Rage of the Rathalos (Saga)

[Samus Aran]

Inlumia was out of the fight. So was Harry. Meanwhile, Link and Ganondorf pursued their own feud, a fight that went far further back than this world.

They traded blows, Ganondorf’s muddying vision working against him as his usually graceful strikes swung wide. But he stayed on his feet, sliding inbetween the hero’s furied sword strikes despite the young man’s better stamina. As they did so, it became clear that winning would be impossible for the Gerudo King. Not for the first time, he found himself facing defeat. He grit his teeth, his eyes blazed with hatred. But not blind rage. No, that time was past. This time would be different.

As the hero stepped in for a forward thrust, the lord of evil did the unthinkable. He let the blade pass through him. The sword of evil’s bane sank deep into his gut.

There was a moment of silence. Then Ganondorf’s bloody lips curled into a grin. “Fool,” he whispered. His right hand grabbed the hilt of the master sword as his other hand glowed with a dark intensity. And now it rose in one heavy movement, as blood sprayed from his open mouth in a roar.

Link’s eyes were wide with shock as the fist connected with his chin. The dark energy collided and exploded outwards, throwing the boy away from his embedded weapon and into the roof of the chamber. Ganondorf toppled, still clutching the hilt of the sword and gasping in pain.

Meanwhile Samus, Proto Man and Cindy battled on against the Rathian. Again it seemed that green had the upper hand in stamina versus weakening foes. But these were mighty opponents, ones whose mettle had already been proven that day against the Rathalos. And having toppled that mighty foe, they were not about to lose. No words were said; they were all warriors, and knew what they had to do. Slowly but surely, the e,gg Rathian was beginning to bleed.

Cindy’s hammer flashed white and vanished; a moment later, it was replaced by a strange-looking lance and shield combo. Working it with the lance and then blocking with the shield, she held its attention while the other two pelted it with laser and plasma fire.

And finally, after what seemed like forever, the Rathian fell. In what looked like the beginnings of a terrible attack, it reared up and gave out one last, blood-curdling screech. And then the cave was silent.

“We did it.” Samus sighed, and turned. “We did-”

Cindy’s hammer crashed down and knocked the hunter senseless.

“What are you doing!?” cried Proto Man, raising his gun at the second armorclad woman.

“Don’t be a fool,” said Cindy. “With her out of the way, it’s just us two. And you aren’t a match for me. How long have you been in the Omniverse? A few weeks? A few months? You’ve no idea the way it works here.” Her hammer vanished, and this time it was replaced with two blades, one in each hand. “The strong survive, the weak die. Survival of the fittest.”

“But why?” persisted Proto Man, prosthetic teeth clenched.

“Because,” said Cindy, as she strode across the cave’s nest, “Of this.”

Their attention moved to the gargantuan eggs. Cracks of light were forming across the shells, spreading until they were entirely consumed by light. What remained were two far smaller eggs, able to fit into the palm of the hand; one of gold, and one of silver. Cindy snatched up the former. The latter was snatched by a different woman. A blonde woman.

“Tch.” Cindy regarded Eighteen with a dirty look before shrugging. The blonde, her eyes on something behind the armored woman, began to back away. “What?” Cindy asked as she turned around in time to receive a blast of energy square to her chest. The impact of the condensed burst hurtled the woman across the cave, but she retained enough awareness to move with her momentum, allowing her to stop in a three-point stance rather than in a disjointed pile.

Across from her, Proto Man glared down the cannon of his smoking arm cannon as it vented the excess energy from the shotgun burst. With a smile, Cindy rose to her feet and ran a hand down the front of her scorched, splintered chest plate.

“This is how it’s going to be, kid?” She asked as she tossed the golden egg up and down. “You think you can take this from me?”

Proto Man’s continued to scowl at the hunter. “You think I care about an egg? You just coldcocked one of the only non-robots I like without the slightest warning. That’s a horrible thing, and you don’t deserve to just walk away from that.”

The woman just laughed as she reverted to her hammer. “Let’s teach you a lesson in the Omniverse then, kid.” With that, Cindy charged, her hammer low to the ground as she came in for an attack. As she neared, Proto Man threw up a hastily forged shield to intercept the thunderous blow. At the sound of the metal cracking, the robot swung his gun around and fired a quick succession of blasts. Rather than retreat, Cindy simply pushed down with her hammer and jumped, using her large weapon to pole vault over the preteen.

When she landed on the ground a few feet away, the hunter rose and turned to face her attacker. Expecting him to be winded or reeling, she instead found herself staring at a glowing barrel of energy.

“Finish Buster!” Proto Man screamed as the bolt of energy blasted from the end of his gun. Cindy scrambled to summon her shield and managed to throw up the bulwark just in time to intercept the blast. Despite the defense, she felt herself leave the ground as she was propelled backwards toward the wall of the ravine outside the cavern. As Proto Man watched, the woman was slammed mercilessly into the rock, and a massive cloud of dust spewed forth as the explosion destabilized part of the gorge wall.

For a moment, Proto Man thought he’d taken it a step too far, and then there was a flash of white light from where Cindy had vanished. A moment later something formed that made all who were still conscious to see it gasp. A golden Rathian. Somewhat smaller than the one they’d seen before, but still big enough to make them all recoil at the thought of another fight. But it was not to be; Cindy could be seen on the creature’s back. With a wave, she commanded the creature up and out of the ravine.

“No you don’t,” Proto Man shouted as he rushed off to pursue the woman, leaving behind an unconscious Samus and a winded Harry. A few feet away, Ganondorf and Eighteen were left with the other egg.

“Interesting …” spluttered Ganondorf. Leaning against Eighteen, his fingers closed around the second egg. “Let’s begone from this place before anyone else tries to kill me.” The egg shone, and then before them stood a second, silver Rathalos. “Incredible,” he grinned.

