~The Legend of Zelda - The Imprisoning War~

[amberillusions]

Airyn was pulled from her torrent of thoughts when the gasps and exclamations of surprise erupted from the crowd, her already taught nerves causing her to jump. The disturbance seemed to be coming from the well. The sheikah's eyes widened as what appeared to be blood started seeping over the well's rim. What in Din's name…..?! The image of the goron, Demigoro, and the strange "darkness" that had left his body and killed him flashed through her mind. Surely, this was somehow connected, although the details were far from clear. Captain Keeta addressed Marshy, giving the mercenaries their orders.

Airyn snapped into action, spreading out from the others closer to the well.
"Clear out, everyone! Let's move!" Some people still stood numbly, their eyes glued to the bubbling crimson well, one man seemed to be shouting at Teruk, voicing what was surely the opinion of many present: that this was the Inquisitor's fault, while others walked away, and a few ran, their eyes wide in terror. One such young woman knocked over a small child in her wake, causing Airyn to rush to help him up before someone could step on him. The boy, hardly more than 6, looked up at her, seemingly more afraid of her than the unnatural scene that was unfolding. The child's mother called out his name, and snatched him from the sheikah's grasp, her brown eyes smoldering. "He is right." she said, referring to the man giving Teruk trouble with her voice dripping with her hate, "This is all your fault." She turned and moved quickly away with her precious boy in her arms before the sheikah could say a word. While the woman had been accusing the Inquisitors and mercenaries alike, Airyn felt personally guilty for what had happened. First, with releasing whatever had been plaguing the goron, and now, in standing by in an innocent mother's execution. "I'm so sorry." she whispered, wishing the people of Kakariko could know how sincerely she meant it.

Most of the people had been cleared on her side, thanks also to Rose, who seemed in no mood to be trifled with. Airyn glanced around at her other comrades. All, except for Marshy, who had left to retrieve the other Inquisitors, seemed to be similarly affected by the execution. She wondered what everyone else would do. That brought the sheikah's mind to her own decision as she continued clearing the last of the crowd: to take up King's offer and join the Resistance as a double agent. She reconsidered it in her mind, wanting to make sure she wasn't making a mistake. It was true that the current situation was the Inquisitor's fault, but the Resistance leaders hadn't stepped up either, not even to save an innocent life. The Inquisitor's ways were efficient, albeit harsh. Despite this fact, however, the moral injustice was more than the sheikah could bear. She couldn't be sure she would find people fighting for the humane amongst the Resistance either, if King were to be any kind of example. There was Shigai perhaps, but that made only one, if that.

Airyn felt like screaming with the confusion that overwhelmed her mind. There would be no answers unless she explored both sides for herself. That was why she needed to take King's offer: she needed to know who truly was fighting for what was right, not for how they selfishly thought things should be done and squabbling with their fellow Hyrulians over it. The sheikah wondered what her deceased lover would think of her joining the very movement that killed him and his comrades, but….surely Drystan would support her in her quest for truth.

….Wouldn't he?…..

[Bad Wolf]

The renewed commotion over by the well had caught Shigai's attention as well, and he moved along the side of the building with Meelo to see what was going on. The sight before him was one out of a nightmare. Blood flowing from the well, that symbol on the ground... Something was obviously very, very angry, and Shigai had a horrible suspicion as to what it was. This just about spelled out disaster, and he knew he couldn't just leave. He had to stick around and see if he could help in some manner, even if it was putting his own life at great risk. So many Inquisitors were around, and then there were the mercenaries to consider...

"You should get to safety," he said to Meelo, glancing her way. "You are in no condition to fight if it comes down to that." He didn't want to have to worry about Meelo's safety when he was likely to have many more things on his mind. Sure that was somewhat selfish of him, but he highly doubted Meelo would be very helpful if she couldn't even run. Fleeing might be the only way they could survive this.

He stayed near the side of the building and continued to watch, glad that the villagers were running away. At least they'd be unharmed, or so Shigai hoped. One innocent life had already been lost, and Shigai was silently praying for the Inquisitors to be slaughtered for what they had caused. Bloodthirsty psychopaths were bad enough without being endorsed by the royal family itself. He hoped that after this incident, there would be far fewer Inquisitors still able to call for the deaths of more innocent people.

