The Guardian Slayer (botw fanfic)

9. Devan

Devan woke up early the next morning to prepare for the mission. Last night, he had already informed his battalion of the plan and chose 25 men and women to be on the trip, including himself. 4 archers, 12 swordsmen, 6 spearmen, and a paramedic. That left himself, as the commander, and Granoli, his second in command, who used a crossbow.

He assigned Zia to be the acting commander in his absence, as she was a good battle strategist and next highest rank. Then, he worked with Keenan to map out their journey; to find the best route for group travel and intercept monster packs. Everyone had stayed up late doing their part, whether it was packing food, sharpening weapons, or going over defensive strategies to protect the fort because almost half of the soldiers were leaving. He was a little worried about this, but Impa said she would send some of her own foot soldiers to help, so maybe it would be okay.

He put on his armor and climbed the highest turret of Fort Hateno and studied the field in front of him. The weather was very nice and the rising sun warmed his face. He didn't see anything suspicious in the field. Makes sense, as monsters usually didn't attack this early. He only saw the scattered decayed guardians and stone ruins.

One thought itching in the back of his mind was what he was going to do if they ran into guardians during their journey. Of course, it was inevitable, in fact, part of their mission was to kill guardians too. But none of the soldiers in the battalion had ever fought one, much less killed one. Guardians never really came to Hateno because Princess Zelda had incapacitated a bunch of them in Ash Swamp when the Calamity struck. If one wandered too close to the fort, everyone would take cover until it passed, as guardians attacked on sight. Although he hadn't seen one up close, he knew that the machines shot laser beams that could down a person in one hit, and even if it wasn't a direct hit, the laser would light everything on fire. He heard from scouts that Hyrule Field was constantly burning because all the guardians. Though, guardians were a major threat toward the citadel. It wouldn't matter if Devan apprehended all the monsters. As Akkami had said, too many guardians would overwhelm the citadel. All the lasers would burn it to the ground in seconds. So the only option was to fight guardians on the way.

Then, Devan heard a faint sound of a horse neighing and saw someone riding up to the fort. He immediately recognized them as they dismounted when they reached the gate and took off their hood.

He jumped down from the turret. "Akkami! I wasn't expecting you so early in the morning."

She shrugged and he led her into the fort. He was surprised at her clothes. He had assumed all Sheikah wore that skin tight getup, because that's what most of Impa's foot soldiers were wearing, but Akkami dressed like any other traveller. She was wearing a navy Hylian tunic, with a leather chest plate and straps. A quiver hung at her waist. He noticed her shoulder guard had a red symbol painted on it. It looked like an eye, but with a thick tear coming down. He recognized it as the same symbol he saw on Sheikah foot soldier chest plates. A staff was strapped to her back and he noticed there were faint orange designs on it. That was kinda weird. And it didn't seem to have any blades, so it was just a weird glowy stick. What was most interesting, though, was her wrists seemed to be glowing with dim blue and orange glow, similar to the staff, but the staff was only orange. Upon closer inspection, he could see her forearm gauntlets were decorated with swirly designs. It's probably just some Sheikah thing. He assured himself.

Devan showed her the inside of the fort, but it wasn't much a fort than a glorified wall. The other side was out in the open and the battalion had set up a large cloth shelter for a "common area", and smaller tents surrounded the shelter, where people slept. All the weapons were stored in a small shed against the fort. There was also a log cabin further back where the paramedic had set up a makeshift hospital where he cared for the wounded.