Chapter 4- A Battle of Swords

Ever since they clashed swords for the first time at Skyloft, Fi and Ghirahim have had just a terrible vibe. When Fi searches for co-commanders for her battles, the very very last person she goes to is Ghirahim. There has been a few times where Skyloft was in danger, and Fi needed help fast. Since Ghirahim's home is Skyloft (for now; just wait until he finally resurrects Demise,) he reluctantly fights alongside Fi for the safety of Skyloft.

Today, the guitar strings of patience have just snapped. Fi doesn't realize it, but she is infuriated. Ghirahim no longer wishes to annoy his fellow sword spirit, and instead, he wishes he could trap Fi in her sword form and melt her. Perhaps he could use the liquid metal to forge a helmet or something.

The two meet at the heart of Death Mountain with a friend of their choosing, just because neither one of them is positive that they are safe in each other's presence. Ironically enough, Fi chose Midna, and Ghirahim chose Zant. Way to lower the tension, guys, really.

Fi starts the conversation, and it escalates in the blink of an eye. Only thirty seconds in, Zant has to bind Ghirahim's hands behind his back and drag the furious demon out of the room for a moment to calm down. It takes a moment or so, but Ghirahim composes himself and returns. To settle their dispute, Fi and Ghirahim agree to a battle in two days. Darunia agrees for them to use Death Mountain as their battlefield. He makes sure to evacuate his people first, though. The battle is on!

Two Days Later

Ghirahim practices his victory pose in the keep he chose to be his side's base.

"Have you had enough? Surely, by the way you're lying on the ground begging for mercy, you must wish to surrender. I almost feel sorry for you, but unfortunately for you, I don't," Ghirahim practices his victory taunt. It is better to be prepared than at a loss for words after he wins, because that would just be embarrassing.

Zant strides into the base, confidence radiating from his toes to the ends of the hairs on his head. "Our forces are in position and ready to battle." Ghirahim decided to make Zant his co-head commander, just to confuse Fi and her forces. His strategy that is sure to dominate.

"Very good," Ghirahim snickers. "Fi will feel my full rage in a single blow."

The two villains laugh with as much maliciousness as they can muster. The gorons, who have evacuated to Hyrule Fields for the time being, very faintly hear the malevolent laughter of the demon lord and the usurper king. For the first time, Darunia experiences a chill up his spin. Some of the gorons start asking one another if they should return to aid Fi and her forces.

Then, the battle begins.

Zant exits the base with great haste. His destination is the keep that Ghirahim assigned him.

Just then, one of the Bokoblins on Ghirahim's side runs into the base, obviously with important news. Ghirahim doesn't bother to as why the soldier is out of position.

"Lord Ghirahim," the Bokoblin can't finish because of lack of oxygen. He ran a long way, all while avoiding the Hyrulian forces. "Lord (gasp) Ghirahim."

"For the love of Demise, what is it man?!"

"They've got Bombchus!"

Instantly, Ghirahim's eyes open wide. The problem with Bokoblins is that most of them panic when they know their doom is near. The reason that is a relevant thought on Ghirahim's part is because at the first sight of a Bombchu, the Bokoblins will scatter without a second thought. It is up to him to defuse the devastating bomb. With that said, he scurries out of the base. The Bokoblin sits down and says, "I'll just sit down for a minute. I pigged out on break and now I'm not physically fit enough for action. Phew!"

Meanwhile, Zant slices his way through the Hyrulian forces. Just for fun, the Hyrulian Captain takes his sword and hits Zant's shin. Zant stumbles back. When he regains his composer, his first thought is that soldier must pay for that. Before Zant can serve out justice, though, the Hyrulians do a peculiar thing; they dogpile on the self-proclaimed Twilight King as if they were all fat Moblins. Identity crisis? Maybe.

The reason for the strange behavior is part of Fi's plan. The second Bombchu rolls through the keep without an issue, considering that Zant is buried under Hyrulians and the Bokoblins in the keep all saw the bomb and fled for their lives.

Zant's thought process is disabled by the sheer ridiculousness that is happening with the opposing forces. Once Zant gets over the fact that the Hyrulians believe they are Moblins, he manages to use a magic field to propel all the soldiers off of him. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the tail of the Bombchu exiting the keep and rolling down the hillside out of view. His stomach knots.

