The Survivor

[Goron40]

A rock crumbled and fell away, smashing to the ground hundreds of feet below. Goron let out a cry as his hand slipped off into thin air, and he dangled precariously from the cliff face. Sweat trickled down his face, and made his hands slippery. The hot afternoon sun wasn't helping to cool him down either.

Three hundred feet up the cliff face of a mountain in whatever dimension that portal had dropped him, Goron swung his momentum around and wedged his free hand into the gap that had been created by the falling rock. He gritted his teeth, and hoisted himself further up the wall.

No ropes to resctrict his climbing, just the wind, the sun, and rocks. This was how you were supposed to rock climb. Goron grinned as he found a new hand-hold. Sure, it was dangerous, but what's the point of living if you can't feel alive?

About fifty or so feet from the top, he ran out of hand-holds. Goron, master of foresight. He hadn't bothered to plan his route.

"Shadow!" Goron called toward the top of the cliff, "Shadow, I'm stuck! Can you help me?"

No response. Goron muttered something inaudiable.

With a sigh, he took a shuriken from it's pouch and gripped it in his teeth. Getting a firm grip, he took a second one and drove it into the rock. Now, hanging from the shuriken-hand-hold, Goron took the second knife from his teeth and drove it into the rock above the first. He raised himself a bit, then repeated the process.

------

A sharp slap of the rock by Goron's climbing hand woke Shadow from his nap. The Grendel was supposed to be watching Goron, but the rock had been so warm...

Shadow smiled happily as Goron pulled himself up and over the edge, then collapsed.

"Where the hell were you?"

Shadow looked about, then determined Goron was not talking about his previous location.

"Shadow rest self."

Goron narrowed his eyes at the lazy creature. After a moment, he relaxed his gaze, though. He couldn't stay mad at Shadow, not after all they had been through.

Instead, Goron took the time to look around, and see where he had climbed to. These days, the portal seemed to respond to Goron's drives, as opposed to his usual random warping. This morning, he had decided to go Rock Climbing. As he had stepped out of the citadel, the vortex had swirled around him and Shadow, and placed them here, with Goron at the bottom of the cliff, and Shadow at the top. Goron got his rock climbing, Shadow got his nap.

All of a sudden, a trumpet blared in the distance. Goron crawled to the edge of the cliff, not noticing Shadow, who had perched himself on his head.

Below them, a large trail of dust followed a massive army. Goron wondered how he could have missed it. It had to be 100... maybe 200 thousand. Surely something that big would have made itself noticed while Goron was on his cliff. There was nothing but plains for miles around, with the exception of a valley at the immediate bottom of the mountain. The army itself seemed to made of humanoid-looking figures, although it was difficult to tell from this distance, with a single figure leading them, riding some sort of mount.

Goron extended his energy sword and dug it into the cliff face, Shadow on his back. With the sword holding the pair to the cliff face, they slid to the bottom of the wall, stopping only to check their speed. Once at the bottom, Goron approached the edge of another cliff, which overlooked the valley which the army marched through.

From here, Goron was able to see both ends of the canyon, and noticed a second army entering the far end of the canyon. This mass of soldiers was composed of large, hunched-over creatures, who were walking on all fours. An extremely large one of these led the gathering.

With a shreik, these new opponents charged the orginal army, who revealed themselves to have firearms. Bullets from automatic weapons peppered the on-coming creatures, yet seemed to have little effect. The leader of the humanoids drew an energy blade, then prodded his steed, which turned out to be a very large wolf, into a charge.

The two armies collided like water upon rocks. They seemed evenly matched, with the creatures brute strength matching the humanoid's technology. Combatants fell on both sides.

-------

Several hours later, only a few soldiers remained. The humanoids had exhausted their ammo, and the creatures, their strength. The small number of warriors were now locked in small wrestling matches, having degraded to using teeth and nails.

The only two warriors still on their feet were the commanders. They had managed to seek each other out, and had now taken up center stage in the field. Several fighters stopped to watch.

It was like a joust. The wolf howled and charged the creature, and the beast snarled in retaliation before sprinting headlong at its opponent. At the moment before impact, the creature leapt and cleaved the wolf's rider from his mount. They hit the ground, and neither of them moved.

