Rip a Lizard out of a Labyrinth

(This is a dungeon run of Lizard Labyrinth, also known as Level-5. This particular run is inspired more by the Second Quest version of the dungeon, as the boss and minibosses certainly seem more interesting. I mean, who wants to defeat the boss by blowing on a recorder, when you could fight a two-headed fire-breathing dragon?)


Sienna’s armored form clambered noisily over what must’ve been the fifth precipice in a row. Breathing hard, she glared behind her, seeing a river coursing hundreds of feet below. Scaling these hills might have been an easy task, had she not been decked out in full armor and constantly holding a weapon nearly thrice her height. But she wasn’t stupid—she wasn’t going to let go of a nine-foot glaive when she had still had two perfectly suitable weapons sheathed at her waist. No, that would just be silly.

Still, she couldn’t help but be mildly pissed that not only was she this exhausted after climbing such a short distance. This far into the wilderness, and she hadn’t even run into a single thing that wanted to kill her. Really, wasn’t this place supposed to be crawling with monsters? This was supposed to be the most dangerous part of Hyrule, or so that obnoxious brother of hers claimed. Yet, she hadn’t yet found so much as a single Keese to cleave in half--let alone a Lynel, a Darknut, or any real foe.

Raising her mask for a moment, Sienna looked up towards the sky. It was a beautiful partially cloudy day, with the morning sun shining down on her. Sienna was pissed at it. As long as she was present, she insisted the sky be dark, or at least overcast. She wanted her atrocities to be committed with thunderbolts striking behind her with dramatic panache. How was she supposed to instill horror and agony into Wizzrobes and Goriya if there was bright sunlight and butterflies behind her? The mere thought of it made her want to vomit—vomit out a nightmarish sword-leg-spider…

…But no, she decided to save that trick for later.

After trekking a bit further, Sienna came upon a large landing filled with uneven patches of dirt and grass—surrounded by the same orange stone which seemed to encompass the entirety of the Lost Hills. It was a rather ugly contrast, in her mind. In the clearing was what at first appeared to be the colossal head of a lizard—like an Aquamentus, or maybe a Gleeok. It bore a resemblance to that wanted poster she saw yesterday.

Sienna knew fighting a monster with a head ten times the size of her body was too good to be true, however. As she casually approached it, she realized the entire thing was indeed just some simple statue or sculpture instead of an actual monster. The creature’s would-be mouth was a cavernous opening, with stairs leading downward. “Classic.” It was the entrance to a dungeon if she’d ever seen one. Finally, she might be able to get some actual entertainment…

Pulling out the wanted poster again, she compared it to the draconic head that served at the entrance. There were some similarities, but it seemed unlikely that specific monster would just so happen to be in this dungeon. Those wings made it seem like it dwelled outside, anyway. Crumpling the poster back up, Sienna shoved it back underneath her armor.

As she approached the entrance, the dirt audibly rumbled a few paces ahead of her stride. A lone orange Leever popped out of the ground. Though it was even larger than Sienna’s entire body, the woman couldn’t help but look at it like it was some helpless little creature. It would have been enough to summon maniacal laughter, if she was into that sort of thing. (She wasn’t.)

“Hm. This must be my appetizer,” came a grumble. She grinned, taking glaive in both hands. Instead of diving straight towards her with a reckless charge, the Leever had the brains to start circling around her from what it presumed to be a safe distance—and Sienna realized it was just beyond the reach of her glaive. She eyed it carefully, grinning, waiting with uncharacteristic patience…

After all, something like this would only need a single, powerful stroke.

About a minute later, Sienna was striding down the stairs to what she no doubt hoped would be a dungeon—not any dungeon, but hopefully the dungeon to end all dungeons. For the first time in what seemed like ages, she was alone in her endeavor. Without an obnoxious brother or some crazy chick wanting to get her arm broken, she could really let loose.~

It was around this point that the last of the Leever guts dropped off her blade, landing behind her with an impotent splat. Such creatures didn’t even have faces, so it was difficult for her to get much satisfaction out of their anguish. That didn’t mean you couldn’t tear out a Leever’s organs with your bear hands while it was still alive, of course.

