Arrows pelted the advancing army, pinning them down several meters from the gate, but as far as Captain Graves could see, there was no end to the monsters. As soon as one of them fell, another simply climbed over its corpse, getting smarter and bolder. A group of imps lifted the limp body of a moblin over their heads and surged forward, shielding them from the deadly precision of the archers. Seeing their success, other monsters mimicked them, and slowly the army pushed forward, closer and closer to the gate.

"Lieutenant Fabe!" Graves spun to his ally. "Take some men to the street to the right of the town square. Bring me as many bombs as you can carry."

The lieutenant, with little more than a quick salute, marched down to the main street and pulled away some scouts.

Confident the lieutenant would pull through, he turned back to the amassing monsters. They were smarter than any he had ever seen before. Piling up the corpses, a makeshift barricade was made, shielding the closest monsters from harm. Whenever another beast or monster died, it was tossed on top of the pile, just another brick in the wall.

An imp darted out from behind the barricade and fired an arrow the wall, barely missing a scout who fumbled with his bow and hid behind a rampart. With a burst of confidence, a large squad of imps jumps out from their hiding places and returned a volley of arrows to the walls. Hargrave and his men were fast enough to shield themselves with the ramparts, but the men guarding the street had no warning, and if not for their armour, many would have died. At it was, the knights had been unscathed by the attack, their armour completely covering them. The scouts, however, didn't have the full plate armour of the knights, and while what they did have protected them from fatal injuries, arrows stuck out of the arms and legs of many. Those that escaped uninjured helped the injured out of harms way. A shout went out from the walls and, as quickly as they could, the knights rushed shield the unprotected and injured as another volley flew over the walls.

The archers, their nerves steeled, acted independently, darting out from the ramparts and releasing an arrow before darting right back. The monsters were disorganised, always focusing their efforts on where the most recent attack had come from. Eventually one of his men darted out too soon and was met by an arrow in his neck. He reeled back, before anyone could reach him, fell onto the street bellow, snapping his neck. Hargrave gritted his teeth.

A group of moblins, safe from a constant onslaught, began tossing dead bodies into the moat. In under a minute, a carpet of corpses was built over the water.

An archer caught a glance at the moat. "What the?"

Graves turned to her. "What is it?"

The archer shook her head. "They're throwing their bodies into the moat, Captain."

"How many?"

"Any they can find."

Graves scratched his chin. Are they making room to move around?

He nodded to the archer. "Let me look."

Craning his head around the rampart, he scanned the piled up bodies covering the moat. He saw a moblin try to step on the pile, it's leg slipping into the water. With a snarl, it tossed in another body.

"Oh, damn dearie damn." He rubbed the back of his neck and turned to the archer. "They're making a human ramp. A monster ra- a ramp made of bodies." He thought for a moment. "We're going to try another volley. Pass the word on."

She gave a quick salute before turning to inform those behind her, with Graves doing the same.

At his command, the archers stood up and fired onto the front lines, cutting through a large amount of monsters.

But the monsters had been patient. As soon as the archers had sprung out, they had retaliated with their own volley and, while their accuracy was far inferior, the sheer amount of arrows led to some finding their mark. One shot into Hargraves breastplate, driving him from feet. For a moment, he stared at the shaft stuck in his chest before scoffing and pulling it from breastplate. The arrowhead was warped and barely attached to the shaft, but it was clean. He threw it to the ground and turned to his men.

Several had arrows sticking out of them, and few had been as lucky as he had. One had an arrow sticking through their shoulder, and the woman next to him had her helmet knocked off from the same arrow that left a large gash across her forehead, and a deep cut from her wrist to her inner elbow, which was bleeding heavily.

"Get the injured out of here! Anyone that can use a bow, get up and replace them!"

Men scrambled to remove the growing number of injured and take up their bows. They lacked the organisation that Graves men had, but they still managed to end the lives of more than a few monsters.

The bodies now fully encompassed the moat, with makeshift ramps being built against the walls, hurriedly climbing up them before the bodies below dissolved into darkness. Graves and a few others took up spears to knock down the larger piles, but with each monster killed, another body was thrown on.

A shout went up from the street. "Captain!"

Graves retreated away to assess the situation and grinned. "That look's really heavy Fabe!"

The lieutenant and his men each had a large bag slung over their shoulders, touting very explosive cargo.

The lieutenant struggled up the gate. "Sorry we took so long."

Graves ran down to help him "You're here. That's the good thing." He waved at the other men. "Help them out! Get the bombs!"

The contents of the bags were distributed across the walls swiftly, the bombs sitting comfortably in their hands with the other free to pass fire from torch to torch along the wall.

Graves held up a bomb. "On my command, destroy everything they're building. Walls, ramps, whatever." He lit his bomb walked up to the nearest ramp of bodies and let it fall from his hand. It landed next to a moblin, who, in a panic, tried to lob it back, but was too slow.

The explosion sent shockwaves through the gate wall, tearing apart the ramp and anything on it.

"And throw!"

