Lucky for us, this trial was pretty straightforward. The first part was stacked like a steadily growing series of discs, kind of like the Nayru Fountain, except they got bigger as we went further down. There was only one path forward: down.
Of course, that was pretty much the only easy bit. Everything else was on fire. Slimes like we had also seen in the Nayru Fountian, except on fire and they exploded a little bit when you hit them. There were some bats, or Keese as Zelda insisted on calling them, that lit themselves on fire and launched themselves at us. I almost took one to the face, but Zelda managed to freeze it in time. Finally, there were these burrowing bastards that always seemed to pop up at the worst moments and spit small fireballs at us. Fortunately, I was able to reflect the fireballs back at them with a precise bash of my shield.
The only good thing about the nearly unceasing onslaught of enemies was that we managed to get through the first part of the dungeon pretty easily since there weren't any roadblocks or any puzzles either. We found a few chests with rupees and another Piece of Heart, but that was about it. Zelda and I got into a steady rhythm of watching each other's backs and calling out dangers from time to time. I was a blur of steel, hacking my way through anything in my way. Zelda burned and froze her way through anything I didn't get to first.
Before we knew it, we were standing on the other side of a door when it slammed shut behind us, leaving us trapped in the room with a larger than normal Fire Slime. It wasn't as big as the Slime Behemoth from the Nayru Fountain, but it probably made up for it by being very slightly explosive. There were also a handful of large holes on the ground, covered in metal mesh to helpfully keep us from falling to our deaths.
It took a few minutes, but Zelda and I found that if we could get the slime to land on one of the grates when it jumped at us, not only would its fire go out for a moment, but it held itself still, probably trying to avoid slipping through the metal beneath it. Slicing at it certainly didn't help. Every time it paused, I would hack and slice at it, shaving off as much gelatinous mass as I could and watched it slip through the mesh and plummet into the depths beneath us.
Eventually, we wore the thing down enough that it couldn't keep itself from falling through the mesh. The entire blob, which wasn't much bigger than one of the smaller Fire Slimes we had seen earlier, oozed through the grate beneath it. It even tried lighting itself on fire as it slipped through, but nothing could save it from plummeting into the darkness below. On the plus side, Zelda and I got a great view of the cataclysmic hole beneath us. Right up to the point where the slime landed with a plop. There was a positively horrifying screech from below before the light of the slime suddenly went out.
I didn't have a great feeling about the boss of this dungeon.
But at least we got some more cool magic gear for our trouble. This time it was a pair of leather gloves, kind of like our riding gloves, but with much more decorative lacing, the leather extended down to my forearms, and had large yellow gems sitting right on the wrist. Fortunately, the extra material and gems didn't hinder wrist movement at all.
With a little experimentation, I (Zelda was willing to let me have the gauntlets, since she already had two magic toys) found that I could manipulate the ground with them. Summoning pillars of dirt and rock, causing shockwaves, and even making the ground fold in on itself. I was sufficiently satisfied.
The Earth Gauntlets, as I dubbed them, proved even more helpful as we continued our spiraling path downwards. Turned out the burrowing worms that had been rather annoying earlier got really disoriented when the ground they were digging through suddenly started shifting around them. They popped right up to the surface and were promptly dealt with.
Zelda and I continued down, clearly circling the massive hole we had seen beneath the large Fire Slime room. There were even portions where we could peek down into the cavernous depths. We couldn't really see anything, due to an unfortunate combination of poor viewing angles and absolute darkness. Still, Zelda didn't have any doubts about where we were going to end up, a sentiment I reluctantly shared.
We didn't really talk as we forced our way through the endless onslaught of enemies. We each scored a few minor wounds, more annoyances than anything else, but I still felt like I had failed somehow whenever Zelda took a hit. Even if I couldn't possibly have done anything to prevent it, I forced myself to be more vigilant and watchful of danger, determined to keep her from getting hurt again. She always shrugged it off, but I could tell the pain was starting to get to her after a particularly close call with a burning Keese. When we finally reached the boss door, I suggested a quick break, so we could recover a bit, and she certainly didn't complain.
We sat against the wall with a sigh of relief, staring at the usual massive door that promised some horrible final monster. We didn't say anything as we sat there, just content to sit and relax after what had been a trying fight with seemingly endless waves of monsters. I let my eyes slide closed and just breathed until I felt recovered enough to get this blasted trial over with. I forced my eyes open and looked to my left at Zelda, who was already staring at me.
