League of Heroes

Chapter 1
A Warrior's Tale

It was early morning in the outskirts of the kingdom of Hyrule; the sun had not yet peeked above the horizon in the east.  Two hulking, brutish Moblins, one armed with a large dagger, the other with a long pike, were guarding a door with a gigantic eye-shaped lock on the outside of the center tower of a dark castle.  Once used as a safe haven for warriors of the king’s army, now its walls were disgraced by the presence of evil monsters, some of which could frighten even the two battle-hardened Moblins on guard.
The Moblins were standing there, ready for an attack at any second, but still bored with their mindless duty.  They had been standing in the same spot for days, with nothing to feast on and no place or opportunity to sleep.  Why should they have those things anyway?  Their dark master had enchanted them not to need them, so it was viewed as an unnecessary luxury.
One of them was just thinking of his childhood training, chasing a Deku Scrub with a spear…how ironic.  He'd had more combat experience as a child than he did as an adult.  
Suddenly a fire had been lit in one of the turrets surrounding the castle.  That was the signal!  There was an intruder in the castle!  The Moblin with the dagger hurried to the signal on the balcony they were positioned on and lit it, warning the surrounding towers of the looming threat.  Finally, something was going to happen!
About an hour passed, and still nothing had come to them.  Maybe, they thought, the intruder had been stopped before he had found his way to them...now that they thought about it, it seemed very likely that this was the case.  The castle had many booby traps; he severely doubted that anyone would be able to avoid them all.  Soon after that thought however, they heard a whizzing noise.  The Moblin with the pike instinctively raised his wooden shield.  He was lucky, as two arrows were rapidly flying through the air at him and his partner from one of the surrounding turrets.  The arrows flew through the signal fire, igniting, and one struck the unaware Moblin in the shoulder.  He immediately caught ablaze and roared in agony as he frantically tried to put it out.  In his panic, he stumbled over the railing of the balcony and fell to the ground far below.  The second arrow struck the pike Moblin’s shield, which was immediately engulfed in flames.  He quickly tore the shield off and dropped it to meet the same fate as his partner.  He put his pike at the ready position, running various battle plans through his head.  Unlike his partner, he was determined to put up a fight.
Suddenly, out of the black of night, a small spike attacked to a chain came hurtling toward him.  He ducked, and the spike narrowly missed his head.  It did, however, hit the stone wall behind him.  After the collision, the spike opened up from the back and formed a claw that latched it to the wall.  The chain immediately became taut, and a battle cry emanated from the invisible end of the chain.  The Moblin, who’s eyes had been trained for night vision, saw that there was a boy there, holding onto a metal object rapidly reeling in the chain, pulling him closer, with a sword drawn, ready to strike.  He recognized the boy from descriptions by his master.  This was Link, or rather, the most recent incarnation of the spirit of the hero of Hyrule, wielder of the Master Sword, and bearer of the Triforce of Courage.  The next thought that flashed through his head was a simple one, I’m doomed.  However, this trained, hardened creature would not be intimidated.  He would stand and fight, even when the result was obvious.
He stuck his pike out, planning that Link wouldn’t see it in this pitch blackness until it was too late, and would collide headfirst with it.  He suddenly gained much confidence.  This plan might work.  It would work.  However, suddenly Link let go of his hookshot and landed on the ground in front of the Moblin, out of reach of his pike.  He used his momentum to do a combat roll behind him and jumped up in the air, spinning with his sword in hand, tearing into the back of the Moblin two, three, four times, knocking him forward.  Then, from the air above him, he stuck the sword between his legs point down, and landed on his back, impaling him with the blade.
Link stood up, pulling his Master Sword from the Moblin's body.  He turned around and picked his hookshot up off of the ground from where it fell after the claw retracted back into the spike, and latched it back onto his belt.  He turned towards the door and, walking over to the giant lock on the door, drew an arrow from his quiver.  He shoved his sword and the arrow into the lock and wiggled them around, intently listening to the noises in the mechanism.
