Hello folks, it's time for Chapter 104! This week, the Gerudo start their infiltration to reclaim Gerudo Town from the Ebony Sisterhood rebellion!
It was a cool night in Gerudo Town, and the rebellion known as the Ebony Sisterhood were working on rebuilding it into their new home after chasing out King Link and his fiances.
Many of the stores and restaurants were being cleared out and remodeled to make room for housing troops and supplies. The banners that hung down from the palace that honored the goddesses of the desert were being removed and replaced with the mark of the Sisterhood.
A lady traveler came down the path of the canyon, exhausted from her travels, and was hoping to rent a room in Gerudo Town for the night. She had heard about the town and it's more welcoming attitude towards female outsiders compared to other Gerudo territory.
However as she went down the path, an arrow came down inches from her feet, causing her to back up, as she looked up to see some guards staring down at her from the lookout towers. She then realized more guards had come out from seemingly nowhere and pointed spear at her.
"Leave this place outsider." spoke the guard.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" exclaimed the traveler, forgetting about her exhaustion and sprinting off down the road, deciding instead to retrace her steps to the Dank Salamander tavern to rest.
In town, guards were marching through the streets with halberds and swords. The clanging of a bell signaled it was the first of the hour, so the guards changed routes as instructed by the Elite Rebel known as 'MAGIS'. Two guards past by a small running fountain that was pouring water into the canals decorating the streets of the town.
When they were gone, the water in the fountain started to ripple slightly, then overflowing a bit, until bursting out from it was the Zora Queen Ruto, holding Nemisa with her. The martial artist had a strange bubble around her head
"There we go, and not a soul around." grinned Ruto, she popped the bubble and Nemisa gasped out some fresh air, "Sorry I had to bring you here like this."
"No, it's fine. What matters is you got me back into Gerudo Town." Nemisa said, "I'm going to head off to the Velvet Rogue night club to deal with the rebels there."
"Very well, I'll head back then." nodded Ruto, after a second she lunged forward and hugged her friend, "Good luck Nemisa."
"Thank you my sister." Nemisa said warmly hugging the fish woman, "I look forward to the day you and I marry Link and start having our family together."
"Ohohohoho, but of course!" Ruto giggled, before jumped back into the fountain using her water transporting trick.
Nemisa took a deep breath and went off on her way, careful to not get spotted by guards. She soon came to the Velvet Rogue nightclub, but saw there was a large Gerudo guard in a black suit at the entrance.
'Hmm, they usually don't have a guard out here.' Nemisa thought to herself, 'Maukai must have been right about one of the head rebels of the town being here, wonder why here of all places?'
Nemisa quickly and sneakingly climbed up onto the building beside the club, then from there took a hidden route she used to use back when she was keeping her identity as Madame Scarlet secret from the town; the same route she had tried to escort Link and Aviel through when they were fighting against The Slicer shortly after they met. She snuck into the backstage area of the club where she could hear some loud music and singing. Nemisa wasn't certain who it was and it sounded pretty bad, but it provided a good distraction so she could get ready.
Nemisa tracked down her changing room and was delighted to find the rebels hadn't ransacked it yet. She snuck in and started to change into one of her spare outfits to prepare herself...
"Alright homegirls, let's raise the roof!" shouted a loud voice on stage in the Velvet Rogue nightclub.
It belonged to the infamous member of the Ebony Sisterhood, the freestyle singer Big G Jousak. She wore extremely baggy pants that she allowed to hang down to her thighs, a coat that she wrapped around her waist, and a backwards cap. She stuck out her arms with two thumbs up, showing off a pair of gold bracelets on her wrists; one had a green jewel on it and the other a red jewel.
"M.C, give me an intro!" she shouted out pointing her finger into the air.
"But everyone here already knows who you are, you've been dancing and singing here for hours!" M.C. Tauvale, the owner of the Velvet Rogue sighed out as she leaned on a table, exhausted from the past night since the rebels took over. She was poked by a spear from a rebel guard though, forcing her to get up and speak out.
"Uh... welcome all you ladies to the Velvet Rogue, tonight we have a... uh, very... unique show for you all! Coming to you all the way from Gerudo Fortress, she's the..." she looked down at a cue card she was given, "Oh you got to be kidding me." she muttered under her breath, before speaking out loud, "The Hiphop Queen of Rebellion, the Bad-Ass... 'Mofo' of the Desert, and the future wife of King Ganondorf...? Um, give it up for Big G Jooousaaaaaak!"
She looked over to the audience, consisted mostly of the town's residents, who were all tied up, as well as a small number of rebels just sitting around with not much else better to do at that moment, two of the latter just clapped slowly.
"Yo, yo, YOOOOOO my sisters! Big G Jousak is in the house and ready to cut loose with some slick beats!" Jousak said with her tongue hanging out and her fingers gestured downwards as music started to play by the reluctant band.
Well... it was supposed to be music but rather than the use of instruments it sounded more like spitting and shrieking, while Jousak started to sing out to the crowd.
"The Sisterhood's supreme, we're the ultimate Gerudo team,
So just kick back while I'm singing my supa-fly theme!
It's almost time for war, the Gerudo's are gonna soar,
When Ganondorf is freed the Hylians will be no more!
You naysayers don't cause a fuss, and just surrender to us,
Quit trying to resist and just say YUSS!"
Jousak stood there with her fingers pointing in a downwards gesture, waiting for the crowd to clap out loud, but there was nothing but dead silence.
"..."
The rebel woman narrowed her eyes and snapped her fingers, causing the guards to poke at the prisoners, who sighed and shouted out some faux cheering.
"Whooo. Go Loozak or whatever." said one Gerudo.
"Someone put me out of my misery..." groaned another one of the prisoners.
