Well, here we are. I won't lie, I'm really nervous. Like, to an almost stupid degree. To the point where just thinking about the reception to this arc has actually made me restless some nights. But, you know what? We're here now, and nothing's stopping me. This has been half a year in the making, and while my plans for this particular arc have changed slightly, the result is still the same.
Also, I remember someone mentioning how The Battle of Gravesfield is "The Shibuya Incident" for this story.
Remember that.
Anyway, enough cryptic shit from me, let's just get into this nonsense!
[Opening Song: SPECIALZ – By King Gnu]
*The scene opens with a disembodied voice singing "You are my special" as drums and the sound of a turn table synthesizer follow it. As that happens, it shows Luz, no longer dressed in a hero costume but rather in a black trenchcoat with various decals, a white shirt, a purple skirt held up by a black belt with a golden buckle, a pair of spotted cat-themed stockings that reach just below her knees, a pair of black shoes, and a black fedora, standing atop a building, looking over the town of Gravesfield, Connecticut. The disembodied voice once again says,"You are my special." Luz narrows her now crimson-red eyes, glaring down at the town with anger and nostalgia.*
*The drums pick up in volume and are joined by an electric guitar, while at the same time, the title, "The Owl House - All For Luz," appears, with the Japanese Kanji "フクロウの家 -すべてはルスのために！ " Underneath it, and in a smaller font. The large number 2 is still next to the title; however, instead of being the colour yellow, it is now a crimson red colour, as the final "You are my special" rings out.*
*As the opening begins in full, the scene cuts to Hunter sitting on a chair in a dark and empty room, a spotlight lampshading over him, his sword made of light plunged into the ground, his eyes narrowed, and his demeanour prepared for a battle, whilst dressed in his Golden Guard attire, minus the mask. The scene cuts to Millie Ravenclaw creating a small army of Abominations, and much like Hunter, her expression is one of determination, prepared for whatever battle was about to come as a disembodied voice sings*
"Come on, let's dance to the edge and tumble down again."
"The town stands tall, post up at the end."
*Mid verse, the scene shifts to Sophia coated in a massive amount of dark energy, like that of a blackened flame, her eyes filled with both bloodlust and anticipation, whilst Jonah slowly fades into existence behind her out of a purple cloud, looming over her, arms crossed, no longer wearing the gas mask with a large smirk on his face, as Charlie sits on his shoulders, arms resting on his head as the disembodied voice continues.*
"Let's struggle on to the edge of death 'til nothing is left."
"Dance wildly. The bold are those who claim their respect."
*The scene changes to Luz walking down the barren streets of an evacuated Gravesfield, the ends of her trenchcoat swaying back and forth in the wind, her hands in her coat pockets. As she walks down the road, red sparks dance over her body as she glares down a police blockade.*
*She outstretches her left hand, the red sparks leaping off her arm. A dark purple aura follows suit alongside the red sparks, mixed with golden sparks of energy and red. A smirk takes up her visage as a wave of yellow and black energy rushes forward, forcing a scene transition as the disembodied voice continues.*
"I love you, baby."
"Sing again 'till the morning comes…"
"No matter your sorry state…!"
"The childish games you play."
*As the scene transitions to something else, that being of a group of monsters with their brains exposed atop the roofs of buildings, one of which is on all fours like an animal, another is made of nothing but pure muscle, and another is more feminine appearing with a slender build with what appears to be vines coiling around their fingers. Each of them is on a separate building, and each of them are faced by Millie, Sophia, and Jonah, respectively.*
*Meanwhile, Luz is staring down Hunter as Luz takes off her fedora, revealing white hair rather than her usual brown hair. Not even a second later, the two charge at one another, Hunter with his sword drawn and ready to use and Luz with a manic gleam in her eyes and her right fist pulled back, ready to engage. All the while, as all of this is happening, the disembodied voice continues to sing*
"You burn through to my heart. Let me cherish you always!"
"Don't ever run 'cause you know too well, You Are My Special!"
*As the chorus begins to play alongside the action, the animal-like Nomu charges at Millie as she fires balls of flames toward it with increased fervour, eyes wide with panic behind them, as a group of abominations go to dogpile the beast. The muscle-bound Nomu engages in a fist clash with Sophia, shockwaves bounding out from their attacks meeting in the middle, each countering their attacks with another's attacks. Finally, the feminine-looking Nomu whips metal-infused vine whips toward Jonah, who keeps ducking and weaving as smoke. At the same time, the Nomu seemingly keeps predicting where Jonah seems to be appearing to avoid their attacks. All the while, the disembodied voice continues to sing.*
"Drive my heart in two, I feel it beating anew!"
"Put you under the spell, consume the future as well!"
"In that maze of you, we rendezvous…!"
"A daze that I never felt. You Are My Special!"
*The scene changes to Luz and Hunter exchanging attack after attack, blow after blow, dodging each other's punches, kicks, and beams of light and fire. Luz plants her hand on the floor as a wave of decay speeds toward Hunter, who turns into light and blips behind Luz, raising his weapon over his head to cut her in half, only for a barrier to be erected around her and for her to blast him with a wave of pure energy, knocking him back.*
*As Hunter lands, wings made of light sprout from his back, and his right arm becomes larger and larger until it matches the size and density of a massive cylinder. Luz does the same thing with flames; only her arm is covered by a million other tinier arms, and spikes appear out every little orifice of the arm as they can before the arm is bathed in a coil of flames.*
*The two charge at one another, both reeling their arms back and just before their fists collide, the scene zooms out to an overhead shot of the state of Connecticut; all the while, the Disembodied voice finishes the song as the beat fades out with a final guitar riff.*
"Dancing to your tune, the whole world spins out of hue!"
