So… That stuff with Ao3 was wild huh? I feel like I should download all of my favorite fics just in case something else happens but I am far too lazy to do that. Also I'm kinda thankful that I didn't put all the eggs in one basket with this fic and decided to crosspost it in , yes this fic is there and you can find it here: s/13983513/1/Witches-among-humans-Book-1-Beginings just in case this place blows out again.
Also, if you are in from let me invite you to the superior website: /works/36557347
Don't get offended. The tags are amazing for searching and being able to put media in the middle of the fic is outstanding. The only good thing has for itself is the pms and the way they show you the views your fanfic got (also it's not a pain to upload from google drive there)
Also I'm sorry it took me so long to update, I was in a really bad place in my life. Here you have the longest chapter up to date to compensate.
-Luz-
An abandoned warehouse outside of gravesfield / Sunday december 11th 16:30 hrs
Luz stood on top of the chair to assess the situation. They were inside of an old warehouse that Eda somehow got them specifically for this occasion (she really did not want to ask her how she did it). The place had been used as a storage facility for some time so it was filled with boxes, shelves, containers, and bags. She did not know what kinds of stuff were in there but she could get a good enough idea based on the stink (after living so long with Eda she knew how weed smelt like).
"I think this is definitely one of the places my parents would not want me to be in" Willow said as she examined a box containing used medical instruments, including syringes "They would really freak out if they see me here"
"Are you kidding? This place is great" Gus said with stars in his eyes. He wandered around and picked up a bag filled with doll heads "It's like one of those fake sets for movies"
"Except that I don't think that anything here is fake, so please don't touch" Luz begged as she took the bag out of his hands.
After Luz told them that she was planning to kill the basilisk the others agreed after she explained some things. She could tell that Eda still had doubts about the whole thing, but she did not have any better ideas so she did not argue. However, before they started arguing on how they should kill it (or even if they could) she pointed out that there was no way that she was going to let them release that creature in the owl house, not only it was incredibly dangerous but also there were a lot of places where the basilisk could hide or escape, so they decided that they would set up their ambush somewhere else.
They had prepared a plan the best they could within a day and a half: Set the basilisk free from its prison in the middle of the warehouse and use Luz as bait, then all of them would attack it in order to knock it unconscious. Luz was hoping that if the creature was out cold she would regain some of her magic, she did not want to think of killing another living being, even if it had hurt her in the past.
"Oh-kay, calm down Luz. You have everything under control. All of us rehearsed this over and over, we have made contingency plans for everything, it's gonna be ok"
"Meh, it's gonna be fine. Besides, we are about to do something far more dangerous than anything this place could have" He ignored her warnings and went for another bag "Ohh, what's this?"
Luz emitted a high pitched 'eep' upon seeing what Gus had picked up. The brown bag was filled with bras and panties, and they looked like they weren't made to cover much.
"Okey, that's it" Willow grabbed the bag and put it in a high counter where their short friend couldn't reach "You are grounded, mister"
"I didn't know those were in there!" He defended himself with a flushed face.
"That's why I told you to not touch anything! From the things I've heard of the owner of this place you could find a bomb here" Luz scolded him.
At that moment Eda opened the door with one kick and entered the room holding a bag.
"Ok kids listen up! I've managed to give us some free time without any eyes or ears around but it won't be much, so the sooner we clear this the better it will be. Also I'd appreciate if this place does not get destroyed because I think Prim would kill me if that happens"
"Isn't that the reason why we are doing this here? Because you didn't want this fight to destroy the owl house so you were going to find us a place that was a bit more… 'expendable'" Willow asked.
"Well yes, I have prepared for that particular outcome and I have ways to deal with my friend if this place goes to shit. It's just that things would be so much easier for future me if this place doesn't end up as a warzone" She explained.
"Well, I don't think that is going to be a problem. If everything works out, I'll get my powers back and then I'll be able to repair anything that we may have broken in the fight with magic"
"Right, if everything works out…" Eda's tone wasn't hopeful.
"Oh man, I cannot wait! I can't believe that I'm finally going to see you do magic. This is gonna be so epic!" Gus was practically bouncing up and down from happiness.
"Gus calm down, remember that this is serious" Luz reprimanded him.
"Right, right" he took a long breath to steady himself "So… Do we have everything ready?"
"Yep, right here!" Eda proudly announced as she pointed to the bag she was carrying "But I think it would be better if we moved some stuff around first, we are going to need plenty of room for this, right?"
"I guess… but it would take a long time to move all of this" Willow pointed at the shelves filled with different objects.
"Oh we don't have to move everything, just the stuff that occupies the most space" She pointed to a huge desk in the middle of the room "Like that, for example. Why don't you and Goops start moving it while me and Luz have a chat outside? We'll go and help you out in a bit"
"My name is Gus" He reminded her with a grimmance for the hundredth time. At this point Luz was sure Eda knew how to call him, she just liked to mess with him.
"Alright, fine by me. Come on Goops" Willow chuckled as their friend groaned
Eda thanked them and left, Luz joined her with a suspicious look on her eyes. She wasn't dumb, she knew that she did that to talk to her without any interruptions, to what end she wasn't sure, but it must be something serious.
As they exited the warehouse her eyes got assaulted by the brightness of the day, it seemed that she had been inside for far too long. Looking around she saw the highway behind the metallic fence that limited the boundaries of the property. It was really sunny and it would have been the perfect day to go out with friends.
"Alright, what is it?" Luz asked once they were alone.
Eda sighed tiredly and turned to face her with a worried expression.
"Luz, are you sure about this?" She asked.
"Huh? What do you mean? Of course I'm sure! I can't go on living like this" She had actually recovered a bit of her physical prowess over the days but it still was far from her usual state, and it wasn't nearly enough to withstand a full day of school like normal. She had spoken with Gus and they theorized that she might recover all of her energy with time, but there was no guarantee that her magical powers would come back the same way.
"I know, that's not what I meant. I wasn't talking about the whole 'recover your magic' business, I'm more concerned with you being so close to that monster again"
"Oh… yeah. Don't worry, I'm scared of that too, but we have plans for it, all we have to do is prepare and-"
"Luz! Listen" Eda grabbed her by the shoulders, effectively cutting her rambling "This is serious"
Luz gave her full attention, clearly something was bothering her mentor.
"Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to watch that thing attack you? I thought it was going to eat you! We barely escaped alive that time and now you are telling me that you wanna expose yourself to it, you have to understand that I feel… conflicted about that"
"I understand Eda but…"
"Nu-uh, I wasn't done" Eda shushed her by placing a finger on her lips "I know that getting your magic back it's important to you, and that this is the only way to do it, but I don't think that I… that I could handle watching you get almost swallowed by that giant slug again"
Luz remained silent, she did not know how to process that sentence.
"I swear that I am not trying to be a party pooper but it's hard, you know? I watched you getting beaten up by several monsters by now, and I always end up having to patch you up, it doesn't get easy with time-"
And just with those words Luz understood what was happening. The truth is that she never considered this whole ordeal might be hard on Eda: Seeing her end up hurt again and again, and having to be the one nursing her back to health all the time. Since she had to care for some of her injured companions in her rebel days, Luz could imagine that seeing her in that condition wasn't a pleasant experience. She knew that the old woman cared about her, even if she never had the courage to admit it out loud, so she guessed it made sense that she felt this way.
