Chapter XIII – Alliance between Gladiator and Knight
The petroleum lamps hanging down from the wooden beams were the only source of light in th vaults. When Ganondorf searched his way through them, he sometimes had to duck his head. Otherwise he would have hit it at one of the low ceiling parts. He paid no attention to the noise he caused when he stomped through the corridors, whirling up dust and kicking stones while he tried to either hear or see his supposed targets to finish his duty as fast as possible.
Once Ganondorf neared a greater cavern from which he heard voices and intended to go in without thinking twice, he was grabbed on his arm and held back. Barely had he refrained from pushing that one against the wall, because when he turned his head around, he saw Link who whispered furiously, "What are you doing? Do you want that they find us immediately?"
Ganondorf looked down at him. Link had a fierce glare in his eyes and still had not let go of his arm. He did not understand Link's behavior. "What's your problem? The sooner they find us, the sooner the work is done and the sooner we're out of here. Perfect match."
"Will you be quiet? With that shouting, you will alert the whole mountain of our presence!" hissed Link. "It's easier and especially less bloody if we take them out by surprise." Although he closed his grasp, Ganondorf did not notice much of it.
In the meanwhile, the voices from the room had silenced and he heard footsteps. Link's expression darkened even more but Ganondorf only grinned smugly before he said, "Seems like they're aware we're here. No need to play hide and seek any longer."
Ganondorf freed himself from Link's grasp with ease and walked inside the cavern despite any complaints of his superior. In there, he took a short look at his surroundings and saw a table which had seen better days before. It stood in the middle with chairs around and cards upon it. Cupboards cluttered the rugged walls, some of them adorned with trophies of dead animals and lamps to enlighten the room. It appealed to Ganondorf's liking that the ceiling was higher and the whole area bigger than the corridors. Fighting would prove to be a lot more comfortable in here.
The bandits, consisting of a Lizalfos and two men, one tall and muscular while the other looked like a little twerp in comparison, became already aware of him, though by the time they overcame their surprise, Link had followed Ganondorf and stood nearby him.
"I can't remember your mugs," stated the tall one when he suspiciously eyed Ganondorf and Link. His gaze became sinister. "Who are you?"
Link intended to answer but Ganondorf already cut him off. "Your demise."
After their first bafflement, Ganondorf earned a hateful laughter from the bandits. "Have you heard that fool? What a funny one. Too bad that he won't be able to share his jokes any longer because he got lost in the wrong place." The bandit's hand slid to his sword and without losing any other words, he drew it while charging at Ganondorf.
Ganondorf did not even blink with an eye when he parried the man's attack with his own blade. The clashing sound of two steels biting into each other echoed all over the cave. Even though the surprise was visible in the man's eyes, he meant to perform another assault when he lifted the sword to slice it through his chest. Ganondorf reacted faster, swung his steel across the man's upper body, cutting right through the armor into the flesh.
An outcry of pain filled the air. Ganondorf had not finished. He sent the foe's weapon flying with a skillful strike. The man, far too perplexed to react in any way, only looked fearfully at Ganondorf who forced his steel between his enemy's ribs.
Dismissively, Ganondorf looked down to the man where he saw a collection of pain, fear and disbelief in his eyes. The bandit lacked the strength to even speak and only released coughing and rasping noises when he fell against Ganondorf's chest.
He had expected at least a little more of a challenge because of his muscular build, but this one was just a pathetic weakling with a big mouth. Exactly the way he had assumed: against a former gladiator, those lowlifes would not stand a chance. Not even a small one. And neither would they get any mercy. They only meet their death if they were foolish enough to decide to engage him.
The two other outlaws as well as Link stared shocked at Ganondorf when he kicked the man away to let him slip off his sword. Motionless, his body crumbled on the floor. Ganondorf turned his view to the two remaining gang members. "What about you? Want to pester me as well so you can follow your comrade to hell?"
Ganondorf whipped off some of the blood sticking on his armor while the bandits' views still rested on their fallen crony. They recovered and turned their heads towards him, their eyes filled with burning anger.