On the opposite side of the battlefield in the parallel keep to the one Zant is currently in, Ghirahim uses all of his might on the Bombchu. Pieces are starting to fall off of the machine, but a nauseating ticking sound continues to emit from it. With three seconds to spare, Ghirahim disables the bomb. He sighs in relief, completely neglecting the fact that the machine is smoking. A mere half of a second after the demon lord catches his breath, the Bombchu explodes. The explosion has much less force than it would if it hadn't been disabled, but it still pertains enough force to launch Ghirahim off his feet and onto his face just outside the keep. The Bokoblins of the keep return, but neglect to even look at their leader.

Just as Fi planned, Midna enters the keep right about then. Ghirahim lifts his head and spits out the dirt his face collected when it was launched into the ground. The many little rocks embedded into his beautiful face one-by-one start to fall back to the ground. He opens his eyes to yet another painful sight; "Hair hand!"

Meanwhile, Zant actually rides on top of the Bombchu that is headed towards the keep closest to the base on the left side. He had already punctured the metal machine, but now he can't pull his blades out of the machine again. Some of the Hyrulian soldiers following the Bombchu at a safe distance can't help but giggle at the sight of the usurper king struggling. The Bombchu stops. The sudden stop causes Zant's weight to bunch up on one side. His fingers slip off his blade, and he falls off the machine with a thud. Right then and there, Newton's first law of motion threw its hands in the air in rejoice; for the law works even with video game characters.

All of the shame the usurper king's heart is suffering twists and contorts on its way to the surface, changing its chemical structure in the process. From the heart to the hands, Zant's embarrassment transforms into determination. He hops back onto his feet like a ninja and effortlessly hops right back onto the machine. Instead of pulling with his biceps, he decides to take a different approach. This time, he pulls up with his back and legs, and as a result, his scimitars come free of the machine's cold grip.

In this small and meaningless victory, a mixture of emotions swell up in Zant. One side of him is proud, while the other side is confused and slightly ashamed that it took so long for him to remove his weapons out of a machine. This is probably why he doesn't work in a hospital; all his tools would get lodged in the patient, and there would be no hope from there.

The Bombchu explodes, for it was not disabled by the scimitars piercing through its metal hide. Zant is launched over the wall of the keep. As if they pain couldn't get any worse, Zant's instincts propel him to turn in the air so that he possibly lands on his feet instead of his face, resulting in a direct landing on his backside. A shockwave travels from his rear to his forehead. Now not only does his rear end feel like it was just decimated, but he has a monstrous headache, too. One of the benefits of wearing a helmet that covers your entire face is that nobody can see by your facial expressions when you're in excruciating pain.

Meanwhile, Midna is tossed against the keep wall, bashing into it with a force that a normal human being would never recover from. She has had a worthy duel with the determined demon lord. Perhaps his determination and refusal to lose is what has held him up in this fight. Ghirahim, beaten and bruised just as much as, if not more than Midna, musters up every ounce of strength he has left. With a snap of his fingers, he summons his blade and charges at the princess. In defense, Midna holds up her magical hair in front of herself. The hair blocks his view, but Ghirahim has a general idea of where Midna is hiding behind it. His blade pierces through the hair and misses the princess's eye by less than a centimeter. The blade, though missing its target, does cut the cheek just below the eye. With that, Midna's defeat cry signals her surrender.

Ghirahim steps back, catching his breath as he watches Midna's hair return to its normal style. He feels a sense of satisfaction seeing the bleeding cut he inflicted on Midna's cheek, which ultimately drained the last of Midna's will to fight for this battle. With a smirk, he declares, "One down, one to go."

Midna smirks. "That surely was enough time bought," she states to herself.

"Wait, what?"

"All Fi needed," Midna explains, "was a little time to get where she was going. She doesn't need to defeat you directly in battle to win."

All of the pieces now suddenly fit together. Fi's ultimate plan was to cause multiple distractions and take over his base. He should have known! Fi knew all along that he would desert his base in order to protect the surrounding areas, which would ultimately protect the base. The irony in this scenario alone is enough to incinerate Ghirahim's pride, let alone stop his heart of pure agony.