"All this time Eda has been worried about me, even when I just cause more inconveniences for her, I shouldn't put her through more"
"-and I do like that you are so selfless and heroic, I really do, but it's been getting really hard to just watch from the sidelines…" Her mentor continued
"Eda, it's ok" Luz spoke softly.
"Huh?"
"I… haven't really thought about it much, but I could really see how all of this affected you and it's fine. I have this covered with Willow and Gus, so you can wait in the car and we'll call you when this is all over" She assured her.
"What? No! That's not what I meant!" Eda jokingly punched her shoulder "Do you really think that I'm gonna let you go back there alone?"
"What, but you said-"
"I just said that I worry about you, do you think that I would be able to just stand in the car while you face your toughest opponent yet? Heck no! I'm coming with you!"
"Oh…" She was honestly overwhelmed by this sudden surge of protectiveness from Eda "So… what did you try to say with your previous speech?"
"I was getting there" She shot her a grumpy look before grasping her shoulders "Luz… I'm gonna go there and help you get your magic back, but you need to promise me that if things get tough back there you'll back off and run. Tell me that on the minimum sign of danger you'll put that thing back into that box and we'll try again later, please"
Luz looked at her without knowing what to say. On one hand it was true that they could put the basilisk in and out of the pocket dimension any time they wanted (as long as they managed to pull it off) but she was afraid that if they did it the basilisk would know what was happening and they would lose the element of surprise she had been counting on. Nevertheless, she decided that if the opportunity arrived she may not have another choice.
"Ok Eda, I promise"
"That's my girl" She ruffled Luz's hair affectionately and had an awkward silence after they realized what she just said "Welp, time to move! Let's go kick that slug's butt"
She marched towards the building and Luz was about to do the same, but a buzzing from her phone stopped her. She saw that the person sending her messages was Amity and grimanced.
"Everything alright kiddo?" She looked up to see Eda casting a worried glance at her.
"It's fine, I just have to answer this. You go ahead and help the guys" Eda nodded and left her alone with her overcomplicated teenager issues.
Well, they weren't that complicated to start with, she was just making them that way on purpose, which was pretty on brand. She did have a tendency to make things harder for herself.
A bit over a month ago Amity had asked her out and Luz, not being aware that this was with romantic intentions, agreed to it. The problem here was that Luz had decided to not date anyone in the human realm, not only because she could endanger them just by being around (The stupid but necessary stunt she was about to pull with Eda and her friends was a prime example) but also because, in order to protect her secret identity, she would have to lie to them constantly about her past and the things she did, and Luz was tired of doing that, it was bad enough when she had to do that with Willow and Gus.
So now she was stuck with an impossible task: Telling Amity she wasn't interested. The thing was that Luz wasn't sure of her feelings herself (a tiny part of her that she refused to even acknowledge giggled in glee at the thought of having a date with Amity) but that was beyond the point. Even if she did not have much experience with romance, she was aware that a relationship built on lies would not last, and would rather be friends with Amity than blowing everything up if they tried to date.
"Besides" She thought bitterly "Amity is the most popular girl in the school, for not to mention the prettiest, smartest, and richest, she can totally go for someone else, I'm sure there are plenty of other girls that would love to go to that fancy dinner with her"
All of that left her with the impossible task of relying that information to the mint-haired girl without hurting her feelings or ending their relationship. She had managed to avoid that particularly tricky talk this past week due to her condition; She had explained Amity that she was sick and the girl had taken it quite well. The problem was that if everything went well today Luz was going to go back to school and she would run out of excuses to say no, sports season had ended so Amity was completely free, she needed to deal with this so it didn't become an issue.
With a feeling of multiple butterflies she opened Amity's chat.
[10:20 am] Hi Luz! How's it going? I hope that you are feeling better today, we missed you in school this week
[10:22 am] Aww, thank you
I'm feeling a lot better so maybe I can come back to classes this week
[10:25 am] That's awesome! :)
So I've been thinking
Do u still want to come to that dinner if you feel better? I still owe you for being a jerk
[10:30 am] Luz?
[10:40 am] Sorry, something came up
Idk if I'm good enough to go outside today, I'd rather rest to feel better for school
Also don't feel bad, you weren't a jerk
[10:41 am] Ty
If that's the case then what about next week? Our match season is done for now and I'm entirely free
[10:45 am] Idk I still have a lot to catch up from school, let me get back to you later
[10:50 am] Ok
That's where their conversation ended before and Luz still hadn't mustered up the courage to tell her that she wasn't interested in going out with her. She gulped and scrolled down to the unread message.
[4:41 pm] How's your day going? Mine is super boring
Skara convinced me to go to a concert with her but the band wasn't my style
After that she attached a photo of herself and the dark-skinned girl making a ridiculous pose to the camera.
"I really have to tell her… on the other hand I have a basilisk to confront, so that takes priority I guess. I'm sorry Amity"
Luz wrote a quick reply and put down her phone, then she steadied her pulse and followed her mentor back inside.
Forty minutes later
They had managed to pile most of the stuff outside, that way they had plenty of room to fight or run away (depending on the occasion), but they had left some stuff to use as cover should they need it. With everything ready she signaled to their friends to take the positions and stood alone in the middle of the room while holding the box where the basilisk was in.
"Ok, here goes nothing"
She inhaled deeply and pressed the red jewel in the middle of the box, it started to rattle so she aimed it in front of her and pressed the second button in the sequence, the lid opened and a golden light came out of it, she covered her eyes as it grew. The box shook once more and she heard the sound of something big hitting the floor. When the light faded she was standing in front of the monster that had plagued her nightmares for the last two weeks.
"Free! Free! Finally free" The basilisk wailed "No more tight space! No more dark place! No more empty void!"
For a second Luz took pity on the creature. It was so happy to be free that it hadn't even noticed her yet, and as someone who had been imprisoned before, she could relate to that feeling. Nevertheless, she had a mission to do.
"Hey you! Turn around" She called to it.
The basilisk turned and a toothy smile emerged on its face upon seeing her.
"Food! No hunger anymore!" It moved towards her creepily and Luz backed off.
"I-I I wanna talk to you!" All the confidence she felt while preparing for this part vanished as soon as she saw those pointy fangs and expressionless eyes.
"No talking! Eating!" It lunged towards her when it was less than ten meters away from her.
But they had prepared for this. In the spot where Luz had been a second ago there was a tensed rope on the ground, it camuflaged well with the brown floor, once the basilisk stepped on it, it snapped and activated a mechanism, lowering the iron cage that was in the ceiling. Before the creature could realize it, a crate had fallen on top of it, leaving it trapped yet again.
"Prison! Prison! Nooooo!" It wailed. The basilisk seemed to overreact to the cage, almost like just seeing the iron bars brought it pain.
"I'm sorry for this but we need to talk" She said sternly.
The creature grunted and inhaled deeply, as if trying to absorb her magic once more. However, Luz had seen this coming beforehand and positioned herself outside of its range, the basilisk puffed in annoyance once it realized that.
"That's not gonna work. Now, you are going to listen to me or else you won't get out of there" She tried to muster as much authority as she could on her voice.
*Huff* "What do you want?"
"You stole my magic last time, I want it back" She said trying to not let her voice shake.
