[HEADING=2]Outside the Castle[/HEADING]
The Dinolfos and Hylian soldiers continued to fight with each other. It wasn't the sort of battle where the two forces slammed into each other like steel tides. Rather, the Dinolfos had been quick to take up a more defensive stance as they engaged combat. Most kept their shields raised up, catching a few arrows from Shah's bodyguards. Others breathed jets of fire from their mouths that kept the Hylians at a distance - nobody wanted to get cooked alive in a suit of armour.
Sigrid didn't turn to Ro as he spoke, instead focused on the battle in front of her. "Make sure the other nobility are safe! Or grab a weapon and get bashing!" Sigrid then noticed Lynd. Specifically, she noticed Lynd running away from the battle and towards the castle. She scowled nastily and would have screamed at the guardsman, if only one of the Dinolfos had not chosen that moment to throw a spear at her. Her body shimmered with a purple aura as the projectile bounced harmlessly off her magic armour. Sigrid then turned and disposed of the lizard with another beam from her sword.
As the two forces continued to battle it out, a pink bokoblin wearing a bunny hood came rushing out from the Dinolfos ranks. He was grinning and carried a machete in each hand. The Hylian soldiers couldn't stop the bokoblin, who had managed to get halfway through their side with some incredible speed. Those who tried to engage him were either dodged by a series of hops, flips and slides, or had their limbs slashed at with the blin's machetes, incapacitating them. Most didn't even notice the bokoblin still as they remained focused on the Dinolfos in front of them.
Meanwhile the cluster of fleeing people that included Princess Zelda, Prince Shah, the hooded Impa and now Lynd had gotten away from the courtyard and into the keep. As they did, the gates of Hyrule Castle slowing started coming down to separate them from the battle. Walls loomed over everyone in the keep, with a pair of gardens along a paved path that led a large ornate door. A protective formation of knights surrounded the Princes like their own tiny wall. "Well, so much for your celebration of peace..." Shah muttered with arms crossed. "Maybe next festival, you should check people for weapons a bit better. Instead of not at all."
Impa, rather than Zelda, responded. "Sage advice. We'll keep it in mind." she said. The hooded Sheikah turned to face the Princess. "I'd advise that we make haste and head into the castle. Those Aeralfos are likely still around. Walls alone won't protect us from them."
The Princess nodded and made her away towards the ornate door, gesturing for the others to follow her. All did except Impa, whose attention was caught by a guardsman with a strange contraption on his arm. "You there...Lynd." she said. "Shouldn't you be outside with the rest of the guard?"
On the other side of the wall, the bokoblin had passed through the Hylian ranks. Rather than narrowly darting through the gate as one might have expected, he instead ran towards the wall itself. The bokoblin jumped into the air and grabbed onto a machicolation. He then flung himself up again, grabbing hold of another and scaling the wall like a monkey.
[HEADING=2]At the Fountain[/HEADING]
Valentine's song never finished. Before it could, a clawshot latched itself onto his violin and yanked it away. Valentine gave the Dinolfos who fled with it a hateful glare. When he turned back to Ingo, his eyes widened as he saw a bolt of lightning flying in his direction.
But then another bolt of lightning appeared. It materialized several feet above Valentine and met Ingo's, the two magic bolts flashing as they merged and cancelled each other out. Valentine smirked and looked up. "Thank you, Anna." Whoever he was speaking too, they were nowhere to be seen.
Valentine looked back at Ingo with a sad frown. "What a shame..." he said. "When you told me you were a friend of Vaati's, I was hoping that we'd make great friends. But alas, it seems you're a nothing but a trigger-happy bastard looking to make enemies."
He then noticed a group of what looked like pirates making their way through the fountain plaza. The guards weren't around, those formerly stationed to guard the fountain now attended the masked victims or rushing over to Hyrule Castle. As the pirates split off into squads, Valentine noticed one led by a Hylian woman coming in his direction. The musician grinned.
"You know...maybe that one would make a better friend." he said, gesturing to Erryn. "I'll leave with you Anna, Ingo. I have fairer company to attend." With that Valentine pulled himself up and started walking towards the pirates.
Even if Ingo wanted to react, he wouldn't have been able to. Because as Valentine spoke, someone else had apparently cast magical bindings on the Kokiri. A flimsy line of yellow energy tied itself around his hands like a pair of handcuffs. Ingo then would have seen a ball of fire forming a meter in front of him, which would then come flying in his direction.
Meanwhile, atop the roofs of Castle Town, Ragnar would be in for quite the surprise. He wouldn't have heard it coming and, with his attention fixed on the looming smoke in the distance, he wouldn't have seen. The blackened Rito that had been flying above Castle Town for sometime now descended, soaring silently towards the albino Dinolfos. When close enough a pair of talons hooked themselves onto Rangar's shoulders. Then the Rito leaned forward, its head upside down to face him.
There was something horrifying on its face. A mask, but one utterly bizarre and hideous. It had the likeliness of a distorted face, similar enough to seem like a real person's face but twisted enough to be disturbing.
Then the Rito let out a scream. It was an eldritch, bone-chilling scream that froze one's blood. Literally. Rangar's muscles seized up when he heard the shriek, stunned and unable to move from the sheer sense of horror.
The Rito slammed Ragnar down against one of the roofs. "I saw you down there." it said. The Rito had a feminine voice, cold and ghastly. She grabbed the still-stunned with a talon and pulled him around, making it so he faced her. Her feathers were pitch black rather than the usual Rito colours, as were her clothes. "Valentine needs that toy you stole. He can't orchestrate the slaughter without it."
With that the Rito's talons began scrapping along Rangar's chest, trying to search him. It took a bit of time for her to find the rupee-clad violin in the Dinolfos' pocket. "Yes...this will be a bloody day." the Rito hissed. She gripped the violin in her talons and began flapping her wings. She knew that Rangar would come back to his senses at any second, and wanted to be airborne before that happened...
[HEADING=2]Along the Market[/HEADING]
Of all the things one expects, getting divebombed by a Rito usually isn't one of them. The hooded rider was knocked right off his horse by Sorti, toppling onto the ground as his steed rode off in a panic. He tried to pull himself up, only for Bannog to slam him with a spear and press his foot against the man's chest.
Meanwhile, those wearing masks had uncurled themselves when the haunting melody stopped. When Rio began playing his calming flute music, the masked people stood back up. Some stood in place, while others wandered about slow and aimlessly. All were docile though.
The cloaked stranger didn't struggle as Bannog might have expected. When the bulbin pressed his boot harder, the man's hood popped off.
He wore a helmet. Not one of any ordinary design. A dark, purplish-blue coloured one with a gold trim and what looked like ornate bat-wings designed at the sides. In the centre was a red, cyclopean eye. The helm only covered the top half of the man's head, for below one could see light, purplish skin and frowning lips.
"The girl? She's mine, monster." he said to Bannong, before turning to look at Sorti. "And you, fledgling, should be worried more about what I'm going to do to you."
Vaati opened his palms. A pair of powerful wind gales came flying from both his hands, blasting towards Bannog and Sorti. The two were hit by a explosion of wind that knocked them up into the air. The combined force of the explosions through the market, a hard gale of wind rushing through the street. People masked and otherwise were blown off their feet, market stalls collapses as their poles were snapped and windows exploded into shards.
