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Chapter Text

It was a bright and sunny day as a middle school came into view and in what looked like the door to a principal's office. Outside the door was a a Dominican-American woman wearing a light blue medical nurse outfit and glasses with dark brown eyes, tan skin, and dark titian hair. She had been called to the school because of a certain incident and she had a good feeling what it was.  

"Please no." she let out with a sigh before walking to the door and opening it.  

Camilia walked into the principal's office and saw two people in the office waiting for her. One was the principal of the school, Principal Hal, an adult male with dark skin, gray hair and a mustache wearing a light gray shirt with a blue tie. The other person was her daughter trouble making but good hearted daughter, Luz Noceda, sitting in a chair while wearing red sleeveless open hoodie, black sports tank top that goes to her stomach, dark blue shorts, black leggings to her calves and black steel toed slip on sneakers.  

"Hello, Mrs. Noceda. I'm glad you could make it." Principal Hal said as he nodded to her. "I take it you've been informed about why you're here?"  

"Not entirely." Camilia said as she walked in and stood next to her daughter, who just looked to the ground with her hands in her pockets. "I was just told that Luz got into a little confrontation."  

"Yes and that confrontation lead to a few students getting sent to the nurses office. You're daughter got into another fight." the principal said as he turned to Luz, seeing her growl a bit at the mention of the students.  

Camilla sighed once more, not liking having to hear about Luz fighting again.  

"Mija, why? Why do you get into all the flights?" she asked as she rubbed her left temple.  

"They were picking on another kid, I couldn't just let them pick on him." Luz said as she looked at her mother.  

"I know but you could've just reported them to the proper faculty, not fight them yourself." Camilia said as she moved away from her temple. "When I signed you up for those kickboxing classes when you were younger, I did it so you could make some friends and learn protect yourself. Not dish out unwanted justice like some vigilante."  

"Well, that kid thanked me." Luz argued back as she looked away again.  

"Ay Dios Mio, sweetheart, please. Don't do this to me." Camilia requested, not wanting her daughter to think negative actions could produce positive results.  

She was lucky enough that Luz keep her weirder habits at home and behind closed doors, not to say she didn't love her daughter for who she is but it was a bit much at times.  

"While she did help a student, she did so by harming several others. We cannot condole this type of behavior or let it happen again, next semester. So, Mrs. Noceda, if you don't find a way to rope in your daughter's violent and vigilante attitude, we will have no choice but to expel her from our school." Hal said with a serous tone.  

"Expel?!" Luz and Camilia said in shock as the later removed her hands from her pockets.  

"You can't expel me just for standing up for others!" Luz argued as she stood up from her seat, balling her hands into fists.  

"Maybe not but your methods can get you expelled. And only a few of your fights in the past were in the defense of others." the principal said as he reached into his desk and pulled out a brochure. "If you don't fix this attitude of your's, then this is the future you will be faced with."  

The brochure was army camouflaged and had red letters on the front. 'Military School.'  

"What?!" Luz shouted in more shock, staring at the brouche for Military School with disgust.  

Camilla thought the same thing about the brochure, not wanting to go that far to help her daughter, and was thinking of a better yet less serious solution. A few moments later, she remembering getting something in the mail and thought that it was the solution she needed.  

"Wait, I think I know a place that could work better." Camilia said as she reached into her purse and pulled out a summer camp pamphlet.  

She handed it to the principal as he put the military school brochure down and opened it to read. Luz looked at the title of the pamphlet and immediately reeled back.  

"Reality Check Camp?!" She said in shock as the principal read the motto.  

"Think inside the box. Hm." he said as he rubbed his chin and read a bit more. "Yes, I think this is the perfect alternative to expelling you, little miss Noceda."  

Luz, a young kickboxer, mixed with a boring camp named "Reality Check Camp?!" Only 3 words came to her mind and out of her mouth.  

"Oh. Hell no!" She shouted as she waved her arms to the sides.  

"Luz!" Camilia shouted at her daughter for cursing.  

"You can't send me to that place just for helping someone!" Luz screamed to her mother.  

"I'm sorry, sweetie, but it's either this or military school and we both know I don't want to send you to military school." Camilia said with a sad look on her face.  

With herself being a rock in a hard place, Luz could take military school for the rest of her school life or she could take Reality Camp for the next 3 months on her summer vacation. "Don't worry. It'll be fine"  

The assess her point, Camilia took her daughter by the shoulders and gently pushed her back into the chair while looking at her with caring eyes. Luz hated that look, she knew it was because her mother loved her but it was also a way of begging her to do something without being ordered to do it. Luz let out a sigh in defeat, crossing her arms as she looked away from her mother.  

"Fine." she let out in a low tone.  

Once the meeting with the principal was done and school let out for the summer, Luz was now standing on the sidewalk outside of her house as she waited for the bus for Reality Camp with her satchel on her side and her hands in her pocket. She was frowning in anger at the ground as her mother stepped out of their home.  

"Luz, don't look like that. I'm sure time will go by so fast, you won't even notice." Camilia said as she tried to cheer Luz up from this situation.  

"How? All they'll have us do all day is balance check books and listen to talk radio." Luz said as she turned away and pulled out a book called 'The Good Witch Azura.' and a magazine for kickboxers. "It'll be like an eternity by day 3. I'd rather go to LARPing camp or Kickboxing camp, anywhere other than Reality Check camp."  

"Sweetie, this is the only way to help you keep out of trouble and make some friends. Not rivals that you always want to one up." Camilia said as she gently took the old magazine from Luz and put it in the trash next to her. "I know you were just doing what you thought was right, but there is always a better way then with your fists, do you understand?"  

"Huu. I understand, mom." Luz said with a sigh.  

Camilia then got an alert on her phone for work and quickly left, giving Luz a few kisses on the forehead before she walked away. Luz waited a few moments for her to be a good distance away before reaching back into the trash for her magazine but found that it was gone.  

"What?! Where did it go?" Luz asked before hearing something and looking ahead.  

It was the strangest sight as an owl had a sack in it's mouth and in the sack was Luz's kickboxing magazine.  

"Hey!" Luz shouted at the owl as it began toddling away. "Get back here with my magazine!"  

Luz ran after the owl as it headed into the woods, moving surprisingly fast for a small bird, until she came upon an old house abandoned in the woods. She saw the owl fly into it before running after him again.  

"I ain't gonna play chicken with an owl!" Luz said as she ran into the house, the door shutting behind her before an eerie green flash came from the house.  

Suddenly, in a new location, a doorway appeared and the owl with the sack had walked out with Luz still running after it.  

"Get back here, you little thief!" Luz said before she stopped and looked around the place, a sort of tent filled to the brim with all sorts of weird things. "Whoa, this is kinda freaky...and kinda cool."  

Luz then suddenly heard a voice and calmly moved towards it, peaking post the tent cover to see a woman with a red scarf with white polka dots wrapped around her head standing in front of a table.  

"There you are!" a woman said to the little owl as Luz saw the owl fly on on top of a statff, standing still as the woman started twisting it around until the owl suddenly became wooden.  

Luz let out a gasp as the woman rummaged through the bag for items.  

"Now let's see what you brought me today." she said as she pulled out an Iphone, a diamond ring and a shining golden chalice. "Garbage, garbage, garbage."  

Luz looked at her like she was crazy as she threw those items away like their were nothing before she pulled out springy eye glasses. She gasped at the sight of them before putting them on and seeing the eye spring pop out.  

"Now, this is a treasure worth selling." she said before reaching in and pulling out Luz's kickboxing magazine. "Oh, now this'll make some good kindling."  

The woman held the magazine over a lit candle, letting it burn before Luz gasped and got angry.  

"Hey! Keep your mitts over my magazine!" she said as she ran towards the lady and snatched it from her. "This is rare edition, you can't just burn it!"  

"What the heck, who are you?!" the woman demanded as she looked at Luz.  

"None of your business!" Luz said before she ran back into the tent, aiming to go back through the door that brought her here.  

Her exit was soon shut as the door suddenly folded in on itself into a briefcase and floated into the air.  

"Think again, kid." the lady said as she stepped into the tent, holding a strange key while taking off the googly glasses and showing her serious face.  

Luz didn't stop as she quickly put her magazine in her bag and climbed out from under the tents edge, running away until she found she was at a cliff and stopped while gasping at the sight before her.  

"Oh, damn." she let out as the world before her was that of fantasy and monsters just like in the book series she read, Azura.  

Creatures of all shapes in sizes in a society of their own going about their day, walking to work, purchasing goods from vendors and saying hello to whoever they knew. It was both amazing and frightening to see in real life.  

"Where the hell am I?" Luz asked herself as she back away from the cliff before looking to see a purple little fairy girl flying near her had, causing her to jump a bit." AH! Oh, it's just a fairy. Okay, this has to be a dream. Please tell me this is a dream."  

The fairy just smiled at Luz before it opened it's mouth, showing Luz it was much larger than it shoulder been with teeth completely non corresponding with her size.  

"Give me your skin!" she said to Luz as she flew closer, her maw dripping with drool as she planned to eat Luz's skin.  

"OH HELL NO!" Luz quickly shouted before bringing her fists up and launching a left uppercut to the fairy, sending her flying over the cliff Luz was staring off of. "Okay! This is insane! Either this is a nightmare or I'm dead and in hell!"  

A hand suddenly grabbed her shoulder and caused Luz to knock it off before throwing a high kick to the person who grabbed her, who was the lady from before that quickly back away before the kick could hit her chin.  

"Whoa, Kid! You're not going anywhere." she said as she subconsciously rubbed her chin, feeling some phantom pain from the possible impact.  

"Oh yeah? How are you gonna make me?" Luz asked as she got in a kickboxing stance.  

"Well it's either me or you try and survive out there." the lady said as she pointed towards the civilization that Luz looked over just a moment ago. "See how long you last."  

Luz growled at her, hating that whoever this woman was, was right. She didn't think she would be able to survive, much less get back home without at least some help. So Luz lowered her fists and stop up straight as she glared at the lady.  

"Fine." Luz said before the lady lead her back to the tent front and put her in a stool in front of her tent.  

"Great! Now, how's about you buy some of this wonderful human treasure?!" the woman said as she became like an old time sales person.  

Luz blinked in surprise as the woman began pulling our human items that were not considered treasures. A yellow croc shoe she said was a foot full of holes, a bar of men's gel deodorant she thought was green candy, and finally a small portable TV that she called "a black shadow box the reflects only sadness." It was too much as Luz let out a small chuckle before standing up and taking the TV.  

"This "shadow box" can do more than you think, watch." Luz said as she looked around, finding a small bowl with a "Human Candy?" label on it and took two batteries out of it. "Now watch closely."  

Luz held the TV before the woman before she placed the batteries in and turned it own, showing an old dance aerobics video that seemed to catch the attention of all the creatures around this bazaar. Luz quickly put the TV on the table before stepping away and letting everyone crowd around it. They were transfixed by the image and the TV, bursting with a desire to own it!  

"I'll give you 40 snails for it!" A random creature said while holding up green money that looked like US dollars.  

"I'll give you 100!" another said.  

"Can I eat the tiny person inside?" a third one asked.  

"I'll give you 200!" a fourth voice said as they all held up money and shouted for the box.  

The woman was impressed by Luz's knowledge of human artifacts and loved how it was steering up her business.  

"What did you say your name was?" she asked as she looked to Luz.  

"Luz Noceda." Luz said with a small smirk, putting her hands in her pockets.  

"Well, Luz, I can to admit that was pretty impress. Especially those moves of your's. "the woman said as she began taking the snails from the creatures at her stand. "Well, for a human at least."  

"Human, huh? Well, then tell me, what are you if you don't see yourself as human?" Luz asked with a raised brow.  

"Well, dear kicking and punching child, I am not like you." the woman said before pulling off her scarf and showing Luz her two pointy ears and jumped on the table. "I am the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles, Eda the Owl Lady."  

"A witch? Like a for real witch?" Luz asked as she quickly pulled out her Azura book and looked at the cover, seeing that the hooded old witch looked a lot like Eda.  

"Yes. And I am respected, feared..." Eda said before a shadow made it's way to the front of her stand.  

"Busted." it said in a male voice before it smashed the TV with it's large fist, causing everyone to disperse and run away wile Luz took a step back.  

The large figure that cast the shadow was a man in a hooded tunic with a white wrap over his shoulders, black gloves, black pants with a belt and sword on his right him, and black boots. He also had a large metal cone with eye holes on the sides on his face.  

"Eda the Owl Lady, for your misuse of magic and demonic misdemeanors, you are under arrest!" the burly man, a sort of guard, said as he held up a wanted poster with Eda and a strange black creature on it.  

"Wait, you're a criminal!?" Luz asked as she turned to Eda, quickly shoving her book back in her bag.  

"Yes, she is and she is hereby ordered to come with me to the Conformatorium." the guard said as he grabbed Eda's arm but she pulled her arm away.  

"Would you guards quit hassling me? I haven't done anything!" Eda said as she crossed her arms but the guard didn't listen.  

"And since you're affiliated with her, you're coming too." he said as he held his hand out to grabbed Luz but she slapped it away.  

"Forget it, creep! I'm not going anywhere with you!" she screamed at him as she got into a kickboxing stance.  

"Resistance will only make things harder for you!" the guard said as he tried to grab Luz again but she ducked under his swing.  

Luz then got up and got close, throwing 3 punches into his stomach before delivering a knee kick to the guard's left knee.  

"AH!" he let out as he fell to his knee, the little girl throwing harder hits than he anticipated.  

The guard looked out to Luz and saw her deliver a high kick to his masked face, knocking in Eda's direction as the owl lady pulled out her staff and smacked the guard to the ground.  

"You know what? I'm beginning to like you human." Eda said as looked to Luz.  

Eda then slammed her staff on the ground and caused her table, human objects, and tent to wrap up in a bag and attach to the end of her staff.  

"Now follow me!" Eda said as she dragged Luz away from the guard, who was slowly getting up after the two hits to the head.  

"This is insane! and if I die, I'm gonna haunt your ass!" Luz shouted to Eda, who was still dragging her by her arm.  

"Hey, don't worry kid! After what you showed me at the market, you're much more valuable alive than dead." Eda said to Luz.  

"Than-HEY! I'm not your-" Luz tried to retort before Eda jumped into the air.  

"WOOOO!" she cheered before her staff's owl top unfurled it's wings while its eyes glowed, allowing Eda and Luz to hope on and fly away like a classic witch on a broomstick while the guard caught up and watched them fly away.  

Luz held on for dear life as they flew the landscape of the mysterious place.  

"What the Hell kinda place is this?!" Luz shouted to Eda, hanging on.  

"This is the Boiling Isles, the home to every myth you humans have before it leaked into your world." Eda said as a large griffin flew beside them before spitting out spiders.  

"Wow! This is all actually real?!" Luz said as she looked back to Eda.  

"Yep, you name it." Eda said before counting them off with her fingers. "Griffins, vampires, giraffes."  

"Wait, giraffes are from here?" Luz questioned as she thought of the long necked species.  

"Well, they were until we banished them. Bunch a freaks if you ask me." Eda said as she landed her staff in the woods, dismounting it while Luz stayed on.  

Thee young kickboxer then noticed something on the staff and freaked out a bit before jumping off and stepping back.  

"You call giraffes freaks yet you can detach you limbs!" Luz said as she pointed to Eda's left hand, still gripping her staff.  

"Whoops. That is not intentional." Eda said as she quickly grabbed her hand and put it back on.  

"Well, I think I've experienced enough freaky, fairy tale stuff for one day." Luz said as she walked a head of Eda before turning back to her. "Now, are you gonna send me home or what?"  

Eda pointed her staff at Luz, who caught it with her hand.  

"Only if you do something for me first." Eda said before she laughed and dragged her bag of stuff with her. "This way, human."  

"If you need me to bust somebody up, I'm in." Luz quickly said as she followed, wanting to get the favor over with so she can leave.  

"Well, not now but I'll keep that in mind." Eda said as she lead Luz to a strange yet mystical looking large house made from white brick with a sloping blue roof, a stained glass window above the door gives the impression of a large orange demon eye and most of the house consists of a crumbling stone tower with orange moss growing on it.  

"Nice place but aren't you worried more of those guards will show up?" Luz asked looking around in suspicion.  

"Not at all because my house has a state of the art defense system." Eda said, gesturing to her home before looking to the owl face shaped ornament on the door.  

"Hoot hoot. What is the password?" the ornament asked, revealing itself to be sentient before Eda poked it in the eyes. "AH!"  

"We don't have time for this, Hooty. Just open up." Eda said with Luz stared at the door with a looked of deadpan and surprise.  

"Alright, alright! Never wanna play along, do you?" Hooty said before he opened up and let them inside.  

"Welcome to the Owl House." Eda said as she snapped her fingers, causing the candles in the room to light themselves as a large owl like craving on the ceiling came glowed as well.  

"Nice." Luz commented as she walked and looked around a bit.  

Looking around the inside of the house, Luz saw that it was a mix of mythical and junky as she saw a bunch of human items around the house in boxes.  

"This house is my little hidey hole from the pressures of life, the cops, and a few ex-boyfriends." Eda said with a short laugh and snort.  

"I can agree on that. All this space to yourself?" Luz asked as she turned around to Eda.  

"Well no." Eda said before the room started to shake, causing bit of rubble to fall from the ceiling. "I do have a room mate."  

The shaking continued as Luz turned to a doorway and saw a shadow coming towards them.  

"Who is the fool that dares intrude upon me?" it said with an intimidating voice before it was revealed to be a small creature with a skull head and wrapped in bath towels while holding a rubber duck. "The king of demons?" he said once again but in a high unintimidating voice.  

"Dios mio." Luz said as she slowly walked towards the small creature, a blush on her face as she gently picked it up. "You are the most adorable thing I have ever seen!"  

Luz hugged the small creature to her face as she rubbed her cheek against his. The little creature, the supposed King of Demon, didn't like this hugging and tred to break free.  

"No No! I am not cute, let me go!" he shouted while pushing away from Luz. "Eda! Who is this creature?!"  

"This creature, King, is Luz Noceda the human." Eda said as she pulled Luz away from King. "And she is going to help us with a certain problem. If you get me."  

"Oh, then in that case, welcome." King said as Luz broke away from Eda a bit.  

"So...what's the issue?" Luz asked as she turned to Eda.  

"Here, let me explain." Eda said as she steeped back and waved her fingers in a circle, creating a magic visual as she explained their issue. "King used to be the powerful King of demons until his crown of power was stolen from him, reducing his might to that of the state he is before us." Eda said as Luz looked to him.  

"Yeesh, I feel sorry fro you." Luz quickly said before she went back to listening.  

"The crown was stolen by the evil head of the Conformatorium, Warden Wrath, and placed behind a force field that prevents all magical beings from crossing." Eda said as she stopped her magic visual. "Though we won't be able to pass through, a magicless human such as yourself can slip through easily. If you do this for us, you will be granted safe passage home. So, do we have a deal? And if you're thinking of backing out, can you really say "no" to this face?"  

Eda then held King up by his face and showed him off to Luz, much to his dismay.  

"NO! Do not encourage this, Eda!" Kign said before Eda dropped him back to the floor.  

"Though, it would be pointless since-" Eda said before Luz interrupted her with a hand up.  

"Yeah yeah, I get it. You're my only hope." she said before putting her hand down and sighing, crossing her arms. "Guess, that's a "yes" either way you look at it. So let's get this over with."  

"That's the spirit! Now let's go!" Eda said as she suddenly picked Luz up over her shoulder and walked out of the house.  

"YES!" King cheered as he picked up his rubber duck and ran after Eda. "Soon, I will have my power back, Mr. Ducky, then nothing shall stand in our way!"  

"Okay, you need to seriously learn boundaries, lady!" Luz said as she hated Eda' rough handling. "Also, what is this Conformatorium, anyway?"  

"I'm glad you asked, little human." Eda said as they got on her staff and flew off to the destination.  

A sort of dark fortress surrounded by a tower as the sky was soulless and gray, giving a feeling of dread. As looked up to it, she found herself underwhelmed as she sort of expect this for a "Conformatorium."  

"Hmm, it kinda reminds me of juvie." Luz said with a bored tone.  

"Is this "juvie" a place for those considered unsuitable for society?" Eda asked as she looked to Luz.  

"Yes, it's kinda like preteen prison." Luz said as King was on her head, remembering a brief stay at juvie back home.  

"Then that's something the Conformatorium has in common." Eda said as she rolled her eyes.  

Luz then noticed a the same wanted poster that guard had a while ago on the wall next to her and stared at it.  

"Wow, they must really hate you to have this high a price." Luz commented as she took it down and gazed at the amount of zeroes on the poster, 12 to be exact.  

"Hmm, I like to call it desire me but they can never catch us because were slippery." Eda said with a wink.  

"Yep yep. Just try to catch me when I'm covered in grease! It can't be done. MYEH!" King said as he pointed to himself before jumping off Luz's head, pointing towards the Conformatorium tower.. "You and me are gonna sneak to the top where my crown is!"  

"While I distract the warden, so you two can get the crown." Eda said as she gestured to herself.  

"Hmm, alright. I can do that but first, I gotta hide my face." Luz said as she put the poster in her bag and pulled up her hood, adjusting it so it hides her face in shadows but show her mouth. "How do I look?"  

"Mysterious and creepy." King said as he looked up to her.  

"Yep, you'll fit in." Eda said before she tapped her staff on the ground, creating a glowing platform for King and Luz. "Hang on to your butts."  

Eda stepped back as the platform rose them up and towards window to the Conformatorium before it suddenly vanished and caused them to fall, if not for Luz grabbing the edge of the window and King grabbing Luz. Eda just smirked as she made her staff fly and sat on it with a lazy demeanor.  

"Meet you guys at the top." she said with her eyes closed as she flew.  

"You god damn witch!" Luz cursed in angry as she held on for her life as King used her to climb into the building.  

The girl groaned at the little demon before she climbed up and landed in a crouch on the floor.  

"Took you long enough." King said with snark before threw a backhand into his face, stopping right before his eyes as he flinched in fear.  

"Don't test me. Just because you're cute, doesn't mean you won't make me angry." Luz said with narrowed eyes to King before she got up and walked forward, taking in the number of cages inside the tower prison.  

King hopped on her shoulder as she stopped at the edge and looked down all the way to the bottom.  

"High tower." Luz commented before hearing something.  

"Hey, hooded girl." a female voice said as Luz and King turned to see a woman with black hair in a high pony, notorious fangs, and green eyes wearing a yellow choker, purple dress with sleeves, stockings, and black boots, in a cell with her arms crossed. "How'd you get out of your cell?"  

"Well fro one thing, I'm actually broke in, so I'm not a criminal here." Luz said as she kept her hood up.  

"Not yet, you're not." King said as he sat on her shoulder.  

"The crazy warden likes the lock people up just because their a little different or weird." she said as she turned to Luz and pulled out a book, opening it to show Luz her writing and pictures. "Like I like to write fanfiction of food falling in love. That's not criminal is it?"  

"No, it's actually pretty interesting." Luz said as she leaned in towards the book.  

"I'm here cuz I like to eat my eye balls." from the cell next to the fanfiction writer, said a large male creature with blue pants on and 5 eyeballs, 2 spots being empty before he suddenly ate one of his eyes and instantly grew it back.  

"Okay, that is a bit weird but everyone has different tastes. You shouldn't be in jail for it, some things are just taste different to others than you." Luz said as she looked at the man monster.  

"We are agents of free expression! Our voices will never be contained!" shouted a small female voice from the other cell next to the fanfiction writer, a small round creature with large blueish eyes, a rather prominent nose, and reddish hair. She's practically just a head with no body, with her limbs coming out of it.  

"She's a real conspiracy buff, can't get enough of them." the fanfiction writer said as she rolled her eyes, but internally she didn't deny the free expression claim.  

"Reality is just a simulation! We are but pawns of a higher cause!" she said while grabbing her cell bars.  

"Okay, now that sounds like something from my home but these crimes are ridiculous! You didn't do anything wrong!" Luz said as she began pacing in front of them before stopping and realizing something. "You were just doing what what your heart felt was right, even if other people hated it. Like...me."  

Luz pulled out Eda's poster and gazed at it, wondering if she really was a criminal or someone who was just misunderstood. A loud rumble soon took Luz out of her thought as it came at a steady pace and got closer to a door she saw.  

"Oh no! It's Warden Wrath!" the fanfiction writer said as she turned to Luz. "You need to hide! Quick!"  

Luz looked around for a place to hide before seeing an open cell right next to the tiny nosed monster and quickly went in, shutting the bars down before stepping into the back left corner to hide. There she waited with sweat building on her brow as he began walking towards the other prisoners. Revealing himself to be a large, humanoid muscular build. He wore a hood and a mask with yellow button-like lenses that resembles a plague doctor, a white sleeveless tunic with brass buttons, a leather belt with a brass buckle, and black trousers tucked into dark purple shoes. There was also a triangular brass badge on his right pectoral.  

"I can hear you." he said as he looked to his prisoners. "What are you fools talking about?"  

The warden looked down and saw a wanted poster of Eda on the floor, the one that Luz dropped when she ran to hide.  

"Eda the owl lady." he said as he picked up the poster and crushed it in his fist before shape shifting his hand into a hammer and slamming it into Luz's cell bars. "Your capture will be soon. I promise you that."  

The warden looked in the cell and saw Luz inside, her face still concealed as she hide a cowering King behind her.  

"We will never truly be captured! Freedom shall always be within our grasp against the oppressors and we will never be afraid of you, you giant creep!" the tiny nose monster said as she got Warden Wrath's attention, making him turn his hand back to normal before he walked over to her cell.  

He then randomly pulled the handle next to her cell door up and freed her.  

"Freedom. Hurray!" she cheered before Wrath suddenly grabbed her in his hand, shutting her mouth as he moved from her cell.  

"Let this be a lesson, you criminals, you will never find a place in society if you don't fit in." he said as he crushed the tiny monster a bit, getting a short squeak of pain from her.  

He then walked back to the door he came from with the tiny monster still in hand to teach her a lesson, crushing the poster he crumbled and dropped before under his foot. Luz waited until the door closed before she opened her cell and want over to the two monsters left.  

"Don't worry guys. I'm gonna get you out of here!" Luz said as she came to the fanfiction writer's cell handle, tried to push it up to free her. "UGH! Come on!"  

Her efforts began to show as she was able to move it slowly before she stopped to rest.  

"Just get out of here while you can, kid. At least one of us will be free." the fanfiction writer said as she turned away from Luz, closing her eyes as she gave up on escape before it could even happen.  

Luz looked at her in shock, not believing she would just give up so easily before she clenched her fists and looked to her with fury.  

"I'm not giving up on you, I'll be back." she said before turning and walking away, heading towards the contraband room where King's crown was being held.  

Along the way, King decided to walk for himself and jump off of Luz's shoulder before Eda came flying in on her staff.  

"Hey, good news, the warden is busy torturing some tiny creature so we should be good to get the crown and beat it." she said as she jumped off her staff but was ignored as Luz had an angry look on her face and walked past her.  

She was soon brought face to face with a large, decorative door with the word "CONTRABAND" spelled out on it.  

"My crown, I can sense it!" King said as he ran to the door, scratching up to the doorknob before jumping on it.  

"Aww, ain't it just adorable when he's like this?" Eda asked Luz but saw she was gushing like last time with the angry look still on her face. "Hey, what's up with you, kid? You've been quieter than before."  

"This place, makes me sick." Luz said as she stepped forward and grabbed King from the doorknob.  

"Hey!" he said before Luz threw him to Eda, who caught him.  

"This place, these laws. It's all wrong. They're not criminals just for being different, just for doing what they felt was right to them." Luz said as she slowly clenched her fists. "Why...does everyone think that just because they act differently...THAT THEY NEED TO CHANGE TO FIT IN?!"  

Luz raised her right leg up high and brought it down on the doorknob, busting it off the door with an axe kick before she used her left to kick door open. Inside the room was only a large tube of light as the rest of the room was barren in all but the wall designs.  

"Let's go." Luz said as she walked forward, jerking off her hood as Eda and King held each other in a bit of fear.  

"Remind me not to make her mad." King quickly said to Eda as she carried him inside.  

"So, I just walk in, get the crown and we leave?" Luz asked Eda.  

"Yeah, pretty much. And since your a human, you won't get hurt by the barrier." Eda said as Luz nodded to her.  

Luz walked towards the barrier and took a breath, going through with only a bit of worry she'd get hurt even with Eda's confidence it wouldn't hurt. After passing through, she gazed at the large mountain of confiscated treasures from so many people before seeing a crown on top.  

"There it is." she said before she began to climb up the mountain towards it.  

Once she reached he top, Luz immediately stopped and gazed at the crown in curiosity.  

"You gotta be kidding me." Luz said to herself as she took the crown and climbed back down to the barrier, knocking over a smaller piles near the edge before exiting and walking to Eda with the crown. "THIS is his crown of power?"  

The crown in Luz's hands wasn't that of gold and jewel but of paper and white ink with a logo of a local fast food chain on it, "Burger Queen."  

"Yes, that it!" King said as ran and took the crown, placing it on his head. "Yes, YES! My powers are returning!"  

Luz and Eda simply watched as King went over to the knocked over pile and pulled out a stuffed bunny he named "Francois."  

"That thing's just for show isn't it?" Luz guessed as she looked to Eda.  

"Uh, yeah." Eda said as she looked to Luz, who was deadpanning her. "Okay, look here Luz. King and I, we don't have much in in life to call our own but we have each other. So if that dumb crown is important to him, it's important to me. And besides, we all follow our hearts no matter what. Even if it leads us to trouble but sometimes it can us to those who can we can understand, you get it?"  

Luz looked to Eda with surprise before she smiled at bit, understanding that even if it's a stupid or reckless reason they followed did what they knew was good for themselves or others.  

"Yeah, I get it." Luz said with a smile.  

"Good and now that you've helped us, we can vamous before the warden gets here and he loses his head." Eda said but unknown to her, Warden Wrath was coming right behind her with two guards behind him.  

Luz, however, did notice.  

"EDA, LOOKOUT!" she screamed to her but it was too late as Warden Wrath changed his hand into a blade and sliced Eda's head off, having Luz catch it on instinct. "HOLY GOD!"  

She held Eda's head at a distance, seeing her look dead but no blood spraying anywhere. Eda's head then blinked before she screamed in pain.  

"OW! I hate that!" she said, somehow still alive and deadpanning.  

"(bleep)!" Luz screamed as she gazed at the still living Eda. "HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?!"  

"Oh calm down, kid! This just happens when you get old." Eda said causally as Luz held her head.  

"Not where I'm from!" Luz said as she held Eda up to her face.  

"Huh?" Eda half asked in curiosity.  

"After so long, I finally have you, Eda." Warden Wrath said as he shifted his hand back to normal and walked towards them, taking King "crown of power" and held it above his head.  

"WAH?!" He let out before jumping to reach his crown while Eda's body crawled around in the background.  

"I knew if I took something precious to you little minion, you would come willingly instead of escaping my guards." he said before he crushed the paper crown in his hand.  

"NO! My crown of power!" King said before he fell to his knees crying.  

"Just what do you want with Eda so badly that you'd do all this!?" Luz asked as she held Eda's head to her chest.  

"Yeah, I haven't broken any of your lame laws. With you knowing." Eda said as she glared up to him.  

"What I wanted, Eda..." Warden Wrath said as he reached behind his back and pulled out a bouquet of flowers while getting on a knee. "Is for you to go out with me."  

"What?" Eda let out in confusion.  

"What what?!" Luz said in even more confusion.  

"Yeah! Go boss!" the guards behind him cheered.  

"For as long as I've known about you, you've always eluded our capture. Always finding a way to get out of even the worst situations." Warden Wrath said as he leaned in a bit. "I find that enticing in a woman."  

"I-Wu-Ya-" Luz said in gibberish before shaking her head and yelling, "ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS RIGHT NOW?! THAT IS THE MOST ASININE AND RIDICULOUS LOVE CONFESSION I HAVE EVER HEARD!"  

"Mind you place, kid!" Warden Wrath said as he threw the flowers away, shifting his hand into tentacles before launching them at Luz.  

The human girl quickly jumped to her left, grabbing King, and dodging the loved crazed monster warden. After rolled in to a landing, Luz quickly dropped King and handed Eda's head to him before standing in front of them in her kickboxing stance.  

"Luz, what are you doing? You can't really be serious about fighting, are you?!" Eda screamed to her as King held her head. "We can just think of something else!"  

"Sorry, Eda but I can't." Luz said as she turned an eye to her. "Like you said, I gotta follow me heart."  

Luz turned back to Warden Wrath and charged at him, throwing a punch to his stomach as he retracted his tentacles. The warden barely moved as he looked down to Luz.  

"Do you really think you can beat me?!" he said to Luz as he raised his left hand, shifting it into a hammer and bringing it down to crush Luz.  

The human girl dodged to her left, barely dodging the hit before she moved to his ride side. She began punching and kicking his stomach and legs while moving around him as Warden Wrath just stood there and took the damage.  

"Urgh! I told you, it's pointless!" Warden Wrath said before throwing a kick, but Luz jumped to dodge and kicking him in his plague mask.  

The kick her just a bit and annoy Warden Wrath as he growled and reached for Luz, grabbed her in the air and slamming her into the ground.  

"AH!" Luz screamed in pain before Wrath shifted his hand into tentacles to hold Luz and pull her back up.  

"Now, what is your choice, Owl Lady? Come to me and be my girl or watch as the small girl that fought for you suffer?" Warden Wrath said as he turned to Eda's head in King's hands. "No much of a choice here, is it?"  

Eda looked between Warden Wrath, the love crazed law man that did all of this just for a relationship with a criminal, and Luz, the small human girl that did nothing but try to help them after she dragged her into this. She might not show it much but Eda does have some humanity and she knew it would be required in this moment.  

"Alright, Warden. Come over here." Eda said with a sigh. "I'd like to tell you something first."  

"Good." Warden Wrath said as he walked over to her, Luz still struggling in pain in his grip.  

He leaned down and took her head from King before waiting for her to say what she wanted to say.  

"A little closer." Eda said as Wrath did what she asked. "A little closer still. A little bit closer, yeah that's perfect."  

"But instead of saying something, Eda just blew her tongue in his mask covered face and spit in it.  

"GAH! Impudent witch!" Wrath said as he let Luz go and wiped his mask, getting the spit off it while Eda laugh. "Do you have any idea how many germs are in a person's mouth?"  

"Oh blow it out your air hole! You had your guards stalk me, you cut off my head, and you think still think I would date you after you hurt my friends?" Eda said as he held her by her hair. "Get this through your head, I will never go out with you!"  

"Well, Eda, if you don't accept my offer, then I-" Wrath tried to say he was suddenly hit in the side of the head. "OW!" Who did that!?"  

Wrath spun around just in time to see Luz, holding Eda's staff, and was swung in the face to the ground.  

"That was for earlier, you ass!" Luz shouted at him.  

"Nice hits, kid!" Eda cheered before noticing the two guards from before were standing over her head, until her body suddenly sprung up and pulled their hoods over their eyes.  

"Alright, let's go!" Luz shouted as she ran, picking up King, Eda's head, and grabbing the arm of her body to drag it.  

She placed Eda's staff in a take off position after everyone got on, seeing the owl on top unfurl it's wings.  

"Get moving, stick!" Luz shouted to it before punching it, causing it to suddenly take off with everyone holding on.  

As the trio flew through the Conformatorium, they rounded back to the cells holding the wrongly imprisoned trio. With the tiny nosed female back in her cell with a black eye.  

"Eda, can your body give me a hand?!" Luz asked as she raised her right hand.  

"You heard the lady!" Eda ordered her body is it raised it's right hand and cupped it oh Luz's.  

Luz quickly opened all their cells before they flew out the main down, descending down to a lower floor before they hoped off the staff.  

"Why are we stopping?! we need to be running!" King said as he gestured to the sky to fly away.  

"I am not flying with some witch's head in my arms anymore! It's creepy!" Luz said before she jammed Eda's head back on her body, though it was backwards.  

"Uh, kid?" Eda let out.  

"Just spin it around and let's-" Luz tried to say before someone big landed a few feet from them.  

A dusk cloud kicked up as the trio turned to it and saw Warden Wrath before them, back on his feet and shifting his hands into blades again. Eda quickly spun her head back around and quickly pulled out the key to her magic doorway.  

"Luz, go back home!" Eda said as she handed Luz the key.  

"You can't just expect to leave you with him?!" Luz shouted to Eda.  

Eda grabbed Luz by her hood and put her on her staff, slapping the handle and making it fly off with her on it!  

"WHOA!" Luz screamed as she flew off, looking back to see Eda and King trying to fight Warden Wrath. "I don't care if it is dangerous, I'm not gonna leave you guys behind!"  

Luz gripped the staff by the wing and made it stop in mid air.  

"Take me back, now!" Luz said as she made it turn back around to help them.  

Luz released the wing and let the staff fly on it's own, right towards Warden Wrath. She screamed in defiance as she jumped off the staff towards him.  

"Yo, ugly!" Luz screamed to him, causing Warden Wrath to look up to her. "Kiss my foot!"  

The warden was soon met with a flying kick to the face and send him stumbling back. The warden shook his head before growling to the human, ripping his mask off to reveal a large toothy maw and small beady eyes. He roared at Luz, unleashing a stream of fire at her.  

"Duck, kid!" Eda shouted to her as Luz ducked under the fire.  

Eda quickly drew a spell circle to let in the flames before moving and drawing another, launching them back to Warden Wrath as he flew into the wall away from them.  

"Nice!" Luz said as she got up and gave a thumbs up to Eda, who ran past her to fight Warden Wrath.  

Luz watched the warden get back up to fight and run to them before noticing the wall the warden collided with had a hole in it, with the other prisoners she freed gazing out of it. She quickly went over to them, heading right for Warden Wrath before sliding under him while Eda got his attention again.  

"What are you standing around for? You're free, hurry and get out of here!" Luz said as she pointed to the left, telling them to run.  

"What's the point? The warden will just catch us again in no time." the eye eater said, with all his eyes regrown.  

"We belong here." The fanfiction writer said as she frowned to Luz.  

"Doubt is the only prison you could never escape, for it is always your prison." Tiny Nose said as she looked down in doubt.  

The other two agreed with her as Luz lowered her hand and sighed.  

"Look, I get it. You do things differently than others would, you do thinks that make you seem crazy or stupid, but that's what make you you! It's what makes everyone unique in their own way!" Luz said as she raised her fist in the air.  

"Why are you so determined to help us?" the fanfiction writer asked.  

"Cause I'm no different than you. I think with actions some times and that's fine, as long as my heart's in the right place, nothing's gonna stop me!" Luz said as she smashed her fists together. "So what do you say, are you guys with me!?"  

They all seemed to agree with her as they cheered and stepped out of the hole in the wall.  

"Then let's show that warden who he's messing with!" Luz said as she spun around and charged at Warden Wrath, the three unjustly imprisoned citizens behind her as they saw Eda and King were cornered by Wrath and two guards.  

Their battle cries seem to catch his attention as he was about to slice down on Eda and King with two blade hands.  

"Huh?" he let out as he turned his head to them.  

"Eat it!" Luz said as she jump to him, stepping on his stomach to grab Wrath's hood and deliver a knee to his jaw while the others tackled him away from Eda and King.  

"Luz!" Eda said in shock from the human and prisoner's attack.  

The fanfiction writer and Luz repeatedly punch Wrath in his monstrous face as the 5 eyed creature continued to tackle him.  

"I eat my eyes!" he shouted!  

"I think the world is rectangular!" Tiny Nose said as ran around and tripped Wrath with her body.  

"And I write fanfiction!" the writer said as they all held Wrath down and tied his tentacle like arms together in a bow before flipping him on his stomach.  

"Not so tough now, are you?" Luz asked as she stepped off Wrath and stood in front of him.  

"GRR! Just who the heck do you think you are!?" Wrath demanded as he looked up to Luz.  

"The name is Luz Noceda, the kickboxer!" Luz said as the wind blew through her hair and hood. "Now say good night!"  

Luz took several steps back before charging at Wrath, running as fast as she could before she cartwheeling and jumping into the air. She spun in a wheel before delivering a devastating axe kick to the top of Wrath's head, knocking him out.  

The former prisoner trio cheered as the two guards picked Wrath up and carried him back into the Conformatorium to get medical attention.  

"Impressive." Eda said as she walked up to Luz with King on her shoulder.  

"Thanks." Luz said as she crossed her arms.  

"And that was probably the best out of all Eda's break ups." King commented.  

"It wasn't a break up since he wasn't my boyfriend. Now let's get out of here." Eda said before they all hopped on her staff and flew back to the owl house.  

After returning to the owl house, Eda place her staff on the table and turned to Luz.  

"Well, a deal's a deal, kid. You can go home." Eda said as she snapped her fingers, making the key she gave to Luz float back to her before she clicked it like a button.  

The doorway that brought her to the Boiling Isles soon opened up behind and waited for Luz to open it to return home, but as Luz turned to it, she felt a bit of hesitation before turning back to them and seeing King's crestfallen expression.  

"Hey, King, about your crown." Luz said as she turned and walked to him, opening her bag and pulling out the crumbled up crown. "I snatched it up before we left, I know it's not in the best condition but a king should never be without his crown."  

Luz uncrumbled the crown and set it on his head, smiling a bit at him.  

"It is not perfect, but it is mine." King said as he smiled up to Luz.  

"Thanks kid and take care." Eda said to her.  

"Yeah, I will." Luz said as she turned to the door, pulling out the brochure for Reality Check camp , Azura book and her kickboxing magazine. She gazed at the three in silence before she looking at the quote on the magazine.  

"You only live once, you might as well be a badass!" it said.  

'Only live once, huh?' Luz thought before looking to her Azura book, seeing a confident witch with her two companions behind her.  

Luz looked up for a moment and saw a mirror behind the door, reflecting her with Eda and King standing right behind her. Just like Azura and her friends. Suddenly, an idea came to mind.  

"Hey, guys. I know today wasn't exactly what any of us imagined it would be but if i'm being honest, it was the most fun I've had in my life. Even more than winning my fist junior kickboxing tournament." Luz said as she turned to Eda and King, who were silent and listened to the human. "Look, I don't fit in much at home cause I think more with my heart and gut than with my head, and you guys don't fit in that well here either. So maybe, we could all fit together? And maybe, I could learn something here?"  

"Learn something? Like magic?" Eda joked as Luz took the brochure for Reality Check camp and crushed it in her hand.  

"Yeah, learn magic. Maybe even become a witch like you." Luz suggested as she put everything back in her bag.  

"What's going on here?" Eda questioned while looking at Luz like she's crazy. "Human can not be witches, everyone knows that."  

"Maybe you only think that because you don't know of a single human that's tried yet." Luz countered as she looked up to Eda, putting her hands in her pockets. "You teach me to be a witch, I'll help you with stuff like earlier with your human trinkets stand. Deal?"  

King jumped on Eda's shoulder as the owl lady was thinking about it.  

"Say yes, say yes!" he said to her before whispering. "She might know how to make snacks." 
"Hmm, well if you did stay, you could help me keep this goofball out of the cupboards." Eda said as she took King off her shoulder. "All right. I'll teach you how to be a witch. but you gotta do what I say to the letter, understand?" 

"Whatever you say, teach." Luz said before she suddenly hugged them, much to Eda and King's discomfort. 
"Too tight! Too tight!" King shouted in the hug. 
"Okay what are you doing?" Eda questioned. 

"It's called a hug. Deal with it." Luz said before letting go.  

Eda then showed Luz to a room where she'd be staying for the time being, letting her unfurled her red and black sleeping bag before laying down on it. Luz sighed in relaxation before she felt her phone vibrate, pulling it out to see a text from her mother.  

'Are you liking summer camp?' it read, causing Luz to groan before being sad and feeling guilty that she would be lying to her over the phone.  

A cleared thought sound was heard before Luz looked up to see King standing in the door way with a stuffed rabbit in his arms.  

"Your sleep cocoon looks fluffy." he said, not looking at her.  

"Hehe. Get a spot, ya cute little demon." Luz said, gesturing King to come in.  

The little demon smiled at the human and walked in, settling himself at the foot of her sleeping bag before going to sleep. Luz turned back to her phone and typed something that was honest yet also a lie about the subject.  

'I think I can get used to this place.' she wrote before sending the next and going to sleep herself.  

Chapter Text

In the Owl House, Luz slept in peace as everything that happened the previous day rewound in her mind. The chase for her kickboxing magazine, meeting Eda, learning that magic was real, and the Conformatorium before she woke up and looked around to see she was in the room given to her by Eda for her stay here.

"So, it was all real." she said as she looked to see King still sleeping on her sleeping back, smiling at him before getting up to stretch and heading to the window in the room to open it, gazing at the horizon. "Good morning, crazy magical world."

"Good morning, little girl." said a random, green, multi eyed creature from the ocean that waved to Luz before sinking back into the ocean.

"Yikes." Luz let out as she reeled back in a small shudder.

Before showering, Luz decided to walk downstairs and see what she could check out the kitchen to see what's for breakfast.

"Huh? Looks almost like a normal kitchen back home." Luz commented before she saw the fridge and went to check it out, opening it to see a whole box full of strange looking food and drinks that she didn't recognize or want to. "Okay, this is NOT a normal kitchen."

She then decided to close the fridge and find the bathroom so she can get ready for the day, hopefully starting her day of right so she could get on with her first lesson in magic from Eda.

After finding the bathroom, hitting an intruding Hooty who could stretch from the door, Luz went back downstairs to wait for Eda to come down. Eventually, Eda did come down in a plum sweater with amber cuffs, a stained, long, violet nightgown, and light yellow bunny slippers.

"Morning, teach. I'm ready and waiting for my first lesson." Luz said, fully clothed and calm while being extremely eager inside but she had to play to cool.

A good skill she picked up from her Kickboxing lessons, keeping calm and rational.

"Uh huh. And who are you again?" Eda asked as she cleaned out her ear and flicked what she got out away.

Luz's face twitched a little at her words before realizing that not everyone is a morning person, but it still stung a bit as Eda walked past her to the kitchen.

"Um, my name is Luz Noceda. Kickboxing human girl? The one that saved your butt at the Conformatorium? And the one that you agreed to teach magic?" Luz said as she walked behind Eda with her arms crossed. "Ringing any bells?"

Eda groaned from the questioning as she rubbed her head and continued watching.

"I need my apple blood." Eda mumbled as she walked into the kitchen, heading to the fridge and opening it to pull out a normal looking mug filled with the alleged "apple blood."

"Apple blood? Is that like apple juice?" Luz asked with slight hope it was.

"No." Eda said before taking a sip of it and showing Luz the contents. "See?"

It was in fact blood going from the way it moved and the irony smell hitting her nose.

"Okay, gonna try and ignore the fact that you drink blood." Luz said as Eda went to the table, where King was sitting with a plate of green goo and eyeballs, and sat on it. "What's the plan for today, Eda? Learning a spell, doing chores, or learning about old texts? Come on, teach, I'm your student here."

"Okay kid, just calm down with your questions." Eda said as she held up a hand to stop Luz's talking. "Becoming a witch takes time, it's not something you can just learn over night."

"I assumed so, everything takes time. So when exactly do I know I've become a witch, will I get a staff like your's?" Luz asked as Eda looked more awake now, thanks to her apple blood.

"Smart kid." Eda said while pulling her mug away and having a blood mustache, sipping it away before holding out her left hand. "Magic staff, to me!"

The trio waited in the kitchen as a plethora of crashes and things breaking was heard as Luz looked to the door and saw Eda staff flying to her and smack her in the head.

"What the hell?" Luz commented as Eda recoiled in pain, laughing a small bit..

Eda rubbed her head a bit before she picked up her staff and twirled it to her side.

"It's early." she said to Luz.

"Still..." Luz said before Eda poked her forehead.

"Save your questions for later. Now, a witch is awarded her staff after completing the necessary school route but with me, you're going to be doing something completely different." Eda I said as she crossed her arms behind her back.

"What kind of approach?" Luz asked as Eda leaned forward a bit.

"Hard work." She said to Luz before dropping a burlap sack full of bottle in front of her. "Now follow me."

Luz nodded to the witch before she picked up the sack and threw it over her shoulder, carrying it as she followed Eda through the owl house.

"I run a few businesses here and there, like the stand you saw full of human treasures that little Owlbert drags over from your realm." Eda said as she stopped in front of a fire place and picked up a toy sword, clicking the button.

"I shall smite my enemies!" The sword said as the blade glowed a bit. "For ages 6-11."

Eda tossed the sword away before pointing towards the sack she gave Luz.

"But my main business is brewing the finest of homemade elixirs and potions around." Eda said before pointing to Luz, right in her face. "And that is where you come in, my little delivery girl."

"Okay, I guess." Luz said while shrugging.

"Good, now follow me again." Eda said as she lead Luz upstairs and to a balcony. "Today, you'll be delivering packages and potions to that town there, Bonesborough."

Pointing with her staff, Eda showed Luz a large city like village across the horizon with large rib bones next to it and a bone like structure looming over the town.

"Dios Mio." Luz said at the sight of the town from the horizon.

"I don't know what you said but be warned, I have rivals all over that want to take me and my business down. And since you're my delivery girl, they'll go for you too but I've got confidence you can handle yourself with all those fighting moves of your's. So are you up for it, kid?" Eda said to Luz as she put a hand on her hip.

"Well, it sounds a little too crazy for a delivery girl but I like a challenge, so you can count on me, teach." Luz said with a smile while giving Eda a two finger salute with her free left hand.

The duo then walked back to the front door of the owl house and Luz stepped out with Eda watched her leave.

"Alright, just a few more things. Never trust a man who wears sandals, always measure twice and cut once, and be sure to be back before sunset or face doom!" Eda said with a cheery smile and tone before shutting the door.

"Have a nice trip, Luz!" Hooty added with a normal tone.

"Ooooookay." Luz said before walking away from the house with the sack as Eda watched her leave from the window next to the door.

"Don't worry about her. She's tough. I think she can take it." King commented on Luz's capabilities as he laid on a chest near the door.

"Maybe, but she'll need a guide to help her and that's why you'll be going with her." Eda said as she pointed to him, who looked like he was going to argue about it before Eda quickly said. "Or do you want to start paying me rent to live here?"

King groaned in furstration before accepted his job.