"Ready?" I asked, not feeling the need to mince words. Zelda blinked twice rapidly before turning away with a nod, cheeks tinged pink. We pushed ourselves up, cranked the final door open with the large key we had found earlier, and stepped into the darkness that quickly embraced us as the door slid shut behind us.
Glowing sconces lit in sequence along the perimeter of the room, slowly shining more and more light on the vast central cavern we were in. We could hear the tell-tale rustling of shifting dirt coming from the far side of the room. I dropped into a ready stance, shield forward and sword raised at my side. I felt the contrasting heat and cool of Zelda's magic weapons at my back and for once felt like we were actually prepared for whatever was going to try to kill us this time.
The room was completely illuminated, and the rustling had stopped for a moment before a large…snake, I guess, burst out of the ground in front of us. It didn't feel right calling it a snake though, what with the many tiny legs running along its sides and the three sets of mandibles sticking out of its face, framing a single large eye in the center of the thing's head. The whole thing was segmented by thick bands of some sort of shell armor, giving the barest hints of flesh underneath. I was figureing that was what we were going to have to aim for in order to hurt the thing when it roared the same horrible screech we had heard earlier and, as I probably should have guessed, lit itself on fire from the inside. The whole thing writhed menacingly above us before spitting a massive fireball at us and diving back underground.
And like that we were off to the races. "Zelda, can you put out that thing's fire? We might be able to get at it between those armor joints." She had been able to do something similar to some of the Fire Keese earlier, saving us from a few painful burns in the process. The, oh, I don't know, let's call it, Inferno Snake burst out of the ground in front of me and shot another fireball my way. I deflected it off to the side and saw Zelda holding the Fire Rod and concentrating. It didn't seem to do anything though, because the snake sure didn't care. It just tried to bite me, forcing me to jump out of the way before I got cut in half. The creature burrowed back underground, giving us a moment.
"I can't put it out, its just too strong," Zelda said beside me. "I think it's using its own body heat to make those fireballs and protect itself."
"Okay, so don't get eaten by it unless you want to be instantly cooked. Good to know," I muttered, watching for where it was going to pop up next. Zelda scoffed behind me, before grabbing my shoulder and spinning me around. I saw a monstrous fireball shooting towards us before a beam from the Ice Cannon dissipated it. I looked at Zelda in outrage. It didn't take a genius to realize I had just been used as a hylian shield. No, not THE Hylian Shield, like a person shield, you see? Anyway, I was offended. "What was that?!" I practically yelled at Zelda, who was stepping out from behind me.
"What?" she asked, seemingly not picking up on my outrage. "It was a fireball, I stopped it."
"Yeah, but why did you do it from behind me?!" Zelda blinked once in confusion before realizing what I meant.
"Oh, oh, sorry! I just figured you had the shield and it made more sense if you were in front. You had a better chance of surviving if I couldn't stop it in time." Zelda sputtered to a stop, apparently embarrassed. I saw the gleam of mandibles from the ground behind her before another fireball was shooting towards us. I pulled Zelda behind me and deflected the fireball back at the Inferno Snake, but it had already retreated back underground. "See, I figured you could just do that!" Zelda said. It was obvious from her tone that she felt justified in her actions. I rolled my eyes before refocusing on the elephant-sized monster in the room.
Which just so happened to be barreling straight towards us. I grabbed Zelda and dove off to the side, letting the centipede scurry past us. Come to thing of it, Inferno Centipede sounded way scarier. I didn't have any time to consider the name change though because it quickly turned itself around and came back towards us. I briefly saw that there wasn't any armor on its tail, making that a potential weak point. Of course, it was moving way too fast to try attacking. As I found out.
"How the hell are we supposed to stop this thing?" I yelled in annoyance, having just missed the tail for the third time. Zelda thought for a minute before shaking her head.
"The gauntlets, Link! Use the gauntlets!" I, of course, felt like an idiot for forgetting about the weapons I literally had strapped to my hands, but didn't let that get to me as I quickly raised a wall right in front of the creature charging towards me. It slammed into the pillar and stopped dead it its tracks. Not actually dead, but definitely stunned enough to let me get behind it and slash at its unarmored tail before it retreated back underground.
Strategy firmly in hand, it basically became a waiting game. Avoid fireballs, let the thing charge at us, and stun it to let me attack its rear. Which worked great. Until it didn't.
