Eagle Labyrinth

Dante watched without moving, knowing full well that his companions had things in check. The Wall Master perished within moments, was thrown back into the darkness. Dante shook his head as he looked at Guy and Rika, watching as they tried to provide light for the room. "We'll need better than that." Dante reached around, grabbed several of his wooden arrows. Grasping a few in each hand, Dante brought them over the torch, lighting their tips on fire. The dry tinder lit readily. Crouching, Dante tossed the miniature torches into the room, his hand brushing near the ground as he released the sticks. The wooden arrows skittered against the ground, but luckily stayed lit. The flames flickered, providing small domes of light, small beacons of hope, in the darkness ahead...

Rika withdrew his scythe, holding it with his left hand. He was at a small disadvantage being able to only use it with one hand, but that didn't necessarily matter. Rika slowly entered the next room after Sienna and Guy, taking the chance to glance around the room as he moved towards the right. Since he was holding the torch it provided him with a little bit more light then the rest of the group, but it didn't give more then around the immediate area. Of course, along with that, it made him stand out somewhat. Along with this, while normally Wallmasters casted a shadow upon their targets before dropping, this would not remain here due to the torch.

A Wallmaster suddenly dropped from the ceiling behind Rika. He managed to hear it at the last second and jumped back, preventing it from getting a complete hold on him. However, the Wallmaster still had a grip on Rika, preventing him from creating any distance. Along with that, the sudden jolt caused him to accidentally drop his scythe and the torch, which were now nearby on the floor. "Get the fuck off me!" He shouted, struggling to let go. The Wallmaster had decent strength, however, and Rika didn't really have any. He quickly swung his fist at it, giving it a somewhat decent punch. It didn't even seem to hurt the Wallmaster, however, and if anything hurt Rika.

"Ow, shit that hurt!" As they struggled, Rika managed to grab one of his daggers. Pulling it out, he stabbed the Wallmaster in the back, causing it to screech and let go. However, it didn't kill it, so Rika still had a job to do. Quickly picking up his scythe, Rika spun the head where the blade was around, having the tip point forward. Pulling back, he threw the scythe straight forward. Before it left his fingertips, a fireball formed at the tip, firing along with it. The Wallmaster was hit by the fireball, being quickly set ablaze. Sadly, it didn't get to suffer, as the scythe quickly pierced it soon after, killing it.

Rika apparently doesn't know the term "overkill", or perhaps, maybe he does? Nonetheless, the Kokiri walked over to the Wallmaster, sliding his scythe and dagger out of it's deceased body. Well, aren't Wallmaster already dead? Maybe not, but their appearance suggests so. Either way, Rika slid his dagger away for now, holding onto his scythe. "Need to pay more attention." He looked over towards the torch; there'd probably be a torch on the wall too. Picking up the torch, he glanced over towards the nearby wall. Indeed there was a torch on the wall, resting near the center.

Holding his torch up to it, the flame lit the wick of the other torch, causing it to set on fire. There was probably another torch on the other side of the room, but it was too dark to see the other walls from here. He couldn't even see the entirety of the wall he was beside. He could worry about lighting other torches after they all take care of the Wallmasters, anyway.

Dante watched as his allies charged into the room, surging forth to do battle with unseen forces. The small shrub pondered this for a moment, mystified by how reckless they were. He chuckled, joined in the fray, following on Rika's heels. Guy had marked two Wallmasters, and before Dante had a chance to reach the second, Sienna had already dispatched the first. Dante shot past Rika as a green blur, the Kokiri mage erring on the side of caution. Dante felt a rush of wind behind him, knew that a trap had fallen upon his comrade. His step faltered, worry almost instinctively causing his head to snap back to look upon the enemy that had attacked Rika. Hearing the Kokiri curse, however, sobered Dante, lent strength back to his step. He knew that the mage was more than capable, and could handle himself.

