Bard of the Wild (Chapter 18) (Patreon)

Two of Diahandla's little 'helper mouths' are upon us in an instant.

"It's been a while since we've legitimately fought something." I call out as I lunge forwards, deflecting the first aside with a swing of my sword.

I then drag my fingers on the strings of the Hyrule Aria, causing a bolt of lightning to strike the flower that I knocked away.

"Aurum! Haste!" Linkle calls out over the boom of a bolt of lightning arcing downwards and washing over the plant life in front of me.

"Fuck! You're right!" I shout back. "Haste!"

Everything slows down. The large open maw of the second head inching slowly towards me at a snails pace compared to what it was a moment ago.

I step to the side, splitting into two, this other version of myself lacking a lot of color and just in general being duller.

The plant passes in between us, being struck by another pelt of lightning.

With tremendous speed and grace I slash at the side of the plant.

"Coming through!" Linkle exclaims as I brace myself, a third bolt of lightning striking the head of another mouth that was coming to our platform.

Her foot comes to my shoulder, using me as a springboard to launch herself up into the sky.

She backflips once, drawing a sole hand crossbow from one of the holsters at her hips, five bolts drill into the head of our opponent in what seems like an instant, she draws the master sword, slashing downwards as she falls, carving a tremendous wound into the other side of the plant.

It falls still and slowly begins sliding back into the water, leaving a streak of green as Linkle quickly takes a step forwards and we stand back to back, gazing cautiously to the others. "So. Think it's dead?"

"Most things that take five shots to the top of the head and have their heads almost cut in half tend to die. But I'd be cautious just the same." She replies.

"That was really hot by the way." I compliment, glancing over my shoulder to the girl.

"Yeah? See! I'm not just a ranged fighter. I can be good in close quarters as well."

"I never said that you couldn't." I reply as I leap up, landing atop the back of a large plant as Linkle spins around, slashing her blade at its side and cutting a thin line in its hardened flesh.

I flip off it, landing just as my clone in the distance strums his copy of the Hyrule Aria.

A bolt of lightning strikes the plant just as I land, opening it up for Linkle and I to slash away at its sides like a pair of blenders. "Look, I'm sorry I pulled out the master sword. You pulled it out too! I just wanted to see if I was able to!"

"I'm not mad about that." She replies from the other side of the plant.

"Yes, you are!" I shoot back.

"I'm not mad! just..." She pauses briefly before shaking her head. "We'll talk about it after this plant fucker is mulch."

"Gotcha!" I nod as I stab my blade into the plant's side.

I place my foot on its side and pull it free with a grunt.

"Don't stab. I nearly got my sword stuck and if this thing dies and falls back into the water-"

"Bye bye master sword." The girl echoes as she turns lifting her hand crossbow, there's a faint hiss and a few sparks around the bulbous arrowhead.

'wait... a bomb-'

I duck just as the arrow soars over my shoulder, flying into the open maw of another one of the plants.

An explosion tears out of its side with a spray of green goo.

Oh! That was the one Linkle and I softened up earlier. That's why its side gave out so easily.

I give the remaining plants a confused expression as they all linger outside of our range, rising from the water like five cobras as they loom in front of the larger fat plant.

My eyes narrow slightly as they open their mouths.

I grab Linkle and dive behind the deceased head as something strikes my shoulder, I clutch her tightly against my chest as dozens of large seeds begin whizzing past us, each landing with small slightly blinding explosions, causing me to clench my eyes shut.

'deku seeds?!'

Our cover begins to get ripped and torn apart by the assault.

*BOOM*

The attack abruptly stops as a thunderclap echoes out.

It appears that my clone had used one of my thundercalls upon the grouped up plants.

Linkle and I break apart, going around the side of the plant- holy fuck...

More than half of the plant is gone in the brief seconds they shot.

They fired possibly hundreds of seeds at us. seemingly uncaring of accuracy, just valuing sheer speed.

As for why they didn't use this move earlier? Maybe they wanted food. And had they done that... there wouldn't have been much left to eat.

