"Do you want to be a martyr? Whatever you want, I'll satisfy you right away!" the greater basilisk roared with her mouth wide open, and what looked like blue flames formed from inside and rushed into her throat. She was clearly ready to absorb Hunter's life energy, but before she could do so he suddenly moved and slipped under her belly, hitting her under the throat with the staff. The greater basilisk's breath stopped instantly, but Hunter gave her no respite and struck her in several other places under the jaw with incredible speed, so much that she couldn't react in time. When he was done he jumped back out of reach of her claws; the greater basilisk tried to take advantage of this to absorb his energy, but she realized with dismay that she could no longer open het mouth completely. "What… what did you do?" she slurred with great difficulty.
"I simply partially blocked your facial nerves. Your niece was kind enough to explain to me in detail where the nerves of basilisks are located, since unfortunately they are arranged differently from those of humans. Without her help I wouldn't have known about this" Hunter answered. "And she also explained to me that to use your absorbing power you need to open your jaws wide open, which in your current state you can't do. That's why I blocked your jaw. Now you no longer can use your most lethal weapon"
"She told you...!?" the greater basilisk hissed angrily. "That wretched... filthy... traitor of her own blood...!"
"I wouldn't talk about her like that if I were you. Your niece is the only reason you're still alive" Hunter warned her. "She asked me not to kill you. If it were just for me, I wouldn't have blocked your facial nerves, I would have directly cut your main artery, and you would already be dead by now"
"Shut up! I'll deal with that pathetic excuse of a niece I was unfortunate enough to have later!" the greater basilisk growled. "Don't think this is the end! I can't drain you, but I'm still stronger than you!"
"Vainglory. Typical of fools" Hunter commented scornfully. "Don't think you scare me. The creature I usually train with is a monster infinitely scarier than you. You're just an overgrown snake that has deluded herself into thinking she's a large predator. You're a snake, but I'm a hawk!"
"Prove it then!" the greater basilisk said, lunging at him, waving her immense claws. Hunter skillfully dodged his opponent's blows, but some of them managed to land, forcing him to use some magical protection to defend himself.
Meanwhile the crowd had dispersed; members of the resistance, led by Masha, were trying to contain the panic and were taking people to safety. Even though each of them had always had dreams of glory at least once in their lives, no one was willing to interfere; even Masha was aware that the fierce battle between Hunter and the greater basilisk was something beyond their reach. The two of them were on a completely different level than ordinary humans, and any outside intervention would have been counterproductive, if not downright harmful. Luz, Vee, Willow and Gus were still on the roof, watching the fight with unbelievable attention. Vee was visibly shaking and had her hands clasped in nervousness, while Luz, Willow and Gus were watching everything with their mouths wide open. "W-Wow..." the puppet murmured. "When you told me about your aunt, I didn't expect her to be so... terrifying"
"I told you she was a greater basilisk" Vee replied.
"Yes, but I thought she was just a slightly bigger and less cute version of you! Not... this!" Luz replied as she watched the huge snake monster move across the ground with unnatural speed trying to hit Hunter. "Damn... I hope that damn blonde guy knows what he's doing, because otherwise we're in trouble! We'd never be able to beat that thing!"
"Don't worry, Luz: look, Hunter is doing very well" Willow said pointing to the battle, where actually, despite still being on the defensive, Hunter had not yet suffered any injuries, unlike the greater basilisk who already had numerous cuts on her skin. The only result that the monster had managed to achieve was to make him drop his hood slightly, revealing his blond hair, but otherwise she didn't do anything to him; she hadn't even managed to take off his golden mask. Luz noticed that Willow seemed to be looking at Hunter with some concern, as if she feared he would get hurt, but she also had a strange light in her eyes, as if she totally trusted the boy's abilities.
