[X] Use the Gale Boomerang to send flames from the Haybales at it while Midna focuses on its children.
Your shield vanishes with a flash of blue light, replaced in hand by the ivory and gold of the gale boomerang. Pale green light began to emanate from it as a breeze picked up, scattering the falling rain from you.
"Deal with the children! I'll keep the big one busy!" You shout to Midna, just before the two of you leap back from a spray of that acrid purple liquid the large head of the monster suddenly shot from its maw, sending up that same burning smoke as if it had been flames rather then liquid.
"I hope you can do something!" Midna shouts back, lifting her arms up as two massive arms made of shadows appeared in front of her. As if they were her own she threw out her hands, the two arms miming her actions to snatch a snaking Deku-baba. Then with a squeal and spray of ichor followed by an awful tearing sound, the Deku Baba fell in two ruined halves.
You don't reply, hurling the boomerang towards one of the burning haybales. Almost as soon as it left your hand the wind picked up, dust and the acrid smoke sucked toward it until a vortex filled with motes of green light slammed into the fire. You expected embers to be picked up and launched towards the beast, keeping it at bay while you formulate a way to hurt something that big but instead the vortex became a swirling tornado of flame that carried towards the beast. Flames licked up its body, charring the outside of its stalk like a pepper whose skin had been cooked over a flame, making it burst, flake and reveal the soft plant flesh underneath. It roared, slinking back into its chasm as larger deku baba heads rose up from the acid pits around you.
Midna snarled, hurling spear after spear of darkness into the horde of Deku Baba's rising up around her, severing stalks left and right as slavering plant maws occasionally lunged at her, toxic clouds of purple smoke beginning to fill the area like a deadly mist. Finally, she seemed to have enough and raised a hand up as if to backhand a nearby Deku Baba as a massive hand made of shadow and glowing green light rose up behind her miming the same pose. Then, with all the impunity of a scorned lady of her station, she waved her hand as if to slap the impudent louts in front of her. The massive hand mimed her actions with force, ripping through Deku Baba's, splattering them as the ground shook from the sheer force behind these movements. You actually had to duck out of the way to not get hit, so furious was Midna she was starting to lose focus on what was around her as what remained of the Ranch's fence was shattered to pieces.
Thankfully the hay bales weren't totally extinguished by her wild flailing. You slashed at a Deku Baba that lunged at you, the master sword biting into it like there was nothing even if you could feel the resistance of plant flesh parting through the hilt of the weapon. There was a flash of blue and the Deku Baba was consumed by holy power, its body crumbling into black ash before you had even completed your swing. Before you had even been able to ponder what had occurred the gale boomerang returned to your hand, so gracefully you'd thought it had been placed in your hand not returning from its forceful throw. A voice seemed to encourage you, whispering a plan in your ears as you threw again and a small voice yelled from underneath your hat.
"That's right sister! Link, burn them all up with a single throw!"
The vortex surged forth again, picking up fragments of shredded Deku Babas until it reached a haybale and once again an inferno lit up the ranch, one punctuated by explosions from the Deku seeds spraying burning plant matter into the smaller Deku Baba's as it roared into the larger heads that were looming out of the chasms. When it reached them the large heads almost instantly they ignited, steam pouring from their mouths as their skin blackened and shrivelled until the steam became smoke and then flames, their heads bulging and then bursting with near blinding flashes as the seeds within finally ignited. An ear-splitting roar reached you as the boomerang returned, the heat from the flames so intense you actually felt your clothes drying despite the rain.
The earth rumbled, groaning as if in agony as you felt the vibrations shoot up your legs. The creature's central head seemed to erupt from the chasm it had retreated too in an explosion of caustic liquid, revealing a bulbous body and twitching almost insectile limbs. It roared, its glowing eye visible through the smoke, yet the roar slowly began to turn into a gurgle, the sound of rushing water mixing in. Hope filled your heart for a second, was this the sound of a death rattle? Had it burned alive?
