Eyes Dongo Cavern 3 & Pooky

It was a bustling, dry day in Castle Town. Not all was well, as the quest board stood hauntingly alone and deserted. The problem therein was not who wasn't at the board, but who soon would be. On cue was a girl in a tacky and mismatched outfit who shuffled her way out of the crowded cobble street. Something unmistakable about her was a very noticeably large pair of oven mitts adorning her arms. Small bouts of smoke would periodically seep out of the sleeve from within. This seemingly went unnoticed on the busy and active streets, where it was not unheard of to smell the smoke of a grilled food stand or a piped dilettante.

The Kokiri's outfit of course did not match the oven mitts, nor did the new sash she had over her dangerous knuckley eyes. Her previous sash was back where it belonged, tied into a bow around her waist. What resulted was a patchwork mashup of colors, a rare double low for her already broken fashion sense. She stopped in front of the quest board to wait out for her companion, whom she wrote to in advance for the meetup. He was surprisingly easy to send letters to, being a much bigger deal than she initially guessed. But he would likely be disappointed at the quality of Evelyn's letters, which were notorious for their sloppy use of colored wax to draw pictures.

They would be combing the quest board and select a major issue to tackle, though it was highly likely Julius Surgate had chosen a major and urgent dilemma well in advance as their mission. Which was also likely something Eve didn't care about and probably hadn't even crossed her mind at any point. She was well more likely to do something she was told to do than to volunteer, especially if it meant payment or an opportunity to hunt down valuables. If things went any bit like last time, maybe Julius could teach her a thing or two about reaching out to others in need. . .

Julius was working on another shoddy piece, a clear cut below the rest of his works. But, he couldn't manage the imperfections too well-- it was, well... Perfect, in a way. In his rush to finish it, which was rather practiced by now, he 'accidentally' soaked it for a fraction of a second shorter than it was supposed to.

Really, it was quite a beauty-- in its own way, of course. There was still the delivery to make, too; he couldn't keep his customers waiting, as the finest Weaponsmith in all of Hyrule. But either way, he was known to take his time with his... 'creations'. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing had yet to be seen-- but he had a delivery to get to, after all.

He exited the forge with a quick mangling of his equipment-- he wore his raiment, which covered his body, and the layer of Zora mail over that. The rest didn't necessarily matter-- besides the fact that he wore that, too.

He strapped his sword to his waist. He was prepared for business, now. And he knew where that business was-- in the cavern of Dodongos, where there was said to be literal mines of everything. Everything you could imagine; Splinter Crystal, Goron Iron... Potentially more things, too. Those were, of course, just the namesakes. Perhaps even Elemental Gems, too; if not the splendidly rare and unusual Master Ore, spoken of only in the upper reaches of Weaponsmiths and Outfitters. But that was for another time. In the now, his blade needed to be delivered-- and a trip to the Quest Bureau was in order.

He was on the streets now. In order for him to get to his client's house, he would have to swing by the Quest Bureau. This was good fortune indeed.

"What took you so long, Twinklepants?" came a voice near the ground.

Eve was still standing there, nearly invisible leaning against the Quest Board. She started to grip her wrist with her other oven mitt, to keep the smell of smoke from pouring out. Her lip tilted into a smirk, as she was cock-sure of herself that she was fooling everyone. Had it not been for the tell-tale clink of metal, she wouldn't even had heard him coming. Her confidence was misplaced, as always.

"You got my letter huh? What didja think?" she continued, trying to keep the subject off her increasingly poor circumstances. It was becoming almost too clear that she was in danger.

With everything on her mind, it could have been much worse. Her balance against the board began to slip, and she stumbled onto her boot as a set of papers tore off the board. Her smug look vanished, and she gripped her blindfold off of her brow to see what had fallen. She took a look at the small array of papers.

"Carrot famine? Cake baking? Cafe reviews?" she read off each quest. "We're above doing this nobody work, Clanks. We 'ave scuffles and glory in our future! I don't know the future, mind." she finished, now adjusting herself and checking if Julius was paying attention. The man seemed far more prepared for running kind deeds and errands for others. It was a good thing Eve had her hiking boots ready.

