Julius -- 40 roops Eve -- Blessed Bismuth (Buckler), 20 roops Julius stood atop the deck of the ship. A soldier wearing chainmail with a tabard, emblazoned with the crest of the Kingdom of.Hyrule, stood behind him. They exhanged information for a while, watching the spotlights mounted on the walls of the fortress dance across the water, looking for would-be invaders. They wouldn't find them. They had sailed and weighed anchor far enough away that they wouldn't be able to spot them -- even if they sent out patrols. Their plan wasn't to simply storm the fortress with their whole crew. No, they'd let Julius off, and he would swim into the fortress. Thanks to his zora mail, which he wore specifically for this mission, he could swim underwater for as long as he pleased. The slits in his helmet allowed him to look upon the fortress, though it was only a speck on the horizon. But through the quarteaster's telescope, it was a different story. The walls were lined with all sorts of contraptions -- from catapults to ballistae, cannons to archers -- and it was a fearsome sight indeed. No wonder this fort held the reputation it did -- to any large vessel, it would have posed a problem indeed. They travelled light, though, decreasing their chances of being detected. Only one man would be getting off this.ship, and he would be travelling so far underwater that you wouldn't know he were there unless you were a fish. He dived off the bow of the ship, and into the moonlit waters. He only resurfaced as he came to a low enough walkway to drag himself out of the water, stepping foot onto the stone. There was a stairway up, but he could see it led to directly under the gaze of a spotlight. He'd decided to let himself dry, first, cold winds blowing throughout the island fortress.
Through the bars of a jail cell glowed a light. If Julius or his crew looked hard enough, they could see through their telescope a girl hanging out of the window. She had spotted the ship and knew someone was coming to help. The searchlights hadn't spotted it yet as the dim glow of the boat was far, far from the perimeter of the fortress they were checking. "It looks like someone is coming to help" she stated plainly. "You've been saying that every day for the past week." replied a female voice nearby. "Nobody believes you so just can it." "If I had my hammer we'd be out of here by now." "You keep saying that, but nobody believes that either. There's no way someone like you has a weapon like that." "Uh Steffy fights with knives why can't I have a hammer?" "This isn't a game, Evelyn. This is real, we're in a real jail run by real monsters." "I HAVE A HAMMER IT'S AS TALL AS ME AND IT IS MADE OF SOLID GOLD!!" Eve screamed at Delina. "Oh Zephos we KNOW! Stop inserting your dumb pretend stuff into what's going on!" shouted back another girl from the corner. There was twelve girls altogether. They had all been locked up in the fortress at about the same time. The enemy needed them for some arbitrary ritual. But to think they wouldn't try to escape was just bad planning on the Demon Tribe's part. Anything they had been carrying was confiscated. Somewhere in the fortress was a case of their possessions. Meanwhile, the girls weren't treating Eve seriously. She effectively introduced herself as the "most serious warlord ever" but it quickly spun into nonsense. She didn't look much like a warlord in her current outfit. Try as she might, she couldn't even remember obtaining it. Underneath the mountain of fabulous dress still lay her Golden Armor which she had found deep in a tomb. Eve listed off the eleven other girls in her head. Each was unique though they all had somewhat similar features. All of them were Hylian save herself and one other Kokiri. She was somewhat confused by the other Kokiri because they seemed like the ordinary sort who stayed in the forest. While she remembered the eleven faces, Eve was not good with names and only remembered "Steffy." Steffy was unique in that her features were quite detached from what was considered attractive. This didn't matter to Eve at all. She had seen horrors that toppled horrors, and something as fleeting as a big nose or wide shoulders should be considered incredibly attractive indeed. Eve didn't like people much, but they were all equally pretty to her. But how did Eve get into the cell in the first place? She remembered back to that time while Julius sneaked in from below.