Sadly, your hope was not rewarded, as a blast of that same purple liquid erupted forth from its mouth in a geyser, spraying a trail of purple bubbling liquid that coated a path up and over Malon's home. You thankfully were pulled out of the way by one of Midna's shadow hands, though with the speed you were pulled made pain shoot up through your side as you landed roughly in the dirt of the road. Groaning you climb to your feet, Midna helping you with an offered hand remorse clear on her face as she see's you wince when you poke your side. You weren't given any time to give her any reassurances, as the creature roared again, it's singular eye glaring at you with a hatred that burned brighter then the flames that surrounded it. You flourished your blade, taunting the creature as you saw Midna give a dismissive wave of her right hand, as more of her shadow hands appeared. You both were prepared to finish-
Then a deafening crack made you both whirl around even with the danger looming in front of you, just in time to watch the entirety of Malon's house collapse. Clouds of noxious fumes rose into the air as the entire building literally melted into a puddle, wood turning into mush before your very eyes. Both you and Midna slowly turned back to the massive monster, wide-eyed and pale as multiple things occurred to you both in this second.
1. This overgrown Deku Baba is REALLY big. Extraordinarily big. Swallow you whole big.
2. You have a sword and a boomerang, Midna has magic but has never fought a giant monster.
3. Both of you are exceptionally meltable.
4. It is really, REALLY angry and apparently not that hurt.
Both of you audibly gulp, "I... think we might have gotten a bit cocky," You say quietly to Midna, not keeping your eyes off the creature.
"Maybe it can only do that once?" Midna offered, her voice cracking slightly.
The creature, obviously tiring of waiting to do something, disabused Midna of that notion by immediately launching another jet at the two of you. The Twili barely had time to summon forth a magical barrier made of the same glowing green lines that you both immediately slammed yourselves against as acid gouged bubbling pools on either side of your barrier as your lungs and eyes began to burn.
"This is what I get for helping! You better do something nice for me if we live!" Midna yelled at you, her voice becoming hoarser with every passing second.
"How long can the barrier hold?!" You shouted back as the creature paused for a moment then continued its assault and you momentarily thanked the goddesses it was rooted.
"I don't know! I never had a giant weed try to kill me with acid!" Midna snapped back, before yelping and pressing herself as much as possible against the barrier, pawing at her face in the darkness.
"W-we need too-" You press your hand up to your face, trying to block the increasing awful burning smoke choking you. When you pull your hand away, it was wet and you didn't need the now blocked flames or the occasional flashes of lightning from the still raging storm to tell what it is, "Oh, the acids smoke is melting our lungs." You state, your voice surprisingly emotionless despite the fact your heart was now hammering in your chest. Or maybe that was the increasing lack of air.
Midna looked back at you, everything under her nose and mouth on her face stained with her Twili blood, "What do we do Link?" Was all she could manage to say.
"Stab it in the eye!" Came the muffled reply from your hat.
"It's a PLANT!" MIdna hissed, swiping at your hat and its occupant in frustration.
"H-Hey!" You cough out, ducking away. But then something strikes you, "No, she's right! Deku Baba's do have a brain, it's skin is strong, but that eye has to connect right too it! If I can stab my sword in, it's a narrow gap but it'll get through its defenses!"
Midna looked at you, clearly ready to berate you for such an obviously suicidal plan, but instead she gritted her surprisingly fanged teeth and turned to the barrier, placing her hands upon it as if ready to shove. She looked back at you, and with a determined voice curtly told you, "I'll try and hold it down, just clear away this damn smoke and distract it!"
You give a quick nod, holding both the Master Sword and Gale Boomerang at the ready as Midna puts her palms against the wall she had summoned, closing her eyes as the lines on her body began to glow. You waited for the stream of liquid to slow, bubbling purple acid inching closer to both you and Midna's feet, then you threw.
The vortex that followed was beyond what you had expected, a whirling sphere of wind that pulled at you with all the ferocity of a gale. The toxic smog was sucked in, ribbons of poison turning the vortex a sickly purple. Then Midna pushed hard on the barrier, sending a wave of force that struck and shattered like glass against the creature. It only staggered a little as you chased after it and for a moment you were concerned it was about to melt you as its hateful eye settled on your form.