"I was busy making a weapon," Julius answered, looking down at the girl. "Which I should be off delivering, actually. And yes, I did receive your letter. That said..." Julius started looking through the requests, right when she slipped. He would have almost missed it, if it weren't for the huge, bold lettering around the paper's edges.

"Heroes wanted? Hm..." He started to read about something involving 'braving the dangers of a Dodongo-infested cave'. It sounded promising. It mentioned that the cave in question was once actually a mine as well -- so, surely, there had to be at least something left over from its bygone mine days. Who knew as to what would actually be in there? "This is far more interesting. Look," Julius motioned with his hand. "Heroes wanted for the clearing of a Dodongo-infested cave... that's all you really need to know, right?" He scanned er for any visible sign of expression, and satisfied with what he saw, took the envelope. It was time.

After a while, they were all set to go. All that had to be done, really, was the blade delivery. safely netting him his extra sixteen colorful gems. He really wanted to charge more for it, but really just found himself unable to, due to him perceiving it as 'such shoddy work'. Being a master Weaponsmith was suffering, at times. But that was then-- and the now, was the now.

"Alright, Evelyn," Julius called out through the front gates, "now we're going to exterminate these Dodongos and whatever host may have spawned them. Ready?" Julius called out, awaiting a response. Really, anything would do.

"That sounds like a plan... All we have to do is fetch that package over first?" she responded rhetorically.

She did seem out of sorts, but Julius had caught her expression just in time for her to stop making it. The busy streets were still just enough to cover up her gloom. She felt uncharacteristically compassionate. If by the end of the journey she didn't warn him against the danger of the Twister, she knew her head would pop. That was, if she could keep her mind on it. She wasn't aware what Julius was up to when she was absent, but he seemed to handle it better than she did.

"One last thing." she blurted, not a moment later. "I'm not just here to hang out with you, there's something else."

Eve slipped her hand into her sash and dug something out. A familiar gleam of green entered Julius' line of sight. She waved the completed Green Feather Kinstone in the air. She slipped her blindfold off with the other hand, and a rigid fist slammed down into the dust of the street before dissipating. She looked Julius in the eye for the first time in a while.

"This stone right here, Burt. Sooner or later we need to find out what it did when it fused! Out of all the awful things that've happened to me, I can't stand another second not knowing what this stone did!" she spat, returning to her old self disappointingly quickly.

"Just lead the way to the delivery 'fore I bust an artery." she added.

"I already delivered it, were you not paying attention? Kind of ironic, really, that you would miss the most lavish house even in that district," he said. "Anyways, seeing as that's taken care of, let's be off."

He relished in thought at himself becoming even better at Weaponsmithing. He subconsciously savored the thought of, perhaps sometime soon, being able to combine Goron Iron and Splinter Crystal with the aid of Master Ore. That, in reality, was his true goal. Becoming a Weaponsmith so great and grandiose that he could just about forge anything-- stopping, mentally, when he realized that that wasn't actually true. Then, he realized, that even if he weren't of such quality, he could -- with a bit of study, no doubt -- become of such greatness. It could be his.

Realizing where he was at, he'd stopped. "Tell me, Eve," he had said, in a tone that didn't necessarily lean one way or the other, "what do you think of that knife I made you?"

He started walking off again, listening to all her faults and objections with his work. He pressed on, nodding, and committing every last detail to memory.

...

This was where they had been told to arrive. Or rather, instructed, as it may have been. Some light was inside the cavern -- not necessarily enough, but with the ability to create fire on a whim, and the ability to go almost anywhere he wanted to, at any time -- what could possibly be worse? Not a whole lot, he was sure. With that, he wandered in.

Well, it could have been worse, that much was certain. With the level of light, and the fact that there seemed to be a literal pool of lava almost entirely blew him away. He would have to be careful, and made a note for Evelyn to do the same.