"Fine!" he said as he got up from his spot, the perfect spot for him to sleep in his opinion, and ran to catch up with Luz. "Hey human!"

His call out caused Luz to stop her walking into town and turn to see him running to him.

"Eda said you need a local guide, so I have to tag along!" King shouted to her.

"Oh good, I thought she was just gonna leave me clueless on these runs." Luz said as King stopped next to her and began climbing up to her right shoulder to ride on.

"Let's get this over with!" King said as Luz walked back into town and began delivering/selling the elixirs and potions Eda brewed up.

As she delivered the potions, Luz quickly found out that this could've gone better. MUCH better, it could've been more of people wanting to buy Eda's potions and less people wanting to touch her weirdly or eat her. All the while she tried not to get angry and knock them out, she didn't want to make the most power witch that was her teacher angry by beating away her customers.

"Well, this task has been a load of crap." Luz commented as she and King sat in a sidewalk, the little demon was eating a "notdog" made of bugs and other strange things while Luz just ate a normal bun from a close by stand. "Behind all the crazy cool weirdness of this place, it's either cannibalistic or rude."

"Yeah. Humans are NOT well liked here." he commented as he ate his food.

"I at least thought this would be more magical, like finding some rare object while we were making deliveries." Luz said as she and King finished their food. "Kickboxing helped me see that it's not all fairy tales and magic glitter in this world or mine but I hoped for some wonder. Like some magical quest."

"Sorry to disappoint you, Luz but there's no random witch or wizard that's going to be dressed like some grand master of magic around here." King said while pointing to the Notdog vender, who was a blob of green goo with a visible brain and eyes while wearing a cap.

"Yeah, I guess but I'm glad this is almost over. Maybe tomorrow I'll get a real magic lesson." Luz said as she got up and picked up sack of potions and elixirs. "We've got one last drop off and then we can head back."

The duo made their way down a poor looking alley way before they got to a tarp at the end of it.

"Alright, let's see who's the luckily customer her-" Luz said before pulling the tarp back and freezing in surprising. "Holy hell!"

Standing before them was a large and lavish castle with beams of sun light shining down on it from above giving it a shine of presentation like what she'd seen in movies.

"Okay, now this is straight out of my Azura books!" Luz said as they walked to the large door and saw a doorbell on the side. "Even comes with a doorbell."

King immediately felt very uneasy about this place as Luz rang the bell, hearing it ring like a normal doorbell from back home. The large doors suddenly opened by themselves as Luz and King looked inside.

"Luz, whatever you're thinking, don't. Houses like these usually belong to huge weirdos." King said as he wanted to leave this place.

"Back home, eccentric types are always a bit weird but we still gotta deliver this order." Luz said as she walked inside the large castle, King didn't want to wait outside by himself so he followed Luz in and stuck close. "Anyone here? I've got a special package from the owl lady!"

As Luz looked around the darkened interior, she saw lights suddenly appear around the room in the form of torches and allow her to see that she and King were standing in a large library and a portrait of the castle owner was displayed on the wall above a large staircase. It was a wizard with a long white beard and a blue robe with stars on it along with a matching pointy hat.

'He looks like he jumped right out of a fairy tale.' Luz thought of the picture before the real life wizard made himself known and walked from the top of the steps, looking down at Luz with a smile.

Though it was friendly, Luz couldn't help but fell it held an alternate motive. Just like the confident smiles or smirks from her kickboxing matches.

"Hello, young lady." he said as he walked down.

"Holy crap." Luz said in shock, gently putting down the sack of potions as the man walked down to him.

"Luz, remember what I said." King reminded her.

"I know, I know but still." She said back, keeping her guard up as the wizard reached the bottom of the steps.

"Who might you be with eyes full of wonder?" The man asked Luz.

"I'm Luz." she said slowly.

"Well, pardon my gaze, but I sense something unique about you, miss." The wizard said before stepping back and drawing a magic circle, summoning two chair and a table full of tea and snacks. "Would join me for a cup of tea?"

"I...don't know if I should, sir. I should really be getting back." Luz said as King jumped on her shoulder.

"Yeah, the boss gets ticked if we don't come right back after we'r-" King agreed before his stomach loudly growled, showing that he was still hungry even after that Notdog.

"A good delivery person must never return on an empty stomach, at least have a small bite before you leave." The wizard said as he gestured towards all the snack on the table.

"Well...we can at least stay for a quick bite." Luz said as she picked up the delivery and walked to the table, setting it down as a King jumped off her shoulder and dug into the snack.

And though he enjoyed the treat, King still didn't trust the guy. He still thought this guy was a weirdo and he didn't trust just any weirdos, not like the punch happy, Luz, and owl lady, Eda.

'But Luz seems to like him, so naive.' King thought

Even if her fighting instincts were screaming at her not to trust him, she sat and talked with him but kept her guard up.

"Now young miss, I heard that Eda herself delivered her goods instead of a delivery girl." The wizard said to Luz.

"Well, yeah but I'm her new apprentice so she has me to do deliveries. For now any way." Luz said as she took a snack and ate it, the last one since King had eaten the rest.

"Hmm, and how are you finding your stay here as Eda's new ward?" The wizard asked as he stroked his bed.

"Well, Mr..." Luz said.

"Adegast." He answered for her.

"It's been...enlightening to say the least. I'm not trying to get my hopes up for a magical quest right off the bat but I wouldn't mind going on one." Luz admitted to the wizard as she tossed her snack up and down like a ball.

"I see. Well then, would you like one?" He asked her as Luz looked up to him, getting her attention as she caught her snack in her hand.

King got up from the table and pulled Luz aside to whisper in her ear.

"Careful. Wizards can be shifty." he whispered to her.

"I get it but still, I kinda wanna see what's got." Luz said as she saw Adegast pulled out a scroll from his beard and unrolled it in front of her.

"There lies a prophecy that states that a young grave girl shall save this world from a great evil by claiming the legendary, Celestial Staff." He said before handing Luz the scroll. "Human or not, perhaps that girl is you."

"Me, huh?" Luz said with half caution, thinking this was just like a fantasy series back home.

A bit TOO much like it.

"But be wary, it is fought with peril and dangers. And I need to know if you believe you can handle it." Adegast said as he put his hands behind his back.

"No, no she can't! And since we're full we can leave now!" King said as he grabbed Luz and dragged her out of the castle. "So long, Mr. Gast!"

"Adagast, little friend." The wizard corrected as he waved them good bye to the duo, seeing the scroll he gave Alex still in her hand.

After King and Luz, who ripped her hand from him and warned him not to do that again, returned to the owl house, the human girl was currently in her closet/room looking over the map and mentally debating if it was real or not.

'I know this quest could be fake but I kinda wanna see what happens. Though, I saw that this place isn't like how it's made to be back home but that's normal with fantasy and reality.' She thought as she leaned against the back wall with the map in hand.

King was currently napping on her rolled up sleeping bag during her internal debate before Eda entered the room with a purple severed monster hand in her left hand.

"Heyo, you two! How the deliveries go?" Eda asked.

"It was alright but that wizard client of your's was creepy." King commented as he looked towards Eda.

"They always are, it's surprisingly common with the older ones." Eda said while waving the severed hand like it was her own hand. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, he kept yammering on about Luz being some sort of, hehehehe, chosen one! But she looks like she doesn't believe it." King said with a little laugh as he pointed to a still contemplating Luz against the wall.

Eda began to join in the laugh as Luz looked up to them and slowly got mad.

"A-A chosen one?! Luz?!" Eda let out between her laughter before Luz got up and marched to them.

Luz gripped the scroll in her hand before reeling her fist back and rammed it into Eda's stomach, causing her to stop her laughing and lean over while groaning in pain.

"STOP LAUGHING AT ME!" She shouted in rage as King flinched in fear of her sudden rage. "I KNOW I'M NOT SOME CHOSEN ONE AND THAT THIS IS A JOKE BUT I WAS ALSO THINKING THAT THIS MIGHT BE A TRICK FOR YOU, YA WITCH BITCH!"

Eda took a few breathes to get over the pain before standing straight and grabbing Luz roughly by her arm.

"What was that?!" Eda asked in anger from the punch and the insult!

"I said I think this might be a trick for you! That Adegast guy seem keen on knowing my time here with you! Like he was getting information for soemthing, tell me that doesn't sound fishy!" Luz said as she jerked her arm back and shoved the map into Eda's chest.

The witch took the map off her chest and looked it over, seeing if it was genuine for this chosen one nonsense.

It...

Was...

NOT.

"The insult and punch aside, kid, you're onto something. This is a bunk map, if there was a Celestial Staff anywhere around her, I would've gotten my hands on it years ago." Eda said as she looked it over before holding it up to the light, seeing words written in invisible ink appear. "It's even got the offbrand invisible ink message. You really think this is all just to get to me?"

"I can feel it in my gut, like in one of my matches. This bad feeling always turned up just by the look on someone's face, his seemed too nice." Luz said while calming down a bit.

"Alright, so the map is fake and this weirdo wants Eda for something. What's next? Cuz I vote we ignore him." King said as he jumped off Luz's sleeping bag.

"Hmm, you know what? I say we let Luz do his little quest the wizard gave her but with a little tag along for you and I, King." Eda said as he turned to look at him. "We'll be cloaked by my magic and follow Luz on her little quest to see if it's the real deal."

"And if it's not?" King asked the witch.

"Then we'll deal with it and that wizard if he's a pulling something on the kid. Or just let her do the butt kicking if she wants to." Eda said while gesturing to Luz.

"Luz do the butt kicking? That's fine by me." King said as he nodded to Eda.

"So in total, I get to go on the quest I wanted, which may be just a trap for you, and then at the end, we jump wizard if anything seems funny?" Luz asked them for confirmation.

"Yeah, pretty much but look at it like this, it shows that I care about my apprentice's safety." Eda said as she rubbed Luz's head. "Even if she's anger prone."

"Don't laugh at me and we won't have any problems." Luz commented as she pushed Eda's hand away but still had a small smile on her face.

"Deal, kid." Eda said with a smirk to Luz.

With that out of the way and a little flick on Luz's forehead as payback for what she did to Eda, the human girl took back the map and began following the path on it out of Bonesborough to the target of her "quest," the legendary "Celestial Lake." And while she was heading down the path, she knew Eda and King were following her with a magic spell cloaking them.

The quest had been about as what Luz expected. Magical town, jolly cohorts that joined her along the way, and gifts from her new friends along the way Luz was cautious and didn't put them on, storing them in her side bag she brought along.

'Piece of cake.' Luz thought about the quest.

Luz and her adventure group reached the legendary lake with the Celestial Staff standing right in the middle of a platform on the lake.

'Alright, Eda, you better be ready for whatever happens next.' Luz thought as she walked to the lake, a stone pathway to the staff forming to the staff as Luz got to the edge of the lake.

Luz walked down the path way to the staff, entranced by it's glow and almost forgetting he plan as she grabbed the staff with both hands. A pulse of magic energy soon exited the crystal tip as the water rocked around her before calming as she pulled it from the platform.

"Whoa." Luz let out as she reached for the crystal tip, sliding her fingers on it before it's glow began to dim.

When it stopped flowing all together, the staff suddenly turned to dust in her hands as the magical forest around her began to decay and dull into a hollow and abandoned ruins. The water drained from the lake, the trees lost their color, and the leaves blew away in the wind to leave the trees bare and lifeless with a thick fog rolling in.

'I...I knew this couldn't be real, I...always knew but...' Luz thought to herself as she clenched her fists, tears slowly building in her eyes as she faced the reality she knew was real but wished it wasn't.

She wasn't a chosen one, she was just a little girl that some trickster used in his scheme. Luz hated this feeling, this feeling of self pity and she needed to do something about it!

"ADEGAST!" Luz screamed as she threw her bag to the side, the "gifts" from her adventure spilling out to the floor, as she got into her stance and glared into the the fog. "GET OUT HERE, NOW!"

From the cover of Eda's spell, the owl lady and little demon could see the pain and anger etched on Luz's face as she cautiously moved around the fog, ready to beat the crap out of anyone who stepped out.

'Kid.' Eda thought with a slightly downed expression, feeling sorry that she was hit with the reality of this fake quest.

And with her knowing it was fake yet still a bit fooled, made it all he more painful.

"Don't worry, this'll be over soon." Eda whispered to herself as the fog began to clear a bit.

Out of the fog, came the wizard himself as Luz turned to him.

"Greetings, Luz the human." He said to her as he kept a calm face while had an angry facce.

"Drop the act! I'm not falling for it!" Luz demanded as she glared at him.

"Oh, so you've caught on," Adegast said before his eyes suddenly went dead and crossed like a doll. "have you now?!"

Stepping out from behind Agegast and the fog was a large squid like with black eyes and yellow irises, he had a tentacle in Agegast's back like he was just a puppet he was controlling. Which in reality, he was as well as the other "friends" she made on her quest here. All of them just Adegast's puppets to trick her.

"Yes I caught on, you jackass!" Luz cursed at him.

"If that is true, then why did you come? If you figured out this was nothing but a trap, why follow the quest I gave you?" Adegast asked in curiosity. "You could've just stayed with your business stealing teacher and her pathetic lessons!"

'So Eda just stole his customers? Talk about shallow.' Luz thought before focusing at the task at hand.

"So Eda could see your slimy mug and cave it in!" Luz said as Eda lowered her spell over her and King to appear behind Adegast.

"Couldn't have said it better myself!" Eda said as she drew a spell circle and blasted fire at Adegast's back.

"Ahh!" He screamed in pain before growling and turning to Eda. "You'll pay for that, Owl Lady! With your life and your apprentice's!"

"Don't count on it." Eda said as she the deceitful squid.

Adegast sent 3 puppets to attack Luz, a sort of fairy queen, a raggedy cat, and a sort of warrior with an eyepatch. Luz dodged the cat before kicking its head off and making the puppet crumple to dust.

'Just like his quest, they turn to dust.' Luz thought as she turn to the fairy and give a 4 punch barrage before a high knee to the stomach, cracking it and making it crumble into dust.

"Huuuu!" The warrior puppet scream as he charged at Luz with a sword, swinging twice as the kickboxer dodged the swings before he threw a back hand at her.

Luz blocked the hit before getting close, knocking the sword hand away before forcing the puppet to drop it and grabbed it to stab it through the chest.

"AHHH! My flawless pecs!" It screamed before crumbling to dust while Luz kept the sword.

"Nice work, Luz!" Eda said as she ducked under a puppte and made a fire spell circle, turning it and the others into dust.

"Thanks!" She thanked her teacher before Adegast held his hands out to both of them.

"Enough! Stand down or the dog gets it!" He said as he had one last cat puppet he used to hold King hostage.

"I AM NOT A DOG!" King screamed in protest.

"Silence!" Adegast said as he wrapped his tentacle to close King's mouth. "Hands up, now!"

Eda and Luz looked at each other and slowly put their hands up, but as Eda dropped her staff, Luz keep the sword in her hand.

"Hey, throw that sword away, girl!" Adegast said as he pointed to his puppet's sword.

"Really? You throw it away?" Luz asked, getting an idea from his phrasing.

"I said throw it away! Now!" Adegast demanded as he squeezed King harder.

"Okay, okay! Look, I'm throwing it..." Luz said slowly before smirking before spinning the sword to a reverse position. "AWAY!"

Luz threw the sword like a javelin and impalled the giant squid in the head, making him scream in pain as he dropped King on instinct.

"Good throw, kid!" Eda said as King ran towards here.

Luz just gave a thumbs up as Adegast began shrinking and shrinking until he was the size of a baseball. He tried to scurry away but couldn't as Luz stepped on him to prevent him from escaping.

"I don't think so, ya creep." Luz said as she pick him up by the tentacles, seeing him begin to sweet in fear. "So this is what you really are inside, huh? Now that we got you, what do we do with you?"

"Let me handle it, kid." Eda said as she and King walked to Luz while she held her hand out.

Luz nodded to her teacher before her stomach started growling, causing her to pause as she was about to give Agedast to Eda.

"Looks like all that fighting worked up an appetite. Good thing you've got something to eat in your hand." Eda said as she pointed to the little squid.

"Wait, what?! You want me to eat him?!" Luz asked in shock while pointing to the little squid, who shook his head in disagreement.

"Well, yeah. You're hungry right? And besides, he's technically a fish. Good protein." Eda said as she licked her lips. "I was planning on him myself before your gut decided to speed up."

"You're insane if you think I am going to eat him!" Luz said before her stomach growled once again.

"Well, either you eat him or I will. I don't want that little pest bugging us again with his little tricks." Eda said to her as she crossed her arms. "So what's it gonna be kid? Let him go to bug us another day or he gets eaten by one of us?"

This was a tough choice to make, especially with her growling stomach needing substance. Luz looked to Adegast before looking to Eda, who waited on her response. She knew Eda was right but she wished she wasn't, even if they tried to turn him into the coven guards, the guards in turn would arrest them! And Luz can't just let him go since he would possibly grow back to his giant size and attack them again for vengeance. So, the decision was clear and Luz did what she never imagined she'd do.

"Just to make this clear, you little deceiver, you brought this on yourself." Luz said as her stomach growled again, making it clear what she was about to do. "And you better taste like the sea food from back home too. Otherwise this will be more painful for both of us."

Luz moved Adegast above her head and opened her mouth, lowering the small squid into her open mouth as the squid moved some tentacles to hold himself back.

"Yur jus delyying de inuvideble./Your just delaying the inevitable." Luz said with an open mouth before using both hands to force Adegast into her mouth and began to chew.

All in all the taste was...slightly better than she thought, Luz never had calamari before but she did know what it was like to eat slightly raw fish before.

'Hmm, never thought evil squid wizard would taste so much like that sushi place from back home.' she thought as she continued to chew.

"So, how is he?" Eda asked her young apprentice as she saw Luz swallow the tricky squid.

"I don't EVER want to talk about that experience again." Luz said as she turned to her bag, seeing the gifts now gone from turning dust, and walked to pick it up. "I just wanna head back to the house and forget this day ever happened."

"Still upset about the whole fake quest, huh?" Eda asked her as she got frowned, remembering Luz's crushing moment from earlier.

Luz sighed as she turned away to look where the "Celestial Staff" used to be.

"Yeah. Just...Yeah." Luz said as she looked to her shoes.

This world was just as she figured it'd be, magical yet crushingly truthful, behind the wonder and awe laid darkness that could crush anyone's spirit. Especially Luz with what little spirit she has for fantasy.

"Hey, kid. I know this place may not seem that special but let me show you something that is special." Eda said as she put a hand on Luz's shoulder and lead her away from the fake quest lake.

They all board her staff and flew away from the empty lake, Luz having to close her eyes upon Eda's request for the surprise. After a couple minutes of flying, Eda stopped flying and "parked her staff in the sky."

"You can open your eyes now." she said to Luz.

Luz opened her eyes to see something beautiful.

"Behold, the bones of the Isles." Eda said as Luz took in the awe the giant skeleton that made the Boiling Isles, glowing over the sunset.

It was unlike anything she had ever seen before and it was the most magestic thing she had ever seen, where when one life ended other lives can begin.

"Up close, everything on the Isles seems stinky, slimy, and gross," Eda said to Luz.

"Especially gross." King commented.

"Yeah, that. But if see it from a new perspective, it really is a wonderful place." Eda said while gesturing Luz to look up to the sky and see the stares beginning to appear.

"Yeah, it is." Luz said before looking back to Eda. "But why did you bring me here?"

Eda looked away a bit while thinking of an answer before she turned back to Luz.

"To try to get you to understand." Eda said to her.

"Understand?" Luz asked.

"That I've been where you've been. At a time, I too wished that something great was meant for me like a prophecy or something but if you keep waiting for it to happen, you'll miss your whole life waiting." Eda said as she put a hand on Luz's shoulder, smiling. "The only one who can decide how great you will become is you and believe me, from what I've seen, that kickboxing you do is already a great start."

Luz smile at her magic teacher as a new hope sparked in her, maybe this world can still be good to Luz. Even if there are some bad parts to it.

"Thanks, Eda." Luz said before asking one more question. "So, I guess this'll be a good start to getting my own magic staff in the future, huh?"

"It sure is, kid. Not a great start but a good start." Eda said as they watched the sunset over the horizon.

Chapter Text

The sun shined bright as the sound of flesh striking against something echoed through the morning air. Behind the owl house was the young kickboxer, Luz Noceda, practicing her punches, kicks, knees, and elbow strikes against a makeshift punchbag she constructed from the junk around the house. Mainly, it was made of the burlap shack she used to make deliveries, stuff animals that weren't King's "loyal followers", and rocks from around the house for weight. It was softer than a normal sandbag but it was just as heavy, Luz needed it to keep up her skills sharp for whatever the Boiling Isles would spit out at her.

'Right jab, right jab, left cross, side kick, flying knee, up elbow, roundhouse kick, right hook, left hook, uppercut!' Luz thought as she did the exact strikes at her makeshift sandbag.

Luz had been at this for about an hour and a half before she was interrupted by Hooty stretching his face to her.

"Hoot! Hey Luz, Eda wants you around front. Said she's got a little field trip for you!" He said to her as Luz was breathing a bit from her early morning work out.

"Huh, Alright. Huh, tell her I'll be over in a minute." Luz said between breathes as she walked to gold chalice full of water (the one that Eda said was junk in the first episode), a towel, and her red sleeveless hoodie she placed to the side.

Taking them in her hands, Luz wiped her face clean before taking a large swig from of water. She let out a sigh of relieve before wiping over her arms and legs and putting the towel over her shoulders.

'Not the best work out but it works.' Luz thought as she looked to her burlap sack punching bag. 'I wonder if there's a beach nearby so I can fill the bag up with real sand.'

Luz then picked up her water and hoodie before walking around to the front, drinking the rest of the water to refresh herself.

"Ahh, that's better." Luz said as she saw Eda and king waiting on the doorstep for her. "Hey, guys. You wanted to see for a little trip?"

"Yep, and if you done punching stuff, we can go." Eda said to Luz with her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, we can go." Luz said as she threw her towel at the door, put the empty chalice down near the door, and put her hoodie on.

The group left the house and followed Eda through the forest for about 10 minutes before they reached a beach and saw something very large and very disgusting on the shore.

"What...the heck...am I looking at?" Luz asked as she turned to her teacher, pointing to something large.

A monster like brown slug with giant red bumps on it's back, spines behind it's head, and a gaping five flapped maw with sharp teeth inside .

"That, my dear punching and kicking student, is the trash slug." Eda said as she walked to the large slug and placed a hand on it. "A simple and hungry creature that makes a life out of eating the refuge that other have cast aside."

Eda patted the beast before reaching into it's mouth and pulling out a rubber chicken, tossing it away before turning back to Luz and King.

"Until BLAM!" she said while smashing her fist into her open hand, not getting a flinch from either of them. "It bites it from all the sea salt it drinks and we get to scavenge and sell the goods it ate!"

Eda pulled out a pickaxe and held it out to Luz.

"Give it a swing!"Eda suggested as Luz gave her a 0.0 face to her.

"Yeaaaaaaah, no." Luz said as he pushed the pickaxe back to Eda. "In my world, it's sort of frowned upon to defile a corpse in any way. Even if it's a giant sea monster slug."

"Geez, Luz calm down. The rules are different here." King said as he walked to sit on the sand. "And it's a dead monster, someone probably would worse than us."

"And besides, it's not like they cover something this hands on in magic school." Eda said as she walked over to the trash slug with the pickaxe on her shoulder. "Trust me, I can see you as the more hands on type of girl."

"Wait, back up a sec." Luz said before Eda smashed the pickaxe into slug's eye, hearing it break like glass. "There's a magic school here? What's it like?"

"Bor-ing! Their way of teaching magic is all "proper" and rule filled way but that's not magic." Eda said as she turned to Luz and smiling. "Magic is wild, free, and unpredictable, that's what makes magic so beautiful! And just look at me, I never finished that fancy schooling and I'm living the dream."

"Does the dream mean living on the run and scrounging through a dead monster for things to sell?" Luz said with a deadpan look, noting feeling exactly excited about this lesson.

"Well...not exactly like my life but..." Eda said to Luz before she looked around for something to save this lesson, show she was a good teacher. "Come over here for a second."

Luz followed Eda and she knelled before a green puddle of slime, kneeling next to her.

"In a life or death situation, you always have to use what you have on hand to pull out a win. Even if it's something from this puddle." Eda said as she reached her hand inside and looked around, grabbing onto something before pulling her hand out. "You never know when the strangest of things will make the biggest difference."

Eda showed her hand to Luz and presented a small ball or seed covered in slime.

"A ball of or a seed covered in slime?" Luz asked as she slowly reached and took the ball or seed from Eda and held it in her fingers. "This is something that will save me, even if I don't think it will?"

"Exactly, kid. Never judge a book by it's cover and always use your resources wisely, remember that." Eda said before getting up and walking back to the slug. "Now, if you follow me, I'll show you the the trash slug's stink nodes. That's were the good stuff is."

"Actually, I think I'm gonna pass on this one." Luz said as she put the little ball in her pocket. "I still don't feel comfortable doing this. I'm gonna head back to the house and train but could you do me a favor and fill a big sack with the sand on this beach?"

"Why?" Eda asked.

"It's for training, sand make a great punching bag." Luz said to her before walking away, leaving Eda to deal with the trash slug with King watching.

As she walked back to the owl house, Luz was looking back at the slime ball or seed in her hand and wondering about the magic school Eda mentioned.

"Hmm, if there is a magic school here, maybe I should look for it. It might not be as bad as Eda says it is, even if it's "proper' and not "free" like her view of magic." she said to herself before she heard a new voice close by.

"You got this, you got this!" it said as Luz grew curious and stop walking.

""I got this?" Is someone trying to encourage themselves?" Luz said as she walked over to the source of the voice, pushing some pushes aside to see the source was a girl her age sitting on a rock with bag of books beside her and a wooden cart that had a cauldron inside it.

She was a husky type with light skin, pointy ears short blue hair and glasses on her brown eyes. Her clothes, most likely a uniform for the magic school, was a gray tunic with a cowl over grayish-pink sleeves and leggings, a dark gray belt, and black boots.

"A witch student." Luz whisper in surprise as she watched the girl, who had a sad look on her face.

She appeared to be trying to encourage herself that she could do good in school and pass a "track," most likely a class or major of sorts at the school, until she stepped on a flower by accident.

"Oh no! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to!" she said to the flower as she knelled down to it, calming herself and drawing a light green magic circle above it.

The magic circle seemed to have revived the little flower as it sprang back to life like it had never been stepped on in the first place.

"Whoa. Plant magic." Luz guess as she saw the girl smile as she did her magic.

Something seemed to get her attention as he ear's twitched at a sound, causing her to open her eyes and lose her smile. Another cart and cauldron rolled up next to her with a new girl wearing the same outfit as her riding on it while reading a book. For some reason, Luz gained a small blush at the sight of her.

"Meow." she let out like a cat as she took in the new girl's pale skin, two-toned, chin-length glass hair that was brown at the roots and has a ponytail pulling the front hair out of her face, and gold colored eyes with black triangle earrings and black nail polish in her fingers.

'Who...is she?' Luz thought as the girl turned to look down at the first one and smirked.

"Willow." she said as she closed her book, getting off the cauldron. "I didn't see you down there."

"Hello, Amity." the first girl, Willow, said as she got up and gave Amity a bland look.

"You know, our class will be starting soon. How's your abomination project coming?" Amity asked as she and Willow turned to her cauldron, seeing it shake a bit.

The cauldron soon tipped over and oozed all the way to the girls, stopping right at Willow feet.

"Ew." Luz said in a low tone as she recoiled back at the sight.

"Oh, Willow. You know you'll never get a good grad with this, do you?" Amity asked while gesturing to the mud.

Luz narrowed her eyes at Amity, though she was an attractive girl, she had a terrible attitude and she was taking pleasure in teasing/demeaning Willow, who blushed in embarrassment and pulled her cowl over her head.

"This is way everyone called you "Half a Witch Willow."" Amity said before her cauldron began to shake. "Oh, it looks like someone wants to say "hi.""

Amity moved to her cauldron and took off the top, before stepping back a bit.

"Abomination, rise." she said with a smug smirk and crossed her arms, snapping her fingers.

A monster of purple, pink, and gray began to form from the cauldron before facing Willow with it's green lifeless eyes. It pointed it's finger to Willow as it moved it closer to the glasses wearing girl.

"You're a star." It said as it drew a small smudge in the shape of a star on Willow's forehead.

"Look, it's just like mine." Amity said as she pointed to a star on her cloak, with the words "Top Student" on it. "Except a bit smaller and meaningless, but as the top student of Hexside, it's my sworn duty to tell struggling witches like you to never stop trying. And keep striving for that passing grade one day."

As Luz watched the conversation between them, she couldn't help but feel bad for Willow. It was clear she was struggling in this course at school and Amity was just being needlessly hurtful to her. It almost made Luz disgusted that she found Amity attractive, almost.

"Abomination, cower." Amity told her project as the sludge melted back into her cauldron, putting the lid back on top. " See you at school and remember, keep trying."

As she left, Luz couldn't' help but shake her head at the girl and her attitude.

'Why do the cute one always have to have bad attitudes?' Luz thought as she watched Amity leave before turning back to Willow, who looked very angry and upset as she wiped the goop off her forehead.

"Grr. I hate it when she does that! URH! I hate abominations, I hate getting bad grades!" she said before her eyes glowed green and she began to shake. "RAH!"

The plant life around Willow began to erupt as large briar vines swung wildly around her, two of which swung right towards her.

"AHH!" Luz screamed as she dodged the briar vines from left to right before jumping back but that was a mistake as the vines wrapped around her legs and pulled her towards Willow. "WHOA!"

The kickboxer was dragged towards the Hexside student before she was dropped in front with her back turned. Luz was in fear and awe of the power she displayed, but shook it off and got up into her fighting stance.

"You wanna fight? Then let's fight?!" Luz commanded to Willow as she turned to Luz, her eyes still angry and glowing with power.

Luz flinched again at her but stayed strong in her stance, though Willow seemed to replace her anger with concern after she saw Luz flinch.

"Oh no no no! I'm so sorry!" she said as the glow in her eyes faded and the vines stopped moving around her, seeing the briar vines still wrapped around her legs.

She bent down before it and unwrapped if from Luz's legs, the human girl flinching at the sudden change while lowering her stance.

"You're not hurt, are you?" Willow asked as she stood back up before Luz.

"Uh...yeah. I'm fine, just a little broken skin is all." Luz said as she rubbed her right leg a bit.

"That's good. I was afraid I hurt you by accident." Willow said before looking closer, noticing Luz's rounds ears. "Your ears...are round?"

Luz gasped a bit, worried she might have a problem with humans, and quickly pulled up her hood to hide her ears. Willow let out a gasp herself before pulling Luz's hood back down.

"You're a human! A genuine human on the Boiling Isles,this is amazing!" Willow said as she smiled at Luz. "What are you doing here? How did you get here? And what was that strange stance you made?"

Luz was surprised and relieved that Willow seemed to like humans, asking so many questions to her before a bell sound echoed to their ears and Willow lost her smile.

"Hey, are you alright?" Luz asked as Willow looked down to the ground.

"Yeah, I'm...fine. I just gotta go to school and fail." Willow said as she waved goodbye to Luz. "It was nice meeting you, human."

Willow began to walk away in sorrow before Luz grabbed her by the shoulder to stop her.

"Hey wait, how are you failing in magic school? That magic you just did with those plants was pretty amazing." Luz said to her.

"But I'm not suppose to be doing plant magic at school. I'm in the abomination making class." Willow said as she gestured to the puddle of muck that was suppose to be her abomination. "It's the course my parents sighed me up for at school."

"I see but still, it must be nice to have such professionals show you the ropes." Luz said as he rubbed the back of her head. "My teacher isn't exactly to most ethical. I'd like to just see your school for just one day."

"Well' I'd like to get a good grade so everyone will stop calling me "half-a-witch Willow."" Willow said as she kicked some of her abomination goop.

Luz looked down at the goop as some got on her shoes, making her a bit angry but also giving her an idea to help both herself and Willow. And maybe see that snooty but pretty girl, Amity, again.

"Hey, Willow, I think I have an idea that could help both of us." Luz said as she knelled down and pick up some abomination goop. "It's a little crazy but I think it might work since I'm the only human here."

"What exactly are you thinking, Uh.." Willow asked but didn't know her name.

"Luz and I was think that made I could become your abomination project." Luz said as she smeared a bit around her face. "That way, I could see what the school is like and you can get a passing grade in your class, it's fiendish yet simple."

Willow paused for a bit to look at Luz like she's crazy.

"Are you crazy?!" she blurted out.

"Willow, from what I saw, an abomination is just a combination of ingredients that talks different. It's not that off from anyone else, if you think about it. So just use me for your project and everything will be good but if you need me to talk weirdly, I can handle that no problem." Luz said while giving a thumbs up and a wink.

"You do make a point." Willow said before smiling again. "This just might work, Luz! It's a deal!"

Willow held her hand out to shake but Luz just pointed to her goop covered hand.

"I don't think a handshake is good right now." Luz said before holding out her fist, the outside of her hand mostly goop free. "How about a fist bump instead?"

"Hmm, sounds good." Willow said as she closed her hand and fist bumped with Luz.

"Alright now. Time to get dirty." Luz said before doing a cannonball into the abomination goop, getting as much on her to make for a convincing abomination.

"Hehehehe." Willow chuckled before asking one of her previous questions. "Hey Luz, that stance you did earlier, what was it?"

"Oh, that? That was just my kickboxing stance." Luz said as she rubbed some goop over her legs.

"Kickboxing? What's that?" Willow asked ask as Luz moved on to her arms.

"Kickboxing is a way to stay fit, defend yourself, or participate in the combat sport for others to enjoy and test yourself." Luz said to her before rolling around to cover the rest of her body for good measure.

"Combat sport?" Willow asked as Luz got up and looked over herself, slipping her hood up and walking to her downed cauldron.

"It's a sport that revolves around fighting in one on one matches." Luz said as she picked up the cauldron and the cart with some effort., setting them up right. "I can tell you more later but you still need to get to school, remember?"

"R-Right, we need to go." Willow said as she quickly grabbed her books and placed them in the cart, watching Luz grab the lid and climb inside the cauldron with the left over goop that didn't spill out.

Luz gave Willow a thumbs up as a vote of confidence as she put herself into the cauldron, letting Willow wheel her to Hexside as her project.

'Kickboxing? And combat sports?' Willow thought in curiosity about these human things.

A couple minutes of pushing the cart, Willow had made it to her school. A large white castle like structure with a bell tower in the middle of it.

"Welcome to Hexside School of Magic and Demonics, Luz." Willow said as Luz popped her head out a bit. "Remember, stay hidden."

"Got it." Luz said slowly as she took in the amazing school before going back into the cauldron.

Willow made her way to the second floor of the school and towards her locker, which had a single eye and a toothy maw. The witch tickled the locker a bit before it opened it's eye and maw, rolling out a long tongue with books on it. Willow grabbed a book before the tongue rolled back in, the locker closing it's eye before someone bumped into Willow.

"Hmm?" she hummed as she turned to the person.

He was a fellow student but shorter, with dark skin and dark brown hair with lighter shades. He had the same uniform as Willow but his sleeves and leggings are in light blue.

"Willow, you won't believe the crazy things humans do." the boy said as he was looking into a human magazine named "Tween Bo$$."

"Humans? What uh, do these humans do that is crazy?" Willow asked as she nervously looked towards her project cauldron.

"Humans for some reason, nail barbed wire to the teeth of their kids!" he said as he turned the magazine to show Willow and ad for braces. "Why would they does this? The control, discipline or make them magnetic?"

"Phf! Hehehe, it's actually to straighten teeth. And some times store food for later." Luz whispered to Willow but unfortunately Gus could her hear too.

The young boy looked up to Willow, wondering who said that because he knew it wasn't her.

"Okay, Augustus, I'm about to show you something but you have to promise not to tell anymore about it." Willow said as she placed her book in the cart and pointed to him.

"Ye-Yeah, I can keep a secret." the boy said with a small stutter.

"Okay." Willow said as she turned to her cauldron. "Abomination, rise."

Grabbing the rim of the cauldron, Luz rose up like a zombie with slow, lazy movements and flipped her head back before letting it hang to the sigh while done at Willow.

"You called, master?" she asked in a low, gurgling voice.

"Hmm, nice work on the movements but the voice is a bit much, Luz. Other than that, you've almost got it." Willow said with a hand on her chin. "Also, do you mind showing..."

Willow pointed to Augustus and giving a thumbs up to Luz and pointing to her ears. Luz quickly looked around for anyone else before nodding and removing her goop covered hood, showing her human ears to boy, who dropped his magazine in shock at Luz.

"No. No it-it, your ears." he said while gesturing to his pointy ears and comparing them to Luz's round ones.

"My friend, Augustus, here is the president of the Human Appreciation Society and can tell a human better than anyone else in Hexside. He's basically the school's leading expert." Willow said as she gestured to Augustus.

"If you're a human, where are you gills?" he asked as he looked Luz up and down.

"Well, 1. Human don't have gills. The closest to that would be mermaids. And 2., I got a friend with the same name back home, so I'll call you the same nickname." Luz said as she leaned down and put her arms on the cauldron's rim. "Nice to meet 'cha, Gus."

"Gus? Nickname? Me?! Called Gus by a human!? YES!" Gus cheered as he threw his hands in the air before lowering them. "Meeting a real human and getting a nickname, this is best day of my life."

A loud scream mixed with a school bell rang through the halls as Luz looked for the source and found it as an old school bell with a fanged mouth and a ringer in the form of a clawed hand and eyeball.

"Oh, that's the bell. I gotta get to my spelling class." Gus said as he picked up his magazine and pull out a wand made out of red and black wood in a drill design and a blue pearl at the bottom. "I'll meet you guys at lunch."

Willow and Luz waved the short wizard goodbye before Willow pointed to Luz.

"Now back in your cauldron, project." she said with a mock serious look before she broke it with a smile.

"As you command, master." Luz said with while smiling and rolling her eyes, putting her hood back up as she slide back into the cauldron and placed the lid back on.

After being wheeled to the Abomination 101 class and Willow sitting at the desk right behind Amity (which made Luz blush at seeing her beauty again), Luz lifted the lid up to see the projects being presented to a very short teacher with whitish gray skin being held up by a gray abomination. He was cruel, blunt, and very unforgiving in his grading.

'Reminds me of the remedial teachers I see around school back home.' Luz thought as the abomination teacher judged a student's project with too many toes and feet.

"Too many toes in random locations. You fail." he said to a girl with dark skin, pinkish blue hair, and large beige horns on the sides of her head. "Honestly, I can tell which are the real abominations in this class, you students or your projects!"

'OH! Now that was just plain hurtful!' Luz thought as she winced at the comment while the abomination teacher turned to the class.

"I swear, if the next abomination presented is a failure again, all of you shall receive extra homework for a month!"

Every student in the class groaned and complained about the thought of extra homework, not wanting to go through again. Apparently, it had been done before in this class.

"Ahem, now the next student to present will be..." the teacher said before Amity got up and raised her hand.

"Excuse me, sir. If you want, I could come and present my abomination for you. Rise." Amity said as her abomination rose and formed from her cauldron, posing like a ballerina as the teacher smiled at his star student.

"Hehehehe, oh no no no, Amity. The best one should always be saved for last, so you'll have to wait a bit longer." He said with a chuckle before getting serious again. "Now, how about instead of Amity, you come up, Willow?"

Luz looked to Willow and saw her drop her jaw in surprise, hearing the students groan and complain about her "half-a-witch" status would result in more homework for them when she failed. It made her pull her cowl over her head to try and hide from their scorn.

"Hmm, Willow." Luz whispered as Willow turned to her. "Don't listen to them, we're gonna blow em away."

She gave the embarrassed witch a confident smirk and thumbs up, getting Willow's confidence up as she smiled back.

"Okay." she whispered with a nod as she lowered her cowl, getting up from her seat and wheeled her cauldron to the front of the classroom. "Okay. Abomination, rise?"

Luz answered her and punched the lid off into the air., causing the students to jumped in surprise of the action. Luz then grabbed the rim and flipped herself out of the cauldron, keeping her body straight like an arrow before pushing off and spinning to land in a crouch, rising slow with her right foot behind her left foot and her hands to the side (Frieza pose).

"Huuh." Luz groan with her hood up to cover one eye and her voice in a sort of hoarse tone.

Everyone gasped in surprise at Luz, thinking she was a genuine abomination. Something Willow caught and gave her more confidence than ever.

'We just might pull this off!' she thought before moving on to orders.

"Abomination, bow." Willow said while pointing to floor.

"Uh." Luz groaned as she slowly moved her arms behind her back and bowed to the class.

"Very impressive but does your abomination speak?" The teacher asked as he raised his left pointer finger.

Willow and Luz looked to him for a moment before Luz thought up something quick.

"I may just be your project, but our bond is beyond object." Luz rhymed as she gave Willow a hug and a smile, something the class found adorable.

"Aw!" they said as Amity was the only one with a surprised look, turning to her fawning classmates.

'Is this really happening?' she thought with her jaw down.

The teacher was ecstatic over Luz's performance as he laughed with joy.

"Beyond object! What a wondrous abomination!" he said as he made his abomination walk towards Luz, pulling out a paint brush with red paint and grading Luz on her forehead. "A+, Willow."

Amity's shock soon turned to upset as the class cheered for her and the avoidance of extra homework. Luz and Willow soon shared a look as Luz winked to Willow quickly.

"Abomination, return and cower." Willow ordered Luz as she jumped to the cauldron, back flipping once before landing inside feet first before Willow put the lid back on.

The class went on afterwards, with Willow getting a lot of congratulations before the school bell "screamed" and coughed to signal the end of class. Willow got up and wheeled her cart out of the classroom, the lid still slightly open so Luz could see the school, as everyone did the same before she was stopped her teacher.

"Truly wonderful work, Willow. Work that has made you our new top student." he said as Amity was walking out of class, gasping as she dropped her books and the teacher took her star.

"Wait!" Amity called out but wasn't heard as her star for top student was put on Willow's cloak.

"Wow. Thank you, sir." Willow said as her teacher walked away but as Willow turned to leave, Amity had moved in front of her.

"Hey!" she said, surprising Willow. "What did you do to make your project like? I know for a fact the last time I saw it, it was nothing but mush on the ground."

"Oh! Well, I...just took your advice. Never giving up and trying again, remember, Amity?" Willow answered as she fixed her glasses.

'With a little help from me.' Luz thought with a smile as she looked at Amity.

"Yeah, I'm sure you did." Amity said as she crossed her arms. "Just know one thing, half-a-witch, that badge will be mine again. So watch yourself."

The green haired witch then began walking backwards away from them, impressing them as she was able to do it almost perfectly as she kept her gaze on Willow the whole time before disappearing around a corner.

"Uh oh." Willow let out in worry. "I think she's onto us."

"Relax, Willow. We just need to make it to the end of the day without drawing attention and you're good." Luz quickly whispered to her, trying to calm her nerves.

"I hope you're right, Luz." Willow said as she rolled Luz to her next class.

For time between then and lunch, Luz had experience some genuine magic study at Hexside and learned some amazing things Eda probably wouldn't have teached her until much later or not at all.

'Speaking of Eda, I wonder what she's doing right now?' Luz thought as looked through the slightly open lid of the cauldron to view the magic lesson. 'Mabye back at the house by now, doing whatever. Hope she got the burlap sack of sand I asked for, I need a GOOD punching bag.'

Luz continued to think to herself while looking at the lesson before something to the side caught her attention, a certain witch with a look of horror, fear, and sadness on her face as she gazed in through the window.

"Eda?" Luz whispered to herself as she lifted the lid just a bit to get a better look but when she did, Eda was gone and no one noticed that she was there at all, no one but her. "But...I know I saw her there."

Luz slid back into the pot and held her head, wondering if what she saw was real or not. Was she guilty for ditching Eda to come here just for a day or was it something else? She didn't know as she moved her hand away from her head and gazed at it, more specifically the abomination goop covering her.

'Maybe the fumes of this stuff are giving me hallucinations. I should ask Willow if she can keep the lid off for the rest of the day, that might work.' Luz thought as she as went back to to the magic lesson, hoping not to see anymore "hallucinations" today.

After the class had ended and Willow had agreed to keep the lid off the cauldron for the rest of the day, she and Luz were now in the school cafeteria sitting with Gus at the end of a long purple table with Luz sitting in the cauldron so her head as only sticking out.

"Hey, Luz. Quick question, do humans like PB&J?" he asked as he pulled out a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before the human, causing her to gasp.

"Oh dear god, yes. It has been too long since I had normal food." Luz said as she recalled all the strange things she's eaten since arriving, some she wanted to forget more than others such as eating Adegast. "I'd love some, make sure no one is looking and slip it in this thing."

Gus nodded to Luz and tore his sandwich in half, quickly looking around before sliding the sandwich in the cauldron. Luz quickly caught it and sunk in to make her head hidden, eating the half of the PB&J at a quick pass. It just now dawned on her that she hadn't eaten since her early morning breakfast, if you could call it that.

"Hmm, I don't know if that was a good idea, Gus." Willow said in worry. "Even if you checked around, what if Amity saw?"

Luck wasn't on her side as said witch student suddenly stomped before them, startling them and causing Luz to jump a bit as she finished the sandwich.

'God damn you, karma!' she thought as she quickly limp like an abomination.

"I saw that! An abomination doesn't! Need! Food!" Amity said as she got in Willow face, causing her to flinch back as Amity went to the cauldron. "Come out, whatever you are! You can't hide forever!"

As Amity demanded answered from the cauldron, she had gotten the attention of all the student in the cafeteria and made them cease their eating to see Hexside's former top student acting like a crazed lunatic.

"Who are you?! WHAT are you?! ANSWER ME NOW!" Amity screamed as she reached in, pulling Luz out by her hoodie and shaking her like a rag doll!

The human in disguise just played possum and let herself be shook, holding a blank look on her face to show she wouldn't respond to Amity's demands like her "master" Willow. Though she couldn't control the blush she was having on her face as she was being shook by Amity.

'I don't know why, but she's hot when she's mad.' Luz thought before a voice of authority stopped the shaking.

"Ms. Amity Blight!" The abomination teacher said as he and his abomination carrier stood before the table.

"Huh?" Amity let out in confusion as she turned to the teacher, her hair slightly disheveled from her slightly crazed interrogation.

"I knew you would feel jealous after losing your spot as top student, but to think you would be reduced to this. It's just sad." he said with pity as Amity looked at him with shock.

"But-wait! No, just look at it! It CAN'T be a normal abomination!" Amity tried to defend herself as she pulled Luz towards her, trying to show she was something else.

This got Luz thinking for a moment, being in such close range the beautiful yet snooty girl she somehow fell for gave her a crazy idea. One that she went right ahead with, giving her a sudden quick kiss on the cheek and surprising everyone at the table as Amity blush brightly at the kiss.

"What the heck?!" she said while looking at Luz, seeing her go back to the possum reunite as the abomination teacher laughed a bit.

"Ha ha ha! Still the affectionate creature like in class!" he said before clearing his throat and getting serious. "Now, report to Principal Bump at once, young lady." he said as he pointed out of the cafeteria.

"But-But, sir!" Amity tried to say, the blush still bright from the sudden kiss.

"Now, Ms. Blight!" the teacher said as he slammed his fist into his abomination, which didn't even flinch.

Amity released Luz and ran out in a huff, the abomination teacher following behind and leaving the trio in peace. Or just in awkward silence after that low point for the former star student. Luz slowly raised her head out the the cauldron, looking to Amity's upset and retreating path, feeling bad for the girl.

'She may be mean, stuck up, an over achiever, and a know it all...but I get the feeling there's more to why she does this than any of us know.' Luz thought as she gazed at Willow, who gazed back, before gazing back to the exit.

After the whole incident with Amity and lunch were, the day went by quickly as the school day had ended Willow wheeled her cauldron to the abomination class so she could let Luz out in privacy with Gus tagging along.

"AH! What a day, and man is it humid in this think." Luz said with a sigh as she pulled herself out of the cauldron, standing next to it while stretching. "But at least we pulled through, Willow. You got a good grade and we won't have to worry about Amity catching on anymore.

Luz then held her hand out to them and expected them to hi-five her, but they just stood looking at her hand in confusion.

"You guys don't know how to do a hi-five?" Luz asked them.

"Hi-five? Is it like that fist bump thing you showed me earlier?" Willow asked as Luz nodded.

"Yeah, this is similar except you slap my hand instead, give it go." Luz said as she still held her hand out to them. "It's a way humans greet each other."

At the concept of human greeting, Gus walked towards Luz and cautiously held his hand up before slapping it against Luz's. The sound was audible to all three of them before Gus stood in shock before he did it again and again and again.

"Oh man, this is a rush!" he said as he smiled between slaps before Luz pulled her hand back.

"Whoa there, buddy. Too much of a good thing can be bad for ya." Luz said as she shook her hand, though she didn't even feel any stinging.

As Willow chuckled at them, the door to the classroom suddenly opened and caused the trio to jump in surprise and Luz going limp on instinct. The one who opened the door was none other than Amity, holding a smug and knowing look on her face as she moved aside and let a person standing behind her in.

"Good afternoon, students." said an old looking man with light beige skin and teal eyes with light yellow sclera.

He was wearing a demon-like hat that covers up half of his face and a traditional academic dress consisting of a long black gown with a gold yoke with a black cape, gold trim at the sleeves, and cape hem plus a blue stole.

"P-Principal Bump, sir." Willow said in surprise as he walked forward, causing her and Gus to move aside as he examined Luz in her abomination puppet state.

He knelled before her and grabbed her face with his right hand, moving it from left to right for a through examination while Luz was nervous and disgusted by his hand on her face.

'When was the last time this guy cut his finger nails?!' she thought as saw how long his blackish green fingernails are, looking the size of pinkie fingers!

"Abomination, rise." Bump ordered as he stop in front of Luz, lifting a hand to command her.

Luz did as he said and rose slowly from to her feet, looking at the principal with caution and a calm poker face.

"Abomination, lie." he commanded to her.

Luz didn't think he meant "tell a lie," so she had to assume it meant something else.

'Come on, think! What would an abomination do?! "Rise" means get up, "cower" means return to mush, "speak" mean speak. What does "lie" mean? To lie down?' Luz thought as she turned to a table and gave it a go.