[Chanda]

No sooner had the town square cleared out that the ground started to shake fiercely. The blue flames surrounding the well burned with a brightness that was almost blinding to look at. As if on cue, the sky darkened to a shade more fitting for the last minutes of dusk than noon at the same time another lightning bolt razed the quiet air. With a blood curdling screech, the blue flames changed to a sickly purple color, very similar to the color of the weird shadow mass that had been possessing Demigoro yesterday.

((ENCOUNTER!))

Without warning, various sickly, white hands exploded from the ground. They were skinny, bony, narrow arms with yellow nails and claw-like hands. A nearby Inquisitor was unfortunate to be grabbed by one around the neck. Unable to scream, he struggled against the vice-grip of this strange hand to no avail. Suddenly a grotesque, ghoulish head emerged from the ground, inciting a stifled cry of terror from its trapped prey. In a split second it clamped its yellow, oblong mouth around his leg and yanked backwards, pulling off the limp with a sickening snap. Before it could do anymore damage, however, a ray of light from a nearby Inquisitor forced it back underground.

The one-legged Inquisitor fell to the ground, bleeding profusely from the stump where his limb used to rest. Shouting deliriously, his suffering was promptly ended when he was struck by a bolt of black lightning from Keeta's hand, turning him into nothing more than a pile of ash.

"I stand corrected. You'd be turned into a pile of ash, not a pink mist," grumbled Tybalt, in a bit of black humor.

"How very comforting," scoffed King, internally comfortable that he was watching all of this unfold from afar.

The shaking returned to a low rumble, but another unnerving sound broke the focus of anyone present in the town center. Deep underground, one could faintly hear the sounds of chewing. Flesh was ripped from bone by yellow teeth, and the former Inquisitor's leg bones snapped like twigs in the mouth of this murderous monstrosity. This repulsive sound continued for a few hair-raising moments before suddenly stopping. A low, inhuman laugh ripped through the air and the quaking returned, although this time even more fiercely than before.

"Don't get caught! When it feeds, it gets stronger!" shouted Keeta. "Any man unlucky enough to get grabbed will be given a quick, merciful death! You have my word!" he added.

~~DEAD HAND~~
~MAN-EATING DEATHLY ABOMINATION~

Just as Keeta finished his comment, ten more hands sprang from the ground, at least one in the general vicinity of all the mercenaries present.

~

Back at camp, every Inquisitor present raised one single bemused eyebrow as Marshy burst in and started barking orders. However, since they were all wearing masked, it just seemed as if they were staring at her blankly. They all snapped to attention once the sky suddenly darkened with a sudden clap of lightning. Some started to ask Marshy what was going on, but when an inhuman shriek ripped through the air, just about everyone present shut up, drew their knives, and started running towards the town center.

Just about everyone save for one. Solya, her feminine frame easily distinguishing her from the others, stayed behind, approaching Marshy slowly.

"Well now, if it isn't my partner, Marsh Clementine Mallow. Don't you think we oughta be hurrying back there, towards that screaming beast?" smirked the female Inquisitor, anticipating that Marshy would simply stay behind and hide. "Gee, I hope you weren't planning on running away. The penalty for desertion is death," she added, gravely.

[FMAlchemist]

Indeed, the piercing, egregious shriek had elicited the concoction of a good number of such cowardly plans in Marshy's head almost the instant it spurred everyone into action. Surprisingly, she thought first of her precious fellow mercenaries, wondering if they were alright- but that notion was fleeting at best. As the Inquisitors grabbed their weapons and bolted, she snatched up some spare knives from a nearby table. As she pocketed them, she continued shouting and motioning, coaxing those confused few emerging from closed tents to head towards the center of town.

Marshy obtained 5 Inquisitor Throwing Knives

She stared after the running Inquisitors, swallowing hard as she tried to think of some way out. In all the chaos, would anyone really notice if she was there or not? She glanced up at the ominously discolored sky with an uncertain grimace before turning back around to see a few remaining stragglers unsheathing their weapons and brushing past her. Amidst the thinning numbers stood none other than Solya.

