wordcount: 3727 +5
Midna: level 5 EXP:
/////////////////////////////////////////////////// (19/50)
Location: Sandswept Sky - Al Mamoon
In lieu of others asking for her help, the princess went ahead with her little scouting expedition to find out what was going bump in the night. Asking where the was didn't wind up being necessary, as the princess’s shadowy skipping led her first to a roof, from which the large domed building was immediately an obvious place to start looking, and upon closer inspection the boarded up nature of its lower levels all but confirmed the building to be the place she needed to look.
The Grimleal’s handiwork, or what she assumed might have been their handy work anyway as she wouldn't put suppression of other faiths past them, turned out to be rather sloppy. Sure, it would deter the average person, but if they really wanted to get in, a determined individual could climb up to one of the unbarred windows. Or in Minda’s case, casually floating up there.
The brief thought that this could be a good place to hide out if you were a criminal element was dismissed when runes flared around the window as she passed through, trapping her inside. Her eyes flashed from the runes back to the room she was in, tensing for an attack.
”I swear, if this was some kind of bait and trap thing by whoever made that notice” Minda said to herself under her breath as she slipped into the much more plentiful shadows in the decrepit church. She found a dark corner and waited for a few moments, but whatever had trapped her didn't seem to be coming to investigate who had activated the seal, and so she went to go find her captor instead.
Following the maddening chittering coming from below, she found the likely culprits who had trapped her in with them worshiping an out of place blade stabbed into the altar. The princess had to prevent herself from wrenching (not a thing you want to do while inside a shadow) at the sight of them. Gibbering and dancing unsightly dances before the sword, the things were quadrupedal humans-ish like creatures with massive ballooning eyes growing out the exposed ribs and meat on their backs. The fact that they wore masks and had a giant hand (though admittedly one that grew out of their backs) made Midna feel a little like someone, somewhere, was mocking her.
Part of her wanted to rush in and end their unsightly existence as soon as possible, but no, she told herself, she had to be smart about this. She didn't have her mount (and Minda mentally kicked herself for not asking Sectonia for a status update on the friend finding mission when they were together) or any of the rest of the party around or incoming. Well. maybe if she sat about for long enough someone else would come see why she hadn’t shown up again, but that would be embarrassing.
So, as she had with the robots, Midna left the monsters to their pastime and had a scout around to see if she could find anything to turn the odds in her favor and/or to make sure she hadn't missed any baddies (or like last time friendlies) that might be found in the rest of the building.
Trying to shut out the mad revelry of the vile Nobodies, Midna began her discreet sweep of the building. The half-light that filtered through the cracks and gaps in the boarded-up windows provided ample shadows to skulk through and enough light to see with, although that scattered illumination ultimately fell on little. A perfunctory search turned up nothing of particular interest. Before this building was finally shuttered, everything of value had been removed, if the patterns on the floor and mounts on the stone walls were anything to go by. What few things remains represented the objects too difficult or worthless to bother with, and those meager furnishings of stone and wood offered little to immediately interest a Twilight Princess.
After her initial disappointment Midna gave the interior a second, more thorough look. This time she examined the structure for staircases, cellars, hidden passageways, and so forth, all the secrets that an old, histories building might hide that could not be taken with its deserters. Unlike the Sphinx-topped temple in the row of ruins, however, this structure featured no basement level at all, or else one so inaccessible that its entrance remained totally unknown and its existence unsuggested. Midna did, however, find a small out-cove that would have lain hidden out of view of any worshiper, and inside she came across what appeared to be the remnants of a makeshift camp. A worn bedroll, the long-cold cinders of a campfire cobbled together from dry, left-behind wood, and some trash. It was easy to imagine that she wasn’t the first curious interloper to enter the church to figure out what mysteries had made it their home, but the dust settled over this refuge said that whoever came before her left before her, too. One way or another. The resounding echo of an ecstatic shriek made her shiver even in the ambient warmth.
As she prepared to move on, however, she happened to become aware of an unusual sound. A continuous sort of murmur, more of a hum than words, and it prompted her to look back down. Another moment and she managed to catch a glimpse of something in the halflight, nestled among the ashes of the meager campfire. Almost totally buried in the soft, formless gray, something white scorched black. From the ashes she withdrew a
trinket of carved bone. The moment she collected it there came a single sharp note like a stroke of a violin, and the song was gone.