Luz slowly walked to the desk and climbed on it, laying down with her head pointed to them.

"Very impressive, such life like movements." Bump said as he went over to Willow and place a hand on her shoulder, guiding her to the table Luz was lying on. "When Ms. Blight told me about your abomination, I just had to see it for myself and know what made it like this."

"Oh! Well, I have the list for it right here." Willow said reached into her pocket for the ingredients list.

"No no no. You misunderstand me. I would prefer it if we were given a more personal," Bump said to Willow as he reached into his robe and pulled out a jagged dagger. "and informative look."

'Oh dulce madre de dios!' Luz thought as her eyes became wide at the sight of the weapon, seeing her scared reflection. 'He gonna cut me up like a frog in science class!'

"Now, Willow. As the creator of such a project, I'll allow you the first cut." Bump said as he handed the dagger to her as Gus and Amity watched from behind, the boy worried while the girl was smiling.

The young witch took the dagger and smiled to her principal, walking to Luz and leaning close to speak with her.

"Human can survive being cut open, right?" she whispered to Luz.

'No, they will slowly die if you are not a doctor!' Luz thought as she shook her head at Willow.

Bump soon placed a hand on her shoulder, gaining Willow's attention.

"Please do us the honor of making the first incision, Willow." Bump said as he pointed to Luz.

'God, even if this is another dimension, please save me!' Luz prayed for help before her call was answered.

"Um, Principal Bump!" Gus said, drawing everyone's attention as he stood next to the other abomination cauldrons in the room. "Hi-five!"

The young wizard slapped the other cauldron to make them spill and force the abominations to form, distracting Bump and Amity as Willow dropped the dagger and helped Luz up from the table.

"Go, guys!" Gus said as he pointed to the door.

The girls didn't think twice as they ran out the room for the exit of the school.

"No! They're escaping!" Amity shouted as she pointed to the door.

"They won't get far." Bump said as he repelled the abominations and walked towards the wall next to the door.

He drew a large light green spell circle on the wall before slamming bot his hands on it, sending a pulse of magic into it that sent magic lightning from the circle and caused strange red lines and symbols began spreading through the walls. Back with Luz and Willow, the duo were still running through the school before stopping at a corner. Willow looked around the corner with little breath while Luz wasn't that tired at all, years of training came in handy for fast escapes.
"Willow, I'm sorry you were dragged into this. I should've never pitched this crazy plan to be your project." Luz said as she turned to Willow. "I just wanted to actually learn something useful in magic and where better then a magic school?"

"It's alright, Luz. I went along with it, plus you did get to see the school." Willow added as she smiled to Luz. "I hope you liked it."

"Yeah, I did. It was nice while it lasted." Luz sheepishly smiled as she rubbed the back of her head.

The two had a short laugh to relieve some stress from the situation.

"We should hurry and get out of the school though before..." Willow reminded Luz before she saw the same symbols and lines Bump summon begin to appear over the school walls, making red barriers over the hallways and shutting off the exits. "we're sealed in."

"Aw crap." Luz said as she looked for another way out, finding a hallway not sealed out by a barrier yet. "That way's not covered yet, we can still escape!"

With Luz taking the lead, the duo took off running through Hexside's halls to find an new exit but they just found another barrier around every corner. Soon, they saw the Principal Bump and Amity had caught up with them, and Bump had the abominations Gus released under his command.

"Seize them!" he commanded them as he held his left hand out.

Four abominations headed over to the girls again, intent on capturing them under Bump's command.

"Willow, get behind me!" Luz said as she got into her stance, ready to kick some sludge monster butt.

"Luz?" Willow asked before Luz stepped towards the abominations.

One of them took a swing at Luz but the kickboxer dodged back and gave a straight knee to it's stomach, making it crumble into a puddle. Two more tried to attack at the same time, causing Luz to bob and weave to dodge their attacks. After the third dodge, the one to the left of her threw a punch to her face, causing Luz to raise her arms to block it. The force knocked her back a bit as she stumbled before regaining her balance.

'I knew it from their looks, these things are slow and fall after one good hit, but they've got power in their swings! Best to dodge them!' Luz thought before charging at the left abomination, ducking under another hit before uppercutting it's head off and making the body fall to liquid.

The right abomination growled before trying to bear hug Luz, but she quickly rushed to it's left and gave a crescent kick that sliced through it. Luz turn to the last one and charged at it before sliding between it's legs, spinning herself around before finishing it with a flying knee to the face and sending the content splattering around as she landed in front of Willow.

"Whoa. So that's kickboxing." Willow said in a low tone as Luz moved next to her, her stance still up.

'What in the world were those attacks? That creature truly isn't an abomination.' Bump thought as he watched Luz with curiosity.

'I knew that couldn't be an abomination!' Amity thought but was also curious to those attacks the fake abomination did.

The kickboxer smiled at her victory before the abomination started reforming themselves, not looking hurt from her attacks. She grit her teeth as she looked to Bump, who was commanding them to rise and fight again.

'Note to self, next time, aim for the caster and not the spell.' Luz thought before Willow grabbed her arm.

"Run!" she said as she pulled Luz down the corridor, taking refuge behind a column.

"Damn it, those things wont stay down! We need a new plan to get out of here!" Luz said before turning to Willow. "Any ideas, Willow?"

"I-I-I don't know, I can't think of anything!" Willow said as she held her head and slid down to the floor, panicking a bit. "Oh, Amity was right about me. I am just half-a-witch."

"HEY!" Luz shouted, making Amity jump before looking at Luz as she gave Willow a stern face. "You are a full witch! Just because you're not good at this abomination stuff, doesn't mean you aren't good at other types of magic! Like how you made those plants go crazy earlier today!"

Luz then gasped as she remembered seeing Willow making the plants around her go wild and the vocal lesson Eda gave her before she left.

/Flashback/

Luz followed Eda and she knelled before a green puddle of slime, kneeling next to her.

"In a life or death situation, you always have to use what you have on hand to pull out a win. Even if it's something from this puddle." Eda said as she reached her hand inside and looked around, grabbing onto something before pulling her hand out. "You never know when the strangest of things will make the biggest difference."

Eda showed her hand to Luz and presented a small ball or seed covered in slime.

"A ball of or a seed covered in slime?" Luz asked as she slowly reached and took the ball or seed from Eda and held it in her fingers. "This is something that will save me, even if I don't think it will?"

"Exactly, kid. Never judge a book by it's cover and always use your resources wisely, remember that." Eda said before getting up and walking back to the slug.

/Flashback End/

"The plants! The seed!" Luz said as she reached into her pocket, pulling out the object Eda gave her this morning, to show it actually was a seed. "Willow, you can use this seed to help us!"

Willow looked to the seed and gasped, taking it in her hands.

"Luz, you're right! I can use this! Thank goodness you had it with you." Willow said to Luz.

"Yeah, a good teacher told me to keep it just in case." Luz said as she looked to the side, silently thanking Eda and making plans to apologies for leaving this morning.

Willow placed the seed in her lap before drawing a magic circle above it before tapping the center, sprinkling it with her magic.

"Now, grow!" Willow commanded as she threw her hands in the air, allowing the seed to produce the same briar vines from before to grow to the ceiling and spread out through the school.

"Whoa!" Luz let out as ducked from a vine heading to her head, going through an abomination instead.

They spread at high speed, piercing the rest of abominations before heading to Principal Bump, who gasped at the rush of plant magic as it wrapped around him and flung him to the ceiling.

"UH!" he let out in slight pain before gazing at the display of plant magic, amazed by it's beauty and the amount of magic it must've used. "Such beauty."

As magic school principal continued to marvel at Willow's plant magic, the barrier system spell that he used to put the school on lock down lowered and gave Luz and Willow their exit again.

"The barrier's down, we can get out now!" Luz said to Willow, who gently placed the seed down, before they ran to the exit.

The were almost in the clear until Amity appeared in front of them with a broken briar wrapped around her and a look of rage on her face.

"Hold it right there! Neither of you are getting away with this!" she said as she threw the broken briar off her. "Not until I get my badge and find out what you are! Abominations, seize!"

An abomination formed behind them and tried to capture them, but quickly twisted around and slapped it to mush with a backhand. Luz took Willow's hand and ran once again, leaving Amity as she commanded the abomination to rise again. Luz pulled Willow towards the exit again before another abomination rose to capture them.

"Again with these things?!" Luz said as she got back into her stance, ready to stop it.

"Like I said, you're not getting away!" Amity said as she walked next her abomination, which was walking towards with with Amity next to it.

Luz charged to fight it and Amity before her foot seemed to slipped on some abomination goop, causing her to fall forward to Amity.

"UGH!" she grunted as Amity fell on her back before feeling something on her lips.

Both girls looked up and saw they had accidentally kissed each other on the lips, lasting about 3 seconds before Luz immediately jumped back. Both blushed madly before Luz noticed Amity was now wrapped in briar vines on the floor, she turned around to see Willow using her magic to hold her down and the abomination back.

"GO!" she said as she began sweating from holding the spell.

"Bu-But I can't just leave you like this!" Luz said as he blush faded a bit but still present from the accidental kiss.

"What's worse, me getting in trouble or you getting dissected?!" Willow said to before wrapping a briar vine around her. "Now get out of here!"

Willow used the vines to quickly carry Luz over the abomination and out of the school before dropping her on the steps and shutting door behind her.

"Willow!" Luz said as she turned back to the door, slamming her fist against it. "Hang on! I'll get help and be back to save you!"

Luz turned around and began running back to the owl house as fast as she could, barley bothering to dodge any low hanging branches in her way as they scratched her up and knock away the abomination goop from her body. When she got back, she saw that Eda and King were in front of the house with the demon in the witch's arms.

"EDA!" she screamed to her as she stopped in front of her, breathing heavily before looking up to her. "Eda, I need your help with something at Hexside! My friends are in trouble! And before you say anything, I'm sorry for going there even though you said not to! I just wanted to actually learn something useful but you already did teach me something useful with that slime covered seed and.."

"Whoa whoa whoa! Slow down, kid! You're talking too fast." Eda said as she held a hand for Luz to stop, though she was able to get all of it before stopping her.

"Luz!" a voice called out, causing them to all turn and see Willow and Gus running to them.

They probably followed the trail of abomination goop that fell from Luz's body on the way back.

"You guys!" Luz said as they hugged each other.

"Ugh! Even though you explained it to me, I still don't understand that "hug" thing." Eda said as the new friends broke their hug.

"You won't believe it, Luz. Everything is alright at school now!" she said with a smile on her face.

"Really but how?." Luz asked with a smiling, confused look on her face.

"It was that seed you had, Luz! Principal Bump was so amazed by what I did, he let me transfer to the Plant Magic track at school!" Willow said before stepping back, snapping her fingers to change her uniform sleeves and stockings to green.

"That's great, Willow! Now you won't be called "half-a-witch" anymore!" Luz said as she gave a thumbs up to Willow. "But what about Amity?"

"She went to Principal Bump and asked if what she did could count as extra credit." Gus said before Luz chuckled and shook her head.

"Classic overachiever. I'm still glad you guys are alright and I hope nothing too bad happened from my visit." Luz said as she shrugged her shoulders. "At least not compared to the abominations and the vines."

Both Gus and Willow winced at this as Luz looked confused.

"About that, Luz, you've sorta been banned from the premises because of it." Gus said as he pulled out a "Banned" flier with Luz on it, covered in abomination muck and her hood on to cover her right eye, making a punching motion.

"That's my girl!" Eda cheered as she saw the poster.

Though surprised by the news, Luz just shrugged and waved the flier off.

"Whatever, they can keep me out." Luz said as she smiled at Eda. "I already have a great magic teacher right here."

Eda was shocked by the statement but quickly made a smug look before turning to Willow and Gus.

"Yeah, she does! This punching human is my student!" she said as she took the poster from Gus and Willow, who laughed at the silly way she did it. "You snooze, you lose, Hexside."

Eda then stared at the poster fondly before sighing and turning to Luz.

"You're very first wanted poster. I'm proud of you, kid." Eda said before giving Luz a pat on the head. "Maybe I am a good teacher after all."

"Yeaj, I guess you are." Luz said before remembering her request from earlier. "Oh hey, did you get me that burlap sack full of sand I wanted?"

"Sack full of sand?" Gus asked as he and Willow grew curious.

"Oh yeah, I did." Eda said as she drew a magic circle, making the sack of sand float over to them. "It's heavy as a rock, kid but I got it. Why do you need it anyway?"

"Just follow me and you'll know." Luz said as she walked to the house before looking back at Willow. "Hey, Willow, if you're still curious about kickboxing, I'm about to give a demonstration!"

"Really?" Willow asked as she followed Luz, wanting to see more of her fighting since she was told before school and saw during school.

"Hey, I wanna see this too!" Gus said as he, King, and Eda followed.

When they reached the back of the house, Luz untied the first punching bag she made from a strong branch and tossed it aside before pointing to the branch.

"Tie it right here, Eda." Luz said as Eda used her magic to do just that. "Perfect."

"Alright, now can you tell me what you wanted it for?" Eda asked as Luz chuckled and got in her stance.

"I'll do you one better and show you instead." Luz said before she began striking the new punching bag, making it move with every strike as everyone watched with awe at her speed and power. "Oh yeah, now this is a punching bag!"

As the group continued to watch Luz practice on her new punching bag, a certain ex-top student at Hexside was currently behind the school thinking about Luz and her kickboxing.

"UH! That, that thing! It ruined everything! And what was with those attacks, how can it fight like that?!" Amity said in anger before throwing a punch, knocking over a garbage can next to her.

The pain was stinging but Amity didn't care as she kept throwing punches, sort of copying Luz's attack from memory.

"If I see it, her, whatever again, I am going to put it in it's place!" Amity said as she kept punching the air, remembering all the times that fake abomination did something that irritated her.

Even the accidental kiss.

Chapter Text

The day at the owl house could be seen as cloudy and rumbling, showing that rain would be coming soon and Luz had just got finished with her striking practice session against her punching bag after she pushed it close to the house to avoid the rain.

"Just before the rain came down but I wouldn't have minded." Luz said as she wiped her forehead off with her towel and holding her red vest hoodie in her right hand, entering the house. "At least the rain will cool things off around here."

"Luz!" King shouted as he ran to her, making her stop and looked down to him. "I've been looking all over for you!"

"Why?" Luz asked as she put her towel aside.

"I wanted to teach you some stuff about demons, magic knowledge is good and all but you never know when you would come across a mighty demon!" King said proudly as he held his nose in the air. "My knowledge just might save your life one day."

"Hehehe, yeah sure." Luz said with an eyeroll. "Still, this does sound like it could be useful. So sure, let's have a demon lesson."

"Ehehehehehe!" King giggled with glee before grabbing Luz's hand and pulling her to the den. "You won't regret this Luz, I promise you!"

After he pulled her into the den and gestured her to sit down, King went towards his covered presentation and stood ready.

"Luz the human, today is the day you learn of the most dangerous monsters known to the Boiling Isles and what to do whenever faced with one!" King said as he grabbed the sheet over his presentation. "Welcome to the first lesson of...Demons 101!"

King then ripped the sheet over the presentation, showing Luz a bulletin board full of demon pictures of all shapes and sizes, while King put on a puffy professor hat on his head.

'So cute.' Luz thought about the hate before King began his lesson.

"Now, pay close attention. Demon such as myself are deceitful tricksters of of the twilight. Born from sulfur and born to strike fear into their enemies!" King said as he walked across his presentation and pulled out a pen with a pink diamond on the tip. "We live to create chaos to all around around and our only weaknesses are purified water and passive aggressive comment, but those are only for the weaker demon so that weakness won't work all the time."

Okay, got it. Some demons are more self conscious than others." Luz said, taking in the information since it seemed legit aka the purified water weakness.

"I'm afraid so, even the creatures of darkness have their inner turmoils." King said dramatically before pulling out a drawing of a scary turtle like monster with pale blue skin, black finger and toe nails, and a spiky shell. "And this demon is the most powerful one recorded on the Boiling Isles, the Snaggleback!"

"Snaggleback?" Luz said as she leaned forward to see the drawing, crude as it may be the demon did look intimidating. "Looks like the name matches."

"That is does! Now-" King said as he was glad Luz was paying attention before the sound of thunder and the flash of lightning drew their attention

"Looks like I was right about the rain." Luz commented at the flash.

"Yeah, and trust me, the type of rain around here is something you do not want to be caught in." King said as he shook his head.

"Why? Rain is usually a good thing back home. It waters the plants, cools the air, and personally, it feels good against a sweaty kickboxer walking him from practice." Luz said as she got up and headed to the door.

"Luz, wait!" King called out to her as she opened the door and looked out but not leave the doorway.

"I just wanna see this type of rain you're so worried about. It can't be as bad as you said it is." Luz said as she shrugged and leaned against the frame, looking towards a stray flower in the dirt.

"You'd be surprised, hoot." Hooty commented to Luz.

Luz waited a few moments before the rain began and a drop hit the flower but instead of do nothing to it, it caused the flower to burn and wither with slight steam coming off it.

"What the fuck?!" Luz said in shock as he eyes widened and she took a step back.

"Boiling rain!" Eda said as she ran towards the owl house while covering her face. "Everyone inside now!"

Luz didn't have time to react fast enough to Eda's burst of speed as she was roughly pushed inside the house and crashed into King's presentation display as Eda shut the door behind her.

"Woo, close call." Eda asked as she looked to her friends. "Everyone okay?"

Luz could only groan at her as she got up from the floor, surrounded by King's ruined lesson board as King himself as

"You're lucky I've taken harder hits than than in the past or else I'd be in real trouble right now." Luz said as she rubbed her head. "If I hadn't been more durable and still tired from practice, I would be in serious pain right now."

A few minutes later, Eda had explained to Luz about the Boilings Isles and it's plagues in the place of normal weather. Each one put more gore into Luz's mind then the last,

Gorenadoes: twisters the spin fast enough to rip a person limb from limb in the goriest fashion possible.

Shale Hail: Sedimentary rock slabs that rain down from above that can cause serious injury.

Painbows: normal looking rainbows that can turn you inside out if you look at it just once.

And last but not least, Boiling Rain: instead of being cool, it is scolding and burns like acid if expose towards to much of it.

Though horrible, the rain did answer the question on why this place was called "the Boiling Isles" to Luz and she also got more information on the Snaggleback from King, saying it was actually immune to the boiling rain thanks to it's shell and used it to hunt down any victims left in the rain.

"Well my shield spell will protect us from the rain and your made up little monster." Eda said to them as she walked to the front door, opening it to look out into the rain.

"Then hurry it up before my stucco melts!" Hooty said to Eda.

She just rolled her eyes and summoned her staff, twirling it around and slamming it into the ground to summon an orange bubble like spell to expand around her and cover the entire owl house to block the boiling rain.

"Done and done by the one and only owl lady." Eda said as she shut the door.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask but why are you called the "owl lady?" anyway?" Luz asked as Eda strutted over to her and King.

"Well, the answer is simple. I'm as wise as an owl." Eda said as she pushed her hair behind her ear.

"Oh please, it's because you go all gaga around shiny things and get distracted." King said as he got his scholar/teacher hat back on.

"I do not!" Eda argued to the demon.

Instead of replying to Eda, King just pulled out the pen he used early and clicked the side to make the diamond glow pink and shiny. Eda's eyes went wide with awe as she stared at the shiny pen.

"Sparkly and shiny! I must have it for my nest!" Eda said as she was about to dive at the pen, until Luz gave her a good slap to the face to knock her out of the trance. "OW! What the heck, Luz?!"

"'I did it to stop you from jumping King." Luz said as Eda put a hand on her left cheek. "And what was that about a nest, like a really bird's nest?"

"Yes, I do and if you find that strange, you can judge me about it later." Eda said before yawning a bit. "Putting up that force field spell really took it out of me. I'm getting sleepy."

"You sure you're not just getting old? You have been getting slower lately." King said with sass before Eda pulled his hat to cover his face. "AH! The dark!"

"Aren't demon suppose to embrace the darkness instead of fear it?" Luz commented as she saw Eda walked away. "Anyway, sine we're all trapped inside, how about you teach me a spell? You've got no excuse to not teach me."

"Luz, but what about our lesson?! We never finished!" King complained as he took the hat off his head. "I was gonna teach you have to scratch a demon's tummy just right."

Luz rolled her eyes at this before going to King and scratch his belly a bit, making King jolt before he relaxed into the scratching as he began kicking his leg against the ground.

"Not to offend but I've scratched a few dogs and cats back in my world, so those should transfer to this." Luz said with a small smile as King slowly laid down with his belly up.

"Little to the left! More, more! Less, to the right! Just a little higher, little faster!" King said in pleasure before sighing in relief. "OH! That's the spot!"

"And with that, the belly scratching lesson is done." Luz said before she got up, leaving King on the floor as she went to Eda, who was now in her nightwear on the couch with her eyes closed.

The young kickboxer stood over her magic teacher, casting her shadow over her, as she reopened her eyes to see Luz giving her a blank yet expecting look.

"AH!" Eda screamed in surprise.

"Look Eda, we had a deal, I help you with whatever you need help with and you teach me some magic." Luz said as she crossed her arms. "How am I gonna earn a magic staff if you aren't gonna teach me some magic?"

"I will teach you magic, kid. Just not now, after I spell. I swear." Eda said as she pulled a blanket over her head.

Eda sighed in relief of the silence as she tried to get to sleep again but was soon wide awake as she heard clicking, PEN clicking.

"The shiny." she whispered as she got up with the blanket over her head, turning around to see Luz holding the pen in her hand and the diamond glowing.

"I see I have your attention." Luz said with a smirk as she stepped back, making Eda jump like a cat on the couch arm. "You want it?"

"Yes yes yes!" Eda said with a rapid nod as Luz held the pen close and pulled back, making Eda lean forward to it before Luz suddenly pinched her nose and made her recoil in pain. "OW! Again?"

"Just teach me one single spell and I will let you sleep with the shiny pen. Deal?" Luz said to her as she clicked the pen off before holding it in her fingers.

"Hmm, I respect your cunning and tactics but I also hate you for them." Eda said as she rubbed her nose and got up, summoning her staff. "Alright, you've got your lesson."

Luz nodded to Eda as she sat down on the floor and paid attention to her.

"Now, if a witch ever wishes to become a magic master, they have to pay close attention and never make their teachers re...peat...themselves." Eda said as she began to doze off before shaking her head to stay awake. "To a witch, her staff is an additional source of power for when they need it."

"Okay got it." Luz said with a nod.

"But before a witch can earn their staff, they must learn to cast a spell on their own." Eda said as she threw her staff to the side. "So tonight, the first spell you will be learning is how to make light."

Eda turned and drew a magic circle in the air, creating a ball of light and making the light illuminate the room.

"Wow." Luz said as the ball slowly floated to her, stopping when she cupped her hands to hold it to her face before it popped like a bubble.

"Come on, that's basic at best!" King said as he got up and out of his scratching coma, she gave a GOOD scratch. "I can teacher her much more useful things, like learning how to avoid all the different ways a demon could kill you."

"As important as I think that would be, I refused to be kill so easily. demon or not." Luz said as he turned to him. "Besides, I can already guess some of those are no different than how a person could die in the human world."

"Oh yeah?! Name at least 3!" King said as he pointed to her.

Ripped to pieces by sharp fangs and claws, eaten alive, and dragged into their lair to held and saved for later." Luz said as King just blinked at her.

"Uuuuh, lucky guess?" he asked as Luz shook his head.

"We can do that part of your lesson later, King. Learning this spell can take less time." Luz said with a wave, turning back to Eda.

"Now, you humans think magic is something that can appear out of thine air but that's not entirely true." Eda said to Luz, looking down at her. "So where do you think magic comes from?"

"I don't know." Luz said as she shrugged. "The...heart? As lazy as that sounds?"

Eda stared blankly at her for a moment before smiling to her.

"You're actually right. The magic that witches and wizards uses comes from the heart." Eda said as she reached into her hair, pulling out a scroll and unrolling it to show a picture of a human heart with a green, sickly looking sack of flesh attached to it. "Right from their magic bile sack."

Luz gagged at the sight of the sack, holding back some normal bile in her throat before choking it down. She thought it looked cool but it was also incredibly disgusting with detail.

"Please get that thing out of my face." Luz said as she turned away from it.

"Hm. Lightweight." Eda said with a smirk as she rolled the picture and stuffed it back in her hair. "Now, when casting a spell, always remember that the bigger the circle, the bigger the spell output."

"Wait!" Luz quickly stopped her as she pulled out her phone, opening the camera app and setting it to record. "Let me record it this time to look over. Do your spell directly at me, okay?"

"Whatever, kid. As long as I can get to sleep faster." Eda said as she pointed her finger towards Luz, drawing a larger spell circle and making a larger ball of light as Luz recorded it.

"Got it." Luz said as she saved the video and put her phone away. "Though I wonder if I'll be able to do them without that bile sack thing."

"Hmm, I wonder that too. Witches of old had a different way of using magic before the spell circle but I never got around to finding it." Eda said with a short laugh and a snort.

"Well, thanks to the video I recorded of your spell, I just may find it." Luz said as she got up from the floor.

"Good, now if you'll finally let me, I'm...going...to..." Eda said as she began walking away, slowing down gradually before she fell face first to the floor.

"Eda!" Luz shouted as she knelled down to her, flipping her over to see her snore a bit. "Man, you really must've been tired from the protection spell, huh?"

"Mmm...shiny...get...shiny." the owl lady just mumbled in her sleep instead of giving Luz a solid answer, but she expected that.

"Well, I guess I should get her to bed and look over that video to find a way to use it." Luz said as King walked over to her.

"Eh, just let her sleep n the floor. Eda can sleep anywhere and not be bothered by it. Won't even wake up, easily." King said before he slapped her in the face. "Bap. See? Still asleep."

"Funny as that is, I'm not going to leave sleeping on the floor." Luz said as she moved under Eda, flipping her back over so that her chin was on her head before moving her arms back to hook her legs under her arm pit to lift her and stand up. "OH! Man, she is heavier than she looks!"

"I know! And how can you even lift her? You don't even look that strong!" King said as Luz sent a glare to him.

"Do you wanna see how strong I really am? I've lifted weight bigger than you!" she said as she began trudging Eda up to her room with King following behind.

After a surprisingly tough carry, Luz carried into her room with the door luckily left open and what she saw surprised her to a large extent. Apparently it was located right on the other side of the large, stained glass, owl eye-shaped window and in absence of a bed in the room, there was a literal bird's or owl's nest made of sticks, leaves, and vines next to a normal looking side drawer nightstand that had a bottle of glowing green liquid on it.

"Holy crap, she actually sleeps in a nest. Ahaha." Luz said with a chuckle.

"I thought the same thing when I first saw it." King said as they walked to the nest, Luz still carrying Eda to the nest before seeing the inside of it littered with the Boiling Isles' gold coin currency "snails", jewels, random human junk, and bones from an unknown creature.

The bones frightened Luz a bit as she gulped in a bit of feat, wondering just what creature those bones were from. She hoped they weren't human or elf like humanoids as most people here were before she put Eda in the nest.

'Bony remains, random junk, and shiny things. Is Eda actually part bird?' Luz thought as she turned to leave, not wanting to think about the bones as King watched her walk away.

"Come on, let's leave Eda to sleep." Luz said as she put her hands in her pockets, not looking back as King slapped Eda again.

"Bap! Ehehehehehe." he said with a giggle as he rushed after Luz.

After they returned to the den, Luz pulled out her phone and re-watched the video of Eda performing the light spell. At first glance, it looked so simple but she knew that had to be something behind it and would need to find it to learn this spell along with possible others during her time in this realm.

'Let's try this in slow motion and maybe invert the colors the a bit' Luz thought as she began tinkering with the video a bit, zooming into the circle, slowing down the video, watching it in reverse, inverting the colors.

She tried anything and everything her phone could do to find the secret behind the Boiling Isles' magic before remembering her worlds concept of magic, mainly through anime series and movies she's watched in her down time.

It was amazing how her home could come up with so many different ways for how magic could be used. Either from a countries strange history, ancient tomes, or from whatever a creative writer for movies or shows could come up with. There's Magic symbols, magical incantations, drawing a circular pattern with random shapes called "glyph."

'Wait, circular glyphs! That might be hidden in these spell!' Luz thought as she remembered every time Eda or someone else used magic here, they always drew them in circles and never any other shapes. 'But how do I find it?'

Luz was about to try something with the video again until King place a notepad over her phone while standing on a pile of books.

"Hey, Luz. Getting back to the topic of demons, let me tell you about you should really worry about!" King said before pulling up the notepad to show a drawn goldfish with small arms and hands under it with puckering lips. "Smoochy Pie, the Sweetie Baby!"

If this was a joke, it was not funny as she stared at the "demon" with a deadpanned face at how it looked absolutely ridiculous.

"It-It's a lot more dangerous than his looks and name give him credit." King said shyly as Luz wasn't looking impressed with the "demon."

"I'll just take your word for it since we have a term for this back on Earth, "looks can be deceiving."" Luz said as she pushed his notepad away. "Look, we can continue the lessons in a literally one minute, okay? I need to see if this theory I came to about using magic without a bile sack is correct and if I'm right, then Eda's questions on how ancient witches used magic will be answered."

King sat on the piles of books and looked away upset.

"Why is learning magic such a big deal to you, right now? You already have those "kickboxing" or whatever skills to beat people up, so why do you wanna learn magic?" King asked as he turned his head to her.

Luz let out a sigh as she gave King her attention.

"Because back home, all I was known for at school and around town was a trouble maker. Sure, I got recognition as a future champion, but that was pushed aside since I kept getting into random fights and have a bit of a temper. Course, most of the fights were either to help someone else or put a cocky asshole in their place but still, people kept focusing more on the bad stuff than the good." Luz said as she sat on the floor and propped one knee up. "I just wanna prove that I'm more than just a girl with problems with her anger and fights too much. You know?"

Actually, King could understand what Luz wanted. She just wanted to prove that she can be a problem solver without using her fists most of the time, that she is capable of thinking more than with violence. It was just like how he wanted people to take him more seriously as the (self proclaimed) King of demons and wanted them to tremble in fear of him and kiss the ground he walked on, not go gaga over his cute form and treat him like a cute, helpless baby.

"If...I leave you alone so you can test your theory for that spell, do you promise we can go back to my demon lessons afterwards?" King asked her as he showed her his notepad, showing the "demon" drew from before.

As said on Earth, "looks can be deceiving."

"Of course, King. Truthfully, your lessons may come in handy if we ever do run into other demons." Luz said as she grew a small smile, giving him a pat on the head. "Just give me two minutes, and I'll get back to you, alright?"

"Alright." King said with a nod to Luz.

Luz nodded to her friend as she pulled out her phone again, opening the video again and putting it to the right settings for her theory.

"Okay. Slow the video down to 25% speed, inverse the colors, define anything hidden by turning on the "bold font" setting." Luz said out loud as she went put everything into the video. "Here goes, time to see if I'm right."

Luz played the video again and watched closely as Eda's recorded self drew the circle slower and connect the ends. She watched and saw that just before the light ball, now looking like black ball with a sort of black mist around it, formed, something flashed in the circle with bold lines. Luz noticed and quickly rewind it, playing it frame by frame to see what it was that flashed like before except she now she had it in a complete 1 second frame. It was a full circle with a cone and smaller circle near the top, a line down the middle from the smaller circle, and a isosceles triangle touching the sides of the circle with two slashes in the middle.

"King, I think I found it!" Luz said as she quickly took the notepad from him.

"Hey!" he said as he saw Luz flip through it and pull out an empty page before pushing it back to him.

"I need the page, king!" Luz said as she looked back to her phone and copied the symbol carefully onto the paper, making sure there were no mistakes as she drew it completely. "Got it."

Luz showed the paper to King as she closed out the video, taking a quick photo of the drawing she copied before putting her phone away.

"So this is what you were looking for? A sort of symbol?" King asked.

"I think it's more of glyph, and Eda's theory of the old witches using magic differently is what drove me to this. Now, let's see if I'm right." Luz said as she gave a gentle tap to the glyph.

No less than a second later, the glyph began to glow before the paper began to crumpled into itself and become a ball of light, floating into the air before Luz as she cupped her hands under it. Both King and Luz were so shocked and happy about her discovery, Luz because she can now learn magic and King because now she can focus on his demon lessons!

"I did it. I did it!" Luz said as she picked up King and gave him a nearly suffocating hug. "I did magic! I found a way!"

"Good...for...you." King let out in short breathes as he was being crushed into the hug before Luz stopped and held him at a distance.

"Sorry, hehe, got too excited." Luz said with a chuckle.

"That's fine and now I can get back to teaching you about demons! Just like you promised!" King said with excitement before his stomach growled. "But first, we get snacks! I cannot teach on an empty stomach!"

"Hehehe, alright, teach. Let's take a snack break before getting back to the lessons." Luz said as she put him under her armpit, carrying him to the kitchen.

When they finally reached the kitchen, Luz put King on the island counter and went to the fridge for whatever passed for food.

"You want anything specific, King, or will you just eat anything?" Luz joked as she turned to him.

"Hmm, your humble teacher would like a-" King said/proclaimed to Luz before candle lamps around the house suddenly grew brighter before snuffing out and plunging the house in darkness.

"Huh? What happened to the lights?" Luz asked as the bay window kept the room lit.

"Eh, its just Hooty. He controls the the lights and must've just fallen asleep." King said with a wave ofthe hand, like it was no big deal. "Now back to my food-"

"HOOOOOT!" Hooty shouted in distress as crashing sounds were heard afterwards.

"Hooty!" Luz shouted in alarm as she shut the fridge, grabbed King from the counter, and ran to the sentient door.

When they got back to the den, they saw that the room had been destroyed with furniture smashed, windows broken, walls covered in long claw marks, and Hooty's door body on the floor with a large beast hovering over him. They couldn't see all of it, just its errie eyes reflecting light and its teeth clenched while doing the same but it was enough to make them shiver in fear.

"Grrrrr." It growled while dragging its claws on Hooty before it ran off.

With it out of sight, Luz calmed down enough to run over to Hooty and check on him.

"Hooty! Can you hear me?" Luz asked as she seat King down on him and looked into his eyes, seeing cartoonish Xs as she slapped his face a bit. "Come on, speak to us!"

"Wake up, you annoying door ornament!" King shouted in his face but got no reaction. "No use, he's out cold."

"And that thing could still be here but how did it get here?" Luz asked as she got up and checked outside the door way. "I thought nothing could survive out in the boiling rain except that Snaggleback you told me about!"

"I don't know. Maybe it's a Snaggleback or some sort of new demon species that can survive like them!" King theorized before they heard the beast shriek!

The duo ran out the house to the barrier's edge and looked up to see another window smashed open, the beast entering the house once again.

"Aw crap! We are screwed!" Luz said before looking to King, seeing him actually looking excited. "And why are you so happy about a monster inside our house?!"

"I' happy because this is the perfect lesson! A hands on way for you to see a demon in action and beat it!." King said as he punched his hand.

"You want me to fight that thing?!" Luz shouted in his face as she pointed to where the beast entered the house. "I may like a challenge but I'm not crazy enough to fight it!"

"But you're fast and strong, you proved that when you showed us your kickboxing!" King said as he pointed to her. "And did you forget about Eda? She's still in the house snoozing away after your magic lesson, you just gonna leave her to be eaten?!"

The human groaned as she held her head, the demon was right. Eda was still in the house and they were likely her best chance to live to sleep through another night.

"Yeah, you're right but if we're doing this, we gotta do it right." Luz said as she turned to King. "We gotta head back to the kitchen and armor up."

The duo went back to the kitchen and got ready for this beast, Luz suited up from any metal from the kitchen. Using some duck tape, Luz made her armor with two pillow under two metal trays for her front and back, a round pot strainer on her head, metal pot lids tapped on her shoulders and forearms, and boxing tape from her bag with orange gloves on her hands while her legs were wrapped in tape. Luz jumped a bit in place before throwing air punches, testing her new weight now that she was in makeshift armor.

"Alright, I'm ready. King?" Luz said as she turned King, seeing his armor was just a pillow taped to his chest and with his stuffed bunny, Francois, in his hands.

"Wee!" He let out as he held the bunny up in his hands.

Luz let her arms go limb before putting the pot strainer on his head and going towards some hockey sticks near the kitchen wall.

"We I said "armor up," I meant more than just a pillow." Luz said as she grabbed one of the sticks and returned to King, knelled down and pushing it in his hands. She knocked on his strainer covered head a bit before nodding. "There, now you've got at least some armor and a weapon."

Luz got up from the ground and pulled out a spare notepad she got from King along with the pen her used earlier, drawing the light glyph she learn and creating an orb of light in her hand.

"Good thing I was able to figure out the spell before all this happened, let's go." Luz said as they made their way to Eda's room, remaining on guard for the beast that was in the owl house with them.

They carefully made their way up the stairs and towards Eda's room, seeing the door slightly ajar.

"Be ready, King." Luz said as she lead the way into the room, moving the door completely open to see it was trashed like the den and her window broken! "Eda!"

"Oh no! The demon got her!" King said as Luz ran to the nest, checking for clues if Eda was taken alive or not.

"King, time to put your knowledge to use! How do we find it before it eats Eda!?" Luz asked him.

"Let me get my demon book, it should have some notes!" King said as he dropped the hockey stick and tried to leave but Luz stopped him and shoved the hockey stick back in his hands.

"Oh no! We ain't splitting up, that'll only lead to the demon picking either you or me off! We stay together!" Luz said as she pointed in his face before they both heard something woosh past the door. "There it is, come on!"

Pick up the small demon and sticking him in her hoodie hood, Luz ran after the demon and ignored the danger to focus more on saving her teacher.

'I don't care what you are or where you came from put if you hurt my friend, I swear to the gods of this world, mine, and the next! Te enviaré de vuelta al infierno donde perteneces!' Luz thought as she rounded a corner, seeing dead end hallway with a closet. 'There it is!'

Luz marched to the door and opened it, King shivering in fear as they look around for the beast and saw feet under some coat racks.

"Nowhere to run now!" Luz shouted as she pulled back the coats and readied her fist but stopped when she saw what it really was, a very different demon than the one they saw earlier.

"Snaggleback?" King questioned as his fear disappeared, seeing the demon he made sound so ferocious actually be a small pink-furred demon that appears to be an ape with yellow fangs and a teal tortoise shell on his back with small spikes cowering with it's hands on it's head.

"That is the Snaggleback?" Luz asked as her anger and worry faded away. "It is nothing like what you showed me in the den."

"I-I-I am terribly sorry, I just need a way to get out of the rain." it said to them in a gentle male voice.

"Then why did you bust into our home and wreck everything?" King asked as he pointed to the Snaggleback with the hockey stick. "Bad Snaggleback, bad."

"King, look at him, he obviously wasn't the one who busted into the house or did all the damage." Luz said as she moved the hockey stick away from the small demon.

"What? But wait, if he wasn't the one that did all this, what did we see earlier?" King asked as his fear was coming back.

A crash come from above them before a giant claw reached down and grabbed the snaggleback.

"Oh no! Help me!" he screamed as them as the hand pulled him up into a whole in the roof.

"Run!" King said as Luz quickly exited the closer, moving away right as the beast from before crashed down into the hall and faced the closet.

It growled eerily before hacking up the shell of the Snaggleback, eaten him before it slowly turned around to them and roared at the duo.

"AHH!" They screamed at it as the beast charged at them, trying to bite them until Luz ducked under the bite and uppercut it's jaw.

The beast recoiled slightly from the hit before shaking it's head before roaring at them again, this time slashing at them. Luz lifted up her arms to block, thankful for the pot lids as they withstood the damage but the force send Luz out of the small closet hallway and hitting the wall behind her. King was quick to jump on top of her head to avoid getting crush while Luz's back armor absorbed most of the impact.

'Thank god for this pseudo armor.' Luz thought as she looked to see the beast charging at them.

"Run!" King said as he threw the hockey stick at the beast, getting it in the eye as Luz got up and ran away letting it hit the wall were she once was.

The human ran as fast as she could to get away from the beast as it chanced after them and wasn't going to stop until it ate them!

"It's right behind us!" King said as he looked back to it! "Do something, please! I'm too young to be eaten!"

"Like what?! My fists can only do so much!" Luz said back to him.

"How about that light spell you learned?! Blind it or something!" King said as he quickly used his strainer helmet to block a claw slash that could've killed both of them. "Hurry, it's gaining!"

Luz didn't answer as she quickly pulled out the notepad and pen, drawing as big as circle as the paper could hold for the glyph before taping i and making a small orb in her hand.

"Here goes!" Luz shouted as she quickly spun on the balls of her feet and brought the light orb to the creature. "YAH!"

The orb popped with a flash as the beast got close, screeching in pain from the light but what it didn't know was that in that moment, Luz finally got a good enough look at it and what she saw shocked her to the core.

'E-E-Eda?' she thought as everything seemed to slow down around her while she saw her magic teacher, her friend, turn out the be the monster that was chasing them and wrecked the house.

She was covered in grey fur with ears bigger then before with grey hair coming out, black and brown feathered wings. Her arms and face were still the same but her eyes were now fully black and her legs shaped to look like the leg of a wolf but their a pair of owl legs. Luz stood there for a second as she saw Eda recoil in pain before her body moved before she could think and ran back to Eda's room, shutting the door behind them them. Before King could say anything, Luz quickly clasped a hand over his mouth, forcing him to be quiet as she heard Eda stalk past her room.

"Mmm!" he let out as Luz spun him to face her, making him stop struggling to see her shocked face.

"King, that thing...the one that's been destroying everything...is Eda." Luz said said slowly as his eyes widened in shock, letting go of his mouth as she put him on the floor.

"Bu-But how?! How did she turn into that thing?!" King asked as Luz was trying to think of an answer, looking around the room for close before noticing a bottle on the ground.

The same bottle she saw earlier when she brought Eda up to sleep in her bed/nest. She moved King aside and crawled to it, taking it in her hands before reading a tag tied to the top.

"An elixir a day, keeps the curse away." Luz said before turning to King, the answer now clear to her. "King, she's cursed! Eda has a curse on her!"

As Luz said that, a large clawed hand slammed through the door and shocked the duo. Thinking fast, Luz grabbed King and took him over to the balcony in Eda's room and ducked behind it.

"Don't make a sound!" she quickly and quietly said to King as Eda busted the door down, entering to try and find them.

They both kept quiet as she stalked around for them, sniffing around like a bloodhound. If they had any chance of trying to figure out a way to help Eda, they need to get her out of the room long enough for them to think of a plan! Looking around, Luz saw a small plant in a can and reached for it slowly. She quickly tossed it towards the door and made enough noise for Eda to notice it, running to catch her "prey." Once she was gone, the duo let out a breath of relieve as they relaxed for the moment.

"Oh man, this is bad! Eda's turned into a demon monster and we don't know how to stop her!" King said, slowly going into a panic before Luz took his strainer helmet off and patted his head to calm him down. "Luz?"

King looked up to her and saw the same thing he was feeling, fear yet he could also see determination. Like she had her fear under control and could think rationally in this moment more than he could.

"Calm down, please." Luz said to him as she took out the pen and notepad, placing them in front of King. "Right now, your demon know how is our only chance of helping Eda."

"M-Me?" King asked while pointing to himself.

"Yes, you. Who else could help in this situation than the king of demons?" Luz asked him with a small smile on her face.

King then felt the last of his fear disappear as he picked up the pen and jumped into Luz's arms for a hug.

"Hehehehe!" he giggled before breaking the hug and turning to the notepad, drawing a quick picture of demon Eda. "Okay, serious time. From what we've seen, Eda's cursed demon form is large, fast, covered in feathers, and she has large black eyes. With demon that have large eyes, their always sensitive towards bright lights."

"Like when I threw that light orb at her in the hallway!" Luz said as she pointed to King. "So the key is to create a large enough source of light to knock her out!"

"And then we can drag her back her and fix her, she must have a spare bottle around here." King said to Luz.

"Now that we've got a plan, we just have to put it into play." Luz said as she stood up. "Come on, let's get to work."

Meanwhile in the den, Eda was stalking around for her prey and trying to find their scent. She was currently sniffing an open book with a witch diagram on it before she suddenly heard the sound of clicking. Standing on her hind legs, Eda turned to the source and saw King leaning against a doorway with the pen in hand as the diamond on top was glowing and shiny.

"Oh my, was it this? So shiny shiny, right?" he asked her while she was entranced by the shining light of the pen.

'Shiny.' the word came to her feral mind before she lunged at King, wanting the shiny!

King took off running and leading Eda to the trap he and Luz had planned. He took haste and turned corner before slipping around another, leaving Eda to try and catch him only to slip on a pile of books and papers that were left out for her. Eda was sent crashing into another wall before a tarp was suddenly thrown over her, causing her to growl and shriek as she tried to get it off.

"Sorry, Eda! This is the only way to help you!" Luz said as she was standing on top of a ladder, turning back to a wall and finishing a large version of the light spell glyph! "Time to end this nightmare!"

Luz jumped from the ladder and turned to Eda, raising her right fist and slamming it to the glyph to activate it. The hallway was soon filled with light as Eda got the tarp off, blinded by the light but covered her eye to try and resist it.

'No! She's blocking it!' Luz thought as she looked to the crayon in her hands, the one she used to draw the glyph before looking at her glows. 'I don't know if this will work, but it's worth a shot!'

Luz quickly drew two more glyphs on the glove palms and threw the crayon away, clapping her hands together before the glyphs activated. The gloves began to crumble in and form light orbs around her hands, causing Luz to recoil in pain from the burning, but she endured it and clenched her fists.

"RAH!" she cried as she rushed to Eda, alarming her to swipe at Luz but the human ducked under the slash before bringing both her fists up into Eda's chin. "Feel the light!"

The double uppercut was enough to force Eda's eyes open and face the light from both her fists and the hallway, making her screech from the overwhelming light. A thud was soon heard as the light died down and King looked to see Eda on the ground with Luz standing above her.

"You did! The plan worked!" King cheered as he ran to Luz but stopped when he saw her smoking hands, the boxing tape had took a lot of the damage and her fingers were only a bit red but Luz was still hurt. "Luz, your hands."

"It's fine, King. Just a little water and they'll be fine." Luz said through clenched teeth before she reached into her pocket and pulled out a bottle of curse fighting elixir, a spare they found in Eda's closet before putting their plan into action. "Right now, Eda comes first."

Luz went to her open mouth and uncorked the bottle, slowly pouring all of the glowing liquid down her throat and waited for it to do it's job. King and Luz didn't have to wait long until the effect happened and Eda's jewel turned from black to it's normal amber color, her body slowly reverting back to normal along with her clothes.

"It worked, she's back!" King said, happy to see Eda was back to normal.

"Yeah, now let's get her back to her room. Hopefully she'll come to soon and we can get some answers while explaining to her as well." Luz said as she went to pick up Eda, flinching in pain from her hands.

"Luz." King said in worry for her slightly burned hands.

"I'll be fine, King. I just need some cool water, soothing ointment, and bandages." Luz said as she picked up Eda and began carrying her to her room while King went to get the things Luz asked for.

20 minutes later, after Luz put Eda back in her nest and King brought her everything she needed for her burns, the owl lady came to and sat up in her nest.

"Urgh! My head, what happened? And why does my mouth taste like road kill?" Eda asked before she gagged and vomited over the side of her nest.

Though it wasn't vomit as it was a giant owl pellet, ones that normal owls dedicate to get ride of the bones of their eaten pray. The pellet soon cracked open and reveal the eaten snaggleback, alive and unharmed except for some discomfort.

"I'm just gonna lie here for a bit." he said as he just laid in the cracked pellet.

"And when did I ever eat you?" she questioned before King walked up to her.

"When turned into that cursed monster and ate him while hunting us." he said as Eda turned to him.

"King? What are you doing here and how do you-" she tried to asked before he shushed her and pointed up.

Turning her gazed to the ceiling, Eda was met with the surprising sight of light orbs, dozens in her room and floating all around.

"Where did these come from?" she asked the demon.

"From me." Luz said as she walked up to Eda, her hands wrapped in bandages and her armor now gone, with a notepad, pen, and her phone in her hands.

"But how?" Eda asked.

"You showed me." Luz said as she show Eda her phone, showing her the inverted and bolded frame of the video she recorded earlier. "I was able to figure it out and found a spell glyph inside the circle you drew. I think this must've been how ancient witches did magic."

"Wow, you really did it." Eda said as Luz put her phone away.

"Now, about this curse you hide from us." Luz said before she help up a finger. "But first."

Eda was about to say something before Luz gave her a hard slap in on the left cheek, causing her head to spin 360 degrees twice before it stopped.

"OW!" she said as she rubbed her cheek and neck.

"That was for not trusting us to tell us about your curse. I know you probably did it to protect us or yourself but we're your friends. We deserve to know when you have a problem so we can all find a way to fix it." Luz said as she ignored her slightly throbbing hand, her burns not completely healed yet but not as bad as before.

"Fix it, huh?" Eda asked as she still rubbed her cheek, gazing down to Luz's bandaged hands. "Guess you should take your own advice, huh? What happened to your hands?"

"Oh, these. I sort of hand to use the light glyph on some gloves I was wearing and deck you in the chin. Hurt more than I though it would." Luz said as Eda for Luz's hands.

After taking them in her own, she draw a spell circle around them and made them glow. A little healing magic here and Luz's hands were good as new.

"I was gonna tell you about but your curse seemed more important." Luz said as she took her hands back, opening and closing her healed hands for any pain.

"Yeah, well I suppose you're right." Eda said as she put her hands down. "When I was younger, I was cursed and I can't even remember HOW it happened."

"And that's why people call you "The Owl Lady." Because of your curse." Luz said, piecing it together.

"Right on the money, Kid." Eda said as she picked up an empty bottle of elixir near her nest "No one likes having a curse, but as long as I take the proper steps to manage it, I should be fine."

"You sure?" Luz asked her.

"Yeah, kid. I'm sure but enough about me." Eda said as she gestured to all the light orbs Luz made. "Look at what you did, all of this magic without a magic bile sack. Nice job, kid."

"Thanks, I had some great friends to help me out along the way." Luz said as she smiled to her and King.

The tender moment, however, was soon interrupted by a certain door guardian coming to from his run in with Eda's curse form.

"Hello?! HOOT! HEY! Anybody there?! I'M ON THE FLOOR! IT'S COLD!" Hooty called to them.

