A whoop from ahead, and Matt flipped out of a group of enemies, landing near Alasea with a piledriver that ashed a Heartless shaped like a robotic drone. "Oh, yeah!" he shouted, scrambling back up. "I'm lovin' it." Glancing about, he saw Alasea. "Hey there! Are YOU lovin' it, too?"

"... doesn't anything bother you, Matt?" Alasea had to ask as he landed. She shook her head. "Never mind. Do you have a plan to end this? I can't use another Reckless Fire here, I don't have the magical power to pull it off!"

"I'm about to Dragon Drive, so I'll just-"

A loud inferno erupted across the pavillion, flanking over a mass of Heartless like a tidal wave.

"Or I'll just let Helena kill them all for me," Matt finished.

More screams erupted as the flames washed out over the pavilion, going high over the rooftops, where they could be seen by the fleeing and hiding townsfolk. Hearing the blast, R.D. looked over in time to see Link backflipping out of the way of the inferno. He quickly tracked down its source.

Where Helena had been standing, a furious-looking green dragon stood, the remnants of a white and brown dressed hanging off her form. Smoke could be seen from her mouth.

"... this is gonna get ugly," he muttered, twisting around to bisect another Heartless.

Matt watched some of the townsfolk flee. Maybe this wasn't such an awesome idea. But Helena didn't care - she was busy leaping at the Heartless and shredding them apart, levelling others with blasts of fire.

Well, nothing better to do now than go with it. Matt clenched his fist. "Come on," he said to Alasea. "Let's clean house."

Link swept the Master Sword about, catching a Heartless here and there with his precise swings. Two leaped at him while a third came at his front, and a quick spin cut them all down, knocking that third one to the ground. As he leaped up and drove his sword through the Heartless with a yell, Helena charged past him, leaving the black mist of destroyed Heartless in her wake.

So she's a dragon? he thought, sparing a glance at her. I thought those were only legend.

Hugo followed in Helena's wake, shouting at Link, "Don't worry, she's still on our side! Come on!"

Matt brought up a compact blizzard to one side of the remaining crowd. If they pushed the forces to the center, then a well-timed attack could nuke them all in one go. At least, that was the plan. He didn't claim to be a strategist...but hey, they had survived this far, didn't they?

Now that Helena had transformed into her full dragon form, it did not take long for the battle to swing into their favor, and soon the Heartless' numbers dwindle until they were almost nothing. Even the hard-to-hit robed ones attacking from before were no longer an issue, and soon enough, Link found himself bearing down on the last Heartless, a gigantic one in black armor, with a pointed helmet and swinging a giant double-bladed axe.

He dove to the side as it attacked, rolling about to its unprotected backside and swept upwards with the Master Sword, cutting into the armor and causing to flinch forward. It whipped around with its axe, but he backflipped out of the way before leaping in again, attacking with a downward slash that was blocked with the weapon's long haft.

"Hiiyaaah!" With a battle cry, he struck repeatedly, his blade slipping under and over the Heartless' axe, biting into the armor over and over again. He was simply too nimble for the Heartless, and with one final strike, Link rolled under its swing and thrust his sword up into its chest. The Heartless made not a sound as it exploded into a fine black mist.

The green-clad warrior snapped his wrist of his sword hand forward twice before spinning the Master Sword around, sheathing it in a single smooth motion in victory.

Matt clapped, his fleshy hand thudding against his metal palm. "Very nice!"

"Good work," Hugo said, loud enough for the gathered comrades to hear. "We should try that more often. Most of the time we're just sloppy when we fight individually."

"Normally we don't fight crowds that big," Matt said. He watched Helena curve around, walking behind Hugo and keeping an eye out for anything else. "But I see where you're coming from."

Link surveyed the pavilion as he turned around, taking note of everything that had occurred. Luckily, the damages to the surrounding town was minimal, and nothing that couldn't be repaired in short order. He watched as R.D. dismissed that strange armor of his, and look about warily at the scared-looking townsfolk as Helena prowled the area, searching for more Heartless.

Not that the townsfolk would understand that. True, Hugo had warned him that they had more surprises, but something like this... he doubted that the people of Castle Town would understand. Especially after an attack like this.

Hugo glanced out at the gathering crowd, their eyes demanding explainations. "Better have a good story for this one," he muttered to Matt, who pressed his lips together. Hmmm. Better keep it serious this time.

"Before you ask any questions," Matt called out to the townfolk, "I just want you to know that we're on your side, all right?" Business-like tone and glances in place as he scanned the crowd. "Yeah, we're not from around here, but with these things attacking, we figured we should help out."

"Save it," Link said, shaking his head as he approached. "I don't think they're going to listen, Matt. Not after this."

"You're right," Rusl said, approaching--though not without sparing a cautious glance towards Helena, who still prowled the area with the tatters of her dress still hanging on her form. "People are scared. Everyone in Hyrule is."

"Can you take care of this?" Link asked, turning towards his old mentor. "I need to speak to Telma. And to Matt and the others about... all this."

Link turned back to Matt, and R.D. as he approached. "She can change back, right?" he asked them. R.D. nodded.

"She can, but... well, she'll need somewhere a bit private," he explained. "Don't worry about her clothing. We've got that covered."

Link nodded slowly. "Alright. Be quick about it; I'll try and help Rusl and Ashei with this."

Matt made an irritated growl between his pressed lips. Made sense that the people wouldn't hear their case, but he hated being shut down before he even began. "Well, uh...I guess we'll find an alleyway or somethin'."

"I saw a place we can use," Alasea said as she walked up. Ileyna followed behind her, having already landed. "Come on, I'll take you guys there."