While he was picking the lock, Link thought about how odd it was that he even came to this sanctuary of evil in the first place.  He had received no word from anyone that there was anything wrong with the tower; he just felt an urge that he needed to go there.  Was he finally losing it?  Was he just thirsting for battle bad enough that he would travel to anywhere where there may be evil…or was it…something else?
Eventually the lock dropped to the ground and the chains keeping the door shut went limp.  He removed his sword from the lock, opened the door, and ran through.
Inside the room was a long hallway with no door at the end.  Near the end of the hallway though, was a Moblin wielding a giant spiked club.  He slammed it on the ground, creating a large shockwave that headed towards Link.  Before the wake could reach him however, he jumped in the air, doing a back-flip as the wave passed harmlessly below him.  Quickly, he reached inside one of the pouches on his belt and pulled out a small, metal, rodent-like object that he placed on the floor and angled slightly towards the wall of the narrow hallway.
As soon as Link let go of it, it zoomed forward, and started climbing the wall.  Link crouched and raised his shield up, concealing his body with it.  The Moblin didn't know what to think.  Should he run forward and attack the boy, or should he worry about the small object currently crawling towards him on the ceiling?  Before he could make up his mind, the object crawled onto the wall behind him and into one of the cracks in it.  The whirring noise it was making suddenly ceased, and soon after was replaced with a large explosion from inside the wall.  The wall blew outwards, large rocks crushing the Moblin, but merely glancing off the reflective surface of Link's shield, leaving ripples on the glass-like surface of it.
Link stood up and gazed down the passageway his bombchu had opened.  At the end of the path was a large circular room with a pedestal in the middle of it.  Thinking that this must have something to do with why he came to this evil lair, he ran up to the pedestal.  When he got near, his excitement suddenly fell to despair.  There was nothing there.  He circled the pedestal, wracking his brain for anything that might help him figure out what he had to do.  He refused to believe that what he had come all this way for, no matter how unknown to him, had already been taken.  He pulled out his dungeon map and checked it for any key items he may have missed, but there were none.  Exhausted with his journey and filled with disappointment at its anticlimax, he dropped to his knees next to the pedestal and smashed his fists on the ground, when a large gash appeared on his arm nearest the pedestal.
Link did a quick roll away from the stone, drawing his sword, ready for some unknown monster to attack from the shadows, but none did.  Sheathing his sword, he opened a pouch in his belt and pulled a small vial filled with a red liquid out.  Uncorking the vial, he poured a few drops on the wound on his arm, instantly healing it, and then curiously wandered over toward the pedestal.  As he reached it, he knelt down, facing it from the side.  Reaching out with his hands, he touched the front and back, then gently slid his hands up the pedestal, over onto the top of it, but when they were only a few inches apart, he couldn't move them any closer.  Something was in between his hands, invisible!
He clasped his hands flat against the invisible object and slid them up the smooth surface.  When his hands were high enough, it suddenly got wider and rougher, then almost instantly afterwards it became very small.  An idea came to him, and he wrapped his hands around the small part and pulled it upwards.  A magnificent sword suddenly appeared in his hand.  It had a dark red hilt, encrusted with jewels the likes of which were not known of in Hyrule.  Its blade was not anything that could be described with words.  It seemed to have a dark glow, yet it was hardly visible.  Upon close examination, its metal seemed to have a mind of its own, gently flowing across the sword.  Gazing at the blade, Link realized that he was beginning to feel…odd.  Things around him seemed… different somehow.  Unnerved by this sensation, he decided that now would not be a good time to test the blade, but rather closer to home, where, should something happen, he had a good chance of being discovered.
Link was just turning to leave when a harsh shaking startled him.  Sheathing the new sword in his now empty quiver, Link grabbed for his shield and the Master sword.  Wanting to be ready for whatever happened, he quickly alerted his senses, searching for anything unexpected.  Suddenly, over the pedestal he had just pulled the strange sword from, a circle of bright, white light appeared.  Inside the circle, a complex drawing appeared, several lines dividing the circle, with strangely shaped, smaller circles in each of the sections.  Once the symbol seemed to be complete, it grew brighter and brighter until Link had to raise his shield in front of his face and squint in order to stand it, when, just as suddenly as it had grown, the light disappeared, and not just that light, but all the light in the entire room had vanished.