For once the basilisk dropped its menacing glare to adopt a pensive expression for a while, it seemed it was genuinely confused by this request.
"Food wants its… food back?" It asked with uncertainty.
"Wait, what?... Well the basilisk does see magic as food, so I suppose it makes sense…"
"Err, yes! I demand you to give me my uhh… food back. Or else will spend the rest of your days in this cage!"
"Food is mine! All mine!" It roared. Then it started thrashing its tail and punching the cage, making it shake violently.
"Whoah, watch it!"
"Cages cannot contain!" It struck the cage one final time and the iron bars yielded to the creatures' massive strength, they broke and bent backwards, creating a hole big enough for the basilisk to slip through "Freedom!"
"Oh no"
"And now…" it turned back to look at Luz hungrily "Dessert"
It opened its jaws wide as it closed over her with a lustful expression, probably savoring what was going to happen next.
"Now!" Luz screamed to the reptile's confusion.
Two days ago
"So let's revise this plan of yours" Eda said after a while.
"Sure" Luz said excitedly "What do you wanna know?"
After she managed to eat her dinner and answer the thousand questions her friends had (Eda had to intervene, or else Gus would've kept going until midnight), she finally laid down her plan to take out the basilisk to the others. However, they didn't feel too good about it.
"It sucks" Eda said courtly.
"It doesn't" she defended.
"It very much does" Willow agreed.
"Ahh, come on guys! What could go wrong?"
"Uhh, everything?" Eda looked at her like she was mad.
"A few things to start with: The artifact might not work like you expect and it might not release whatever it's inside of it" Gus pointed out.
"Yeah but it's not like we can test that out" Luz countered "We'll have to deal with it once we set up the trap"
"Then it's the matter with the trap itself" He continued "How do we know that the basilisk it's gonna go for you? What if it tries to escape?"
"We will corner it in a closed space and we'll seal all the exits beforehand. Eda's looking into that already" Her mentor grunted at that.
"Ok, what if the basilisk DOES go for you? What then?"
"That's why we are going to have this baby ready!" Luz pointed at some doodles in her notebook: A diagram of a cage trap triggered by a pressure plate.
"Do you think this is Tom and Jerry?" Eda asked incredulously.
"But what if that fails?" Gus continued "What if it's stronger than you think and breaks free?"
"That's why I have you guys!" She proclaimed proudly "You'll sweep in if I'm in trouble!"
The three of them just looked at her as if she was crazy.
"Hang on. Do you expect us to fight against a magical being? One that defeated you easily when you had your powers? That's never going to work!" Gus said
"It won't work at all if you keep that negative attitude, mister" She scolded him.
"Luz I love your positivity, but you gotta accept that this plan is crazy. It'd be impossible to ask us to defeat the basilisk in combat, we are just humans" Willow pointed out.
At that moment owlbert came flying with difficulty into the room. He was carrying a bag several times his size and, by the looks of it, filled with heavy stuff. He dropped it on her bed and rested on top of it, fully exhausted.
"There you are! Good job, Owlbert" She cooed at her palisman.
"What did you have him bring?" Eda asked
"Something special for our mission" She caressed the contents of the bag deviously "To answer your question Willow, yes, you are merely humans, but you have something that no one else has"
She opened the bag and several items fell on her bed: A talisman, a gauntlet, a stick, a necklace, and some other trinkets.
"What… are these?" Willow asked as she picked up some strange boots.
"These are all of the magical artifacts I've confiscated from humans over these past few months" She explained "I wish you guys had more time to familiarize yourselves with these, but we have to do this as soon as possible"
"Wait… do you mean that?" Gus' eyes were sparkling with joy.
"Yep. You guys are going to use this to fight against the basilisk" She said with a devious smile.
Back to the present
The ground rumbled at her feet and a few seconds later an earth spike emerged in between her and the basilisk, stopping the beast's charge.
"Huh?" The magical creature looked around in confusion "more food?"
Willow stepped out of her hiding place looking nervous as hell but still determined. She was wearing some strange metallic boots with an intricate design of the earth glyph, their brownish color made them look as if they were made out of copper or a similar material.
She slammed one of the boots into the ground and it produced a shockwave akin to a small earthquake. The ground rose up and cracked, sending the basilisk backwards.
"It's down! Now Eda!" Luz yelled.
Eda bolted from behind the boxes where she had been hiding and raised one of her arms. She was wielding the red and gray gauntlet that she recovered from that bank robber, the first magical item she confiscated.
Energy started forming at the palm of the gauntlet and a fireball was shot at the basilisk's mouth, creating a small explosion.
"Dang this thing can kick" Eda said after being blown away by the magic relic's recoil "Can I keep it after we are done here?"
"Focus!" Luz yelled.
The basilisk had been knocked down by the consecutive attacks, but that did not last. With a roar it incorporated again and hissed menacingly at them, adopting an attack pose.
"Gus! That's your queue!" She yelled.
"Sorry!"
A flash of light appeared right on top of the basilisk and something emerged from it, whatever it was, it seemed to be bigger than a person and exceptionally heavy. It fell on top of the basilisk and it made the ground quiver in that assault.
When the dust cleared she could finally see the newcomer well. It was a scaly behemoth of more than two meters tall with a close resemblance to a dinosaur, its arms were short compared to its legs and its back and massive tail were covered by thick spikes, there were three black sections on its abdomen that resembled a face. The mighty beast roared and stomped the ground on an intimidating gesture.
"Whoa. What the heck is that?" Eda asked in shock.
"My new friend!" Gus emerged proudly from his hiding spot.
He was wearing a red star-shaped necklace that was emitting a low light. It was the wailing star, the relic that allowed Eileen to summon fictional characters from books.
"Also, check this out! It doesn't just work with books, it also works with videogames!" He lifted his gaming console to prove it.
"Are you really playing pokemon right now?" Willow asked with an exasperated tone.
"It's how I cope with the nervousness that comes with facing a magical being that could kill us all, and it's working!" He yelled.
The basilisk rolled to the side and hissed at the new threat, it tried to use its claws to attack but the scaly exterior of the new beast was too hard to even scratch. Gus' summoning managed to grab the basilisk's neck and chokeslammed it against the wall.
"There! It's pinned down, hit it with everything you got!" Luz shouted.
Eda repositioned to get a better angle and launched an array of fireballs that exploded on impact, while Willow used her boots to levitate a piece of the ground and launched it as well.
When the two attacks landed something interesting happened. The basilisk made a whining sound and deflated a little bit, as if all this time it had been holding air inside its lungs. After that white mist escaped through its mouth and traveled towards Luz, once she touched it she felt invigorated, as if she just woke up from a nice sleep and drank fifteen energy drinks at the same time.
"Holy crap, it worked!" She tried to focus to cast a spell but she couldn't do it, she also noticed that the energy rush came and went "Okey, so it's not that simple, it still has most of my magic inside, but this can work!"
"Luz?" Eda asked "Was that…?"
"Yes, but it's not complete, it still has some on it!"
All this time Luz had been worried that the basilisk had finished up digesting the magic it stole from her, making this whole ordeal pointless. But now she had seen that it wasn't the case.
"So we have to keep punching its belly to make it puke, right? Seems easy enough" Willow said with confidence.
