Chapter 4: Ostrheinsburg and Fafnir

The band of heroes, comprised of Cassandra, Ivy, Hilde, Dampierre, Mitsurugi, Taki, and now Link and Beltharion, ventured towards Ostrheinsburg, to possibly pick up the trail of the dreaded sword, Soul Edge. Beltharion and Link however, even though the others now trust them, still roused some suspicion about the former's cloak, thinking that he doesn't want to share it. But then on the way they were cleared of any suspicion when Beltharion said the following about his cloak.

"This was a gift to me given by my father, I swore that I would never take it off because of the meaning it holds to me." Beltharion explained. Link said nothing for he knew it was partially true, the whole reason was that one, he never wanted to take it off because of respect for his father, and two, he wears it to cover his wings, which The Dragon of Hyrule most embarrassingly enough never managed to magically disguise it. Link made no comment about the other reason either.

Thus the heroes ventured into the town, unaware that the Castle's resident is planning a major surprise...

-At the Town Square-

They had just arrived at the town square where they then took a stop to rest in that location to plan the next move.

"Obviously, we have to wait till after dark to reach the castle and talk to anyone inside it... because nighttime is the easier time."

Beltharion, however, was unsure and also was looking at the area from here to the town square. He found that a 40-60 feet wide gap laid from between the town square to the castle and it's major exits. "Link... look at how large these gaps are, it looks like these gaps were made yesterday too because I see depressions on the ground."

"Wait, so you mean that we may be walking into something?" Link asked.

"Maybe...I have to think it through..." Muttered the Dragon of Hyrule as he slowly went into a trance. Ivy and Cassandra were watching this and discussed what was going on with him.

"If you ask me," The alchemist stated. "He's incredibly bonkers. He's as bonkers as Dampierre, whose so bonkers he runs from a fight."

"Does Le Bello smell a bet?" Dampierre stated. although he was roguish and also although he was slightly chicken, he didnt choose the line of work he is in solely because he wanted to build a big reputation. Most importantly, he would never back down from a challenge. "I say that whatever we fight next I bring down with ease!"

"Bold words for a fool. Bold words." said a voice as a Pale, dark clothed aristocrat appeared on the rooftops. Everyone save for Beltharion was in a look of shock. Beltharion although, kept his cool, wondering what trap he fell for this time.

Cassandra spoke first though, addressing the aristocrat. "Raphael. Though you had good intentions you had been warped and changed by Soul Edge's power. Please let us pass through to continue our journey to stop Soul Edge once and for all."

Raphael however only laughed and stated, "Now now Cassandra, if there was no Soul Edge, what use would it's sister blade, the Holy Soul Calibur, fit in the world? No if Soul Calibur must exist, Soul Edge must remain untouched so I can find The Wielder of the holy sword. But no matter... Fafnir will take care of you now." With that Raphael snapped his fingers and seemingly a loud screech and roar was heard.

Everyone seemed to be looking around in panic whilst Beltharion silently smirked and said quietly, "Finally first challenge from one of my own kind in 500 years."

More roaring was heard as Link and Taki and Mitsurugi and most of the others prepared for the worse. Beltharion slowly drew his katanas in a confident fashion as he kept his eyes to the sky. "Everyone clear the area cause here it comes!"

A ice-blue dragon came soaring down and landing right at the center of the square, scattering the heroes left and right, roaring as it came down with a mighty roar. Fafnir looked at its victims and blew a jetstream of fire across its battle field. Dampierre ducked under a statue. Had he not his mustache would've been singed to a smaller one. Ivy, Mitsurugi, Link, Taki, Cassandra, Hilde and Beltharion then tried to stab the creature at the same time but the dragon mustered up a big blast of wind from it's wings, launching them to different parts of the makeshift arena.

Beltharion got up shaking his head and dusting off his hat whilst glaring at the beast. He then picked up his swords and charged at Fafnir and did a great massive leap. Immediatly Fafnir tried to grab at him with his teeth but Beltharion gave a solid kick to the face.

Raphael chuckled as he yelled down at the group, "You might as well surrender! Fafnir can burn you all to a crisp, you bunch of weak minded fools." That was an ultimatum of surrendering yes, but to Beltharion, who got very insulted, took the whole thing as a gigantic challenge.

"Alright mate, You want to see a fight, just let me get myself ready for it." Beltharion spoke with a loud and clear voice as he sheathed his swords and removed each weapon from him.

"Beltharion, what are you doing?" Cassandra yelled out, worried that he may get hurt as he started to grab at his cloak. Beltharion simply turned and gave a small wink at the group that supposedly said 'Trust me.' as he took off his cloak and threw it to the side with his weapons.

Everyone other then Link all gasped and wondered aloud in shock as golden scaled wings spread and stretched out as if they were unused for quite a while whilst Beltharion was stretching his shoulders to help shift the wing's weight around as the cloak made it feel slightly heavy.

