The magical energy emerged from Hunter's staff and condensed at its tip, forming what looked like a vortex of blood-colored flames and emitting strong vibrations that moved the air, creating small shock waves. Amity, Boscha, Edric, Emira and Skara suddenly felt an immense pressure on them, as if a boulder weighing tens of kilograms had appeared on their heads, and they fell to the ground on their knees; Luz, whose legs were made of solid wood, managed to withstand the pressure and stay upright, but it still felt like she would break at any moment. In her hand Willow smeared on her palm, not having the strength to stand, and Gus fell from Hunter's cloak and remained stuck to the floor of the boat unable to lift even a hair. Hunter pointed the red vortex at Otabin and then he whispered: "Disappear"

The vortex exploded and what seemed like a torrent of fire and flames hit the fisherman head-on, who didn't even have time to scream before he was reduced to ashes. When Hunter finally ended the spell, the part of the boat that was in front of him had been completely disintegrated, and a large wave had risen in the water.

For a long time there was total silence, as no one seemed to know what to say, and just after a long time Luz broke it: "W-Wow... Hunter... I didn't imagine you were so... destructive"

"I told you that my staff contains enough magical energy to wipe out this neighborhood, didn't I?" Hunter reminded her.

"Yes, but..." Luz didn't know what to say. It was one thing to hear certain things said, it was another thing to see them live. It suddenly became clear to her why Hunter was so confident that he could take down a greater basilisk by himself: if he had used such power against Vee's aunt instead of limiting himself as they requested, he would probably have wiped out her and her entire palace in an instant. Or perhaps he still didn't have such power at the time? Hunter had said at the time that the staff had almost run out of magic, so he must have recharged it somewhere... could he be stronger now? And above all, where had he drawn from to obtain such power? What was his source? Or... who was? The questions she had towards that boy became more and more.

Hunter grabbed Gus from the floor and then walked over to Willow, who jumped into his hand. "Sorry, guys" he told them mortified; evidently he hadn't noticed how his actions had affected other people, and especially the two arthropods, and now that he had finally realized it he was very sorry. "I wanted to make sure that fisherman stayed dead this time. Are you okay?"

"Ugh... yeah, but warn us next time" Willow murmured feeling pain all over her body.

Seeing that scene Edric and Emira raised an eyebrow. "Hunter, are you friends with a cricket and a spider?" the girl asked.

"Um... actually..." Luz was about to explain that Willow and Gus were actually her friends, but she didn't have time: suddenly the missing part of the boat completely reformed, growing as if it were a flower with an extremely fast life cycle, and on it Otabin appeared again and let out an angry cry: "Now you have made me angry, you fish that shoots strange rays!"

"What!? Are you kidding me!? I literally sublimated that guy!" Hunter exclaimed.

"It's useless! He's like the nets, he reforms endlessly!" Amity exclaimed. "We have to close the book! It's the only way to make him disappear!"

Hunter seemed to consider what she had just said. "So… no matter how much I hit him, he will always reform?" He paused, and a strangely satisfied grin appeared on his face. "Interesting... that means I can vent some frustration. Go ahead and close the book, I'll take care of keeping this dude at bay"

"Um… why do you seem strangely happy at the prospect?" Luz asked, but she didn't have time to finish her sentence before Hunter grabbed her by the collar and lifted her into the air. "Hey, what are you doing!?"

"Didn't you hear what your friend said? We need to close the book. I'll keep Otabin busy, you guys can sort out this mess. And since you can float, you're the fastest swimmer here... and I can give you a little head start" Hunter replied, and he looked like he was barely keeping himself from laughing. "Amd if you really want to know, I've wanted to do this since we met"

"Wait, wait... let's talk about it!" Luz screamed, but Hunter didn't listen to her and after spinning around a couple of times he threw her away as hard as he could in the direction of the book. "Not again! Why everyone end up doing this!?" Luz screamed as she spun through the air, an instant before falling into the water and then emerging spitting and coughing. But even though she wanted to shout several insults at the blond boy, she bit her tongue and started swimming as fast as she could.

