Eyes Dongo Cavern 3 & Pooky

A black hiss echoed from the other, landing aside of Eve and cornering her on the other end of the chamber. Was he. . . unarmed? No, it couldn't be that simple. The Dinolfos compatriot was different somehow. While the first was muscular and adept, this one seemed more sorcerous somehow. The flesh and scales around his eyes was ripped off, a blackness underneath almost unfamiliar. His eyes were neon cyan stars in the black space of his accursed visage. Red, piercing dots at the centers. He clapped his claws together madly, his buckler showing brightly on his off-hand. Eve braced herself on the edge of her platform.

With an ensuing roar, the Dinolfos raised his claws upward in a grabbing motion. Black shapes appeared from nowhere, sucking into the monster's paws like stretched out lines. A glowing shape emerged from the center as the power converged. A large battle hammer appeared in his terrible arms. It had wide square surfaces tapering downward into an arc before disappearing into the handle shaft. It was an unbalanced build, but it reminded her immediately of the weapon she saw before. It must have been another practice piece from the mine long ago. Master Ore had something to do with its structure. But she couldn't for the life of her identify the ingredients. It seemed to be made of a dark stone mixture and embedded to hell with gems. All around the top portion, element gems of different colors. Eve was dazzled for a moment, but things became real terrifyingly fast.

Eve hopped back to a further platform. Almost no room was left on the edge for her to back up any more. This was immediately exacerbated as the massive Dinolfos showed off another neat trick. He flung the hammer skyward and began to pummel the platform Eve was previously on. His use of Pulverize made the structure crumble before her eyes. A sick screech came from him once more. If the other Dinolfos was not one for honor in battle, this one was completely devoid of it. Eve clung to her platform, rushing for a last-second strategy. It was too late! The Dinolfos leaped over the busted platform to hers, a strange cape barely visible on his back. No. . . she thought, Roc's Cape! The sick enemy may have been more geared up than the last as well. Defeating him would be more of a punishment than a boasting point.

She tried whatever she could. Eve deployed her naked hands, she flared them up with painful rage. As the burning hands grabbed the Dinolfos's weapon, they flared even brighter in a small inferno around the weapon and the monster's claws. The Dinolfos laughed and screamed in a jovial celebration of his weapon's power. Nullstone cut through the flames and forced them to dissipate as they made closer for the hammer. The Dinolfos's mad laughter peaked as he swatted her down like a bug and an icy force plowed her down and crusted her arms with frost. His mocking laughter like piss in her porridge, Evelyn wormed around the weapon as her arms evenly coated with painful and numbing cold.

Eve rolled, then stood up on the precarious platform. She rushed the creature with her Fist Eyes as she did the one before, this time with no warning. But the ethereal fists impacted with nothing. As her eyes returned to form, she noticed it. The Dinolfos was sinking into his own shadow. He hovered there for a moment, happy with his use of Shadow Dive. This was getting so ridiculous, even her Fist Eyes couldn't keep accurately mad at the damned thing. He emerged with his buckler facing her, it was a type of pelt on an unrecognizable metal underneath. Eve did her best by jumping to another platform. She wasn't going to fall for whatever bag of tricks his buckler contained. She soon sped up her fleeing pace as he began to spew black flames after her. She had to think of something really good to keep this dark Dinolfos off Julius long enough for him to fight his way to safety with the other one. She tried to come up with something new while leading the thing away from her Captain.

Julius quickly noticed what was happening during Eve's fight-- and snapped his fingers, utilizing an old trick he had learned once before. It would stab up, and into the Dinolfos' gut after about five seconds. He just needed to stall.

"We're here to clear out a bunch of monsters. Dodongos, I thought at first." A second had passed. "But instead, when we went into the room beneath this one, we fought a couple of Lizalfos instead!" Three. "So why don't you tell me what's really going on here?!" With a roar, the portal to what looked like Starsend appeared. Brief memories flashed through his mind for a moment. He roared as he got up, physically exacerbating his wounds. That didn't matter though. What mattered is that he had no control. It was almost like a rage was building up inside of him. With another roar, he pierced the throat of the Dinolfos with relative ease. It was almost like... Almost like he wasn't even there.

The next thing Julius knew, he was locked in a deep struggle with another Dinolfos, who shared the darker one's skin tone. He grinned maliciously. The Dinolfos let out a merciless giggle of maniacal laughter, as he realized what had transpired. He was being... mind controlled? But how? He thought about his next move carefully.

With a another guttural roar, he realized that there was one thing he could do. He pretty much had to do it, in fact. With a quiet relinquish over his more physical form, he succumbed to the Spirit Realm.

He was awake, now. Not truly, but enough to see what was going on. Eve was hopping around like a madman, trying to lure the other one away, while another chanted deep incantations to summon something utterly diabolical. He was utterly aghast at the situation.

When he woke up this time, he was really awake. Having seen the world for what it was, through his Spirit Form, he was truly aware of what was going on around him. Surprised to see him awaken so soon, the Dinolfos practically leapt onto him-- a vicious upppercut, however, ended that one fairly quickly. With another guttural roar, he launched himself at the Dinolfos.

