Goron City was probably normally a bustling place, but when the Shadow crossed through the archway he was greeted with near-total silence broken by a few snores. Just inside, the road split into three directions. The left and right branches seemed to wrap up and around the whole city, which was brazenly built atop an open pit of lava. Metal bridges and walkways crisscrossed to connect the different paths and levels which were dotted with rocky huts and storefronts, arranged to make the most of the landscape.
The city was quiet in an unsettling way, speaking of emptiness rather than slumber as the rising sun fought a losing battle with the thick black cloud overhead. The Shadow followed the path straight forward toward the largest and highest-situated hut, above which had been painted a large yellow diamond shape topped with three triangles all pointing outward and resembling a footprint, the Gorons' symbol.
As he came closer to his destination, his eye was drawn to the left of its entrance, where a Goddess Statue sat in a small obsidian alcove. This statue was different from the others in that it had been adorned with a crown that gave off a soft, yellow glow.
"Ugh," he muttered out of habit but without any real feeling, bypassing the statue in favor of staying on task. The hut boasted no door— from what he'd seen, none of the buildings had them— so he used the Power Bracelet around his right wrist to bang on the metal around the entrance. "Hello?"
A sleepy snort, then incoherent moaning answered him, followed by a gruff voice. "Wha? Who's there? Whaddya want?"
The Shadow took that as his cue to venture farther inside, finding the space lit by magma flowing down the walls and collecting in a pool beneath a rough-hewn metal throne.
Off to the left, an elderly Goron languished uncomfortably in a low, metal bed. White hair ran in a unibrow across his face and just kept going at the temples, blending seamlessly with both hair and beard, all gathered into four thick sections. A patch covered his right eye, but the left stared suspiciously at the Shadow.
"Whatever you're selling, come back later," the old Goron barked breathlessly, panting after he'd gotten the words out. "Don't know if you've noticed, but we've got a bit of a situation on our hands, here, and anything not directly related to that is just gonna have to wait until I can at least sit up properly again."
"Not selling anything; Greyson in Tarrey Town is worried and asked me to come up here and check on things. Are you Bludo?"
He grunted in what the Shadow took for an affirmative response, followed by, "And who are you?"
"Shadow Link. What's the matter?"
"Wha-ha-ha— oh-ho-ohh," he laugh-moaned, turning his head slightly to narrow his only good eye at the Shadow while being obviously careful not to move his lower half. "Did I hear that right? Did you say 'Shadow Link'?"
"Yes to both. It's a long story. Did you hurt your back?"
"Yah," the word ended on a forceful exhale. "Threw it out on my last turn being fired from the cannon. I gotta know— how'd you wind up here?"
The Shadow quickly recapped the major events of his life for the Goron leader, cleanly glossing over the finer details in favor of brevity.
"Well, I'll be damned," the old Goron said, closing his good eye for a long moment.
Half-wondering if Bludo'd fallen asleep again, the Shadow asked, "So you fired yourself out of a cannon? At what? What's going on?"
Bludo's eye sprang back open, coming to rest on the Shadow. "Well, sure. It ain't for ever'one, y'see— pretty disorientin', an' all— but when we roll ourselves in a ball there's no better projectile than a Goron. Not for everyday minin', o'course, but for battle? You bet; plus, we can pound 'em after we land and we never run out of ammunition," he joked, then groaned and wheezed in obvious pain. "Well, almost. What time is it?"
"Just after dawn, though it's hard to tell. What do you use as a propellant?"
"Oh, bomb flowers grow wild up here. Dead useful for minin', 'specially since they regrow a new fruit within seconds of harvesting. Gotta be quick, though; only got three seconds before it explodes in yer hand. S'what happened to my eye— as a young'un on my first launch, I caught a tiny piece of one in it when I failed to tuck my head in time. Lost sight in that eye but was lucky I didn't lose it altogether, according to my father. Never made that mistake again," Bludo moaned. "Gotta just trust the process, not watch it."