”Well then” Midna said as the crude trinket of (she looked a little close and then cringed as she identified it as) bone floated before her by her will
”That wasn't ominous at all.”She flicked a hand and a twilight portal opened up, sending the item away to her realm for later. She’d have time to identify it, and the strange sword she’d be acquiring, once she’d dealt with the monsters. It looked like there wasn't anything else in the building of interest. Just a bunch of heavy furniture and what use was that too… the princess paused. And then grinned. She had some preparations to do.
The central chamber was a grand one. Once, rows and rows of pews had lined the floor leading up to the now profaned altar, while two long balconies, also striped of seating, lined either wall with doors leading into the back from which they could be accessed. The strange creatures twitched and danced on their hind legs before the long absent congregation, transforming the place of worship into an unholy dance floor in honor of the cursed blade. As she slipped through the shadow onto the balcony and then started to climb the wall, the princess momentarily wondered just how long they’d been at it, and what eldritch power kept them alive through night after night of sleep disrupting revelry. It didn't matter really, because she was about to crash their party and end it once and for all.
Up and up she slipped, all the way up into the high dome adorning the shuttered house of god or gods. There, right above the ape demons, she pulled herself out of the shadow to float above them.
Alongside her half a dozen twilight portals also opened, and proceeded to dump an equal number of furnishings back into the world of light. The pile of sturdy wooden tables, bulky chests and an entire wardrobe (all things left because they were too heavy and which she’d made heavier by filling them with sand from the twilight realm where she could) careened down like bombshells.
”Your little public disturbance ends here!” she announced as the cacophony of her own making rang out. The demons squealed and tried to scatter. Two were only clipped by furnishing or subsequent detonations of sand and splinters, but the third had a chest crash down upon it, burying it in splintered wood and otherworldly sand.
Midna shrugged
”I’ll take one. Now then, who’s next?” she asked, bringing out an entire rusted stove and catching it in her shadow hand.
Before she could toss, however, the pile of wood and sand she thought marked the grave of one of the demons shifted, and the beast hauled itself out. It seemed unharmed except for the fact that
”Ew, gross” that its maske had come off, revealing its hideous face. The monster did not seem to like being exposed either, and quickly grabbed another mask, this one
green and round where the first had been brass and humanoid, with its massive hand.
The other two followed suit, discarding their brass masks and, together, the three slammed the green masks in place.
”That’s enough” Minda shouted down at them as they finished their costume change, hurling the stove at the one she’d already hit once. It scrambled away with ungainly agility, stumbling when the stove hit a leg but not faltering. The other two meanwhile, flexed and twitched their arms in inhumane ways, causing one of the awfully eyeballs to squirm up it and into the palm. Then hurled the massive eyeballs up at her in retaliation. Midna floated to the side and slapped one of the slow balls back down at it’s tosser with her shadow hand, while the other smacked into the roof of the dome behind her. Then both exploded. The one she’d returned to sender ragdolled one of the demons, the monster rolling with the blast to reduce injury, while the shock-wave of the one detonating behind Midna destabilized her levitation, causing her to drop uncontrollably down to balcony level before she caught herself. Then more bombs came, the monsters skirmishing away as they hurled the biological explosives. She dropped down to the ground completely, causing the bombs to arc over her.
”Goddesses” she swore as the bombs detonated around her. They were far too close for comfort, and there where more where those came from
Rather than try and run after them, she grabbed the ground with her shadow hand and hauled herself forwards with using it, resting one knee and one foot on the ground in a slide kick and turning the slipperiness she was suffering into speed as she slid across the ground towards one of them, more bombs blasting off behind her.
The demon she was chasing hopped back again and again till it hit the sealed main door to the building, before tossing a quick trio of eye bombs in-front of it, more as mines than as grenades. The sliding princess hit the ground again with her shadow hand, using it to haul her body into the air and vault over the scattered explosives and then sweeping the hand back up and over her body to smash down towards the demon, only for it to reach out and block the blow with its own.