"Hey if we have to put up with this, you have to as well." said an equally annoyed rebel guard.
"Alright, now how about another freestyle session, my sisters?" Jousak suggested with a grin, causing everyone to moan out in annoyance.
"Enough of this!" shouted an authoritative voice suddenly.
"W-Who's that?" Jousak asked looking around, she turned and bumped into someone standing straight and tall, leering down to the rebel with a hand to her hip.
She was a beautiful Gerudo dressed in red silk clothing, her face obscured by a veil, and with a green jewel attached to her skimpy top. The bottom half of her outfit was little more then a silk loin sash which showed off her shapely hips and legs. She also wore some flashy jewelry.
"It's you!" Tauvale gasped with surprise, happy to recognize Nemisa and see she was alive and well after what happened yesterday.
"Sister Tauvale, can you give me a proper introduction as usual?" spoke the woman with a knowing smirk.
"Oh yeah!" Tauvale realized, "To our willing and unwilling patrons, we have a special surprise for you all! Tonight we have our finest dancer, the red goddess of the dance who captivates both men and women alike with her exotic dances of desire, give a big hand to the lovely Madame Scarlet!"
The crowd screamed and cheered out as the guards looked on in confusion of this newcomer.
"Huh? Who's that?" a rebel guard asked.
"Maybe Sister Jousak called in a co-performer?" the other suggested.
"Do... I know you sister?" Jousak asked Madame Scarlet, feeling like she met the woman somewhere before.
"I've come here to take over your show." Madame Scarlet said, snapping her fingers in front of Jousak's face, "Rather then your sorry excuse for music, I'll be captivating your audience tonight with the seductive art of the dance!"
She gestured to the band, who nodded and started paying some soothing music. Scarlet took a breath, and started performing a slow and sensual dance. She moved her leg high into the air before spinning slowly a few times. She rocked her hips left and right as she moved across the floor as gently as a stream of water.
The audience, and even the guards were in awe of her dancing moves, and how she was able to perfectly sync up with the music the band was playing. Scarlet spun around a few times as the music picked up.
"Wow, I don't think we even played this music for Nemisa before!" a band member whispered to another, "Think she's making up the dance on the spot?"
"Yeah, she's the red goddess of the dance for a reason!" grinned another.
Jousak stood on stage with her jaw dropped, seeing the audience was mesmerized by Madame Scarlet's dancing. She clenched her fists and snarled,
"Yo, you serious bitch?!" Jousak shouted out, "This is my crib, ya hear? I ain't gonna take this! Strike her down girls!"
The guards looked to each other hesitantly, but charged forward at Scarlet with their halberds. But the dancer took a breath, before performing quick spins and dodges to evade each attack from them, even managing to sync up with the music as she did. She delivered powerful kicks and punches to both guards, sending them impacting to the ground outcold.
"Woah, she's so strong!" one of the audience rebels said in shock.
"M-Maybe we should go report this!" said the other, as they went running.
But two of the captive Gerudo stuck out their legs, tripping the two rebels and making them fall over, giving some of the waitress staff the opportunity to restrain and tie them up as well as the guards.
"Nice work girls." smirked Scarlet.
"Just who are you really, bitch?" Jousak shouted in anger at Madame Scarlet ruining her show.
"I am Nemisa, future queen of Gerudo Town, and I'm here to take back this club, in the name of my darling King Link and the future Grand Queen Nabooru," Nemisa said pulling off her veil and stamping her foot down gracefully, "The Ebony Sisterhood will fall here tonight!"
"Go Sister Nemisa!" cheered out one of the captive Gerudo.
"A bride of the false king? Heh, I've been hoping I'd get to see one of you!" Jousak grinned, "If I kill you tonight then Mother Eclipsis is bound to make me one of her Elite Rebels!"
"What's go great about that position anyway?" Nemisa asked raising an eyebrow.
"You kiddin' me girl? Momma Eclipsis says that King Ganondorf admires strength, and the girls who are Elite Rebels will get to become the future wives of him, and in turn become the future Queens of Hyrule! I'm aiming to take that place among em!"
"I shudder to think of this woman becoming a queen of Hyrue, let alone a Gerudo queen." Nemisa muttered to herself sweatdropping as she watched Jousak doing weird dance motions, she stamped her foot down to the floor before speaking out loud, "Well forget it, I won't allow you to sully this theater anymore with your ridiculous singing!"
"Dissing my music huh? Time my secret weapon, punk!" Jousak brought up her arms, showing off the bracelets she wore on them, then yanked off her baggy clothes, showing she was now wearing a one-piece leotard. Nemisa noticed Jousak wore a second pair of bracelets on her shins, they had small jewels that were blue and purple colored.
"Just what are those?" Nemisa asked, admittingly admiring the craftsmanship of their design.
"I ain't no wimp now, after being taken down by the false king and Lady Nabooru before, I've been training my body through boxersizing!" Jousak said, hopping up and down as she took steady breaths, punching at the air, "Time to throw down girlie!"
"Very well, have at you!" Nemisa said.
Nemisa and Jousak both ran at each other, going in with a fury of punches and kicks. Nemisa expertly dodged and blocked each fist or leg that came at her, as she countered with a punch or kick whenever she had an opening. She had to admit Jousak was a decent fighter, though she lacked in experience and power, so it was easy for Nemisa to evade her slow movements and counter with punches.
"Grr. Stand still ya dainty punk!" Jousak shouted, doing a roundhouse kick, but Nemisa ducked it and uppercutted her into the air and to the ground. Jousak narrowed her eyes as Nemisa charged at her for another blow.
"I'm about done with you sister," Jousak grinned as the small jewels on her bracelets glew, "Time to show you my new posse!"
