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Portal hopping was something that the Chain found themselves becoming quite used to. The strange feeling that used to overwhelm some of them steadily became more manageable, but the one thing that always threw them for a loop was trying to figure out where exactly they were in whoever’s Hyrule.
Their newest location was strange in the most unfamiliar way. The room they ended up in was unsettingly clean, with pure, white marble making up the walls, floor, and ceiling. There were no windows, but a small, flameless torch hung in each corner to provide the room with some light. It was nothing like the ruined dungeons or high-tech shrines they were used to seeing. The room itself was empty, save for a single door on the other side, and a weird box that flickered to life with moving images as the portal behind them closed. Attached to the box with weird strings were a few objects none of them recognized, but that was it.
“I’m guessing it’s safe to assume no one recognizes this place?” the Captain asked, looking around for anything other than what was obviously in front of them.
“No,” the traveler said, shaking his head. “I mean, Ganon’s palace was made up of white stone, but it was cracked and stained. I highly doubt the original palace looked as well maintained as this does.”
“This still feels off though,” the veteran muttered.
“I’m assuming we’re supposed to do something with that box,” the rancher pointed out. It was obvious that was their objective, but if they wanted to move forward, odds were they needed to accomplish something here first.
The Champion took the bait and walked up towards the box. He frowned and held up his Sheikah slate to compare the two. They both had glowing lights and moving pictures, but the box was different in a way he couldn’t quite figure out. “It’s weird. This thing feels older than my Sheikah slate, but the slate itself is ancient tech, so not really sure how that works.”
“Well what are those things laying next to it?” the smith asked.
The Champion clipped his slate back onto his belt and picked up the white rectangle with buttons that was attached to a hollow, curved thing with a rotatable switch on it. Once they were in his hands, a hand-shaped image appeared on the screen of the box that followed the movement of the rectangle.
“I’m guessing this is how you control it?” the Champion pondered.
“Can you select the image at the top?” the old man asked.
There was only one thing that stood out on the screen. Located on the top left was an image of a blue sky with bold red letters. The Champion shakily moved the hand icon over and pressed a button on the rectangle to click on the image. It zoomed in to show the Hylian crest behind the words The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
“Hey Sky knight, I’m guessing this is in reference to you?” the Champion asked.
Sky walked towards the front of the group and frowned. “I mean, I don’t know who else it would be.”
“Here, take these,” the Champion said, passing over the controllers. “I got it going. It's your turn to take it from here.”
Sky took a second to adjust to the controls before selecting the start option. A new menu opened up and Sky glanced around at his fellow heroes before clicking on the only file. The screen went black for a moment before flashing to an uncanny moment that caused Sky to freeze.
He knew the door on screen, the lock with the strange hole, and the person whose back they were all staring at. It was him right before the final room of his first Temple, back from the beginning of his journey. Back before he fully understood what was happening or what his role was. All he knew back then was he needed to find Zelda and bring her back to Skyloft.
“Is that you?” the sailor asked.
“Y-yeah,” Sky said, stumbling for a moment as the question brought him back to the present.
“This thing is weird,” the veteran muttered, walking closer to inspect the box.
“Do you know what you have to do?” the old man asked.
Sky nodded. “I’m pretty sure, yeah.”
He used the rotating stick on the left to move forward a bit so he could interact with the door. The screen zoomed in on the keyhole and displayed the oddly shaped key. It took an embarrassing amount of time for Sky to get the key to rotate properly to fit in properly, but in his defense, the first time he did this he wasn’t also trying to figure out controls. He was able to directly use his hands.
“Oh,” Sky said as the door began opening.
“What’s wrong?” the Captain asked.
“I just realized, if I struggled that much with the key, then I’m not sure how this fight is going to go.”
The Chain all looked around, trying to see if anyone had any suggestions or tips. Before anyone could speak up, the screen flashed with a bright white light and revealed someone only Sky recognized. With a tight, white jumpsuit, a billowing red cloak, and a thin blade sword that vanished into tiny black diamonds, Sky tightened his grip on the controllers and bit the inside of his cheek. If he were holding his actual sword in his hands, this fight would be nothing. He would finish the Demon Lord off in a few simple swings.
But he wasn’t wielding a sword. He wasn’t even there. He was stuck on the other side of a screen, unsure of what the controls were for this fight.
As words flashed across the screen, the Chain kept glancing back and forth between the screen and Sky. “Do you have an idea of what to do?” the smith asked.
Sky shrugged and kept clicking through the words, not bothering to read them. He already knew this conversation. “Enough of one. The big question is whether or not I’ll be able to replicate what I need to do with these,” he said, holding up the controllers.
“I believe in you!” the sailor cheered.
