Chapter 21: The Owl and the Boar
[For the Owl House residence and their friends, they faced monsters, the Emperor's Coven, evil shop owners, sometimes each other, but nothing could prepare them for what was in front of them, A giant light green man, with overwhelming power at his fingertips, bursting muscles, and monstrous energy. Standing in front of them was Ronin's ally, Warlord.]
Warlord: I've been waiting for you. Amity.
[The Clawthorne sisters turn their heads to the youngest Blight, baffled. They look at each other and wonder how exactly she knows this man.]
Amity: Warlord? What are you doing here?
Warlord: I'm giving you a chance. If you come with me now, then you won't have to suffer the consequences.
Eda: Amity, what is he talking about?
Amity: Warlord, I won't go with you. I'm helping Luz.
Warlord: If you help her, then you would only hurt yourself. Do you honestly have any idea what you and your friends have come across? Arthur and West know more about this than any of you. If you come with us then you'll have the answers you seek. You can unlock your Spirit Power without having to punish yourself. You can be free.
[Amity tries to ignore Warlord, but deep down, she had no idea whether to believe him or not. A consecutive amount of questions came across her head. But she knew that if she went with him, she wouldn't be able to save Luz. And right now that is all she wants to focus on.]
Amity: I'm not going, Luz is too important to me. And I won't let anyone tell me otherwise.
[Amity decides to walk past Warlord, who then out of nowhere, grasps her arm with a solid grip]
Amity: hey what are you?!
Warlord: If I can't convince you to go, then I guess I'll just have to force you.
[Warlord slowly elevates his arm to deliver an attack. A vine then wraps itself around the elevated arm, and pulls him away from Amity]
Warlord: What?!
Eda: You get away from her!
[Lilith uses her staff to create an Ice wall that separated the sisters and Amity]
Amity: Eda, Lilith?! What are you doing?!
Eda: Get out of here kid, Luz needs you!
Lilith: We will hold him off! Just go!
Amity: Can you handle him?!
Eda: Forget about it and just go!
[Amity gulps in anxiety, and decides to go on ahead]
Warlord: Do you honestly have any idea of what you've just done?!
Eda: I saved a girl from being killed by the likes of you!
[Eda and Lilith ready themselves and take their stances]
Eda: And so help me Titan, if taking you down can help me get to Luz, then so be it!
Warlord: But how can you fight me, when you have no Spirit Power?
Lilith: We can suffice.
[Warlord closes his eyes, and begins to gather energy from inside him]
Warlord: I was thinking of giving you a chance. But since you side with Arthur. Then I have no choice. BUT TO SEND YOU TO HELL!
[The giant man's energy explodes, releases a light green aura]
Eda: Alright Lily, you ready for this.
Lilith: This is what we have been training for.
[Eda and Lilith unleash their clear aura's and ready their glyphs, staffs, and blades for battle.]
Warlord: RRRAAAAAAGGGGHHH!
[As Warlord's power keeps on increasing, the avatar of his Spirit begins to manifest behind him]
Warlord: Spirit Power! Power Seeking Deva! ASHURA!
[The avatar breaks out of its shell and reveals a three faced man, with six giant armoured gauntlets and red skin, lending Warlord his power]
Warlord: This is my power! Care to dance.
[Eda and Lilith begin to make a move, splitting themselves up to cover more ground]
Warlord: Ashura's Wrath!
[Warlord generates a giant ball of green fire, splitting it into two and launching it at both sisters. Both sisters attempt to evade the flying fireballs, keeping their eyes sharp for any other tricks this man might have. Watching carefully Eda manages to parry the Fireball away from her, throwing it at a distance, causing part of the cave to explode. Lilith on the other hand uses an Ice glyph to shield herself, the fire melts quickly through the ice, weakening the flames, giving Lilith her chance to cut it down. Slice the fire in half, both sides evade and destroy more parts of the cave causing minor tremors.]
Warlord: Hmph! Come at me!
[Eda and Lilith launch themselves from both sides to attack. Warlord still prevails in this scenario but summoning bladed gauntlets. To parry the both of them to the other sides of the cave wall.]
Eda: I'm not done yet!
[Eda inches closer to Warlord, constantly swinging her sword, only to miss. She leans forward to thrust her blade into his chest only for it to be grabbed by Warlord's tight grip. Attempting to evade, Eda struggles to remove her sword trying to pull it out of his hand]
Eda: Hey! Let go!
