Quit Monkeying Around (TP #1) [Eevachu + Willow]

Rika stood deep in thought as Dante looked the chest, tossing the key to the Kokiri. He grabbed it as he examined the room, curious about it's design. It was really simple, with a treasure chest just sitting around completely unprotected. It was an obvious trap, at least that's how it appeared. Strangely enough, after Dante opened the chest, nothing happened. Dante removed the contents and gave the key to Rika, who was slightly confused by this result.

"That is strange, but it did fall under us and there was that massive bottomless pit we crossed, so maybe it's still on the other side of the temple. We still shouldn't let out guard down, though." With slight hesitation, Rika stepped forward with key in hand. As he did, the ground started rumbling. Rather, the tile directly under Rika. He had little time to react as he was sent flying into the air, the key flying in another. Rika flew towards the wall away from both Dante and the key, landing on the ground. The key went flying away, a Deku Like swiftly snatching it from midair. What had happened, though?

A massive, purple worm had shot out of the ground from underneath the stone tile, just before quickly dropping back down into the hole it had dug, the stone tile resting firmly back in it's spot as if nothing had happened. Rika landed on his butt as it scraped across the floor. Luckily for him his clothing was somewhat thick, or he'd have some troubles. His fun wasn't over yet, as the tile under him rumbled once more. Faced with little time to react, the Kokiri rolled to the side, the tile launching up from where he had just been, a second worm just underneath it. It slid back down into the ground once more.

It wasn't over, though. As Rika brought himself to his feet, both him and Dante felt shaking. Not from directly under them, but from the entire room. It shook for a few moments before it came to a complete stop, seemingly reverting the room to what it once was, a still, quiet, and empty room. The two of them knew now, however, that it was far from that. Rika looked straight at Dante and the trap he had apparently triggered by opening the chest. ". . . Fuck."

The hell? Tile worms? Dante had to wonder how they'd even made it into this place. First, rock (maybe worse) flinging monkeys. Then, a giant one intent on tearing them limb from limb. Curse his curiosity. "Stopping by couldn't hurt" He'd said. This was the LAST time he ever explored a temple guarded by monkeys. Bastards.

While he thought about his woes, Dante looked about, watching the tiles for activity. Nothing, so far. It seemed they were reactive, rather than proactive. But they did little to give away their presence. And still there was the matter of there being no discernible exit from the room. Well, there was no time like the present, to be assailed by tile worms. With a mental command, he switched on his Hover Boots, now beginning to hover slightly into the air. Hopefully he wouldn't trigger the worms attacking, if they did so due to a change in pressure on a tile. He took a ginger step forward, wincing slightly as he did so. Nothing. He repeated the process for the next couple tiles, and still, noth---bap! A Tile Worm had risen up next to him, thwaping him in the side with its tile helmet. Dante was sent careening due to his Hover Boots, sliding across the room dizzily, before e caught himself on a wall to steady himself.

"Rika, let's never help monkeys out, ever, ever, again."

". . . Let's settle for normal apples." Rika unamusedly spat out as he spun his scythe a couple times in preparation before beginning Stepping forward, he quickly moved back in an attempt to fake out the worms. No response. Moving towards the next tile and quickly sliding back, a Tile Worm immediately launched out. The Kokiri sprung his attack, swiftly slicing the Tile Worm in half with one wide arc of his blade. The stone tile crashed to the ground on its detached corpse, squishing it even further. The Kokiri continued this motion, and for a few moments appeared to be gracefully dancing around the Tile Worms; deftly avoiding and slicing them as they sprung, he acquired a small body count, at least until he was hit. Springing an attack from behind, a Tile Worm slammed into Rika from behind, causing him to fall forward onto what happened to be another Tile Worm. This worm sent him flying up and back onto a third Tile Worm, which then launched him onto the ground even farther away from where he had began. The Kokiri let out an audible growl, gripping his scythe tightly in frustration and anger.

"Okay Dante, hurry up and blast these damn things out with your wind magic so I can slice them up already!" The Kokiri angrily barked out at the Deku, visibly upset by having just been juggled by the Tile Worms. They weren't even especially difficult for him to deal with, it's not like he had been notably injured, he was just incredibly annoyed.

