World Tree MUSH

  It's been a swift ride down Death Mountain's trailhead, as much by pathfinding as by pace: Goron shortcuts have trimmed days off a trip that would have been too long. There are snow flurries by the time the scouts point them in the right direction before returning to their proverbial jurisdiction. The group finds itself in a clearing, surrounded by snow-covered pines, some fallen.

  A throwing knife is lodged in a nearby pine trunk. The style doesn't match any local examples. Its needle-shaped blade is almost indistinguishable from its hilt. Zelda has already spotted it, her gaze immediately dropping to hunt for any other signs. The snow is fresh, though, and any tracks are gone.

  A screech pierces the silence. It's close. Inhuman. The hunt-scream of a Twilight Messenger, Zant's choice minions.

  The sound hasn't faded before Zelda snarls and kicks her horse into a kumbering charge. Lynel gathers himself and leaps a fallen log as she reins him around an outcropping, crashing and lumbering out of sight.

  Well.

  That sure escalated quickly.

    A downhill trip remains absolutely perfect for Yumi's choice of vehicle; a mountain bike can handle that kinde of terrain easily... at least, to an extent. There's only so fast she can go without hurting herself, unless she wants to transform, and if she transforms, she can just abandon the bike entirely.

    She hadn't planned to abandon the bike, but circumstances quickly shift the plan. While they're investigating the throwing knife (...kunai...?) and its surroundings, there's a familiar monstrous cry from somewhere near, and Zelda takes off like a shot.

    In a brief shimmer of radiant warmth and gold-white light, Yumi has transformed and hopped off her bike. Her foot speed alone is sufficient to keep her up not far behind the princess, if she pushes herself.

    Cecil is just rejoining the group, having likely been speaking with some of the others who are not currently present. As such he almost misses what's going on, but the sound of something in the distance is close enough for him to pick up. When Zelda and then Yumi both rush off, he sighs, bringing up the rear despite being a front-line fighter. He kicks his chocobo into an easy canter, moving more cautiously.

    "Rydia, follow me when you get the chance, I want to make sure they aren't rushing into a trap," he says to his now older companion.

    Mounted on her ever trusty chocobo, Rydia would follow Zelda into hell and back if the princess asked it of her. But for now a simple trip back down the fiery volcano is a much easier trip to make.
    There is significantly less fire going back down the mountain.
    "... It's a knife." The green-haired Summoner points out the obvious when she spies the blade embedded in the tree, plucking it out to examine the workings of the blade.
    Before the telltale screech of a Twilight Messenger makes her, and her bird, jerk in the direction of the sound.
    And there goes Zelda.
    A flick of the reins signals her ever trusty avian steed to get following, and so he does in a series of measured, loping, strides.
    "Right, right." She replies to Cecil, keeping a slower pace as to not rush in after Zelda and Yumi in case it is as the Dark Knight says it may be.

    Dante's not bothering with a horse. His brother might be into that stuff, but animals never really liked him. Instead, he's got a sweet quadbike he "borrowed" from Enzo, and the dirtbike ROARS as he follows the group, slowing down. He does however take point regardless, drawing Coyote-A from its holster upon hearing that screech. "It's workin' time, fellas." He says, before he speeds back up and begins to go towards the source of that horrific, unearthly sound.

    Some aren't here with the group, but just happen to find trouble. Exploring this Hyrule isn't strange... Hawk has been to Snowpeak before. Right now, the traveller is merely investigating with an uneasy feeling, bundled up for warmth with a long, flowing scarf that makes the young hero look more like Shiek than Link. But that screech makes the large stag that the youth is riding upon perk ears alertly, twitching them a few times.

    Hawk can take the hint. "Think someone might be in trouble?" The nimble cervine is quick to prance off in another direction from the original heading, coming toward the sound from a different angle than the group Zelda is with.

  Just up ahead the princess rides, the sound of her steed's passing unmistakable. Following Lynel, the war horse, is not difficult -- he leaps and plunges heedless of the thundering and the wreckage of young trees left in his wake. Horse and Hylian crouch low through undergrowth and barrel through stands of sapling trees. She already has her bow drawn and an arrow slapped across the string, using her knees to steady herself in the saddle.

  Up further ahead, from Hawk's vantage point, his trusty deer friend will bound into another clearing. This one is a bit messier than the one before, where the throwing knife was: Broken chunks of tree and general local wreckage suggest there was a short but pitched battle here. Some of the damage is still fresh; sap oozes slowly from broken branches, but it wasn't caused by the princess and her steed.