Wood scraped against stone floor as Dante furiously made his way towards the second Wallmaster that Guy had wounded. Although the Wallmaster was barely in sight, a grey finger bone playing with the shadows of a nearby flickering arrow shaft, Dante could hear its momentary floundering, Guy's knife temporarily causing it to fall to the floor. The sound disappeared in a moment, leaving only chaos behind Dante, and an empty void of silence ahead. The green light of his fits grew brighter, casting its eerie hue ahead; still, he could not locate the glint of Guy's knife that would betray the Wallmaster. As he neared the site of its fall, Dante realized why; the Wallmaster had been floundering on the ground to dislodge the knife!

The slightest of whistling disrupted the silence that governed the space around Dante. Smelling death, that sweet smell of rotting flesh, Dante eyes flicked up to see a descending, rotting hand, liquefied flesh dripping off of bone in great, green globs. The potent smell burned his eyes, threatened to unsettle his stomach. His mental barriers flared to life, expelled his natural reaction to the horrifying undeath falling from above. The hand was falling further in his path forward, attempting to ensnare him while he made any futile attempts to stop. As he stepped forward with his left leg, he bent his knee, his body carrying forward with momentum. Lowering as his knee flexed, Dante pushed with as much might as he could muster, launching him from the ground. A green and brown missile sheared through the air towards the falling hand.

Calm your mind. All thought was gone now, pure battle instinct overriding his body. His left arm pulled back, as did his right, which sped to the handle of his Kukri, strapped to the small of his back. Grasping it in a reverse grip, while channeling the Wind Enchantment from his right gauntlet to his left, Dante pulled his knees in closer to his body with one, fluid and continuous motion. Pulling with great might, the sword screamed as it left its scabbard, a cry for blood and bone. His fist pulled his sword after it, swinging in a might arc from right to left at Dante's chest height. Polished metal slid into the corpulent skin and muscle, cutting to the bone, yet the blow was not yet enough. The Wallmaster still fell, as incorrigible as an iceberg, threatening to drag Dante to the ground with his blade stuck in its flesh.

"No." Dante simply refused, time slow beneath his gaze. His left arm punched out, below his right arm, hit the back spine of his kukri. Verdant light exploded, gale force winds propelling the blade through the hard bone, severing three fingers at the third knuckle. Black ichor, too-old blood, flowed out, splashed coldly against Dante's arms and face. Trailing an explosion of inky sludge through the air, like a macabre firework, Dante let out a soft, satisfied mewl, the rush of battle bringing sweet memories of death back to him. Dante readjusted his arms, disentangling them as he sailed in an arc, flipping once, then twice. He landed on the ground, the dark liquid landing on the ground with a heavy, wet splash. He landed instinctively, body leaning forward, head bent down, nearly on one knee. His arms were splayed out behind him and to the side, like wings made of ink, as the blood dripped slowly from them, forming pillars as each drop touched the ground. Dante's chest fell, a heavy sigh escaping his mouth, an bone-chilling whistle amidst the silence.

There seemed to be somewhat of a momentary silence in the air, as all the monsters were defeated. The room was for the most part dark, except for the torch Rika had lit on the wall. That would soon change, however, as Sienna started assigning orders to everyone. When she talked to Rika, however, he hadn't been given an order; Instead, he was asked what spells he knew. That was much preferred for Rika, as he wasn't a fan of being given orders, especially from someone he had only just met. "Well, aside from the Fire spell, I also have Ice and Wind. They're. . . pretty much exactly what they sound like." He responded, as he made his way to the other side of the room to look for a torch. He found the other torch, which rested adjacent to the one he had already lit.

Lighting it up, it provided a little bit more light. However, for the most part the room was still dark. "So what about you, then? Do you just use the glaive or do you have any trick up your sleeve? And what about you, Guy?" Rika figured it'd be better to know the abilities of the group. Although he didn't know the specifics of Dante's abilities, Rika had a general idea of what Dante did use due to prior experiences. What he didn't know was Dante had long forgotten most of the skills and spells Rika once knew he had.