The Shadow, who had every sympathy for self-inflicted injuries caused by explosions, nodded in complete understanding.
"Anyhow," Bludo continued, "strange monsters just showed up one day and started wreaking havoc with the mountain. We had enough trouble beating back the normal beasties before, but now these new things've plugged up most of the vents. We've had to pull most of the workforce off'a minin' and put 'em round-the-clock to try to alleviate the pressure, but we haven't been able to take care of the root of the problem so we've been taking one step forward and two backward, and that ain't sustainable." Every word the old Goron said was punctuated with little huffs of breath, as if the very act of speaking pained him. Remembering what it felt like to crack his ribs, the Shadow knew that to be the case and didn't envy Bludo, who concluded, "I worry about Yunobo out there. 'E's got the strength, but not the confidence of 'is father or their ancestor, Champion Daruk."
Finally, the information the Shadow'd been looking for, and some he hadn't. "'Their ancestor', not yours? And where is Yunobo? And what happened to you?"
"Well, no; I'm the village elder and was his father's right-hand-man 'til the day we lost 'im. I'm only lookin' out fer things 'til Yunobo gets his feet wet.
"So like I said— first these fireworm things with one eye and big pincers just crawled outta the lava one day, pinchin' our heels when we try an' pass by." His face turned to a pained smirk. "Nothin' to pinch when we're rollin', though. Heh heh. We just kinda ignored 'em and went about our business."
"Naturally," the Shadow said, for lack of anything better.
"An' then, coupl'a days later, I think, these… fire-fish things showed up an' snuggled down into the vents and started breathin' fire at us when we try to clear 'em out, and when we blast 'em out, more just take their place. And in dealing with these new things, the Moblins and Lizalfos and whatnot have managed to build a damned base smack-dab in the middle o' the North Mine!"
"Shit."
"You ain't kiddin'. We're just plain overrun. On the upside, yesterday we found out— completely by accident— that the fireworm things' eye becomes vulnerable when the thing is readyin' for an attack. One'a my guys managed to take one out with a drillshaft we had lyin' 'round over there. Unfortunately, it also broke on impact since it had rusted and he smacked with it rather than poking. We have sturdier weapons that would certainly work better, but as soon as we cleared the path to the cave we use as an armory, this other guy came along and he splits into three and drops flaming boulders on us, which is unpleasant but our backs are really tough, understand."
"Of course."
"So I launched m'self at 'im, but he evaded me and hit me with one o' them damned fire rocks just after I landed and was unrolling. Caught me at just the wrong angle and somethin' moved wrong in my lower back. Down I went. Lost a lotta the headway we'd managed to make from them havin' to retrieve and haul me back," he lamented. "Least I managed to land on one o' them damned fire-fish things and take it out with me, heh heh. Turns out, they squish pretty easy."
The Shadow nodded to show he'd heard everything. "Where can I find Yunobo?"
"Prob'ly at the North Mine. S'where we were when I hurt m'self."
The Shadow nodded and made his way out of the hut. Just outside, the few Gorons too young to fight were beginning to rouse, the slightly older ones obviously charged with keeping eyes on the youngest. Soon the morning shift would make its way out to the mine to relieve the overnighters and keep the battle machine going full steam, though it was clear that it could not go on for much longer. In the simplest of terms, either the Gorons would win or the mountain would blow.
Lost in thought, he was about to walk past the Goddess Statue without stopping but a tiny tinkle in his ear changed his mind. The last one had surprised him, he remembered as he turned to face it.
"Goddess Hylia."
"Chosen Hero of Farore, I can offer you great wisdom."
"Lay it on me."
"Enemies under duress may devour each other. Even the strongest hides hide weak insides."
The Shadow thought it through a few times; it made more sense if taken as two separate pieces of advice. "I think I understand." He blinked. "Holy shit, that could be extremely useful information."
"Go, and bring peace to Hyrule."
"Yeah." Then, because he was distracted, he added, "You, too," and immediately rolled his eyes at himself.
