Febuwhump Day 10 - Killing in Self Defense
Well... I did warn y'all that I wouldn't be able to shut up about the Hyrule Warriors Imprisoning War blorbos... and uh, I liked this prompt so much that I wrote it four times >.<
(Head's up, this one gets dark. Lots of blood and some body horror kind of dark. Surprise, surprise given the prompt lol)
There was a difference between sparring and true war. There was a difference between the honor of defending one's own and the horror of meeting someone equally determined.
Hemisi... didn't like war.
She supposed it was a stupid sentiment to have. Given all the bloodshed she'd seen so far, it seemed reasonable to assume no one would like war.
But she couldn't tell if her father held the same idea.
She didn't know how he did it, how either of her parents did it. The original plan had been a quick snatch and run, to steal the Trio Force or whatever it was called and run back to the desert. She figured it was naïve to assume Hyrule wouldn't go after them, but if it had gone correctly no one would've been the wiser, right? Once the dust had settled, she might have even been able to reach out to Link again.
Instead, the Sheikah warriors had noticed the bodies. Instead, the sacred relic had shattered as soon as her father had touched it. Instead, their mother had screamed that they should retreat when things fell apart. Instead, she'd had to run around her boyfriend's unconscious body and was unable to help him. Instead, Hyrule had a face and a name to call culpable and brought its full wrath down on the Gerudo.
Instead, they were fighting a war.
Hemisi had fought before, but never to such an extreme, and never to the death. Yet here she was, covered in the blood of her enemies, staring at the bodies she'd just cut down.
She felt sick. She was sick. This was sick.
Is it really worth all this?
Did it even matter anymore? What was done was done. If she didn't fight, her people would suffer the consequences.
The scimitars fell out of her trembling hands as she stared at blood dripping off her fingers, down her torso, as she felt it on her face.
Hemisi started to hyperventilate, backing away from the carnage, her world spinning.
She wanted nothing more than to turn back time, to go to the days where she and Link were stargazing on the castle walls, where she was training with her father, laughing with her mother, annoying her brother.
But there was no going back. The empty, accusing Hylian eyes that watched her screamed it, cemented in her mind by the life-giving fluid that slid off her skin.
XXX
There was a difference between monsters and people. There was a difference between fighting mindless creatures of darkness and living, breathing women with loved ones and histories and feelings.
Link hated the difference, hated that he wasn't just dealing with Ganondorf's hordes of bokoblins and moblins anymore, hated that the Gerudo stood before him ready to die for a monster.
He parried another blow with his shield just at the right moment, leaving the Gerudo warrior open to a counterattack, but he couldn't bear to take it. So far in the war all he'd ever fought were beasts - there was no way he was going to take away a life like this. He couldn't.
The Gerudo roared, pushing forward with more intensity. Although Link was trying to just disarm her, it was very clear she was going for the kill. He knew he should be too.
But all he could see was the Gerudo settlement. All he could hear was the laughter, the music. All he could smell was the food and incense.
All he could see was her.
He knew. He knew as soon as this happened, he'd be forever changed. He'd been dreading it, selfishly enjoying the time the king had spent--wasted--leaving him in the castle to defend the princess. Because he knew that he could fight monsters a hundred times over, but the instant he had to face a Gerudo herself...
The warrior's blade slid just by his abdomen, cutting at his side, and he hissed.
You're going to die if you don't end this.
Link froze. I can't!
He shouldn't have frozen like that. He shouldn't have.
The Gerudo's sword swiped through the air at the level of his neck. His world slowed. She was wide open, the move a sweeping, large, long, slow one, and she was wide open.
Link dropped to his knees, his blade rushing forward. It hit true, requiring more force than before to cut through what was no longer air, to sink into what wasn't just monster flesh. He pushed harder, the blade jaggedly making its way through as he heard the sickening sound fill his ears.
The scimitar clattered to the ground. The weight on his sword grew heavier as the body sagged, lifeless.
Link twisted so the Gerudo fell to the side, his blade coming out of her quickly.
