Luz and Amity finally makes it to town and stops for a brief moment to catch their breaths. "Oh man… why did we… ran all the way here…?" Luz wheezes, "My nerd legs are killing me…"
Amity ceases her own panting and wipes the sweat from her forehead, "We can't idle now. Look!" She gestures the surrounding area, "There's no one in sight, Geoffrey-I mean that stupid slime must have passed through!"
"But what can we do even if we do find it? Eda's the most powerful witch I seen. How can we beat something that can absorb all types of magic?"
"Not all magic…" A memory pops in Amity's head as she turns to Luz, "You were able to freeze it back there with that rune of yours. Maybe your fire rune can harm it. Do you still have your papers with you?"
Luz digs into her pockets for her paper runes but discovers she must have left them behind. Amity watches her pull out her pockets to show and sighs, "Guess you'll have to do what you do best then."
Luz blinks, "Like what?"
"You know, improvise?" Amity explains, "You always find a solution in the thickest moments. Now is going to be the best time for that." It was a touching praise, but her tone had an edge to it.
Luz still feels bitter about their fight but the longer the tension sits between them the more regretful she is that it had ended up this way. The moment they had spending the morning working on the assignments together felt like it happened weeks ago. Why can't they go back to that?
"Amity," Luz hesitantly spoke out and timidly asks, "You don't still think I did it? Do you?"
"Now's not the time, Luz."
"I don't want us to fight-"
"I don't either!" Amity cries out, "I don't want to believe it's you. I could accept you messed with our project, but I can't accept being lied to about it!"
"I'm not lying to you!"
"Our project was obviously sabotaged, Luz! Yet you keep assuming I made an error!" Amity snaps, "I wanted nothing more than to do this project with you. I made this formula a while ago knowing you couldn't properly control an Abomination. I want us to be in the same class and have you pick up the same interests as me! And this is how you repay me?"
Luz clenches her fists, not able to stop the emotions from rising. With closed eyes and no control over her words, she shouts back. "I never asked for you to do any of that!"
That hits Amity way close to home. Her lips tremble and her eyes sting like they're ready to burst. There are many things she's ready to say to her, but a well-timed scream cuts through the dense silence. They both remembered what they came here to do and said nothing to each other as they both ran to the direction where the scream is coming from.
"Out! Get out!" shouted the old man who is currently whacking Geoffrey with a stick as it devours the sweets from the man's candy stand. "I ain't giving you no sugar! Now out!"
"Get away from that thing!" Amity shouts to the man as she enters the scene.
"And let him eat all of my supplies!?" the man shouts back. He holds the stick up again and brings it down with all of his might. Only for the slime to extend an arm to catch the stick and crushes it.
The old man looks at the broken end of his stick with the acidic fumes emitting from the splinters. He looks to Amity and says, "On second thought, it's on the house." He jumps away and runs off, screaming for his life.
Luz catches up with Amity and stares at the slime, slowly growing little by little as it feasts on the candies. "It could've eaten the old man, but it was going directly for his sweets," Amity noticed.
"Geoffrey does have a sweet tooth." Luz watches Geoffrey breaking through the shelves, spilling more candy all over the ground. Amity shields herself from the stray pieces as Luz blocks it with her hoodie. She takes note of how focused the thing is, trying to devour as much sweets as it can. The way it abandoned all awareness and ignored the man gave Luz an idea. Perhaps she could-
"You kids! Stand back!" An authoritative voice boom from behind them. They both spun around to see two men adorning white cowls and gray bird masks. Amity gasps and immediately assumed a respectful bow to them.
"The Emperor's Guards!" Amity announces, "Luz, get down!"
"Oh… okay," Luz obeys and assumes the same stance but in a rather unscrupulous form with her legs stretched out and her two arms facing one direction in front of her face. Amity shakes her head.
"Huh, wasn't expecting that. Usually, teenagers would either run or call us some unsavory names." One of the guards said while adjusting his cowl, "That's nice. Anyways, we received reports of a wild Abomination-like thing rampaging through the city. We assume it's that thing right behind you?"
Luz nods, "Yup, big ol' Geo-"
Amity cuts her by pulling on her hoodie strings, shrinking her face down with it. "Yes, sirs. We were just uh… on a d-d-" she stutters, almost admitting to two strangers about their relationship. Either embarrassed to confess or to even suggest an idea. Regardless, Amity quickly blurts, "Dare! To uh… get as close as we can! Because, you know, us teenagers… like to do dumb things… hehe…"
The other guard nods and gives them a thumbs up while the first shakes his head, "You kids and your total lack of respect for your own lives. Well knock it off, we're here to dispose this thing and find out where its creator is. Since we just got to the scene, do you girls happen to know anything about this creature?"
"It's immune to magic," Amity explains, "We don't know why it keeps eating but I think it's trying to sustain itself with whatever organics it can find."
The guard nods thoughtfully, "Hmm, I see… and what about where it came from? Do you know anything about that?"
Luz and Amity looks at each other, then to Geoffrey, back to each other, and then finally at the guards.
"Nope."
"No, sir."
"Nada."
"Don't know a thing."
"Are you sure?" inquired the other guard, "You both seem to know a lot about-"
"Hey!" The first one jabs him with an elbow, "If they said they don't know anything then they don't know anything! Sorry about that. New guy. So, it's immune to magic, huh… That's pretty much all I know how to apprehend threats, but I got an idea."
The guards cautiously approach the slime. Luz was about to intervene and speak up, but Amity pulls her aside and says, "No, Luz! We done all we can to help. Leave it to the Emperor's Coven, they are elite witches hand chosen by the best. If anyone can solve this mess it's-"
"Alright, Robert! Place your cuffs on that slime!" the first guard announced.
Amity's head mechanically shifts forward. "What?" she blurted.
"Yeah, I second that… you want me to what?" Robert says to his partner.
"It's violating the law?" the guard explains like it's obvious, "So you need to arrest it. Come on, didn't they cover this in the orientation?"
