Should've Been Lily [Eevachu + Chaos James][Skyreach]

As Nicholas joked to himself about how nice possessing wings would be, Rika mused about the thought to himself. It's true, it would make traversing this marsh, and quite possibly the tower, if it were in fact one, incredibly easy. At least, it seems like it would be. Rika quickly commented back to Nicholas just before leaping ahead to another branch, saying, "But if we could fly, then it wouldn't be any fun." It's true, although Rika was treating this situation much more seriously than his average game of dungeon diving, to him it was still fun. Even if this threat was nothing more than impending destruction on the Kokiri Forest, and perhaps Hyrule as a whole, Rika still couldn't help but think what interesting or rare treasures he could possibly find within.

Looking ahead, although Rika had a general idea of the area naturally, it was still somewhat dark, making it harder to see far ahead. Though it was around midday, the interconnecting network of thick tree branches and leaves shielded the sunlight, the main source of light from the occasional small breaks from up above. Stopping on a branch to look at his closed palm, Rika started to channel magical energy to his hand, his fingers radiating a light red glow. Focusing slightly for a moment, the glowing seemed to dim, turning into a thick, bright white.

Opening his palm, a small, flickering white flame resting gently in his palm. It was something he had been working on to help solve the annoying problem of dark rooms when in various caves and dungeons, but perfecting the second part wasn't the easiest trick. Plus, with everything that had gone on with him recently, he didn't have much time to devote to thinking about it. Turning to glance at Nicholas with his hand slightly outstretched, the flames flickering across Rika's fingers despite the Kokiri showing no signs of pain. "Pretty creepy, huh?" He said as he lowered his hand away from the flames. The small orb flickered in place for a few moments, before suddenly flickering wildly and dispersing. Rika's eyes narrowed slightly as the expression on his face turned to a somewhat upset one. Guess it needed a little more work put into it for that part of the spell. Oh well, it wasn't that dark in here, right?

Jumping ahead, the Kokiri continued traveling from tree to tree. He'd think about how to fix it on the way to the tower. Although the duo had a fun, relaxing conversation leaping across so far, it wouldn't remain that way forever. From a tree about 15 feet away, a trio of large, poisonous dragonflies flew out, angry. Unlike the typical dragonflies, they lacked the ability to generate electricity, instead possessing poisonous glands on their tails. The poison itself wasn't lethal or particularly deadly, being known to cause brief numbness and disability of actions of particular dexterity. However, afflicted targets generally recovered within ten or twenty minutes with no real lasting side effects.

The duo hadn't noticed the dragonflies quite yet, but Nicholas' Sense would surely pick up on them in mere moments.

As the two of them continued, Nicholas quickly pointed out possible threats closing in at a rapid pace. However, he didn't have any information on what they could be, letting Rika know that he likely couldn't tell with his ability. "Screw that, gotcha!" He shouted, turning to face the enemy. He was met with a trio of large, buzzing dragonflies. They were, for the most part, a mixture of purples and blues, with a large red attachment sticking out over their heads, almost equal to the side of their lower body and tail. Their tails didn't shock or crackle in the slightest, which let Rika in on a massive clue about their identities. Coupled with the area, he could reasonably determine that they were the poisonous variety of Dragonflies, which weren't the most uncommon within this area.

Although they could prove a nuisance to the inexperienced fighter, they should provide little trouble for Rika and Nicholas. Their primary method of attacking was charging foes with their comparatively massive tails, which would only serve to irritate their targets. Generally, they increased this threat by sending electrical currents surging throughout their tails, but this particular variety had a less offensive alternative. Instead of pulsating with electric energies, these Dragonflies had their tails coated with a transparent, sticky liquid, not unlike saliva.

When applied to the skin of a target, it tended to cause immediate numbness of the affected areas followed shortly after by a lack of proper control of that particular area. However, this poison was not particularly potent, and they had no real destructive fighting potential outside of that. There was a bit of a danger of falling into the miasma below if their mobility was restricted, but even that could be avoided with careful actions. Rika knew all of this, yet a fun idea washed over to his head.

