Of Royal Blood - The Legend Of Zelda

[X] Have Sheik take out the blue Bokoblin and archer after you sneak close then engage.

You quickly explain your plan to Sheik who quickly nods, leaping up onto one of the trees. Taking out your hatchet and knife you slowly creep from the woods towards one of the ruined walls, your footsteps not making a noise. You can hear the Bokoblins snoring, every snort a potential prelude to a flurry of violence. Even when you press yourself against the wall and peer around the corner you remain on edge. Though they were Bokoblins you weren't well armed, and you aren't going to underestimate anything when someone else's life was on the line. You glance back into the treeline, taking a few minutes to actually spot Sheik. She was in a tree, bow drawn and waiting for the right moment. If you did this right you might be able to kill most or all of the Bokoblin's without a fight. You spot her head tilt slightly to keep you in her gaze, and you raise your hatchet.

There was a whistle, a thump and the blue Bokoblin toppled soundlessly into the fire, an arrow sticking out of the back of its head. The archer pulls its finger out of its snout, its tiny brain trying to comprehend what had happened as the other Bokoblin who was awake stands up. You step out, pull your arm back and then throw your hatchet just as another whistle and thump announced the Archer tumbling off the watchtower, its face contorted in an expression of surprise as the light dimmed from its eyes.

The Bokoblin doesn't even get a chance to raise its arms as the Hatchet buries itself into the monster's skull, the force snapping its head back before it went limp and dropped to the ground. The smacking of a pair of lips draws your attention as another Bokoblin stirs, sitting up and rubbing its eyes. You swiftly creep up behind it and as its eyes widen at the corpses of its companions you slam your dagger into the side of its head, the crunch of bone giving way to a spurt of purple-black blood and the shock of its entire body tensing then going limp.

You yank the blade out with another spurt of blood and twitch of Bokoblin limbs and sheath it as you begin to see movement all around you, the smell of roasting Bokoblin was starting to permeate the camp and the Bokoblins were beginning to stir. You run for the shield and rusty blade, leaping over a Bokoblin that wasn't rising too quickly, rolling in the dirt but feeling your hand close around both of them. The Boko shield was little more than a piece of sturdy wood with a strap attached to it, the shield looking like it had sat out in the rain for weeks but both were still serviceable. A quick movement of your arm secures the strap around it as you run up and plunge the blade into the Bokoblin you jumped over's chest, bone crunching and flesh giving way as easily as it would have with a well-kept blade. Its eyes open wide, its body spasming as a spurt of blood erupts from its mouth. An angry roar draws your attention and you wrench the blade out and whirl to face your challenger, just managing to catch the full weight of a Bokoblin with your shield as it leaped at you. Cloven hands grope at you trying to scratch your eyes out while you stand your ground, only turning a bit to better present a better target.

Sheik evidently was still keeping watch as a thump and the Bokoblin suddenly becoming a limp dead weight informed you. Another angry yell tells you the best way to dispose of this corpse and you toss it. It strikes another Bokoblin, bowling it over and you piroutte to meet your blade against another Bokoblins club. It opened its mouth to snarl, large ears flapping and tongue lolling out as spittle flicked off its teeth, pushing itself closer and closer to your face. It evidently did not expect you to slam your forehead into its snout, blood pouring out of the porcine nose as it staggered backward, dropping its club and holding its hands to its face, forgetting about you for a split second.

A fatal mistake.

"HYAAAAAAAAAAA!!" You cry out as you twist and rend the Bokoblin's hands and head with a single stroke of your blade, sending both flying. You then toss your sword up, catching it by the blade and holding the tip with your shield hand and sprint towards the Bokoblin you had knocked over which had just now tossed the corpse of its companion off. Its eyes widen in surprise as you jump and swing the crossguard of the blade into its skull. Bone and brain give way, the skull caving in like an egg as the Bokoblin's eyes pop out of its skull. You then reach out and grab the handle before stabbing the blade backward, straight into the throat of a Bokoblin trying to sneak up on you and out its eye.

Two more gurgling cries tells you Sheik had dealt with the last remaining Bokoblins, but one other sound told you the battle wasn't over yet. The sound of something pulling itself from the ground.

You wrench your blade free and run up to one of the emerging skeletons, before slamming your heel into the Stalkoblin skull. The brittle bone gives easily, the skull crumbling as the evil lights in its eyes vanish. But turning you see you aren't out of danger, as three more Stalkoblins rise from the ground. Seems this tribe of Bokoblins had been wiped out repeatedly without anyone burning the bodies.

"Link!" Sheik yells as she jumps from her perch, Stalkoblins rising from the ground around her tree. She crosses the distance in moments, even crushing a Stalkoblin head with one landing. She lands near you, rolls and comes up to a crouched position with her bow already drawn. But she was running low on arrows.

"Link what do we do?" She asks as a Stalkoblin detaches its own arm to use as an impromptu club and charges at you. You sidestep the clumsy charge easily and swing your blade, cleaving into the bone of its head. Yet the skeleton still remains upright, at least until you kick it and send the bones scattering across the ground. Stalkoblin bodies could remain standing and reassemble themselves as long as there was a skull within around twelve metres, but if the last skull was destroyed every bone within that radius would crumble.

