"Eternity in the Shadows"

Eternity in the Shadows

By: Ian

It was quiet outside the Spirit Temple in the Desert Colossus. The armies of Ian were lying in wait for the Hero of Time. They knew he was a great warrior, but surely he would have no chance against an army of close to seven hundred. The army consisted of mostly Moblins, but they were joined by some Stalfos, Dinolfos, Lizalfos, and even a few ReDead. As if one, the army could sense the arrival of the Hero, and even though they were confident, some were very nervous and anxious. The army waited for the orders of their leader.

Ian stepped out onto one of the balconies on the Spirit Temple and cried out to his demons. "Go! Fight! Bring me the Hero back alive!"

Upon saying this, Ian heard a great battle cry. As he looked at his army, he realized that it was not from them! He quickly looked up at the horizon and was horrified at what he saw - a fairly large group of Hylian warriors, running toward the Desert Colossus, right at his men. He immediately noticed the five factions of troops and figured that each one was lead by Link and his Knight friends. If anyone was standing near Ian, they would have been able to see the fear in his eyes. He began to sweat and panic. He turned and ran back into the temple, back to the boss room.

When the Dark Army heard the battle cries of the Hylians, many of them were utterly shocked and terrified. They were not prepared for this. All doubt left them, however, when they remembered just how much they hated the Hylians. Yes. they would make them pay.

The two armies clashed and fought on just about every piece of land. The Moblins led the Dark Army into battle and were the first to engage the Hylians. The sounds of swords coming together and shields blocking was magnificent. Some of the Hylians were experienced bowmen and had taken position. Arrows flew from their bows with pinpoint accuracy taking down Moblin after Moblin. Soon, neither army was organized. It was just a sea of Hylians and creatures fighting each other.

Link and Nick found themselves right next to each other, surrounded by ten Moblins. But before they could do anything, four of them were struck by arrows and fell dead on the ground.

"Thank the goddesses for that!" Link yelled over the commotion to his best friend.

"Yeah, that made this just slightly easier!" Nick deflected a shot by one of the Moblins and quickly retaliated with a strike of his sword. The blade fell true into the creature's dark heart. Nick pulled out the sword and saw another sword coming to take off his head. Instinctively, he dropped to the ground, just before he would have been killed. Another Moblin then raised his sword high into the air, ready to bring it down on the Hylian Knight, but Nick was too quick. He rolled on the ground out of danger and got ready for his own offensive. But before he could do anything he was hit in the back with the hilt of another Moblin's sword. The Moblin grinned as he raised his sword, and Nick prepared for the end. He closed his eyes and prayed for his wife and children, and also that it wouldn't hurt. But the pain never came. Instead, the Moblin squealed as it was stabbed through the back, and fell dead right next to Nick. He looked up and saw Link standing there, the Master Sword all bloody.

"Thanks, Link."

"Yeah, yeah, no time for small talk." He jumped to the side to avoid yet another moblin and quickly slashed the beast from the bottom up. Nick had gotten up and killed off another creature with another thrust into its chest. Link and Nick continued to kill Moblin after Moblin. Link executed a spin attack and took off the heads of four Moblins at once. Meanwhile, Nick sidestepped out of the way of a spear and proceeded to cut off the creature's arm. Link disarmed another Moblin with a well-timed hit. He quickly finished off the creature, but was getting very impatient.

"Nick! We have to move forward! We can't waste any more time!" Nick nodded and ran after Link. The two ran through crowds of Moblins and Hylians. They were surrounded by the sounds of battle: the clashing swords, the blood curdling screams of agony, the battle cry of the victorious. The two Knights made it through the army of Moblins and came upon the Dinolfos and Lizalfos. They prepared for battle.

Aaron and Charles were doing very well themselves. They, too, had ended up next to each other, so they decided to fight together. The Moblins didn't stand much of a chance against the two friends and were thrown back. As the Moblins withdrew some, the two advanced. They soon were running toward their goal, the Spirit Temple. As the two ran, a random Moblin caught sight of them and stuck out his sword as they ran by. The blade cut across Aaron's left arm, leaving a nasty wound. Aaron yelled in pain and instantly turned to meet his attacker. The Moblin saw the hate in his eyes and was frozen to the spot as Aaron jumped into the air and brought the blade of his sword down on the its head. Aaron looked up to see three more Moblins surround him, but before they had a chance to do anything, two were taken out by arrows and the third had a sword sticking through it. Charles pushed the dead Moblin off his sword and he tied a piece of cloth around Aaron's injured arm.

"You going to be alright?" Charles yelled at him.

"Yeah, I'll be fine! Let's just keep moving!" With that said, Charles and Aaron ran up to the area where Link and Nick were.

