Hunter quickly assessed the situation from the top of the pole where he stood; from there he could clearly see his friends walking away. This was great: all he had to do now was buy some time and then leave... no, that wasn't enough: as long as those fanatics had the djinn's lamp or kept Raine under hypnosis, then they would always be a problem. He had to be able to eliminate them permanently... yes, but how? He couldn't cause another explosion, not with his friends so close or with Raine defenseless: even if he didn't know the bard, he was pretty sure that Luz and Eda would be sorry if they got hurt. Furthermore, he couldn't waste the magical energy of his staff like that: he had already used half of it, and if he used the other half his uncle would be furious. He couldn't take such risks. Which led him to a single solution: make his way through the fanatics until he at least manages to recover the magic lamp, and then take Raine and escape.

First he had to get out of an elevated position: the Titan Trappers were already starting to target him with arrows, and he was currently bare-chested. So he threw himself down from the pole and landed hard on some fanatics, knocking them out with a single movement of his stirrup, and then threw himself on the others; whenever he started to get too surrounded, he used Flapjack to transport himself to a safer spot. Every time he moved the staff, at least three Titan Trappers fell to the ground; however, even though the enemies were taking most of the hits, they were still returning many of them. Soon Hunter found himself bleeding in many places from the stabs that the fanatics' daggers and swords inflicted on him; even though they were just superficial cuts and wounds, they were still painful. He tried to get close to Bill to take the lamp from him, but the leader of the Titan Trappers kept himself safe surrounded in every direction by at least twenty of his followers. "Come on, take him! Make the heretic suffer!" Bill shouted, holding the magic lamp tightly in his hands, so that if Hunter wanted to hit him he would have to destroy it first, resulting in Darius being killed, which the boy didn't want.

But as Hunter was considering a frontal attack combining the power of his staff with Flapjack's speed, a roar rang out in the camp and a sound wave swept away some Titan Trappers, and soon after a black beast appeared at his side; Hunter was dumbfounded for a moment and almost hit him to defend himself, but then the creature spoke to him in King's voice: "Don't worry, friend. Luz will come to help us, we just have to resist!"

"King? Is that you?" Hunter asked in amazement. "Okay… this is unexpected"

King swung his claws in fury, swiping away the Titan Trappers before them. "I am still a mighty Titan, albeit a young one. This is no time to talk; when you fight, you fight! No talking! Fight and don't worry, I've got your back!"

Hunter and King exchanged a knowing look, then the boy nodded and began to fight even more ferociously than before, no longer worrying about checking that no one was attacking him from behind; the young Titan on the other hand did the same, only in the opposite direction. Back to back, the two fought together, blocking the Titan Trappers' attacks and sending many of them unconscious to the ground. Both were panting from the effort, but neither had lost even a little of the determination in their eyes. Bill was furious. "Snarl! Well, if that's what you want... djinn, take care of it! Sweep that heretic away with all your might!" he ordered, and despite himself Darius moved towards them as his hands transformed into swords.

Seeing him coming against them, Hunter narrowed his eyes. "King... you think about keeping the Titan Trappers away. Leave the djinn to me; against my staff he will be weak!"

"Okay. But remember not to kill him" King warned him. "Luz would feel bad otherwise"

"Don't worry. I don't want to get blood on my hands tonight" Hunter replied, and then he and Darius lunged at each other. The djinn moved his arm like a sword and Hunter did the same with his staff; when the two weapons collided, they made a loud clang and the air trembled. Hunter's staff, as expected, repelled Darius' sword, but in addition to doing this to the boy's surprise it also tore away part of the strange liquid of which he was composed, which fell on some Titan Trappers, blinding them and allowing King to strike them more easily. Darius then transformed his hand into a giant hammer and brought it down on Hunter, and he blocked it again with his staff; when this happened, more liquid was thrown in all directions, and again hindered the Titan Trappers. Hunter noticed that the liquid strangely did not follow physical laws, but seemed to choose a target and hit it in such a pattern that it seemed to have happened randomly; he looked up and met the satisfied and amused gaze of the djinn, who winked at him.

