The sounds of joy could be heard in the street in front of the inn in the city of Ruto this morning. In the world at large the fear of Ganon and what was going to happen next gripped everyone’s hearts, but within the inn seemed to be a different story. There was no fear, no worry, only happiness in this moment. Just what was going on inside to make the people in the town of Ruto forget about the terrible state of the world and the threat that hangs over it? Inside the inn there was a young samurai holding the hand of the waitress of the inn, in his other hand was a fancy necklace. The two had known each other for a little while now, and each was clearly interested in the other. After his last mission the young samurai had returned and decided it was time for him to formally ask her to be his. There weren’t going to be married or anything like that, but everyone in town had just been waiting on it to happen. The celebration would be short lived as two young women walked into the inn. ” Hey lover boy, we got a message from Yousef. We’ve got another job to handle.” The one that spoke had a cane on her back while the other one just stood there holding up a folded-up letter. Presumably the message from Yousef. With a sigh the young samurai would turn to face the two ladies. ” You know Alia, you and your sister have the worst timing sometimes.” The young man would laugh and turn back to face the waitress. ” You know the deal, Mallory. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Letting go of Mallory’s hand he would head towards Alia and Elizabeth. Sisters and two members of the mercenary band he led. ” Be careful Samanosuke!” Called out Mallory. She was always worried when he left on a job. She never knew what he was going to do, or how dangerous it was going to be. It was the one thing she didn’t like about him. Samanosuke would take the letter from Alia and just hold his other hand up to wave goodbye to Mallory. Unfolding the letter so he could read it he would follow behind the two girls who were leading him to their brothers. I’ve been getting reports about a bandit that is based in what is left of Rauru. Normally I wouldn’t bother you guys with a simple bandit mission, but the Gerudo that have encountered this bandit have all said the same thing. When he takes a ring off, he just vanishes leaving nothing behind. He isn’t some illusion; they have cuts and bruises to prove it. Nothing is left when he removes the ring. If he dies, the ring still vanishes so they can’t even investigate the ring to figure out what it is. They are starting to get spooked because it is always the exact same bandit. That’s why I want you guys to investigate it. Good luck and keep your guard up. Folding the letter he would stuff it into his adventure pouch as he looked up.
By this time, they had just reached the girls brothers. Ban and Jared. They were both the oldest and the youngest of the four siblings. Jared and Samanosuke are close in age and have the same fighting style for the most part and often sparred together so that they could each get better at dual wielding. Ban is the oldest, and is the sword and shield type of fighter, focusing on defending most of the time, but has one very powerful technique that they rely on against armored opponents. Elizabeth in the oldest of the girls and is a very skilled mage. Alia is the second youngest of the siblings and is a spear user that also knows a very powerful spell. Overall, their party is very well balanced, and their teamwork is outstanding. ” This is kind of a creepy request isn’t it Samanosuke?” Ban wasn’t scared, he had just never heard of taking a ring off and vanishing completely from existence. Not to mention when he dies his body stays, but the ring vanishes. It just all seemed out of place even in this world where magic exists. Of course, this would cause his younger brother to laugh. ” What’s wrong big bro. You scared?” Ban would spin to look at his younger brother with an angry look on his face. ” Of course not idiot. I just think its weird and unnatural.” Ban would reach over to slap his brother in the back of the head, but Jared would duck and slap the back of Ban’s head instead getting a laugh out of everyone. ” Alright, enough joking around. It’s time to get a move on. It’s about half a day to Rauru.” With that said everyone would straighten up and set out of town. While they walked through the desert the group would have a bunch of mundane conversations but as soon as the town of Rauru came into view everyone would fall silent. ” Masks on.” As Samanosuke gave his order he would reach into his adventure pouch and put on a wooden mask painted with a snow leopard head. Each of the others would follow suit putting on their own masks. Ban wears a mask with a bull head. Elizabeth’s mask is decorated with that of an owl head. Alia’s mask has a what appears to be the face of a crow with small streaks of lightning painted on it. While Jared’s has a leopard face painted on his. The masks were a new addition to the mercenary band. They each had people that they cared for and can easily make enemies in their line of work. So, to protect those they care about they each wear a mask now to hide their identities. Signaling for them to crouch down Samanosuke would begin to scout out what could be seen of the town with his hawkeye. Unlike most hawkeyes that people had his is so much worn as a part of him thanks to the mysterious being known as the Twister. In exchange for his spin attack and his right eye, Samanosuke gained a golden bauble for an eye with the abilities of the hawkeye headgear. He can even remove the bauble from his head and still see out of it. Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase Sleep with one eye open.