[An Idea pops into Eda's head, she jumps up to kick him in the face]
Eda: Hah! Huh?
[Only to notice that it wouldn't budge, that and her leg started to hurt]
Eda: OW! What is your face made of?!
Warlord: What would you like to know?
[Warlord grabs hold of Eda's leg to slam her down back first, flipping the sword by catching it by it's grip, he attempts to kill Eda]
Lilith: Get away from her!
[Lilith flings her sword into his hand forcing him to drop both]
Warlord: Hm?
[Lilith slides under him, grabs her blade to pop back up. And land a killing blow, but was ceased when the giant uppercutted her sword, perfectly slicing it in half]
Lilith: Huh?
[she soon realizes that her sword was destroyed, but she still had her staff to back her up. With the swing of her magic staff, she manifested a spell circle to summon Icicle shards.]
Warlord: Fighting with Ice? Pathetic!
[sucking up the wind around him, Warlord generates enough energy to land a powerful attack, the icicles draw near, but with a simple scream, the Warlord releases a devastating howl, one that could reach to the outskirts of bonesborough causing the icicles to shatter on impact with soundwaves. Lilith covers her ears to block out the noise, but the echo boomed through them, tossing her away.]
Eda: Lily!
[Eda jumps for it thinking of what to do next. And the first idea that popped into her mind, was cheat her way to victory]
Eda: So goodnight big guy!
[Eda circles Warlord, attacking from all directions, with that in mind Warlord watches closely, darting his eyes to figuring out what he next plan of attack would be, while observing Eda's movements, he notices that Eda jumping pattern, three jumps to the left, and the fourth one going across him]
Warlord: (So that's your game, very well.)
[Warlord suddenly moves his hands to a praying position, listening to the movements of Eda. At the third step, he reacts and grasps onto her leg, pulling her down and palm thrusts her to the chest. Drags Eda's legs through the ground, but only to find Eda smirking afterwards]
Warlord: What are you so happy about?
Eda: About what's going to happen to you.
[Eda slams the bottom tip of her staff onto the ground and conjures an explosion from surrounding fire glyphs, Warlord shrugs his arm close to him, but still in one piece afterwards]
Warlord: *serious* (Oh I get it, you surrounded me to place your glyphs and knew that I would attack you. So that way you could get out of the range of the explosion.) Very clever, but it won't work on me twice!
[Warlord and Eda continue their fight with Eda blocking each attack from Warlord, Lilith struggles to get up and has a ringing in her ear, trying to put everything together, Lilith joins the fray lifting herself to the ceiling. Eda notices Lilith and jumps back.]
Warlord: Hmm?
[He feels a whack from the back of his head]
Warlord: Huh?
[he turns around to find Lilith, who forcibly puts Fire glyphs on his chest. The witch spins her staff and attempts to push back the Human with her staff. Warlord prevents it by grabbing her staff. Pulling it slowly to the side of his face, Lilith pulls back but can't!]
Warlord: I'm not the type to fall for the same trick twice.
Lilith: Well you may have me in your grasp, but you forgot the owl.
Warlord: Owl?
[Warlord suddenly feels taps on his body. He looks down and finds Owlbert tapping on the glyphs, forcing them to explode with the impact of the blast pushing Lilith back]
Warlord: Well that trick is getting old. Time to even the playing field.
[His eyes glow light green and begins to understand the tricks of Eda and Lilith. The sisters prepare themselves for whatever he has to dish out]
Warlord: I've seen your tricks, let's see if I can match them.
[Warlord begins to draw a spell circle, shocking both witches]
Eda: He can use a Spell Circle?!
Lilith: But how?!
[Warlord releases a fire spell, separating the two sisters.]
Eda: Wait, you're a human! How can you do magic?!
Warlord: That's the thing with my Spirit Power, Ashura. I can adapt to my opponents abilities. And with that power, I use it to study everyone one I fight, learning their style. And with the help of my aura, I can use magic.
[Warlord draws two more spell circles, firing both fire and ice. The sisters flee the beams, but with the beams following them, the continue to run out of ground to move around in, both sisters nod at each other and once more jumps from both sides of the cave and corner him from both sides]
Warlord: Not enough!