After descending the stairs, Sienna found herself eyed by a dozen or so statues, not one of which seemed to be moving—meaning, not one of them could be killed or even injured. They were situated in an organized fashion, across numerous stone tiles of an ugly brownish-orange color. Sienna wasn’t arrogant enough to think she had good taste in décor, but even she could tell this place looked hideous. It was as if they were going for the subtle hue of ‘Burning Vomit.’

The entire place would have been pitch-black, if Sienna couldn’t see in the dark. The fact it was indeed unlit made it unlikely anything of much significance lived here, or at least that is what Sienna assumed. Her face sneered in disappointment at this apparent vacancy, but she nonetheless advanced towards the sole doorway at the far end of the chamber.

The instant Sienna passed through the doorway, iron gates slammed shut behind her. She heard the metallic sheen of Blade Traps rushing at her from both sides. Her body hurled forward with a dramatic leap, narrowly missing the clash of blades striking together behind her.

The room suddenly shone as two projectile blasts of Fire launched towards her from the center of the room. “Dinfuckingdamnit.” She narrowly ducked under one, but the second shot was only deflected by the reinforced back of the gauntlet. A hiss of pain seeped from her face as she felt the heat simmer through the material against her wooden forearm. Sienna pushed off the ground as quickly as she could, only to abruptly feel a colossal weight SLAM into her back, banging her thankfully-armored face back into the ground. Something was on top of her, holding her down. Sienna did not know what fool dared to even attempt such an brazen action, but couldn’t be more certain its death would be imminent.

Growling in ferocious annoyance, Sienna dropped her glaive and did a monstrous push-up, flinging the creature off her back before whipping onto her feet. She quickly scanned the room: four blade traps, two fire traps, and two—what were those gooey assholes called, again? How could she let herself fall off-guard to such pathetic creatures?

The two beasts lurched towards her, one in front and one behind. Sienna’s hand shot to the dagger-sized sheath at her waist, ripping out a titanic black-bladed Death Sword, as she liked to call it. Its sheer size forced her to grip the massive handle with two hands, her legs taking on a wide stance.

With a ferocious spin, her body lead the way for her colossal sword to cleave the Zol behind her clean in half. The blade was too heavy to take into a full 360 spin, but that didn’t prevent Sienna from twisting her body far enough to launch a ferocious dropkick into the one that knocked into her backside. The creature flew back several feet, splashing audibly against the door from which Sienna entered.

Whether by luck or planning, Sienna’s dropkick left her flopping to the ground just in time to dodge another volley of fiery projectiles. As she recovered, she heard the Blade Trap trigger, cleaning the second Zol in half.

“…Oh, right.” She glared at the floor, finding four obnoxious Gels surrounding her. “I forgot those split…”

Even if they were more numerous, the tiny Gels could barely even hop around. Sienna had little trouble squashing two of them beneath her boots. As the third launched towards her, her fist launched downward like a hammer to pound the creature down into ground with a grotesque SPLAT. Turning her blade over, she used its wide edge to bat the final one across the room—presumably killing it against the far wall.

“Garbage disposed,” she sighed. Her attention returned to the Fire Trap in the room’s center. Without other traps or enemies to distract her, its shots were obnoxiously easy to avoid. She barely even had to look at it as she sheathed her Death Sword, then effortlessly recovered her glaive with a bit of magnetism from her gloves.

Sienna’s face twisted, disappointed and mildly pissed. That started out poorly, but didn’t end with much satisfaction. She had gotten all pumped to utterly pulverize something, but all there was to destroy were a couple of gooey cretins. To take out her rage, her free gauntlet shot forth like a fist—crushing one of the Fire Traps. Its serpentine face was smashed, the stone crumbling beneath Sienna’s ferocious knuckles. “Had enough of you two vomiting fire,” she grumbled, before similarly crushing the other one.

All of a sudden, she heard the door from which she came shudder open. Another sealed door she hadn’t noticed earlier—in the far corner of the room—opened up as well.

Glancing down at the two statues, Sienna growled out a sarcastic, “Thanks.” She presumed there was some mechanism in them keeping the doors shut, but didn’t have the patience nor the obligation to investigate it further. Perhaps the next room would be more… satisfying…

Several Like-Likes had the honor of being cleaved to shreds by Sienna’s glaive. She giggled like a schoolgirl—a horrid, nightmarish schoolgirl—as chunks of three or four of the creatures were left in her wake. The way that just stupidly crawled forward towards her, thinking she was food… It was hilarious, almost as if they wanted to die.