She lead them down one of the side street on the market street in the town. After a short walk, in which many people watched them pass apprehensively, Alasea guided them to a small yard in front of a seemingly abandoned house--the door was barred shut, and there was some erosion on the ground to the side of the door, against the wall. It was empty, except for the six or seven cats in the area, who quickly approached them with loud yowls despite Helena's presence.

"Just give me the gem and put up a wall for me and Helena," Alasea said as she and the weredragon stepped into the yard. R.D. nodded and took the repair gem out of his satchel, and handed it to her.

"Why are you gonna be in there?" Matt asked. "She can dress by herself."

"Someone has to get that dress off her," Alasea countered. "It can't be fixed if it gets worse, and she wanted to keep this dress."

"Well, whatever," R.D. said, grabbing Earth energy. "Just be quick about it."

"I will," Alasea said, nodding once. She stepped back, and allowed R.D. to raise a wall of Earth from the ground to give them privacy.

Matt sighed and folded his arms. "Well, this was a good idea that quickly went to pot." He shot a glance at Hugo. "And it wasn't even my fault this time."

The Mettaur's eyes thinned. "I don't like it. Last time we fought the Heartless, Malvettix was trying to kill you. Maybe he knows you're not dead after all."

"Malvettix is here," R.D. said, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. "I'm sure of it. Its the only way the Heartless could be here without a portal... it wasn't at all like the day we met."

"He must be fuckin' around if he's sending his guys after us. Then again, Malvettix likes to play with his food before he murders it to death." Matt tugged at the collar of his overshirt, straightening it out in that fold he preferred.

"We should start drills again," Hugo told Matt. "Get Helena and Ileyna involved so they can sharpen their reflexes."

Matt let the smile cross his face. "Well, gee, we're already sending the little girl into mortal danger. Let's teach her how to kill while we're at it."

"If it helps us survive."

"I know, I know. I see where you're coming from."

"I've already killed before," Ileyna said shortly, frowning a bit. "At least, I don't think that Stand user survived Mass Effect when I acquired it."

"Well, don't remind me about that, okay?" Matt replied. The way she talked about it like it was the Sunday wash...

R.D. sighed. "At this rate, we won't have to worry about Malvettix and Re-Tuul and Magister, because Colleen's going to kill us first," he muttered.

"We're done!" They heard Alasea call out. "You can lower it now!"

R.D. nodded and raised his hand forward, using Earth energy to lower the wall back into the ground before releasing his hold on Lumiya's power.

Looks like the Fabric Repair Device cleaned up the dress after all. Helena was sliding her hanads down her hair as the wall came down. "They were practically unstoppable," she said. "Turning all the way was the only thing I thought would help."

Matt made a short gesture. "Don't worry about it. We're just passin' through anyway, right?"

"Yeah. Let's just not bother with cover stories anymore."

"One thing's for certain, we need a plan now," R.D. said, standing straight to accept the gem as Alasea returned it to him. "There's no way we can stand against Malvettix like we are right now. He'd slaughter us."

"But what do we do about him?" Alasea asked. "My sword... my power won't work against him. Its almost like he's immune to it; it won't destroy him like it does with Ziatoch and NightShade's creatures."

R.D. looked to the side a bit, thinking. "Maybe Link can help us with that," he said. "You saw that sword he was wielding, right?"

"Malvettix isn't a Heartless," Hugo pointed out. "He won't be so easy to cut."

"Yeah, I doubt that sword was forged specifically to fight Heartless," R.D. said dryly. "But there's something special about that blade. It was far more effective against them than any of our normal weapons. Ashei and Rusl's swords, and my own swords, usually took two or three strikes to fell one."

"And Link's sword killed almost all of them in a single strike," Alasea continued, musing. She nodded. "Malvettix might not be a Heartless, but he's definitely a creature of darkness. And if that sword is special, it might have the firepower we need to kill Malvettix."

"Still leaves us with the need for a plan," R.D. said. "We all know he's going to go after Matt, and because of that we know he's going to thrash me first."

"Didn't you say he was vulnerable to light attacks?" Matt asked Alasea. "Just use one of those to pin him down while we nuke him. If you hit him hard enough, I know he can't regenerate."

"He is vulnerable to light attacks," Alasea said, agreeing. "Just not my light attacks. They're about the only real damage I managed to do to him, but his only response was to put me through a wall. They didn't make him pause. Riul's attacks did."

"... which leaves using light energy as a weapon to me," R.D. said, sighing. "Wonderful."

"What's wrong?" Ileyna said, wondering why R.D. seemed so bent out of shape about it.

"Malvettix only wants to fight and kill Matt," R.D. explained to the girl, and to Helena since she no longer knew this. "But that's not enough to keep me out of the fight. If he wants Matt, he has to go through me first. And I'm sure by now, Malvettix knows that."

"Do you have any idea what Malvettix is, Matt?" Alasea asked. "Was there anything you did while you had the Core that might've caused this? There has to be a reason why he wants to kill you so badly."

Matt spread out his hands, like he was shielding himself. "Hey, that's the sixty four thousand dollar question here. I've got no idea what he is or why he's a prick. I just know that he's a major threat."

"All the more reason why we should start drilling again," Hugo said. "We need to be ready for anything."

"Not sure if we'll have time," R.D. said. "We can't waste time drilling when the Essence is out there somewhere, and you know Malvettix isn't going to let us wander for too long. I think we have our hands tied here."

Alasea nodded in the direction of the street. "Link's coming this way."

The man approached them at a steady pace. "There you are. Is everyone all right?" he asked.