Wind wishes he had thought more about this.
Why, oh why, would he think they were fighting just some normal wolf? What kind of normal wolf would challenge random hylians in an arena? What kind of wolf would be the leader's leader? The 'Guardian of the Land'?
A white and blue spectral wolf the size of a boat, that's who! Din's tits, its legs are bigger than he is!
He barely has time to note the three floating antennae(?) and the strange glowy fabric(?) before a paw swipes in his direction. It's only by instinct that he drops and rolls away from the swipe that would have disemboweled him, with it sending a chill straight to his bones from the resulting wind instead.
Wild was the first to snap out of his shock as he jumped forward to engage, Warriors close behind him. They are wholly unprepared and caught off guard, not to mention there were only four of them as per the rule that Razor had all but yelled.
As he dodged the swipe of a tail—does it have icicles?— he couldn't help but wonder if this was all a ploy by Razor to get them killed. He turned that thought over with a swipe of his blade against the wolf's side and promptly threw it away; Razor didn't know what a handshake was, there was no way he would make a plan to befriend them and then immediately send them to their deaths.
Besides, he has absolutely no doubt that if this strange wolf spirit thing wanted them dead they wouldn't be fighting it right now.
He hears shouting in the background under the sound of the battle, and he knows it's his other brothers trying to reach them. Or yelling at Razor. He hopes they're not blaming this on Razor. It was them who wanted to challenge the Guardian without all of the facts.
And boy does he wish to have the facts.
Warriors and Wild are right there with him close to the wolf, swinging their swords and hacking away at it, while Legend uses his ice rod to attack from afar. He can't see the effect it is having on the wolf and the constant cold around him is giving him an idea as to why, but he doesn't want to assume. He dodges a claw swipe to his head by ducking and he shifts his grip to slash his sword into the back side of its paw, causing it to snarl and snap its jaws so close to his face he can smell its breath.
A pause in the battle came when the wolf jumped back from them and started pacing. They took that time to regroup and check each other over with a lookout, so Wind was currently watching the predator prowl around them with sharp eyes. He felt like a fish being circled by a shark and he did not enjoy it at all. The wolf's heavy gaze blankets over his shoulders and a chill separate from the cold around him crawls up his spine. Now that he can focus on it, the feeling of spirit fuckery it was radiating was massive and settling deep in his soul, and he wondered how he could not feel it before. The glowing spirit sword was a pretty big clue and he just glazed right over it.
"Oy!" Legend yelled right next to his ear, walking forward a little in the wolf's direction, "You overgrown dog, get back here!" He finished the sentence by waving his ice rod and sending a burst of ice right at it.
Since there are no other attacks at the moment they can see the projectile clearly, and—
It splatters harmlessly against its side and dissipates.
"Oh." Is all that comes out of his mouth.
They're all staring motionless at where the attack hit, the wolf included, before it slowly turns its head toward them. Wind may not know how to read spirit animal facial expressions, but he's sure that it's looking at them with so much judgment.
The wolf shakes itself out and the fog starts to thicken on the outer ring of the arena. Next thing he knows the damn thing starts glowing as it jumps into the fog and starts running, and Wind is left following glowing afterimages as the wolf runs in a circle around them.
"Damnit," he heard Legend mumble under the loud footfalls of the wolf, "Store this, it's useless against an ice elemental." He shoved his ice rod at Wild who took it and shoved it into his slate with no argument, Legend's free hand moving to unsheathe his sword.
"Thank Hylia you still brought your sword," Warriors muttered, sending the veteran a glance.
"It's good to have options!" was hissed back, but Wind was not paying much attention once he noticed the wolf skidding to a stop and turning towards them.
"I know that! I just—" "Dodge!" He yelled, jumping forward and nearly eating the floor before dropping into a roll. The others did the same, and not a moment sooner did he feel that frigid air pass behind him where they used to stand.
"Please banter later," came Wild's dry plea.
The wolf had skidded to the edge of the arena and took a second before leaping into the air like some sort of demented armos on steroids. He and his brothers scrambled to get away from the landing site, coincidentally the middle of the arena. It shook itself off before starting to snarl and growl, getting lower to the ground. As he ran in to attack, mistaking its lower position as a pause in the fight, it suddenly stood straighter and lifted its head to the sky, letting out a piercing howl that echoed across the cliffs. Not a moment later he was thrown away by the explosion of frigid wind that burst from the being; all he could feel was the bite of ice as his body was sent skidding across the rough ground of the arena.
For a moment all he could do was curse the goddess for his small stature. He can hear a voice that sounds suspiciously like Time telling him that he is still growing, but dammit he doesn't want to be thrown like this by every big explosion! He could hear Legend yelling though, so he's pacified at the fact that he is not the only one who got thrown like a loose flag in a storm.
Once he stopped skidding like a kicked pebble, he gasped and attempted to calm his swimming vision. He did a quick and superficial check of himself; he didn't feel any broken bones but his skin itched and ached in a way that let him know he was full of scratches and small cuts. They're more annoying than painful but they still burn — well, not as bad as they could and it's probably because of the freezing air around him — when he shakily brings himself to a somewhat unsteady stance. He's going to be incredibly bruised and sore later.
When he looks back to the wolf he has to hold back a groan; the damn thing got bigger! Or, actually, maybe just lighter colored and brighter, not bigger. He's still trying to see clearly.
The first thing he notes is that Wild and Warriors are attacking as best as they can and Legend is making his way over to them from where he stood up. The second thing he notes is that there are fucking giant icicles appearing out of thin air and he's about to get skewered. With a totally manly yelp, he jumped out of the way of the chunk of ice and took to running to his brothers. He is not about to stand there and twiddle his thumbs because his body is sore and he's somewhat dizzy.