"I know how it works, Steve!" Robert exclaims while pulling out the cuffs, "But how the heck am I supposed to put these on when that thing doesn't even have limbs!?"
"Half the job is essentially figuring it out as you go. Think of it as a rite of passage, rookie!" Steve gives him a shove towards the creature and shouts, "Don't worry, I got your back! From this spot. Because I'm not moving from it."
"Wait!" Amity shouts, "Don't get close to it! It'll-"
"Your assistance has been necessary, citizen." Steve interrupts and holds up his hand to her, "But by the Emperor's authority granted to me, I must ask you girls to run along and do whatever you girls do. Besides, you say it only eats all-natural brands."
"Organics as in living matter, you idiot!" Luz holds Amity back from charging at the guard, "Get him away from it!"
"Wait," Robert pauses to turn back as Geoffrey takes notice of the guard next to it. "What did she just say-"
Geoffrey lunges at Robert and engulfs him entirely with its mass. The girls screamed in horror while Steve scratches his head, "Huh… that's a shame. I figured he'd last a week before something happens. Still longer than the other guy they stationed me with."
The slime pivots its body at the rest and gurgles as its mass increases exponentially again. Now possessing the size of a vehicle. It reaches back for the jars containing taffy and pulls it inside, shattering them into pieces before spitting them out like bullets.
"Get down!" Steve dives toward the girls and shoves them to a nearby stand. The glass pieces stick to the wooden barrier between but holds well against the assault.
"Okay," Steve breathes worryingly, "Mistakes were made. So, what do we do now?"
"We?" Amity repeats back to him, incredulously. "You're the Emperor's Guard! Why are you asking us?"
"Well you girls seem surprisingly mature for your age, so I thought maybe we can put our heads together and… solve this mess?" he sheepishly answers.
Amity frowns at the man before him, annoyed at how someone like him manages to get in the Coven. But also relieved in knowing it probably wouldn't be too hard for her to land a position either. Still, she scolds him, "Call for reinforcement then!"
"I uh… rather not… you see, Lilith is on her day off, but she always responds to distress calls. She's pretty amazing and smart, and I don't want to be the one to bother her about this when I'm trying to work up the nerve on asking her out."
Amity gives him a scrutinizing glare while Luz on the other hand understands his pity and gives him a comforting pat on the shoulder. "I believe in you, Steve," she says.
The three notice the firing of glass shards has stopped and waited for the slime to make its move. Steve peeks over as the girls follow him one by one to see Geoffrey resuming his feast on whatever is left of the candy.
Luz eyes the pieces of candy on the ground and hatches a plan. Without warning, she runs off from the spot while the slime is distracted.
Amity watches in wide eyes at her human charging alone and loudly whispers to her, "Luz! What are you doing?"
"Doing what I do best!" Luz replies before finally finishing with her makeshift pile. "Hey, Geoffrey! Look what I got you!"
Whether it was responding to its name or just the sound of her voice, the slime turns away to see Luz showing the sweets it missed. Geoffrey abandons the stall and crawl towards the pile.
"That's right come just a bit closer…" Luz doesn't back away as the slime rises up and leans over her and the sweets. Ready to drop down and claim them both.
Amity panics watching the thing getting ready to lunge and screams, "Luz!" but was silenced as Luz extended her arm at her to stay back.
"Now!" She slams her foot through the pile and jumps back. The spot where she stomped on glows, revealing the fire rune she etched into the dirt. A column of fire bursts from the rune, scorching the front side of the slime. Geoffrey rears back as its entire body is consumed in flames. It emits strange sounds almost like a scream.
Steve whistles at the sight, "Girl's got fire in her. She got a teacher or someone? I bet they be really proud of what she can do."
Amity doesn't answer knowing Eda's reputation with the guards. She looks longingly at Luz who looks back to give them a thumbs up. The admiration doesn't last long as Amity sees the still burning slime moving towards her.
"Get down!" she screams.
Luz turns to see Geoffrey unimpeded by the flames and lunges at her. Fortunately, Steve moves in to push her out of the way. The slime doesn't stop to attack again and uses this moment to escape again.
"Oh no you don't!" Steven conjures a spell and creates a magical net to lasso the slime, but horribly misjudges its strength. He barely manages an "uh oh" before he gets dragged off along with it while screaming.
Amity groans as she helps Luz up to her feet, "Ugh! This thing is seriously getting on my nerves!"
"Amity…" Luz grunts as she shakes off the dirt her face planted in from the push, "The direction they're heading to… that's where the playground is!"
Amity's eyes go wide with fear knowing that at this hour is when the kids usually go there to play. Remembering the adorable faces of the kids she reads to she goes in full panic mode and takes Luz's hand. "We got to them!" she exclaims.
As they both ran after the slime again, King and Eda finally catches up on Owlbert and can see the slime pulling the poor guard along. "There they are!" King points to the girls.
"And there's our troublemaker. Looks like it manages to get itself a meal before they found it." Eda takes notice of Steven getting his mask dragging against the ground. She irritably groans and says to King, "And looks like we got a guest. Drat… looks like I can't join you guys. Those idiots will find any excuse to pin a crime on me. If they see me, they'll think I have something to do with this."
"What now?" King asks.
Eda looks ahead and sees the playground full of children running around, unaware of the carnivorous abomination heading their way. "I'm going to drop you ahead to get those kids out of there! After that, try to keep it busy until Luz and Amity catches up. I'll come in if it gets too much for you all to handle."
King reluctantly agrees as he couldn't care any less for the kids' safety, but it be pointless of him to argue. Eda swoops in quick and goes as low as she can for King to safely hop off and flies out of there before any witnesses can see her.
Most of the children turn their attention to King's dramatic entrance as he dusts himself off and clears his throat. "Alright you little brats! Listen-" His warning is cut off short as his face is suddenly met with multiple sharp ends of wooden sticks. He gulps at the sight as his message weakly finishes with, "Here…?"
"Milord!" one of the kids calls out, "The Demon is here!"