Dante saw Sienna's face, stared straight at the numerous battle scars, but had no visible reaction. It did surprise him a little, though. How different, she and Guy were, Guy who cared so much about his own physical appearance that he had forced his head-leaves into the likeness of hair. She was blunt, he was subtle, and Dante supposed that was the key difference from which all their other, innumerable differences came from. The image of her face did not phase him at all, though. He himself had quite the large scar running down the center of his forehead. He reached up, felt the crack that had not yet healed, and perhaps never would. "As you wish." Dante merely responded to her command, deciding that after her particular display, he did not want to tempt fate by provoking her. Still... She seemed to be more calm than before. The less war-like Deku took note of that, shuffling it in the back of his mind for future reference, and most probably use.

Walking to the edge of his room, a deep emerald glow began to show at the center of his palm, shining up against the wall. The magic did not emanate the same sort of magnitude as before, showing that Dante was conserving as much energy as he could; as far as he knew, they still had a long way to go. He waved his open hand in front of the wall, a trail of green trailing his fingers and illuminating the walls. "Guy, careful. Sienna was right; there is probably a switch in this room to activate another trap. Suspicious holes in the wall." Dante knew that was all he had to say; the small holes probably meant that if said switch was triggered, needles or arrows would be rained down upon them, and probably worse. However, the fact that there was such a mechanism did mean something. It was just a guess, but Dante suspected that there might be a hallway hidden behind the wall, just behind the trap mechanism; no one would be foolish enough to build a one-shot trap, especially if they were guarding something precious. There would be a service area, that would give those who had once guarded the dungeon a means of reloading the trap.

Dante guessed that the wall he was looking at was riddled with the same holes. "I'm going to investigate. Don't do anything stupid, and be careful." He called back to the others, pulling out his honing knife. The first thing to do would be opening a hole wide enough for him to see through. Ducking, he chose the hole closest to the ground; about knee height for a Hylian. Gingerly sticking the small knife into the hole, he slowly rotated it, scraping away at the old wall. Pulling the knife out, he stuck his eye against the widened hole. Looking through his new eye hole, he saw that he was right. There was a spring mechanism with a needle loaded into it, that would be triggered to fire once a particular brick was stepped on, or the like. Dante wasn't entirely sure, and hoped to Din that no one set the trap off while he worked. "Guy, can you see if you can maybe find the switch without setting it off?" Dante asked, a blob of an idea forming in his head. Pulling out an arrow, he stuck it down the hole, its tip lighting very faintly with green; the weakest Wind Enchantment he could manage. As the arrow made contact with the needle, the needle was set off of its track and made useless. He proceeded to do this for the holes near him, until a square, just a bit taller and wider than a Kokiri was made. He left the arrow at the center hole of the square and made his way back to the group, going back the way he had come; clearly, he had not set off the trap on his way to the wall. When he returned to Rika and Sienna, he reported his findings and his subsequent action.

(Sorry to godmode this a little bit, but I don't want to really have to do another post cycle just because you guys need to move to the wall where the trap has been disabled.)

"Alright, I've disabled the trap in a small section of the wall over here." Dante beckoned, making his fist glow a little brighter so they could see as they walked over. "The wooden shaft in the wall marks the center of the square that I disabled; as long as you guys stand in a row, facing that area, we should have no problem..." Dante explained, motioning towards the aforementioned area. Walking away once they had arrived, Dante walked towards the plate that Guy had spoken about. Bending down on his knees, he blew the dust off the tile on the floor, observed it, trying to garner any information he could. Guy was right; it jutted out unnaturally from the floor, probably a centimeter higher from the rest, which was, in retrospect, quite a lot. "This place is old, from what I could see of the design of the trap; whatever is down here might not be living anymore..." Dante muttered quietly, though he was sure his voice could be heard. He shuddered, thinking of the Wall Masters. There was clearly an undead presence within this place, but how deep did it run? Dante was beginning to think that this was more of a prison, meant to keep whatever what was still living, or unliving, within its walls. Standing back up, his knees crackling, he began to walk back towards Guy and the rest of the party.