"Perfect," she thought uneasily as all of her plans melted with the slowly closing distance between them like candles confronted with a bonfire. She lowered her hood and quickly returned her worse-for-wear hat to it's rightful place atop her chocolate brown tresses.

She scoffed, waving her crossbow across her body with one hand, "I could be asking you the same thi-" She stopped herself suddenly, reminded of her prior decision to try and mend things between them best she could since they were to be working together. She was already deep into Solya's bad side and it was going to be nigh impossible to weasel her way out. Making an attempt to trick Solya in an effort to get out of encountering whatever in the world it was which had made that unearthly scream would certainly not do her any good in that regard. However, given the current situation, she found herself wondering if this decision was turning out to be one of life or death....

"I mean, o-of course not," she forced out with as much politeness as she could muster, "Captain Keeta gave me strict orders to come and notify the Inquisitors about the trouble, so, of course, that's what I am doing. Just trying to be thorough in my job- making sure I didn't miss anyone."

She smiled, assuming a vaguely insulted tone, "And besides, my companions are back there! You can not honestly believe I would just desert them like that?"

[blazinvire]

Sjade's mood slowly turned from frustration to one of slight worry as the ground started shaking and an Inquisitor was snuffed out. Surely it'd be something Keeta could handle considering how powerful he was, so Sjade wasn't too particularly concerned about fighting, what did concern her was her fellow mercenaries sharing the late Inquisitor's fate, as it wasn't likely Keeta would spare some hirelings a fate he gave to one of his own.
All she had to do was focus on playing for time and Keeta would finish this, so as crazy as it was getting there wasn't much to panic about -everything was pretty much under control... pretty much.

The hands like the one that had doomed the Inquisitor burst out everywhere and damaged Sjade's calm for a moment, causing her to warily hesitate as she tried to size up her 'opponent'. Normally grabbing Sjade was a terrible idea as she could twist you into knots disregarding most of your strength, but this wasn't a person, there was no telling how strong or resilient it was and she wasn't game to find out since Keeta seemed to be trigger happy. She had to focus on playing it safe, so she fell back onto sturdier and familiar methods.
This 'opponent' could obviously see her somehow otherwise it wouldn't know where or when to grab, which meant she could pull a feint.

She took a large step toward the hand which was more like a stomp, coiling her legs as she readied for a very powerful dodge, watching for the tell-tale signs of an arm preparing to strike before launching off like a missile toward Airyn, her goron anklet making it particularly fast.
Though the force of the jump was greater than someone of her size so she skidded half a dozen feet along the ground before coming to a halt next to Airyn.

"As long as we're in pairs against one hand we should be alright I think," Sjade said swiftly to Airyn. She strangely had to remind herself these weren't Gerudo she was fighting beside -most teamwork tactics she'd learned, she'd learned amongst dozens nearly exactly like her who all knew the drill.
Still, the logic was there, one hand would be hard-pressed trying to grab two people.

[Dervish]

No, no,no…

Teruk’s day went from bad to worse as soon as he saw the well burst with a torrent of blinding blue flame that instinctively made Teruk back away, not just from the light, but in the event a tongue of fire would lash out at his direction. He’d seen enough screwed up things in the time he’d been in this damn village to not take chances. Logic firmly took a back seat to the evil spirits and magic he’d been witnessing. The sky was turning dark and lightning started to crack from the sky. Whatever was causing the Inquisitors worry was making one hell of an ominous entrance.

Suddenly, what happened next completely surpassed the Deku Scrub’s expectations and went straight into nightmare fuel territory. Grotesque, dead looking hands shot out of the Earth, groping for anyone within reach. One of the Inquisitors was grabbed and was restrained. Teruk took a few steps in the man’s direction to see if he could help pry him loose when a hideous, deformed head with a massive jaw of discoloured yellow teeth rose from the ground and ripped the man’s leg off. A sickening sound of the removed limb being consumed filled the air, and Teruk felt dizzy. What the hell was going on?

The man’s screams ended in a flash of light, but that was not what grabbed Teruk’s attention, a hand shot from the Earth directly in front of him, and it wasted no time in lashing out to grab him. He jumped back in terror, tripping over the loose stone and his back hit something round. He yelped, in fear and scrambled away from it, only to realize it was simply a post. If anyone saw him, he felt no shame. This was far, far worse than possessed man-eating gorons the size of most buildings.

