Cold Tips and Hot Trails [Guy + Clooby + UnnamedDude]

A wave of force shook the cavern, tearing through the cavern floor at incredible pace. Julius recognized this technique; used by a moblin while escorting the Kokiri, Lucia. He steadied himself instantly, shrugging off the force of the Goron's punch within a second. His shield held forward, he planted his feet on the ground, becoming an immovable object as he rode the wave, passing just as quickly as it had come.

The grasp on his blade tightened, his shield still held forward. The glaive was a tempting target...but he realized that, even with the Goron's added mass, he knew he wouldn't be able to gain niether decent footing nor leverage...yet, perhaps there was something to be done from atop his rocky hide. A sudden pounce upon the Goron; his entire weight slamming into him. Digging his fingers into the gaps of the rock, he grasped and held on for dear life as he began to verbally assault him with harsh, uncomforting words; befit to only the ears of those most foul. But, perhaps, one rang true to the ears of all: "Your soup sucks harder than an inverted octorock! It's so bad not even the slums would eat it! Gorons don't even like tektite, you freak!" A quieter, softer spoken verse followed, almost being whispered into his earholes, "Your song was even worse."

The two of you ran forward with Gorrito, going around bend after bend, but the other Goron didn't seem to be in sight. Oh well, you'd reach them eventually, right? After a short distance, you reached a point of worry; The tunnel you had traveled through opened into a wide, yet short room, with a small handful of different tunnels scattered across the walls opposing and to the side of you. To make matters worse, Gorbor and Dongorongo were nowhere in sight. There weren't any branching paths on the way here, at least not to your knowledge, so there was only one posible solution; The two of them went down the paths.

"Oh, goro, brother. . . " Gorrito muttered to himself, shaking his head. "Those two were always like rocks on a hill, goro. Perhaps we got them too excited, goro. . . Well, we're all headed to the same place, so we should meet up with them if we keep going, goro. Don't get discouraged, brothers!" Gorrito said to Mei and Buzzari, smiling kindly to the two of them. Although the trio were already behind the two Gorons, they would be a bit more sidetracked.

As they idly chat about what was going on with their posse, Mei felt the ground directly beneath her feet rumble. A mere moment later, giving her barely any time to respond, she was harshly thrown off her feet and onto her back a couple feet away. Sprouting out like the trees she wanted to plant, a multitude of small creatures, apparently stacked on top of each other, shot up, dirt flinging out from their sides as they did.

They by themselves were rather small, at least compared to the typical Hylian. However, when compared to Mei and Buzzari they actually seemed somewhat large, each one about equaling the size of the small Korok in height, while being far pudgier than her. Their bodies were a bright yellow, with small bill-like mouths. Their lower bodies were a colorful blue, making it appear as if they wore pants. About 5 or so stood on top of one another's shoulders, their combined height reaching above even the Goron. A wise adventurer would recognize them as Acro-Bandits. What even were Acro-Bandits, though? Were they some type of mole creature, perhaps a distant cousin? They looked fairly duck-like in appearance though. Were they some weird hybrid of a mole and duck, such as a burrowing subspecies of ducks?

You probably didn't ask yourself these questions though, because they were upset. You had stepped on their heads. They quacked, probably, at you furiously. Well, I hope you can fight!

--

Although Sienna and Ravager were momentarily stunned by the sudden shockwave echoing throughout the cavern, the Goron's attempts at a counterassault were cut short by Julius, as the Hylian leaped onto the rocky back of the beast, his fingers digging into the rocky crevices and gripping tightly as he struggled not to fall off. The Goron immediately reacted, spinning around to swing at Julius, sending the Hylian swinging to the left. However, he managed to hang on as the Goron spun around, confused at the lack of a target. A flurry of insults rang in the ears of the Goron, and at first he seemed completely unphased by the barrage of harsh words spewing from Julius' mouth.

As you insulted his soup though, a fire seemed to light up in his belly, not unlike the same flame heating the soup, as he roared, his words indistinguishable at this point. However, although you couldn't make out what exactly it was, he was clearly intending to say something. Upon mentioning his song, his unintelligible garble seemed to turn to angry singing, though it was still more like shouting. It was difficult, but you could still make out what he was singing.