  No, they're busy advancing on one of those gangly creatures of Zant's. Loosely resembling quadrupedal humanoids, where the face should be is a dull metallic disk; where hair should be, there are only masses of dark tentacles. The digits of their front hands are elongated such that the fingers form claws, while the rear are stubbier and used only for traction. They have no tails.

  They're also the origin of that godawful shrieking, because as Zelda reins her horse closer, the thing does it again. It's crouched over something possessively, clearly torn on whether to flee or stand its ground against the princess and the giant war horse advancing.

  Instead she shrugs down her bow, slaps an arrow on the string, and fires at point-blank range.

  Just in time for something to fly at her from the underbrush. A second of the gangly monsters catapults her off her horse; Lynel, with a piercing whistle that suggests he's had enough of this nonsense, wheels and charges away.

  By the time anyone else arrives, she's grappling with the creature, snarling and making an effort to punch several holes in it with a dagger she's been borrowing from Rydia. Distant and nearby shrieking suggests there are at least half a dozen of the vile things nearby, all advancing.

  The original Twilight Messenger is being uncharacteristically sneaky, trying to drag some misshapen sort of cloth-wrapped... thing away from the area before anybody else shows up. That one is halfway intelligent, and it's probably a good idea to distract it. Or maybe just crush it like a bug, depending on who you ask. On the bright side, it does have an arrow sunk into its shoulder, and ichor trails from the wound. Maybe it just doesn't want to attract attention to itself, or maybe it has some kind of rudimentary orders not to eat the cargo it seems so concerned with.

    Crush it like a bug? Crush it like a bug.

    Yumi has enough combat instinct (experience? she's still not sure) to appraise the situation in half a heartbeat, and she's close enough behind Zelda that she arrives just a second or two behind the princess. She's torn - whatever that monster has, it's probably important, but at the same time Zelda is... no, no there's really no choice here. She knows her answer. "Someone chase that Twilight that's trying to flee!"

    Yumi hurls herself at the one fighting Zelda with all her strength, driving a fist forward at the monster. As she swings the blow, her fist lights up with a bright gold-white light and a wash of rolling heat, the punch imbued with sunlight and thrown using force mustered by her full body.

>> SUMMARY[Yumi Tachibana] >> Someone else is gonna have to get that fleeing Twilight, I'm saving Zelda with a Sunny-D flavored FALCON PUUUNCH.

    Well that is a sight. Hawk nows Zelda of course... but immediately seeing her tackled is a problem, isn't it? There's not much choice in what to do, but Hawk chooses anyway... a quick blurt of arcane spells flings out a crackle of magic toward the beast trying to sneak away, intending to give an instant of paralysis. It's likely to last only a few moments, if that, but that could be the difference between escape and capture!

    Meanwhile, the giant stag LEAPS, moving rapidly toward the battle, trying to close the distance and get a better look at what's going on. In the meantime... "M'lady Shiek, are you all right?"

    Arriving late to the party is a blessing in some ways. Unfortunately, Cecil has an uncertainty over how well his attacks will work on these creatures of darkness. After all, it's a big risk, with how his powers sap his life force. So... he leaps!

    A loud THUD announces his landing, but since the odd youth is making a beeline for a particular beast, and Yumi is moving to help Zelda, his choice is clear. Also, it'll be good to test if his dark blade is effective against these creatures, or if he'll have to resort to more direct methods. "Do you think this is our objective?" Seems... small to him, but a quick blade flick can test his capability to help against the nearby Messenger tangling with Yumi and Zelda. If there were two, there might be more, so best seek out any signs of others, so his attack is halfhearted, more taking up a defensive stance to brace for reinforcements.

    Rydia's chocobo skids to a halt. Not out of fear but because his rider simply ordered him to, as the Summoner breaches into the clearing.
    Rydia curses violently at the sight of Zelda being de-horsed, and does her best to assess the situation.
    There's a Twilight Messenger trying to escape with something. Zelda is plunging her dagger into another-- that Yumi thankfully intervenes in.
    Rydia thinks fast.
    Hand snapping up into a series of complex somatic gestures, words of power flowing from her mouth while her chocobo scrapes the ground with a talon, she reaches out... She reaches out far beyond the realm of Hyrule, far beyond the realm of mortals and she Calls something.
    "MINDFLAYER. I summon you, hear my call and respond now! Devour the minds of those who stand in our way!" She orders commandingly.
    And something... Something from the Deep hears her call. The earth trembles, splitting apart before a pillar of stone rises from the ground. The pillar is etched in eldtritch runes and markings in a language that is painful to look at, makes the vision blur, and saps the mind itself... And standing atop that pillar is a tall figure in a purple robe. With a squid-like head, tentacles for a mouth, and a staff clasped in clawed hands.