King turns his head to the sound of ominous clapping coming from the top of the slide equipment. Out of the darkness, emerges his sworn enemy. The thief who took his throne. The monster who robbed him of his destiny. The child with the runny nose.
"Well, well, well… look what we have here…" the kid casts a malicious grin, "Thought you could invade my pawace from abuv? Not a bad plan, but how foolish of you to a-zoom us unprepared?"
"The Usurper…" King growls. His anger rose but he still remembers his mission and shakes away the thoughts. "Look! I'm not here to rightfully take back my throne! I'm here to… ugh… help."
The Usurper child is not buying it. "Pwease," he snidely remarks, "You expect me to buh-leave your lies?"
"I'm being serious here, you little cretin! There's a monster that's about to come here and devour your subjects! If you really are a ruler like you wrongfully think you are, then you need to get them to safety!" King exclaims then adds, "Also, do you ever wipe that nose of yours? It's like… hanging there, it's disgusting and distracting."
"Ha!" Ignoring his last remark, the Usurper laughs at him. "My subjects have all undergone training for anything that thweatens my kingdom! Not only that, but I also have my best knight. The legendary dark hero, Braxus the Brave, who I bribed with pretzels to stand guard at the frontlines." He gestures to the red demon with a large mouth for a face, sitting on the dirt while crunching on his snack.
"As for you, my sworn enemy," the Usurper points, "I will make you roo the day you came here alone. Guards! Kill him!"
"Miword!" Another child runs up to the kid and tugs on his shirt for his attention.
"Wait!" the Usurper orders his subjects to stop so he could listen to what the child has to say, "Speak my scout. What ails you?"
"Um, there's uh… there's a thing… and there's a thing and it's coming right here," the scout babbles.
The Usurper sighs, "Cindy, I told you, you have to say either it's a thweat or an ally."
"Uhhh…" The child sucks on her thumb, not knowing which words means what.
The Usurper dumbs it down for her, "Bad or good?"
"Ohhh!" Cindy nods, "Bad!"
Geoffrey lands in the center of the playground before them. Steve gets whipped across the field from the sudden halt and screams as he crashes into the wall. All the children that were detaining King screams and cries at the monster before running away.
"No! Get back here!" the Usurper shouts at them, "Stand your ground! We must fight back-ahhh!" Geoffrey slams its body against the slide, causing the entire playset to shake. King climbs up the slide and grabs the Usurper to push him down to escape.
"Get out of here! And don't you ever come back!" King then pumps his fists into the air after successfully reclaiming his throne. "Haha, yes! Victory is mine! I'm back baby-whoa!"
The slide shudders again from another assault from Geoffrey. The slime rears back again, ready to tear the slide apart to grab King before a magical blast harmlessly hits it from behind.
"Over here!" Steve shouts at the monster, successfully taking its attention away. "It's one thing to eat my partner, but I am not going to let you eat any of these kids! As the Emperor's chosen, I will protect these civilians with my life! For as long as I stand, you will not-?"
A long tendril shoots out and wraps itself around his left leg. Steve looks to the ground and mutters, "Oh no…" Geoffrey pulls him off of his feet and slams him to the ground. King watches it repeatedly swinging Steve around and against the ground over and over, wincing every time it makes impact as Steve cries out in pain.
"King!?" He turns his head to the sound of Luz's voice as both her and Amity finally arrives. King quickly slides down to join them, "Luz! Amity! There's something I have to tell you!"
"Not now!" Luz shouts back, "Help us gather the kids!"
"But-ah!" King jumps back as Steve drops in front of him. Geoffrey turn away from the beaten guard and notice Braxus still sitting on the ground not paying attention to all the screaming and chaos that is happening as he happily munches on his pretzels.
Amity was the first to notice and screams for his attention. "Braxus! Over here, sweetie! Come to me!" she says while running to him.
However, the slime has already beaten her to the kid who only notice her calling his name. "Miss Amity!" Braxus gleefully crawls up to his feet and waves at her. Geoffrey descends at his prey, snatching the screaming kid, and swallows him whole.
"NOO!" Amity and Luz screams.
Of course, if the kid had actually died there then this story's rating would dramatically gone up. Not a second sooner had Geoffrey consumed the kid did its body began to violently shake. It gurgles and groans before spitting Braxus back out high into the air.
Amity wastes no time and runs to catch the kid. "Abomination rise! Abomination rise! ABOMINATION RISE!" she commands. The purple golem emerges and vaults her into the air to intercept his fall. Amity successfully grabs the flying kid and safely descends with the Abomination catching them both.
Geoffrey lurches forward to them but its movement is stopped once again by a magic net. Steve holds onto a tree for support as he maintains the spell to stop the monster. "I didn't…" he groans, "hear no bell…"
Luz runs up to the slime and quickly carves an ice rune, causing a cage-like formation of ice to wrap around the slime. She turns to Steve who weakly nods at her to check on the others while he keeps it occupied.
King joins her as they head over to Amity who is currently comforting the crying child in her arms. "Shh, shh, it's okay, buddy. You're safe," she reassures. But Braxus only continues to cry in her shoulder. Amity remembers the slime's acidic touch and checks him for any wounds. Her eyes froze when they came across a bleeding wound from on his ankle.
Luz catches up to her and breathes, "Is he okay?"
"Of course, he's not okay!" Amity snaps at her, enraged by the sight of the kid's wound. "Look what your precious 'Geoffrey' did! He already devoured someone and was about to eat a child!"
"You can't seriously still think I did it?" Luz fights back her sob, "Why can't you believe that I'm innocent?"
"Who else could have ruined it?" Amity shifts Braxus in her arms as she stands up, "I rather believe anything else than you lying to me. But all evidence points to you."
"Amity, I didn't!"
"Then who did!?"
"ME!" King answers at the top of his lungs, "It was me, okay! I did it! I was the one who ruined your project!"
They both snap their heads to King, their faces frozen in disbelief. Luz seem to not recognize her own voice as she stammers out, "W-what?"