There was no movement that the young samurai could see so he would stand back up and head for the remains of the city. ” Just because I didn’t see anything doesn’t mean that no one is here. Keep your guard up and be ready for anything.” The rest of the group would only nod in agreement. As the entered the city there wasn’t a sound to be heard, same as the rest of the desert. Signaling for the group to split up and search the buildings the five of them would each head in a different direction through the ruined city. The only one that would find anything would be Alia. She didn’t find the man they were looking for, but rather an old necklace with a small pendant on it in the shape of a strange looking creature. She liked the way it looked so she would put it in her pocket for now. With a ring being part of the strange part of this quest she wasn’t about to put on a necklace from a ruined city without having her sister check it out later to make sure it didn’t hold some secret, terrible power. The five of them would meet back in the center of the town and report that they all came up empty. ” Looks like we’re going to be staying here. I found a house with multiple windows, well holes that used to be windows, and a mostly intact roof. Let’s take cover in there and wait for this mystery man to pass though.” With a nod the rest of the group would follow Samanosuke to the house the spoke of and take cover inside, each of them keeping watch from a different window. All would be quiet for a few hours before Elizabeth spotted someone coming from the direction of the Kakariko Ruins. Samanosuke would rush over, his hawkeye quickly zooming in on the person. He fit the description they had for the bandit, and he was wearing a strange looking ring on his left hand. ” Looks like this is our guy. Everyone stay quiet and wait for him to get close. We’re going to ambush him and capture him. Don’t kill him and don’t let him take that ring off.” Once again everyone would nod in agreement and take their positions. As the man passed by the door Alia would quickly open it and Ban would rush the man and tackle him to the ground, pinning his arms as he did so. ” Gotcha you damn bandit!” The man would only smile at him as he opened his mouth and bit through his own tongue. The group could only look on in horror and the man laid there bleeding to death. Quickly Samanosuke would reach down and pull the ring off his finger causing the man and the ring to vanish. The only trace that he had ever been there was the blood left in the sand. Turning to face Samanosuke Ban would look disappointed in himself. ” Sorry Sama. I never thought he would go th…” The samurai would only hold up a hand and shake his head. ” No this isn’t your fault. That should have worked. None of us could have predicted he would do something like that. How’s everyone holding up? I know we have each killed before but seeing something like that still turned my stomach.” They were all in a minor state of shock but were mostly fine. They knew that they still had a job to finish so they just had to push it out of their mind and press on.
With everyone assuring him that they could continue Samanosuke would turn towards the Kakariko Ruins. ” Since he came from that direction, I guess we need to head there instead. Keep your wits about you. I no longer know what a man like that is truly capable of.” Everyone would nod and set off towards the Kakariko Ruins. They wouldn’t make it far before Alia would speak up. ” Are you sure we shouldn’t wait the night out here? It will probably be night fall before we reach the ruins after all.” She brought up a good point. Trying to scout out the enemy’s numbers, while avoiding the creatures in the desert at night would be a lot harder. Of course, scouting is easier done at night. There is no cover in the desert, and its risky to head into the ruins unprepared. ” Let’s take a vote. Oldest to youngest.” Ban would be the first to cast his vote then. ” I say we go. Let’s get this over with.” Turning to Elizabeth she would cast her vote next. ” I’m with Alia on this one. It’s too risky to go at night. We will have been walking in the sun all day at that point and our morale is already low after that.” Everyone would look away when Elizabeth brought up that gruesome sight. Jared was next to cast his vote. ” Well I agree with Ban. I want to get this over with and pay that guy back for pulling something like that.” So the siblings ended up with a tie leaving Samanosuke to decide. Turning away from the group he would look towards the sun while he pondered what choice to make. ” Okay. I’ve decided.” Turning back to the siblings he would start walking back towards Rauru. ” We stay here tonight and set out at first light.” While normally Ban and Jared would have argued their points, they knew this wasn’t one of the times they should. Their sisters were clearly more affected by what they saw than they let on. They would all return to the same house they had been in earlier. Each had brought some rations and canteens of water and would eat and drink their fill before drifting off to sleep. All except for their leader. Instead Samanosuke would remove his mask and remove the golden bauble from his eye socket and place it in the window facing towards Kakariko Ruins. This extra sight didn’t make it any harder for him to sleep, he just didn’t dream. His dreams were replaced by whatever images the eye captured. He would put his mask back on and closes his eyes and drift off to sleep.