All around him, chaos erupted. The monsters no longer had a commander to guide them, and the remaining Hyrulian forces cut through their numbers quickly.
Link hardly noticed.
The Gerudo stayed motionless on the earth. He watched blood leak out of her abdomen where he'd stabbed her.
He'd killed her. He'd killed her.
And he... felt... nothing.
XXX
There was a difference between enemies and loved ones. It was strange to note it as, well, he'd never really had loved ones he cared about before.
"This war is getting out of control. There has to be some kind of terms we can come to."
Ganondorf turned sharply to look at his wife. "Surrender? You're suggesting we surrender?!"
"We've lost nearly half our warriors!" Nabooru argued. "If we continue this, there won't be Gerudo left to prosper from the Triforce. Not to mention we don't even have the entire relic, and our spies have discovered nothing about the whereabouts of the other two pieces!"
"The Triforce of Power is more than enough to win this war," Ganondorf snapped. "My power is unmatched. And then we will get the Triforce, and--"
"And what?" Nabooru interrupted sharply. "What will we do when we win, Gan? A war was never the plan, your obsession over that relic has nearly destroyed our people!"
"Our people?!" Ganondorf repeated, glaring at her. "Our people, who live out in the desert like rats? Our people, who suffer in the elements while Hyrule prospers?"
"Our people, who have adapted and survived, who persevere despite the odds, who value life and love and integrity and honor!" Nabooru fired back. "Our people, who are losing their way to this bloodshed! You said the Triforce would help us grow, but all I've seen is our people fall one by one!"
"You want the Gerudo to stay as they were." Ganondorf accused. "To forever nip at the heels of greatness--"
"Greatness," Nabooru scoffed. "As if you even know that word. You don't aspire for greatness, you aspire for control. This has never been about the Gerudo, has it? This has always been about you!"
Though he could feel rage steadily boiling his blood, Ganondorf remained silent for a moment. Of course this was about him - he coveted the prosperity of Hyrule, but that didn't mean that--he could share it with his family! What sort of accusations was Nabooru levying against him?
"When I first met you, you tried to steal my birthright, my leadership of my people," Nabooru continued, slowly walking towards him. "I showed you why I had earned that seat as chief. And as time passed, I thought you had learned, that you had realized that your selfishness and lust for power were not strengths but weaknesses."
"Watch your words, Nabooru," Ganondorf growled dangerously.
"Do not speak to me as if I am child!" Nabooru balked, rage pulling at her face. "You are the one being childish, the one who will never learn, who thinks the world should revolve around you and you alone. Don't you understand what you're doing?!"
"I am doing what I was born to do!" Ganondorf roared. "I was born to lead the Gerudo, born to rule the desert, and born for greatness! Hyrule's power will be mine! Have you not looked upon their land and seen more than the harshness of the desert? Have you never once coveted the winds that bless their lands?"
"Not at the price you're willing to pay," Nabooru answered, her voice suddenly growing quiet. "Never at the price you're willing to pay."
"I will sacrifice everything to achieve that goal," Ganondorf hissed. "Your weakness is your unwillingness to do the same."
"You're wrong," Nabooru said even more quietly, though there was no tremble to her tone. It was stone cold, and had more strength to it than Ganondorf had ever heard, like the low rumble of a dragon just before it attacked. "I am willing to sacrifice everything to do what is right."
Electricity shot through Ganondorf's veins as his wife drew her sword on him. The shock that cascaded through him quickly broiled into rage and overwhelming hatred, and he let it consume him. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm ending your war," Nabooru snarled, immediately striking.
Ganondorf drew his claymore and swatted her sword easily, his strength surpassing her own. However, Nabooru was nimble, and though her strikes couldn't hold the same force as his own, she was still more than capable of cutting him to pieces. Ganondorf took several steps back as he was hit with her fast assault, multiple blows in succession, some landing a hit on his legs, one on his side. Roaring, he swung harder, watching her duck under his blade and angle her sword upward to carve into his stomach. He kicked her directly in the face, and she went flying into a nearby table, dazed momentarily.