Suddenly, Hunter jumped; the magical energy of his staff enveloped him making him extremely fast and he reached the greater basilisk's chest, hitting her on the sternum. For a split second, the greater basilisk felt her heart stop; luckily for her Hunter had held back, or he would have paralyzed her aorta. The greater basilisk rolled backwards and fell to the ground in a very undignified manner, desperately gasping for air as she felt her heart finally start beating again. "Don't move" Hunter warned as he raised his staff against her. "Surrender now. This is not an advice"
"Cough... don't you have the courage to kill me with your own hands!?" the greater basilisk hissed, trying in vain to get up, but her joints were so sore from the previous brief lack of blood movement that her strength left her and she fell onto her stomach again.
"If I wanted to kill you, I would have already done it in at least ten different ways since the beginning of this fight. You are not as strong as you think. You just have a great power, but you don't know how to use it. If you had spent your time training instead pretending to be the master of a town, maybe you would have had half a chance of beating me" Hunter replied. "Yesterday I must have been under some confusing spell, because for reasons unknown to me I ended up promising your niece that I wouldn't kill you. However, I never said anything about beating you until you faint. So now the choice is yours, you can give up now or let me beat you for the next hour and still lose in the end"
"Aunt, that's enough!" Vee exclaimed leaning slightly from the roof where she was standing. "You see for yourself, you can't win. It's time to stop this madness!"
"You… dare to call me aunt?" the greater basilisk raised herself on her front legs and with them dragged herself towards the house above which Vee was standing. "What do you think, you've found new friends? You? Pathetic! Now the whole town knows who you are! Have you not understand anything about people, even after all these years!? You dug your own grave with your own hands! You're unworthy of calling yourself a basilisk, just like my idiot brother and his filthy wife were unworthy! I was convinced that at least you had some brains... that you might have some use... if I had known that you would end up dooming us both, I would have abandoned you in a ditch long ago! So don't you dare call me aunt!"
Vee wanted to say that the greater basilisk's words meant anything to her, but that would have been a complete lie. Every single syllable her aunt spoke was like a dagger in her heart. Those words were so full of resentment and hatred, and she felt the full weight of them.
But suddenly Luz stepped in front of her. "Don't talk to Vee like that!" she screamed. "She didn't betray you and she didn't condemn anyone! She made a choice! It was you the one who betrayed her! You never loved her!"
"And who are you to talk to me like that?" the greater basilisk asked, then she burst out laughing; a maniacal and hissing laugh, which however caused her a lot of physical pain due to the blow she received to the heart shortly before. "Are you perhaps the one who deluded my niece that she had found a friend? Ridiculous! Do you really want to tell me that you don't feel repulsion when you look at her? That those fins don't disgust you? That all you want to do is send her as far away from you as possible!?"
"No, no and absolutely no! The only thing I feel towards Vee is affection! Because she is adorable, kind, funny and selfless, and for your information, she is also my sister!" Luz responded angrily. "The one who doesn't understand anything about people is just you! Have you ever tried to look at other creatures in a different way than just food? Have you ever had even just one friend in your life? Have you ever tried to converse, get to know, relate to others? Vee did it and now she has me by her side, and I'm not the only one!"
"Really!? Sister!? You're going to make me die for laughing, you wooden girl! In what kind of fantasy world do you think you live in?" the greater basilisk laughed even louder, coughing slightly; the blow she had received to her heart was showing obvious effects now that she was overstimulating her lungs. "Will you stay by her side, you say? Are you aware that you will probably have this whole town against you? Will you stay with her even when she will be surrounded by an angry mob holding torches and pitchforks!?"
Maybe she thought she could scare her that way, but Luz didn't hesitate for even a moment to answer: "YES! I'll stay here and get burned for her if necessary! I almost did it once already and for a person that was actually an asshole, I'm not scared of doing it again for Vee! I may be the most lazy, arrogant and rudest girl in this world as everyone keeps telling me, but at least unlike you I know the meaning of the word 'family'!"
Vee's heart sank as she heard Luz say those things. She knew that the puppet couldn't lie without her nose growing, at least from what she had told her, and so she knew that in that moment Luz was telling just the truth. She had never imagined that there could really be someone in the world ready to face any danger with her...
But the greater basilisk's even louder laughter brought her out of her thoughts. "Ha ha! Well done, dear niece, you have found a sister who is as stupid as you are!" she said. "Fine! Go ahead! Fight the world alone, believe that people won't turn against you! That you can live as a person despite what you are! Just like your pathetic parents believed, and then all it took was draining a few people to hang them on a pike!"