She then leaped in the air and stomped on the ground, making it erupt in thousands of concrete shards that went flying towards their opponent. Gus saw this and ordered his creation to step out of the way so the full force of the attack would impact the magical creature. The basilisk, who was still dazed about the previous attacks, didn't see the rocks coming until it was too late, it got buried in the small avalanche.
"Hey kid! What did I say about minimizing structure damage" Eda pointed at the giant chunk of floor that was missing now from the attack.
"Sorry. I still don't control this very well"
"It's ok! I can fix it later" Luz reassured her.
"D-Did we get it?" Gus asked with a shaken voice.
Luz looked at the pile of rubble. There was so much debris that she could not see any part of the basilisk. She was considering telling Gus to remove the rocks with its summoning when the pile shuffled, all four of them assumed battle stances again but nothing happened, then a bit more of the white mist emerged from the rubble and went towards Luz, signaling that she recovered more of her magic.
"Ahh, much better" She said after feeling the relaxing sensation again. She realized she didn't feel tired for the first time since she lost her powers.
"Did you get everything back?" Gus asked eagerly.
"Not all of it. I can feel my powers returning but I don't know it I can cast spells yet"
"Well then" Eda said "We just have to keep this goi-"
"NOOOO!" A sudden roar interrupted her. The basilisk bursted out of the pile of rubble, making the debris fly in every direction "MY FOOOOOD!"
"Gus!" She cried
"On it!"
The boy commanded his summoned dinosaur to confront the magical creature again, but something had changed in the basilisk: Its eyes were red, its moves more erratic, its fangs were larger, and its swings had more strength on them. It seemed that basilisks entered some sort of frenzy when they were hungry.
"Uh-oh, I think it's mad, use mega punch!"
Gus was holding the necklace with one hand and operating his gaming console with the other. It seemed that, unlike Eileen's book monsters who obeyed verbal commands, Gus' summoning responded to the pressing of the buttons in the console.
The basilisk resisted the punch and pushed the summoned creature back with a lash from his tail. Then it stopped for a second, smelled the air, and smiled showing its fangs.
"Uh-oh, I think there's something we didn't consider" Gus whispered to her with a worried face.
"What?" She was racking her brain thinking of something they might've missed.
"Didn't you say that this thing eats magic?"
"Yes, and?"
"What do you think the creatures this necklace summons are made out of?"
"Oh, no…" She suddenly realized.
"Food" The basilisk growled.
It opened its mouth and started inhaling again, creating a powerful wind that threatened to knock everyone out as if it was a vacuum and they were merely dust. Gus' monster got sucked in by the strong winds and once it got close to the basilisk it lost its shape and transformed in the same white mist from before.
"So that's the regular form of magic? Interesting" Luz's analytic brain never stopped, not even in dire situations like these.
"Aww man" Gus complained.
"GOOD!" The basilisk roared "I WANT MORE"
Eda shot more fireballs but it saw them coming and opened its mouth to catch the projectiles.
"Mmm, spicy"
"Don't fire now Eda! It has its guard up, so you are basically feeding it" Luz said as she repositioned a few steps back.
"What am I supposed to do then?" Eda ran to hide herself behind some boxes.
"Wait until it gets distracted and don't aim for its mouth!" Luz whispered-yelled.
"I can help with that part!" Willow eagerly jumped in the fray.
She stomped in the ground to generate small shockwaves but her opponent saw it coming. It leaped in the air, far higher than any of her earth-based attacks could reach, and clinged to a wall. Then with a quick motion it trashed its tail towards her, sending her flying against the opposite side of the warehouse at great speed.
"Willow!" Luz called for her.
Thankfully some vines emerged from her backpack and formed a cushion to shield her from the impact. After that, they lowered her to the ground level quite gently.
"I'm ok!" She announced "Terra saved me"
From within her open backpack the head of a carnivorous plant emerged. It was terra, the massive plant that had wrecked a street in the middle of the town a few months ago, it had become more docile after the cares Luz gave her so they thought it would be a good idea to bring it with them for the fight.
"MORE. FOOD" The basilisk screamed while looking for her.
"Gus!" She turned to look at her friend who was hiding behind a support beam "This is your cue, we need to restrain it again"
"Yeah, hold on. I think the magic artifact affected my switch" He was tapping buttons on his video game "I just gotta select the right one for this"
"Agh, why didn't you grab a book like I told you?"
Before he could answer her, the metallic support beam he was hiding behind bursted into two pieces with a scratch of the basilisk. The boy rolled away to avoid getting damaged by the falling structure, and the serpentine creature chased after him.
"Booooyyy, do you know where food is?" It asked with a mocking glare.
"Who boy, time to run" He said before grabbing something from his backpack.
He pulled out a white wooden cylinder, a wand. It was big and thin, at least twenty centimeters long, with several intricate drawings carved into its shaft and a moon ornament on its center. At the tip of the wand there was a round gemstone that looked like a blue lens.
"See you later!" With one flick of the wand, he disappeared from sight.
Luz knew what it was, a relic of the illusion coven, the wand of invisibility. She had taken that from a creep that used it to enter girls bathrooms a couple of months ago (by far the most awkward fight she had in the human realm).
"Eda we need to fall back too! Everyone, regroup at point B!" She shouted.
However, it seemed that the basilisk had other plans. It saw them going back to the entrance so it leaped over their heads and landed behind them, cutting off their route to escape.
"Gah!" Luz screamed.
"Stand back kid!"
Eda positioned herself in front and shot another array of fireballs, but the creature saw it coming. It opened its mouth and swallowed them whole, but instead of just eating the magic like last time, it spat the fire out towards them, knocking them both backwards in a fiery explosion.
For a moment after she landed Luz forgot where she was. Her ears were ringing and her vision was blurred. A few seconds later she regained consciousness and her sight refocused, only to see the basilisk looming on top of her.
"Wah!" She tried to get up and run away but the creature pinned her down with its tail.
"Mhhh, food"
The reptilian's fangs were exposed and drool was dripping from its jaws, its face had the same cheshire grin as always, but this time it was much closer than ever.
As it lowered its head towards her Luz entered into panic mode, she never felt this helpless before: Every single part of her body started moving to try to escape, her eyes darted around trying to find a solution to the problem,and her heart was going into overdrive. Suddenly she started hyperventilating as this primal fear settled in her, she was the prey and this was the predator, predators eat prey, there's no other way around it.
"Hey ugly!" She heard Eda's voice in the distance "Hands off her!"
After that there was a loud booming noise ringing in the air, and both her and the basilisk were knocked away from each other. The sound was so powerful that she felt even her bones vibrate. She covered her ears in a vain attempt to block it out but every part of her body could still feel the ringing.
She stayed some minutes on the ground like this, unable to move due to the pain and unable to hear anything due to the ringing of her ears, until she felt someone touch her shoulder. At first she reacted in sheer panic, but then she saw it was Eda, she was holding the healing relic to patch her up. As she let her use the magic item she slowly regained her hearing.
"Ufff, thanks Eda" She said after a while.
"Don't mention it kid. Also, auch, this thing has some kick, you weren't lying! It's a good thing that we prepared ear protection beforehand"
She then signaled the magic item she was holding: A golden bell with a wooden handle and the emperor's coven sigil. It was a bell disruptor, something that the coven scouts used to clear out mobs during riots against the emperor, they would ring the bell and use its sound to disperse the crowd with a concussive force. She and the rebels had been on the receiving end of this artifact several times, and it didn't get easier.