The scene ended and Sky was back in control of himself on the screen. He took a moment to run around, getting a feel for the movement and the lag between him swinging his arm and the version of him in the box copying the movement. Once he felt like he had a decent idea of what to expect, Sky turned to face Ghirahim and swung as hard as he could. The slight delay between his movement and the one on screen was just enough for his timing to be off, resulting in Ghirahim grabbing the sword.
“Damn, is that something he did normally?” the rancher asked, whistling low at the sight of the catch.
“Unfortunately,” Sky huffed. He knew this fight, but now it felt like he was back at the beginning. It’s as if all of his knowledge and experience didn’t matter since it wasn’t really him fighting now. He hesitated a bit too long in between attacks and Ghirahim responded by backhanding him across the face. It was insulting, and of course embarrassing. The other heroes were watching him fail at his first fight.
“Take your time,” the old man muttered.
Sky took a deep breath and repositioned himself on screen to get a better angle. With his next attack, he successfully landed a hit against the Demon Lord. A small grin crept onto his face at the little victory. The fight was far from over, but he was starting to figure out what he needed to do in order to advance.
Ghirahim teleported away and Sky began running around the room in order to find him. Once he was in sight, Sky tried swinging at him again, but Ghirahim jumped back, the timing just a bit off. Sky slowed down and steadied his hands before trying again, this time landing his attack. Two more successful attacks back-to-back resulted in Ghirahim summoning his own sword and charging right for Sky. He couldn’t parry with his shield fast enough, so instead Sky opted to simply jump out of the way.
“Smooth,” the veteran commented.
Sky nodded in acknowledgement, but kept his eyes on the screen. He was finally getting into the rhythm of things and didn’t want to break his concentration. It was almost funny how wild the fight was. Instead of listening for subtle noises to figure out where Ghirahim would appear, Sky could just see him teleport. Instead of having an actual back and forth type of sword fight, Sky found that flinging his arm around randomly seemed to do the job when it came to landing attacks. It had that familiarity of their first encounter, but the fear and panic that he felt back then was gone. There was no risk here. Just an image of someone he already bested multiple times.
As soon as his final hit landed, the controller stopped responding to Sky’s movements so he lowered his arms and waited for the box to allow him to progress. To his surprise, once Ghirahim vanished, the screen turned black. An audible clicking noise echoed through the room. The Captain walked over to the door on the far end of the room and turned the knob.
“It’s unlocked.”
“Okay, so we know what we have to do,” the old man said.
“And that is?” the traveler asked.
“Looks like we have to play whatever game these rooms have for us,” the old man explained. “I’m guessing it’ll be someone else’s turn behind that door.”
“So what, we just fight the first dungeon boss via flailing our arms around?” the veteran asked, his tone dry.
“I will say, it was a little weird at first, but it actually wasn’t that hard once I figured it out,” Sky admitted.
“Well come on,” the Captain said, waving everyone forward. “If we’re all expected to do this, it could take awhile and I don’t want to be here all day.”
Everyone filed in through the open door and into the second room. It was also pure white, but there was no large box in the room with a screen. Instead, there was a small item right in the center that was similar to the Champion’s Sheikah slate, just a bit smaller. There was a tiny screen and buttons on either side of it, and on the screen was an image of a blade only one of them knew.
“My turn already?” the smith asked, reaching down to pick up the item. He clicked a few buttons to load up whatever moment he was expected to go through. If Sky fought his first villain, then was he expected to fight a giant green chuchu? It was almost embarrassing if that was his challenge. But maybe it was for the best if it was an early on boss. Less risk of revealing the Four Sword’s power.
“So what, we aren’t allowed to watch?” the sailor asked, trying desperately to peer over and see the tiny screen.
“Uh, here,” the smith said, sitting down on the floor. “Is this better?”
It still wasn’t ideal in terms of setup, but with the smith on the ground, a few of the others were able to sit down next to him while others stood and looked down. The images on the screen were nothing like the ones Sky had. Instead of viewing everything from behind a figure of Sky, the screen showed a weird above angle where the whole room was visible at once, and the figure of Smithy was a strange flat looking image. The room he was loaded into had a dozen skulls on the ground with two anti-fairies flying around them. There was an open door on the other side of the room. According to the images on the top right, he had what appeared to be mole mitts and his sword ready.
“Do you know where you are?” the traveler asked.
“Yeah, this is right at the end of the Fortress of Winds,” the smith said. “It’s weird though. I was expecting to fight the first boss of my journey. This one isn’t anything remarkable as far as I can remember.”
“Maybe the challenges are random?” the Champion suggested.
“Maybe,” the smith hummed. He didn’t bother messing with the skulls and instead took a moment to get used to the movements and buttons. It wasn’t as smooth as Sky’s was, and the moves he was able to use were limited, but maybe the simplicity would be to his benefit from a game perspective.