Julius made his way uo the stairs. He summoned a Keese in almost an instant, "Create a distraction." It tried to. It was just a keese, after all -- what was it really capable of? It flew to the nearest spotlight tower and began to attack the Bokoblin there. Soon, the light stopped searching. Not for long -- but long enough for him to have moved to the path where the searchlight was on. Thankfully, his socks were able to be controlled -- otherwise a set of flaming footsteps would have had a horde upon him in an instant. Julius made his way to the searchlight, finding a very disheveled and annoyed Bokoblin operating the spotlight shining below. He had his back turned to Julius, pulling all of the many levels and knobs, but not for long as Julius had gained his attention. Standing nearly two and a half feet taller than the Bokoblin, he drew his blade. To that Bokoblin, Julius may as well have been a Darknut -- no, something greater than a Darknut. The grey-haired pig-like monster considered its options for a moment. The Moblin-kin apparently decided to face at least a valorous end -- having chosen to draw a small knife. Julius readied his blade. The Bokoblin charged. In an instant, a flash -- and then, a bisected Bokoblin fell upon the ground with all the accompanying gore. The lights turned up, shining into the night sky. One down. An unknown amount left. Julius walked down the slope to a small, open hallway, where two entrances lay. He headed into the left entrance, ignoring the small alcove just beyond the open hallway.
It took much longer than expected to get those stains out. What a horrible trip that was! Eve managed to get her outfit laundered at a negligible price, and with a minimal amount of threatening. She bothered her brow for a moment, trying to navigate the town. She had made her way to Impa after that horrible catastrophe a few days ago. It was hard to believe so many buildings were still being constructed so long after the town went up. How long had it been? Evelyn didn't know because she had been in the desert at that time. So much time stomping in monsters with your boots and you lose track of it all. The clouds gathered at about the center of town. It was hard to tell with the angles exactly where in the sky the clouds were, Eve figured it was right overhead. The result was a significantly darker midday. She crawled to a halt in the middle of the street. She watched peddlers clop down the street on their wagons. She flapped her hands to her face. What good was being in a half-built town if there was nothing fun to do? Stupid port town, what good was any of it? A demented smile crept onto her face. This was a port town, after all. This was her favorite kind of town. She was sure to find freight ships of some sort in the harbor. This would get her out of dodge and possibly lead her to new treasure. By Eve's standards there really wasn't a choice anymore. She stamped through town to the far reaches, being careful not to put strain on her boots. She laid eyes on another one of those cafes where they serve old scabs and swabbies. "Coffee or Pumpkin Soup? These taverns have such vague names." she mused to herself.
Julius landed onto the wooden walkway across from the door he had just entered into. There were bunks below -- and what Julius guessed passed as a work of art for the thieves of the fortress. It was a statue , sort of, which hung upon the wall. It depicted what the artist most likely would have considered "a fierce Moblin charging into battle." To Julius, it was just a piece of junk. He walked quietly along the creaking platform to another exit. He questioned the validity of this room briefly -- it seemed to be a sort of of barracks. He left without a sound, unsure if there were any sleeping bodies in the bunks below. He was on the outside edge of the fortress again. An alarm had been raised since -- tightening security in the fortress. Up ahead, he could see two Moblin patrols with lamps and somewhat crude yet still brutally efficient glaives. They sniffed at the ground, as if trying to detect the scent of any unwanted individuals. They walked opposite routes. One came down, and walked left onto what he assumed to be the main level -- where one spotlight continued to search, albeit more erratically yet careful than before. He composed himself, briefly -- and summoned another Keese. "Keep a lookout on my tail," he said in a low, husky voice, "and if they begin to approach, do all you can to stop them." He obviously was referring to the Moblin watchmen -- but whether the Keese grasped that, he was unsure of. He traipsed about the uphill slope. The blue stone was especially worn -- though, he guessed somewhat correctly that it was still in great shape despite the numerous battles the fort had survived. He had almost rounded the corner, when he saw the shine of a lamp come from just around the right bend. Shit, he thought to himself. Thinking quickly, as the Moblin rounded the corner, he met his shield with its cranium, knocking it absolutely senseless, and then slit its throat with its own glaive. Having completely severed its vocal chords, the kill was mostly silent -- and then Julius dumped the corpse over a wall, into the sea. He looked over the ledge, back onto the area below. The other Moblin was not there. He checked behind the bend, quickly. He was being distracted by the Keese. Moving forward, quickly, he found himself faced with another, much larger door. It looked as if to hold a deadbolt -- though it was on the outside, facing him. It seemed as if it were trying to contain something... maybe a hold or brig? There was only one way to find out...