Jousak's body gave off a glow, and that glow seemed to shift to the side in the form of what appeared to be another Jousak. Nemisa was surprised to see this second Jousak, and then a third, and a fourth as well. The freestyle singer seemingly split herself into four similar lookalikes. The only difference Nemisa could note was each of the four had a different color of both clothing and hair; they were red, green, blue and purple respectively.
"H-How did you...?" Nemisa exclaimed in surprise, allowing the blue Jousak to run out and punch at Nemisa, while the purple tried to kick at her, but she quickly evaded the attacks.
"You wanna know? I'll lay it on you sister!" the red Jousak said, the other three lookalikes of her stood by her side and started to shriek and sputter as they performed strange finger gestures.
"First there was one and now there's four,
Big G Jousak's comin' at you like never before!
This is the Four Bracelet, a ancient relic of the past,
A gift from Boss Faurugo before she breathed her last!
With this I got the upper hand and six hands more,
And soon yer gonna be knockin' on the World of Spirits door!"
Jousak sneered as she stuck her fingers downwards, while the blue, green and purple ones all did their own gestures, with purple Jousak sticking her tongue down.
Nemisa wasn't about to be intimidated by this power, she glared at Jousak and ran in against the four of them, 'Since her original hair color is red, that might very well be the original. If I strike that one I can hopefully take them all out at once.' she thought to herself.
Nemisa swung her fist at the red Jousak, but she evaded the punch, allowing the blue and green ones to come up and hit Nemisa in the back with their elbows, Nemisa quickly spun and kicked them away, but the purple one managed to punch her across the face. Nemisa recovered and did a series of flips to evade the copies' attacks, before going straight at the red one to kick her, but blue and green both blocked the kick allowing purple to bash into her.
"Hahaha, take that punk!" Jousak laughed along with the three copies.
"...this could more trouble than I thought..." Nemisa muttered as she cracked her neck left and right.
"Go for it Sister Nemisa!" called out someone from the crowd.
"Stick it to that shrieking jerk!" cheered another.
"Heh... of course." Nemisa said, she closed her eyes and smiled softly, "I have to do this for all of them." she then opened her eyes and charged right back into battle.
As Nemisa evaded more attacks, she tried to figure out Jousak's weakness. She dodged the red one's punch and managed to get hit in on her leg, making her yelp out. Green Jousak came at her from behind, but Nemisa grabbed her by her arm and bashed her into the purple one.
"Damn this bitch..." Jousak flinched and scowled, as the four all ran in to try and rush her at once.
As the blue Jousak did a sweeping kick at Nemisa, she jumped out of the way, and noticed the blue copy flinched a bit on her leg. As Nemisa dodged some more attacks by the other copies, she thought about that. Another punch from the red one came at her, but she leaned away from it.
'Strange, I haven't even hit the blue one yet but it's reacting like it's in pain.' Nemisa thought to herself, 'Where have I seen that before...?'
Nemisa dodged more attacks and countered with a rapid series of kicks before lunging forward and punching the purple Jousak in the stomach, and she heard the other three all groan out slightly.
'That's it! This is just like with the storm dragon we fought in Dhaijialoft!' Nemisa realized in thought, 'The pain one of these copies feels affects the others!'
With that knowledge in mind, Nemisa charged forward, swinging out with a spin kick to knock away the red and blue Jousaks. The green Jousak attacked her with a punch while the purple one came at her with a kick. Nemisa studied their motions, then stuck the purple ones leg with a kick of her own, the pain caused the green copy to flinch and stagger, allowing Nemisa to spin around and punch her backwards.
"Damnit.." groaned red Jousak, "How's this bitch so damn strong she can take all four of us at once...?!" she looked up just as Nemisa did a beautiful dancing twirl to avoid an attack by the blue Jousak before kicking her away, making the red one flinch again, "And she figured out this bracelet's secret..." she looked up again to see Nemisa swing down her leg, so Jousak brought up her arm to block the attack using her bracelet. Sure enough, it managed to absorb the attack.
"Impressive," Nemisa said with a raised eyebrow, she kicked away red Jousak's arm before punching her across the room.
Blue, green and purple all came at her at once, but Nemisa placed her hand against the green jewel on her top, taking a moment to think about the beautiful melody from her old friend Erien's music box. With that music in her mind, she gracefully evaded each attack the copies swung at her. With each failed swing, the copies were getting more tired. Nemisa then grabbed at the blue Jousak's arms and threw her right into the red one. She took the green copy by the shoulder and hurled her into the pile, and as the purple one tried desperately to grab Nemisa's head to break her neck, the dancer instead kicked the purple copy into the air. She got down on her back with her legs up into the air and started twirling and spinning purple on her legs. The other Jousaks were getting more nauseous and dizzy as the purple one was, before Nemisa then jumped up and thrust her legs into purple Jousak, sending her crashing into the singer's other selves, impacting in a cloud dust.
When the dust cleared, Jousak was back to her usual self. She groaned out from all the pain she felt, it was quadruple the pain one would normally feel, an unfortunate side effect of the bracelet's power.
"Grrr... you damn bitch! I'll kick y'all ass!"
Jousak ran in and tried doing some jabs on Nemisa, but she quickly evaded each punch and gave her a kick across the face. Jousak went staggering back, and Nemisa did a series of rapid punches across her body before delivering one final punch that caused Jousak to fly backwards, her voice screaming out an a echoed tone as she hit the ground.
"YEOOOOW! Yeoooow! Yeow! yeow...!"
Big G Jousak was laying on the ground with her eyes whited out and her mouth hanging open in defeat. As Nemisa stood up and took a gasp she heard an applause and turned to see the captive audience now all freed of their bindings, clapping and cheering for her. She even noticed the rebels who had been there also clapping through the ropes they were tied up in.