It was a moment like any other: fighting a demonic flaming centipede, making it crash into walls, when suddenly it decided 'nah, not a big fan of stopping in front of walls, I think I'll go through it.' Which it did, blasting apart my dirt wall with a fireball, barreling through the now destroyed wall, and coming straight at me. Fortunately, I managed to turn a little bit and get my shield up, so I didn't get completely cut in half, but I still got a nasty slice across my chest.
And by nasty, I do mean a horribly agonizing gash across my upper chest that sent pain screaming through my body. It was all I could do to drop myself to the floor slightly more gently and keep my screaming to a minimum. Which was still a lot of screaming, but oh well.
I vaguely heard Zelda doing something before she appeared over me, hands shaking above my bleeding gash. Which was probably for the best, because there was a lot of blood. All I could think was that I had completely ruined my new tunic, because there was no way I was going to be able to get this bloodstain out. I made myself focus on Zelda, who suddenly had a focused look on her face and told me to sit still, because, hey, maybe I felt like doing the polka as my innards became outards. Of course, I would have stopped quickly, because Zelda closed her eyes, held her right hand towards my chest, and started glowing.
Golden light streamed though her hand and spiraled down towards my bleeding wound. The light was warm, gentle, soothing as it penetrated my skin and flowed around the wound. I couldn't help but scream though as my torn flesh started knitting itself back together. It felt like when your foot falls asleep, except way, way worse. I could see Zelda cringing at my screams of pain, but she kept her eyes closed and pushed more of her magic into my wound.
The pain slowly faded away as my flesh finished knitting itself back together. I took a few deep breaths to steady my erratic breathing. Zelda slumped over slightly, likely tired from healing me. I pushed myself upright when I heard a shattering noise from the side of the cavernous room. The Inferno Centipede sat on the other side of the room, shaking of the last bits of ice on its tail. It didn't take a genius to figure out how Zelda had trapped it to buy a little time. Catching sight of us, it started speeding its way towards me and the collapsed Zelda. I couldn't possibly move Zelda in time, so I resorted to plan B. Kill this bastard before it could hurt her.
I slammed one of the Earth Gauntlets into the ground, sending a shockwave towards the many legged abomination. I succeeded in knocking it off balance enough to slow it down slightly, giving me a chance to focus my strength into the gloves on my hands. I swung my arm in an uppercut motion, willing the ground to mimic my movements.
The earth beneath the slowed centipede immediately erupted as a column of dirt and rock burst out and crashed into the bottom of the monster's head. Grabbing my sword off the ground, I again used the gauntlets to lift myself above the monster. Once I was high enough, I jumped off my elevated perch into a forward somersault, trying to get as much force behind my blade as I could. I plummeted towards the dazed creature as it looked vacantly up at me. I saw awareness return to its single monstrous eye a second before I buried my sword to the hilt in its head. I again used the Earth Gauntlets to give me a small slope to bounce off of to get away from the flailing flaming fiend.
The creature flailed and thrashed with my sword still embedded in its eye. Its tail was moving so erratically that I had to throw up a quick dirt wall to keep us from being hit by it. Eventually, the thing smashed into the wall, which seemed to be the last straw, as the monster shuddered once and fell to the ground before crumbling to ash. Satisfied we were finally out of danger, I turned to Zelda, who was slowly pushing herself upright.
"Hey, you okay?" I quickly asked, dropping to the ground next to her. She nodded absentmindedly, looking over herself then around her before her eyes settled on me and the massive tear that adorned the front of my tunic. She gasped and touched my blood covered chest, feeling the now smooth skin that was there. Once she was sure the blood that stained my skin and shirt wasn't still coming out of my body, she threw her arms around me, knocking me backwards in the process.
"Thank the Goddesses you're alright," she said, her voice slightly muffled as she pressed her face into me. "I've been experimenting with using my powers to heal wounds, but I didn't know if I could do it that well or even manage it on such a large wound." She took a shuddering breath before looking up at me. "I was so scared." I could almost hear my heart tear itself in half for her.
I hesitantly wrapped my arms around her slightly shaking shoulders, squeezing her gently. "I'm okay, I'm fine. Good as new, see?" I looked down at my own chest and wiped away some of the drying blood. The only trace of the injury was a slight scar that ran across the upper part of my pectorals. "You saved my life, you know? There was no way I was going to be able to kill that thing if you hadn't been here." Zelda just sniffled slightly, playing with the torn edges of my tunic.