He heard Navi giggle-snort and muttered, "Shut up," as he took the path past the guard in the direction of the North Mine.
As soon as he'd rounded the first bend, an Octorok popped its bulbous head up from the overheated ground and began drawing in a huge breath, visibly sucking in all manner of pebbles and small rocks. A second later, it released an enormous boulder aimed right at the Shadow, who sidestepped easily.
The next time the Octorok emerged, the Shadow tossed a remote bomb in its direction and watched as it was inhaled, then pressed the button to detonate and was satisfied with the resulting purple-and-black smoke. With the enemy gone, the Shadow took a few moments to step closer to the edge of the path and observe the area.
Bludo hadn't exaggerated in saying the Gorons were overrun: looking out over the combined masses of Darunia Lake and Lake Darman, the lava steaming and bubbling at what appeared to be a full rolling boil (based on his limited cooking experience), the Shadow looked out on a chaotic scene. Echoing cannon blasts preceded boulders and boulder-like Gorons flying through the air. They'd land on the strange fire-creatures Bludo had described that liberally coated most of the available walkways, but they were also met midair with flaming arrows shot from the outposts the Lizalfos, Moblins, and Bokoblins had managed to erect, including one large encampment and several smaller outposts for archers. The Gorons appeared to control most of the cannons— not the one closest to the Shadow, currently under the mismanagement of two bumbling Moblins— but they had to contend with the nearby Bokoblin archers, as well as the fire-monsters infesting the area.
And then there was what seemed to be the ringleader of the flaming shitcircus, teleporting from place to place seemingly at random and dropping fiery boulders to complete the nightmarish hellscape.
"You said my fire arrows would be useless here," he reminded Navi.
"No, I said the intense heat would negate their elemental properties, which is true— those are regular arrows they're shooting. The ambient temperature here is normally extremely high, and right now is sitting just below the ignition point of the wood so just the friction of them rubbing against the bowstring and then through the superheated particles in the air causes them to catch fire."
"Oh. Shit." He looked down at the Ice Rod on his belt, relieved to see it softly glowing a glaring white in the red darkness; it looked to have regained its charge. "But you're positive this and the ice arrows will still be fine here?"
"Yes. Their magic is strong enough to overcome the atmosphere, though, as I've said before, I'm sure the Ice Rod will fully run out of energy at some point and be unable to recharge itself."
"Okay, let's hear about this other bullshit. What've you got?"
"The pinnipeds are—"
"What the hell is a pinniped?"
"The fire-fish. It means 'fin-footed' or 'flipper-footed'; they're called Pyrups. They're quick and can breathe fire, but their bodies are quite soft and are actually pretty easily destroyed. They're especially susceptible to long-distance weapons like arrows or bombs. Unfortunately, they are incredibly amorous once introduced to lava, have a gestation period measured in days rather than weeks or months, and tend to have fairly large litters so they multiply at an astonishing rate."
"Good fucking goddess."
"Yes. I would imagine them to be the main culprits clogging the vents. And the wormlike creatures are Magtails; they are covered in fire, but they have a hard exoskeleton underneath. As Bludo said, they're vulnerable when they're rearing back to attack; a hard enough hit to the head just then will destroy them, while a poke to the eye will make their flames go out temporarily and they'll curl up in a ball for about a minute."
"That could be useful," he said, thinking about the Goddess Statue's advice.
"Indeed. But these creatures have not been seen in Eldin since Hyrule was very young. They didn't just materialize from nothing; someone brought them here."
As they watched, a Goron made his way toward a small island near the cannon closest to the Shadow, currently claimed by the creature the Shadow had pegged as the one responsible for the onslaught. A long, red cape and some self-generated flames nearly obscured the fact that the inky black body never actually met the ground.
The Goron swung a club that looked as though it should've scored a devastating hit… but which passed right through the floaty jackass, who split into three smaller versions of himself. Each one twirled around and around the Goron, clearly trying to herd him into the lava while summoning flaming boulders to fly every which way.