"SMASH THE HYLIAN WITH A ROCK, GOROOOOOO!" He chanted over and over as he violently swung his body around, Julius barely keeping a solid grip on his back. Meanwhile, Sienna waited for an opportunity to get on, but the Goron was moving far too furiously for her to get a solid land, at least from what she saw. Eventually, he managed to get Julius off, the Hylian's grip slipping as he was harshly and violently flung off, slamming into the ground. Though the impact didn't seem to inflict any mentionable damage, it did leave Julius open for an attack.

As the Hylian scrambled to recover and bring his shield up, the Goron's body started letting out a light, white aura, specifically in the spots that had been struck among his rocky hide. His fist also shimmered in this white, misty aura, as he threw a fierce punch forward. A wise, trained warrior would likely recognize this as the technique Payback Punch. Julius managed to bring his shield up as the punch rocketed forward, slamming into the shield with an impact far greater than the previously blocked punches, and Julius could feel it.

The shield slammed into his body along with his arms as the Hylian was sent rolling back, probably hitting the back of his head on the ground in the process. That would probably leave quite some soreness. However, this left him completely open for Sienna. The Deku leaped off of Ravager's back and high into the air as she approached, grabbing the glaive midair. Using the combined momentum of her jump and the force of the weight she carried, she pushed hard as she landed on the Goron's back, the glaive sliding deeper into the rocks.

The Goron seemed to roar out once more, but it was far weaker this time. In fact, it seemed almost too weak. Sure enough, his body started to shake as he stuttered back and forth, before collapsing onto his belly on the ground in front of him. As he did this, his form slowly shifted from the monstrous rocky form he had taken on back into the regularly sized Goron they had seen moments before. He seemed completely unconscious now, having lost all energy. Though he was still visibly alive, the glaive was embedded deeply into his backside, especially due to his shrunken form. Without immediate magical medical treatment, it was clear he would likely perish in short time.

The question you should ask yourselves, though, is this. . . Why did this happen in the first place? Just what is he?

Julius loosed a sigh of relief, exhaustion beginning to wash over him in waves. He loosed a brief sigh, panting heavily as the heat of the caverns washed over him. His perspiration was suddenly much noticeable to him, feeling as though he'd just jumped into an enormous well filled with water, though he was nearly certain no such object existed here. He watched as the Goron lay on the ground for a moment, briefly wondering whether he was in the right or wrong with his actions. On one hand, no normal Goron exhibited that kind of capability; however, that didn't rule out the possibility of a technique or magic. He was somewhat aware of varying transformative techniques, some even caused by items on one's person. Looking at the heap slowly dying on the floor, a familiar yet strange sensation washed over his moral being. He had just killed an innocent.

He knelt slowly, reaching towards his throat, his index and middle fingers outstretched. He placed them where he knew their major arteries to be. A faint pulse, growing weaker as the scant time passed. Finally, his attention was drawn to the rather large, obtrusive polearm extending from the creature's backside. He withdrew his arm, standing from his kneeling stance, and moved to reach for it. He stopped himself briefly, looking in the direction of the Deku Scrub he had fought alongside. He thought for a second, thinking carefully as to whether it would be a good idea to touch his weapon. Actually, there was much he had yet to discover about the Deku; perhaps now would be a decent time to speak? He couldn't make up his mind. The entire situation seemed to come from some shitty anime.

He thought for a second, unsure of what to say, or do, really. He extended a helping hand towards the warrior, and began to speak, a resounding cool, calm, and collected voice emanating from his mouth. "I'm.. Julian, a mercenary captain. My men and I were assigned to deal with some local thugs and one way or another, we got separated. I heard this monster singing, and I guess I thought it was one of my men. In hindsight pretty stupid, I guess," a small laugh escaping at the end. A small smirk would have been visible on his face, were it not for the helmet he was wearing; thankfully, it covered the majority of his face, having just enough room through the slits on his visor for him to view his surroundings.