The creature rolled off, revealing the energy sword impaled through his chest, while the humanoid semmed to have succumbed to the fierce clawing and crushing weight. Both of them were dead.

Out of the chaos, a swirling mist developed, and all the fighters stopped to look at it. A figure materialized, clad in a velvet robe, and armed with a katana strapped to his back. As Goron surveyed this newcomer, he paused on his face and his jaw dropped. It was him. Or rather, it was a GORON. A clone that was not Monica or himself.

As Goron watched, the figure spoke.

"Congratulations, you have managed to tie," he said, "Now some of you may be feeling that you should both advance to the next round. However you seem to both be leaderless. Without a leader you cannot participate. And you know what happens to those who get knocked out of the tournament."

Both of the remaing armies' faces, or lack thereof, fell in horror. They turned to scamper away, and the GORON began to glow. There was a large burst of shadow, and the entire canyon was shrouded in darkness. Goron crouched lower behind the cliff edge and the canyon exploded.

As soon as the mist began to clear, Goron and Shadow descended into the valley, only to find no survivors. in the center of the canyon, the GORON stood, unharmed. He spotted the pair of them approaching, but showed no signs of surprise or any emotion at all.

"Ah, the infamous duo, Goron40 and Shadow," he said, then with a less pleased tone, "You're shorter than I expected."

Goron was taken aback, "You know who we are? And I thought only addman was famous..."

"I know many things. My name is Malkazor, and I am a GORON, unit number 654 if you must know. I am the chairman of the 'Survivor' tournament."

"Excuse me? Was that what I just witnessed here? A tournament?"

"Indeed. If you would like to come with me back to the tournament offices, I will explain more there."

Goron nodded, and Malkazor once again exploded in a puff of shadow, enveloping Goron and Shadow. When the smog cleared, they were in a busy building, with small, gnome-like creatures running about.

"This world is one of many species and races. For thousands of years they lived in peace, mostly because of this planet's rugged terrain, and their inability to communicate with each other," Malkazor began, "I found this rather boring. So I created the Survivor tournament. Each of the over 1000 races pits the whole of their armies together in combat, and the winner advances to the next round. The losers are... dealt with by me."

He led them into a private office and closed the doors.

"You're a fellow GORON, and I've had no one to brag to for all these years, so I'll let you in on the real purpose behind this tournament. I alone can defeat one of their armies with the various magic and strength I've garnered over the years. But if they were to unite, I would not be able to stand up to them."

"What difference does that make?" Goron questioned, "When are you ever going to have to fight an entire army?"

"Excellent inquery. You see, with the tournament in place, and the races of this world squabbling in wars, no one questions the fact that the losing teams are killed after each match. This provides an excellent opportunity to remove the various races' military strength. Once I have rid myself of them all, they will have nothing to defend themselves with, and I, Malkazor, will be free to rule them all!"

"What?!" Goron exclaimed, "You're causing mass-death so you can rule a planet? You're sick!"

Malkazor simply smiled.

"You do not understand the genius of my plan? Ah well, not all of us were infused with boosted intellegence I suppose. Why waste these powers helping people, when instead I can use them to conquer galaxies?"

"I think that the species of this planet will see the 'genius' of your plan after I expose you for the twisted mind that you are," Goron said, turning on his heel and walked to the door. He pulled it slightly open, then it slammed shut and locked. Goron wheeled again.

"I'm afraid that's out of the question. I had really hoped you would understand my position. However, the fact that you haven't simply makes you an information leak," Malkazor stated, all traces of a smile gone, "And what do we do with leaks? We plug them."

Malkazor's katana flew from his sheath to his hand, and he swung it, created a massive breeze. Goron braced himself against the door, but Shadow was thrown up against the wall. He slumped to the floor, unconscious.

The wind subsided and Goron flew at him, full force. There was the clang of metal upon metal, but Goron's fastest swipes only met with an equal block from his opponent. After several seconds (and nearly a hundred blows), Malkazor flipped his sword and smashed Goron across the room with it's broadside. Goron's sheild glowed as he collided with the wall, but it held.

