By the time the Princess emerged from Impa's bedroom and walked toward the challenger's entrance of the dungeon arena, she had changed into her battle dress: a suit of armor with a short skirt that only reached her mid thigh. Though the underlining was made of leather, it had decorative, red and pink fabric sewn on, as well several metal plates cupping her breasts, covering her shoulders, and protecting her belly. She had wrapped a thin, leather strap around both her arms and wrists, and her feet and ankles were covered with a leather boot with a slightly raised heel.

Though mother and daughter walked down the hallway in silence, letting only the crackle of the torches sporadically placed through the dark tunnels communicate their unspoken thoughts, Zelda's mind was far from silent. She mentally ran through every lesson learned from her mother beginning from basic fundamentals all the way to battle strategies. Devising a string of combinations as well as a tactic for every possible scenario, the Princess focused on her upcoming fight all the way until they reached a large door serving as the fighter's entrance to the arena.

When she entered through the entrance as she had done many times already to train her skills against Father's new prisoners, she followed the hallway until it split ways, where she took a left towards where the champion, herself, entered the ring. As she climbed the dark steps up towards the great empty space, so too did her heart as Zelda anticipated the many eyes that were going to be drawn to her. Though she had fought all sorts of opponents on many occasions inside this very arena, the Princess had never done so in front of an audience. However, an audience, a chance for her to display all of Mother's training, was Father's greatest gift to her.

"All of our training," reminded Mother, "all of our lessons will be shown to the people of Hyrule for the first time. Do not leave anything withheld."

Zelda took a deep breath to absorb Impa's message, "Yes mother."

"Control the distance." Zelda nodded. "Establish his timing." Zelda nodded. "Place yourself in an unbeatable position." Zelda nodded. "And lastly, what is our word to remember?"

The Princess spoke the word aloud, "Temperance," engaging an automatic loosening of her body. She released any tension stubbornly clinging to her muscles until all she could feel were the bones sustaining her posture and her heart pumping extra blood throughout her veins.

Then, Mother placed both her hands on Zelda's cheeks and began squeezing, "Do you feel it?"

Zelda closed her eyes and focused on the blood pumping to her head, "Yes."

"His power." Then Zelda felt the growing heat flowing inside her body.

"Yes," she responded as she felt a raging fire build from within her. It was a power that Father assumed was the blessing of the Goddess Hylia, but based on what she was capable of, Impa and the Princess both knew she derived her super abilities from someone else.

Impa Dragmire traveled all the way across the desert, the Gerudo Pass, Hyrule Field, and finally the Eldin mountain range just to find a princess in the mountains, following the story of a girl with frightening strength in hopes of finding the one who ultimately inherited Ganondorf's strength. She spent the better part of seven years inside a castle dungeon training the girl for this moment. With a deep a breath, Impa touched her forehead against Zelda's, "Then guide his power to victory. Become the Princess of Power!"

The Princess looked into her mother's eyes with a fierce resoluteness. Once she stepped into the giant, cavernous arena, the large crowd about to witness her debut as Princess Commander Zelda Viskard Nohansen made the basement arena feel as big as the stakes riding on this fight. She emerged from the dark tunnel onto a wooden platform, next to her Father who stood by the audience.

"My Lords and Ladies," Father started his speech with the familiar dramatic bravado, "for years, the chosen people, have struggled to take back the lands inhabited by the savage Confederacy." A loud click started the platform's descent into the fighting pit below. The room was designed so that the challenger would emerge opposite the Princess from behind a portcullis. "For years, weak leadership has stifled our superior forces from retaking Hylia's rightful lands. But no longer. Today, I demonstrate to you, the new future of Hyrule's leadership."

When the platform had reached midway, the Princess heard her uncles furiously share their concerns. "Is this why you've kept your daughter locked away in this dungeon all these years, Daphnes? To put her in place of an army where a man should be?" Marshall Dorith voiced his opinion the loudest, "I won't have it!"

Uncle Drake shared the same sentiment, "Is it wise to put your only, viable candidate for the throne in serious danger?"

Father massaged his brothers' concerns to deaf ears, "Relax. I would not arrange this spectacle if I could not personally guarantee total victory. And our men will follow the princess chosen by the Goddesses!"

"Be that as it may," replied Uncle Dorith, "whom will she be fighting?"

Father let the sound of the rising portcullis answer his brother's question. Once the gate was raised the whole way, loud footsteps began to shake the ground from the dark space behind the challenger's entrance. From the shadows emerged a stone foot the size of a droplet shield, followed by a body with the muscle mass of three grown Hylians, and lastly followed by a head that extended the Goron's height past two yards tall easily. With white tattoos covering his body from neck to ankle, the mighty warrior roared and beat his chest.