The larger plant at the center turns to where my clone had ended up, on another one of the four larger platforms after having parkoured across numerous little spires and bits of tech sticking out of the poisonous water like this is Sly cooper or something.

Its jaws open and a large glob of purple liquid shoots forwards.

My clone dodges it, but as it makes contact with the ground it detonates, creating a tremendous cloud of purple smoke.

"FUCK!"

"MALICE POISON?!" Linkle shrieks.

Alright, time to burn literally everything I have to take this fucker down.

Four copies sprout from me, lifting their lyres and beginning to play.

I feel a tremendous drain upon my body, it's almost as if I was playing the Song of Storms...

Then a curtain of lightning descends upon the plants.

Four lines of electricity descend upon the deku baba, the much larger one in the back spasming as the lightning seems to flow up its roots.

It appears that the poison has killed my first clone... that, or the fifty six seconds he was summoned had ended.

Using the current distraction I rush towards the side, streams of fire leaving Linkle's crossbow as she takes aim at the twitching plant life.

It appears the Sheikah village has been quite generous with some specialty ammunition, it wasn't just the three ancient arrows.

I leap out above the purple water, clearing considerable distance.

I carefully land atop one of the little spikes sticking out of the water, then jump again, more lightning striking the plant heads.

My eyes narrow at the twitching and thrashing main body of the Diahandla.

My gaze slowly turns upwards towards the head as the three flower petals seem to carefully surround its eye.

Ah. That might just work.

"Haste." I whisper again as the world around me begins to speed up again, returning everything to the slow crawl it was before.

I make my way across the water.

Now that I think about it, I could totally jump off the water if I really needed... it's called the 'leaf bounding art', meaning I could jump off a fluttering leaf in the air, water tension would be nothing to me.

I make my way behind the plant as my clones continue to distract the numerous heads.

There's another explosion that blows up one of the five deku baba heads, a small smile appearing on my lips as I leap up, bounding up the spikey back of the large plant, I eventually reach the top, slashing down at the head of the fat plant.

With two swings I manage to cleave entirely through the topmost petal, Diahandla shrieking under my feet as I leap to the side, its large sickly black eye with a Sauron-like fiery orange pupil glaring at me hatefully.

It buckles slightly, launching me off its back with an angry shriek.

Four bolts of lightning strike it as it turns to look at me, causing its attention to snap elsewhere.

I land in the poisonous water with a small splash, the water rippling outwards in all directions.

Before I can sink more than an inch or so into it, however, I jump and quickly begin making my way across its surface.

'ow- fuck- it's burning quite a bit actually.'

I land atop one of the sheikah objects protruding the flooded room, then with a flip and a casting of prestidigitation, I remove the poisonous water which had begun to seep into my shoes.

I turn and leap away at high speeds as the plant spits a glob of malice at me, the eye burning with hatred as it glares down at me.

I manage to narrowly escape the blast radius of the poison orb, landing on one of the four large platforms surrounding the outside of the room.

My eye flicks to the side to see that it appears Linkle has downed the five remaining heads from the support of my four clones.

The flower opens slightly, but, that appears to be a poor decision for it, as a bolt strikes it in the eye,

An explosion of ice clings to its face as it sways back and forth, I rush forwards towards it yet again, looking for some sort of weak point as the plant thrashes around.

Seeing none, I simply leap up and carve a small gash in its side, green blood seeping from the wound.

Renewed vigor fills my body as one of my four clones begin playing their harp, the remaining three rushing forwards to join me in cutting large bloody wounds on the stem of our enemy.

The Diahandla manages to break free from the ice trapping its head, but the instant that it does, a second arrow re-freezes it.

Myself and my clones begin to slowly climb the outside of the plant as we attack, it lets out small shrieks of pain as it swings its body around, but it struggles to get rid of us

I land on one of its large leaf-like scales that had begun to roll up at the tip then with another casting of bladed dash, I lunge upwards.

A deep gouge is carved in the plant's neck, followed shortly by three more.