He reached to his back as he made his way towards them, drawing out his bow and stringing it fluidly. Plucking it to ensure that its tension was still good, he drew an arrow, did an about-face as he reached the end of the line his comrades had formed. Raising his bow up above his head and knocking it against the bow, Dante slid his left foot forward, about a shoulders length from his other. Pulling hard as he lowered the bow, wood, bone, and glue creaking with the strain, Dante took his aim. Breathing in, he readied the shot. Letting the shaft fly as he expelled his breath, Dante was satisfied by his arrow's straight flight into the tile, triggering the trap. Old, iron needles shot from hundreds of holes in the wall, but all Dante could hear was the click of released springs of the area he had disabled. "There is probably a hallway behind the trap mechanism behind this wall. Sienna, if you would..." Motioning towards the fairly brittle wall that could probably be busted in fairly easily by the amazonian Deku.

As the flames erupted against the ground, the party was met face to face with the colossal, horned dragon. It was somewhat of a strange creature, brandishing a long, unicorn horn on its head while the rest of its body was that of a fearsome scaled dragon, but its ridiculousness was not a sign to underestimate. Though simple in ability, that did not negate its mighty strength or searing flames it could launch on command, especially when a three-quarters of the party would combust at a single touch of his burning embers. Luckily for them, the strange and out of place horn on its skull was also a notable weakness carried by Aquamentus; it seemed to be connected to the creature's very life-force, and destroying it was akin to tearing its heart out.

With a basic understanding of his allies' combat capabilities at hand, they should be capable of dispatching such a beast. Making his way into the room, the Kokiri ducked and leaped to avoid an orb of fire sailing over his head and crashing into the wall behind him, exploding and dispersing against it. Though the orbs were deadly, they were not impossibly difficult to avoid should one be aware the fire is coming and prepared to avoid it; this was enhanced by the fact that the party all possessed a rather short and agile disposition, making them more difficult targets to hit than one would normally be. It seemed as though Aquamentus was focusing on the entryway at the moment, to attempt to blow away those who were still funneling into the room.

As he moved closer, Rika snapped his fingers, sending his own albeit slightly smaller orb of fire catapulting at the Aquamentus, specifically its horn. His face fell into a frown as he saw the results, however. The unicorn dragon lifted its head further up to prepare another volley of fire, causing his spell to crash against Aquamentus's neck, dispersing harmlessly against its thick, likely flame resistant green scales. With its height advantage and the distance between them, it would be difficult to hit such a small target so haphazardly; if Rika wanted to hit the horn with a spell, he would have to target it while Aquamentus was preoccupied with one of the other three.

Dante, alas, was the last of the four to enter into the adjacent room. Maybe busting through the wall hadn't been such a great idea after all. Oh well, no point in bemoaning the past. As his fellow Deku ran into the room, Dante heard the roaring of flames, along with Guy's rather... interesting curse. Moments after, he yelled out something about a horn. Aquamentus, then, was to be their opponent. Rika dashed into the room next, just as Dante pulled his Kukri from its sheath and his Whirlwind from his holster. He'd considered drawing his bow, but... no. The horn of the beast would prove too difficult to accurately hit, while also avoiding the fire.

While he was loath to approach the beast, and put himself at risk of catching fire, that seemed like the best option of the two. He waited as a second bout of flames crashed against the other side of the wall against which he was pressed, exploding flames partially licking through the hole they'd made. As they died away, he pulled out, the last to make it into the room. Activating his Hover Boots, he skated into the room swiftly, just as the dragon was rearing its head back, for another barrage of fire.

"Oh no you don't!" Dante jumped, disappearing in a flash of green. A scream echoed out in the room at the moment of his reappearance, just as Aquamentus was about to unleash more fire. He hadn't been close enough to appear over its head, but this would help the others: in another green flash, he had reappeared in front of Aquamentus' neck, just below the beast's head. He sailed past, his Hover Boots placed in hover-mode, but not before slicing across its neck scales. The sword's blade itself wasn't the most effective, but the Wind Enchantment that graced it exploded powerfully, throwing Aquamentus' aim high.

Dante fell to the ground, rolling from the impact, and jumping out of the way as the dragon flailed its tail in an attempt to crush the annoying Deku.