"We go into the shrine and wait for daylight, it'll kill them all and hopefully clear this area out." You tell her, putting your weight into slamming your shield into another Stalkoblin.

Sheik nods, and immediately leaps backward, landing near the entrance to the shrine. She pulls out and taps her Sheikah slate against a strange pedestal, causing the eye on the device to glow brightly and the dull orange of the shrine to become a bright blue. Stone shifts and the solid wall of the shrine opens up to reveal... a glowing circle on the inside of it?

"Link hurry!"

Not in the mood to debate you break into a run, charging forward at full sprint. A Stalkoblin tries to intercept you but you bash it with your shield, sending its bones scattering as you run then dive forward. You curl into a ball and roll upright onto the platform as Shiek steps on and she stumbles slightly as you hit her leg when you roll upright into a crouched position. Blue light surrounds you as the Stalkoblins charge forward and then seem to be repelled by some sort of barrier. Then to your surprise the circle you were standing on begins to lower.

You push yourself to your feet as the platform sinks into the ground into darkness, broken up by glowing blue lines that cast odd patterns as you went past. Sheik's eyes were wide, and she was holding up her sheikah slate, moving it around in a strange way as you see on the screen the words "Recording," her bow lying forgotten at her feet.

Soon, however, the darkness surrounding you is replaced with some clear tube made of light, with a few pieces of Sheikah masonry to break it up that revealed you had been lowered into a decently sized rectangular chamber. Blue light poured down from the roof above you, with solid looking walls with strange orange patterns on them surrounding you. At the far end seemed to be another pedestal with a trinangular object hanging over it set into an alcove. The platform came to a stop, and you both stepped off with Sheik only pausing to pick up her bow.

Sheik's eyes were wide, her mouth slightly ajar as she stared at the strange room you were in. You can't imagine you were doing any better. She turns to you, voice nearly breathless. "We did it LInk, we actually did it. THIS IS AMAZING!!" She cheers and then hugs you tightly. "Ahahahaha! We did it! We did it! We did it!" She cries, her grip tighening.

"Uh..."

"Ah!" She squawks, leaping off you like she was burned as badly as her cheeks probably felt right now.

You look away, rubbing the back of your head and your own slightly red cheeks. "So um... what is this place? I mean... it's practically empty."

"Oh uh..." Sheik says, trying to compose herself for a second. When she next speaks her tone is serious. "This place looks like it's some sort of storage facility. No doubt there are hidden vaults here. I'll need to access the terminal over there."

You nod, and the two of you make your way across the room, your footsteps echoing in the near total silence. You get the feeling no one had been in here for a very long time.

Once you arrive at the terminal Sheik places the Sheikah slate into an alcove on the pedestal. There was a whirring sound as the slate was twisted around by some mechanism and the slate was slotted into the Pedestal. This seemed to be expected as while you jumped back in shock when something that looked like an ethereal blue semi-transparent piano appeared in front of Sheik she kept her cool. She presses a few keys, each one lighting up at her touch. Words were projected onto the wall in front of you, in a language you didn't know.

"Hmm strange, It doesn't seem to want to give me access." She mutters, pressing a few more keys. "Hmm, maybe if I try to force it- Ah!" She cries as the sound of moving stone and mechanisms working behind you causes you both to whirl around. Four pillars had emerged from the floor, extending up towards the ceiling. Each one was several meters away from the corners of the room. The center of the room, however, had opened to reveal a pit.

"Sheik, what's going on?!" You ask, holding your blade at the ready.

"I... I'm not sure! It's just saying Testing! Why is it-"

Whatever Sheik was going to say next was cut off a platform was raised from the center of the room with something sitting on it. It kinda reminded you of an Octorok made of metal and stone, with three tentacle legs. It came up roughly to your chest, and was covered in glowing orange lines. A dome-like section on the top of it lifted up, revealing a gear-like mechanism in its "neck." There was the sound of grinding metal as the dome rotated around, revealing a single cyclopean eye sitting in the center of it. The eye flashed, glowing blue as light seemed to be pulled into it. Sheik was staring at it, shock and disbelief on her face as her eyes widened.

A bad feeling sits in your gut, and you grab Sheik and pull her down just as a wave of warm air suddenly hits you followed by a concussive blast that nearly knocks the wind from you. You turn around, seeing a scorch mark on the wall behind where Sheik was standing just moments ago. If you'd have to guess while it may not kill you it'll probably leave a nasty wound if it hits you, whatever that blue light was.

Sheik seems to get a hold of herself, and screams "Get to cover!"

You both take off, running towards one of the pillars and diving behind it. "What is that?!" You half-ask, half yell.

"A defense mechanism! We need to destroy it! Its eye, neck and legs are its weak points, anywhere there isn't armour protecting its vitals- EEP!" Sheik squawks as you both leap out of the way as this... guardian scuttles behind the pillar and begins charging its beam. Thankfully it seems to need to stand still to do so, and you both get out of its line of fire before it unleashes it right into the pillar.

How are you going to take this down?!
[] Write-in.