"My Lords and Ladies, I present our challenger," Father extended his hand to dramatically introduce Zelda's opponent, "hailing from the village of Gokoharra, Tundakem has proven himself to be a mighty warrior on the battlefield. Allow me to demonstrate the results of my daughter's martial training."

"Tundakem of Clan Gokoharra, I hereby grant you the following trial. Should you best my my one and only daughter in single combat, I grant you the freedom to return to your home."

The crowd instantly gasped from their leader's proclamation. "Are you mad, brother!?" yelled Uncle Dorith amidst the crowd of boos, "I lost ten men just trying to drag him out of the pits! I cannot sit idly while you throw your only legitimate candidate to the throne down there with him!"

But Father returned his marshall's response with a silencing glare. The physically bigger man froze in submission to his elder brother's age and rank and reluctantly watched the fight about to take place.

The Goron spit on the ground, "HA! After crushing the skulls o' ye puny soldiers, ya ask me to fight one o' ye weak females? Do ya mean to insult me?" His arrogance was going to be his downfall. "Mah fists have destroyed ye armor like it was made o' butter! I've ground the bones o' your weaker people until they became seasoning for my soup! If ya think y'are truly a man, ya'd come down here and face me, man-to-man, leader-to-leader! But ye Hylian ways were meant for cowards, for ya'd rather hide behind your stones and instead send your weakest to fight! You and your people have…"

All while Tundakem was focused on insulting Father and the Hylian people, the Princess was focused on the details of her opponent's physical traits and concocting strategies to use. Like most Gorons she had fought previously in this arena, he had a longer reach than she did, so she had to take advantage of his pride to get close. Though she wanted to assume she was faster than him, all it took for him to beat her was one, well-timed punch she did not see coming, so caution was key until she could establish this. All-in-all, beating him was simple: wait for him to attack, evade the rear hand most likely, and fill in his inevitable defensive gap with a combination.

"… weapons mean nothing to me and my strong, warrior race! Your blades can't scratch our people, your spears and arrows can't penetrate our skin, and your horses cower before the mighty heat of Death Mountain! Your people have no place here on our sacred lands! Go back to the sweet green pastures from whence you came, where you send your little girls to do men's work."

"HEY!" interrupted Zelda. "You going to yammer all day, or are you going to fight me?"

"Quiet girl, this is a matter between men. This don't concern ya."

"Excuse me, as Castle Nohansen's champion, I believe it does concern me."

"Ya sure? I've bested hundreds of ye father's finest! In fact, I killed at least twenty while they tried to lock me up here! Look at the size of mah arms! Now look at the wee size of ye own!"

"Fool," the Princess scoffed. "Do you really think you are the first Goron to say that to me? Do you know how many of your brothers have died at that very spot where you are standing?"

"You fully expect me to believe that your father, the leader of your puny Hylian race, put you his very daughter in harm's way to beat me?"

"My Father doesn't do anything unless he can guarantee victory. So you tell me."

"Haha!" Tundakem laughed heartily, "Well then, little girlie, the offer of freedom stands as it is. Nothing personal."

The ground rumbled as he closed the distance with an aggressive rush. If this is all he has to offer, this'll be over in a minute, she thought as her eyes focused on the approaching Goron's right hand. She readied herself into her orthodox stance, left hand and foot forward, right hand and foot back, hips turned diagonally, both hands up, and simply waited for him to wind up for his first punch as Gorons usually did. However, Tundakem suddenly planted his right foot in front before winding up his left hand, catching Zelda off guard for a split heartbeat, giving her virtually no backup plan in the circumstance which her opponent's rear hand was his left.

She instinctively slipped backward to evade the punch, a bad maneuver that briefly left her vulnerable; however, she restored balance onto the tips of her feet and could hop out of the way of Tundakem's follow up curved punch to the body, an effective combination that Impa had also taught Zelda. Had the Princess attempted to stand her ground and block the punches, he most certainly would have driven his right hand into her left rib cage. Hmph, no wonder he's supposedly better than the rest. The audience watched with tense silence.

Now that she knew that his left hand was his preferred power hand, she could begin studying his unorthodox stance. With every punch Tundakem threw at her, her eyes picked up more significant tells of her opponent's intention to strike. Of course, with a tell as obvious as a windup, Princess Zelda not only had enough time to defend, she had enough time to run defensive options through her head. Bobbing and weaving through each one of the Goron's life-threatening attacks, she slipped in and out of his range at her will.

