[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/zwmtO3n.png[/img]
[color=ed1c24]Level 7 - EXP 36/70[/color]
The Midnight Walk - Spire 04
[b]Word Count:[/b]5571 +7EXP [/center]
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[center][h3]Vs Belial, Sword-bearing Cancer[/h3]
Edward’s [@DracoLunaris] Ganondorf’s [@Double] Ace Cadet’s [@Yankee], Tenna’s [@XoXKieroBombXoX]
[b]Word Count: 5571[/b][/center]

The bright headlamp was a dead giveaway on just what it was that had snuck up on the Seekers, a mane of flowing fleshy tendrils behind it giving the Naytiba the impression of an ominous will-o'-wisp. At least until it stepped forward, and the edges of its massive swords caught the light. With his rifle still equipped the Ace Cadet had been in the group's back line, and he whipped around when said light fell over the group to find Belial, the Seekers' escaped assailant.

[color=salmon]"It's that monster that got away!"[/color] he exclaimed, though given Belial's intellect and the recording they'd just heard the simple term [i]monster[/i] might not do it justice.

[color=797979]”...Good!”[/color] Ganondorf grunted, brandishing his great swords. He was getting exactly what he hoped for after all. And this time, he had no intention of letting the Naytiba escape again. Even if that meant calling on Brother Moon itself…

[color=fff200]“SHHHHHHOW TIME!”[/color] Tenna interjected needlessly. Honestly, it seemed like he just wanted to announce himself.

[color=ea590c]”Going right, get clear!”[/color] Edward yelled in warning before he hauled on the reins with a bark of [color=ea590c]”Yah”[/color] and got the shieldrix moving. He aimed to take a wide bank towards the side of the room in order to get their transport around and behind the rear threat rather than having it stuck in between hunter and hammerer.

As he did this, he marked the Belial, prompting the Snoruyo rearguard to form ice crystals in their round hands and to hurl them towards the foe, an attack joined by a shot of flames launched by the traffic crab riding shotgun next to the Dreadnaught.

In reply, Belial raised its mechanical left arm and began to rotate its hand at high speed as it stepped forward, using the motion of its limb to offset the weight of its metal swordblade as its whirl intercepted the hot and cold elements, which canceled each other out.

The Iron Golems had to hold position up front, waiting for the coach to get out of the way and avoiding clogging the left way past it, but the Chillanth allowed no such delays. Instead it leapt clear over the stage coach and crashed down beside the Snoruyo. 

Not far away, Ace was making use of Edward's marking himself. He wasted no time in firing on the crimson Naytiba, having dropped into a kneeling position for better stability and accuracy. The first time they'd fought it he hadn't noticed any particularly weak spots that they could exploit, and the same was true now. In fact, it appeared just as healthy as when it had ambushed them earlier despite the beating they'd given it even before it had plummeted a few stories. [color=salmon]"Looks like it patched itself up!"[/color]

His shots pinged off Belial’s guard a moment before the Naytiba dropped its guard in order to ready its right-hand sword like a throwing axe. Its white light turned red, and the next second its sinew swordblade hurtled through the air toward Ace, its combined speed and size making for a terrifying projectile. The move caught the hunter off guard, not expecting it to sacrifice part of its own body in such a way. It was only the distance between them when Belial threw its bladed limb that saved the Cadet from being cleaved apart - his eyes widened and he ducked into a roll to one side, feeling the air rush by in the wake of the sword's path. It embedded itself in the floor just behind where he'd been a moment ago. 

Belial then held out its biological right arm and proved it was not a sacrifice at all, regenerating a new sword in about a second, the weapon not so much equipment as an extension of its body. Then it charged, combining the metal and meat swords into a single, immense curved greatsword even taller than itself. It leaped, swinging the greatsword in a massive revolving cleave at the Chillanth, which left streaks of red lightning as it carved through the air. Then Belial sprang up as it continued its spin to plunge the blade through one Snoryu and into the ground. After a brief moment, the biomass injected into the ground burst up through the floor again as fleshy barbs the size of scimitars in an area around it.