"Thank you all, I hope you enjoyed the show tonight." Nemisa said bowing to them. A thought occurred to her as she walked over to Jousak, inspecting the bracelets she wore carefully,
"Hmm... I wonder..." Nemisa pondered. She removed the bracelets on Jousak's wrists and shins, taking a moment to look them over and test their durability. Whatever they were made of, they were built to last, far more than her old steel bands did. She attached the bracelets to her wrists and shins and saw them to be a perfect fit, "Not bad, and once I figure out how to use the copy ability, it could be useful to me in the future..."
Nemisa looked over to see Tauvale and the waitress had managed to sneak up and capture the guard from the entrance, "Looks like we have the night club seized, I hope the others are doing well..."
"Ugh, I hate lookout duty."
"Me too, it's so boring... I wish we could be doing ground patrol."
There were two rebels stationed at the lookout towers outside of Gerudo Town. They were under orders to watch out for any attack by the false king and his people to retake the town. The two had been out in their towers for three hours at this point and they were both bored out of their minds.
Just then, one of the lookouts thought they saw something out of the corner of her eye, she turned to see a large winged creature flying past them.
"You see something?"
"Nah, just looks like a giant spiky-headed bird with long legs."
"Alright, keep an eye out for anything suspicious."
As the two guards watched out at the canyon obviously, the giant bird landed down into a deserted crossroad of the town. It was Aviel using her Roc's Wings, and she was holding Togau by her talons.
"Nice work getting' us in here Aviel!" Togau grinned.
"Hee hee, no prob! I worked as a lookout for years before I met Link, so I know the way around the watch guards at this time of night!" Aviel nodded.
"Alright, I'm gonna head off to the livestock ranch to go save the girls and the animals." Togau said.
"Okay, I'm going to the training grounds to help my archer friends." Aviel said, "Good luck Togau!"
"You too Aviel." Togau said, "Ya know, I'm pretty proud havin' you as my kin! I can't wait to introduce y'all to Malon and Talon-bro someday!"
"Hee hee, I'd love to meet them too!" Aviel nodded, "Now let's get moving!"
With that the two parted in different directions, making sure to remain secretive by ducking into buildings and behind crates to evade any guards.
Aviel soon crept up to the training grounds of Gerudo Town, where she, Nemisa and Link all used to practice battling almost every morning. Aviel in particular would also use those grounds to tutor the rookie soldiers in archery. Whether the archery practice was just for fun or to train for battle, they always had a good time together...
"ALRIGHT YOU MAGGOTS, LINE UP AND FALL IN!"
But now Aviel was looking out at the training grounds, and saw the Gerudo people were all standing stiff and tall in a row, as one Gerudo rebel was walking back and forth in front of them.
The Gerudo was a somewhat muscular one with a gruff face. She wore traditional Gerudo attire but rather then the black color the Sisterhood was known to wear, her outfit was colored in green camouflage print. She wore a matching camo-print cap, as well as a pair of sunglasses despite it being night at the time, and she was smoking a cigar in her mouth.
"Listen up! I am General Rairiku, your new commanding officer! I'm here to give you the training you need to take part in the great war we're to have against those scum-suckers in Hyrule Castle!" the Gerudo woman said puffing out smoke, "I was once a solider in the war with the Hylians nine years ago, I ran my army as tightly as a virgin's cooch, and I'm going to whip you softies into shape!"
"..." many of the Gerudo soldiers looked to each other with uncertainty, a number of them weren't even being trained as warriors before the rebels took over.
"But, we don't want to go to war with the Hyrulians." said one of the Gerudo, "Lady Nabooru and King Link have been working to make peace with them instead!"
Rairiku sneered, "It's that kind of mentality that's gonna make you buzzard food at the bottom of a crevice, maggot! This is wartime, you and yer soft little tusses need to be hardened into bloodthirsty warriors willing to die for King Ganondorf!"
"You know I think I miss working with General Reirousa." muttered one Gerudo to another.
"I heard that!" shouted Rairiku smacking the woman across the face, the other girls tried to help her but Rairiku stomped her polished boot at them to make them stop and stand back up again, "Now drop and give me fifty, maggot!"
The woman gulped and started doing push-ups, she had to struggle a bit, as she wasn't used to this sort of psychical labor, as she was raised as a ceramic decorator by her mother rather than being a warrior.
"The rest of you fall into line or I'll put you on ammo crafting duty like that weakling over there!" Rairiku said gesturing over to a certain woman sitting on the ground with her legs folded, whittling arrows with a small knife. Aviel put on her goggles to get a closer look at the woman, and recognized who it was; her archery mentor Folura, and she was injured in numerous places.
"Master Folura..." Aviel whispered.
General Rairiku walked over to Aviel's mentor and snatched the arrow she had been working on. The general examined it carefully while Folura just sat still and avoided eye contact with Rairiku. She scowled as she broke the arrow in half with her hand.
"You call that an arrow, you sorry excuse for an archer?!" Rairiku shouted bashing her across the face, "It's hardly fit for picking yer teeth, let alone combat! That can get you killed on the battlefield!"
"Hmph, I already told you before these arrows you're having me craft are not fit for archery. They're too short and unwieldy to be used with a bow." Folura said, looking over at the pile she had already completed, "I don't know what you have planned for these, but you're a fool if you think these are going to help you win your barbaric war."
'You tell her Master!' Aviel thought to herself.
But General Rairiku sneered and punched Folura across the face to the ground, making the soldiers and Aviel gasp out. Folura pushed herself up and glared at Rairiku with a defiant stare.