The scene was repeated three more times, then Bill got impatient: "Stupid djinn, you have to hit him, not us!"

"I beg your pardon, my master" Darius apologized, albeit in a strangely mocking voice. "But these are consequences of our battle. You ordered me to fight with all my strength to kill this boy, and so I am doing; but unfortunately such a violent clash between my magic and his inevitably creates residues. I am not doing of my own will"

"Grrr..." Bill was clearly irritated. "All right! Tarak, come here and take the lamp: make a wish for that boy to die!"

"It would be useless!" Darius exclaimed, and then he quickly made an excuse: "Because the boy protects himself with a shield of dark magic; until I penetrate him, I cannot kill him even if it is a wish expressed with the lamp!"

Luckily Bill believed that lie. "Sgrunt! I get it, then break that shield! And don't hold back!"

Darius didn't wait anything else and hit Hunter again, who parried the blow for the umpteenth time. "You're good at acting" Hunter whispered to him.

Darius grinned. "I had to learn. When you risk having a psychopathic master who orders you to carry out the worst atrocities, it is advisable to know how to deceive him" he replied. "He ordered me to fight you with all my strength, and that's what I'm doing. It's not my fault that I'm too slow and can't break through your defenses... or that some of my fluid hinders these fanatics as it squirts away"

"In this case, it would be appropriate for me to hit you harder. Who knows, this might throw off even more of your juices" Hunter said with a knowing smirk.

Darius blinked. "Getting right to the point, huh? I like you, boy. Come on, face me with all your might! Whatever side effects this causes, it won't be our problem"

And having said that, both Hunter and Darius continued to hit each other with more and more force, generating not only purple liquid but actual shock waves... which no one noticed were caused not by the clash of their weapons but by the djinn himself, the which modified the liquid that his arm was made of so that it captured the surrounding air and then released it explosively. King in turn didn't hesitate to exploit every opportunity, or at least the ones he could notice, to take down other Titan Trappers. However, soon even the magic that Eda and Lilith had lent him began to run out; although he was paying attention, mindful of his previous experience, he soon found himself in serious difficulty and his body began to shrink. "Heh heh! Well, they're finally starting to weaken!" Bill exclaimed. "Now we just have to… UH!?"

Out of nowhere, several nets were launched at the Titan Trappers, so quickly that no one could notice them; dozens of them fell to the ground the instant they were grazed by those nets. Bill made a strangled noise as he even saw several of his guard being imprisoned. King, Hunter, and Darius were very confused, but then a familiar buzz reached Hunter's ears. "Don't worry!" Willow whispered in his ear. "We'll take care of thinning out the enemy ranks a bit. You just continue to play great warriors!"

Hunter and Darius didn't hesitate to obey her and continued to fight and generate 'absolutely unwanted side effects' with even more force; evidently their friends had a plan, so it was best to follow it. Shortly after Owlbert and Mike Socks came down from the sky and like very fast arrows they shot towards the heads of the Titan Trappers, while Ghost and Echo ran on the ground and nibbled their legs; as soon as the fanatics were distracted, other nets emerged from nowhere and trapped them. Bill ordered some Titan Trappers to go look for those responsible, sure that they didn't have much ammunition and there weren't too many of them, but they were all hit and knocked to the ground by a real barrage of nets. King didn't hesitate to take advantage of this to unleash all the power he had left to unleash the most powerful sound wave he could generate, sending almost all the fanatics upside down for a few moments, a moment which his friends exploited to trap them in the nets.

After that last attack, King permanently returned to his normal appearance; he didn't have any more magical energy left. He tried to escape, or at least move away from the fray, but Tarak stepped in front of him and raised a cutlass. "Don't even think of escaping us! The glory of your death will be ours!"

"Not so fast!". Without any warning, Eda ran out of the place where she was hiding and jumped on the heads of the few Titan Trappers still standing, helped by Owlbert and Mike who opened the way for her a little, and once she got close enough she kicked the Tarak shank. "If you want to get close to one of my boys, you have to deal with me!"

