Link stood in front of the south tower near the village entrance, his hood drawn and only partially shielding his eyes from the setting sun. He thanked the fates that the Ganonspawn had waited until nightfall to attack. Hateno's defenders would be ill-prepared with the late day's glare shining directly into their faces.
Dorian was positioned similarly in front of the north tower. Link's sharp eyes saw that the Sheikah had donned his balaclava, leaving only his white top-knot and eyes exposed. Dorian wielded his short bow, an arrow half-drawn as he ceaselessly scanned the path between the forest and the gateway below.
As Link had requested, the platforms of each tower were manned by half a score's worth of archers, not including the trio assigned to each oversized crossbow. Another half-score each stood next to Link and Dorian.
Young Thadd manned the north tower crossbow, while Ivee was stationed and ready at the south tower directly behind and above where Link now stood. Both were accompanied by a pair of strong villagers who had been repeatedly trained on how to reload the crossbows until they could nearly do it blindfolded. Brigo had emphasized that bolts were not to be wasted on mere bokoblins, but instead on the larger moblins, against which the villagers would be all but helpless.
More archers lay perched on the rooftops just inside the village, their angled vantage points providing even more cover for the path and gateway. All told, three score villagers were ready and waiting to deliver flighted death to the would-be attackers. Another forty waited inside the front-most houses, ready to charge under Brigo's command when arrows would no longer hold back the Ganonspawn. Link absentmindedly touched the quiver hanging at his right side, then the Sheikah Slate at his left. His hope was that spears would be the final measure, used only to finish the enemy — or as a last resort should the battle go ill.
Should that happen, those too old, young or unable to fight would already have fled in the opposite direction. Reede had informed Link that the path continued through the village before turning south, where it emptied into the Necluda Sea at the base of the mountains. There were caves along the beach where they could hide in hopes of being undiscovered should Hateno be overrun.
Knowing that the village fighters were outnumbered five-to-one did not unduly worry Link as it had Reede. He could do nothing about the odds until the battle was joined. He knew, however, that the Ganonspawn would be hard pressed to breach the natural bottleneck leading into the village. He would use that advantage as long as he could.
The sun's last light glimmered before setting behind the distant slopes of the southern Dueling Peak. Link drew back his hood, his eyes scanning the woods that swallowed up the path some fifty paces beyond the gateway. Fifty paces of certain death for the enemy. Upon that, the hopes of the village rested.
Stars winked to life overhead. Link had expressly ordered that no extra torches be lit. The Ganonspawn must be convinced that all was normal. Instinct told him the beasts would take less care if they thought they were attacking a village unawares in the dead of night.
Another hour passed. A half-moon rose behind them, casting an eerie light upon the path that was now surely drawing the attention of every eye and arrow on this night. Surely they would attack soon. Surely the scout's warning of Link and Brigo's arrival would have hastened their plans, especially if an intelligent leader was commanding them.
For one wild moment of panic, Link feared the enemy had discovered the same path he and his companions had taken the previous night. But that was impossible. Reede and another score of villagers were stationed there. They would send word if attacked. The village head had assured him that was the only other possible route into the village without the aid of wings. Link was not concerned about the latter. There were enough archers stationed to down an entire flock of keese.
Link was about to send a messenger to Dorian asking him to scout out the enemy's activities when a chickaloo bird's whistle pierced the still night air. It came from the top of the north tower, where a sharp-eyed village lookout was stationed. Link immediately looked to where the path emerged from the forest and saw shapes moving in the darkness. The time had come.
A river of bokoblins suddenly broke cover and charged up the open path toward the village gateway. Under the impetus of the crowd, several were forced into the waiting stakes angled outwards toward them, which were all but invisible in the darkness. The monsters' squeals mingled with those cut down by a volley of arrows.
Suddenly, light bloomed atop the village towers, its glow illuminating the gateway and its path to nearly the brightness of day. Those torches were another idea taken from the Dueling Peaks stable. Brigo had said overwhelming light often confused pigspawn. Judging by the immediate shielding of eyes and enraged squeals from the massing enemy below, the patrolman had been correct.
Then, rearing out of the woods like monoliths from some primeval age, three moblins emerged behind the milling bokoblins. They were enormous, easily as tall as two Links standing on one another's shoulders. Elongated snouts drooped from narrow faces that carried blood-red eyes. Their arms and torsos were grotesquely long compared to their short legs, which bore hooves like their bokoblin cousins. They carried huge clubs, which they freely used along with guttural roars to urge their smaller brethren forward. Rallied by fear, pain and rage, the sea of Ganonspawn surged toward the gate once again.
One moblin had not taken more than three steps forward when its head was pierced cleanly through by a bolt the size of a small tree. Link heard Ivee shouting for her crossbow to be reloaded. Another bolt twanged through the torch-lit sky, taking a second moblin through the shoulder and into the ground. Arrows hissed from the twin platforms and the rooftops immediately behind the towers, most of them finding some part of the teeming masses of evil. The third moblin fell, made a veritable pincushion of Hatenoan shafts.