"No, no, no, don't relax, the demon's breaking its shell!"
"In that maze of you, we rendezvous!"
"No matter what they tell, You Are My Special!"
"We're Special!"
[October 1st, 2020 – Part 1]
Anxiety, as described by Merriam Webster's Dictionary: apprehensive uneasiness or nervousness usually over an impending or anticipated ill : a state of being anxious.
That was the best way to describe Hunter right now. For all of his posturing, and for all of his objective superiority to most of it not all of the human population, he could not shake the feeling that Luz Noceda was one of, if not the only living being in the whole world—The Boiling Isles included—that scared him.
But that was why he was resolved to defeat her. To kill her. Yes, he knew that The Emperor wanted her alive. However, as far as Hunter was concerned, she needed to die. It was why he brought him here.
Hunter sat on the edge of the Wittebane Central Statue—a statue created for the founders of Gravesfield, Philip and Caleb Wittebane. There was a very high chance that Gravesfield would be destroyed in the process of this impending fight, and a small sliver of Hunter felt bad for it. Not because of the amount of homeless humans that would result in it, but because some small part of him felt connected to this place.
He looked up at the statue, and saw one of the founders face's. It unnerved him just how similar he appeared to that of a human. "Disgusting…" He looked around the rest of the abandoned town, of whom a majority of the population was taken outside of the state. In fact, a majority of Connecticut decided to evacuate. Not at the orders of The Senate, but out of paranoia.
Humans, in that way, were like herd animals. They see one group of them leave a location, the rest in that location must go too. Follow the herd, and safety would be assured. Only the stupid would stay behind. So, in that sense, did that make his allies stupid as well?
Probably. They were going to die in this battle. None of them stood a chance against Luz. Titan, he wasn't sure if he stood a chance against Luz. But, he had to try. By the Titan he had to try. If he didn't, then it would be up to him, and while he was strong, he wasn't tactical and due to his grudge, screw just Gravesfield being destroyed, all of Connecticut would probably go up in flames, too.
Not that Hunter cared about collateral damage. The monkeys could all die and he wouldn't bat an eye. Humanity was a stain in his and most other witches with functioning brains eyes. Unfortunately, there were still some witches that believed humans were not all as bad as The Interloper.
But, if his experience was anything to go by, he'd say that they were on the same platform of deplorable. The only one he could confidently say that he didn't loathe with every fibre of his being was that Emelia girl. She seemed to know her place, and that was all he could ask for.
It was unfortunate that Sophia killed her last night. If he remembered correctly, Sophia unplugged her life support, but not before disabling the alarms in the room, and to make extra sure that she died, Sophia smothered her. While Sophia complained about it afterward, Hunter did say to make sure that it was a stealthy kill, and not a loud and bombastic one.
Charlie would've been a better option, now that he thought about it. "Oh well, doesn't matter. What's done is done," Hunter thought as Jonah manifested under him and to the left, leaning against the copper foundation of the statue. Hunter glanced down at him, slight revulsion in his eyes.
He had been running late. He was not curious as to know why. "What took you so long," his words betrayed his thoughts as Jonah scoffed.
"Tried my luck with another family I've been huntin'. The Pines. They must've been expecting me because one of 'em had a vacuum cleaner. I nearly got sucked up. I did stab the girl, though. I dunno if she died or not. Probably not, though. It was a shallow would, even if it was the carotid artery I slashed," Jonah explained as Hunter had to stop himself from laughing.
"Never thought I'd hear the day where The Southern Ripper would be trifled by a couple of young adults. You never usually have that problem," Hunter said as Jonah scowled.
"The one in the hat had some sort of time ability. He literally snapped his fingers and time froze. Only for a second or two, and it made him vomit, but I honestly don't care. I knew I was outmatched the moment he did that. I fled the scene before he could call the cops," Jonah replied, clearly annoyed. He took off his gas mask, and licked the knife. He shuddered, and that was all that Hunter cared to see.
"When is that bitch gonna get here! I'm itchin' for a fight!" Sophia shouted from across the street. She was dressed in a red winter jacket with a black fluffy collar and large puffy sleeves. Underneath which she wore a white shirt with a WWE logo, alongside a pair of loose fitting black jeans held up by a red and green striped belt. Her right hand was covered in a purplish black miasmic energy.
"She'll get here when she gets here," a soft-spoken voice from above Hunter said, as he looked up. Charlie sat on the head of the Philip statue, legs crossed with her hands on her knees. If hunter was remembering correctly, Charlie said that this month was when they wanted to go by "She/Her" which, honestly, Hunter was still used to the whole "Genderfluid" thing.
Not that he had anything against it. It was just weird to him. Like how owning a ratworm back in the isles was a weird thing to most people who had Batcats as pets. Or, if you were a real strange nutcase, you'd have both. At that point, Hunter didn't know what to call that person, other than deranged.
"Wait, would that mean Eberwolf would be deranged?" Hunter thought? While Eberwolf didn't have "pets" per se, well, aside from his pet ratworm, but he was able to talk to and control animals, as well as turning into animals via his shapeshifting ability, and give himself beast-like abilities.
That, and he was mute, but by choice. He could speak if he chose, but he never did. Well, unless your name was Darius. But Darius had disappeared after The War, so Eberwolf didn't talk to anyone anymore. Not even The Emperor.
Regardless of that, he had gotten sidetracked. The point was that he didn't understand weird things, and one of those weird things was gender fluidity. At least to him. Speciesist he might be to humans, but that didn't mean he needed to be queerphobic. That would just be rude. Especially sense Edalyn would've been disappointed in him.
