[center][h2][color=blue]Hyrule[/color] [color=darkgreen]Warriors[/color][/h2][/center]

[center][color=blue][b] Level 1[/b][/color] - (6/10) + 6 [/center]
[center][color=darkgreen][b] Level 7[/b][/color] - (59/70) + 6 [/center]

[center][b]Location:[/b] [color=purple]The End[/color]
[b]Word Count: 1991[/b]
[/center]
[@Archmage MC][@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN][@ProPro][@Yankee]
[hr]

Linkle kept her eyes down as her companions finished off the teleporting monsters that had already been triggered to avoid disrupting the fights by drawing any attention to herself from either these monsters or the ones that were probably still lurking on the islands up ahead. The Courier's gunshot, firing off close as it was, made her flinch and sent her ears to ringing. When the ringing ended the sounds of battle had gone with it.

The Princess, as always, laid out their situation. The uncharted void that existed all around them was a problem for anybody that wasn't capable of traversing the air safely, but while Peach's concerns were mostly focused on them being thrown off by the enemy Linkle was equally worried about traversal. They had to go across that series of floating islands to even get to the boss platforms and they had some people along that weren't suited to that sort of island hopping, herself included if she didn't have a partner to help her. She briefly considered making a bunch of ice bridges, but that would be more like a series of slippery ice slopes that would send you sliding into the void if you weren't careful. That's why when Peach offered the monsters spirits Linkle had an idea!

"You got it, Princess." She said as she stepped forward and plucked the Enderspirit out of her hand. She looked confidently back at the group. "This way I can team jump the rest of you across the platforms and then teleport after you. Here..." She bent down and picked up one of the cucco's milling about at her feet, looked around the group for the ones she thought might be least capable of doing the jumps, then tossed the bird underhand like a volleyball to Geralt. It fluttered through the air, keeping itself surprisingly aloft, before settling down either in his arms or on his shoulder. "You could even hold those for a safer descent. Trust me, they're really strong." She bent down and tossed another at the Cadet. "I used to jump off my roof holding these back home, never even got a bruise." She was about to toss the last one to Gaige-Tron, but stopped and looked down to lock eyes with the suddenly very nervous cucco. "Well, maybe not that strong." She said, throwing the last one to the Courier. "Just remember to throw them back if someone was behind you in line."

Of course the Princess didn't need to travel by Linkle power, she just floated along through the air. Tora and Poppi went together, Euden transformed into a dragon and took off, and Jak was already headed out. So with no time left to waste Linkle brought the spirit up, said a quick "thank you" in place of the usual ceremony she reserved for spirits, and plunged the spirit into her chest.

The effects were immediate and extraordinary as Linkle began to grow.


[center][hider=Linkle Acquired]
[center][b]Enderman[/b][/center]

Linkle's grown half again in height, making her 1.5x taller. Her arms and legs are much longer, her fingers lightly clawed, and overall she's much more slender. Her eyes are bright purple, her mouth can open unnaturally wide, and the base half of all of her hair is black. Confers the Power [b]Warp[/b], which allows her to teleport to any spot she can see inside of the range of a thrown stone. Doing so does not damage her, but there's a short period of disorientation that makes quick repeated warps risky. Also confers the Power [b]One of Us[/b], which makes Endermen consider her an ally and allows her to communicate with them. Confers the Weakness [b]Eye Shy[/b], which triggers her fight-or-flight response when an intelligent life-form looks at her. Also confers the Weakness [b]Hydroanathematic[/b], which causes her to take damage from external water exposure

[/hider][/center]

Linkle shook herself off as the Endermans spirit came to rest within her. The first thing she noticed was that she was seeing the world from a new height again, which was immensely satisfying. "All right, everybody that wants to ride the Linkle express line uuuuuuuuaaaaaAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The second thing she noticed was the sheer weight of all the [b][i]eyes[/i][/b] on her. So many. To many! To many people were just [b][i]looking[/i][/b] at her. To many, way to many, to gouge all of them out. She stood there, her mouth the only thing not paralyzed in primordial terror, screaming as loud as she could. As she did her mouth went wider and wider until it seemed like her gums should be tearing themselves apart and then went past that as though she were some kind of snake person. 

Then the screaming stopped as Linkle vanished out from under the groups sight, the last echos of it disappearing into the void. There were a few moments of silence, then a soft and relieved "Sorry," came from a figure a little ways away from the group, huddled up on the ground so you could only see the green of her cloak. "They really don't like when somebody looks at them, huh? Wow." She tried to sound casual, but it was clear to anyone listening that Linkle was trying to get her bearings back. Slowly she started to scootch her way across the yellow rock to the edge of the platform. "I think this can still work, just don't everybody show up at once. Try not to look at me, just run up and step on my back and I'll throw you."

Whether or not anyone took her up on the offer she would just teleport by herself. As she scootched she thought about these poor things, and what it meant to have one of them in her head. What a terrible way to live, being that angry and afraid from something as simple as being looked at. It wasn't something she could even conceive of, a completely foreign emotion that nonetheless now belonged to her. It reminded her of how angry she'd gotten back in Lumbridge and the casino. She'd been ignoring that, putting it down to stress, but after the starkness of the endermans pain she had to wonder whether that one was entirely her either.