Sienna cleared out the room without any real challenge. While it was a humorous occasion, the stupid sponges again weren’t very satisfying kills. She couldn’t even truly tell if they felt any pain at all, or even knew the beautiful emotion known as terror. Even Zols were a bit more appetizing, as she could at least see anguish in their two dull eyes…

Wiping green blood off her boots, Sienna considered this dungeon, “Not vacant, after all.” There was the slightest of grins in her foreboding voice. So far the appetizers were plentiful, and she was beginning to salivate for the main course—these places always had something huge and ferocious waiting near the end, in her experience.

There was a sealed door to the left, and open doorway to the right. Sienna had little patience for puzzles and keys, so she took the path of least resistance. Maybe the door could’ve been forced open—maybe there would have been something behind it, but she assumed it would be the sort of creature that would hide behind a locked door. Something weak, something pathetic… There wasn’t any fun in murdering such a creature.

As Sienna strode through the open doorway, the stench of stagnant water smacked into her senses. Through the darkness, she spied an entire colony of twisted, orange-black lilypads floating across the water. “F-fuck,” she instinctively tried to cover her snout, “Didn’t think those things could become undead…” It would explain the stench, at least, but of course Sienna was likely too dumb to realize that normal, dead plants still reeked anyway.

Stone bridges sporadically littered the room, between the deep waters filled with the dead lilypads. As if the water wasn’t lethal enough, Sienna spied faintly-glowing eyes beneath the surface. “Probably some kind of fanged fish,” Sienna grumbled to no one in particular, annoyed at the lack of a more satisfying victim. There was an open doorway at the far end—and Sienna knew well enough she needed to reach.

Assuming the fish would probably jump out to bite her as she passed, Sienna took the easier option. With a flick of her Magnet Boots, she strode onto the wall, and then the ceiling. She wondered why something that was supposedly magnetic worked on stuff seemingly made out of rock, anyway…

As Sienna strode across the ceiling—“Fuck, this reminds me of Guy… That little prick.”—she saw movement from a far corner of the room. She snarled quietly, turning her glaive towards the beast. She could feel sap rushing to her head, “No, you couldn’t fucking wake up when I was on the ground.” Being upside-down was hardly comfortable for her. Pumping sap and oxygen into Sienna’s brain was… generally a terrible thing for all parties involved. No one wanted to fuel that accursed organ.

Four glowing-white eyes glared out from the darkness. Sienna snarled in annoyance as she inched towards the beast, pissed that these boots forced her to move so slowly across the floo—ceiling. “I wish gravity had a face,” Sienna’s face scowled, “So I could smash that face into sandpaper.”

“You’re an odd one,” spoke the creature.

Sienna’s scowl abruptly turned into a grin. It could talk. It could feel pain. It could scream as she shoved her spiked gauntlet into its stomach and ripped out whatever sexual organs it happened to have from the inside.

It wasn’t in Sienna’s nature to talk to victims, but hey, even heartless monsters get lonely. “How badly do you want to die~?” Her voice was disturbingly… chipper.

A cackle came from the creature as its wings spread, mocking the petite warrior’s arrogance. “Who do you think I am?!”

“A wannabe corpse.”

The monster, too, was standing on the ceiling, leaving the two facing off on seemingly even ground. Sienna at first thought it to be an Acheman—but the four eyes meant it must’ve been a Vire. Wonderful. That meant after it died, she would have two more keese to slaughter~! She couldn’t help but be in a good mood, now. The arrogant ones were always so satisfying—as she almost literally stuffed their cocky words right back down their throat.

Sick of this fool’s attitude, the Vire flew off the ceiling, launching several small fireballs from its gullet at what it assumed to be a quickly-roasted Deku Scrub. Yes, it was hardly the Vire’s first rodeo—he could recognize that warbling Deku Scrub voice from any creature, even if it was one as freakish as this.

After the blasts of flame flickered nigh-harmlessly off Sienna’s reinforced armor, she couldn’t help but be amused by the sudden panic on the Vire’s face. She barely even flinched from the impact. Did it actually expect such a pathetic attack would work on several layers of steel, on top of a layer of a Goron Tunic, on top of the ferocious beast that was one terrifying Sienna Denzrita? Of course it wouldn’t. She didn’t even try to dodge the attack, if only to prove how deep this monster was in over its head. (And also because it was really hard to move in those damn boots… upside-down no less.)