Eve clapped her hands to her face. A whole day wasted in town, and only now had she thought of such an idea. There had to be a way to shake it out of the locals which boats in the harbor were unattended. She shuffled up to the door, taking another look at the name of the bar emblazoned across the wood of the door. "The Laughing Jowls" it was written in an incredible flourish of handwriting. Eve could hardly read it, and she didn't seem to even know what a "jowl" was. That's when she noticed the sign on the roof had been misspelled "Joεls." It was more curious to her who this "Joel" was. She shoved open the door and careened inside. "Hey you gotta be this tall to enter." boomed a voice from high above. Eve crooked her head up to meet the eyes of the bouncer. Scowls mutually cracked onto their faces. Eve huffed and slammed her knee between the bouncer's unguarded leg vertex. He howled and backed off, jeering all the way. The bouncer wasn't going to let her just get away with it. He reeled with a hand on his pants, and grabbed for a broom to use as a weapon. Hearing the ruckus, the manager bumped his way out of the back and into the open. "Enough! You can beat that violent kid with the broom, sure. But we're in a goat milk bar for cyclossake! Just let her have a milk and put some ice in your pants." the manager furiously pointed out. The bouncer proceeded to whack Eve across the face with his broom. For good measure, he whacked her again. Finally he sat in a chair to rest his aching loins. "Well then, girl. So long as you are paying, we'll get us a round of goat milk." the manager continued. Eve was sprawled out on the floor with red marks on her cheeks and eyes spinning like galaxies. She rolled and groaned as her reply. You couldn't get away with anything in this town. Eve hadn't been to Impa before, but she was already starting to hate it. Probably, she thought, this was actually the worst town she had ever laid eyes on. She made a mental note to return here one day. There was a creak as she pushed herself off the floor. Eve went to mingle with the bar population. Her diminishing food budget went into buying goat milk for a diversity of sailors. With the bouncer watching her, she began to flirt- er, interview the sailors. But Eve made a critical mistake: she ended up with a tall glass of milk herself. Soon, the whole lot of them were tipsy. The bartender, branded on his arm with a tattoo that read "Mitey Worrier," became concerned. He stood on the counter and enacted loudly that none more should partake in the drinking of goat milk for the night. It was already too late! The entire mob of sailors had become completely hammered on goat milk. They created a riot in almost no time, listening to Eve's mad ramblings about overthrowing the evil hierarchy and stealing their treasure. She was making it up, of course. Though it was entirely true that there was a ruling villain with treasure. The drunk mob forced itself over the counter, liberated handfuls and armfuls of milk, and then stampeded out the front door. The bouncer was still on his seat, and while furious, he had been nursing his undercarriage. Soon the crowd that had once occupied the tavern was long gone and out on the streets. There was a loud rumbling, and then a booming snap by the docks. They had all piled onto a boat and hacked off the ropes with their axes. This was it, Eve thought. This was her escape to Southern Hyrule. Very quickly, however, the goat milk began to go to their heads. Sailors pranced about, laughing and screaming as they played jokes on each other. The disorder had more or less left the boat drifting off by itself. While she was waltzing with a squat sailor who was missing an ear, she tenderly kissed him on the lips and then passed out. Eve was awoken by a low, booming screech. The remainder of the crew that had sobered up were in a panic. They had gone off course and were heading straight for a large island. Jagged rocks surrounded the massive structure, which could be seen on the looming silhouette of the fearsome isle. The screech came again, and Eve looked up through the salty mist. While it wasn't the weirdest thing to happen to her, Eve thought she saw the shape of a giant bird in the sky. The exploding fog-horn of its voice rang out. The colossal creature was descending rapidly toward the boat. Large talons pinched into Eve and whisked away her body into the night sky. She could just barely make out the sight and sound of the ship being ground to tiny bits by the jagged spires of the island. "And then I woke up in this cell. . ." "For the last time- I mean the last time! You've told us this story already! You tell it to us every three hours please stop." shrieked Winnifred. It was really getting old. "So what I'm trying to say is, if we work together. . ." Eve continued. "We'll all be much better without your help! You just explained in detail why you're a terrible leader! We could escape ourselves but it's safer if we waited for help of some kind." explained another of the girls from the behind-right of Eve. "Just what sort of help are you actually expecting in this gods-forsaken fortress?! Nobody is coming to help!"
