The Origin of a Champion

Chapter 23- Master Link

"Do you have any idea how old it gets? Your stasis is a real pain in the butt, ya know that?" Link complained from the ground, stubbornly staring at the blade of Impa's kodachi, which was just removed from his neck.

"Ah, well it might get old for you, but it never gets old for me," Impa chuckled, lowering her blade and helping Link off the ground.

Link finished wiping the dirt off his pant leg and turned his attention back to Impa, who continued talking, "I'm actually surprised I got you that time, you usually win with your special time stopping ability, which we still don't know the reason why you have by the way. Now guess how old that gets for me?" she finished with a smirk.

Link laughed a strained laugh, due to him still being out of breath, "Well I guess you have a good point."

Impa exaggeratedly flipped the blade of her kodachi, "I do indeed, have a very, very good point."

"Oh haha, you're a riot. Hey, I thought puns were my thing!"

"Well I suppose your ridiculous sense of humor has rubbed off on me a bit."

With the death of Cato, Impa took over her and Link's daily training. She made an excellent instructor, always being fair, but sure to push Link to his limits. After learning under her father's watchful eye for close to ten years, she knew almost as much as he did, and was a great replacement. She even continued to learn and grew stronger as well, for Link being as strong and skilled as he was, made for a tough competitor. Despite Impa's increasingly busy schedule and extra exhaustion with her taking up the role previously owned by her father as the royal advisor, she still gladly made time to work with Link. Her morning started with their run, and she never missed a day of afternoon training with her little trainee, who looked up to her so much.

"Now back to business. You have clearly proved yourself extremely resourceful with your sword and your special ability, but I want to strengthen the hylian behind all that. If we stripped all that away, and trained what was left, imagine how much stronger you would be! I don't want you to always rely on your sword or power, I want to really build up your core fighting, so that when you do use your blade and ability, you will be all the more prepared."

"So like hand to hand combat?"

"Yes, exactly."

Link grinned, pleased to comprehend what Impa was talking about, "So if I can fight better with only myself, I'll be even more powerful with my extra fighting techniques."

"You got it. We've done our solid number of sparring rounds, so to finish up today, I'd like to teach you some hand to hand combat. Dad used to do this with me, he'd take a break to really focus on my core fighting skills, so I would do better overall. So now I will do it with you," Impa broke off, looking down at the ground.

"Hey, are you alright?" Link asked carefully.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Memories, you know? They can be as painful as they can be heartwarming. But thanks Link, I'm alright," Impa wiped her eyes quickly, then looked back up at Link, her eyes looking misty.

She shook it off and managed a wry smile. "So back to what I was saying. Oh yes, I'll teach you some basic hand to hand techniques, to see how well you take to it. No powers, no weapons, and that goes for me too, don't worry."

Impa and Link threw their sparring weapons off to the side and Impa began instructing Link on the basics of hand to hand fighting.

"So first off, leg stance is vital. You keep one foot slightly behind the other, but keep your feet spaced out just so. Perfect, like that! When you start to move around, try to maintain that stance. Always stay on the tips of your toes, it helps you react and move around faster. Keep your hands up, never drop your guard. Chin down, eyes up, elbows in, and, you know what, close enough!"