While the Chillanth was sent reeling and bleeding, the unassuming Snoryu raised its hands towards the incoming blow, and formed a protective barrier off which the penetrating blow glanced. The bloody blade still struck the ground however, and a moment later all the impossible creatures were ravaged by the bloody blades striking up from the floor.

This was not a war they could win, and their creator knew it. 

[color=ea590c]”Fall back! Double team and fall back!”[/color] Edward shouted from the stagecoach now circling past them, the man thrusting out a finger as he gave the command, giving the squad of Snoryu a burst of speed to act. With their stubby legs, the skirmishers certainly needed it, even as their numbers doubled as a result of them all using double-team. Belial attacked with a flurry of slashes, never aiming for an illusion more than once, but it still managed to hit only one Snoryu.

The gaggle of grunts with the Chillanth at their head hurried towards the approaching line of iron golems, which opened gaps in their shield wall through which they could pass, if they could make it. 

Not at all shaken up by the near miss of Belial's sword throwing, Ace did his best to cover the lot of them - including himself as he moved towards the Naytiba, preparing to put himself into melee with the monster once again, his clutch claw primed and the hilt of his swords ready to be drawn. He didn't rush into it, his approach measured to account for the possibility that Belial turned on him and closed the distance itself. He ran through what items he had on him that could possibly help -[i]could it be blinded if it saw out of the spotlight? was its body susceptible to certain elemental energies? how many healing options did he have left to share?[/i]- while plugging Belial with the piercing rounds. 

Belial had launched a sweeping slash to trip up a fleeing Snoryu when Ace’s shots sank into its fleshy right side, each giving a small spurt of blood. Its spotlight pivoted his way, and after ruthlessly kicking the fallen creature at one of the iron golem’s shields, Belial strode the hunter’s way. It extended its metal sword, pointing it at him, then couched both blades at its sides and bent forward, arms crossed. The next second it launched forward in a dash that ended in a scissor slash, covering a huge horizontal area.

Tenna had to react fast to remove Ace from this situation. With a cartoonish scratch on the chin, he snapped his finger as a photo of a lightbulb appeared comically over his head. Within seconds, Tenna had split into 12 Tennalings and Barrel-of-Monkeys’d himself to the tail end of the stagecoach. The frantic movement of Edward’s Shieldrixes whipped the chain of mini Tennas around wildly, though at the very tail end of it, one of the TV host’s likenesses reached out its tiny hand, as if insinuating for Ace to grab hold. Huh… Strangely enough, the hooked Tennas actually looked like a long rope. With little time to question it the hunter took the tiny Tenna's hand, holding fast as he was whipped nearly clear of the Naytiba's attack. As wide as it was, the edge of its blade clipped Ace's own crimson one on the ends of his rigging as he flared it out. It was a hasty defence, but it worked to prevent a nasty slice into his side, even if it had taken a chunk of one rigging wing in return.

[color=ea590c]”No! Keep it away!”[/color] Edward shouted back, but things were already in motion. They were going to be chased. So best to put things in the way of that chase 

[color=ea590c]”Drop a wall”[/color] he commanded the traffikrab justuring over the side of the driver’s seat. After a moment of confusion, the monster complied, sacrificing some of its health to form a wall of plastic bricks that was swiftly left in the dust. He shifted the stage coach’s path such that this wall was then in between it and the incoming Belial. He could only hope that Tenna would be able to get Ace over it in time.

He then made the Shieldrixes keep going in a straight line while he commanded his feather staff striker to heal the impossible creatures, while he himself grabbed his [url=https://i.imgur.com/JEFlHdB.png]Mag Launcher[/url] and started to load a magazine of its intended ammunition into it.