As the four spread out and scattered across the room, Aquamentus's attacks in turn became more scattered as his attention was torn between multiple different targets. Aquamentus spewed its great balls of fire forward, threatening to roast Rika and Sienna alive; the same trick didn't work at first and it wouldn't work now, though, at least not against Rika, as he agilely stepped out of the way, the fireball soaring past him and crashing into the wall behind. Surprisingly enough to Rika, the armor-clad Deku Scrub was capable of keeping up with the fireballs, dodging out of the way of their grasp if albeit in a somewhat clunky manner. Just as the previous flames dissipated, Aquamentus decided to unleash another blast at the land-bound duo.

Rika had been watching it the past few times, and it seemed to follow a pretty regular pattern for its flames; lift its head back, then extend it forward to release. It was mostly the same, even to how far it detracted and extended its head. Whether it was formulaic due to just a tendency the Aquamentus had or a requirement to unleash the attack properly, it would allow Rika to predict the movements of its head. So, as it thrust its head forward to unleash another barrage, Rika thrust his hand forward, a chilling chunk of magical ice flying forward not at where the Aquamentus's horn was, but where it would be. The burst of flames spit out of its mouth, but shortly after it found a powerful blow impacting its horn, chilling ice plowing against its unicorn horn and causing it to roar out in pain and fury. Its horn was left chilled and frozen, flakes and chips of ice slowly raining downward onto the ground as it moved its head.

Having been the latest assaulter, the Aquamentus decided to turn its focus on Rika. As the balls of fire seemed to be ineffective against the swift Kokiri, and its tail was largely non-existent due to Rika's positioning, the Aquamentus tried the next best thing; it would charge at the Kokiri, attempting to trample him with its large, fat dragon body.

(Yup Too much work, we started this waaaaaaaaay too long ago.)

He couldn't use his Wind Enchantment nor his Wizzwarp for a few moments yet, but as long as Aquamentus stayed alive, he remained a threat that needed to be dealt with immediately. He had no time for his magic power to rebuild, so dilly dallying was out of the picture. Grunting in pain as he pulled himself from the ground, shoulder bruised from the fall despite his best efforts, he set off at his enemy who'd only just begun its charge at Rika. Without his Wind Enchantment, there was little he could do to throw it off course, so hopefully the Kokiri mage could manage to avoid the deadly charge. Setting off at a dead sprint, Dante followed after the scaled foe, accelerating with quick bursts of his Whirlwind at the ground just behind him.

At the same time his other hand moved swiftly, sheathing his blade. He couldn't alter the dragon's course, but maybe he could distract it enough to give his allies another opening. Building up speed and launching himself into a mighty leap, Dante found himself at Aquamentus' side, staring at the side profile if his enemy's head. Inhaling, then breathing out, a bright flash and the sound of a tiny explosion rang out, as a Deku Nut collided with Aquamentus' eye. Dante tried to blink away the stars as he flew past, falling back to the ground quite disoriented.

With nothing to do except move as the Aquamentus began its reckless charge, the Kokiri's feet moved as he ran towards the wall. Reaching the wall, Rika had no other choice except to dive to the side, the Aquamentus crashed into the wall with an echoing SMASH. Rubble erupted from the wall, painfully pelting the Kokiri's back with a rainfall of rock and stone, though he was otherwise lucky to be in one piece. As the rubble quickly settled and the Kokiri quickly tried to bring himself to his feet, a bright flash blinded all of those in the room for but a mere moment, though Rika was lucky to be looking away when the effect went off, so as to only suffer a minor feeling of disorientation. The Aquamentus did not seem to immediately react, and with the presence of so many Deku Scrubs, it was an obvious conclusion that it was the result of a Deku Nut.

Guy's next strike certainly caused it to react, however. Just as its horn was lopped off, the dragon broke out into a frenzied panic, thrashing and launching fireball after fireball at anything and everything; whether this was due to its rage and panic, its obscured vision, or a combination of both, it wasn't clear, but it was certainly not aiming as well as before. Rika barely had enough time to recover on his own, scrambling to his feet to avoid being trampled or roasted alive. Unlike the other fireballs, these were far less predictable, though their aim was certainly far worse at the same time.