"I did it," King meekly answers, "But it was by accident! I fell off the couch and slam into the table, but I was afraid you two wouldn't believe me and think I done it on purpose because of our fight from earlier! So, I stayed quiet…"
"It was you…?" Luz couldn't believe her own words as she said it, let alone his confession. "After I defended you? After you told us how you weren't involved?"
King glumly nods, "I didn't mean for you two to fight… I wanted to tell you but you both were getting so heated that I was afraid you seriously be mad at me… I'm really sorry, Luz. And I'm sorry to you too, Amity."
"Then…" Amity stares down at him then looks to Luz, "Then Luz didn't… oh my gosh. Luz, I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have accused you!"
"Amity…" Luz glares at King, feeling at a loss for words but has so much she wanted to say to him. King could feel the weight of those emotions behind her eyes. He dejectedly looks to the ground, unable to find anything else to say besides sorry. Luz looks back to her and says, "You have nothing to be sorry about. It was a terrible misunderstanding… I'm sorry too. I never should have doubted your skills or said those terrible things to you."
"But you were telling the truth this entire time and I wouldn't listen to you," Amity tearfully replies. "You didn't do anything wrong, but I was kept accusing you. I yelled at you and I… I let my temper get the better of me…" She rests her head against Braxus and holds him tight, to comfort him as much as she needs it herself. "I must be a horrible girlfriend…"
"No, don't say that!" Luz reaches for her shoulder before hearing the shattering of ice. Everyone turns to see Steve's magic dissipating as he slips unconscious and falls over. Geoffrey breaks free from its ice prison.
Luz sees King walking towards him before grabbing his arm, "King! What are you doing? Get back!"
"No!" King shrugs off her arm. "This all happened because of me. I'm tired of letting people get hurt because of my cowardice. This is my moment! To prove that I. Am not. A jelly baby!" he screams while running towards the creature.
Amity turns to Luz and mutters, "Is that… supposed to mean anything to us?"
"Hey, you!" King shouts to the slime that lurches its direction to him. "Yeah, I'm talking to you, you overgrown, petri dish, grape-flavored, soggy bubblegum! You want something to eat? Because you're looking a feast fit for a King right here! Come and get some!"
Geoffrey stares at King for a moment, almost as if it were listening to whatever he's saying. But since it's incapable of understanding speech, let alone insults, the slime takes no interest in the small guy and takes it leave for more food to consume.
"Hey! Get back here! This is so supposed to be my moment, dang it!" King goes to chase after the slime, but Luz grabs him by the collar and pulls him back.
Luz stamps her foot and points in the direction of their home, "King, you need to leave! Me and Amity can take care of this ourselves."
"But…" King meets with Luz's scorn and looks to Amity who stares back while nodding in agreement. He sheepishly rubs his paw as his ears droops down. They both continue forward to see where the slime is heading, leaving King behind to sulk. "But I want to help…"
Geoffrey stops at a nearby bakery and slams through the window glass to enter. All the citizens around and inside scream in terror at the creature as it ignores them for the pastries on the display shelf. The man behind the counter barely blinks at the monster devouring the sweets and casually rings up the price on the register for every baked good it eaten.
"Okay," Amity retracts her head from the side of the fence as she bounces the still weeping Braxus in her arms. "Your ice can slow it down, but it'll just burn through. Your fire only made it angrier. And I'm guessing the plant and light runes won't be a better option. Any chance you happened to discover any new spells? One that can destroy an all-devouring slime?"
Luz lifts the hand of the unconscious Steve and watches it drop back down. She shrugs, "These things usually just come to me out of nowhere. To think an accident could create such a monster..."
Worse part is Amity knows that having an Abomination with such properties would easily propel her status of being one of the greatest Abomination witches ever. On the other hand, if anyone found out she's involved with it, it could jeopardize her career. It will be all over the news. Her parents could find out. And they would forcefully take her away from Luz.
"Amity!" Luz shakes her arm, noticing the girl hyperventilating. "Stay with me!"
"Sorry," Amity breathes, "This has been a really awful day…"
Braxus cries louder in her arms. Amity shoos the poor kid and pats on his back, "Oh, I'm sorry, Braxus. I must have scared you too. Do you want me to look at that leg of yours?"
Braxus finally pulls his face away from her shoulder and sniffs, "No, my leg is fine. I got that from jumping from the swing. It doesn't hurt much."
"Did the creature burn you?"
"No," Braxus holds up a paper bag from his coat. The bag is clearly soaked in the purple slime that harmlessly drips from the bottom. "That thing ruined my pretzels!"
Amity stares at the bag then at Braxus. Her confused expression melts into relief and maternal-like love as she embraces the kid even tighter. "I'm never letting you go," she whines.
"Wait…" Luz stares at the bag then turns to Geoffrey crawling out of the store with bits of jelly, frosting, and sprinkles on its body. She snaps her fingers, "That's it! Salt!"
Amity and Braxus looks at each other for a moment then to Luz. "I'm sorry?" she repeats.
"Earlier, when I tried to feed Geoffrey, he was disgusted by the sea salt chip I gave him. He must have spat him out because it tasted the salty pretzels he was carrying!"
"Salt…" Amity puts Braxus down for him to leave. "I see, the abomination couldn't maintain a structural form because of its composition being mostly liquid. And salt draws out moisture. If we expose it to large quantities, it'll be torn apart!"
"And the ocean has plenty of salt! We can lure Geoffrey there!"
"Luz, you're a genius!" The praise made her blush but now that they have found their solution, the question is how exactly are they going to make sure that Geoffrey will keep chasing them? From what they have seen so far, the slime enjoys eating anything sugary and sweet, and will ignore everything else for it. But where can they find anything like that around here that it hasn't eaten yet?
"Honey!" The girls turn their heads to see a humanoid bear pushing a cart filled with jars of honey. "Get your honey here! I couldn't find anyone willing to sell my stock so that's why I'm selling it on the streets! If you happen to know anyone who runs a store and is willing to sell fresh honey, please let me know!"
Luz runs in front of the man's path as Amity follows behind. "How much?" Luz asks.