Returning to the topic at hand: Charlie was a strange individual. Her hair was multi-coloured, divided into three colours. The tips of her hair and her bangs were red, above that her hair was white, and at the top her hair was blue. Charlie had dyed it that way because she couldn't choose between either of those colours, and decided to go with all three.
Her eyes were heterochromatic, with one of her eyes being green—that being the left one—and the right one was yellow. She also had hoop piercing in her nose, and a black jewel piercing under her lower lip. Oh, and her nails were painted pink to match Jonah's.
She was dressed in a dark blue hoodie, along with a pair of black and white pants, with one leg being white and the other being black. She wiped black sludge from the corner of her lip, before glancing over at Jonah. "Jon, can you please get me down from here?"
"Why on earth did you teleport yourself up there in the first place?" Jonah grumbled, before turning his lower half into purple mist, and flying up to the top of the statue. He carefully wrapped his arms around her waist, before hoisting her down to the ground and standing next to her. As his legs reformed, Charlie hugged him, as Jonah chuckled. "Yer welcome."
"Get a room," Millie spat as Jonah barked out a laugh.
"Our relationship ain't like that. Charlie don't like that kinda thing anyway," Jonah said, ruffling Charlie's hair, which only had her snuggle into Jonah more. "She's more of a cuddler, anyway. "
"Leave my husband alone, jerk," Charlie muttered as Millie blanched.
"You seriously married that sadistic bastard?"
"He's my sadistic bastard," Charlie said protectively, standing up straight as she jabbed a finger at Millie, her glare accusatory. "Honestly, I can't believe you sic'd him on your ex. You should've just left her alone. You made my hubby do something he didn't want to do, ya know. He was really upset the whole night," Charlie said as Millie rolled her eyes.
"Doubt it," Millie spat as Jonah frowned.
"Ya know, She was my friend. 'Sides, I made sure she died first before I skinned her face. I didn't even do the full thing! I gutted her like I said I was gonna do, slit her throat, watched bleed out, then cut her face off. I might've ripped her clothes off, but I didn't do anything else. That was the agreement I made when Charlie married me. I only say I do it because it gets the media up in a frenzy, and it makes me laugh. I haven't diddled nobody in over three years. Don't mean I don't get gratification when I kill people. That's just inherit," Jonah said as Hunter groaned.
"No one needs to know what gets you off, Jonah. Now can we please focus? Luz will be here any moment, so we have to be ready for anything. I—" and then the ground shook with such force that it threw damn near everyone off their balance. It took Hunter everything he could to not fall over, and even then, had Charlie not stopped him from falling, he would've hit the back of his head on the sharp corner of the statue platform.
As those who fell, namely Millie and Jonah, got to their feet, a large cloud of dust and smoke had appeared before them. The sound of cracked pavement and shattered rock filled their ears as a figure emerged from the cloud of debris.
The figure was dressed in a black trench coat covered in several nonsensical patches, accompanied by a purple skirt with a white, fluffy trim around the bottom of the skirt. Underneath the trench coat was an off-pink shirt—whether or not it had sleeves was irrelevant given that the trenchcoat made up for it. They wore cat-themed stockings that stopped just below the knee, and a pair of ankle boots.
Crimson red eyes stared back at Hunter, as their full appearance took shape outside of the destruction. Their body language confident—as if completely undeterred by the wall of assassins. Boredom, as well as annoyance and frustration gleamed in their eyes as a frown presented itself on their face.
Brushing a hand through her hair, Luz stared down each of the assassins with what could only be described as contempt. Cracking her knuckles, Luz glared at Hunter, before finally addressing him. "So, we're really doing this, huh?"
"Did you expect this to end in diplomacy?" Hunter mocked as Luz scoffed.
"Nah, I knew since the moment you stabbed Emelia in the back that you were going to challenge me, even if it was a dumb idea." Luz craned her neck to look up at the sky. "You even have a nuke placed right above us, just in case you lose, right?"
"Huh? How did—"
"Lense. One of the many things I did in the beginning, aside from offloading all the excess powers I got from The Camp, was go into a maximum security prison with permission of Governor Roger, and take a bunch of powers from Death Row inmates who happened to awaken them. It was how I was able to increase my limit from a measly 10 powers to my current limit of 25," Luz interrupted, before looking back at Hunter.
Luz raised her arm to point above her, before firing a purple laser up into the sky. Then, not but a few seconds later, the sound of an explosion ripped and roared through the skies. Over 2 miles in the air, a black cloud of miasma plumed, followed by a shockwave that shattered every window in the area.
At the same time, a green barrier erected over everyone, protecting them from the shockwave. Hunter stared at Luz incredulously, who smirked. "What? Did you really think I'd allow you to go deaf before our battle began? I have no idea what your other powers are, aside from Lightbringer so you would have no feasible way of healing yourself to my knowledge. Same goes for your friends here. This is supposed to be a fair fight. No government intervention. I can't stand it when they try and get involved."
The barrier fell not but a second later, as Luz crossed her arms. "The radiation won't spread over us. Not for a while, anyway. It'll linger in the air for about… I'd say ten minutes, before it gets blown to some other poor unfortunate state, and by then Connecticut won't be affected. At least, not Gravesfield, anyway."
"As I was saying; while I technically only have 25 powers at my disposal at this current moment, in reality, I have well over 70 sitting a corpse, which is currently being moved to somewhere else. I've already taken the powers that I want with me in this battle. Not that I'll even need most of them. In fact, I think I'm only going to stick a handful. Because, realistically, that's all I even need," Luz continued, before smirking.