“What is that thing?” the sailor asked as the boss came into view.
“That’s Mazaal,” Smithy explained. “He was made by the Wind Tribe to keep intruders out. Unfortunately, they’ve already left, but he’s still here to defend the place.”
The red and blue parts of Mazaal began to glow as the golden platform his head rested on faded away, revealing his hands. For some reason, there were these strange purple eyes in the center that the smith didn’t remember seeing in the actual fight, but maybe things needed to change for the game to translate onto a screen. Why there was even a game of this, he had no idea.
The smith opened up the item menu and swapped out the mole mitts for the bow before exiting back to the fight. Once Mazaal was back on screen, he ran over (well, more accurately walked over) and shot the eye on the left hand, causing it to jut out and making it easier for him to attack with his sword. The right hand came up above his head, so he had to roll away to avoid getting squished, but at least he got a few hits in. Once the right hand stopped punching the ground, the palm opened back up and he was able to fire another arrow into the other eye and repeat his attack.
With both hands down, Mazaal’s head crashed to the ground. Instead of going after it though, the smith made his way over to one of the platforms he recognized from his first journey.
“What are you doing? He’s down!” the Captain exclaimed.
“Maybe we should assume Smithy knows what he’s doing against his own enemy,” the old man suggested.
The image of Ezlo appearing to chant and help the smith shrink down made his chest feel tight, but he fought to ignore it as the fight continued.
“You can shrink down?” the traveler asked.
“If certain conditions are met, yes,” the smith answered. This was an ability he was fine sharing. It wasn’t super impressive, and it wasn’t as wild as the ranch hand turning into a wolf. Trying to explain the power of the Four Sword though, that was something he still wanted to hold onto. At least just for now.
In his Minish form, Smithy was able to climb inside Mazaal’s head and destroy one of the pillars holding it up before getting ejected and forced to deal with the hands again. He hurried back over to the platform to return to his regular size, dodging the left hand as it began punching the ground and chasing him. Once he was back to normal, he shot the left hand again, but failed to dodge the right one as it came down on him. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to do much to the figure on screen, so he was able to finish his attack on the left hand before moving onto the right.
“Honestly kind of happy this isn’t real right now, because that thing packs a serious punch,” the smith chuckled.
This time when he entered Mazaal’s head, the game prompted him to use the mole mitts to dig out the pillar that needed destroying. Where did the sand come from suddenly? No idea, but he traded out the bow for the mitts and dug around before finding the correct pillar and slicing it down.
It was all pretty repetitive honestly. Shoot an eye, attack it, dodge some punches, shrink down, destroy a pillar, repeat. Mazaal did start shooting lasers from his mouth after Smithy destroyed the second pillar, but since he only had one more pillar to go, it wasn’t all that impressive. Still more exciting than fighting a giant green chuchu though. As Mazaal’s head exploded, the sound of the next door unlocking could be heard. The screen on the small handheld device turned off, ending the smith’s turn.
“That honestly looked kind of fun,” the veteran said, grabbing the smith’s hand and helping him to his feet. “Don’t think I’ve fought anything like that.”
“Wow, that’s saying something,” the smith chuckled. “I think it was more fun in person. Using the buttons wasn’t as intense.”
“I bet.”
“Come on guys, we gotta check out the next room before Cap here complains about how much time we’re wasting,” the rancher teased, slapping the Captain on the back.
“Well excuse me for trying to keep us on track,” the Captain said, rolling his eyes.
The next room was the same pure white as the previous ones, no surprise there, but the old man paused just in front of the doorway, staring at the far wall.
“Huh.”
“What is it, old man?” the veteran asked.
The setup was pretty much the same as the last two rooms, with a box in the center of the room with some things attached and a controller to move the pictures on the screen, but on the far wall behind the box there was finally a break from the pattern.
“This is just the first room where we’ve seen multiple different doors,” the old man explained. “So I guess it’s safe to assume this is my room.”
“But there’s three doors,” the sailor pointed out. “We know rancher and I are from different points in the split, but what’s the third option?”
The heroes all glanced around at one another, either trying to figure it out or see if someone else’s expressions gave away anything. After a brief moment of silence, the old man shrugged and walked over to the controller, grunting quietly as he took a seat on the floor.
“Who would’ve thought that the lack of chairs would be the real challenge for you,” the Captain teased.
“Ha ha,” the old man said, his tone dull but not at all offended. He took a moment to stare at the different buttons on the controller. It was a weird shape, with three different handles and an extra button on the back. Moving it around physically didn’t seem to do anything like Sky’s controller did, so it was likely going to be a similar experience to Smithy’s. All button work and no real movement.