Vee froze in place. "What… what did you just say?"
"Ha ha! Your parents, just like you, were a hindrance to my greatness! They kept holding me back, and claimed that we needed to put the past behind us and that we could live in harmony with humans if only we really tried! They were in insult to our species! I gave them exactly what they deserved!" the greater basilisk said, laughing heartily. "Why do you think we stopped for months in the vicinity of that specific town? Your parents wanted to settle there! Not disguised as humans, but as basilisks! They wanted to give you the chance to be yourself, to have a real life! They stupidly believed that coexistence was possible! And so they spent months getting to know the inhabitants of that town, and when finally everyone knew that they were good people, they revealed themselves to them! And they claimed that they were being accepted, as if this were possible! The basilisks and their food that coexist, it seems like a joke, no, it's actually one! I had to put things back in their place! All I had to do was go around for a couple of nights and drain everyone in sight! The citizens didn't even investigate, they didn't even ask if the culprit was only one of them or both! They simply took your parents and hang them, finally showing their true nature! For this is the fate of basilisks! This is the nature of life on this world, the strong prey on the weak! Anyone who thinks that for us, apex predators, there is something different than kill, consume and conquer is just deluding themselves!"
"YOU... YOU BASTARD!" Vee screamed with tears in her eyes, and she jumped off the roof. "No!" Hunter and Luz screamed in unison, but it was too late: as soon as she was close enough, every hint of weakness abandoned the greater basilisk and she stood up, grabbing her niece with her muscular front paws; Vee thrashed wildly and tried to strike her, but the disproportion of strength was too great. "Now I will do what I should have done many years ago! Come on, my dear niece, let me give you the kiss of death!"
"Don't you dare!" Luz exclaimed as she jumped off the roof as well and landed with her feet on the greater basilisk's face, but although she made a sound of pain and irritation, her grip on Vee remained iron and in fact she began to squeeze her neck violently, clearly trying to to suffocate her. Luz threw the most powerful punch she could at the monster, but obviously it was enough for her to push her shoulder to send tge puppet flying away.
Suddenly there was a red light and Hunter appeared between Vee and the greater basilisk, this time with the intent to actually sever her aorta, but she gave an evil smile and threw her niece away and then grabbed the blond guy's staff. "Damn! Was that a trick!?" he exclaimed.
"Of course, you idiot! Do you think I would waste energy on that pathetic niece of mine while I'm in the middle of a fight with you?" the greater basilisk responded by snatching the staff from Hunter's hands, then she put it in her mouth. The red orb on the staff glowed with light, and the magic within it quickly began to be absorbed by the monster. Hunter jumped and kicked the staff, throwing it away from her opponent's mouth, but when he picked it up he realized that it had almost been stripped of all its magic. "Too late, ha ha!" the greater basilisk exclaimed, and then she channeled the absorbed magic towards the facial nerves and nullified the paralysis caused by his previous attack. Finally she could move her jaws freely again, and she looked at Hunter with a look of triumph as she licked her lips.
Hunter gritted his teeth. He had been stupid: he must have imagined that his opponent was aiming to trick him! He shouldn't have rushed to save Vee without having a plan first, he had acted recklessly. And now his most powerful weapon was almost useless. Sure, he still had his physical strength and numerous daggers hidden under his clothes, but he doubted they would be enough to stop a greater basilisk. Maybe the best choice was to use the little magic he had left to escape... but that would have meant abandoning Luz, Vee, Masha and the whole town to their fate... but why should he care, after all? Indeed, why was he having such thoughts? Until a few days ago he wouldn't have hesitated to leave, or better he wouldn't have hesitated to let Vee die instead of saving her with a foolish attack, or even better he wouldn't even have hesitated to kill the greater basilisk from the beginning...