"Tsk... as if I'm afraid to face a fairy without magic...!" Tarak tried to respond, but Eda smashed her weapon into his head with enough force to crack his fake skull.

"I may be unable to use magic at the moment, but don't think you can bully my kids and get away with it!" Eda told him, even though she was visibly sweating and moving like that must have cost her a lot of effort.

Tarak gave a furious grunt. "Okay! Then I'll… URGH!" he exclaimed feeling a sting in his neck; he turned and saw a spider on his shoulder holding a vial.

"Oh, sorry, don't mind me" Gus told him with a smile. "It's just that Amity's dad was kind enough to lend me this vial of dried opium poppy sap, and I had to use it on someone. It's nothing personal"

"What are you..." Tarak tried to ask for an explanation, but the world around him suddenly became blurry and he felt so weak that he almost fell to his knees.

"I said it's dried opium poppy sap. Simply put, morphine" Gus explained. "Me, Willow, and Matt injected everyone here with some of it. It's lucky that Amity's dad is a scientist, and that he brought it with him from home!"

Tarak began to see the world spinning around him. "I don't feel very well..."

"I think you're about to feel even worse! Goodbye, motherfucker!" Eda screamed, and after leaping, she spun in the air and kicked him straight in the face. Tarak fell to the ground with at least three or four teeth missing, completely unconscious.

"Yay! Great job, Eda!" King cheered, raising his hands.

"Well, I couldn't let it hurt you" Eda said hugging him, then she added: "By the way... you should hold me. I've used up the last of my strength, I'm about to pass out". And with that she rolled directly onto the young Titan, who nearly got crushed by her.

Bill was turning purple. "No... no, no! Okay, now I'll fix you up... I already know how... HEY!" he shouted when suddenly Raine, who until then had remained motionless next to him, took advantage of his moment of distraction to grab the lamp and slip away among his guards; the other Titan Trappers tried to jump on them, but were immediately caught in the nets thrown by Luz and the others. As soon as they faltered, Raine moved quickly and threw a couple of punches at their faces, and despite not looking too strong they must have possessed considerable strength, because thry broke the nose of everyone of them and made them faint. "What are you doing, slave!?"

But Raine no longer looked at him with dull eyes, but rather very serious and self-assured ones. "Sorry, but I'm afraid I'm not your slave"

"What!? You broke free? How..." Bill's eyes widened. "The tears! That puppet convinced me to make you play that tune because he knew you would cry!"

"No, I didn't know... but I decided to hope so" Luz said coming out of her hiding place to give him a raspberry. "Terra had told me that her potion was in their body fluids, so I thought that by making Raine cry they would expel it, which they did... and although I didn't know if Raine would be able to be moved by their own music, I was sure that if they sang using the pain in their heart they would end up crying! So we created the diversion and freed Raine! Two birds with one stone!". The puppet raised his arm: "Raine, the lamp!"

Raine didn't have to repeat it: even if they had taken the lamp away from Bill, they were still among the enemies, so it was better to take it away from them immediately; so they threw it to Luz. The lamp rotated in the air, but a few meters before reaching the puppet a figure jumped out of nowhere with extreme agility and grabbed it; Luz couldn't see him for a moment, but then she realized that that person was Adrian. "YOU!" she growled angrily.

"Oh, come on, you've been waiting for this for who knows how long" Adrian told her. "Don't worry, Terra and I are not interested in your Titan friend; the loot we have obtained so far and the djinn's lamp are enough for us. We will know how to make good use of it!". And having said this he ran away with the agility of a cat and arrived outside the camp, where Terra was already waiting for him with a horse, and the two darted away as fast as the wind. Darius, attracted by the magic of the lamp, transformed into a mass of purple liquid and flew in their direction, only to re-enter the lamp as soon as he reached them.

"Those two damn...!" Luz screamed furiously. She was already about to run, when suddenly Amity appeared in front of her and grabbed her hand. "Luz, trust me, I'll take you!" she exclaimed, and Ghost jumped into her hands and transformed into a magical broom; the two climbed onto it and darted in pursuit, albeit with very little grace.