"The purpose of these arrows are one of the Ebony Sisterhood's greatest secret weapons against the Hylian scum! It's going to render you and your archery maggots obsolete!" Rairiku stated.
The general went over to a sheet that was covering something rather large and pulled it off, revealing a large wooden gatling device with small arrows sticking out from the front of it. There was a chair to sit on as well as a glass shielding in front of it to protect the person sitting at it. There was small cranks and levers set up around the chair to maneuver the device. There was also a long sash lined with many, many of the small arrows sticking out from it, some soldiers were working on attaching the arrows Folura was making onto it.
"This is the Ballistic Archeress, capable of firing a thousand arrows within a single minute from any angle! Using this, we Gerudo shall bring down a rain of death onto the Hylian scum!" Rairiku explained clenching her fist.
"By the goddess Aifet..." Folura spoke in shock at the sight of such a device.
"No matter how proficient you girls try to master archery. Firing a single accurate shot won't mean crap in the battlefield when you got hundreds of soldiers coming at you! This here baby will replace your entire archery division alone, and as such... you're no longer needed, 'Master' Folura." Rairiku said coldly as she climbed onto the Ballistic Archeress.
She took a puff of her cigar as she started moving cranks on the device to shift it and make it face Folura directly.
"And I'm about to demonstrate to you just what we have in store for those Hylian scumbags..." Rairiku spoke with a puff of smoke from her cigar.
"No, stop!" shouted a Gerudo, stepping out in front of Folura, "Please don't hurt her!"
"She's right General, this is getting ridiculous!" a rebel Gerudo spoke, stepping out in front of Folura as well, "I know you're upset about losing the war all those years ago, but please don't take it out on our sisters!"
Rairiku sat there, her eye twitching a bit as she recalled what happened in that war, having been part of the last assault on the Hylians, only to find out the enemy soldiers anticipated the route they were taking somehow, and slaughtered her squadron. She snarled as her index finger pressed against the trigger for firing the arrows.
"What is your major malfunction, soldiers?! If you want to all die that much I'll make it happen for you right now!" shouted Rairiku, as she pressed down on the trigger. The Ballistic Archeress started to fire a barrage of arrows that rapid-fired across the ground, heading right up at Folura and the two Gerudo defending her...
But then a powerful explosion went off against the Ballistic Archeress, startling Rairiku and obscuring her vision with a cloud of smoke, so she stopped firing before they hit the girls.
"Who opened fire? Show yerself!" shouted Rairiku.
"That was a bomb, not fire, but I'm Aviel the Hawkeye, bride of King Link and future queen of the Geurdo!" shouted the young Gerudo, jumping up from her hiding place and aiming her crossbow at Rairiku.
"Aviel..." Folura spoke with wide eyes, happy to see her star pupil was still alive.
"Archery is a beautiful skill of grace and precision! It requires a steady hand and eye to fly straight and true!" Aviel shouted, "That stupid thing is an insult to all archers! Now put your hands up and surrender!"
"Heh... a bride of the false king you say?" chuckled Rairiku darkly, "I'll use this to fill you so full of holes that you'll resemble my gym socks, you little worm!" as she turned the crank of the Ballistic Archeress to aim, and squeezed the trigger, causing it to fire off arrows at Aviel.
"Get Master Folura away from here!" Aviel shouted to the girls, who quickly obliged, even the rebel Gerudo went along with it. She quickly ducked down behind a crate as a barrage of rapid fire arrows impaled into it. She popped up from behind the crate and fired a bomb arrow at Rairiku, but it didn't do any significant damage to the device, and the glass shield protected Rairiku herself from any harm.
"Grahaha, this baby is built like a a mountain, and stings like a thousand scorpions!" laughed Rairiku as she started to fire arrows even faster at the crate, causing it to start breaking into pieces, "And this shielding protects me from any harm by your dainty little arrows! Just die already, worm!"
Eventually Rairiku stopped firing arrows, and a cloud of dust was left behind, but as the dust went away, there was nothing but a pile of destroyed wood from the crate she shot, and Aviel was gone.
"Huh?" Rairiku looked left and right to find her, only to notice a foreign shadow from something above her. She looked up to see Aviel flying overhead with her Roc's Wing.
"I'm no worm..." Aviel spoke, "I'm a bird!"
With that, Aviel took her crossbow and started firing arrows down at Rairiku and the Ballistic Archeress using the talons on her her legs.
"Graah! Die damn you!" Rairiku shouted, aiming her gatling device upwards and firing off arrows at Aviel.
"Uh oh." Aviel said flying out of the way of the arrow rain.
She manged to evade most of the arrows, but she got hit by a few of them, making her flinch. She was mindful to not let them hit her wings so that she didn't get grounded. When she had a brief opening, she pulled out a bomb arrow and fired it down at Rairiku to damage the weapon, but it was holding up pretty well despite that.
"No matter how many of those weak little arrows you shoot, you can't hurt my weapon one bit!" Rairiku shouted.
"She's right... I need to figure out somewhere else to shoot..." Aviel thought, she looked down at Rairiku's gatling device to try and find a weakness it could possibly have, evading more arrows as they came down, "Wait a sec... where exactly are all these arrows are coming from...?"
Aviel eyes widened, she pulled out one arrow from her quiver and aimed it downwards, focusing her eyes on one particular point, flapping her wings at just the right pace to keep herself in the same spot.
"A steady hand... a steady eye... a proper balance to pierce through the sky." Aviel whispered to herself her mother's advice as she fired the arrow straight and true. Shortly after that, she was hit by a few arrows in her wings, causing her to yelp out and fall to the ground.
Aviel changed her arms back to normal and forced herself to get up. She looked over at Rairiku who lowered the aim of the Ballistic Archeress right at her.