"Ten snails each."
"Ouch, that's about…" Luz pulls out her empty pockets again, "… ten more than I have."
Amity rests her hand onto her shoulder and pulls out a plastic card, "No worries. Lucky for you, you're dating a rich girl."
"I don't take credit."
"What!?" exclaims Amity, "Who doesn't receive credit payment these days?" She shakes her head, "No, what am I even doing? Can't you just lend us a few jars? We need to use them to lure the monster that is attacking the town. Right now!"
The man follows her point to see Geoffrey turning over carts, uprooting trees, and smashing through any window in attempt to grab any civilian that has yet to evacuate. He merely shrugs and looks back at her. "Ten snails each," he repeated.
Luz grabs onto Amity's arm to stop her from lunging at the man. Everyone's eyes were suddenly drawn to a large bag being dropped on top of the man's cart. "30 snails in count, my good man," announced Eda.
"Eda!"
She winks at the girls and takes the three jars before distributing each to them. Eda then forcefully turns them around pushes them away from the man as quickly as they can while explaining, "Come on, let's go before he finds out its filled with pebbles."
After a moment of debriefing the plan with Eda, all three of them approach Geoffrey as it busies itself trying to grab any of the civilians. To get the thing's attention, Amity unscrews the lid to her honey jar and gives it her best throw. The jar soars through the air with the honey barely able to spill out before it smashes against the creature's body. The honey sizzles and dissolves into its mass. Geoffrey lets out a joyous gurgling sound before turning its attention around to where it came from.
Luz holds out the jar in front of him and shouts, "You like that, Geoffrey? We got more where that came from!"
Geoffrey shoots out a tendril to snatch both the jar and Luz, but Eda zips by on her staff and grabs the girl just before it could. Amity catches Eda's arm and gets swung onto the end of the staff. She holds onto Luz's waist and looks back to see Geoffrey making its charge at them.
"It's chasing us!" Amity relays to them, "Good, now we just need to direct it out of the town and into the ocean!"
"We're not using the beach?" Luz asks.
"Too many people could be around," Eda shouts back, "If the Emperor's Coven do catch wind of me being involved, I rather not have multiple accounts of homicide pressed against me."
Amity peeks over Luz's shoulder and frowns at the witch's words. "And you're not doing it because getting people eaten is a bad thing too, right?" she asks for confirmation.
Eda shrugs, "Eh, sure. That too, I guess-woah!" A tendril nearly grazes her as it was shot out with incredible speed, causing Eda to swerve away as an uprooted tree is thrown at their previous spot.
She looks back to see Geoffrey not bothering to bounce with its entire body as it is now capable of catching up with them by crawling. Tentacles swings violently out of its body, grabbing any trees or carts it could use as projectiles.
"How much closer are we now?" Amity shouts to Eda.
"About a quarter away!" Eda looks over her shoulder to make sure they're just out of the slime's reach but within its sight so it wouldn't give up the chase. Her eyes notice the strange movement coming from the top of the slime. Its 'head' shudders and compresses before releasing an upward shot of its own substance high into the air. The fired mass arcs downward from the sky like a mortar strike, before splitting into multiple projectiles. Each of them easily being the size of a person.
"Incoming!" Eda shouts to the girls and kicks her staff to let Owlbert know to speed up. They swerve, drift, and hop over the raining slime shots and the thrown trees. But even all of this was too much for them all to look out for as a close call from a wooden cart causes them to get hit by the slime mortars.
All three of them went flying from the impact. Eda is forced to let go of her jar to save the girls from falling by conjuring a magic, cushion-like bubble to break their falls. Eda's jar splatters against the ground where it is immediately slammed upon by one of Geoffrey's arms.
Amity notices the loss of their second jar and quickly looks around to see Luz slowly getting up. Her heart leaps when she sees the girl pull out their last honey jar from under her sweater. However, Amity wasn't the only one to notice as she felt the force of a speeding limb making its way to grab the human girl.
"Luz!" she screams.
Eda rushes in and intercepts the attack with a barrier, but Geoffrey doesn't stop there and continues growing more limbs to snatch Luz as it crawls towards. Eda responds back by widening the barrier until it becomes stuck between two buildings across from each other.
Using this much magic scares her, but she just needs to slow the creature down enough to give Luz and Amity plenty of time to outrun it out of town. Hopefully, she can avoid the creature and hop back onto Owlbert to continue their chase through the forest.
But a new flaw emerges in her plan, as Eda felt the rumbles beneath the ground she's standing. Knowing what this could possibly mean, she turns back and shouts to the girls, "Look out!"
A large tendril burst from the dirt between the two girls. Luz had jumped forward on instinct to avoid the slime but her rough landing causes her to let go of the jar. It lands safely on the ground and rolls away. Luz tries to recover and pick it back up, but her foot gets caught by the tendril and forces her to the ground again.
Luz screams and claws at the dirt as the tendril slowly pulls her back and into the hole. "I got you!" Amity rushes over to her and grabs her by the arms in a vain effort to pull her free. Using her foot, Amity summons her Abomination to assist in pulling but even if she had five at her disposal, they could not best Geoffrey's strength.
"Amity!" Luz calls for her, "You need to let go! Grab the honey and lure it out of here!"
She bits her tongue to stop the urge of telling her to shut it. With them so close to the entrance of town and with Eda occupied with stopping the full might of the slime's assault, the only option she could logically take is to grab the jar.
But the idea of losing Luz to that devouring monster is too much for her to bear. Even if there was a large chance it could ignore them all in effort to just grab the honey, Amity was not willing to let go of her.
The only thing she can probably do is to order her Abomination to throw the honey jar somewhere else. To hopefully distract it so they can be free and… and maybe come up with some plan to get it out of here?
Amity opens her eyes to look for the jar but couldn't find it. Panic rises in her chest as she desperately scans the area to where it could have possibly ended up.
"Hey, ugly!"
The trio all recognized the voice and turn their attention to the small demon holding up the honey jar over his boney head.
Luz screams, "King!?"