"Nobody's coming to help, eh?" Julius said as he walked into the jail. He stowed his blade for now as he eyed the rag-tag group of girls. "Aren't you all a little young to be in the Pirate's Den? Good heavens." He said, looking at the bars and the door. He looked at the lock. Shit. "Hmm, to let you go or let you stay..." he pondered aloud. He couldn't pick the lock, but neither could he manage to break it open -- darn, he wished he could. He examined his surroundings. Keys! He brought the extended wire loop, full of keys, to the lock. He tried each key, again and again. Finally, one worked! The lock clanked as it turned and popped loose. He removed the device, throwing it out of the window of the cell. "Now then," he said, eyeing each one more intently. "All of you, stay calm, and stay quiet. I think I've--" Suddenly, the door burst open, revealing a small squadron of Moblins lead by an intimidating Gerudo. She stood, roughly, at seven feet in height -- nearly half a foot taller than Julius. He drew his blade in an instant, deflecting the polearm of a Moblin. "Stay back, girls! I can handle these thugs!" "Thugs, huh?" The Gerudo warrior said, drawing her curved blades. "I'll show you," she said, already in her fighting stance. Wordlessly, she kicked off of the wall, landing somewhere in the room. Julius was too busy fighting the group of Moblins to adequately sense where she was.
Steffy busted open the barred door, long since filled with impatience to be on the other side. Eve hopped up after her, unconvinced that she had been entirely wrong. "We might still have to do a bit of this ourselves!" Eve called after her. "I know, what did you even think I was doing." Steffy gasped back at her. She slipped a pair of knives out of her shoes. She made a bolt for the crowd of Moblins. The screams of the other girls didn't serve to stop her. This was more or less the moment the punk girls had been waiting for, as Julius provided the perfect distraction. Steffy especially was looking forward to this porcine delight. "She 'as a point here." Eve stated calmly to the group. "If we follow her we could uh, escape?" She was unsure of what she was trying to convince the ladies of. One of them responded by flipping her obscene gestures. Eve sighed and watched Steffy run a sharp point into the thick flank of a Moblin. "Is this about that time? Are you still mad about that?" Eve snarled. "About when you attacked us all when you arrived? Of course we're still MAD!" Harriet screeched at her. "Oh come on that was ONE time. One time that I tried to beat you all up at once." Eve gave up trying to convince them to come and headed into the fray. With Eve gone, the girls huddled up. It seemed they were willing to go help Steffy so long as it wasn't at Eve's urging. The Moblin was making busy slapping away the annoying sting of the wasp with his pole. Steffy was hurt but not out of the fight. Sooner than expected there was a swarm of human bodies encapsulating the Moblin and wrestling him to the floor. His top-heavy body had made it difficult to resist falling forward. Eve solemnly stood at the aft of the pack. She saw that the prisoners were making short work of one of the Moblins, and Julius of several others. Eve picked one of the stragglers of the pack as a target. Failing to consider any kind of subtlety, she roared and started to run for him. She raised her arm to the air in a terrifying suicide dash. The arm set ablaze with her Flame Choke ability, a flashy warning to the Moblin for what might come next. Naturally, the Moblin raised his weapon to deflect her incoming body. He forced his weight against her to push her back. The Moblin expected a chance to drop his blade on her. With a crackle of impact, Eve sputtered back. She'd barely managed to soften the blow by holding back a bit. She saw that he wasn't going to just let his neck become open to attack. She turned her murderous eyes up to meet his. She snickered and held her arm where she was struck. There was still a glimmer of sickly flame coming off of it. "Let's dance." Eve growled at the beast towering over her. She got back on her feet and wrestled at his spear, poised to stab at her. He had been about to cock it back for a wide slash at her vulnerable body. Their hands entwined, they circled around each other in a twisted waltz of violence. He allowed his legs to go back, sure that she would try to