The Goron managed to hit one of them with his club and send it sailing at one of the smaller clones— which immediately began to spin in a confused circle— but couldn't repeat the success with either of the others and after a short time the three reformed into one and the scene replayed itself. The second time, the Goron failed to land a hit on any of the smaller Fire Guys, and when the third try yielded the same result, wisely retreated back the way he'd come.
Fire Guy reformed and moved along toward another island to shoot fireballs at the monsters there and be a general nuisance.
"And the guy?"
"Blaaz. Calls himself the Master of Fire like the pompous, sentient bellows he is. As you've seen, when hit, he splits into three smaller versions of himself, which must be struck extremely quickly and in order or the blows will not land. The differences are very subtle, but they have one, two, and three tiny horns upon their heads."
He squinted, seeing nothing of the sort even through the scope. "I'll have to take your word for it."
"Of course you will. That's what I'm here for."
"Glad we cleared that up." Watching Blaaz for another moment, he nodded decisively. "Yeah, fuck all of this." He reached into this quiver for a Light arrow, and waited patiently.
It was a direct hit, and the so-called Master of Fire was gone in a volatile wink.
"Nicely done!" Navi squeaked over the collective, startled gasp and then deafening cheer from what he assumed were Gorons currently out of his view around the bend.
From his present vantage point, he had a pretty clear view of one of the smaller Bokoblin archer outposts, as well as one of the cannons— it was ostensibly controlled but not actually being run by the two confused-looking Moblins. Possibly most importantly, however, was that he was within range of at least four of the clogged vents, barely choking out wisps of black smoke while adding an eerie whine to the general soundscape.
Concentrating on the nearest vent, he found that through the scope he could actually see three Pyrups stuffed cozily into the opening. "I see you little bastards. I've got something for you." He took out an ice arrow and aimed carefully. The resulting puff of smoke was extra enthusiastic, the ice likely reacting to both the fiery bodies of the Pyrups and the atmosphere.
Instead of immediate relief, however, there was a quick puff of steam and then the hole was plugged anew.
The Shadow sighed, "Fucking Hero bullshit," and loaded another ice arrow. It took two more after that before there was an explosion of sound and steam as the pressure in the vent became too much for the remaining number of snuggling Pyrups to combat, and about a half dozen came bursting out and flying every which way.
One landed on the nearby cannon and immediately breathed out a stream of fire that caught on one of the Moblins, which let out a holler that was mostly lost in the general din. It used its long, heavy-looking club to flatten the offending Pyrup before dropping to the ground and rolling to put out the fire. A few moments later, it disappeared in a cloud of smoke when the Shadow hit it with an ice arrow.
He similarly felled the second Moblin and both of the Bokoblin archers to wild cheers. As the Gorons hustled over to retake the cannon, the Shadow kept moving, destroying the next Octorok on the path with ease and clearing three more vents before coming to a junction where the road both continued forward and split off to the right and down.
There he found the apparent epicenter of the resistance: about half a dozen Gorons not currently engaged in battle or making their way back were gathered, discussing and making decisions.
While the Shadow watched, one Goron near the cannon the Shadow had just liberated kicked a Magtail in its eye at the perfect time; the flames along its body went out as it curled in on itself defensively and ended as a sort of flat-sided, metallic pillbug. The Goron wasted no time in picking it up and chucking it at a second Magtail that was rearing back to attack. It was a perfect shot, and both critters disappeared in double puffs of purple-and-black. Another cheer went up and more Gorons made their way over to the cannon.
The Shadow was spotted as he made his way down the path. "Hey, was that you shootin' those arrows?" At that point, he obviously took a better look at the Shadow. "You're just a little guy!"
"Comparatively, sure."
"Heh, I'd say it's not really safe for you to be here right now, but I guess maybe you can take care of yourself, huh?" He had an awed look on his face that made that warm glow in the Shadow's chest obvious again for a few moments.
