None of us made reply to Ganon's challenge. Instead, in a show of defiance, Zelda nocked the first of her glowing arrows, Link shrugged his shield onto his right arm and drew the Master Sword, and I reached back and pulled out the longsword. The large man facing us laughed again and held up his left hand. I saw a shimmering, dark purple ball begin to form in his outward-facing palm. In a few seconds, he sent the ball flying straight at me.

Whatever that thing was, I definitely did not want to find out the hard way. I sidestepped to my right, avoiding it by a handbreadth. The ball continued on until it hit the floor behind us with a loud, electric crackle. In reply, Zelda fired off a shot from her bow. The arrow sped forward, reminding me of a comet in its speed and intense glow. The wicked king leaned slightly to his left and avoided the shot before sending one of his own at Zelda.

Link stepped in between the energized projectile and the queen, hitting it with his sword. To my surprise, the ball reversed course and likely would have hit its sender, had not Ganon pulled out a massive, two-handed scimitar and hit it back. The ball of energy went back and forth for a while between Link and Ganon before the latter finally mistimed a deflection and caught his own energy ball full in the chest.

The impact staggered him quite a bit, and he briefly sunk to his knees. It was then that the Hero of Time charged at him, sword whirling above his head.

Ganon got back up quickly and parried Link's first strike with relative ease. The two crossed blades for a minute while Zelda took some potshots at Ganon. One of her arrows actually transfixed him in the arm, causing him to roar in a mixture of pain and rage. He delivered a hard roundhouse kick to Link's shield, causing the smaller lad to go airborne for several feet, nearly crashing into the back wall of the room.

Ganon then formed another energy ball and sent it at Zelda, before turning back to face Link.

Almost without thinking, I leaped in and deflected the missile with the longsword, sending it back the way it came. I was rewarded when it hit its sender in the back of the head.

Ganon pitched forward as Link rolled out of the way, then, as he recovered, turned a murderous look at me and Zelda. "So, you wish to challenge me as well?" he growled.

I was half-tempted to engage the giant. But before I could, Link gave a fierce war cry and charged Ganon again. The larger man took a step back at the last possible moment, causing Link to stumble forward as his swing hit nothing but air. The King of Evil then blindsided the Hero of Time with an energy ball that sent him flying back towards Zelda and I.

I gasped as Link skidded to a stop at my feet and didn't move. Zelda gave an uncharacteristic shout of anger and sent three arrows at Ganon in rapid succession while I dropped to check Link's pulse. Thankfully, it was still there, but I could tell he wasn't going to be getting back up anytime soon.

I was interrupted by a startled shout from the queen and a crackle of energy behind me and to my left. I turned to see Zelda just straightening back up; evidently, Ganon had sent another energy ball her way, which she had managed to dodge.

Instantly, I sprang back up, just in time to deflect yet another ball from Ganon (I didn't know who it was intended for). As Ganon and I sent the ball back and forth between us, Zelda, in mid-draw, said to me, "I was wondering when you'd get back up." I smirked a bit at that, then turned my attention back to the perilous game of ping-pong that Ganon and I were playing. He seemed to be having trouble deflecting his own energy ball and avoiding Zelda's nearly-limitless arrows (which appeared to be made out of pure energy) at the same time. Finally, he failed to dodge an arrow, which hit him in the right hand. As he jerked his arms back violently, he exposed himself to the energy ball that I had just hit back to him. He took that straight in the face. Already having been staggered, this latest impact put him on the ground.

I wasted no time in gawking, but promptly charged up the wide staircase, yelling like a maniac, longsword waving in crazy circles overhead. I reached the King of Evil just as he was rising to his knees and aimed a skull-splitting downward slash at his head.

Ganon just barely managed to bring his own sword between mine and his head. Half-swording to maintain his stability, he shoved back against me with all his might. This sent me staggering backwards, until I fell all the way back down the stairs.

We both got back up around the same time and stood there for a brief moment, facing each other across half a room. Then, in order to sound more confident than I was, I called out to him, "Come on! Show me what you got!"

Admittedly, I probably would have been better served just keeping my mouth shut. For Ganon responded to my challenge with a snarl, before charging down the staircase and imitating my downward strike.

I had a good half-foot on Link, so had more leverage with which to parry his blow. But it didn't make much difference, and I was forced to half-sword to keep from being driven to my knees.

