Word Count: 1832
Level 5 - (70/50) + 3
Level 9 - (52/90) + 3
Location: The Bottomless Sea ~ The Maw
@DracoLunaris@Dark Cloud
Link backed up as the gel he had poured started taking on a life of its own. Small flashes of blue shone in the mass of it as it pooled together and hardened, on its own forming tendrils and odd glowing blue growths. The way it moved shaped itself instantly put him on edge, because it had the same semi-alive quality as the congealed clumps of Ganon's Malice. He held the racket up above his head. If an eye formed out of that, he decided, he wouldn't let it stay an eye for long.
Fortunately, perhaps due to there being so little goo to work with, the clump didn't expand further than the mold he had poured it in. Nor did it take any hostiles action. It just sat there, wriggling, blinking. "You can say that again." Link said, lowering his weapon and glancing worrying at the other container of the stuff and reminded himself to be mindful not to break it. It wasn't long after that that he had been draw to the doorway.
As Link watched the room suddenly roared to life. At first Link had a single terrifying vision of a monster far bigger than the one they were dealing with leaping out from the depths, the first monster clutch between its jaws, and slamming its friends into the ceiling with its sheer girth. It wasn't so. Instead, despite how this place was trying its hardest to make him feel, that noise was something going their. As he watched the water started receding, draining out foot by foot. The monster tried one last impotent leap for his comrades in the scaffolding above, but there wasn't a chance of it reaching them any more. As Ms. Fortune mocked it all Link could do was laugh with her.
While the water drained away he took in the surrounding it reveled. Ruined machinery and junk Ace and Ms. Fortune had dropped littered the floor far below. To his left, two stories down and lit up like the GO light in a race, was the elevator that would take them out of here and into some fresh horror. Of course, with the top of this staircase in front of him mangled it might be a little tough getting over there but if they could manage to drop down a floor with the whole thing collapsing them could use the scaffolding hanging down there to reach the elevator.
That would entirely bypass the monster that now lurked below, wailing about the loss of its water. He would have been able to guess what the thing had been so angry about just from context, but "luckily" for him it was able to tell them the cause of its distress with words they could understand. Which meant that it, he, had intelligence. At least, more intelligence than Link had been willing to to ascribe him so far. That was the difference between a Molduga, who would fall for the same trick every time without fail, and the canny Lynel who seemed to have a strategy to counter any trick you cared to try. He wondered what the fish monster would come up with now that it had been put in this position.
Behind him Kamek had joined in on his monster observation. "I think we'll be okay so long as we don't drop to his level." He replied to the koopa's comment. "If he had any attacks that reached far up, he would have used them on Ace and Ms. Fortune when he couldn't snap them up. I doubt he can even jump as high anymore without the water to give him a run up." So long as nothing gave them a reason to go down there they should be safe.
Suddenly a shout drew their attention across the way. Even diminished as he was the Koopa King's voice carried remarkably effectively. The two had a short, loud, conversation where Kamek blatantly took credit for what Link himself had found. His interest was piqued when Bowser confirmed they had found a place to use the molds in the command center. He guessed they really should have checked that first room before moving on. He made a note of that for future reference.
Bowser's next request made his heart sink into the pit of his stomach. Junior was still down there with the monster. Luckily it was Kamek that found him first. Unluckily, he pointed him out. Link prayed to the gods that he somehow hadn't been spotted by one of the monsters unpopped eyeballs, and hoped against hope that it hadn't heard the family conversation taking place up here. "Save the prince. All on a days work." He said, completely unenthused." Tentatively he reached out his leg and put a foot down on the warped platform, steadily putting more and more weight on the metal. It groaned ominously, but otherwise didn't move. He pushed down harder, and as soon as he thought it wouldn't collapse on him he stepped on and made his way across until he reached the descending stairs. Or, at least, what had been the descending stair. It wasn't...that...big of a drop to the next platform. He sighed, and then took it.
He took the impact with the third floor platform at a roll. After waiting a few moments for the feeling to come back and set off, little boots clamping down the stairs to the second platform. This would be close enough, he though. There was another catwalk nearby, fresh if a little soggy, and he jumped over the railing onto it. Careful not to slip he made his way over the network of catwalks toward the fish monster.