Ganondorf, by contrast, had seen all he needed to see. He refrained from acting immediately so he could gauge how much Belial had recovered since the previous encounter - and to stall for the time he ultimately needed. And when it looked like the Naytiba was at full strength again, the Gerudo remained behind as the stagecoach put distance between itself and the erected wall. Ganondorf knew well enough that the plastic wall wouldn’t hold for long. And so he intended to be there to give Belial a nasty welcoming party.

The Warlord summoned his Moblins, all preparing to loose Fire Arrows as he also re-summoned Phantom Ganon to help him launch what he intended to be a pincer attack against Belial as soon as the Naytiba cleared or breached the wall. [color=797979]”You won’t escape me this time!”[/color] Ganondorf barked, almost as a war cry as he and Phantom Ganon lunged for their attacks. Ganondorf went at Belial from the front while Phantom Ganon flew around around to lung from the flank with N Corp’s Nail intending to inflicting bleeding on Belial’s fleshy bits while Ganondorf’s Acidic Great Sword could deal additional acid damage on top of it’s slashes.

After Ace narrowly escaped bisection thanks to Tenna’s ludicrous but timely rescue, Belial prepared to give chase to the fleeing stagecoach. The sudden appearance of a bright red plastic brick wall meant that Tenna needed to get over it, and after seeing that, the Naytiba saw no reason to waste time breaking through. It ran a short way, following the Seekers back into the space center’s more well-lit Sector 2, then leaped high enough to use the barrier as a stepping stone. As it crested the wall, it saw Ganondorf, as well as Phantom Ganon going the other way. It could not stop its momentum, which resulted in a full volley of fire arrows to its upper body, but it could combine its blades into a single, massive curved greatsword that it plunged into the ground as it descended.

As sinewy bone barbs sprouted from the floor around Belial, the two Ganons’ attacks hit home, resulting in a withering trade. All three reeled for a split second, but by the time tainted blood hit the ground, the battle was on. Belial did not hesitate at all to abandon its stagecoach chase to give the warlord its full attention, perhaps reasoning that it would be most effective to exterminate its prey one at a time. It split its sword, then struck back with a series of wild slashes at both Ganons, any semblance of defense forsaken as it savagely vied to kill them.

[color=ea590c]”At last”[/color] Edward said, mostly to himself, as the king drew Belial’s full attention, giving him the time he needed to get the stage coach fully out of danger, and to pull his troops back too. His striker had managed to stem any bleeding out, but they were still not going to be of any use in this fight.

In terms of active intervention, the dreadnaught used Designate Target on their singular foe once more right as the blows were traded. This boosted the Ganondorfs’ damage by 25%, and refreshing/increasing the stacks of Marked up to 4, giving anyone who wanted to try to shoot into that melee 40% more accuracy against their desired target.

It was something that Ace planned to take advantage of again, but before that he wanted to take the time afforded to them while Ganondorf held off Belial to strategize a little. They could probably fight the crimson Naytiba to a stalemate until the other Seekers were finished and came as reinforcements, but it would be even better if they could find a way to take Belial down before then.

First he pat one of the little Tennas on the head and offered a quick, [color=salmon]"thanks for the save, Tenna."[/color] The cheerful miniature Tenna grinned happily as he fused back into his whole self again.

Then Ace glanced at Edward, flashing him first a little apologetic smile for the close call with the coach before he got down to business. For this battle they'd traded out Sandalphon for him and the hunter wanted to make sure the other man knew exactly what they were dealing with.

[color=salmon]"This thing's smart enough to understand and adapt to us, on top of its speed, and strength. And if it can heal itself... we gotta find a way to put a stop to that, or slay it in one go. Neither's really my forte,"[/color] he said. [color=salmon]"But if we're gonna come up with a plan it's gotta be when it's too distracted to hear us, like now - otherwise I'm just gonna try throwing everything I've got at it and see what works."[/color]

Tenna chimed in with a suggestion. [color=ed1c24]“Earlier, when that [color=662d91]MONSTER[/color] had attacked us, I was able to keep it staggered by stunning it over and over!” [/color]The CRT scratched his chin. [color=ed1c24]“I’m not much of a smarts-guy, but I don’t think I can sneak up on him like earlier.”[/color] He warned Ace, who was familiar with his chop ability, that he combo’d with Sandaphlon. The connection he was trying to make was clear: get him a way in to attack, and Tenna could temporarily disable Belial.