We dueled for several minutes, neither of us scoring a hit on each other. Ganon's battlefield awareness was astounding, as he managed to keep track of both me and Zelda, often dodging her shots while blocking my strikes simultaneously. The Triforce of Power was blazing on his right hand as we fought; the Triforce of Courage was doing the same thing on my own hand as I hacked, stabbed, and parried.

As skilled as I had become over the past months, however, Ganon had years of experience on me. After a long fight, he surprised me with a knee to my groin. I fell to my knees, groaning at the pain, letting the tip of the longsword drop. Then, with a sickening sound of breaking steel, the massive Gerudo stomped his foot down on the blade, snapping it and rendering it completely useless.

Hearing that sound ended all hope I had for survival, let alone victory. Sighing in defeat, I closed my eyes, waiting for the final blow to come.

To my wonder, all I felt was a sudden, acute throb in my right hand, which made me double over in agony. I had barely enough strength to look up at Ganon to see what was going on.

To my surprise, he had sheathed his sword, and was holding out his left hand, as if to grab me from a distance. His right hand was doing the same thing, only directed at Zelda, who appeared to be in similar pain. It suddenly occurred to me what exactly he was doing: extracting both of our pieces of the Triforce. I had no idea if my piece would resist him and find yet another bearer, much less if Zelda's piece would.

When the pain finally stopped, though, I saw, at the back of the room, a massive object comprised of three huge, solid-gold triangles, stacked one atop two. It was the full Triforce. That meant one thing: there had been little to no resistance put up by Zelda's and my pieces of it. Ganon turned around and stood there looking at the giant object, taking some time to laugh victoriously as Zelda and I continued to hold our wrists.

Then he started walking towards the solid Triforce at a slow, ceremonial pace. I realized if he touched it, it was all over. Then I saw that only five feet away from me lay the Master Sword, still being held loosely by Link's unconscious body. I would, of course, never reach Ganon by charging, as he could simply sprint to the Triforce and touch it.

As if in confirmation, Ganon intoned, in a solemn voice, "At last, the Triforce shall be mine."

But then an idea formed in my head. I had seen Zelda throwing knives in her occasional training sessions back at Lon-Lon Ranch. I had no knife, but…

With a new burst of energy, I slid over and grabbed the Master Sword from Link's hand. Hoping to at least slow Ganon down, I roared and threw the weapon straight at him, just as he was reaching the top of the staircase. The Blade of Evil's Bane connected and sunk into Ganon's lower back, eliciting a sudden roar of pure pain from the giant as he stopped and knelt, trying to pull it out.

That gave me an opportunity I sorely needed. Silently and desperately praying to God that this giant Triforce was solid, I got up and sprinted up the staircase, past Ganon and up to the massive object. Without wasting a second - knowing full well that Ganon was dragging himself after me - I placed both hands on the bottom of the very solid Triforce of Power.

In that moment, everything seemed to slow down. I could hear Ganon shout in surprise behind me. Even more distantly, I heard Zelda call out, "Brian, make a wish!"

That caused me to look back, still touching the artifact. Ganon was looking up at me in what appeared to be defeat, and Zelda, still holding her wrist, bore a look of anticipation. And that was when I realized just what had happened, and its implications. Instantly, I knew my next course of action.

I turned my gaze to Ganon and, in as strong of a voice as I could muster, pronounced, "With this final blow, may my God seal you." Then, I braced my right foot against the side of the Triforce of Wisdom, and my left foot against that of Courage, and pushed up with all the strength I could muster.

The physical Triforce of Power was surprisingly light for being made of solid gold, but still had considerable heft, and it was very solid. With one hand on its base and the other on one of its sides, I stepped back onto the floor and approached Ganon, who had gotten the Master Sword out of his back by now, and was facing up at me in total shock.

When I reached him, I adjusted my grip on the hefty Triforce piece. Then, with a fierce battle cry, I drove it down at him like a bayonet. The tip of the Triforce piece punched through Ganon's cuirass like a super-heated knife through snow, and into the King of Evil's chest. Ganon immediately screamed in agony, rage, fear, hatred, and a thousand and one other negative emotions, before vanishing in an intense pulse of white light.

The other two Triforce pieces levitated and separated, flying into Zelda and I and seemingly being absorbed into our bodies.

We stood there for two minutes, Zelda and I, panting in exhaustion. Then Zelda finally looked at me and stated seriously, "It is done. I can sense it: Ganon has been sealed."