"Besides, if I'm going to go all out, I still need to measure myself. I'm not going to waste all of my power on a bunch of worthless, spineless, pathetic cowards who feel the need to plant a nuke above the town as a precautionary measure. The only person who I'm here to fight is Hunter. The rest of you can meet my pets."
Jonah scoffed, stepping forward as his right hand turned into purple vapor, a wide sneer on his face. "What makes ya think we're gonna let ya—" before he could finish his sentence, the sound of a crumbling wall echoed throughout the street, as dark green vines with what appeared to be sharp edges shot toward Jonah, and wrapped around his waist, before dragging him through a hole in the wall.
"JONAH!" Charlie screamed, before chasing after him.
"Shit!? What the fuck! Hunter! You said she'd come alone!" Millie shouted as Luz laughed. It was mocking, it was annoying, and Hunter was starting to lose his cool because of it. A gleam of pure amusement lingered in Luz's eyes as she doubled over laughing, only restraining herself was a growling noise made itself known from within the slowly dwindling debris cloud behind her.
"Oh, please, did you really think me that stupid that I wouldn't bring a small group of reinforcements? Wow, I gotta say, that's low, even for you Hunter," Luz said, before snapping her fingers. "Not that I'm shocked. Your ego must be quite high."
As soon as the snap reverberated throughout the town square, a dog-like creature ran out of the debris smoke, brain exposed and eyes a dark yellow. It lunged at Millie, grabbing her by the cape of her cloak, and chucking her somewhere off into the town, following after her.
Just as Sophia was about to say something, a massive hand grabbed her by the head, before flinging her behind Luz. Hunter had to stagger backward as the easily eleven foot tall muscle bound goliath of a creature loomed beside him, brain also fully exposed with sickly white eyes, and a large, jagged toothy grin.
"Fresh. Meat."
"Yes, Rampage. Fresh meat. Now, go on. Have your fun," Luz said, dismissing the creature as it laughed, before bursting forward with speed that Hunter had only seen before with human aircraft. Not nearly as fast as him, but still dangerously fast.
"What… the hell are those?!" Hunter balked as Luz's smirk turned into a smile.
"You like them? They're projects I've been working on for months. It's only been recent that I've been able to perfect them. They're called Nomu. Brainless, if you wanted to know the translation. But these Nomu are special. They're a league in their own. They're High-End Nomu. The best of the best, the crème of the crop. I jumped a couple stages instead of just going with an army of meek, run of the mill garbage. But even then, now that I think about it I probably should've just gone with the significantly weaker army. Not as many resources used, and not as many powers needed to make them as strong as they are."
Luz sighed, rolling her shoulders as Hunter stared at her with eyes that screamed "oh no." Luz took that as a sign that she could continue. "Yeah, you kinda screwed yourself here. I mean, really screwed yourself. But, I suppose we can discuss that at length, since I wanna watch my creations in action. So—" with blinding speed that he had never see Luz use before, she grabbed him, and created wings of flame that burned blue, flinging them about a meter in the air, just below the fallout zone.
"Let go of me!" Hunter shouted as Luz chuckled, before grabbing his neck just lightly enough to where it wouldn't choke him, and keeping her pinky finger removed.
"Ah, ah, ah. Play nice with me, Hunter. Besides, I actually want a fight and not an instant kill. Don't ruin my fun. We're going to watch as your friends and allies get torn to bits, and once it's over, then we'll fight. If you continue to play nice, I'll even put a handicap on myself. Got it?"
"A handicap?" Hunter muttered, confusion in his tone as Luz hummed in acknowledgement.
"Yup. A handicap. Because even with that, I know I could kick your ass from this shitty little town all the way to New-York city if I really needed to, but I'll save the taunting for later. Now. Watch."
[XXXX]
Jonah only broke free from the grasp of his attacker by turning into smoke and re-positioning himself atop the slanted roof of one of the many houses in the neighbourhood he now found himself in. Not even a moment later, a gooey, sludge like substance manifested next to him like that of a portal, as Charlie stepped out.
It was always weird, how Charlie could manifest herself out of goo. But that made her more interesting as a person. Due to her being the team's transport, though, she grew to resent her power. Tyler never cared about that, though. The more Jonah thought about it, the more inconsiderate that blond bastard had been.
"Not that it matters now," Jonah thought, as he looked over at Charlie, who looked panicked. Clearly she had been scared for him. No that she should've been. But, then again, Charlie was the kind of person to be overprotective of him.
"Jonah!" Charlie said, catching her breath as she coughed, more of that thick, black mucus like goo splattering to the floor. "Ugh, I hate using Mud Warp…. It's gross." As she said that, she stared ahead, eyes darting around left to right trying to figure out where they were. "I think… I think we're in the Eastern portion of Gravesfield. Near the school."
"Well, we need to get back to the center," Jonah grumbled, flinching as he dragging a finger through the inch deep wound in his side. "Fuck, whateva got me, got me good," Jonah said through grit teeth. It was then that he noticed something standing across them from another rooftop, and it made Jonah's eyes widen in both shock and confusion.
The creature—because that was the only way he could describe it—was tall and lanky with some muscle, making it appear more like an athlete. It had the curves of a woman, yet none of the parts that made it obvious, aside from the lumps on the chest. Its brain was exposed, and it had what appeared to be vines for hair, alongside a mouth full of sharp teeth.
Its hands ended in claws, and from a distance, though it was hard to make out, Jonah could see tiny holes at the top of its wrists. It was hunched over, its eyes pure white and yet still seemingly filled with hatred.
"What the hell is that?" Jonah thought, trying desperately not to gape at the creature. It looked like something out of a horror movie—which were his favourite kinds of movie's, but still—like something out of Frankenstein, just more disgusting. At least with Frankenstein, their brain's weren't exposed.