Then a shadowy fist burst forth from the ground and struck it in the chin, as another hand grabbed onto one of its mandibles. You spare a glance to Midna, sweat pouring off her as her arms had disappeared into geometric black portals, blue lines crisscrossing it. You turned back, just in time to see the creature be dragged to the ground, head slamming down in front of you with enough force to make you stumble as the eye on the end of the stalk darted back in forth in rage as acid poured from its mouth.
"N-NOW LINK!" Midna screamed, choking on something that you couldn't see as you looked back at the creature. You don't hesitate, swinging your sword as a blade of blue light strikes the creature. More then the flames this slices into the creature deeply, white-blue light parting its flesh. The acid pouring from its mouth pauses as you keep running, sputtering out as it suddenly clogged. You aim another swing and the blade of light again leaps from the master sword, slicing into it as the creature writhes with earth shaking force. The acid stops, a mere trickle from its mouth as it roars in anger and fear. Your run becomes a leap, the master sword raised above your head as it seemed to glow with its same blinding blue light until you plunged it down into the creatures eye, it's pupil growing wide as the blade pierced into its flesh.
With a scream you poured your strength into the sword, blue white light racing up into the creatures body as it suddenly jerked back out of Midna's grip as it writhed in agony, tearing its eye free as it began to shrivel and desiccate before you. The eye you were standing on disintegrated, burned away by blue-white flames in an instant, sending you falling backwards into cool liquid that for a moment you thought would burn your flesh from your bones.
But you felt no pain as you lay there, watching the creatures movements slow with halting movements until it finally stopped moving. Then without warning it flashed white and exploded with a wave of energy that washed over you all, making you close your eyes for a second as you felt warmth hit you. When you opened them, rain falling on your face from a roiling, flashing sky above you let out a sigh of relief. Clenching your hand into the dir- no... into grass? In the light from the Master Sword still in your grip you could see what had been a desolate acid scarred battlefield was now covered in plant-life, flowers and grass as the trees blossomed with leaves. More even then had been when you first arrived. The acid it had left everywhere now pools of clean water, the pits it had opened closed up with caved in earth.
You laughed, a choking exhausted sound as you rolled over onto your hands and knees, climbing to your feet as every part of your body screamed in pain as you looked over to Midna. Battered, bloodied and sunk to her knees but laughing in relief as well. Without thinking you raised your hand, feeling the boomerang return to it and vanish back into the space you had called it from with a small unseen voice whispering from it so quietly it was almost lost on the wind "You fought well, hero..."
You gave the Master Sword a small twirl, a flourish to feel that it was still there and you hadn't hit your head before you sheathed it.
"I-I can't believe we're alive!" Proxi shouted, emerging from underneath your hat and darting back and forth between you and Midna, "Uh... Still alive. You two need a healer!"
"There'll only be two survivors if you keep yammering!" Midna snapped, swiping at Proxi but only managing to fall face forward into the mud. You limp over, helping the Twili to her feet and just barely managing to keep her upright since she was significantly taller then you. She was quite a sight, the flash of light from the lightning giving you brief glimpses of her bloodied, battered form, one side of her completely covered in mud that slowly dripped off her face. As she looked at you, eyes swollen from the fumes you could see her wince slightly, obviously you weren't looking that much better.
"Creature couldn't even have left us our dignity. I have no power left in me to fly so you better pick me up when I fall," Midna says, slowly beginning to limp towards the thankfully still glowing portal,
"Just a short walk, after that how bad could it be?" You say as Proxi dives under your hat again to get out of the torrential downpour, "Rain will wash off... all this gunk."
Sadly you were wrong, as the rain turned the fields into what felt like an icy pond. More then once you and Midna slipped and fell face first into the mud, the other helping only to they themselves fall backwards. Exhausted, in agony, cold and probably sick form the fumes neither of you cared for the increasing loss of dignity as one fell on top of the other or was reduced to practically crawling to get closer, the portal the only thing carrying you on.