    "Ia ia, Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nfah Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!"

    The Mindflayer bellows, its very voice a grating, creaking, scratch at the edges of the mind as the monstrous figure waves its staff at the Twilight Messengers, intending to sap their very minds and physically paralyze the beasts from sheer mental trauma.

    Dante is about to drive towards the monster that knocked Zelda off her horse, but Hawk beat him to it. Instead, he makes full speed ahead toward the Twilight monsters themselves. They don't seem so bad next to some of the stuff he's killed, if a little alien looking. "YEEHAH, time to line 'em up and knock 'em down!"

    The devil hunter gleefully makes his way towards the other Twilight Messenger. Rydia seems to have one in hand with the frickin' MIND FLAYER she just summoned. He's going to have to talk to her later about responsibly summoning Elder Things.

    He bounces his quadbike into the air, and then promptly proceeds to bring it down on top of the Messenger, bludgeoning it with his Quadbike.

>> SUMMARY[Dante] >> Remember when Dante beat the shit out of some demons with a motorcycle?

>> SUMMARY[Rydia] >> Summon: Mindflayer

  For her part, Zelda doesn't offer much answer. She's busy trying to make sure her throat isn't ripped out by the crazed beast she's grappling with. They're largely a tangle of misshapen limbs and the dark train of Zelda's hooded robe; the bright flash of the bow as she brings it down with a sharp metallic ringing against the facial disk. That seems to stun the beast long enough for Yumi to hurl herself into the match, her face connects to the thing's face-plate.

  With the force of a freight train.

  The Twilight Messenger reels away, drunkenly, as Zelda pulls herself to her feet and follows it up by letting fly another arrow; it strikes sparks as it glances off the Twilight Messenger's metallic face-plate...

  ...And the Twilight Messenger drops like a stone, twitching. One can almost see the little stars circling around its head. Well, it's out of the fight, anyway.

  Meanwhile, the beast trying to sneak away is hit squarely with a bolt of paralysis. It, too, drops like a stone.

  Zelda brings her bow around to slap another arrow onto the string. "Fine!" she calls, shortly, to Hawk. "Finish them off! There are more!"

  There are, too. Out in the woods, shrieking, as they close in. Meanwhile, the one Cecil chooses flips over and scrabbles with all four limbs as it's cornered, but it isn't enough to claw its way free. It's trying to get away, but it's not trying to get away quite like they try to get away from Zelda. Maybe the darkness isn't as immediate a concern to them after all.

  Here they come. Three, four more; barreling in from the trees, leaping to clear branches with much more agility than Zelda's horse had shown.

  And then suddenly Mindflayer.

  They wilt. It isn't enough to put them down, but they wilt. It's enough to distract them as Dante rolls up. No, literally. He manages to drive his quadbike over one of the beasts. It goes down and doesn't come back up, probably to the surprise of no one.

  Between the sheer level of onslaught and the degree of debilitating mindflaying they're enduring, mopping up what's left won't be too difficult.

    A flying fist has bought both Zelda and Yumi some breathing room, and the magical girl wastes no time capitalizing. Shining runes appear in the air, flaring for a moment as her signature greatsword takes shape. She whips Prominence up into a high ready stance, turning to face down the oncoming Twilight Messengers-

    -when Rydia summons a Mindflayer.

    Just the sound of its voice draws a hiss of discomfort from the magical girl, and the runes on Prominence shimmer briefly with sunlight magic - but she shakes it off, and then hurls herself right into the fray at the nearest monster. With the way she swings her sword, it probably won't last long.

    WHAP, WHAP! Dante uses the ATV like a massive bludgeon, using gravity to help swing it at the Twilight Messengers. He batters away at them with increasingly hard hits, whooping and hollering the whole time.

    It's just like when he borrowed Lady's motorcycle, he still owes her money for that one, and he leaps into the air as he meets one of the Messengers, and smashes the quadbike into it furiously.

    "WOO! Roadkill!"