"Enemy." The creature snarled, it's voice distorted and gargled sounding. Before Jonah could say anything, the creature craned its neck back, and swung it forward, releasing a deluge of vines toward them—but not just any kind of vines, these vines had what appeared to be edges of a sword grafted into them. In response, Charlie opened her mouth, as black sludge came pouring out, creating a wall of mud that transported the bladed vines behind them.
Jonah took this as his chance to go on the attack, turning into purple mist and going over the barrier of warping mud. As he flew through the sky made entirely out of mist, he reformed on the other side of the street, and prepared a roundhouse kick aimed at the creatures face.
In response, the creature brought up its arm as a sword blade ejected from the top of its wrist, blocking his attack with ease. Jonah sneered, before turning his leg into mist, bypassing the sword, then reforming it to hit the creature in the face, all the while keeping the momentum from the kick and sending the creature off the roof.
Jonah glared down at the edge of the roof, only to find himself ducking when a massive clump of vines rocketed forward in an attempt to hit him. The clump of vines missed, lodging itself into the roof of the building Jonah was standing on as the creature used the vines to hoist itself back onto the roof.
As it did that, Jonah prepared to turn into mist again, only for the creature open its mouth. As soon as it did that, what appeared to be a blue energy-like substance built up at the back of its throat, before blasting out in the form of a blue and yellow beam. Jonah just barely dodged, watching as the beam carved through the building as it began to collapse in on itself.
Jonah turned into smog, just barely dodging another volley of bladed vines. At the same time, Charlie had already dropped the barrier, spitting up globs of black mud. "I hate this power so much…" Charlie grumbled, before reaching down toward the pile of mud, and dragging out a light machine gun.
Adjusting her stance, Charlie aimed down the sights of the weapon, kept focus on the creature, and began to unload every ounce of ammunition that she had on the creature. The bullets penetrated the creature's skin, but didn't go through all the way. In response, it created a barrier of bladed vines to protect itself from Charlie's gunfire.
But that didn't stop Charlie, as she continued to dump the magazine on the creature until she was all out of ammo. By the time it was empty, she went to reload, only for a stray vine to shoot toward her and stab through her shoulder. Charlie screamed, Jonah snarled, and rushed the creature with all of his worth.
In response, the creature simply opened its mouth, charging up the laser for a second time, only to end up swallowing a massive amount of the mist. The creature's eyes began to bleed, as Jonah smiled. "I don't care what ya are, everything dies to poison!" Jonah shouted, but just as he made his declaration, the beam of energy fired.
Charlie's eyes widened, as she watched her partner get bisected by a beam of energy created by a monster. Jonah's mist evaporated immediately, as he fell uselessly to the ground in two halves, and before Charlie could react any further, or do anything else, a bladed vine cut her head off, killing her instantly.
The Nomu, Lady, lifted itself over to the roof where Charlie had sat, grabbed the ring off Charlie's finger, and grinned. "Till. Death. Do. Part." It had expected the fight to last longer. While it wasn't very capable of speech, it was smart of enough to recognized power. That male enemy was strong, but it wasn't strong enough. Relied too much on its power.
The male enemy was strong, granted. But not strong enough. The Male Enemy had only made it annoyed. It was promised a fight. It did not get one. Lady was not pleased, but there was not anything that Lady could do. It was told to fight the man with the gas power and whoever they were with.
Now, it was up to Rampage and Doberman to finish the job.
And so, Lady sat on the roof, ripped off the arm of the other enemy, and began to eat. Not because it was hungry—Lady did not get hungry—but because it was bored.
[XXXX]
Millie knew what it was like to fight—Titan, she had fought more battles then she was willing to count. Usually it was against those "Bards Against The Coven" idiots. They were strong, but not stronger than her. So when she was flung through several buildings by what appeared to be a dog creature with its brain exposed, to say that she was shocked, alarmed, and even a little scared wouldn't be a lie.
Groaning, Millie slowly stood up, pain aching throughout her body as a small light purple chipmunk, with a tiny horn sticking out of its forehead, sat on her shoulder. It tilted its head, worried as Millie cracked a small smile. "Chipper, I'm alright. Thanks for worrying," Millie said as she patted the small creature on the head. Chipper was her Palisman. She got it when she was a young Witch still going to Glandus High.
Chipper had been one of the few Palisman's that The Emperor allowed around him, due to him seeing it as "useful." Chipper didn't like the Emperor much, but that was to be expected, given how he required Palisman's essence to survive nowadays. His battle with The Interloper required him to have more of it then what his previous intake had been.
With the wave of her hand, Chipper leapt from her shoulder and transformed into a dark purple staff with a curled up ball on the top, of which had a point that made it look like a spear head, but decidedly more fluffy looking, even if it had turned into wood.
A soft growling noise rumbled ahead, as Millie funnelled her magic into her newly formed staff. Tapping the ground with her staff, a dark purple circle formed on the ground, as multiple off-purple and black looking creatures formed out of the hole—around six in total, each of which having yellow eyes, their expressions being that of sadness.
The creatures, Abominations, stood at around six feet in height. They were bulky creatures, made of dense, dead, rotting material generated from magic—a more polite form of necromancy, according to The Emperor. The Abominations formed a wall, groaning and growling as the dog-creature talked forward, eyes glowing yellow—eyes that seemed to be attached to the brain.
"What the hell is that thing?" Millie thought, both disturbed and intrigued. It clearly wasn't alive, what with its brain sticking out of its head, and it smelt of rot and death just like an Abomination. If didn't know better, it was almost like a human's version of an abomination, just far more disturbing in appearance.