Putting on a somewhat panicked facade, Rika shouted to the Hylian in a hurry. "Nicholas, be careful! These Dragonflies are incredibly deadly! If they sting you, their poison will kill you!" A small smirk washed over Rika's face as he finished speaking, the Kokiri resisting the overwhelming urge to laugh or giggle. Hopefully Nicholas didn't notice! He'd probably be too focused on the Dragonflies to see, though. Rika followed up by completely ignoring Nicholas' supposed plan, taking a massive leap forward to jump onto another branch theb following it up by a second leap onto a closer branch, Rika pounced at the Dragonflies, flying overhead the trio of insects.

Swiping at one of them with his scythe, the curved blade was sadly inefficient to reach them, so he had to resort to using his scythe more like a bat, swatting the Dragonfly out of the air. Taking another leap in midair, Rika floated forward and landed on another branch, having almost circled halfway around Nicholas. The swat to the Dragonfly seemed to do little more than irritate and daze it a little due to the lack of force involved in the swing, as it quickly flew back up and regrouped with the other two insects. This one was mad now, but it didn't even know what had hit it. It buzzed and fluttered its wings furiously, though you really couldn't tell a difference anyway.

Casually twirling his scythe around a few times in one hand, Rika looked over the situation at hand. A few angry Dragonflies between him and Nicholas, and a bunch of branches to stand on. The only problem was it was somewhat hard to actually damage the insectoids, due to the distance between them and any reasonable platform. Rika could dispose of them rather easily with the use of spells, but that was no fun. The Kokiri quite enjoyed bouncing from tree to tree, it was exciting compared to the bore that was just blowing them up.

Stopping his twirling at a certain point, the sharp, pointed end of the scythe was now sticking upward, with the curved blade down below. Pointing his hand across from him, a glowing circle formed on the lower point of a tree across from Nicholas. Pushing out with his left foot leading, Rika jumped forward, gripping his scythe in both hands, pointing in the direction it had been previously. Swinging it down like a blunt object as he jumped past, the scythe crashed hard against one of the Dragonfly, a distinct squishing sound being heard. The Dragonfly fell down a short distance, but caught itself, hovering slightly in a daze. It was clearly damaged, but wasn't quite out for the count.

As Rika soared past them, a large spire launched out of the tree that Rika had pointed to a moment ago, the Kokiri landing on top of the large, magically created spire that functioned essentially as a smaller, thick branch. Though it was rather jagged and rough, its large base provided a somewhat decent footing as long as he stayed closer to the tree's side, and didn't have to move in a panic.

Rika's assault that time didn't go unnoticed to the Dragonflies, however. Buzzing angrily as their wings vibrated in unison, the Dragonflies charged at the Kokiri, intent on slamming into him with their large bodies. It'd be rather difficult for Rika to avoid the Dragonfly while on the spire, he'd have to just take the blow and counterattack. Unless, of course, Nicholas had something to say about it. . . ?

As Rika gripped his scythe and prepared to trade blows with the gigantic insects, Nicholas acted. The Hylian chucked his small branch at the Dragonflies, just before tarzaning towards them at a rapid pace. Leaping forward towards Rika, the Hylian's arm started glowing with bright, black energy, before unleashing it in a wide spin, a flurry of light, black marks smearing across the immediate area as the spin moved. Nicholas was propelled upward as the Dragonflies were forcefully shoved back. As his Spin Attack ended, Nicholas followed it up by squeezing one of the Dragonfly as he fell, slamming it against a large, thick branch. A loud squishing noise was heard as the Dragonfly's body was torn in half, before falling to the pits below.

Rika felt a bit of relief, not at the fact that he wasn't being bombarded by Dragonflies any longer, but rather, the fact that Nicholas didn't slam into him when he jumped towards the spire as it seemed like it would be. Regardless, the Dragonflies were stunned, so Rika was going to take this opportunity to attack. Sadly, they had become rather spread out from the resulting Spin Attack, so it would be difficult to take them both out in one clean sweep. Along with this, Rika had grown rather bored of the Dragonflies; Jumping across the trees was fun, but fighting these guys wasn't.

