Chapter 20: Palace of Darkness Part 2
After obtaining the Megaton Hammer, Link quickly ran out of the pit and resumed his trek through the Palace of Darkness. He eventually found his way back to the room he was in before being knocked into the pit by an unknown assailant.
"Ok, now to see where these other rooms will take me," said Link to himself.
As Link entered the room to his left, he saw that it was mostly dark with a few candles barely lighting the room. A couple of Dodongos were crawling about and the fire that they were breathing offered some illumination as Link carefully trekked through the room.
Seeing another large boulder blocking his path in the room, Link took out the Megaton Hammer and swung at the boulder shattering it and continuing on through the path to see another chest with a small key inside. Link pocketed and carefully made his way back out of the room avoiding the Dodongo's flames. Link then entered the room to the right of him and found himself in another room with no enemies inside however he saw a few pots blocking what appeared to be a switch. As Link cleared the pots away from the switch he could see that it was rusted once he stepped on it since it would not go down under his weight.
"Time to put the hammer to use once again," stated Link as he struck the switch with his hammer making the bars around the door in front of him raise and allowing Link to proceed further into the palace. Link swiftly entered the door to see a spike trap whizzing down the hall, Link waited until the spike trap went past him and made a dash for the other side of the hall where he saw lare cyclops statue standing before him and what appeared to be a dead end.
"There has to be a secret passage around here somewhere," mused Link.
Link looked around the room seeing if there were any telltale signs of where a secret passage could be but all he saw was an otherwise empty hallway occupied only by the statue and spike trap. Link took a closer look at the statue and decided to fire an arrow at the eye of the statue. By chance, a rumbling sound became audible and the wall to the east of the statue receded showing a staircase for Link to go down. Link quickly ran down the staircase and saw a few posts blocking his path.
"Nothing that I can't handle right now," commented Link as he equipped the Megaton Hammer again and stuck the posts down allowing him to explore the room further. A few Turtle Shells began to shuffle towards Link. Thinking instinctively, Link struck the ground with his hammer and the resulting shockwave flipped the Turtle Shells over onto their backs. Link then struck down each of the terrible terrapins with his sword before they could flip themselves back over.
"This hammer definitely is useful," said Link as he continued into the next room and saw a large wall of red tiles blocking his path. Link surveyed the room and eventually found a switch that was colored red. Link equipped his Gale Boomerang and threw the item at the switch which turned it blue and the red tiles blocking Link's path into the room disappeared, however a new set of blue tiles barred the door that would allow Link to progress further. Link flung his boomerang at the now blue switch changing its color back to red and making the blue tiles disappear. Link then unlocked the door and found himself in an empty room however, the door barred shut behind him and a feminine laughter was heard.
"Someone's here. And I'm willing to bet it was whoever knocked me into that pit," said Link.
"You guessed correctly baby," said the voice as a slender Korean woman leapt down from the ceiling. She had her hair done up in a horn like hairstyle and was clothed in a purple and black spider like top as well as baggy white and purple pants. One of her eyes also glowed purple as she smirked at Link.
"I don't know who you are, but I don't have time for any distractions!" called out Link.
"Aw come on, don't you have some fun with Juri Han?" asked Juri as she licked her lips.
"If fighting you is the only way to get through, then so be it," grumbled Link as he charged at Juri who snickered as Link tried to strike her with the hilt of his blade, Juri dodged the strike and delivered a kick to Link's side and followed it up with another to the face sending Link staggering back. Juri then jumped into the air and dove down at Link with her feet sticking out in an attempt to kick Link again, Link stuck his shield up and pushed Juri back and then leapt into the air and kicked her in the chest.
"Hmm, you're quite a fun one to play with," commented Juri as a purple flame like projectile emitted from Juri's leg forcing Link to stick up his shield again to block the attack. Link then continued his charage at Juri only to see her spinning towards him like a pinwheel and riddling him with numerous kicks sending the Hylian warrior crashing to the ground.
"Oh come on, I'm not done playing," taunted Juri.
"I'm not done yet either," retorted Link as he sprang back up to his feet Juri dashed at Link ready to leap into the air again, however Link threw out his Gale Boomerang and the tornado that emitted as a result of it spun Juri around disorienting her and Link struck her again with the hilt of his sword.
"C'mon, try to break me," said Juri as she spun around and threw out a kick at Link who flipped away from the attack as Juri dashed towards him and leapt over Link's head and kicked him again in the process. As Juri ran at Link again, Link hit the ground with his Megaton Hammer and the shockwave made Juri lose her balance and topple to the ground. Link then stomped on her stomach as she lay on the ground knocking the wind out of her.
"I don't have time to fool around with you, my friends need me to save them!" exclaimed Link.
"Aw, how noble," replied Juri in a sarcastic tone as she leapt back up and threw out a side kick to Link's stomach and then followed in with another one of her pinwheel kicks which nailed Link again. As the Hylian stood back up, he saw Juri throw out another one of her projectiles towards him. Link blocked it and Juri once again leapt into the air and attempted another diving kick on Link. Link flipped away and threw a bomb at Juri's feet disorienting her and then Link tackled her to the ground and struck her again with the hilt of his sword.