Using his Whirlwind was likely not to be strong enough to pull the worms from the ground, and using his Wind Enchantment would be too slow, if he had to repeatedly cast it. But Rika was right, they needed a quick solution to these worms, for the longer they took down here, the sooner the giant ape would be able to make it deeper, and deeper into the dungeon to find them. It was time to use that, then. Raising his right arm, pointing it near the center of the room, Dante shot forth the strange explosive from his even stranger arm cannon. With the sound of an inflated ball, the explosive sphere bounced off the ground, hit the wall on the other side of the room, and began to roll back. It wasn't long before it was flashing as it demonstrated it would before. "Keep clear of it!" He yelled out in warning to Rika. While it took some time to explode, it was more powerful than just a regular bomb.

A bright flash and a cacophonous sound overtook the room, and as the light died down, the acrid smell of burnt flesh and singed stone wafted into the air. There, in the center of the room, was a small crater, a number of worms wriggling about, in varying degrees of wholeness.

Rika shielded his eyes as the sphere released its energy, shredding everything within its radius. Glancing over his arm as the dust began to settle, all Rika could smell was burnt worm flesh, and all he could hear was the crumbling of dirt as it struggled to fall and find its way back to normal. Numerous worms were ripped forcefully out of their holes, some more intact than others, though many still seemed to be animated. Rika was silent with shock, though slowly words escaped his mouth as he began to move. ". . . That's not what I expected, but it works." He spoke as he made his way down the path, puncturing the squirming worms with his scythe, putting an end to their movements. It seemed as though a majority of the worms had been extinguished by the blast; though there were likely others, there was no longer any reason to clear them out, and they were likely scared into staying underground by the display of power that had just happened.

Rika eventually made his way to the key, and lifted it up, shifting it between his fingers quickly. "What lock does this key go to, anyway. . . in fact, where do we even go from here?" Rika questioned, puzzled for a moment as he examined the room. There did not seem to be a way out, unless. . . Scanning the room, Rika did notice something. Underneath one of the many tiles that had been blown away by Dante's bomb, there was a small hole, roughly just big enough to fit Dante's bulbous Deku skull, leading downward. Strolling over and looking down in it, Rika immediately complained, "Well, I don't see anything." He paused for a moment, before continuing, "Not like we have anywhere else to go." and leaping downward, sliding down the wall to whatever ground he'd meet. Surprisingly, his fall came to a short end about twenty feet downward, as he hit dirt. The hole appeared to lead and angle upward into a tunnel, which was a bit wider than the hole he had jumped into. He could probably move through it by crouching, so at least he didn't have to crawl. "Seems like there's somewhere we can go!" Rika shouted back up to Dante before bending downward and moving into the tunnel, following it to its end.

Soon, he saw light, as he reached the end of the tunnel. It seemed to be hanging about five feet over a platform sticking out of the wall, so Rika climbed out and leaped down onto the platform. What shocked him was the room he was in. It was a wide, open room, with massive gaps and large rotating platforms similar to the room they had encountered before. However, it looked like a war had happened within. Large chunks of platforms were torn off, some were destroyed entirely, chunks of stone wall were smashed and ripped, and a large door across from them seemed blown asunder. However, the damage to the platforms seemed significant, and they likely couldn't travel to the door. With a frown, Rika looked around for an alternative path, until his gaze found its way up. To his right, about thirty feet into the air, his eyes caught a glimpse of a corner of a door, on top of and blocked mostly by a small platform. The question was, how would they even reach that door? Perhaps if the room were in its natural state it would be possible to reach either door from their location, but with the severe damage currently dealt to it that didn't seem possible.

"Rika--" Dante was about to advise the headstrong Kokiri against jumping into strange holes, but was too late, as he watched the mage, scythe and all, slither down into the hole. Dante sighed. Some things never changed. Instead of waiting for the inevitable call, he just shrugged to no one in particular. Rika had been right, there was no point in sticking around this room. Besides, it smelled. "To hell with it." He ran towards the hole and jumped, sliding down the tunnel just a moment before Rika's call reached his ears. The drop wasn't far, but out of precaution he activated his Hover Boots, landing on a "cushion" of air at the bottom of the slide. By the time he made it down, Rika had already moved on, but a it took only a few moments on his Hover Boots to catch up. He dropped down next to Rika, just as the Kokiri was taking in the room's state.