As the sun began to rise Samanosuke would be the first to wake up, returning the golden bauble to its normal place before waking the rest. ” We leave in ten minutes. Find a place to do whatever you need to before we head out.” He was of course talking about eating and using the bathroom. After ten minutes all five of them had gathered back where they turned around last night. It seemed like everyone was feeling better now. So once more the group would set off for Kakariko Ruins. As the neared the edge of the ruins they would each draw their weapons and proceed cautiously. Samanosuke and Jared were at the front with Alia and Ban flanking them on their outside sides with Elizabeth further back centered between the two of them. This kept the physically weakest most protected in the case of an ambush. It was eerily quiet as the began moving through the ruins. That is until they spotted the man again. With a gasp he quickly put the ring on seemingly multiplied. The two versions of the man ran in different directions and the group quickly split up to follow them. Alia and Samanosuke went left, while Ban, Jared, and Elizabeth went right. The mercenaries would quickly find that this was a big mistake. The first group to run into trouble was Alia and Samanosuke. Upon clearing some ruins that had been blocking their view they realized that they were surrounded. The worst part were the number of mages in this group. Neither of them had a way to deflect magical attacks against them. Alia would glance at her leader and whisper. ” Breakthrough and get him. Leave the small fry to me. I can handle them, so long as you get far enough away.” It wasn’t a horrible idea but breaking through was harder than it sounded. With a sigh the samurai would charge forward, and the mages would all target him. Changing paths quickly he would run directly towards two half collapsed pillars. As the variety of magic attacks closed in on him, he would quickly wall jump between the two pillars thankful that none of the mages had a Cane of Mago. Landing on top of the shorter of the two pillars he would see spear wielding bandits waiting for him at the bottom. He only had one way down, and that was to jump. Jumping now would be suicide though. Tightening his grip on his right katana he would focus on it as he closed his eyes. He could hear the spear wielders getting closer, but he kept his focus on his weapon. After three seconds he would slash his katana horizontally from left to right releasing a pulse along its pathway. The slash pulse had less range than the thrust pulse, but just as much power. Which was enough to knock the spear wielders down and drop their weapons.
Quickly the samurai would jump to the ground and roll-on impact. He was only about halfway as far as he needed to be. This thought distracted him long enough to not fully dodge a sword swing that he swung under leaving a gash in his shoulder. He would wince in pain, but he knew he couldn’t stop. Which Samanosuke was running Alia was fighting against three opponents of her own with the others watching. Unfortunately for them, Alia had been very well trained and after having an attack push her back, she would purposely drop her guard. In that moment her three opponents would all raise their weapons to attack, and Alia would quickly stand up and twist, and a second later as they started to bring their blades down on her she would unleash a spin attack. With her using a spear the wave of force released by the spin attack would knock not only them back, but their allies behind them. Then from the distance she heard Samanosuke shout. ” NOW!” With a smile she would take the same stance as before, but something seemed different. ” URBOSA’S FURY!” with that Lightning would rain down from the sky striking all the enemies around her, and even those chasing after her leader. None of these foes had seemed exceptionally strong, but Alia was still going to take out their support first. While the mages laid paralyzed upon the ground Alia would dash around and stab each of them in the heart through their back. Once all the mages had been taken care of, she would realize that most of the other had been wearing metal armor. They had taken more than enough damage to keep them down for awhile but there was one that was already getting up. He was a big man, with an even bigger sword. As Samanosuke neared the man he was chasing he abruptly vanished. He must have been chasing a fake. Turning around he would see Alia was in trouble and rush back to help her. The power difference between her and her opponent was too great. She wouldn’t be able to parry his strikes and would have to stay at the edge of her range preventing her from getting in real damage in. Unfortunately, if he rushed straight to her the two of them would end up surrounded again as the rest of their fighters started to get up. Samanosuke would frantically begin to dash around the area, stabbing each of the fallen enemies in heart. While Samanosuke was on clean up Alia was struggling to hold her own against her enemy. She didn’t have a chance to get an attack in with her spear against his constant swinging of his great sword. She was losing ground and quick. With a quickly jump back she would twist her body and unleash yet another spin attack.