[Warlord grabs Eda first and jabs her multiple times, punching her in the chest and stomach in, following Lilith by sweeping her and forcing her to the ground all in two seconds]
Warlord: *calm* I heard you two trained under West, honestly I was expecting more, but this. This won't be enough.
[Eda and Lilith both on the ground groaning with pain]
Warlord: Guess I'll just have to capture Luz myself.
[Eda opens her eyes open after hearing her name, knowing that he is going after Luz. If he was after Luz, then something bad would happen to her, he clasps the ground with her hand and forces herself to get up. Lilith watches her sister and remembers why she would do everything to protect Luz. Luz was someone important to Eda, so if anything, she had to redeem herself by doing the same. But for Eda, Luz was her responsibility, and would help her any way possible. Luz had no one on earth but her mother, and right now she is fighting with everything she has. It makes Eda remember who she was trying to protect]
Eda: Stop right there!
[Warlord is stopped in his footsteps, and turns back to Eda]
Eda: You're not getting anywhere near her!
[Warlord decides to stay and listen to the Wild Witch]
Eda: I don't know who you are, but if you're after Luz, then you have another thing coming. Luz is fighting threats we may not even understand, and I don't want her to deal with another maniac who wants her dead or captured or whatever you want to do with her. But I'll let you know one thing. If you want Luz. You have to go through the one who raised that kid to be a better witch than I ever was.
Lilith: I speak for her as well. If I'm going to redeem myself, then I will stand by my sister no matter what. After everything I put her through, I promise that I would do everything in my power to bring the human back home.
E and L: So if you want Luz, then you'll have to go through us!
Warlord: (There we go. Anytime now.)
[A voice begins to appear in both Eda and Lilith's heads]
Voice 1: (So, you have someone you wish to protect don't you?)
[Eda begins to have searing pain going through her head]
Eda: GAGH!
Voice 2: (There are some things you cannot take back, and one day you end up regretting the loss of the one you hold most dear.)
[Lilith goes through the same]
Lilith: AGH!
[Both sisters fall to their knees]
Voice 1: All my life, I fought everything that was a threat, if it was to protect my family I wouldn't hesitate.
[Eda pants heavily]
Voice 2: I once journeyed with my brother slay a monster threatening the land, and together we slaughtered it and created an instrument only he could play. He was to have everything, but I took it from him, and in the end I got nothing.
[Lilith screams in pain]
Voice 1: I lost my brother after fighting with him in a great war. And losing him was one of the worst sufferings I have had. Up till today I led great armies to defend Ga'hoole. And now I ask you, are you willing to protect your family from any threat?
Voice: With everything I lost I only sought to have it back. Which is why I ask this question. Will you do anything to earn your redemption?
Voice 1 and 2: Will you be ready for what comes ahead, no matter the cost?!
[Eda and Lilith grin after hearing their words]
E and L: Yes! I'm ready]
Voice 1: As one of the great leaders of the guardians.
Voice 2: As a brother who only has regret left but wishes to use his power to support you.
Voice 1 and 2: I grant you my power!
E and L: Spirit Power!
Eda: Guardian of Ga'hoole! Soren!
Lilith: The Singing Bone!
[Orange and Light Blue Auras burst from both sisters, releasing tremendous amounts of energy, With Eda, her sword transforms into a curved hook like blade. Along with the giant and powerful armoured Owl Spirit Soaring above her. With Lilith a Demon emerges from her back, with the body of a skeleton and bearing a prince's cloak and Boar like Armour, he draws his flute closer to him as he eyes the warrior in front of him. Lilith feels a spike coming out of her left hand she pulls it out revealing a bone like sword]
Eda: *impressed* Nice sword, but not as amazing as mine of course.
Lilith: How about we see who's blade is more powerful.
[Meanwhile with Willow's group, Arthur and King continue to push back the Witch droids with both of them swinging their swords clashing steel, barely making dents to their armour, Gus throws two exploding Kunai at one of them, blowing up on impact, not even making a scratch]
King: Seriously! What kind of metal does this Watts guy use?!
Arthur: Just keep backing them up!
[Arthur holds his ground with the Witch bearing Tiger claws]
Arthur: Crimson Dragon, a little help please?!
[Dragon emerges from Arthur's Aura and pushes the Witches back]
Arthur: That should hold them!