The screen flickered to load up the moment the old man needed to get through. Both Sky and Smithy had moments from early on in their adventures, so he mentally prepared to see little nine year old him running around with a glorified butter knife and wooden shield playing fetch-quest for Zelda.
Instead, he was greeted by a deep red sky and ruined buildings. The figures that resembled him and Zelda were weirdly blocky compared to Sky’s version, but it was still easy to recognize where they were.
“You got this,” the rancher muttered quietly behind him.
The old man shook his head for a moment before progressing forward to start the battle. This was honestly one of the better scenarios for him to be in. Explaining his young age to the group, or having questions brought up about certain events could’ve been awkward. Fighting Ganon though? Almost everyone in that room fought Ganon at one point or another. It was simple, straightforward, and-
“Oh damn!” the Champion cursed.
He remembered too late that the Master Sword wasn’t with him. There was no weapon in his hands as he charged towards Ganon, which was a reckless and impulsive move on his part. The figure on screen crumbled to his knees after only a few brief moments, dead. The old man stared at the controller in his hands and realized very quickly that just because the backstory was easy to explain didn’t mean that he knew how to actually fight using the buttons alone. Both Sky and Smithy managed to get a hold of their own controls rather quickly, but as soon as the fight started the old man had lost sight of his target and couldn’t figure out how to navigate, dodge, and attack at the same time. The fight was over in an embarrassing amount of time, and he never even picked a weapon to use.
“Do you think it’ll let you go again?” the traveler asked.
Before the old man could try, there was an audible click indicating that a door had been unlocked. The sailor ran over and successfully opened the far left door, grinning widely.
“Maybe we don’t have to win to progress! Maybe we just have to start it?” the sailor suggested.
“Or maybe the way through that specific door was through failure,” the veteran mumbled. He didn’t wait for anyone to comment before walking towards the unlocked door, brushing past the sailor and entering the next room. Just like all the previous ones, the walls were pure white marble and a box was placed in the center of the room with only one door on the far side.
The veteran stared at the choppy moving images on the screen and dug his nails into the palms of his hands. He wasn’t surprised. The hero before him left the Master Sword in terrible shape. He had his suspicions as to what happened, but watching the door open after the old man failed…
It was his turn to play. While everyone else was looking around to see who was next, the veteran just silently walked over to pick up the controller. It was similar to the one the smith used, but there was no screen attached to the actual controller. One of the heroes behind him asked a question, but he wasn’t listening. He had no idea where the game would throw him. Sky fought his main villain again, Smithy had to repeat his first dungeon, and the old man-
A staticky noise echoed from the box as words began flashing on the screen. Two small figures were present: one with a sword and shield, and one asleep in bed. The words wouldn’t move any faster no matter how many times he clicked the buttons.
He almost wished he was fighting his own version of Ganon.
“Vet?”
The veteran glanced back as the figure with a sword walked out of the house. Everyone was staring at him, waiting for an explanation. What was he supposed to say?
“Is this a hard part of your journey?” the traveler asked.
The veteran looked back at the screen and used the arrow buttons to get out of the bed, chuckling slightly at the sight of the pink hair. “Not really.”
“But will it still be difficult for you?” the old man followed up.
Again, technically no. It was hilariously easy compared to what everyone else had to do so far. He didn’t even have a weapon at this point. Just a lantern that wouldn’t light until later, and some courage to go out in the rain and follow the voice that spoke to him. He knew the path to the castle. It would take less than a minute for him to enter his first dungeon, and assuming he could time the controls correctly, he was positive he could save Zelda in ten minutes or less.
“Why’d you stop?” the sailor asked.
The veteran stared at the obviously marked bush, the one to the right of the main gate. All he had to do was pick it up to reveal the staircase. The hidden staircase that would lead him to part of the sewers under the castle. The sewers where his first weapon was waiting-
“We have to try another door,” the veteran said, putting the controller down.
“What do you mean?” the Captain asked. “This is the door that opened.”
“It opened because the old man lost,” the veteran snapped. “We have to go back and try again. Hell, I’ll try that Ganon fight myself, but we’re not going this way.”
“Do you want one of us to do this part for you?” the rancher offered.
“No.”
It wasn’t up for discussion. The veteran punched a button on the box that killed the picture on the screen before turning on his heel and heading back out the way they came. He wasn’t going through that again. He refused.
Part of him worried that the others would simply turn the box back on and keep going, but to his surprise they all followed behind him. The old man had a weirdly understanding look in his eye that the veteran didn’t like, but he appreciated the fact that he was willing to fight Ganon again, no questions asked.
Was it selfish of him? Maybe. But if there was another way forward, the veteran owed himself the peace of mind to try something else.
The old man grunted as he bent down to pick up the controller, but opted to stay standing this time. “Alright, let’s try this again.”