Otabin approached Hunter threateningly, brandishing a large fishing net. "You're strong, you ray-shooting fish! You'll be my best catch!" and having said this he threw the net at the boy, who however only had to move his staff to tear it into pieces. Otabin threw another, and then another, but Hunter continued to repel the attacks with no problem. When the fisherman finally seemed to start to tire, Hunter spoke up: "You know, it's strange. Normally I tend to end my fights as quickly as possible, but with you I think I'll take it easy. After all, you can't die anyway, so it's not worth me wasting a lot of magic on you. Rather... I think I'll have fun!"

As Hunter's staff moved, five blood-red beams emerged from it and struck Otabin in the eyes, ears, and nose, leaving smoldering burns in their place; the fisherman put his hands to his face in pain, but Hunter took the opportunity to jump on him and hit him in the stomach, making him fall to the ground. The scene was repeated several times, with Otabin vainly attempting an attack and Hunter promptly beating him brutally; he didn't know why, but unlike any other fight he'd had, he was actually enjoying it at that moment. It was as if he had a lot of anger in his heart and that something had brought it out, and now he was pouring it out on the fisherman; strangely, it had all started when he saw him hit Willow...

But he had underestimated Otabin: the fisherman was slow and stupid, but apparently capable of implementing new strategies. He again pretended to throw a net at him, but in reality he had hidden a piece of rope in his trousers; and when Hunter promptly cut the net, sent him to the ground, and jumped on him to beat him, the fisherman took out the piece of rope and, moving it like a whip, wrapped it around his body. Normally Hunter would have been able to break the bindings very easily, but this time they were magical and so he had some trouble doing so. "Flapjack, carry me away!" he said in a loud voice, and hearing his master's command the Palisman flew into his hand and changed back into a wand, and Hunter changed into a beam of light that passed through the rope and rose out of it again free.

But Otabin had used that brief moment to move away: he too had noticed that Luz was heading towards the magic book in the center of the lake, and even if his limited mind couldn't understand why he felt the instinct of having to stop her. So he got out of the boat and jumped from one shelf to another faster than a running man, moving like a chimpanzee, and aimed at the puppet which was now very close to the book. "LUZ!" Amity screamed in warning, and the puppet barely had time to turn before Otabin's hand grabbed her and pulled her out of the water.

Hunter jumped onto his staff and immediately flew towards them, intending to ram Otabin, but the fisherman used Luz as a shield, forcing the boy to stop. "Ha ha! Well done, ray-shooting fish! You don't want this puppet fish to get hurt, do you?" Otabin laughed at Hunter's conflicted expression. "Throw your staff into the water!"

Hunter was hesitant for a moment, then he landed on a shelf and there he complied with the fisherman's request and threw away his staff, which disappeared among the waves. "Ha ha! Very good, and now you are mine!" Otabin exclaimed rushing towards him, sure of having an easy victory, but Flapjack flew into Hunter's hand and so the boy transformed into a beam of light and escaped the fisherman's grasp again, who let out a furious cry of rage. "You can't run forever! And then I..."

"AAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

Amity appeared behind the fisherman letting out a scream and dragging a large beam, which she used like a club, throwing it against Otabin's face with all the strength she had; he staggered and he finally let go of Luz, who fell into the water with a splash. "Anf! Thanks, Amity!" she exclaimed.

"Don't thank me! Think about swimming!" the mint-haired girl shouted at her, and Luz didn't have to be told twice and aiming at the book again she moved her arms as fast as she could.

Otabin roared in anger and started running at Amity, but he hadn't gone a meter before two of his nets wrapped around his wrists; she turned and saw that Edric and Emira were holding them tightly and with their free hand they were holding on to some shelves similar to how Luz and Amity had done earlier. The fisherman found himself immobilized and Hunter took the opportunity to hit him on the belly again. "Luz, hurry! I don't know how long my siblings will last! Swim and get that book!" Amity yelled at the puppet again.