"Shit." Dante cursed. The overgrown monkey had already been here, which meant that wherever they were going, they were likely going to have to deal with the overgrown primate. But that problem could wait until later. More pressing was their need to get to the door. Dante was fairly certain he could make it up to the platform, but without his rope, he had no way of getting Rika there. Still, Rika was always a capable mage, so Dante was fairly certain he might have some sort of solution for himself. "Rika, how high do you think you can get? With my Wizzwarp, height isn't an issue. If you can get high enough, and we both have enough momentum, we could stagger using our Hover Boots' momentary levitation to glide the rest of the way."

"That would be awfully convenient to have. . ." Rika mumbled as he examined his surroundings for any possible ways to reach the platform. "I think I can make it." Rika added as his eyes were drawn to vines hanging low to the right of the entrance, just aside the platform they were trying to reach. Though they were rather thin at his level, they seemed to bundle up and form a deep thicket of vines about ten feet higher into the air. If he could reach that point, climbing to the platform would be child's play, and luckily for Rika, he was a Kokiri. "I forgot I had those boots, actually." Rika said as he glanced down at the shoes he was wearing, which were at the moment disabled. He did not particularly enjoy the motions and feeling of sliding around and having a lack of traction, so he had used them quite sparingly, if at all since obtaining them. In fact, he wasn't even quite sure how he came to acquire them in the first place, but nonetheless they were there.

All he had to do now was climb. Making his way over to the vines, Rika gave them a few pulls to test their durability. He was fairly light, but it would be unfortunate if they snapped while he was on them, especially at this level where he did not have a lifeline to grab on. After assuring that they were likely secure, Rika made his way up the vine, reaching the wider thicket without worry. "This is going smoother than I expected. . . " Rika commented as he continued his climb, though just as he said that things began to go back. As he elevated himself, a vine shot out from underneath the thicket, a large, bulbous jaw shooting out and slamming into Rika as it came off. The Kokiri was completely caught off guard by this, and was sent flying off the vines. "Shit!" He panicked as he quickly turned the Hover Boots on, left with no other option. Then, the Kokiri kind of danced in place awkwardly, trying to catch himself but having nothing to grab like an old Scooby-Doo cartoon. After a couple moments, the magic of the Hover Boots wore off, though Rika had time to acclimate himself to his situation. Dropping a few feet, the Kokiri latched onto a vine as he fell. His hands tore through a couple as he slid, but he eventually found himself stopping on one of them. "Agh, that was obnoxious, I can't see them coming at all. . . " He complained as he looked back up at the Deku Baba. Turning his Hover Boots back off, Rika pulled himself back up and launched an Ice spell at the Deku Baba, destroying it and causing it to fall behind him downward.

Then, he began his climb back up again, hopefully this time without an assault from a Deku Baba.

That solved one issue, though Dante winced as Rika nearly fell from the vines. It was annoying how well Deku Babas blended into vegetation. Annoying bastards. With that problem now out of the way, all that was left was for himself to reach that platform. Of course, his plans now changed, and now he doubted if he'd be able to make it the whole way using his Hover Boots alone. But he wasn't in any mood to waste more time. Unsheathing his sword with one hand, and unholstering his Whirlwind in the other, Dante took several steps back. He pressed his back flat against the wall behind him, then fell low. He inhaled a single breath.

Exhaling, he charged off from that wall, hoping desperately that the small platform his was one was enough of a runway. Concentrating magical energy into his Whirlwind in his left hand, Dante prepared to unleash a Wind Enchantment enhanced blast. Timing it as perfectly as possible, while his eyes remained on his target in the air, he leapt from the edge of the platform, squeezing the trigger of his airgun. A blast of strong gusts exploded out, hurtling him forward and into the air. A loud whine pealed out, and suddenly he was gone in a green flash, appearing in another cascade of light at his intended target. With a mental command he switched on the second functionality of his Hover Boots, the Deku hurtling with his previous momentum towards the platform above.

Only, there was a problem. They weren't alone: there, waiting, was a pair of Lizalfos and an Aeralfos. They had, apparently, been lying in wait for the pair of adventurers to try and make it to the top, at which point they would have hurtled the two to their deaths. "We've got company!" Dante yelled out, hoping Rika heard him before he reached the top. The Kokiri was going to need some cover, though, and he didn't have much time to act, with the speed at which he was flying at the three enemies. The Aeralfos looked to be attempting to take off, to try and intercept him mid-air. Reflexively, Dante aimed his Whirlwind straight at the three, though it was the Aeralfos who was his main target. Another blast flew out, and though this one was weaker as compared to the Wind Enchantment enhanced one, it was enough to momentarily distract the two Lizalfos, while it caught in the Aeralfos' wings and slammed him back against the wall. Dante landed on the very edge of the platform, dodging to the side just as one of the Lizalfos thrusted with a longsword.

