The Assault

Upon arriving at the stables, they mounted their horses and made for the main gate of Hyrule Castle Town, riding past the citizens who were heading towards the inner walls to take refuge. Following close behind them were the other knights of Hyrule and Hyrule's soldiers, with those on the walls already letting loose arrows at whatever enemy was invading.

Fier and Kafei stopped before the gates, and turned to address the soldiers and their fellow knights.

"Soldiers and knights of Hyrule," Kafei pronounced, "our kingdom and families are once again threatened by an enemy from the outside! Steel your hearts for battle! Steady your shields to halt the tide! Your skill and wisdom shall trump their numbers! The power of your weapons shall cleave through their arms! And, above all, your courage shall send the enemy into retreat!"

"Fight for your families and friends! Fight for Hyrule!"

A shout from the soldiers affirmed their resolve, and they moved to the walls to supplement their comrades. Kafei and Fier followed suit up to the walls to observe the enemy hordes.

A disorganized rabble of goblins, both moblins and bokoblins alike were running forward, carrying ladders with them towards the wall. Off behind them, siege towers were very distinct and slowly lumbered forward. The archers had made it a priority to take out the bokoblin and moblin archers first, and to kill those goblins carrying the ladders forward. So far, they had one a good job of slowing the enemy advance…for now.

Picking out a number of green blocks moving alongside the siege towers, Kafei recognized the lizalfos and dinolfos he had fought over 18 years ago. Then his eyes drifted over to the spaces between the siege towers…

He let out a shuddering gasp. This disconcerted Fier and the soldiers around them. "What's wrong?" Fier asked.

"…I have never seen that many Darknuts and Iron Knuckles in one place."

Fier looked out to where Kafei's gaze had drawn his own. Amidst the rabble of goblins running forward, a solid black block of iron soldiers was lumbering forward, led by one red coloured man wielding a large axe.

Fier was once told stories of those iron monsters by Kafei. The great hero admitted to himself that they were the most dangerous of beings he had ever encountered aside from the temple guardians. The darkest story he recalled was when three Iron Knuckles eradicated the town of Kasuto, having arrived too late to stop them. He himself nearly died fighting those three Iron Knuckles. He considered Kasuto his greatest failure.

There were five Iron Knuckles leading ten Darknuts in the hordes. The central Iron Knuckle was giving commands to the creatures around him in a foreign tongue.

"The red one is the leader," Fier deduced. "We take him out, and the horde will scatter."

"LADDERS!"

Kafei looked over to the section of wall fifteen metres to the left of where he was standing. A pair of ladders was being pushed up towards the wall, a towering moblin at the top of each one, and another was being raised immediately to the right. Kafei took his bow off his back, and drew an arrow from his quiver, and Fier raced towards the ladder on the right, spear in hand.

Kafei drew his bow and fired. The arrow went straight through the moblin's head, blood and brain matter seeping from the hole in its head as it fell back down onto its two comrades, toppling the ladder in the process. He quickly let loosed another at the second moblin, piercing it through the neck, and it fell forward.

As the moblin on the right ladder prepared to dismount on the wall, Fier thrust his spear forward towards the goblin. It was run through by its own forward momentum, and Fier let that momentum carry it forward off the wall and into the streets below.

"Your majesty, more ladders!"

Fier looked along the wall. More ladders were being propped up, either mounted by one moblin or a slew of bokoblins along the ladder's length.

"DRAW YOUR SWORDS!" Fier ordered.

The sound of iron unsheathing rung along the battlement as the ladders converged upon the wall, leaving spaces where the siege towers would later arrive.

Fier drew his sword as a ladder carrying bokoblins mounted, decapitating the lead goblin with his drawing stroke.

Kafei stowed away his bow and drew his Gilded Sword as a moblin stomped towards him. It swung its mace which Kafei side-stepped with grace. With a two handed grip, he severed the monster's hands at the wrist, and stabbed it through the skull.

The sound of battle soon raged along the walls, black and red blood mixing as monstrous bokoblins and moblins and the brave soldiers of Hyrule spilt each other's blood. The soldiers of Hyrule rallied around her knights, who fought as islands in the middle of a storm, their resolve giving them courage.

The catapults and cannons were heavily guarded by the soldiers of Hyrule, the barrage of rock and explosives carving swathes through the enemy ranks, and destroyed siege towers before they could reach the walls.