Tearing her eyes off a map, she looked up and noticed that Julius was in fact coming out of the gate of a very ritzy house when she wasn't paying attention. She rubbed her cheek with her knuckle, deciding that this was probably why she was waiting alone for several minutes while talking to herself with her blindfold down in the middle of the dirt road.

"No I mean, I totally noticed! Right, the knife." she responded, sweating nervously.

While this was only one of the many times per day she was caught with her pants down, it still stung a little every time she got called out for not paying attention. She awkwardly jittered her knife out of her pocket, and raised its blade to the air. The brilliant blue shining off the weapon contrasted even with the sky itself. The chain fell and wrapped around her arm. She swung it around at her side like a sling, twirling up a wind like an electric fan. A small crease of a smile went up her face.

"I can only really complain about how I can't stick it deeper into monsters because half way into my fun I accidentally activate the vapor cloth." she groaned, although it greatly sounded like a compliment still.

As she gripped the chain, Eve's oven mitt began to catch fire. A whirling smoke cloud obscured her vision as her smug expression faded. She shook her arm wildly in panic as one of her eyes popped wide. She managed to swat the fire out and let out a nervous laugh.

"Don't you hate when that happens? Haha. Let me just check my map and we can be on our way to Lizard Cavern." she coughed. She tried to cover it up, while remembering her earlier mistake with the map.

The parchment came aloft onto her smoldering mitts. She was having a hard time even paying attention, and it was more than likely Julius would suspect a lot more than her simply being distracted. Cautiously, she gauged his expression and walked with him toward the mountain trail. The heat of the day seemed to intensify as they hiked the field. The smoke from her hands seemed to stop, thankfully. Possibly because the most burnt parts of the oven mitts were already unable to catch fire again.

Though the dusty road was long, the toughness of their hike was only starting. Eve was beginning to put unnecessary clothing items into her adventure pouch, beginning with her blindfold sash. It was only a matter of time until she put forward a whiny comment again.

"I thought I was tired before when I spaced out on our walk. . . this is getting exhausting." she sighed.

Soon they came to a different sort of gate, the security checkpoint to go up the mountain. As this was one of the few roads traversible by foot, it was necessary to have the Guard on watch for suspicious characters going in--and devilish monsters trying to get out. Eve scratched the back of her head, the Hylian Guard put her on edge. She quickly wrapped her sash back around her eyes as to not trigger a chain reaction of eye-fist outbursts. The longer these Twister Problems went on, the more ridiculous they sounded.

"I'll let you handle these guys, Big Guy." she nervously whimpered up to the steadfast captain. She wasn't so much afraid of the soldiers as unwilling to talk to them in a civilized manner.

As the whirling smoke came and went, it was pretty obvious that only one person had been able to do that, as far as he knew. The Twister was that person. Deciding to capitalize on this, he asked her, "Made someone just a bit upset, hm?" Julius wasn't laughing, considering what had happened to him when he tried to twist his physical form. "Just be a bit more careful next time... if there even is a next time."

He decided to keep his method of removing curses placed on him a secret for now. Well, the one for his physical form, at least. Usually, had you decided to not get along with a certain twist... Then he would tell you how to undo it. He didn't really know if it had done so for this time-- such an event, as far as he knew, was a rather extreme outcome. Likely due to her latent anger issues, and probably some more things that he wasn't quite sure he knew about Eve.

Then they came to one of his -- could he really be called 'his'? -- guards atop the trail leading to the mountain. Walking up to the man, whom had already saluted him, he saluted back, once he was in proper speaking range. "Excuse me, but we'll be needing to go up there," he pointed to some far away alcove that he was sure could be seen by anyone worthy of having two eyes.

Then, the man responded. "So they sent a Captain..? Well, whatever. I would rather a Captain do this than some fresh-faced recruits. At least you look well suited for this." He said, going up to the gate and, after a moment of struggling with it, finally opened the way for them.

"Believe me, after everything I've been through, I'm inclined to agree." He returned the Sergeant's salute, and headed onto the stony path.