"It was and I can," he answered, then said, "Hey, one of the Gorons I met at Foothill Stable told me you guys couldn't roll uphill." He gestured to the Gorons currently doing exactly that.
"I'm sure that's not what he meant. We wouldn't get very far in life if we couldn't roll uphill at all," the Goron laughed. "We are limited by momentum and incline, though, and we have to stop pretty often to make sure we're staying on course. And we're pretty decent jumpers; lots'a spring in our step," he laughed.
"Are you Yunobo?"
The Goron shook his head. "Fugo," he said, pointing his thumb at himself. The sentence was punctuated by a blast from the closest cannon and he moved his thumb so it was pointed behind himself. "That's him."
"Oh?" They turned to watch as the airborne Goron landed a direct hit on the Bokoblin desperately trying to aim, load, and fire the next-nearest cannon to the west alone while its cohort loosed flaming arrows from an elevated watchtower. Maybe-Yunobo knocked the porcine bastard clear into the lava to loud cheers from the Gorons near the Shadow.
The remaining Bokoblin was armed with a bow and arrows and Probably-Yunobo was not carrying a weapon. Instead, he chucked himself at the base of the raised platform elevating the archer and rolled himself into a ball just after his feet left the ground. The platform shook but held, and the Goron unrolled himself to climb the ladder, grab the startled and off-kilter Bokoblin by its ankle, and toss it headfirst into the lava.
There was another roaring cheer from the Gorons, and several of them rolled down the pathway to get to that cannon and begin an assault on the main monster encampment. A few others rolled and jumped nimbly along the other path, squishing as many Pyrups as they could and taking out Magtails two at a time now that they knew how and Blaaz wasn't making flaming rocks rain down and being a general nuisance.
The Shadow's eyebrows had gotten closer together the longer he'd watched. "That's Yunobo? Most of the people I've met so far have made it sound like that's the last thing I'd find him doing."
"Oh, no, not him; that's Tanko. Yunobo's on the cannon." Fugo pointed at the yellow-haired Goron directing another Goron-ball into the artillery hold on the huge weapon. He bent down to pluck a bomb flower from the plant a short distance from his feet, dropping it into the blasting hole on the cannon just before it exploded. Fugo continued in a low tone that barely carried to the Shadow, causing him to have to lean in slightly to hear. "They weren't wrong about the prince; not the most courageous soul I've run across, to be sure. But he does a real good job running the cannon and keepin' morale high, and those are important, too." Fugo nodded, finishing with a nod and saying, "He'll come around, I'm sure of it." He ran a skeptical eye up and down the Shadow. "You, uh… plannin' on takin' a turn bein' launched?"
"Sure. Looks like fun."
The look of surprise that elicited was priceless. "Whoa. Really?"
"You never know," the Shadow shrugged. There were a few snorts of amusement and looks shared between bemused faces.
Fugo's eyes squinted a bit. "Say, you look familiar. Have you been here before?"
"Nope."
"You sure?" The Goron looked thoughtful for a moment. "Oh, I know— the Hero; Link!" He seemed quite proud of himself for coming up with the name he was obviously sure was correct. Several heads turned in their direction, catching wind of the conversation.
"Close. Shadow Link."
"Shadow Link?" There were a few gasps and more heads turned their way.
"Yep."
"You sure?" someone shouted.
"Pretty sure."
"Didn't you just kill a bunch of monsters?" someone else yelled out.
"That I did."
"Well, ain't that somethin'. Thought my eyes were playin' tricks on me!" Fugo laughed jovially. "Gotta say, I think we're all pretty surprised to see you." His eyebrows rose expectantly.
"Well, long story short: Link of Hateno is dead as of about ten days ago." He held up the back of his hand to show his Mark. There were a few more startled gasps, but most looked on with simple curiosity. "I was Chosen by Farore to replace him, and since then the whole being-alive thing has sort of grown on me. So, seeing as how I'd like to keep doing so for the foreseeable future, I figure that entails not drowning in burning lava, which means I gotta put up with this Hero bullshit for a little while longer because some people down the mountain thought you guys could use some help up here," the Shadow relayed, gesturing to the general hellscape around them, the black cloud practically low enough to touch this far up the mountain.