Forming a clear, crystal-like orb of water in his palm, Rika chucked it to the side at one of the dazed Dragonflies, completely ignoring the resulting explosion as he leaped forward at the other. The Aqua Grenade soaked the nearby trees as it collided with the Dragonfly and exploded, sending bits and pieces of shredded insect parts flying around. As he leaped forward, Rika swung his scythe overhead at the Dragonfly as it had been pushed up from the Spin Attack, but he was a bit too late. The creature had shaken off its daze and buzzed upward, dodging the swing as Rika fell harmlessly to a nearby branch.

The insect charged at the Kokiri, who batted it away with the scythe, knocking it back but also the Kokiri due to the impact. Luckily, he was able to double jump back onto the branch, instead of falling down to his likely demise. Stabilizing himself once more, the Kokiri rushed forward now that the Dragonfly was on a more equal level, flying overhead and swinging at his feet. The scythe's curved blade penetrated the Dragonfly, piercing through its underbelly and sticking out the other end. Rika finished by landing on a nearby branch, holding his scythe up like a bug skewer. Easy enough, right?

As he held it up though, the insect slid down the narrow pole of the scythe, sliding down to Rika's hand and nicking him with his stinger. Rika stared blankly at Nicholas for a second, before laughing somewhat calmly. "Hahaha. . . Shit." Was all he could say as he lost control of his limbs, collapsing onto the branch he was standing on, his scythe falling on top of him. He knew it wasn't that bad of a poison, but it wouldn't be fun sitting around waiting.

. . . Wait, didn't he tell Nicholas the poison was deadly or something? Well, perhaps he would get an entertaining reaction out of him, at the very least.

As the Kokiri fell to the ground, he felt the branch he rest on shake as Nicholas rushed over in a hurry, his voice echoing throughout the forest as he let out words that would make the cows back at Lon Lon Ranch ashamed. At least he was worried, but what if the shaking threw Rika off? He couldn't exactly move if that happened, jeez. Quickly grabbing the Kokiri and his long yet thin scythe, Nicholas rushed through the leaves at a breakneck speed, breaking through the miasma and reaching the end in a few minutes, far quicker than they would have at their previously normal pace.

As Nicholas laid the Kokiri down to look at him, Rika's muscles had started to regain control, at least somewhat. The Hylian's eyes were met with a wide, goofy, obviously fake grin plastered across Rika's face. "H-Haha. . . J-Just kidding!" Was all Rika could say as his mouth hesitated slightly, both due to the poison and the lack of words. What else was he supposed to say? He didn't expect to get stung, and he didn't expect such a boringly serious reaction from Nicholas.

Looking around to find something to break the conversation before it started, Rika's eyes scanned the immediate area as he sluggishly brought himself to his feet, and was met with something surprising to him. It was like a tree, but at the same time completely alien. A massive, pillaring wooden tower stretched incredibly widely around and pierced high into the trees, rising endlessly up and the tip was far out of sight. Unlike a tree, however, the wood was an almost chilling white, or perhaps more of a grey, with detailed, intricate markings spiraling around within the wood and ascending along with the tower. Embedded within many of these markings were thick, black vines, contrasting with the look of purity and salvation the tower brought. Facing the two of them was a gaping, pitch black hole in the side of the wood, leaving a foreboding sense of danger.

Rubbing his arms gently as Rika looked the scenery over, he nodded slightly to himself before speaking. "I think this is what we're looking for." Picking up his scythe, Rika glanced back at the trees and the miasma, which had strangely stopped just short of the towering tree. "It's almost like. . .It's challenging us. Well, you know what that means, right? We'll just have to win! . . . Just. . . well. . . " Rika said, going a bit quiet towards the end. His voice seemed to hide a small hint of embarrassment. "Give me a couple minutes, my muscles are kind of. . . tense." He couldn't even face Nicholas as he finished speaking. Who knew Rika's little prank would turn out so badly for him, even if the prank had absolutely nothing to do with this result.

As Rika waited for his muscles to relax, he looked back at the tower and the area around it. He felt a strange sensation rinse over him, one that was somewhat confusing to the Kokiri. This sight left him with a sense of danger and adventure, but there was something else lingering within this mixture. Hidden underneath all of the excitement and anxiousness was a small tinge of fright. It was how similar this was to the other trees, what he was used to, yet at the same time it was dangerous and foreign. These similarities sent a small chill down Rika's spine, but he quickly tried to shrug it off; Such thoughts would just resolve in him getting himself killed.

