Chaos' party: Thread 6.1

The stalfos remained standing, but wasn't able to attack. The remaining 4 all lashed out again, but were unable to penetrate the sturdy goron. The large armored stalfos swung again. Its blade rung loud as it swung down at the goron, but Darem managed to roll out of the way in time.

Chaos continued trying to fight and dodge both stalfos at once, The smaller stalfos finally managed to disrupt his footing as the armored stalfos prepared a swing. Chaos dashed behind the unarmored stalfos and used its body to block an incoming blow from the larger skeleton. The stalfos' swing was as powerful as it could muster however, and it plowed through the other skeleton. It hit so hard that it sent Chaos to the ground.

Darem countered and charged at the last stalfos to swing, hoping to catch it off guard.

Darem tackled the larger stalfos and sent it unexpectedly backwards. The blow left a large dent in the breastplate as a broken ribs was seen falling to the ground from inside the armor.

Chaos struggled to get the broken heap of bones and metal off of himself. He didn't expect the stalfos to be so willing to crush another. His hand surged with energy, but when he tried to swing it he found an armored foot stepping on his arm and hindering its movement. The large Stalfos had gotten the better of him and made a loud crackling noise to the others.

The stalfos Darem was facing pointed towards Chaos and made otherwordly rattling noises before anything legible came out. "keeeeeeh.... sssssurrender yourself or we will eliminate the fleshy one."
The four other stalfos stood in a circle around Darem all ready to strike out again.

Darem crossed his arms, "Taking hostages?" He raised his hands up halfheartedly, "Just when I was havin' fun too." He looked over towards Chaos. "Was a good run at least, eh?"

Chaos growled.  To put it bluntly, he was too tired for this shit. The stalfos lifted him up by his collar and urged him forward through a passage at sword point. The many other stalfos tried herding Darem in the same direction while keeping a slight distance from the large rock man. "khhhhhhh.... You would speak to our Captain... Plea your case of intrusion to him."

Meanwhile, Fist and the others moved onward for a time without interruption. They were quickly set upon by stalfos from the front and back. Fist charged at the one in front and started clobbering it before another spoke up. "Ssssss... halt your attack. We have your captured your companions. Lay down your weapons.. immediately." Fist halted her attack to the agreement of stalfos who had just received a fresh new dent in its cranium. She wasn't sure whether to believe them or not. This place appeared to be crawling with skeletons and they had no head or tail of where the others were to be found. It was a sticky situation. Her weapons weren't so easily confiscated so she decided to follow along for now. She dropped her hands and allowed the gauntlets to slide off her arms.

"I'm sure skeleton captains are very kind and understanding. Provided they're not too bitter about the whole 'undead' thing."

No more words were exchanged as the two were taken to a holding chamber. Inside the chamber were Fist, Reina, and Jillian secured by chain handcuffs that all attached to a longer chain shared by the three of them. The new arrivals were secured with chains (Multiple sets were strapped to the goron) and the group was united again. "Was wondering why you were so late to catch up." Chaos muttered as he was bound to the back of the line. "It's not the most pleasant outcome, but escaping shouldn't be too hard once the chance arises. I still have my weapons." Fist said as she tested the chain's strength.

"Speak for yourself." Darem pouted, trying to move his limbs, "This is discrimination!"

Jillian chuckled a bit despite the bleak situation. "Take it as a compliment." She advised, "Clearly they fear your strength."

"Sorry we got held up." Reina offered to Chaos, "There were just so many of them." She had to admit felt better about the situation now that he was there though. Having Chaos around made anything less scary.

Darem looked around at the stalfos, "It's gonna be hard gettin' out of this one. You sure we need that dumb mask?"

"Unfortunately so" Chaos replied. "If there was another way of doing things that didn't involve fighting a dragon, I would have gone with that plan instead..."

Soon enough the group was retrieved and ordered to follow more finely armored, yet still clearly weathered stalfos. The group was led through a few hallways and into a larger, finely lit chamber. Guard stalfos stood all around and in the front was a stalfos with a torn up red cape over one arm and a fancy helmet on its head. It took a few steps forward with its arms behind its back and looked over the intruders. "So these were the ones making that noise in the entrance earlier. You've caused quite a ruckus, but it appears your brute force tactics of espionage failed!" His glowing eyes surveyed the group's movements.

"Espionage?" Jillian questioned. "We were just sleeping in a cave, we didn't know anyone was down here. We're very sorry to have disturbed you but if we can just get back what belongs to us and you let us go we promise we wont be back here ever."