Proxi occasionally shouted words of encouragement over the storm, "You're almost there! A few more steps! Little mud never hurt anyone!" But eventually it just became background noise like the storm, the only thing that mattered was the portal ahead of you. When both your feet found solid ground you both used the last of your strength to practically fall through the portal, landing hard on stone floor.
Ignoring the pain you rolled over, breathing heavily, "O-oh thank the goddesses we made it..."
"I... am taking a bath... and never leaving it..." An out of breath Midna informed you from the side.
You laughed, before clutching your ribs. Oh it hurt to laugh-
"LINK! MIDNA!"
Suddenly several forms collided with you and Midna, laughing, crying and shouting with relief as they hugged you both. One redhead and blonde in particular latched on tight, somehow laughing and crying at the same time. You felt something soft and warm against your cheek and with what surprise you could muster in your exhausted state you tilt your head slightly to see Zelda, her face now muddy burying her head into your shoulder before quickly lunging at Midna to hug her tightly as she was replaced by Paya who practically gave you a bear hug as she tried to express her worries verbally, only for it to come out as a stream of squeaking.
You look around, seeing the cart which had Romani and Irene, now also containing a pale looking Mipha who had dragged herself to the edge of the cart and was just collapsed at the side staring at you with exhausted relief, seeming as though the only thing stopping her from also leaping to hug you was the unexplained illness that seemed to have suddenly taken her. Irene too was there, holding the blanket she was covered with up to cover her unclothed form. As your eyes locked onto hers she weakly raised her free hand to give you a thumbs up before letting it fall back down, still too weak to move. There was also the cows, a whole herd awkwardly moving around you all and seemingly finding their new environment while better then the rain a fair bit more stressful then they wanted. Your other animals were there, Zelda's bird happily perched on the wagon, Sift patrolling around the outside to keep the cows at bay and your horses, who were far more used to the crazy activities you got up too patiently waiting for you all. There were also Cucco's, a lot of Cucco's, all looking puffed up as if the slightest scare would make them explode in a cloud of feathers.
"Wha-what...?" Was all you could manage to get out.
Zelda though immediately perked up, "We got all the animals through! We saw some of the fight, we were so worried when Mipha collapsed we were going to run back out but then you came through and you're both alive!"
"Collapsed...?!"
"My... strength left me when that... creature appeared. Forgive me... I barely have the strength to move or I'd... heal you both," Came the exhausted sounding response from Mipha, her speech slurring slightly as she spoke. It truly sounded like she'd pass out at any moment.
"But everyone got out!" Malon shouted triumphantly, "I mean, you both look like you tried to wrestle a Moblin but we did it!"
"Not yet, need to get to Navi to get your sister healed," You almost grunt out, again pulling yourself to your feet.
"Link, you and Midna can barely stand! We're all battered as well. Don't worry about us," Malon responded, looking over to her sister, "We... couldn't live with ourselves if you something happened because you put helping us over your own health. You've all done more then anyone had any reason too for us."
"Maybe Navi can also heal us? S-She's still weak from her ordeal b-but she is a G-great Fairy. I-if she can heal Romani then surely with us..." Paya stutters out before trailing off.
"If we go back to the manor we'll need to wait for Mipha to heal and I don't know if that'll take all night," Zelda cut in, wiping the mud from her face, "Maybe Impa can scrounge up some medical supplies, but we'll have to deal with our injuries till tomorrow and Mipha might not even have her full strength yet. They're not serious by the looks of things so we shouldn't use up what meager supplies we have stored. It'll be rough and exhausting, but not life-threatening"
What do you do?
[] Get to Navi, Romani still needs help and maybe she can do something about your injuries. You can take the cart so you don't have to walk.
[] Head back to the manor, inform Impa and maybe get some medical supplies. Navi can wait till tomorrow.
[] Just rest here, even with cows and cuccos running about you all could use a rest, though you'll have no medical treatment save the basics.
[] Write-in.
GM NOTE: So my computer died. Took a while to get a replacement. Apologies if this feels disjointed, trying to get back into the swing of things.
