[center][h1][color=00aeef]Hyrule[/color][color=darkgreen]Warriors[/color][/h1][/center] [center][color=00aeef][b]Level 4[/b] [/color] - (15/40) + 3 [/center] [center][color=darkgreen][b]Level 8[/b][/color] - (78/80) + 3 [/center] [center]Word Count: 1600 [/center] [hr][hr] [center][h2][color=darkgreen]Linkle[/color][/h2][/center] [center][h3][color=red][b]Merge Rate:[/b][/color] 30% [/h3][/center] [center][color=darkgreen]Location[/color]: Frozen Highlands - Snowdin ~ Snowfield[/center] [@Lugubrious][@darkred] [hr] Panic briefly flashed across Linkle's face as the Stranger jumped once more, the force of his leap sending the crumbling ice he had been standing on into he depths below along with the hopes she'd had for her final ploy. That all stopped once she noticed the flurry of snow around her once again. He'd gone too high. He'd used the same trick twice, one that hadn't even worked the first time. She dodged out of the flurry, letting loose with a bombardment of his incredibly telegraphed landing zone. This time there wasn't any fumbling about on falling ice. This time the Stranger went right through like a cannonball careening out into the night, disappearing beyond her view. She almost jumped for joy. She would have if she hadn't heard a noise that wiped her triumph off her face. A thud, somewhere down there beyond the darkness. A landing. A single question racing through her mind: what was to stop him from jumping back up? Her. Her her her, it had to be her. She knew what she had to do, even if it seemed impossible to her. Falling to her knees and sliding forward toward the ravine she pressed her hands against the ice and snow. Her hair flashed blue. She took a deep breath, then went for broke. Power slid out of Linkle into the ice under her, along with a single command; Fill. She screamed the word in her head, pushing the icy haired warriors spirit as hard as she could. Around her the ice obeyed, the jagged edges on her side of the ravine rounding off before starting to branch out toward the other side. Inside the ravine the same thing began, wicked spikes of ice shooting out across the divide and impaling themselves into the opposite wall. Like vines ice grew out of them, twisting, connecting, merging with one another, until the top of the ravine was covered seamlessly with a span of ice. It was as though the ravine had never even been there. It wasn't enough, though. She couldn't just put a lid over him. Linkle dug deeper, pushing out more ice than she had ever tried before. To send it down. Grow, delve, deeper and deeper. Down into the crevasse. The ice jumped at her orders, growing from all sides straight downward. She wasn't going to cap the ravine, she was going to fill it in. The ice sprinted down along the walls, probing for every single nook and cranny that it could possibly fill and moving into the space. Linkle wasn't going to leave him with anything. No air to breath, no light to see, no space to even move those strong arms. Nothing but the dark and the crushing weight of the glacier. "Just. Wait. Your. Turn!" She breathed out as she put everything she had into this. Distantly, in the back of her mind, she could hear a woman laughing. She closed her eyes and powered through it, not even noticing the ice creeping up her arms. Not feeling the air as the ground actually started to rise. When the ice found no more space to fill below it started growing on top. By the time Linkle stopped and opened her eyes once more she found herself seated atop a mountainous crag of solid ice that loomed like the tomb of some ancient king over the ice field, her arms buried up to the elbows in the ice. She jerked back with a shot, the ice around her arms shattering. The only thing that kept her from tumbling off this new landmark was that her legs were in a similar situation as her arms, her thighs half trapped in the ice from where she had knelt. The reason for her surprise was simple. When she had opened her eyes she had been face to face with some kind of monster lurking on the other side of the ice. It only took her a moment of looking around her to realize her mistake. The mirror sheen of all this new ice mocked her with the truth. It was the first time she had actually seen herself since since the fight with Marie. She had expected herself to look pretty bad, she had seen the previous skullgirl, but there was a difference between knowing you probably look like a corpse and seeing yourself as a corpse. Her skin was pale, her eyes sunken, and even the blue hair she sported right now had lost the wintery sparkle she had grown fond of. Then there was the eyes. She