Fortune Favors the Courageous

Chapter 4: Competition Part 2

It came as no surprise to Zelda that Hylia had a cruel sense of humor. Link and Mido were seeded on the complete opposite sides of the brackets. Because, of course they would be.

They would duel—in the final round, assuming they won all the matches leading up to it. Part of Zelda wanted Link to get crushed in the first round. The bigger part of her wanted Mido to have that honor.

In this phase of the tournament, the winner was determined one of two ways. One way was to get your opponent to step out of bounds. The other way was to land a blow that would otherwise be lethal if they weren't using dullen blades.

King Rhoam had a keen eye for talent, it seemed. Most, if not all, of the people he had highlighted during the free-for-all were finalists.

So of course, the duels were exhilarating. Or maybe Zelda was only on the edge of her seat in hopeful anticipation of Link's failure.

His opponent in the first round kept him on his toes, but was ultimately no match for him beyond that. When he was declared the winner, she rolled her eyes.

Mido's first match was similar. Upon his victory, the princess wanted to scream her heart out to him on the field, but restrained herself to polite applause beside her father. She was keenly aware of his watchful side eye.

The olive-skinned girl with the fiery ponytail was next. Midna was her name, Zelda learned thanks to the announcer. She, too, was quite the fighter. She slithered like shadows around her opponent, using a series of feints that soon brought her blade to a stop at her opponent's throat. Zelda figured she wouldn't mind Midna being the one to knock out Link, either.

In his second match, Link didn't swing his sword once. He had coerced his opponent out of bounds through dodging alone. Zelda merely crossed her arms while the rest of the amphitheater chorused, "Link! Link! Link!"

Even Rhoam commented that their chosen hero would have to put up a good fight to win the Tournament this year.

After each victory, Link regarded his growing support with an almost-empty expression. For some reason, this really got underneath Zelda's skin. Why was she so bothered by his nonchalance?

In the semi-finals, Link faced off against some dark-haired boy whose name Zelda failed to catch in her virulent fixation on Link. As he brought the dark-haired boy to his knees and again faced the exuberant crowd with indifferent observation, she wanted to storm down into the arena herself and give him a piece of her mind.

It was just so...

It was rude to be so widely accepted, and celebrated, and...

And to not appreciate it!

Others might assume it was envy, but Zelda knew it was merely her diplomatic upbringing crying out at the sandy-blond's social impudence. She felt it so strongly she almost had to excuse herself again, but the semi-finals were back-to-back, and she wouldn't dare miss Mido's fight.

The knight commander's semi-final match was against Midna. Their fighting styles were so different, yet powerful in their own right. Mido was straightforward and unrelenting, much like a helmasaurus gone aggro. Midna, on the other hand, was shifty and deceptive, a wizzrobe who disappeared after each attack.

The other stark contrast was their patience. After just a few minutes, this had become the longest match of the day, and Mido was growing reckless with anger towards Midna's deceit. Nearly all of her attacks were preceded by a feint.

Zelda's heart lost its rhythm. It skipped a beat every time Midna got close to landing a strike on his neck, and there were plenty. She nearly had him a handful of times. Despite his growing anger, Mido's was still receptive, and his adaptiveness grew too. He began to predict her fakeouts. One perfectly timed swing in the decidedly wrong direction became the finishing blow when Midna changed directions into his wayward slash. She was so caught up in his head-on fighting style thus far she'd moved as if victory was already hers.