Fist held in its hand, the monster laughed at her with its eerie sounding hyena giggling, only for the princess to lunge down, dragon claws blazing on her own fingers and slamming into its spine, before racking forwards and clawing the mask from its face. The monster shrieked at its face being laid bare again, but couldn't grab for its last mask because when it tried to let go of the fist and retrieve it their situations were reversed with Midna grabbing the monster’s hand with hers as she hacked at it with her claws.
It was ‘saved’ from this when a shower of bombs hailed the two of them, forcing Midna to switch from grabbing the hand to using it as leverage to toss herself aside, leaving the demon to be blasted by the friendly fire. She looked back to the other two that had just reminded her of their existence. One was the bomb thrower, which had pleated her and its friend with explosives while the other was... dancing again?
Too late, Minda realized what it was doing when a purple portal opened up next to the dancer and a fresh, bronze masked demon pulled itself out of whatever infernal pit the monsters called home.
Worse still, the one she thought might have been dealt with instead took the opening it had been given to grab its this and final mask, prompting the two green masked ones, but not the new bronze one, to grab their own masks. This mask was jet back with dozens of red tentacles wriggling around it, and when it slammed home onto the demon’s face it caused their flesh to blackened and their bodies to be pumped full of some red serum, which engorged the hand on their back and drove the freakish things
berzerk.
The closest one roared with feverish fury and then charged forward with frightful speed, hand outstretched to grab and crush her, but the princess was already moving, having floated up slightly and then used own hand having grabbed the edge of the left hand side balcony. She hauled herself upwards and at the same time pointed down, opening a portal and more or less smashing a giant wolfos down on top of the monster. The two great beasts fell in a heap, entangled in a pile of gnashing teeth and slashing claws.
The others weren't going to let her get away however, and quickly the two reds charged towards the balcony, leaping up and grabbing the sides before trying to scramble upwards onto it themselves. The closest received a bathtub to the face for its troubles, the sand filled tub smashing it back down before spilling its continents across the floor. The second hauled itself up, only for minda to float off the ground and summon her Vibrava which in the tight space slammed into the ground immediately, bulldozing the entire balcony and causing the floor to crash down under the red that had climbed, as well as down on top of the red that had been smacked by the wolfos (the wolfos had escape back to the twilight realm, the and the demon had just picked itself back up when the roof caved in on it).
The gold one came in while the others were trying to pick themselves up, hopping once and then hurling itself at the princess hovering half the way up the wall, only to smash into that wall with nothing to show for its attack when the princess shrunk into the ever present shadows of the room to get clear of all of them and appeared on the opposite balcony.
Through panting breaths she yelled
”Enough!” and then reached out a hand and ‘pulled’ on the sand scattered around the room, calling it to rise and dance and sing. In a heartbeat a fully fledged sandstorm engulfed the chamber, the aliens sand singing like a choir as it swirled through the abandoned holy place.
The monsters screeched with anger (expert the bronze masked one which seemed to find this funny til it choked on the sand) as they instantly lost track of the imp that had attacked them. They scuttled too and fro before a red explosion of power burst off to one side, prompting them all to charge that spot only to find nothing there as the princess warped through the darkness and danced another dragon dance far from the beasts.
Again and again she danced and they chased, till they caught on and the bronze one directed the red ones to spread out. But she had enough by that point. Orange light flare, illuminating the princess who had cloth ripped from the long gone camper’s bedroll covering her mouth, eyes and one exposed eye to protect them from sand and four dances worth of dragon energy pulsing through her veins. The light itself came from her shadow hand, which slammed into a red masked demon that she’d managed to take by surprise thanks to the sand and darkness obscuring everything to those not borne in it, smashing it into a wall.
The next closest charged, winding up a massive punch as it thundered towards her, only for Midna to punch right back. The two fists slamming into each other, causing a shockwave that briefly cleared the sand in the area and revealed both their sand scarped skin and flesh. Then the power of the interlopers and the might of dragons prevailed over demonic might as Midna’s fist smashed the monster’s fist back, and then bared down on the monster's body with purple claws flaming at the tips.