Its bulb hangs by just a thread, but that doesn't matter as a large crossbow smacks into its head and detonates.

A hellish shriek fills the room as the head of the plant is removed from its body via the force of the blast.

It falls into the poisonous water below... then...

Nothing.

Its body begins to quickly wither and decay, it's like a wave of death slowly washes out, destroying the vines and roots which had been clinging to every object.

I land atop the water again and quickly make my way back to Linkle, cleaning my feet yet again.

I glance to the side to the quest objectives.

Slay the Diahandla: [x]

I let out a few panting breaths. "Hoo boy. That Nausea is starting to get worse."

"Aurum! You're bleeding!" Linkle gasps

I reach over my shoulder, patting my back.

I let out a low hiss as a small lance of pain pierces my body.

"Fuuuhhhh." I sigh as I begin to channel healing magic.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

"I'm... I'm fine." She nods quietly, a hidden emotion deep within her tone. Some sort of distress, anger and even a little guilt.

I roll my shoulder as I run out of first level spells, there's still quite a lot of tension in my shoulder, but it's nothing I can't fix later.

I sweep Linkle off her feet and quickly hop towards the disintegrating plant body, pausing just on the edge of the lip beside the final slate port.

Linkle in my arms Quietly plugs the sheikah slate into the port, then with a dull chime, the ground shakes and shudders slightly, I nearly lose my balance but manage to grab onto the console.

Then the lights above us abruptly turn off, casting us into shadow.

A scrolling bar of text crosses our vision.

"Entering Power Save mode."

"..."

I turn my head, gazing down into the purple water around us.

A quest has been completed!

"Well... let's get back to Purah, yeah?"

**Linebreak**

We trudge out of the mist, frankly it looks to be slowly clearing up already.

Or at least, there was no more mist flowing from the purple water.

Who knows how long this stuff will linger, but it feels less suffocating.

We stagger back into the great deku tree's clearing, exhausted from our little dungeon delving, even with how brief it was.

It's actually a little unnatural for us to be so out of breath right now.

Poison perhaps?

"You have returned" the great deku tree observes. "Were you successful in your endeavors?"

"Yeah." Linkle nods. "We seem to have turned off Vah Marak."

"Vah Marak?!" Purah gasps, quickly stepping over to us. "Tell me! Come on tell me about it. What's this thing on your arm?! Oh my gosh a grappling hook?!"

Linkle squirms as she is promptly hassled by the overexcited scientist.

"This is genius!" Said white haired woman gasps only to lean forwards slightly. "Though... merely from a cursory look, I can see five unique ways I would improve it."

"Oh..." Purah blinks as her gaze flicks between Linkle and myself. "You've been poisoned, by the way, if you don't realize."

"Yeah..." I nod slowly. "How bad is it?"

"Oh, it's not that bad. You'll fully recover in a few days or so... I had noticed that after you had left the mist seemed to be poisonous, but it wasn't really that potent... not enough to worry, at least... or that's what I thought... to put it into perspective, what you are feeling now? It's as if you spent weeks out in the mist. This sort of tiredness and nausea you feel wouldn't normally affect you unless you breathed nothing but the mist for days at a time."

"I assume that the mist was either thicker or more volatile close to the source?" She asks.

Linkle tiredly nods, letting out a small yawn. "There was an entire store room there that we couldn't look through due to the mist... once it's cleared up a bit, we should see about going back there."

"You're asking me to explore a divine beast?" Purah asks with a slightly maddened glint in her eye. "Whaaat? No! I couldn't possibly!"

"..."

"Okay! You've won me over!" She seems to shudder with excitement.

She looks to Linkle's sparkshot once more. "Can I take this to mess around with?"

"Sure." The hero of Hyrule shrugs, slipping it off her arm of handing it over.

"You're the best, Linkle!"

"Mhm." Said blonde rolls her eyes as she steps around the sheikah woman, walking towards the deku tree.

She places her hands on her knees and heaves for a moment. "Hoooh. Oh boy."