Then, the boulders started rolling down from somewhere-- probably the mountain above them. Speaking of mountains... "Do you wonder, sometimes, about all that stuff that happened in the fish? Because I don't, and I would prefer you to share that viewpoint." He also wondered if -- like the fish -- this would have multiple floors as well. It might, he ceded. He stopped, checking for his pouch of bombs at his belt.

Yes, he had them. With them, he doubted anything -- short of perhaps a couple Lizalfos -- to be able to really hold them back. "By the way, stop calling me by nicknames. I think we're on better terms, now-- just call me Julius, please," he said, moving to the side as he narrowly avoided the boulder. Where were they coming from, anyways? He watched the mountains for a bit, watching as the mountain shook, likely from whatever monster was being an inconsiderate piece of shit. "Well, regardless, we seem to have problems deeper in than I first anticipated." He stayed to the side as a boulder crashed into him-- disregarding the exact solution of this being a safe place to hide.

What was worse, is that there were tektites of all possible things. Tektites. They were, as per usual, leaping to and fro, like the rocks weren't even a threat. He felt like he was about to have a stroke; that was how blinding the rage itself was. Of course, he could leap over there and slay all of them, so he did.

Thankfully, these were no ordinary Tektites -- they were a different breed. He tried to match them to any picture he could remember, but found their shell color to be... different, in at least one way. With that, he was slashing and smashing his way to victory.

Eve took his words in relative grace, given the circumstances of the road bringing her far more anger than Julius' insistence she use formal names. Evelyn wasn't even sure she'd uttered anyone's actual name to their face in many, many years. It was a violation of her rebellious principles to actually refer to someone by something that wasn't a bad nickname. She kept focused on the coming boulders in the corner of her eye.

"Alright Bricks. I mean Clanks. J-joooo? Lee-Us. Jamliard. RRRRrrrrgggh!" she struggled aloud.

While Julius had seemed to have the Tektites handled, the boulders were still coming in full force. With the Guards out of sight, she cast off the remains of the mitts and used her searing skeletal hands to pocket the sash around her head, she wouldn't need it on standby up here. Eve went to charge a boulder head-on, as the gaps between each ball or stone were getting tighter and tighter. If she could just get one to fall aside. . .

Eve braced herself and materialized her Fist Eyes to catch one of the oncoming boulders. The massive rock dug into her, bending down even the strange meaty strength of her cursed arms. With a snap, Eve was thrown aside instead and slammed against a stone wall with rising pain. A scream like a bark or a howl came from further back on the path, Julius would hear from his position. Her arms flashed with a raging and painful fire, her Fist Eyes began to slam into the ground. Then, like some miracle of visual justice, Eve began to slam the fists into the wall of the cliff. Her small body began to fling itself upward like a terrible yo-yo. The fists smashing holes into the rock and allowing her to climb up the stone.

As the trail winded upward, Julius would find her meeting him about halfway. That was of course, after she had loudly plowed the cliff wall with her menagerie of terrifying arms. He would probably, by all means be grateful he didn't have to hear her earth-rending tantrum. It was to their benefit of course, anything was better than a night spent watching Eve dodge every boulder one-by-one, with her poor judgement in tow. It was expected the Captain would meet her near the gaping entrance anyway. Though it was a spectacle of rare beauty to see the offbeat manner of rock climbing occurring at the moment, it was likely Julius had trudged ahead without giving it much thought. A metaphorical tree falling in an empty forest.

Julius had already slashed and beaten most of the Tektites while Eve raged up the mountain, her incident with the boulder hardly forgotten.

"Alright, I saw how much of a struggle that was for you. Just call me by whatever names you want." It wasn't really a matter of seeing, exactly, but rather hearing the harsh noises that poured out of her mouth. Some people just couldn't do it.

They finally made it to the entrance of the cave, the one where whatever in Din's holy name was causing those boulders to fall. He didn't know what, but something was causing those boulders to fall... And he knew that at the end of all of this, whatever it was would likely be slain.