Luz accelerated even more despite now being almost out of breath and swam with all her strength towards the book, but hearing the sounds behind her she could imagine that Otabin was quickly freeing himself; and then she also heard Boscha's annoyed voice when she exclaimed: "You're too slow! Get ready for a boost!" and a thud rang out behind her. Luz turned just in time to see that Boscha and Skara had just thrown something heavy into the water which had generated a wave, and this wave hit her who, thanks to the fact that she was made of wood and floated, was pushed straight towards the book; a couple of strokes from her allowed her to definitively close the distance and she finally managed to grab that magic object.

She immediately tried to close it; but she discovered that the cover was as hard as a block of slush; using all the strength she could muster she managed to make it move very slowly and as she closed it the water around her began to be sucked into the pages. Otabin made a cry of despair and his body turned to dust, and so did his boat, and then they both flew into the book. Piece by piece, drop by drop, the entire lake was sucked into the pages; when Luz finally managed to close the book there was nothing left. The only sign of the lake's previous presence was the mess in which the forbidden department now found itself, but not even a drop of water remained, not even on the furniture and books, which in fact had returned immaculate despite having been submerged to a few seconds before. "Yay! It's done!" Luz exclaimed exultantly, but she realized that it wasn't over yet: the book in her hands in fact seemed to be struggling to be opened again. "Damn… How do I stop this thing…?"

"You need this" a voice said, and a pale hand appeared from behind her, holding the belt that had previously held the book closed.

"Ugh! Thanks!" Luz exclaimed as she grabbed it and wrapped it around the book, and when she finally closed it she no longer felt any pressure and the book became as lifeless as before. "Now we can say that it's really over! We were...". She froze when she turned and found two golden eyes staring at her sternly. "Uh... hi, Eda"


IMPORTANT: I take advantage of the situation to make an announcement; today the first chapter of a new novel will be published on Archive of Our Own, entitled "A Christmas Carol - an Owl House version". The story will be published at 9:30 pm in Rome (3:30 pm New York - 12:30 am Los Angeles). If you like strange Christmas themed stories... don't miss it! Ok, now back to the general explanations.

In the original book the Green Fisherman is not defeated or eliminated (like practically all the enemies in the story), simply after Alidoro saves Pinocchio he takes him away, and he and the dog part ways on friendly terms. In this AU, given that the Green Fisherman (Otabin) was not a real person but a magical creature, defeating him was a duty and therefore the protagonists had to work hard to beat him. The fact that it was necessary to close the book to cancel the spell is a reference to episode 7 of the first season, where it was necessary to close the books to make the effect of the Wailing Star disappear. Other references present in the chapter are the twins holding back the monster (as they did in episode 12 against the Slitherbeast) and Amity hitting Otabin from behind (as she always does in episode 7). Oh, and of course, some of their dialogue is also taken from the series: when Amity gets angry at Luz accusing her of being a bad girl she uses similar words to what she said to her in episode 7 when accusing her of being a bully, and when the two "reconcile" after throwing Otabin into the water they have a dialogue similar to that which occurred before the Grom ("Are you getting soft on me, Blight?" "Eh eh! In your dreams")

Just to clarify: Hunter didn't have all that power when he fought the greater basilisk, his "dear" uncle gave it to him later. And the reason he didn't use it against Viney and the pirates is that, as we've seen, his power, if unleashed, has side effects on other people too, and since he can't risk hurting or killing Luz, he preferred to avoid to go wild... not to mention that if he had hit the puppet even just by mistake he would have disintegrated it, and Hunter knows well that in that case "someone" would have then disintegrated him. The reason why in this chapter he instead lashed out without hesitation was because he was pretty pissed off and wasn't thinking well... and the fact that he reacted like this after Otabin hit Willow is purely coincidental.