    It's only then that Dante realizes his quadbike is just the grip now, the remains strewn about the ground as he flings the handlebar at a Twilight creature, then he unloads his shotgun on the creature with a barrage of 12 gauge rounds. "Well, great. I guess I'm walkin' home."

    Hawk is not impressed by the Mindflayer! Because Hawk is... in the air. That's right, Hawk went for the one trying to sneak away, remember? And that one is facing the petite hero leaping from the stag and in midair, drawing that gleaming blade. Swiping it downward, the sword heads straight for the Twilight Beast's head-equivalent, the holy blade striking with all the inertia of the youth's body and the speed that Acheron, the steed, was running.

    THEN the Mindflayer gets noticed. "What is THAT?" Though engaged already, Hawk is busy taking care of Twilight Beasts, trying to track those and the Mindflayer summon in case it's a new foe.

    Oh good, Dante is here. That means Cecil doesn't need to worry too much about his weapon effectivness. Instead he can focus on clomping swiftly over to the gap in formation, to cut off the escape of some of the squealing beasts. His sword still makes threatening motions, but his goal is just to intimidate, to herd them toward Dante and-

    "When did you learn THAT?!"

    Rydia is starting to concern him...

    As fast as it had come, the Mindflayer goes. Its eldritch pillar receding back into the earth from whence it came, taking the creature with it, facial tentacles still writhing as it descends back into the pits of the Deep it had come from.
    Though Rydia makes something of a face as her allies don't seem to react too well to the creature.
    "Wh-what? Whaaat? I learned it in the Feymarch." She replies to Cecil, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.
    But she should probably focus on the fight-- there are still Twilight Messengers abound, and though they're stunned, that won't last for long. So she has to act fast, just as the others.
    Once again her hands carve motions into the air, words of power floating freely from her lips as the skies darken with stormclouds overhead and crackle with thunder.
    "Thundara!"
    And calls down several columns and plumes of pure lightning from the skies upon the nearest Twilight Beast she can target.

  The Twilight Messengers go down more or less as expected. The beast run over by Dante goes down and doesn't get back up again. The beast Yumi had been in the middle of punching before Mindflayer rolled up goes down and stays there. Hawk's target is beheaded by a holy blade, and the wound is cauterised so fast it doesn't even bleed before fading into a whirl of geometric embers. The others, those dead and not just knocked out, come to the same fate. So too does Cecil's target fade away with the others; those few that had tried to steal away once they realised they were overpowered. Dante's quadbike takes care of the rest. (Thump-THUMP.)

  Zelda is still shaking her head a bit, because Mindflayer's mere presence makes her teeth itch, maddeningly. And her teeth already itch thanks to the proximity of Cecil's sword. She pulls herself straight, though, sidling back towards the lumpy shape of the prisoner with an arrow ready on the string. Her eyes are all over the clearing, seemingly on every patch of shadow all at once; halfway between hunted beast and furious predator.

  And then suddenly Thundara. This time her teeth are itching, but for an entirely new reason, that being that the hair on the back of her neck is standing on end and the clearing now smells like burnt ozone.

  Welp, if there were any left, there probably aren't now.

  By the way, congratulations, they smell terrible when they're cooking.

  Zelda staggers once it's quiet. The hunt-screams have stopped. There's no bizarre, otherworldly shrieking from the undergrowth or the distant trees. She looks out into the darkness for what seems like a long time before edging back toward the lumpy shape of the prisoner. Eyes flicking back toward the others in a silent look of 'back me up just in case this is actually something nasty,' she sets her bow aside to crouch and start untangling skeins of cloth. Twilight Messengers aren't good at tying knots; they probably just wound up their prize in something and called it good.

  Unfortunately it's kind of a mess to undo. "Rydia. Help me with this. Yumi, Hawk, Cecil, please check and make sure that was all of them. We will leave as soon as we are able, but it may be a few moments. And if someone could find my horse, I would be appreciative."

  There's feeble struggling and muffled sounds from inside the cloth cocoon. Whoever or whatever it is, it's alive, at least.

    Her target down, Yumi draws back and adopts a defensive posture, sweeping the area with her eyes until she's sure the rest of the Messengers are down. Only then does she relax, and dismiss Prominence with a brief flicker of flames and light. There's a quick jog over to make sure the cloth-wrapped prisoner isn't going to jump up and eat Zelda's face off; then, she gives the princess a nod. "On it. I won't be far." She takes off without a further word, moving to police the perimeter, watching and listening for any further pursuers.