He headed into the cavern, noticing a jostle of rocks as he entered. Cautiously, he looked up, afraid of some kind of rock slide. It stopped. Julius cautiously strode forwards, still watching the ceiling. "Come on, Eve, I'd rather not get trapped within this place." They advanced into the next room, being greeted with what Julius felt like was a sense of blazing heat, magma being present in the cave. The only hazard here, aside from the magma, was a lone Beamos sitting atop a mound of earth.

Julius grabbed a Bomb from his Bomb Bag, and tossed it at the Beamos. After a moment, it exploded-- leaving no sign of the Beamos. "Okay, uh," he spoke aloud, "fan out for anything that you think might be useful."

Eve was something close to hyperventilating, and like so often was trailing behind her companion to recover from her reckless acts. She peered around the opening of the cavern. The stone path led her into the hub-like hall Julius seemed to be in. First to be noticed was the debris and dust slowly dripping from the crude ceiling, whose stones held propped up by what looked like massive bones. Tilting her head further up revealed a set of bridges hanging precariously from the imposing ribs. She could almost feel the bones with her hands as she reached to stroke the background. Really, she was shielding her eyes as she brought her head back on level with the glowing magma littering the cavern below.

She set foot on the outcropping leading to the center, where the remains of the Beamos smoked. As Eve was considerably less acrobatic, she took care in hopping across the pillars separating the entrance from the center. Chosen carefully were her steps as she made her way inward.

"That's it?" she inquired. Eve met her vision with the huge Dodongo skull, the elephant in the room. It seemed agape, wide open to point out a discreet doorway inside. Eve found it odd how the hall tried to lead people around itself, yet no other doorways seemed to be present. It was likely a result of the passage of time. It looked as though many cave-ins had rendered useless where other doors would have been. On that note, all wasn't lost with the design of the room. It seemed likely something intended for the pillars littering the room to move vertically, but such a switch for the function wasn't in plain sight at the moment. Interested in the ruined and hastily sealed doors, Eve made her way to the other edge of the Hall. Something would vouch to interrupt her search, however.

A shuffling of leaves could be heard nearby. Leaves? In a hot cavern like this, Eve wasn't sure how leaves could remain intact. She turned her head just in time--to receive a sturdy Deku Nut in the face. Her stinging, raw flesh recoiled from the shattering nut shell. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted him: Business Scrub. In a clear alcove he had set up shop. He was ready to shill his wares by hurling some of his product at potential customers. Eve began to whine as she propped up against the wall out of range. She started nudging her stinging face with her searing hands, only making it worse. It looked to be Julius' turn to make things right. . . again.

"I think so," he responded, glancing about the room, "but I'm uncertain. Stay sharp."

He leapt up onto the bridge with his Roc's Feather. It was a bright, shining blue, with sparkles that seemed to dance in the light of the cavern.

With that, he seemed to have a better view of his surroundings -- and spied the pile of leaves, which he had an especially difficult time believing it belonged to the cavern naturally. And, upon the Business Scrub popping up, and splattering Eve with a shower of nuts, he jumped down, drawing his sword and preparing to fight. With another soaring leap, he landed in front of the Deku Scrub, flashing his Mirror Silver blade at the Scrub.

"Stop!" Raising his shield, he reflected one of the Scrub's many nuts back at him. Being stunned didn't have too many opportunities; so, he went right along with questioning him. More civil than interrogations, at least-- but he might have to resort to that, if things went south. "Do you have a permit to be selling here?"

The Business Scrub was still stunned, but knowing his words had reached its ears, he waited. A second passed. Then another. Finally, the Business Scrub was unfrozen. "Y-yes, I do. Let me just grab it..." He went beneath his pad in order to procure the document. Returning with it, he presented it to Julius.

"Let's see..." He read the document, mentioning the Scrub being legally allowed to sell his wares here, and decided to have a check at the signature of whatever judicial official had signed this. It was from some judge, or something. He couldn't really make out the signature-- not that it really mattered, of course. Still... "Well, I can't tell for sure if this thing's legit or not, but I doubt you've necessarily made many -- if any -- sales within the past, I don't know, month? Still, what with that Beamos being all up tight and pretty, you've probably lost more business than you would have gained. I'd advise for you to relocate to somewhere safer."