"I doubt that. You would have found some way to beat it. You always seem to be able to beat anything."
"That's because…" I trailed off, not wanting to speak the words on my mind.
"Because what?" Zelda was quick to catch my slip up.
"…well, who'd save the world if I died? Shade? Goddesses forbid, Sheik? I think the world would be better off ended than in the hands of either of them. No, I think it's for the best that I manage to pull through." Zelda was laughing now, head still pressed against my chest and my slip up completely forgotten. I couldn't help but join her.
"My gosh, you are the most ridiculous person." She pushed herself upright and looked down on me. I would have been entranced, well, more entranced, if it hadn't been for the copious amounts of blood covering her cheek, clothes, and hair.
"Zelda," I said. She hummed in response, still looking down at me. "You've got a little something…there," I said, motioning to the entire left side of her where most of the blood was. It took her a minute before she realized what she meant, but quickly figured it out and moved herself off me completely, which both relieved and saddened me. With a small burst of power and a wave of her hand, the blood flowed off of her body and dropped to the floor, leaving her clothes clean, skin perfect, and her hair returned to its normal white-blonde shade. I looked down to see she had done the same for me, leaving my skin a lot less sticky than it had been a moment before. I also noticed something else.
"Thanks for fixing my tunic too. It'd be a shame if I destroyed it right away." She quirked her head slightly, looking confused.
"I didn't fix it. I just got rid of the blood." She considered my mended tunic for a moment. It really was as good as new, without even a trace of the slash in the material or any sign of repair. "It must repair itself over time. Otherwise, there's no way it would still be intact, especially if previous heroes used it on their quests." Well that sure was handy. It was then that I finally remembered where we were and what we were doing.
After retrieving the Heart Container from where the Inferno Centipede died, we went over to the raised dais that had appeared in the center of the room. The top portion of the pillar had slid open revealing a cavity inside.
Two beautifully made leather bracers lay inside on a bed of steel links. I pulled them out and could feel metal plates sewn inside them, likely to give them more strength. Two leather gloves had been under the bracers and fit on my hands like, well, gloves. I pulled out the metal links and found that it was an intricate set of chainmail. A few quick readjustments later, I had the chainmail shirt between my undershirt and green tunic and had replaced the Earth Gauntlets with the new bracers. Pulling out the worn boots that sat in the bottom of the box, I finally felt…right. Everything was where it was supposed to be. The boots were comfortable and fitted to my feet. The bracers were light, and I could even fit the Earth Gauntlets over them if I wanted to. The chainmail offered a comforting weight on my shoulders and promised to offer more protection than just the tunic had. It peeked out from beneath the green garment, adding just a bit of silver to my outfit. Green cap firmly in place, I definitely felt like a hero.
"Wow," Zelda said, looking over my finally completed outfit. She snapped a quick photo and showed it to me. There wasn't much change from the one she had taken in the Farore Fountain, but I really did look good. I pulled out my sword and swung it around a little, getting a feel for how it would feel to fight someone. Going without the Earth Gauntlets, I felt perfect. My forms blended from one to the next, nothing hindering my movements as I swung, sliced, and rolled around imaginary enemies. Everything came together to benefit me in one way or another. Satisfied that I was indeed an unstoppable killing machine, I did a quick flourish with my sword and slid it smoothly back into its sheath on my back.
"Well, I think that's about it," I said, cheerily. Having my Hero's outfit complete had put me in a fantastic mood. "Ready to go?" Zelda nodded her head in affirmation.
"I've had quite enough of being underground for now, I think. The sooner we get out the better." I couldn't agree with her more. But as we exited the massive boss chamber, I realized one horrible, devastating fact.
We had spent all our time in the dungeon steadily going down. Which meant we now had to go up to get out. Which was going to suck. A lot. Zelda and I groaned as we both realized this inevitable fact and started plodding back up to the surface.
But as we walked, I couldn't help but think back on my aborted sentence earlier. Yeah Zelda, I always managed to beat any enemy, fight off any foe. She had said as much. But it wasn't just that I had defeated everything I came up against.
I needed to be able to destroy any threat I faced, because they were a threat to Zelda. And I would do anything I had to to protect her.
Hope you guys are all feeling that ending, it took some work to get it just right.
