the railing of the balcony, chin propped on one hand, leg swinging idly as he stared at them critically.

Link narrowed her eyes, tensing. She couldn't figure out what his goal in attacking the castle was. He'd claimed he wanted Zelda, Link, and Vaati. He had kidnapped Zelda, but his attempts to subdue the other two had so far failed. The Master Sword was gone, true, but that couldn't be the only other reason Ghirahim was here. Did he still plan to try to defeat them?

"Tell me, Wind Mage," the demon lord asked musingly. "I have pondered long and hard and sought some type of logical reason for your insistence on playing hero, and yet I simply cannot understand why you would waste your time with such a weak being. You, who were nearly a god once, let yourself be dragged about by this child, who cannot even best a half-dead spider on his own."

The insult stung, but Link didn't have a chance to feel upset. Vaati strode towards Ghirahim, glaring up at the demon with eyes glowing once more. "It's called not being a puppet to fate. I made my choice to follow a different path than what everyone else thinks I'm supposed to. Being a god is idiotic. And I have no plans to be a hero, either."

The demon smirked down at Vaati. "Oh? I am simply dying to know what else you could possibly plan to be."

"Whatever I need to be to send you back to where you came from and out of our lives. You lost your chance to convert me the moment you attacked us in the library."

"How interesting," Ghirahim rose, standing on the balcony railing, his smirk growing more confident. He summoned his sword and leaned forward. "I have yet to raise my blade to you first, Wind Mage. You really have become a dog that is too eager to protect its master. If the master were to be lost, I wonder what would happen to this little puppy...?"

His meaning registered immediately. Vaati quickly looked back at Link, and she detected the panic in his eyes, barely hidden under his anger. She turned her gaze up to Ghirahim. "Try and best me, then," she taunted, making her voice sound confident. "I might not be able to beat you right now, but you won't have an easy time defeating me, either."

"Oh, that sounds like an enticing invitation." The demon teleported to stand in front of Link. "You will beg for death by the end of this, Hero."

Vaati immediately started running towards them, but Ghirahim snapped his fingers. A wall of gold and red diamonds appeared in a ring around the two, clearly a barrier. Vaati narrowed his eyes and shot a ball of dark energy at it, but the barrier only glowed brighter where it was hit.

"Magic 101, Wind Mage," Ghirahim hummed, keeping his dark gaze fixed on Link as he spoke, unperturbed by Vaati repeatedly trying to break the wall of diamonds. "Magic is ineffective against other magic of the same kind unless one is overwhelmingly stronger than the other. Your dark magic is far too weak to break through my barrier."

It was a small arena; Ghirahim likely wouldn't be doing too much teleporting away in such a small space. Just Link and the demon facing each other squarely. She didn't trust him to be fair, though.

She just needed to hold her own against him. But until when? Until Vaati was able to break the barrier? Until Impa and Aveil made it to the ballroom and figured out a way to rescue her? Link took a deep breath. She didn't see an easy way out of this, but she could only do her best to not lose. Because if she lost...

Ghirahim swung his sword, and their duel began. By now, Link was becoming attuned to the demon lord's style: like a viper, he struck quickly and precisely. He had a habit of adding unnecessary flourishes to his movements, but he rarely let them leave himself open to attacks. She found he liked to pause every so often and simply watch her own movements. At those times, she could get his attention focused on her sword and do a feint attack, pretending to strike high but quickly switching and hitting him lower.

Yet again, however, any attacks she did land did nothing more than make him grunt slightly. Apparently being a demon meant near-limitless stamina too because he didn't seem to slow at all, even when Link began panting. Her lungs were burning and her muscles tiring from her previous two battles. Even the adrenaline of the fight was faded, and she was simply attacking in an effort to keep Ghirahim occupied. A cut on her arm, a blow to her already bruised left shoulder, another gash on her cheek... She was unable to block every attack.

Outside the arena, Vaati was a veritable storm, the wind whirling around him furiously, eyes glowing as he hurled ball after ball of dark energy at the barrier. Link turned her head at one point, and their eyes met. Vaati's eyes were full of fear and anger. He paused in his assault on the barrier, looking at Link with hopeless desperation.

Ghirahim brought his sword down against hers, pressing down on Link. Arms trembling, it was all she could do to stay standing. But then one leg gave out, and she fell to one knee. Ghirahim saw his chance. Before she could recover, his black blade was flashing towards her.

She cried out as it pierced her right shoulder, only stopping when it met the bone of her shoulder blade. Ghirahim held it there, vicious glee sparkling in his dark eyes. Then he shoved her backward. Link collapsed onto her back, clutching at her wounded shoulder, feeling warm blood already seeping into her shirt and onto her hand. Bright spots danced in her vision from the pain.

Her enemy appeared in her sight above her, and she rolled to the side in time to narrowly avoid being skewered in the gut. Link pulled herself to her feet. She almost fell over again when pain spiked in her shoulder from all the movement.