He hoists up the jar for Geoffrey to see, who gurgles and babbles excitingly at. "So you don't like your meat tough, huh?" provoked King, "Then let me sweeten the deal!"
"Oh my gosh, really?" Eda grumbles.
King unscrews the lid and turns the jar over at his head. The honey slowly flows and drizzles down his head before making its way to his body. His resilient stance and bravado crumbles before the sensation of warm honey oozing down his body. "Oh, this is-this is really gross… oh man, this… this is going to make my fur knot up real bad, euck…"
The open-air scent of honey eventually finds its way to Geoffrey. The slime noticeably shakes and bounces as King finishes off the last of the jar and smashes it down. "Eda!" He points at the barrier to signal her to drop it then turns to run out of the city walls.
Eda opens and extends a tunnel with her magic to direct Geoffrey around her and the girls for it to chase after King. It pays no attention to them as it passes through with even the limb from underground letting go of Luz's leg in its narrow eagerness.
Amity pulls Luz up and embraces her in a tight hug. "Please don't ever try to give me an ultimatum again," she pleaded.
"My bad," Luz gasps as nearly all the air in her body is squeezed out of her. She pulls herself free and stares worriedly into the direction where King and that monster had run off to.
Eda comes over to check on them as Luz spins around, "Eda! Why did you let that monster after King!? We need to go save him!"
"I'm not abandoning him to his fate, Luz," Eda said, feeling a bit offended at her accusation. "Sure, sometimes I'm convinced he's a baby sloth dipped in tar under that skull of his, but if there's one thing I know he's capable of, it's that he's a good runner. We'll save him but don't fret just yet, he's got this."
"I don't got this! I don't got this!" King screams as he continues sprinting through the forest with the devouring slime chasing at his tail. Geoffrey would have caught up with him easily but thanks to the dense woods impeding its path and preventing it from using the tricks it did to Eda and the others, King is managing to keep a good pace away from the creature's reach.
The distance does little to ease his fear of being eaten alive, but thankfully the anxiety is acting like adrenaline to his fight or flight mode. He hoped the others have made it out okay. As long as they are safe, even if he were to trip and be consumed by this abomination, it would have been worth it.
But it would be better if he survived too, of course.
King remembers the landscape around him and picks up his speed. With a few left and right turns, King jumps out of the foliage and into the clearing leading up to the cliffside overlooking the ocean. He didn't have to look back to know Geoffrey is still following him by the sound of trees being torn apart.
He carefully approaches the edge and stares down the steep drop. King tries to think of a way to get the slime to jump over but excited rush of emotions kept him idling until Geoffrey finally appears before him.
"Ah!" King involuntarily screams at the carnivorous creature, now slowly swirling and shuddering its body towards him. Like a predator ready to pounce on its prey. King's nerves have strengthened at the idea of him being a lower food chain than this amalgamation.
His cowardice has afforded him nothing but pain. King was too weak to answer for what he had done but he is not going to go out like this. He takes a mighty step forward with his widdle foot and challengingly points at Geoffrey. "I'm not afraid of you! You're not even a real monster! I'm the King of Demons! My kind predates the meaning of fear! We are the scourge of this world! Masters of darkness! Bringers of ruin! You are NOTHING compared to me!"
Geoffrey stops approaching King, giving him a false sense of superiority. Its body convulses and compresses into itself. Its effort to create its intended Abomination form takes into effect as it struggles to shape itself a humanoid body but the structure falls apart into its gooey form. A slender, bony-like hand emerges and grasps onto the ground for support. Another arm emerges as the mass underneath weaves itself a skeletal torso with massive misshapen legs.
Its head finally emerges with only one working eye while the other stretched down to its chest. Its mouth opens with stringy residue connected between the jaw and the roof to let out a haunting scream mixed between man and animal.
King's courage leaves him as if his soul was sucked out by a straw. He screams at the running creature and leaps off the cliff, with Geoffrey lunging after him. The ocean water below rises up to meet him as Geoffrey slowly descends upon the little guy. Ready to devour him with its opened mouth.
But it never got the chance, as Eda dives in with Owlbert and grabs King by his collar just before the two crashes into the salty water.
"I got you, buddy!" Eda reassures King. Then frowns at the little guy who is still covering his eyes and screaming. She gives him a little shake to snap him out of the trauma.
"Woah! Quit it!" King cries out to her while tugging at his collar pressing against his neck. Eda chuckles and swings her little buddy to sit behind her. King hugs her waist for thanks before hearing the awful screeching emitting from the slime.
They both look down to see Geoffrey struggling to rise out of the water, but the salt contents boil its body like a jello on a hot frying pan. Its grotesque form melts away, leaving nothing but a purple, oily substance floating on the surface.
King cringes in disgust at the mess and asks Eda, "Think it's dead?"
"I seen a lot of dead things and I can tell you most that look like that are most certainly dead." Eda casts King a sly grin and says, "Guess you really are a King. I don't know any jelly baby that can pull a stunt like that off."
King sticks his chest out proudly, "Well, a King must be brave if he is to defend his people."
"Right, but you know that fall could've totally killed you if I didn't show up?"
"Why? It's just water."
"… so impact velocity means nothing to you?" Eda flies the both of them down to the shorelines where Amity and Luz have finally caught up on foot. King hops off and gets tackled by the human girl who showers him in kisses.
"King! Oh, my little baby!" Luz cries, "Are you okay? Did that nasty little slime hurt you? Do you need a bath?" She pulls her arms away, feeling the sticky residue of honey clinging onto her clothes.
King pries his face away from her but hearing her concerns gave him pause. "Wait, you're not… you're not mad at me?"
"Well… I can't say I'm not still upset about what you did," Luz admitted. She then sighs and let's go of him, "But I couldn't bear the idea of you risking your life like that! What were you thinking?"
King rubs his arm and looks between Luz and Amity with guilt and sorrow in his eyes. "I just… wanted to help. To make up for what I did to you two. I never wanted you girls to fight and I don't want to be the reason for you both to break up. The truth is…" King clenches his fists and close his eyes, embarrassed to reveal his emotions but lets it go, nevertheless. "The truth is I totally ship you girls! You're both adorable! I even came up with your pairing name! Amuz!"