"Yeah, thanks Eda" She helped Luz to get up.
The basilisk was in a similar state, crouched in pain and holding its bleeding ears. Although it seemed to have a tougher constitution than Luz because it got up a few seconds later despite not having anyone healing it.
"My food! MINE" It hissed threateningly and charged at them.
"Oh no you won't!" She heard Willow say.
Thick vines erupted from the ground and coiled themselves around the basilisk, fully immobilizing it. Luz could see that her friend had let terra loose: The plant had dug up its roots on the ground and now it was growing to a considerable size.
"Isn't that dangerous?" Eda asked "Do we wanna let it grow back to its original size?"
"It's okay! I can still keep her in check" Willow announced.
"hmngh"
The basilisk struggled against its restraints and opened its mouth to speak, only for them to be slammed shut by a new figure.
"Yeah! It worked" Gus celebrated
"Whoa" Luz said after seeing Gus's new summon.
It was a bug, or at least it looked like one. Its exoskeleton was a dark blue and it covered everything, except its eyes, which were a bright yellow. It was really tall, taller than Eda, and its arms and legs were really muscular, but its most prominent feature was its horn: A giant protrusion with the shape of an axe, making it look like a beetle.
"I figured that since the basilisk absorbs magic from its mouth we just have to keep it closed" He explained.
"Nice one Gus! Now Eda, hit it!"
"You got it!"
Now that it could not absorb her attacks anymore, Eda unleashed an array of firebolts. Willow decided to join and launched a big boulder at their adversary's belly. The combined attacks created an explosion that would've sent it flying but Terra's vines and Gus' summon kept it in place.
"Bleugh" The basilisk muttered. It had an expression like it was about to puke.
"Gus it need to open its mouth to return my magic" Luz realized "But try to do it carefully"
"Got it"
The beetle changed positions and put its opponent in a headlock, allowing its mouth to open while it pinned the arms. The basilisk couldn't help it and let out a burp, a large amount of mist, almost as big as a person, emerged from it and went towards Luz. This time the rush of adrenaline was a hundred times stronger, and she felt her magic spread back to her whole body, from the roots of her hair to the tips of her fingers.
"Did it work?" Willow asked.
Luz extended her finger and tried to focus, she felt better than she had been for the last few weeks, but she still didn't know if she could cast spells yet, so she focused all of her power into the tip of her finger and traced a circular shape in the air. Sparkling light emerged and a spell circle formed.
"Whoa" Gus was amazed.
However, she felt a sharp pain in her chest and the spell broke before she could do anything.
"I-I It's not enough. It still has something of my magic inside"
Luz looked at the basilisk in deep thought. On one side she really needed her magic back, but on the other… The creature looked famished: Its eyes were red, its belly deflated, dried pants were coming out of its mouth, and overall it had a miserable demeanor.
"This doesn't have to end badly, I don't want to bully a creature that's just looking for food"
"Luz? What are you doing?" Eda asked when she started to get closer.
"It's ok, Eda" She reassured her mentor and turned to face the basilisk "Hey you! Listen to me"
The creature lifted its head lightly.
"This fight is over, we already won, so stop trying to fight. I won't kill you if I don't have to so… let's just end this and I can help you once we are done, maybe I… maybe we can find a way to feed you without hurting me, what do you think?"
The room stayed silent for a while, well except for Eda's mumbled complaints. But then the basilisk roared in defiance.
"No! Will not give you my food! It's mine" it attempted to absorb her once more, but she was ready.
Luz side stepped to avoid getting caught in the succion. Once the path was clear Willow slammed the ground with her boots and created an earth spike that impacted the beast's belly. This made it open its mouth and another small cloud rushed towards her, returning her magic again.
"Now! As we practiced!"
Gus nodded and pressed some buttons on his controler and his beetle got in action, it grabbed the basilisk and suplexed it back into the ground, then it followed that by grabbing the reptilian's tail and flinging it away. Eda took advantage of this and channeled all of the gauntlet's magic to create a massive comet of fire, she tossed it towards the basilisk at a high speed, it managed to avoid the impact by rolling away, but the residual explosion still hit it.
When the smoke cleared she could see the creature struggling to breathe in the middle of the crater. She tentatively took some steps forward but stopped when it raised its head.
"Food… mine…" It kept saying "MINE"
It lunged at her one last time.
"I am sorry for this" Luz reached for her pocket and pulled out the box that Marcus had given her.
"What? Noooo" It tried to run away but it was too late.
She pressed the jewel in the box and it opened again. One more time golden strands of energy wrapped themselves around the basilisk and a strong wind started pushing it towards the box, as if it was one giant vacuum. After a moment of struggle and screams the box closed itself
Luz stumbled into the ground, still very shaken, both physically and mentally,about what had happened. She looked around to see that her friends were in a similar state: Willow was leaning on terra for support while Gus sat down in the stairs and rubbed his temples out of tiredness. The only one that seemed to be fine was Eda, who had her hands on her hips and was shooting Luz an angry glare.
"Kid, remember what we just talked about? No heroic bullshit that could threaten your life?" She said as she marched over.
"Uhhh, yeah" Luz started feeling really worried about this.
"Then why on earth did you try to pull off that last move! Trying to spare the creature that wanted to eat you? Jeez kid, it's like you have no survival instincts!"
"It would have been fine, Eda. Look" She pointed at the ground in front where they had prepared both a bear trap and a snare trap beforehand. If the basilisk had gotten closer to her during its last attack those two would have triggered.
"You were counting on that? Even after seeing how our first trap failed?"
"I did not think that those could've held it for too long, but I was counting on it to be long enough for me to slip away or activate the relic" She explained.
"Are you really listening to yourself? 'should've' 'would have', why would you risk your life for hypotheticals? Why not just lock the damn thing once you recovered your powers?"
Luz looked down in shame. The truth was that she could not help but feel bad for the creature, as someone who had their loved ones imprisoned (and was imprisoned several times herself) she did not like the idea of stripping someone of their freedom, not to mention that she wasn't sure if the basilisk would starve to death inside the box. This wasn't her first time encountering a deadly creature that wanted to eat her, but until now she had been capable of peacefully subduing any beast that she encountered, this was new territory for her.
"Let me guess, heroic bullshitery" She couldn't look at her in the eyes "Fantastic. Did you even get your powers back?"
Luz was actually nervous about this, she didn't feel the muscular weakness or general soreness that she had felt when she had been drained, but she wouldn't know for sure if her bile sac was working properly until she tried casting a spell, and what if it didn't work? What if they all risked their lives for nothing? What if there was no cure for her condition and now she was stuck like this forever? All of these questions roamed in her head in a cloud of insecurity, but she guessed that just standing by and doing nothing wasn't going to solve anything, so she inhaled deeply and pointed her right index finger upwards, channeling her magic, she drew a light glyph.
"Ok, here goes nothing"
And at first that's what happened, nothing. But the circle erupted into several little light orbs that floated around her.
"Wow" Gus said with wonder in his eyes.
"Well, there's that. Now if you'll excuse me I'm gonna go outside to blow off some steam, and I'm taking this glove with me!" She said while pointing at the fire gauntlet.