[color=ea590c]”We get its armor as sundered as possible, then distract it, stun it, stick it with the grenades from this”[/color] Edward suggested as he hoisted now the loaded the mag launcher [color=ea590c]”and finally hit it with something else that’ll also set them off prematurely”[/color]

Ace nodded at the both of them, a look of confident determination on his face. He could help with the first part, and if nothing else he could most certainly handle the distraction. [color=salmon]"Sounds like a plan."[/color]

A moment later, the furious duel between Ganondorf and Belial reached its conclusion. Sacrificing some of the weapon’s durability, the Naytiba parried Ganondorf’s Acidic Greatsword with a cunning twist of its metal swordblade. It then stepped forward to stomp down on the warlord’s left foot with its right, then adapted to the extreme close quarters by coming around with a spiked pommel strike from its right-hand bone sword, essentially a right hook to the jaw. As Ganondorf leaned back, a slash to the cuirass from Belial’s right sword hurled him to the floor on his back.

Of course, Belial’s focus left it wide open. The next instant, Phantom Ganon’s N-Corp Nail pierced straight through its chest from behind. Now bleeding, Belial gave a guttural growl, then combined its swords. It wrenched around in a colossal, three hundred and sixty degree red-lightning slash that bisected not just Phantom Ganon behind it, but the plastic wall behind him. The familiar vanished, and plastic bricks clattered down, as Belial recovered from the slash and separated its swords again, the blood-soaked N-Corp Nail still lodged in its midsection.

Of course, Ganondorf was a large man and a rather tough one at that. So the slash across his cuirass did little to take him out of the fight. If anything, Belial was only angering him further. But Edward’s suggestion had reached the warlord’s ear and was not lost on him. So if sundering the Naytiba’s armor was what they needed, well then Ganondorf just so happened to have a weapon that was perfect for exactly that task. He grunted as he sheathed the great swords and summoned his Acidic Crystal Spear to his tight grip, but before actually making any lunge Ganondorf instead inhaled deeply.

In the next moment, the Gerudo exhaled a long reaching fire breath attack that he swept across where Belial stood. The fire wasn’t intended for raw damage, but mostly to create a momentary smokescreen that Ganondorf tried to capitalize on to plunge into Belial through the cloud of smoke with his Acidic Spear, its properties giving it the distinct ability to deal extra durability damage to an enemy’s armor. Of course, if the plunge missed, Ganondorf would simply reroute the attack toward the ground and generate an eruption of flames around Belial’s feet instead. Naturally, Ganondorf’s anger didn’t allow him to stop at just one attack, so he of course plunged and swept wildly with his spear, fully able to take advantage of its longer reach to keep Belial’s blades out of slashing range. And just for good measure, Ganondorf extended the Gravemind tentacles from his back to give himself four extra limbs to grapple and parry against Belial’s blades. He still needed to buy a bit more time, knowing what was coming.

By then Ace had disembarked from the coach, leaping over the edge of its roof and taking off toward Belial as soon as he hit the ground. He was sure that Ganondorf could handle the heavy lifting, but he wasn't about to let the guy go at it alone if he could help it. With the rifle he was confident enough to shoot into the fray at Belial especially while the target designation still lasted, second time being the charm as he moved towards melee. He fired shot after shot until close enough, when he swung the rifle around to hang off his pack and set his grip high on the hilt of his long sword, one hand hovering just over the lower portion of it in preparation for an iai counter, expecting the Naytiba to turn on him at any moment. 