As the strange duck-like Mogma towered high into the air, Mei whipped out her Deku Leaf. Lifting back as much as a Korok really could, she swung fiercely in front of her, a powerful gust of air bursting from her miniature frame and headed straight for the upper Acro-Bandit. The blast connected directly, pushing him back and sending him flying into the air. At least, it would have, if not for the fact that the Acro-Bandit below it held tightly onto its legs, and the Acro-Bandit below it to its legs, and so on. Instead, the massive tower came collapsing down, crashing into the ground. The bottom four Acro-Bandits instantly jumped up and scattered, frantically scurrying to and fro at extremely fast pace. The very upper Acro-Bandit however, seemed to have been injured on his fall. While he wasn't completely out of it, he didn't seem to be doing much right now, perhaps the hit dazed him a bit?

As the remaining Acro-Bandits scattered around the group, Gorrito seemed to be having some trouble. "They're too fast, goro! I can't hit them, goro!" Gorrito shouted somewhat frustratedly to his companions, as he fruitlessly took a swing at the agile creature. "They're like my bro Goruigi, goro! Sorry little bros, but I have to leave this up to you, goro! I'll try to block them, goro!" Gorrito continued, before trying to body flop onto one of them only for it to narrowly escape.

One of the Acro-Bandits seemed to start trying to rush Mei, charging directly at her. However, as he neared, his random quacks? of battle? changed to quacks? of fear and pain as his eyes clenched shut. It was all thanks to the efforts of Buzzari the Bee! Our bee hero gave him a nasty sting in his eye, beecause that is the most sensitive place to sting! This bee doesn't give any honey, no sir! Though it wasn't enough to stop the creature, its frantic panicking due to the lack of vision caused it to miss Mei entirely and trip, falling to the ground behind her. Buzzari should feel so accomplished. However, it was still very much active, as evident by the very aggressive screams and flailing.

As soon as that one charged Mei, however, two other seemed to try to charge at her, as a duo attack. They were lined side by side, making somewhat of a wall to slam into her. The final Acro-Bandit was busy keeping Gorrito pre-occupied, as it ran circles around him and between his legs.

--

(Julius and Sienna will not receive updates until they either continue on from the room they are at currently, or waste an exceedingly large amount of time in this room, whichever comes first. If you do attempt to kill the Goron, you may auto-finish it in your post without my update.)

Julius shook the Deku's hand back, still kneeling beside the Goron. Sienna, his companion, spoke her words. He considered his options. He didn't need to stain his hands with the blood of a (presumably) innocent Goron any further. "No, go ahead," he spoke, standing and taking a few steps backwards. His scutum hung from his arm, his opposite arm hugging onto the hilt of his blade as he watched Sienna finish the Goron for good. As the deed was done, they began to head further into the depths of the mountainous caverns with a solemn nod shared between the two.

As they walked into the caverns Julius-- err, Julian began to ask Sienna a few questions. "That's some impressive equipment you've got there," he spoke, eyeing her weapons and armor with a sense of avarice. "I assume you're a smith?" He asked, somewhat presumptuously judging her appearance. "Or at least, moderately wealthy..." He trailed off, keeping his mind focused on his surroundings.

“I happen to be a bit of a smith m’self, you see,” he continued, talking to the monstrous Deku. It was true enough that, while she possessed even more ferocity than the Wolfos she rode upon, she just so happened to have a soft spot for such things.

“It all happened . . . oh, I don’t know, forty years ago? Back when Kakariko was still around. That’s where my father raised me, see. Trained me with a blade for a while, too, but always ones he’d have me make m’self,” expositing about his history. It wasn’t much intriguing; but, his relative age was sure to keep things somewhat interesting. Given his conversational partner’s personality, though, it would be a hard thing to do indeed. Stopping the conversation there, the duo continued deeper into the caverns, unsure of just what they might find next.

The heat only grew more intense, more fantastic, the lower they got. Under his mail, Julius felt like he was suffocating. The sweat on his brow poured down his face: it had to be more than a hundred degrees down here. And, surely enough, the source became apparent. Deep wells of magma (given their subterranean location) pooled around them. Bits of rock, just barely large enough for one of them to stand on, floated amidst the red hot river.