Convinced that the tremendous light had blinded him, Link started to panic, when he heard a voice in the darkness.  "Don't tell me we're frightened now.  The one I came to test, scared of the dark?"  The voice was deep and sinister, seeming to come from all around him.  Link started turning in place, looking for any sign of the source of the voice, but every time he turned, it seemed to move to an entirely different part of the room just as fast.  "Confused?  Hmm…rather pathetic…I guess what I'd heard about you wasn't true after all.  Oh well.  I'll just have to kill you anyway…"
With that, Link heard a faint noise, like running, from behind him, and quickly rolled out of the way, swinging his Master Sword at where he just stood.  As the blade passed through where he was standing, he saw a small puff of what looked like smoke filter around where he guessed the blade had passed through.  Well, he thought, at least I know I'm not blind…
"Ha!" Came the voice once more, "You'll have to do better than that!  Your toys can't hurt me.  I would be amazed if you could even lay a scratch on me."
"Who are you?" cried Link into the vast, seemingly never-ending abyss around him.  "What do you want with me?"
"Who am I?" Boomed the voice.  "The better question would be who are you?  You certainly couldn't be the boy I was sent to fight."
Angered, Link screamed, "Fine then, who sent you?  Gannon?  Vaati?"
The voice started roaring with laughter.  "HAHA!  Foolish boy.  Those names mean nothing to me.  All I know is that I am here to kill you, and nothing you can do with that hunk of steel will be able to stop me."
Suddenly, Link felt like he was hit by a speeding Darknut.  He flew forwards, sliding across the ground.  Dazed from the blow, he got to his knees, and immediately noticed that his sword had been knocked out of his hands.  Because of how dark it was, he had no idea where it could have flown to.  He groped around in the darkness for several moments, looking for his sword like a blind beggar looking for spare rupees in the grass, but to no avail.  Finally, annoyed by the laughter the phantasm was directing at him, he gave up and drew the sword he had just acquired moments ago.
As Link unsheathed the sword, a sudden pounding, pumping sensation seemed to surge through his body.  He could feel every muscle in his body as it moved.  He could see…he could see!  Nothing too extraordinary, just a small sort of ripple in the darkness that surrounded him.  The ripple was moving…was it…could it possibly be his elusive foe?  The ripple started moving towards him.  Link grasped the hilt of his sword tightly and swung at it with all his might.  To his great surprise, he felt the resistance of a connection with a target!  A tear appeared where he had sliced through the ripple, bright white light pouring out of it.
With that, the strange sensation suddenly disappeared.  Link was once again engulfed with the pitch black, his movements seemed to be normal, but when he turned around, he saw the streak of white light he had made with his sword bob up and down.  He heard a heavy breathing coming from it.  The voice of his enemy spoke again, but now staggering heavy breaths interrupted it.  "So…I…was wrong…You…may well be…the boy..."  Suddenly the voice seemed to gain much confidence, "No matter…I will kill you anyway!"  With that, he let out a loud yell, and the light shining from his injury disappeared.
Astounded at how futile even his new weapon seemed to be, Link frantically tried to call upon the power in it that had caused him to be able to see exactly where his enemy was, but he couldn't figure it out.  Was it poses?  Could it be that he just happened to be in the right pose at the time?  It seemed like a stupid idea, but he tried it anyway.  He sheathed his sword, then grabbed onto it again and unsheathed it, but nothing happened.
Frustrated with the sword's lack of cooperation, Link started slashing at the air, desperate to somehow either get the feeling back, or maybe happen across his enemy.  As he was doing so, the voice around him returned, taunting his desperation.  "Gorvan Blade or none, there's nothing you can do to save yourself…oh yes, that's right isn't it?  You had no idea what that blade was, did you?  How pathetic."  Link suddenly felt something grab the back of the collar of his tunic, and with a strong jerk, he was swung around in a circle and hurled through the air like a discus.  Link hit the ground hard, tumbling several times before coming to rest on his back, staring at the ceiling.