"Heh heh heh... scratch one bogie." Rairiku grinned, she squeezed the trigger of her weapon... but nothing happened,
"Huh?"
Rairiku tried squeezing the trigger again, but no arrows came out. She shook the lever left and right trying to get it to fire out more arrows, but still nothing. "What's going on, why isn't it firing?"
"Probably because the Hawkeye cut off your weapon with one precise shot." smirked Folura, gesturing to the arrow-lined sash that was supplying the ammo for the Ballistic Archeress. There was a single arrow lodged tightly right into the slot the ammo sash was being fed into, essentially jamming them from being fired out.
"Whoops..." Rairiku muttered, desperately trying to make the arrows fire out. Then she felt the presence of someone landing down over her on top of the glass shielding, and she looked up to see Aviel staring down at her with a determined look in her eyes.
Rairiku tried throwing a couple punches at Aviel, but she evaded both attacks before she hit Rairiku in the gut with her knee before bashing her across the face with her crossbow, knocking her off the weapon and to the ground, where she was quickly captured by the other Gerudo.
Aviel let out a sigh of relief, falling off the side of the glass shield and into Folura's waiting arms.
"Aviel, my cherished student, you did splendidly, thank you!" Folura said proudly, as the other girls all crowded around to thank her as well.
"Hee hee, thanks Master!" Aviel grinned widely.
While a few rebels heard all the commotion and came to stop Aviel, the towns people were able to defeat and capture them as well, freeing the training grounds from the rebel's control.
While Aviel was going to take back the training grounds, Togau rushed out to the farmland of Gerudo Town where the animal stockade was. Some rebels were standing guard in the area, instructing Togau's ranch-hands to haul around supplies onto carts.
"Get moving you damn hicks!" shouted a rebel, "Mother Eclipsis says these supplies need to get to Gerudo Fortress by morning!"
"Ugh..." one the ranch-hands groaned out, exhausted from lugging around heavy things all day. She started slowing down in her movement.
"Hurry up already!" shouted a rebel, kicking her forward. But then that rebel was suddenly kicked by two powerful legs that sent her flying and impacting to the ground.
"Huh?!" the other rebels all turned to see Togau, now in the form of a Lynel, "W-What's a Lynel doing here?!"
"It's Togau!" said a rancher enthusiastically.
"Hey girls, ya miss me?" Togau spoke out with a grin.
"It's a bride of the false king, kill her!" one rebel shouted, as she and her team charged at Togau.
The rancher grinned as she blocked off one rebel's sword and drove them off. One tried to attack her from behind but she countered with a hind leg kick. Another rebel tried attacking with a spear but Togau threw her hand ax to cut off the top of it before punching the rebel away.
"The fool, she's unarmed! We got her now!" said a rebel who charged up at Togau.
"Behind you." Togau pointed out, the rebel looked behind her to see the hand ax returning right back like a boomerang and bashing into her, knocking her out as Togau caught the ax.
One rebel managed to grab a ranch-hand and hold her at knife point, "K-Keep back you monster! Try anything and I'll cut her throat!"
"T-Togau!" shouted out Nameka, the ranch-hand in fear of her life.
Togau didn't move from her spot, but simply stood tall and leered down at the rebel with her cat-like eyes. She snarled and showed off a row of pointy Lynel teeth. Her hoof scraped across the dirt, and gestured to the sharp pointy horns on her head.
"You sure you wanna try that, missie?" Togau growled.
The rebel was shaking in fear of the sight of the giant monstrous woman before her, before her eyes went white, foam started to emerge from her mouth, and let go of the ranch-hand as she fell backwards to the ground outcold.
"Whew, thanks for the help Togau, we were so worried about you..." Nameka sighed out, hugging Togau in thanks as the others went to tying up the rebels.
"No prob, least I can do for you helpin' me out before. So where's the rest of these rascals?" Togau asked.
"They're loading up the animals right now!" a rancher said pointing out to the back of the barn, "But there's some really tough lady there with them, when we tried to fight back she clobbered us!"
"Na ha ha, I'll handle her then! You girls just watch out for any more rebels coming into the area!" grinned Togau riding off.
Togau soon arrived at the barn, changing back to her human self to remain more convert. She looked into the back where she saw numerous animals being rounded up by some rebels. Standing and watching them was one particular Gerudo that stood out from them in appearance.
She was a large, obese Gerudo, she had a round face and nose and was wearing a white chef's hat and apron over the usual black rebel Gerudo garments. She had two straps around her bloated body lined with many small round objects on them that Togau didn't recognize. The apron was stained in various sauces and she had a meat cleaver attached to it. As she was was watching the animals being loaded up she was in the middle of eating a long roll sandwich.
"Hurry up youse goils! Load em up real quick!" shouted the woman with a strangely masculine voice, her food full of the sandwich as she talked, "We gots ta get them to the mess hall asap so I can starts preparin' em!"
Togau watched the animals all being tied up and put onto a cart. There was Moblins strapped to the front of the carts by reins, presumably to carry off the cart like horses would. Since horses were a rarity in Gerudo Valley it seemed they had to relay on other help to haul things around.
She looked around the area she spotted her pet pig Oseg being led along by the rebels. He kept trying to resist, but they'd poke him in the rear with their weapons to make him squeal out and keep moving. She also saw one rebel carrying her pet cucco Imra in a cage, her wings were tied up and she was hanging her head down sadly.
"They even got Imra and Oseg?" Togau muttered, "But how? Imra's not one ta just take this sorta thing layin' down like that! What happened to her while I was gone...?"
