Chapter 9
Death Match

Link was rudely awakened by a bucket of icy water and snapped his eyes open. He took in his immediate surroundings in a glance and found himself in a large cavern lit with the lights of many campfires.

The bucket's owner was a dirty man that gave him a near-toothless smile full of malice. "It's about time you woke up, Sleepin' Beauty," he guffawed.

Link tried to sit up, but found that his wrists were tied together as were his legs at the ankles. Not only that, but an astute pain assailed his head as well as his arm from apparently lying on it for a good length of time.

The man yanked him up to a sitting position with surprising strength and dragged him across the cavern's floor. "Boss wants ta see you, he does," he said.

Link noticed that there were other dirty, evil looking men gathered about those campfires that illuminated the place and dread crept through him, especially when he realized anything could have happened to Brayden and Zelda during his unconsciousness state.

When the man hauling him dragged him behind a raggedy curtain, Link was relieved to see the two sitting propped against a box, although they were in a similar state to his own. Zelda seemed angry about something, but Brayden seemed miserably withdrawn from his surroundings. When Link was placed beside him, however, he looked up.

A big man entered from behind another curtain and walked with heavy footsteps. This man was extremely tan and his muscular body bulged with the tattoos that decorated it. He was covered in dirt, but appeared to be a bit better kept than the other men so Link automatically assumed he was their leader.

"Well, my prisoners, how goes it?" he laughed. "Do you honestly believe this boy can best me in hand-to-hand combat?"

Link realized exactly what would have happened in his absence. Brayden would have goaded the leader's ego in an effort to stay alive, and that was why Zelda was angry. She was angry because Brayden's statement had now endangered Link more so than them.

Brayden vigorously nodded his head and Link fixed him with a fierce glare. The leader then grabbed Link's shirt collar and held him suspended off the ground as he spat in his face, "And do you think so, boy?"

Link hesitated for a second, wondering what the best plan of action was. He had not been awake long enough to think of a better plan, but maybe…if he could pull it off and defeat this guy, they could get away easier than fighting a whole hideout of these…vagabond.

"Yes," he finally said, surprised at the smoothness in his voice despite the lack of confidence he suddenly felt, "I think I can."

The man laughed heartily at this, "You know, boy, I did not get to be leader of this place for nothing. Here I am in charge of the lowest filth-thieves, murderers, you name it. I am the great King Ratri and there are none that live long when they oppose me. I accept your challenge, ignorant boy, and to the Ring of Death we shall go now to carry out this fight."

He threw Link's bound form to the ground and signaled to several of the other men to drag him, Brayden, and Zelda behind him as he went out through where he had entered.

The supposed 'Ring of Death' turned out to be just a large circle drawn over the ground with a chalklike substance on the area just outside of the cave. Link's captors cut his bonds in one swift motion and slammed him into the dirt just inside the rim of the circle.

He brushed himself off and found his legs shaky from having been tied up for so long. The leader, Ratri, stood on the ring's other side with an evil smirk on his face. "Bring out our prisoners' belongings. I'm feeling rather generous tonight."

Two men walked off to carry out the command and came back with the four bags as well as Link's weapons, though the shield was missing. Ratri took the sword and had them throw the rest of their belongings against the wall. Well, if anything it would make for an easy getaway should they have time to grab their stuff.

One of those men picked up his bow and arrow set and notched an arrow to it. He was surprised when Ratri tossed his sword to him. Link caught it easily by the hilt as he said, "You're too much of a pipsqueak for me to face in hand-to-hand combat. There'd be no fun in it so we'll fight with weapons, though you still won't have much of a chance."

A nearby crony handed Ratri a large spiked club that he hefted with his right hand.

Link remained silent. He felt confident in his abilities to defeat this man by sword, and grateful that this leader was apparently a bit more lenient than Link was sure those that served under him deserved.

"Now boy, should you try anything funny, my man here will take you out with one of your own arrows, understand?" Ratri said.

"Or if I happen to be winning, I'm sure he'll do the same," Link grunted. He was disappointed with this as that fact clicked easily in place for him.

Ratri grinned, "Well, so long as you caught on. I will not have an outsider best the leader of this clan."

Link rolled his eyes at this man's pride in the band of criminals he was in charge of. "Shall we fight?"