    A quick whitle orders the stag to stay, and Hawk nods, "Well met." Laughing humorlessly at how they ended up meeting everyone again, Hawk sheaths the holy sword and straightens their cap, before heading toward the surrounding snowy foliage. "I knew I heard something, but I didn't expect to run into all of you. Guess it's a good thing I was scouting out this world."

    "'kay! Bad guys are dead now." Dante stows his shotgun, then nods to Hawk. "Don't think we've met. I've met the rest of you guys, but you I don't know. Name's Dante." He says casually, approaching Hawk and offering a hand to shake. "How long you been around here?"

    He keeps an eye on the bag, curious what it is and slowly reaches for Rebellion in case it turns out to be hostile.

    Thankfully the smell of cooked Twilight Messenger shouldn't last long. They fade when they die, don't they? And all that should be left after that is the lingering smell of ozone.
    "Acquaintance of yours, Sheik?" She does ask Zelda, while eyeing Hawk, but has her chocobo trot her over to the princess and their newly acquired spoils of war. 
    Hopping off her avian steed she pulls a dagger and sets to the task of helping Zelda get that cloth off their prize.

  If the ragged wrapped-up thing is a Twilight Messenger, it would be a very awkwardly proportioned one. Not that they aren't awkward to begin with, but this is clearly some kind of humanoid. It may even be Hylian. It has the right proportions for it, struggling feebly as Zelda deftly tries to unknot and untangle ragged strips of cloth. There's even something that might just be a voice down there somewhere.

  There are no more pursuers from the periphery of the clearing, though. After suffering a sound defeat, the Twilight Messengers apparently got the message after all that they can't win against this group. No doubt they're cringing their way back to Zant like whipped dogs. He won't be happy about this. The thought is a cheerful one to Zelda as she deftly works at the textile mess.

  "I appreciate that." Zelda glances up to Hawk, briefly, but she's distracted. "Clearly the roads are not safe even this far north, so every little bit helps. They are called Twilight Messengers." The Hylian corrects Dante without even looking up. "They are minions, and not particularly intelligent ones, but they make inconveniently keen hunters and trackers. Rather than dirty his hands personally, the usurper-king prefers to use these, although I have seen other types of Twilight beasts." Ragged old cloth rips and tears as Zelda gives up and just starts destroying it. It looks like it might have been a cloak, once upon a time; one of generously large cut and sturdy stitching. Now it's just rags, and as they fall away, it's clear this is probably some kind of Hylian. To Rydia, she nods. "In a manner of speaking. A friend, and a friend of Hyrule... Author of Law," she curses softly, "come on..."

  Eventually Zelda manages to tear the cloth free. Inside is one Hylian prisoner, clad mostly in shades of grey and black, but... Hylians don't have features that angular and sharp. They also don't have stark white hair. Nor are the irises of their eyes the colour of fresh-spilled blood. That's because it's not a Hylian. It's one of the Shadow Folk, the Sheikah, servitors of the royal family from ages past. They're not supposed to be alive in this era, but stranger things have happened in Hyrule. And according to the local legends, these are a people so good at hiding that their status is mostly relegated to 'stories to frighten children with.'

  Zelda's eyes widen, but she doesn't speak right away.

  The Sheikah does. Her voice is coarse and gravelly as though from disuse, or from shouting a lot. She grimaces, clawing bits of disintegrated cloth out of her hair. Although she doesn't look visibly wounded, she's moving slowly and carefully. "Hm. You are being a most unexpected saviour." She weaves her fingers together in a complicated but quick gesture, bowing low and formally. "You are having my gratitude." Although she looks and sounds like she could be anywhere from twenty to forty, it's difficult to tell where exactly on the spectrum the Sheikah is. Hints of youth and hints of age are both present on her face. "I think we should be moving, however, before there are more of those beasts coming. Their godless shrieking is being audible for... miles. Many miles."

    As Hawk is just returning from the quick look about, a little more detail can be given... such as it is. "We come from similar worlds, I think, but there are some very large differences between this one and mine. But many more similarities. These Twilight Beasts are like nothing I have heard of, but the other creatures - moblins, octoroks, and the like - are common between worlds." Patting the stag that is pawing the ground impatiently, the youth glances at what is revealed... and lifts an eyebrow.

    "... many differences," is all that Hawk says, repeating that. "But I am willing enough to help when the need arises, no worry."