"Y-yes sir." With that, he set off, hopefully to never be seen again.

"Somehow, I doubt that's the last we're going to be seeing of them, in this place." With that, he walked through the Dodongo Patriarch's mouth, and into the next room.

Eve went to wipe her tears, again searing her face with the "Burning Pain Hands." A muffled yip came from her mouth and she reluctantly swallowed her whining so that she could keep up with the vigilant captain. The creaking bridge above shuddered from its first contact in ages, as Eve hopped stone-by-stone to climb into the huge skull. The stirring magma would not be horribly missed as they entered the colder depths of the cavern.

The hall of stone gleamed a dark green from the scant flicker of torchlight deeper in. A growl, low and ringing echoed from deeper in the darkness. Eve wasn't sure if the two of them should continue. . . being caught off-guard by a Dodongo would help neither of them. They'd need to see better to avoid risk of being immolated by the sneaky reptiles. Evelyn could only think about the burns on her face and her thumping hot forearms. That gave her a great idea, perhaps one of her best ideas in a long while.

"Don't go ahead yet Mr. Julius. We know they're lying in wait for us." she hushed her voice. "We can see them if I do this. . ."

Eve lifted both of her forearms and slammed them together like rhythm sticks. Eve's cursed hands lit up like hot coals, the bones beneath her scorched flesh becoming more visible in the gathering embers. The dim green of the room shot up to a crisp hue as light filled many of the empty spaces that could easily get the both of them torched. Eve looked around, caressing the walls with her eyes to make extra sure. At no sign of danger, they began to turn a very tight corner into the open nest. Eve thought it necessary to say something else as the growls grew from a low hum to a fever pitch.

"These grounds. . . there's a lot more of them than we expected! They must have bred constantly for all these years. I'll cover your back!" she added, getting her face ready for the swarm.

Julius ran up ahead, ignoring any of what Eve was saying. This was not typical of him. But, neither was a cavern full of Dodongos, ready to possibly turn into a Patriarch at any second.

He noticed a sudden luminescence from behind him. Not knowing who, or what, he simply shouted out, "Thank you!" to whatever had caused that. He leapt into the air with his Roc's Feather, ceasing his ascent at the apex of his jump. He drew his sword while jumping; and then, came crashing down, performing a Plummeting Blade almost perfectly. Multiple Dodongos were injured; their tails were their weak points, after all. He'd wager he'd struck a good three or four of them; he wasn't sure, but he was sure that now, there were twelve of them.

Oh boy.

He set to work on beating them; bashing them with his shield, slashing at them with his sword. It was a little too hefty to be called a blade. But that, he soon realized, didn't stop him. He needed to exterminate these dangerous creatures; of course, they weren't all dangerous. The Gorons of Death Mountain had bred them to carry supplies; so, he figured that if you could tame a group, you could reliably muster enough of a force of some kind to do enough work for you to be considered domesticated. That was probably the wrong definition of 'domesticate', but Julius had to occupy his mind during the wanton slaughter of these things some how.

One he didn't realize was as close to him as it was began to inhale a breath of air. Julius, occupied with throwing bombs and slicing open guts, didn't see it. Would Eve become his saviour? Probably not. But maybe...

Eve kept her back turned to Julius. She could prove herself to the man, if not for her pride then for her long-lost self-worth she once had when she was a real treasure collector. Eve guarded her face with her arms. Dodongo pieces were already flying about as Julius rushed to get the first attack in. Smartly so, as a single poorly placed Dodongo could corner the strongest of men with a stream of flame. It was as Eve had guessed, and the rest of the Dodongo started to circle around to outnumber their attacker. But the Dodongo breathing in at that moment was the least of their worries.

Eve remembered, however delayed it was that the pieces of a killed Dodongo would explode as a defense mechanism for its brethren during combat. Her head jerked to the side and a pained wince appeared. Not forgetting the flanking Dodongo, she shoved its head aside with a flaming hand for lack of time.

