[center][h2]The Witcher & The Warlord II[/h2] 

[b]Word Count:[/b] 2,393
[b]EXP:[/b] +3
[b]Rapport:[/b] Ganondorf/Geralt (+3)[/center]

Unfortunately Ganondorf and Geralt weren’t making very good time in the mine. These blasted moving platforms were making Ganondorf’s jumps even harder than they already were. But they were at least beginning to make a headway when the warlord heard faint shouting coming from above. In fact the shouting sounded like it was rapidly getting closer. And in moments he saw the flailing forms of Roland and Captain Falcon drop down right by the platform he and Geralt were standing on. Evidently they must’ve missed some jump further up ahead and now suffered the consequences of it.

This made him grumble a bit, [color=797979]"Why do I have a sinking feeling that is going to be us in a few minutes?"[/color] He asked with a shake of his head before changing the subject, [color=797979]"This supposed to be a mine of some sort, yes?"[/color] He inquired and then added, [color=797979]"What do you suppose they were mining for? Iron? Or copper, perhaps?"[/color] It wasn’t the most thrilling topic of conversation, but at least it was helping to keep him from having to think about the more frustrating aspects of this minigame.

Geralt watched Roland and Captain Falcon fall right past them, frowning a little. “Might very well be, especially if it gets more complicated the further up we go.” She had a feeling that’d be the case, as the moving platforms represented a paradigm shift, which she doubted would end there. When he asked about the mine itself, however, Geralt wasn’t so sure. “Could be a number of things. Metals, precious gems, clay, salt. They might even get a few different things from here.” Without seeing any carts or wagons of spoils, she simply couldn’t tell just from the way the mine was built. She knew many things, but this was not one of them.

The most concerning part, Geralt thought as they moved ever upwards, were the strange crumbling sections of rock that seemed to magically regenerate after a few moments. Of course, if they didn’t come back it would render the game nigh-impossible for all but the first pair to advance past them, but it was still so strange to see. “Seen magic used for a lot of things, but this place might be the strangest.” She admitted. Even if these platforms were moved by technology, the dimensional travel, protections, and restrictions placed on them reeked of magic. Her medallion was gently humming against her chest, and had been since they got here. 

Ganondorf himself would have also reeked with magic, especially his Triforce of Power, being the divine artifact of power that it was. At any rate, the pair continued their slow ascent through the mines. When the crumbling blocks began to appear they indicated to Ganondorf that not even the platforms themselves were going to be entirely safe to stand on at all times like they had been up to this point. [color=797979]"Lovely."[/color] He commented upon first seeing them.

[color=797979]"What shall be next?"[/color] He wondered, [color=797979]"Platforms that spring to life and attack us, mayhaps?"[/color]

“Please don’t say that.” Geralt mumbled. If things got [i]that[/i] annoying, she had no idea what she’d do. “This is all bad enough as it is.” She had little concern for trying to beat any other teams at this point, but any more than this would be too much like Witcher training all over again. There wasn’t much to it except to keep going, though when they found a section of numerous extremely small crumbling platforms above them as they stood atop a moving one, she sighed. “No room for error, at all.” She sighed. “Let me know when you’re ready, because there’s no stopping once we’re off this platform.”

[color=797979]”Hmm…”[/color] Ganondorf hesitated slightly, mostly to get his bearings and to prepare himself for what was almost certainly going to be a near-disaster. But in the end he nodded and said, [color=797979]”...Now!”[/color] And then he jumped. It went well up until one particular jump in which they didn’t quite make it all the way. But they did manage to cling to the side of the block much like they had done for the overhangs in previous sections. And it was here that they discovered that the blocks would only crumble when someone was standing on top of them. But clinging to the side like this? They didn’t seem to show any sign of crumbling down.

[color=797979]”So that is the trick, is it?”[/color] Ganondorf inquired. This seemed to indicate that the optimal course of action was to stay on the sides as long as they were able to in order to delay when the blocks would start to crumble. And it was then he spotted a moving platform and was finally able to make out the objects it was carrying along its tracked path. [color=797979]”Fish?”[/color] He asked suddenly. [color=797979]”The mine is for… fish?”[/color]

“What.” Was all Geralt’s deadpan voice returned with. How…did one mine for [i]fish?![/i] Were there underground lakes that they fished from? She decided, as she often did in the World of Light, not to dwell on this strange facet of this world. What was important was figuring out what to do next. “We need to move.” Geralt followed up with, well aware of the limitations of their current situation. Staying here forever would result in falling. “I’ll swing, just hold on.” She said, letting go and trusting Ganondorf to hang on as she swung back and forth a couple of times, before her momentum carried her high enough for her to twist and grab the other side of the rock.

“Now!” She called out to Ganondorf, to signal him to let go and swing.

The Warlord did just that. Between the momentum and his own imposing strength, they were often able to make impressively long jumps this way. And this wasn’t all that different. It certainly made reaching those precariously placed crumbling blocks much more doable than if he was trying to do this alone. Alone… he supposed that was the entire point of this little game - teamwork. It wasn’t exactly something he had a lot of experience in. Although he had been getting a bit more practice at it since joining the Seekers. Though he had still yet to call any of them his friend. Of course, that sentiment was pretty often echoed, especially by the other royals. The truth was, Ganondorf was simply given little in the way of actual chances to really bond with anyone. And he wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about that, either.

As Ganondorf grabbed the other side of the rock, Geralt felt the rope slacken, signaling her to let go of her side and swing. She saw their next goal, a small wooden platform to which she could swing, and swing she did. One more pass gave her the momentum she needed to go up and onto the platform, from which she called back to Ganondorf, “I can pull you up from here.” 