This time, he made sure to mess around with the buttons some more and found out where his items were located. Even though he didn’t have the Master Sword for the first part of the fight, he still had the biggoron sword, which was good enough for now. The weird button on the back of the controller seemed to lock onto the part of Ganon that he needed to attack. After a moment of making sure he knew what button did what, he felt comfortable starting the fight again.
“You’ve got this,” the rancher said.
Just like the actual fight, Ganon was slow. The old man managed to roll under his legs and held down the back button to lock onto the beast’s tail before attacking with his sword. There was a staticky scream that sounded unnatural coming from the box which was oddly funny. The old man couldn’t help but chuckle at how poor the box was at replicating the sounds of the fight.
Now that he knew how the controls worked, the fight was weirdly easy. It was a repetitive roll, hit, roll, hit.
“Doing much better this time, old man,” the Captain said.
“Yeah, it’s almost boring honestly,” the old man chuckled. “Kind of happy this wasn’t how it went down when I actually fought him.”
After a few more hits, the wall of flames that blocked him from the Master Sword died down. The old man wasted no time running over to it, hoping to get the rest of this fight over with. Even with the new weapon, the fight was essentially the same: roll, hit, roll, hit. Every now and then he’d switch things up with a light arrow to Ganon’s head, but that would just stun him so he could hit his tail again. Why the tail was the weak point in the game, the old man had no idea.
Eventually, Zelda jumped in with her magic to hold Ganon down. All it took was one click of a button for the old man to end the fight. Weird, green goop splatted across the screen with every hit which threw him off.
“Why is it green?” the veteran asked.
“I think it’s supposed to be blood?” the old man said, unsure himself. “It was definitely red though when I fought him.”
“Weird,” the veteran muttered.
The screen shut off and the sound of the other two doors in the room unlocking had everyone looking around.
“So… which one do we try first?” Sky asked.
“Well the left door is out of the question,” Smithy said. “So maybe right? Just in case the middle ends up being connected to the left side too.”
The veteran shot the smith an appreciative glance while the rest of the chain headed towards the right door, not willing to argue with that excuse.
The new room was just like the first two rooms, with only one door on the far side. The box in the middle of the room had a weird cube attached to it, and a controller that looked similar to the one the old man used, minus the middle handle. The sound of gentle, rolling waves made exactly one member of the chain excited.
“Looks like it’s my turn!” the sailor exclaimed, hurrying over to grab the controller.
“Don’t rush into it, young one,” the old man warned. “It’s not as easy as it looks from the start.”
“You say that like you made it look easy the first time,” the Champion teased.
“Hey, my second attempt went much better.”
“Some of us didn’t need a second attempt,” Smithy muttered, giving Sky a knowing smirk and a quick high-five to celebrate their victories.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine!” the sailor said, quickly clicking to get the game started. “Besides, there’s no real risk here. Even when the old man lost, we still were given an option to move on, and even if I have to redo it, it’ll at least be fun!”
There were many moments from his first adventure that the sailor could describe as fun looking back. Sure, in the moment it was tense and scary, but he got the opportunity to sail with pirates and fight all kinds of crazy monsters! Part of him wished it would have him fight the helmaroc king since that was an interesting battle. Way more interesting than how the old man’s Ganon fight was played out on screen at least.
The moment that loaded up was not the helmaroc king.
“So that’s what he looks like,” the traveler said quietly.
Standing before him on the screen was none other than Ganondorf himself. Before the sailor could test out any of the buttons, Ganondorf flew across the screen, punching him square in the face and knocking the Master Sword clean from his grasp. The controller didn’t let the sailor do anything as Ganondorf continued to hit him until he was down before lifting him up by the arm.
“Um, Sailor?” Sky asked. “Is this… accurate to your fight against him?”
The sailor gripped the controller a little tighter. He killed Ganondorf by the end of this fight. The last thing he wanted was everyone looking at him with pity because he got kicked around in the beginning. If anything, the fact that he got beat up like that and still managed to win in the end should be more impressive to everyone.
“Yeah, but right now it’s not letting me do anything,” the sailor explained, holding up the currently useless controller. “I knew it was coming this time, so I would’ve dodged or fought back, it’s just not letting me click anything.”
The screen continued to move without his input, showing the Triforce descending down as Ganondorf attempted to make his wish. This played out pretty accurately though, with King Daphnes touching the Triforce first and making his own wish instead. The cursed laughter that never left the sailor’s ears rang out from the box as water began to fall and flood the platform where their battle would take place. Zelda handed over the Master Sword while Ganondorf drew his own blades, and the sailor knew it was time to focus.