His frustrated grunts was a sign that he was tiring. "If you're," he threw an uppercut, then a hooked punch at her chin, and whiffed on both, "gonna fight me," he tried again with a left hook right hook combination which was too easy to duck underneath, "like a man," he even tried a overhand left, a backwards thrown fist, and a second power rear to no avail, "you should," no matter what punch he threw at her, "take a punch," his hands would hit nothing but air, "like a man!" As her comfort slipping inside and outside of her opponent's reach increased, so too did the cheers from the audience.

Zelda waited for Tundakem to throw another power punch, and when he did, she planted her feet into the stony ground, held the side of her head whilst tucking her elbow, and twisted her torso inward towards the punch before absorbing the entirety of the force from the Goron's mighty fist into her arm. Shrieks like girls shrilled from the male-dominant audience when they heard the gargantuan fighter make thunder-like contact with the Princess.

But once the resounding clap of rocky knuckles against flesh and bone was over, Zelda's feet slid only a few palms backward but her blocking form did not budge one bit. "Like this?" she taunted, before turning her hips and returning a fierce counter up into the Goron's chin. The impact of hard, stone skin felt like butter to her calloused knuckles. Her right hand uppercut launched Tundakem into the air, who landed with a painful scowl on his face.

With his pride wounded, Tundakem began to fight more desperately, evidenced by the heavy grunts escorting each punch, so the Princess decided to pour salt in his wound. When Tundakem threw a long left, Zelda ducked under and threw her right to his exposed gut; when he threw a lead right hook, Zelda bobbed underneath and responded with a quick but painful right to his face; when he threw another rear left straight, Zelda slipped the fist's trajectory and countered with her own right straight. The more Zelda evaded and countered, the more frustrated the Goron became; the more frustrated he became, the more predictable he became; the more predictable he became, the easier it was for her to evade and counter. The cheering from the crowd acted as a catalyst for the Goron warrior's cyclical path to defeat.

When Tundakem finally realized that his opponent was punishing him every time he threw a sluggish attack, he began to initiate defense in fear of getting hit, giving Zelda permission to apply pressure. Having pinpointed the timing of his punch down to the hair's sliver of a single heartbeat, she was in no danger anymore, so she began throwing calculated combinations to guide his defenses, and therefore his openings. She jabbed with her lead hand repeatedly so that Tundakem was forced to cover up the front of his face and, what she was intending, his eyesight.

As soon as he thought he was safe, the Princess roared, "Raah!" unleashing a monstrous right hand that devastated the side of his body. Upon connection, the impact knocked several chunks of rocks off his flesh, leaving an inward dent, and caused him to keel over in pain. He dropped both elbows to protect his body from any further painful blows, which certainly protected him against Zelda's left body punch, but left his head wide open for the Princess to finish her combination with a hooked rear hand into Tundakem's cheek.

The barbarian's defense had so many openings that Zelda eventually stopped creating opportunities for the singular, critical hits and instead just threw her hands at whatever openings her opponent was giving her. Whenever he covered the front of his face, he left the side of his head open; whenever he defended his side of his face, he left his chin open; when he tried to cover up his whole face; he left his body wide open.

Of course, she eyed Tundakem's exposed legs from the beginning, preparing for a final attack that would end the fight. Thus far, Zelda had kept the barbarian's defenses on his head and body. So when the Princess stepped to the side and lifted her right leg in preparation for the kick, Tundakem had no idea she was going to hit low until a crushing pain forced him to cry out in pain and take a knee to the ground. And without giving him a chance to get back up to his feet, Zelda decided to add flair for the audience by spinning around, lifting her foot high, and planting her heel squarely on the Goron's face.

Applause erupted from some of the knights as they watched their princess single handedly knock out a Goron warrior admittedly larger than any one than she had ever faced. "I'm not done yet!"

"Princess! Temperance! That's enough for tonight!" Lord Nohansen tried to calm his daughter…

…to no avail. "You!" she pointed to one of the dungeon guards, "Bring me four more!"

The audience, now composed only of men who had stayed to watch the carnage, hailed their champion, "Four More! Four More! Four More!"

Uncle Dorith laughed over the bloodthirsty crowd, "Nay! Brother, she's getting warmed up! Look at the men, they're having a spot o' fun watchin' some good ol' vengeance for our fallen."

The Princess looked back at Father for his approval, who returned her bloodlust with a nod. The noise within the arena rose to deafening levels when their liege lord let the fights continue. And so as a consequence, four additional Goron prisoners, all shorter than Tundakem but equally as fearsome, or weak in Zelda's eyes, stepped into the ring. Immediately, they tended to their injured brother, helping him back up to his feet.