"That voice, that stupid voice!" King said in annoyance as he made his way downstairs to Hooty.

"We'll clean up the mess you made while you rest, Eda." Luz said as she grabbed the Snaggleback from the ground. "Alright, little fellow. Let's patch you up and set you free."

"Ow, ow! I think my tail was digested!" he said in a bit of pain.

As she left, Eda turned her eyes towards Luz's hands and what she said she did to knock her out.

'Magic with gloves, huh? Maybe I should make her something like that to avoid that injury issue again.' Eda thought as she laid in her nest, going back to sleep as Luz and King cleaned up the damage she did around the house.

Chapter Text

The day was rather boring as Luz, Eda, and King were at now at Eda's human treasure stand waiting for any customers to come by. Eda was currently dusting the table as Luz was reading her Azura book in silence, she knew how much Eda hated the book series for it's "flowery talk" and respected her by note reading at out. King was currently napping on the table since nothing was happening. It had been a rather boring morning and nothing seemed to make it exciting, not since Luz's early morning practice against her sandbag followed by some shadow boxing and King's latest demon lesson but now, it was so slow and no one seemed to be around.

"Hey, Eda, is it usually this slow?" Luz asked as she look to her from her book.

"Eh, somethings but it won't get better if you're reading that garbage." Eda said as she used her feather duster on the book. "Luckily you're not reading aloud or else it would drive away our more serious customers."

"Um, Eda? In case you haven't noticed," Luz said as she closed her book, gesturing all around them. "There are no customers, there's not even another stand in the bazaar besides us."

True to the her words, there was no one else in sight. No monsters of any shape or size, no guards on routine route, not even a fly in the air.

"Is something happening today?" Luz asked as King opened one eye, looking to them.

"I'm not sure but..." Eda said as he face became grim. "something tells me this an omen, a sign of chaos for whatever may befall us today."

Luz simply looked at her like she was crazy before her friends, Willow and Gus, came walking towards the stand while Willow was holding a poster in her hands.

"Luz, something amazing is going on today!" Gus said as he and Willow stopped in front of Eda's stand.

"Guys, hey!" Luz said with a wave as, happy to see them.

"It's the annual Covention! Student witches and wizards are able to see all the types covens before they're placed in one." Willow said as she held up the poster, showing the words "Covention, Which Coven Are You?" with a small witch looking into a bubbling cauldron to see herself as a full witch. Below it, were the words "Mystery Guest!" "There's even going to be a mysterious guest this year!"

"So it's like a job fair for aspiring witches? Cool." Luz said as she turned to Eda. "We should check it out."

"Not on your life, kid." Eda said as Luz lost her smile and frowned at her. "Covens may seem all friendly and club like, but it's nothing more then a system used to keep people in line and stunt their magical growth and independence."

Eda slammed her fists into the table to make her point but then saw the upset look on Willow's face since she and Gus grew up following this "system used to keep people in line."

"You know you sound like a crazy conspiracy person, right?" Luz commented as Eda turned in a huff.

"So what? And no judgement to anyone who does follow this system." Eda said as she looked down. "Besides, I haven't been in a coven since I was with Li-"

Eda stopped herself from finishing, not wanting to reveal too much about her childhood.

"With who?" Luz asked as Eda tried to say something else to throw her off but drew a blank. "Is this why you don't want to go to the Covention? Because of this past you have with someone?"

"It's none of your business." Eda said to Luz.

"Well, if you won't tell me, then I'll go to the Covention myself and find the answers." Luz said as she tried to leave.

"You are not going to that Covention! Do you have any idea how many guards are gonna be there?" Eda said as she put a hand on her shoulder. "For all we know, Wraith put out an arrest for you after you kicked his head in!"

"Then why haven't I been caught yet? And besides, I can take care of myself." Luz said as she pushed Eda's hand off her shoulder, right before Eda stood in front of her.

"As your magic teacher and the owner of the house you live in, you are not going to that Covention!" Eda said as she put her finger in Luz's face.

Luz put on a blank face as she stared at the finger and back to Eda, a bit annoyed at how difficult she was being right now.

"Eda, I am warning you only once." Luz said in a tone that made Willow and Gus sweat a bit. "Get out of my way or there will be hell to pay."

"Ha! You think you scare me? Sure those kickboxing moves are something, but I have years of magical experience and spells at my beck and call!" Eda said as she leaned closer to Luz face. "What can you do to me?"

Luz chuckled a bit before pulling out her Azura book and handing it to King, who was now wide awake and standing on the table.

"King, read aloud please." she said with a smirk.

King opened the book to a random page and then began to read it's "flowery" nonsense.

""You shall not shant doeth, no more harm!" Azura calleth out!"" King read as Eda's face went blank as they all listened to the demon reading.

"So flowery, so terrible." Eda said as she began to walk around Luz, wanting get far away from it.

Luz didn't let her as she kick her by the side of her knees, making Eda fall to her knees as Luz but her in a headlock with both arms.

"Nope. You will stay and listen." Luz said as King kept reading, making Eda squirm from both the grappling hold and the reading.

"GR. GRR! Stop it, stop it, stop!" Eda said as she had enough. "You can go to the Covention, just stop this garbage."

"Okay, I will...but you have to come with." Luz added, making her turn to her head to Luz.

"I what?!" Eda asked.

"King, louder." Luz said to the demon as he began reading the book louder than before.

"UGH! Alright, alright! I'll go with you!" Eda said as she squirmed in the hold.

After telling King to stop, packing up the stand, and getting Eda a cloak to hide herself, the group now stood before a large building in town, housing the one thing Eda wished she did not see today. The Covention Center.

"UH!" Eda groaned as she rubbed her temple. "I can't believe you talked me into this."

"More like I forced you but whatever helps you save face." Luz said with a smirk as Eda sent a look to her.

She then began to put on her cloak to conceal her identity but it was too small and couldn't fight all of her hair.

"A little help?" she asked the group. "I need to keep a low profile."

"Yeah, I gotcha." Luz said as she went to Eda, helping her push her hair in and pull her the cloak hood on her hair.

"More, more!" Eda said as the cloak stretched and concealed her hair, giving her the look of a person with a big head. "Thank. You all may not know this but my wanted posters are for more then just petty theft. I'm also wanted for never joining a coven, if the guards find me, I'll be hauled off the to jail. Again."

"Well, maybe today, you'll change your mind and finally join one." Willow said as she came up to Eda will holding a wanted poster.

"Not in your life time." Eda said as she drew a spell circle and made Willow's uniform cloak pull over her head.

"Eda!" Luz said as she held her friend get the cloak off.

"Let's just get this over with." Eda said as the group entered the covention center.

when the group was fully inside, Luz was amazed by the center. Creatures of all shapes and sizes walking around or flying around on broomsticks with nine large multicolored tapestries handing from the roof.

"Whoa! This place is crazy." Luz said as they began walking around.

"Those flags you see are the main nine covens in the Boiling Isles but there are hundred of others besides them." Gus said as Willow nodded in agreement.

"There is a covens for flowers, artists, big dogs, small cats, tiny cats." Willow listed to Luz before Eda groaned loudly.

"Do they have a coven for grumpy people?" Luz asked with a smirk.

"Hey!" Eda shouted with her fist in the air.

"They actually do." Willow said before she, Gus, King, and Luz ran off laughing.

"So, have you guys been practicing some of those moves I showed you?" Luz asked Gus and Willow.

A while back, after Luz showed them some kickboxing moves, his friend were eager to learn a bit themselves while also mixing it with their magic. Gus was more excitable then Willow but that didn't stop her from showing them a few things and telling them to practice whenever they had spare time.

"Heck yeah, I have! I haven't been able to stop trying to kickbox while using magic!" Gus said as he pumped his first. "I can be a one man army with my magic!"

"Hehehehe, yeah he could. And I've been working one a bit myself, maybe changing a few things to incorperate my plant magic if that's fine." Willow said as they stopped running.

"Not at all, I just hope I can see it sometime when you guys come over again." Luz said as they stopped before a presentation of sorts.

There was a large elf standing next to a 2 stakes of bricks. Luz could also see the tiny nose conspiracy girl she meet in the Conformitorium standing next to him.

"What's up with that?" Luz asked as she pointed to it.

"That's the Construction Coven, one of the main nine." Willow said as the elf lifted both stacks of bricks into the air and let them fall/assemble into a fully functioning house.

"Damn." Luz mumbled at the feat of strength as she saw the elf take off his hard hat to reveal a stack of small papers under, taking one.

"They can use power glyphs to increase their strength for their constructions." Willow said as they saw the elf peel the front of the paper like a sticker, revealing a stone gray colored fists with a thunderbolt crack in it; their symbol.

"Power glyphs?" Luz asked with interest at the glyph, seeing the elf put it on Tiny Nose.

Her eyes widened before she felt of rush of power exploding from her body like she was in an anime.

"AHHH!" she shouted in power before lifting the elf up and throwing him into the air. "I am the strongest being alive, fear my power!"

Tiny Nose then went on a rampage, tossing the tools from the coven aside and lifting a hammer to smash everything around her. Even the other Construction Coven wizards.

"Now that could come in handy." Luz said as she pulled out her phone, opening the camera and zooming in on the power glyph sticker on Tiny Nose. "Don't know if it'll work like the light spell but I have to try."

She took the photo and got the full glyph sticker, nodding with a smile as she looked at the photo on her phone.

"Nice." Luz said as she put her phone away before a blue copy of Luz then appeared behind her, repeating her words as it walked into a nearby stand before vanishing. "What the what?!"

"I see you've noticed the Illusionist coven, my current track at school. We like to use our spells with a little showmanship mixed in." Gus said as he quickly drew a spell circle, disappearing in a puff of smoke before reappearing a feet few away and giving a bow before two older Illusion track students appeared next to Gus.

"Cool. These covens sound amazing." Luz said before looking to her teacher. "Makes me wonder why exactly you chose to NOT join one."

"You're about to find out." Eda said as she turned Luz towards the Illusionist Coven, watching as they induct a new member with a magic tattoo. "Whenever someone joins a coven, all of their other magical attributes are sealed away and make them only able to do the magic of that coven."

"Really? That seems like a huge downside." Luz said as she watched the new member's skin turn pale blue.

"Exactly and since I never joined a coven, my magical potential is limitless with all magic attributes." Eda said as she made a ball of fire and a ball of water in her hands before putting them out. "And that is what makes me the most powerful witch in the Boiling Isles."

Luz smiled to her teacher as they walked away, not noticing King had fallen behind.

"I can understand that." Luz said to her teacher as she nudging her with a smile before they to a section with six guard like people standing in rows of three, each wearing caped uniforms evocative of ravens and masks that conceal their identities. "What coven is this?"

"The worst of the worst." Eda mumbled as she lost her smile.

"It's the Emperor's Coven." Gus said, getting excited at the sight of it. "Do you think they'll autograph my forehead?"

"Maybe, let's go find out!" Willow said as she and Gus rushed in.

"The Emperor's Coven? What type of magic do they do?" Luz asked Eda, who crossed her arms at the sight of the section.

"All of them." Eda quickly said as she looked away.

"All types of magic? If that's true, why didn't you this one?" Luz asked.

"That's personal, kid. And if you expect me to go in there, you can forget it." Eda said as she turned around. "I'll wait here."

"Really?" Luz asked as Eda kept her back to her, drawing out a sigh. "Fine, it's your choice but if you change your mind, come and find me."

Luz turned around and entered the section held by the Emperor's Coven, seeing that it lead to a large, domed arena with rings of seats to overlook it. A stage was in the middle of underneath a banner with a what Luz assumed was the symbol for the Emperor's Coven, a triangle with a winged sword and a smaller winged shield in front of it.

'It's like the Roman Colosseum we learned about in history class.' Luz thought as she found a seat and waiting for whatever presentation to begin before she heard footsteps and turned to see Eda sitting next to her.

"You changed your mind that quick?" Luz asked her.

"More like I had no choice, the fuzz." Eda explained as she held a bored look. "Let's get this junk over with."

Music began to play as the crowd began to cheer as a swirl of magic appeared on stage before becoming Principal Bump of Hexside. He drew a spell circle in the air to create a microphone with bat wings before speaking to the crowd.

"Hello, Bonesborough! Students ask me all the time what the height of magical achievement is." Bump said to the crowd.

"Is it this?!" a student with beige skin, dark brown eyes, and brown hair shaved at the sides with his uniform hood up asked as he stood up and drew a spell circle next to his head.

The spell made his head massive, turning him into a living bobble head, before his neck couldn't support it and he fell on the student next to him.

"Wow, what a blunder." Luz quickly said as she and Eda shared a little laugh.

"I'm...afraid not." Bump said before grabbing the microphone. "It's joining the best of the best, the Emperor's coven! An elite force dedicated to maintaining order and enforcing his will!"

Luz watched as 3 members of the Emperor's Cove appeared before Bump as the crowd cheered and clapped, looking to the side and seeing Willow and Gus. They were frantically pointing to an autograph on Gus' forehead that he was able to get, causing her to giggle and give a thumbs up to how excited they were from it. She turned back to the presentation, only to caught the glimpse of a familiar head of green hair sitting in front of her.

'Is that...Amity?' Luz thought as a blush came to her face, remembering what happened last week when she posed as Willow's abomination project.

The presentation, the fighting, the sudden kiss on the check she gave Amity in the lunchroom and the accidental kiss on the lips when she escaped.

"Gaze upon the chosen members of the coven, sworn to usher in a new age of powerful and controlled magic." Bump said as the wizards drew a small white magic circle each before unleashing separate types of magic, water, fire, and lightning, and combining them into an explosion like fireworks.

"This is an elite force? They look more like party performers." Eda joked at the fireworks, laughing a bit as she nudged Luz.

Luz didn't seem to hear her as she paid attention to the presentation and took small glances at the back of Amity's head while still thinking back to what happened at Hexside, mainly the kisses.

"Members of the Emperor's coven have access to all forms, yes you heard correctly, all forms of magic. Oooohh. Aaaahh." Bump said as the crowd copied his "oh" and "ah." "But only THE best of the very best can be one of the Emperor's Coven. And I know someday, that could be any one of you."

Bump pointed towards a random student in the audience, which happened to be Amity as she squealed in excitement. at his words.

'So cute.' Luz thought as Eda laughed at her, making Luz a bit upset before elbowing her.

"Hey, what was that for?" Eda said as she rubbed her arm.

"I'm trying to listen. I'm still on the fence about the coven system but that doesn't mean I can't pay attention." Luz half lied, not wanting Eda to laugh at the girl she may or may not be crushing on.

"And now, it is an honor to introduce our mystery guest for this year's Covention!" Bump said as the three wizards vanished in thin air. "She is the top witch and leader of the Emperor's coven. You know her, you love her! Lilith Clawthorne!"

"Lilith?!" Eda said in shock as Luz turned to her in surprise.

"Lilith? Wait, "Li?" Luz questioned as she remembered Eda was going to say someone's name earlier today and could only guess it was this "Lilith."

a flash of light came from the ceiling and formed a light blue astral raven preached on a stick. The bird dove off the stick and to the stage before Bump, landing and sending a wave of magic that wash over the crowd as a witch appeared in it wearing a mask and white cloak before she waved her arms out to make the bird caw before it disappeared in magic particles. She was a tall, thin woman with pale skin and mint-green eyes with long, smooth black hair, black lips and black claw-like nails. A turquoise diamond-shaped jewel is embedded in her sternum while she was currently wearing a formal dress covering her body and legs in two shades of black, and wears black high-heeled boots. As the crowd cheered for her, Eda had her mouth open in a trance of shock before Luz snapped in her face and out of her trance.

"She was the one you were talking about back at the stand, wasn't she?" Luz asked.

"That...is correct." Eda said slowly.

"Thank you everyone." Lilith said with a smile as the crowd clapped, making her cloak and mask float into Bump's hands with the wave of a finger. "It wasn't easy for me to rise to the top and become the leader of the Emperor's Coven. I too, started from a normal humble beginning."

"Just like me?" the big headed student asked himself.

'Not like you but close.' Luz thought before turning her attention back to Lilith.

"But wow, I have the honor of enforcing the Emperor's will. So work harder, be more! The Emperor's coven awaits you." Lilith said as she raised her fist before drawing a large magic circle around herself.

It conjured a large raven projection, unfurling it's wings before dispersing in orbs for all to see.

"Dang." Luz said as she gazed at the display while Eda looked at Lilith with a mix of anger and annoyance.

As everyone left the arena, Eda clenched her fists and made her way to the exit before Luz stopped her.

"Eda, wait. You said you knew her, what's your relationship with Lilith anyway?" Luz asked as Eda had been rather negative towards Lilith with her gazes.

"That's private, kid. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to head home and wash this conformity swill in the air off." Eda said as she walked away.

Luz watched as her teacher left in a huff, sighing in defeat that she still won't fully trust her with her secrets.

'I'm gonna let you be for now, Eda, but you're gonna have to fully trust someone one day.' Luz thought as she turned to her left and walked, too caught up in thought that she didn't notice she was going to bump into someone.

"Ah." Luz let out as she stumbled back. "Oh, sorry. I wasn't-"

She paused as she recognized who she bumped into, the girl she developed a crush on after the whole Hexside incident.

"URH! Hey, watch where-" Amity said as she turned around before recognizing Luz, growing anger. "You!"

"Hehehe, Hey, Amity." Luz said with a nervous laugh, blushing for two reasons.

'Still hot when she's angry.' Luz thought as Amity got in her face.

"I remember you, you're that fake abomination Willow used. The one who did all those punches and kicks!" Amity said as she pointed at Luz.

"Ye-Yeah that's me and for the record, I'm really sorry about all that last week. I never meant for you to cause all that trouble or make you lose your "Top Student" status, I just wanted to help Willow." Luz said as she gently took Amity's finger out of her face. "My name is Luz Noceda, I'm a human."

"Get off me!" Amity said as she yanked her hand away from Luz, blushing as the memories were still fresh. "You got me in trouble with Principal and I hate trouble!"

"Well, again, I'm sorry about that but I didn't want to be dissected." Luz said as Amity turned to walk away, quickly walking next to her. "I just wanted to help Willow get a good grade."

"I don't care what you were doing or why you're here." Amity said as she refused to make eye contact with Luz. "This Covention is for aspiring magic students and magic users alike, no human or whatever you are can be here."

"Well, yeah, I know but I kinda belong here too." Luz said as she walked in front of Amity, forcing her to stop as Luz turned to face. "I may not be going to Hexside or any other magic school but I am learning from an experienced magic user and taking lessons on demonics from an expert on demons."

"An experienced magic user and a demon expert?" Amity asked with her arms crossed, gazing at something behind. "And is that your demon expert right there?"

Turning around, Luz was met with the sight of King in a green baseball cap, a pale green t-shirt, and a pink and light pink stripped scarf with two bakers walking behind him with a tray of cupcakes in hand.

"Um, yeah." Luz said with a sweat drop forming, watching as King ate a cupcake before rushing off to Luz with another.

"Luz, look at all the offerings I've been getting!" he said with excitement. "The king of demons is on a role."

King was so busy being happy about his "offerings," he didn't notice his scarf unfurl a bit to his feed and make him trip. He would've fallen on his face if Luz didn't act fast and caught him before he hit the ground and was lucky enough to save his cupcake.

"I get that you love the attention but you should lighten up on the sawg, too much and you'll be sent to the ground." Luz said as he put him down and and handed him his cupcake back.

"Once again, your kickboxing reflexes have saved the day!" King cheered as he held up his cupcake in victory.

"This is your demonics teachers? He looks more like rowdy pet." Amity said with a smirk, causing King and Luz look up to her.

"HEY! I am not a pet!" King shouted to her as Luz got up and stared her down.

"Look, I don't know what your problem is but you don't have to be such a jerk all the time." Luz said as she glared at Amity, though her blush was still present.

"You're calling me a "jerk?" Says the human that had the audacity to trick the teachers at my school and make the ridiculous claim that she can learn magic!" Amity said as she stared Luz down. "You can call me whatever you want but don't think for a second that you can even think about calling yourself a witch, that would be an insult to witches everywhere."

The way she talked, all high class and thinking she was better than her, made Luz remember some of the bullies she dealt with back home. Mostly with her kickboxing, thus leading to trouble with Principal Hal, but she didn't regret standing up for the little guys. Something she'll have to do now, different dimension or not.

"Okay, Amity, if you think you're such a good little witch, how about you prove it?" Luz challenged as she narrowed her eyes to her.

"Prove it?" Amity asked before realizing what she meant, giggling a bit at her. "Oh my. You don't mean a duel, do you? With those kicks and punches you do against my magic?"

"Yeah, that." Luz said as he pointed at Amity. "I challenge you to a duel!"

At the proclamation of a duel, everyone around them to gasp in shock and gaze at them. Amity kept her smug gaze as she stepped up to Luz, getting in her face as Luz lowered her finger and kept her glare.

"I accept." she said to Luz before stepping back, remembering the last time they were that close.

'Why am I remembering that stupid kiss now?!' Amity thought to herself as she looked away and blushed, coughing into her fist.

"So, do you want to lay out the terms or should I?" Amity asked Luz as he blush faded.

"So how about this for our terms? If I win, you have to be nicer to people and admit that a human like me can be a witch." Luz said as she pointed to herself.

"Alright then but if I win, you have to admit to the whole covention that humans can't become witches and you have to give up learning magic. For good!" Amity said as she sent a challenging glare to Luz.

"Do it, Luz! Use your kickboxing to knock her on her ass!" King cursed as he pointed to Amity, still holding his cupcake.

"I plan to, buddy. It's a deal, Amity." Luz said as she held her right hand out to her. "Shake on it."

Amity closed her eyes as she drew a magenta spell circle around Luz's hand, causing it to glow before she shook it and the glow spread to her hand.

"Deal. And with the Everlasting Oath, neither of us can back out." Amity said as she let go of Luz's hand.

Luz pulled her hands back and stared at it, watching the glow fade before curling it into a fist.

"So when do face off?" Luz asked as she brought her hands into her hoodie vest pockets. "I can assume we'll be fighting in that arena, right?"

"Yes, we'll be dueling in the theater in one hour." Amity said as she held up a single finger before turning to walk away. "Let's see what your magic training can do with your little kicks and punches."

'And this time, I'll be read for them.' Amity thought as she clenched her fists, remembering all what Luz did at Hexside and all she tried to copy. 'Your fancy moves won't take me by surprise again.'

"Oh man, this is gonna be so cool!" King said with excitement before he took a bite out of his cupcake. "You can totally beat her!"

"Yeah, and I have advantage over her." Luz said as she turned down to King. "Though she's seen some of my moves, she hasn't seen all of them. And I know how to beat her abominations. Let's go find Eda, I'll need a bit help to strategize."

"You go on, I'm going to find claim more offering." King said as he turned to walk away, but turn back to point at Luz. "But I'll be there to cheer you on!"

Luz shook her head with a smile at the demon, turning to go find Eda for some help with the magic duel. After a few minutes of searching and her time frame cut to 53 minutes til the duel, Luz found Eda having a stare down with Lilith.

"Uh oh. I don't think this will end well." Luz said before walking up to Eda and getting her attention. "Hey, Eda!"

Her shout got both Eda's and Lilith's attention, making the former smile before gesturing to her.

"Speak of the devil, here's my student now. Say hello to Luz." Eda said as Luz stood beside her.

"Eda, listen. I ran into Amity after you left the arena or theater and long story short, I'm dueling her in about an hour and I need you help to strategize." Luz said as she pointed to Eda.

"Well, it seems fate is working in our favor today. Your student has just ran into my top pupil." Lilith said before leaning closer to Luz. "And look at her ears, is she a human?"

Lilith raise a finger to touch Luz's left ear but failed as Luz quickly knocked it away with a strong back hand.

"UH!" Lilith grunted in pain as she held her finger, leaning back as Luz frowned at her.

"Mind your space and you got a problem with humans, Ms. Emperor's Coven?" Luz asked as Lilith, narrowed her eyes at the witch.

"Forgot to mention, she's a feisty one." Eda said with a smirk as Lilith shook her hand, fading the pain away.

"I can tell, you certainly have a unique apprentice. Makes me curious to see what she's capable of." Lilith said as she lifted her other hand, drawing a spell circle and caused all the wanted posters for Eda in the covention center to burn to ash. "There. For one day, sister, you are a free woman but only because I want to see what you and your "feisty" little human can do."

Lilith narrowed her gazed at Luz, a bit miffed at the strike to her hand, before turning to leave and find Amity so she can prepare her for their duel.

"Come on, kid. It's time to prepare for battle!" Eda said as she put a hand on Luz's shoulder, confident in her abilities.

"Yeah and that's why I need to talk strategy with you." Luz said to her teacher.

"Then let's get a move on!" Eda said as she patted Luz's back.

The two found themselves an empty part of the center and Eda discarded her small cloak in exchange for a sweat bad that mostly held her hair.

"Alright Luz, let's see if that kickboxing of your's can handle this scenario. I come at you with a blast of fire, what's you plan?" Eda asked as she leaned in.

"If you're far enough, I dodge the blast and try to get in close to land a hit but if you can keep up the pressure, I'll be stuck on the defensive." Luz said as she rubbed her chin. "And with who knows how many spells you have, I'll be pushed back since I don't have any ranged attacks."

"What about the light spell? King said you threw one of those in my monster face." Eda said, pointing to her face as she reminded Luz of her cursed form.

"And that was lucky, you were gaining and the spell could only blind you temporarily. Luz said as she pulled out her phone, going to photos for the light spell she found and the power glyph she snapped from Tiny Nose. "If I'm going to win, I'm gonna need a spell that can hurt and a faster way to use it than just drawing it."

"Really?" Eda asked as she rubbed her chin before a thought came to her, making her hit her head. "I totally forgot! I was working on something special for you after you told me you used the light spell on your gloves hands."

"You have?" Luz asked, surprised and a little happy that Eda remembered that.

"Uh huh. I was gonna save them for your next lesson but I think you need them now." Eda said as she reached into her head, ruffling around before pulling out a small box. "The material wasn't easy to find but I managed to get enough for two."

"Two what?" Luz asked as she took the box in her hands.

"Open it and find out." Eda said to her student, smiling at her.

Luz opened the top of the box slowly and saw what was inside, a pair of elbow length grayish black gloves. They didn't look like anything special but they felt somewhat like a mix of paper and leather, smooth yet tough.

"Gloves?" Luz said as she took them out of the box and began putting them on. "Why gloves? If it's to protect my hands, I have boxing tape."

"These gloves are special, kid, and they're to ensure what you did with that light glyph doesn't happen again." Eda said as she pulled out a the diamond pen from her hair. "Go on, draw your glyph on an area of the glove's palms."

"Okay." Luz said, unsure of why but did so anyway and drew a small light glyph in the area below the middle and ring finger on both gloves. "Now what?"

"Activate it and trust me, it'll turn out differently than before." Eda said as she crossed her arms, still smiling.

Luz grew curious to why but just shrugged as she used her thumbs to press both glyphs, causing them to glow on the palm and the back of the glove. She then gasped as a balls of light forms from her hands, not crumbling the gloves up like before.

"What? But how?" Luz questioned.

"I made them from a special material that can have magic imprinted on it, rare stuff but not impossible to find. I figured since you can't use paper forever, you can use those gloves with your glyphs when you need to in a pinch. And the upside is the the glyph is now permanently imprinted on the glove, so you can always use it, along with any other glyphs you find." Eda said as she pointed to the palm. "If another glyph can fit in anywhere on the glove, you can them whenever you want."

"Eda." Luz said as tears began to fill her eyes, so happy for this as it was the nicest think Eda had ever done for her, literally.

She then got up and hugged her teacher, letting her test flow on her chest.

"Thank you." she mumbled.

"You're...welcome, kid." Eda said, still uncomfortable with her hugs but still hugged back. "And, if you need a new spell to add to the gloves, I can show you that fire spell I mentioned earlier."

"That'd (sniff) that's be great." Luz said as she pulled back, wiping the tears from her eyes and pulling out her phone with the needed app open. "Ready!"

Eda nodded and slowly drew a spell circle, letting Luz record it before a fire ball appeared from it.

"Now do your magic, kid." Eda said as she snuffed out the fire ball.

"Got it." Luz said as she edited the video like the last one when she learned the light spell.

Invert the colors, bold any lines, slow down the video, go frame by frame, and zoom in on the circle. Luz played the video again, watching closely before stopping at two frames before the end and finding a new spell glyph for fire. It was a large circle at the bottom of the spell circle with a dot in the center and a curved triangle on top of it with a smaller circle and curved triangle on top and touching the top of the spell circle. Luz quickly saved the separate frame and drew the spell circle on her new "glyph gloves," right on the area before the thumb.

"Now to test it." Luz said as she used her pointer fingers to touch the glyphs, making them glow orange before fire balls formed in Luz's hands. "Sweet!"

"And now you have some proper long range attacks! That kid won't know what hit her!" Eda said as she pumped her fist at Luz taking a few steps back before crouching a bit. "Now, show me your aim! We've only got time before your duel!"

Luz nodded to Eda before crushing the fireballs in her hands, making her fists on fire.

"You got it, Eda." Luz said with a smirk.

Later in the arena theater, after both sets of teacher and students prepared themselves, everyone in the covention was assembled to watch the apprentices of two powerful witches face. Lilith and Amity stood on stage looking confident and smug while Eda and Luz stood on the other side watching them, the latter of witch was bouncing in place to get herself ready for the duel.

'You got this, you can beat her.' Luz thought as she gazed at Amity, somehow hating that smug gaze and still think she's cute at the same time. 'No! Cain't let cuteness get in the way!'

"Citizens of Bonesborough, it is with great honor that the Emperor's Coven shall present an example of the kind of witch or wizard we recruit ever year." Lilith said as she guided Amity forward, presenting her to the crowd. "Allow me to introduce one of my pupils, Amity Blight."

Amity gave a smug look as the crowd and all the magic school students that knew her cheered at her introduction.

"Yeah, Amity!" one said while holding up a foam finger with Amity's name on it.

"And today, she will be facing, some human." Lilith said as she gestured to Luz, seeing her know wearing elbow length glove and bouncing on her feet with a determined look.

This caused the crowd to murmur among themselves, thinking Luz stood no chance against Amity.

"A human?" What's a human doing here?" Humans can't do magic?" "She can't win, she's not Amity." they said as Gus and Willow looked worried, they might have known about Luz's kickboxing but they've never seen her use it in a magic duel before.

'Wait, that's a human? It appears Amity was right, she wasn't an abomination. And those attacks she did.' Principal Bump thought as he remembered those punches and kicks, forming an idea in his head.

"Alright, you ready kid?" Eda asked Luz as she stopped bouncing on her feet.

"Yeah, I'm ready. This feels no different then when I'm against an opponent with more experience than me. I could win before and I can win now." Luz said as she took a deep breath, comparing this feeling to her kickboxing matches.

"Then get out there and show them what you can do!" Eda said as she pushed Luz forward as Amity jumped off the stage.

Both girls walked to the center as a bell rung, exactly like the school bells in Hexside as they stopped before each other.

"Hope you're ready." Amity said as she cracked her knuckles but eyed the gloves with inner curiosity.

"Bring it on." Luz said as she got in her kickboxing stance, fists in front of her face and right foot back with her left foot forward.

'Let's see what this human can do.' Lilith thought as she paid close attention to her and Amity.

Amity draw a large spell circle on the ground in front of her, hovering her hands over it.

"Abomination, rise!" Amity shouted as she raised her hands and summoned an abomination larger than any she summoned before, at least 4 times her size. "Whoa! Hahaha, show me what you got against this, human!"

"I will! Doesn't matter how big it is!" Luz shouted as she reeled her right arm back, opening her hand and pushing her new fire glyph before closing it to get a flaming fist. "It's gonna become mush all the same!"

Luz threw a fireball at the abomination's face, making it stumble and groaned as everyone was shocked by this. They thought humans couldn't do magic and yet, here a human was, creating a flaming fist before them.

"What the heck?! How!?" Amity demanded from her, looking at her gloves before figuring it out. "The gloves, you're using magic with those!"

"Yeah, I know!" Luz said as she charge at Amity, ignoring the abomination regrowing it's head. "I also know to ignore a puppet and go for the master!"

Luz closed the distance as fast as she could as she reeled her left arm back, pressing the light glyph and making a ball of light and throwing it to Amity, who instinctively put her arms up to block the blinding light. When the light died down, Amity opened her eyes to see Luz right below her, reeling her right fist back for an uppercut.

'She's faster than before!' Amity thought as she prepared her arms, feeling the heavy impact of Luz's punch. 'And her punch is even stronger than I thought!'

Luz didn't stop as she kept through punches at Amity's defense, a bit surprised she could defend like this but didn't think about it long. Her defense was lazy and had so many openings, she threw a kick to Amity's right leg and caused her to stumble.

'Go for the jaw!' Luz thought as she threw a punch to Amity's jawline.

'NO! I won't go down like this!' Amity thought as she remember what Luz did before and how she tried her best to mimic the moves she saw. 'I am not going to lose to you again!'

Amity fell with the stumble, making Luz miss by inches before throwing a punch of her own and hitting Luz's cheek. This surprised everyone who knew of Luz's kickboxing.

'She punched her?!' Eda, Willow, and Gus thought in shock.

'She punched me?' Luz thought as she quickly got back, seeing the abomination almost stomp on her. 'That punch actually surprised me, I din't think she was one to get her hands dirty.'

"Don't give her room to breath!" Amity commanded as her Abomination pulled out it's head, throwing it at Luz to try and crush her.

Luz quickly dived out of the way, hearing it crash behind her, before quickly tapping her fire glyphs and threw fireballs at Amity. Well, around her since Luz didn't want to do permanent damage to her cute self. Amity covered her her face as the fireball crashed around her.

"Like I said, I'm going for you and not your much monster!" Luz shouted before she held a hand behind her, using the fire spell to boost her towards Amity. "You surprised me before, but that won't happen again!"

Luz stopped in front of Amity and delivered a hard punch to her stomach, making her keel over and gasp before she grit her teeth.

"That's what you think!" Amity shouted as she grabbed Luz's arm, throwing a sluggish knee to try and break it but Luz countering it with her own. "I will win! And I'll use your own little moves against you!"

Luz gave a straight kick the get Amity off her arm, causing her to stumble back as she got back into her stance.

"Sorry to say, but you'll need a miracle to beat me in kickboxing!" Luz shouted to her.

'So, "Kickboxing" is what it's called.' Lilith and Bump thought, curious to the humans attacks.

"Well, lucky for me, I do have a miracle." Amity said, smiling deviously before looking to her abomination. "Abomination! Cower, merge, and armor!"

With the triple order given, the abomination began to fall to a puddle before moving towards Amity and slide up her body. Amity was soon covered in her abomination before it began to mold into something different, it began to mold and harden into a sort of armor around Amity's body with six tendrils popping out of her back.

(Imagine Fate Zero Mordred but without helmet. Replace the red with purple, the silver with pink, and gold with black.)

Everyone, even Lilith herself, gasp at the sight of the armor and the level of effort it must've took to mold it.

"HOLY BELLOWS!" Willow, Gus, and King, who was covered in even more swag, shouted in unison at the sight of Amity in abomination armor!

"What the heck are you teaching her, Lily?!" Eda shouted as her sister, who stood still before she shook off her surprise and smiled at Amity.

"Something I could never be more proud of! She's even more talented than I thought before!" Lilith shouted before looking to Luz, who was still in shock of the armor. "I'd suggest you give up now, human! You put on a good show but I think Amity is done playing around!"

Luz quickly shook her head to get back in the right mindset before firming her face.

"Not chance! Armor or not, I'm not backing down!" Luz said as she activated both her light and fire glyph at the same time, causing her fists to become golden flames. "So bring it on, Amity!"

"Consider it brung, human!" Amity shouted as they charged at each other.

Amity mentally commanded the tendril to form fists at the end and launch at Luz, forcing her to bob and weave two before throwing fire ball at the rest Her path to Amity was clear as Luz reeled her fist back, right at the same time as Amity. Their fists met in the middle before they before Luz broke the clash with her superior strength, pushing Amity back before they engaged in the very first Kickboxing match on the Boiling Isles. The crowd watched in awe and roared with cheers, watching as Luz had the superior skill in kickboxing while Amity was slowly improving, using her armor and tendrils to attack and defend but Luz was able to keep up.

"This is insane!" Gus said in shock as he grabbed his hair, watching as Luz did a roundhouse kick against two tendrils, ducking and firing a fireball at Amity, right into the chest.

"I know! I didn't think Amity would've copied Luz from just seeing her fight once!" Willow said as King shouted as loud as he could.

"COME ON, LUZ! KICK HER IN THE ARMORED BUTT!" he cheered as Luz actually had some supporters in the crowd.

Back with the fight, Luz dodged two more tendrils before blocking a knee kick from Amity and closing the distance to give her a left hook but she blocked it as well.

'She's getting better as we fight! I've read about this online but I've never seen it before.' Luz thought as she jumped away from all tendrils trying to pummel her into the ground, looking at the armor and noticing cracks slowly closing. 'Her armor is cracking! It's probably taking a lot of her magic to keep it strong and control those tendrils but if I can break it, I can win!'

With a new plan in mind, Luz rushed towards Amity as the armor'ed girls sent all of her tendril fists at Luz and combined them into a large right fist! That didn't stop Luz as she kept running, coming within inches of the fist before sliding under and to the left. She quickly got back on her feet and rushed to Amity, readying both hands with golden flames.

"Got you!" Luz shouted as she used her left hand to chop through the tendril, making the fist fall to muck on the ground before she rushed Amity, who put up her arms to block again. "It's over!"

Using all the strength she could muster in each punch, Luz punched all over Amity's guard and her upper body. With every flaming punch, Luz could see the cracks getting bigger and bigger without fixing themselves. Amity was to busy defending Luz's rush to notice, big mistake on her part as she left the punches hurt more and more before realizing her mistake.

'My abomination armor!' she thought in panic before it was too late, feeling the arm parts break as they were both knocked away from her face. 'No!'

"Game over!" Luz said as she reeled her right arm back, making a golden fire fist shine brightly before hitting Amity as hard as she could in her stomach.

"UUH!" Amity let out as the fire fist exploded, knocking them both back as her armor broke apart and fell to the ground returning to muck.

Luz managed to roll from her back to her feet and stumbled into a steady stance while Amity flipped and landed on her stomach. The remainder of Amity's armor was a shoulder guard for her left arm, a bit for her chest, and some covering both her thighs; it looked like it was struggling to form again or even stay solid as Amity tried to get up from the ground.

"Th-This isn't over!" Amity said, refusing to admit defeat.

Luz had to admit that her determination was admirable but she had to know that this fight was over and she couldn't go on. As Amity held her head down as she got up, Luz noticed something on her neck, something...familiar.

"Huh?" Luz wondered as she lowered her fists and walked to Amity, confusing the crowd as they stopped cheering for a moment.

Luz helped Amity to her feet, looking at the think on her neck and gasping as Amity pushed her away.

"Get off me." she said as the rest of her armor fell to the ground.

"Amity, you have something on your neck." Luz said as she gestured to her neck.

"On my neck? What are pulling?" Amity asked as she reached for her neck. "There's nothing on m-"

Amity froze mid sentence as she pulled something off her neck and brought it to her front to see it, it was a power glyph from the Construction Coven.

"Wha-how?" Amity asked as everyone gasped at the sight of the glyph, mumbling about Amity cheating. "I-I-I didn't know! I would never use something like this to win!"

From what Luz saw on her face, the pure shock and fear at the glyph, she had to be telling the truth and if Amity didn't put the glyph on her neck, only one other person could've.

"It was Lilith!" Luz shouted as she pointed an accusing finger at her, making everyone stop and listen as she walked up to Amity from behind. "She power glyph on your neck before the duel started!"

Everyone gasped once again at the news, shocked that the head of Emperor's Coven would stoop to cheating using her star student! Though Eda had a different reaction.

"Cheated?! You cheated!" Eda said with a smile, rushing her face and mocking her. "You cheated, miss perfect isn't so perfect after all! Hot dog, today is a great day!"

"I only cheated because I knew you would cheat!" Lilith said as she pointed to Luz as Eda began to dance around her, more specifically her gloves. "Magic manipulating gloves?! The human wouldn't stand a chance if you didn't give her those!"

"You still cheated! Welcome to my level, sister!" Eda mocked as Amity look around the crowd, seeing their shock, sadness, and...disappointment at her.

"Bu-But I didn't know." she said as she looked to Luz, beginning to cry from her own teacher making her cheat without even knowing.

The green haired girl ran out of the theater with a look of sadness, anger, humiliation, and betrayed. She might not know betrayal but the other feelings where nothing new to Luz since she had felt before whenever she suffered a devastating defeat in a few matches. The sadness of letting those who supported her down, the anger of not being strong enough to win, and the humiliation from being outmatched by someone better than her.

"Amity." Luz mumbled before she ran after her, leaving Eda and Lilith to argue and escalate into a fight.

After she got made her way out of the theater arena, Luz looked around for Amity with goal of just talking to her. She soon got her wish when she turned to see Amity sitting in a dark corner of the Covention center with her knees to her chest and her head burrowed in them.

"Hey." Luz said as she walked over to her, hands in her pockets.

"Go away, just leave me alone." Amity said as she turned her head away from Luz.

"Look, I may not understand how you feel about what Lilith did, but I do understand how you feel right now."

"How I feel?! You don't know anything about how I feel!" Amity said as she got up and faced Luz, showing her dried face. "Everything was going fine until you came! You embarrassed at school and you cost me my one chance to impress the Emperor's Coven, one that I have worked my entire life for!"

"I never meant to embarrass you, I just wanted to-" Luz tried to say.

"To what?! Prove you can be a witch?! Well, you can't! A human can never be a witch, so say it!" Amity said as she pointed to Luz. "You cheated with those gloves, the duel was mine from the start!"

"You nor anyone else, said that I couldn't use magical items to help me win." Luz said as he limps became firm. "If anything, the duel was a draw."

"A draw?! There is no draw in a duel!" Amity said as she lifted her fist at Luz. "Why won't you accept the truth?! You are not a witch!"

Luz simply let Amity punch her in the cheek, not moving or flinching from the hit as she kept her gaze at Amity as she was left breathing heavily from the hit.

"Are you done?" Luz asked as she grabbed Amity's fist and moved away from her cheek, which was now bruised. "Because If you are, then I have something to say to you."

"Like what?!" Amity asked as she tried to jerk her hand away from Luz but the grip was too strong.

"You're right, I'm not a witch." Luz said, causing Amity to stop jerking and look to Luz in surprise while she lifted her to Amity's face so she could see the two glyphs on her gloves. "Not like anyone else but that won't stop me from becoming a witch my own way."

Luz used her thumb to press the light glyph below her middle and ring finger, causing a light orb to form as Luz pointed her palm up as she left go of Amity's fist. The green haired witch just stared at the orb for a moment before she quickly scoffed and turned away.

"That's just dumb light spell, a little kid could do that." Amity said as she stepped away from Luz, before turning her head back a bit. "But, I've need seen it cast like that before."

"I know but this just proves a human can do magic, I just have to find the glyphs for the spells and I don't know how many of them are out there." Luz said as she leaned against the wall, snuffing out the light and leaning against the wall. "That is, if that Everlasting Oath doesn't get in the way."

After staying silent for a moment, mulling over everything that's happened since she met Luz vs what she was told and shown, Amity made a choice that she hoped wasn't going to be regrettable.

"Give me your hand." Amity said as she drew a spell circle, putting her hand through and taking Luz's hand to cause them both to glow for a moment. "The oath is unbound, you can continue your training."

As she let go, Luz stared at her hand for a moment before looking up to Amity and smiled at her.

"Thanks, Amity." Luz said as Amity began walking away before stopping, turning back to Luz.

"Just one more thing and it's been bugging me ever since it happened." Amity said as a blush came to her face but forced herself to continue. "Back at Hexside when you impersonated an abomination, why did you kiss me on the cheek?"

This caused Luz to burst out in a blush of her own, staring at Amity with wide eyes.

'Shit! I didn't expect her to bring it up!' Luz thought as Amity waited an answer.

"Well?" Amity asked her.

"Oh yeah! W-Well, I ju-just thought..." Luz stuttered as she scratched her cheek.

"Thought what?" Amity asked her.

"I...thought you were cute." Luz mumbled just loud enough for Amity to hear, causing the green haired girl to turn into a tomato.

"C-C-C-Cute?!" she stuttered out as Luz turned away with a blush of her own. "Y-You ga-gave me a random kiss b-because I was cute!?"

"Well...I was never one to think with my head, so I just went for it." Luz quickly said as Amity just stared at her.

'Just...went for it.' Amity repeated as she thought back to their other kiss, the accidental one. 'No! That was an accident! Nothing more! But...'

Looking around for anyone pausing, Amity took a deep breath before doing something Luz or Amity herself, never expected. Moving quickly to Luz, Amity gave a her a kiss on the cheek before she began speed walking away.

"Consider that payback!" she quickly said as Luz stood their like a statue.

'She-She kissed me!' Luz thought as steam seemed to be coming from her eyes, her brain processing at such a high speed to process this.

"Hey, Luz!" King said as he came to her, taking her out of her daze. "I've been looking for you."

"Oh sorry, I just had to...talk with Amity for a bit." Luz said as she noticed all of King's swag, a lot more than before. "You really took advantage of getting "offerings," didn't you?"

"Maybe but I got something for you too!" King said as he pulled something out for Luz, a bag with "Covention" on it. "A tote bag!"

"Wow, thanks, King." Luz said as she took the bag as King jumped inside it.

"I also makes a good chariot! Now onward!" King said as Luz chuckled, putting the tote bag on her shoulder.

Luz chuckled at King, rolling her eyes to him, as Eda came up behind her in a rush.

"Come on, kid. Time to scram." Eda said before taking a quick look back to where she came from.

"Why? Did something happen between you and Lilith?" Luz asked as Eda turned back to her.

"You could say that but if you ask me, Lily should stop "snacking" on the job. Eda said with a chuckled, a little inside joke.

"King?" Luz asked him as Eda walked ahead of them.

"Big battle, Eda escaped by throwing a snack in her face." he explained quickly.

"I won that fight...by a technicality." Eda mumbled the last bit to herslef.

"Okay?" Luz said, unsure before looking up to Eda. "Hey, Eda. You ever think I'll become a true witch using my own way?"

"Using your own way? Of course you will!" Eda said before gesturing to everyone around here. "These rubes think you can be a true witch by joining a coven but I never did and I'm more powerful than they'll ever be. It's about being your own witch and you're already on the right path, kid."

Luz smiled to Eda as King gave a nod to her speech.

"Thanks guys." Luz said as she walked up to Eda.

"You're welcome, now let's go before Lilith finds out I tied her shoelaces together." Eda said before an angry screamed was heard where she came from.

"I think she found out." Luz said before Eda pushed her forward.

"Yep, she did. Now let's hurry." Eda said as they headed for the exit, a banner saying "COME BACK SOON! WE'LL GET YOU EVENTUALLY!" hanging over it.

"So, Lilith is your sister, huh? Older or younger?" Luz asked as the doors slid open for them.

"I won't say but play your cards right and I might tell you about my parents." Eda said to her.

"Hmm, no thanks. Just Lilith." Luz said as King nodded to her.

"A wise decision!" King said to them.

As they were almost out of the building, a sudden voice stopped them.

"Excuse me!" he said, causing them to turn around and see Principal Bump running towards them. "Human, I wish to speak with you."

"Speak with me?" Luz asked before guessing the reason. "Look if this is about what happened at Hexside-"

"This has nothing to do with that. This is more about what you did during the duel and back at Hexside." Bump said as he punched the air. "That battle form you did."

"You mean my kickboxing?" Luz asked a Bump nodded while pointing to her.

"Yes, that "kickboxing." After seeing once again today, I have gained an interest towards the battle form and would like to make you an offer." Bump said to Luz.

"What kind of offer, Bumpy?" Eda asked as she narrowed her eyes at the principal.

"The kind that will make up for the "Abomination incident."" Bump said as he looked back to Luz. "I would like you to come to Hexside and teach your "kickboxing" to the students as a extracurricular activity. With it, comes you ban lifted and your credentials vouched for by me."

"You want me to teach a Hexside?!" Luz asked in shock as Eda and King were shocked as well.

"Yes. Just from that duel alone, all the student in the crowd became so fascinated with it and even tried copying like Ms. Blight. If left unguided, they could hurt themselves." Bump said as he pointed to Luz. "Even though you are young, you are the only one on the Boiling Isles that can teach them properly. So, what do you say, human?"

Still shocked about the offer, turned to Eda for help but she looked just as shocked as Luz was.

"She'll do it!" King answered for her, making Luz and Eda turn to him. "Luz will happily be their commander and instruct them in the ways of kickboxing!"

"Alright then." Bump said as he shook Luz's hand and turned to walk away. "Come to the school when you want to discuss when your first class will begin."

As King waved goodbye and Luz and Eda just starred at him, neither of them could predict how this would effect the students or how serious they would take it.

Chapter Text

Two days after the Covention ended, the duel between Hexside's best and a mere human was still the buzz of the Isles. To think a human with simple magic glove and a strange combat style, could inspire so much excitement is beyond them but it did intrigue them. Especially witches and wizards in their age group. They couldn't stop talking about it, from the punches and kicks to the magic that was displayed by both of them, luckily Amity didn't receive too much backlash from the supposed cheating as that was nearly forgotten by Eda and Lilith's duel after wards. Though it was still talked about and the students just wanted to see more of Luz's combat style and lucky for them, they just might get it.

"I still can't believe that duel at the Covention is still the talk of the town." Willow said to Gus as they walked down the hall, the school day over and them heading home.

"I know! And it's still awesome how Luz was able to go toe to toe with Amity! Even using those cool new gloves!" Gus said as he waved his hands in the air, an excited smile on his face. "I can't Luz was able to adapt to those magic gloves so quickly! Blasting that fire like a pro! It makes me so amped to try all sorts of trick when we go for our see her!"

"Yeah and we better hurry to meet her." Willow said as they passed a bulletin board, holding an array of flyers and papers for various things at Hexside.

One of which caught both of their attention as they suddenly stopped and rushed back to read it clearly.

Learn the way of the humans! Defend yourself when you magic has failed!

Learn Kickboxing from the first human to do magic,

Luz Noceda!

Lessons taught in Room 307, Fridays after school.