He looks over his shoulder in the direction he came from. "The base," he whispers. He would have yelled it, but his throat has grown horse from all the battle cries. As if fleeing for his life, Ghirahim dashes out of the keep he is currently in. It is extremely difficult to ignore the cries of the wounds all over his feet and legs, but his desperation to simply not lose to Fi drives his body to move instead of collapse.

In Ghirahim's base, Fi dances with ease all over the few Bokoblins defending the base. She took the middle route; a straight line from her base to Ghirahim's base. Getting there was easy; the race against the clock was the big challenge. Her confidence was growing every Bokoblin defeated. Soon, Ghirahim's base would be hers, and the battle would be won.

"Fi!"

Fi stops dancing, turning her attention to the source of the voice. She watches as Ghirahim stumbles on his own feet, catching himself on the gateway to his base. He holds out a hand, materializing his sword.

"Come and fight me like a real warrior, you cowardly spirit," Ghirahim demands.

Fi kicks a Bokoblin to defeat it. Once it is defeated, she turns all her attention to her battered opponent. "May I tell you why I chose the strategy that I did?"

Ghirahim is infuriated. The last thing he wants right now is to be lectured from his opponent. However, this time, his common sense pleads to let his fatigued body rest. He gestures for Fi to tell her story.

"Physically, I cannot complete with you," Fi explains.

Ghirahim's urge to incinerate Fi suddenly melts away. He is intrigued to hear the rest of what she has to say.

"Though we are both very skilled in the arts of swordplay, I still have no chance of defeating you with skill alone. My only chance was to use a different tactic than face you directly. After studying this battlefield, I realized that if I could part my foes to both sides, then it was a straight walk to where I assumed your base would be. From there, I carefully planned where I wanted my forces to go and where I wanted you and Zant to be led to. To be completely honest, this plan wasn't 100% full proof."

Ghirahim, though he heard it with his own two ears, still cannot believe that Fi is admitting that she could not defeat him via one-on-one. Before he can make a rebuttal, Zant clumsily waddles his way to the parallel side of the base. By the way he is gasping for breath and shaking, Ghirahim can tell that Zant is just as battered as him.

Fi sighs. "I will not flee. If you wish to fight me, sword to sword, then I accept your challenge. You've managed to defend your keeps and return before your base falls, so you've earned the right to fight me your way."

Ghirahim once again summons the rage he had for Fi. He has to remind himself that she's a coward and she totally cheated for him to forget that she admitted to not being as skilled as him. He takes just enough steps into the base to get a swing at Fi. The swing hits Fi's shoulder, pushing her back.

"You see, we are the superior!" Zant exclaims in the background.

Witnessing a direct hit and listening to Zant's cheers restore some much-needed power to Ghirahim. However, the surge of power doesn't last. Fi turns into her sword form and swings at Ghirahim. What little strength Ghirahim has left cannot compete with Fi's hardly used strength. Zant winces every time his comrade is hit by the spirit.

It doesn't take very long for Fi to knock Ghirahim off his feet and his sword out of his hand. Ghirahim falls onto his back after a kick from Fi. Fi turns into a sword and aims the point of the blade down at her defeated opponent. Traditionally, the winning sword fighter points their blade at the loser's neck, but that isn't the way Fi does it.

Ghirahim takes a deep breath, giving himself just enough energy to lift his head. Out of curiosity, his eyes drift to find exactly where Fi is pointing her blade at him. Once he finds it, he has two options; to surrender and spare himself any more pain, or to refuse to give up and possibly get stabbed where nobody in their right mind wants to be stabbed.

He chooses the former of the two options. And so, the forces of good earn yet another victory.

Author's Notes- Personally, I prefer Ghirahim over Fi, but this chapter just gives me some sort of weird satisfaction. Ghirahim's personality reminds me of the Paper Mario villain Dimentio. Both of these villains are so interesting and unpredictable. They leave you always wondering if they're planning something more. Anyway, before I get off topic too much, not only was Ghirahim suggested in the reviews, but just before writing this chapter, I played as Ghirahim on Hyrule Warriors. I was playing co-op with my brother, who played as Zant, and we were battling at Death Mountain. The opposing forces were led by Sheik, but whatever. I had a good time, and a lot of the inspiration for this chapter came from my game session. A little tidbit into my inspiration.