The dog-creature barked, but as it did, what appeared to be lightning formed around its fangs. Then, it charged, and bit one of the Abomination's head's clean off, throwing it to the side as the abomination next to it slammed both of its hands down on its back. Or at least, that was what it attempted to do, before being impaled by what appeared to be bones shooting out of its back like that of a whip.
More bone whips shot out of the dogs back, impaling the other abominations and throwing them around like toys. The dog growled the entire time, as Millie continued summoning more and more abominations to attempt to swarm the creature. Not that it did much of anything, as it kept tearing the abominations apart like wet tissue paper.
"SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE HELL IS THIS THING?!" Panic grew within Millie's chest as she created more circles for more abominations, exhaustion slowly creeping up on her as the dog creature continued to tear through them as if they were nothing. Even as Millie attempted to re-form the abominations, they were cut down before they could even stand.
The whips were moving so fast that it was hard to see them at times—just blurs of white and purple, grunts of pain and groans of anguish. Amidst the chaos, Millie aimed the staff head toward the creature, as the tip turned red. Wordlessly, a red circle appeared in front of the staff, as a ball of flames shot forward, slamming into the dog creature's face.
The dog creature staggered back, though its whips continued hacking and slashing, as if undeterred. Millie fired more balls of flame as a result. Even if her exhaustion levels were starting to get to her, she would continue the deluge of magic until the creature either tired out or died. That was her goal.
After the fifth ball of fire hit the creature in the face, she was finally beginning to see damage. Burns covered the creature's snout, but it didn't hinder it. Not even in the slightest. She had no idea why—any living creature would stop after being burned like that, what with its black skin seemingly boiling.
And that's when it hit her.
The creature wasn't alive. It was dead. It was truly a human version of an abomination. The only way to stop it was to tear it apart at the seams. "But with a hide that thick and durable, the only thing that could possibly destroy it would be high power light magic, and I'm not nearly well versed in that!" Millie thought, eyes wide as the dog creature barked, lightning channeling around its mouth.
The lightning spread around its body, covering it in a protective coat of electricity. That, mixed with the bone whips, was more than enough to protect it from any melee attack. It charged at Millie, destabilizing every abomination in its wake as if they were nothing.
It leapt at Millie, and in that moment, Millie was convinced that she was going to die.
But if she was going to die, she'd take that monstrosity down with her.
She spun her staff, imbuing it with as much magic as she could. A massive yellow circle, charged with both magic and heaps of fear and desperation manifested in front of her, mere inches away from the creature's expanding maw.
This was it.
This was her last chance.
Even if she wasn't well versed in light magic, she didn't need to be. All she needed to do was dump enough of her willpower and emotion into it to cause enough damage to kill the thing.
She thought back to her family on The Boiling Isles, her friends, and everyone that she cared for here. If a creature like this were to go there, they would all be in danger. She would not let that slide. Not even for a moment.
"FOR THE EMPEROR!" Millie shouted, causing the circle to activate, and for a massive beam of light magic to rip through the creature. It howled, and she watched as its skin peeled away, its eyes seemingly made of lightning flickering out as she released every bit of magic in her system. Something in her chest, most-likely her bile sac, began to throb and hurt like no tomorrow. She was overusing it, but to Titan with that. She had a creature to kill, and it was going to die.
A paw reached out through the light, bone-like tendrils extending from the paw they stabbed into her shoulder, under her chest, and in her right arm which was holding her staff. Millie grit her teeth, determination gleaming in her eyes.
No.
She would not die.
She would kill this thing, even if it was the last thing she did.
Millie increased the power of the light magic, dumping even more power into it. Her chest squeezed tighter, blood trickled down from her nose and from the side of her mouth. She was overdoing it, but she had to.
She needed to.
"Why does this thing need so much to kill it? If this were Luz… I wouldn't be alive," Millie thought, and just as she did, the creature's paw began to disintegrate—burn away was more like it. Light, after all, was concentrated heat given form. If Millie were to guess how much power she put into her attack, the power would be enough to mimic the raw energy of the sun.
The power of the light beam tore through building after building, rendered any car it hit into a boiling scrap of metal, and evaporated any and all gasoline in those vehicles. Fires roared on the things that weren't destroyed due to how hot the light had been—the flames being a terrifying and eerie blue to match the intense heat.
As Millie continued to dump as much magic as she could into her staff, she could feel Chipper's concern and worry. Chipper could handle this amount of power because that was what he was meant to do, even if it made him slightly uncomfortable. At least he wouldn't have to face the after effects of a burnt out Bile Sac.
Millie knew that she would be out of commission for the new week or so to recovery, but if it meant that she got to live another day, then so be it. She came to the Human Realm to understand what Edalyn saw in Humans. Why she saw them as interesting creatures that were worth seeing as equals.
Now she knew.
Now she knew that they were just as monstrous as they were.
And that both excited and terrified her.
"DIE!" Millie shouted at the top of her lungs, dumping even more power into the beam of light that had by now gone from yellow to bright orange, truly matching the colour of the sun. Her chest burned, as more blood trailed from the sides of her mouth. It even began to come out of her eyes. That was how much power she was using in that attack.
And finally, after all of that, it was finally enough to kill the creature, as when the light died down, and as Millie fell to the floor, nearly unconscious, the dog creature was no more. Moments before she was about to live the land of the awake, a ring appeared around her. A Teleportation Spell, she recognized. In the blink of an eye, she no longer in the streets of Gravesfield, but in the hall of The Emperor.
She tried to get up, but all of her energy was gone. In another blink, she saw his lordships robes, in another, his hand reached out to her, and then, there was nothing. Not death, but simple sleep, mixed with the words "Rest, for there is nothing else you can do now, Captain."