The wave of force would hit her opponent and knock him back and inflict some damage, but Alia knew that without getting closer to her opponent she wouldn’t be able to defeat him with her spin attack. Holstering her spear Alia would grab her bow and run for distance as she nocked an arrow. Turning around she would draw back her bow string and loose the arrow. Not taking the time to aim carefully her arrow would only graze the large man’s side causing him to laugh. Quickly she would nock a second arrow and take aim as the large man started to run towards her. She was happy to know that she was faster than him and would be able to keep her distance, but she planned on slowing him down even more. Taking careful aim, she would loose her second arrow and score a direct hit against the man’s knee sending him tumbling to the ground. With him injured and down Alia would draw her spear once more and start walking towards him. With a quick spin of her weapon, she would have the blade of the spear pointed downward at the man. A quick thrust later and the man had been defeated. Looking towards Samanosuke seeing that he had just finished off the last of the fallen peons she would rush over to him. ” Let’s go and find the others.” Samanosuke would nod in agreement, but as the two of the set out a hidden bandit would jump out from a nearby ruined house and slash at the two of them. The samurai would but Alia out of the way and get two nasty cuts along his back for his effort. Slowly he would turn to face the dual wielding bandit. Gritting his teeth, the look in his eyes would change. Samanosuke was pissed. Quickly the young Hylian would lunge out towards the bandit in his rage. The two would start exchanging shallow blows and parries against the other each of them dual wielding their chosen weapons. The fight would only last for a minute, but Samanosuke would be the one left standing victorious. He was a little worse for wear though. In his rage he forgoes defense in favor of a constant offense, and now he was paying the price. Not only is he exhausted, but he had incurred even more wounds. Alia would rush over to him, pulling out bandages from the small bag on her hip. ” You fool, I could have helped you, now look at you.” Samanosuke would flash her a weak smile. ” Sorry. He just pissed me off hiding like that.” Alia knew that the samurai wouldn’t be capable of moving for at least an hours’ time and with his wounds even that would be pushing it.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Kakariko Ruins Ban, Jared, and Elizabeth had run into their own problems. They were greeted by an ambush of their own. Unfortunately, they encountered not mages put archers with the foot soldiers. Somehow Jared was able to smile in this situation. ” Ban protect Elizabeth and leave the rest to me.” Turning to face his brother he would reach out to grab him but was too slow. He hadn’t had time to act or speak before Jared was rushing off alone. Ban would do the only thing he could now, he would step in front of his sister and raise his shield. Elizabeth had her own ideas though. Raising her Cane of Mago into the air she would give it a quick swing sending a Holy Bolt after one of the foot soldiers. She quickly followed this up with the fire spell towards another one. While her brother protected her, she would try to disrupt the ground troops with her magical attacks. As for Jared, the headstrong swordsman had been dodging arrows on his way over towards the building the archers had perched on top of. While he had no means to climb the building he didn’t need to. Swing both of his swords at the wall he would smash right through the already weakened foundation causing the building to collapse dropping the archers to their doom and burying them in the rubble. Quickly he would turn towards the other group of archers, whom upon seeing what Jared was capable of would stop firing at Ban and Elizabeth and instead focus on him. Here’s hoping that they can hit a wildly moving target. Jared had plenty of peons on the ground between him and the other building, but it didn’t matter to him. He would rush directly towards them, as he neared the first one, he would jump into the air and perform a spin attack to deflect the arrows headed his way. This propelled him higher into the air, giving him plenty of height for a deadly plummeting blade attack into the shoulders of the first opponent. The next would rush him as he fell to the ground only to witness the swordsman leap over his head, striking the back of his head with a helm splitting attack. Too bad for him he wasn’t wearing a helmet. Upon landing Jared would keep running towards the next opponent. He would slide under the peon’s sword swing and slash his stomach with both blades. Jared would roll out of the slide and stop by a pillar near the next group of enemies. With a quick slash of his sword the pillar would come crashing down causing the enemies to dive out of the way. Not everyone was quick enough and were buried by the rubble. Using the dust as cover Jared would quickly dart over to the building with the second set of archers who all panicked upon seeing him at the baes of the building.
With a quick slash with both of his swords Jared would cause a repeat of what happened before to happen again. The building would crumble under its own weight and dispatch all the archers that were standing on top of it. Quickly Jared would make his way back to his siblings. He was breathing hard, and clearly tired. ” Your…turn….” Jared would barely get those two words out between breaths. He needed a moment to catch his breath after that. At least now they didn’t have to worry about being turned into pin cushions. Both Ban and Elizabeth would step forward in front of their brother and look at how many were left and just chuckle. Jared had done an amazing job taking out enemies with his techniques, it helps that none of them could have predicted that the young swordsman knew how to pulverize things. Of the remaining enemies they had all already been damaged by Elizabeth’s repeated magical attacks, most of them having been unable to dodge the tracking spells that she had unleashed. While Elizabeth continued to stand back and cast her spells Ban walked forward ready to pick up where his brother had left off. With a glance he would look at the bandit that they had been chasing, an aggravated look on his face. Before the tank of the group had a chance to say anything to him, he would suddenly collapse. While he was confused, he knew now wasn’t the time to ponder what was going on. Blocking a sword slash with his mirror shield Ban would quickly bring down his sword to finish off his would-be attacker. Two more quickly came for him he would block their attacks with ease, but this left him vulnerable as both his sword and shield were now locked with their swords. That was when he noticed a third enemy running towards him in the hopes of avenging his fallen comrades by taking down one of the three intruders. Ban was frantically trying to figure out how he was going to get out of this when the enemy his sword was locked with was sent flying by a holy bolt. Quickly Ban would stab the enemy on his shield and then bring his shield over to block the third attacker. The enemy that had been knocked back by holy bolt was getting up and coming back for more. Ban would tuck his sword under his shield and smile. As the enemy pulled their sword back to attack the Hylian would unleash his spin attack slaying both enemies at the same time. As Ban finished his spin attack an enemy would charge him from behind catching him off guard. As he tried to turn to attempt to block the attack and arrow would find it’s mark in the man’s head. Jared had caught his breath and covered his brother with his longbow. Looking around the three would not see anymore enemies left. They would regroup and start towards the collapsed bandit with the strange ring. Before they could reach him one more bandit would step out in full plate armor.