Hunter watched them go, and he seemed unsure what to do; but Raine yelled at him: "Go ahead and get Darius, we'll take care of it here!" and having said this they began to strike the few remaining Titan Trappers with their lute; Katya, Amber and Derwin emerged from their hiding place and did the same, and soon Lilith, Alador, Edric, Emira, Boscha and Skara also joined the fray, and Matt, Mike, Echo and Owlbert continued to target the few enemies still standing distracting them and allowing their friends to punch them in the nose.

Seeing that they didn't seem to need help, Hunter jumped into his staff and prepare to fly, and just then Willow landed on his shoulder carrying Gus in the process. "We're coming with you. We have a score to settle with those two assholes" they told him. Hunter nodded and darted off in pursuit.

Raine smiled, then they grabbed Bill as he stood up. "You have lost. Surrender" they told him.

But Bill on the contrary chuckled. "First rule of a hunter: always think of an alternative plan!" he said, and he took a little horn out of his tunic, and before Raine could stop him he blew into it; the sound boomed across the surrounding plain, and at least a dozen more Titan Trappers emerged from the woods and surrounded them. There were few of them, but they still outnumbered them and were well armed. "I had some of my followers hidden so that they could intervene in case of emergency" Bill said freeing himself from Raine's grip. "Now that no one who knows how to use magic is here anymore, or at least no one who is still able to use it..." and as he said this he looked at Eda, still unconscious on the ground, King, who was trying to wake her up, and Lilith, who was still standing but clearly fatigued. "... you can't do anything to stop me. I'll get you out of the way, then I'll take my followers and the young Titan away and we'll make the sacrifice somewhere else. Whether or not your friends succeed in capturing those two traitors, it doesn't matter: when they return, I will already be far away and you will be feeding the worms of his ground!"

Raine gritted their teeth, and so did everyone else; Alador instinctively stepped in front of Edric and Emira and grabbed a knife from one of the unconscious Titan Trappers, ready to defend them with his life even though he knew he wouldn't last long in a fight... but just then he felt a great heat in the chest. He checked and took out his pendant, and saw that the pink stone on it was glowing. As soon as he saw it he let out a small smile. Bill noticed him and raised an eyebrow. "What are you laughing at? Haven't you realized yet that you've lost? I have an army!"

"Yeah..." Alador looked at him with challenging eyes. "And we have a very angry witch"

"Huh? What are you talking about..." Bill tried to say, but he couldn't finish the sentence because what looked like a reptile's paw closed around his head and the claws penetrated with so much force that they split the fake skull and scratched his skin making him bleed.

The leader of the Titan Trappers shivered in fear. That scaled hand rotated slightly, forcing him to turn his head, and so he met the face of a woman with bright blue eyes, green hair waving in the air, and what looked like scales on her skin. "Uh... hello...?"

In response, the witch slammed him to the ground with so much violence that it was a pure miracle that he didn't die instantly, but fortunately he only fainted. At that point she turned to Alador, looking at him with murderous eyes: "Am I wrong or were you supposed to keep an eye on the kids tonight!?" she growled.

Alador tried to answer, but Emira's voice preceded him: "Yay, finally some real magical help! Come on, mother, smash these idiots in the face!"

Odalia looked at them, then she raised an eyebrow: "Where is your sister?"

Father, daughter and son broke out in a cold sweat. "Um… next question?" Edric tried to say.

Odalia clearly seethed in anger, but instead of turning her husband into a frog, she raised her hands towards the remaining Titan Trappers and uttered a curse; the last thing they saw were green sparks emerging from the palms of her hands and traveling towards them, then they fell to the ground electrocuted, but they didn't even have time to suffer their pain because some strange force seemed to expand inside them, and then their bodies seemed to explode.

Small announcement: today at 9:00 pm (3:00 pm New York) I will publish another Hazbin Hotel themed one shot. For all the fans who love this series like I do, go read it