It was here they began to spy upon the first glimpses of civilization as well, discarding their encounter with the Goron chef; large beams of what could only be Goron Iron were strung all across the all walls, obviously holding up the structure. As the long beams of metal met the molten deposits, they turned red hot, yet their form stayed true to Goron Iron’s unique properties. Across the river of molten rock and metal was an entryway even further into the depths of the cave. Large, green skinned monsters with tails as red as the lake below were perched amidst the lake itself, however. High outcroppings of rock and stone eventually stooped just low enough for the amphibious looking creatures to grab good footing along the walls. It seemed they could even climb across the beams that held the entire structure up. The heat didn’t bother them a bit, but the same could not be said for Julius. His vision grew blurry and foggy, his muscles becoming weak and weary. Thinking over this quickly, he knew that those rocks could not last forever in something that was hot enough to heat Goron Iron. As he watched the lake, slowly the rocks dissolved, becoming nothing but more red, sloppy goop. He turned, looking along either side of the entryway. Jugs. About twelve; nothing more than cheap, unceremonious clay vases. Stooping over to one, he shook it around. Sloshing. He smelled inside of it for a second. It smelled . . . a bit like oil, actually. An incontent frown formed upon his face at the stench of the stuff.

“Blech. There’s some kinda oil over here,” he told Sienna, who was likely busy with the Creatures scaling along the walls. He turned, somewhat unthinking, with the vase still in his hands. With a huff and a puff, he threw the vase far into the magma. A large grayish-brown formation appeared, before beginning to shake and spill over the course of the next minute. It seemed Julius was onto something.

Julius noticed the creature wandering on the cieling above him, given his sharpened and trained senses almost always keeping him aware of his environment. The beast -- as large as it was -- was a deftly maneuverable creature, that much was sure. It crawled along the cieling at a pace that was quite astounding; it was quicker than many Hylians whom could be watched as they hustled around Castle-Town, for sure.

Seeing the beast ready itself to spit fire -- as he knew it would, as he had fought Dodongos many a time before -- he raised his shield in a meager defense. He knew his simple iron would not last for long -- he had seen men scorched alive by their breath before. One poor sod, who thought to wear chain, had survived -- you could still the burn scars deep within his flesh today, even. So, instead of hoping it would deflect its attack altogether (he knew it wouldn't), he hoped for it to merely deflect it for long enough so that he might step out of its area of effect. He thought of how to reach it, carefully -- wary of its movements and the one that approached Sienna upon the ground as well. Sienna... probably had much better reach than he -- the four foot armorer wielded a glaive nearly nine feet in length, did she not? "Take the one up top," he asked, somewhat forcefully, while muttering jnder his breath, "I can't reach the bedamned thing." Hopefully -- and this was well-wishing on his part-- Sienna would be up for smashing the pinata to get the sweet, sweet succulent treats from within. From what he knew of Sienna's sadism, though he had barely scratched the surface, he guessed she'd enjoy it all the same. After all, if it's big, it has big guts, right? Right.

Moving to his right, past the stout goliath, he warily approached the red-tailed beast. He couldn't tell if it would still go for Sienna -- nor if the larger one would give up the chase for him and go for the iron-clad mutilator. But, with his.shield raised and his feet ready to move, dizzy and tired though he may be, he hoped he be able to get a few decent swings at the lizard. An overgrown reptile was what it reminded him of -- like the bearded lizards you'd sometimes see near Kakariko in the especially hot and arid summer months. Or an undergrown Lizalfos. Julius really couldn't make up his mind -- but it didn't matter, as he slowly kept advancing upon the smaller creature.

Julius watched as the Dodongo fled away from him. Or, more precisely, Sienna. He honestly didn't blame the poor thing; after seeing what Sienna had done, he would have done much of the same.

Another rock was blasted from the cieling as it landed close to the middle of the lake. As Julius watched, learning the rhythm and pace of the somewhat spontaneous but still predictable gouts. As he saw bubbling in the magma in front of him, he steeled himself, prepared to make the leap. A large boulder fell from the cieling, this time leaving a small hole in the cieling, unnoticeable though it was. He leapt onto it as it splashed into the magma, more gouts coming forward as he lept from boulder to boulder.

His vision clouded and went hazy as he slumped to the ground in front of the door. He panted, and then panted some more, struggling to catch his breath as he waited for Sienna to cross the river. Turning his back to her for the moment, he opened the next door, however it opened, and inched his pathetic, almost lifeless body inside.

He may have had experience in dealing with heat, but nothing like exposed magma. He wondered how Sienna endured it: since she was a Deku, she had to have been extra vulnerable to it all.