She looks up a moment later. "So, Deku tree. I've got a question for you... were there any other Deku Trees?"

"What do you mean?" The plant questions.

I step up beside her. "She means, like, do you remember any other giant sentient trees? Cause the Divine Beast was parked pretty much directly underneath the stump of a tree that honestly... looks a bit bigger than you are now."

"I... do not recall any." The tree denies with a small rumbling shake of its head that causes little blossoms to flutter downwards. "But... I have only been around for... maybe two thousand years. It is certainly possible that there were other trees like myself before my time."

"We also found a girl trapped in amber. She has green hair and a leaf cape. She seemed badly poisoned, but she was... alive?" My companion mutters quietly in confusion.

Purah whirls around to face us. "WOAH WOAH WOAH! You are telling me that you found someone who might possibly be thousands of years old?!"

"She's both trapped in amber and badly poisoned. Not exactly in a position to speak." Linkle reaffirms.

"We have to go save her! For science!" Purah demands.

"She's not getting any older... or any more poisoned. Let's take a breather for a bit, alright? I'm basically spent magic-wise." I state.

"I'm with him. I want to lay down on some soft moss and close my eyes for a bit." Linkle agrees.

"If you walk towards your left, there is a small indent in a hill that might have what you wish." The great deku tree informs, causing our gaze to slide to the side.

"Thanks." Linkle waves. "I'm going to go lay down for a bit."

"Mhn." I agree with a slow nod as we both turn and walk in the direction the great deku tree has guided us.

"So." I begin after a long moment, Linkle taking a seat on a large rock

"Hm?" She hums, glancing over.

"We mulched that guy, so let's talk."

"There's really nothing to talk about." The girl weakly tries.

"Linkle." I deadpan. "What's wrong."

"Ffff... fine." She grumbles, bringing her knees up to her chest. "I don't know how I feel, Aurum... I feel sad, mad, disgusted, happy, frustrated.... I-"

"I'm wondering if I'm actually a hero that's meant to save anyone."

"Linkle..." I whisper as I take a seat next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "You are a hero."

"Am I?!" She snaps, letting out a shaky breath. "In the time we have been together... what have I saved? Who have I saved?! What have I done?!? You saved me from Kohga, You woke up and protected me from that Yiga assassin, You defeated that Yiga blade master, I was only able to pull out the master sword because of You, and YOU killed the Diahandla."

She lets out a quiet sniffle as tears prickle in her eyes. "I-I... I've been told I'm the hero that is meant to seal the calamity... the one that will save Hyrule ever since I pulled this stupid sword from the ground! But ever since I woke up... I've been useless. You pulled the master sword free from its pedestal, you killed the malice infused fucking flower. Every step of our journey, I-I... I feel like I'm just holding you back! You always get hurt protecting me! You can use magic, you have your sheikah arts... I-I'm just a sidekick... no. Worse than a sidekick. I-I look at you... a-and I feel jealous and that makes me sick to my stomach! I-I I can't stand it! I hate that I feel that way!"

"Linkle..." I breathe, wiping a tear from her cheek. "Look at me. You are not worthless. You will never be worthless. Don't ever say that about yourself again."

"But what have I done to help?! A-Am I just eye candy to you... do... do I really have no other purpose but to relieve you when you feel pent up?!" She whispers.

"Linkle... the Golden Bokoblin."

She stares down at the floor mutely as I continue on.

"I never would have been able to kill it. You alone made that entire battle possible due to your incredible accuracy. Plus, you have connections. Something that I don't. Frankly, I sort of doubt I'd even be saving Hyrule right now if it wasn't for you... you are the hero of Hyrule. Frankly... it's probably my fault that most of this stuff is even happening... without me, Kohga would have never been able to find you using my Triforce of magic. There would also be no assassin to break into the Sheikah village as he wouldn't even know you were awake yet."

"But, because of you, Purah got the Triforce of Knowledge... meaning that she was able to return herself and Impa back to her prime... thanks to you, we knew about the Diahandla and the existence of the other divine beasts... and, well, even the Tri force."