The path was barely visible beneath the number of Ganonspawn already slain, but still more poured out of the woods. They raced over their fallen brethren, clubs raised and pebble-toothed mouths snarling. Link saw four more moblins accompany them, though this new wave was still forced to charge no wider than four abreast due to the steep rock walls encroaching the road. Quick as a thought, Link whipped out one of the three arrows set apart from the rest in his quiver. Its sack-like head drooped slightly where a tip of steel would normally be. Drawing his bow, he loosed the bomb arrow into the oncoming river of evil.
Fire and chaos exploded, sending red-skinned bokoblins and gray-skinned moblins flying in all directions. The archers on the platforms were forced to shield their eyes from the bloom of heat that nearly seared Link's own face. He ignored it, instead looking to make sure no survivors were charging forward through the chaos. None were, but more bokoblins were already streaming out from the woods behind the dead. Dorian had been right. Instinct told Link that something had to be compelling the beasts to surge toward what would otherwise make them flee en masse.
When the oncoming horde became too numerous for normal arrows, Link and Dorian sent more exploding death to the path. After his third and last bomb arrow, however, Link was dismayed to see that the missiles had unintentionally gouged out significant portions of the hillsides. The entrance to the village was now much wider, allowing for as many as eight abreast to approach.
Link had no sooner observed this than a fresh wave of Ganonspawn charged from the woods. How they were able to run upright among all the slain, he could not begin to imagine. But he was out of bomb arrows, and the villagers' own volleys were not slowing down this wider swathe of the enemy.
Thinking quickly, Link removed the Sheikah Slate from his belt, pointed it at the large pile of metal set off to the side and activated the magnesis rune. A red rope of light snaked out speedily from the device. The moment it touched a flat slab of metal, Link felt it take hold. He could feel its considerable size and weight through the slate's power, but raising it was as easy as lifting a sling with a small stone fitted at the end. Swinging it well above the villagers around him, he flung it directly at the oncoming horde.
Those bokoblins not laid flat by the enormous metal slab were immediately scattered about like ninepins into the hillsides or backward into their companions. Another volley of arrows followed Link's magical assault, further halting and confusing the Ganonspawn.
"Now that's a bonnie new trick, make no mistake!"
Link turned to see that Brigo had joined him in front of the tower, grinning for all the world like a young man gone courting at a country dance.
"Aren't you supposed to be with the spearmen?" Link shouted as he picked up his bow and felled a straggling Bokoblin.
"Do no worry about them!" the patrolman shouted back with gusto. "We're near bored to tears while you lot are havin' all the fun! If things turn south, we'll get yer bacon out o' the fire!"
Link loosed another arrow and was rewarded with the sight of a fleeing bokoblin dropping where he stood with a shaft protruding from his back.
"Any word from Reede and his group on the north side of the village?" Link asked while fishing out another arrow. The patrolman shook his head.
"No messengers, but no pigspawn either, so my guess is 'tis all quiet for them."
Link nodded. "Have a messenger ready to send for them if things do go south here. More will be coming soon and there's no guarantee we'll be able to hold them back."
Brigo nodded, but stood there a moment longer, merely looking as Link shot down another stray bokoblin.
"Yeh really are the hero from legend, aren't yeh?" the patrolman mused aloud. Link could only shrug in response.
"So I've been told," he said curtly.
"At the very least," Brigo said before turning to leave the hill, "yeh've done this sort o' thing before, lad."
Link thought back to the Guardian-riddled battlefield at Fort Hateno. How many died trusting I would lead them?
He shook off that dark line of thought. More Ganonspawn would be coming. He had to hold them back. He had to.
The skull of the Stalfos was as emotionless as it ever was, permanently frozen in a rictus of death. Only its actions betrayed whatever emotion it felt, and right now it was livid with rage. The Stalhorse on which it rode paced back and forth in short, swift bursts of undead energy.
Like groups of threads being snipped apart, the Stalfos could feel its army's numbers dwindling in bunches, yet it could see through the trees that the village was as yet unbreached. How? How had the boy and his companion reached them alive and undetected to lend aid?
There was no other explanation. Villagers crafted neither bomb arrows nor crossbows. Those might have been explained by patrolmen peddling their tricks on behalf of the helpless. But the Stalfos had seen the red ropes of light hurling pieces of metal at its army. Arrows of the sharpened and explosive variety had also flown unerringly from the same place as that unique magic. The boy was there and, with him, the opportunity to become Karanlik.
But the Stalfos must act quickly. Half its forces had already fallen. Though their loss meant the undead could strengthen its bond among the remaining Ganonspawn, those beasts were now battling the fear that so easily beset their kind. The path between the woods and path was literally covered with the corpses of their brethren. If another charge failed, they would likely flee.
There had to be another way in. The boy's presence said as much. But how?
The Stalfos thought back to crude memory of the bokoblin sentry. The beast and its companion had seen three men — including the boy — set out away from them before the fools alerted the Hylians to their presence. They had circled north.
