Zelda and I were sitting at the end of the constrictor vine tunnel, slowly coming to the conclusion that we only had one really bad idea left. We had gone through the rest of the dungeon again, looking in every corner to make sure we weren't missing something or had another way forward. We didn't. This tunnel was our only option, and when that option is covered in vines that want to strangle you, that's a really shit option. Of course, our idea was pretty much just as bad. I spoke up first.
"So, want to run for it?" I gave Zelda a resigned look. "Not like we have a lot of other choices. The vines take a moment to react, so as long as we run quickly, they won't be able to catch us." Zelda looked at me like I was slightly crazy.
"You want to run across a floor of vines that we know can and will trap us and slowly strangle us, with no backup plan if something goes wrong and just hope we'll be fine?" Geez, it sounded so much worse when spoken aloud, but as mentioned previously, there really weren't other options.
"Yep!" I said brightly, trying not to show I knew how mind-numbingly stupid this idea was. Zelda sighed in resignation.
"Alright, you want to go first, or should I?"
Since the tunnel was wide enough to accommodate two people, we decided that Zelda would start first with our bag of supplies and I would run a few feet behind her on the other side of the hallway to avoid the tendrils that tried to grab her. The idea was that if she got snagged, I could cut her loose as I ran past. Of course, we had to dodge the bugs flying over head as we ran, but hopefully we'd be moving too fast for them to catch us. Resigned to our horrible idea, we braced ourselves.
"Alright, ready?" I asked. Zelda looked extremely apprehensive but nodded. "Okay then. Just remember, big steps," I said, more to myself than anything else. Pulling my sword from its sheath, I gave myself a mental count down. "Ready…..go."
Zelda took off first, more bounding along than running. In the second I had before I committed to the same stupidity, I noticed she hadn't gotten caught yet. Before I had time to think too much (never my strongest suit anyways), my legs pushed me into motion.
I almost dropped my sword right away, quickly remembering to keep it up and away from the vines that I could hear thrashing around behind me. If nothing else, the constant rustling was definitely a compelling reason to keep going. I could see Zelda in front of me, blasting short bursts of light at the spots in front of her to help clear a path. I would have taken a slice at the vines too, but doing so would probably be suicide, so I stuck to running.
By the grace of the Goddesses, the tunnel wasn't all that long. It was slightly curved, so we hadn't been able to see the end from where we started, but I could see the other end quickly approaching. I veered a little too close to Zelda's trail though, which was still a writhing mass of tendrils, and one lucky vine tripped me. I sliced at it before I completely lost my footing, but I was still leaning too far forward. It was all I could do to keep powering forward, only a few steps from safety.
Zelda was already across, panting against the wall and looking at me as I stumbled towards the end of the corridor. With two steps to go, I finally felt myself loose my fight with gravity and, having no other reasonable option, jumped as hard as I could towards Zelda. I felt the impact of floor against my shoulder as I instinctively tucked my head forward, turning my jump into a forward roll. Feet flying over my head, I threw my lower body to the side, rolled on my side twice, and slammed my feet into the ground, skidding to a stop facing the direction I had come from, holding my sword to the ground. It probably looked badass from an outside perspective, but really it just hurt. I slowly pushed myself upright, nursing the bruises forming on my forearms.
"You alright?" Zelda asked, still slightly winded.
"Yeah, I'll be okay," I said. Sure, it might have looked cool, but it hurt like a bitch. "You good?" She nodded too, and I couldn't help but laugh with relief. "I can't believe we pulled that off. That was so fucking stupid." Zelda was laughing too, shaking her head at my statement. Once we calmed down, we refocused and went through the door in the end of the hallway.
We basically stepped into hell, pulling up short very quickly as the door closed behind us. From what I could see immediately, there was a chest to our right, another bug hive across from us between two doors, both of which were barred, and a number of bugs flying around the room. Occasionally, one would swoop too low and one of the armored Deku Babas that were sitting on the floor would snap at it, confirming that they were carnivorous and had really sharp teeth. Lucky for us, nothing had noticed our intrusion yet.
As slowly as I could, I leaned over to Zelda and whispered in her ear. "I'm going to go for the bugs first, you take out the hive first. Ignore the Deku Babas, they can't reach us." She nodded and I sprang into action.