A few moments after he had began his climb once more, Rika found himself nearing the top. Whether through the lack of their existence or sheer luck, Rika had managed to avoid being surprised by any Deku Baba this time around, though he still had a short distance to go before reaching the top. It was at this moment that Dante warped above Rika, instantly shouting about the arrival of new enemies. From his position, Rika was able to catch a glimpse of the Lizalfos across from Dante, but it was difficult to ascertain exactly what was going on while hanging on the vines underneath. Snapping his fingers, a large, glowing circle appeared in the one location he could see; the wall to the right of the Lizalfos. While the other Lizalfos thrust its weapon in response to Dante's arrival, the other Lizalfos was too pre-occupied by the newly formed light show. It stared at the glowing circle for a moment, curious and intrigued by the magical circled that had formed, before it came to the conclusion it was extremely dangerous. With a short, panicked response, the Lizalfos attempted to leap out of the way to void it, jumping to the left. However, the platform was too small too accommodate such a wide dodge, and he bumped into the other Lizalfos, knocking it back and pushing them both off balance. Just as he did so, a massive, stone spire erupted from the wall, tearing through air in the location the Lizalfos was not even a second before, the sharp point aggressively pointing about half a foot from its face. While it didn't kill either of the Lizalfos, they were certainly disoriented by the attack.

Meanwhile, the Aeralfos chose to target the immobile, hanging target. Though slightly bruised from her impact against the wall, the Aeralfos was still more than capable of battle and of flight. Withdrawing its wings and slinking off the platform and down, the Aeralfos held her longsword forward, threatening to fall on the clinging Rika and run him through, skewering him with no possible counterattack. Noticing the Aeralfos just as it fell, Rika had little time to react as he garnered all of the strength his small frame contained, pushing against the wall to shove his body to the left. As he did so, he released the vines and activated his Hover Boots, the Kokiri sliding to the left. Just as he did so, the Aeralfos zoomed past, continuing her dive downward. In his other hand, Rika formed his very own container of water, chucking it downward at the Aeralfos. The flying lizard extended her wings, swooping upward at an angle. The Aqua Grenade exploded as she did so, but instead of flying straight up, the Aeralfos flew straight, causing the high pressured water bomb to crush nothing except air, the water harmlessly pelting both Rika and the Aeralfos. "They're dodging my spells. . . They can smell the magic coming." Rika complained as he grabbed onto the vines, deactivating his Hover Boots and letting himself hang. "He could've said there was a flier. . ." The Aeralfos flew upward to gain altitude and began to move in a circle, swerving around to begin her second round against the Kokiri.

Unfortunately, Dante didn't have the luxury of talking: in fact, he could vocalize very little, aside from grunting, as he dodged another thrust. That was one of the advantages of being a Deku: not a lot for an enemy to hit. Still, his short arms made dealing with larger opponents more difficult. However, Rika's Spire gave him some much needed breathing room, and the opportunity he needed. Hopping over a tail swing, Dante watched as the second Lizalfos bumped into the first, throwing the two stumbling forward. The one that had just dodged the Spire attempted to roll his body away to the side, to occupy the area the Aeralfos had just been, but Dante wasn't about to let that happen. He used his Whirlwind again, pinning the second Lizalfos back against the spire that had just appeared, its scaled head snapping back to hit the hard stone. The first, who had been thrusting at Dante again, was instead forced into a clumsy lunge, its footing clearly off balance. With a duck and weave below its blade, he came within its guard and eviscerated it with a clean stroke of his kukri. It staggered to a knee, and Dante was just barely able to jump back as it toppled forward. The second Lizalfos was trying to stand up, but was clearly dazed from its impact against the Spire. An easy kill, thanks to Rika, as he darted in and opened a bloody gash on its neck.

But, from the sounds of things below, there wasn't any time to waste, so Dante ran over to the edge of the platform, squeezing of a few quick blasts from his Whirlwind. He hadn't taken the time to aim, so it came as no surprise that the Aeralfos was able to dodge out of the way of most of them. However, may that would give Rika a good opportunity to take the annoying lizard down.