His mind was wandering to strange things while he was in a sort of dazed stupor.  His eyes were coming in and out of focus, staring at the intricate designs on the ceiling.  Strange, as just a moment ago he couldn't see anything at all, including the ceiling…
Suddenly a part of the ceiling was blocked from view.  Whatever was blocking it seemed to be getting bigger...or closer.  Still on his back, Link stuck his sword out above him.  Half of the sword quickly disappeared as Link felt it grow very heavy, as if something hit it.  There was an ear-shattering roar just inches from his face, and Link realized that his adversary was on the blade!  A sudden unexpected shift in weight wrenched Link's sword out of his hands, and a beam of the same white light from earlier shone next to him.
Link used this brief illumination to check his surroundings.  He still couldn't see his Master Sword anywhere, but he saw the Gorvan Blade lying next to the source of the light.  Link quickly grabbed it and swung it towards the light, feeling the connection with his enemy again.  As he was swinging again though, a large groan came from the creature and the lights disappeared, just like before.  Link looked around and realized that he could now clearly see the ceiling, as well as the walls of the room.  It seemed that in order to heal his wounds, his adversary had to absorb some of the darkness engulfing them.
It was a very strange sensation for Link, being able to see the outside of the room, but not what was right in front of him, but he could still use it to his advantage.  If a part of the perimeter was blocked from view he would know that was where he should aim for next.  The only problem was that he would have to completely guess at how close his target was, as he had almost no depth perception.
Link was quickly examining the surrounding area, when he thought he may have seen a shadow move.  He ran at the shadow when something caught his leg and he fell.  His sight of the ceiling was blocked, something was above him!  He quickly rolled to the right, hearing the loud clank of steel hitting stone where he was just a second before.  Great, Link thought, now he has a weapon.
Link rolled backwards over his head to get up, and began to devise a new way of getting close enough to the creature to attack it.  He started slowly stepping backwards until he felt blinded.  Blinking furiously, Link suddenly realized that he had accidentally stepped out of the dome of darkness into the band of light surrounding them.  He realized that the darkness was quite a bit smaller than he had thought it to be while fighting in it.  It was still about 50 yards in diameter, but the band of light was about 20 yards from the edge of the dome to the wall.
He looked around, trying to find something that he could use to his advantage in the surrounding area, when something caught his eye.  His sword's strange glow seemed to be getting more intense, creating a strange aura around it.  Suddenly feeling compelled, Link charged back into the bubble of black.  As soon as he had entered it he began to feel strange again, his movements seemed slowed, but more precise.  Looking around, he noticed the shadow blocking his sight of the wall, but now Link could clearly see something hovering in front of it.  His weapon!  The sword was lifted in the air and began to fall quickly.  Link raised his shield, which took the blow of the sword, then with his left hand swung his sword horizontally in front of him, leaving another gash of white light as a trail, this one longer than any of the other ones he had inflicted, and it seemed to be deeper than most as well.  This proved to be true, as Link saw the gash on his enemy fall to the ground as he roared in agony.  Link fiercely swung the Gorvan Blade at where he assumed the creature fell, creating stripe after stripe of white light, when a sudden roar came from his foe.  Link felt a wind-like force pushing him backwards several feet, but he kept his footing, watching where the pulsing white scars lay in front of him.
"You…will pay for this…" came the voice once more, gasping for air.  "You have no idea what this means for you, do you?"  Link relaxed a little; this sort of thing was familiar to him as an enemy's final words.  The remaining darkness shrank until the only part of the room Link couldn't see was his enemy right in front of him.  Link stepped closer to the small dome of darkness, hoping to see the true form of his adversary before he disappeared.  The dome was now only about seven feet in diameter, which Link expected to be close to the height of the creature.