Instead, he decided to focus on something more important, magic. Keeping his hand outstretched, the backside started to glow a ghostly white, as if flames were enveloping it and flickering gently. His hand flickered for about a second before he opened his palm, revealing a decently sized, white ball of flames. Moving his hand up and letting go of the ball, it floated in place for a few moments before it flickered wildly and dispersed. Rika tried this a few more times, each time lasting longer and longer, before eventually it kept its shape. The flames licked at the air surrounding its circular shape harmlessly, while also shedding the immediate area in a bright yet ominous glow.

Eventually, Rika seemed to get tired of standing around, taking a wide stretch. He still wasn't completely fine, but he was good enough, right? As he brought his arms back down, Rika looked back up the tower, then at the dark entrance ahead. "Well, time to see what this colossal death tower is all about!" Bending over and lifting his scythe off the ground, Rika walked towards the gaping entrance-way, Nicholas having started walking right before Rika. The Will-o-Wisp was fixated in front of and overhead the Kokiri, to illuminate the environment ahead as they proceeded.

As the light layered the insides of the base of the tower, it was clear that, at least for now, it was not the only source of light. Small torches rest on the walls, providing minimal light, though still not perfect. There seemed to be no ceiling, stretching endlessly up and up into darkness, beyond what the torches and Will-o-Wisp would illuminate. Small vibrations, or perhaps buzzing, pulsated through the room, bouncing off the walls and down below. Where was it coming from?

The line of torches seemed to go on for quite some time, the spacing between each torch growing wider with each consecutive torch. It shot off into the darkness ahead, though it was likely as long as the tower had seemed. As the light reached out from the walls to meet at the center, it dimmed, leaving a wide, black circle along the middle as the torches went down. It was really quite creepy, wasn't it?

Looking at the walls, Rika confirmed to himself that the wood wouldn't burn. Though it was one of the methods he was told they had attempted, it was still nice to see it confirmed before him. It was just like the vines, so weird. . .

Rika nodded along as Nicholas spoke. "Yeah, it would be extremely convenient, but I don't think it's something we can easily harvest." The Kokiri casually spoke, brushing his hand against the wall as he did. It certainly felt like a normal tree, that was for sure. Tough and coarse, there was nothing strange in that regard; no silky smoothness on the surface, no apparent special coating of any nature. Where did its apparent immunity- no, more like deflection- of fire come from, then? It must have been completely magical in nature, but for such a grand mass as this tower? It would require a great source of power. Whatever birthed this monster was clearly on a level higher than Rika and Nicholas combined. That wasn't something that was going to convince them to stop, however, now was it?

As he looked over the walls, Rika heard Nicholas call out from behind, signaling enemies. "Great, I was starting to get bored." The Kokiri somewhat sarcastically muttered, though there was a hint of truth in his words. Sidestepping the large seed as it crashed against the wall, the Dragonfly charged directly at Rika, with no hint of hesitation. Didn't it know charging someone with the range advantage was foolish? Well, Rika did that anyway. . . He would play along, at least.

Lifting his scythe's bladed end up, the air chilled as the blade started glowing a vibrant shade of blue. Striking the ground in front of him at an angle, an explosion of ice launched forward as the dragonfly approached, unable to stop due to its reckless charge. A large icicle spike launched at an angle from the point Rika's scythe struck the ground up to about his head, striking the dragonfly and skewering it as it flew directly into it. As it did, however, the Mad Scrub launched off its tail, using the momentum from its speed to slam into Rika, knocking the Kokiri back and onto the ground.

Now sitting on his face, the Mad Scrub swung and bashed mercilessly, striking at his chest, arms, and head, his swings irrational and without any sort of focus or power in them. It was like he was being hit by a pair of sticks, more than anything. They were a mild irritation, and stung lightly, but overall were not any issue. It still got on his nerves, however. "Ugh. . . Get OFF of me!" Rika shouted, holding his free hand up and angled at the Mad Scrub. Flames churned as a ball of fire shot off, the quick Mad Scrub leaping off his chest to avoid being roasted alive. Rika was quick to follow up, gripping onto his scythe with the other hand and spinning in a wide arc. The Mad Scrub wouldn't be able to avoid this one too.