As Eve kited the fiend, she worked her way to a safer distance. This was when the annoyed Dinolfos unhinged his mouth agape and coughed out a searing red beam with a piercing roar. The black embellished beam crackled at Eve's feet, a small explosion tossing her down. Half her body began to roll off the platform, and she anchored her numb elbows into the surface to try to pull herself back up. As she did, the malcontent Dinolfos made for another trick as his prey scampered around. He procured a jar from his back and began to pour its contents onto some of the remaining platforms. A misty blue fire slithered out like a liquid and coated each platform as he shook it out. The searing cold fire would make it difficult if even possible to jump back to those platforms. Eve would soon be cornered. A painful sweat came down her forehead and a distressed laugh cracked from her throat. This was the nails if it ever was.

The pouring flames danced down into the quick-flowing lava and made explosive stone form in small bursts as it connected with opposite temperature. Smoking fragments spat up with a stench from below as Eve struggled for control of her situation on her side of the room. The Dinolfos used his blocked off pathway to begin chanting a dark epithet to the ceiling and waving his hammer like a wand or a rod. The hateful echo of his alien words reminded Eve of something, but it was not a spell she had seen close-up before. She reached into her pouch while he was distracted, there had to be something in there. His words came to an end as a deep blue circle of runes appeared below him in an ancient language. A sharp formation of icicles began to grow from the circle, eventually forming something like a skeletal man with horns for a face.

"You summoned a Chilfos in this furnace of a room?! You're truly mad, Scales." she taunted at him with audible spite.

The Chilfos leaped gracefully into a square of Blue Fire. It began to procure a spear from the whirling ice around its body. Eve's hands were unable to thaw very fast, and her numbed and stiff fingers struggled to manage her bag. The Chilfos had finally managed to finish his wonderful ice spear, however. Without much time, she fumbled out her own hammer and clumsily grabbed it in two frozen palms plus one from her eye socket. At a loss for time the hands simply chucked it as far and as hard as they could in the Chilfos's direction. She made another nervous laugh as it hit, glad to see the dangerous helper shatter. But then of course velocity persisted above all and the hammer continued to fly through the enemy and off the platform.

Eve choked back tears. The gold-like alchemical brass, the familiar shape, and the ergonomic design. Her favorite weapon and often only companion sailed down into the raging rapids of lava below. A painful screech resounded below as forged steel deconstructed from the sheer heat of the internal flow. Eve's thawing hand reached out and contorted toward the fallen weapon. Her face unlike even what it had become after her hands were fried. Tears blurred her vision, and when she could see again her bony hand was balled into a fist.

"YOU KILLED MY HAMMER SHITHOUSE!" she barked at the beast despite throwing it down there herself.

Upset beyond ages, bewildered and enraged she couldn't even fathom replacing the top-heavy crown jewel of her arsenal. But what she could do luckily was respond with combat, something this fight was desperately needing. A growl hissed up from behind her, she turned to see some sort of copy of the original Dinolfos with the axe. She returned his surprising appearance with a tear-lubricated flurry of muscular fists from her eyes. This time she aimed down at the flat of his axe, and in almost no time at all the weight of the oversized greataxe and her drubbing of fists forced his weapon to the floor. He slurped the air and formed a furnace of fire in the back of his throat. She jumped at him and plunged her arms in his wide-gaping mouth. A furious inferno, a maelstrom of hateful and nerve-shot flames poured into his throat. He made to bite down on her hands and she lurched away. The Dinolfos's face exploded like a volcano, giving even his proud sturdy scales a neat polishing of ebony smoke and withered dryness. She gave him the finishing touch of her chain dagger to the bottom of his cheek, leaving him reeling in pain as she unstuck it and fled.

The shadowy Dinolfos had not left the room, and was scheming something more as he chanted insidious words. She hadn't forgotten for a second about how his summons had cost her a most favorite weapon. He clasped his hammer malevolently and looked to the side as his prey returned. A rejoicing was in order, as he licked his lips with a silvery tongue. He swung around, cancelling his summons and smashing to pitiful bits the platforms surrounding himself. This would give Eve no way to get up next to him. He was surely going to try for more projectiles to hunt her down in the most smug and sure way possible. But she had already begun to sling her chain around like a dreaded industrial fan. He made to spurt something new from his hand, but she had already slung. The pristine blue dagger zipped through the air like an icy dart, catching him in the eye. The red pupil of his eye burst, cyan neon liquid pouring down in pellets. A screech that was not happy nor ambitious bled from his throat as an injured puppy. This would be a one-sided fight no longer.

Julius briefly looked over at how Eve's fight was going. He looked and, briefly, noticed her using her Kingfisher dagger to puncture a Dinolfos' eye open. He was proud.

But not proud enough to stop fighting his current foe. With a roar, he started to hammer arm the Dinolfos on the ground, already turning black-and-blue, as he continued to do it, more and more. It was almost irresistible for him to stop.

His Scorching Socks, however, had already caught flame-- enough to actually fully ignite the Dinolfos, in fact. As the reptile caught flame, he briefly noticed the one other Dinolfos sneaking up on Eve. Not this time, he thought, leaving the burning Dinolfos to die. Picking up his sword, he rushed after the axe-wielding Dinolfos-- just in time to stop him from striking Eve.

There was a loud clank as he stopped his axe from hitting her. He looked hard into the Dinolfos' eyes, giving him a good examination. He had no visible marks, then-- Good. This was going to be fun.