touch him with the flames. If he could just overpower her without risking it. . . But the Moblin was not anything near one of the smarter of its kind. He thrust one of her fragile arms off his spear, shoving her back and exemplifying his dominance. That was the mistake she had been waiting for. When he teetered forward, she let go and wrapped her other hand on his neck. The Moblin's eyes flapped wide open. Her grip on his flesh had given her a handle on him. His flabby chin bacon had provided a critical foothold for her approach. She vaulted over his spear by yanking at this fatty chin of his. The hand of hers was burning with power, yearning to slay him. She thrust the fiery palm against his neck and tackled him back. But the noise of the crowd concealed the threat of their leader, whom none had fully noticed yet. Eve savored the feeling of having the Moblin on his back. Her adventure had begun.
Julius was... surprised, to say the least, at the rather brash and brusque manner of the girls. Some of them seemed old enough, but... they hardly seemed the type to need rescuing. They even took to fighting the Moblins! A wash of flames spread from one's palm as she wrestled with one of the pigmen. She seemed familiar. Did Julius know her from somewhere? It didn't matter much. Soon enough, he felt the presence of a creature approaching from the back -- he quickly turned, face-to-face with the desert warrioress. Her blades were aglow with a violet flame -- he recognized this technique with some ease. The Gerudo Dragon: a technique passed through their lineage. It resonated with the user's personality -- much like some other techniques that Julius admittedly hadn't researched much. Either way, he knew it to be associated with Shadow. It would be bad for him to b caught by it. She rushed, her blades low. Julius allowed her to close in, ready to execute Helm Splitter -- normally, Spin Attack would have been adequate, but her twin blades might manage to break that defense. Even so, she drew nearer, time slowing to something like in the movies. Her blade lurched upwards, slowly, still cloaked in violet flame -- she bore her teeth as she twisted around to follow through with her other blade. Julius managed to block with his shield, the dark flames battering harshly against it -- it beat into it like a blizzard against a barn. Just as her body contorted, Julius' feet left the ground. His body sailed over her head as she thought of something, anything to do -- she slashed upwards, barely managing to parry his blade. And it is here that the cinematic time slow ends. In reality, it happened in regular speed -- their blades clashed in a flurry of steel, and so on and so forth. Really, couldn't Julius just manage to kill her already? He snapped his fingers. Hopefully the Gerudo woman would fall for his ploy; within seconds, Lexi would likely wound her in some way. At the same time, a Keese appeared, so as to decieve any observers. It fluttered to the girls, and attempted to aid them, with little success. In fact, it seemed to almost get in the way. Regardless, Julius blocked another slash from the amazon. She was nearly as tall as him -- and just as adept with a blade. They were evenly matched as they traded blows -- her blows skidded along his shield, or were caught by the flat of his blade. Similarly, she effortlessly ducked and weaved through his strikes, dancing through his blows. Three more seconds. Julius tried for a bash -- she weaved to the left. Perfect. Almost on cue, the stellar portal opened, the helical blade swiping to the left -- deep into the Gerudo's flesh. The green ball of light fluttered just a bit as she caught sight of Julius. She almost said something -- he swore she did -- before being exhumed into whatever realm she now inhabited. The Gerudo was now heavily wounded. She took the brunt of the force, not having expected it -- blood gushed from her side, through whatever protective gear she wore. Now, she was too slow, too weak to prove an adequate foe -- Julius simply did what he thought was right, at that point. Her side had been cleaved into to great effect -- there was visible bone and rended muscle as she screeched in pain. It would be better for her to die a quick death, than to die a slow, humiliating one. He uttered a few words to her, before delivering a swift, brutal stroke of justice. She deserved to die like a warrior.