"Heh. Good point!" Fugo said, but just then someone shouted, "Heads up!" and the Gorons, nearly as one, rolled themselves into protective balls, leaving the Shadow standing with a large boulder coming at him. He raised his shield and braced his legs and the rock was deflected harmlessly away. The Gorons gasped collectively, then cheered. They seemed quite good at synchronization that way.
"That's good enough for me, little guy," Fugo assured. "Good thing you're on our side. We'll carry on and you can do your thing. Might actually get a leg up with you usin' those fancy arrows you've got."
The Shadow nodded and moved off to the side where he was both out of the way and had a good vantage point to clear out several more vents. The few he'd opened already had made a noticeable difference, the steam burning holes in the black cloud to let thin, bright shafts of morning sunlight through.
One of the Gorons by the western cannon stomped a Magtail fireless and loaded it into the ammunition hold to be fired at the monster encampment where it smacked into a Bokoblin that went down hard. The Magtail came to rest at the feet of a Moblin, which looked at it curiously for a moment before picking it up. The Moblin presumably regretted that decision immediately when the Magtail unraveled and flamed up in its hand.
The Moblin reared back, panicked, and tossed the Magtail toward the Bokoblin that was just shaking off the last hit. Not only did the Magtail knock the Bokoblin right back down, it also turned around and nipped the hapless bastard into a puff of smoke.
The Shadow chuckled and turned back to his task, confident that the Gorons could handle themselves. He concentrated on clearing the closest vent, then the next, as well as destroying several Magtails. By the time he'd opened as many as he could from his current position, the mid-morning sky was clearly visible through a large hole in the black cloud and the crowd of Gorons had cleared out; their coordinated offensive attack on the monster stronghold seemed to be going fairly well, judging by the intermittent puffs of smoke. While he'd been occupied, the next shift of Gorons had shown up, but, sensing the end of the battle nearing, the last shift had stayed on and had helped turn the tide in their favor at last. The Shadow contemplated the best position to move to in order to clear out more vents.
"You could probably see everything from the armory," Yunobo told him when questioned. "We have some medicine there that would help Bludo, too."
The Shadow shrugged. "All right. Where is it?"
"See that really tall island out there in the middle?"
"Of course that's where it is," the Shadow sighed. "What's the best way to get there?"
"You're going out there?" Yunobo's eyebrows shot upward. "Alone?"
The Shadow wasn't really alone, thanks to Navi, but he couldn't say that so he shrugged. "Unless you're coming along."
"Uhmm…" Yunobo fretted, looking away. His head moved as his gaze traveled around the North Mine and the Shadow noticed that the longer the young Goron watched his kin battling the monsters, the more his shoulders straightened. When he met the Shadow's eyes again, Yunobo's entire demeanor had changed. "I am the direct descendent of Champion Daruk. This is my home," he said with shaky conviction, voice strengthening as he continued, "and it's my job to defend it." He nodded, agreeing with his own decision. "Follow me."
Before they set out, the Shadow asked if his new companion was armed. "I've got this," Yunobo answered, grabbing a massive, heavy-looking weapon that he swung and twirled with ease. "Boulder Breaker," he seemed to boast, though the designation meant little to the Shadow. "It's the same one Daruk used."
"Ah," the Shadow said, understanding better. Then he frowned. "Can you roll with that?"
"Sure can!" Yunobo demonstrated the clever holster fastened to his hip.
"Perfect. Lead the way."
But Yunobo hesitated. "We're gonna get really close to the lava. You need to take a dose of elixir or anything?"
The Shadow shook his head. "I'm all right." At Yunobo's continued look of concern, he added with a shrug, "The Great Fairy put a charm on me that she said would function the same as Fireproof Elixir or the Flamebreaker Armor." He resisted the urge to rub the back of his left hand.