He blocked another blow from the axe with his shield. It actually took a chunk out of it! How?! He thought, not expecting something made from Splinter Crystal to have that kind of potential. Then, he'd remembered what made it so special-- the fact that it used Master Ore to combine itself with Goron Iron. It made sense then. So, he had to parry for the rest of the fight-- not something he was used to, but could be done.

He dodged the next blow-- then, he struck, a harsh clang smacking against his ears. So it would have to be done, then... With a cry of great determination, he loosed a Spin Attack onto his foe, having diverted his attention away from Eve, for however long that would last. He struck once, twice, thrice-- but there was no sound, no indication of any pain or otherwise harm having come to his foe. Then, he realized what was happening. He was building up... for something great. He tried to do anything in his power to stop it-- snapping his fingers for Lexi to strike at him, but he evaded. Then, in a quick stroke, he pummeled him with the icy hilt of his sword, releasing the ever-so-deadly Ice Enchantment upon his foe's mouth. While his foe was panicking, he unleashed a quick kick to his lower extremities-- doubtful that a fire would start there, but whatever helped, helped.

Then, the Dinolfos broke through the ice, with a bout of Fire Breath. He wasn't expecting that-- but whatever had to be done. This time, it was as though he were dancing in combat-- a curious look, certainly, especially given his mass, but it felt natural.

That all changed when his Dinolfos enemy tried to perform a Helm Splitter. He was forced back onto the defensive-- and, not being able to do much other than parry, parry, and parry, it quickly became a game of trying to lead him into the lava. Thankfully, it wasn't that big of a challenge-- he had displayed no qualities like the last Lizalfos they had faced, down in the room below, so it was comparatively easy. When he had finished his apparent duel, he looked over to Eve, having expected her to finished off her own battle.

The Dinolfos Summoner recoiled, a large claw holding his face as cyan dots slipped through his digits. Eve returned her dagger to her hand and checked the dripping fluid. This was residue from some dark dimension, or some sort of ectoplasm. Whatever strange necromancy had transformed her enemy didn't matter much to her, and she wasn't all that interested so long as she could slay the dastard. She draped the chain over her arm. Eve knew she was unable to punch that fool in the face as she so wished, the platforms were too broken to jump to the other side with her own efforts alone. Wait, she mused to herself, I could use that! She dragged her flaming hand through her bag and dug something out.

The Dinolfos could see out his other eye facing the other side of the room, he was dazed and caught off-guard. Sure he had faced arrows in his lifetime but he had known when to expect those. This was the most his magical form had taken damage in a long time, especially considering the role of his trickery in defending himself. He finally turned his other eye to the girl as he clenched thick bleeding chaos on the other side of his face. She was throwing something again, sweet mercy, it began.

A pained cackle came from the girl this time, her recent struggles soon to be justified. Her voice hard on the ears, The Dinolfos reacted to the cue by ducking out of the way of the incoming dagger. But the blade soared over his head and she continued to laugh. The chain hung around the Dinolfos's shoulder and kept the dagger anchored to Eve's hand on the other side. He spotted her left arm swing but it was too late already. He tried to step back but some horrid toy flopped onto his face. The Ghastly Doll, wearing a new dress that contrasted its destitute appearance, began to walk across his head to grab the chain knife. The Dinolfos's fluids continued to spew like cartoonish blue tears. These tears now symbolic of his own horror as the doll raised the splinter crystal knife in front of his very own eye.

The Dinolfos wailed, a screech like that of a monstrous bird from the dark worlds. He began to try to shadow dive into his platform but it was too late. The miniature eve was gashing at his scales and eye like a playful butcher, the splintery sharpness of the blade coursing through his body down to the bone. Eve maintained eye contact to control the toy, madly in love with her new work of art as she defiled the already corrupted reptile. She stamped her foot down in rage, and the doll did the same, plunging a rigid boot into the summoner's severed eye. More wretched screams haunted the caverns.

"This is for my hammer!" she cried, it plunged the blade further across his face.

"For those you've lured in here!" she continued. The doll swiveled upward with the edge.

"For everything I had to put up with!" Eve slinged. The doll hoisted the chain around its neck as he struggled to pull into his shadow.

". . . and this is for the curses that have burdened the captain, the dark forces and the undead that have torn open our lives and slain his friend. Most of all for this ugliness that ruined my arms with such pain!" she railed.

The doll ziplined as the Dinolfos had, sliding over to Eve as the chain tightened around the Dinolfos's neck. With all the strength of her Power Bracelet and Muscle Band she lifted the chain high over her head. First the creature began to tug and rip out of his own shadow. When he was hoisted out of the liquidy blackness which poured out like an overfilled bowl, he reached around his neck to pull on the chain. Eve lifted harder and choked the creature as he made it worse by struggling. Finally, he was able to loosen the knotted chain around his neck. This was just as Eve pulled with full force and threw his balance forward. The dagger snapped back over to Eve and he tumbled forward. . . to the emptiness of the platform he had broken with his own effort. He fell quickly with nothing to grab hold of, nothing to jump off of with his cape. Black and blue liquid splashed off of the platform as he tumbled downward. A horrid smelling smoke seared out of the lava as the fluids and his body splashed roughly into the super-hot mixture. His horrible magicks dissolved into the great cauldron, tortured and cursed souls screaming with an ear-ripping volume out of his mouth like another breath attack as he slowly sank into the crackling fiery pool. Many curses and seals from his lifetime shattering, and all of the weapons and treasures they had amassed cooking to a stew down below.