As soon as he had control over the screen version of himself, Zelda pulled out a bow and shot Ganondorf as he tried lunging for the two of them, stopping him mid attack in a stun. The sailor tried a few buttons to figure out which one did what before moving forward and landing a few hits on Ganondorf. The stun didn’t last long though, and soon Ganondorf was back on the offensive. A green symbol appeared at the bottom of the screen suddenly mid-attack and the sailor had to look down to figure out what it was wanting him to click.
“The big button!” Sky urged.
The sailor hit the big green button and suddenly his screen self leapt over Ganondorf and struck him in the head before landing behind him.
“Are these moves you actually used?” the veteran asked.
The sailor laughed as he landed a few more hits. “You guys keep underestimating me. Just because I’m the youngest here doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Just impressive to see jumps like that without assistance from a roc’s feather or cape,” Smithy praised.
The sailor beamed, but tried not to let the compliments distract him from what was happening on screen. Since he didn’t get any time to practice the controls beforehand, Ganondorf did successfully land a few hits on him, but the sailor was careful to keep his distance and test out different moves whenever he could. He knew watching the others that their games looked fun, but his felt different. There was so much more movement and action compared to the previous games. The high speed pace of the fight had adrenaline coursing through his veins. It was like he was back there fighting Ganondorf, minus the injuries and inexperience. The hardest part was keeping track of all of the buttons while also keeping up with dodging Ganondorf’s attacks, but it was a thrill that he enjoyed.
Another one of Zelda’s arrows hit Ganondorf from behind, stunning him and giving the sailor an opening to attack freely.
“It feels weird seeing Princess Zelda involved in the battle,” the traveler said.
“Really?” the rancher asked. “The Zelda from my world also helped in my fight against Ganondorf.”
“Mine too,” Smithy said. “Well, against Ganon. I never fought his human form.”
“My Zelda led the Hylian army against Cia and Ganondorf and was at the front of almost every battle,” the Captain bragged.
“And don't forget, the Zelda you see is actually Tetra, captain of a fearsome pirate crew!” the sailor added. He was getting better at timing his dodges, but when Zelda landed another attack on Ganondorf, the controller stopped working and Ganondorf turned around to backhand Zelda, knocking her out momentarily.
“What the hell?” the veteran exclaimed.
It still hurt to watch, but the sailor knew she was only down for now. He needed to focus, especially since Ganondorf’s attacks were now much faster. Without Zelda there to give him free openings, everything needed to be timed perfectly if he wanted to get a hit in.
“I will say, this looks a lot more complex than how my fight with Ganon went,” the old man said.
“It’s still dodge, hit, dodge, hit, but yeah, there’s a lot more movement,” the sailor said.
After a few more rounds, Zelda got up and tried firing at Ganondorf again, but he managed to dodge the light arrow. With both of them on the offensive, Ganondorf resorted to jumping around the battlefield, dodging both arrows and blades alike. The sailor clicked buttons rapidly, looking for the shield. Once it was up, he positioned himself in front of Ganondorf and waited, hoping the game would do the same thing he and Zelda did during the fight.
Before he could worry about it for too long, a light arrow ricocheted off of his shield and struck Ganondorf, stunning him and giving the sailor an opening to attack. He grinned wildly as the green icon prompted him to hit that button again. His figure on screen rolled as Ganondorf swung one of his blades towards him. Their swords clashed, but it just gave the sailor enough momentum to launch into the air and bring his blade down onto Ganondorf’s head, ending the fight for good. Ganondorf turned to stone, and the screen went black.
The sailor released the breath he didn’t realize he was holding and dropped the controller. The game was fun, but it was way more intense than he expected. Watching all of that play out again, watching both himself and Zelda get hit-
“That was insane!” the rancher said, running over throwing an arm around the sailor, pulling him in for a crushing side hug.
“Is that seriously how that all played out?” Smithy asked. “Because those moves you were doing are so impressive!”
“You’re going to have to show me some of those attacks,” the veteran said.
The whole chain was busy hyping up the sailor’s success in that fight that none of them heard the door unlock, but they all knew they’d be allowed to progress. The sailor had won, of course the door would unlock.
The sailor laughed as he freed himself from the rancher’s hold. “Does this mean you guys will stop treating me like a kid in every fight?”
“No,” the old man said. “It’s our job to look out for one another. But, you for sure showed us what you're capable of, and I’m sorry we didn’t take that seriously before.”
The sailor smiled and turned towards the next door, trying to hide the embarrassed flush in his face.
“Who do you think will be next?” the traveler asked.
“They’re seriously not going to make all of us play, right?” the Captain asked. “This is already taking much longer than I expected.”
“Not used to dungeon crawls, huh, Cap?” the veteran teased. “Usually they’re a lot longer and way more difficult than this.”
