A few scant moments after leaving the room, Link was back, looking embarrassed as the Great Faery raised an eyebrow. "Forget something?" She asked.
"Yeah...the door to Mido's room is locked and I don't have a key to get in there..."
"Ah, yes." The Great Faery closed her eyes, seemingly using her magic to probe the temple above. With a snap of her fingers, she seemed to generate a key and float it over to Link. "That will open the door for you."
"Thank you." Link said with a bow, face slightly red as she turned to leave again. Razl and Dazl were chuckling as they followed her back out. "Oh shut up you two."
Link and the fairies quickly made their way back up to the main room. As Link reached the top of the stairs, she looked over at the exit, where Don and Aryll were glaring at each other. Apparently they were in a disagreement about what to tell Anju. Oh well. "Hey you two." Link called out as she went over to them. They both turned to look and their eyes went wide at the sight of the fairies.
"Link! I take it you saved the Great Faery?"
"Yep, the purifier worked like a charm. It was a painful experience for her though."
"Yeah well, medicine's usually bitter, who're your friends?"
"Oh my gawd! They're so pretty!" Aryll cried out, her eyes sparkling as she reached out to touch the fairies, who dodged away from her little hands but circled around her and started tickling her. The girl quickly started laughing and having fun with her new friends.
"Uh, the pink one is Razl and the blue one is Dazl. The Great Faery asked them to help me deal with Mido."
"Mido?" Don looked confused, though he swiftly seemed to realize who Link was talking about as he looked over at the big door.
"That's the Kokiri guy's name. Apparently the fairy around his neck is Lumie, and was the little brother of these two."
"Oh...damn..." Don frowned, glancing at the fairies. "I'm sorry for your loss, Ms. Razl and Mr. Dazl."
Link chuckled as Don mis-gendered the fairies and was about to correct him when the two fairies suddenly became very angry and started pelting Don with little magic sparks.
"What the hell!?" Don screamed out as he tried to swat the fairies.
"I'm a boy!" Razl yelled out and Dazl said, "And I'm a girl!"
Link laughed at Don as he tried to apologize and then turned to Aryll. "Hey, how're you doing Aryll?"
She smiled brightly up at Link before frowning and crossing her arms and pouting. "Are you really going to tattle on me to Anju?"
"Yes, you shouldn't have come out here with us. You're too young to be in a dangerous place like this."
Aryll didn't say anything as she continued pouting. Link sighed as she turned back to Don and the fairies.
"Alright guys, break it up. It's time to take care of Mido." Link scolded them. The fairies left Don alone as the thief straightened out his clothes, looking miffed. "So, the fairies are going to help me in the fight, but what about you Don? Do you think Aryll would be safe if we left her alone for a minute, or should you stay with her so that you can get her home safely if I fail?"
"I should probably come with you for this. Aryll can keep herself safe, and she can get herself back to town. Making sure you survive and complete your quest is more important."
"Right..." Link said, moving towards the big door. Don meanwhile gave Aryll a quick talk about what to do while they did their thing. Link approached the door and pulled out the key, slipping it into the giant ornate lock. Like with the silver keys, the large key faded away as the lock fell off and the chains drew back. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Don hurrying to catch up as he disappeared. A glance at the fairies showed they were ready. Onward through the door.
Link strode forth towards the little child that glared at her from the middle of the room. The battle arena was a large hall with several columns along the side. All four walls had doors, the one behind her, the two normal ones to the right and left, and the big one on the other side behind the Kokiri, which was big and had a mural on it. Link briefly allowed her eyes to settle on the image of the Hero before returning her focus on the Kokiri. The Kokiri meanwhile seemed to be focusing on Razl and Dazl, looking none too happy to see the fairies. He grasped the fairy corpse hanging from his neck, growling at Link. Breathing raggedly, he pulled a large knife from behind him, though with his size, it was like a shortsword for him. Link stepped forward and held her sword at the ready.
Mido: The Corrupted Kokiri
In an explosion of movement, Mido crossed the distance between him and Link almost instantaneously, sweeping up his knife to stab at Link's gut. Link hopped backwards, trying to keep her balance as she swept her sword downward to parry Mido's knife away. Mido skid backwards a bit from the force before scrambling to Link's right, letting out a screech as he jumped and tried to slice repeatedly at Link. Link grounded her feet and blocked each strike with her buckler, pushing back on the fourth strike to send Mido stumbling. Razl and Dazl joined in then, pelting Mido with sparks, generally doing little more than pissing him off, but also distracting him. Link used the moment to her advantage, doing a jumping overhead slash. Mido saw it coming at the last moment and tried to jump back, but took a light slash down the side of his chest.
He yelled in pain, clutching his wound as he scrambled backwards. His lips strained against the strings that sewed his mouth shut as he tried to snarl at Link. His malevolent red eyes glowed brighter. He jumped forward again, slashing wildly and Link traded blows with him for a brief moment before disengaging from each other. Mido scrambled sideways again, trying to get on Link's shield side (Always tries to get away from my sword...). As he did, and before he attacked again, Link plucked a deku nut out of her pouch, flinging it at the ground just as Mido jumped, blinding him and pissing him off, but giving her the perfect opportunity to plant a boot in his face, knocking him back and causing black ichor to spew out of his nose as he clutched his face screaming.
"Again with the non-lethal attacks? You could have impaled him with your sword just then!" Don's voice whispered in from the ether. "Even if you knock him out, he won't survive the purification process, it's better to just kill him quickly."
"Shut it Don. You don't know that for certain."