One of the curses, it seemed, was on both doorway exits. The doorways flung open like they had some weight removed quickly. Eve turned to Julius who was doing something with that Dinolfos copy, which she assumed also dead as its weapon was missing and it lay lifeless before the man. She silently let her breath out with a sigh of relief of sorts, and wondered what exactly could be beyond the next door that would serve as a break from this terror. She knew it would be much cooler and easier to breathe so she made efforts to lead Julius right out of there.

They were finally out of that room, now that all the curses had been broken. His wounds had opened up more, still-- but there was very little he could do, beside groan and moan with agony. "Eve-- there are some bandages, in my Adventure Pouch... Please, apply them for me." He sat against the wall, thinking about how awful all of this was. Then, he'd remembered someone's corpse, sitting up again a wall-- wearing the remnants of the raiment he now wore.

He didn't want to end up like that guy, that much was sure of. He would even apply them himself, if need be.

Idly, he thought about death. While he felt bandages wrapping around his torso, they weren't very effective. Maybe it was all the damage, coming back to haunt him. She was finished by now, he could have sworn. Also, he noticed that his armor was somehow shed-- he didn't even remember taking it off. Oh man. All of this violence was going to his head. All of this violence had caused all of this, so it wasn't really that surprising.

In reality, he had simply shed his armor the usual way. He just wasn't really... aware of it, somehow. He had tried to stand, but miserably failed. "Ugh," he whined in pain, coming from the Mortal Draw wound, to the Dodongo larva wounds on his legs. "Well, looks like I'm gonna be stuck here for... well, a while." He said, dropping back to his butt. "Anything I have to say, you've probably already heard... Or have you? Have I ever told you about Starsend?"

Eve wrapped the bandages solemnly. She spoke up partway through, though.

"I was afraid I'd have to rip up my dress and use that as bandage. It wouldn't have been so weird, because I have armor on under my outfits all the time. Your outfitter friends probably know it as Gratitude Crystal, you never know what hypocrites will try to strike you down with Light Magic. I've heard of a rumor, a legend, of an arrow that could vaporize a foe with the stuff." she stopped babbling when she was done, looking into Julius's blank eyes. He was thinking about something else.

Eve took a moment to look around. There was a small pillar with one of those mechanical switches on it. The pillar of course was surrounded by some familiar looking statues. They looked like Armos, but they were immobile. A more clever Kokiri would have known the things would jump to life when they hit the switch for the door. This Kokiri was not clever at all.

"I actually haven't heard about . . . Starsend." Eve looked up, distantly interested in the mysterious words. "Of the many things cropping up around Hyrule lately, suffice to say I was distracted." she added, holding up her crisply burned arms.

She listened as she continued to look at the statues with hopeful suspicion. Were there actual trouble, they could handle it. Anything weaker than those reptiles would be chump change in a fight.

"It's a good thing that you haven't, then," he continued, noticing her looking at the Armos that littered the room. "Don't worry about those things. We can just throw them im the lava. Anyways," he continued, describing how he snapped out of whatever trance he was in, in great detail. "There was this... trick, I guess you could call it, from the Deku Kingdom's shamans. When you focus really hard, you can essentially leave your body-- but it's taxing. Taxing for me, at least," he laughed, trying to not make himself seem old.

"Anyways. So, me and-- I guess you'd call him a royal dinkledink, I guess, but there was this... boy, I'm going to call him. For all intents and purposes, I am legally obliged to not speak his name. Let's call him Shills. So, Shills and I were on our way to the portal-- which we had zero intel on, it was basically like walking into a literal death trap. So anyways. We were packing camp when these two... I guess you'd call them Ikanians, something like that. Anyways, these two Ikanians come out and pretty much just wreck our undead scholars to the floor. Took them both out. One... I think it was with his fist. The other I think might-- must have, actually when you consider she was an ice mage, or wizardess, or whatever it is that she called herself, but anyways. We basically forcefully exited our bodies, then this guy who wielded like a sword and a dagger does a fucking Mortal Draw on my body. So this isn't necessarily the first time I've experienced this kind of pain. It's just, coupled with the literal ton of force from the Eyegore, and the bomb blast from the larva... it gets taxing on me is what I'm saying. Anyways. So, after he takes a Mortal Draw, then I fucking use a Helm Splitter on myself. Keep in mind, I wasn't even in my body anymore-- I was inside this little dude's body. He was way smaller than me, about a foot or so shorter. Really hard to breathe, but that was probably because he was dead for who knows how long," he rambled on continuing until he got to a really interesting part.

"So there's this tree, and the residents of this realm took to calling it the 'Tree of Death'. I took a picture of it-- it should be here somewhere..." He moved, not anticipating the pain of moving. He slowly reclined back, having obtained it. "It's a little wrinkly, but, this is it." He showed her a photograph of a stark white tree, against the background of an array of stars. "It was breathtaking, to say the least." He started putting his armor back on, the storytelling time having already ended. There were a couple of details he'd made sure to omit-- like experiencing that thing in its spiritual form, for one. He couldn't force himself to put words into his mouth to describe it, much less expect some kind of apparently immortal kid to wrap her mind around how horrifying it was.