Ratri nodded and lumbered forward. Link thought back to the duel he had fought with Brayden. Though that had been slightly less deadly, he realized there were things to learn from it in dealing with much bigger opponents. Link was more agile than this man, he was sure, but Ratri would most likely have no trouble turning that fact against him as Brayden had in the few smart maneuvers he had pulled off.

Link was thankful it had been his right and not his left arm that had been injured as he struck out with his sword. Ratri parried it easily, and hammered into Link. He proved to be quick enough to dodge the lethal blows from the big spikes that Ratri's weapon bore.

Since Ratri's weapon was much heavier, he did not have the ability to strike nearly as fast as Link, so Link found an opening in the barrage of attacks to strike with a quick flick of his wrist and swiped away a good chunk of flesh from his opponent's side before he was forced to back up to save himself. Ratri was angry that Link had drawn first blood and threw himself relentlessly forward, causing Link to stumble.

He caught himself and twisted aside just as the club would have smashed into his skull. One blow would probably be enough to finish Link, so he would have to be careful.If he could get in a good stab at Ratri,then he would not have to worry as much, but his ferocious swinging of his club was preventing any such chance.

"Come on Link, you're better than that," Brayden cheered with what sounded like false enthusiasm, probably in an effort to cheer a sour Zelda. She sat beside him in a stubborn silence; her anger was directed fully at Brayden for getting Link into this predicament, but Link's focus was on the battle and he noticed none of it.

His time to strike hard came surprisingly fast. Ratri had lunged at Link in what he thought was a clear shot, but Link had ducked into a roll and swerved around him, stabbing with great effort into the middle of Ratri's back. Link was completely caught off guard when after having yanked his sword out so he could get away from Ratri's retaliation, Ratri purposely fell backward and basically sat on him. Blood dripped from the fresh wound on the man's back, but he seemed unperturbed.

Link's squirming proved futile-Ratri was incredibly heavy. "Well, it seems already I have you in a position to kill you. Pathetic that you thought you could beat me."

"Idiot, I still have my sword," Link could not help but point out before he hacked away at the open target before him.

Ratri twisted away to the ground next to Link, yet kept his foot secured tightly so he could not get away. He caught the oncoming swing with the club, before shoving Link's sword arm away and going in to pound him with a good blow. Link's foot was wedged too much beneath Ratri for him to make any sort of real effort to dodge, but somehow he managed to bring his sword back down in front of him in the nick of time and they locked in a momentary standstill. Ratri was too strong for Link to last out in this, so Link did the only thing he could do. He kicked blindly with his one free leg and apparently nailed Ratri somewhere good because once he felt freedom and the club had lifted, Link crawled away quickly and regained his feet.

"Impudent boy," Ratri hissed furiously and stood as well. "My patience grows thin."

Link scrambled to get out of the way as Ratri lumbered towards him once more, but the big man threw himself into a dive that caught Link as he tried to dodge out of the way. The full weight of him slammed into Link and caused his vision to blur as the brunt of the blow also slammed his head into the ground. In the flicker of torchlight Link caught the club's shadow raised above his head in preparation for a final strike.

Link twisted his arm backwards with the sword aimed to strike wherever it could hit, he was certainly not going down in a helpless state, and there came a shriek from behind him and the club clattered to the ground just an inch from his head.

Link's body felt suddenly lighter as Ratri jerked away. Though still slightly dizzy, Link twisted around and found Ratri staring miserably at the arm that had wielded his weapon. Blood spurted from the veins on his wrist where Link's sword had cut into, but the ring leader seemed to be taking the pain well.

"You ruined my fighting hand," Ratri growled; anger flared in his eyes. "Shoot him."

Link's eyes widened at this and he acted quickly and dodged behind Ratri's big form, sure that the unlucky archer would be too focused on his target to notice exactly where he was shooting. Like he had intended, the arrow missed him and thudded into the unsuspecting leg of Ratri.

Link shoved him over onto his stomach using Ratri's disorientation as a crucial point in being able to do this and while the archer was panicking at the realization of having shot his boss, he ran over to Brayden's and Zelda's side and cut the cords that bound them. "Get the supplies and get out of here. Find someplace to hide until I get there, all right?"