The Aeralfos swerved to the side, dodging the Whirlwinds somewhat easily. She glared angrily at Dante as he blasted the mechanical orbs of wind at her; he was the more obnoxious one, she would have to deal with him after. For now, she would have to deal with the Kokiri and why was her flying becoming erratic, why did she feel pain throughout her wing, why did she feel steel piercing her scaly winged flesh. Glancing at her wing, the answer was clear; a small dagger was embedded within her right wing. It was the only real solution Rika had at the moment, as while she could sense his magic with her keen smell, metal was a different story. The Aeralfos began to flutter down slowly, trying but failing to maintain altitude as she hovered below Rika and down towards the platform Rika and Dante had come from.

With a burst of Wind, the Aeralfos was unable to dodge with her poor mobility as the rotating ball of wind collided with her, slamming her violently into the ground. She weakly tried to lift herself up, but it was to no avail. With another snap of his fingers, a circle spelling her imminent doom formed underneath the Aeralfos. A massive spire erupted from the earth, twisting and turning her flesh to brutally impale and rip her body apart, instantly killing her. A gross display, but it was effective. Seeing that Dante had dealt with the other enemies, Rika slowly made his way back down to retrieve his dagger. After doing so, he slowly made his way back up, careful so not to be assaulted by any hidden Deku Babas once more. Reaching the top, it was confirmed to him that Dante had disposed of the Lizalfos that were sitting up here. "Man, fighting while clinging to a wall isn't fun. . . What were these lizards doing here anyway, do they live here? Those monkeys are pretty poor at their job then." Rika complained as he climbed onto the platform and brought himself to his feet.

Just as he had seen from below, there was a door here at the platform. Unless they wanted to try flying across the gigantic pit across the room, that seemed to be their next destination.

"Maybe they came from somewhere deeper, and were running from the giant monkey, but ended up here? I wouldn't be surprised if this place opened up into some surrounding caves, considering how old it is..." Dante mused, curious about their presence as well. Hopefully they wouldn't run into many more, especially any Dinalfos. Those were always the more difficult of the Lizardmen to deal with. With little better to do, though, Dante decided to open the door presented to them. Immediately, the two would hear the faint sound of roars and banging in the distance, clearly funneling in through the tunnel that the door opened to. There was no mistake about what would be at the end of that tunnel.

Deciding it prudent, Dante pulled his bow from his back, and a drawstring from a pouch at his side, stringing the weapon with practiced ease. "Sounds like there'll be trouble. Best be on our guard, though. No telling what else might be with the giant creature." With that, he began to jug down the tunnel, not wanting to waste time, but also knowing full well that he'd likely need all of his energy in the oncoming battle.

Thankfully, no other enemies were in the tunnel, though that was no surprise, since it only led in one direction, and was relatively small. Now that he was quickly approaching the end, he began to hear the screeching of monkeys. Were they fighting each other? That seemed like a bad idea, considering. He approached another closed door, one that presumably opened up to a room full of monkeys. He creaked it open quietly and snuck out, finding that a pile of rubble stood on this end of the room, that was beginning to look familiar. That was it: this was the main entrance room they had come to, at the beginning of this mad adventure.

He peeked out from behind his hiding spot, eyes searching around. It seemed the the giant monkey was in the center of the room, and was still quite agitated. The other monkeys were doing their best to soothe his anger, but nothing seemed to be working, as he flung them every which way. "That's enough of that..." Dante muttered, drawing his bow and taking aim. He slunk back into his hiding spot, before loosing the arrow, clearly away from his enemy. With a whine is cut through the air, before impacting against a wall, promptly bouncing off, and colliding with Ook's back. It took the monkey a moment to register the pain it now felt, but it let out another, greater roar, sending the remaining monkeys scattering.

As the thunderous roars echoed throughout the tunnel, Rika groaned. It was that overgrown monkey again. He knew it was inevitable they'd encounter him again, but still the fact was not pleasant. If he recalled, the ape was incredibly slow moving, though it was unlikely that its max speed was actually how it moved before. Along with that, its strength was phenomenal, tearing through stone with ease. A single, direct hit would likely spell doom for both Rika and Dante, or at the very least they would be quite injured by it. Readying his scythe, Rika was prepared for the battle with Ook. As they exited the room, Rika was surprised to see them in the place they had started.