He tried getting up, still caught a little offguard by the pain he'd experienced. "Whew," Julius said under his breath. He had his helmet in his hands, waiting to put it on. "This is gonna hurt." He put his helmet on, the entire experience being far less painful than whatever else he had experienced. This was good, considering he'd fought through a broken arm before. "Let's get this show on the road. Come on, Eve."

She took the time to examine the pictography. What a mystery it was, but at least she knew he wasn't bluffing. Of course she really couldn't wrap her head around it. Three hundred more years and she would probably only be a smidge wiser. She had bloomed a bit over these past weeks, experiencing what she thought was probably the worst Twist ever (it wasn't.) As well as what she couldn't describe well, a trip through the woods to horrible places, burning down her own house by accident, and then this dungeon. She really learned to appreciate Julius's company. He did far more for all her favorite reasons, and some of the right reasons as well. That and she knew he'd protect her from stone backhands from that Gerudo fortune teller should she appear again. She knew beyond the shadow of a doubt, that her and her little imp friend would have no way of sneaking up on them in this place.

"I'm amazed all that happened to you while I was out in the wild." she started, putting her tongue on her teeth at the memory. "I heard some reports while I was in Castle Town, a lot of terrible portals have been appearing. I'm gonna see if I can find one when we're done with this, maybe after some training of some sort." she trailed off, thinking.

She wondered if there was something she could do as she started hoisting Armos into the lava. She was happy to use her bracelet based lifting strength for something actually useful and give Julius a break with his injuries. There was no way they'd fight anything else like this, at least not until they dealt with whatever lurked deep in the cavern. Julius did mention a Patriarch. . . what was that? A king, she thought, or a ruler of some sort. She knew the Gorons had a Patriarch but he wasn't really a King either. Semantics it was, she just sort of let it go as she threw the last Armos into the stew.

Evelyn crawled onto the pillar and smacked down on the switch. Yes, finally, the switch was in her grasp. The bars raised a door in the far corner of the room. A corner door? They must have been working their way around the upper part of the hub of the dungeon. It was natural that part wasn't truly connected to here or they would have found a different door leading in this way. Eve took a look around the next room, immediately spotting a bush of some sort. She was horribly suspicious of it of course.

As soon as the two walked in, the shrub burst to life. A very tall and handsome Business Scrub popped out of the hole he was nestled in, with the great asset of a huge leather briefcase. He popped the case open and held it before himself, sure to get the attention of the two without the need of throwing nuts. This was of course because they'd just gone through the hell gauntlet of reptiles littering the cavern. He knew his spot was safe and he knew someone would make their way in, either as an exterminator or a fellow grave-robber like those Lizalfos who had come to pick at the dead miners' and soldiers' belongings. The Business Scrub chuckled and squeaked.

"Have I got a deal for you!" he snorted, brandishing his case.

"Sir, that briefcase is made of Aeralfos Leather, like my favorite boots! Good choice my man!" Eve complimented the sauve businessman.

"It sure is!" he remarked. "It's the smoothest and lightest thing I've ever felt, too bad it doesn't have any magical properties." he added cautiously, knowing the two would correct him if he was wrong.

"Oh it certainly doesn't. Makes for nice craftsmanship though." Eve retorted.

"Now how about you take a look at my wares." the Business Scrub reiterated. "I have a very fine amount of Deku Nuts, more than you could even imagine. I have a spat of Red Poton if you have the Rupees to spare. I have this wonderful Deku Leaf as well as a Korok Copter for those who like to travel in style. I also have here Gasha Seeds and Bomb Seeds for any of your seed-based needs. Anything look good to you?"

"Oh." Eve immediately answered. "I'm saving my Rupees. All of them. This guy next to me might need a potion, actually. I think he might die if we don't heal him." she responded, knowing that was the Scrub's game but without much other choice. "Actually. . " she continued "Is that a hot spring behind you?" intent on finding a less expensive way of healing Julius before the fight.

"It's twenty Rupees per dip." he slyly commented, not knowing who he was audience to.

"We'll kill you. We will have burnt pieces of you all over the room, making a soup into that spring. My friend here knows Peril Beam. He will eviscerate you before you can arm your nuts." she threatened, ready to take her blindfold back off and introduce the Scrub to his maker.

He realized almost immediately that Eve was trying to intimidate the Business Scrub. He wasn't sure that the Scrub was here entirely legally-- but that didn't matter. He was almost dead, if not in the process of being dead. It was something of a misnomer, though-- he wasn't really dead, nor was he in the process of dying.

It still felt that way, though. By all means, he should have bought the Red Potion-- but he didn't, if only because he already consumed one not even two hours ago. Instead, he decided to bargain with the Business Scrub. "I pay five rupees for my partner and I to relax into the spring," he said, cautious about his reply.

"Twenty rupees a dip," he said, seeming stern in his answer. "Unless you want to give me something." The Scrub had the upper hand here. It seemed to Julius, at least, that this was not the case. For one, he was talking to someone who was a Captain in the Hyrule Guard. Probably not too good of a place to start with.

"Oh, sure," he replied. Already, he was pulling off armor. "In fact, I could detain you-- but since you don't think that someone like me, on the verge of death, is capable of harming you... Well, let's not test that." He paused, staring with his most commanding face possible. Despite all the bruises, the bleeding, and scarring, it was still incredibly... commanding. "Now, unless you want to try that, to try to beat me to a pulp, then I welcome you to try," he said, all while giving him that incredibly commanding look.