"No kiddin'? Neat!" Yunobo's face brightened considerably. "You know, I thought you might've been pulling our legs about bein' Shadow Link, but it's really you, isn't it?"
The Shadow nodded. "What convinced you?"
"Well, when Link came to visit Bludo a few months ago, he never said a word to anyone, as far as I know. Just wrote notes or made gestures."
"Yeah, I hear he was a quiet guy— look out!" The archers to the north had spotted them and shot two flaming arrows their way. Yunobo rolled into a protective ball and the Shadow's shield deflected them easily, and he quickly retaliated with ice arrows.
"Those are sure handy. Almost makes me wish I didn't break every bow I try to draw back," Yunobo chuckled.
"Well, here," the Shadow said, taking the Ice Rod off his belt and holding it out for his companion to take. "Not sure how many shots are left in this, but you might as well get what use you can out of it."
"Whoa," the Goron marveled. He turned the device in his hand to see it from all angles. "Um. How do I work this?"
"Oh, just swing your arm like you're going to throw it at something— but don't— and it'll freeze whatever's in your way."
"Neat!"
The Shadow absorbed Yunobo's enthusiasm with a small nod and turned to carry on. The path curved sharply downward and shrank to a thin ribbon close enough to the lava to strain the charm Mija had put on him. Sweat tried to trickle down his temples and between his shoulder blades but evaporated before it could, which was a strange sensation. When they came under fire from another set of Bokoblin archers off to the north, the Shadow grabbed two icy arrows and held them under his chin for a few moments to enjoy the cool aura surrounding them before putting them to their intended use.
Yunobo surprised the Shadow when he didn't hesitate at all before climbing to the highest point and leaping right off, landing on the low path across a fair amount of open lava. By the time the Shadow had utilized his glider to span the distance, Yunobo had made it over to the nearby cannon and was being patted vigorously on the back by the Gorons already there. The Shadow took the opportunity to climb up onto one of the towers that he'd cleared of Bokoblins earlier and open up a few more vents, but he only got his foot on the first rung of the ladder leading up before a flaming arrow whizzed right past his face.
"Whoa!" He whipped around and found the archer with his eyes, and a moment later with his ice arrow. "Fucker."
Yunobo was suddenly next to him. "You all right?"
The Shadow reflexively looked down at himself, then back at Yunobo. "Yeah."
"Great!" The Goron beamed. His enthusiasm seemed boundless, reminding the Shadow of Sidon. "So we need to head for that cannon," he said, pointing. "There should be a vent over there to jump the distance, but it's clogged right now so we need to use C3 to get there." He thumbed behind himself to the cannon he'd just left.
"Hang on a minute." The Shadow climbed up the tower as he'd originally intended, seeing a few more vents he could clear and doing so, including one just below himself. He noticed the strip of land he'd not seen before connecting this higher section to the next one where he'd shot the last Bokoblin. "So there's a vent over there?" he asked, pointing.
"Should be a few of 'em, yep."
"All right. Give me a few minutes and I'll meet you at the cannon." The Shadow grabbed his glider and jumped, using the steam from the newly-opened vent to give him the extra lift he needed to get there. He made his way to the far end, finding three blocked vents that he unclogged within a few minutes, incredibly grateful that he'd run into Beedle and purchased more ice arrows before coming here.
He heard the cannon Yunobo'd referred to as C3 fire, and the Goron went flying past to land on the next cannon, across a wide span of bubbling lava and sufficiently above the Shadow's current position to where he couldn't see the actual landing. From farther back, he'd seen two more Gorons standing by it, though, so he didn't worry about the prince's fate overly much.
The widening rays of bright sunlight spearing the dark, heavy cloud lit his path to meet them at what he learned was called C4. There were six cannons in total, apparently, each calibrated and aimed to two preset targets— one of use for mining and the other for transportation— and they'd needed a concise way to reference any one of them.