The monkeys attempted to plead with their boss, to soothe his rage, but to seemingly no avail. As Dante slid behind rubble to find a vantage point, Rika went the other direction. The dumb monkey was too preoccupied with his jewel to pay any attention to others anyway. That was when Dante struck, his arrow bouncing off the wall and into Ook. The monkey let out a horrifying roar, causing the other monkeys to scatter across the room in fear. Ook furiously looked around for the cause of the pain and spotted Rika. That red thing was the thing that tried to take his treasure earlier! "YOU NO TAKE OOK TREASURE, OOOOOOK!" The monkey roared, charging in a straight line at Rika on all fours like a gorilla. The Kokiri ran as fast as he could, leaping as the monkey charged past him and and slammed into the wall. Chunks of stone fell from the wall as a large crater was indented from the blast. Luckily for Rika, he was alive.

"So he can move faster, like I thought. . ." Rika spat out, trying to gain distance between him and Ook before the monkey recovered. This terrain was incredibly disadvantageous for Rika; it was flat with little cover, and although he could avoid Ook's reckless charges and swings, it was only a matter of time before one hit. If he wanted to win, he would have to relocate. "Dante, let's lead him outside!" Rika shouted across the room. Following that, with a snap and swing of his fingers, an orb of fire launched at Ook, slamming into his back shoulder. The monkey roared angrily, as he had been, as he began to remove himself from the wall.

The cowering monkeys murmured among themselves as this went on. "T-They're alive, ook! Boss didn't squash 'em, ook!" One monkey cried out. "Y-Yeah! S-Should we help them, ook?" Another monkey said, only to be quickly cut off by a third monkey. "N-No, ook! If we h-help them, boss'll be super angry, ook!" The second monkey seemed frightened by the other monkey's declaration, but responded anyway, saying, "W-Well yeah, ook! B-But we gotta help boss, right, ook. . .?" The monkeys seemed somewhat undecided if they should help or not.

"On it!" Dante yelled out, running quickly from behind his cover, loosing another arrow at Ook's back for a second time. It struck true, but it didn't seem like they were doing much damage: they were penetrating skin and drawing blood, but by the looks of things, not much more than that. Still, it would pull Ook's attention away from Rika briefly. Dante knocked a third arrow, this time imbuing it with a Wind Enchantment. "Alright, let's see how you take this!" Dante switched on his Hover Boots, sliding forward quickly. This, however, also let him pivot unnaturally and continue moving while firing off an arrow that was relatively accurate. Steadying his aim, he aimed down at the ground, just as Ook finished extricating himself from the ruined wall. Turning to face Dante, he let out another angry snarl, before charging on all fours.

The great lumbering beast moved quick for his size, but Dante was ready. Loosing his arrow, it bounced off the ground just beneath Ook, before ricocheting and colliding with its back knee. A great explosion of wind echoed out, and the massive monkey was floored as its legs were torn out from beneath it, flung into the air. Its face collided with the ground, and it flew head over heads in a painful roll, though Dante was long out of Ook's way as his body thundered past him. "That should get his attention." With that, Dante began to skate quickly towards the exit, but not before shooting the other monkeys an angry glare. "You bastards better stay out of this, if you want your friend back to normal."

"Nice job!" Rika called out to Dante as he followed him out of the shrine's wide entrances, his feet taking steps once again on the grassy forest earth. Ook roared angrily from inside the temple as he recovered, and charged after the duo, his arms smashing and ripping against the walls in his path. As he charged past, he ripped out chunks of stone, flinging them in the direction of Rika and Dante. Though his throws weren't the most accurate, they were accurate enough to at least pose a threat. Forming an Aqua Grenade in his palm, the orb of water collided with the stone flying towards Rika, grinding it to dust and stopping its momentum. Dashing in between a few trees, Ook charged after the two of them, smacking trees with a wide swing of the broad side of his arm. However, the tree didn't immediately break. "Just as I thought, a little too sturdy even for him to knock down in one blow . . "

Ook, who was so preoccupied on the two of them, was now focused on punching the tree. With a few swift punches and smashes, the tree eventually cracked, tumbling down to the ground, but it put up more of a fight than the stone previously. With his offense and mobility hampered, all that was left to actually defeat him. However, his defense was too great, and not something they could readily reduce. Plus, even if killing him was an option, even if an incredible impractical and exhausting one, the overall objective was to rescue Ook, not execute him.