The bombs shredded apart the defences that had been built up, leaving small craters in the ground and the army. The carpet of bodies began to thin, causing those used to scale the walls to collapse and take their places. When enough of the defences were blasted away, the remaining archers resumed their assault, shooting down any stragglers. Bombs were dropped into the moat to destroy the bodies and sink any survivors. The sounds of the monsters screaming in fear was drowned out by the constant, deafening explosions.

Graves stepped back, wincing at every boom, every bang. He could see that the monsters were terrified, scrambling away, out of the range of the bombs, then out of range of the arrows. Many of the boars had been gone wild from the sound of explosions and fled their riders. Eventually, they fell into a full retreat. Even with their vast numbers, they were still just creatures that didn't want to die.

"Hold!" Graves shouted at the top of his lungs.

After a few seconds, the explosions stopped, leaving just the ringing in everyones ears. Graves moved forwards to assess the battlefield. The wall was covered with sooty marks and chipped stone, but it hadn't received any structural damage. The moat and surrounding fields were covered with random body parts, with anything still attached to the main body of the monster beginning or part way through dissolving into darkness. The nearby field was a mess, pockmarked with small craters of upturned dirt, and every space that wasn't had arrows sticking out like needles in a pin cushion.

The lieutenant came up beside him. "There's still a lot of them."

Graves nodded. "Yeah."

"I'll get the injured off to an infirmary."

Graves flashed him a smile. "Good idea. Thanks." The lieutenant gave him a pat on the back and moved on. Graves spun around and walked to his men. "Alright! Good job there! You all deserve a pat on the back." With his prompt, they all did just that. Despite the grim nature of what had just happened, they couldn't help but to smile at the Captains odd enthusiasm. "Now, they're not gone, so we need to be ready if they try again. Take a moment to rest, and stay vigilant!" He pointed skyward with his spear. "It's gonna be a long day."

Deep in the desert, atop a sand dune, the hag stared into the flames, watching them dance between her boney fingertips. If there was anyone to see this magic, it be dismissed to the heat playing tricks, nothing more than a mirage. But to the hag, the flames were a window. The flames told a story.

"Hee hee hee! Sister! See these flames." The hag cackled.

The crone ambled over to the hag. The hag and the crone were identical, with sickly olive skin wrinkled and stretched over their bones, pulling away from their bulging, bug like eyes with small, amber disks for irises. Their noses stuck out like beaks on a crow. Their mouths were dwarfed underneath their noses, with ancient teeth jutted out from under their lips. Their hair was devoid of all colour and straw like, held up in a sash with ancient runes of blue and red respectively, as if to mimic a broom. They had lost their height to the many centuries they had endured, and what they did have left was diminished by their hunch. A ruby nestled in steel was imbedded the hags skull, with the crone having the same with a sapphire. They wore black robes with a sash, mimicking the colour of the jewels they wore, around their waist.

The crone gazed into the flames. "Ho ho ho! Look's like the Hylians are in a bit of trouble, sister."

The hags mouth twisting into a smile. "Looks like it. Their knights and soldiers are probably all focused on those monsters."

"Probably spread thin."

"Probably busy protecting their people."

"Too busy to guard their prisoners."

The hag turned her head to her sister. "Perhaps we should pay our son a visit?"

"Yes. He hasn't talked to us in such a long time. What a rotten son, making us worry."

The hag summoned a broom to her hand. "Shall we fly, Kotake?"

The crone summoned her own broom. "I believe we shall, Koume."

Twinrova hopped onto their brooms, rising skywards before soaring towards Hyrule, their cackles carried on the hot desert wind.

Hello there.

Underneath is my little rant from earlier. I decided to keep it just to cleat some things up.

Anyway, this is the next chapter. It doesn't have Link in it. Holy crap, am I right?

Nah, this chapters ok. Writing sieges is hard. Hope I didn't disappoint anyone.

Ok, so the whole "DISSOLVING INTO DARKNESS" thing is like when the monsters turn dark then disappear. I guess I could have said "DISINTEGRATED" but it doesn't sound as good to me. I dunno.

Also the Imps are Bokoblins.

GOOD NEWS

Guess how figured out how to fix bad grammar in older chapters?

This guy!

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[heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey

guys

It's me

Just wanted to get something regarding this Fic that has annoyed me a little bit.

This Fanfiction, Courage of a Hero, is supposed to be something that could, in theory, fit into the canon of the franchise.

What has worried (annoyed? disappointed?) me, however, is that people calling it an Alternate Universe Fic.

No.

Please stop it.

This is not an AU. Sometimes I can find them engaging, but for people to read how the Deku tree isn't dead and just go "Nah, that never happened, must be an AU" feels like a punch in the face.

First off, fanfic.

Second, time travel.

Yes I know as soon as Link returns to the past it plays the scene with meeting Zelda for the first time, but come on, I'm sure if Link had any control (which for the sake of this Fic let's say he did, OKAY?!) or Future Zelda wanted to be extra safe, Link would have come out a bit earlier.

Sorry for ranting, but I'm trying my hardest to fit something in that could actually happen, and it's disheartening when people dismiss it for what I want it to be.]