C4 was in the process of moving to be aimed at a huge skull resting on what looked to be the middle level of their next destination. In front of it was another Bokoblin archer, futilely shooting fiery arrows in their direction only to watch them fall into the lava, apparently not having grasped the concept of arcing long-distance projectiles. The Gorons had loaded two extra boulders into the cannon, and when they hit, the entire structure went down in a heap of rubble— there must've been some barrels of explosives stored inside— including the archer's stand and the Bokoblin on it.
The Gorons cheered and Yunobo turned to grin at the Shadow. "Almost there!"
They made the final leap, crossing easily to the lowest level and making their way up the winding path to the very top. On the way, the Shadow realized that the large monster outpost was actually connected to this island via another stretch of path that was only barely above the lava and he was glad it was now under control of the Gorons. Since the monsters in and around the remains of the great skull had been taken care of, too, the Gorons could move on to the next cannon, C5, which they used to completely knock down the monster stronghold once their own personnel had cleared out.
Upon reaching the top level, Yunobo went to retrieve the medicine for Bludo from the tall, cave-like structure the Gorons called the armory while the Shadow moved to open as many more vents as he could. It was then that he realized there was a long track for minecarts snaking along the perimeter and spanning Lake Duran, terminating inside the cavernous body of the crablike Isle of Rabac.
It took him a while to open as many vents as he could see; by now he'd cleared enough that the cloud was thinning out, the sun strong enough to begin beating back the dark mass, though from the angle it looked to be sometime in the afternoon now. When he felt he'd done all he could, his supply of ice arrows was nearly two-thirds gone and he looked around, expecting Yunobo to be somewhere near. Seeing no one, he climbed the rough stone steps to the armory and looked inside.
The Goron was still in the armory, all right, and he wasn't alone. Ghirahim, the pointy bastard, had cornered Yunobo with his dark blade pointed at the prince's throat. To his credit, Yunobo didn't look overly frightened, just mildly curious and a little annoyed.
Ghirahim's head came around and he smiled creepily. "I had a feeling someone was throwing a wrench in my beautiful plans so I had to come check, but I did not expect you, darling."
"Hello, Jerry," the Shadow drawled, irritated.
"Ghirahim. Lord Ghirahim, you insolent boy!"
"I know your name, you walking cliche. I just don't care."
"How dare you?! My combination of flamboyance and sadism is absolutely not cliched!"
"Whatever you say, Jim."
Yunobo frowned as he looked between them. "Do you two know each other?"
"Unfortunately," the Shadow snarked.
"Oh, I'd nearly forgotten you were here, sweet pea," Ghirahim oozed creepily, sparing the Goron a brief glance before refocusing on the Shadow. "You know, I rather thought you were dead."
"You'll have to do better than one lucky poke with a tiny dagger, jackass," the Shadow exaggerated. He'd seen that Yunobo had taken note of Ghirahim's inattention to him and had begun moving his arm in small increments toward the weapon on his hip. The Shadow tried not to tense as he prepared to move.
Ghirahim seemed to not notice anything amiss. "But don't you see? You survived a battle with me! Perhaps you are a worthy adversary, after all. This fills my heart with rainbows!"
"Damn, Gingham. You really think highly of yourself. If you're as powerful as you say, what are you doing working for Ganondorf?"
"Patience, dear boy. Great things are coming. In fact—"
Yunobo chose that moment to make his move, deftly grabbing his weapon and swinging it with great force upward at Ghirahim's chin. It connected with a reverberating clang! At the same time the Shadow armed the hookshot and let it fly, hitting almost the exact same spot.
For a split second, the Shadow thought they'd have a fight on their hands, but then Ghirahim's shoulders shook as his head— sporting twin new dents in his chin— lowered to glance between them. "Oho-ho-ho! This is going to be fun! Come along, now." He pinned the stunned Yunobo with his creepy stare. "You, too, I think."
Before either of them could move, Yunobo and the Shadow were both grasped firmly by giant hands that seemed to come up from the floor, and everything went dark.