"Ah, just look!" Ghirahim grinned. He was eyeing the blood staining the tip of his sword. "I do so love blood for its unique painting qualities, and it looks like yours is perfect for my next work." The demon lifted some of the blood off with his finger, then dragged it along the length of the blade. He grinned darkly at Link. "Come, let me paint some more!"

Just as he raised his sword to strike once more, there was a cracking sound from behind him. The demon paused, and slowly looked over his shoulder at Vaati and the barrier between them, which now had tiny fractures in its diamond pattern. Vaati hurled another ball of magic at it, and the cracks spread ever so slightly.

Ghirahim lowered his sword. "It is rude to interrupt," he said, much less gleeful than before. "Ah, but I suppose I let myself run away with my desires. As much as I was looking forward to drawing more of that wonderful paint from your body, I, unfortunately, require you alive—for now. So, let us make a deal."

"I don't make deals with demons!" Vaati spat. The barrier trembled under another attack.

"I'm afraid you won't be able to say no." With a flourish, Ghirahim's sword disappeared, to be replaced with a silver one with a blue hilt. Link's breath caught in her throat. The winged guard, and the Triforce etched into the base of the blade—it was the missing Master Sword. And it was in the hands of a demon. He held the sword with the pommel balanced on his palm. "I cannot kill you, but you cannot kill me, either. Not as long as this little toy is in my hands. Therefore, we are at a stalemate. Here is my deal." He snapped his gloved fingers.

She saw movement on the balcony, and she looked up to see several Yiga agents staring down at them from behind their masks. They moved to the sides, revealing Impa and Aveil, both being held by agents, their hands bound, and weapons gone. Torn clothes and bloodstains revealed the fight they'd put up.

Ghirahim continued, "These pesky humans are of no use to me. However, I may be persuaded to allow them their lives, in exchange for possession of this pitiful castle. And—" he turned to look directly at Vaati "—I shall permit one of you to leave."

He was pretending to be generous, but in reality, everything was in Ghirahim's favor. The lives of her closest friends lay in his hands, as well as the Master Sword. The only glimmer of hope he was giving them was the chance to live and fight another day.

Link anxiously shifted her sword in her hand. She wasn't willing to just give up like this. Impa caught the movement, and Link saw her slowly shake her head. So even the Sheikah chief had surrendered…

"Fine," she whispered. Then, louder, "Fine, we accept your deal, Ghirahim."

"What are you doing, Link?!" Vaati shouted.

Ghirahim turned to her and smiled a slow, satisfied smile. He sent the Master Sword away in a shower of diamonds and snapped his fingers. The magical barrier disappeared. "Delightful. I was afraid I had beaten the last two brain cells out of you, but it seems your intelligence is not entirely lacking. Now then! I shall be taking the Wind Mage under my wing." Ghirahim waved a hand, and two Yiga agents leaped down from the balcony, approaching Vaati.

Link's eyes widened. "Wh-what?!" She snapped her head to her friend. "Vaati, get out of here!"

Ghirahim clicked his tongue. "I never said anything about having a choice. Shouldn't you be grateful to escape with your life, child? Of course, I should just keep you both."

Vaati kept casting his gaze back and forth between the Yiga approaching him and Link shouting at him to leave. He took a step back, the indecision clear in his face. Link shook her head. "Just go! You can teleport out of here!"

There was a metallic shing, and then she felt the hard edge of Ghirahim's sword pressed against her neck, the blood on it sticky and already cold. His voice was close to her ear as he spoke. "You wouldn't abandon your master, now would you?" he taunted Vaati. "If you leave, I promise I will kill him right here. I can find a way to make do without him."

The Yiga were only feet away from Vaati now. Link could feel her heartbeat pounding against the sword at her neck, a new surge of adrenaline dulling the pain of her wounds. She couldn't speak, only look at Vaati with pleading in her eyes. They couldn't let Ghirahim have any control over him.

But he didn't leave. The fire of anger dimmed, and he let the Yiga grab his arms, let them tie his hands behind his back. He kept his gaze fixed on Link and Ghirahim. "Let him go now."

"With pleasure," Ghirahim purred.

Link stumbled away from the demon lord when he withdrew his sword. But she didn't have a moment to catch her breath. Suddenly, Vaati's eyes flashed bright red, and there was the sound of metal on metal behind her. She whirled around to see a Darknut towering there, blocking Ghirahim's sword.

Had he tried to attack her? She whirled back around, running towards Vaati, but she slowed to a stop when he shook his head. Wind started picking up around her, tugging at her clothes. What was he doing...? Everything started growing darker as the wind grew stronger and tighter around her. No—no, he wasn't teleporting her away, was he?

"Vaati! Get out of here! Please!" she screamed over the wind.

Just as the darkness began to completely take her, she saw one of the Yiga raise his fist and strike Vaati in the head. Then she was lost in the darkness.