Fortune Favors the Courageous

Chapter 36: Favors

favor
n. an act of kindness or loyalty beyond what is due or usual
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A day of warfare, a month of monster hunting, and a lifetime of prayer was being undone in a matter of seconds. Every enemy they'd fought, every beast they'd sent back to the incorporeal was suddenly resurrected as if they'd never been defeated in the first place.

In theory, their fighters were stronger than Ganondorf's, but now their supplies were low. Their weapons were dullen. And above all else, their allies were exhausted.

Perhaps they could've handled a fresh resurgence of monsters if the Gorons had arrived as reinforcements. Maybe they even could've held their own without any reinforcements. But with the Gorons working against them...?

"Zelda!"

Link's arms came around her like a safety belt, pulling her to the ground in a somersault as a Goron flattened the grass she'd been vacillating on.

He held her in that crouch. "Hey— I need you alert. If you're not feeling li—"

She shot to her feet, ignoring the twinge of pain from her arm wound, and bullseye'd an approaching moblin. It didn't kill the beast, but Link launched back into action and finished it with his sword. But that was just the beginning—

"Ahh! Help!"

To their left, a Zora was being swarmed by keese.

Any doubt Link had had about the princess being on the battlefield now was quickly thrown away. Her heart was going a mile a minute, but it didn't seem a hindrance as she began firing down keese. But then the little bat creatures grew dodgier, and after avoiding two subsequent arrows, a glance at her quiver made Zelda realize this was an inefficient means of taking them all down. She was wasting far too many arrows on the little nuisances. But as soon as she had the thought, Link tagged in, hitting several keese with one sweep of his blade.

As soon as the Zora was less overwhelmed, he rejoined with his trident, and soon the keese were all reduced to clouds of malice.

"I owe you one!" he called over his shoulder as he ran towards his friend.

There was no time to recuperate. More monsters were already descending upon them.

"I don't know how much longer our forces can manage at this rate!" Zelda shouted, ducking behind Link while she readied her next arrow.

His sword rang out with a clash and a clang. "Got any ideas in that big, beautiful brain of yours?"

Thoomp! Thoomp! Pa-shing!

Yes—One.

But she disliked it before, and she especially disliked it now.

Then again, she hardly recognized that she was already in the fray anyway. The adrenaline pumping through her veins blocked her brain from registering the pain in her shoulder from being hastily lifted by Komali.

"We go with your plan," she announced while she reloaded. "If we can find the rest of our squad, we can head straight for Ganondorf now. Maybe if we defeat him, the rest of his army will fall too."

"Love it. Who's nearby?"

Like either of them had the luxury to look away for even a millisecond.

The princess was already panting at this rate—maybe her lungs were registering the puncture wound in her arm since her brain refused to.

From somewhere behind Link, there came a shouting in Gerudo. Zelda didn't understand it, but she recognized the voice. "Urbosa!"

Together, they fought their way towards the upset vocalizations. The chieftain's tall stature made her easy to see above the bokoblins that swarmed her feet.