"Prepare to die!" his opponent roared, and finally free to open her jaws again, she began to generate a powerful wave of death magic inside them; she didn't even try to absorb Hunter's life force, but instead hurled a barrage of bluish flames at him; just touching them would have led to instant death. That little blond boy had caused her too many problems, she didn't want to have him around for a moment longer. But a fraction of a second before the flames reached Hunter, Flapjack placed himself between the two and transformed: a long stick emerged from his paws and he placed himself in the boy's palm, and a powerful magical energy flowed from inside him. Before Hunter knew it, his entire body seemed to dissolve, or rather, it remained intact but was transformed into pure energy traveling at the speed of light; when he materialized again, he realized that in a millisecond he had been transported to the other side of the square, in the direction directly opposite that of the flames. "Wow… and who knew you could do this?" he murmured, looking at the Palisman in his hand.
He had no time to be surprised: the greater basilisk immediately loaded another shot and spat flames towards him again. Hunter acted on instinct and twirled Flapjack to create a whirlpool that blocked the fire's advance, but clearly the basilisks' magical fire mustn't be affected by the physical laws of normal fire because it continued its path towards him; but when it hit Flapjack, both the Palisman and the air around him lit up with a yellow light, and the fire instantly dissipated, as if someone had thrown water on it.
Hunter looked amazed at Flapjack. "Mh. You're made of life magic, and life magic is strong against death magic... which means you can potentially nullify any attack from that basilisk!" he exclaimed. It was excellent news, but he didn't make the mistake of letting himself be overcome by joy: he knew well that the victory was far from given. He had no idea how to handle Flapjack, and although he could nullify his opponent's attacks, he couldn't win without hitting the enemy, who still had the physical advantage. He had to be very careful and calculate his moves well if he wanted to get the better of her. "It would be easier if you could talk to me and tell me how to use your powers... but I suppose that you can't do that while you're in this state" he said looking at Flapjack, who remained totally inanimate.
The greater basilisk was livid. "Grrr! You really don't want to get killed easily, huh? Cough!"
She let out a cough. Even though the blow that Hunter had given her to the heart had not been intentionally fatal, her constant laughing and fidgeting combined with the impact she had suffered was creating quite a bit of pain in her chest. But despite that she didn't even think for an instant about stopping. "I swear I'll turn you inside out... ARGH!"
An arrow had just lodged in her right eye, causing a cascade of blood; the greater basilisk let out a roar of pain and anger and looked in the direction it had come from, and saw Masha on a roof holding a long bow. "I came to see if you need a hand, and I was right apparently" they yelled at Hunter. "I'll provide support from above. You take that thing down!"
Normally Hunter would have replied that he worked alone and he didn't take help from anyone, but at that moment he knew he couldn't be picky. "Understood" he said, and he charged at the greater basilisk, holding Flapjack in his hands.
In The Owl House canon, the greater basilisk that attacks the Hexside only possessed the power to absorb magical energy; in this AU she has a greater variety of possibilities, as she is not only limited to absorb magical energy but also to life energy, and can use this absorbed energy to speed up the healing process of her wounds (which is actually something that really works in the real world, due to cellular multiplication which is faster depending on how much energy it receives; if someone were able to perfectly control how to channel energy into their body and had enough energy to still maintain their brain, heart and others internal organs functioning, he could even regrow a limb in a few moments) or she can use it to create jets of magical fire that annihilates anything it touches. As for Hunter, as I had already specified in this version he is a real elite soldier (and a badass), and in fact he doesn't rely exclusively on his staff but uses other fighting techniques, including acupressure (with which he blocks certain parts of the opponent's body), and he also knows perfectly which point to hit to obtain the greatest impact, and he also is able to dose his strength to obtain the desired result (in fact he doesn't kill the greater basilisk despite the fact that that he could paralyze her heart). Obviously he still relies heavily on his staff, but keep in mind that he's still facing a creature with magic and larger than an anaconda, so asking him to fight her without using a magical weapon would be like asking one of you to fight against a tiger without firearms. Finally, Flapjack has also received some upgrades: while in the canon series we almost always only see him have the power to move his owner at the speed of light, here he is also able to nullify the attacks of the greater basilisk, since he is still a being able to use life magic, which is powerful against death magic (for further specifications, go and reread the chapter where I explained how they work, or ask in the comments)