Quickly avoiding a Fireball, Rika found a large chunk of stone flying towards him, having been swept up by the thrashing of the Aquamentus's tail. Unable to dodge, Rika would have to deflect it however else he could. Swiping his hand forward, a powerful gust of wind was conjured, bursting forward and slamming into the barreling rock. The impact of the Wind spell was greater, and sent the stone hurdling along with its trajectory back at the Aquamentus. Both the stone and the spell crashed against the Aquamentus's neck, and though it didn't seem to have a particularly impactful effect due to not striking what was its horn, the collision of both at once still seemed staggering for the colossal lizard.

Dante flew end over end, arm and head crashing painfully into the ground as he landed. He shook the stars from his head, groaning while he pushed himself up from the ground. Though harder than most, their bodies could still bruise, though not quite as visibly: the Deku knew he'd be feeling this in the morning. Tossing his head again, Dante tried to get himself back into the fight, though he nearly fell back to his knees again, as Aquamentus collided with the wall, sending out dusty tremors. He could barely make out Sienna's words over the rumbling crash, but he got the gist. Warpy-Deku? Really? He'd have to scold her about that later: he was fairly certain that Guy had told Sienna his name. Guess she'd forgotten it. Shrugging, mostly to adjust his shoulder from its painful impact, Dante got back into the fight.

"You'll need to wait a second!" He yelled out to Sienna, as he began to close the gap between himself and Aquamentus. He couldn't just teleport willy-nilly: he'd need to get closer, if he wanted to get above the creature's head and bring it low. But approaching the dragon was quickly becoming more difficult, fireballs being hurled every which way. Dante narrowly leapt to the side, as one large enough to encompass his entire body smoldered past him. He could feel the leaves on his head curl a bit with the heat, their edges singing ever so slightly. He grunted with annoyance as he jumped out of the way of a second, gasping with strained effort as he avoided a third. This is impossible. He wasn't gaining any ground, though he only had a few meters to go.

Change of plans. He began to sprint headlong, though a fireball was headed straight for him. "Out of my way!" he snarled, squeezing of a quick succession of blasts from his Whirlwind. The combined impact of the wind blasts was enough to throw the projectile off course, sending it rising up towards the ceiling. Dante was gone in a flash of green just as a second fireball was about to make impact with him.

In another flash he reappeared, just above Aquamentus. "Heads-up!" Blade glowing green, Dante plummeted down at the head of Aquamentus, getting the perfect view of its ruined horn. Slamming the small sword, really practically a dagger to larger races, into the crown of the dragon's head, an explosion of wind forced Aquamentus' head low. Hopefully Sienna was ready to tear their enemy a new one.

As the Aquamentus's head fell and its eye was brutally impaled, the tension in the air seemed to fade and the battle came to a close. Rika's adrenaline began to die down, and he became aware of his heavy breathing and the soreness in his arms and body. The formidable dragon was dead, and they were hopefully one step closer to escaping this place. As Rika moved over to examine the corpse they had slain, Guy motioned towards a small speck of light shining through where a wall once was. Abandoning the corpse, Rika shuffled over to examine it. Certainly enough, hidden behind the hole that had been created in the wall lied the warm embrace of the sun. Rika's eyes were met with wide plains, and though he wasn't sure of the exact location, the region was unmistakably Hyrule Field. "It is!" Rika called back, squeezing through the opening it had created and to the outside.

As his feet planted on the earth outside, Rika's mind was assaulted with thoughts. What exactly was the purpose of this place? It appeared to be manned, at some point. How did they even end up there? Why was a massive dragon contained in such a room? Perhaps it was meant to be a container to keep the dragon and prevent it from escaping and wreaking havoc, but there was no way to know for sure. The possibilities raced through Rika's mind as he exited; he was intrigued now. This is a place he would have to revisit later, to learn more about the purpose or history of it. Even if they didn't find anything of interest, surely there was something he could find. For now, though, they were free.

(By the way I'm spending all 50 rupees to get Profession(Researcher) Level 1, 2, and 3 as my reward(Spending 5 of my own), and I gain the 15 rupees from the Profession, for a net gain of 10 Rupees.)