[XXXX]
Sophia had to admit, that out of the fights she had ever been in, this one had to be the best. Not because, as herself and this "Rampage's" fists clashed, shockwaves were produced. But because it was a death match.
A smile stretched across her lips, teeth bared as she threw up a block to protect her face from a well timed jab meant to sock her in the face. Purplish black energy rippled around her arms, acting like a shield and soaking up most of the damage. Perfect for a counter attack, which Sophia did the moment she got the chance to.
She saw an opening on the eleven foot tall Rampage, and slammed her fist into its side. Purplish black energy rippled from her fist, and tore a hole through the creature's side. It was stitched up immediately, so the lasting damage was gone. But Sophia had seen this before. Unlike her cohorts, she watched the news. Saw the fight that Magnessa had gotten into with that other creature that looked strikingly like this one, and new that sooner or later it's healing would die down.
Whether or not she would survive would be determined by the battle, which was something that she loved. Throwing her full weight behind the next punch, amplifying it with her power, Negative Energy, she aimed to punch it in the chest. Rampage met her attack with its right fist, the two's attacks clashing, creating yet another shockwave powerful enough to cause a dent to form where they stood.
"You. Strong!" Rampage barked as Sophia laughed.
"Same to you, big guy!" Sophia roared, Negative Energy bristling in her arms. The way her power worked was that, so long as she was in some state of anger, or was in some way experiencing a negative emotion, her physical strength increased by a hundred fold. It would continue to increase until she felt a positive emotion, and it would reset after it reached something called "Peak Negativity" where all of her power would dump out with an attack strong enough to collapse full on skyscrapers.
She would know, she did that once.
It felt awesome.
Each punch and counter punch from Rampage felt like a mini-earthquake when any of them landed. But Negative Energy also covered for her defensive capabilities. As long as she didn't unleash the full extent of her damage, she could continue to protect herself.
What she needed to do was get a shot open on Rampage's head, that way she could end this. But due to its height, and due to the fact that every time she jumped to reach his head he would simply swat her away, she needed to knock him down to her level.
The problem was that that he had some kind of power that allowed him to take blow after blow and not care at all. Then again, she was convinced she was fighting a corpse, so that made sense. Its muscles were denser, and every time it attacked, moved in some way, or swung its arm, a red aura would slowly grow around its body.
She had seen it once before. Sophia had a habit of watching the news to see what was going on in the world. She watched Luzura's debut, and saw that a man would also glow red with each time he swung a punch. That meant that this creature, this "Rampage" as he was called, must've had the same power.
But, the question was, how? If that person had died in the way that he had, how did Luzura take his power? Unless, she did in the split second that he was still alive, to before he was killed. That was the only way that could've happened.
"Whatever, I don't care. At least I'm getting a good fight out of it!" Sophia thought, her eyes manic and filled with bloodlust. The two continued to exchange blow after blow, until finally, Rampage did something different. He jumped, and when he jumped, his right arm grew spikes out of it, like giant spiked bat, that slammed down toward Sophia.
Sophia barely got out of the way, still being sent flying by the shockwave of the attack. She crashed through the front of a candy store, small cuts from broken glass littering her face and her arms. Sophia didn't give herself a second of rest, before getting up and lunging forward, pain circling back into power as Negative Energy worked its magic.
She intercepted a blow from Rampage, another shockwave produced by the attack. Sophia grit her teeth, before slipping her fist away from Rampage's own, before swatting it away with a well timed kick that knocked Rampage to the side. In the same fluid motion, she hopped and spun to land a kick with her other leg, hitting Rampage in the head before landing on her feet, watching as Rampage flew down the street, crashing into the ground so hard he left a line of destruction in his wake.
Rampage, in response, backflipped out of the line of destruction caused by his massive body tearing through the street, before grabbing a car, and throwing it Sophia, who in response as the car was making its way toward her, simply punched it in half. However, the car was a distraction, as not even a moment later, Rampage appeared behind where the car had been just a split second ago, and punched Sophia in the chest.
The force of the blow was enough to crack her ribs and send her back and into one of the destroyed halves of the car. The only reason why the damage had been cracked ribs instead of her chest being split open was due to Negative Energy creating a small shield of energy around her chest to prevent her from being killed.
Coughing up small specks of blood, Sophia rose to her feet, ignoring the pain as it fueled her Negative Energy, Sophia stood up, assumed a fighting stance, and countered another punch thrown at her by Rampage, their fists clashing as another, far more powerful shockwave tore apart the surrounding buildings.
The punch also split open Rampage's hand, though it stitched back together in mere seconds, much to Sophia's annoyance. How was this fight supposed to be a death match if all of the damage it was taking got healed afterward?
"You. Very. Strong!" Rampage said, neon-white eyes bloodshot as its grin was ear to ear—assuming it even had ears. Clearly, it was just as happy as she had been. Truly, it was a force of nature. Strength given true form. The term "brute" didn't even scratch this thing.
"And you're VERY ANNOYING!" Sophia shouted as she slammed her fist into its stomach, unleashing a third of the power she stored in a single blow. It blew a hole through Rampage's stomach, only for it to stitch back together, though it was doing it slower than usual. Good, it was starting to weaken. Now all she had to do was—
Before Sophia could finish that thought, the red aura around Rampage reached a fever pitch, as steam began to pour off its skin. Then, before she could react, say, or do anything, his fist connected to the side of her head. There was a thrum of power, a pulse of pain, and the upper body of Sophia Humbolt was no more, reduced to nothing but shreds of meat.