When bathed in flame, Belial paused for only a moment, then charged forward with a sword swing. It and Ganondorf struck one another at the same time. From there their ferocious melee resumed in earnest, but they were not on an even playing field. Even if Ganondorf fought defensively, trying to keep Belial at a distance with his armaments, the Naytiba enjoyed the range advantage and would simply not be warded off, even by an acidic speartip. With one sword it could slap away or hook around the spear’s corrosive point, allowing it to attack with its other blade. Ganondorf’s tentacles did help a great deal when it came to taking blows on their master’s behalf, or poking away at openings in Belial’s defense. Still, the Naytiba fought with savage ferocity, fully confident in its regenerative ability to undo whatever wounds it took in order to inflict grievous injury. This included shots from Ace from afar.

Once Belial got outnumbered, it changed tactics. It combined its swords, then whirled around in a massive double cleave from the giant melded greatsword, wreathed in streaks of red lightning. At the same time Ace's hand came down to join the other on the Yato's hilt, yanking it from where it rested at his hip and flowing into his counter. He twisted into a two-handed circular cut of his own, his blade clashing against Belial's while he skated forward throwing the great sword just enough off course that it sliced through the air over their heads.

Tenna, however, was not about to sit idly. Having fought this monstrosity before, he had been convinced that the monster needed a significant period of time to regenerate, so if the rest of the seekers had a good opening, there was a chance they could inflict some serious damage. Tenna would snap his fingers, summoning two Cat-like shadow men with large balls of yarn. Surely Belial would recognize this attack, however compared to Tenna’s previous battle, the beast now had two more obstacles to dodge as the cronies began hucking yarn balls with average precision, when suddenly… Tenna shrunk into 12 mini hims again.

The miniature Tv-hosts scattered about, his motivation behind this move unclear. Suddenly, one of the miniature Tenna’s would crawl along Ganondorf’s side, getting close enough to his ear that the Gerudo could hear him. [color=ed1c24]“The party bus is parked! Retreat for now, I have a plan!”[/color] Whether he chose to listen was to Ganondorf’s discretion, though it did seem like Tenna was serious in his words.

[color=797979]”...Hmph.”[/color] Ganondorf grunted under his breath. With his tentacles he was able to give himself an opening - albeit slim - to momentarily back off. But even if he was going with Tenna’s plan, that did not mean he was abandoning his desire to slay this Naytiba. Far from it. It also helped that this more or less lined up with his desire to buy time for his own plan that he had in motion.

While this was going on, Edward moved around the fight and added to the shooting. Holding the grenade launcher by the forward grip, he freed up his dominant hand to fire first a magelock pistol slug into the monster, and to then swap to Odden’s Pinky to shower the meat monster with a blaze of burning spell ammo. Between the latter shots and his searing enchantment, the would be aflame for sure.

With both handguns expended, he reholstered the pistols and then moved his grip back to the mag launcher’s own, ready to fire the moment where the seekers were clear enough to avoid them being caught in the anti-titan launcher’s splash radius.

Meanwhile, now that Ace was well within his optimal range for his chosen melee weapon, he lashed out with a reverse vertical cut that dragged his sword over the crimson monster's chest up towards its face. Belial hadn't slowed down at all, so it was hard to properly gauge how injured it really was - best to err on the side of caution and lay on as much damage as possible before giving Tenna his opening. 

Though Ace’s skillful parry left his enemy in an unbalanced overswing, the Seekers had only a brief moment before the Naytiba steadied itself. Once Ace landed a harsh slice, Belial raised a leg to deal the offending monster hunter a hefty kick, then leaped into the air and inverted its greatsword in its hands. When it plunged down and sunk the blade through the floor, another miniature forest of sinewy bone barbs sprouted up, endangering everyone in its vicinity. That did not include Edward, though, and by the time his magic submachine gun clicked empty, Belial was both burning and bleeding. It separated its swords, hurled its right-hand meat cleaver at the tactician horizontally, and began regrowing a new one. The cleaver never touched its intended target.