“What was that? A fireworks show?” Sienna cackled quietly. She… really didn’t need this creature to know that she could barely move. Even if she deactivated the boots, all that waited below was some of the most disgusting life-ending fluid she’s ever been forced to smell. If she wanted to destroy this cretin—and holy fuck did she want to—it would need to be provoked… “Are you supposed to be fighting me? Or is this some kind of fucking entertainment?”

“Is this stench what you call perfume?” She sneered, “Does it remind you of your mother? If she was a Vire too, I probably gutted her with this glaive, ripped out her womb, and then made her eat it. I do that to every female Vire I find.” Well maybe not every Vire… but at least two. It was difficult for her to tell their gender.

“Revolting!” The Vire’s face scowled as it launched towards the petite warrior recklessly, only to have a bladed glaive smash across one of its wings, sending it hurling through the air. As it did, Sienna carefully moved towards a more tactful spot…

“You little rat! I’m not finished so--!”

As the Vire soared forward, Sienna’s glaive tore the air again, batting the monster like a baseball. “Yes you are.~ I mean, fuck, kid, are all your attacks going to be so predictable?” By Din’s hateful heart, how pathetic was it that she was making small talk with her victim. Sienna would have face-palmed for herself, but was busy slaughtering a smart-mouthed monster that didn’t know its place.

The openings created by her two strikes gave Sienna enough room to position her body back over solid ground instead of that grotesque water. Once in place, she flipped off the ceiling, and landed on solid ground with a heavy thud—the impact enough for her thighs and calves to ache, but not enough for real damage.

Unrelenting, the Vire shot towards her as fast as it could in its injured body. Sienna swung towards it—and abruptly dropped her glaive mid-swing, predicting the Vire’s feint almost perfectly. What a fool, she smirked, I tell you to feint, and what do you do? You feint.

As the Vire came in towards her backside, Sienna’s wakizashi shot out of its sheath, tearing across the monster’s face. She was aiming for its neck, but a face is fine too. “See, that would have been a lot harder if you were smart enough to wear armor.”

The monster crash-landed across the tile, skidding across the ground and into the grotesque fluid. Squeals of agony resounded out, as the ravenous fish tore into its hide. Sienna strode over casually, sheathing her blade. With utmost intent and a bit of perverse glee, Sienna’s glare met the panicked eyes of the Vire, hearing its grotesque, agonizing screams. It struggled desperately to swim, to fly, but it was too injured and the fish too ravenous.

Sienna spoke calmly, “Tell me… are you a female Vire?”

“N-no--?! Wh-what the FUCK DOES IT MATTER??!! YOU LITTLE—“

“Hm. I suppose I could make you eat your male parts instead. Are they getting bloody down there?” She grinned, “I certainly hope so…”

What followed was a scene so grotesque, so horrific that it bears not repeating. Suffice to say even the fish would be left with trauma just from the agonizing screams alone, let alone what was left splattered across the room in Sienna’s wake. Graciously, she even kicked some remains of those leftover Keese into the water so those petrified little fish could eat something.

Of course, Sienna failed to realize this was an enclosed body of water—and the only one who bothered to feed those pet fish was now being fed to them. Ah well. She probably would have still fed them that corpse anyway.

The tiny tyrant couldn’t help but grin as she hopped towards the next doorway, and into the following chamber. A close observer may have even noticed a skip in her step. A horrifying, gleeful little skip.

Several minutes passed, and Sienna’s glee slowly faded as she was forced to confront a puzzle moving blocks around. Why the hell was this even here? Who thought this up? Why would anyone bother to hide a key with menial labor? It was really too bad, in her mind, that these giant stone blocks were too solid for her to just pulverize into pieces. At least moving them was a half-decent workout. She hadn’t bothered to do her usual routine this morning, after all.

When all was said and done, Sienna uncovered a small treasure chest hidden behind the last set of blocks. And what great artifact did she uncover? A small friggin’ key. It was even rusting. Even she was smart enough to realize it was likely used to unlock that door she encountered two rooms ago…

…Just for good measure, Sienna forcefully kicked a hole in the wooden chest, breaking several wood planks. At least something in this room had to be destroyed. Otherwise, who would ever know she was here?