[But the power of the metalized witches are too much, and they force their way through Dragon, poofing him out of existence]
King: Oh come on!
Gus: Guys, we gotta think of something! How do we take down an armoured Witch?!
Willow: All we know is Watts is controlling them somehow. Do we at least have an idea of his Spirit Power?
Coco: From what I have read, Watts uses a Spirit Power known as Marionette the Puppeteer.
[A light bulb appears above Gus]
Gus: hang on a second
[Gus sits down to meditate, causing his spirit to separate from his body]
Gus: Okay, let's see what we are dealing with. But I'm going to need some help.
[Gus walks over to Coco and the others to perform a Spirit separation technique]
Willow: What is happening?
King: Am I a ghost?!
Coco: WHOA! Yokai? What's going on?
Gus: I'll explain later, but right now this can give us the edge we need. Can you take a look at these things?
[Coco and Gus's spirits float to the nearest Armoured Witch, Coco, tries to get a better understanding of her patient]
Coco: Hmm it appears Watts has used some form of titanium alloy.
Arthur: Can you pinpoint what it's made of?
Coco: I'll need a closer look.
[Coco brings out her microscope from within her arm to see what's in front of her]
Coco: Hmm, this is interesting.
Gus: What is it?
Coco: From what I can see, it looks like Watts is using Metal made from materials that can be found on Chorus. Spiritanium if I'm correct.
Willow: Spiritanium?
Arthur: It's basically what our weapons are made out of.
Coco: It also appears that Watts upgraded his needle and uses the armour to control everything. Which means that these witches aren't rampaging by choice. Watt's just changed their mindset. That is amazing.
King: So how do we kill them?
Gus: Isn't that bit much?
King: I'm just throwing it out there.
Coco: Well killing something like this would be impossible knowing that Spiritanium is the hardest metal across the four realms. Heck it's so strong, it can survive a blast that can destroy a planet. The only person who could ever break it is West. But killing them won't be necessary, they'll break out of Watts's trance if we can rip off the armour. Which is something I believe Willow and King can do.
Willow: Wait, me?
Coco: It's simple, King holds them down, and you tear the armour off.
Willow: Why me?
Coco: Cause you can fight West without Spirit Power, in fact it makes you so strong that you might even surpass him. Which is something Pops told me in private.
King: Come on Willow, let's do this!
[Willow looks at her team, and accepts her task]
Willow: Alright, let's go!
Arthur: Gus, get ready to drop us back in our bodies, as for the rest of us, we'll hold off the Witches.
King: I'll drop the bomb!
Willow: and I do the tearing!
[Gus focuses hard and transfers everyone back into their bodies, Coco, brings out her Minigun in and fires multiple rounds of lead onto the monsters, along with Arthur ordering Crimson Dragon breathe fire and Gus summoning his Shadow clones to self destruct it pushes all four monster witches back, giving King his opening on the first on he sees]
King: Peter Pan! Grab that one!
[Peter Pan summons the tic toc croc and holds down the first one he sees, Willow runs up to it and immediately grabs onto the armour. Willow struggles to rip it apart]
Willow: (Come on Willow, remember everything Pops taught you!)
[Willow summons Abnoba to create thorny Vines on Willow's arms. Turning them into giant plant arms. Willow screams as loud as she can and tears the metal off slowly]
Willow: (BREAK IT!)
[Willow breaks off all the armour freeing one out of four witches. She then repeats the same method three more times, each time getting easier]
Arthur: That's a little horrifying.
King: YES! DEATH TO ALL WHO TREMBLE BEFORE ME!
[Coco, checks on the prisoners, by kneeling down, grabbing the arm, observing their pulses, and performs check ups while they are unconscious]
Coco: They seem to be breathing, just sapped of their energy. Djinn!
[Coco's Spirit appears behind her]
Djinn: Miss Grey, what will your pleasure be?
Coco: Djinn, I'll need a Danger Wish.
[Djinn rolls the wish dice. Lands on 2]
Coco: That's good enough. Can you give them at least twenty five percent of their energy back?
[Djinn does as she commands and restores the strength of the Powerless wishes]
Djinn: Final wish?
Coco: I'll need some power beans for us, at least 8.
[Djinn grants her next wish and a pouch appears in her hand]
Coco: Thank you Djinn. Return.
[Djinn disappears back into the belt.]
Coco: Alright everyone take one, it can restore the energy you've lost.