I quickly sliced the wings off one flying monster and rolled to dodge a swooping Doberbug. Zelda stood near the chest and shot a concentrated stream of flame at the hive. However, there were two things that we hadn't accounted for that immediately screwed our plans. There was another hive in one of the corners of the room and the Deku Babas tore themselves out of the ground to start hopping towards us as more small bugs swarmed out of the second hive. What had been a controlled fight quickly turned into frantic running, fireballs, and swinging blades.
Luckily (for once), none of the creatures were all that smart. The small fry bugs kept getting in the way of the larger Doberbugs, which then either knocked them out of the air or straight up killed them. The Deku Babas, agitated by all the activity, snapped at anything that moved too close to them. The chaos gave Zelda time to torch the other hive and take out a large cluster of small bugs with a quick arc of flame. I had to focus on keeping both the Deku Babas and Doberbugs away from her, but I managed. I managed to find an angry pulsing growth-fruit-thing on a part of the wall that exploded when I threw it at the bugs flying above us, clearing out a chunk of them and knocking a few off-course. I even got one of the large bugs to crush a snapping Baba before cutting it apart from behind. Within a minute or two everything was dead except for me and Zelda.
"Eugh, that wasn't great," I groaned. I was going to have to get used to rolling around I guess, because my shoulders really hurt at this point. "Didn't get eaten too much I hope?" I called over to Zelda, who I then noticed was clutching her arm wincing with pain.
"Not too much. One of the small ones got on my arm," she said with a slight cringe as she pulled her hand away. I hadn't realized she was actually hurt. A series of scratches littered her upper arm, none too deep, but a few were oozing blood. I quickly grabbed the bandages from the bag and bound the scratches. The stark white bandages looked horribly wrong against her pale skin, but I did my best to ignore it. And how angry I was with myself for letting her get hurt.
"Thanks. One of them swooped down at me when I was burning the second nest. It should be fine now though." Zelda seemed to brush off the injury like it was nothing, but I felt like I had failed her somehow by letting her get hurt. I was supposed to protect her, no matter what. I resolved to be more careful in the future.
Now that all the threats in the room had been removed, we popped the chest open to find another red rupee. For a second, I was worried there wouldn't be room in the bag for everything if we found more, but we were okay for the moment. The bars covering the two doors on the other wall had also opened. We picked the one on the right on a whim and quickly realized we were back in the first long hallway we had found, the one that had led into what was probably the main chamber. Having already explored the area, we figured the other door was the one we needed to go through. And boy were we right.
The bugs we had seen before were generally either pretty small (Pugbugs as I liked to think of them) or a bit larger, Doberbugs. As I stood there looking at the monstrosity in front of us, I couldn't think of a dog big enough to describe this thing. I was thinking something along the lines of Horsebug, but that just didn't have the same ring to it. And then we were running.
Apparently this thing was some sort of hive queen, because Pugbugs were suddenly swarming around it, preventing us from hitting it with anything, including flame blasts. Granted, they helped to thin out the horde, but didn't do any damage to the queen. I tried to get it to drop like the Doberbugs had, but after almost getting crushed my its enormous abdomen twice and acquiring a few bites from hovering Pugbugs, I figured that might be a bad idea. After a minute of running, we decided to focus on the hives that were spewing out the bugs creating the living shield around our target.
"I think it's working!" Zelda yelled at me from the other side of the room. It did seem that the removal of the second and final hive in the room had caused the number of smaller bugs to dwindle significantly, but I was too busy running for my life to take a good look or really respond. Seeing another of the explosive fruits I had seen earlier, I grabbed it as I ran past and lobbed it in the direction of the angry mass of evil demon bugs following close behind me. An angry shriek told me it was extremely effective and I made a bee-line (get it) for more of the fruits.
After a few more fruits and a choice fireball from Zelda, the queen finally dropped to the ground. Then, it was just a matter of either me or Zelda distracting it so the other could torch it/stab it in the ass. A few deft slices and monstrous fireballs later, the hive queen twitched, spasmed, and crumpled in on itself, rapidly rotting away to leave the room blessedly empty.
"Well," I said, finally catching my breath. "That was fun." Zelda nodded, resting her hands on her knees to recover from the combination of physical and magical exertion. Her stamina was getting better, but it was still exhausting.