That only left the retrieval of the shiny shard he held in his hand, but having him release it would be difficult, especially if they couldn't do anything that would prove fatal to the otherwise normal Ook. Thinking for a moment, Rika called out to Dante, "Let's keep him distracted for a little bit, let me know when your wind is usable, I have a plan!" Even if his grip was strong, with enough force behind a blow certainly he would let go, and a blow with Rika and Dante chaining their attacks together would likely not be fatal.

As he finished speaking, Ook made a wide swing at Rika, who ducked behind a tree to stop his blow. The tree shook viciously upon being hit, and Ook was clearly not pleased by it. So, he decided to turn around and try to smash Dante.

"Got it! I'll need ten seconds!" By now, Dante had already slung his bow back over his back, unsheathing his sword and Whirlwind yet again. Turning to face Ook, Dante began to skate towards their giant enemy: he'd fought so many enemies larger than him in the past, that charging one head on no longer phased him. But Ook was fairly fast, and limber, having maintained his monkey sensibilities, even in his larger, angrier form. He managed to deftly raise the tree into the air above his head, attempted to squish Dante as he brought it to the ground. His overgrown muscles were more than enough to move that tree quickly, and the air whistled around it as it parted the air. The tree was fairly wide, and with Dante's momentum all pushing him forward, towards Ook, it seemed like he might meet his doom.

But Dante had other plans in mind. Pulling down hard on the Whirlwind's trigger, it's gust hit the ground just behind him and to his left. This, combined with the hovering of his boots, sent him careening off in a diagonal, quickly moving him out and away from the tree, and towards Ook's thick leg. With a quick slash, he opened up a cut on the monkey's shin, but he wasn't nearly finished. Ook turned, releasing a hand from the tree that had just collided with the ground, attempting to catch Dante in the back with the backside of his hand. His hand passed through nothing but air. The sound of the tree crashing against the ground had masked the noise, but Dante had used his Wizzwarp, teleporting, in fact, behind himself. He appeared with the same momentum as before, now astride the tree on the ground, hurtling at Ook along its length.

With a sweet grind, Dante shot out a second blast of air to further bolster his mad air. With a jump and a flip, his kukri collided with the exposed powerful neck and shoulder muscles of Ook, who's head was turned in confusion towards where Dnate had been just a moment earlier. Though the fur and skin of Ook was fairly thick, with his momentum, Dante felt muscle part against his steel. "Ready!" He yelled out, as he completed his somersault on the other side of Ook, sliding before triggering his boots to turn off, and coming to a halt ten meters out from the monkey.

As Dante toyed with Ook to kill time, Rika messed with Ook's tail. The tail seemed to have a mind of its own, aggressively swinging everywhere in an attempt to hit everything it could. It had no regard for target, but it was certainly strong, like he had a third arm. The two were done messing with him as Dante was ready to enact Rika's plan. With a quick swipe, Rika slashed against Ook's tail with his scythe. That seemed to be a more sensitive part of his body, and while he didn't seem to deal any significant damage, the monkey let out a powerful screech of pain, angrily turning to face Rika. "You didn't like that, Ook? Then come tell me!" Rika taunted, running towards a tree. Extremely angry at what the Kokiri had did, the monkey bullrushed towards Rika in the direction of the tree. As he neared the tree, Rika dove out of the way, shouting at Dante, "Now!"

As he did so, the wind enchanted Whirlwind spun, unleashing a great gust of wind. Ook slammed into the tree, and shortly after, the Whirlwind's blast followed, smashing Ook against the tree. The gigantic monkey let out a pained grunt of air, its hands slowly opening. It was then that Rika saw the shard fall from his hands; a small, black jewel shard, probably a few inches or so big at most. "Get outta heeeere!" Rika shouted, smacking the jewel with his scythe like it was a baseball bat. The most important thing right now was to separate Ook and the shard, they could retrieve it afterwards. The shard went flying off into the trees and into some bush somewhere, but that wasn't really what Rika was focused on, it was Ook. He didn't revert. In fact, what happened was probably shocking for all.