Evelyn straddled the Moblin intensely. She patted herself down and remembered she had her weapons confiscated on the way in. This charred porker was gonna have to sit still while she went to fix this problem. Ignoring all else, Eve dashed off down the room to find the weapon locker. There were enough hallways in this place to kill a curious dog. The girls continued to pummel the monsters, and Julius stayed focused. Eve was soon long gone. She'd been clobbering all the shelves and boxes, as she usually did in prison. Eve made a point of discarding any possessions that weren't explicitly hers, so this happened every time. All the confiscated potions and jewels toppled to the floor. A few more shaken down boxes later and she found her compaction pouch. Eve greedily shook out the bag. The main thing inside the bag fell out- her shiny hammer. What a nightmare it was chasing this thing around all the time. Eve tied the adventure pouch tightly back on her clothes, wary of its location and intent on not letting it go again. Eve shrugged and put her weapon back in the pouch. Like hell she was running back down all those hallways lugging the polearm around all the way.
Eve skidded to a halt. Something came to her as she dashed back to the fight. Those girls were pretty tough, Eve thought. They wouldn't need my help escaping she mused. I have places I have to be! I'm busting out. The girl turned on her foot and faced the wall. It was clearly of old design, some kind of worn down concrete mixed with sedimentary stone. She tapped the construction with her fist. It would be a pretty simple shortcut, she admitted to herself. Eve took about fifty paces back. Maneuvers like this made her glad she didn't wear plate armor. With a little finagling she shifted her pouch to right about where her right hand fell. She bent her leg as one would when beginning a foot race. With her hand caressing the stone floor, she felt her target closing into her vision. She let off with an explosive leap. A sprint down the same way she came, nearly closing the distance. At the last third of her path, however, she swiftly hopped back into the air. As the girl burst through the air, A human missile, she slipped her weapon out of her pouch. Eve thrust the yellowy weapon before her as the focus of her impact. The lower part of the window opening shattered like a dish, the hammer becoming a siege ram. Eve soared out the side of the wall, flopping into the air over the outcropping. Now officially outside the walls of the fortress, Eve bolted. She challenged her senses to find the main dock, any small boat would do. The clouds above lit up with flashes, reverberating booms shaking the land and sea. A storm was coming. Eve was sure she was done with shenanigans for the week, it was best to escape before things got worse. The crackle of the wall might just go unnoticed amidst the terrible thunder. Eve clenched her fist as a drop of sweat slipped off of her chin. Her being here was a show of weakness on her part. Falling helpless off that ship, being captured by that bird. . . she vowed to return when she was stronger to teach that bird a lesson. She clenched her crooked teeth. She didn't want help, and her ambition for strength was her twisted vision to alleviate it. They were the chains that kept her intermingled with the sinking earth. She skid down one of the larger rocks. Just around the corner was a harbor, hidden from the outside. The tiny dock held a skiff or two. There were row boats, but Eve would rather take something with a sail. She hopped onto a skiff and pushed off for the small opening and gate that lead outside. Tomorrow was a step away, the day that would spell misfortune for all. The wind picked up and as a muscular godly arm it ripped the skiff out into the wide ocean. The crash of thunder quaked, reminding Eve of the force of nature at work as her sail was wrestling with the skiff, the wind nearly tearing the craft asunder. Eve held tightly to the device, the chains of her life force holding true as a dour omen of what was to come. The rain started to pour as her craft was thrown underhandedly over the steadily growing waves. One of the girls stumbled upon the broken window frame. Deep down they knew the Kokiri was long gone.
