The Witcher & The Warlord I
Word Count: 2,391
EXP: +3
Rapport: Ganondorf/Geralt (+3)
More portals… Geralt thought as she was transported to a strange, disk-like space with seemingly endless sky beyond them, the other Seekers looking around curiously. Ballyhoo gave a fairly succinct explanation before the platform they were on was spun like a roulette wheel, thankfully leaving the Seekers in place while an attached apparatus randomly determined what activity they were going to participate in. A tandem climb to the top of a snowy mountain while tethered together? Hmm, not necessarily overly difficult, but working that closely with somebody she’d known for, at best, a week or so was not Geralt’s idea of an easy time.
Another teleportation left Geralt blinking away discomfort, but she recovered and noticed that her partner was the same man Midna had been having issues with earlier. “I don’t think we were ever properly introduced. Geralt of Rivia.” She introduced herself simply, and though a part of her wondered what bothered Midna so much about this man, she also didn’t feel too invested in getting involved in somebody else’s interpersonal conflicts.
What was it that this woman was called again? The “Witcher”, whatever that meant? So this was to be his partner for the time being?
"Ganondorf Dragmire." He responded and then added,
"I hath been called many things. King of Thieves, Demon King, King of Evil. It becomes rather… tiresome… after a while, truth be told." A funny thing to say, when the Warlord’s infamy was entirely his own doing.
"But enough about that. I hath just the answer for us to claim a swift victory." It was quite the boast, and he immediately set about proving that he meant business and summoned his Phantom Steed.
"Ha! The fool!" Ganondorf said in celebration,
"He hath taken my movement abilities, but not my summons! Come, Geralt, let us mount the horse and be away from here. He shall take us straight to the top of this challenge." Ganondorf mounted the horse himself, and then once Geralt had followed suit he commanded it to gallop upwards. Except… it couldn’t. The most it could do was a form of hovering. The steed could not gain any height with its gallop. So even a summoned creature had its movement capability dampened by this minigame’s magic?
"Bah, it seems the ringmaster was not quite the fool I first took him for. No matter."Geralt gave a raised eyebrow to the self-described ‘King of Evil’ immediately complaining that he was called that. He could have just…not mentioned it, but she supposed he might’ve been getting ahead of the title before she heard it from somebody else, so she left it at that.
The fact that he had a horse he could just summon was interesting, and Geralt climbed atop the Phantom Steed without much hesitation, looking around and wondering if it really
would be that easy. When the steed merely hovered over the ground, she made a blank face and nodded. “Well, I suppose it would have been interesting to just fly over everything, but not in the spirit of the challenge.” She dismounted the Phantom Steed and looked towards the first obstacle. “I have a feeling that'll just make this harder on us. Shall we?” She asked, gesturing to the platforms?
”Indeed.” The Gerudo confirmed. He dispelled the horse as soon as they were both dismounted. It wasn’t hard to realize how the challenge was meant to be played. One look at how some of the other Seekers were tackling it told him that the two of them would need to swing one another forward in order to give themselves the momentum. Not much of a problem for Ganondorf given his immense strength, but he did wonder whether or not his partner would fare as well - especially with how much larger he was than she. But in a world like this, appearances meant nothing, really. The only thing that might have worried Ganondorf was his inability to use Bullet Jump for the duration of this little game. That would make the actual platforming itself somewhat… awkward.
He was also just now noticing that his shade cloak had seemingly been shifted into a black fur cloak of some kind. For the sake of warmth in the snowy environment, he assumed. And he also assumed it would return to normal once the game was concluded. As predicted, the jumps were not the easiest thing in the world for him with his size and weight and inability to compensate for it with Bullet Jump. Was he seriously going to be the weak link here? Bah, no! Surely he just needed to keep going until he learned some kind of trick to this whole thing.
Geralt was no slouch in the strength department, easily able to clear jumps and pull Ganondorf up via their tether. She was, however, ever so slightly hesitant in some movements, as she was still getting used to having lost a foot of height from what she had been for a few days. Still, her hesitation lasted only short moments, and she found herself a bit…frustrated with Ganondorf’s lack of jumping prowess. “I’ll admit to being a little surprised, though that armor
does look heavy. I imagine if I were still in my chain mail, I’d be having my own issues with these jumps.”
She did her best not to let the frustration she felt show on her face, but her words lingered as she observed their next obstacle, another wide gap that one would have to anchor another to swing across. “I figure I ought to anchor for these.”
Ganondorf grumbled a half-hearted agreement. The supposed “trick" he had yet to figure out was in fact merely to work together as a team. This was something that under most circumstances just simply did not compute for him. It also didn’t help that Ganondorf was mostly only doing this because he was interested in the Orb Machine. As such he wasn’t exactly enjoying himself like many of the others were. But he still agreed to let Geralt be the anchor for this swing in spite of his own frustrated grumbling and made it across in the end.
Of course the challenge was only going to escalate the further they got. This included sections where they would have alternate anchoring for each other to get across gaps too wide for a single swing to make the distance. And yes, Ganondorf fell at one point during this. He absolutely despised not being able to use his Bullet Jump. Otherwise this would have been nothing for him. It didn’t help that he noticed the blatant cheating some of the other teams were doing.
”This ‘minigame’ is beginning to feel rigged!” He grumbled with frustration. He had no other way to interpret this, given that some of the other Seekers clearly still possessed their powers while most of Ganondorf’s felt stripped away from him. Whoever had arbitrated these rules was clearly biased! Or so he had convinced himself, anyway.