"..." The Business Scrub said nothing, as if it were trying to... analyze him. No, he would still have more than enough left to outdo himself-- that would be bad. Very bad.

"Well?" Came Julius' reply.

"...Fine, assuming you don't have any... lackeys outside, or wherever you traveled from." Came the Business Scrub's reply.

"I do not," Julius lied. Of course he had support, even if it weren't within his chain of command. Of course, he would have to search for any sort of legal incidence upon this Business Scrub's record... and Julius assumed he had quite a few.

He let them pass without any further incident. Julius kept staring at the Business Scrub. He was going to be punished for his misdeeds, eventually. But not now. Now, he would just relax and release whatever pent up stress he had within his body.

With a final sigh, he relaxed into the water, feeling a pleasant warmth overtake him. This... Was this actually working?

"Royal dinkledink. . ." Eve echoed, sinking into the liquid.

She put off still being a bit confused by the man's stories. It was time to get her strength back, for the first time in a long while. Eve considered what they had done by sparing the Business Scrub. He might have tried to intimidate them into paying up, but threatening to fry him on the spot just for Julius' health was an overreaction. How was she going to earn new trust in people if she couldn't get over a small roadblock like that?

The water started to bubble a lot more as she sank her crackling arms in. A thick fizzle and popping spray came from the water, as if the flames contained in her arms were fighting back against the liquid. Evelyn had to get used to it very quickly as it often happened every time she bathed. She was going to need equipment better than oven mitts to cover up this recent curse. Equipment, she wondered about for a lot of the bath. On the subject of equipment, her golden threads seemed to handle water extremely well. So even if the hot spring would ruin the cheap outfit she had put on today, a well-kept raiment underneath would be in great condition. For a fight against a great Dodongo may very well ruin her outfit more, she actually considered tearing off the outer layer. But not yet, she thought, as she lifted her arms up in fighting form. When her strength returned, the cheap outfit she had would be the least of her worries.

After a very thorough soak and a closer look at Julius' wounds, Eve slowly rose out of the bubbling waters. She felt eighty pounds lighter. That was thirty-six kilograms, which is actually a measure of mass. Eve did not know much of either of those so it was more accurate to say she felt spry. She stopped to make sure she had all her things about her. The reminded her dreadfully of her hammer's demise not very long ago. How long had they been in this gods-awful place?

"Before we go, I was wondering if you had the time after this fiasco to make a two-handed weapon to replace my companion that was destroyed just before? I have a feeling I won't go running off to the wilderness afterward this time. That turned out really badly last time." Eve asked, barely keeping up good appearances.

Before she could stop herself, she had already jostled the door open. She looked at the Business Scrub warily. On the other side of the opening was a large hole that went straight down into a glowing chamber. The Scrub seemed to be feverishly itching for something to happen to let him off the hook.

Julius was calmly relaxing in the hot springs. What good were they if you couldn't relax in them? Then, Eve started talking about weapons.

"Uh, sure, I guess." At this rate, he may as well leave the Hyrule Guard and put "Best Weaponsmith in all of Hyrule" on his resume. Ah, yes. The wonders of his ability. "Well... maybe. I'm planning to use the materials I've gotten so far on a sword, and the Mirror Silver probably into a shield. So, it would ultimately be up to you to collect and gather the required materials... Unless you just want steel. Even my regular weapons are in pretty high demand." He said, informing her of her options.

"But assuming we make it out of here, and assuming you're going to want like a Splinter Crystal thing, I'm not going to be available for about two weeks. Some kind of forest monster has been rampaging on an island out at sea. So," he said, settling back in. Boy, was this relaxing. "I figure you probably want something heavy, right? In that case, a hammer would probably be best... For a girl with normal arms, at least. I don't know. Maybe you'd prefer something... a tad lighter?" He poised, still laying in the hot springs. "Either way, please think up something this time. That idea you had for the dagger was pretty good."

He noticed Eve not responding, and took a look at what she was seeing. The tunnel was something that he could have seen coming-- but that meant that whatever was down there had to be huge. Likely about twice the size of Julius, even, and that was just counting the height!

Good thing he knew that Dodongos disliked smoke.

"Well, chances are, that whatever's down there is causing those boulders to fall... And you know what that means. We're going to have to eliminate it." He started to put his gear on, as the Business Scrub ducked away. He didn't want to have to fight... whoever this man was. The Business Scrub knew that Julius would slaughter him. He didn't want to have to test that theory.

Julius put his armor back on, tightening straps, and doing whatever else needed to be done. When he finally got fully dressed, he nodded to Eve. "I'll go first."

"Wait Mr. Clanks we don't know how far it i-" Eve tried to explain before Julius took the plunge.

"Sometimes the most fragile things in life are the most precious." she followed up, unsure if Julius had shattered his spine from the jump.