"Wait, Eda no. That's-"
"What?" She interrupted her "Dangerous? Like charging alone at a basilisk?"
Luz held her tongue. She knew she didn't have a way to retort that.
"Good. In the meantime, please fix the floor, I don't want Prim to sue me" With that she left. When she closed the door she slammed it with a bit more force than necessary.
"Great, now she's mad"
With a sigh, Luz traced another spell circle, this time drawing her earth glyph, and started repairing the warehouse. The debris started floating towards their respective places and the cracks in surfaces were refilled.
"Well, that is definitely something else" Willow commented as she watched the wall that the basilisk tore a few seconds ago rebuild itself "I gotta say that you really are amazing, Luz"
"Thanks but I need a lot of concentration for this, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't try to talk to me!" Her forehead was actually drenched in sweat due to the effort she had to put into focusing for the spell. It seemed that not being able to cast magic for more than two weeks had its side effects.
"Noted" The girl sat at the stairs and took off the magic boots "Man those things are uncomfortable, did you hear her Gus? No distractions"
"I didn't even say anything!" But he was dying to, judging from the look the young boy had.
Eventually she finished. There were still some cracks in the walls that weren't there before, and some of the floor tiles were broken, but since she felt like she was going to pass out from exhaustion she declared that it was a good enough job.
"Man this is way harder than before, I think I need to retrain my magic"
"Great, now we need to move back in everything inside" Willow said.
"Yeah, just… give me a second" She said between pants
After a while Gus approached her
"Hey, Luz?" He asked her with a quiet voice "Can we talk about something?"
"Not now Gus. We need to put everything that was here back to its place, then I'll answer all of your magic related questions"
"It's not about that, I swear" Luz looked at the boy and saw that he had a serious look.
"Alrighty then, what is it?" She leaned against a wall as they spoke.
"I… I'm sorry Luz"
"Huh? What for? You were amazing today! Your summonings-"
"Didn't work as intended and almost got you killed" He interrupted her "Listen, back then I… didn't take things seriously. I knew that this was important and I knew that the basilisk was dangerous, but I was so engrossed with the possibility of being able to do magic that I started treating this like one of my games. Instead of using the artifact with a book like you told me to, I tried using it with one of my games, all because I wanted to see the characters I like in the real world" He casted his gaze downwards.
"Yeah but it worked! Your monsters wrecked the basilisk!" She tried to encourage him.
"Yes, it worked… until it didn't. You didn't see it but when we were battling the basilisk the relic started behaving strangely and the monster stopped listening to my commands, that's how it got eaten. You told me something like this could happen because the necklace was created to work with books and not video games, you told me about it and I didn't listen!" He ended up screaming the last part. It was clear that her friend felt pretty guilty about it.
"Hey, Gus. Listen to me now" She approached him and grabbed him by his shoulders to make sure he listened "It's ok. Everything went well, we defeated the basilisk and I got my powers back, no one got hurt! I know that you feel guilty about it but it's fine, everyone makes mistakes when trying new things, I certainly made a lot of those back in the boiling isles and I have way more experience than you, the important thing is to learn what you did and improve for next time"
"Yeah… thank you" Gus rubbed a tear out of his eye "Although I'm not sure there's gonna be a 'next time' for this, it was really scary"
"Yeah, same here" Willow joined their conversation "I'm happy that everything ended up ok… but I don't think this was a good idea. For a moment there I was afraid that thing would kill me, in fact I would've been badly injured if it wasn't for terra. During the fight I thought of how my parents would feel if I ended up hurt, I do not want to think what could've happened"
Luz looked at them. Gus' eyes weren't filled with wonder about magic anymore, instead they were sad and scared. Willow was shaken up and full of scratches, the girl who had been scared to stand up against her bullies had the courage to go toe to toe with a magical being, but now that the adrenaline of the battle had worn off, she was realizing how truly dangerous the situation had been. Luz was proud of both of them for what they achieved today, but it seemed that they weren't ready for this kind of ride.
"It's ok guys. I'm sorry that it had to be like this. Honestly this was kind of a last resort thingy, now that I have my powers I won't ask you to do any crazy stuff ever again, I promise"
The two of them smiled and handed her the magic items.
"And hey, it's not like we want to stop hanging out with you or anything, it's just that this whole 'magical creatures' business might be a bit too much for us" Willow said and Gus nodded.
"It's ok, you two already did way too much for me. You guys are seriously the best friends I could ever ask for!"
The three of them hugged with a smile and laughed a little to ease up the tension, then they put all of the furniture that they moved for the battle back to its place, Luz was too tired to do magic so they had to do it manually.
As they worked Luz couldn't help but think how her plan put everyone at risk today, even if this had been a one time thing and they had prepared a lot for this occasion, Willow and Gus had been amazing friends towards her, and how did she repay them? By asking them to risk their lives and end up traumatized in a fight that wasn't any of their business. Even Eda, the woman that had taken her in and given her so much, was rightfully furious at her for risking her life in a foolish endeavor.
"Something is clear now, I need to stay away from them, I'll just keep dragging them back to this"
"Well this was fun… in some sort of way" Willow said after they finished. It took them a little bit less than an hour to put everything back "But I should get going. My parents are worried about me and I really need a little bit of rest and relaxation after today"
"Me too, it was pretty intense" Gus added.
"Oh, sure!" Luz forced a smile on her face as she pushed those thoughts away "Just don't forget to text me once you arrive!" Then an idea popped in her head "Actually, can I tell you guys something before you go?"
"Uhh, sure" Gus said.
"I know it's hard, but try to not forget what you did today"
The two of them looked at each other with confusion in their eyes.
"Luz I don't think that I'll be able to forget it, not without therapy at least" Willow commented.
"Agreed, I'm gonna see the basilisk in my nightmares"
"No that's not what I meant, just… ack" She scratched her head thinking of the right words to say "When I took my first mission for the resistance I was afraid, afraid of messing up, afraid of dying. When I completed it I was really shaken by the aftermath, but my Mami approached and told me to never forget how I, despite being afraid and feeling underprepared, managed to complete a hard task that people twice my age were not able to accomplish"
'You should be proud of yourself mija, you did good' The words still resonated within her.
"That seems kinda messed up, how old were you?"
"Gus!" Willow swatted his arm.
"It's ok, I know that I had an unusual childhood, but it was really necessary, growing up in a dictatorship regime and all" She explained.
"Oh right, sorry"
"It's ok. So my mom told me to remember that moment whenever I faced difficulties in the future, and remember how, even though the task seemed impossible at first, I managed to pull through. So now I am telling you the same, you guys fought against a freaking magical beast and you won! I don't think that there are many humans who can say that" The two of them smiled at that. Luz squeezed Gus' shoulders as she spoke to him "So remember this when things get hard from now on. Gus, when a bully tries to shove you inside a trash bin or whenever someone calls your interests lame, don't just lower your head and let it happen, and Willow" She turned to face her friend "Whenever Boscha or her cronies want to push you around, just remember that today you managed to dropkick an eleven foot long magical lizard without stuttering"
They laughed at that.
"I'll keep that in mind, and then I think I will continue with our fitness sessions, but not today though"
"Yeah, me too" Gus said
They hugged once more and walked towards the car, then they notified the owl lady that everything was back on its place and started their journey back to gravesfield.