Once the Gerudo King was up with her, Geralt turned her attention further above them. “Couple of quick jumps, then we have to make sure we time it right, or we’re going way back down.” Should she have spoken that possibility into existence? Probably not, but they needed to be prepared. No half-assing this next series of jumps. If they screwed it up, they’d be losing quite a bit of progress if they didn’t manage to luckily land on one of the platforms just below them. 

The first jump went smoothly, with no time pressure to make them falter. The second required a moment of thought, after which the pair leapt, experience giving them an idea of what timing worked best for the pair. The third jump, however, with the moving platform sliding rapidly closer to them, would be the moment of triumph or failure. Geralt jumped as the platform neared the end of its path, but barely mistimed just how long it would stay at the end, and felt gravity take hold of her a moment later.

Ganondorf, on the other hand, didn’t fare quite as badly. His taller form gave him a longer reach to grab the edge of the moving platform before it was too late. But of course, now he was just hanging there with Geralt dangling just below. The Gerudo King was thankfully not lacking in strength, so he was certain his grip wouldn’t loosen anytime soon. But he still wanted to get out of this position as soon as possible. And so he began the process of pulling his heavy body up onto the platform. It was by no means quick, but he still pulled himself up in the end. Then he anchored down and began to pull the rope tethering him to Geralt in order to pull her up as well.

“Thanks.” Geralt calmly stated as she got to her feet on the moving platform. It had taken them a bit to get up, during which she noticed Zenkichi and one of the girls from Yellow Team up above them. “Huh, expected them to be further up. Must’ve taken a nasty fall at some point and not noticed them.” She commented, before looking for their path forward. They’d have to jump from the fractured stone block to the wall, then swing around it, and from there swing onto the wooden platform before they’d be able to stop. And from there, it was just another swing to another moving platform, this one going vertically. 

“Just have to get the timing right…” Geralt mumbled, mentally drawing the path as the platform they were on slid back and forth on its track, taking a stance. “Ready when you are.” She confirmed, legs bending in preparation of the jump.

The Warlord bent his own knees and said, [color=797979]”Jump!”[/color] when he thought the timing looked good enough. They swung around the wall with success. And by all accounts even the swing to the wooden platform went well. At least it should have. Midway there they both felt something like wind pulling them downward. And whatever this was it was enough to make them miss grabbing onto the wooden platform and resulted in them plummeting down. It was a pretty far fall too. Once Ganondorf had finally gotten back to his feet he was able to spot the source of the sudden wind that had messed them up, and he gave an angry scowl.

[color=797979]”Curse that blasted, overgrown lizard!”[/color] Ganondorf barked in reference to Bowser, [color=797979]”What doth he even have to gain from this? He is as far behind as the rest of us!”[/color] The Gerudo King had half a mind to start making his way toward the Koopa and wipe whatever grin he was no doubt sporting off of his face.

“Sounds like boss is just a sore loser.” Geralt said, rolling her eyes. “Or he figures if he drags the rest of us down to his level, it gives him a better chance to get in the lead.” She looked between Ganondorf, Bowser, and the way back up. “Not the first time I’ve dealt with one of those, and it won’t be the last. Way I see it, we can go try and shove a cork down his throat, or we can wait until he gets bored. We try and go back up, he’s just going to do it again.” Perhaps a pessimistic approach, but Geralt had long since given up any illusions of victory. 

[color=797979]"Hmm…"[/color] The Gerudo thought for a bit. [color=797979]"Well, I don’t believe we were in a position to win the race."[/color] He finally said. [color=797979]"And that being so… perhaps we might as well see what kind of payback we can take from him?"[/color] Ganondorf, too, had long since given up on any delusions of actually winning this race. And so the idea of getting back at the big sore loser was seeming more and more appealing to him.

Geralt thought on the idea for a few moments. She, personally, didn’t actually have anything against Bowser aside from his delusions of grandeur. She wasn’t sure that he was entirely serious about how great and evil he was, but she supposed this was fairly ‘mean’, at least. Ruining the experience for the rest of the Seekers because he wanted to do better was definitely not the kind of thing one of the other do-gooders in the Seekers would do, that was for sure. “Might as well. He just wasted all of our time.” 

That got a smirk from the Warlord. [color=797979]"Then let us teach him the punishment for interfering with everyone else."[/color] And so the two at this point had effectively changed routes and made their way toward where the Koopa King in question was. Since it was obvious no one this far behind was going to win, the two gave up on reaching the end and were now a bit more interested in getting some payback before the game ended.

[color=797979]"There you are!"[/color] Ganondorf barked out when he spotted Bowser’s enlarged form. He looked like he was done inhaling for now and was even shrinking back down to his usual size as a result of his adviser halting the spell. Ganondorf lunged for the Koopa with a roar as soon as he and Geralt had gotten close enough and Warlock Punched him as hard as he could… doing absolutely zero damage due to the rules of the minigame. [color=797979]"Do thou hast any idea how much of our time was wasted because of thee?"[/color]

Momentum, however, was still a thing, and so the king skidded back just a bit as he kept shrinking. He grunted, shook his head, and then had the audacity to smile and say [color=FD0000]”How about you tell me so I know how much I can laugh at your expense”[/color] as he put up his dukes for a punchup, with Ganondorf essentially doing the same. The two kings then just traded punch after punch. Naturally, they did no damage to one another, but they didn’t seem to be letting that stop them. This was probably one of the rare times where the two could just take their frustrations out on one another… and of course no one would be hurt.

[i]Just what happened between those two while we were split up?[/i] Geralt wondered, while awkwardly trying to reposition and give Ganondorf enough room to fight with.