What would he do if he was the fish monster, he thought. If this was Link's area to guard, and he was a big fish, he would make sure to know where the drainage room was and head there immediately as soon as this happened both to kill whoever it was that had drained it and find a way to fill it again. That was the smart tactic. There was no way to stop a rational opponent from trying that.
Link, though, wasn't subject to Galeem's rules. The fish monster was. Junior, so far as Link knew, hadn't picked a fight with the fish monster. Hadn't hurt him. They had. He just hoped that was enough to override his reason.
When he got to a place that was out of Juniors path, Link whistled loudly at the fish monster to get his attention. "Hey, fish. Did you like that present we got you earlier?" he called out, rapping himself on the head with his knuckle. CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG, it went. He grinned like the cockiest littler twerp there ever lived and jerked a thumb toward his own chest. "That was all my idea. I just can resist dropping heavy things on monsters, it my go to solution. Anyway, we're going to take off now and let you stew in humiliating defeat. I was just wondering, before we go, if you had any excuses prepared for why you completely botched this? I swear I'll give them to your boss for you when we see her again. If it makes you feel any better you're not dead, so you're at least doing a better job than the last guy so far."
Location: Frozen Highlands - Alpine Skyline
Linkle didn't bother holding in her screams on the way down. In fact the only time she wasn't screaming as she sped down the length of rope, only a lessened grip away from plummeting into the sky, was when she let out bursts of near mad laugher. Linkle had not even discovered the concept of a roller coaster, but if she had she would have put this in the same category as far as thrills went.
Unfortunately all rides eventually had to come to an end, and Linkle could see the end of this one fast approaching. Linkle lifted up her legs and let go as she approached, sending her sliding across the ground like a baseball player a good ways before she settled in a giggling mess splayed out on the earth. Still laughing she pushed herself up in a sitting position and got a look at the cozy little town they had landed in. "What a kick!" she exclaimed, hopping up and dusting the dirt and grass from her suit before suddenly holding up her hand to her face and sniffing the grass that clung to her glove. It felt like forever since she had smelled grass. Somewhere in the distance she cold hear bells ringing, and little people whose posture just screamed "villager" went about their day. The whole place felt homey.
Turning around she found Albedo who, having landed far more conventionally, was a few feet away. "Albedo, you're nose is all red." She said jokingly as she approached. Realization then hit her like a brick in the face. "Right, the cold." She said, slightly guiltily. "Sorry, I keep forgetting." It must have been freezing up there, especially with the wind ripping past him. She looked up, following the flag line back to where they had started. It hadn't seemed nearly that long when they were going down it. All at once, she remembered something else. "My sled..."
That thought was interrupted by one of the helpful, brightly clad villagers welcoming them to what she would know as Goat village. "Konnichiwa!" She called back, testing out her new word of the day. "We already are, it's lovely." Another helpful villager warned them away from the goats, which weren't like any goat Linkle had ever seen. They had the horns, the beards, and the inscrutable looks in their eyes, but they also went around on two legs. Knowing goats they were also probably pretty good wrestlers. She made a note to follow the villagers advice.
Albedo took the initiative to find them a way further down. Unfortunately there wasn't one, but they were helpfully pointed toward the top f the village, instructing them to blow a horn to "call flags." Linkle didn't know what that meant, but it sounded really cool. Something was nagging at her though. "Hey, if you guy travel down how do you get back up?" She asked the helpful villager. It seemed to her that down was a one way trip, unless they made the trek back up all the way to the monastery.
After that, Albedo made an offer to race her to the top. It was surprising, coming from him, but it wasn't like she didn't like the idea. "Oh, you're on!" She said, happily accepting. "But first..." She started, pointing across the way at a certain individual. "Check out that guy." She was pointing to the weird, vibrating masked figure hanging out in town. "You wanna go see what his deal is? Just to make sure he doesn't, you know, eat souls or something?"
Lugubrious
Izurich
Yankee
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