Togau grimaced, thinking about back to when she moved to Gerudo Town with Nabooru and got a job as a rancher. When Togau got her first batch of cuccos from the animal suppliers, there was a lone egg among them. The suppliers said it was probably just a dud egg, but she insisted on keeping it, feeling a strange attachment to it. She looked after the egg and kept it warm in her bedroom for weeks, until one day the egg hatched into a baby cucco chick that Togau named Imra. The two had been friends for years, and Imra always stuck by her side to protect her and the animals.
"They think they can just muscle into my farm, take my friends and make em into breakfast?" Togau growled. Her fists were shaking, as her eyes turned to cat-like Lynel ones, "Grrrr... not gonna happen!"
A rebel placed Imra on top of the stack of caged animals and started strapping her down. The cucco looked out at the ranch sadly, thinking about Togau. She wondered if her friend had made it out of town safely after she was attacked by that strange wild woman with the tiger pelt...
"Alright, that's the last of this load!" called out a rebel to the large woman with the chef's hat.
"You hoid her boys, get em out ta Gerudo Fortress!" the woman called out to the Moblins, who started pulling the cart, but they were going somewhat slowly due to the combined weight of the animals.
"Ugh, we should have given these pig guys some of the strength tonic after all." spoke the cart rider.
Irma looked down at Oseg who let out a sad grunt, while the cucco herself closed her eyes, ready to resign to her fate...
"Gwwaaaarrr!"
A loud roar echoed across the farmland, confusing the rebels. They heard a loud stomping sound, and they turned to see what appeared to be a Lynel charging right at them wielding a hand ax. Some of the rebels screamed and ran off while the tougher ones tried to fight her. Despite being proficient with their swords and spears, Togau quickly bashed them all away with little effort.
Togau looked the cart, seeing the Moblins were starting to pull it away, and she saw Imra and Oseg in the back. She went to go pursue it, but was blocked off by the fat Gerudo in the chef's hat stepping out in front of her.
"Not soes fast youse monstaa." The rebel said, "Those animals is food fer Motha Eclipsis and her army!"
"Take it you're the one runnin' things here?" Togau asked.
"Dat's roight, the name's Mamouta, head chef of the Ebony Sistahoid's military division. Been cookin' fer dem fer years now,"
Togau watched as she reached into her apron and pulled out another sandwich and started eating it.
"But since we don't gots much ta woik with we're takin' these animals for em!" Chef Mamouta said with her mouth full.
"Wait, if that's the case how are you makin' those nice sandwiches?" Togau asked, feeling somewhat hungry at the sight of it herself.
"Hey, like I said I'm da head chef, a goils gotta sustain herself so she don't starve ta death." Mamouta said taking another bite of the sandwich as she scratched at her large stomach that was so bloated it was hanging down to her knees.
"Uh huuuh..." Togau said sweatdropping.
"Once I get this load ta da fortress they're all gonna feast on fresh filling meat til their bellies burst!" Mamouta said, letting out a loud belch.
"Not gonna let you, me and my team raised these animals for all our people!" Togau growled, brandishing her hand ax, "I'm takin' them back right now!"
Togau lunged out at Mamouta with her hand ax, but the chef blocked it with the meat cleaver she had. Togau rapidly swung her ax while Mamouta tried blocking off each attack with her cleaver. While Mamouta deflected a few hits, she started getting slashed and nicked a few times by Togau's stronger swings.
"Why youse damn beast! I'll make yas into chili!" Mamouta shouted swinging back.
"First I was gonna be underwear and now I'm gonna be chili...?" Togau muttered to herself sweatdropping.
Mamouta slashed at Togau with her cleaver, but Togau changed herself back to her Gerudo self and started evading the attacks. She blocked an overhead swing, then took that chance to kick Mamouta in the gut, before bashing her over the head with the blunt part of her ax, making the chef cringe and back off, rubbing at the sore spots on her gut and her head.
"Ooow..." groaned Mamouta. Togau saw red liquid coming down from her head and was a little alarmed.
"Oh geez, you okay there?" Togau asked, "You look like yer bleedin'!"
"Huh? This?" Mamouta asked looking up at the liquid, "Nah, this is my emoigency rations." she reached into her chef's hat and pulled out a large meatball sandwich dripping in marinara sauce. She went to eating it.
"Quit eatin' in the middle of the battle!" Togau shouted.
"Huh, yer a foisty little lady ain''t yas?" spoke Mamouta, taking one of the strange round objects off her body straps. Togau stared at it curiously, their design reminded her somewhat of corn husks. Mamouta then bit her teeth down on the top of the round object and pulled a pin off of it, before hurling it right at Togau.
"Uh oh." Togau said, quickly taking a step back and running, just before the object exploded in midair. Despite her distance, the explosion still managed to singe her a little, "Gack! What in tarnation is that thing?"
"Heh, dis is one of our weapons we're gonna be usin' fer da war." Mamouta grinned, tossing one up and down in her hand, "It's called a grenade, it's like a bomb you activate by just pullin' da pin! Now get yerself blown ta itty bitty bits!"
Mamouta started throwing more grenades at Togau, forcing her to be put on the defensive, evading each of the explosives that came at her. She tried smacking one grenade away with her ax but it still exploded and sent Togau flying back.
"Bwahahaha! How'd ya like that? Gonna give up, or am I gonna have ta make yas into Lynel steaks?" Mamouta laughed out.
"Not a chance, I'm gonna save those animals, and my friends Imra and Oseg!" Togau shouted out, pointing out to the cucco and pig as they were slowly being pulled away by the Moblins.
"Those two are yer friends...?" Mamouta asked, looking over at them.
"That's right! They've been lookin' out for me since I became a rancher!" Togau said, "I may not be relaying on them a whole lot these days now that I can turn into a Lynel, but they're still my important friends!"