Instead it was swatted away by Ganondorf who was now wielding his great swords again. After backing off from Belial at Tenna’s advice, the warlord had used his mobility via Bullet Jump to put himself in a position to guard Edward for a moment. Then he re-summoned his Moblin Archers to fire a volley of Fire Arrows, immediately followed by summoning both of his strikers. Riptor appeared to lob a fireball from her maw and Blast Hornet fired off his own drone missiles via Search Strike.

Edward cast Designate target on Belial again, maxing out the stacks of marked in the process of weakening it and then joined in on this volley by pulling the trigger on the launcher. The weapon spat out a pair of grenades in quick succession and though he wasn’t exactly a master of such weapons, but both magic and technology made them fly true. Attracted to both the metallic body and the magical marks, the grenades’ flight path curved in the air as they homed in on the foe. 

With all of the incoming attacks it was almost a stroke of luck that Belial had caught Ace with its kick. The hunter tumbled away from it, coming to stop by rolling into a crouch with his sword still drawn - but upon seeing the Naytiba falling from its jump and knowing what was coming next he backed up instead of moving back in, mini-cannon batteries at his sides firing while the edge of the spike growths just barely clipping him as he hopped the last few feet out of its range. At that point he felt his back bump something as he watched the bombardments go off, a little sparkle in his eye when he glanced over his shoulder and a thought occurred to him.

Belial lunged to the side to evade the arrows and fireball, and then when this failed to escape the grenades and bee drones used the side of its sword to physically parry the explosives. One of the grenades was bounced, sending it flying across the room to detonate against one of the walls. The second slipped past its defences and stuck to the blighted machine, only for it to grab and haul the explosive off of itself before it went off, resulting in an recoverable arm crippling rather than a devastating core sundering. It was already regenerating when it used its other arm to whack at the search drones, a few exploding on the Naytiba but the rest sent into a tail spin that had them crash into the ground, each other, or even back into the Gerudo's summoned forces themselves.

There was another projectile flying towards Belial that was so unassuming that it was easy to miss among the fire and artillery. When it collided with the side of the Naytiba's head it splattered harmlessly, besides leaving behind an opaque pink residue. Paint balls, fired from the monster hunter's slinger. A couple more joined the first. Though Ace had no idea if Belial was actually seeing out of the spotlight that was its face, the paint balls were good enough to draw the monstrous swordsman's attention even if they didn't end up obscuring part of its vision. And when that attention inevitably turned towards Ace once more it could see he still wielded a blade in hand, though it was very different from the long sword he'd just recently had equipped. 

[color=salmon]"I'm glad this stuck around, I was starting to feel like you two great sword users were cleaving me out on purpose,"[/color] he said, indeed hefting a great sword into a ready stance. It was bloody crimson and more than a little odd shaped at the handle, a mirror of one of Belial's own swords - in fact the one it had thrown earlier. The severed limb hadn't dissolved, and whether it would or not once the Naytiba was defeated was a thought for later. For now, Ace gave the monster a cheeky grin and lifted the borrowed sword up over his shoulder. 

In response Belial forced Ganondorf away from itself with a wide, vicious swing of its sword-arms, one slashing across the warlord's midsection and the other separating a few of his tentacles from his body before it dashed at Ace. The hunter had gotten used to its speed, so when he brought his own sword down in a heavy overhead chop it sank deep into Belial's left shoulder, a spray of blood shooting out when he dragged the blade down and forced it out of the Naytiba's body to complete the swing. The attack hadn't staggered the monster though, and it traded blows with Ace with the first of its own swords. Ace held fast, gritting his teeth as the blade bit into his side. He was tough enough to weather it, and to still bring the severed sword-arm up to brace against Belial's second blade, its metal limb blocked by and pressing against the broad side of Ace's current weapon. Incensed by the hunter and half-blind on its right side, if Tenna needed that distraction to go in for his stun it was now or never. 