After weaving her way out of the stone-block maze and striding back over a Vire corpse, Sienna found herself inspecting that sealed door more closely—and indeed it did have a lock. A twist and pull later, she broke the key off in its hole, then forcefully sparta-kicked her way into the new corridor.

“…Gross,” summed up her reaction.

The large, dome-shaped room was pitch-black, and filled with nothing but a goopy mud. It was as if desert sand had been mixed with swamp water, and then allowed to have moss and bacteria infest it for the past century. Thanks to her nightvision, Sienna could see a locked door at the far edge of the sea of mud—almost as clearly as she could see rusty iron bars clamped over it. The door was easily over a dozen feet across. Gleefully, she imagined what sort of beast or monstrosity likely lay behind it. Surely something huge, and ferocious—the sort of monstrosity that would surely make this place worthwhile.

As she stomped through the mire, Sienna’s boots were soon dripping with mud. Her palm grasped the iron bars, and tugged hard. Despite their rusty appearance, each was several inches thick—not the sort of thing even someone like her could break by hand.

Indeed, the door indeed seemed impossible to penetrate by sheer force. Surely there had to be something here that need to be… switched… or smashed… or destroyed… that would allow Sienna to progress further. These sorts of dumps always seemed to work like that—as if they were practically designed for someone to romp and smash through them.

There had to be some kind of lever in here, she assumed—some sort of mechanism. Sienna callously began to pump out one pulse after another, blasting away the murky fluid to get a glimpse at the glistening packed-mud floor underneath. A few pulses revealed nothing, but soon Sienna found something she did not expect… It appeared as plant of some sort, hidden parallel with the floor, barely visible through the several inches of murky fluid that washed back over it.

For a split-second Sienna thought it must be some kind of Deku Baba—it certainly looked like one—embedded into the dirt. That was, until its fanged maw opened and a huge violet-colored eye opened from the maw, and glared right back at her. Sienna expected it to snap or attack, and kept her arms braced for an attack. Yet, it did neither—it just quietly stared, emanating a sense of not malice, but curiosity.

Slowly and hesitantly, Sienna’s guard began to drop. If she had eyebrows, one of them would be raised in pensive intrigue at this… creature. It was quite rare she encountered any species she had yet to slay. Surely more of its body remained hidden under the mire. The imagined monstrosity of what laid under her feet spiked not only her curiosity, but her desire to slaughter it slowly began to increase as well.

“Hm… Guessing you don’t speak,” Sienna grumbled out. It likely couldn’t squeal in pain, or beg for its life. Still, though, she saw no reason to deprive herself of the joy of slaughter.

With twisted glee, Sienna raised her glaive high into the air—wondering if it would writhe, or screech, or flail. How would its death taste? Grunting hard, she hurled the weapon downward, cleaving its tip into the gaping eye.
A horrid, inhuman screech exploded forth as the maw clamped tight over the eye. Yet, the monster did not retract helplessly into death. No, it launched upward out of the mud, a mobile plant stalling at least ten, twelve—no, fifteen feet tall, more than three Siennas stacked on top of each other.

Shifting backward, Sienna peered at the huge beast in annoyance. “Should have seen this coming.”

Her eyes twisted at its hulking form. It seemed like a beanstalk almost, standing atop four—no, six legs that seemed more like writhing vines or tentacles than actual legs. Its main body was a pivot for four colossal heads—no, arms? Maybe both? Each one seemed like that same Deku Baba—which perhaps explained why one of these limbs was already limp, broken and defeated.

Sienna smirked callously, knowing that this creature was a Manhandla—and it was already a quarter dead. “One down… three to go.”

Not wasting another moment, Sienna rushed forward with a ferocious blitz, leaping up in an attempt to cleave her insanely-long glaive through another of the baba-necks. Despite the monster’s size, this would be an easy fight, she thought…

…Until one of the maws abruptly snapped open and caught the shaft of her weapon as she swung it. Sienna’s eyes widened in shock at the sheer strength of the monster as it hurled the weapon away from her, using the motion of her own strike to do so. Her only option was to fall flat on her face hanging onto it, or let go. She chose the latter, hissing with annoyance as her weapon was flung to the far edge of the room.