"And without you I'd be wandering around aimlessly without any sort of guiding hand... you are... frankly one of the only people I care about on a deeper level, Linkle... Probably just you and Purah. Paya is nice, but I've only spoken like three sentences to her and Impa is frankly a hardass."

Linkle looks a little dejected. "I... okay..."

I stare at the side of her head as she rests it upon my shoulder.

I close my eyes, take a deep breath then exhale. "The masks of unity gives its users a prodigious learning curve when it comes to things that the other wearer is good at... if you feel inadequate... alright then. Let's make a genuine effort to teach you my sheikah arts... to teach you how to control your time magic."

"You can already manipulate time..." The girl mutters.

"No- well, I mean technically yes- but that's a Humongous difference. Sure, it's similar as it speeds us up, but when you leapt up... you shot five times in what seemed like an instant. If you figure out how to do that normally... hell, do that at will. Who cares about my Sheikah arts, or my ability to change the weather... that's approaching time stopping territory Linkle. That is so strong."

"You said that I seemed stronger than you, but that's mainly because my abilities are numerous and flashy. The main difference here is you could learn to do all of what I do. But when you shot, despite the mask of Unity sharing my spells... it didn't share that moment of slowed time. Even with haste activated, it was a blink and miss it sort of thing, so if you were able to make use of that ability..."

She looks up to me slowly, her eyes slightly reddened.

I tilt her chin up and plant a gentle Kiss on her lips. "If you figure it out... you'd be stronger than I ever could on my own."

With that, she takes my hand and pulls me down, wrapping my arms around her body as she nestles herself up against my chest.

A quiet whisper leaves her lips. "Okay..."

A small smile forms on my face, seeing that her mood has been improved.

Pulling the sword out was a mistake. Definitely.

I'll see about letting her get any of the other four master swords.

Seeing that we are now resting, I open my quest screen, my gaze slowly trailing the words before me.

Cleanse Vah Marak:
For thousands of years it has lain dormant, a vile curse has infested these halls. Now it comes to you to remove this taint that has caused so much pain.

Objective:
Explore Vah Marak: [x]
Slay the Diahandla: [x]

Bonus Objectives:
Take no damage while exploring Vah Marak: [-]

Reward: 30,000 Exp, One Third Party Bard spell of any level you can currently cast added to your spell list.

Hold on...

I got fucking what as a reward?

Well, I mean, first off, thirty thousand experience. That's enough to level up.

That means fourth level spellcasting, plus I learn another second level spell.

What should I take?

Huh? I've never seen this spell before... Dousing Rain?

Extinguish fires in a small ten foot area, granting everything within five fire resistance that improves by five for every six caster levels I have?

It also causes electricity to deal more damage...

One whole point worth- plus one for every six caster levels.

That's sort of interesting, I guess. Incredibly weak, but interesting.

Anyways, I'm going to take invisibility. Then for my fourth level spells...

Oh? That is... convenient.

Neutralize Poison.

Take that for green haired girl, then...

Hm... this sort of tough...

I could take 'Secure Shelter' to summon a stone house pretty much at will. The only downside being the ten minute casting time. I could take 'Break Enchantment' to remove curses and stuff, Wall of sound is a pretty good spell to deflect arrows and trap enemies.

Well, not so much trap as burst their eardrums as they run through it.

It also blocks arrows, debris, and 'small flying creatures' so, like... Keese.

Rainbow Pattern is also pretty good... where I summon just like... a orb of light that I can move and creatures begin to have their attention grabbed and will follow it.

I could see some combos with Linkle... like have her put down a sheikah bomb, then I get some bokoblins to gather around it.

Eh, I suppose I have some time to think about it... plus, there's the third party spell to worry about. Those are fun. Basically homebrew.

Some are utterly broken, others are criminally weak.

I nuzzle my head in the crook of Linkle's neck, silently reading the screen in front of me. 'What to choose... oh what to choose.'