With the hope that his allies heeded his warning, suddenly the sky was illuminated with a barrage of stars playing a laughing sound. However, on a couple of the odd-faced shapes was riding a miniature Tenna! Having managed to escape Belial’s attention, had all twelve tiny counterparts intact and was using his All-Star Cast ability to close in. Once all stars mounted with Tennalings had crashed down, Tenna would reform into his regular shape behind Belial on its right and deliver a Snap-cut ability to the back of its headlamp, inflicting the stun that his teammates would need to unleash everything they’ve got. Tenna could continue to stun the beast, but only for a limited time before the effects weakened. [color=39b54a]“GO!GO!GO!”[/color]

[color=ea590c]”Hold for these!”[/color] Edward called out, holding down the trigger on his grenade launcher, and firing its remaining 4 shots in two quick bursts. All four explosives homed in, now unable to be knocked away by the foe, and the stuck fast to it, at which point Edward used his last remaining charged mana fuel cell to cast one more Designate Target on it, briefly rendering it more vulnerable.

[color=ea590c]”Now!”[/color]

The little cannons on Ace's rigging swiveled and took aim. Not as shaken up by the falling stars as he could have been if he hadn't seen them a couple of times before, Ace had escaped out from under Belial once it was stunned with a short twist of his borrowed blade into a horizontal cut that pivoted him away. He retreated while his rigging splayed out since swapping weapons now would take too much time. The cannons fired, the ballistics spraying over the grenades to rupture them into exploding - and explode they did, a great ball of force and fire consuming the macabre swordsman.

There were several long moments where the Seekers held their breaths and waited. They surrounded the plume of smoke and the pieces of the Naytiba that had blown off and clattered or splattered onto the floor around them. Some of its organic body had surely been reduced to ashes, but its metal parts remained. It was impossible to tell if the mechanical legs that had buckled but still stood were remnants that its spirit sat upon or if Belial still lived. Then, the gray smoke darkened into black, flashes of red joining it until it was all dispersed by a wild, wide range swing that threatened those that still gathered around it. There it stood; bleeding, blown apart, but alive and rife with violence. 

It was regenerating, one piece at a time. Its sword arms had come first, both of them organic now and ready to fend off anyone that dared to try and come finish it off. One of its legs was still cracked and unusable, the other starting to bulge out of its metal casing as it regrew within moments. Its torso and head were a mess, but it wouldn't be long until Belial had completely reformed itself. If the Seekers didn't find a way to kill it right now, they would have to start over from square one. But something else was coming, something that had been quietly making its way toward the engagement since the very start of it.

It happened in an instant. An immense mass, moving at terrific speed, loudly plowed through the ceiling and into the ground in an instant, reducing Belial to an ashy smear on the ground before the ground itself got pulverized. A wave of displaced air sent the Seekers flying away from the impact zone, where all but Ganondorf were left sprawling and wondering what happened. As the earth beneath gradually absorbed the unimaginable force of the impact, the pillar slowed down, and the Seekers could see that it was a tightly-packed agglomerate of huge tentacles, with each limb the size of a fully-grown sequoia tree. They originated from the ghastly Brother Moon, partially visible through the hole it had punched in the Highlands’ cloud cover. Its very presence seemed to taint the sky an ominous blood red, as if reality itself strained to contain it. Once the tentacles ground to a halt, they began to recede, pulling apart and up into the heavens. The clouds came together again as the Brother Moon withdrew, hidden once more in the starless skies above, but the destruction it had wrought remained.

In front of the Seekers now lay a building-sized pit, several hundred feet deep. At the bottom, Belial’s spirit faintly twinkled amidst the flattened debris. Seeing this, Ganondorf could only laugh like a victorious conqueror. He had wanted to try taking that freakishly strong swordsman for himself, but if he could not have his prize, reducing it to atoms was the next best thing. It had been a vicious battle, but the Seekers had won.