"I'm not going to let Zelda and the others succumb to that poison!" exclaimed Link.
"Zelda...sounds sexy. Ok, I'll let you go and save your friends. After all, I'd like to have more fun with you and Zelda next time. Don't keep me waiting too long," said Juri in a seductive tone as she reached into her pants and pulled out the Boss Key and threw it at Link before throwing down a smoke bomb making Link turn away and cough. When the smoke cleared, Juri was nowhere in sight.
"Her words were disturbing, I'm sure I'll see her again some time down the road. But I have no time to think about that, I've got more pressing matters at hand," said Link to himself as he pocketed the Boss Key and ran towards the door in front of him.
As Link entered the room, he saw a swarm of Hardhat Beetles, Turtle Shells, and even a few Bari and they all had their sights set on Link. Link quickly took out his Megaton Hammer and slammed the ground knocking over the Turtle Shells. While they were stunned, Link rolled to one side and quickly started slashing at the Hardhat Beetles until they were all destroyed. By that time, the Turtle Shells were able to right themselves so Link hit the ground with the Megaton Hammer again making them once again flip over and allowing Link to easily dispatch of them. Link then took out his Clawshot and without hesitance ripped the cores out of the Bari making them explode. Link took a moment to gaze about the room and saw nothing except a pit lying in the middle of the room.
"Looks like down is the only way to go," said Link as he took a leap of faith down the pit. He found himself landing right in front of the boss door and saw a few pots lying about, upon breaking one Link found a healing fairy and immediately put it to use in healing his wounds from the battles with Aquamentus and Juri. Link then took out the Boss Key and unlocked the door ready to face the boss of the dungeon.
"I know I'm in for a tough fight, but against what," pondered Link.
As Link finished his sentence, a loud growl was heard and a giant Helmasaur with a long spiky tail and a large steel mask glared at Link and slowly stomped towards him.
"The Helmasaur King!" gasped Link.
The Helmasaur King started to breathe fire at Link who dove out of the way of the fiery blasts. Link quickly took out his Clawshot and latched onto the Helmasaur King's mask however, it would not come off the monster's face.
"Argh! It's too heavy for the Clawshot," grunted Link as the Helmasaur King whipped Link with his tail sending him crashing into the wall. Link got back up and dodged more fire from the Helmasaur King. Link then equipped his Bomb Arrows and fired one at the Helmasaur King. When the explosion cleared, Link saw no damage done to the mask and was struck by the Helmasaur King's tail once again.
"The only other thing I can think of is the Megaton Hammer," said Link as he equipped the hammer. Link swerved away from the Helmasaur King's fire breath and took a swing at the mask with the Megaton Hammer. A crack formed on the mask and the Helmasaur King roared loudly and charged at Link driving him into the wall yet again.
"I found the right tool, now to just get the job done," said Link as he rolled under the Helmasaur King's tail and ran up and swung his Megaton Hammer and the Helmasaur King's face. The crack in the mask got even deeper and in anger the Helmasaur King whipped Link again with his tail and then while Link was down started charging at him in an attempt to run him over. Link rolled away from the charging beast at the last second and the Helmasaur King crashed into a wall and started to stagger about a bit dazed.
"Here we go again," said Link as he swung the hammer once more. This time, the mask shattered completely exposing the Helmasaur King's face. The angry beast spat fire yet again this time catching Link and as Link frantically put out the flames that he had been sprayed with, the Helmasaur King rammed Link again making the Hylian warrior grunt in pain.
"I have to soothe this savage beast somehow, and I know music won't do it," commented Link. The Helmasaur King whipped its tail yet again, Link ducked under the long tail and as the Helmasaur King faced him again, Link shot an arrow at the glowing green jewel on the beast's forehead making the Helmasaur King roar out in pain and shoot fire at Link again. Link weaved around the fire and shot another arrow hitting the mark yet again. In desperation the Helmasaur King smacked Link with his tail once more. Only momentarily stunned Link resumed his aggresive archery assault on the giant Helmasaur. After about twelve more arrows lodged itself in the green jewel on the Helmasaur King's forehead, the large beast let out a low growl and slowly dropped to the floor before exploding in a large puff of smoke.
"Phew, and another one goes down finally," gasped Link.
When the smoke cleared, Link saw a Secret Text lying on the ground where the Helmasaur King was in addition to a treasure chest a few inches next to it.
"Good, I got a Secret Text out of it, now to see what the chest has," stated Link as he opened the chest and saw a long and wide container with a blue-green liquid inside of it.
"This has to be the antidote for the poison, I better get back to Kakariko Village fast!" exclaimed Link as he entered the glowing blue light in the room and found himself being teleported out of the Palace of Darkness.
Author's Note: Yet another chapter down. For you Street Fighter fans, another manga is being localized by UDON comics which I'm personally stoked for. I can't wait to read it, yeah I own most of the Zelda and SF manga, they're good reads. Anyways, I'm off to go work on the next chapter, but until then, please read and review.