Hugo dashed out towards the campgrounds, a little blur in the night. Matt stepped next to Link's side and armed his power.

Link only waited for two minutes, feeling that was more than enough time for Hugo to get to the main campground. Pulling back an arrow on the bow, Link twisted around and fired, striking the Bulblin on the tower right in the chest. With a cry, it toppled off of the tower, to the sandy ground below.

"Get going!" he called to the others, knowing the Bulblins would be rousing and readying for battle. R.D. and Alasea both nodded, drawing their weapons as they ran after Hugo, heading down the pathway to the left, past the log gate beyond the entryway.

Running in, Matt could hear the roar of Hugo's gun and decided to add to that noise. A cool gesture to the ground unleashed a wave of rock towards any unlucky Bulblins that happened to be nearby. He checked to make sure Helena was right behind him.

Another guard tower was spotted as they rounded the corner into an area with two wooden tents, but one of Hugo's shots was already crashing it down, dropping it onto several unlucky Bulblins. Link and R.D. ran past, turning another corner and finding a large gate, with a Bulblin standing guard. Link charged down and attacked, quickly slaying the beast as R.D. came up beside him.

"There's a padlock on this," Link noted, examining the gate. "One of these Bulblins has a key. Alasea, Helena, Ileyna! Check the bodies!" He looked off to his left, noting a large campground with more wooden tents, more Bulblins, and a dead Bullbo on a spit roast. "The rest of you, let's get rid of the rest of them!"

"Hey, she doesn't need to be checking dead bodies!" Helena said, pointing at Ileyna. "Ileyna, you go with Matt and R.D., okay?"

The nine year old was already a killer, but Matt ran with it. "Just stay back and we'll take 'em out, all right?"

Luckily for them, one of the first beasts Link slew carried the key he needed to get into the large tent in the center of the ruins. "Matt, with me!" He called out, motioning towards the locked gate. Running up to it, he pushed the key into the padlock and turned, snapping it open and letting it fall to the sand, and allowing the two of them to shove open the door.

Now to find out what's hiding in here, Link thought as he and Matt entered with weapons drawn. However, all they found was a single Bullbo in the corner, staring at them with its red-colored eyes. It snorted once at them.

"Well, we can get rid of the barricade with--" Link was cut off as the gate suddenly slammed shut, trapping them inside. "Damn. Matt, we need to get that Bullbo to get out of here. See if something's on the other side of that gate."

"Got it." His energy sword made a whoosing noise as Matt ran back to the gate to see if anything was locking them in with it.

As Matt went to observe the gates, something with red eyes stepped out of the darkness behind the Bullbo. A massive, fat but muscular-looking Bulblin, easily taller than Link, stepped out of the darkness, dressed in a helmet with sheered horns. He was carrying a massive axe in both of his arms.

With a single swing, the flat of the axe head smashed the Bullbo out of the way like it was nothing, causing Link to spin around with a cry. The Bulblin swung again, and the axe head smashed Link to the ground, knocking the wind out of him.

Matt turned around at the huge impact, seeing Link sprawled in the sand. "Link!" Gritting his teeth, he reared back and flung his blade at the Bulblin like a boomerang - it wasn't a sharp blade right now, but it would hurt if it tagged the monster's face.

The blade stuck hard against King Bulblin's face, causing the beast to grunt in pain as it staggered back--and allowing Link time to recover and get up, backing away with his weapons drawn. "Be careful," he said, readying the Master Sword. "This guy's tough and he's smart."

With an angry growl, King Bulblin attacked, sweeping his axe around with a surprisingly quick slash.

"Shit!" Matt leapt back to avoid the slash. Guess this wouldn't be as quick as he hoped. Still, his firepower could top him. Case in point - "Yeah, well, fuck you," he muttered at King Bulblin before unloading a burst of lighting at his dome.

The beast roared in pain as the lightning struck his body, locking all of its muscles up--just in time for Link to attack, having rolled under the axe when it was swung. Link swept up at the monster's side, slashing up with the Master Sword and laying open its arm. He struck at it twice more as the electricity wore off, driving King Bulblin back.

Right, he looked stunned enough. Time for a finisher! Lightning coursed around Matt's foot, and he ran at King Bulblin, yelling and erupting into a flying thunder kick at his chest.

King Bulblin bellowed as the attack smashed into him, sending him flying back at the back wall, slamming him hard into it. The creature rebounded off, now sporting a massive, purple bruise on its green belly, and with blood running freely around its arm.

Snarling at the two of them, the beast lifted up his good arm, still holding the axe by the handle, and struck against the log wall, which suddenly lifted up and allowed him to fall back before it crashed down, trapping Link and Matt in the building.

And then it caught on fire.

It quickly spread; the tent cloth above and the dry wood easily catching fire. Soon, the entire tent was ablaze. "Damn!" Link swore, looking around. The gate was still held shut. Behind him, the Bullbo suddenly awoke with a start, snorting as it got back up on its hooves.

"What the hell, how'd he set the place on FIRE?!" Matt's gaze shot around, looking for any potential escape routes. Gate was still closed...looks like he would have to make his own exit! "Cover me!" he shouted at Link, then chambered his fists. "Megaton..."

Link was already moving into action as the flames started. Running over to the Bullbo, he swung himself up into its saddle, and kicked the creature hard in the sides with his boots. With an angry squeal, the Bullbo reared back before landing, and charged the gates.