As we sat down on the dirt-packed floor, we heard the sound of wood creaking and something that sounded very similar to all the vines that had been trying to ensnare us. I did a quick pivot to confirm we weren't in immediate danger and figured we could find out what had caused the noise when we weren't so worn out.
After a quick rest, we took a closer look at the room and found a large chest hidden behind a root wall that had likely been the source of the shifting and creaking. Hoping the chest would have another fancy magic weapon in it like last time, I popped it open. I was not disappointed.
To be honest, it looked like a hand cannon. The body of it was mainly white with intricate blue designs tracing all over it. It had an octagonal gemstone on either side, both alternating between almost white and a wintery blue, almost the same color as the detailing on the body. A large handle, thick body, and wide barrel gave the whole thing the impression of being powerful and heavy. Fortunately, it was considerably lighter than it looked, or else the thing would have been a pain to use. I grabbed the thing and pointed it towards a wall as Zelda took a very intentional step behind me.
"For science!" I yelled, pulling the trigger. I could feel a concentrated ball of ice and cold move down the barrel and shoot out of the thing, rapidly winterizing the wall I had been aiming at. Moving to a different place in the room, I focused more on a coating of ice and the floor was instantly slick and slippery. "Want to try?" I said as I offered the gun to Zelda. She took it, aimed at the ceiling, and fired. Suddenly we were in the middle of a light snowfall.
"That's fun," she said, playing around with it more as I cobbled together a makeshift holster with some of the leather strips I had brought. I knew they would come in handy. Since Zelda wasn't likely to give our new toy back, I strapped the rudimentary holster to her hip and let her position it and the gun to rest comfortably.
"We'll have to get an actual holster to hold that when we get out of here, but this should work for now," I said, admiring my work. With a backpack across her shoulders, gun/cannon at her hip, and the Fire Rod working as a staff, Zelda looked like she was ready for a hike. A very strange hike probably, but she looked good, especially now that I knew exactly how nice those hips were. Forcing my thoughts aside, I zeroed in on a door in the wall, our path forward.
There wasn't much of an immediate threat in the adjacent room. A few Deku Babas guarding the next door, which was covered in another thick tangle of vines, including one of the armored ones. In one of the corners was a chest, with an enormous mass of creeper tendrils covering and surrounding it. Zelda held up the Ice Cannon, as I had taken the liberty of naming it (Ice Gun just didn't have the same ring to it), and aimed it at the slowly shifting mess. One massive blast of freezing air and a miniature snowstorm later, the previously troublesome vines were frozen solid. I tapped one with my foot and it shattered into pieces, leaving nothing left. We were very careful to step on every single one of the obnoxious creepers.
Extremely satisfied with our path of destruction, we pried open the chest to find a purple rupee inside. We ended up having to eat some of our dwindling food supplies to make room for it. I was honestly surprised it fit at all, but Zelda was very determined. Glad to finally have a way to combat all our leafy adversaries, Zelda also dispatched the Deku Babas and the vine wall blocking our way.
Quickly making our way back through the dungeon to where we first saw the creeping tendrils, we opened that chest to find another of the smaller heart-gem-things. We also made a short trip back to the small lake we had found and froze that as well, revealing the third of the heart-gems we had found. Both behaved the same as the first one: shattered into pieces and flew into my chest. All my wounds healed again, even though they were mainly just scrapes. I would have liked if they would have healed Zelda's arm, but the crystals seemed to only like me. Remembering the last of the vine walls we had seen, we made our way there.
We had mostly overlooked the door we were standing at. Positioned along the curve of the massive trunk, the vines covering the door froze and shattered like all the rest, not even needing a quick slice from my sword to help them on their way. Very considerate of them, for once. Heaving the door open, we were pleasantly surprised to see the room didn't have anything waiting to kill us hiding inside. There were just a few stairs leading up to a large platform that had a massive overgrown chest sitting on it. It looked like it was grown out of roots instead of just being covered in them. Prying it open was easy enough, revealing a large key that could only fit one lock.
To the right of the chest was one last door that put us out on the raised platform overlooking the first room we had found Doberbugs. It also gave us a great view of the enormous door set into the trunk and the lock holding it shut. It basically screamed, 'hey, over here, dipshit.' I was personally offended.