The pole side slammed into the Mad Scrub as it landed, knocking it to the ground. Though there was little power in the blow due to Rika's position, it was enough to knock him over due to his position. Not letting this opening drop, the Kokiri jabbed forward, piercing the Mad Scrub with the scythe. It squealed wildly in pain as it flailed on the ground, kicking and screaming as green ooze dripped from the newly formed hole in its squishy body. The squealing was like a pierce of its own to Rika; This was once a normal, happy Deku Scrub. Maybe he had friends or a family once, but he was somehow driven to absolute madness by this tower, and now he had become nothing more than a crazy, howling monster. He was quick to slice into its body with his scythe's blade, cutting through the squishy plant interior and ending its pain. It was the least he could do for it, if he couldn't save it. There was no use thinking about it, however; He would probably slay numerous Mad Scrubs while in this tower, all likely normal Deku Scrubs driven to insanity too. It was an inevitability if he wanted to climb the tower and save the remaining Kokiri and Deku Scrubs, along with the forest itself, but it would still sicken him each time he heard their squeals of pain, for help.

. . . Maybe Nicholas was done by now, there were two, right?

As Nicholas's battle entered Rika's mind and he turned his attention towards the Hylian, it seemed to be over. Guess he missed the show, huh? Looking down at his scythe, it was dripping with sap. The Kokiri tried to clean his scythe as much as he could with what little he had, until he heard Nicholas pipe up from towards the center of the room, where his attention had been drawn. "Wind? . . . Well, maybe, if it's powerful enough. We're a little heavy, though." Making his way over towards and ahead of Nicholas, Rika's ears were met with a faint clicking- no, maybe more like a whirring. He could hear wind too, and as he stepped a little closer, he felt wind lapping at his legs, his arms, his cheeks. "Well this is interesting. . . " The Kokiri mused aloud as he reached the center of the room.

A massive, swirling mechanism of blades rest in the wooden tree basin in front of the Kokiri, swirling violently as powerful gusts of wind shot into the air. Rika had to keep hold of his hat just to prevent it from flying off, even from this distance. "This isn't exactly what I expected to see in a tree, especially not this one, it must be magical. With something like this. . . Yeah, I think we can definitely use it." The Kokiri pondered for a moment, looking it over. As he was about to try it out, his foot stopped a moment after taking a step forward. "Say, Nicholas. . . Doesn't this fan seem to be moving a little slowly? Like, I'm pretty sure this wind isn't just its natural gust, but we can clearly see the blades as they spin. Don't you think it could move a little faster?" Rika stood in silence for a moment, looking over the blades and then the area around him. He still couldn't see the opposite wall of the room they were in, it was too far away, and too dark. Turning and patting Nicholas on the back to infuse him with the power of jumping, the Kokiri grinned and turned back to the fan.

"May as well give it a shot then!" He shouted, before his feet pushed forward, rushing and leaping into a gust of wind as it exploded out of the fan. It grabbed him as he moved into it, sending him launching into the air. Higher and higher he went, until he could no longer see where he just was, though that had more to do with the lighting than the distance. The gust soon seemed to reach his peak, and as he guessed, that peak was not the top of the tower. However, there did seem to be a few platforms jutting out of the walls a little bit below him. Pushing off of the air and taking a second leap as he fell towards them, the Kokiri's drop speed seemed to almost fall to a halt, as he drifted down towards the platform.

There was a brief silence as Rika waited for Nicholas. His vision was limited, as his wisp was the only thing that was granting any lighting in the area. As he waited in the silence, broken only by the sound of the gusts of wind breaking, Rika heard the swooping of wings. Diving to the ground, Rika saw feathers drop around his sides as apparently a feathered creature had tried to nosedive him. Looking above, he could see a Moby fly upwards into the air, making a reversal to make its second attack. That's when Rika realized, though the wisp was their only source of light, it also painted a huge target on him. He couldn't get rid of it though, or they couldn't see anything. It was quite a predicament.