Over on the right flank, William was finishing off a couple of moblins when he saw Link and Nick fighting Moblins, side by side. He decided that he would try to join them since his faction seemed to be handling themselves quite well. He began to walk over, always prepared for an attack. Off to his right, a Moblin yelled out a battle cry and charged him. William got down on one knee so that the creature's spear passed right over his head. Before the Moblin could defend himself, William shoved his sword upwards into the its chest. The squealing creature toppled over on William and his head hit off of a rock on the ground. He felt intense pain throughout his body. He needed to get up, but couldn't. So this is how it end's, huh? Some damn creature will come up to me and take off my head and I won't be able to stop them. Just then, the body of the dead Moblin was lifted up off of William. He was sure that it was another Moblin getting ready to deliver the last blow. Instead, it was one of his men who had followed him through the maze of bodies.

"Come on, Sir, you have to get up!" the young man said.

"Thank you." William got up and brushed himself off. "If you stick with me, I'll make sure you get a promotion." The man smiled widely and accepted William's offer. William looked around once again for Link and Nick and noticed that they had moved closer to the temple. "Well, son, let's get up there!" he shouted as he pointed ahead.

Link and Nick had finished off of a couple of Dinolfos when Aaron and Charles caught up to them.

"Hey, Link! Thought you could use some help!" Aaron called out.

"Greatly appreciated!" Link shouted back as he blocked a swing by one of the Dinolfos. The four Knights continued their relentless fighting and soon the Dinolfos and Lizalfos were no more. Each advanced on the temple, but were surprised by six Stalfos that seemed to jump out of nowhere. One of the Stalfos landed extremely close to Charles, who instinctively jumped back. It wasn't quite enough, though, as the Stalfos scored a slash across the Hylian's right leg. Charles fell over onto his face, and rolled out of the way of a downward thrust from the Stalfos. He was then able to get up and square off with the bony knight.

Link had finished off his foe fairly easily. After all, he had a lot of experience against those guys. Next to him, Aaron had just delivered the final blow to his opponent and the two caught each other's gaze. Without saying a word, they charged at the remaining two Stalfos, which had stayed back until now. The ferociousness that they attacked with left the Stalfos with no chance. Soon, both Knights dealt a crushing blow to their respective opponents and were ready to head inside the Spirit Temple. They ran as fast as they could for the entrance, but when they had reached the steps, they heard an ear-piercing scream and were instantly frozen in place.

"Son of a bitch!" Link said as best he could. "How could I have been so stupid?"

Aaron was confused. He had never experienced anything like this before in his life. "What. what's going on?"

"ReDeads. We can't move unless the spell is broken. Otherwise, they drain our life energy and we die."

The ReDeads drew closer and closer to their two frozen victims. They couldn't have cared less if they were told not to harm the Hero. Slowly, the ReDeads moved to grab their victims and Link couldn't help but think that it was the end. They moved their cold, bony fingers onto the victims and began draining their life energies.

William and his companion yelled their battle cry at the top of their lungs and came down on the two ReDeads. The spell on Link and Aaron was instantly broken and they each finished off their assailants. Link turned to see who had saved them.

"William! I knew you would come this far!" He said excitedly to his friend while patting him on the back. "Thanks a lot. I thought we were done for sure."

"Yeah, well, I try."

"Hey, who's this?" Aaron was looking at the mystery soldier.

"Oh," William began with a smile. "This is Richard. He saved my life back there, so I figured he'd be a good asset." Aaron nodded.

"And now, he helped save our lives. I believe we all owe him one. Good job, kid."

"Thank you, Sir."

Nick and Charles came running up after killing the remaining Stalfos and ReDeads. They too were introduced to the man that saved the lives of three of the greatest warriors. They were interrupted by Link.

"Come on! We have to go inside and rescue Zelda and the Sages!"

The six men walked into the Spirit Temple, leaving behind the still ongoing battle and the evil rain. These sounds faded away as they walked through the entrance.

"So I see that your Hero brought an army with him, eh?"

"I told you, you don't stand a chance!" Zelda shot back at him.

Ian began to laugh. "That is where you are mistaken, my dear Princess. The loss of my army means nothing to me. They were simply there to bring in Link peacefully. The only difference now is that he will be armed when he sees you trapped inside this Diamond. And he will still be powerless to do anything to stop it." He laughed even harder.

"He may not stop you by himself, but he's got great fighters with him!"

"Ah, I assume you're referring to the five other knights that have joined him. Ah, yes, Nick, Charles, Aaron, and William. I was counting on them being here too. This fifth man. I don't recognize him, but that is of no consequence! He will be strung up as well! Ganondorf would like a nice, big sacrifice when he returns."

Zelda looked at the man with hatred. Hatred she thought that she could never feel for anyone other than the Evil King himself. This man was as twisted as he was. Ian continued talking.

"Now, to make my job easier, I will give these adventurers some more creatures to battle through. Soon, only Link will be here, and he will not be able to defeat Ganondorf! You're time in this world is over, my dear Princess!" He began to laugh once again, and again, Ganondorf's laugh emanated throughout the room.