With a smile Ban would extend his arm and prevent Jared from rushing him. ” I got this.” Putting his shield away Ban would approach the bandit. He was wielding a great sword and began to taunt Ban for putting away his shield. Ban was focusing everything he had into his sword and lunged forward with a downward slash. The bandit would hold up his sword to block only to watch as it shattered under the power of Bans attack. It wasn’t just his sword that broke either. Ban’s sword continued destroying the man’s helmet and chest plate as well. While the wound inflicted on the bandit himself was shallow, he had lost his weapon and most of his protection with one attack. With another step forward Ban would slash at the bandit once more, ending him. The trio would approach the bandit they had been chasing and tie him up before Jared reached down and removed the ring from his finger. The man didn’t disappear like the other one did before surprising all three of them. ” Why would you do that?! What if he had disappeared? We might have never figured out what was going on.” Elizabeth scolded her younger brother. Ban would toss the unconscious bandit over his shoulder to carry him as the three of them went to see how Samanosuke and Alia had fared. What they found was a napping Samanosuke and a worried Alia. ” Calm down big sis. We all know he has a penchant for doing reckless things and being just fine.” Not that Jared was one to talk, but he was right. They had watched Samanosuke jump on the back of a Lizalfos with only leather bracers to protect his arms from the creature’s claws. Alia knew her younger brother was right, but she was still worried. His worst injury had come from protecting her after all. It seems like they would be camping here tonight, not that any of them would get much sleep not knowing if there were any bandits left.
The next morning everyone would awaken just fine, the bandit included. Samanosuke was sore, and found it a little difficult to move, but he was alive. He was in no fighting shape, but hopefully all the fighting was done. ” Let me go! Give me back my ring! I can’t survive without it!” Samanosuke would turn to face the man. ” Tell me bandit just what is this ring of yours? Also I’m not in the best mood so I suggest you just talk other wise I’ll just finish you and you won’t have to worry about surviving anymore.” Normally the samurai wouldn’t take such an approach, but he just wanted to get back to Ruto and rest. With a gulp the bandit would look around. If he had been captured that meant that these five took out all of the bandits that followed him and only one of them got injured. He knew that even if he got his ring, he didn’t stand a chance. ” I….it’s called a Ring of Deuce. A mythical treasure that make a clone of whoever puts the ring on. It has all of your memories and thoughts. Gains duplicates of all of your treasures and can use any spell or technique you know. Unlike illusion spells this clone can think, and act on its own and even fight. It is for all intents and purposes a true clone. There are only a few downsides to this ring, like falling unconscious if one of you die. Removing the ring is the same as dying in that regard. The two can fuse back together by touching their rings together.” The bandit would look around hopeful that had been enough information to keep him alive. He really was a spineless man when it came down to it. ” Jared let me see that ring.” Holding out his hand Jared would hand over the ring and watch as Samanosuke put it on. Suddenly there was a second Samanosuke, only something about him was different. That didn’t matter at the moment. Samanosuke would hold out his fist with the ring on it and the copy knew what he wanted to do. After all it’s a copy of him. The copy would hold up his fist with the ring on it and touch his ring to Samanosuke’s and the two would fuse back into one being. Taking the ring off he would drop it in his adventure pouch and let out a laugh. ” Get him up. We’re taking him back to Ruto with us and handing him over to the guards and then I’ll leave reporting to Yousef to y’all. I just wanna get some sleep.” Everyone would let out a laugh as the picked the bandit up off the ground and forced him to start walking. It had been a long two days, but things were finally finished.
