Of Royal Blood - The Legend Of Zelda

[X] Plan Decapitation Strike
[X] Have Sheik shoot at the eye and neck from cover behind a pillar.
[X] Attack the neck joint, ducking back into cover once it's getting close to shooting at you or if it starts taking an unusual action.
-[X] Try to figure out the timing for dodging its blasts, you won't always have cover.
-[X] Try to discern its attack patterns in general. If the Sheikah put one in a shrine here there's probably more in other shrines.

"BLIND IT!" You yell to Sheik as you dash out of cover, hoping to draw its attention.

The Guardian obliges, scuttling after you like a giant enemy crab, its claw ended tentacles scrapping against the shrine's floor. There was something unsettling about this thing. It didn't breathe, didn't tire, there was no unevenness to its movements like all living creatures. Only a singular mechanical purpose. The fact that it seemed to telegraph its movements, however, could prove useful in the future. If there was more of these construct's wouldn't they be all built almost exactly the same? Knowing how to defeat one would tell you how to defeat all of them.

Of course, you needed to survive this one and the sudden ceasing of its movement told you that it was charging an attack. You skid to a halt and turn, keeping an eye on the construct's eye, watching it glow brighter and brighter. Just as it becomes blinding you dive to the side, narrowly dodging another light beam. Rolling to your feet you feel a grin on your face, you got its timing down. The mechanism being unintelligent didn't notice your change in demeanor, immediately scuttling after you, intent to spear you on one of its tendrils. Mindlessly it closed the gap, not understanding why you didn't start running from it as you did before and instead waited until the last second to flip backward just out of reach of a tendril.

You continued to bait it, just a few steps more until a whistle and the cracking of glass announced Sheik's arrow that smacked into the eye of the Guardian. The arrow wasn't well made, so cracking the glass was all you could manage but it had its effect. The mechanical beast clicked and whirred, head spinning and body scuttling back and forth as it tried to correct for its impaired vision. You don't give it the chance, charging at it and leaping onto its metal hull. You shift a bit, almost thrown off as the Guardian began to move erratically but you stood your ground and did your best to get a handhold.

By plunging your sword into its neck.

It was different than slicing through flesh, your sword finding significant resistance, snagging on something or other with every bit of weight you pushed onto it. The slightest movement from the Guardian threatened to pull it from your grip but still, you held on when suddenly a jolt went through it into your flesh, every nerve feeling like it was set on fire. Your muscles contracted, your teeth ground together and foam gathered at the edges of your mouth but you did not let yourself convulse. You didn't know if this was another weapon, all you knew that somewhere in this beast there had to be a vital organ of some type.

You're not sure where you found that last bit of strength, just a warmth in your dominant hand drew your mind from the pain and with a hoarse scream you sank the blade as far as it would go into the Guardian. The pain stopped so abruptly that it surprised rather than relieved you, the lights in the guardian vanishing and it dropping like a stone to the ground. You stumble back, pulling your blade free as you went back several steps before collapsing against the pillar.

Suddenly, a light began to pour from every crevice on the Guardian, and you had just enough sense to raise your shield as the Guardian detonated with a burst of blue flames. When you lowered your shield all that was left was a few bits of scrap metal and a scorch mark. You weren't sure what had happened, but somehow that tiny blast had managed to destroy most of the Guardian, almost like the Sheikah didn't want anyone examining it.

You lean back against the pillar, resting your head against it and trying to relax after that intense bit of pain. A pair of boots slamming against the ground at a flat run announced the arrival of Sheik, who literally slid into place beside you. "LINK! Oh goddess, oh goddess stay still. I'll-" She cries out, looking you over, uncertainty and fear on her face.

You raise an arm to wave her off. "I'm fine, just some weird... pain field or something-"

"You were electrocuted!"

You blink. "Electrocuted? Huh, wonder if they have the same weaknesses as electric keese..."

Sheik stares at you with her red, almond shaped eyes before sighing and falling with her back against the pillar. "Let go next time, alright?" She mutters as she brings her knees up to her chin.

"Next time I'll bring something to smash them apart instead, promise." You tell her, looking over at the girl.

Sheik shakes her head. "I just hope the next shrine has a puzzle, not a guardian. I can deal with that sort of challenge."

The two of you then sit there, not moving other than rising and fall of your chests as the two of you caught your respective breaths.

"Hey, Sheik?" You ask suddenly.

"Yeah?"

"We did it. The Shrine's ours."

She looks up over the empty room, a small smile on her lips. "Yeah, yeah we did. We make a pretty good team, huh?"

"That we do." You say, raising a fist.

Sheik looks at it for several seconds, before closing her eyes and leaning against the pillar then casually raising her own and bumping it against yours. "So my partner in archaeological pursuits, how say you to cracking open whatever treasure this guardian was protecting?" She asks with a sly smirk, cracking open one eye to glance at you.

You let out a bark of laughter. "I'll let the esteemed scholar Sheik handle it, I'm just the understudy."

Sheik giggles. "You just want to lie here for another minute, don't you?"

You raise your hands up in mock admission of guilt as Sheik bursts out laughing, nearly doubling over.

"Pfftahahaha, okay, okay. I'll let you rest my lazy understudy," She manages while standing up, stretching her arms with a noticeable crack, "I'm going to make this shrine sing."