"Don't get caught! When it feeds, it gets stronger! Any man unlucky enough to get grabbed will be given a quick, merciful death! You have my word!” Keeta called to the men and women under his command. While the prospect of death did not thrill Teruk, having it end quickly without being eaten alive was a mercy he would cherish if it came down to that.
He wish he had that damned ring from Mr. Taller’s stall, it may have proved a boon in an encounter such as this. It was a short distance away, and he sure as hell wasn’t sure if he were going to do anything useful against the hands…

The idea hit him like a smack to the head. Teruk spat a bomb flower within reach of the cursed hand that had tried to cease him and watched as it took root in the ground as it started to grow. Hopefully, the hideous monster would take the bait and get a serious case of indigestion. He may not have been able to spit the bombs, but if this worked to some degree, he’d be somewhat useful in this fight, as terrified as he may be.

[Bad Wolf]

At the sight of the arms which sprung from the ground, any desire to join in this fight left Shigai in an instant. He stopped where he was, holding out an arm to keep Meelo from proceeding, as well. This creature was no threat to them. It was after the mercenaries and Inquisitors, by the looks of things. That meant Shigai had no reason to get involved. He was more than content with letting his undead compatriot make the Inquisitors pay for what they had done.

"We should not get involved, Meelo," he said quietly. "Dead Hand will take care of this well enough. Though if you wish to assist, dragging Inquisitors to the hands with your shadow magic would be very helpful." He didn't care if the Inquisitors were chewed to bits by Dead Hand. So long as Dead Hand didn't kill any villagers, he saw no reason to step in to try and stop the creature.

[FMAlchemist]

Airyn winced and her scalp prickled as the shriek tore through the air like a knife through a tapestry. She tightened her grip on her drawn blade and hardened her stance, shakily trying to prepare herself. What… just happened? She gawked at the sickly white hands protruding from the dank, Kakariko soul like demonic daisies. Despite her inner conflict over the hanging, this was something else entirely. If she let that cloud her mind now, more people could be hurt- innocent citizens or one of her mercenary comrades, more importantly. Despite everything, however, she could feel even a bit of sympathy go out to the fallen Inquisitor. A likely after effect of meeting Gero....

No amount of preparation or basic training could have helped her with this. She grit her teeth as a several more hands began to burst upward, causing the ground to quake. She would have to be extra careful with her footing…. She rose her sword horizontally at her chin and exhaled slowly, her breath fogging the blade for an instant. She tried to zero in her focus on the closest hand a few short yards away. What did it all mean? Why was this happening? And why the Eye of Truth? Was it the spirit of the town itself outraged by the spilling of innocent blood or... something else entirely? Being a Sheikah, she felt as if it should be obvious, but her confusion only made her feel more insufficient- a dismal reminder of her conversation with King earlier that day.

She shook it from her mind just as she felt something press up against her back. Out her peripheral, she noticed it to be Sjade. "Good idea..," she nodded- relieved. She hesitated for a moment- an idea coming to the forefront of her mind which she was more or less a bit reluctant to share. "But maybe… letting it grab us is what we want," she mused, sounding a bit surprised by her own words.

"If we both make a dash for the base at the same time, it'll be forced reach for one of us so the other can destroy it and slice them free," she spoke quickly, but cautiously. Of the two of them, Airyn was the only one with a blade and if Sjade was as sharp as she gave her credit for, she'd easily soon deduce what it was Airyn was suggesting. She was asking for quite a bit of trust- more than she was, perhaps, comfortable with- but she was out of other ideas and they were running out of time.

[TwinkleMoon]

Meelo took her time looking at all of what had happened in the last few moments her and Shigai had gone down from that roof. The hands that came out of the ground belonged to some sort of...undead-monster, apparently. The inquisitors were now trying to fight him as herself and her Shigai were standing here, watching.

Then Shigai spoke to her.
"We should not get involved, Meelo," he said quietly. "Dead Hand will take care of this well enough. Though if you wish to assist, dragging Inquisitors to the hands with your shadow magic would be very helpful."