Only when Tundakem stood limply did Zelda truly get a chance to see the damage she had done to him. Divots were dug all over his body, expanding and contracting violently with his rapid, shallow breaths. The leg kick she had delivered to his left thigh had temporarily bent his whole leg inward. His cheeks and eyes were misshapen, and his jaw hung loosely as his gut coughed out his molten innards, something the Princess got used to seeing by this point. Tundakem coughed out the last remainders inside his gut and shook off all the damage received up to that point. "I'm all right, Goro," he rallied to his feet, "Now let's kill that she demon!"

"I'm with ya!" The Gorons put their fists together, a symbol of their choice between mutual cooperation or mutual destruction. "For the Confederacy!" One Goron was enough to test her strength. Five Gorons at once would suffice to show off her speed. Still, with the way all four charged into the fight, Zelda already knew in what manner each one would be taken down. The one who threw the first punch needed to be taken out as quickly as possible. Zelda waited for the first one to attack, and then threw her own cross as she slipped past the Goron's. As soon as she connected with the face, she had no time to follow up that attack; instead, she opted to disengage from him and back away from the other three trying to flank her.

As they maneuvered to gain superior positioning against their one opponent, the Princess interrupted their tactic by feinting a jab at the one flanking around her right, catching him by surprise and causing him to keep his guard high, and following that up with a fatal right kick into the side of his gut, dropping the poor fellow onto the floor clutching his belly. Because she had caught the other two Gorons off guard, it had taken then a heartbeat for them to respond to their fallen brother, giving Zelda plenty of time to turn around and begin circling around the Goron to her left.

Scared in place, they lined up perfectly for Zelda to close in on her opponent in front and focus only on the one, while his brother had to move around to be useful. She launched her rear hand into two stony blocking arms and then twisted her loaded hips to guide Ganondorf's power behind her left hand into the side of the gut. As he folded his elbow down to protect his body, Zelda reloaded her hips and then delivered a crushing uppercut to the chin, and followed through with a power punch into the Goron's face, knocking him into the floor.

That left one of the prisoners standing and Tundakem, who was using the time bought by the other prisoners to recover. The Princess initiated her offense with a lead side hook to the side of the prisoner's head to coerce her opponent to open his defense to the front of his face. Suckered into the trap, the Goron dropped to the ground like a rag doll.

That only left Tundakem and another recuperating prisoner. And when Zelda was finished beating all five, only Tundakem was left alive. The other four tried as best as they could to fight on their feet for as long as they could, but they each ended up becoming naught more than living punching bags. The Princess brutally beat each prisoner's face until his molten insides had finally replaced every facial feature he once had. Tundakem had fallen to his knees while his exhausted lungs persistently supplied air to his completely exhausted flesh.

"End it and make it fast," he asked of her, in a manner meant for a warrior to another.

Zelda spat on his face, "No. You live to fight another day." Then she lifted her foot to gently push the Goron to the ground. Surrounded by five Goron bodies, the Princess turned to her audience and lifted her arms to confirm her victory. Every lord, knight, and servant watching the fight beamed with pride for their champion.

Showered by their praise, she felt as if she was in the right place at the right time. This was the greatest gift Father had given her: learning that she was born to lead. As her champion's platform slowly lifted her out of the pit, she could hear the remarks coming from her Father's men, "Could you imagine her leading us against the Morons instead of her idiot brother?" "No one'll resist us anymore!" "No one can doubt she holds the Triforce of Wisdom!"

The Princess raised her fist into the air, "For the Zellink Alliance!"

"All hail the Princess!" the crowd organically and called back out to her. While the Princess walked by her father, she noticed a great grin across his lips. Father was happy. Where Prince Link had failed to conquer the Death Mountain in the name of the Nohansens, Princess Zelda was going to make history and seat a Nohansen on the throne for the first time.

Hungrily, she barreled towards her prize for the night: Prince Crowdley. As all the men fawned over the power hidden inside her sleek body, she had her eyes on one, the Hylian beauty who led daring rescues of knights trapped behind enemy lines. His wide, baby eyes locked onto hers, and suddenly the Princess knew that the man no longer cared about his arranged wife. Tonight, he was hers.

She pulled his hand from the crowd and led him down the long, dark tunnel back to the castle surface, but not before stopping him in the middle while they were alone to plant a long and powerful kiss against his wide lips just to make sure he knew where they were going to retire.