"That cucco was causin' me a lot of trouble before, beatin' up my team..." Mamouta muttered, then sported a big grin, "Course all I hads ta do was threaten to blow up those ranchers with my grenades to make her back down!"
"So that's it... that's why she gave in to you bastards..." growled Togau clenching her ax, "That just makes me wanna kick yer big fat butt and save her even more then!"
She charged at Mamouta with her ax but the chef managed to reach up and grab at her arm, before throwing her away to the side.
"Tell me somethin Lynel lady." Mamouta spoke, "You sayin' youse friends with that cucco and pig right? Dat's a loid of rubbish, animals was given by Beast Goddess Uvooru ta be eaten by us!"
Mamouta slammed her cleaver against Togau's ax and the two struggled to overpower the other.
"In the Sisterhoid we's had to relay on eatin' whatever we's could steal from travelers in our eoily years, sometimes we didn't get ta eat nothin'!" Mamouta shouted, "We got so despoiate sometimes we'd resort ta makin' our hoises into meals ta get by!"
"Your horses?" Togau spoke in surprise, "I knew Gerudo Fortress had held onto most of the horses after Nabooru took us all out ta Gerudo Town, guess that explains why you're usin' Moblins to haul stuff instead."
"So tell's me, if youse goils at Gerudo Town had ever came down to our level, youse woulda eaten those two, right?" Mamouta pointed out.
Togau narrowed her eyes, she squeezed the handle of her ax and forced Mamouta backwards.
"Not a chance." she said, "Even if I had been starvin' that much, I'd sooner eat mah boots than Imra or Oseg, they're my friends to the end!"
As the animal cart was being hauled off, Imra could hear the shouting from Togau and opened her eye, surprised to see Togau was okay. She had indeed held back because Mamouta threatened the other ranchers, but hearing Togau's determined words ignited something in her. She let out a loud "BAWAKA!" and started shaking the cage left and right. It wobbled around until it fell over, breaking it open. Imra squirmed out from the cage and ropes and spread her wings, flying off into the air.
"Now die lady!" Mamouta shouted, throwing out more grenades at Togau.
The rancher gulped, thinking about the best way to evade them in that split second, but then Imra flew down and bashed the grenades away with her beak, sending the explosives flying upwards and detonating high in midair harmlessly.
"Imra!" Togau exclaimed with bright eyes.
Imra nodded to Togau, then swooped down at Mamouta, pecking at her. The chef tried swinging her cleaver to slash the cucco, but she evaded the attacks and kept pecking her.
"Gah, youse stupid little boid!" Mamouta shouted, she managed to smack Imra and grab her by the neck "I'll flash fry and serve yas with potatoes!"
"Imra!" Togau shouted, charging forward and bashing right into Mamouta with her horns and sending the chef flying back. Mamouta recovered, but she was getting pretty worn out by that point.
"Dat's it, I'm gonna blow yas to smithereens!" Mamouta shouted, as she started reaching for all of her grenades to bombard Togau with them.
But Togau took a deep breath, and let out her special technique the Lynel's Roar, sending powerful soundwaves to pound right into Mamouta which repelled her backwards, and making her drop the grenades to the ground.
"Why I outta...!" Mamouta clenched her fist, but as she reached down to pick back up the grenades, she saw all the pins on them were missing, "Huh?"
"Bawka."
Mamouta looked over to see Imra, as she held all the pins in her beak.
"Uh ohs." Mamouta said sweatdropping, just as all the grenades exploded at once, "GRAAHH!"
The rebel chef was left staggering from the explosions. She tried to shake off her dizziness and ran right at Togau holding up her meat cleaver,
"Yer gonna be joinin' those animals in a second!" shouted Mamouta, seconds before she was blasted by another Lynel's Roar that sent her down to her knees, and then immediately after Togau went charging forward and bashed her with another charge attack which sent the chef flying high into the air.
"Graaaahh!"
As the Moblins were pulling the animal cart to the fortress, a large object fell and impacted down on the ground before them. The rebel rider halted the Moblins and they all saw Mamouta was laying back on the ground unconscious and covered in burn marks, and her mouth hanging agape.
"I don't believe it, that lady beat Chef Mamouta?" she exclaimed, before looking over to see Togau and Imra both standing beside the cart, looking up at her angerly.
"Eep." the rebel cart rider squeaked, "G-Get them!" she shouted to the Moblins, releasing them from their reins to attack.
The Moblins snarled and charged to attack the two. Togau felt a bit guilty about this after what happened with Mobbles back in Meokuro's lab, but she and Imra took them all down pretty quickly. The rider looked left and right and realized she stood no chance against Togau and her cucco.
"Uh... I surrender?" the rebel asked meekly.
With all the rebels captured and restrained, Togau and the ranchers all got to work freeing the animals from the cart. Oseg immediately lunged out and gave Togau affectionate sloppy licks on her face, glad to see she was just fine now. Imra flew down to wave her wing to Oseg, who gave her a sloppy lick as well, much to the cucco's annoyance.
"Sorry I had to leave you two behind after the rebel attack," Togau grinned to her cucco friend, "But thanks fer the hand back there Imra!"
Imra flapped down to perch in her usual place on Oseg's back and nodded.
"Bawka."
And that ends things for now. Next week Sarami, Saria, Kesuta and Korume are all coming to take back rest of the town, but what surprises await them? Find out next time!
Just as a fair warning though, I might not have the next chapter up as usual, they're lifting restrictions at work now so I'm getting more hours, which means I have less time to do my wriitng. I'll try to stick to my schedulde, but there may be hiccups from time to time.
Thanks everyone so much for your on-going support! Leave a like, follow, comment or PM at your leisure. Your feedback is always encouraged!