His enemy spoke again, "I made the mistake…of underestimating you…Believe me when I say, it will not happen again!"  The darkness suddenly took on a tall oval form, before being absorbed into what looked like the silhouette of a man, but much more intimidating.  He was at least eight feet tall, his shoulders, arms, and legs were spiked, and in his hands, he held a sword that had to be at least six feet tall.  He held his sword at the ready and shouted, "Link, so called Hero of Time…prepare well, for tonight, you die!"
With that, he rushed at Link, who quickly dodged, barely missing the enormous sword's powerful swing.  Link swung at him as he dodged, but his strike was blocked with the flat end of the gigantic blade in one swift movement.  The phantasm then quickly swiped outwards using the flat side of the sword, hurling Link backwards through the air.  Taken completely by surprise by his enemy’s speed, Link had no way to prepare for the strike and landed hard on his back twenty feet away.
He struggled to get up, head throbbing, staggering as he got to his feet.  There was a harsh laughter filling the room as he lost his balance and fell forwards, reaching his right hand out to catch himself, when it landed on something cold that slipped his hand out from under him.  Landing on his right shoulder, Link searched for what it was that he had set his hand on.  Stars popped in his eyes as he scanned the floor around him from his position on his side, eventually noticing something he had skimmed past several times.  Something blue.  Filled with a sudden rush of hope, he held his right arm out and shoved his hand all the way through the handle of his shield so that it held itself on his arm, then reached out and grabbed the blue object with his right hand.  Link closed his eyes and smiled as he felt the familiar grip of his well-worn, but always dependable Master Sword.  Something in him seemed revived as he simply grasped its hilt.  Rolling onto his back, the pain in his head no longer mattered, his aching body becoming less of a presence in his mind.  He had his sword, and as long as he had it nothing else mattered.
Suddenly there was the sound of rushing air behind him as a giant black sword appeared directly above Link.  He held up both the Gorvan Blade in his left hand and the Master Sword in his right to defend himself as the blade was about to cleave him.  Stopping just several inches from his face, Link was surprised to find that he felt just as much resistance from the sword on his Master Sword as the Gorvan Blade.  Earlier it only passed through his foe like it were smoke, but it held the sword at bay just fine.  Wrestling the sword out from above him, Link managed to get up fast enough to get two quick swipes at him, one with each blade.  The Gorvan Blade connected, but the Master Sword simply passed through, just as it did before.  That must mean that the blade was an actual physical sword as opposed to the creature of darkness.  Quickly, Link hatched a plan.
Link began swiftly backing away from the giant, ducking under another swipe at him.  Sheathing the Gorvan blade and switching the Master Sword to his left hand, still leaving his right hand free, he prepared himself, then charged.  The specter laughed, lifting up the gigantic sword over his shoulder, then began to swing it downwards.  Fast as lightning, Link raised his arm with the shield, taking the impact of the blow from the middle of the sword.  Still underneath the blade, he took another quick step forward, then twisted his arm around, grabbing the hilt.  Surprised, the creature tried to swing it towards Link to get him off, but Link came around with the Master Sword, cutting through its arm, briefly dissipating it.  He used that opportunity to pull himself through the gap, dropping his Master Sword and drawing the Gorvan blade.  Holding it upside down, he planted it into the chest of the beast, grabbed onto the giant blade’s hilt with both hands, and placed both feet on the Gorvan Blade’s hilt, pushing off of it diagonally.  The push sent the blade even deeper into his foe while sending Link over its right arm, twisting the giant sword out of its grip.  With all his might, Link spun in midair with the giant blade in hand, cutting right through the creature’s shoulder, separating its arm from its body, which immediately burst into a large cloud of black smoke.
A loud, deep wail came from the creature as it collapsed, using its one hand to support it.  “That…is enough.”  came the voice.  Link tossed the giant sword behind him and picked up his Master Sword, sheathing it in his quiver.  “I have been sent to test many noble warriors…and none of them have ever been able to disarm me…especially in the literal sense you did.”  The creature stood up, pulling the Gorvan Blade out of his chest, then knelt down, holding the hilt of the blade out to Link.  “I am Luuth, a knight of the High Counsel of Ingar.  My masters would be quite honored if you would help defend our people.”