“Don’t let it go to your head,” said Eighteen. She pulled him onto the dragon, and with a mighty flap of its wings, they were away.

After several seconds, Harry was the first to break the silence. “So … is every day like this, or …?”

[Harry Dresden]

Harry looked at Inlumia with a bit of confusion. It wasn't all at the mage's statement. They'd been betrayed by the dragon-armored woman, the dark-skinned warlock had been stabbed through the gut and still had the strength to uppercut the kid who did it straight to the ceiling. The orange-armored woman's suit was beeping, and nobody else seemed to care that she'd had her lights knocked out. "If this is a slow day then it's shaping up to be just like home. And if you haven't had breakfast that's nobody's fault but your own." Harry stood up and broke the circle, breathing in the air and reconciling all the ambient magic with his own energy. He still wasn't going to be throwing around anything, but his senses were no longer being bombarded with Hellfire, shadow magic, and demonic power. Well, they were, but he could deal with them now. He walked over to the unconscious woman, prodding the armor with his blasting rod. It beeped some more, made some sort of whirring noise, and continued its strange techno-symphony.

Harry secured his blasting rod inside his coat and crouched down, lifting the unconscious woman up over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. Her armor scraped the floor as Harry laboriously made his way to the mouth of the cave. There'd be skid marks on the feet, but he couldn't just leave her here, in a cave that had been full of dragons a minute before. When he spotted the circling pegasus knights, he called out to them. "Hey! Guys! We killed the dragons, but something happened to the eggs. The dragons that left... well, I don't know what they are, but they're under the control of the people who had them. Get down here!" Two of the knights descended; the men who had ferried Samus and Harry here in the first place. "Hey, Cauthon."

Cauthon's response was cut off by the captain's questions. "And who the hell are you?" Harry glared at him. "I the hell am Harry." The captain was not amused, but it was Harry's turn to override someone's conversation. "We can talk in the air. I saw a city on the way here, what is it?" The captain brightened at this; "That was Minas Tirith, the crown jewel of Camelot." Harry shook his head at that. "I'd rather not walk into the 'crown jewel' of anywhere in my current state. Drop me at those ruins." The captain looked suspiciously at Harry. "Edinburgh? Nobody goes to Edinburgh anymore." Harry nodded to the captain, "Perfect. Drop us there."

The guy didn't look too pleased, which really confused Harry. It was just a bunch of ruins. He was a little curious as to what had happened there, but that could wait. After he helped get the unconscious Samus onto Cauthon's pegasus, he climbed on behind the captain. The four took to the skies, Harry too tired to feel the apprehension he had felt before as the winged horse soared through the skies and Cauthon holding Samus's unconscious form in the saddle in front of him.

[Illidan Stormrage]

Link sat up, the base of his skull throbbing. What happened? The last thing he remembered, he attacked Ganondorf head-on and pierced his stomach with the Master Sword. Yet somehow the Gerudo thief found the strength to punch him ... and launch him into the ceiling of the cave. Groaning, Link spotted his blade a short distance away. As he resheathed the Master Sword, he noticed the commotion was over. The adventurers moved on, leaving him lying unconscious in a dragon infested den.

Except there were no dragons. Two corpses, one greener than the other, rotted openly on the ground.

At least the threat is over, Link thought. Even if I didn't help much in the end.

He felt a weak pang of guilt in his stomach, but dulled due to the truth of the matter. The dragons were certainly a threat, but Ganondorf was the apocalypse in Gerudo form; he had seen it. When it came down to the crunch, the danger of two dragons paled in comparison to a man that already conquered a realm, and no doubt had aspirations to do so again. Of course, the others didn't know that. They saw a fifteen foot lizard that belched fire and decided it needed to die before a six foot tall man. In their place, Link knew he would make the same decision. He couldn't blame them.

Yet Ganondorf was nowhere to be seen. The injury he gave him mustn't have been fatal. A trail of blood painted his likely path, but there was so much dragon blood it was hard to be sure. If he wasn't dead, he was still weak. He must have lost a lot of blood, and his transformation drained him visibly. For now, he only needed to recuperate. With few allies and a bad headache, Link decided he should do the same.

The Hylian warrior sat down and willed Omnilium through his body, reforming the pegasus that brought him here. He closed his eyes and shaped the being that would take him away from the smoke filled cavern.

A wolf howled.

Link's eyes snapped open. To his left, a white wolf stared at him with one red eye. A golden sheen clung to its ethereal fur. Its body was translucent and insubstantial. It looked like the ghost of a wolf.

"What ... what are you? I didn't make you," Link said. He looked at the pegasus he brought to life, and realised it wasn't a pegasus at all. A colourful bird the size of a small horse, stood before him, with bright red plumage and a hooked bill. It eyed him inquisitively. If it could see the wolf, it wasn't perturbed by it.

"How did I make a bird I've never seen before when I pictured a pegasus?" Link asked the wolf. It tilted its head, howled, and bounded up the steep incline of the cavern towards the exit. Link shouted after it, but the ghost ignored him. The Hero of Time didn't know what was going on, but that wolf was an unusual visitor. He had to follow it.

Link mounted the bird, unsure of what to expect. Strangely, it welcomed him on its back, craning its head to look at the Hylian. Link grasped the smooth feathers at the base of its neck and wondered how to command such a creature without reins. The bird squawked and flapped its wings until it became airborne, and shot out of the cave. The familiar queasiness came to his stomach again; flight just wasn't his thing.

The wolf stood at the lip of the cavern. The bird chased after it, but the ghost managed to stay ahead. When Link caught it, he ... well, he couldn't question it, but this spirit knew something about him and he was determined to find out what it was.