“Figure some of them can do things that they either didn’t account for, or are too general to count as a ‘movement’ ability, whatever that even means.” Geralt neither agreed nor disagreed, though she absolutely saw where Ganondorf was coming from. “My strength and speed are intact, and Nadia looks like she’s having a blast throwing her limbs around like they aren’t part of her, but you could easily argue that’s just a part of our bodies.” She seemed less put-off by the vast differences some of them had, though she had noticed. “Not all contests are made for equals, especially in this confluence of worlds, after all.” It was a lame conclusion, and even she felt it, but it was the truth. Some people were just better suited to certain tasks.
Taking a moment to mentally plan their next move, Geralt looked to Ganondorf. “So, heard you and Bowser both remember Captain Falcon. I assume you know Link and Pit then, as well? Peach?” It was simple conversation, but it was better than listening to Ganondorf keep complaining.
”Aye.” Ganondorf confirmed.
”We know all of them. We - among a few others - stood against Galeem when it first appeared, for all the good it did us.” Falling was painless due to the disabled damage of the game’s arena. But falling also meant having to redo previous jumps to make it back to where they initially fell. Needless to say, Ganondorf and Geralt weren’t exactly going to be leading the pack anytime soon at this rate.
”If only I had the full might of my army…” Ganondorf mused, clearly no stranger to war and conquest. But at this point they’d made it back to the place they first fell from. So it was time to give that blasted jump another attempt. And thankfully, he made it this time. Perhaps distracting himself with conversation was the way to go.
”Pray, forgive my curiosity.” Ganondorf inquired not long after the jumps were finished,
”But I understand that thou once were a man before consuming many spirits. Is this true?”They were at least making some progress, so Geralt didn’t find herself bothered by the conversation. “Back when it first appeared, huh…” Geralt mused, wondering just how long ago that must have been. She knew
something was going on involving time, though she wasn’t sure what exactly that was. The World of Light existed long enough for children in their twenties to have been born, but many of them had barely any memories of existing here at the same time.
“But yes, I was a man. Fusing with a few female Spirits turned me into a woman.” Geralt replied before they went over another jump. “I fused with a male Spirit after our battle with the Guardian, but it seems that wasn’t enough to tip the balance. I’d prefer to be a man again before the end of the day, but apparently as long as we play in a few of these games, we’ll get enough tokens for some more Spirits. As long as one is a man, I’m likely going to fuse again.” It wasn’t the wisest of strategies, but upon seeing what she got, she’d make a decision then. A few more jumps appeared before them, after which they had to swing once more. “More jumping. With these gloves, I don’t know if I’d mind actually climbing, but they seem to be enchanted against that.” She mused.
”Hm, good to know.” Ganondorf himself had so far not been aware of that potential side effect of fusing. Now that he knew, though, he could be more wary of it in the future. He, too, preferred to remain a man if he could help it. With how small some of the platforms ahead looked, it was hard to even see them. Would they even hold someone his size? Unfortunately there was only one way to be sure. He made the first leap and nearly fell but for his hand managing to catch the edge of the small block platform that he then hauled himself up onto. So it was at least possible. And the next couple looked slightly easier to make save for them being a bit elevated in altitude. The swing under the overhang was what he dreaded though. Those had been giving him the most trouble.
And this one was no different. He successfully managed to swing himself but he didn’t make the platform ahead. But this time he was fortunate, because unlike him Geralt
had made the landing. So all she had to do was anchor down and Ganondorf could use the rope tethered between them to pull himself up the ledge he had initially failed to reach. Ahead he saw the entrance to what looked like a mine.
”That appears to be the way forward.” He said, and then added.
”If memory serves, I believe Ms. Fortune possesses a curious orb device that can strip thee of the spirits that thou possess and return them to original orb forms. Perhaps thou could use that to rearrange thy fusions into a more preferable form?”Geralt took a squat and made sure to keep her footing steady as Ganondorf climbed the rope to reach the platform. She didn’t offer a hand up, unsure if doing so would undo the work they’d put in and send them toppling below. Once he was up she followed his gaze to the mines, nodding. “Sounds handy. Might be worth looking at after all is said and done and we get on the Avenger. The ship we came in on.” Geralt clarified, moving towards their shared goal.
“Saved us and the Virgin Victory from Z barely an hour or two ago. Brought some old friends from Alcamoth too, so you’ll get to meet some of the Mercenaries we were working with.”
”Hmph, another Consul?” Ganondorf grunted in reference to Z. They’d rapidly become his most hated enemies since his release down in the Under. He also was walking toward the entrance of the mines.
”We fought two of them in the Under. One was slain and the other fled like a coward after we slew his pet Guardian.” Once actually inside the mine, Ganondorf grumbled to himself about what he saw. Moving platforms. As if reaching the stills ones wasn’t enough of a chore. It was also dimly lit, but the glow of Ganondorf’s Triforce could give them some extra light if they needed it.
“Same for us in Midgar,” Geralt commiserated, “Killed Y, and C ran off after having us fight a doppelganger. Apparently it was somebody from Zenkichi’s world, and…he wasn’t happy about that. Looked damned distraught about it, even though it was one of the bastards in charge of that corrupt place. Though, I understand most of the other Seekers are of a more heroic bent. I get that killing folk isn’t always necessary, but there are times where it’d have saved a lot of heartache to just cut a whoreson’s head clean from their shoulders, too.” Geralt didn’t have too hard a time seeing in the dim light of the mines, but she frowned a little at the moving platforms. “Suppose it’s a bit like Witcher training, then.” She muttered, watching the platforms as they moved about the mines. “Just don’t fall off.” Were it so easy.