Eager to be done with this mess, I dropped Zelda down and jumped down after her. We strolled up to the door, jammed the key in, and twisted until we heard a loud snap. The lock fell away, and the door lowed itself into the ground, leaving us with a gloomy view into the middle of the trunk. Zelda's small hand slipped into mine and, weapons ready, we stepped into the center of the tree.
Well hey there. I heard you guys wanted a chapter, so here one is. If you were that desperate, you should have just said something.
In all seriousness (I know, its unpleasant for me too. Hold on), I am sorry this took so long. I've been really busy with school, work, staying alive, and Hollow Knight. Because seriously, it. is. so. good. And it's $15. And on Switch. The music is great, the art is fantastic, the storytelling is subtle and gives you so many, 'wait, wtf?' moments, it's fantastic. So if you haven't played it, pick it up. Switch, PC, going to be on Xbox and Playstation too (hah, psych, it's out now, go get it), so you really have no excuse. Unless you don't have any of those. In which case you just need to get your lives together. I can only do so much.
Let's just move into some reviews then, shall we? Glad you agree, because you have no say it the matter, so here we go! Twilit Lord, thanks for the 'motivational crap.' Really appreciate it. The small bugs got a name in this chapter, the vines are generally just creepers, which I find appropriate because they creep up on you. See? Totally made up though. I hope I met your requirement for amount of time taken to write a chapter. And yes, that is indeed more pretentious, well done. Xmana, thanks for dropping a line. I'll do my best to update more often, I know you and everyone else appreciates it. Nightwing, I am sorry to confirm that food and oxygen do indeed come first. Can't write if I can't breathe. Well, can't write for very long at least. Sand Seal, try not to make too much of a mess when you blow up. Blood and guts get so sticky if you don't clean them up right away, and I don't have that kind of time. I too love seeing Zelda's powers grow, got a lot more of that coming. Bit of drama, maybe. Got to kill a big thing first, then we'll see. I would never kill them. Yet. Far too soon in the story for that. Thanks for explaining your water temple confusion, I was very confused at first. I read a ton of stuff at the same time too, so don't sweat it. Nice cheerleader outfit, I'll do my best! You guys are certainly worth it! Foopuff, glad you were satisfied, hope this is equally enjoyable. Doberbugs, asses, and Deku Babas are all a good time. Or maybe just one? Two? Ah, can't remember, you figure it out. I love writing moments like that where Link is just being silly. Makes him more fun and interesting. I would never forget about Cremia, just sideline her. Link's got some stuff to work through. Never stepped on a wasp nest myself, but my cousin stepped on a bee once. She was not happy, and neither was the bee. No, I just hate anything with a stinger. They're all evil and can burn. Ai Star, indeed, and it doesn't get better. Not yet at least. Greenoak, thanks for dropping a review, I love to hear from new readers. Not that my usuals aren't great, but...you know what I mean. Glad you appreciate the dungeons, because they can really be a pain to write. Hence the Zelink I sprinkle in. Makes it much better. I shall indeed keep writing, I love it just as much as you all do. Foopuff again, calm yourself. Here we are, stop freaking out. Also, Twilit Lord has the trebuchet last I checked. Go have a fight to the death or something. As far as you motivation, it actually worked pretty well. If it hadn't been for you, this probably wouldn't have come out until Monday or Tuesday. So there you go, thanks for a kick in the pants. Everyone, thank Foopuff, this chapter is dedicated to them (because why not, not like that really means anything...I mean... *ahem*) Good job, bravo, congratulations, now go away.
As usual, you guys and gals are amazing and make my fingers hurt from so much responding. You better appreciate it. Next chapter might be out a bit sooner, just by nature of how bosses work. But I make no promises, so if it takes a month, I'm still covered. Smart, huh? Again though, you are all fantastic and are at least 60% of the reason I write this story. So tell your Zelda nerd friends, your dog, your window, or your crushing lack of friends and rampant introversion to come a read this story and drop me a line. I appreciate every single one of them and love to hear from you all. Additionally, if you wanted to PM me, I wouldn't be opposed to responding every once in a while. Willing to keep you guys updated on chapter status if you're that desperate. So consider that, play Hollow Knight, let me know what you think, if you have it or not, and all that good shit, and I. Will. See. You. NEXT TIME! Boss stuff, good times. Cheers dudes and chicks.
-Aro