“Says the one who quit his game before fighting any enemies,” the Captain retorted, elbowing the veteran’s arm. The veteran shoved him off of him and stormed ahead without a word. The Captain tried to follow to apologize, but the rancher held him back, just shaking his head. If it wasn’t something the veteran felt comfortable replaying, it was probably also something he didn’t feel comfortable talking about.
The new room was the same as all of the others, pure white with a box and a controller. Similar to Sky’s setup, the controller wasn’t attached to anything, hinting towards movement being part of the controls. The screen was much larger than any of the previous rooms, and much thinner. It appeared more modern, and the images were far more crisp. Images of enemies familiar only to one of them rotated through as it waited for someone to pick up the controller.
“Looks like it’s my turn,” the Champion said, reaching for the controller. He opted to stand since the screen was large enough for him to see at that angle. The main thing he worried about was where it was going to throw him. He didn’t want to go through any of the Divine Beasts again. Those were difficult in a way similar to what he imagined the veteran’s event was. The shrines didn’t really make sense for him to go through either, since those only lasted a few brief moments. Based on what the others had to go through, he figured it would either be the Divine Beasts, or-
“Ha!” he laughed as the screen loaded up his fight. “Sorry to out-do you so soon, Sailor, but I get the feeling this is going to look far more impressive.”
“I will say yours looks far nicer than my game did,” the old man said. “Everything in mine was so sharp and jagged for some reason.”
“Mine was a weird overview angle that looked flat compared to all of yours,” Smithy said.
“I think mine looks good,” the sailor shrugged. “Not as detailed as this, but still nice.”
The Champion had no control over what was happening as this blob of a beast fell from the ceiling, destroying the floor beneath them. The figure of him on screen pulled out the sail cloth without any prompting from the Champion as the beast began to stretch out and jerk around, trying to figure out where it ended up. It had been 100 years since the creature was free to move.
“What the hell is that?” the Captain asked. “Some sort of Gohma?”
“You think a Gohma battle is more impressive than my fight against Ganondorf?” the sailor questioned.
“That’s not a Gohma,” the Champion said. The creature on screen stood up and faced him, its fiery red hair resembling that of a lionel’s mane, with glowing weapons from the ancient tech, and violet veins that ran with the ooze that plagued Hyrule for far too long. The scourge of Hyrule Castle himself. “That’s Calamity Ganon.”
“That’s your world’s Ganon?” Sky asked, his eyes nearly bulging at the sight. As someone who never fought Ganon in any of his forms, the Champion could only imagine how horrific this thing was to look at. At least he fought smaller forms of this creature in each Divine Beast, but the main look was still pretty grotesque.
The Champion readied his controller, glancing down at each button to see where everything was laid out, but before the screen allowed him to start the fight, the image changed.
One by one, each of the former Champions appeared with their Divine Beast, shouting out orders to fire at the Calamity. This was not something the Champion saw during the battle. Sure, he saw the beams blast through and pierce the monster’s body before the battle, but seeing each one of his fallen friends before starting the fight…
“Hey,” the rancher said quietly, placing his hand on the Champion’s shoulder. “You got this. You’ve beaten him before, and you’ll do it again.”
He couldn’t find the words, but the simple touch of someone grounded him. The Champion nodded and patiently waited for the scene to end. His figure on screen drew the Master Sword and suddenly, he was in control.
It was strange. The controller felt similar enough to the Sheikah slate, so the moment the battle began, he only had to test two buttons to see which one locked onto his opponent. Doing so raised his shield and activated Daruk’s Protection around him. He had a few seconds to test the other buttons, so as soon as one of Calamity Ganon’s arms struck out towards him, he was able to dodge out of the way. Similar to the Sailor’s game, the screen prompted him to hit a button with a Y symbol on it. Everything slowed down as he rapidly hit that button over and over, landing several blows to Calamity Ganon’s face.
“How did you figure that out so quickly?” Smithy asked, half paying attention to the screen and half to the Champion’s hands on the controller.
“It’s kind of like my slate in a weird way,” the Champion explained, his eyes focused on the screen ahead. He missed a dodge, resulting in a use of Daruk’s Protection vanishing. He backed up to put some distance between himself and the Calamity. “Plus I had the advantage of watching everyone else go before me.”
As Calamity Ganon reared up to prepare another attack, the Champion pressed a few buttons until he found the bow. Thankfully, the ancient arrows were already loaded into his quiver, so once the golden weak spot on the Calamity’s underbelly was visible, he was able to fire a direct hit there. The creature fell forward, giving him a clear opening to swing the Master Sword at his head. The bar at the very top kept getting smaller, which was probably the indicator for how many hits he needed to land.