To say they were shocked was an understatement! Their best human friend, the one who was teaching them a few kickboxing moves every now and then, was now offering lessons after school TODAY! Their was even an image of Luz throwing a jab with a focused look on her face! When did this happen?! HOW did this happen?! And Why were they just finding out about this NOW?!

"Gus." Willow said calmly.

"Yes, Willow?" Gus replied the same way.

"We're going to that classroom now." Willow told him.

"Agreed." Gus said before they took off running to the class, leaving other students to check out the flyer after they left.

With them rushing to the room on the flyer, Gus and Willow stopped before the door to Room 307. The duo knocked on the door with ferocity as they wanted to see if the flyer was telling the truth. The truth came flowing as the door was jerked open.

"What is you-" Luz shouted but stopped when she saw it was the surprised look of her best friends. "Guys, it's you! So you must've seen the flyer Principal Bump put up."

"Yeah, it's us and we we did!" Gus over eagerly stated with his hands up.

"Luz, why didn't you tell us you were giving lessons or how!?" Willow asked, still shocked that Luz was unbanned and on school property.

"Well I can answer your questions quickly before other potential students come to join. Come on in." Luz said as she opened the door fully and let them in, closing it afterwards.

Walking inside, Gus and Willow were amazed by the new look the room was given. 5 sandbags hanging against from hooks on the left wall, a large black square of earth in the center what was raised up, covered in a cushion material with poles on every corner and 4 rows of vines between each of them. There were a strange poles with two rods for arms with pads at the end and two rods for legs with pads at the end. About 3. (thinking of the spinning dummy Po fought in Kung Fu Panda 3) There were also several mats around the black square with different colors of the main 9 covens on them.

"It's not the best classroom/gym seat up but it'll do." Luz said as she pointed to each section. "Those are the sandbags like the one Eda got me back home, those spinning posts are for building reaction time I got from a movie, and the that is the boxing ring where spares and demonstrations will be held."

"Wow." Willow let out at the classroom/gym, it was nothing like any other room in Hexside.

Not even the school gym!

" I'm surprised how well it turned out honestly but enough about that." Luz said as she sat on the edge of the boxing ring. "Now, the reason I'm able to be on campus and no longer banned is because Principal Bump gave me an offer after the duel at the Covention."

"The duel where you and Amity went toe to toe in fists and magic?" Gus asked as he and Willow sat down on a green mat, putting their school bags aside.

"Yeah that. Apparently, the duel made more of an impact than I thought. He said that students in the crowd were trying to copy my moves and he thought it could lead to trouble if they didn't have a proper teacher. So he came to me and Eda when we were leaving the Covention and offer to lift the ban so I could teach." Luz said as Gus and Willow gaped in shock. "Though King accepted for me, I came to accept if after some thinking and as they say, "the rest is history." So, what do you guys think?"

"What do we think?! This is awesome! Now we can get double lessons!" Gus said as he shot up to his feet and threw 2 punches and a kick. "Gus the Dazzling Striker will be closer to being a reality!"

""Gus the Dazzling Striker?"" Luz asked with a short chuckle.

"It's my fighter nickname for when I'm ready to use it in battle! I already came up one for Willow too." Gus said as he pointed to Willow. "She will be known to all as "The Green Fury!""

""Green Fury?" Me?" Willow asked as she pointed to herself while Luz looked at her, humming and nodding.

"Yeah, I could see that, I had my own fighter name back home. Went by "The Dominican Destroyer." Hehehe, good times." Luz said as she remembered when she got her nickname.

"Are all of the students of the students gonna get fighter names in this class?" Gus asked as he sat back down.

"Hmm, if they want, yes. They can come up with their own names or ask me to suggest one for them." Luz said before pulling out her phone and checking the time. "Speaking of students, I'm gonna wait a few more minutes before officially starting the class. I expected you guys art least but I hoped for more than just two students."

Like fate was answering her call, a knock on the door came and caused them all to look at the door.

"Hello? Is this were the human kickboxing class is held?" a female voice asked as she knocked on the door again.

"Huh. Thank you, whoever was listening." Luz said as hoped off the ring and walked to the door, opening it to welcome the students. "Yes it it, please come in."

When the door was fully opened, Gus and Willow were shocked to see who the trio was while Luz was focused on only one person.

"Amity?" Luz asked as before her was the green haired witch she fought two days ago, Amity Blight, with two more girls with her.

On Amity's left was a girl with a slender figure with pink skin, light purple eyes, and violet hair tied back in a bun. Her school uniform the same as Amity's but her leggings and sleeves were yellow. Her most unique feature was that she had 3 eyes, one on her forehead, making her a triclops. On Amity's right was a girl with brown skin, eyes with gray irises, hair that comes in tones of pinkish-gray and deep mauve held up in a ponytail and gold studded earrings on her ears. Her uniform had red sleeves and leggings.

"Hello, Luz. I hope we're not late." Amity said formally.

"O-Oh, you're not! Class was just about to begin." Luz quickly said before looking to the two new girls, one looking amazed to see her and the other keeping a cool appearance. "And I see you brought friends with you."

"Yes, they saw our duel at the Covention and they wanted to learn how to fight like that too." Amity said as she gestured to the girl on her left, the one with dark skin and gold earrings. "This is Skara, she REALLY enjoyed our duel and can't stop talking about it. She's actually been wanting an autograph since."

"Yeah, you were so cool!" Skara screamed as she shook Luz's hands at a face pace. "It was unlike anything I've ever seen and I just had to know more! I'm so glad your teaching a class here!"

"Hehehe, it's fine. I'm happy to teach you if you want to learn." Luz said as they stopped shaking hands and turned to the three eyed girl. "And her?"

"That's Boscha, she just came along because she was bored but I can tell she is interested." Amity said as Boscha rolled her eyes.

"Whatever, can we get this down already?" Boscha asked as she looked around the room until she laid her eyes on Gus and Willow. "UGH! and there's even two losers here!"

Gus and Willow looked away at the comment as Luz began to get angry.

"What did you call them?" she asked the triclops as she pointed to Gus and Willow.

"I said those two are losers. "Half-a-witch" Willow and "Mr. Disillusion" Gus, they-"

Before Boscha could finish he insult, Luz closed the distance and nearly uppercut her in the chin but stopped within a few inches. That display of speed was more than enough to shut her up as Luz glared at her.

"Look, I may not know why you're like this but in my class, there are NO losers! So I will not stand for any name calling or hazing, do I make myself clear?!" Luz demanded with a firm and angry tone.

"I-I-I- Ye-Yes, ma'am." Boscha whispered with wide eyes, stunned by how fast Luz was for a human and she didn't even use the magic gloves she was wearing!

'Holy Belos, that was scary! And cool!' Skara thought as she and Amity were shocked while Willow and Gus smiled at Luz.

"Good, now, come in and take a seat. I'll start when a few more minutes." Luz said as she moved her fists away from Boscha's chin and gestured her to the mats around the boxing ring. "You don't have to sit on a mat that matches your uniform, just sit wherever."

The trio went over to the mats as Gus and Willow nodded to Luz, getting the attention of the new trio passing by.

'I should've known they would be here.' Amity thought as she walked to a spot on the right side of the stage, sitting on the middle mat.

'I can't believe we have to be in another class with that half-a-witch!' Boscha thought as she blushed with anger and embarrassment from Luz's surprise feint attack, looking to Willow's smiling face. 'But I know this, I WILL be better then plant girl right there!'

Boscha took the mat to Amity's left and Skara, the only one visibly excited besides Gus, stat on the mat on Amity's right. Luz watched as they sat down before looking outside of the door to see if anyone else was going to come in and from the looks of it, the class will be small.

"Guess that's it. Might as well start." Luz said as she was about to close the door until a several footsteps came running.

"Wait! Don't close the door!" a voice shout as about 3 other students stopped in front of the door and huffed from their rush. "Sorry."

Standing before Luz were 3 students that very very different from the ones Luz already had in her class, one of which looked the most human, and each had a different uniform color. The first was a girl with brown eyes, brown hair to her shoulders with some strange lying in front of her ears, and had 5 freckles on her nose with her uniform leggings and sleeves being blue; the second girl had turquoise with long bangs on either side, a giant eyeball for a head with yellow sclera and magenta iris with 3 large eye lashes with her uniform the same as Boscha's; and the last one was a goat guy with a unicorn horn on his head and a single black eyeball in a uniform with red sleeves and leggings.

"Don't be, I can guess you three are here for the kickboxing lesson?" Luz asked them as they all nodded excitedly at her.

"Yeah that! And we want to learn about you!" the brown haired girl said as she gestured to Luz.

"Me?" Luz asked in confusion.

"Allow me to introduce us, My name is Bo and these are my friends Eileen and Asriel." the brown haired girl, Bo, said as she introduced the large eyed cyclops and the goat cyclops. "We're part of a club dedicated to learning all about humans and their culture, the Human Appreciation Society."

"Human Appreciation Society?" She repeated before asking a question. "You don't happen to have a member named "Augustus" or "Gus" do you?"

"Actually, yes, he's the club president. Is he here?" Bo asked as Eileen looked ahead and saw him sitting next to Willow.

"Yeah, he is. Come on in, we were just about to start!" Luz said with a smile, happy that there was actually people who were interested in humans on the isles. "Hey, Gus, your club mates are here!"

"Really?!" Gus asked as he turned and smiled at them, seeing them walk over to him and Willow. "Guys, you're here! I'm so happy you saw the flyer too."

"Hmmmhmhmhmhmm." Eileen said/mumbled as they saw next to Gus and Willow, excited for the lesson and possibly learning more about humans.

"Yeah, this is gonna be great!" Asriel, the one eyed, one horned goat boy, said with a smile.

"Alright, alright, that enough chit chat. Time for class to begin!" Luz said as she shut the door and walked to the boxing ring, climbing under the ropes and gazing at everyone as she stood in the center. "Hello, everyone. For those who don't know my name, I am Luz Noceda, and I will be your kickboxing instructor for however long this class will be. Before we begin, why don't we introduce ourselves with our name, coven type, and the kind of magic you specialize in followed by a quick demonstration? Now who wants to go first?"

The Human Appreciation Society were the fastest to raised their hands as they were still excited about this class. This made Luz chuckle at how excited they were to learn about kickboxing or just human culture. Still good.

"Okay, okay, you first." Luz said as she pointed to the goat boy, seeing him smile brightly before standing up.

"Uh hi! My name is Asriel. Member of the Human Appreciation Society. My current coven track is Bard and the magic I currently specialize in is size altering magic." he said as he drew a spell circle and made his hand big enough to hold his head.

"Impressive." Luz said with a nod.

'Way more than that other kid from the Covention.' she thought as the next person raised their hand, Skara.

Luz gave her a nod as she stood up with a smile.

"My name is Skara, my coven track is also Bard, and my specialty is sound magic." she said as she drew a red spell circle over her mouth, singing a gentle melody through it and amplifying the sound. "Aaah~. Aaah~. Ah Ah Ahhaha~."

"Hmm, very nice song." Luz said as she looked over to the others before looking to Eileen. "How about you go?"

"Mhm." Eileen mumbled as she stood up and waved to everyone before sharing.

Luz was confused by this but then realized she had no mouth so it was natural it would just come out in mumbles.

"If you can't understand her Luz, her name is Eileen, she's in then potions track, and her favorite magic to use is water magic." Gus answered since he saw the confused look on Luz's face.

"Oh, okay. Sorry about that Eileen, it may take some time for me to understand you." Luz said as Eileen nodded to her.

"MMhm." she mumbled as she drew a spell circle and created a water ball in her hand and made it disappear.

Luz nodded to her as Gus stood up and bowed to everyone.

"Hello, names Gus. In the Illusion Track and my specialty is illusions!" he said as he drew a spell circle, making two more Gus' before posing for everyone.

"Wow, we've got a performer." Luz said with a bit of sarcasm but meant well, she was keeping the appearance of being a neutral teacher.

"Yes you do." Gus said before making his clones disappear and sat down.

"Alright, now we should only have a few left to introduce themselves." Luz said as she looked to Bo, Willow, Amity, and Boscha. "But I think we can skip one since i can assume we already know who she is."

Everyone could assume what Luz meant as they glanced towards Amity, already knowing who she was before this class. Her track was Abomination and her specialty magic was the same.

"I guess, I'll go then." Boscha said as she stood up, pulling some hair bat. "If some of you don't know, I'm Boscha, my track is Potions, and my favorite magic to use is Transformation Magic."

Boscha gave a smirk as she drew a spell circle and stuck her hand through it to change her hand into new forms, talons for nails, flames for nails, and turn her hand into metal.

"Wow, that's impressive. That has to be the most versatile magic I've ever seen." Luz said as she was very impressed with transformation magic and how it could be used in so many ways in combat.

"Thanks, I try." Boscha said with a smug face as she sat down.

Luz turned to Willow and Boa's direction, wondering which one of them will be going next. After a few moments, Willow decided to introduce herself though she was nervous about it.

"Um hi. My name is Willow, I'm-he- in the Plant Track, and my specialty is Plant Magic." Willow said as she heard Skara and Boscha giggle at her nervous introduction.

"There will be no laughing during introduction!" Luz quickly shouted towards him, making them jump and shut up as Luz glared to them before turning back to Willow. "Go on Willow, this is a safe place."

"Thank you." Willow said with a smile, closing her eyes as she focused her magic.

If she was gonna make an impression, she was going to go big. Willow then opened her eyes and made several vines rise around her and blossom with several flowers on them.

"OH!" most of them said in awe as the flowers dropped over the class, landing near each of them.

"Another magic just as versatile. Great display, Willow." Luz said to her with a thumbs up.

Willow silently nodded back as she ceased her magic and made the vines retreat into the ground around her before sitting down.

"Okay, now that one finished, we should have one person left." Luz said as she turned to Bo, who smiled as she stood up and waved to everyone.

"Hi everyone. My name is Bo, I'm part of the healing track, and I actually have 2 specialties. Healing and snow magic." Bo said as she drew two spell circle with each hand, the left hand was covered in a dark blue glow and the right hand made a small snowball in her hand.

"Double trouble and a healer, nice. But hopefully, you won't be needed to heal anyone during the class." Luz said as Bo stopped her magic and sat back down. "Okay, now that introductions are out of the way, I'll explain to you what exactly Kickboxing is and why these lessons were offered."

"Is it because everyone that saw the duel was copying the moves you did because of how awesome the fight was?" Skara asked as she raised her hand but but they all knew the answer.

"Well, yes, that is part of the reason but the main reason is that Principal Bump suggested this as a way to help you defend yourselves in case you're ever without your magic." Luz said as everyone, except Gus and Willow looked surprised at her. "There might be times where your magic is disabled or maybe even taken from you so it's best to not be too over dependent on it if you're in a dire situation. Does anyone disagree?"

The students looked at each other and gave their forms of agreement about Luz's statement, they were too dependent on their magic some times and if they were ever without it it would end badly depending on the situation.

"So, what exactly this thing you're going to teach us? Kickboxing, was it?" Boscha asked as they all turned their attention back to Luz.

"Yes, I'm going to teach you all and others if they join later on, Kickboxing." Luz said as she got into her stance. "Kickboxing is a fighting style that involves punches and kicks at four contact points; the two hands and feet. It's practiced by many for numerous reasons such as self-defense, exercise or self-development mentally or spiritually. For these lessons, I will be teaching you the basics of Kickboxing but if used creatively, even the basics can knock someone out but before that, I'll give you guys a demonstration through a short spar."

'A spar?!' most of the class thought in shock. 'Who is she going to spar with?!'

Though most of the class only knew that Amity could at least keep up with Luz a bit, 2 others knew otherwise.

'Which one of us is she going to ask me to spare with her?' Willow and Gus thought as they looked at each other, knowing that they were the only one that had some training from Luz before this class but wonder who would be the volunteer/potential victim is Luz got into it.

Luz got out of her stance and looked around the room for a sparing partner, mainly towards Amity, Gus, and Willow since they already had experience in kickboxing.

'Though Amity's skills are self taught and a bit sloppy, but still impressive.' Luz thought as she adjusted her glyph gloves, finally deciding on her sparing partner.

"Willow, please step into the ring." Luz said as everyone looked to her in shock.

"Me?!" she let out in a high pitch, pointing to herself.

"Willow?" the rest of the class said except Boscha, who chuckled a bit.

'Ohohoho, this is too good. Leaf girl is gonna get fat behind handed to her!' Boscha thought before Luz turned to her and glared at her again, hearing her chuckling.

"HEY!" Luz screamed as everyone, especially Boscha flinched from the shout. "Let me make this clear to everyone, before this class, Willow and Gus had received lessons from me due to being my friends prior to day but they will be given no special treatment. AND that there will be no bulling of any kind in this room! No name calling, no pranks, no mocking, and no fighting unless it's in this ring or against the punching bags and sparing dummies in the room! Understood?!"

"YES MA'AM!" they all shouted in unison, fearing Luz as she gave off an aura of authority in the class.

'Is this what humans are like when they're angry?' The human appreciation society thought as they made mental note to add whatever knowledge Luz gave them to their growing interest in human culture.

'Wow, she's...so passionate about this.' Amity thought as a small blush came to her face, unknown to her.

"Good, now Willow, would you please come up and help with the demonstration?" Luz asked her as she gestured for Willow to step into the ring.

"O-Okay, Luz." Willow said nervously as she stood up and walked to the boxing ring, climbing up and moving the vine ropes aside to get inside.

"Now, I want you to relax and just breathe. This is just demonstration to show everyone what they might do in the future." Luz said as she stretched a bit and rolled her neck. "You can use her magic as you wish but nothing to serious, we don't want any serious injury even though Bo is in the Healing Track, okay."

"Yes, Luz." Willow said as she stretched too and thought of what exactly she could do in this spar.

"Okay, Willow are you ready?" Luz asked as she got back into her kickboxing stance, giving a smirk to her friend/student.

"Yeah, I-I'm ready." Willow said with a nod as she got into a similar stance, very similar to Luz but she had left fist higher and her legs a little wider.

"Alright, we start in 3..." Luz said as she unfurled and curled her fists up.

'2.' Willow thought as she took a quick breath and showed a determined face, focusing only on Luz and not anyone else.

"1." Luz said as she and Willow briskly approached each other, ready to fight. "Begin!"

At the shout the word, Willow immediately went on the attack and threw jabs at Luz. None of them landed as Luz had the superior speed and experience, bobbing and weaving the punches from her friend before she threw a kick to Willow's knee.

"UGRH!" Willow grunted through her teeth but stood strong, she wouldn't fall that easy though it distracted her long enough for Luz to attack.

Willow put her arms in front of her face to block fast jabs, hooks, and straight punches Luz was sending to her.

'She's going strong! Just like always but I can't give up!' Willow thought as she ducked the next punch and sent a strong punch to Luz's stomach, her superior weight giving her an advantage in the power of it.

As Luz flinched and she kicked her back, Willow quickly drew a spell circle and summoned 5 vines around her that formed green fists.

"Let's so how you deal with this!" Willow shout as she commanded her knuckle plants to strike at Luz, who dodged through the fists as they came.

Once she got in close, Luz threw a kick to Willow's side but it missed on purpose so Luz could change it to a straight kick to her stomach and made her stumble back to robes.

'Wh-What was that? She tricked me!' Willow thought as she grit her teeth and looked back to Luz, ready for more.

As Willow readied herself to fight more in the spar, everyone (except Gus) who knew her or saw her around school were surprised by how determined she looked as she went back into the fight.

'Willow?' Amity thought in surprised as she couldn't take her eyes of the spar.

'Wow, she's really getting into it.' Gus thought as Willow blocked 3 punches before ducking and throwing a spin kick, one that Luz quickly blocked. 'Willow never fought this hard in our private lessons and Luz isn't even using her gloves yet.'

'This can't be her, can it?!' Boscha thought as she watched with her jaw dropping a bit. 'This can't be the same loser that was struggling with her magic!'

As they continued to watch the spar, Boscha for some reason felt herself...wanting to cheer for Willow. But why!? She was loser and Boscha doesn't go for losers, yet something inside her couldn't help but blush a little at the firm look on Willow's face as the spar continued. What was going on with her?!

Back with the spar, Willow was beginning to tire as she dodged and dodge before her punches began to get sloppy while Luz didn't look that tired. Her years of training and sparing gave her above average human stamina and she had plenty to use but she couldn't keep fighting Willow forever.

'I think this has gone on long enough.' Luz thought as she moved faster then before, forcing Willow to defend as she threw punch after punch and to her arms before Willow's back was against one of the boxing ring poles. 'NOW!'

"Throwing a hard left to break her defense, Luz bent low and reeling her right fist back before putting as much power and speed as she could into her punch and threw it up to Willow's chin as Willow herself gasped in surprise.

'Oh no!' Willow thought in a panic, seeing the fire in Luz's eye burn brighter, before she closed her eyes and wait for the hit.

What came to her chin was nothing but wind as she felt her hair push up a bit, slowly opening her eyes to see Luz smirking at her with the same fire in her eyes and her fist just stopping short of her chin.

"And with that, our spar demonstration is now concluded." Luz said as she stood straight and pulled her fists back. "Thank you for the assistance, Willow, and sorry if hurt you a bit during."

"OH, you're welcome and it's fine. I'll be okay." Willow said as she moved from the pole and rubbed her arms a bit.

"Still though, you should talk to Bo and see if she can heal you a bit." Luz said as Willow exited the ring to sit back down next to Gus and the H.A.S., where Bo didn't even ask as she used a little healing magic on Willow. "Now, that spar was just a sample of what you could do after a few our lessons and if you put in the work, you might be able to do better than that. Any questions?"

Nearly every hand shot up up as they all had questions for Luz, this made her smile as it seems they were all even more eager to become kickboxers than before as the class went on. Over the next 2 hours, Luz had taught her eager students the standard stances, a few basic moves, and showed them how to train against the sandbags or spinning dummies. She also answered any questions the Human Appreciation Society had about human culture and even showed them her phone aka a human scroll, they were hanging on every word and everything move she showed them until it was time to leave since 5:30 pm seemed to be an appropriate time to end things for now.

"Alright, guys, that's it for today's lessons." Luz said as she went to the door and opened it for them. "I hope you all use what I taught you wisely and I should see you all next if you wish to learn more. And if you want to use the room during the school week, just go to Principal Bump and he can give you the key."

Everyone nodded to her, giving their own goodbyes to their teacher as they left the room. The Human Appreciation Society, Bo, Asriel, and Eileen, gave her the most friendly goodbye and swore to return for next week. As Amity and her friends came by, Skara gave a bright smile and wave, Boscha gave a solemn nod of respect to Luz, and Amity stopped before her while her friends walked a bit ahead of her.

"...So, how'd you like the class?" Luz asked casually as she had her hands in her pockets.

"It was alright." Amity said as she looked away a bit, gathering her thoughts a bit before she spoke up again. "Just curious on one thing."

"What is it?" Luz asked as Amity looked to her with a glance.

"Do you...give private lessons?" Amity asked as she blushed a bit. "There...were a few moves I couldn't get right and need a bit more help with them."

'Amity wants a private lesson?' Luz thought as she looked at the ground a bit. 'Well, I gave Gus and Willow lessons but that was before this official class. Still...'

"It's fine if you can't bu-"

"Sure, just name the time and place." Luz said as she gave Amity a small smile and held her hand out to her.

Amity was surprised that she agreed so quickly to it, she at least thought Luz would make her beg or haggle a little, but she could be fine with this.

"Good, we can discuss this later since your no longer banned." Amity said as she shook Luz's hand.

And with that, the first day of Hexside's Kickboxing club had come to an end and all the members were going to have a real blast.

Chapter Text

All battles fought take place on a battlefield, for some it was a large plain of land, for others it was a arena with spectators, but today the field of battle is a simple table and the fighters are an old woman and her fateful companion, the owl from her staff.

"So, this is a popular game here?" Luz asked as she sat next to Eda and King on the couch, watching as Eda held up a hand of purple cards with eyes on them.

"Oh yes, Luz. Hexus Hold Em is one of the most popular and trickiest games on the Boiling Isles and any proper witch like myself knows how to play." Eda said as she crossed her legs in confidence.

"hmm, okay but I don't get how a card game could be so popular. It looks no different than the ones back home." Luz said before Eda placed a card on the table, sparking with magic energy before all of them grew four legs and gained roaring jaws. "Sweet mother of god!"

Luz jolted back in her seat a bit as she saw each side charging at each other like two herds of animals fighting over territory.

'That is NOTHING like the card games back home!' Luz thought as Eda pulled out another card.

"Now keep this trick in mind, when it seems like the odds are slim and your back is on the wall, that's when you break out the card that can wind it all." Eda said as she drew a card with a stone tower on it. "The wild card."

Eda placed the card on the table and watched as it glowed with magic before the 5 cards on the animated owl's side burst into flame. The owl dived off the table as the flames spiraled into the air to form two words.

WINNER:

EDA!

"Talk about a flashy victory." Luz commented as the owl flew back on the table and gave bow to Eda, acknowledging her victory.

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes, baby!" Eda gloated before she got up close and pointed in the owl's face. "In your adorable little face, Owlbert! Victory is mine and it feels so good! Like a nice fluffy pillow. Wait, fluffy?"

Eda didn't know this but out of her arms, she began growing blackish gray feathers. This signaled an alarm in Luz as she got up from the couch with alert!

"Eda, your arms!" Luz said to her as she pointed to her.

"The curse is showing up again!" King shouted as Eda finally noticed her arms.

"AAAHH!" she screamed at the sight of them.

"Save the screaming for later! Get your elixir now!" Luz said as she pulled a still screaming Eda upstairs, King quickly following behind.

When the trio arrived at Eda's room, they made their way to her closet for her elixirs and found the chest where she kept them. Eda took the chest from the closet and opened it for a new bottle but they soon ran into a big problem as they saw chest was full of nothing but empty bottles.

"Dang it! I'm all out of juice!" Eda said as she grabbed one, wanting to find at least one drop.

"Well then we gotta get more before you turn into a monster again!" Luz said to her as she was knelling next to Eda, remembering Eda's curse monster form, so freaky and more ravenous than any animal she's ever heard of before.

"Okay okay, let's just calm down, I got a guy in town who can get me my elixir. It's just a quick trip to the market." Eda said as she dropped her empty bottle back in the chest.

"Then lets go before this gets worse." Luz said as she stood up and walked to the door with King following.

"And I can pick pocket anyone we pass!" King shouted in glee as Eda turned to them.

"Hey, guys before we head out, how about one more game of Hexus Hold Em? I'll shuffle." Eda said as she reached for her card but only grabbed at air. "Hey! What happened to my cards?!"

"You mean these?" Luz called out as Eda looked up to her, showing her the card in hand. "You need an elixir, not a card game! Owlbert, if you would."

The owl from Eda's staff, Owlbert, flew up and grabbed the cards from Luz hand before he flew out of the room.

"Luz, I will deal with you later!" Eda said, upset that Luz had the gall to steal from her but a bit impressed, as she chased after Owlbert. "Get back here with my cards, Owlbert!"

"How did you know Eda was so into Hexus Hold Em that she would forget about her curse for a second?" King asked Luz.

"Anyone who brags that much about how good they are, is either really arrogant or an addict. I've seen it." Luz said as she and King followed after the addicted owl lady.

After catching up with Eda, making sure she DIDN'T play another round of cards, and getting her a cloak to disguise herself, the group made their way to the market and were currently standing before the closed metal cover of a potion shop named "Mr. Elixir." Eda was banging on the cover while calling out her "guy" so she could get her curse fighting elixir.

"Morton! Morton! Come on, I know you're in there!" Eda screamed as King and Luz went sit down on a bench, watching the people of the Isles go about their days,

"Give me a minutes!" a voice, Morton, call out from the metal cover.

Back with the demon and human, the two friends simply sat on a bench and watched as a large egg rolled up to a group of monster. It opened and a large creature flew out of it before the group of monsters got inside and closed it, rolling away.

"NO! NO! Wait for me!" Tiny Nose, the small female creature, shouted as she ran up to try and catch the egg but missed it. "Dang it. Not again."

'Okay...so that's what goes as a bus stop here.' Luz thought as she was a bit weirded out but was used to seeing the level of weirdness in this realm.

"Tiny legged companion, I feel your pain." King said as he watched Tiny Nose look down in defeat before she scurried away from something.

King and Luz watched in surprise as a group of red robed creatures was pulling a cart with a large worm like demon tied to it through the road.

"Woah! What hell is with those guys?" Luz asked as she went over to Eda with King following. "Hey Eda, who are those creeps?"

Turning away from the metal cover, Eda frown at the ground as they continued to march through town.

"Those creeps are demon hunters. Violent nomads that wander the Isles and hunt the biggest, strongest demons to sell them for a living." Eda said as the worm demon they caught roared at the nomads.

The one leading them, a man with dull green skin, red left eye and eye patch covered left eye, outer teeth with fangs, bandage wrapped hands, and a sword on his back, drew a spell circle and summoned lightning to his hand. He blasted the demon into submission submit before stopping and turning to them, eyeing King a bit but not bothering to hunt him since he was weak looking before looking up to Luz.

"Demon hunters, huh?" Luz question as she stared him down a bit, just telling from the look of them, they weren't meant to be messed with.

"Yeah and I may be their next target IF YOU DON'T OPEN UP, Morton!" Eda said as she turned back to the metal cover and banged on it to open.

The metal cover was then slid up as Morton had revealed himself, a man with shoulder length black hair under a funnel like hat, wearing a brown tunic over a white long sleeve shirt.

"Sorry for the delay, Eda! I was up all night taste testing poisons and I'm not feeling well." he said as he held his stomach.

"You taste tested poison? Why would you feel well? Why would you even DO IT AT ALL?! It's poison!" Luz shouted at the idiotic reason for being late to open, making Morton recoil in fear from the shouting girl.

"Luz, stop scaring my potions guy!" Eda said as she pulled Luz back a bit before pulling out an empty bottle of her elixir. "The reason I'm here is because I'm out of my stuff, Morton."

"Hmm." Morton hummed as he took the bottle from Eda. "I'll see what I can do, "E.""

As Morton checked his shop, Luz looked back and saw the demon hunters leaving the street with their price before seeing Gus and Willow were in town too.

"Hey, guys!" Luz said as she ran over to them, getting their attention before she noticed their crestfallen expressions. "Hey, what's wrong? Did something happen?"

"Them." Willow said as she pointed to a group of girls from Hexside.

From what Luz could see, they were actually Amity's friend group consisting of herself, Boscha, Skara, and a girl with dark skin, brown eyes, wavy black hair, and glasses in a blue uniform from the healing track. They were currently having a bit of fun in a potions stand with Skara tossing a snack into the healing girl's mouth while Boscha watched with a soda in hand, laughing, as Amity checked out a jar of sorts.

"Amity invited everyone in class to a moonlight conjuring at her place tonight, except me." Willow said as she looked at the ground, sad.

"And she posted it all over her Penstagram account." Gus said as he drew a spell circle, summoning a small unfurled scroll and showed Luz a picture of Amity and her friends posing.

""WITCHCHICK128: IT'S CONJURING NIGHT! NO DORKS ALLOWED!"" Luz read aloud as a jack-o-lantern, heart, and ghost appeared afterwards. "Seriously? She has to cyberbully too?" Luz said as she looked to Amity's group a bit.

'Why does she have to be a jerk when I know she's a good person inside.' Luz thought as she remembered the moment of Amity's softer side, after their duel at the covention.

"Cyberbully?" Gus asked as he unsummoned his scroll.

"Picking on someone from behind a com-scroll instead of in their face." Luz said with a correction before asking something else. "And what's a "Moonlight Conjuring?""

"Well, once a year, a group of witches get together to tell stories and play games before they bring something to life using moon magic." Willow said as she pulled out a book and showed Luz the information on the conjuring.

"So it's like a slumber party with magic." Luz put together with a nod.

"Yeah but a conjuring requires at least 3 people to do right and we've never been to one." Willow said as she pointed to the page in the book.

"Well then you can have a moonlight conjuring this cuz you have me." Luz said as she pointed to herself. "You guys plus me makes 3 people, ergo, enough for us to have our own conjuring. What do you say?"

Gus and Willow grew happy at the idea as Amity's group came walking by. Boscha was about to say something to them before noticing Luz was with them and decided to keep her mouth shut, after that lesson from Friday she couldn't risk badmouthing Willow with Luz around. Plus whenever she did, Boscha got this strange feeling whenever Willow got sad or angry at her. She couldn't explain it and it bugged her to no end.

"Oh hey, it's Luz!" Skara said as she noticed her and looked to Amity. "Do you think we should invite her to the conjuring?"

"A human at a magic conjuring? No offense, but I don't think she'd be much help. She can kick butt but I don't think she could help with it." Boscha said, getting past her strange feelings about Willow.

"You do have a point. She may be skilled with those magic gloves but I don't think she could properly use the moon magic." Amity said as she didn't look at Luz, trying not to blush, as her friend group began walking away but they were heard by Luz and her group.

'Can't use the moon magic? What a bunch of jerks.' Luz thought with an eye roll before turning to her friends.

"Forgetting them, what do you guys say to the conjuring with me?" Luz asked them again.

"YES! I can finally cross this off from my bucket list!" Gus said as he pulled out his list, crossing out "Moonlight Conjuring" on it. "Right under owning a human bucket!"

Grow haunted bread
Lose my baby fangs
Finish digging tunnel under Hexside
Own human bucket
Moonlight conjuring
Get my squamping permit
Be surprise in a giant hollow cake

"You and your human interest never ceases to amaze me, Gus." Luz said with a smile before turning away. "I'll go ask Eda and see if we can have it at her house."

Luz walked back to Eda as she had just finished talking with Morton, nodding to him as he walked back into his shop.

"Alright, I got it. Thanks anyway, Morton." Eda said as she turned around and was met with Luz walking to her.

"Hey, Eda, I need to ask you something." Luz said to her.

"Something? What something?" Eda asked as she looked down to her apprentice.

"I was wonder if I could use the house toni-" Luz said before.

"Nope! Out of the question!" Eda quickly said as Luz looked upset at how fast she turned her down. "I've got business to attend to in the night market and I need you to watch my house and all of my precious trinkets." Eda said.

"Especially me!" King said in a sing song voice before Eda picked him up.

"No, not you. You're coming with me to look out for pickpockets trying to rob me." Eda said to king before she smirked at him. "And so we can pick pocket people ourselves."

"Yay! Pickpocket!" King and Eda cheered as Luz coughed to get their attention again.

"In that case, I don't know why you told me no. I'll be in the house anyway with Gus and Willow, they wanna hold a conjuring and I pro-" Luz said before Eda cut her off, AGAIN.

"Again no. There will be no conjuring in my house tonight. It's nothing but baby magic, just sitting in a circle and holding hands." Eda said as she walked away with King.

Luz furrowed her brow at Eda as she walked away, making her upset at how petty she was being over the Moonlight Conjuring. What was the big deal? At most, they would bring a doll or potted plant to life? What damage could that do?

'Eda's worrying to much, it'll be fine.' Luz thought as Gus and Willow walked up to her.

"So Luz, what did Eda say? Can we have the conjuring tonight?" Willow asked excited.

'One little lie won't hurt Eda. She done worst, so doing something as little as this won't matter.' Luz thought as she smiled to her friends.

"We're good. We can use the house right after Eda leaves tonight." Luz said to them as Gus and Willow gasped to each other.

"YES! We'll get our conjuring tonight!" Gus said with excitement before looking up to see the moon rising, showing off it's skull like face. "And the moon is rising in just right position! The celestial powers can only align like this around this time of year!"

"I know! I can't wait for tonight! Thank you so much, Luz!" Willow said to Luz before she looked to Gus. "Moonlight Conjuring!"

"Moonlight Conjuring! Moonlight Conjuring! Moonlight Conjuring!" they chanted as Luz smiled at her friends before they made their goodbyes.

'Everything will be fine. It's just bringing something to life, what could go wrong?' Luz thought as she caught up with Eda.

Hours later, night had overtaken the Boiling Isles as Eda was getting ready for her elixir trip to the night market and donned her black cloak to hide herself.

"Alright, Luz, I'm leaving you in charge of the house tonight while King and I are gone." she said to Luz as she sat on the couch. "Make sure nothing breaks and keep Hooty from causing havoc."

"Hey, I don't need a babysitter! I'm a big boy house!" Hooty said in protest as he opened his door and pouted at Eda.

"Ignoring him, I got this Eda. I've house sat before." Luz said as she stood up from the couch before looking around. "Hey, where King? You said he was going with you, right?"

"He's right here." Eda said with a smile as she opened her cloak, revealing King in a baby harness sleeping. "You'd be amazed how sleepy he gets when he's weightless. Look."

Eda moved around and show they King was sleeping so peacefully as his arms and legs dangled in the harness.

"Now that is just adorable." Luz said with a small smirk, leaning closer and played with one of his legs.

Eda chuckled as she pulled away and turned to the door, walking out of the house with her staff in hand.

"Alright, I'll be going now." Eda said before she stopped. "And Luz?"

Looking back to Luz, Eda gave the sternest the human had ever seen from her.

"I don't care if you can knock someone out or use those glove I gave you like an experienced witch, if ANYTHING goes wrong with my house tonight, you will know MY WRATH!" she said with danger in her voice before she smiled at Luz. "No pressure, have fun!"

Eda hopped on her staff and let Owlbert fly her away, leaving Luz to stand in shock at how intense Eda was to her just now. She had to let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding as she calmed herself down.

"Damn, Eda. You're scary when you want to be." Luz said to herself before looking towards two bushes near the house. "Alright guys, the coast is clear."

"Release!" a voice said as the bushes glowed before bursting to leave to reveal Willow and Gus in different clothes then their school uniforms.

"I'm a little sneak!" Willow said while wearing a long sleeve yellowish-tan dress that has a blue tie with an oval chartreuse gem on it, light grey and dark grey striped leggings, and brown boots.

"I've got leaves in my pants and I like it." Gus said, whispering the last part, while wearing a green tunic with white sleeves, a black belt, black tight pants and brown boots.

"OOH! Company!" Hooty said in excitement as Luz approached the door.

"Not for you, Hooty!" Luz said as she opened the door and let her friends inside before closing the door.

"Hey!" He said with a furrowed brow before he coughed up a sparrow, watching it fly away. "Aw man, my dinner."

"Dear friends, allow me to welcome you to the living room." Luz said as she gestured towards the main area of the owl house. "Little known fact, you can hear and see Hooty's breathing from the wall, see?"

Luz pointed towards a wall and they saw it was moving in and out like a chest as breathes could be heard from it.

"Amazing." Willow said as she closely looked at the wall.

"And just look at all these human treasures Eda has." Gus said as he looked through a chest and pulled out 8 ball from pool. "The Human Appreciation Society would kill to see this stuff!"

Gus then reached back in and pulled out a human skull, looking a bit shocked but didn't let it bother him.

"Oh human remains!" he said with a smile, one that Luz felt creeped out by.

"I freaked out when I saw that but he's calm?" Luz mumbled before moving on, trying not to think about it. "Anyway, there's snacks in the kitchen, there's some form of entertainment all around..."

"There's a real human bucket!" Gus said as he pulled out a blue mop bucket from the chest and put it on like a hat!

"And you can keep that!" Luz said as she winked a bit at Gus.

"Score!" Gus shouted as he pulled out his bucket list and crossed off "own human bucket."

"This is great! We finally have enough people to do the conjuring with!" Willow said with excitement as she held her hands together.

"Yeah, so how exactly does this conjuring work besides holding hands?" Luz asked as she walked up to Willow.

"Well, hand holding included, we sit in a circle around the object we want to animate and since this is our first time we should start with something simple." Willow said as she looked towards a plant in an owl shaped pot, which looked like purple dandelions globes made of flowers. "Something with a hint of grace and beauty."

Luz looked towards the plant as Willow moved towards it with a meaningful look before Gus popped out from behind it.

"Like this little action figure!" he said as he held it in front of them.

It was a dark skinned toy man with a red shirt that said "Beef Bob" and spandex with blue legging. He clicked the chest and the toy then spoke.

"I'm half beef and half Bob." it said as Willow lost her smile.

Luz noticed this and looked between the plant, the action figure, Gus, and Willow. It didn't take a genius to read the room.

"I...don't think that was what Willow was talking about, Gus." she said as Willow slowly nodded to that.

"Yeah, I was talking about something else." Willow said as she looked away, trying not to look at Gus' whimpering lip and sad eyes.

'The puppy dog pout exists here?' Luz thought in surprise as Willow looked back to it, feeling a bit guilty from her friend. 'She's not going to give in, is she?'

"Okay, I guess we can animate him." she said with a small smile to her friend.

"And she gave in." Luz said aloud before smiling and hugging Willow a bit. "You're a great friend, you know that?"

"Yeah." Willow said as Gus bumped his arms up and cheered.

"BEEF BOY RISES TONIGHT!" he screamed to the ceiling.

The trio then moved to the center of the den as Gus put the toy in the center, laying it as they sat in a triangle formation with a few candles light around them.

"According to the books I've read, we need to say the incantation and make a connection with the doll." Willow said as they all held hands and closed their eyes.

"It's a figurine." Gus argued quickly.

"It doesn't matter, Gus." Luz replied quicker as they began the incantation.

"Moonlight we call, we sing. Moonlight take this chance. Moonlight come tie the string. Moonlight start the dance!" Willow and Gus said perfectly while Luz said nothing and just let them chant.

The group glowed with a layer of moon magic washed over them as the moon rose into the sky and flashed, sending a wave of moon magic over the house as all the candles went out. They all slowly opened their eyes and looked down to the toy, waiting for it to show signs of life but it gave none.

"Rise and shine, little dude." Gus said to it but it didn't move.

Before anyone could say anything else, the house began to shake and rumbling was heard outside as it felt like an earthquake was happening.

"What's going on!?" Luz asked as they all fell to the ground, trying to hang on as items from around the house fell to the ground. "Was that an earthquake?"

"What's an earthquake?" Willow asked as Gus leaned up from the couch while holding the toy in hand.

"What happened, little beef boy?" Gus asked as he pushed the toy to talk again.

"A man does not take accountability." it said as Luz walked to the door and opened it, stopping short of the front step to see they weren't on the ground anymore!

"Whoa!" Luz let out as she stumbled back, leaning down to hold the edge and look down to see two giant chicken/owl legs!

"Guys, I we-" Willow said before Luz cut her off.

"Animated Hooty and the house?! Yeah, I can guess!" Luz said as Gus and Willow rushed out, helping Luz back up as Hooty began to walk away, shutting his door on them. "Hooty, where are you going?! You need to stop moving, now!"

Hoot didn't even look at Luz as his eyes were glowing bright white with moon magic.

"By the moon's glorious light, I have risen this night. Hoot hoot." he said in a hypnotic tone.

"It looks like he's in a trance." Gus said to Luz.

"If that's the case, I'll just have to knock him out of it!" Luz said as she cracked her knuckles and approached the door.

Hooty then pushed through some trees and caused the group to stumble with Gus almost falling off the edge before Luz caught him.

"Gotcha!" Luz shouted as she began to pull Gus back up with Willow helping.

"Our magic must've went past the doll and into the house instead" Willow said.

"Figurine!" Gus shouted before Luz screamed at him.

"NOW IS NOT THE FUCKING TIME FOR TECHNICALITIES!"Luz screamed before she shook a bit.

"Luz, your hand!" Willow called out to her as she grabbed her hand, causing a white glow to wash over them.

"Thanks!" Luz said before noticing Hooty was approaching a cliff and about to walk out. "OH crap! HOOTY, STOP!"

This time, Hooty obeyed and came to a complete halt right as he was about to step off the cliff, surprising the group as they pulled Gus up and noticed the glow around them.

"Whoa." they all let out as they released hands, causing the glow to fade.

"What the heck just happened?" Gus asked as they all looked at their hands.

"I think when we held hands, Hooty listened to us." Luz said before holding her hands out again. "Let's see if it works again."

The trio held hands once more and their bodies were bathed in moon magic again.

"Hooty, walk away from the cliff." Luz said to him as he obeyed, walking backwards into the forest. "It's working, we're controlling Hooty!"

"It be because of the moon magic mixing with the strength of bond." Willow said before realizing what she said. "Or it might just be the moon magic."

"No no, you can't rule out ALL factors." Luz said with a smile to Willow as she smiled back.

"This is so cool! Thinking of all the things we could do with this." Gus said as Luz broke their connection, making Hooty stop walking.

"On one hand, we should probably head back and clean up the house before Eda gets home." Luz said as she remembered Eda's warning of her wrath, still a bit shaken up from how serious she was with her.

"But on the other hand, we've got a once in a life time joyride in the form of a walking house!" Gus said as Luz looked up to the moon, seeing it slowly falling with the night.

'If we only go around for a bit...' Luz thought as she looked down to Gus.

"I guess we can ride around for a bit but we have to be back before the moon sets and clean everything. I don't want Eda to have my head on a platter." Luz said as Gus cheered and Willow smiled.

"We promise, Luz." Willow said as they held hands again, shrouding themselves in moon magic and piloting Hooty through the forest.

As the trio cheered and laughed at the ride, they didn't know they were being watched from the shadows as the leader of the demon hunters was hot on their trail.

"Mmmm." he growled out at the sight of the house.

After a while of walking, the trio came to a halt as they saw someone walking through the forest with bag under her arm and a bird to her ear?

"Hey look, it's Boscha." Willow said as they saw her speak into the bird.

"She must be on her way to Amity's place." Gus said as Luz squinted her eyes at the bird.

'Why is holding a crow to her ear? Is that a phone here?' Luz thought as they saw he continue to talk and walk.

"Yes, mom, I'm just heading to a moonlight conjuring at Amity's place and no, you cannot come. It's sad really that you would ask that." Boscha said into the bird before leading it go, watching it possibly fly back to her mother before noticing a house behind a hill.

"She sees Hooty! What do we do?" Willow whispered to her friends as Luz thought of what to do, slowly smirking up an idea.

"I think I've got an idea." Luz said aloud as she looked to Gus. "Can you make me a bullhorn?"

Gus nodded to Luz as they broke the connection, drawing a spell circle to make a magic construct of a bullhorn in front of Luz's face. Luz took a breath before clearing her throat and speaking into the bullhorn in a low tone.

"Begone, child. You are disturbing my land, away with you before you face the consequences." Luz said though the bullhorn as Gus and Willow chuckled at the trick they were pulling.

"Am I really getting threatened by some talking house?" Boscha asked herself as she rolled her eyes at it. "Whatever, I'll deal with you like I dealt the with other houses in my neighborhood."

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Why dear child, who said I was like THOSE other house!?" Luz said in the same deep voice as she quickly grabbed her friends hands, controlling Hooty to rise up before breaking the connection again.

Luz then pressed the fire glyphs on her gloves and clapped the ground before her, shooting a pillar of fire into the air!

"AAAAAAAH!" Boscha screamed as she turn and ran to Amity's home, not looking back as the pillar of flames died down.

The trio laughed as Luz held her hands up, getting a double high five from Gus and Willow as they calmed down.

"Great prank, Luz! I already wanna do another one!" Gus said as the thrill of scaring Boscha was still in his veins.

"We should follow her to Amity's place and show her this! That'll show her who's a dork!" Willow said as she got excited as Luz looked to the moon.

It looked to be in a deeper position than she last checked and that meant their time was running out.

"Naw, I think we've done enough for tonight. Let's head back." Luz said as she looked at her friends.

"Amity just updated her Penstagram page." Gus said as he showed Luz the post.

""SHOUT OUT TO MY FELLOW WITCHES! #HUMANSCANBITEIT?!"" Luz read with a emoticon of someone vomiting and a no entry symbol.

Luz growled at this post, and a little hurt that Amity would say that about humans, before taking a deep breath and calming down a bit. She had nothing to prove to the green haired girl, not after all she accomplished since coming to the Isles.

"No, let her be. We've already proven to ourselves we're the better witches." Luz said as she smiled to her friends and held her hands out to them. "Let's head back, guys."

"Aww! Come on, Luz! Please!" Gus begged as he gave Luz his puppy dog pout again, adding a tear from his eye for more effect. "Pwease?"

Luz grit her teeth at the face, trying to remain strong and remember they had to head back before Eda got back. She had to be strong! She HAD TOO!

"Please, Luz?" Willow asked as well, putting on her own pout as she wanted to show just how strong her magic was as well as Luz's magic potential.

I didn't matter if she was human, something like this couldn't be done with a normal human and Luz was BEYOND normal!

"I-Bu-E-" Luz tried to say but their sad faces were breaking her, she could fight against the meanest of scowls in the ring but she was helpless against 2 pouts from her friends. "F-F-Fine. We can go to Amity's."

"YES! You won't regret this, Luz!" Gus said as he and Willow melted away their puppy eye and held hands, reestablishing the connection.

The group made Hooty stomped through the forest as several followed behind them, not being noticed by the kids. About 15 minutes of stomping later, after cutting through town and scaring several citizens, the owl house came to a stop with a large mansion with a gate that said, "Blight Manor" before it. It was a huge manor on a hill, made from purple and grey stone with a brown shingle roof, complete with stone chimneys and a large spire. Round, stained glass windows are found at the highest level of the manor, with diamond shapes painted on them. It also had red moss covering the sides.

"There it is, Amity's house." Willow said as she and Gus smiled while Luz surprised. "Time to show her what a real conjuring looks like."

'Oh god, I've fallen for a pretty rich girl who pretends to be mean.' Luz thought as she blushed a bit as Hooty walked forward. 'Oh god, I've become a living movie sterotype.'

The kickboxer was soon brought out of her thoughts as something suddenly flew over the house and caught it, Hooty down as their connections broke.

"What just happened?" Willow asked as she and Gus looked up, seeing a large rope holding them down.

"I think that's what happened!" Luz said as she pointed towards a giant crossbow being operated by two demon hunters! "We've been snagged!"

The lead hunter gave a signal and another rope anchor was fired to keep Hooty down. If they didn't think of something fast, they would be in huge trouble! With both the hunters AND Eda!

"Guys, hold hands and wait." Luz quickly whispered to them as she got into her stance, coming up with a quick and somewhat fast plan.

"What?" they quickly replied in shock before jolting to hold hands, not thinking about it as the lead hunter jumped up and showed them his serious face.

"Knock-" He said before Luz rushed and threw an flaming, straight punch to his face, blowing him off of Hooty from the fire power behind it.