[hr]

"It would bee my honor." He said quickly in response to the bug queens offer. He didn't have any other choice, really. It was a Royal offer, and some of the few clear memories he had were of just how much of a pain royalty could make your life if they were feeling slighted. Besides, without his paraglider he didn't have too many other options. Even if he did the islands that were higher up would be a difficult trick without Revali's Gale, which he could only assume had been stripped from him as well.

As he tried to decide whether she wanted to carry the two of them or expected them to mount up, Peach came along to offer the Spirits of vanquished foes. That Linkle girl again stepped forward eagerly, and offered up her own idea of how to cross the islands. He didn't know what a Team Jump was, but the way she said it was so full of confidence he couldn't help but think it would work. At least until she did the spirit fusion.

Link had seen it once before, when the Cup had done it, and at first it didn't seem like as dramatic of a change. Different colored hair, noodlier limbs, fairly normal. The glowing eyes were a bit worrying, but otherwise she seemed fine until she opened up her mouth. At first he thought that she was dying or going insane, but she seemed to calm down considerably after she jumped out of the middle of the group. He wanted to go over and comfort her, but thought better of it. If that monster had imparted its neurosis onto her that might just make her feel worse. Besides, with the others already underway toward danger they didn't have that kind of time.

He took the hand she offered and climbed up into her waiting palm, and they took off toward the middle island. While up in the sky he got a good look at the spires surrounding the island and the valuable looking cubes that sat at their zeniths. He kept them in the back of his mind, just in case they turned out to be important. The spires themselves look a little too smooth to climb himself, but he might be able to employ the help of hero royal majesty again if it came to that.

He slid out of her hand as she settled down on the island and joined up with the group as they headed for the center.

[hr]

As they traveled to their destination Linkle focused on how happy that the cucco’s didn’t trigger the monster’s feelings. Neither, it seemed, did the other monsters. More than once she’d been the last one on one of the islands and caught the things looking at her oddly or caught one in the middle of carrying a chunk of that yellow stone. She’d waved at it and to her surprise it hadn’t attacked her despite her stares, just teleported away stone and all.

She’d tried that afterwards with one of the Cucco’s, but she didn’t think the bird had enjoyed the trip at all. For her part, neither did Linkle. It was a kind of sick, lurching feeling that left her dizzy at the end of it. That feeling might go away with practice, but if she was being honest with herself Linkle didn’t think she’d have this spirit for very long.

As they arrived at the big island Linkle held back from the rest of the party for her own comfort. Up ahead she could hear Bowser shouting something about finding a door and started looking around from where she was before she suddenly felt eyes on her. Two purple lights revealed themselves in the distance, something she didn’t have time to process were eyes before the Dragon was upon them.

 It was massive, more impressive than any dragon Linkle had ever seen, and yet it was so difficult to actually see. It blended so well that it was hard to tell where the dragon ended and the pillar it had wrapped itself around began. More importantly it was completely outside of her range up there.

Not her new friends, though.

In a puff of spectral smoke Imani appeared, her crossbow already aimed in the direction of the beast. “Hello Grenn.” She said, sizing the creature up through her scope.

“The purple spots are the eyes.” Linkle told her.

“Already on it.” The Striker replied, sighting the area between the two dots of purple. She wasn’t able to get a shot off, though, before the dragon swooped down on the main group. Biting off a curse the sniper readjusted, tracing the creature and launching the shot she’d been charging since she appeared into the creature's neck before vanishing. Linkle and the cuccos had already started running to the side in case the creatures charged carried it through where they were.

[hr]

Link had never fought a dragon. There had been Naydra, but it hadn’t exactly been her trying to kill him and besides that you couldn't really call what he’d done with them fighting. He had “fought” three dragons in the same sense that a mosquito fights a Hylian. No, less than that, because a Hylian would be aware of a mosquito and he wasn’t sure any of them had ever known he was there. All that fire, ice, and electricity thrown his way could have just been something that had given off naturally.

To say he felt a little inadequate to be facing this monster was an understatement. He had two swords, a beat up shield, and the weirdest bow he had ever held. This was a bit much for battle number 2. So he pulled out his sword, raised his shield, and watched for the moves the others made to see if he could support them. Unfortunately the moves he saw were foolhardy attempts to body block the beasts bulk, but fortunately cooler heads were already on the case. The turnip man's companion grabbed him up, and Bowers' minions worked together to scoop up their lord and pull him to safety. Link ran up and lent his strength to that effort as he felt the wind rush of the beast as it passed. 

Sheathing his weapons, Link tore the bow from his back, the arrow appearing in his hand even as he turned and trained it on the beast's back and fired. It would seem piddly next to what Boswer’s son was pulling off, but every little bit helped. Who knew, he might break off one of this dragon's scales for his trouble.