"You think you can defeat me?" he hissed. "You think you even stand a chance?"
Nabooru groaned, slowly trying to sit up.
"You dare defy me?!" he continued, his hatred ever growing. "Me, the rightful ruler of all things!"
His wife let out a mirthless laugh. "You are a ruler of nothing Ganondorf. You're letting that demon control you. I didn't marry a demon king, I married a man who sought to better himself, who wished to see prosperity spread across the land! You, demon, will die!"
With that his wife rose against him once more, attacking even faster despite how she shook her head and blinked blood out of her eyes, despite how her nose was misshapen and blood was pouring freely out of it. Ganondorf deflected, parried, counterattacked at every measure, but the Gerudo chief was too fast. He grew angrier by the second, outraged that she would actually attempt this, after everything--had their love meant nothing?! How could she betray him like this?!
Nabooru leapt off a table to come down on him overhead, blade ahead of her, aimed at his head. Ganondorf fel this heart stop a moment, fear gripping him, and he dodged just in time, bringing his blade up to carve through her back from her hips to her skull.
Nabooru fell to the ground, and the room grew still.
Ganondorf stood there, motionless, until he became dizzy because he'd forgotten to breathe.
I... I just... what did I just...
Nabooru was dead. Nabooru was dead.
My wife... my wife...
She betrayed you, the voice in his head purred, and Din's fire if he couldn't find an argument against it. She'd been trying to kill him!
This was her fault! He should've known she wouldn't listen! A fool would get a fool's reward!
My children will listen to me. They will undertand. They will obey me.
Ganondorf wiped the blood from his blade, ignoring how his hands shook, and stormed out of the tent.
XXX
There was a difference between fairytales and the terrifying reality of facing evil.
Zelda took a trembling breath as she watched what was once a man morph into a horrific monster. Darkness choked the air, swirling around like the winds of a hurricane. Link's blade glowed blue against it as he stood guard over the fallen Gerudo warrior, Hemisi. The air was sucked out of her lungs, and Zelda trembled at the overwhelming malice that dripped off the beast's tusks, at the heart stopping terror such evil magic brought, at how her entire body was paralyzed in the moment.
The stories told of a demon king who sought to destroy Hyrule again and again. Her father had never believed such stories, had grossly underestimated the man who brought such destruction back to their land. Zelda had known Ganondorf housed this evil, and yet...
Witnessing it was more overwhelming than she could have ever imagined.
The dark beast roared, stomping its feet, ready to devour its prey.
"Link!" Zelda called, feeling utterly helpless.
But she couldn't be helpless! She refused to be! She'd been helpless her entire life, and only recently had she started taking charge of her own destiny. But she knew this destiny was written in the stars, woven with a golden thread of the goddesses themselves. They wouldn't fail - they couldn't. And she had a part to play in it.
Inexperienced of the world as she was, Zelda was not a fool. And she refused to be a coward.
Hemisi slowly rose to her feet behind Link, looking at what her father had turned into, face pale with horror.
Link roared back at the beast, ready to fight.
Zelda channeled her Light within her, pushing the darkness at bay, sending diamond-like shards of magic towards her Hero. "Link, use these!"
Link leapt into the air to catch the shards, which turned into Light-infused kunai. After a moment to register what had just happened, a feral grin pulled at his face, and he bared his teeth against the enemy.
As Link charged ahead to face down the enormous beast, Hemisi looked back at the princess. "Hey! Lend me some of that magic, will you?"
Zelda watched her hesitantly, but she grimaced when Link narrows missed getting impaled by the dark beast's enormous tusks. Swallowing, she nodded, channeling her power and sending Light to the Gerudo, who caught it and watched it materialize into a glowing bow and arrows.
Nodding in thanks, Hemisi turned and stared down the beast, slowly taking aim.
Zelda brought her hands to her chest in prayer, begging the goddeses to aid them, allowing her power to create a barrier between them and the rest of the world, and the true battle for Hyrule began.
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