Before Sienna could even recover, another of the heads opened to reveal another huge, violet-covered eye. It flashed with a dim light, launching a flaming violet projectile right towards its foe.
“Damn!” Sienna roared, rapidly bracing her armored forearms over her face. The sheer force of the fiery blast not only burned painfully through her armor, but hit hard enough to make her fall backwards into the putrid fluid. Pushing off the ground, Sienna hissed angrily—“Not only do you fucking disarm me, but I’m going to have to clean this damn mail now.”

The Manhandla was already squirming right towards her at a high pace. Sienna’s hand shot to her hip, ripping her Death Cleaver out of a tiny holster. The colossal blade magically rapidly grew as she grasped it, until the thick blade was taller than her entire body—armor and all.

The monstrous plant launched another fiery blast down at its would-be prey, but Sienna expected the projectile this time. She weaved to one side, before charging inward for a melee attack. As a baba swung towards her like a whip, its mouth opened at the last moment—aiming to sink its fangs into the Deku Scrub, and Sienna feared it just might clamp down hard enough to pierce her armor.

Dragging her sword behind her with one hand, Sienna’s free palm backhanded the baba, deflecting its strike and creating an opening along its neck. The tiny warrior’s body turned completely around following her backhand, using that momentum and adding it behind the weight of both hands as they came together on the hilt of her sword. With all her immersive strength, Sienna heaved the colossal weapon through the air, splitting the air with a tremendous sound. Her blade struck against her target…

Yet, what Sienna did not expect was the plant’s neck to bend back. It was like trying to chop off the billowing hair of a willow tree with a greataxe—always it would simply lean back, bending with the strike so the blade only grazed it. Although the impact of Sienna’s weapon would be massive, it did not seem sharp enough to cleave cleanly if the Manhandla expected her strike—no matter how hard she swung. No, she would need something… lighter… sharper. Would she even be able to reach the monster’s limbs with such a weapon?

Recovering from her huge attack and regaining her posture, Sienna barely had time to notice the baba head behind her—and was too late to dodge as a fiery blast seared right into her backside. A hiss of agony tore through her face as the heat pierced her armor and burned against her skin—even her Goron Armor couldn’t protect from it completely. She stumbled forward visibly from the attack, and now found herself in a compromising position… The monster was so massive compared to her, that two if its baba-heads had stretched to flank her from two sides. The last towered overhead, aiming down at her. Perhaps… she thought… charging in recklessly turned out to not be the best solution, for once.

Sienna’s eyes darted back to the main body. Only the slain head dangled in front of it. It was as hard as tree bark, but maybe, just maybe…

The head in front launched towards her, only to be batted away with another backhand. Sienna launched her heavily-armored body towards the trunk, even as the remaining two hands each frantically launched a blast in her wake. She felt the heat of one graze across her running through, and heard the sound of another sizzle into the fluid behind her. The path was clear!

The sword in Sienna’s hands began to glow a dark, malevolent violet—the Shadow Gems imbued into it filling the weapon with their evil pure. Sienna’s entire body twisted like a top, roaring as she hurled her blade through the air with the fury of a pissed-off hurricane. The strike resounded with a tumultuous sound that echoed through the entire dome-shaped room, a squeal of pain echoing from the Manhandla’s many mouths all at once.

Sienna couldn’t help but laugh at its pain, but her glee quickly melted into disdain as she tugged at her sword—only for it to be fully and completely lodged a foot deep into the four-foot-wide trunk. She struggled to heave it back out, but at this angle she couldn’t manage it—and there was little time to change her position. Knowing the heads would soon close in on her, Sienna instead focused all her energy into her core, preparing for her counterattack.

All three babas reared onto Sienna like snapping serpents, intent on ripping her limb from limb as she was seemingly stuck point-blank within the gargantuan monster’s reach. At the last possible moment, Sienna let out a ferocious shout, as a potent pulse shot out from her body in all directions. Although the heads did little more than flinch backwards, it gave Sienna the moment she needed.

The woman’s wakizashi whipped out of its scabbard with a smooth sheen. Reaching her free hand outward in an attempt to grab one baba head by its neck, she correctly predicted it would whip backward away from her—feinted out just in time—and found the baba head racing towards her in an attempted counterattack. Her blade flashed through the air in an instant, cleaving through the second baba’s neck in an instant.

Sienna scoffed, almost annoyed her attack worked—it was hardly her style.

