Chapter six: the Advancing Shadow


It was around midnight when they reached Hylia City, which opened the gates for them. They galloped up through the Marketplace and to the castle, eager to get back to warm lodgings, and Link was really starting to feel the pain where the arrow had hit him. He clutched it yet again, his teeth gritted against the pain that was now swelling within him.
They dismounted Epona at the moat, and she galloped into the meadow, eager to rest from all of the running she had done that day.
Zelda hurried inside, supporting Link. He was having trouble focusing on objects.
“We need healers here NOW!” yelled Zelda, and almost at once, five or six, (Link was not counting,) healers rushed over to Link, seeing his bloody wound that had soaked the surrounding cloth in hot blood. They helped him to the healing room, and laid him down gently, Zelda watching him apprehensively.
“He will be okay,” said one of the healers, “we just need to patch it up a bit.”
Zelda sighed with relief, and laid a hand on Link’s forehead. It was hot and sweaty. But he was okay. He looked up at her, and smiled.
She smiled back, relieved that they had made it.

* * *

A few hours later, Link was walking around the castle, with a bandage on his shoulder. It still stung, but the healers had magic, and they had mostly healed it. He could still fight if he needed to.
Zelda was asleep in her quarters. She had fallen asleep rather quickly. Link was not surprised. The days events had left him exhausted too. Yet he was not going to sleep. He could not sleep.
He moved to the top tower of the castle, and onto the lookout. The cool evening wind blew across his face. It felt nice. From this point, he could see all of Hyrule Field.
It was very peaceful up on the tower. Link rested his head on the side, exhausted from the entire day. It was hard to believe they had left the castle that morning. It seemed like that day had been an eternity.
He stood up quickly, going rigid, fear firing through him like lightning bolts flashing angrily in a dark sky.
An army of Ganon’s minions was marching out of the forest, undoubtably bound for Hylia City. He ground his teeth together apprehensively. He stared at the army for a second, then bolted from the tower, down the steep spiraling staircase. He actually jumped onto the rail and slid down most of the way. He dashed through the castle, knocking on the doors of the soldiers and telling them to assemble outside of Hylia City. They immediately did as he said. He was as high ranking as Zelda or the King in the Hyrule political system.
He reached the King’s quarters and burst in. The king, laying on a couch reading a book with glasses on, jumped up from the couch, staring at Link, wide eyed.
“What is it, Link?”
“Ganon’s army is marching toward Hylia City as we speak. We must hurry and assemble! I gathered the soldiers down this hall, but you must gather the remaining ones while I rouse Zelda and go wake the Goron’s and Zora’s. And we’ll have to go get Malon,” Link added.
“Right,” the King said, throwing off his glasses and tossing the book aside. He rushed out into the hall, and went to get the remaining soldiers.
Within 10 minutes, the castle was alive, and people were rushing everywhere, getting ready for the battle. Link rushed to Zelda’s Quarters, and banged the door open. He rushed into her room, and she woke up with a start.
“Link!” she said, “what is it?”
Link quickly explained the situation. Zelda’s face hardened, and she got out of bed quickly. She had slept in her dress. She seized the dagger from her bedside table, and said “let’s go.”
They rushed from the castle, to Epona, who was roused like all the other’s from sleep, and they rode with her into Hylia City, where they woke the Zora’s and Goron’s. They assembled in front of the Hylia Gate. Link and Zelda rode out onto Hyrule Field, toward Lon Lon Ranch.
Though Link did not like the idea of Malon fighting in a war, she wanted to help, and now was her chance. Within 20 minutes, Malon was riding one of her horses out of the Ranch, beside Link and Zelda. They assembled with the army, just as they started seeing lights on the horizon, and glinting weapons from the slowly advancing army.
The sheer size of the army dismayed Link. The armies were almost as big as one another. Their force was slightly bigger. But Link was confident, with Zelda and Malon. They stood in front of their vast army, as they shifted restlessly. Link saw fear in their eyes. He turned around, his face turning stony.