Calamity Ganon recovered and began to back away. The Champion attempted to run forward and close the gap, but the beast began climbing the walls and crawling around while preparing a laser attack from an attached guardian eye from one of its limbs.
“I know it’s not a Gohma, but he sure does move around like one,” the old man commented.
Right before the laser could fire, the Champion managed to fire another ancient arrow, piercing the guardian eye and shocking Calamity Ganon enough to make him fall from the wall. He roared in anger and suddenly became a bright, glowing red that resembled heated metal. The next attack from the beast was faster than before, but the Champion was locked in. It was somehow easier this time around. There was no fear of pain or dying. All he needed to do was time every attack, watch the beast’s moves, and rapidly press the Y button whenever the screen prompted.
Calamity Ganon climbed back onto the walls, quickly moving back and forth before throwing a glowing blue spear towards the Champion. Thankfully, Daruk’s Protection blocked the attack, but that only left him with one more free hit before he needed to be extra cautious. At least the bar at the top of the screen was almost all the way down. A second blue spear was in hand, ready to throw, but the Champion noticed a moment too late that it was simply a distraction from the real attack: the guardian laser.
He did his best to run out of range as fast as he could, but the explosion did knock him off his feet and do some damage to his figure on screen. The Champion flinched, remembering the burn from those lasers. That wasn’t a pain he wished on anyone, even a fake version of himself.
“He’s almost down, keep going!” the rancher cheered.
The figure on screen got back up and this time, the sound of the laser charging caught the Champion’s attention. He locked onto the Calamity and readied his shield, something he should’ve done the first time, but better late than never. The shot fired, and timing it on pure instinct, the Champion managed to parry the beam right back at the beast, knocking him down from the wall once again and forcing that glowing fire color to vanish. The annoying thing was he wasn’t sure how to use Urbosa’s Fury with the controller. He remembered how to use it in a practical setting, but with buttons and rotating sticks he couldn’t figure it out, meaning he was stuck using basic attacks from the Master Sword. They were decent, but the bar wasn’t going down as fast as he wanted.
Calamity Ganon stood back up and regained the heated glow before promptly charging another guardian laser from the floor, cutting down the time the Champion had to react to the attack. Since the timing was different, the Champion burned his final use of Daruk’s Protection to figure out just how fast he needed to be. As the glowing shield around him shattered, the Champion prepared his shield for a second laser. As predicted, Calamity Ganon charged another one that the Champion was able to parry with ease.
With the beast distracted, the Champion charged forward, landing the final blows to the creature’s head, ending the fight. Everyone was silent for a moment as they watched the beast crumble to the floor. The Champion allowed himself to take a breath, but didn’t lower the controller just yet.
“Wow,” the sailor said, speaking up first. “Yeah, I think that does outdo my fight against Ganondorf. How the hell did you survive that thing?”
“Well, the other Champions for sure helped in doing damage at the beginning,” the Champion admitted. “Plus all of his attacks were similar to ones from monsters I had gone up against before.”
He waited though, knowing that wasn’t exactly the end. The monster would rise up and transform into a beast similar to the one the old man fought that would rampage through Hyrule, destroying everything in its path until the Champion could finally put an end to it with the help of Zelda. Before that moment could happen though, a familiar purple glow illuminated the room. Everyone turned to see a new portal opening up, blocking the door that the Champion was working to unlock.
“Guess we all won’t have to play,” the Captain said, patting the traveler on the back.
“Your fight wasn’t done yet, was it?” Smithy asked, watching the way the Champion still held onto the controller.
He shook his head. “No, it wasn’t.” He put the controller down and made his way to the front of the group, eager to get through the portal. “Honestly, it’s for the best. The first part of the fight was more exciting to watch anyway.”
“Is that what you think the point of all of this was?” Sky asked. “Entertainment?”
The Champion shrugged. “Who knows? We didn’t get anything out of this dungeon, and we were never in real danger.”
“I wouldn’t say we didn’t get anything out of this experience,” the old man said. “We got to see first hand the different struggles some of us faced and how we overcame them. I believe based on what we witnessed today, our future battles together will go much more smoothly now that we know what some of us are capable of.”
“Especially the sailor,” Sky added, ruffling the kid’s hair.
“And hey, that shrinking ability you have could come in handy, Smith!” the veteran said.
“Yeah, yeah, we all are capable of cool things,” the smith said, glancing over at the Champion for a brief moment with a knowing smirk. “Now come on, we should get out of here before the portal closes.”
The Captain stood next to the portal, ushering everyone through in small groups. As grateful as he was to get moving towards their next real quest, he couldn’t help but glance at the door they never went through and wonder what was supposed to be waiting there for them. Not wanting to risk separating from the rest of the chain though, he justed his curiosity down and followed his fellow heroes through the portal, focusing more on the what was next rather than the what could have been.