Link growled at Don's pragmatic attitude. Mido seemed to be looking around confused at the invisible voice. Sensing that whatever it was, it wasn't attacking him, Mido focused back on Link, coming back in for more rabid slashing attacks. Link blocked and parried and countered, landing some light wounds on Mido. Link was starting to notice that Mido's wounds healed over time, with light ones healing almost instantly, and the deeper one on his chest being almost healed after a minute of battle. Lovely. At that point there was a small opening, and Link lashed her sword out, catching Mido sideways across his chest, just below his neck, cutting the string that held the fairy. Mido and Link jumped away from each other then as Lumie's body fell to the ground between them.
Mido froze as he saw the fairy on the ground, clutching at the spot on his chest where it had sat.
"Lumie..." Razl and Dazl both whispered from off to the side.
Mido was shaking. Link could feel his anger and pain leaking out of him. Mido leveled his piercing red eyes at Link as he slowly raised his knife to his lips, dragging it across the strings that held his mouth sewed shut. Once his mouth was freed, Mido's lips parted, revealing decaying yellow teeth and a blackened mouth that started screeching an unholy sound as the pissed off Kokiri charged at Link. Link held her buckler forward and hid her sword behind her and channeled her mana into it. Time to test out this charge attack. Link thought briefly.
As Mido leapt at Link, she would bring her sword over her head to slash at him, an interesting reverb sound ringing out as she swung. Seeing the attack, Mido tried to block while in mid-air, but the miniature explosion then went off as his knife met sword flung him backwards, stumbling to stay on his feet. Link, while pleased with the result, didn't give any room, stepping forward and charging her sword with another charge and slash sideways. This time Mido tried to duck under the slash, but the energy of the sword was still released as a gust of force that still pushed Mido off balance. He tried to block the next strike, trying to put his Cursed Power into his knife to match Link's, but the resulting burst of energy just got bigger than before, knocking the smaller Kokiri back while leaving the larger Link barely bothered. Mido rolled from the knockback, trying to hop onto his feet and pull up his knife again and saw Link coming at him in a jumping, double-handed overhand slash, her sword glowing brightly as it was overcharged with Mana. Mido screeched in fear as he desperately tried to block the attack that was coming.
As Link came down upon Mido, her mind flashed back to a fight not too many days ago. Her spar against Viscen, their masterful display of skills and the final result. Though she was wielding a real sword this time, a part of her felt that the sword in her hand wasn't going to last. And sure enough when she brought her sword down and clashed, releasing the stored energy in a concentrated explosion, both her sword and Mido's knife shattered, and it looked like the force broke Mido's arm. Both Link and Mido were pelted with metal shrapnel from their weapons though Link ignored it for now since none flew at her face. As Mido tried to grab onto his broken arm, Link drew back her right hand with the buckler and punched Mido full in the face, launching the poor thing about fifteen feet away, sliding into a slumped pile near Lumie.
Link sprinted over and jumped on top of Mido, holding him down before he could regenerate and pulling out the Purifier, she jammed the needle into Mido's back and pulled the trigger. An event similar to with the Great Faery happened, with Mido screaming in pain as the device freaked out, opened up, and spewed crystals out. Link did her best to hold Mido down as he was drained of the foul magic, trying to keep him from hurting himself. Over several seconds, Mido's skin went from black and tar-like to a normal, if deathly pale skin color. The base of Mido's hair seemed to regain a little red color to it and the red glow left his eyes.
Once the crystals stopped coming and Mido stopped screaming, Link quickly pulled out the purifier and turned Mido over to cradle him in her arms, trying to see if he would survive. Razl and Dazl flew over and hovered close.
"Mido! Are you okay?"
"Please Mido, please be alright!"
Link ignored the fairies' pleas as she gently cupped Mido's cheek in one hand. She saw the bruises on his face and the broken nose and felt immense regret at having to hurt him. She felt sick with herself as she saw the poor child in her arms struggle to breath, eyes half-lidded.
"I...I...feel...empty..." He whispered in a hoarse voice. Blood leaked from the corner of his mouth and his nose. His eyes tried to focus on Link, she could see that he was struggling to comprehend what had happened. "You...saved...me...?"
"I tried to Mido, I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt you!" Link apologized. It struck her then that she still had a health potion that Anju had given her! "Hold on Mido, I have something that might help!"
She quickly pulled out the potion and popped the cork, trying to carefully poor it into Mido's mouth. He tried to drink it, but ended up coughing most of it out.
"Mido..." The fairies were hugging each other as they watched.
For a moment it seemed the potion might have helped, a little redness returned to Mido's cheeks for a moment but he grew pale again.
"No!" Link cried out, dropping the empty vial to ground and hugging the child to her. She didn't know him, and he'd been an enemy a moment ago, but it wasn't his fault. It wasn't fair that this was happening to him and it was tearing her up inside.
"It's...okay..." He whispered, giving Link a weak smile. "I'm...not...his...tool...anymore..."
Mido slowly turned his head to the side, seeming to hone in on where Lumie was. "Lumie...I'm...sorr...y..." He reached a hand out for his fairy, his closet friend and companion, who gave his life to try and save him. His voice was filled with immense regret as he remembered what the monster he'd become had done. His hand fell short though, and went limp inches away from the fairy, and Mido died in Link's arms.
Author's Note
Sorry for the delay, I've had more muse for Harry Potter than Legend of Zelda, but I haven't abandoned this fic! So here was Link's first Boss Battle (that wasn't a tutorial fight, lol) I hope you all like it.