The ride home was awkward to say the least, Eda was still angry at Luz and refused to even acknowledge the girl, Gus noticed that and tried to ease the situation with small talk, which only made things worse. For her part Luz felt bad and wanted to apologize, but she knew very well that it wouldn't be wise to speak to her mentor until she had calmed down.
When they reached the owl house Eda announced that she was going to sleep and left before anyone could argue. Gus told them that his dad was expecting him so he quickly left her and Willow to unload everything from the car themselves.
"You should take your own advice, you know?" Willow mentioned to her as they carried the magical items back to the house.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"The whole speech about remembering your first mission whenever you face a difficulty. It was nice but you don't apply it much in your daily life"
"Uhhh, what about it?"
"Well don't take this wrong but you are someone who runs away from their problems constantly"
"Hah, yeah. It was also meant for me" She admitted sheepishly.
"Well then, why don't you start now?"
"What?"
"Why don't you finally answer Amity?" She said with a smug smile and Luz almost dropped the bag she was carrying.
"I- hu- wha-" She had to stop herself from choking with her own saliva. After steading herself she looked at her friend, perplexed.
"Oh I've known for a while" She answered the question that was roaming on Luz's head "You two weren't subtle exactly, I've seen you and Amity hang out almost everyday when I go out from my gardening club's sessions, anyone passing through the school yard could see you, and anyone who isn't naive could see that she is crushing hard from the way she looks at you" Willow's tone was dripping with smugness, she could hardly believe that this was the same girl that would quiver and lower her gaze whenever someone addressed her.
"...was it that obvious?" Luz had always considered herself a romance expert, even though she lacked personal experience in the subject, so seeing how everyone could see it but her made her feel humiliated.
"I mean… kinda? I only figured out because I know she's gay, I'm sure that everyone else thinks that you guys are just good friends, especially those boys who are desperate to have a chance with her"
"Oh well that… doesn't make it better" She casted her glance down.
"Yeah" Willow placed a hand on her shoulder "But you haven't answered me yet, are you gonna send her a message?"
"Maybe, I-" Then the last word she used registered "Wait, message?"
"Oh you left your phone unlocked when you went to talk with Eda" She said nonchalantly.
"WILLOW!" She couldn't believe it.
"Shh! You'll wake up Eda! I don't think you want to deal with her grumpiness after today" After they checked that the old woman was still asleep she continued "For your information I wasn't snooping, it's just that when I was moving stuff around you got a notification from Amity asking if everything is alright. I didn't read anything else and I don't exactly know what's happening between you two, but you have been glued to your phone this whole day with a worried face" She shrugged "I deduced that something was wrong between you two and you were scared of something, am I right?"
*sigh* "You should be a detective, Willow" She slumped in a chair with a defeated look.
"Nah, I'd doubt that any criminal would be as easy to read" Willow grabbed a chair and sat beside her "You don't have to tell me what's happening if you don't want to"
"It's just… I don't wanna mess it up. Me and Amity have a good thing going and I feel like if I don't do this right we'll just part our ways or it will be awkward later"
"Welllll. I'll be honest, I don't have the best opinion about her, nor do I have the best experiences with her, so I can't vouch for her character and tell you that everything will be ok. But what I can do is tell you the same thing you told me, take the plunge. You have stared down powerful monsters and won countless fights, what's talking to a girl compared to that?"
Luz frowned, deep in thought as she processed her friend's words. Eventually Willow had to leave and they said goodbye, but during all that time all she could think about was her friend's words, after hours passed she could not think about anything else so she decided to do something about it.
"Screw this" She grabbed her phone and started messaging Amity.
-Hunter-
An abandoned house, southern Gravesfield / Thursday december 15th 3:00 hrs
A sudden noise woke him up. It was the sound of someone bashing against a hard surface with great strength. His instincts kicked in and he rolled out of the bed, assuming a fighting stance and grabbing his staff. Hunter scanned around in the darkness for any potential threats, but he could only see an empty room with a few of his possessions scattered around the place. He relaxed his stance and shook his head to completely clear his mind from any residual drowsiness, it was clear that the sound had been just a nightmare, a sign that his fragile mental state was finally taking its toll.
"Man, I was sleeping so well too"
He sighed and put his staff back into the table, he had grabbed it out of reflex but it wasn't much he could've done with it, since it was still broken. Hunter knew how to repair it but he needed the pieces to do it and those weren't easy to get in his situation.
"Well, might as well grab something to eat" He knew that he wouldn't fall asleep again easily.
He walked with his arms in front of him to avoid tripping with anything and reached his kitchen, although "kitchen" might be an inaccurate term, considering that it was just the room where he put his canned food and bags of snacks. This was the best place he could find to live that was still in the town and close to his job, he had to use most of his money to buy appliances and other things necessary for his survival so he couldn't afford rent. So he had to get creative, and ended up living in this abandoned place without heating, electricity, nor water, not his proudest moment but he was working on getting a more permanent home. It would be a bit until his job gave him enough money to afford a house but he didn't want to try to use his powers to steal from humans, moral implications aside, he felt like it was too risky with the humans in suits around.
"Bird? Are you there?" He called to his 'roommate' and heard some chirping in response.
The palisman had been with him ever since the raid and Hunter had been using its powers to replace his broken staff. Usually he would have rejected the idea of associating himself with a creature made out of wild magic, but his time on this world had taught him how to be pragmatic, he needed to do everything to survive, even things that didn't align well with his morals. Besides, there was a part of him,a really small part of him, that really enjoyed the bird's company, especially because he didn't have anyone else to talk to. Now he didn't quite understand the palisman's speech yet (their games of charades were fairly interesting) but the bird seemed willing to listen to him: Every time he talked it stopped moving and just watched him with rapt fascination in those big eyes, so far no one, sometimes not even his uncle, paid attention to his words, it was a nice feeling.
"I'm awake, bird" The red cardinal came flapping and greeted him happily "Tell me, do we still have some leftovers from yesterday or-"
He was cut off by the same sound that woke him up, a strong pounding against a solid surface. This time it sounded way closer,like it was right outside of the house.
He quickly extended his hand and the palisman turned into a staff, they had done this so many times that it felt instinctual at this point. He then went to the door and peeked outside. The light of his flashlight didn't reveal much, just a few junk laying on the grass and the view of the tall buildings elevating into the night sky, just ask he was about to close the door he heard it again, but this time it was really closer, and it came just from the left of his door. Taking a deep breath he quickly opened the door, rolled to the side, and aimed his staff towards the intruder.
"Ahh, don't shoot!"
Only to find a familiar face.
"Wrath?" Well, this just got interesting.
Forty minutes later
"I'm *nom* really thankful for *gulp* this" Said Wrath in between giant bites of food.
"Settle down buddy" Hunter was looking away because he did not want to witness the spectacle that was Wrath eating with his mouth open "And be careful when you swallow, you are going to choke"
"Right, right, right" Instead of calming down so they could talk he started eating way faster without talking.
"He's gonna eat all of my food…"
Eventually he got tired of waiting and decided to intervene.