Her body moved to parry or block the next attack, but wasn’t fast enough to dodge the Manhandla’s final limb as it clamped down—hard—right onto her shoulder. Sienna hissed in agony as she felt the fangs sink all the way through her insanely-thick mail and into her wooden skin. She couldn’t believe it when the monster began to lift her body clear off the ground—armor and all—all as its fangs sank deeper and deeper into her wielding arm. She couldn’t help but howl out in pain, visibly shaking from it. Her hand had no choice but to drop the wakizashi…

Higher and higher into the air, Sienna was helpless. The free head opened its maw, eye charging another one of those damn fireballs. Despite it all, the woman knew it couldn’t end here. It would NOT end here. This damn thing was tough for a Manhandla, but it wasn’t going to be the last one she killed.

Straining to concentrate, Sienna’s Magnet Glove reached out towards the wakizashi she dropped—soaring hilt-firsted back into the opposite, quaking hand. “FUCK…”

Her body twisted violently, arm straining to reach behind her, hooking the blade around the head that viced her—and ripped her arm back, cutting hard and clean through the damn thing’s neck. “YOU!”

Her entire form collapsed onto the ground with an echoing noise. Her eyes glared at the dislodged head on her shoulder, amazed and furious that it was still clamping to her arm. Her attention whipped back towards the one she saw earlier, hopping through the water and right towards her. These damn things could even stay alive after being ripped off?!

Sienna’s fist clenched onto the one clenching her shoulder, attempting to rip it off—only to feel the fangs tug against her skin, promising an even worse wound. Dindamnit. With no other choice, she focused intently, before blasting another pulse right into its mouth with enough force to pop it off. It still tore with agonizing pain, forcing a gasp out of the warrior’s mouth. Recovering as best she could, Sienna pushed onto her feet, and glared furiously at the main body. It was already retreating. Cowardly little bitch.

Sienna’s glowing eyes stared back at the two severed heads. Maybe these things were stupider when they were ripped off, as both were harmlessly and impotently hopping towards her fang-first… like piranhas out of water. Not even looking at them, Sienna stomped by, ripping her blade through both hands as she focused instead on her real target.

“Where the fuck are you going?!” Damn thing couldn’t understand her anyway, but she had a point—the room was sealed. Stomping towards it with blade in hand, she gleefully fantasized about how she would finish it off. Simply behead it wouldn’t be enough, no… she would have to do something gruesome… Eager anticipation filled her mind as she thought of how pathetically it was squirming away. Its inevitable death would be all the more satisfying. She would get vengeance for her aching shoulder, and then some.

Sienna’s eyes widened as she saw the monster’s last head reach into the mud, and rip out a handle attached to a chain. The chain seemed to tug on some mechanism hidden under the fluid, and the huge at the far end begin to rattle open. So that is how to get further in, it seemed… As the door gradually lifted open bright sunlight begin to pour into the room, forcing Sienna to squint in discomfort. Outside? This dungeon was smaller than she hoped.

Leaving the monster to pathetically flee for the moment—Sienna’s two legs could outpace its writhing tentacles anyway—she quickly sealed away her wakizashi, and plucked up the glaive from where it had been tossed. The last thing she wanted from some damn Miniblin or whatever to come in here and swipe her precious weapon, let alone for it to rust in this putrid water.

“Now then, time to finish you off…” Sienna dashed outside, her boots loudly splashing through the ankle deep water as she raced for the door. She veiled her eyes against the harsh sunlight to prevent herself from being completed blinded. It must be mid-afternoon by now, she assumed. The sound of that damn thing’s rattling vine-tentacles abruptly came to a stop--!?!—only to be replaced by an echoing, ear-aching, bone-breaking roar.

Alarm ripped into Sienna as she whisked her hand out of her face, squinting to see ahead of her. The hulking, colossal, monstrous form loomed over her—eclipsing the sun. A pair of dragon heads soared high above on long necks, attached to a draconic body so huge it looked like it could eat several entire houses and have room for more. Its twin heads had visibly lifted the Manhandla’s entire body ripping its tree trunk of a body into bite-size shreds. Any person witnessing this would be struck with utter terror.

Sienna’s cleaver was dislodged from the mutilated corpse, twirling several times through the air before sinking blade-first into the dirt at the monster’s feet. Only now did Sienna realize she was back on those dusty orange-and-brown hills, on a plateau overlooking a cliff into the ocean.