Remembering her dagger, she yanked it out of her bag and whirled it around uselessly above her head before hopping down the hole herself. She didn't look down, which may have been a mistake because there was certainly magma somewhere below. Upon landing she noticed right away that Julius was fine. He had taught her such incredible life lessons in such a short amount of time. Like jumping first and asking questions later. . . although that may have been a death lesson instead. She wondered about the chamber, which was quite large horizontally. Magma covered a considerable amount of the center. A constant shaking and trembling came from somewhere in the chamber, likely the source of the falling rocks troubling whomever dumb enough to live directly outside. Eve clamped her hands near her face, expressing frustration in people trying to live nearby in the first place.

Soon as they landed, their scents were familiarized by what was lurking in the depths of the cavern. The shaking started to calm down as a new noise hinted at something very large rolling closer to them. The rolling and crunching stopped as something huge fell from the ceiling. It was something a little familiar to Eve, and clearly green and scaly which made it certain what it was. Eve almost expected Pooky to appear and ridicule her, so she looked around herself only to realize he seriously wasn't coming. She pointed up at the monster, which Julius no doubt had seen already.

"Kikikikiking Dododododongdongdongdongo." she announced, trying to identify the creature by name. She jumped up and down in excitement. How wrong she was.

Infernal Dinosaur
King Dodongo
​

His teeth were huge, and he was large enough to eat Eve whole. But maybe, perhaps, only twice as large as Julius. Which meant of course that two Juliuses could eat each half of Eve. As previously noted, measurements were far from Eve's expertise and she didn't actually know how many Juliuses could fit into that thing. It was certain the man's mouth couldn't swallow a whole half of her, but she put enormous thought into it, the vile creature that Eve was.

The stud of the Dodongo breeding grounds, this creature was likely the source of a great many Dodongo hatchlings. His green scales and great legs were almost hallmarks of a cartoon dinosaur. He was in dire need of a redesign. Eve thought he could use with a little crown or something, to show that he was a king. Sadly that wasn't how monstrous wildlife worked, he wasn't just going to magically get a crown unless Ganon shot them out of his gaping mouth onto their heads. His beady eyes stared them down as he sought to flatten them with a forward roll. As he started to curl up, Eve knew that Julius had some martial skill in mind to parry the thing instead of simply avoiding it. Eve readied her dagger for when the great patriarch fell over. She smirked a little, the Ice Gems Julius helped her get would be perfect to stick into that thing's neck.

"The easiest thing to do is just avoid it," he said, having already basically read her mind. "It's times like these where generally the best practice is to just let them tire themselves out. Besides, notice how my blade hasn't even been drawn yet? I intend to finish this with as few strikes as possible."

It was true-- his blade was still in its scabbard. But, that didn't mean that he didn't have the weapon necessary to take this creature on-- contrary to that, in fact. He knew that whatever was down here had to be weak to bombs, which is why he made more than sure to actually remember it.

...Well, it didn't really help that he literally could not forget it, as having a Bomb Bag during this short amount of time made him extremely reliant on it. More reliant than he realized, certainly; which is precisely why he would try to go weeks without using it, of course.

At the same time, this was also a special occasion-- he had the perfect opportunity to actually use these bombs as means of defeating an otherwise invulnerable foe. So, he figured it broke out as about even. Still, though, there was the ever present threat of the Patriarch on his mind. But that would be nothing, they had slain creatures like this before.

Even if had been more than fifty years since one had popped up!

Still, he knew about their weaknesses. When it inhales to take a breath of fire, just toss in a Bomb, and that would be how you'd counter it, as well as make it literally unable to defend itself-- for a short while, at least. As he completed his roll, he popped open, loosing an incredible ROAR! It was magnificent. Still, a shame it would have to die.

He began to breathe in fire. Julius quickly pulled out a bomb, threw it into the beast's mouth, and watched as it exploded. "Haha! Score one, us! Now Eve! Strike!" He began to focus on his Mortal Draw for a fair while, as it took some time to charge.

Eve whirled around, not expecting Julius to avoid the beast. She plunged the dagger into the now-stunned creature. A familiar white frost coated the spots she was thrusting the dagger. She nailed about five hits in, before the great Dodongo bucked. It threw her to the stiff stone of the ground and she rolled. Back to its senses, it thrashed to full enraged vitality.

Eve clamored for her senses which were thrown about as the stone whacked into her head. Cold smells of fruit filled her mind as she saw little Cuccoos and a fruit salad spin around her head. The thundering feet of an elephant trampled and charged like a tornado at her and she awoke from her daze. The trampling was actually the King Dodongo, running wildly to begin its great spinning roll. Eve spat curses and ran for the corner.

Julius lashed out at a Patriarch that wasn't even there. "Whoops," he chuckled, having expected it to be comatose for at least five seconds. "Guess they've grown to be, uh... Not as affected by bombs. Whoops!" He noticed something weird about all this, though. Those Lizalfos and Dinolfos, they didn't even care about ridding this place of whatever was causing it to shake and rumble!

Julius headed for the corner too. As it stopped rolling, it didn't even consider the fact that Julius might throw another bomb in. What a disgrace! This time, the process was repeated, only now Julius actually drew his sword. He struck one Spin Attack, two Spin Attacks; nothing could go wrong! This time, it would surely be over, he thought.

Yeah! That's what he was talking about!

But what was this? He was still breathing! "Eve, finish him!"