"So Wrath… you were telling me about how you escaped the guys in suits"
"Oh yeah *slurp* they managed to sedate me with one of their weird smoke bombs *crunch* and put me inside this heavily armored truck with shackles and everything *burp*. They were going to take me away to one of their facilities, but they didn't know I could breathe fire, so a few scorched humans and a singed vehicle later I was free"
"Wait… does that mean that you were free since the day we were ambushed? Wrath! That was weeks ago" He could've used the help these past days.
"Not quite. I was asleep for a while and the truck was moving fast. When I managed to break free I was really far away, it took me a while to come back here" he explained.
"I see… it must have been hard" He felt bad for the demon. Wrath was reliable on the battlefield but he had always been bad at taking care of himself.
"Oh yeah, it was. I… encountered a group of humans when I was coming back here" he made a strange sound from his throat, maybe a hiccup, maybe a sob "They were afraid of my appearance and called me a monster. I wanted to get out of there but they chased me with their weapons, so it got ugly"
Hunter knew that there wasn't much he could say to make him feel better, so he just stood at his side and patted him in the shoulder as he listened.
"Thanks… Anyway, enough about me, I see that you have acquired a new place to live"
"Yeah I know it's shit, it's ok" He sighed "But I am working on finding a more permanent solution, I should have a new place for next week" He announced proudly.
"Oh excellent!" He remained silent for a while "Have you… have you heard anything about the witch?"
"Actually no, she hasn't been active since your last fight" It was really odd for her and Hunter wanted to investigate that, but he had other priorities at the moment.
"Oh that's… Good I guess. What about the guys that attacked us?" He could tell that this was what Wrath had wanted to ask for a while.
"I haven't heard anything. Most of the humans here don't know about them either, it seems that they operate in secrecy" Hunter had tried to search the internet but he only got things from movies and books.
"There has to be something we can do about them. They… they took the captain, Hunter"
He just nodded. He was already expecting that outcome from the way she charged head first into a massive group of armed enemies.
"I don't know buddy. I managed to salvage some magical items but most of what we had was taken by them. It's just the two of us and we are in pretty bad shape, not to mention that we do not even know where they are holding her, what do you expect us to do?"
"I don't know but we have to do something! We can't just leave her there! *sniff* Hunter you are a smart guy, do you have any idea that we could use to lure them out? Maybe something to lure them out of their hideout?"
He really wanted to tell Wrath that they should leave Abigail where she was, the woman had literally put herself in that position out of stubbornness and actually got both of them hurt. He really didn't like her at all and truly believed that their chances of survival were greater without her.
But seeing those pity eyes the demon was putting on made him realize that the big guy really needed this, and if he said what was on his mind would break him or push him away.
"Agh, I don't know. There are a lot of law-enforcing humans but these guys seem to act in secrecy, even for their own kind. They only seem to show up when there's a magical incident they have to cover"
"Wait, what do you mean by cover?" Wrath seemed really interested in that part for some reason.
"Oh well, every time that there's a magical creature showing up in the city those guys appear to hide the fact that it existed in the first place. The government of the human world does not want its inhabitants to know magic is real for some reason, so it's likely that those guys are in charge of keeping everything in secret and that's why they attacked us" This was all the info he had on them after hours of research, he was very proud of his deducing skills.
Wrath stood still for a moment, likely still absorbing the information. Then he suddenly got up with an excited look in his eyes.
"That's it!" He exclaimed with enthusiasm.
"Wait, what's it?"
"You say those guys only show up if the humans see a magical being, right? Well, I'm a magical being! I could go out there and wreck some havoc in front of them to get noticed, maybe appear in one of those flat crystal balls, then they would appear to take me, that's when we capture them and ask them where are they holding the captain"
Hunter's eyes widened.
"Whoa, whoa, there buddy, let's not rush things" His friend looked so determined that he was afraid he was going to charge outside it right now "First of all, how do you plan to capture them? They beat us the last time we fought, remember? And this time there's only two of us"
"But we have to try!" Wrath roared "We are members of the emperor's coven, we do not abandon our own!"
Hunter wanted to retort that, if she were in his position, she would abandon him in a heartbeat, but he couldn't. He needed to find a way to reason with Wrath.
"Wrath, listen to me. It's pretty late and you are tired, so why don't you sleep and rest for the day? I'm sure you'll feel much better in the morning. In fact, I promise I'll stay and help you plan a rescue for abigail" He tried to put his nicest voice onto this.
He stood silent, after some seconds he sighed and lowered his head.
"I-I guess you are right, I can stay here right?"
"Of course! Let me show you the place where you can sleep"
With that he accommodated his friend in a spare room he had and proceeded to go to sleep himself. He knew that they were going to resume this conversation in the morning and that Wrath wasn't going to relent, but he felt like that was a problem for future Hunter.
As he drifted to sleep he thought that maybe he could convince him to let go of Abigail, but that was for the morning tho, because he was really tired right now.
The next day
Hunter woke up when he felt a sharp sensation in his face, he tried to swat it off and go back to sleep but it kept insisting. Finally he opened his eyes and the first thing he saw were two red talons.
"B-Bird? What in the titan's name are you doing?" He got up and shooed the red cardinal away. Even though he was getting along with the palisman there were some days when the tiny animal was unbearable "I'm awake now, are you happy? And what are you doing here anyway? What if Wrath sees you?" It would be really awkward to explain to his fellow covenmate that he was roommates with a construct made out of wild magic.
But the bird kept chirping insistently and pointing towards his room's door. Hunter knew that it was stubborn enough to not quit it until he did whatever it wanted him to do. Resigning to his fate, he got out of bed, put on a robe, and walked towards where the palisman wanted him to go.
The rays of sun entering through the hallway window told him he had overslept, a rare occurrence for him, but a welcome one considering the lack of sleep he was getting these days. He advanced until he was in his living room and noticed something strange: The makeshift bade he had made out of covers and pillows for Wrath was unoccupied, the only thing there was the silhouette where the demon had slept.
"Wrath? Are you here buddy?" He was starting to get worried.
The bird pointed at his kitchen's door so he went there, but instead of finding Wrath he found a ransacked place: Bags torn open and trash over the floor, the clear sign that someone had been looking for something. On top of the shelf there was a piece of paper with words on it, a note with the warden's recognizable poor calligraphy.
Hunter
I'm sorry for this, I really am, but I cannot abandon her.
I know you have good intentions and priorities, so I don't hold anything against you. You and the captain were never on the best of terms so it doesn't surprise me that you wouldn't want to rescue her and it's ok, I'm not mad about it.
I'm going to make a disaster in town, big enough for those guys on suits to notice. Once they come I'm going to rescue Abigail and we'll meet you back here.
Wish me luck, Wrath.
P.S. Sorry about the mess, I had to grab some magic items you had hidden.
Hunter tripped while he left the kitchen and went to grab his clothes in a hurry. He was so troubled that he put his pants backwards and didn't notice until the palisman pointed it. With adrenaline pumping in his veins, he left his home mounted on his red friend.
"What have I done?"
I drew some of the magical items that appeared here and since doesn't allow me to put anything in the chapter here you go: /a/3fI72VC
With Willow's boots I imagine they work like the kicking parts of earthbending, you know, slamming to the ground to pull up a rock and then kicking it towards the opponent. Also, someone please tell me they know the pokemons I described.
What did you think of the art? I believe that I can make it a recurrent thing, but I'll only draw landscapes and objects because I'm shite at drawing ppl.