Hello all, welcome back to the best story you've ever read! Okay probably not, but I like to pretend. Hope you are all having a good time. I know I am. School hates me and I have tests to study for, but hey, writing is fun, so let's do that instead. I'm honestly surprised at how quickly I managed to get this written, it's only been *checks last posted date* a while. But not that long. Like, 10 days. Is that right? How the hell did I manage that? No idea, but I'm sure someone appreciates it, so I won't question it.
Hmm, how do some reviews sound to you guys? Nightwing,it is indeed another review! You've also broken Twilit Lord's streak of being the first person to review, so, uh...here's a pat on the back or something. I'm really glad you like the chemistry between all the characters, I have no idea how I come up with some of this stuff. And yes, the girls in the pool would indeed be freaking out, but I forgot to write in that they had already left. Which I fixed, as you might have noticed. So thank's for that! Twilit Lord, not entirely sure what your 'whoops' is referencing, so I'm just going to go with yes. I'm glad you have no idea what's coming next. I know, of course, but I'm not telling. Not yet at least. Also, I'm not sure living in another time zone is an excuse. Unless you're one of those people who sleep. In which case, we have nothing to talk about anyways. (Just kidding, I love sleep so much) Ultimate, indeed! Thanks. Dark Link, stalkers, oh no. Whatever shall I do? I mean, other than torture them for information about how they found me. After that of course. Not sure how you expect me to write a chapter while being tortured though. Why don't you try it first and let me know how it goes? That way I have time to prepare a bit. Ai Star, it was indeed a good try, but who's to say it didn't work? We'll find out next chapter. Foopuff, I KNOW RIGHT?! Men, total idiots. Why did they pack swimsuits, you ask? Well you can't very well have a pool scene without a swimsuit. I mean, you can, but that's a different type of story. I agree with everything else too. It would be interesting to see a little bit from Zelda's point of view, but this story is only from Link's perspective. I could write a series of alternate chapters from Zelda's point of view as a sort of side work though, so let me know if you would want to see that. I agree that it would be fun to see what she's thinking, but at the same time, I'm not sure how well I could write a girl's internal monologue. Since I have absolutely no experience with how girls think. Thank you fro reminding me about Vaati, he will be making a comeback, which I thought of because you mentioned him. No spoilers as to how he will be back though. Quick side note, you also may have inspired an entire middle portion of this story that had been a glaring void begging to be filled, so thanks for that! Sand Seal, you did indeed forget to review, my heart was broken. Only an abundance of candy corn barely managed to reform it back into something resembling a human organ. This is your fault! YOU'RE FEEDING MY ADDICTION! But I know the feeling of too many tests, so I'll give you a pass. This time. I'm always happy to hear you, or anyone really, likes my writing style, because it is definitely something I feel insecure about sometimes. Same goes for the battle scenes. I have a very elaborate picture of how everything happens in my head, so I'm glad I can convey how epic the scenes are in my head and still be comprehensible. You have no idea how glad I am to torture you with that almost kiss scene. They were so close too. It almost happened. But it didn't. Hehehehheeheh. Soon, don't worry. That's kind of a weird, funny mistake to make, but its as good an excuse as any.
Ready for your random raving before the hint at the next chapter? Good. Any of you watch anime? I figure there has to be at least a few of you. If you haven't watched Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (for some unfathomable reason), you definitely should. Because that shit is priceless. Because the memes! GUYS, THE MEMES! I looked up 'but it was me, Dio' memes last night, and oh my gosh, I was not disappointed. So damn funny. And let's not forget about "ZA WARUDO!" Ah, I love it so much. Send help and more Jojo's music. And definitely watch it! For it is the ultimate anime!
Okay, that's out of my system. Let's see next chapter is going to be...*makes up some stuff* ah, yes, the event that I totally had planned for the last few months and definitely didn't just come up with on the spot. Just kidding, I've been looking forward to the next chapter for a while now. And I really want to write it, thus the super condensation of the Din Fountain. Hope you guys aren't disappointed though, it's just a simple combat dungeon. The Din Fountain that is. Not the next chapter. Gosh, I'm a mess. Next time, we get to see what Shade and Midna have been up to *wink wink*, and head back to the Temple of Time. And there's going to be quite a bit of progression in terms of...well, basically everything. Plot, power, romance...it'll all be there! So be there or be square! TO BE CONTINUED!
-Aro