Luz and Amity stares back at him. "Amuz…?" Amity repeats back, not even sure where to begin with receiving this information. "That's… I don't… why Amuz? And not, I don't know… Lumity?"
"That'll never work," King scoffs and shakes his head.
"I like it," Luz pipes up.
"This apology took a weird turn," grumbled Eda.
"But I was jealous of how you two were getting along… like I was to Willow and Gus. I should have known better, but I still made things worse because of my petty behavior. I'm really sorry. I know you must be disappointed in me… I wouldn't even blame you if you hated me."
"Oh, King." Luz kneels to his height and takes him by the shoulders to comfort him. "I could never hate you. Sure, we can fight, say awful things, and do awful things to each other from time to time. But it doesn't mean we'll end up hating each other. Because I know you. You're my sweet little King. And…" Luz turns to Amity, extending her words to her as well. "I think we all made done and said things we never meant to say."
"Not me," Eda snidely remarks, "I haven't done anything wrong."
"You almost threw all of Luz's homework away," Amity reminds her.
"I stand by what I said."
"You really don't hate me?" King looks up at Amity too and asks, "After everything I did to you?"
Amity shakes her head and smiles at him, "No, I can understand what it's like not having the attention of someone you like."
That of course went over Luz's head who pulls her booboo buddy in for a hug. She kisses him on the head and says, "Besides, someone once said to me that everyone has their bad faults, but a real friend accepts them and even sees them as good ones too."
Eda rolls her eyes, "And I'm pretty sure I sounded cooler than that."
The sound of something emerging out of the water causes everyone to jump and readies themselves for whatever is left of that monster. But they all were surprised to not see the giant sentient slime but rather an Emperor's guard crawling out with soaking, corroded gear.
"Hey!" Luz snaps her fingers at the guy, "That's the one who got swallowed whole earlier! He's alive!"
"All of that gear and layers of clothing must have prevented the digestion from getting to him," Amity concluded from the damages on his body.
Robert looks up at the group where his eyes settles onto Eda before letting out a shrilled scream. "You!?" he scrambles back to the tides running through him. "Y-you're the one they warned us about! The Owl Lady! So were you behind this-this menace! And you're the same girls from before! And you!" His finger points to King where he paused. "… I don't know who you are, but you must be an accomplice! All of you! Accomplices! Once the Coven hears about this, you all will have to answer to the Emperor himself!"
Amity felt like what little freedom she had has finally been slammed shut behind bars now. Her hope. Her future. All gone in an instant. Deadpanned, she mutters, "Ha… guess there goes my career of trying to make it into the Emperor's Coven…"
"Don't worry, kiddo." Eda elbows her to snap her out of her trance, "Lucky for you, I been working on a spell for this type of occasion." She taps her staff for Owlbert to leave and holds it up by the end with both hands. In one fluid motion, Eda swings the stick against the side of the guard's head, knocking him out cold.
"It only works when they're unconscious, of course," she explains to the mortified kids.
"We broke… so many laws today…" Amity mutters.
"Now you're part of the family. You all get going, I can handle this mess myself." Eda grabs the guard by his feet and starts dragging him away. In the direction of the ocean.
"Eda!?"
"I'm kidding!" Eda exclaims, now dragging the guard the other way. "Sheesh, learn to take a joke."
The rest of the group starts to make their way back home. Amity sighs in relief now that the problem is dealt with. The slime they accidentally birthed made such a havoc upon town but fortunately the town does have a history of getting randomly attacked by strange creatures all the time. The town should just be thankful it's gone instead of wondering where it came from.
Amity felt Luz's hand interlocking with hers after striding up to her. "Never thought I'd be this excited to go back to doing homework. It'll be hard to complete the Abomination assignment without having one…" Luz chuckles.
"You can just use mine instead," Amity suggested.
Luz felt surprised by that, "You'd still want to help me with my assignments?"
"Of course," Amity answers, "I still want to show you the best of what Abomination Track has to offer, I can't let my g-girlfriend lose her track status."
Luz beams and swings their locked hands around, "Aw, you just called me your girlfriend!"
"D-don't start! If you start making fun of me, I won't call you anything again!"
King clears his throat for their attention and timidly walks up to them. "Uh… do you guys mind if… I help out?" he offers.
Amity was just as surprised as Luz is from the offer. "Do you even know all the tracks that are taught at Hexside?" she inquires.
"Uh… no, but I can help with providing snacks!"
With one free arm, Luz picks him up and nuzzles her face against his. "That'll do, buddy. Come on, we probably should get Hooty back into his doorframe. It's a good thing he's incapable of feeling pain."
"Hehe," King chuckles, "He's not."
~/~
"And this concludes our twenty-four-hour marathon. But don't go anywhere yet, for we have a sneak peak of our season 8 premiere starring our two new recruits."
"Man, why the heck did we agree to do this?" Ribs complains as he shines his light around the dark asylum they're in. "I ain't got anything against ghosts, mind you. It's just they got something against me."
His brother Tibs pushes him out of the way, "Well it's either this or prison! And if somebody hasn't fallen for that obvious sting operation, we wouldn't be in the first place!"
"Guy said he had exotic spices, man. You know how I been looking for a way to step up my jambalaya game." A hard-bumping sound could be heard through the television, causing both frog twins to jump and shine their lights in the direction it was coming from. In the corner of the room, is what appears to be a woman with long dark hair and white dress, repeatedly banging her head against the wall.
"That is five levels of disturbing right there, man!" exclaims Ribs.
Tibs cautiously approaches the ghost and clears his throat, "A-ahem, uh excuse me, ma'am? Are you Lizzy Jordan? We regret to inform you that it is illegal to reside in this building as it is claimed by the Emperor and is not available for the public. You will have to evacuate from the premises immediately or-"
The lady shot her head towards the camera, revealing her dark pits for eyes and elongated jaw before the video distorts along with the audio cutting their screams.