He checks out at that point, his body running on autopilot as he dodges claws and swipes his sword through the wolf's fur and into its skin. He gained numerous scratches after he was sent skidding across the ground again when a swipe of its tail caught him across the chest, and the way he had issues breathing in hinted at bruised ribs, thankfully not broken. At some point during the fight, it had reared back onto its hind legs and slammed its front paws onto the ground, creating a wind blade that caught his arm and damn near severed it. Well, he's exaggerating, but it felt as if he had lost his arm and he didn't want a repeat of that.
Finally, after what felt like hours but was actually ten minutes, the wolf snarled and lifted its head high into the dark sky to let out a piercing and haunting howl. Toward the end of its howl, it exploded into tendrils of ice that were swept away from the wind. The fog vanished as soon as it came and immediately he could hear sets of boots hit the stone and hurry toward them, so he let himself tip forward knowing there would be a pair of arms to catch him, which there were.
He was gently lowered to the ground by gloved hands, Hyrule already hovering over him with hands full of magic to heal his arm. He couldn't quite feel it and he was not sure if that was the blood loss or the cold numbing it. He closed his eyes and relished in the feeling of Hyrule healing his major wounds, which weren't many, fortunately. Their wounds were spread out between all four of them, and he's sure that if fewer people were fighting one of them would've been wounded fatally.
"What…" he heard Legend rasp, "are you doing here?"
He opened his eyes and turned his head to see Razor kneeling next to Legend and Wild with an armful of some weird purple pointy things. He slipped off his gloves before grabbing what he can now identify as some type of berry, digging his thumbs into it and prying it open before grabbing the soft insides and seeds and starting to crush them between his bare palms.
"Here to help," he rasped, his voice noticeably rougher than before, "Liquid stops pain and bleeding." He paused in his work to look up at Four who had walked up to them.
"Can you explain what that was about?" he asked, "You didn't explain anything up there, you were too busy searching and picking up those berries. I think they deserve an explanation."
"An explanation you should have given them before they went and fought whatever that thing was," Time chastised, which like, that isn't fair.
"Lay off him… He barely speaks as is, and we never asked for clarification. It's our own fault we got our asses kicked," he groaned, forcing himself to sit up to glare lightly at Time.
"Not mine," grumbled Legend, wincing when Razor pressed too hard on a cut while spreading the berry mush.
"You came to see, and I quote, 'what type of wolf deserves to be called a 'guardian of the land''. You could've just stayed up there and watched instead of coming down here," Warrior countered from where he was being treated by Hyrule. Legend just grumbled in response.
"Ladies, ladies, we all got our asses kicked," Wild said almost smugly but it was undermined when his face was smacked with a handful of berry juice. "Uh, Razor… I don't think I need that for the scar."
"Mn-mn." Razor shakes his head. "Have cuts and blood… This helps. Not for scar."
"You're so helpful," Wild damn near cooed up at him and Razor preened.
Damn, those two really hit it off. It probably helps that Razor radiates so much "little sibling" energy that Wind has already adopted him in his mind, no matter that he was younger than Razor was; it's all about attitude, truly.
Time coughed lightly to interrupt them and shuffled closer to the pair of teens, his stern face looking down at the semi-feral boy. "Razor, could you please explain? The whole… big glowing wolf?"
"I will explain," came a rumbling voice and everyone was immediately on guard, those still standing pulling out their weapons in a flash. Wind scrambled to try and stand with his still bruised ribs, watching the spirit wolf that kicked their ass padding its way toward them with little care of the swords pointing its way.
"Peace," came its voice, almost annoyed. "Humans are so quick to bare their claws of steel," it huffed.
"Please…" Razor sighed, standing up and walking to his leader. "Calm."
It huffed again, "I am calm."
"Sooo… you're not going to beat us up anymore?" Wind said slowly to change the subject, squinting at the behemoth of a wolf.
"I am not," it nodded, turning its head towards him. "I owe you a boon, as the winners of this challenge."
"So you're willing to answer us as to what you are?" Warriors asked, watching it wearily. The wolf looked like it wanted to sigh and blow all of them away. It instead sat as regally as a wolf could, head held high.
"I have many names. I am Andrius, Dominator of Wolves. I am also Lupus Boreas, the Great Wolf King of the North, and the King of the North Wind," it— he? He started. That's a lot of names for a simple wolf spirit, unless he wasn't and Wind is missing something.
"That's nice and all, but we're asking what you are," Twilight interrupted, jerking back and placing his hand back on the handle of his sword reflexively when Andrius snapped his jaws at him.
"Silence!" he snarled, ignoring the panicked 'Calm!' from Razor. "Do humans show no respect to the gods anymore?"
Wind's heart dropped to his ass and then it promptly shot up to his throat so fast he nearly choked.
He threw his hands up to grasp and yank at his hair, shrieking "I fought a god?!" He could hear similar sentiments from the brothers who fought beside him, but he was too busy having a breakdown to pay attention to the uproar around him.
Holy shit! Oh, Hylia, he just fought a GOD and he lived?! He stands by that earlier statement that if Andrius had wanted them dead they would already be buried underground. None of them had ever gone to fight a god before, at least that he knows of! Well, except Sky, but he went in ready to fight one; Wind was coming in expecting just a random wolf. He came in and he fought a god unprepared and he WON!
The cackle that leaves his mouth is nearly hysterical and Razor starts looking at him like he's lost it. He might've, to be honest.