"You bastard!" they burst out, albeit it sounded more hissing from the Lizalfos. Both rushed towards him, their steel at hand, ready to slice it through his body and make him pay back his slaughter. For Ganondorf, they proved to be even more underwhelming than the man before them. Just like that one, it took him only little effort to make them follow their cohort's path to the afterlife.
Ganondorf sheathed his sword when he looked satisfied at the slain ones in front of him. SoweYYetomething was missing. He needed some time before he could pin it down. Even though he always despised them for being passive watchers who enjoyed the murders, the jubilation the audience offered him after each victory he had claimed was a pleasing thing. By now, it had been over two months since the last time he heard it.
One person was left who witnessed the event. As Ganondorf turned around to Link, this one only gazed apathetically at the slaughtered bandits. Some other seconds slipped by before he lifted up his head and Ganondorf saw it in his eyes, the horror, not mixed with fear, but anger and incomprehension.
"What have you done?!" stumbled Link before he recovered his tongue and his voice became cutting, "Couldn't you have just knock them out of their consciousness instead of killing them? Do you have even spend a single second thinking about your actions? Haven't I told you we're knights and especially you are no gladiator anymore?! And that this here isn't an arena to fight until death?!"
"I've warned them. Two even twice," explained Ganondorf, entirely undeterred by his slaughters. He did not even understand why Link was this upset since he was not conscious of any guilt. "If they refuse to listen and decide to attack me, it's their problem. Not mine. You said it yourself: if they threaten my head, which they clearly did, I can take their lives."
"But it wasn't necessary to create such a massacre! You could and especially should have handled the situation less deadly! Which starts with following my orders and keep your head down if I tell you to do so! If you would have done it, we would have had a chance to get them alive!" Link's body was tensed, his voice trembled and his glare piercing, yet he had an impressive control over his temper. He neither threw a tantrum nor showed any sign of getting violent. Something he could never have said about the guards back at the arena once they were displeased of his behavior. Or even about himself when he was confronted with a person he considered far too obnoxious.
Link was unable to lecture Ganondorf further as the other gang members must have gotten aware of the intruders, probably due to the death screams of the fallen. They gathered at the entrance which would lead further into the cave.
"What…," stumbled the Bulblin which stood at the front of the crowd. Though it, as well the rest, must have realized the events when they looked first at their fallen comrades and afterwards at Ganondorf's blood-smeared armor. Only two words echoed all over the cavern afterwards, "Kill them!"
Unimpressed, Ganondorf turned his head towards his superior. "So, Mr. Lieutenant Link. Do you wish to try to seduce them with some of your sweet words or will we directly deal with them in the proper way?" He grinned maliciously, knowing that Link had no other choice except agreeing to his suggestion. Albeit he never got a straight order, Link's displeased yet surrendering gaze was enough for an answer.
On their way deeper into the cave in search of the leader, Link did not say a word. Not a single complaint left his mouth, not even an annoyed grumble or sigh. Yet Ganondorf would not forget anytime soon the sheer horror in that one's eyes once he had finished with the bandits, not leaving even one alive. Still he did not understand why it disturbed him that much to see him slaughter them. They had attacked Link as well. They would have even killed him without mercy if he had not fought back and they would have never stopped as long as they were still breathing.
Ganondorf just pinned it down to a different perspective which gaped a bit more than he first assumed. Nothing that bothered him as he just saw it as the result of him being raised as a gladiator and Link as a knight. Link would get used to his methods. Someday, at least.
Not long after, Ganondorf reached another cavern from which he heard a cheerful whistling. Since it seemed to be the most inner part of the hideout, it could only mean that the one inside would be the leader. Good, because the whistling could only mean that the chief had no idea from which fate his members had suffered and he would soon meet himself.