On his feet in an instant, Goron fired several lasers at Malkazor, who promptly vanished into a could of shadow, reappearing outside of the large window that adorned the rear wall, hovering in thin air.

"I have mastered the art of the shadow travel, you see," Malkazor explained, "to the point where I no longer need a shadow to enter the realm. From what I've heard you aren't quite at this level." An evil grin spread across his face.

The window shattered as Goron burst through it, only to demonstrate his immense lack of any planning whatsoever. A hundred feet below him waves crashed onto sea rocks, which seemed to be pointedly sharp ((Ahhh, bad pun)).

Goron reached out and grabbed hold of Malkazor's leg, using his momentum to launch himself into the air. The evil clone seemed unsurprised, and grabbed Goron by the neck, throwing him over his head and onto the complex roof.

Goron again crashed into the ground, and once more, his sheild held.

"It seems you have created some extra technology for yourself. Excellent. Technology is limited, though. Magic is forever boundless."

Two large shadowy energy balls appeared in Malkazor's hand, which he flung at Goron. They swirled around each other before colliding with the roof where Goron had been lying. Goron was actually a few feet to the right, kneeling on the edge of the gap that had been created by the explosion.

Goron searched for his target as the cloud cleared, only to found Malkazor had vanished again.

"Where...?"

A sharp blow to the back of his head sent his tumbling across the roof. Once more, he dangled above the ocean, holding on by his fingertips. Just as he had been doing hours ago on the cliff, he pulled himself onto the ledge, where Malkazor was waiting for him.

"Face it. You're no match for me."

True as that may be, Goron was not prepared to give up. From his satchel, he pulled a small red potion. The vial of rage. He downed it in a gulp.

Deep within him, his primal instincts activated. His adrenalan started flowing, and his mind reached into the past, awakening his hidden strength.

A shockwave of Goron's own shadow energy burst forth and knocked Malkazor backwards. For the first time since he had met Goron, a look of surprise came over his face. This was something that he had not heard of. Goron and Shadow's powers were well known, but this was... unheard of.

Goron's eye's glowed white as the black aura enveloped him. The fire of his katana emerged from his hidden power well. Without waiting for Malkazor to stand, Goron let loose the shadow energy wave from his sword. The roof of the building was torn up in various places, making its way toward the evil GORON. The clone raised his katana and strained with the wave. The sweat dripped down his face as he cut through the dark energy, pushing the attack aside.

Goron charged Malkazor, giving him a full-force blast from his katana. The energy of the swipe collided with Malkazor's own katana, which had just been infused with the evil clone's own magic. The two blades grinded against each other, neither one giving up an inch. The two were perfectly matched. They leapt back to recover from the confrontation.

Malkazor was suddenly thrown off balance as a new section of the roof exploded. From the smoke came Shadow, obviously still injured from his first encounter, but determined to help Goron nontheless. He landed on all fours ten or so feet away from Malkazor, who looked qutie infuriated.

Shadow was exhausted, and dropped to his stomach.

"You meddeling beast! I'll finish you!" Malkazor said as he charged up a ball of dark energy in his right hand. He swung his arm down, then stopped mid-swing. His eyes bulged and the energy disapeared. Malkazor looked down to see Goron's katana burning in his side. The owner had his palm at its base, pressing it into its target. Goron withdrew his hand and his dark power faded, returning his eyes to normal. The aura dispersed and his katana became normal once more.

Malkazor staggered and looked at the blade that was now protruding from his side. He fell to his knees, and turned his gaze to Goron. He finally collapsed, a look of disbelief on his face.

"Rosebud..."

As Goron went to pick up Shadow, two figures burst from the roof access.

"We're ready to start the next... What the hell?"

Goron sighed, and walked past the two people, who were obviously participants in the next round. He left them to think whatever they wished as he left the building. Shadow lay in his arms, asleep again.

((Once again... another "medal for reading" story... My head hurts))

[3kul]

((Ah, awesome work as always with this Goron The introduction to an 'evil' kind of Goron made for an interesting change in direction for your Goron stories so far, it's a possibility I'd never really thought of whilst reading your previous works. Seeing Goron's hidden powers in action was also pretty cool.

As always, keep up the great work! ))