"Reeeeeee! The body parts will EXPLODE--get back!!" she wailed at the man.

Eve jumped over the Dodongo as if playing leap frog and attempted to use its body as a meat shield. The coward Eve was, she had to brace herself from any coming explosion. With a searing arm locking the oversized lizard's neck in place, she dragged it back toward a wall and ducked.

Oh. It seemed he had forgotten that. With another leap, they all exploded in one huge burst of flame. Or... force, he guessed, because he couldn't see any flame. Well, whatever.

With another Plummeting Blade, he dropped down, hard and fast, on another Dodongo's tail. His exact velocity wasn't all that important, just that it was hard enough and fast and fast enough to nearly sever this Dodongo's tail. Of course, it started expanding -- and promptly explode.

It didn't really affect Julius, though-- he had already moved onto the next one. With that one taken care of their numbers were reduced to four. Four! Four more of these utterly destructive beasts, and they'd soon be done.

...

They had done it. They, through a combination of brute force coupled with a Spin Attack, had slain all the Dodongos. To his credit, though, he was probably one of the upper powers in Hyrule as a whole, now. Hell, he doubted anyone could even beat him right at this moment.

He noticed a flight of stairs going... upwards? Maybe? After taking a quick look around the cavern, he decided that it would ultimately be better to let no secrets lie.

Having disposed of her meat shield Dodongo, Eve lit her arms back up with a dim flame. Eve crawled to the stairway. Glossing over a cracked wall a good ways back, they went for the conventional way forward. A familiar scent swirled into the winding corridor of stone. A great heat, smoke, and an off-putting stench of sulfur came to their nostrils. Eve raised her arms up to see in the increasing darkness, but after a few turns through the cave light came once more. The increasing light and smell solidified the fact that there was magma ahead. Evelyn's muscles tensed, the slow climb out into a massive chamber filled with magma and free-flowing lava from above made her nervous. Large and dangerous areas like these were always the premier spots to get ambushed.

Evelyn shuffled to the outer edge of what seemed to be many hexagonal platforms jutting out of the magma. She had to remain on her guard, the magma throwing off her nerves was more likely to get her killed here. She couldn't let the Captain see her die that disgracefully. Their entry cued the notice of their likely foe. It began as a shrill noise from the far end of the cavern, and then rose into something of a roar. Two Lizalfos appeared, decked to the nines and likely seasoned veterans of combat. They were covered in scars and wielded their own considerably rusted but sharpened war machetes.

Eve gasped, and then silence. A sneaky third Lizalfos had jumped out from behind and grabbed her by the neck. She began to wrestle with the creature, her flaming hands around his arms putting an awful situation to good use. They continued to grapple as the Lizalfos struggled to wrench out his knife, increasing burns making a putrid smoke sizzle off his arms. Eve managed to get his claws off her throat for just long enough to communicate.

"I can handle this guy!" she shouted, gesturing that Julius should keep off the other two as best he could.

He stood his ground, watching as the two Lizalfos marched towards him. He knew not why they had chosen this path, simply that it had been chosen. One's war machete remain on its hip; the other was drawn, and poised at him. Still, he couldn't help but have a feeling of absolute dread. He cautiously examined the one whose machete was not drawn... Preparing for some technique, perhaps? But the only technique he knew that could that was--

"Aagh!" He yelled, having been struck by the very same technique he was going to think of before. The Mortal Draw. Almost immediately, he keeled over, taking note of every movement the Lizalfos took. Both of them raised their war machetes and roared, one in a burst of cool flame, likely Blue Fire, the other with a searing hot flame. He knew what he had to do-- he would have to use the same technique that had been used on him, not even moments ago.

He let his sword rest in its sheath. He would need to-- because, for now, it was a necessary component to the Mortal Draw. He calmed himself, sealing off all his senses.

Then, he struck.

Like a flash of lightning, he drew his blade from its scabbard, slicing through the very air with not even a sound. It lodged itself in the neck of a Lizalfos not even a moment later. It was like one continuous motion.