"Ah, I haven't even started to transform yet and everyone is wowed? Wow, must be an easy crowd to cheer on." with those words in mind Beltharion looked around the area and saw in the alleyways, frightened men and their families who were dressed in rags and were in poverty. When Beltharion saw this he simply shed tears, though he did not cry or weep, because he had learned how to deal with the suffering of mortals long ago and saw in those people hope that these heroes would help save them from Raphael's insane schemes such as this. With that Beltharion smiled and proclaimed to the waiting Fafnir, "Your big, but I've fought bigger."

Cassandra stared at Beltharion's wings, and she was shocked at how she had thought that he was covering his back due to the fact he had a hunch, and felt terrible for saying such a fact, but she was wondering now whether he was a monster, a god, demon, or a majestic yet frightening mixture of the three. she could not tell, but nothing prepared her for the next stunning, yet terrifying revelation.

The man that everyone by now knew as Beltharion lowered himself to the ground, but then he started to glow as he began to shift and change before there eyes. It was as if his armor suddenly fused onto his skin and turned to scales much like the ones on his wings, his mud brown eyes suddenly turning a fierce yellow, by now the terrified group other then Link, who knew the legends of Beltharion from reading Hyrule's Library for a few months, saw the horrifying truth. Before them stood now a golden dragon in their witty three cornered hat wearing friend.

Before the group...stood Beltharion, The Dragon of Hyrule, in his glory and might.

Fafnir roared in a fury at seeing a new invading dragon in his supposed territory, and thus flapped his wings and roared out. The Dragon of Hyrule seemed to chuckle or growl, none of them could tell. and roared out and took to the skies with Fafnir following.

"Quick guys!" shouted Link, "Let's get that Creep on the rooftops and interrogate him about Soul Calibur! it may be a key ingredient to Soul Edge's destruction!" With that Raphael realized it was time for him to fight whilst Fafnir dealt with the upstart who seemingly challenged Fafnir.

The fight up in the skies was a spectacle, Two colossal beasts of legend fighting, biting and clawing in mid air. It was like a dream to most of the other members in the Group, but for Link, it was something he does on a daily basis. Beltharion however didnt fight a Dragon in at least over... a long time. So at first it seemed Fanir had the upper hand since the large beast blew a bit of flame at Beltharion's face, temporarily blinding him.

The fight against Raphael with the others, on the other hand...was going along almost smoothly because the aristocratic lunatic was outnumbered at least five to one. So it was easy to strategize and attack. Link reached the rooftops along with Taki and charged at Raphael, making him assume that he was going for them. He was wrong as suddenly Ivy, Cassandra, Hilde, Dampierre and Mitsurugi charged at him from behind and knock him down, easilybeating him. What they did not expect was For Raphael to pull a sneaky trick and whistled for Fafnir. The large dragon left the temporarily blinded Beltharion and landed with a thud near his master. That however was a fatal mistake on the Dragon's part.

Whilst Beltharion couldn't see his opponent he could still smell and hear the battle. He had learned to use his hearing as well as his eyes. Using this to pinpoint the Dragon by listening to the sound waves and keeping track of one scent, Beltharion flew straight down towards Fafnir, Changing into his Humanoid form whilst calling his large broadsword to him, grabbing it with two hands pointing the blade straight down. His target was a small weakpoint in some mountain Dragons. Whilst some prefer the soft underneath of the Mountain Dragon, if you had a sharp enough blade imbued with a powerful magic spell, you could stab it through the head.

Beltharion made No hesitation as he stabbed between the horns of Fafnir when he crashed on his head and Stabbed downwards.

The great dragon writhed in it's death throes until it subsided and Slowly fell to it's side...sending Beltharion flying and crashing into Dampierre.

"Ow, oh well, at least you broke my fall Dampy old buddy." Said Beltharion as he summoned his two katana and Cloak and putting it back on.

Everyone was staring at Beltharion for a brief moment save for Cassandra who was trying to help an almost flat Dampierre up. Raphael tried to use said opportunity to run for it but Beltharion appeared in front of him, using the powers of Farore's Wind to teleport.

"Now then, Soul Edge was here, and you know it was, and you know it's antithesis. Tell me what you know, and maybe we'll cooperate." Beltharion stated in a seemingly emotionless tone that started growling at the end of the statement but soon turned into a deep growling accent like a dragon's, "Now tell me, Where, is Soul Edge?"

Uh Oh... I think that little Boss fight Made Beltharion a Bit Impatient with Raphael... In good cop/bad cop sense... He's probably gonna play Bad Cop. Anyway Sorry for delay, Writer's Block issues and stuff like that. Plus Im thinking on adding a Fourth Person to the potential love interests for Beltharion even though I Might be choosing what people voted on. Next Chapter may include Setsuka. As such I ask again for a vote, Ivy, Cassandra, Hilde, Or Setsuka. You be the judge. Look around for a Thor reference and Review and Happy... EARLY Fourth of July!