Brayden nodded dumbly and Zelda hurried off to take care of what was necessary with Brayden trailing on her heels. Link hoped the bumbling idiot would not cause more problems, but at least Zelda had a capable head on her shoulders even if she lacked the strength to defend herself should trouble arise.

The archer finally decided that the best way to make up for his mistake was by actually hitting Link and succeeded in this when the shot nailed Link's stomach. He grimaced, but ripped the arrow out cleanly. He certainly would not want them breaking off the stem and getting the head stuck beneath his flesh; he would simply have to deal with the blood loss.

Now that Link was watching, he was able to time his movements just right and lure the one shooting with his bow to shoot at a certain place where he had been standing, allowing him split seconds to avoid being shot.

Ratri sat muttering on the ground about how he would be a cripple for life, never able to fight with any decent weapon again and this fact shocked Link about how much of a baby the man was becoming. Wounds healed. It wasn't like he had completely severed the thing; although, it was not likely they had any clean medical supplies out here to fight off infection.

His job now was to make sure Zelda and Brayden got away safely in the midst of the pandemonium. Other men now braved themselves enough to face him and charged towards him with swords drawn themselves. Link watched as Brayden picked up everything under Zelda's guidance, and they set off. He had begun twirling his sword in such a way to catch the firelight and mesmerize the dithering fools that approached him.

Another arrow struck him, this time in his shoulder, and Link stopped his antics and started maneuvering himself to the part of the circle where he could take off running after Zelda and Brayden once he deemed it was time. He yanked the arrow out and threw it to the ground.

It was Ratri still suffering through his wounded ego that finally noticed the prisoners' escape, and when he yelled at his men for being so stupid as to allow such a thing, Link took the distraction and literally ran with it as fast as his legs could carry him. His eyes scoured the dark terrain for a likely place Brayden and Zelda would have found to hide.

He could hear pounding feet from a mob chasing him from behind, but he was widening the distance too much for them to catch him. Eventually his keen eyes located a shadow that was darker than the rest and hurried towards it. As he got closer he heard Zelda whisper his name and after some searching of where her voice had come from, he found the cave entrance only because he stumbled right into it.

Zelda and Brayden sat patiently waiting for him. A miniature fire offered enough light to see by and Link was surprised that he had not seen its light from the outside.

"You're hurt," Zelda pointed out. Through the tears in Link's black tunic, red gashes could be easily seen from where the arrows had struck him.

"It's nothing," he said, locating his bag and digging out several rolls of bandages.

"Well, Link. I must say I'm impressed," Brayden said. "You did well."

"Whatever," Link snapped. Brayden was a useless imbecile who he did not feel like dealing with at the moment. Thankfully, the noble took the hint and did not say more.

Unceremoniously, Link yanked his shirt off over his head and pulled out a canteen of water. He proceeded to pour its contents over the wound on his stomach and had to painfully stretch to reach the one on his left shoulder.

"Let me help you," Zelda said moving towards him. She snatched up the rolls of bandages before he could protest. In this closer proximity to his half-naked form, she was also able to see the condition of his right shoulder. She gasped.

Link glanced at it as best he could and was shocked at the dark, purple bruise that covered the whole area.

"I'll get these covered first to stop the blood flow and then we'll see what I can do about…that…" she said mechanically.

She expertly wrapped the gauze in a tight hold around his waist to hold it there on the stomach and then around the opening on his left shoulder. Link could feel Brayden's eyes on him when Zelda lifted his right arm to survey the damage, so he did his best not to wince, but the pain in it exploded, especially when she pressed her fingers to it.

"Your shoulder is certainly in poor shape," she said.

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I really don't want to continue on a downhill trend so I think it's time I took a vacation from writing. o.o; I'll be back in a month or so…When I catch up with life that is, hopefully, lol. I'm really sorry if that's a disappointment for some people and at the suddenness of my decision really. I don't even feel like editing things anymore, to be honest. I did what I could with this chapter, though I mostly just went with a when in doubt leave it out attitude o.o; There were a lot of 'though's I know…Feel free to let me have it…I'll still have reviewer replies posted on my homepage for this chapter by next Sunday night, though, so be on the lookout then. Otherwise I think I'll go hide now and work on the two essays I have due in less than a week.

-blondie91