Like the barricades outside in the desert, they stood no better, and were smashed open in the stampede. As was the barricades opposite--the creature smashed through three of them as it headed for the prison's entrance.

Welp, that wasn't what he was planning, but no time or reason to complain! Matt waved towards the new entrance. "Come on, let's boogie!"

"What the!?" R.D. exclaimed as he heard the crash. Spinning around and gutting a Bulblin in the process, he saw the tail end of Link and the Bullbo crashing through the barricade, followed by Matt's shout for them to retreat. "Come on, let's go!"

They backed out of the fighting and ran, headed up the long path towards the prison. There, they met up with Matt and Link, whose Bullbo had landed in the sand just off of the stone ledge at the end of the path. "You guys alright?"

"We're fine," Link said. "Matt and I were able to force the Bulblins' leader to retreat."

"That's good," Alasea said, panting lightly. Running in a long skirt was difficult, especially in the sand. "Looks like we lost whatever Bulblins that were left. So is this it?"

They looked up at the gigantic building before them. A large stone stairwell, lined with worn-looking stone columns led up to a large pavilion and the large portal that led inside the structure. Two torches flanked the entrance, and above it, the insignia of the Hyrulean royal family--three triangles forming a larger triangle held aloft by a stylized bird--was set into the stone above it. The six massive pillars surrounding the building towered above them, each of them with an attached chain that led into the center of the open building--each of the pillars were topped with a large, winged disk.

"Yes, this is it," Midna said, appearing from Link's shadow. "These are the Arbiter's Grounds. The resting place of the Mirror of Twilight."

"What's that do again?" Matt asked.

"Opens up a portal to the Twilight Realm," Hugo said. "Link and Midna need to get in there so they can kill Zant."

Helena pulled off her pack and rummaged through it. She sighed. "We don't have a camera, do we? This place looks amazing."

"Here," Alasea said, pulling one out of her purse and handing it to Helena. R.D. kinda stared on at them.

"What?" Alasea asked, noticing. He merely shook his head.

"Make sure you've got everything still with you," Link said as Midna retreated back into his shadow. "This place will be dangerous."

Good thing Matt was a compulsory inventory checker. "All right, everyone check their stuff." He slapped his pockets one by one, checking for his wallet and notebooks before moving onto his backpack. As he did that, Helena moved off to the side, snapping photos.

It wasn't long before they were ready to enter the Arbiter's Grounds and seek out the Mirror of Twilight and the Omega Essence. They proceeded up the stairs, which Ileyna and Hugo had to be helped up onto due to the missing steps at its base, and to the entrance.

When they reached it, a chime cut through the air as Ileyna's hair flashed with blue color.

"Well, guess we know its definitely here," R.D. commented.

"Its weird," Ileyna said, almost mumbling. "The signature... feels different."

"How so?" Helena asked. She still had the camera out, her finger resting on the shutter release button, but she held it easy at her hip.

"I don't think the Essence has bonded with anything yet," the young girl replied. "It must be one that came through during Matt's accident."

"Then let's move it," Hugo said, walking ahead. "We can't let the Essence bond to anything if we've got the chance."

They proceeded down the stairs after Hugo, delving into the darkness of the prison. They soon found themselves in a torch-lit hallway leading down at a slight slope; sand blown in from the desert lining the corners of the walls. It widened out at its end, revealing a large chamber filled with shifting sands.

"Oh good," R.D. said as he stepped out onto the platform jutting out from the hallway. He looked into the whirlpool directly ahead of them, the one with the upraised pillar and platform sticking out of its left corner. "Quicksand."

"There's something in the sand," Alasea noted--clouds of sand were being kicked up as something tore through it, going around seemingly aimlessly.

"Be careful," Link said, drawing the Master Sword as he stepped out ahead of them. "It could be--"

The sand exploded as a massive, three-fanged black worm burst up from it, releasing a shrill cry as it arced through the air at Ileyna.

Matt's senses kicked in well before the monster leapt, and he reacted with the first element he could think of. He fired a massive spear of ice at the worm to skewer it.

The creature was blasted away by the attack, sending it back into the quicksand as it died. "And now we have sand worms," R.D. muttered. "This gets better and better."

"We need to get across, looks like," Link said, observing the rooms and the various platforms leading over to the opposite end of the room.

"Looks like its gated off, though," Alasea said. "What's that next to it?"

"Let's go check it out," R.D. said. "Keep an eye out for those worms."

"You know, if we walk without rhythm, we won't attract the worm," Matt remarked.

Helena slid the camera in her pocket. "Cut it out with the references, Matt."

"I was partially serious that time."

"Can we just fly over those?" Helena asked, probably about the platforms.

"Worms would get you more easily that way," Hugo said. "We'll take it slow and blast them as they come up."

Using the Clawshot, Link made his way over to the closest platform using a grated-off torch set into the wall. The others followed suit with strong leaps (and flight for Ileyna and Hugo), where they saw a second whirlpool and two more cloudy trails in the sand, indicating two more Moldorms. One of them promptly leaped at them from the sand, and was skewered on Link and R.D.'s swords.

"That looks like a chain," Alasea observed in the fenced area next to the platform with the gate. "I see a handle. A way to get through the gate, perhaps?"

"Probably. One of us will need to pull that up while the rest of us head for the gate," Link said.