The crystal ball suddenly switches to a commercial for Luz, Amity, and King sitting on the couch. "Huh, guess those guys got themselves a new path in life," Luz mentions while checking the time to see it past midnight. Now with most of her homework out of the way and for only a couple of left to do tomorrow, the three relaxes on the couch and manage to watch a few hours left of the marathon.
Amity hides her pleasure in their suffering well with a stoic expression. She looks down at King curled up between who is currently snoozing away. "Look at this guy," Amity says while taking the opportunity to gently stroke his fur softened by the shower he took earlier, "All that fuss he made earlier and here he is sleeping the last portion of the shows away."
Luz takes her turn stroking at his fur too with a loving smile, "I have a feeling this was just his excuse with spending more time with me. He's such a little sweetheart." She looks up from King to see Amity's smile fade as her eyes look occupied with her own thoughts.
"What's up?" she asks.
"Huh?" Amity snaps out her mind before registering the question and says, "Oh, it's just… I'm still bothered about what happened to us today."
Luz could tell what's exactly on her mind from that and responds with, "Amity, it was a terrible misunderstanding. I'm not holding it against you."
Amity knows she wouldn't, but it did little to shake away her fears. "I was so sure you had done it that I wasn't willing to listen to you. I thought I knew you better than that, but I…" She trails off, recalling how she let her temper get the better of her.
Luz is gentle and sweet, that she knows and loves about. But compared to her personality, Amity is blunt and short-tempered. The clash of their personalities concerns her. Even though they both were victim of another person's folly, how does Amity know it won't happen again?
She felt a hand worming its way through her arm and into her fingers. Amity looks up to Luz who shyly smiles at her before letting her hand hold onto hers. "Don't beat yourself up about it," Luz reassures her, "I'm just glad we're able to talk it out and relax together like this. Aren't you?"
Amity nods, but Luz knows it didn't ease her fear. She tries to think to herself of what to say but comforting a significant other feels different than a friend like Willow or Gus. With all that has happened over the days, she barely had any thought of what it's like to be in a relationship. In fact, she keeps forgetting that she only just liked Amity last night.
They went from crushes to dating so quick, Luz barely could keep her head from spinning off her shoulders. How could she find the right thing to say to Amity if she can't get a grasp of her situation? It was no wonder they fought. Neither of them knew how to handle this new pressure between them.
"Maybe we really did rush this without thinking, huh?" Luz mutters out loud. Amity looks back to her in surprise, but as the words settled in, she reluctantly agrees.
Even so, it doesn't mean it should end because they rushed it. Or that they fought. They're bound to make mistakes. But if they're both willing to learn from it and move on, then why stop now?
Luz squeezes Amity's hand and grins, "I mean, we went ahead and declare ourselves together without even making plans. We still got a couple of days left, so why don't we make tomorrow a day just for us?"
"For… us?" Her cheeks flushes in red as the realization sets in, "Y-you mean like a date? Are you asking me out?"
Luz didn't expect an excited reaction like that. She nervously scratches at her cheek and chuckles, "N-not exactly… I sort of meant it as a mutual decision, you know…?" Her words were met with a confused and disheartened look from Amity. Right, she should have known better than to dance around the bush.
"Nevermind that. Amity," Luz takes a breath to calm herself, feeling more nervous now that she has to say out loud. "Would you want to go on a date… with me…?"
"Yes!" Amity squeals. It was clearly too quick and eager of an answer than she wanted it to sound. She coughs in a vain attempt to hide it and answers with, "I mean, sure. I don't have anything better to do."
Eda came down the stairs for some water as she hears the girls giggling on the couch. She cracks a smile and announce her presence with, "Well, looks like you girls are in better terms now." Eda scruffs Luz's hair on the way to the kitchen.
"You could say that," Amity answers, giggling at the mess on Luz's head. "We're sorry about the trouble we caused earlier. And for our… behavior too."
Eda emerges and shrugs as she takes a sip of water. "Eh, I learned to grow numb to these kind of things by now. As long as no one gets hurt… that being said, you girls got any plans tomorrow?"
They both gaze at each other and exchange mutual embarrassed and anxious feelings. "Uh… yeah," Luz speaks up, "Me and Amity are going to-"
"Good," Eda interrupts her, "Because for your punishment, both of you are going to help me with the stand tomorrow to make up for all the food we lost to your pet project."
"What!?" Amity and Luz cries out together.
"Do you girls rehearse this kind of thing or-?"
"But we just made plans!" Amity exclaims, "We were going to have our first d-date!"
"And you can spend that by working on the stall t-together," Eda says with finality in her tone as she climbs back up the stairs, "It's just for one day, be glad it's not for the entire week. Good night!"
Luz watches Eda disappear to the second floor and sighs in disappointment. There isn't much she could do now to change her mind. "Well… maybe we could go somewhere after we-Amity!?" Luz turns around to see Amity's face tightening in frustration. Getting redder and redder just like how Edric said it looks when she gets mad.
"Hey hey!" Luz takes both of her hands and tries to calm her down before she passes herself out. She tries shaking them, pulling them, make them do snake-like dances but Amity seems too upset to even notice. With nothing left in her mind and in the rush of the moment, Luz slaps Amity's hands onto her own face and held them there.
Amity snaps out of her trance at the touch of Luz's cheeks under her palms. Her anger slowly melts away as she confusingly stares at the girl and asks, "What are you doing?"
"Taking your temper away," Luz repeated the words her own mother once said to her when she was young. She gives her a goofy grin, "Whenever you're feeling down, I'll just take them from you. To keep that smile on you always." She presses her hands harder against her cheeks to squish her face in and mutters out, "Is it working?"
Just when Amity thought she could understand her, Luz always manages to find a way to surprise her. She can be so juvenile. So dumb. And so sincerely sweet. Her temper had indeed gone away and in its place was nothing more but admiration for the girl who accepts both her good and bad sides.
Amity smiles at her goofball and answers, "It's working."