It slammed down, punching into the beast’s flesh and ten raced forwards, slashing blood gore and causing the red mask to fall off of the monster's face. As with the others, the mask lost some kind of power when removed, which is why, rather than try to retrieve one of the fallen ones the beast tried to skulk away while covering its face. Minda would not have it, and instead grabbed the monster and hurled it at the red one she’d punched, causing the half blind thing to tear at its maskless ally as both struggled to get out of the tangle of limbs they’d been hurled into.
The third came as Minda was trying to reposition, and received a giant wolfos for its trouble which smashed it aside and then vanished into the sandstorm.
Midna backed up, finding herself next to the altar as the punched red and the unharmed bronze both came at her at once. The bronze tried to slash her with its small front hands/feet, and got to beat on Minda’s last bit of furniture (a dresser) instead while Midna kicked off of the the alter to dodge the big arm punch of the red and then slammed her own into its side, smashing it into the altar, destroying both it and that red’s mask. The cursed blade slapped into the wall of the cubby hole the altar had been in and hit the ground, while the maskless one tried to right itself only to be hit by a second swing careening into the dresser and the bronze trying to move around it, the perforation of splinters into its hide being the final straw causing it to burst into dust.
The impact also caused the bronze mask to drop from the summoned one, so it backed off to swap to green as the final red mask came in. It grab-lunged at her and Minda, lacking an altar to use to counteract her slipperiness this time, replied in kind, grabbing the grabbing hand with her own. As the two arm wrestled the green one started to dance again, but this time instead of bringing another in, Minda felt the dance drawing away her dragon dance gained power. One stage. Then two. The grappling match she’d been winning suddenly became more even. Any attempt by either side to use their arms to finish the job would give the other the edge they needed to win the arm wrestling match and slam them into the ground
She jabbed a finger towards the green, causing her vibrava to fly true out of a portal, buzzing over the red and then delivering a mighty crunch to the dancing green one’s exposed underbelly. The mask fell off and when the vibrava disappeared it dropped back down to all fours and started to switch to red. Which meant it would be charging in any second now.
In a moment of desperation, Midna pulled herself to the side using the shared grip with the demon, sliding along the ground and giving up precious edge in the wrestling match in-order to grab the definitely cursed sword. As the final demon charged in to try and grab her as well she pulled herself right up to the one grappling her shadow arm (causing the other one to miss its change and smack into the wall behind her) and rammed the sword into it, the extra range the blade gave over her claws being the edge she needed to avoid getting swiped by it’s own. The monster tried to bite her in retaliation and so she kicked down, instinct causing dragon claws to flare on her slipper exposed but sock covered toes that ended up puncturing into the beast’s neck.
Using her unintentional new foothold she rammed the cursed sword into the demons back over and over with 0 grace or skill until the mask came off and then it burst into ash. No sooner had it fallen than the last red masked one pulled itself out of the heap it had fallen after impacting with the wall and came at her again. Her hand was out of position, but the princess had a new trick now. Dragon claws flared on her feet, affording her extra grip she’d been lacking and letting her just barely toss herself out of the way of the last red one.
The monster wheeled around only to find Minda had vanished into the sand. It jerked too and fro, seeking her, only for the princess to drop down from the ceiling, giant fist slamming straight down on top of it. The mask broke, and then the blade found it again and again till the miserable thing fell.
The sandstorm died down then as the tired princess took a seat on the floor, only to lurch back to her feet when she saw that she wasn't quite done. The monster she’d hurled at one of the other ones had been unmasked, but unlike the others hadn't been put down afterwards.Rather than try and keep fighting however it was just cowering in a corner with its massive hand covering its wretched face.
She swiftly put an end to that.
In the utter ruin she's turned the main chamber of the temple into Minda gathered up the spirits of the monsters, put them and her new, defiantly cursed sword, into the realm of twilight. She’d have to give both the blade and the trinket a proper appraisal later, likely when she crushed the spirits of the demons into items after she’d used them as proof to the quest’s completion. With that out the way, it was time to go see if she could get out of here now, and then find the person who’d pay her 50 gold for taking down some disgustingly tough demons.
After taking a few moments to rest that is.
”Goddesses, I need a bath” she muttered as she sat on the back of the ruined bathtub, her body covered in splinters, sweat, sand, blood and ash. Hopefully she could find somewhere to get one that didn't cost 50 gold.
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