The Stalfos raised its head, its eye sockets gazing in that direction. It had thought the humans would be forced to return south to the end of the path and make a desperate attempt at slipping past the bokoblin army. It knew now that they had not. As dense as the beasts were, the chance was minute that this many Ganonspawn would miss three Hylians sneaking right under their noses.
They had found another way in. It would not be far. The boy had arrived soon after being spotted, and the mountains that lay further north narrowed down the possible routes into the village. There had to be a hidden path through the steep hills that so effectively walled off an army of Ganonspawn.
The Stalfos mentally summoned two moblins and a score of bokoblins — a force large enough to lay waste to any Hylians who by now would not expect an attack at their hidden entryway. Once they arrived, the Stalfos sent out another command to the rest of its forces, urging them all to attack the main gate. Trickles of fear and confusion returned along dozens of those mental tethers, but the undead answered them with threats of torture and fire at its own hand. The fear increased, but it was an obedient fear.
As soon as the Stalfos sensed the majority of the remaining Ganonspawn begin to regroup near the main road, it urged the Stalhorse north, a score's worth of beasts running closely behind it.
Link's quiver was nearly spent, as was his pile of metal. The latest wave of Ganonspawn had nearly broken through the gate. Desperation and an especially wide piece of steel hurled with the slate's power had pushed the beasts back. More, however, were already beginning to sprout like unholy weeds from the forest depths.
Looking down and slightly behind him, Link could see Brigo leading out his spearmen. The archers from the rooftops were already climbing down to join them, their own spears driven into the ground, waiting until their very last arrows were used. Those on the platforms were likewise preparing themselves. Only Ivee and Thadd, along with the pairs reloading their crossbows, would remain at their vantage points. Moblins were tall enough to target even in a crowd.
The moon was just beginning its descent. Had the battle really only lasted half a night? It seemed days ago that the torches had lighted at the first charge of Ganonspawn. Strangely, Link felt no fatigue, only the same sense of purpose and calm that had overtaken him since the battle was first joined.
Now, however, it seemed the outcome was about to be decided. He removed the four arrows that remained him and handed them to a middle-aged archer to his right.
"Make them count as well as you have already, friend," Link told him encouragingly. "I go to help those on the ground."
The villager nodded. "I'll do that, Sir Link. We'll give them what for, assuming there's any left by the time they get to the gate!"
Link smiled, then turned to descend the gentle slope at the back of his hill and into the village. He could hear the noise from the Ganonspawn increasing. They were nearing whatever evil courage they needed to try again. He could only hope this was their last attempt — and that Hateno would survive it.
"Come to take more o' the action away from meh brave buckos, 'ave yeh lad?" Brigo shouted jauntily as Link made his way toward the group of spearmen. He saw several were smiling nervously, while the rest simply appeared nervous. Link understood. They had only heard and possibly seen what had happened without partaking in actual battle. It had given them too much time to think. The patrolman was doing his best to keep them loose and carefree before they faced the fears their minds had bred during the night.
"Your brethren have fought bravely," Link told them firmly. "I have no doubt you will do the same."
A few relaxed at this. Link supposed the rest would simply have to thaw their fears in the heat of battle. Then a distant bloom of torchlight blossomed at the north side of the village. Dorian immediately began running toward it, shouting over his shoulder.
"Link! Reede's party is under attack!"
Brigo's eyes widened in shock. "The bloody savages, I thought if they hadn't already—"
"It doesn't matter," Link said hurriedly. Already he was roughly shouldering through the group of spearmen. "Ten of you, with me! The others stay with Brigo! Quickly!"
Half a score of spearmen raced after Link, while the rest turned to face the gateway, behind which the first ranks of Bokoblins were just beginning to emerge.
The Stalfos had found it. Well beyond the forest, around the far side of a large hill, lay a rough slope up toward the northern fringes of the village. The Stalfos had commanded its forces to keep quiet as they ascended, and they had obeyed now that they were fewer in number and so close to the thing that held them in thrall.
After a few moments' of silently navigating their way, the Stalfos was rewarded with the sight of wheat fields being gently brushed by the nighttime breeze. It lifted its bleached-white skull as high as it dared, having left the Stalhorse behind in order to better conceal itself. All was quiet. Had the Hylians been foolish enough to leave this path unprotected?
An arrow flew out of the darkness and pierced a bokoblin through its snout. Then a voice shouted out from the middle of the field.
"Light the torch! Pruce! Send word! Bring help! Go!"
The Stalfos shoved the bokoblin corpse out of its way. As it did, an enormous torch like those at the village entrance flared to life behind the field, casting an orange glow on the Ganonspawn. The Stalfos saw, however, that a mere score of Hylians were waiting for them.
Urging its band forward, the animated skeleton charged with round shield and curved scimitar drawn. If the Hylians did indeed send help, that would siphon off those holding off its main force at the gate.
Baring its teeth in the very image of death, the Stalfos raised its blade and swung down at the terrified face of a village boy. Blood spattered the undead's white bones.