Meelo briefly looked at him, although he could not see her confused expression. She turned back to the fight when she heard the scream of the man who had been pulled underground. One did not often hear the sound of chewed bones and human flesh and could only hope to never hear it again. That was when she spotted some familiar faces they had seen earlier. The Gerudo woman was there, and that women helped her twice of memory was not at fault. Teruk was apparently there too, she saw him as he was getting back up near a post. The deku-man shouted something from his mouth near one of the dreaded hands, Meelo couldn't see what it was from here, but she guessed it must have been one of those very same bombs her thrown at her earlier. Even then, she remembered his reaction when he had ''killed'' her, and she remembered his words when he spoke of the conflict to Shigai.

Emotions were confusing inside of her, Meelo clearly remembered when she felt as if the fight was useless earlier, as if they all needed to die for it to end. Now it was different. Looking at all this she felt only the need to help, yet they were enemies of the Resistance. Which brought her mind back to the small conversation she had with Shigai earlier. Meelo did not liked the ideals of the Inquisition, that much she knew. However, the Resistance did absolutly nothing so far to stop them. This was not why she joined them. They were supposed to do real work in order to make this place a better place and unite everyone under a new banner that had a chance against Ganondorf. That was what she thought, but now it was clear that all those Resistance leaders had no intention to make a direct move. Meelo was no leader, and maybe they were right to wait, but she had this feeling right now that her and Shigai should act. The feeling that she will do something, even if he was not to follow.

Meelo turned to Shigai again and spoke of her strangest voice once again, however the feminine tone seemed to be more prominent right now, for some reason.
''You are crazy if you think I'll do something that cruel, Shigai. I have not been the most exemplary being so far, but even the Inquisitors are worth more than dying as food for this monster.''

She then walked off towards the plaza where the hands were causing a havoc. Meelo kept out of their reach while summoning her own shadowy vines. A quick look around allowed her to spot one of the monstrosity behind Teruk. Meelo extended one of her own shadow arm to try and grab it, forcing it down on the ground. She kept her other arm to defend herself from anything, Deadly Hands or Inquisitors alike.

[Bad Wolf]

Shigai was stunned at Meelo's refusal to assist Dead Hand. They were on the same side as the undead monster in this fight, were they not? It was trying to kill the Inquisitors, who would leap at the chance to kill, capture, or torture a Resistance member. So why should they help the Inquisitors? Why not stand with Dead Hand? Even if it wasn't technically an ally of the Resistance, it was one of Shigai's kin in the sense that it was undead. Not close kin, obviously, but still like a cousin. Regardless, it was helping them. It was doing what they had struggled to accomplish. They couldn't just join in on the side of their enemies against it...

But Meelo was doing just that. She had joined the fight on behalf of the Inquisitors and mercenaries, and Shigai was just standing there in shock and disbelief. How could she do this? The Inquisitors deserved whatever manner of death they received, didn't they? They'd just had an innocent Zora woman executed. They'd just turned a boy into an orphan. They deserved to die a slow, painful death. Didn't they?

What of the mercenaries, though? What of Teruk, Airyn, and the Gerudo? They didn't deserve to die like this, eaten by Dead Hand or blasted by an Inquisitor. They deserved to live. They were decent people. Possibly even good people. He hadn't thought that Teruk or Airyn were bad, and the Gerudo had helped him and Meelo out of a tough spot. Marshy, though... He supposed she deserved to die in a more humane manner than this. Still, the Inquisitors... No. They needed to die. He refused to think they should be spared. Not after what they'd done. Not even if they were just normal people following orders.

The matter of the mercenaries was troublesome enough to move Shigai into action. He wouldn't save an Inquisitor, but he'd keep near enough to Teruk and Meelo, at the very least, to cut them free from Dead Hand's cold grasp should they be caught. He trusted that Airyn and the Gerudo would be agile enough to dodge the hands on their own. No, he'd protect the smallest mercenary. And the one he felt deserved to live above all the others, whether because of his past or Shigai's misplaced guilt regarding it was unknown. He would jut do what he could to keep Teruk alive. His reasons for protecting Meelo were obvious enough: he didn't want to have to watch her die a second time today. Once was more than enough.