[Coco, hands one bean to each of her teammates. And replenishes everyone's strength after swallowing them]
Arthur: Couldn't you have used your power to bust through the wall.
[Coco sighs]
Coco: Our health comes first. For now we will just have to figure out how to get through the wall.
Gus: What if we just...
[the wall immediately crumbles into pieces, everyone turns to the rubble and notices Willow broke the wall down.]
King: You could have done that earlier?
Willow: I didn't really think of it.
Arthur: Let's just move ahead, the others are going to need these.
[Everyone moves on ahead. Eda and Lilith stand their ground in front of Warlord waiting for his next move]
Eda: Alright big guy, watch your next move, or you'll be roadkill.
Lilith: Edalyn, now is not the time. We must focus.
Warlord: You two really think you can beat me like that? You're not even on my level.
[Warlord, claps his hands together. And summons Ashura and builds up his energy]
Eda: Keep your head up!
Lilith: I can handle myself.
[Warlord raises his arms to his chest, and releases a wave of energy forcibly pushing the Clawthorne sisters back. But both wild witches continue to hold on. The curse in Eda suddenly begins to take over, but Eda won't let it happen.]
Eda: (Sorry curse! But I'll borrow you for a bit)
[Eda transforms her arm into the Owl Beast's Claw and slaps the force out of their way]
Eda: Lily! NOW!
[Lilith nods and makes her move. Covering her sword in Wild Magic]
Lilith: Singing Bone!
[Lilith jumps high into the air, and with a swing of her magic covered blade, she yells out loud]
Lilith: Midnight Melody!
[Lilith slashes the body of Warlord, and Eda follows, with Owl Beast wings doing the same]
Eda: Soren! Lend me your power!
[Soren appears behind her, and gives her support. Owlbert jumps off her staff and transforms into a ball of energy covering Eda's Owl Blade]
Eda: Owl Beast Howl!
[Eda cuts the body of Warlord after Lilith. And both hide their swords within their aura, to their surprise Warlord still stand with a little bit of a scratch on his chest shocking the duo]
Warlord: Hmm, impressive.
Lilith: That didn't do anything!
Eda: Well we better keep fighting!
[Warlord taps his chest feeling the blood coming out of him]
Warlord: I must say, those are some powerful attacks of yours, they were strong enough to dent me this much.
[Warlord's phone suddenly rings and picks it up]
Warlord: Hello?
[The other end responds]
Warlord: No I wasn't able to.
[The other end responds once more]
Warlord: Very well. I'll meet you at the rendezvous point. Over and out.
[Warlord shuts off his phone.]
Warlord: *serious and calm* It appears I'll have to cut the meeting short. However the next time we meet, I expect you two have a little more training. Plus I won't be going easy on you next time.
Eda: What?! That was easy?!
[Warlord begins to walk away]
Warlord: If you ever run into Amity. Tell her that the offer to join Ronin still stands. But if she refuses to join, then she has made an enemy of the both of us.
[Warlord bends down, and skyrockets out of the cave ceiling. Both sisters pant in frustration and confusion]
Lilith: Well that was something.
Eda: Damnit! If that guy was going easy on us. What do you think him fighting at his best would be like?
Lilith: Probably too much to handle.
Eda: But not for us.
Lilith: You can say that again.
[Eda and Lilith turn to the path of the cave and move forward]
Eda: We still have some power left, you think it would be enough to get ahead?
Lilith: I hope so. I also hope that we don't faint afterwards.
Eda: If anyone is fainting first, it's going to be you.
Lilith: shut up.
[Eda and Lilith keep moving and continue to argue.]
[Meanwhile Amity makes it to the lab]
Amity: Alright I made it. Now all I gotta do is find Luz.
[Amity begins to search the lab and a few minutes later has no luck until she stumbles onto a door, with a name]
Amity: What's this?
[She reads the name]
Amity: Extraction room? What does that mean?
[She opens the door and sees Luz strapped to the chair and screaming in pain]
Amity: *scared* Luz?!
[Amity runs to her side and immediately unstraps the chair, but is stopped by one of Watts' monsters. And is thrown back]
Watts: Now, now, little one. I'd stay away if I were you.
Amity: You're..
[Watts walks out of the shadows with two more hench man by his side]
Amity: Watts!
Watts: It's a pleasure.