“You are fighters of Hyrule! No matter what the force, you will stand your ground, and fight! No matter what the challenge, you shall face it without fear! Everything that you hold dear is at stake here, and if you do not fight, all of it will be destroyed. Every last one of you we need, and every last one of you will fight for your country. The battle of our time is upon us. Some of you have spent your entire lives preparing for this moment, and you will NOT back down! I bid you all, stand and fight, for your country! For your King! For your families! And for yourselves!”
The men were heartened now, and stood firm, all fear gone. Pleased, but not smiling, Link turned back toward the approaching army.
“It is a good idea to draw them away from the City,” Malon said, “just in case they break through our defenses.”
“That’s a good idea,” Link said, “I thank you. DRAW SWORDS!”
The men drew their weapons, weilding pikes, swords, maces, shields, rapiers, and other weapons. Link drew the Master Sword, Zelda her dagger, and Malon her sword. Link looked back at the firm army, then pointed his sword at the army, and yelled at the top of his voice “CHARGE!”
Epona leapt forth, Malon’s horse as well. The armies horses did as well, and they began begun to move toward the other army. Link saw the other army rushing as well.
Fear started within him as he saw the enormous force they were attempting to take out. It was true, Zelda had been right. The War of Time was upon them, and the battle was about to begin.
It only took about a minute for the forces to reach each other, and when they collided, it got so loud that Link was almost knocked backward. The monsters thrashed about, slashing viciously, snarling and stabbing out. Link’s army fought just as viciously. Link swung his sparkling blade above his head with unnatural precision, and began the most complex array of attacks he had ever done. He felt speedier than ever. Once he slashed a minion through the head, blood mist burst from the body, and the hot sticky liquid blinded the next monster, which Link fought with too. He moved in and out, dodging, stabbing, slashing, each time killing the next enemy and moving on to the next one, always upon Epona’s back. He was now, like the battle at Zora’s Domain, soaked in blood. But he did not stop his relentless attack. He slashed one enemy deeply through the stomach, and to his disgust, all his insides poured out onto the ground, staining it red. Link shoved the enemy away and was about to cleave a Dinalfos skull into two pieces, when he heard a roar. A very loud roar.
Link turned around slowly, and saw a humongous 20 foot tall ogre with heavy plate armor smash through several hylian warriors at once, holding its oversized sword. Link jumped off of Epona, mentally told her to run to Zora River and wait for him to call her back, then ran to meet the oversized monster head on. Sheik saw Link run toward it. She screamed “NO!” and ran after him.
Link swung the Master Sword as hard as he could, and the ogre caught it on it’s blade. They began to fight, weaving in and out of the tangled bodies around them. Sheik was trying as hard as she could to fight her way over to Link.
Link pushed the ogre’s blade aside with his own, then jumped up onto it’s chest. He quickly climbed onto it’s head, where it started slapping at him to get him off. Link jumped, avoiding the hand, and, without a moment to lose, drove his scarlet blade into the monster’s skull, impaling it’s brain. The monster howled, blood splashing from the wound, running down it’s face and into it’s eyes. It screamed so loudly that Link yelled too, covering his ears. It fell to the ground, and lay there, dead as can be. Link jumped off of the ogre, and saw Sheik dashing toward him. She cut a Moblin in two pieces and reached him.
“Oh–my–god!” she said, seeing the slain ogre laying behind Link. “You killed it?!”
“Yes,” Link said quickly, “but there’s no time! Hurry, back into battle!”
He called Epona back to him, and soon saw her smash her way through a stalfos, turning it to bone. He jumped back onto her, hugged her, then galloped off to fight again.
After a long time, Link started noticing that their force was winning the battle. He fought harder and harder, blood spurting along the Master Sword’s length as he did, a pile of dead bodies from his work beginning to rise. After nearly 2 hours of fighting, it was over. Link stabbed the last one through the neck, and watched it fall to the ground, gasping, then die.
Their army was still considerably big. He turned to the east forest, then, raising his sword, every eye on him, he pointed to the forest, and shouted “NOW WE TAKE BACK WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY OURS! FORTH!”
They galloped toward the woods. Savage pride and anger flowed through Link at the aftermath of the battle. The slaughter had not ended. Now, to complete the war, they were going to take back the forest, and Link was once again going to slay Ganon with a bloody sword.
The final battle for Hyrule had begun.