The dim room lit up as Nicholas tore through the Moby with a Spin Attack, the blue glow of the energy providing temporary additional lighting and elevating him higher into the air, giving him a makeshift triple jump. It was with this that Rika caught sight of a second Moby, just before it made its presence known, diving onto Nicholas and flinging him onto his back. As Nicholas commented, Rika smirked, saying, "This one's mine, I can do that too." Sticking his scythe out, a chilling blue mist began to emanate from the blade, as the scythe started to glow a somewhat clear, faded blue. As the Moby circled the duo in the air, it decided to attack the source of the light, Rika. Flapping its wings, it began to take a divebomb, which is when Rika struck.

Rushing forward, he spun as he got close, his body and scythe spinning in a circle. Icy blue trails were left in his tracks as he struck the Moby, the Ice Enchantment cast on the blade exploding in a flurry of ice, freezing the creature and causing it to drop in midair. However, it wasn't the only one that was falling. Inexperienced with such spinning, Rika found himself tripping over his own feet, causing him to go plummeting off the edge of the platform and down where he had come from. A couple moments later, Nicholas would see him flying back up, thrown back up by a gust of wind. The Kokiri landed violently on his ass as he hit the platform, causing him to shout in pain. "Aah! Ergh, maybe it wasn't as clean as yours. . . I'll have to practice the spinning a little more." He muttered both to himself and Nicholas, bringing himself to his feet as he rubbed his behind.

"It's kind of hard to see where what's ahead, even with my wisp, so I guess we should just wander around until we find where we're going, huh?" Rika called over to Nicholas as he glanced around. Sure enough, only the immediate area was lit up; it was impossible to see anything far above them, and even the entire surface around them was still dark. However, the platform they were on seemed to lead up slightly, and the beginnings of a door were along its path. The platform likely went up further than the door, too, so they had multiple options. "May as well stop by the door, right?" Rika called over to Nicholas as he began to walk in the direction of the door.

As Nicholas strolled into the room with a lax demeanor, Rika followed suit, walking in closely behind him. As Nicholas flipped the switch on, a strong gust of wind blew from the grate before subsiding as the switch was reserved. Looking toward the rest of the room, Rika saw the large fan embedded in the wall across from the duo, with the numerous stone blocks spread throughout the floor. Resting on top of these blocks were massive stone statues, carvings of Mad Scrubs in various poses. A common theme among them seemed to be that they possessed rather deranged looks on their faces, similar to the crazed Mad Scrubs they had fought earlier. How exactly were statues like these made, anyway? Surely there was no craftsman that entered the tower and spent hours whittling away at stone to make these. It was apparent that the statues were not completely solid; large holes were blown into the chests of the Mad Scrubs, though some didn't seem to go straight through, instead curving and exiting through another point in their body.

Pondering over the room for a moment, Rika turned to Nicholas and began to speak. "Well, I'm not really sure what it will accomplish, but I think the idea is to get the fan spinning by using the statues to make a path for the wind." Rika spoke, pausing for a moment before continuing, "I'm still not entirely sure what it'll accomplish, but it's worth a try." Walking over to a nearby statue, Rika's head hung under the hole. With a hard push, a loud screeching sound echoed through the air as Rika grunted, the stone block slowly sliding. Looks like Rika wasn't strong enough to push them with ease. With a sigh, Rika looked up at the statue, only to see a ravenous, chomping plant-like skull about to take a nibble out of his hair.

"Aah!" Rika shouted, falling back and instinctively throwing his hands forward. A wide, glowing golden circle formed on the base of the stone block below the statue and above Rika's head, before moments later a stone Spire erupted, smashing into the statue and impaling both it and the Deku Baba, shattering it. Glancing back at Nicholas, Rika scratched the back of his head, saying, "Uh. . . Let's try to keep most of them intact, we don't know which ones we'll need. The others might have things in them too, so keep on your guard." As he brought himself to his feet, from behind the larger statues came a pair of ears. Attached to those ears were fluffy, round, rabbit like creatures, who looked positively upset by the loud screeching and smashing noises made by Rika. Well, they were rabbits, but they looked more like bedsheet ghosts with ears. The two Pols Voice angrily bounced toward the duo, currently unseen, ready to pounce on them and attack them however Pols Voice attack. Their attack would likely not go unnoticed for long, however.