Something abruptly struck her—and she grinned ear to ear. This damn thing was the spitting image of the wanted poster she crumpled up earlier. Not only was she going to slaughter this nightmarish, insanely strong, insanely huge monstrosity—but she was going to be paid a small fortune to do it! Din be damned, this monster was a two-headed Gleeok!

The sight of the new quarry for Sienna did more than quash her disappointment at not finishing off that Manhandla. She was so excited she could have squealed like a schoolgirl, as horrid as that would likely sound.

Instead, Sienna dashed forward towards the monster's belly. Damn if she wasn't going to strike while the stupid beast was busy devouring that plant she so generously maimed. With her glaive in her right hand, Sienna used all of her running momentum to abruptly lean back and hurl it skyward like a javelin. Even she had a hard time throwing that thing as fast and hard as she would have liked, but nonetheless it whistled through the air with impressive force. As it flew, she tucked and rolled, snatching her cleaver out of the ground.

She heard a rumbling cry of pain as the glaive presumably struck one of its faces or necks--but she had no time to look. Instead, her entire body heaved out a ferocious slash that carved into one of the monster's four legs. Each of them was like tree trunks, supporting what Sienna could only imagine to be an insane amount of weight. Sever one of them, and--damn this leg wasn't even broken! She felt her blade stuck halfway through the gigantic calf, stuck against bone.

Glancing over her shoulder, Sienna saw the entire Manhandla corpse fall out of the sky, striking the ground and blasting up a huge cloud of dirt. The gigantic tree-trunk legs around her were scuffling, and it was all she could due just to rip out her sword and sheathe it. A gigantic reptilian face lunged towards her, twisting around on serpentine necks. The entire skull of the damn thing was as large as a horse--and was inhaling sharply. Sienna had little choice but to dash under and between the monstrous legs, weaving and rolling through stomps that could shatter her entire body, armor and all.

Skidding across the ground with a tuck-and-roll, Sienna darted out of there just as a huge orb of flame singed the ponytail sprouting out of her helmet. The tiny titan managed to get out from under that monstrosity safely--but just as she did so, the second colossal skull lunged towards her like a snapping serpent.

Sienna dove out of the way with all her strength--but that was far too little, far too late. She felt fangs as long as her forearm clamp down around her entire torso, pinning her arms to her sides. She could feel them beginning to sink in, slowly, as if the damn monster biding its time. The damn monster was enjoying the feel of her struggling, wasn't it?! She wasn't sure whether to be pissed at it for that, or respect it all the more...

Sienna saw the ground shrink beneath her as the monstrosity effortlessly lifted her tiny body high into the air. Subduing her panic, Sienna forced herself to focus--desperately. She felt the hot, wet breath slip through the new cracks in her mail, the metal audibly creaking. "Concentrate," she groaned, arms flexing and legs squirming. She could see the second face coming towards her, threatening to rip her in half just like it did the Manhandla. "Fo.... cus....!" She struggled to overcome the pain of razor-sharp fangs slowly penetrating through her wooden skin.

With a tremendous roar, a shockwave of pure force shot out from Sienna in all directions. Thank Din and Ganon and whatever gods cared that Sienna mastered pulse--it was just enough to pry those damn fangs off her body. What she didn't expect was her armor--so incredibly weakened from those damn teeth--to go blasting off into a hundred pieces of shrapnel. What she didn't plan for was how the hell she was going to survive a hundred-foot fall, especially without any protection.

Sienna's half-naked body, covered only in gauntlets, what little remained of her Zora Tunic, and armor scraps, plummeted through the air. It felt almost disturbing feeling the open wood against her skin... but she couldn't think of that now. Clasping her hands together, Sienna looked as though she was praying--but she had not yet grown that desperate. Murmuring out the only magic spell she new, Sienna's hand shot out a gesture towards the ground beneath her. Her thunderous voice bellowed, "CATCH ME, DAMNIT!!"

She hoped it would appear on the ground, but instead right below her a giant black monstrous hand--her Wallmaster--appeared in a poof of dark smoke. It clasped her body in its palm snugly, before crashing into the ground. Sienna groaned in pain. The Wallmaster seemed injured too, but was still moving. Her eyes shot up towards the two draconic faces--either of them recoiling from shards of armor in their faces, struggling to pick them off each other...

This was it. Unarmored. Unarmed. Injured. For the first time in ages, Sienna was faced with a question to which she did not immediately know the answer: fight or flee?