could hardly see the laughing skull that inhabited them for the red glare her reflection cast back at her. It was no wonder the people at Grillby's hadn't given her a kind welcome, she looked like some kind of Dark Linkle. Then there was that empty feeling in her chest, it felt like more had fallen into the hole. There was no time for wallowing in self-conscious despair, though. Linkle cupped her ears and tried to listen to the world around her for cracking or pounding or shattering. Had this worked? This was more than even she had intended, but she wasn't going to complain if it kept him down there. If it didn't she would probably feel in in her legs before anything else. [hr][hr] [h2][center][color=00aeef]Link[/color][/center][/h2] [center][color=00aeef]Location:[/color] Limsa Lominscuttle Town ~ The Drowning Wench[/center] [@Yankee][@Dark Cloud] [hr] "But who's going to protect me if you're not around?" Link said jokingly as The Princess got up to leave, but didn't make any move to follow her. Even if he were still overly concerned for her safety she now had perhaps the biggest guy in the city to escort her around. "You would be very surprised about what bugs can do for you." Link replied to Ms. Fortunes doubts. "There are lots of benefits provided you brew them with the right ingredients. Crickets for stamina, dragonflies to shrug off fire and lightning, fireflies to make yourself sneakier, beetles for a boost of strength. After my hero days are behind me I could live off making elixirs just from stuff you can find out behind your house." The Cadet had his own answer to the question of where his strength sprang from, which was simple strength of arm and a hearty diet. Link wished he could be sure his came from the same place. He also added some details to Link's story of how he joined, and mentioned something that instantly intrigued Link as he sat the Dark Link statuette in the center of the table for all to admire. Link was surprised to hear that he had been equipped with arrows that could do that same thing during that battle, but before he got the chance to press further Ms. Fortune continued her story. His face hardened the woman reveled the source of her horrifically strange powers. He could imagine what it would be like to be sliced apart, he had taken enough hits with bladed weapons that were bigger than him to understand what that would feel like. Still, he gave a hearty 'Hear Hear!" As the woman pushed past her sorrow over her state and her family to order another round of food. He slammed the rest of his milk as The Cadet stood up and started packing up to leave, eyeing Link as he motioned to the statuette sitting on the table. Link reached over, holding it up to his face by the base. "Yeah, I can hold onto handsome here." With a flick of his wrist the Dark Link vanished in a plume of blue sparks, safely stored away in the Shiekah Slate. "Be careful on your way! Don't talk to any strange women." He called out after him as he left. After Cadet was gone Link handily started helping himself to the food he had left on the table, pulling up a plate of pasta with some kind of black sauce and digging in like he had been invited to. There was no need for food to go to waste. After her got done slurping that whole thing up in a matter of seconds he set down his fork and said, "If you see and of these Medici guys in this world make sure to tell us. I don't want to leave people like that to their own devices." It was around that time Blazermat pulled up a chair, asking what was going on. Frog showed an immediate interest in the mechanical girl, a curiosity that was mirrored by Link come to think of it. All he knew about her was that she was good at healing things and that Zelda would go absolutely mad if she ever laid eyes on her. He whipped out the Shiekah Slate again to take a quick picture of her to show the Princess in case something happened to Blazermate tomorrow. "We were just talking." He said as he tried to find her best side from his seat. There was a [b]SNAP[/b] as he took the picture. "I think the first question was about powers, which Frog never answered." He turned the camera on the amphibian and snapped two more pictures of his sword and shield. "What about it you two? Do your powers come from a special place? How did you get strong?" "Also!" He said, lowering the slate and looking to Blazermate. "Cadet said something about me having special arrows that turned you into statues when we fought at the tower. You were there for that fight, could you explain a little more about those? Do you think it would be possible to scavenge some? They sound useful."