Rampage, for a split second, recognized that to be similar to how a part of itself had died. Not that it particularly cared. All it was glad about was the fact that it was alive and it could fight. Though, now it needed to wait.
"BOSS! FIGHT OVER!" Rampage shouted, staring up at the sky. From a distance, a helicopter began to descend. That meant it was time to go. But Rampage already knew that the real fun was about to begin. Even if it couldn't watch, that didn't matter to it. It was just happy that it got to have fun.
As the helicopter landed, Lady stared at him, arms crossed.
"Brute."
"Say you."
"Yeah, say me!"
"Enough you two. Rampage, get on the helicopter, we've got to go," The Doctor said as Rampage grumbled. Rampage got back on the helicopter, looking around, trying to find Doberman.
"Where Dog?"
Lady huffed. "Dog dead."
"Oh." Well that was annoying. Doberman was Rampage's friend. Oh well, Boss can make a new one, hopefully. As they flew away from the that silly little town, Rampage sat on the edge of the helicopter. It knew that the fun was just beginning. It sucked that it wasn't going to be there. But it was best to stay out of bosses' way.
It was her turn to have some fun, now.
[To Be Continued]
[Ending Song: YELLOW – by: Yoh Kamiyami]
*The ending begins with Luz dressed in her hero costume, floating in the darkness of the void, eyes closed as she drifts about in the emptiness of nothingness, only to be grabbed by blackened tendrils formed out of the void and pulled down in the abyss. On the other side of the void, she's thrown to the ground, her hair white and her eyes open and blazing red. As she stands up, strings are attached to her shoulders, and she begins to move on her own toward the edge of what is revealed to be building; all the while, a disembodied voice sings in the background.*
"Simply put, all purity was hung away on that day, see."
"My curiosity had gotten the best of me."
"Was sweeter than a cake, but it wasn't filling."
"Like dancing with a puppet, so cold and empty."
*It continues as Luz falls down what seems to be an endless amount of distance toward the ground, her strings still attached to her body as she frantically starts to pull them off. Each string represents figures in her life, staring with her past principal, then the judge who sentenced her to that camp, Adrian Rogers, and finally her mother*
*Once the final string is pulled, flaming wings spread from her back just before she lands on the ground below, breaking her fall. As her flaming wings come out, her hero outfit burns away and is replaced by the black trenchcoat adorned with several patches and a bi-sexual flag pin, a pink shirt, a purple skirt with a fluffy white hem at the bottom, held up by a black belt with a golden buckle, and a pair of black ankle boots. When she lands on her feet, she dusts herself off, turning to face the street before her as the voice continues to sing.*
"Closet doors shut behind us."
"Huddling, our bodies hidden in the darkness."
"We'll sleep the night off and change when light comes."
"Or so I like to say."
*Across the street is Luz before she changed into what she is now, smiling and hanging out with her mother. Luz turns away, ignoring their presence, but when she turns, she sees another scene of her and her mother playing at the playground, having fun. Luz scowls before turning around and running down the street, trying to ignore her past and everything tied to it.*
*But as she runs down the street, she comes across the car crash that she was in when she was a child; as the younger her crawls out from the wreckage, staring at the crushed body of her father, bloodied, mangled, and broken. As all of this is happening, the voice keeps singing.*
"I'm just a child; I can't help it!"
"Don't go please, oh please, I'm begging."
"I'm so pathetic, a life built on selfish cries."
*Mid-verse, Luz turns to look away, only for her to be surrounded by a literal horde of small versions of her, all pointing at her as she looks up to see her father staring down at her, disappointment on his face as she begins to fall down a hole that opens up in the floor beneath her. She reaches up toward the hole before it's covered, and she's locked away in darkness, falling down once again, tears in her eyes as she keeps falling deeper and deeper as the voice continues.*
"All the toys were put away."
"I swear I'll change this time!"
"Still, I crawl for when I wore innocence like before."
"(Ah, ah, ah, ah!)"
*As the beat drops, the darkness around her turns to a bright yellow mixed with rainbow spirals. She falls past stuffed toys, trains, and books of various types, along with photos of her childhood and photos of her and Julia. She finally lands on the ground, surrounded by her childhood, showing her all the positive things she remembers being around.*
*However, when she narrows her eyes, they all go up in flames, replaced with her recent memories. Tragedy, loss, and death and suddenly, she's no longer tense. Instead, she's relaxed as the surrounding walls return to a drab black mixed with gray. A statement that she's more comfortable with this kind of stuff than all of the happy go-lucky things she used to be surrounded by. While all of this happened, the disembodied voice continued to sing.*
"Love's a high, sober up, you'll throw it all away."
"I've laid to waste all those feelings just to stay safe."
"But see this low-life now, still stuck in her ways."
"I wonder if there's a summer where I'll really change?"
*The ending begins to end as Luz walks down a hallway filled with memories of the recent past, of all the death and destruction both caused and not caused by her. The deeper she walks, the more of a smile takes up her visage as she finally reaches a door. When she opens it, she steps out onto a grassy field, except this grass is orange, and the skies are yellow with purple clouds. She's finally made it to The Boiling Isles; all the voice in the background keeps saying "Yellow" before eventually the beat fades out as the ending concludes.*
Did anyone think that this was going to go any other way? What can I say? Nomu are insanely overpowered. However, Millie did survive. I have a lot more I want to do with her character, and it also goes to show just how strong magic is here. At least, when pushed to the absolute extreme.
Also, Yeah, Chipper! That's Millie's Palisman, a horned Chipmunk. Why? Because Chipmunk's are cool, and Chipper is a good name. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar. Anyway, that's all there is to say for this chapter. See ya in the next one, peace!