Within seven minutes, a single siege tower reached the wall. Kafei saw it, and his eyes hardened with resolve. The legendary hero raised his sword into the air, the blade beginning to hum.

Around him the battle briefly ceased. The bokoblins scurried away in fear, some of them jumping off the wall when they realized what was about to happen. All but one moblin backed away, and it charged towards Kafei, not realizing that even the Hylian soldiers cleared a space between Kafei and the tower, its doors opening.

Kafei brought his sword down.

A sword-shaped beam of energy charged forward and passed right through the moblin and connected with the siege tower, vaporizing the moblin and destroying the tower in an explosion of light. The force of the explosion knocked the siege tower over on its side, toppling it and the ladders in its way.

The soldiers cheered at the display of the sword beam, and the enemy was disoriented. The battle was in the favour of Hyrule.

"So that is the legendary hero's power," Fier commented in admiration, and looked towards a nearby cannon crew who were aiming at the Darknuts and Iron Knuckles as per his orders. Once they were lined up, the crew gave him confirmation they were ready.

"FIRE!"

A cavernous roar erupted from the cannon as it sent a heavy ball of iron directly at the red Iron Knuckles.

The Iron Knuckle raised its hand and caught the cannon ball, and crushed it into pebbles.

Fier gasped in disbelief. It was insanity! No living thing he knew of could stop a cannonball. He saw the mass of iron soldiers pick up pace. All he did was make them angry.

Kafei observed this as well. He ordered, "Knights, to the gate! Fredric, Ivan, Theodore and Peter, stay up here and guard the wall!"

Entrusting the wall to four knights and the soldiers of Hyrule, Fier, Kafei and the knights went down to the gate where a line of soldiers guarded the gate. "Open it," Kafei ordered.

Fier protested in disbelief. "That Iron Knuckle stopped a cannonball with its bare hands! How are we –"

"You and the others will keep the Darknuts busy; I will deal with the Iron Knuckles." Kafei sternly replied. "Even if we kept the gate closed, they'd smash through it like paper anyway; it is best to confront them on the field."

Fier bit his lip in fear. What was Kafei doing? He sure hoped that Link and Zelda were not seeing this.

"Wow!" Link said, looking through a telescope up in the north tower of the castle. "I can see the entire battle from here!"

"I know," Zelda replied. "We usually use this telescope for looking at the stars in the sky, but it is nice to use it to see how big brother and Dad are doing."

Link's solemn silence was his reply. As amazing as the view was, he knew that men were dying down there; men that his father knew and trained. He saw movement on the wall as his father's distinctive green armour moved off the wall towards the gate with numerous other knights of Hyrule.

"Hey, what is Dad doing with the-"

For a split-second, a purple-red thing suddenly appeared in Link's line of sight and stared directly at him.

Link screamed and stumbled backwards. "Link," Zelda said in surprise, "what happened?"

"S-something just appeared in front of the telescope," Link stuttered as Zelda went and looked through the telescope. "I don't know what it was, but it had big creepy eyes and-"

"I don't see anything," Zelda replied, "perhaps it was just…Wait, why are big brother and Sir Kafei running out of the gate!?"

The knights of Hyrule charged out of the gate with Hyrule's soldiers flanking them, the archers from the walls providing covering fire for them as they streamed out. The soldiers fanned out to engage the goblins and lizard men on the field of battle, and the knights carved through any who stood between them and the iron soldiers leading the invasion. The gates were closed behind them as the last of the soldiers ran out.

In response, the Darknuts charged forward, led by two Iron Knuckles at a speed that belied their massive size. The sound of their heavy footsteps caused the ground to shake as they pressed forward, crushing their own allies underfoot.

The knights spread out in order to intercept the Darknuts – all but Fier who kept on running beside Kafei. Kafei looked over at his former apprentice, and received a nod of reassurance. He nodded in return; Kafei himself was not much older than Fier when he first took up a sword to protect Hyrule. He understood that Fier was ready, and turned his attention towards the Iron Knuckles in front of them. He gripped his Gilded Sword with both hands and prepared for the Iron Knuckle's first strike.

On the surface of his right hand, a four-sectioned triangle faintly glowed, the right triangle blazing brightly with the Triforce of Courage, the greatest symbol of his descent from the Twilight Hero.

The Iron Knuckle swung its axe in an arc.