"I directed them here to hide out the storm outside." Darem explained, "If you're to be mad at anyone, it should be me."

"So you're the soldier in command of this sorry lot of treacherous fools!" The stalfos said as he faced Darem. "I must say I'm disappointed that the Garo have regressed so much in their tactics that they'd send a clumsy oaf barging through the front door and rely on cheap stories to get out of a situation rather than manning up and accepting the consequences."

"I'm not trying to get out of a situation with words." Darem shook his head, "To get out of this situation, I'd rather use more than that!"

"Garo?" Jillian raised an eyebrow, "I don't know who that is but we're not with him. Look can you just give us back our mask and we can go home? It's really the only reason we went any further in your cave than we had to. Ask the guy who took it from us, we were asleep when he got to us."

The commander chuckled. "I have a hard time believing you don't know them. You have two one with you right now!" He said as he pointed as Chaos. "The hood and covered face are dead giveaways!"

Chaos raised an eyebrow. "You are mis-" Chaos was quickly interrupted by the commander. "And there's no way I'd let that mask fall into the hands of Royal family's adversaries! I don't know how you wretched lot managed to obtain that, but even if you obtain all those cursed things I will never surrender! We will fight to the very end for our precious family! Even death won't stop us in our mission!" He clenched his bony fist in the air as some of the stalfos on either side started to clap.

Reina stepped forward a little bit. "Chaos and Fist aren't Garo, they're just different. We're trying to do the same thing you are with that mask. We want to keep it away from someone who's trying to gather them all up and hurt not just the Royal Family but the whole world." She tried reasoning, "You rest now, you've done enough."

"We will never rest! We live to fight and fight to serve! I cannot concern myself with what's going on outside of Ikana. Not when we have these villainous Garo around!" The stalfos paced back and forth banging his fist into his hand

"If you live to fight, then how about you start with me! You look a lot stronger than your underlings, and I've been crushing them. It'd be great to actually have a challenge."

"Why would I fight you when I've already captured you. I have nothing to gain other than a cracked skull." The stalfos captain tapped his chin trying to decide what to do with the captives

Chaos remained largely quiet, trying to figure out what to do. Changing the minds of soldiers so obsessed they delayed death to keep their vigil seemed impossible without hard evidence. War can mess with people's minds long after the war is over. He knew plenty of people who never left a war years after the fighting stopped. "Alright you caught me. I am one of the Garo, howe-"

"I KNEW IT!" one of the stalfos in the back exclaimed excitedly

Chaos glared at him for a moment before continuing "...However, I no longer want to be associated with those blood thirsty people. I stole the mask and fled with the help of these people. How can I atone for the pain I caused to the Ikana people?"

"No, Chaos what are you doing?" Reina whispered to him. "What if they have you killed?"

Jillian clenched Reina's shoulder. "We won't let that happen, Reina." She assured her. She shot a cross look at Chaos, he had better come out of this alive. She'd never be able to forgive him if he got himself killed right in front of the kid that admired him so much.

Darem frowned at the captain. A leader like this should be confident in his abilities and take any challenge to better himself. He stayed quiet during Chaos' explanation, knowing that nothing he could say would help the situation.

"If your story is true then I'm glad to see the enemy forces are clashing with themselves. Unfortunately their's no hard evidence that you aren't lying either. Either way we're supposed to execute all Garo that we find.." The commander scratched the back of his head and looked at all the varying and concerned prisoners. "... Although I suppose their something else you could do to clear your name." He turned to go down a hallway and motioned for the guards to bring the prisoners along. The group walked for quite a ways in the outdoor part of the castle. The storm had since calmed down. They passed through a gateway into a forgotten part of the desert lost to time and untouched in who knows how long.

After an eternity of walking in silence, they came to the entrance to massivecanyon. "Beyond us lies Shiagur canyon. Here our largest clash with the Garo occured. We fought under our great leader, Captain Keeta, to battle the elite Garo forces to the bitter end. The Garo had prepared greatly for this fight. Ambushes and traps were everywhere and when it looked like we might win, a wave of reinforcements blanketed the horizon to destroy us. When it looked like all was lost, our captain ordered a full retreat as he sacrificed himself with an ancient magic that stopped the Garo in their tracks and made them drop like the pests they are!" If the stalfos could cry, they all would be right now. "We were never able to retrieve the remains of our beloved Captain as everyone we send into the canyon now never returns. If you can find Captain Keeta's helmet, hammer, and medallion for us, I would consider you a true friend to the Ikana people."

"This is a suicide mission then?" Jillian crossed her arms over her chest and frowned at the canyon. "Like we weren't already on one of those."