"Knock, bitch!" Luz screamed before threw golden fireballs in her hands.

Luz threw 2 at the ropes before a 3rd, larger one towards the crossbow. The ropes were burned and cut as the nomad manning the crossbow jumped away as it was destroyed. Luz then roughly grabbed their hands and turned to Hooty.

"RUN HOOTY, NOW!" Luz screamed at him as he obeyed, turning around in a haste and running as fast as he could away from Blight Manor.

"WHOA!" Willow and Gus screamed as Willow quickly used her magic to make vines around their feet, keeping them from flying off of Hooty!

"After it! Don't let that house demon escape!" the leader shouted as him and his team charged after the house.

As Hooty ran through the town again, he didn't bother looking where he was stepping and suddenly crushed a purple, market stand with 3 people near it that ducked out of the way.

"SORRY ABOUT THAT! CAN'T STOP!" Luz screamed as Hooty kept running.

Unfortunately for Luz and her friends, the 2 out of the 3 people were Eda and King as they look up to see their house running away.

"Wait, was that Luz? And my HOUSE?!" Eda questioned in shock before seeing several figures run past her, causing her to gasp as she recognized them. "Demon hunters?!"

"Demon hunters are after Luz?!" King repeated in shock as the 3rd person got up from the ground and looked at the stand, his stand.

"MY STAND!" he, a small pig-like demon with a curly pigtail with a red barbed tip, huge ears with a pig nose and two small protruding tusks wearing glasses with an orchid vest and lilac bow added on to a white dress shirt, said as he grabbed his head.

"Forget your stand, Tibbles! My apprentice and house are being hunted!" Eda said to him as she gazed down, finding a bottle of what she came to find on the ground, the curse fighting elixir.

She picked it and King up before she started running, chugging the elixir as the pig shouted to her.

"Hey, wait! You can't just leave!" the pig demon, Tibbles, shouted to Eda as she and King went after the demon hunters.

Meanwhile back with the trio of kids, they were able to move inside of the house as they looked out the windows for the back to see the hunters coming after them.

"They're still hot on out trail!" Gus said as he saw the hunters jumping from tree to tree after them.

"Then we gotta throw them off!" Luz said to them as she opened the back door, stepping out to face the closing hunters before making a light orb and fireball the size of soccer balls with her glyph gloves. "Throw anything you got at them!"

Luz threw the light orb at a hunter, blinding them with the flash before they tripped over a branch and fell to the ground, painfully.

"Don't let them hit you!" the leader shouted as they hunters began to chance and dodge attacks.

"On it!" Gus shouted as he drew a spell and made 3 clones of himself. "Are you ready to go, soldiers?!"

"Ready and willing!" the clones said as they marched out the door next to Luz, two of them forming a springboard with their hands.

"Ready, aim!" Gus said as he positioned the third clone at a demon hunter, waiting for just the right moment...NOW! "Fire!"

Gus pushed the clone as it ran and stepped on the springboard, being launched into the air at a hunter.

"YAH!" the clones screamed as it punched at hunter in the stomach, exploding in a sort of cloud as the hunter tumbled to the ground below.

"These are just kids! Get your acts together!" the head hunter said as he drew his sword and sliced through a Gus clone and a fireball. "And hit back!"

The leader drew a spell circle and fired lightning at a fireball, causing it to explode as he aimed for the kids but couldn't get the aim right.

"Keep it up, Gus!" Luz said as she kept throwing light orbs and fireballs. "Willow, can you give up some cover with some vines?!"

Luz didn't get a response as she looked back and saw her friend with a crestfallen expression on her face, sitting on the counter and gazing down at the floor.

"Willow?" Luz asked, filing with concern for her before looking to Gus. "Gus, can you hold down the line for a bit? I need to talk to Willow."

"You got it, Luz!" Gus said as she drew two spell circles, making another clone duo springboard and made more clones to launch at the hunters.

Luz nodded to her friend before she stopped attacking and rushed inside to Willow, gazing at her as she held onto the counter for balance.

"Willow?" Luz asked her as Willow looked away from her.

"I'm sorry, Luz. This is all my fault, I never should've begged you to let us go to Amity's." Willow said adjusted her glasses.

"It's fine, Willow but why did wanna go in the first place? You have nothing to prove by showing them Hooty." Luz said to Willow as looked to her a bit, showing the human her guilt.

"The truth is Luz, I wanted to show off to Amity because...I thought it would make us friends again. Like when we were younger." Willow admitted as Luz looked shocked at her.

"Wait what?! You and Amity were friends?!" Luz said in shock as Willow nodded to her.

"We used to be best friends when were kids but then we got our magic, my control over it was nonexistent. And then one day, she stopped being my friend." Willow said as she sniffled a bit, almost crying. "I just wanted to show her that I'm just as powerful as she is."

Luz stared at her in silence, understanding the need to want a friend and wanting to show people your strength.

"Willow, like I said before, we know were better witches and I know for a fact that you're stronger." Luz said to her before counting with her fingers. "You made an army of briar vines grow twice on the day we meet, you helped bring an ENTIRE house to life, and you've proven to have the best knack for my kickboxing lessons! Right behind Eda, you are the most powerful witch I've had the pleasure of knowing and being one of the best friends I've ever had."

Willow looked surprised at Luz, receiving a kind smile and a pat on the shoulder as they ignored the house running and the demon hunter.

"Do you...really mean that?" Willow asked as a tear fell from her eye.

"Of course I meant it. Why would I lie about that?" Luz said to her before looking to Gus, seeing him slowing down and becoming exhausted from magic use. "Now, how about we go show these hunters how powerful you are and get them off our backs?"

Willow chuckled a bit at Luz, wiping her eyes before hopping off the counter.

"Yeah, let's do it! But first..." she said as she looked into the den, seeing the plant she wanted to bring to life on the floor. "A little help."

Willow ran and picked up the plant before they made their way outside, seeing Gus sweating a bit from using so much magic on his fighting clones to keep the demon hunters away.

"Thanks for the cover, Gus. Willow and I can take it from here!" Luz said as she made more light orbs and fireballs as Gus collapsed and undid his springboarding clones vanished.

"Thank you!" he said as the demon hunters began to advance on them.

"Alright, Willow, show them what you got!" Luz cheered for her as she went back to throwing light orbs and fireballs.

"With pleasure!" Willow said asshe set the plant on the ground, coating her hands in plant magic and willing the plant to grow fast and large. "Leave it to me, Luz!"

The potted plant grew into large vines and swatted at the hunters, getting screams of shock and pain out of them as they were hit in all directions away from Hooty.

"Yeah!" Luz shouted as she threw one last fireball at a hunter, knocking her away.

"You got this, Willow." Gus said as he pumped a recovering fist in the air.

"GRRR! I have had enough!" the lead demon hunter said as he watched the last of his group be knocked away, dodging the vines and unleashed a large blast of lightning magic at the kids!

"Incoming!" Gus shouted as Willow reeled her vines in to act as a shield, stopping the blast but the vines were destroyed.

"RAH!" the lead hunter shouted as he jumped onto the the ground of the owl house, glaring at the kids as he held his sword tight. "I have captured countless demons and faced dangers beyond compare to you! I refuse to be bested by 3 little children!"

"We aren't you average children, overbite!" Luz shouted at him as she threw a golden fireball at him, forcing him to to block it with his sword.

"I'll start with you!" the hunter said before a vine shot out from beside him, wrapping around his wrist and holding him in place. "Huh?!"

"It's not far to bring a sword to a fist fight!" Willow said as she controlled the vine and forced him to drop his sword over the edge.

"Well said, Willow!" Luz said as she and Willow charged at the hunter, ready to show this hunter what kickboxing kids can do!

The hunter stumbled to try and regain balance as Willow kicked his right side before Luz jabbed him in the stomach.

"UH!" he groaned from the hits before Willow backhanded his jaw and Luz threw a straight kick to the face, making him stumble back to the edge.

"Say high to the ground, chump!" Luz shouted as she and Willow reeled their fists back, Luz's using her fire glyph while Willow covered her fist in some vines.

Both girl punched his stomach as hard as they could, hearing him shout in pain before he pushed back by a fireball and vines!

"AAAH!" he screamed before he crashed into the ground, rolling back Hooty continued to run away.

"YEAH! Hahahaha! Woo! We did it!" Luz, Willow, and Gus, who had recovered enough to stand, cheered as they quickly hugged each other and went back inside.

"We did it! We beat them!" Willow cheered as they felt Hooty slow down his running. "And it feels like we're almost back."

"Then let's park this house." Luz said as she all held hands, making the connection through moon magic for one last time. "Hooty, get back in place and stay there."

The guardian did as he was told and sat the house back in place, make it shake before the moon magic faded away and his eyes returned to normal.

'We're finally back. And before Eda got back too.' Luz thought as Hooty opened the door.

"Oh man, is the room spinning or am I spinning?" he joked as he laughed a bit. "A little house humor there."

"Well, no it isn't but I gotta say we're sorry, Hooty." Luz said as she rubbed the back of her head. "Never expected all this to happen tonight."

"It's alright, I honestly don't remember much of it but, I'm just happy that you included me." Hooty said with a smile before the door was shut and Eda revealed herself with King by her feet.

"Oh fuck." Luz quickly said as Eda glared at her.

"You. Little. Liar." Eda said to Luz as she marched to her.

"Look, Eda-" Luz tried to say.

"You held a conjuring." Eda continued, cutting Luz off.

"Eda, I-" Luz tried to say again before Eda got close to her, almost in her face.

"And you animated MY HOUSE!" she shouted as she looked down at Luz. "Not to mention attracting demon hunters!"

Before Luz could say anything this time, Willow and Gus stepped in front of her with their arms out.

"Stop! It wasn't Luz fault any of this happened tonight. We pushed her to lie to you." Willow said as Gus stepped up to Eda.

"Whatever sick punishment you had planned for her, do it to me! DO IT!" Gus screamed in Eda's face as he shut his eyes before her, not seeing the disturbed face from Eda at his intensity.

"Guys, what are you doing? This is all my fault." Luz whispered to Willow as she looked to him.

"We're friends, Luz. Friends stick together." Willow said back to Luz, smiling at her as she remembered what Luz said about her strength and thankful for it.

"Well, I don't care whose fault it is. You'll all gonna pay for it but cleaning up this mess and the rest of the house!" Eda said as she gestured to messy house before drawing a spell circle to summon cleaning supplies.

Eda walked past them as Willow caught a spray bottle and paper towels, Luz caught a wooden mop bucket with a mop with a bone handle, and Gus caught a broom.

"By the way," Eda said as she stopped and looked back to the kids, glaring at them before smiling at them. "Count me in for next year's conjuring because that was an amazing sight. Now get to cleaning."

Eda then dropped down on the couch with King as the kids went to work cleaning the house, relaxing after Eda rushed back home after being cheated in Hexus Hold Em against Tibbles. It was actually a lifesaver that her home stomped on Tibbles' stand before the little demon could do anything to her.

"You know, I can't believe they animated the house." King said as he looked at Luz and her friends cleaning the house.

"Hmm, yeah." Eda said as she looked at the kids in surprise, wondering just how much potential they all have. Especially Luz! "That takes a LOT of magic power."

"So, Willow, how was your first conjuring night?" Luz asked her as she swished the mop around in the bucket a bit.

"I can honestly say, it's a night I'll never forget." Willow said to Luz as she sprayed a cabinet before wiping it. "Thank for this and for what you said, Luz."

"No problem, Willow. You should be more confident with yourself and not care about what snooty people think." Luz said as she took the mop out of the bucket and began cleaning the floor.

'Speaking of Amity, I wonder how her conjuring went.' Luz thought about the girl she was crushing as she worked.

Meanwhile with the rich girl herself, her conjuring night had been nothing but a disappointment. Her group did as the book told and it was still a failure! They sat in a circle, held hands, recited the incantation, and yet, the doll was still lifeless and useless like always. With nothing back a feeling of bitter failure, Amity sat on her windowsill and gazed at the rising sun.

'What a waste of time, an entire night of trying and we couldn't get that stupid doll to move an inch!' she thought as she remembered Luz, Gus, and Willow from yesterday and how she somewhat denied them to come. 'It's not like those 3 had any better luck, did they? Did SHE?'

As Amity's thoughts when towards the human she was rivals with/crushing on, she didn't notice that her group of friends were seeing something shocking to them on Penstagram.

Chapter Text

It was a calm and quiet morning as Luz was coming in from good workout with her punching bag, her glyph gloves in her pocket with a towel wrapped around her neck and a half full pitcher of water in her hands.

'It's cool that I can use magic but I can't get rusty without it. Better to have a fall back just in case.' Luz thought as she walked past Eda in the kitchen and heading to the den, seeing King sitting on the couch with book 5 of her "Good Witch Azura" books in his hands.

"Well this is a surprise." Luz said with a smirk, making King look up in shock at her.

"Luz!" he screamed as he tried to hide the book behind his back. "It's not what you think!"

"Really? Cuz I think AND see that you took my book with out my permission and reading it." Luz said with a smirk as she sat down next to King and took the book from him, dangling it in front of him. "Has a certain little demon come to LIKE the adventures of Azura?"

King looked around the room nervously as he tried to find a way to deny this claim Luz made.

"I-no-you...FINE! I have! You just seemed so into it a few times and I just had to read some to see what the big deal was! Okay?!" King said to her as he took the book back in his hands. "You've sucked me into your ridiculous fandom!"

"Keep telling yourself that but you know you pulled yourself into the world of Azura." Luz said as she as she wiped her face with her towel and took a few gulps of water.

During her drink, Hooty suddenly swung the door opened as shouted like a doorbell.

"Ding dong ding!" he shouted as Luz chocked and spit some water out, coughing as she almost dropped the pitcher! "Hoot Hoot!"

"God damn it, Hooty! CUH! CUH! Don't do that when a person is drinking!" Luz screamed at him as she set the pitcher down, slipping her glyph gloves back on and getting up to check the door.

"Sorry about that, Luz! Something is here and I got excited!" Hooty said as Luz looked to see a basket with a blanket cover tucked in sitting on the doorstep.

"A picnic basket?" Luz asked as she looked around for the delivery person but found no around. "Why would someone leave this here? Or even get here since this place is hidden?"

Moving with caution, Luz gently picked up the basket and to the kitchen to show Eda. I didn't look dangerous but you could never be to careful in a world like this.

"Hey, Eda, something was left at the door." Luz said as she put on the counter as King walked in to see it too. "Though it's weird how it got here even though you say this is your hideout."

"Sometimes you shouldn't question things like a possible offering. I am the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles." Eda said, complimenting herself as King pulled out a dining bid.

"If it is an offering, I hope it's edible." He said as he tied the bid around his neck, reaching up and removing the the blanket.

In side the basket was something no one expected, inside was a light gray skinned, sleeping baby with blue spiked hair. It looked like a boy just from the hair alone and was completely oblivious to the trio staring at it.

"Yes! Fresh meat!" King said as he rubbed his hands together, reaching out to it before Luz slapped him in the face. "OW!"

"There will be no baby eating in this house!" Luz said as she pulled the basket away from King.

"Agreed. I refuse to fall into that 1693 stereotype. Witch kind has evolved from that." Eda said as she looked at the young baby. "Who sent this little guy, anyway?"

"There's a note." King said as he rubbed his sore face, pointing to a note they missed attached to the basket.

Luz looked to the note and removed it before reading it aloud.

"Take care of my child till morning. Yi Yi. You'll be handsomely rewarded. X‐O‐X‐O‐X‐O‐X. Bat Queen." Luz read as Eda looked surprised.

"Bat Queen? Rewards?" Eda asked as she went to the basket and reached in past the baby, pulling out some gold coins/snails. "Hog dog!"

"They're snails in there?" Luz asked as she reached inside with both hands and pulled some out herself, looking them over before putting them in her pockets. "Dang, whoever this Bat Queen is, she must be loaded."

"Heck yeah she is! Bat Queen is THE richest demon on the Boiling Isles. One favor done for her, and you are in her debt for life!" Eda said as she flipped a coin before catching it and looking down at the baby. "All we gotta do is watch this thing until tomorrow and the money will be rolling in."

King looked into the basket and saw that it was half full with snails as Luz stared at the little baby inside.

"So it's just a babysitting job for a rich lady. Seems like a breeze." Luz said as she shrugged her shoulders. "I mean, how hard could it be to look after a baby?"

"Well you won't get the chance." Eda said as she drew a spell circle above Luz, summoning about ten hardback book to fall into her arms. "Instead, you'll be returned all more overdue books back to the library."

"Seriously?! How is this far?!" she said to Eda as she managed to keep balance.

"It's not. That's life and that's today's lesson." Eda said as she scooted Luz to the back door. "Now go on, I don't need those books be any later."

"Alright, alright! I'm going!" Luz shouted at Eda as she opened the door with her hand, balancing the books in her left, before she opened it and left. "Geez, it's just a baby. I just wanted to help take care of it, what's wrong with that?"

Luz walked around to the front of the house before she heard an ungodly screeching/crying coming from the house and causing the ground to shake under her.

'Holy shit! Is that the baby?!' Luz thought as she shut one eye from the pain and looked back at the house. 'Now I'm glad Eda kicked me out to delivery these books back, I forgot that this is a monster baby!'

Deciding to rush and get away from the monster baby's screeching cries, Luz ran as fast as she could with the books in hand to the Bonesborough Library. It wasn't hard to miss but at the same time, it wasn't easy to find when Luz first arrived. It was thanks to the help of her friends showing her around town a while ago that she was able to find it from memory.

"There it is." Luz said as she saw the library before her, taking in it's amazing appearance and magical aura. "This place is even better then I remember."

She then walked at a leisurely pace and entered the library, taking in all that there was to see in this magical place of knowledge. Torches decorated the walks, stain glasses windows brightening the corridors, and other patrons going about their business. Without a doubt, this was the most peaceful place on the isles.

"Nice place." Luz said before the books in her arms gained a magic glow and were suddenly taken from her arms.

She followed the way they floated and saw they head towards a man with light skin, round glasses, and gray hair wearing a black robe with a red shirt under it.

'Must be the librarian.' Luz thought as she walked up to the front desk, seeing him pass the book through a red spell circle in the air.

"Late. Late. Late." he said with each book coming through before grabbing the last one. "And all covered in coffee stains, grass stains, and blood stains? These are all Eda's books, aren't they?"

"Yeah, sorry about them. I wish I could've cleaned them a bit before bringing them back." Luz said as she scratched the back of her head.

The man just sighed to Luz as he put the final book down.

"I'll just add them to Eda's tab." he said as he drew a spell circle, summoning a small scroll the unfurled into an arm long list.

"Dios mío, esa es una larga lista de multas.(Dear god, that's a long list of fines.)" Luz said in Spanish with wide eyes at the list of Eda's fines.

"By the way, the library will be closing early. Tonight is the "Wailing Star" meteor shower." The librarian said as he pointed behind to a framed poster behind him, it was of a blue night sky in the woods with a blue star falling from the sky that had a sad face on it.

"Wailing star? Like a star that can literally wail?" Luz asked as she looked to the librarian.

"If you want to know more about it, then read about it." he said to her while gesturing to the library itself. "You're in a library, child."

Luz frowned at his snarky attitude and had an urge to retort LOUDLY but this was a library and it was a rule to be quiet or else she would be annoying everyone else.

"Fine, I will read about it. If I can find the right section." Luz said as she walked away from the librarian, not bothering to ask his ass for directions.

Walking through the library, Luz looked around and saw dozens of things she did not expect to see a few things similar to earth libraries. A large desk of multiple draws that had eyes and fangs mouths called the "Demon Decimal System" that reminded Luz of the Dewey Decimal System, a large shelf of refence books but these were all about magic, beasts, and spell types, and several crystal balls that people were using like computers to do work or watch random videos.

"Some things are just standard in every dimension." Luz commented at the crystal ball computers as she looked from the side.

"What do you think you're doing?" a voice called out, making Luz look around for the source.

"Amity?" she said before looking around for her.

She soon caught sight of Amity in the children's section, named the Kid's Corner, sitting on a stool and reading to a group of children in small Hexside uniforms. Most likely kindergarteners in this dimension.

"'We're you're friends and we wanna help,' said the Tin Boy with a yelp. Otabin smiled and paced the floor. 'I've never had real friends before.'" Amity read as a poster for the book was next to her.

The main character was a bipedal rabbit with blue eyes under a unibrow and wearing black short with a green cape around his neck. He was also holding a knitting needle and book in his arms with the title right above him, "Otabin."

"She's reading to kids." Luz said as she smiled and blushed at Amity, happy to see her showing Luz she really was a kind person inside.

Luz walked to the kids section and watched as Amity kept reading to the children, looking happy to do it and seeing the children smiling back.

"'Then we'll be your first,' the Chicken Witch clucked. Otabin couldn't believe his luck. So, Bookmaker Otabin surrounded by friends, bound a book of friendship and that's the end." Amity read as she closed the book, looking to the kids and getting cheers and claps from them.

'Now that I think about it, this is the first time I've seen her with an...happy smile. Not one that was smug or arrogant, she's genuinely happy here.' Luz thought as she smiled at Amity.

Luz then saw the children coming her way and didn't want to spoil the moment, so she looked around and saw a small shelf of manga right in front of the door. The perfect spot to hide and see how magic realm manga compares to Earth manga. She quickly ducked into the section on her left knee and browsed through it, half pretending as he heard the kids pass by.

"Thank you for reading again, Ms. Amity." a deep voice said, surprising Luz and causing her to turn and see a small child with red skin and a large mouth with teeth showing, human and vampire like, hugging Amity's legs.

'That should NOT be a child's voice.' Luz thought with wide eyes as Amity patted his head.

"No thanks necessary, Braxus. I'll see you all next time." Amity said as Braxus left, cheering as he ran after his friends.

Amity smiled at the kids leaving before gazing to her left for a moment and seeing Luz holding a manga in hand on her knee. She didn't think about it until a second later and turned back in shock.

"You!" Amity said before recomposing herself.

"Yeah, me." Luz said as she kept her cool and put the manga back, standing up before her. "Sorry for spying on you but I didn't want to interrupt. That was really sweet what you did for those kids."

"It's just extra credit, nothing special." Amity said as she turned back to where she read to the kids, returning the "Otabin" book.

"Not from the smile you gave them, you enjoy reading to them." Luz said as she followed Amity, blushing a bit as she had an idea in mind. "And hey, if ever you need help sometimes, I could come and read with you. Maybe even do voices."

Amity grew a bit annoyed at the thought, not hating it but not exactly up for it considering their history.

"Look, I get that you're trying to be friendly and all but it's not gonna happen." Amity said as she placed the book on the table and turned to Luz. "We might have a good thing in that class of yours and the private lessons we still need to discuss but aside from those, you embarrassed me at school and the covention!"

"I never meant to embarrass you!" Luz said as she reached out to Amity a bit.

"Embarrassment or not, 2 out of our 3 encounters didn't end well!" Amity said to her before Luz grabbed touched her left shoulder.

"But don't you want that cycle to end? Outside of my kickboxing lessons, don't you at least want to be friends?" Luz asked with a slight pleading look in her eyes, she wanted their rocky relationship to be better.

"I-I-" Amity let out as she back away from her touch, turning away to not show her blush to Luz. "I don't know."

Luz could see the confusion in her eyes, knowing it herself, as they stood in silence for a moment before Luz spoke up.

"Look...I get that things have been...uneasy between us but I want to put all that behind us and become friends. I can't say why but I want to be on good terms with you, Amity." Luz said before she turned to the entrance of the children's section. "Just...think about it, please."

Luz walked away from her, not seeing Amity lift her hand to reach out to her but stopped.

'I really hope she thinks about it.' Luz thought as she made it just outside of the entrance to the kid's section before a voice caught her attention.

"So you're the human that's been the talk of the school?" they said as Luz turned to see two people stand, well one was leaning against a bookcase.

They were twins, a guy and a girl a few years older than her, and had pale skin, hunter green hair that turned to dark green at a certain point, thick black eyebrows, golden eyes, and moles under their eyes. The girl had the mole under her left eye and the guy had the mole under his right eye. Both of them wore Illusion Track uniforms but the girl had ballet shoes, yellow round earrings, and a pearl choker while the guy had black boots.

"Yeah, I am. And who are you two?" Luz asked as they walked over to her, carrying a bunny shaped lunch bag?

"Simple messengers." the guy said as he put a hand on his chest.

"On a quest of the utmost importance." the girl said as she leaned to Luz before pulling back.

"Watch." the guy said before they turned into the children's section. "Hey mittens!"

The shout and nickname made Amity, who had her back turned, scrunched up in annoyance before turning around to glare at the guy.

"Mom's says "You forgot your lunch again!" he said as he held up the bunny lunch bag, saying it was Amity's as she marched to them. "And stop being a jerk to your friends."

"Do not tell me how to treat my friends!" Amity said as she snatched the bag away from the boy, her revealed older brother.

"Friend?" Luz whispered with hope, happy that Amity didn't deny they were "friends" to her siblings.

"Well you better treat her right, she's pretty cool from the rumors we've heard." the girl said a she grabbed Luz's shoulders.

"I guess." Luz said, though a bit unformattable with the older girl's hands on her shoulders.

"Just go home already!" Amity said as she marched away from her siblings, leaving them with Luz.

The twins then lead Luz away from the children's section and through the library as they introduced themselves to her.

"So you're the human that's been the buzz of the school? Cool." the guy said as they all stopped.

"I'm Emira and this is my brother, Edric." the girl, Emira, said as she introduced her and her brother. "We're Amity's older siblings."

"Well, nice to meet you. Luz Noceda." Luz said as she nodded to them.

"We heard about the incident at school and the duel at the Covention, that was pretty cool." Emira said as she and Edric nodded to her.

"Yeah but I wished they hadn't embarrassed Amity. I just wanna be her friend but things just became stressed between us." Luz said as she looked sadly to the floor.

"Word of advice, human. Don't waste time trying to impress someone like Mittens. We're way more fun." Emira said as she grabbed Luz's wrist. "Follow us, we'll show you."

Letting herself be dragged away, Luz followed the twins who had a small mental breakdown when Edric erased "non" from a directory sign between fiction and non-fiction book sections, making the head librarian and the guy from before switch places as they were organizing books which lead to the same guy having a breakdown again, and were about to blow dust on the Demon Decimal System, which would cause more trouble, before Luz decided she had enough.

"Okay, I've been quiet long enough. These pranks may be fun for you but they're just causing problems for everyone else." Luz said as she stood up, causing Edric and Emira to turn to her. "You two can continue with this if you want, but I don't want to be around when you two get in trouble for it."

"Too late." a voice said, causing the trio to turn around to see Amity standing with the two librarians that had been the target of the pranks from before.

'Fuck.' Luz thought before her and the Blight twins were clumped together and pushed by the two librarians.

They didn't move as Luz was the only one to try and explain, begging a bit to not be kicked out, before they were shoved out of the door of the library.

"You three should know that libraries are not meant to be fun. Don't come back." the head librarian said as he shut the door on them.

The trio was silent before Edric and Emira laughed loudly while Luz looked annoyed at them.

"Gee thanks, you guys! You probably got me banned!" Luz said before facepalming. "Not to mention Amity's not gonna want to be friends after this."

"Oh calm down, Luz. Mittens wasn't mad." Edric said as Luz lowered her hand.

"How would you know?" Luz asked him.

"Cuz she makes this when she's really mad at you." Edric said as he pointed to his face before taking a breath and puffing his cheek, making an angry face as he groaned while his face turned red before he let the breath out and stumbling. "Woah, light headed. Almost passed out."

'Passed out?' Luz thought as she imagined Amity looking mad before passing out from holding it in too long.

"You know, aside from trying to bail earlier, you're pretty cool Luz and we wanted to ask your help with something tonight." Emira said as she and Edric leaned closer to her. "There's a certain book we wanted to check out before we left but we couldn't find it, so tonight we wanted to come back and get it."

"Plus, rumor has it that the wailing star holds some very magical properties. Wouldn't you want to check that out?" Edric asked as Luz backed away from them a bit.

"Hmm, I'm not sure. Breaking and entering into a library isn't on my list of things that interest me." Luz said, sort of made up as she didn't feel like getting in trouble with the librarian again. "But...the wailing star does sound interesting."

"Well if you change your mind, meet us back here at midnight tonight." Edric said as he and Emira walked away from her. "See you, Luz."

Luz watched as they left while she thought about this mysterious "book" they needed help with tonight, wondering if it was really a book or just another prank they wanted to pull on the library. She also thought of what Edric said about the wailing star and it's magical properties, just what were they and how did they connect with the library? These questioned filled her head as she began to walk back to the owl house, not knowing that Amity had been watching their entire conversation.

'What are they planning? And why do they want Luz to be apart of it?' Amity thought as she slowly grew angry, already hating what her siblings planned to do tonight!

Back with Luz, she had just arrived back home and had come to a decision about the library tonight.

"Hey, guys, I'm- she said as she walked in through the front door, stopping mid sentence at the scene before her.

Sitting in the den were her two friends, Eda and King, in a rather strange scenario she NEVER would've dreamed of. King with pillowed strapped to his head was looking at Eda as she cradled what Luz assumed to be the baby from this morning, only it didn't have a normal body for a baby and instead was like a baby head with bat wings and possible feet.

"...Are you being actually being motherly right now?" Luz asked, slowly gaining a smile as she giggled at her magic teacher, never thinking she would be the motherly type.

"Maybe but if you mention it to anyone outside of this house, I'll rip out your tongue and use it for soup." Eda said with a deadpan/serious expression, making Luz hold her hands up as she walked over to them.

"Okay, okay, my lips are sealed but I can see why you're acting motherly." Luz said as she looked to the little bat baby. "Weird as it is, he's still pretty adorable."

"You should've seen him when you weren't here, he's a monster." King said as he slowly moved away from the bat baby. "Screaming, crying, breaking things."

"It's what babies do. It's in their nature." Luz said as she looked at King. "The only way to calm them down is with cradles, pacifiers, or changing their diapers."

"What's a pacifier?" Eda asked before the baby woke up and unfurled in Eda's arms.

He suddenly made a hacking motion before he suddenly spat out a smaller version of himself, which then did the same and spat out an even smaller version to make the one baby into 3 babies!

"¡Santa mierda!(Holy shit!)" Luz shouted in shock as the three bat babies flew in the air.

The original then started to breath fire, causing everyone to dive out of the way before they began to practically destroy the house and break everything in sight.

'We're they dealing with this all day?! Now I'm really glad Eda pushed me out when she did!' Luz thought as she went to the door and grabbed her side bag.

"While I'd love to stay and help you, I think I'm gonna head off and train with my gloves a bit! Find ways tp use my light and fire glyphs more creatively! BYE!" Luz shouted to them as she open and shut the door behind her, running off from the house. "There are things in this or any world that kickboxing cannot help with!"

Hours later, midnight was close to the hour as was waiting in front of the library for Edric and Emira to show up. She looked at her phone to see it was almost time and they still weren't here yet.

"How long does it take two trouble makers to get to a library?" Luz asked herself as she set her back down and leaned against a column, her hood up as a way to hide her face a bit.

"Deepens on if they find anything fun to mess with on the way." Emira answered, making Luz look up to them near the column across from her and in different outfits too.

While Emira had a green gem in the center of her chest and blake shoes and Edric had a belt around his waist and black boots, both of them wore gray underclothes, burgundy tunics, and medium gray pants.

"Glad to see you decided to come." Emira said as she waved to Luz.

"Ready to get inside and help us out?" Edric asked as he pointed to the doors.

Luz gave a single nod as she walked to the door with the twins doing the same.

"The sign says "No Trespassing" but me and Em are allergic to rules." Edric said as he pulled out a strange looking scroll.

"And you're also allergic to dairy." Emira said as Edric lost his smile, looking at her with betrayal.

"Wow, just going below the belt, aren't you?" he asked his sister as the scroll began to glow in her hands.

Emira placed the scroll over the large keyhole, letting it crumble to into pieces before the keyhole suddenly grew large enough for them to walk into the library without picking the lock.

'Size magic, just like Asriel.' Luz remembered as they she followed the twins inside, still cautious of the Blight twins.

"Watch your step." Edric said as Luz quickly moved away as the keyhole returned to normal size.

"Thanks." Luz said to him as she walked ahead of him and Emira, gazing around the empty and dark library. "So, what happens next? We just stand here in the dark?"

There! The Wailing Star's passing!" Edric said as they all turned to the stain glass above the front door, seeing it glow as the star actually wailed/cried as it flew by.

The trio stood in silence after it passed, looking around for any strange effects it had on them or the library.

"This it? I thought something would happen like I heard." Edric said as he and Emira were a bit disappointed in the outcome.

Luz was about to retort before noticing the books around hte library began to slowly, glow, illuminating the entire building as she looked around the shelves.

"Actually, something did happen. Look at the books!" Luz told them as she walked over to a shelf, taking a book out titled "Extinct Birds of the Boiling Isles." "The wailing star did something to the books."

Luz opened it up to see if the words were effected but saw that they were fine until they glowed and birds suddenly came flying out of the book!

"Whoa." Luz let out as she saw the birds fly through the air without a care.

"Cool! The wailing star brought the books to life!" Edric said as he and Emira looked towards each other.

"So if opening them brings what's inside out." Luz said as she closed the book, seeing the birds slowly vanish into thin air. "Closing them puts them back in."

The trio then shared a look before smiling and explored the library for other books to bring to life. From fashion magazines to graphic novel, every book they opened was a bundle of fun as they laughed and enjoyed themselves in the library. Over time as they found 3 copies of the same book that shots snowballs, Luz snuck off to the children's section and left the twins to their snow battle.

'I wonder what will happen when I open a manga?' Luz thought as she found the manga section and saw all the books glowing before her. 'Show me what you got, Boling Isles manga.'

Grabbing a manga book from the shelf, Luz opened it and watched as the bright magic flew out of it and form whatever character from the manga. The magic landed a few feet before her and began to mold itself into a new form, slowly fading into a strange humanoid creature.

'An ogre?' Luz guessed as she saw it stand up straight.

The ogre before Luz had yellowish-green skin, pointy ears, black eyes with white pupils, and sharp teeth with an upside down "U" moustache. His clothes were a sleeveless red shirt that was toon around the collar, a spikey leather vest, chains wrapped around his arms, blue jeans with a skull belt buckle, spiked shin protectors, and black boots.

(Look up Abobo from Double Dragon River City Girls but give him yellowish-green skin and sharp teeth.)

"YAH!" the ogre screamed as he slammed his fists together, looking around for someone before setting his eyes on Luz. "Grr!"

"Oh? You wanna fight huh, big guy?" Luz asked him with a smirk, setting the open manga down before she cracked her knuckles.

"Yeah!" the ogre shouted as he took a normal boxer stance, throwing some a few punches into the air.

"Alright then, show me what you got." Luz said as she got into her kickboxing stance, bouncing on her feet a bit.

"Yeah!" he screamed as he charged at Luz, throwing a sloppy yet strong right hook at her but he missed as Luz dodged.

'Judging from that wind behind his punch, he's got a lot of power behind his swing!' Luz thought as she bobbed and weaved two more times before going on the attack.

Luz ducked under another punch before giving three jabs to his chest and a side kick to his leg, quickly jumping back as he didn't seem to feel it and slammed his fists down to try and crush her. Luz went into a roll before dodging as the ogre charged at her, missing his boot crushing her at her spot. Luz used her gloves to throw a light orb at his face, blinding him before she rushed in and began a rush of attacks from all around him. Punch, jab, hook, kick, she didn't stop as the ogre slowly regained his sight and was jabbed in the face by Luz.

"Oh yeah! Nice!" he shouted at Luz as he drew his fist to punch her into the ground, which Luz quickly blocked and was sent flying back into a book shelf!

"GUH!" Luz spat out with a bit of bile!

'I was right, there's serious power behind those fists!' Luz thought as she quickly ducked to the side, dodging another punch that almost destroyed the shelf she slammed into. 'I may have bit off more then I could chew, but I'm not gonna give up yet!'

Charging back into the fight, Luz dodging two punches and slide under the ogre to kick the back of his knee.

"UGH!" he grunted as he fell to his knee.

'Now!' Luz thought as she used her fire glyphs to spin around, gaining speed and kicking the ogre in the side of the head. 'That's should've been hard enough to disorient him!'

Using this short moment, Luz began to rushed the ogre with flaming punches that made him recoil from the fire power behind them. Luz kept him disorientated to keep him from attacking anymore.

"GRRR!" he growled as he threw a sloppy punch to Luz to try and get her away.

Luz saw the punched and quickly dodged by a graze before spinning on her heel to deliver a strong kick to his jaw, making him spit up saliva before hitting the ground hard. Wiping sweat from her brow and deciding she's had enough, Luz quickly went to the manga.

"That's enough for one night." Luz said as she quickly picked it up and closed it, making the ogre vanish back into the manga. "Still, it was good to have a nice challenge in a while."

Putting the manga back on the shelf, Luz looked around the children's section before seeing the largest book in the section glowing. It was the book Amity read earlier today, Otabin the Bookmaker. Walking to it and picking up the book, Luz looked down to an illustration of Otabin before he floated out of the book with a knitting needle in his hands and a ball off yarn attached. Otabin looked up to Luz as she smiled down at him, holding the book in one hand and giving him a pat on the head.

"Hey, there little guy." Luz said to him before she began to read the book aloud. ""Otabin spend his days alone amongst the many books he'd sewn. With needle and thread, the pages he mend. But all the while he longed for a friend.""

"Will you be my friend?" Otabin asked as he notching his needle with the yarn thread.

"Sure, Otabin. I used to know what it's like not to have many friends." Luz said to him until she heard something behind her, causing her to close Otabin's book.

"Hey, Luz. You'll never believe this." Edric said as he and Emira walked into the children's section with a book in hand, named "Quacks Eats Snacks."

"Looks what we found out about the books." Emira said as she opened the book, making a little baby duck come out.

It quacked and quacked as it moved around on the floor before stopping before them, giving them an innocent and friendly smile.

"Aw, a cute little duck." Luz said with a smile to the duck before noticing Edric holding up a pencil.

The male twin drew in the book and Luz watched in shock as the duck suddenly grew large, muscular, man legs!

"Oh my god!" Luz screamed as the duck noticed it's new man legs.

"QUACK! QUACK QUACK QUACK!" It quacked in hysteria and panic at it's new, unwanted legs.

"Now, he's even cuter." Emira said as she closed the book, laughing with Edric as the duck vanished into thin air. "Give it a try, Luz."

The twins turned to see Luz with her jaw dropped as she looked to them in shock, wondering how they could find something so freaky and wrong funny!

"Uh uh, no way am I doing that." Luz said as she shook her head at them.

"Oh come on, Luz. We're having a good time, don't be a buzzkill." Edric said as he moved to Luz, holding the pencil out to her.

"I said I don't want to." Luz said, narrowing her eyes at them. "This may just be from the star, but these books are alive. We can't just tamper with them cuz it's fun."

"Sure we can, it's not so bad after your first try. Let me show you." Edric said as he reached out to Otabin's book before Luz slapped his hand away. "Ow!"

"I said NO!" Luz said as she walked away to put Otabin's book back and walk out of the children's section. "This is not fun, it's sick!"

"Luz wait, come on!" Emira said as she went after her, leaving her brother behind as he looked back at Otabin's book.

Back with Luz, she had continued to walk away as Emira caught up with her near the romance section.

"Luz, hang on." she said as she grabbed Luz's shoulder.

"Get off me!" Luz shouted as she jerked her shoulder away from Emira. "I only came here to see what the wailing star would do and help you with that book but I never agreed to mess with the books after seeing them come to life! That's just wrong!"

"Okay, look I get that you didn't like that and I'm sorry for it but we still need your help with the book we need to find." Emira said as Edric caught up with them.

"Yeah, come on. Just help us find the book and then we can leave, promise." Edric said with his hands up.

Luz narrowed her eyes at them, judging if they were telling the truth or not. Seeing that they didn't look away or try to convince her otherwise, Luz nodded to them and decided to stay. FOR NOW.

"Fine, let's find this book." She spat out at them as they lead the way, stopping in front of the romance section. "Romance section? Didn't figure you two for the types."

"Well, not usually but this book has caught our interest." Edric said as he grabbed a book on the end of the shelf, pulling it out and putting it back in with two clicking sounds.

The romance section then pushed in and moved to the side to reveal a secret room with two walls full of books, a carpet on the floor, paper stars and moons hanging from the ceiling, and a table with a chair and several things around it like pillow, a waste basket, slippers, and a tea cup.

"A secret hideout?" Luz asked as she walked in, looking around the room. "I would kill for a hideout like this, it's so cool."

"Yeah, if you think hanging out in a place like the library is cool." Edric said before putting on an act in a joking tone. "Um, yes, teacher? Can I say how much I love this book?"

"Look at me, I'm studying for my dork arts exam." Emira followed before they stopped. "Only Amity likes hanging out in this place."

"Amity? This is Amity's hideout?!" Luz asked as she turned to them. "Why are we here?!"

"Well, it's just that Mittens has gotten a bit...full of herself." Edric said as he and Emira walk up to Luz, standing on both sides of her as he put a hand on her shoulder. "She keeps ratting us out every time we skip class, like some goody two shoes."

"She needs to learn not to get into other people's business." Emira said as she put a hand on Luz's back. "So we need your help to find her diary, the book we wanted to find."

"Then we're gonna post them all around school for everyone to see." Edric said as he and Emira cheered with their hands up.

After they had explained themselves, Luz could only feel one thing after it was over and done with their reason and objective. Full, blown ANGER.

'"Post...her diary around school? That's taking it too far!" Luz screamed at them as she knocked their hands away from her body.

"Not it's not, it's just tough love from her family." Emira said as Edric put his arm around Luz.

"Yeah, it's not a big deal." he said to her as he pulled her a little close. "Come on, join in the fun."

"FUN?!" Luz screamed as she grabbed his arm. "YOU CALL THIS FUN!?"

Pulling his arm as hard as she could, Luz lifted him into the air and slammed Edric into the ground back first!

"AAH!" he screamed in pain before Luz planted a foot on his face. "Luz, what the heck?!"

""What the heck" is with you two! You think this is gonna teach Amity a lesson but in reality, it's just going to embarrass her and make her hate you!" Luz shouted down to him.

"Isn't that no different than what you did?" Emira asked before Luz glared at her.

"I never meant to embarrass her! You guys on the other hand, are crossing a line! A line that you never cross with your family!" Luz screamed as she stepped off of Edric's face.

"Okay okay, we're sorry! Just calm down!" Emira said as she held up her hands at Luz.

"I'll calm down when you two get the hell out of here and forget your sick little plan!" Luz screamed as she marched up to Emira and grabbed her by the shirt!

"We'll leave, just let go!" Emira said as she pulled back, turning them around to try and get Luz to let her go! "Why do you care so much anyway?! Mittens doesn't even like you that much!"

"I care because I have a heart!" Luz shouted at her before letting Emira go and kicking her into a bookshelf behind her. "Now beat it, both of you!"

Groaning from the impact and with a new fear of the younger human, Edric and Emira quickly got themselves up and left Amity's secret hideout. Leaving Luz to take several breaths to calm herself down.

'Good riddance. I knew those two were trouble.' Luz thought as she looked to where she kicked Emira, seeing some books on the ground. 'A prank is only funny until you take it too far and those two were going too far.'

Moving to the books on the ground, Luz picked them and was about to place them back when she noticed what kind of books they were.

"Azura? You can get these here?" Luz questioned as she had the first and second books in her hands, right here in Amity's hideout. "And Amity likes Azura too? No way."

Feeling a smile and blush grow on her face, Luz looked at the other books and saw the book 3 and 4 of the series but no book 5.

"She must not have book 5 yet." Luz said aloud.

"No, I don't." A voice said, making Luz turn and see the source at the entrance, Amity still in her school uniform.

"Amity?! Wha-What are you doing here?!" Luz asked as Amity walked over to her.

"I overheard what Edric and Emira were going to come back here tonight, so I followed and to my surprise, you came with." Amity said as she kneeled down and picked up the other books. "I was worried they'd do something stupid to the library but instead I find that they were planning to post my diary all around school."

Luz just nodded to Amity as they stood up, placing the books back on the shelf before Amity took one off. One book that had a drawn cover of Amity in an Azura-like outfit.

"Is that?" Luz asked as Amity nodded.

"My diary, the one I thought would be safe here but I guess I was wrong." Amity said before looking to Luz, nodding with thanks. "I didn't expect you to but...thank you for stopping them. I don't think I would've survived the embarrassment if my secrets were exposed."

Luz looked away as she blushed at the compliment, not expecting Amity to show up and thank her for saving her secrets.

"It's no problem, everyone's secrets should be protected until you chose to tell them. I could never stand by and let yours get spread out, Amity." Luz said as she gave a small smile to her.

Amity blushed at the smile but turned away, quickly walking to the door.

"We should get going! We shouldn't be here after all." Amity quickly said as Luz followed her.

"Right. Let's go." Luz said as they stepped out and closed the hideout behind them.

The two were about to make their way to the exit of the library before a feeling and noise stopped them, a small tremor with a deep growl of some kind.

"What was that?" Amity asked as they both looked around, feeling and hearing something get closer to them.

"I don't know but I don't like it." Luz said as they turned to where it was coming from, the end of the library section they were in.

"Otabin?" Amity asked in shock, seeing the lovable book character she read for years in front of them in a new monstrous form.

Standing in a crouching position, Otabin was now twice or three times as tall as them with a buffer body, longer arms, and glowing claws, teeth, eyes, and eye brows with a book attached to his chest. Looking close enough, one could see a picture was scribbled over with the same features but not glowing.

'How did-EDRIC, YOU BASTARD! YOUR STUPID SCRIBBLING CREATED A MONSTER!' Luz thought as she clenched her fists as the monster Otabin crawled to them.

"With claws and fangs and breaking bones, I found a friend to make my own." Otabin said in a new, deeper voice as he reached out to them.

"Get back!" Luz said as she quickly put Amity behind her, activating her right glove's fire glyph and dragging her hand along the floor in front of them.

An orange line was made on the floor before it sudden burst up into a thin, rising wall of flames!

"Aaah!" Otabin screamed as he reeled back from the flames.

"Come on, run!" Luz shouted as she quickly grabbed Amity's hand, making her run with Luz as the flame wall died down.

"Your fire is bright and hot I see but it will not stop from making you a friend of me!" Otabin shouted as he batted the flames away and chased after them.

"What happened to him?!" Amity asked as she looked back to the monster bunny.

"Your brother happened! After learning the wailing star brought the boos to life, Edric and Emira discovered that writing or drawing in the books come to life as well!" Luz said as she made them duck behind a book case. "They tried to get me to mess with the books too but I refused and stormed off. Edric must've mess with the book after I left."

"And he turned Otabin into that!" Amity said as she looked over the side, seeing Otabin coming their way. "So the only way to fix him is to erase what Ed put!"

Nodding to Amity, Luz looked around the shelf for something that could help before taking notice off a book.

"Amity!" Luz called out as she pulled out the book and turned to her. "Stay close and stay quiet!"

Opening the book, Luz and Amity turned invisible as Otabin turned the corner to find the only to see nothing.

"Gr! Gr!" He growled as he looked around for them. "Escaped you may, friends to be, but you will not get away from me!"

Running off to find them, Otabin missed as after a few seconds later, Luz and Amity became visible again.

"Phew, that was close." Luz said as Amity looked to the book in her hands.

""The Art of Invisibility for Illusionists." Good choice." Amity said as she put her diary away in her shirt.

"Thanks but now, we gotta come up with a plan to fix Otabin." Luz said as she put the invisibility book back on the shelf. "We could wait until morning so he'd vanish but we can't run the risk of him getting out of the library."

"Well like I said before, the only way to fix him is to erase the drawings Ed did. But in order to do that, we need to get close enough to do it." Amity said to Luz, who began to smile at the notion while clenching her fists.

"And with two pretty good kickboxers with magic here, it'll be easy but one of us is gonna have to be bait while the other finds an eraser." Luz said as Amity nodded to her.

"Exactly, so here's my plan." Amity said as she brought Luz closer to tell her.

Meanwhile back with Otabin, he was still searching the library for his "friends" and wouldn't stop until he had them in his book and with him forever.

"Hey, Otabin!" A voice shouted, causing him to stop and turn around to see Luz waving at him. "Still wanna be friends?"

The monstrous book character smiled creepily at Luz and he charged at her, eager to add her to his book of friends!

"Come on, buddy!" Luz shouted as she got into her stance, ready to fight him. "Let's talk!"

Luz charged when Otabin was close enough, dodging under a grab before jumping up and delivering a high knee to his chin!

"Guh!" Otabin grunted as he held his chin, shutting his eyes as Luz landed and delivered more attacks.

'Right knee and hip!' Luz thought as she swiftly kicked his knee and hip!

"Aah!" Otabin screamed in pain before clawing at Luz. "YAH!"

Luz ducked under one and dodged left for another, seeing them more like grabs then claw attacks.

"Come on, Otty! You gotta try hard then that if you want me to be your friend!" Luz teased before sucking again and throwing a high kick to Otabin's cheek!

"Aah!" He screamed again before spinning around, launching his tail to hit Luz.

Luz raised her left leg with her arms firmly crossed to block the attack but was sent flying as she slid across the floor before she flipped back up on her feet. That hit was pretty hard and Luz's leg took most of the damage, so she would be limping for a while but that wasn't going to stop her.

'I just need to hold out until Amity gets back.' Luz thought as she got back into her stance but leaned a bit more on her right leg.

/Flashback/

"Since you're the more experienced fighter between us, you'll have to distract Otabin while I head back to my hideout for an eraser." Amity said to Luz as the human nodded to her.

"And when you do, you'll have to use your Abominations to hold Otabin downwhile we fix him." Luz said as Amity nodded to her.

"That's the plan, think you can handle it?" Amity asked Luz, who simply cracked her knuckles and rolled her neck.

"Hell yeah, I can. Just be as quick as you can. From the looks of him, he's strong and fast. So I might not be able to hold him for long." Luz said to Amity.

"Well you'll have to hope you can hold him off long enough for me to come back. This is the only plan we've got and it has to work." Amity said while crossing her arms.

"Yeah I know." Luz said as she turned to where Otabin ran, looking back to Amity for a moment. "Good luck...and be safe, okay?"

Amity blushed a little bit but nodded to Luzas they turned in different directions.