Before Ganondorf entered, he turned his head around to see for his superior. Although he was not afraid to confront the leader face to face and deal with him like a real man without hiding, it would be better to not disobey yet again. Link had made it very clear how displeased he was about it last time and he did not want to stretch his luck too far if he intentionally ignored his orders again.
Link was still in quite a distance and his body language showed that he had not gotten aware of their enemy by now. Which meant now or never. Since Link had not given him any instructions how to deal with the leader, he would not break any orders if he just rushed in. He could even pretend he did not know anything and was just unlucky to bump into that one.
A smug smile ranged over his face when he stomped into the bandit chief's room. It did not differ much from the one where he fought the others, but he got sight of a bed on whose night table lay a lot of gold coins. All in all it looked a lot more personal, yet Ganondorf could not care less about his surroundings but for the man that stood in the middle, with his back to him.
Though he had to correct himself for the bandit chief was not a human but a Moblin. Not that it impressed him. "So, you're the boss of this self-claimed gang of morons?"
The leader turned around. He had the characteristic features Ganondorf knew from the Moblins he had fought in the arena. Albeit they had the build of a muscular and large humanoid with a short fur, they were not the brightest which was very well visible on their overall dumb looking and beastly face. He never had a high opinion of them as he considered them to be of much muscles but few brain cells.
"Who is he? None of Al Gur's men," grumbled the Moblin with a roaring in his voice and observed Ganondorf calmly. "Where are Al Gur's men?"
At first, Ganondorf was surprised to hear him speak as the Moblins he encountered never did. On the other hand, it seemed reasonable he could if he was in charge of an entire gang. He answered his question defiantly, "Are you speaking of those weaklings? They're taking their beauty nap." He sneered. "Forever, that is."
Al Gur looked in confusion at Ganondorf and he needed some time before he asked with a dumb undertone, "Al Gur's men are dead?"
Ganondorf grinned even more mischievously. "Oh, I see. I have a keen thinker here. You're indeed a perfect match as a leader of morons. It's a shame that they all left you."
"He killed him?" The Moblin pointed at Ganondorf, but he only gave him a challenging view in response. This one would follow them soon anyway and he loved to savor in the feeling of superiority.
"Then he is dead now," continued Al Gur calmly, before he released a scream of war. One that even Ganondorf did not expect and made him shrink back. A second later, he felt an air draft on his hairs, followed by a loud noise of shattering wood.
Ganondorf looked up to the former and now burst support column. The battle axe, which Al Gur had grabbed after his outcry, stuck into the stony walls behind it. Even though he was caught by surprise, Ganondorf was lucky about his reflexes to avoid the attack by falling backwards and only losing some strands of hair instead of his whole head. Once he moved back to get some distance and prepared for the fight, it was for certain that this enemy was tougher than his fellow species. And he was angry. Very angry.
"By the Goddesses, Ganondorf! What are you doing?! Only a brain-dead idiot provokes a Moblin!" Out of the corner of his eyes, Ganondorf saw Link kneeing at the entrance with a staggered expression. He must have witnessed the situation in silence.
"So what? I don't care if he's a Moblin, a Hylian or whatever. He will just go down like any other who foolishly fought me before." Ganondorf drew his sword. No denying though, this foe would take effort to be taken down. A lot of effort.
"Will he go down just like this one guy who utterly defeated you at the tournament?" groaned Link upset by Ganondorf's response. "How were you even able to survive this long with such an arrogant attitude? It's unbearable!"
"That one doesn't count. See, I can't even remember him, so unimportant he is." However, Ganondorf had not time to argue further as Al Gur had recovered his weapon and charged at him. At first, he intended to parry the attack with his sword, but when he noticed how the ground even trembled under the Moblin's footsteps, he decided otherwise. He jumped to the side, avoiding the impact, while shortly afterwards the axe ate through wood and rock alike, making the debris fly across the cavern.
Yet Al Gur only just begun. Sinisterly he looked at Ganondorf, his teeth even peeping out of his underjaw, ready to unleash the next assault. It was for sure now that he had a tough foe in front of him. A tough and very angry one.