You watch Sheik walk back to the pedestal, again activating the strange keys and word projections. She spends a good few minutes just tapping at the keys, her back to you when all of a sudden the weird pyramid-shaped structure above her begins to glow. She notices it, stepping back to observe it as blue script flows down to the very tip of the pyramid that seemed to be gathering some type of glowing blue liquid. The liquid built and built, and you could make out the same eye-like design on the Sheikah slate before the liquid drops, a single droplet that splashes down onto the Sheikah Slate.

The sound of ancient mechanisms grinding to life draws both of your attentions back to the center of the room and the platform the Guardian had emerged from slid out of view only for another platform to emerge, this time bearing only a singular chest. It was a strange object, made of metal and covered in the same glowing orange lines as this Shrine.

You push yourself to your feet, having gotten your breath back from your ordeal and walk over to this chest, Sheik joining you after removing her Sheikah slate from the pedestal.

"So how do you...?" You start to ask, only for Sheik to crouch down and raise her Sheikah Slate to the chests "lock" causing both it and the eye on the slate to flash. The mechanism of the lock whirs then the whole chest springs open with a pop.

The two of you lean in, staring at the contents of the chest.

Tucked into the corner, seemingly forgotten in a rush was a single clear diamond.

"That's it? All this for a single Diamond?!" Sheik laments, disappointment clear on her face.

You, however, couldn't believe your luck. A Diamond could buy a horse, supplies, a saddle maybe even an actual not-terrible shield and bow. You pick up the diamond and pocket it, mentally checking off how much it was worth. You weren't sure if you could find a buyer in the village but a diamond went for 5000 Rupees, which was the worth of two cows and one year's wage for the most dirt poor of farmers.

Rupees, the one currency accepted by everyone. These magical gemstones, as tiny as coins, were the backbone of Hyrule's economy. This was made easier by the fact that Rupees in significant quantities merged together, changing colour depending on how many rupees were merged in. 5 Green Rupees created 1 Blue Rupee. 100 Blue Rupees created one Gold Rupee. If you "broke" a rupee it would reform back into lower denominations of Rupee. You'd heard of tavern games where people would compete to break a Gold Rupee down into 500 Green Rupees in one go. This powerful magic could even be used to power other magic, literally throwing money at problems. Often this was very powerful magic, though you wondered if that was because only the most well-respected mages could afford to cast them.

All gems in Hyrule contain magic in one way or the other, and often gems were inlaid into armour, clothing or jewelry to give unique effects. You'd heard that heat resistant armour containing sapphires were required just to visit Death Mountain and the Goron's who lived there, and the only people who could afford it wouldn't visit a place called "Death Mountain" no matter how many gems were said to be laying out in the open, as the rock-eating Gorons found gemstones and many metals disgusting to eat.



You turn to Sheik, who was still sulking that her big treasure breakout turned out to be a bust. "Sure there wasn't anything else?" You ask, hoping curiosity would get her to give the place another once over.

Sheik, however, shakes her head. "No, other than the remains of the Guardian we picked this place clean. The rest of the storage containers were supposed to contain organic materials and those went bad thousands of years ago after the refrigeration went. Though... I did pull off some data."

"Data?" You ask, unsure what she meant.

Sheik holds up her Sheikah Slate, revealing a string of characters on her slate. "Most of it was corrupted but I seem to have found a note detailing some ritual or spell, I'll need to look at it more closely. The other thing I found seems to be a key phrase being repeated over and over; 'Nexus' but I have no idea what that means." She pauses, brow furrowing and frown on her face as she looks back at the "data" she had pulled off it. "I think it also updated my Sheikah Slates access codes, it pinged it about detecting 'TF_W' and 'TF_C' whatever those files are but I don't have full access to the Slate's OS or could understand the code if I did, so just guessing at this point."

Sheik puts her Sheikah Slate away, then rubs the back of her neck, not looking you in the face as she says "Sorry, I lead you someplace dangerous without any real payoff for you."

You wave a hand, "Don't worry about me, you came here because you wanted to research it right?"

"Yeah, but..."

You shrug, "Look, we've still got a ways off till we can leave. Let's pick a corner to sleep in and you can get your work done, alright?"

Sheik doesn't seem to know how to respond, nervously rubbing her arm. "A-alright... I suppose I have a lot of notes to write."

You nod, and quickly set about picking a corner for the two of you to hunker down for the rest of the night. Setting yourself down Sheik sits herself a couple metres from you, tapping away at her slate. The solid wall and floor being a bit hard you try to figure out what you can use as a pillow when you notice Sheik's tapping had stopped, her head bowed and fists tightening around the slate that if it wasn't made of such sturdy materials you're sure it'd break.

"Sheik..?

"D-did you mean it?!" Sheik asks suddenly, voice cracking as she looks up at you. Her almond shaped red eyes were filled with fear, apprehension and a tiny glimmer of hope. "Did you mean it w-when you said 'next time' o-or after this i-is there not going to be one?" She finishes, almost unwilling to say that final bit.

You blink in shock, this was unexpected. Was she that scared of traveling alone again after what happened or...?

What do you say to reassure her?
[] Write-in.