"I will and the same to you, Luz." Amity said as they ran off for their plan.

/Flashback end/

Meanwhile with Amity herself, she had made it back to her hideout and was currently searching all over for an eraser to fix Otabin's book.

"I know I had one around here, I remember using it with my diary earlier today." Amity said to herself as she looked all over before finding it in the waste basket, only half of it left like she remembered. "There it is! It must've fallen in by mistake."

Amity quickly grabbed the eraser and put it in her pocket before hearing Luz scream from a far.

"Get off me! Let me go!" Amity heard as her eyes widened.

"LUZ!" Amity screamed as she bolted out of her hideout, not bothering to look back to see it close as she ran towards the screaming came from.

Following the shouting, Amity stopped next to the entrance of the children's section and looked inside to see Luz being held against a large book with Otabin holding a huge knitting needle and thread.

'He's gonna sew her in the book, just like his story!' Amity thought as she watched Otabin sew around Luz's left arm and pull, making it become flat and merge with the paper!

"Oh my god!" Luz screams at the sight of her flat arm, not even able to move her fingers as Otabin smiled at her again.

"Wondrous friends are all I have sought and now, a wonderful friend tonight I have caught." He said to Luz as she gave him a glare.

"If this is how you treat your friends, then you must have a lot of enemies!" Luz shouted at him!

'This is it! It's time!' Amity thought as she quickly drew a spell circle, making an abomination grow before her.

"Abomination, fight!" Amity ordered as she pointed to Otabin, making him and Luz turn to her as the abomination charged at him.

"Friend?" Otabin said before being tackled into his large book, making it fall to the ground as the abomination held him down.

"Yeah! You got him!" Luz cheered as Amity ran to her, grabbing the thread on her arm and pulling it off so it could return to normal. "And thanks for the hand."

"You're welcome and now, to fix Otabin." Amity said as she pulled out the eraser.

"Agreed but first let's knock him out." Luz said as she walked up to Otabin.

"A-Agreed." Amity said as she followed, not fully behind the idea of knocking out her favorite book character, monster or not.

Both girls looked down as Otabin continued to struggle against the gooey abomination and was unable to get out of its grip.

"You think our time is over and done but friend-" he screamed before Luz interrupted.

"Will you shut up already?! I'm sick of your rhyming!" Luz shouted as she reeled her left fist back, lighting her glove with golden flames.

"Sorry about this, Otabin. Still friends." Amity said as she reeled her right first back, covering it in hardened abomination goop.

Both girls hit him with as much strength as they could, knocking him out from the impact as he groaned and turned his head to the side.

"Sweet dreams, rabbit." Luz said as Amity made her abomination retreat from Otabin.

She then used her erase and fixed the book illustration, returning Otabin to his original, small, less dangerous self with his book next to him.

"All I wanted...was a friend." Otabin mumbled as he moved a bit in his unconscious state.

Even after what he tried to do to them, they couldn't blame or even be mad at Otabin. It was Edric that made him into a monster and turned his innocent desire for friends into a demented lust. Amity and Luz could hold no ill will to him for just wanting a friend.

"We know, Otty. We know." Luz said as Amity picked Otabin up, cradling him like a baby as he enjoyed their embrace.

"And don't worry, we're still your friends." Amity said to him as she turned to Luz, nodding a silent message to her.

Understanding the silent message, Luz grabbed Otabin's book and shut it to make him vanish and return to it.

Hours later, after putting Otabin's book back and cleaning up any books that were knocked off the shelves, Luz and Amity were walking out of the library as the sun rose over the horizon.

"That was one hell of a night. Never though I'd experience what it's like to be in a book." Luz said with a little joke at how she was part of a book for a few moments, picking up her bag that she left outside all night.

"Yeah, it was but let's never talk about again." Amity said as she walked past Luz, wanting to go home and find a new hiding spot for her diary.

Seeing her walk away and remembering what she saw in the hideout, Luz reached into her bag and pulled out a book before rushing next to Amity.

"Wait! Here." Luz said as she showed Amity the book, her copy of Azura number 5. "I saw you only had the first four, so I thought you could borrow it for a while."

"I-Thank you." Amity said as she took the book, suddenly remembering the times they spent. Embarrassing as they may be. "And about what you said yesterday, yes. I want us...to have a better relationship then we do now."

"Really?" Luz asked, feeling very happy that Amity finally made up her mind about them.

"Really." Amity said with a nod before Luz suddenly hugged her, causing her to blush as she gripped the book a bit.

"Thank you." Luz said as she too blushed before taking the hug and leaving in a rush! "I'll see you around, bye Amity!"

"Bye..." Amity said as she slowly looked towards Luz as she left, feeling so...warm inside as she held the Azura book to her chest.

Back with Luz, the human had arrived back home and entered into the den.

"Guys, I'm hom-" Luz said before stopping and seeing the couch, surprised at the sight of Eda and King snuggling with the bat babies while they all slept. "Well...this is rare moment."

Smiling softly at the scene, Luz pulls out her phone and takes a picture of them before Hooty suddenly opened the door.

"Ding dong!" He screamed as Luz jolted and shushed him.

"Hooty! They're-" she whisper yelled at him before something began to crawl in through the door!

Stepping back, Luz watched at the something that crawled in revealed to be large human head with gray skin, thin eye brows, red lipstick, and black hair with bat wings for arms and stubbish legs.

"Oh, sweet mother of creation." Luz mumbled with wide eyes. "The Bat Queen."

"Yi yi, I be Bat Queen and I be here for babies." Bat Queen said before whistling loudly.

The three bat babies in Eda's arms awake at the sound and flew from Eda's arm to the Bat Queen's hair, wrapping themselves in like it was a blanket and poking their eyes out.

"Sweet snuggle dumplings." Bat Queen said about her babies before she regurgitated a chest onto the living room floor.

'That must be Eda's payment.' Luz thought as the chest opened to reveal a large amount of gold snail coins and a strange skill whistle.

"For job well done. Eda is now owed favor." Bat Queen said before she queries back out the door, flying away as Luz watched her leave.

"Weird mother but very caring." Luz mumbled as she shut the door.

Mumbling in her sleep, Eda tried to pull the bat babies closer before feeling them no longer in her arms.

"Babies? Babies?" Eda asked as she instantly woke up, King following as he looked for them with her. "Where did the babies go?"

"Bat Queen came and picked them up. Dropped off your reward too." Luz said as she pointed to the chest of gold and the skull whistle.

"B-But I just taught one of them to pick locks." Eda said as she felt sad that the babies were gone.

"You really grew attached to them after only one night, huh?" Luz asked as she walked up to King and Eda.

"Yeah well, you don't spend the night taming 3 crazy babies and not form some sort of bond with them." Eda said as she and King looked to the ground.

"I miss them so much!" King said with some sobs as he hugged Eda for comfort.

"Hey, it's alright. I'm sure you'll see them again and I just so happen to pick you up something in case you did bond with them." Luz said as she reached into her bag and pull out a book called "Coping with Empty Nest Syndrome."

On the cover was a bird in a nest, crying, as it's children flew off into the world.

"Heh, thanks, you little fighter." Eda said as she took the book from Luz. "So how was your night compared to ours?"

"Hmmmmm...chaotic, in both a bad sense and a good sense but it ended good." Luz said as she remembered the beginning with Edric and Emira then the ending with Amity, smiling to her teacher and demon friend.

The door suddenly swung open again as Hooty was about to join in the conversation. That is until Luz lost her smile and held up both hands, making flaming fists with the help of her gloves.

"Be quiet and close. The. Door." Luz said in a monotone, not in the mood for Hooty's silliness after getting no sleep last night. "No one is in the mood."

Hooty just shut his mouth for a moment before slowly closing the door, being very quiet as to not upset the girl with flaming hands right now.

Chapter Text

A new day had come as Luz and King were currently at Eda's stand with nothing much to do. Business was slow, like really slow, as the duo were doing whatever they could to pass the time until a customer came along. The self proclaimed king of demon was currently trying to reach for a flag hanging on a string above the stand, jumping with all the strength his tiny legs could give him, while the kickboxer was writing something on notepad of paper.

"Nyeh! Nyeh! Nyeh! Nye-AAH!" King shouted before falling of the table, quickly picking himself back up to curse the flag with a sock over his eye. "Stupid flag!"

"You're not gonna get the flag, King. It's too high." Luz said as she looked to him for a second before going back to her writing.

"I will get that flag!" King shouted at Luz as he threw the sock off his face, marching over to her and looking up to what she was doing. "And what are you doing anyway?"

"Making a lesson plan for my next kickboxing class." Luz said as she looked over the lesson. "The first one I gave had a few things left out and I wanna make sure to over them next time."

King gave Luz a simple shrug as 3 Hexside students came to the stand. Boscha, Skara, and a male student with light pinkish-red skin and and dirty blonde hair wearing a black skull cap, uniform violet sleeves and leggings, red boots with white outlines and bat wings.

"Sup teach." Boscha said as Luz looked up to see them.

"Oh, hey Boscha. Skara. Hexisidian." Luz said as she put the lesson plan aside and stood up straight before them. "Can I interest you in any human items?"

Looking over the stand, Boscha saw a variety off human items that she didn't really find all that interesting. The only think she found interesting of the human world so far was this kickboxing Luz was teaching them.

"No thanks, teach but I hope you don't mind an ironic Penstagram between you and this stand. Something of value in front of tons of trash." Boscha said with snark as she summoned her scroll and took the photo with her and Luz in it.

"Look you're entitled to make fun of whatever you want but if you're not gonna buy anything, then leave." Luz said with a dull tone as Boscha turned back to her.

"Geez, teach. It's just a little photo. Don't get your fists in a frenzy." Boscha replied with snark and slight fear.

Boscha wouldn't admit it but she does fear Luz for her physical prowess and fighting skills. One wrong word and she could end up losing a few teeth.

"Speaking of, why aren't your fists in a frenzy?! You should be knocking her teeth in for the snark she's giving you!" King protested as Luz kneeled down before him.

"Look King, even when I can, I'm not going too. Boscha's one of my students and besides, I've dealt with enough of her type to know when she's afraid of me. Teens like her are easy to read." Luz said as she nodded her head to Boscha.

"So you're just gonna cower out because she's taking your class?" King asked as he pulled her to his face.

"Hey, I never said "cower." And he being my student has nothing to do with it. She's just not worth it." Luz said with narrow eyes at King, getting a bit angry at his attitude towards this.

"You have the strength to dominate others and you choose not to use it! Well if you won't, I will!" King said as he let go of Luz and jumped onto the stand table, facing Boscha, Skara, and the skull cap boy. "You will now before me, weaklings!"

The trio just stared at King for a moment before they smiled at him with Boscha gushing at his cuteness.

"Oh my titan! He is adorable!" She said as she grabbed King, hugging him in one arm while summoning her scroll again.

King struggling to get out of her grip as Boscha took a picture of them, having a special filter on her scroll to give them large, cute eyes, thick eye lashes, and blush with flower crowns on their heads.

"How much for him? I have to own him." Boscha said as she wanted to buy King.

"Though I am tempted to give you a price, King isn't for sale." Luz said as King finally got out of the triclops' arm, kicking off her face to land on the table.

"Honey, you can't put a price on this." King said with his eyes close and wagging in finger.

This just made King even cuter as everyone gushed at his sass.

"Someone's sassy." Luz commented as King glared at her.

"Shut up! I am not sassy!" King shouted at Luz, who just giggled at his failure to intimidate.

From behind the Luz and the stand curtain, Eda stuck her nose out and snuggled the air.

"Ooh. Easy customers." Eda said as Luz heard her and turned around.

"No they're not, Eda. It's just two students from my first class with a friend. They're not interested in buying anything." Luz said as Eda stuck her head out of the curtain.

"Well maybe that just because you don't know how to sell it." Eda said.

"No, I'm just sure how a teenager thinks and trusts me, if you try and convince them they will just laugh and walk away." Luz said with a warning as she nodded to Boscha's group, who were still paying attention to King.

"Well I think otherwise. Watch and learn, kid." Eda said before she jumped to the front of the stand, making Boscha's group move back at her sudden appearance.

"Fine but don't say I didn't warn you." Luz said as she went back to the lesson plan for her next class, reviewing it to see if she missed anything important to add.

"Hey, kid. How would you like the latest fashion clothes from the human realm?" Eda offered as she drew a spell circle in front of herself and covered herself in smoke.

When the smoke cleared, Eda was now wearing a Russian red star hat, heart shaped sunglasses, a brown leather jacket over a black "100 % Dad" shirt, blue fish oven mitts while holding a golf club, a pink shirt, and zigzag stockings.

'Oh god, Eda. You know nothing about human fashion.' Luz thought with a cringe.

"Ahahahahahaha." Skara and the skullcap boy laughed as Boscha just giggle at Eda.

"Uh, no thanks, lady. See ya next class, teach." Boscha said to Eda and Luz as they walked away from Eda's stand.

"Well, I hate the kid now." Eda said as she made the "fashionable" outfit poof away and returned to her normal clothes.

"I told you so, Eda. Most teens can be snarky and mean." Luz said as she put her lesson plan to the side again. "It's just in some of their nature."

"Well what do you think would've gotten their eye, little miss human?" Eda asked Luz.

"Well for one, I have a better fashion sense than you. Two, my knowledge of human stuff is better then yours. And three, a flashier presentation would help too." Luz said as she remembered some kickboxing matches she watched back home. "In professional matches, the commentator would hype up the crowd before the fight started. Sometimes weeks in advance to sell tickets."

"Hmm. While flashy sounds like a nice route, I can't afford to be flashy since I'm a wanted woman." Eda said as she pulled out her wanted poster. "If I go all razzle dazzle just to get customers, the guards would be on my hide faster than you punching someone in the face."

"Okay, I see your point there. Better to be safe." Luz said as Eda rolled up wanted poster. "Though if I had your magic power, I could just use it to make things go a lot better."

King scoffed at Luz as he walked between her and Eda, who stuff the wanted poster in her hair.

"Like magic makes anything easier! You may have your little kickboxing and teenage problems, but only Eda and I really have it hard in life." King said as he gestured to him and Eda.

"Like you have anything to say, you're treated like a precious baby and pampered by anyone taken in by your adorable nature." Eda said as she waved her hands to the side. "You have it easier than Luz, who has gotten into who knows how many fights."

"I am not a baby, I am a fierce DEMON!" King shouted as he threw his wand up.

"If you're not a baby, then why don't you stop whining like one?" Luz asked him as King turned to her.

"BECAUSE MY LIFE IS A NIGHTMARE!" He screamed to her as he shook his hands in the air.

"Okay, you two. There's only one way to solve a problem when a group of friends can't see eye to eye on a topic." Eda said as she rubbed her hands together.

"Sit down and talk things out?" Luz asked.

"Fight each other to the death!" King suggested as Luz turned to him with a blank face.

"You do know what that means for you, right?" Luz questioned him as she thought of her, him, and Eda fighting to the death.

It goes without saying that King would be the first to die, cuteness or not.

"Wrong answers. We swap bodies!" Eda said as she crossed her arms in front of them.

King and Luz just stared at Eda and her crazy idea for a few seconds before speaking up.

"Are ready to frenzy your fists now?" King asked Luz, wanting her to knock some sense into Eda.

"No but I will say this." Luz said before looking Eda dead in the eyes. "Are you out of your goddamn mind, Eda?"

"I most certainly am not. There's nothing more refreshing than a good body swap." Eda said as she summoned her staff. "It's like your possessing the body of a loved one."

"How is that a good thing?" Luz asked as she wasn't keen on this crazy idea. "How is that even possible? There's no way magic can do that, can it?"

"It most certainly can, and most certain will." Eda said as she quickly pulled Luz and King closer to her. "Just wait and see."

"Hey! Wait, I never agre-" Luz shouted as she tried to pull away.

"Body swap!" Eda shouted as she quickly spun her staff above them, covering the trio in green smoke.

The smoke lasted for a few seconds before the staff stopped spinning and fell to the ground as Luz began to cough.

"Cuh! Cuh! Cuh! Eda, what the fuck?! I never agreed to this!" Luz called out as she waved the smoke away, walking forward before finding herself in front of the mirror near the stand.

Gazing into it, Luz expected to see herself looking back away her but instead she found Eda was the one looking back at her. Or at least it looked like Eda since she had Luz's eyes and mouth on the face.

"Aah!" Luz/Eda screamed as she grabbed her face, feeling it to see if this was real. "I'm Eda!"

'Just when I think this world couldn't get crazier, Eda swaps our bodies!' Luz/Eda thought as she put her hands down. 'And if I'm Eda, then either King or Eda is in my body!'

Almost like clockwork, Luz/Eda saw her body walk up to the mirror at look at it's reflection with a few differences. Her hair was now messy like early morning bed head, her eyes were now yellow with purple pupils, and there was a fang sticking out of the right side of her mouth. Just from the eye, Luz/Eda could puzzle together who was in her body now.

"Oh no, King?" Luz/Eda asked as her face smiled into the mirror.

"Oh yeah! Now this is more like it! I can feel this body's power!" King/Luz said with a smile as he/she flexed her arms, seeing the thin muscle bulge. "Now they will learn to fear King!"

"No no no! You can not be on my body, King!" Luz/Eda said before looking into the remaining smoke on the table. "I actually would've felt better if Eda had taken my body instead!"

The smoke slowly cleared to reveal King's original body standing with it's hands on the hips with a golden fang on the right side of the skull face and Eda's golden eyes and lashes.

"How do I look?" Eda/King asked, still in her/his pose.

"I've got some...mixed emotions about this." King/Luz said as he/she stared at Eda/King.

"Well, I only have one emotion and that's frustration! You switched our bodies when I was about to say "no!"" Luz/Eda yelled at Eda/King with a glare.

"So what? I'm gonna switch us back. Just not until after this little bet." Eda/King said as she/he walked forward to them. "Whichever one of us can prove who has the easiest time in these new bodies doesn't have to wash the house and Hooty. And you both know what I'm talking about."

The trio shivered in disgust as they remembered the last time they had to wash the house along with Hooty. Never in Luz's life had she ever experienced anything so disgusting about this world then when Eda had told her to clean force first time.

'He had mud and slime in places a house SHOULDN'T EVEN HAVE!' Luz/Eda thought in disgust as they quickly recovered from the chore/torture.

"Well I can assure it won't be me." King/Luz said as he/she pointed to him/herself. "With this body and it's skills, I'll be ruling off all other teens by the end of the day!"

"You will not be ruling anything!" Luz/Eda shouted as she grabbed her King/Luz by the shirt and pulled him/her to her face, giving a deadly glare. "And if I find out you've been doing ANYTHING I don't like, you are going to be in big trouble when we switch back! Do I may myself clear?!"

Even in Eda's body, Luz still had her fierce glare and the knowledge of a fighter. That was more than enough to put the fear into King to prevent him from making Luz look like an ass for no reason.

"Y-Yes ma'am!" King/Luz stuttered out with a shaky nod.

"Good and for good measure, I'm taking my gloves." Luz/Eda said as she removed the glyph gloves from King's/Luz's arms, releasing her human body as she put the gloves in her personal bag along with the lesson plan for her next kickboxing class.

"Hahahaha! Well while you two discuss how to act right, I will be going to be pampered like a queen." Eda/King said as she/he jumped off the table and walked away.

"My life is not about being pampered!" King/Luz said as he/she pointed to Eda/King. "You'll learn the hard way!"

"And you'll learn the same if you don't remember what I said, got it, King?" Luz/Eda said to her with another glare.

"R-Right, right! I'll behave! Bye!" King/Luz said with a nervous nod before scurrying off.

"You better." Luz/Eda muttered before walking to the stand, wobbling a bit as she wasn't used to wearing heeled shoes. "Oh man, this is gonna take some getting used to."

Using the table to keep her balance, Luz/Eda went into the back tent area of the stand and worked to get used to this new body. For about the next half hour, Luz/Eda had did a few exercises to to get used to her taller and older body. Bouncing on the balls of her feet, throwing air jabs, and even a few kicks to help with balance on one leg for each. Though there was the occasional magic blast that came from her hands and forced her off her feet but she eventually got that under control so long as she was careful how and where she pointed her hands.

'Okay, I think I've got enough to walk normally for now until this stupid bet is over.' Luz/Eda thought as she walked out to man the stand, thinking that she could at least sell some stuff for personal snails to keeps.

Eda was never one to willingly give Luz an allowance or pay her since she wasn't her mother and she was given room and food for free. Anyway, Luz/Eda walked out of the tent and stood at the counter to wait for someone to come to the stand but since no one had come long before the body swap, she had to think of a way to get people attention without getting a guard's attention.

'Okay, think. How could I draw people's attention without being too flashy?' Luz/Eda thought as she tapped her finger against the table. 'Act like those old timey salesmen with those strange tones of voice, show off a product to a random person? What to do?'

As Luz/Eda kept thinking of a good way to drum up business, a random customer had walked back and accidentally knocked a lamp to the ground. The item broke as Luz/Eda snapped out of her thoughts and looked to the broken blue lamp with a white shade and the one who broke it.

"Hey! Watch where you're walking! These items aren't cheap you know!" She said to him, a man with green skin and a head shaped like an upside down Egyptian ankh wearing a slight dirty tunic and dark blue pants, while walking over to him.

"Oh no! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to break it!" He said with a feminine tone as he looked saddened a bit. "If you need to replace it, I can pay for it."

"Hmm, well that would be the right thing to do but I think I should be able to fix it." Luz/Eda said as she gazed cautious at Eda's hands.

'Drawing a spell circle can't be that hard, can it?' She thought before slowly holding a finger over the broken lamp.

Luz/Eda took a deep breath before slowly drawing a spell circle over the lamp, causing it to glow before exploring in a bloom of smoke. Luz and the man covered their eyes at the flash before looking at the lamp to see it had been not only fixed but greatly improved! It now stood taller than both of them with muscled man legs under a large colorful lamp shade with two more lamps sticking out from each end and the original, fixed lamp on top.

"Wow." Luz/Eda mumbled out as she looked at her hand. "It worked on the first try."

"Oooh! It's so extravagant, now! Now I gotta buy it, how much?" The man asked as he turned to Luz/Eda.

"Oh! Uh...10 snails please." Luz/Eda quickly priced as the man quickly got out the money needed.

"Such a steal! Here you go!" He said as he gave Luz/Eda the money and walked away with the lamp, happy and excited to put it in his home.

Looking down to the money in her hand, Luz/Eda smiled a bit as she went back to the stand and put the money away.

"That wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be, now let's see if I can sell a bit more." Luz/Eda said to herself before she began to call out to her customers attention. "Step right up, step right up! One of a kind items for sale if you fancy yourself with an appreciation of the unique!"

Her words seemed to draw a crowd as multiple creature people of all shapes and sizes came over.

"Unique huh? What do you got that's so unique?" Asked a man with a hunched back, squinting eyes, large buck teeth, and green skin with lumps wearing a gray hooded robe with black belt.

"Well good sir, I have a good example for you." Luz/Eda said as she picked up a feather duster with a brown handle. "Right here is a rare human item known as a "feather duster." Good for keeping the home righty with gentle movements and it's not just for cleaning. It can also be the perfect tool for torturous pleasure!"

To make her point, she used a bit of magic to make the feather duster float and began to tickle the hunched man with it, forcing him into a fit of laughter!

"Oh oh oh oh my! This is torturous pleasure!" He said as he grabbed the feather duster and pulled out a handful of snail coins. "I'll take this one and another for my enemies!"

"Can do, sir!" Luz/Eda said with a bit of surprise, glad that this act was working, and got him a second feather duster.

"Hey, you got any human artifact for me?" Asked a centaur with a blank face on his head and eyes with a mouth on his chest.

'Oh I remember this guy.' Luz/Eda thought as she recalled her first delivery run for Eda.

"I've got just the think for you!" She said as she picked up a ink market and pulled off the cap. "Come here and hold still for a bit."

Getting a nod from the strange centaur, Luz/Eda held his face and began sketching on the blank face to give him a new, second face.

"And...there you go. See if you like it." Luz/Eda said as she put the market down.

The chest faced centaur looked up to his head and saw that his head was now downing a strong jawed smile with blue eyes.

(Jotaro Kujo "Heh" smile from Jojo manga.)

"I-I-I love it." He said with tears coming down his chest eyes. "Thank you, thank you so much!"

To show his gratitude, he pulled out two handfuls of gold snail coins and put them in a pile on the table.

"You're very welcome, sir." Luz/Eda said as she began to put all of the snails in her personal bag.

"Excuse me." A woman that looked kinda like a brown rat in a rag dress and hood while pushing a baby carriage, which had a crying baby in it. "Do you have anything for babies?"

"Ma'am, I have the perfect thing!" Luz/Eda said as she went into the back of the stand, rummaging through items before finding a large yellow pacifier. "This is a special tool for comforting a crying child, a pacifier! Designed for when an infant is either not hungry or too full to eat but still needs the comfort. It can be helpful to parents by allowing the baby to soothe themselves during periods of crying."

To show her up close, Luz/Eda stuck the pacifier in the crying infants mouth and watched as it went silent. The baby gave it a few tries before it began to doze off, sleeping with a sense of comfort.

"It works! I'll take it!" The mother said before dumping a large amount of snail coins on the stand table.

"Thank you for your business, ma'am!" Luz/Eda said as she turned to the other customers. "Any thing else catches your fancy, just say the word and I'll tell you all about it."

For the next several minutes, Luz/Eda had been introducing and selling various items from Earth like a professional saleswoman. Making dozens upon dozens of snails in one day then the stand could make in a week! It was so fast paced that when it was over, Luz/Eda was left sweating with a large sense of satisfaction as the patrons left and she leaned against the stand.

"Come back anytime for more human artifacts. Just keep quiet on who you got them from!" Luz/Eda said to them as they left. "Whew, that was a bit harder then I thought but it all worked out. I drew a crowd with a flashier presentation and made a shit load of snails for myself. And no guard was the wiser."

Luz/Eda turned to her bag on the ground, almost over flowing with snails, before a new customer with a brownish black cloak came to her and the stand.

"Excuse me, are you the lady selling human artifacts?" he asked in a gruff, familiar voice.

'Wait, that voice.' Luz/Eda thought as she remembered that familiar tone and large built, like on the first day she came to the Boiling Isles.

"Maybe." Luz/Eda answered as she watched him with caution, pushing herself up to stand before the man. "Is there anything that catches your eye?"

"Well nothing really except for one thing." the man said before removing his cloak, revealing himself to be a guard and point at Luz/Eda. "You, Eda the Owl Lady! You are under arrest!"

"And don't even think of running for it, we've got you surrounded!" Another guard said as he came from behind Luz/Eda. "Come quietly or else things will get messy!"

Luz/Eda looked between the guards and grew a slight smirk on her face, knowing she could take them like she did the day she met Eda/King. Only this time she was in an older and stronger body, so her hits would hurt even more now.

"Really? Well that's too bad." Luz/Eda said as the guard in front of her pulled out a pair of shackles.

"And why's that?" the guard asked as he reached for Luz/Eda.

"Because I like it when things get MESSY!" Luz/Eda screamed as she spun around and delivered a back kick to the guard behind her in the face, knocking him to the ground.

"Hey!" the guard in front of her shouted before Luz/Eda rushed him and delivered a volley of jabs to his masked face.

'I was right! Eda's body does hit harder then my own even if it's a bit slower, but I can work with that!' Luz/Eda thought as she finished her volley with an uppercut, knocking the guard to the ground.

"Ha!" Luz/Eda celebrated before the guard from before, who got up from the ground, grabbed her in a bear hug.

"Resistance is futile!" he said to Luz/Eda before she began to bang her head into his mask. "Hey! Stop that!"

"Not a chance!" Luz/Eda shouted back stomping on his foot.

"OW!" he shouted in pain as he let Luz/Eda go before she gave him a side elbow to the face, knocking him back.

"That all you got?!" Luz/Eda asked him as the first guard charged and was able to shackle her arms from behind.

"HA! Got you!" he shouted in Luz's/Eda's face before she smirked at him.

"My arms maybe but not my legs!" Luz/Eda shouted as she pulled away and hook kicked him to the ground. "Give it up, you can't beat me!"

"Challenge accepted, Owl Lady!" the two guards shouted as they charged at Luz/Eda again.

Over the next couple of minutes, Luz/Eda had held off the guards with kicks, elbows, and the occasional headbutt before they were able to take her to the ground and hold her by the legs.

"Grab the staff!" one of the guards said as they quick grabbed the owl staff before taking a struggling Luz/Eda to what they called "Police Precinct 128," which looked like a mix of a police station and court house.

After a begrudging due process with a talking camera and seeing Owlbert bet put in a shackle before being thrown in a jail cell, Luz/Eda was put in an interrogation room with a third, new guard watching over her with arms crossed. Luz/Eda just sat at the table and stared back at the guard while keeping quiet, thinking that the best way to get out of this was to keep quiet until something came along so she could escape though it didn't make her as nervous as she thought it would be.

'Could all those visits to the principal's office desensitized me to this? Is that bad or good in this situation?' Luz/Eda thought to herself before the door to the room opened and walking in came the last person, Luz/Eda had expected to see.

"Lilith?" she said aloud as the head of the Emperor's Coven walked up to the table with her arms behind her back.

"Yes, it's me. Hello, Edalyn." Lilith said as she gazed down at her "sister" with a serious and straight face. "I suppose your surprise at my presence here is understandable."

"Yeah it is and I suppose you're here because of my track record?" Luz/Eda said as she didn't try to explain the body swap situation to Lilith, not knowing if she'd believe her or not.

"Though that is an understatement, it is." Lilith said as she pulled out a long list from behind her back, a list of Eda's crimes. "Your "track record" is insurmountable and nearly indefinite. Operating a stand without the proper permit, in possession of a "hocus" without a "pocus.""

"Hocus pocus?" Luz/Eda mumbled to herself as she looked over the LONG list of Eda's crimes. "Dear gods."

""Dear gods" is right, sister. These charges are serious and it's time to stop running." Lilith said as she rolled the list back up and set it to the side.

"Yeah, I kinda get it. A person can only run for so long before their problems catch up to them." Luz/Eda said as she looked away, SORT of thinking about her own problems of getting into fights and not thinking things through some times. "Magic or not, you can't solve your problems with it."

"Yes but that doesn't mean you can't have help. You just need to ask." Lilith said as she moved next to Luz/Eda, smiling at her while she grabbed her shoulders. "And this was the only way you could because you were too prideful to ask. Join me and become a member of the Emperor's Coven, like we dreamed of when we were kids and then we can heal your curse together."

"Join the Emperor's Coven, like when we were kids?" Luz/Eda questioned with wide eyes as she was shocked over this news about Eda.

'Eda WANTED to be in a coven when she was a kid?! I thought she always hated this "crooked" system?' Luz/Eda thought as Lilith continued.

"Yes, just like back then. You don't have to be afraid and you won't have to hide anymore. Everything is going to be alright." Lilith said as she took Luz's/Eda's shackled hands and moving them from the table. "Guard, bring out the Branding Glove!"

"Branding what?" Luz/Eda said as she was pulled out of her thought, suddenly restrained in blue magic ropes courtesy of Lilith.

Turning to the guard, Luz/Eda saw the guard in the room placed a a light brown glove with an orange rim over his right hand with the symbol of the Emperor's Coven on it, gloving with power and heat as he turned to the "sisters." He threw the table to the other side of the room and cracked his knuckles, ready to finally put the Owl Lady into a coven.

"Oh no! OH hell no! You are not branding me like some live stock!" Luz/Eda shouted as she pulled away from Lilith, who kept her gripped on her.

"Edalyn, please. It's alright, it will only hurt for a moment." Lilith said as she pulled Luz/Eda back to prevent her from moving away.

"I said "NO!"" Luz screamed before kicking Lilith in the stomach, sending her back before she parried the guard's hand but unfortunately or fortunately that ended up forcing her to draw a large spell circle in front of her. "Oh crap."

A large beam of magic blasted from the circle and hit the wall, causing an explosion to rock the room and knock everyone away. Thankfully Luz/Eda was quick to recover and notice her arms were free of the metal shackles and Lilith's magic ropes. Waving some smoke away with her hand, she looked around the destroyed before gazing to Owlbert as he was the only one intact because he was still in the cell.

"Owlbert, come on!" Luz/Eda called him out as he nodded, easily busting through the cell to get to Luz/Eda before she caught him right in front of his face. "Gotcha! Now let's find the others!"

Drawing a quick spell circle to break his shackle, Luz/Eda ran out of police precinct to look for Eda/King and King/Luz but as she left, she missed the sight of Lilith getting up from the ground and watching her ran away.

"Grr!" Lilith growled with unkept hair and slight bruises on her face.

Back with the human inside a witch body, she continued to run to find her friends but the problem was she didn't know where to look! They could be anywhere in all of Bonesborough right now doing who knows what! And one of them was a tiny ego maniac inside her body! While she continued to think the worse, the sound of poundings drew her attention and caused her to stop and turned around to the source. When she did, Luz/Eda was met with the relieving sight of her friends...in a display window...for a kitten or tiny animal café.

'What the fuck?' Luz/Eda thought ins surprise as she saw Eda/King was wearing a tiny bee costume and King/Luz was wearing a blue shirt that had 'volunteer' written on it

"Luz! Get over here with my body!" Eda/King shouted through the glass as King/Luz banged the glass with a panicked expression.

Deciding to ask questions later on how her friends got this way, Luz/Eda rushed over to the window and looked inside the café to see who else was inside, only finding two elderly women. If this was Earth, then Luz/Eda would have nothing to worry about but looks can be deceiving on the Boiling Isles so she had to be careful not to get there attention while freeing her friends but as she looked closer, she saw a lamp a few inches away from them.

'I got it!' Luz/Eda thought as she recalled what she did at the stand and planned to do it again.

"Alright guys, stand back. I'm gonna try something." Luz/Eda said as she held up a finger to the glass, startling Eda/King and King/Luz as they didn't know what she was doing or that she had any control over the magic in her body. "I hope this works."

Dragging her finger on the glass, Luz/Eda draw a spell circle to try to cut through it while also casting the spell. As the trio watched with baited breath as the spell circle was burning through the glass, the two old women turned to their lamp and saw it glow for moment before it poofed in a puff of smoke and transformed into the same "extravagant" lamp Luz/Eda sold earlier.

"Dottie, why did our lamp suddenly become so extravagant?" the taller old woman asked her friend.

She had blue eyes has under eye bags, pale skin, brownish-gray spiked hair, pale skin, and a large birthmark by her chin. She wore heart earrings, a sleeveless hot pink collared shirt on top of a pastel pink and blue striped long sleeved top, with a yellow apron advertising her café over it. She also had a name tag with the name "Roselle" on her shirt.

"Mmmm." Dottie replied with a shrug.

Dottie had pale skin with chubby, drooping cheeks and a wart on her right cheek while wearing blue glasses with pink rims, and a tuft of light brown hair peeking out of her hair net. She wears a blue and pink striped top with a yellow apron advertising the café as well with a name tag on her shirt as well.

As the two were examining their remodeled lamp, Luz's/Eda's spell circle was able to cut through the glass and make a hole big enough for Eda/King and King/Luz to get out.

"Sweet freedom." Eda/King said as she/he pushed the glass out, making a perfect hole but unfortunately broke the glass and altered the old woman. "Oops."

"HEY!" Roselle screamed as Luz/Eda practically ripped her friends from the display window and ran away. "Get them!"

"RAAAHH!" Dottie screamed like a monster as she and her friend ran after the trio.

"Just what kind of crazy stuff did you get into today?!" Luz/Eda asked them as they ran down an alley but stopped when a group came before them.

"There they are." Lilith said with two guards by her side along with the multi-mouth dog, which bark a few times.

"Right back at ya, Luz!" Eda/King said as they tried to run again but were cut off once more by another group.

Boscha and her group of friends, with one more girl with green cropped hair, a pointy nose, and brown eyes in a plant track uniform, were flying towards them with the same red bat winged boots on all their feet.

"Shoot, I forgot about them." King/Luz said as Luz/Eda glared at him/her.

"Didn't I warn you what would happen if I find out you've been doing ANYTHING I don't like in my body?!" she screamed as them as King/Luz flinched in fear, catching the sight of the two old women from the café running up to them from behind.

"Look you can punish King later but I think we've all learned how hard each of our lives are so let's end this chaos!" Eda/King said as she/he took the staff and landed on the ground. "Body swap!"

Throwing the staff into the air with a spin, the trio were once again consumed in green smoke and a few seconds later it cleared to reveal they were back in their original bodies but they were wearing what the had on before swapping back.

"Yes! I've got my body back!" King celebrated as the volunteer shirt was now a dress on him.

"And I've got mine back." Luz said as she patted her body before seeing Eda in the small, bumblebee costume before it ripped off her body.

"Edalyn, this has gone on long enough! Time and time again, I've offered you help and every time you choose to run back to your criminal way. Well, I'm done trying!" Lilith shouted to Eda before pointing to her. "Your days of running are over!"

Eda looked back to Luz, giving her a sort of glare for getting her body arrested but Luz just glared back at her.

"Hey don't look at me like that, I never wanted to swap bodies remember?" Luz said to her as as Eda groaned a bit.

"Yeah I know but it just may get us out of here." Eda said before holding her staff in the air and spinning it. "Body swap!"

From the staff, a beam of green smoke was fired as Eda aimed all around her group and swapped the bodies of all three groups. Everyone was silent for a moment before the coven dog began barking before suddenly speaking!

"Eda, you wretch of a sister! Switch me back!" Lilith demanded as she was now in the dog's body!

"What's happening? Who are you?" A coven guard asked inside the body of the taller old woman as he/she asked Dottie's body next to her.

"I'm a Coven guard, bub! Who are you?!" the other guard/Dottie said as he/she pointed at the former.

"No you're not. I am!" he/she said back before the skullcap boy dived at her.

"Give me back my body, you brute!" Roselle screamed as she/he tackled her original body.

"Fight!" the guard/Dottie screamed as he/she tried to rush in to fight but stopped when the body's knees pop. "Ow, my knees!"

From then the swapped bodies began to fight each other with whoever was inside of their original bodies.

"Wow, this escalated fast." Luz commented as she, King, and Eda watched the chaos.

"Are they gonna be okay?" King asked as he threw away the shirt and climbed onto Luz's shoulder.

"Eh, maybe? I've never done a body swap this big, so it'll probably wear off in a couple of hours." Eda said to them as Luz looked to her.

"The lets get back to the stand, pack up, and get home. After a day like this, I need to relax!" Luz said with a sigh before looking to her friends again. "And I wanna say that even if life gets crazy and complicated, I'm glad that you guys are around to make things less crazy and complicated."

"Aw, how sweet, kid. Now let's get out of here and never speak of this again." Eda said as she tapped her staff, making Owlbert unfurl his wings.

The trio boarded the staff and flew away as the swapped people continued to fight amongst themselves.

Time had passed and the moon had risen as the trio were now flying back to the owl house.

"So since we all technically lost your little bet, Eda, who's gonna clean the house and Hooty?" Luz asked from the middle of the staff with King in front of her and Eda behind her, her glyph gloves returned to her arms and holding her personal bag full of snail coins. "It's gotta be either one of us o-"

"Not it!" Eda and King said at the same time, not wanting to clean a dirty house and dirtier Hooty after a long day.

This was not going to fly with the kickboxer as she immediately grabbed Eda by the nose.

"OW!" Eda nasally screamed in pain as she looked down to Luz, who turned her head to her.

"May I remind you that YOU switched our bodies when I didn't give consent," Luz said as she yanked Eda's nose a bit, hard, before grabbing King by his horn and forcing him to look at her glare. "And YOU explicitly ignored my warning about doing something stupid in my body! So either both of you are going to help me clean the house or Hooty gonna remain disgusting for the rest of my summer vacation! So what's it's gonna be?!"

To say they were a bit afraid was an understatement as they had to agreed that she was right on both accounts. Eda didn't really give her Luz a choice and King didn't listen to her fearful warning and if anything, if Eda had just not done the body swap then today's madness wouldn't have come to pass.

"Fine, kid! We'll help you just let me go so I can stir!" Eda said with a nasal tone as she tried to focus on flying.

"Good." Luz said as she let go of Eda, focusing on King now. "Little demon?"

"Yes yes! I'll help clean, just don't hurt me!" King said with a quiver, fearful on his friend.

"Good, now let's get to work. We're home." Luz said as she put King back on the the staff, only for Eda to land it in front of Hooty, who was extended and curled up like a filthy snake.

"Oh hey guys! Welcome home! Are you ready for my bath?!" He asked them as they muck, gunk, and grim was visible.

"Uh!" Eda gagged a bit as Luz walked to the door.

"Come on guys, we're gonna need mops, scrub brushes, and LOTS of soapy hot water." she said as the trio spent the remained of the daylight cleaning the most disgusting house demon on the Boiling Isles.

Chapter Text

Another week hand come and gone as Luz was now before her second kickboxing class with the same students as before, well almost the same. The students from last week were Gus, Willow, the Human Appreciation Society (Bo, Asriel, and Elieen), Amity, Boscha and Skara. The students that were new to this class are two from Boscha's friend group. One of them was a male student from the day Eda did the body swap, light pinkish-red skin and and dirty blonde hair wearing a black skull cap, uniform violet sleeves and leggings, red boots with white outlines and bat wings; and the other was a girl with white skin, green cropped hair, a pointy nose, and brown eyes wearing a plant track uniform and modest open-top black slip-ons.

"Hello everyone, I'm glad to see everyone from the last class has retuned for more lessons and I'm happy to see some new faces joining us today." Luz said with a smile before looking to see Boscha, Skara, and their other two friends were glaring at her a bit. "But before we start today, I'd like to clear something up about a certain incident that some of you were involved in with me."

"Incident?" Gus asked as he raised his hand.

"Yes, are anyone of you familiar with a spell that can swap people's bodies?" Luz asked the class as nearly everyone raised their hand to answer. "Good, because the incident I am talking about involves that spell and my unwilling participation."

"So, you were put into a situation where you swapped bodies with someone else and they chaos all that trouble with us yesterday?" Boscha asked with some sarcasm.

"Yes, even after I warned them NOT to cause trouble in my body. They got a very painful lesson for that." Luz said as she growled a bit before refocusing on class. "Anyway, putting that aside, I see two new faces joining us today. Before we start, why don't you two introduce yourselves to everyone? Just give us your name, your school track, and your specialty or favorite type of magic to use."

Looking towards each other, the two new students nodded toward each other before standing up before everyone.

"Sup? Name's Kyle." The skullcap boy said as he crossed his arms. "My track is Oracle, aka witches that can see the future, and my favorite spell to use is a little hard but I can use it for a bit. It's called "Foresight.""

"Foresight, huh? Interesting. What can you tell us about it?" Luz asked with intrigue as Kyle gave a small look of arrogance at her interest.

"Not much to it, the spell just lets me take a short peak into the future. Just a small 3 seconds, but it's enough to have a bit of fun with." He said with a small chuckle in his throat.

"Have fun with, huh?" Luz repeated as she thought about how he would use it, being friends with Boscha and all.

'He most likely uses his Foresight magic to avoid getting caught by the teachers if he pulls pranks around the school.' Luz thought before thinking about the upsides to "Foresight." 'Though looking into the future proves to be a powerful ability to use in a fight, always being able to see the next strike and dodge with ease. Though, he'd be too reliant on it.'

Luz gave a nod to Kyle before turning towards the girl in the Plant track uniform.

"Well, hello everyone. My name is Amelia, I am in the Plant track, and my current specialty is Plant magic."

'Another plant magic user like Willow, I wonder how she would compare to Willow if they sparred.' Luz thought before gesturing for them to sit down.

"Alright everyone, with our two new students joining us, I'd like to start of this lesson with another spar but not from me. I want to see what you all can do with what I showed you last week, I hope you've been practicing." She said as she looked over her previous students. "Now, who would like to volunteer?"

Looking over them all, Luz saw that some of them were pretty nervous to show their process while others were more confident to show off.

"Hmmm, okay. Boscha and...Willow. Step into the ring." Luz said with a smile as the two she called for were surprised.

"What?!" They said as they turned to each other's direction.

'I have to fight her?!' They thought at the same time.

"Come on, guys hurry up. The sooner the spar is finished, the sooner we can move on with class." Luz said as she gestured for them to come up into the ring.

Moving with a bit of stiffness from both of them, Boscha and Willow climbed into the boxing ring and went to separate corners with Luz standing in the middle.

"Alright you two, this spar will last only five minutes and in that time I want to see if you've been practicing from what I showed you last week or how you improvised from it." Luz said as she pulled out her phone and opened the timer app. "When I give the word, the spar will begin and will end when I give it again. I don't want to see any foul play of any kind or any blows in inappropriate place, magic is free to use as well but nothing that will lead to serious injury, alright?"

Both girls nodded as they readied themselves for the spar, Willow took some deep breathes to calm herself and Boscha did a bit of stretching while trying to get her mind right.

'Calm down and get your head in the game! This is just Willow, the same witch that struggled for most of her life. She's not stronger then you just because of some extra lessons from Luz.' she thought while putting the way Willow looked last week out of her mind. 'STOP IT! This is not time to be goofy! This is time to show remind them how strong you are!'

With the self preparations done, both girls took their stances and were at the ready. Willow's stance was no different with legs wider apart and her left fist higher than her right while Boscha's was normal but she bounced a bit on her feet.

'So, she's going for speed.' Luz thought as she saw the quick movements of the triclops. 'She's aiming towards using quicker movements to get around Willow's higher build and frame.'

"Ready?!" Luz said with her hand up and looking at her phone to press the timer, set for 5 minutes, to start as she threw her raised hand down. "Begin!"

Both girls moved towards each other as Boscha made the first move and threw some jabs as Willow, forcing her to block.

'Boscha's hits are just as I expected. With her being captain of the Grudgby team, she already had a strong body for the class but I'm not going down that easy!' Willow thought as she dodged another jab and gave an uppercut to the stomach but that barely phased Boscha.

'Good punch but I've deal with worse.' Boscha thought as she began to dodge and block punches from Willow before she was kicked in the stomach again, stumbling back a bit. 'Still, she's got some power behind her.'

Boscha dodged left and right from two blows before ducking and giving a spin kick to Willow's stomach, which Willow managed to block before kicking Boscha's leg out from under her and making her fall to the boxing ring ground.

"Urh!" Boscha grunted before she quickly rolled back onto her feet and faed Willow again. "You know, even I can admit you're good. I didn't think you could be this good to be honest."

"Um...thanks." Willow said with surprise as she and everyone that knew Boscha knew she doesn't give out compliments so easily. "You're...good too even if it's only been a week since you learned."

"I'm sort of a natural at sports so this "combat sport" should be easy to pick up. But now, let's see how you can handle some magic." Boscha said as she drew two yellow spell circles over her hands, washing them over and turning her hands into stone fists.

Willow came out of her shock and quickly followed, drawing a large spell circle around herself and summoned vines around her feet. The vines moved to wrap around her waist as four floated around her and grew into fists.

'More knuckle plants, huh? And she took inspiration from Amity.' Boscha thought before charging at Willow, who sent the knuckle plants to hit her.

Duck left, dodge right, jump and roll, Boscha used all she could to dodge the green fists before getting close and throwing several hooks that forced Willow to block them with her bare arms. Since Boscha's fists had transformed into stone, the damage was harder than normal and Willow wouldn't last much longer if this kept up. She ducked under a right hook, sending two vine punches into Boscha's face and sending her back then rushing her. The triclops was one the defense as she dodging left, right, down, leaning back against the flurry of vine punches before her arms were knocked away and she was left open. Refocusing, Boscha saw Willow dropped into a deep kneel to build up power for a strong uppercut, the same determined look on her face that sent a shiver down Boscha's spine...in a good way.

'Wh-What is it with this look?!' she thought in surprise as she refocused on the uppercut coming to her, coming so close to her chin. 'Block it! Block it! Find a way to block it!'

Moving on it's own, Boscha's body jumped and knocked the punch with her knee as she reeled a fist back to strike Willow down but for some reason, Boscha hesitated and didn't throw the punch. Before either of them could think about it more, a beeping alarm rang through the room.

"That's enough, the 5 minutes are up!" Luz said to them as she shut off the alarm as Boscha landed on the ring floor and Willow stumbled back a bit. "Interesting why to block, Boscha but a bit unethical and leave you open in the air. Still, interesting technique."

"T-Thanks." Boscha said as she turned her hands back to normal, quickly walking out of the ring to her friend group.

"And Willow, you've really improved since the last class and you used your vines that makes them mobile." Luz said as Willow made the vines wilt while rubbing her sore arms. "Go to Bo so she can fix you up and then we'll continue with class, okay?"

"Right, Luz." Willow said as she walked out of the ring and to Gus and the H.A.S. (Human Appreciation Society).

After Willow's arms were back to normal thanks to Bo, Luz went on to show her class the new lesson plan she came up with. It wasn't easy to make it in a week but Luz thought it would be good for them, especially with her newest students, Amelia and Kyle.

1. Warm Up Exercises: Various exercises that Luz wasn't sure they had on the Boiling Isles but she thought they would be good to limber them up. Push ups, sit ups, jumping jacks, squats, and mountain climbers.

2. Stance and Movement Drills: Basic review of the stances, strikes, and movements from the last class. It's also best for the Amelia and Kyle to learn as well so they could catch up quickly with the others. Luz also shows anything new they didn't learn from her last week, leading them movement by movement.

3. Review Rounds: Everyone shows what they learned from before and how they mix it with their favored magic spells, like Gus with his illusions to create multiple copies to help him or Bo with her snow magic for freezing punches.

4. A short break for them to rest with some water provided by the school. Lasting 15 to about 20 minutes.

5. Solo Drills: Everyone is given something to work on, either from before or something new they learned today. The goal would be for flawless execution and slow movements so they could perform any punch, kick, dodge, or movement perfectly before they perform it at a normal speed.

6. Attack and Defense Drills: Luz has them show everything they can do in attacking and defending with a sparring partner. This was the perfect way for Amelia and Kyle to learn and improve themselves while watching their fellow learners.

7. Another water break to rest and refuel for about 20 minutes.

8. Situational Sparring Games: Sets of games with preset rules to help them improve in certain areas, everyone had a choice of which game they wanted to play. Give three, get three (throwing three strikes before giving three of your own), Limit (Only using one set of punches or kicks in a certain stance), Evasion (One person is constantly attack with the other only defends or dodges), Cat and Mouse (One person pressures the other, who does all they can to evade and keep a good distance), and Punch and Clutch (Introducing clinches to the class, two people go in with one trying to clinch while the other tries to keep their distance).