"Give me. . . treasure. . . GIVE ME TREASURE BACK!!!!" He roared, violently swinging at Rika and sending the Kokiri flying back. Ook grabbed the tree he had slammed against and knocked over and violently swung it, slamming into another tree and breaking the both of them. "I WANT TREASURE!!" He roared again, violently lunging at Dante with speeds faster than what he had met before. It seemed like he was having a total meltdown.

"Alright, well that didn't work! Now what?!?!" Dante yelled out, jumping back as he shot the ground with his Whirlwind again, switching on his Hover Boots to put some distance between himself and Ook. But the overgrown beast was still lunging madly at him, and quickly catching up. What the hell, was he getting faster? Dante abruptly changed his momentum with the trick he'd been using, veering suddenly to the side, Ook dashing past him, apparently unable to control his great weight with much finesse at all. This wasn't practical at all, and with Ook apparently getting stronger by the moment, he wondered if he'd be able to hold back from killing the monkey much longer.

"Rika, what's going on?! I thought this was your area of expertise?" He called out to the Kokiri, jumping off the side off a nearby tree, and over Ook. They needed a solution, and fast.

"Ugh. . . " The Kokiri groaned as he pushed himself up, pain rushing through his chest as he put weight on his arm. Compared to the rest of the monkey's attacks, Rika had merely been grazed, but it was still quite painful. He would definitely be sore in the morning. Bringing himself to his feet, he saw the monkey charge at Dante, the Deku calling out to Rika. "I don't know, I don't know anything about this magic!" Rika cried out, stabilizing himself as he began to move. "Damn it, Ook! You're a real pain in my ass!" Rika shouted, chucking an Ice spell at his back. On impact, chunks of ice froze over on his back, but it didn't seem to stop him as he turned towards Rika. That was when the Kokiri noticed it. "No, it is working Dante!" Ook was heaving heavily, his chest pounding up and down like he was about to collapse. The lack of the jewel was clearly having an effect on him, though whether that effect would be enough before the two of them wound up deceased was yet to be seen.

As Ook turned towards Rika, he dashed through the trees, swerving to put them between the two of them. Even with his new-found strength and speed, he certainly couldn't take down several trees at once. With another charge, the monkey tore through two trees instantly, before slowing down as he hit the third one. "TRAS. . . TRASAR. . . " He called out, his words beginning to become intelligible. He was slowly being torn down, but he was still active as of now. With a few not so mighty swings of his arms, the tree in front of him eventually came tumbling down, but his blows seemed less effective than they had moments ago.

Shit! He hadn't done a good enough job of keeping the monkey's attention, and now it was running after Rika again. Rika had taken a grazing blow earlier, and though Dante well knew that wouldn't be enough to take the mage out of the fight, a second might be able to. Sheathing his sword, he began running as quickly as possible, gaining more and more speed as blasts of wind collided with the ground, shooting him like a hurtling comet at the monkey. "Hey, you shit throwing degenerate! Over here!" He screamed out, arm cannon aimed at the ground next to the monkey. Ook's attention was momentarily broken from Rika, as he turned his head ever so slightly towards Dante. It was enough. Loosing a Deku Nut from his arm cannon, the tiny flash bomb collided with the ground, glaring brightly. Ook let out a yell, more of surprise than any measure of pain, flailing his arms wildly in his momentary blindness.

"STUPID...TREE!" screamed Ook. Dante winced, trying to blink away the spots in his vision. Crap. An errant fist was aimed his way, and he was moving far too fast to avoid it: even his Wizzwarp wouldn't move him away in time, nor would a change in direction. He shot the ground before him with his Whirlwind once, and again as he jumped into the air, aiming it at Ook's fist. Combined with his slowed momentum, the second blast provided him with a cushion. He sucked a breath in painfully, though, as the fist still made contact with him, sending him flying over it and over Ook's head. Dazed, he barely had enough time to activate his Hover Boots' momentary flight to right himself, before he collided with a tree. His chest ached from the blow, and he could feel the crushed bark already beginning to ooze a bit of sap.

This was starting to get perilous. Could he even put Ook down, anymore? Rika had said it was working, but would he revert too late? Thankfully, that wasn't the case, as Ook's faliling seemed to slow, taking a heavy toll on his stamina. "JUST... want.... treasure......" Ook fell to the ground, asleep, and already beginning to shrink.

"What... what the hell kind of magic is in that shard?" Dante heaved out, breathing strained.