Of course, that wasn't the end-- not for that Lizalfos, which having already drawn his war machete, was unable to repeat its trick-- especially now that Julius knew what this creature was capable of. He initiated a Spin Attack only moments later, successfully decapitating the same Lizalfos.

Now, he was against just the one Lizalfos. Unfortunately for Julius, he actually possessed... a war machete of Splinter Crystal? Well, that would be one thing, but he didn't doubt that if one Lizalfos could pull a Mortal Draw out of his bag of tricks, he didn't doubt that this one could possess Shield Breaker. Which, actually, was pretty much a safe bet. If one of them contained enough power to master a technique like that, then... No. He had to focus. He readied his weapon against his foe; a Mirror Silver blade with an icy aura against a Splinter Crystal war machete back by what he assumed was someone who knew how to use it well.

With those thoughts passing by, he charged into battle, striking high and low at the same time. His shield came first-- a paralyzing blow to the Lizalfos, who was now in a proper Rage. What wasn't so good for Julius is that this meant that his normally crushing shield blow didn't actually affect the Lizalfos much-- albeit in a manner that would have normally caused someone to falter, the Lizalfos merely pushed straight through, stabbing where his cuirass was already punctured by the other Lizalfos' Mortal Draw. It ripped so easily through his raiment, but he knew it wasn't a true Shield Breaker-- no, this was just a Lizalfos who knew how to aim.


Locked into deadly combat, Julius subconsciously thought about how Eve was doing.

In a continuous grapple, Eve pried at the arms of the Lizalfos behind her. The sustained flames produced from her arms continued to wrap the waning grip of the Lizalfos. In classic Eve fashion, she finished the creature by planting her thick-soled boot into his solar plexus to knock it backward directly into the flowing lava. Ouch.

The scorching sulfur of the chamber made it difficult for Evelyn to catch her breath. She shook her hands around, unable to grab her own neck in response to the painful grip she just endured. She looked back, the screeching and wailing Lizalfos was slowly being consumed by the molasses-like substance which continued to set small fires all across his body. She couldn't even take sick enjoyment from this work anymore. The Kokiri just felt weary and drained by all the mutual pain caused by her hobby. The light danced on her shimmering outfit as she slinked closer to Julius.

Unsure if she should set the Captain's opponent on fire as well, she kept her distance. After all, she still hadn't caught her breath and it seemed the honor of combat was something Julius would want to maintain. The veteran Lizalfos could give the Captain a run for his money. Even Eve was impressed. Making a few gestures in the air, she tried to map out where they were in her head. She continued the idea of this aerial map by drawing it on the floor in flames and soot. She spotted where the door was, near Julius but barred by the enemy still in the chamber. It fell upon her to cheer him on in some way.

"I'm fine over here! Just try to outplay his hand." she called over while scribbling her map.

One misstep was all it took for Julius to instantly go on the defensive. The Lizalfos' Rage had not calmed yet-- and likely wouldn't, until it was deceased. Which meant Julius had to kill him, but how? He hopped over to another platform using his Roc's Feather, only for the Lizalfos to-- in a fit of blind rage-- land right next to him. Then, the Lizalfos promptly fell off.

Then he reappeared right in front of him. So, it seemed this Lizalfos possessed some kind of cheap, mostly utility trick as well? No matter! He would fight on.

...

It was the end of a fight. And man, had Julius never been any amount more glad to get over that over with. He swore to the three Goddesses that if there were any more Lizalfos like that... Well, let's just say it wouldn't end well.

He spied around for any possible exits before noticing a dark spot on the wall. That area had to be bombable, he just knew it. Tapping his sword against the wall, he knew it was bombable. Placing a bomb next to it, he leapt away with his Roc's Feather, waiting for the bomb to explode. The fuse started getting shorter and shorter, and before he knew it, the wall collapsed. It looked like it lead to... somewhere supported by ribs? Ah, it must be the section above the bridge... Yes, he was sure of that much.

"Eve, let's go," he told her in what was essentially a kind, protective voice. He didn't want to lose another one. Not after having lost Lucia.