Eve started to reel at how cheese-able this enemy was. Did it even know they could dodge it? Was it able to know that breathing fire every time was ruining its strategy in the long run? It didn't matter now. Something Julius could be relied on every time was to make the right weapons for the right situations. It just so happened that her dagger was exactly the right weapon to fight this creature with. The penetration of the crystal and ice on a fire-spitting monster was just what was needed to bypass his scales and reach his vulnerability-his neck.

Eve crawled up like a spider onto his neck again and started getting stabby. Clear frost began to form as the penetration was almost immediate. A sick ripping sound came from up on the monster as she went for his jugular. She threw in a punch for good measure as it was almost necessary at this point. Cascading off the monster, Eve slipped to the ground as fluid followed her courteously to the floor. Eve jumped up and down.

"Woo! What a rush that is!" she commented as the creature stirred.

Dying, the King Dodongo crawled noiselessly into the magma, possibly by mistake. Smoke and cinders flew into the air as he sunk gradually toward the center of the room. Eve stopped jumping and turned toward Julius. She had a thoughtful look on her face. She nervously rubbed her hands together.

"Well Mister Julius, I'm going to be going back to Castle Town. The Quest Bureau pays big money for hits like these. I also want to check in with some people to see if I can get a job. You taught me a lot on this trip and I think the things I can do are better used elsewhere, where I won't ruin anything by accident." she explained, bending her head a little.

"Yeah, that sounds good," Julius said, idly looking up at the ceiling. "Just don't try to join the Guard or anything. I don't even think I could get you in, and I carry quite a bit of weight within," he said, finally choosing to lay down. "I think there's still a library looking for an assistant, though. That's what Lucia did."

The silence hung in the air for a moment. Then, he idly asked, "So what do you want your next weapon to be like? Like your hammer, or something else? Because I'm really close to a breakthrough; I can feel it. Like... I'm so close to being able to use Goron Iron and Splinter Crystal together. I know I am. But... why can't I do it yet? I don't know." He closed his eyes, only to keep talking.

"I was thinking along the lines of an axe," he said, staring at nothing in particular. "That way, with your arms being like they are... You wouldn't have to really have to put much strength into it." He hummed for a while, not even noticing the magma cooling off. "Actually, I've noticed you gotten a lot stronger. So either way, I think you're still able to put a lot of force into things. Just, like with your hammer, you can't... necessarily hold onto them well? I could be totally wrong though and your strength could be like hot garbage," he said, staring indeterminately at nothing.

"Well, whatever." he said, getting up and sort of brushing off his butt. "I'm going to let you decide, and probably help me with this weapon. After you come up with a design, that is. Come on, let's get back to Castle Town."

They made their way out of the nasty cavern. It wasn't nearly as bad as their way in, but it was still pretty bad and smelled like ass and smoke. Something surely was 'hot garbage' and it was most definitely the fire and brimstone smell. They forged their way out of the cave and marveled at the fresh air entering their faces. Eve was in deep thought, however. It wasn't going to work out if she didn't get that position, however lowly it was.

"I don't know, Captain. I'd rather not risk setting a wheat field's worth of books on fire. I'll give you input on the axe of course, but I'm going to see if the Guard has any divisions available. I'm old enough to fit any working position in any field, you know. I forgot a lot of my past but I'm certain it's been as long." she responded unflinchingly.

Neither of them knew at the time the irony of what she was talking about. This was the man from her past who had buried her when toxins had overtaken her system and put her into a long coma. She would never remember that though, she could hardly remember anything she actually wanted to. She sighed a bit and made to clarify what she thought.

"I don't mean just the high Guard either, mister fancy. They need all sorts of soldiers these days. I think we need to consider that Shadow over Death Mountain these days. You might even thank me for considering it. If I don't get in, fine. But I'm going to try my damnedest after all of this happened." she included thoughtfully.

Knowing he would be protective and dissuasive, she listened to his answer anyway. He was being about as positive as an old inveterate Hylian could be after all.

"I was more talking about the fact that you're Kokiri," Julius said, nodding soberly at the mention of Ganon's ever-present vigil growing stronger day by day. "But, if you truly want to join, then go ahead. Hell-- you may be the deciding factor in a few fights. But that doesn't mean go seeking trouble-- stay away from it, unless your commander tells you to charge. But that depends on exactly which unit you get stationed to, which doesn't mean it'll necessarily be doing a whole lot of nothing." He said, well aware that with any luck, she might get stationed in Castle Town. Which meant she'd be under his command.

"...Either way, do what you will. I won't stop you." He said, as they continued to walk. "Just know that if anything happens to you, I probably will kill whoever actually did anything to you. And since you'll be part of the Hyrule Guard, that means you're going to need to go through a bunch of 'basic training'," he said this with his visible fingers making quotation marks around the basic training part, "but I don't think you're going to fail. Hell, if anything, you'll probably blow past all the others. You have been around for quite a while," he added.

They walked further. Without all the boulders, falling all around them, they actually got to a point that was probably halfway between Castle Town and the cave they had just exited. Then, they got even farther. Soon, the gates of Hyrule Castle Town were looming in the distance. "Well," he said, giving her the friendliest smile. "Looks like we'll see pretty soon, huh?" He waved to Castle Town, no one seeing them for who they were. It wasn't until they were almost at the gate that they were actually noticed.

The Guards on duty gave him a sharp salute, then continued on with their regular duties. It was kind of an inspiration to Julius. "Well, looks like you've got somewhere to be, eh?" He said, smiling at her.