9. Review Rounds 2: Choosing two newly learned exercises, everyone participates in 30 second rounds against Luz to show her how much they've picked up from today's lesson.

10. Cool down and stretch: Ending the class with this, everyone stretches to make sure their muscles are relaxed and avoid the risk of soreness in the morning.

After all was done, class was over for another week as Luz opened the door for everyone to leave.

"Alright everyone, I hope you learned a lot from today's class. I'll see you next week." Luz said as everyone walked past her, some smiling and talking while others were still stretching from the work out the class gave them.

"Thanks, Luz. See ya, later, teach! Can't wait for next week!" they said to her as they left in their groups until Amity walked up to Luz.

"Hey." she said after being the last one in the room with Luz, leaving them both alone to talk.

"Hey, Amity. Something you need to talk about?" Luz asked her as Amity blushed a bit and took a breath.

"Just...are those private lessons still open? If they are, I'd like to schedule some with you. If that's fine." Amity said as she kicked the ground a bit. "I understand if you don't want to but I-"

"Sure, I'd be happy to give you some extra lessons." Luz quickly said with a blush and a smile. "And maybe you could teach me a few spells too. I've been dying to learn about making abominations since...you know."

Luz was referring to how they first met, the day she impersonated Willow's project and snuck into Hexside.

"Yeah, I know. So, how about when I return your book, we can talk about it?" Amity asked as she held out her hand to Luz.

"Sounds like a plan, Blight. I look forward to it." Luz said as they shook hands, smiling towards each other as their relationship took another step forward.

How big a step forward would be seen in the future.

Chapter Text

The afternoon was fresh and the sky was mildly clear as Luz was outside practicing of the owl house, striking her punching bag as as the day was drawing to a close. Over time she improved her workout area behind the house to include a spinning sparring post from her classroom at Hexside, a bench with some rusty or cobbled together lifting weights, and the biggest, a small shack like seat up to house it all with a roof and two walls to keep it standing while also letting the branch that held Luz's punching bag inside. On the bench was her hoodie vest, glyph gloves, a towel, and a half full pitcher of water for after she was done.

"Huh. Huh. Okay, few more hits and I can call it a day." Luz said to herself as she bounced on the soles of her feet, her fists up as she had beads of sweat on her forehead.

With a quick rush to the punching bag, Luz delivered a front kick, followed by two jabs, a right hook and a side elbow that flowed into a backhand. Her final hit was a strong roundhouse kick that sent the punching bag back and made it swing a few times as she stood up straight and took a deep breath to calm her breathing.

'Good workout.' Luz thought as she walked to her things on the bench, grabbing the towel to wipe her face clean of sweat and the water pitcher to take a drink.

Letting out a sigh from her drink, Luz slung the towel around her neck and grabbed her hoodie and gloves, sticking the gloves in her pockets before grabbing the pitcher and heading inside the house through the back door.

"Well look who's finally done with her punching." Eda said as she and King looked over to her from the den, with dozens of boxes full of random Earth objects that Eda would sell, keep, or throw away in the future. "Surprised to see how sweaty you can get just from punching a bag of sand."

"Everyone has their way of exercise and mine is mainly punching things." Luz said as she came in to the den, sitting on the couch. "So, you still organizing all of your stuff?"

"Yes and it would go a lot faster with your help and your opinion. A lot of this stuff may be junk to you humans but it's a goldmine of new uses for me to sell." Eda said as she pulled out a green bulb like object with a hook on top. "Like this...fancy big earring!"

"Which is actually a decorative ornament for a human holiday but it could be used as an earring too." Luz corrected with a shrug, taking another sip from the pitcher before setting it on the nightstand next to the couch.

"Exactly! I can still sell it like how I wanted and it's technically not lying!" Eda said as she set the ornament aside to sell.

Luz rolled her eyes at Eda as she decided to help her organize all the stuff she had from Earth, maybe she would get lucky and find something she liked as well. About half an hour later of opening boxes, sorting, and placing some stuff aside to keep, the trio soon heard the door knocked on before Hooty swung the door open.

"Hoot hoot! We've to company!" Hooty said as Gus came walking into the house.

"I'm actually just here to see, Luz." Gus said as he walked towards Luz, ignoring the plethora of human items around him.

"What for, Gus?" Luz asked as Eda kept looking though a box.

"The Human Apperception Society just got a new member and he claims the artifacts he brought in are genuine, unlike all the other stuff you've shown and explained to us. He even claims he could make a better president than me!" Gus said as he gestured to himself, getting upset before calming down and kneading his hands together. "Anyway, since your ban was lifted so you could teach your kickboxing class, I was wondering if you could come with me to school tomorrow and expose his stuff as fake."

"Hmm, expose a liar, huh? I guess I could do that, besides I could also see more of the school." Luz said with a nod, agreeing to go with Gus tomorrow.

A groan escaped Eda's throat as she kept looking through a box of items, getting Luz's and Gus' attention.

"I still don't know why you like that place so much. Aside from the punching and kicking classes you give, it's nothing but a dweebus making factory, anyway." Eda said as she pulled out a purple coffee mug, turning to Gus with a small smile. "No offense to you, dweebus."

"It's fine, I actually come from a long line proud dweebuses." Gus said as he placed a hand on his chest.

While the illusion boy was fine with Eda's rantings, Luz was a little sick of it. She gets why Eda hates the school and coven system too but Luz still thought there were things she could learn from the school. Sure Eda helped her learn two spell by using her phone's camera and editing app but there has to be other ways to find spell glyphs that Hexside could possibly teach her.

"Look, Eda." Luz said as she placed a box on the ground before standing up. "Dweebus factory or not, I'd still like to go to Hexside. Sure, your lessons are useful and unique but I still want to learn everything Hexside has to offer. And no offense but most of the stuff I learn from you is mostly manual labor."

"Oh, "mostly manual labor," huh?" Eda repeated as she stood up, facing Luz with her hands on her hips.

"OH! Are you gonna fight?! My money's on Luz!" King said as he jumped up from the couch and onto a stack of boxes.

"Quiet you!" Eda said to King before turning to Luz. "First of all, manual labor is just a small part of my "Bad Girl Coven" and the other parts are key survival facts that you can't get at Hexside! They teach through theory, I teach through experience!"

"I'm not saying your method is wrong but I'd still like to learn through another method!" Luz said before gesturing to Gus and his uniform. "Like the theories at Hexside! Safe and controlled theories!"

"Safe and controlled?!" Eda said in offense, hating those words whenever they were associated with learning magic! "I thought I taught you that magic isn't safe and controlled, it's wild and free! But if you want to learn from those stuffy nerds at Hexside, be my guest! Just don't come running to me when those stuffy, rule loving nerds cram your mind with garbage!"

Turning to the front door, Eda marched out in a huff and slammed the door behind her as Luz, Gus, and King stayed to stare at the door.

"Wow, Eda's really upset about it." King said with concern before it vanished, rubbing his hands together. "I'm gonna go rub it in some more!"

Ignoring the small demon going to mock Eda, Luz took a deep breath to calm herself down before turning back to Gus.

"Ignoring all the drama that just happened, I'd still like to come with you to your the H.A.S. and help with this new member of your's." Luz said as she grew a small smile to her friend, who gave a huge smile back to her.

"AWESOME! I'll see you tomorrow, Luz!" Gus said before rushing out of the house, closing the front door behind him before breaking into a little dance. "Yes! You do it, you did it, you do it, Gus! Yeah!"

Throwing a spin kick in the air, Gus strutted away from the house as he thought about tomorrow and how Luz would save his presidency in the Human Appreciation Society club.

"Dang, sweet moves." Hooty said as he watched Gus strut away, not making a sound while he was doing his victory jig.

-Timeskip, tomorrow-

The day was new and the air was crisp as Luz walked towards Hexside with a small kick in her step, though she hadn't talked to Eda since their little argument over her lessons VS the lessons she could learn at Hexside but she hoped Eda would come around so they could really talk it out.

'There's nothing wrong with your lessons, Eda. Not after I learned how useful they really are.' Luz thought as she remembered the day she met Willow and how the seed Eda gave her helped save her. 'But I still want to learn more and Hexside is the next best place to learn it, maybe I could talk to Principal Bump about enrollment after I patch things up with Eda.'

Seeing the school coming up in the distance, Luz walked a bit faster as she saw Gus, with a school bag, and Willow waiting outside of Hexside for her.

"Hey guys." Luz said as she walked up to them with a smile while she put her hands in her pockets.

"Luz! You made it!" Gus said with a smile as Willow waved to her.

"I told you I would and I'm here." Luz said before looking to Gus. "So, when's your club meeting exactly?"

"In just a few minutes, I had an alarm set so we won't be late. I also grabbed you a little something so you can blend in." Gus said as he reached into his school bag and pulled out a uniform cowl/hood. "I got it so you can make your appearance at the club a surprise for our new member, he didn't stay at the Covention for your match, so he won't know you're human."

"Well, while it is nice you thought of it, I don't think it would help with everyone else in school." Luz said as she pushed the cowl back to Gus. "They were at the Covention and some of them have seen me around town or after I leave from my kickboxing classes. I'm afraid hiding in plain sight is not an option."

Though Gus was sad that he lost the attempt to surprise the new member, he could see the logic in that and put the cowl back in his bag.

"So, do you have anything planned after school? I was wondering if you guys could help me with a little something that's been on my mind." Luz said to Gus and Willow.

"No really? Just some-" Willow tried to say before an screaming sound cut her off.

Gus jolted at the sound and shut his left eye before pulling up his sleeve, revealing the source of the noise to be a small purple devil with a large eye that had clock hands in it and four yellow teeth biting into Gus' wrist.

'What the fuck?! Is that supposed to be a watch?' Luz thought in shock as Gus pocked the eye and the screaming stopped as he pulled his sleeve back down.

"That's the alarm, we better get going." Gus said as he grabbed Luz's hand and dragged her too the school. "See you after school, Willow!"

"I still want to talk to you about what I brought up!" Luz said to her quickly as they rushed into the school.

As Gus and Luz walked into the school, everything seemed as normal as a human school to Luz. Students opening their lockers to get their stuff for class, friends talking and walking with each other, and some teachers greeting their students as they came in. Nothing out of the ordinary, except a few students remembering Luz from the Covention and fawned over her a bit.

'That's a first.' Luz thought as no student back on Earth fawned over her for her kickboxing, most of the time just jolting and walking away rapidly.

But those thoughts weren't meant for today as Luz refocused on why she was here until she saw two students being dragged away with dull hooked staffs used by two weird looking guys. They were black, puffy sleeved outfits with gray gloves, pointed boots, and belts with long, hooded blue tunics, with a symbol of a nose with an eyeball on it, to covered their front and back but leave their sides free. The most disturbing features were the upside down face masks with the eyes stitched shut and rows of round, buck teeth sticking out over their heads.

"No! Not detention!" one said, a lizard/turtle like mouth with green skin in an Oracle Track uniform.

"I admit nothing of guilt!" the other said, with light tan skin, a pointy nose, and wearing a brown Construction Track uniform.

"...Gus." Luz said as she slowly turned her head to Gus. "What the hell were those...things?"

"Things" was putting it lightly as those were the FREAKISEH creatures Luz had seen on the Boiling Isles! Even freakier then the Bat Queen and she is basically a giant head that could fly!

"Oh, those guys...kinda showed up after your first visit as you know, Willow's project. They're the new school guards." Gus said as he whispered the last part to Luz before looking at the two guards. "They can literally smell trouble and deal with before things get out of hand."

One of the guards stopped for a moment before "looking" to Luz and Gus with a bone popping sound comings from his neck.

"Trouble..." he said in a ghostly voice.

Luz and Gus just stared at him for a moment before Luz slowly moved herself and Gus away from the area.

"I take that Principal Bump decided to keep the "Trouble Sniffers" even after we patched things up?" Luz asked Gus as they walked at a fast pace.

"Yeah, I can guess. And they give me the creeps too." Gus said as he walked ahead of Luz before bumping into someone at a drinking fountain.

As Gus fell to the ground and a crown with the word "President" taped on it rolled away, Luz looked up to the student he ran into and instantly recognized him. It was the same guy that Luz and Eda sat behind at the Covention, the one who turned his head giant to serve as Principal Bumps example of a magical achievement. The same beige skin, dark brown eyes, and brown hair shaved at the sides with his uniform hood up but now Luz could see he was about as tall as Gus and wearing a brown, Construction track uniform as he turned to Gus and put his wrists on his hips.

"Augustus, hey. You know you should really be more careful where you're going." he said sarcastically as he picked up the crown, wiping off anything from it with a smug smile on his face. "We wouldn't want anything to happen to the president of the H.A.S. on his LAST day of office."

As Gus gulped at those words, Luz was getting annoyed with this guy and she hadn't known him for more than a few minutes. His condescending town and smug look were the things of the type people Luz HATED to deal with, thinking that they knew so much more than anyone else about something. Well, that was far from the case here and Luz was gonna prove it.

"And who beside you think it's his last day in office?" Luz asked as she marched to him and snatched the crown from his hands, towering over him as she gave him a tiny glare.

"Hey, just who do you-" he tried to reply before seeing Luz's ears, her ROUND ears, and letting out a high pitched short screech. "H-Human?!"

"Yes, I am a human." Luz said as she smirked a bit, spinning the crown with her left finger. "A human who so happened to be at the Covention for the dual of the century and teaches a little class called "Kickboxing" on Fridays. Though you wouldn't know the first one since you didn't stick around at the Covention to see it. Also, friend and human expert that Gus asked to authenticate any human items you've brought."

"That I have." Gus said as he got up from the ground and gave a victoriously smug look, taking back his crown and putting it back in his bag. "See you at today's club meeting, Mattholomule."

The big mouthed boy, Mattholomule, stood frozen in the hall as Luz and Gus walked past him. The smug air of superiority he had was gone and left with an air of fear and panic, Luz could tell he was lying about his "human items" and soon all of H.A.S. would know.

"You know, I can't help but feel bad for him since I'm the president of the H.A.S. and he's our newest member." Gus said as they arrived in a clear hallway, actually the same hallway she and Willow were when Luz gave her the seed from her first visit.

"But really you don't, do you?" Luz asked with a smirk as she put a hand on her right hip.

"NOPE! I just feel doing a dance!" Gus said before busting in a strange dance as Luz went over to a Hexside trophy case.

"Hmm, most bones? What kind of trophy is this, Gus?" Luz asked as one of the Trouble Sniffers stopped and smelled in Luz's direction, making her turn to him.

She stood there, staring at him for a few more seconds before going back to Gus and urging him down another hallway.

'Seriously, those things are unnaturally as shit.' Luz thought as she stopped pushing Gus and walked normally next to him. 'And why do they keep smelling in my direction? Can they smell the justified trouble I got in from Earth when I went to school?'

If that question was the truth, then this was going to be a rather difficult day if those things followed them around but she put those thoughts aside as Gus kept his promise and gave Luz a proper tour of Hexside to make up for the part of school she didn't see from her time with Willow or after her classes. They came to a sort of football field with bleaches and goals to play what Gus called "the sport." Skara was playing but lost as she was grabbed by a griffin and dropped into the opposing goal. The next stop was the Plant Track homeroom, where a mock Garden of Eden was present as students did their work. Like at the field outside, another one of Luz's students, Amelia, got into a bit of trouble as a giant, carnivorous plant with an eye on each petal tried to eat her but thankfully Willow was able to save her and make the plant puke her out. They shared a short wave before Gus lead Luz to his homeroom, the Illusion Track homeroom.

"And now, you get to see where I spend most of my time at school." Gus said as he gestured to the room, strangely full of a lot of mirrors as a teacher was grading three students, two of which were Edric and Emira.

The teacher, a female devil with light pink skin, blue hair, devil horns, and a pointed tail wearing a large hat over her head and a blue black dress with white shoes was stopping by each student. She watched as Emira impressively made her legs longer, Edric turning himself into a handsome prince, and the last student making her own face disappear along with her ability to breath. The teacher quickly fixed that before the poor girl suffocated.

'Dios mio/My god, illusions are next level.' Luz thought before looking to the classroom across the hall and seeing a second Gus taking notes.

"Hey, is that one of your's?" Luz asked as she got his attention and pointed to it.

"Oh yeah, he's one of my illusion clones. I use them to take notes for me in other classes." Gus said before his double picked up a paper he was writing on to show...

'I'm not paying attention.' with a fake gasp before he chuckled and pointed at the paper.

"Though they don't always do as they're told!" Gus said as he began marching to the classroom.

"Wow, you're pretty good. You must've moved up some grades." Luz said as Gus stopped marching.

"Well, yeah, give or take a few." he said before he jolted and screaming was heard again, making him lift his arm up to see his devil watch biting him again.

"Can I suggest getting a new watch? One that doesn't bite?" Luz sarcastically asked as Gus poked the eye, shutting off the alarm again.

"Later! Now's the time for the H.A.S. meeting, let's go." Gus said as he and Luz left for the club.

But as they left, Gus' illusion clone was leaning back with a smirk on his face before Gus went back to his line of sight. The original Gus frown and gave a dangerous hand across the throat gesture that made the clone shiver before Gus walked away with a content look on his face while the clone was left in horror.

'That'll teach him to not do as he's told.' Gus thought as he lead Luz to the room of the Human Appreciation Society meeting.

On the way to the H.A.S. meeting room, Gus reached into his bag and put on the crown with "President" on it before gesturing Luz to wait.

'Of course he want's to make an entrance.' Luz thought with a smile as she did as he wanted.

Gus opened the door and greeting Bo, Elieen, and Asriel with a smile as Mattholomule sat at the end of the table, looking out the window.

"Human Appreciation Society, it is my distinct honor to welcome a familiar face to our humble meeting." Gus said before he stepped away from the door and gestured to it, watching as Luz came in with her hood up. "Say hello to our fare teacher of Kickboxing, Luz Noceda the human!"

Pulling her hood back, Luz gave a smile to the group before throwing 5 quick jab and a spinkick as they cheered for her.

"Luz!" "It's great to see you!" Mmmmhmmhmhm!" they said with smiles as Gus and Luz walked to the front of their table, where Mattholomule's "human items" were placed.

If you can call them that.

'You have got to be fucking with me.' Luz thought as she stifled a laugh at the "artifacts."

One was a simple rock with a touch screen phone app drawn on the front with the label "Cellular Phone" taped to it, a beige stress ball with drawn skull on it labeled "Human Skull," and a large shoe that was made of leaves, mud, and twigs labeled "Sports Footwear."

'I'll admit this, the shoe is impressively accurate of a real sports sneaker.' Luz thought as Gus turned to her.

"Luz, as the bonified expect on human culture and items, could you please-" Gus said before Luz cut him off.

"Nope, none of them are real." she quickly said with a head shake before turning to Mattholomule, who then had all eyes on him. "Care to explain why you brought fake, human artifacts to our attention, "Matt?""

Mattholomule looked around nervously as he was internally panicking as his lies were revealed, what was he to do? Tell more lies, try to convince them Luz was the one lying, or...just tell the truth.

"I...I...I'm sorry that I lied about the human stuff I brought." he said as he looked away, showing sadness. "It's just...it's tough being the new kid at school and making friends hasn't been easy, so I thought if I could impress you guys, you'd want to be friends with me but that was wrong. I see that now. If you want me to go, then I'll go."

After his heartfelt explanation, everyone couldn't help but feel bad for Mattholomule after he explained himself. It really was understandable, wanting to make yourself seem like a popular guy to make some friends in a new place, any one of them would've done the same thing if they were in his place. Especially Gus, since he was the youngest in his class year due to moving up a few grades. Gus looked towards Luz, a soft look in his eyes as he had construction coven student all wrong, and nodded to her.

"Look man, though it's not right to lie just to make friends, any one could relate if they were in a strange new place." Luz said with a shrug. "How about from now on, just be honest with others and maybe they'll like to be friends with the real you instead of trying to impress them with lies?"

"I guess but where would I start?" he asked Luz as Gus smiled at him.

"Right here, in the H.A.S." Gus said as the other members clapped for him.

"It's alright, Mattholomule." Bo said wit ha smile.

"You've got a place here with us, buddy." Asriel said with a thumbs up.

"Mm hm hmhm mm hmmm mm./We'd be happy to have you." Elieen mumbled as she held her hands together and gave a closed eye smile.

At their acceptance, Mattholomule smiled at them as they accepted him into their club, even if he lied at first to get in.

"Thanks, guys. Thank you so much." he said as he bashfully looked at the ground.

"Now, since I'm here, how about I tell you guys about any artifacts you already have?" Luz asked with a smile as Gus quickly nodded to the idea.

"I completely agree!" he said as the club cheered, ready to see what sort of wonders the human items they had could do with a real human using them.

Over the next 30 minutes, Luz had been shown the items the Human Appreciation Society had and gave them some proper information on what they really were. A cheese grader they thought was nail clippers, a bag of chips with a flip phone to act as a clip they thought was a whoopie cushion, an old umbrella hat they thought was a bowl, a rubix cube they thought was a weapon, and a paper clip that Gus pronounced "pay-per-clorp." It was safe to say they were both embarrassed and amazed by what the items really were, especially Gus when Luz explained that the rubix cube was a puzzle of intelligence to get all the sides to match. Safe to say, he vowed to conquer it and prove his intelligence over it. Once the meeting was done, everyone took their leave with smile on their faces and a new sense of knowledge on their minds.

"Thanks for coming to day, Luz." Bo said as she waved goodbye to Gus, Luz, and Mattholomule.

"See you at kick boxing class, teach!" Asriel said with a smile.

"Hmm huu./Thank you." Elieen said before jogging away with glee.

When all of them left, Mattholomule turned to Luz and Gus while rubbing his head nervously.

"Hey, Luz, Augustus. Thanks again for being so forgiving and accepting." he said with a smile.

"It's not big deal, Matt. Everyone's been the new kid at one point in their live." Luz said with her hands in her pockets.

"Yeah, it's no trouble." Gus said with a friendly smile to Mattholomule, feeling that he could be a new friend.

"Well, before I go, I just have one thing left to say." he said as he tilted his head to them.

The door to the H.A.S. clubroom was flung open and two Trouble Sniffers stood in the doorway. Gus and Luz were surprised to see them as Mattholomule's smirk grew smug again and he pointed to Luz.

"There she is, she's the one who vandalized the school trophy case!" he said as Luz turned to him.

One of the Trouble Sniffers walked into the room and sniffed the air, turning to the trio.

"Trouble." he said as he prepared his hook staff.

""Now wait just a minute! I'm innocent, I haven't done a single thing wrong today!" Luz said as she turned to Mattholomule, glaring at him with fury. "And you! You no good lying piece of-"

Before Luz could finish, she was grabbed by a hook and dragged out of the classroom!

"Hey! Let me go! I am innocent!" Luz shouted as she unhooked herself by ducking and moved away from the Trouble Sniffers. "I didn't vandalize the trophy case, I just looked at it for a second!"

"Trouble, reek." the other Trouble Sniffer said as he pointed to Luz. "Big trouble."

'Aw fuck, I knew they could smell the trouble I caused back home but it was all justified…mostly.' Luz thought as she remembered the fights she got into a school, most were to defend or help someone that was bullied.

Seeing as the Trouble Sniffers didn't seem to want to listen, Luz got into her stance to fight them. The Trouble Sniffers recognized her sign of struggle and charged at her, twirling their staffs like seasoned martial artists! Luz dodged to the left, to the right, and leaned back before quickly jumping back from a under hook to her legs! She jumped back and threw a flying kick, but it was blocked before they landed on the ground and a rush of straight punches. One Trouble Sniffer used his staff to block each punch as the other flipped over Luz and landed behind her, he swung his staff at Luz's feet as she stopped her rush to jumped up to dodge but it left her open as the Trouble Sniffer in front of her hooked her shirt and threw her into the hallway!

"Aah!" Luz shouted as she rolled against the ground and hopped back on her feet, turning to the door as ran out towards her. "Damn these guys are good!"

Taking off to her right, Luz ran as the Trouble Sniffers rushed after her while Gus and Mattholomule stayed at the H.A.S. meeting room.

'Their reflexes are insane and their teamwork is just as impressive!' Luz thought as she touched the glyphs on her gloves. 'Let's see if they can take this!'

Spinning on the balls of her feet, Luz sent two ball of light them and watched as they flashed in their faces but it didn't stop them as Luz dodged left and right before backflipping away.

'Shit, I forgot their eyes are stitched shut!' Luz thought as she moved to the fire glyphs on her gloves.

But with a burst of speed, the Trouble Sniffers appeared behind and in front of Luz. The one in front swept Luz off her feet before the one behind hooked her by her hoodie vest and pulled her over head to slam into the ground, stomach first to knock the air out of her!

"GUHHA!" Luz coughed in pain before she pulled up to her feet and was restrained by their hooks, her arms up against to her chest as both Trouble Sniffer had their hooks around her in a perfect circle.

"Trouble." they said together before they began dragging Luz away, the human still in pain front the impact to her stomach to resist.

She groaned as her breath was a bit ragged, taking deep breathes to deal with the pain.

"Where...are you taking me?" Luz said loud enough for them to hear.

"Detention." one said to her as they kept walking.

"Detention?" Luz repeated as the threw of them came to a stop in front of a hallway, looking down it.

At the end of the corridor was a large door with three large closed eyes that was colored brown and dusty gold accents. The eyes suddenly opened to show red sclera, and golden reptile pupils before it opened like a large mouth with a enormous, sharp teeth!

"SANTA MIERDA!" Luz cursed before she was swiftly thrown into the door, not chewed by the teeth and landing on the floor inside before the door closed it's mouth.

Getting up with a groan and holding her still aching stomach, Luz looked around the room she was in and saw nothing that put her at ease. Large slash marks on the walls and columns, large pieces of rubble on the floor, and no one else in sight. Not even the two guys the Trouble Sniffers caught earlier.

'I've to a bad feeling about this.' Luz thought as she took a cautious step forward but that was the only step she could take.

The room suddenly shook as the floor began to crack open, causing Luz to quick jump over and move to the far wall as it formed into giant mouth! Taking a cautious look inside, Luz could only describe what she saw as a literal "Hell Hole" when she saw a pit of moving purple tentacles with blue pods that had students in them, golden eyes balls, massive sharp fangs, and giant worms with humanoid faces on them!

'THIS IS DETENTION?!' Luz thought in shock and horror as she looked further down to see a humanoid skeleton at the bottom, someone had DIED in there! 'I'm starting to think Eda was right for wanting to keep me away from this place!'

Seeing a worm moving up to the surface, Luz quickly ducked behind some large piece of rubble to hide as it looked around for it's new detentionaire to imprison but it saw no one or heard anyone as it listened around. A few minutes past before it retreated back into the pit as the mouth slowly closed itself to make the floor normal again. Luz sighed in relief as she leaned against the rubble and rubbed her stomach a bit, still recovering from the gut shot as the pain was fading away.

"I have got to get out of here." Luz said as she remembered who was responsible for getting her in her, growing angry at Mattholomule. "And when I do, I'm gonna cave Matt's teeth in!"

Spending the next few minutes taking deep breathes, Luz stomach was almost back to normal before she heard the three eyed door open again and turned to see Gus and Mattholomule getting thrown inside, both soaking wet for some reason.

"No no no no!" the lying boy said as he ran back to the door and banged his hand against it. "Let me out! I don't belong here!"

"Oh don't you dare pull that innocent shit again after what you pulled!" Luz shouted at him as Gus looked towards her.

"Luz, you're okay!" Gus said in relief before the floor opened up again, causing him to move away in a panic as he saw the "Hell Hole" reveal itself.

"This is what Hexside does for detention?! This is nothing like detention back on Earth!" Luz shouted as Gus got up and moved against the wall. "This is death, a school sanctioned execution!"

"I didn't know! I've never had detention before, Luz!" he said with his back against the wall.

"But I have." Mattholomule said as he moved against the wall, right next to Gus. "Welcome to my world, kiddies. Believe it or not, I was thrown into detention a dozen times back at my old school."

Feeling a bright light heading towards him, Mattholomule turned and quickly ducks with an "Eep!" as a fireball hits where his head was.

"Now that sounds like the genuine truth, you damn, silver tongued rat!" Luz shouted as she made another fireball in her right hand with her glyph glove. "If we don't make it out of here alive, I'm gonna roast you here and now!"

"I'd reconsider that since this "rat" was the king of detention at his old school!" Mattholomule said as he stood up and was against the wall again. "So if you and Augustus wanna get out of here, you better do what I say to the letter!"

Seeing as he looked to be telling the truth again, Luz growled and closed her fist to snuff out her fireball while glaring at him.

"Fine! What's the plan?" Luz asked him as he smiled to her and stepped to the mouth.

"Alright, first thing we gotta do is-" Mattholomule was cut off as a humanoid face worm came out and turned to him, it spat purple slim from it's mouth and wrapped it around his right leg. "Oh shot, already?"

He was the pulled into the pit and screamed as Luz looked inside, seeing him being engulfed by the slime before being formed into a pod and his eyes go wide and blue.

'Well he was a lot of help.' Luz thought but was sort of happy he got his just desserts.

"Looks like we're on our own, Gus." she said as she looked up to her friend, seeing him move cautiously against the wall to her.

"Right, got any ideas?" Gus asked with fear as he couldn't stop looking into the "Hell Hole" that was detention.

"Well, it main involves rushing to the door and burning until it reacts and opens up to scream before diving out!" Luz said before they heard a loud hissing sound and turned to the pit.

Looking down, they saw all of the worms slithering up to them with their eyes glowing red and fangs ready. One rose and hissed at them before Luz knocked it back down with a overhand punch.

"Well, I do have an idea but it involves jumping into the pit and rescuing Mattholomule." Gus said as another worm rose and hissed, before he straight kicked it away!

"...Hell no, he got what he deserved." Luz said as she grabbed Gus by the arm. "Sorry, Gus but we're going with my plan and burning the door!"

Not wanting to anger his teacher/friend, Gus nodded as they took off running to the door with more of the human faced worms crawling towards them and hissing.

"Get back!" Luz said as she turned and began throwing fire balls at the worms, burning them and pushing them back. "Gus, I need a distraction!"

"I've got it!" Gus said as he drew multiple spell circles in the air, creating multiple clones of Luz and Gus around the room.

The worms hissed at all the illusions as they rushed to attack them with the illusions fighting, getting in a punch or two before they were hit and vanished.

"It won't hold them for long!" Gus shouted as he and Luz ran to the door again.

"I'll hold them long enough!" Luz said as she prepared her plan.

Moving back from the door and to the left wall, Luz quickly pressed the fire glyphs on her gloves before she dragged her hands down the wall, across the floor, and to the other wall to create a barrier of flames between them and the worms.

"Whoa! When did you learn that!" Gus asked in awe before Luz turned to the door.

"I'll explain later, we're getting out of here now!" Luz said as she pressed her fire glyphs again, igniting her gloves on her before she pressed her hands against the door. "Wakey wakey!"

As Luz was busy burning the door from inside detention, outside of the door, Willow was trying to open it to free her friend after seeing Luz being unjustly taken to the detention from the Plant Track homeroom window. She was about to use her magic to opened the door until she head footsteps heading this way.

"The living graffiti has been washed away, I apologized the Miss Jenkinmeyer for her teeth, caught all those wild cerebi." Eda said as she counted off tasks with her fingers. while walking with Principal Bump. "I think that's enough to settle all of my debits to Hexside."

"It does but I must admit, I was surprised to see you wanting to enroll Ms. Noceda in Hexside but I'm glad to did." Bump said as he held out his had to her, getting a handshake from Eda. "Some students have already benefited from her Kickboxing class and I believe they can benefit more with her as human exchange student."

"And you'll be sure to not let anyone from the Emperor's Coven know about our deal?" Eda asked with caution.

"Not at all. From now on, Hexside School is officially a safe haven for you both." Bump said with a hand up. "I'm a principal, not a stooge. Your pupil is now our pupil."

As Eda was thankful for that assurance, a groan of pain caught their attention and a burning smell made them turn down the hall to the detention door. They turned to the door and saw it was smoking beginning to cough before it screamed in pain, opening it's large mouth to show Luz and Gus jump through to the floor as the wall of flames Luz made died down and the worms charged at them but were stopped as the door shut it's mouth.

"Uh. Shit that was close." Luz said as she looked up to see Willow, Eda, and Bump staring at her and Gus. "Eda? Willow?"

"...Guess who got you applied for Hexside?!" Eda said with a smile and her arms up in celebration.

"Huh?" Luz let out before the large door was banged on by the worms from detention. "Ah!"

The banging continued before several worms busted through the door, screeching loudly until Principal Bump raised his has to do a simple snap and caused them to stop. They all blinked as their teeth became normal and their eyes stopped glowing red.

"Oh, uh, sorry Principals Bump, sir." they all said in the same voice before they slithered back into the door and back to their "hell hole," leaving the door full of about 20 holes.

'Whoa.' Luz thought before Bump walked up to her.

"May I ask why you were in detention and why did you and Augustus somehow break out?" he asked with his hands curled into fists.

"I can explain everything, nothing was destroyed if that what's your worried about but you door was burned a bit." Luz said as she and Gus got up from the floor, the latter dusting himself off.

"And I can fill in on why I was detention." Gus said with a finger up.

"The please, elaborate you two." he said with his arms crossed and his tone firm.

-7 minutes later-

"And that's when I got the idea of burning the door to make it open up and get us out." Luz said as she and Gus finished their explanation on how they got to this point in time.

"Hmm, as hard to believe as that may seem, I can tell from both your eyes neither of you are liars so I shall take your words." Bump said as he turned to Gus. "Though, since this all began because you wished to keep your club presidency, I'm afraid you will have to receive punishment for the actions of your current new member in detention."

"Hey, wait, that's not-" Luz said before Gus stopped her.

"It's fine, Luz. I'm sure it won't be too bad." Gus said as he took a glance back at detention and it's hole filled door.

'No way I'm getting detention with the door like that.' Gus thought as Principal Bump turned to Luz.

"Very well, since Edalyn's debt has been paid and the damage done is minimal, you will happily enrolled in Hexside School next semester." Bump said with a smile to Luz as the kickboxer gave a small smile but was jumping for joy inside.

She got in and now she can learn more magic from Hexside AND Eda!

"Now now, let me just say something first." Eda said as she went to Luz and brought her a bit away from the group, leaning down to speak a bit privately to her.

"Though I won't take back what I said about this place yesterday, I'm only doing this I have faith in you to keep to your wits about magic and the coven system." Eda said with a serious face, reminding Luz about what she said about the Coven system and how it limits witches. "You can learn a lot from the witches here and maybe...you can teach a few of these kids the "Bad Girl" coven magic."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." Bump said as he could hear their conversation before he turned to Gus. "As for you, Augustus, seeing as detention is going to be in need of repairs for the time being, I'm prohibiting any meetings of the H.A.S. on school ground until then next semester."

At the mention of the punishment, Willow gave a slight wince as she saw Gus pale a bit and gulp at notion.

'Oh, that is not gonna go well with the others.' Willow thought.

'The H.A.S. is not going to like this.' Gus thought as he just nodded to Bump, who nodded back before walking away.

"Now come along, Edalyn,. There's still the matter of paperwork for Luz's enrollment." he said with his hands behind his back.

"What? I gotta do paperwork now?" Eda said before groaning and looking to Luz. "You better appreciate this kid."

"Don't worry, I will." Luz said with a small smirk as Eda smirked back and tussled her hair before following Bump.

As the trio of friends was left alone outside of detention, Luz turned to her friends and remembered what she wanted to ask Willow from this morning.

"Hey Gus, how about we get back to the tour?" Luz asked with a smile, relieved to have things calmed down.

"Sure, right this way. You can come too, if you want Willow." Gus said as he took Luz's hand.

"After hearing the antics you two got in without me, someone's gonna have to help you guys in line." Willow said as she took Luz's other hand.

"Very well them, let the tour continue!" Gus shouted as the group ran off, laughing in excitement as they left the detention hall.

As the tour went on, they group went back by the Plant Track and what Luz wanted to talk about with Willow this morning came back to mind.

"Hey, Willow, do you mind if we stop stop for a bit? I want to ask you something." Luz said as the trio stopped in the hall.

"What is it, Luz?" Willow asked as Luz pulled out her phone.

"I was wondering if you could do a plant spell circle for me so I could find the glyph for my gloves. After seeing all you can do with your plants, I think it would be a good addition to my gloves." Luz said as she held up her left hand to show her two current glyphs.

"OH wow, really?" Willow asked with a smile.

"Hey wait! What about my illusions? Don't you want an illusion spell glyph?" Gus asked, a little jealous.

"Don't take this the wrong way, Gus. Illusion Magic is really cool but it's a bit more complex than Plant Magic, I want to learn more about it before adding it to my gloves. Sorry." Luz said as she turned back to Willow with her phone ready, camera video ready. "Ready, Willow?"

"Ready, Luz." Willow said as she drew a large, green spell circle in front of her and make some large vines ground around her.

"Got it. Now just need to work my magic. Hehehe." Luz said with a small joke as she saved and edited the video.

Invert the colors of the video, turn on bold for any lines, slow down the video, go frame by frame, and zoom in on the circle. Luz played the video back and watched closely as Willow drew the spell circle with the new glyph appearing in a slow flash but the way it looked made Luz stare blankly at it.

'Seriously, that's what it looks like.' Luz thought as she saw the glyph look ironically like a rose or tulip; a circle with an upside down triangle with a line across the bottom, connected to a line heading down to a smaller circle at the bottom with a dot in the center and two other lines stick out at the top of the smaller circle. 'The witches of old must've been pretty simple to make it like this.'

Putting that aside, Luz saved the photo and just needed something to draw it on her gloves.

"Hey, either of your guys have a pencil?" Luz asked them she asked them while showing the glyph photo on her phone.

After taking time to marvel at the glyph, with Willow wondering if she could get a picture just to have cause she loves how it looks like a flower, the group continued their tour through Hexside while finding a pencil for Luz to aid it to her gloves. Right in the area above the right at the base of the hands below the wrist. When Luz first tried it, vines grew out of her palms to make improve whips or ropes she could use to swing around. She would need some practice if she was going to make more creative uses for them like Willow and Luz was looking forward to it.

-Timeskip, late evening-

After a full tour of her future school the next semester, Luz went back to the owl house and saw that Eda was sitting against the couch while looking over a large stack of papers.

'Is that the paperwork she complained about?' Luz thought before seeing Eda smile fondly at the papers. 'No, it's something else.'

Moving quietly to not disturb her, Luz sat on the couch and looked over Eda's shoulder to see what she was smiling over. Turns out, it was her school record from when she attended Hexside (who knew Eda had bright red orange hair?) and it was filled with nothing but disasters she caused!

Incident #5523: Eda unleashed the ghosts in the Hexside Ladies room.

Incident #3421: Eda summoned an army of abominations to help her sister, Lilith, get her lunch money back from a thief.

Incident #9677: Eda hexed the school bells to sing a ridiculously catchy pop song nonstop and no one was even able to go home early because of it.

Incident #2601: Eda found and let two giant bugs into the school that ate everything in sight with Eda laying on one's back and posing for the camera!

"...Holy shit! You were a horrible student!" Luz said before she busted out laughing, falling back on the couch as Eda was surprised to notice that Luz was behind her and she didn't know it until now. "Ahahahahahahahaha!"

Chapter Text

Our troublesome trio was currently at a playground in Bonesborough, alternately named, the "Slayground." It was a circular park that has gates in the front, and then walls bordering the grass. There's a slide adjacent to a strange monster like building with it's mouth open, a sand pit with tentacles coming out of it, and a swing set made of large bones connected to a bone made structure with a pointed shingle roof. Sitting on the side on a wooden bench was Luz and Eda they watched King play/conquer the other younger children of the playground. Eda had a calm look on her face with her staff prompted next to her as Luz was watching without a care. She knew King could handle himself and he couldn't really do anything to really hurt the kids.

"So how bad should I expect things to go for King? I know he can't really hurt anyone here but I'd like to know how he'd react." Luz said to Eda as she had her hands in her pockets.

"Eh, it's not as bad as you'd think but it is pretty funny to watch." Eda said as she looked towards King. "Just look at him go."

Watching her little demon friend, Luz could see King was indeed having fun in his own little way. Such as pushing other kids out of the way and pulling himself up to the top of the slide before gazing down at all the kids around him. Like an actually king.

"Looks like he's playing "King of the Hill." Luz said with a small joke before she saw a child with dark skin, red hair and a green booger running down his left nostril coming up behind King with a smile. "And he's about to be dethroned."

True to her words, King was pushed from behind down the slide as the kid who did it just smiled like it was good fun, while King himself looked upset and angry! The demon hopped onto his feet and ran to Luz and Eda.

"Luz! Eda! The no good snotty kid threw me off my throne!" King whined to them, hugging Luz's leg and pointing to the child who did it.

"The literal snotty baby?" Eda asked as he was riding a little blue dragon on a sprig now.

"That is no child, he is a usurper! I demand that both of you go over their and destroy him! Kaboom!" King said with an explosion at the end.

"KABOOM!" the boy cheered on his dragon ride.

"I am only going to say this once, King. I am not going to waste precious magic on even thinking about that." Eda said to him as she grabbed her staff and unscrewed her palisman, Owlbert from the stop. "His time is to be spent on more important things. Like appreciation scratches."

The little palisman coo from the scratches as Luz grew a smile on her face.

"That's pretty cute but I've always wondered, where exactly did you get Owlbert?" Luz asked as she looked over the palisman.

"Get?" Eda said as she looked to Luz for a moment before pointing to herself. "I didn't get him anywhere. I MADE Owlbert, right from the branch of an ancient tree and infused him with my magic."

"Hoo." Owlbert said with a nod as Eda put him on her left shoulder.

"He's my loving little palisman, the two of us are bonded for life. Eda said as Owlbert nuzzled her cheek, soon gaining a deadly look. " And I would slaughter ANYONE who hurt my little Owlbert."

"Whoa! Major momma bear." Luz said in surprise, leaning back from how intense her look is.

"You don't wanna help me? Fine. It'll be so much more rewarding when I bring him down myself! Hehehehehe." King said but didn't notice the "usurper" walking up behind him.

"Let's play tag!" he said before suddenly pushing King to the ground. "You're it!"

The little kid ran off with a giggle as King laid on the ground, face first as his friends watched him.

"Ohohohoho boy! He comes his signature roar, the "Squeak of Rage."" Eda said as she and Luz kept watching King as he opened his eyes.

"Nyehh. Nyyeeeh!" he let out as he got back on his feet before falling back to the ground, throwing a tantrum while screaming like a tea kettle steaming. "NYYYYYEEEEEHHHH!"

Still screaming like a kettle, King got up and ran after the one who pushed him down as Luz and Eda laughed a bit at his scream.

"Oh my god, how is that possible?" Luz asked as she whipped away a tear.

"I don't know but it's funny every time." Eda said with a snort as Owlbert scratched himself.

Luz looked to Eda again and noticed a hole on the bottom of Owlbert's right foot, sort of oval with a triangle tooth pointing in.

"Hey, Eda, what's up with Owlbert's foot?" Luz asked as she pointed to it.

"That my dear fighter, is an interlock. Each palisman has one to go with each witch's staff." Eda said as she grabbed her staff while Owlbert flew off her shoulder. "So they only fit o-"

Stopping mid sentence, Eda suddenly lost consciousness and began to fall.

"EDA!" Luz shouted as she reacted quickly and grabbed her, stopping her from falling to the ground.

Moving off of the bench and placing Eda on it, Luz and Owlbert looked down at her worry of what caused her to suddenly faint.

"Eda? Eda, can you hear me?!" Luz asked, shaking her a bit but got no reaction. "Alright, I didn't want it to come to this but..."

Holding her left hand up, Luz swiftly slapped it across Eda's face as the owl lady shot her eyes open!

"OW!" She screamed as she held her cheek, quickly leaning up. "What the heck, kid?! Why'd you slap me?!"

"Cuz you just passed the hell out, that's why! We were worried!" Luz said as Eda rubbed her cheek.

"Passed out? I- Oh no. The curse." Eda said as she looked to Luz with a serious face. "We have to go home, now."

"Got it." Luz said as Eda picked up her staff and began walking away. "King, come on! Time to go, now!"

"5 more minutes!" King shouted as Luz turned to him, seeing him and the kid that pushed him back on the slide.

They actually look liked they were going to fight, a fight that King only had a 50% chance of winning. Luz didn't care about that right now, she just wanted to leave and get Eda home.

"I said "NOW," King!" Luz said as she pressed the plant glyph on her right glove, creating a vine from her wrist before she launched it at King. "Now come on!"

The small demon didn't have time to react as he was suddenly wrapped up in a vine rope.

"Wyeh!" he let out before he was pulled away, screaming. "This isn't oveeeeeer!"

"Bye bye!" the boy said as he waved at King as he left.

After a long yet rushed walk back to the owl house, Eda fell onto the couch while dropping her staff to the floor as Owlbert flew to the couch to watch her and Luz came in with a still vine wrapped King being dragged behind her.

"King, Owlbert, you guys watch Eda. I'll go upstairs and get her elixir." Luz said as she dragged King to the front of the couch and pulled the vines off of him.

"Hey, don't worry about it. I just need a little rest and I'll get it myself." Eda said with her face still in the couch.

"You say that but I still think I should get it for you, my mom is a nurse so I know a few things about taking care of a person if I need to stay and take care of you." Luz said as she gestured to King. "Maybe even King could help."

"Hey, leave me out of this." King said as he got up and moved away from the couch and the vines that he was wrapped in.

"Look, I can take care of myself, Luz. I've been dealing with this curse since before you were born." Eda said as she got pushed herself up from the couch.

"You said you don't know who cursed, right?" Luz asked, remembering when she was first told about the curse.

"Yeah but you shouldn't worry about that." Eda said as she fully leaned up from the couch to sit. "Don't you have plans today with those friends of yours?"

"Well, now that you mention it, Gus and Willow did invite me to a sport game called "Grudgby" today." Luz said as Owlbert brought Eda her staff. "Said the rival school was named "Glandus High."

"Since when were you into sports? Outside of your little fighting sports." Eda said a she screw Owlbert back on her staff, making him inanimate.

"I can follow sports that don't involve fighting, you know. I just find the fighting ones more exciting." Luz said a she pointed in Eda's face before putting her finger down. "Plus, I am curious to see what another magic school is like but I think I should stay to-"

"No. I can take care of myself. So as your teacher and technically landlord, I order you to go to the Grudgby game and have fun." Eda said as she pointed to the door. "Go now, or else I'll make you sleep in that workout shack you made."

"Did you just threaten to evict me if don't go and have fun?" Luz questioned as Eda put her hand down.

"Did I stutter?" Eda asked back.

"...Okay fine. I'll go." Luz said as she put her hands in her pockets and walked to the door, stopping back King for a moment. "Keep an eye on her, make sure she takes her elixir."

"Sure, sure. I'll watch her." he let out as she left, only paying a bit of attention as he was drawing some plans for revenge on the kid from the park.

After a quiet walk to Hexside, Luz saw that a line of students were lined up behind a strange gondola like creature that sort of looked like a Viking ship. It had a dragon head with a purple head of fur, a gold choker on it's neck, six beige legs with three toes each, golden wings in the middle and a gold devil tail in the back. Currently sitting inside was Eileen, Mattholomule, and a short pig-gargoyle kid with purple skin wearing an orange Hexside uniform.

'This must be what we're riding to Glandus.' Luz thought as the beast growled in her face but she didn't flinch, just walking past it.

The other students waiting was a large boy with in an Oracle track uniform, Skara, another lizard faced Oracle student, and finally Gus and Willow.

"Hey, guys." Luz said as she waved to them.

"Hey, Luz. You ready for your first Grudgby game?" Willow asked while wearing a gold and blue baseball cap with 'HEXSIDE' written on it.

"A lot of things but the most important thing is that Hexidians...NEVER lose." Willow said as she gained a serious glare at her proclamation.

"Woah. You guys take your sports just as serious as we humans." Luz said with wide eyes and her hands up in defense. "A little intense don't you think? Of course I have no right to say since combat sports are always intense but isn't this a little much?"

"Not at all. Grudgby games are the best!" Gus said with a smile, wearing a golden yellow sweatshirt with "HEXSIDE" on it. "And while the players go through amazing and action packed trials, the audience gets to wave flags around as they watch! Look, I've been practicing."

Gus pulled out two purple flags before humming and doing a twirl with his arms out before bringing them in and shimmying his shoulders with a serious face.

"Okay, so that's one thing that doesn't change in this dimension, flag routines are common with some sports humans do too." Luz informed him as Gus squealed in glee, happy to know that they already practiced a piece of human culture. "Anyway, since I'm gonna be supporting Hexside, is there any place I could get some memorabilia?"

"I don't see why not, it's better than you getting confused for a Glandus supporter." Willow said as she pointed towards the school. "There's a lost and found in the cafeteria, there should be something in their to show your support."

"Thanks, Willow. I'll be right back." Luz said as she took off running into the school. "Try and keep that...whatever it is there until I get back!"

"It's called a bus!" Gus called out to her.

'That's a bus? I thought that giant egg was a bus.' Luz thought as she remembered the first time she saw the demon hunters.

Heading into the cafeteria, Luz looked around for the lost and found before she found the chest under a sign that said "LOST & FOUND." It was a blue chest with a fire shaped symbol on it with two cauldrons and several book on each side with an old broomstick on it's right.

"There you are." Luz said as she walked up to the chest and pushed it open, reaching inside and pulling out a blue and white cape with "HEXSIDE" on the front of it. "Perfect."

Putting the cap on and closing the chest, Luz made her way back to the front of the school and was ready to get on the "bus" for the Grudgby game. Though there was a bit of a problem when she returned.

"Ummm, guys?" Luz asked as she looked Gus and Willow. "Where is the bus?"

Her answer came in the form of a roar as she looked up to see the everyone else on the bus flying away with a giant student hanging on a banner as it flew.

"HEXSIDE RULES!" he shouted in glee.

"No, god damnit, no!" Luz shouted as she raced down the steps to her friends. "Guys, I thought I told you to try and hold the bus!"

"We did but they said they were on a schedule. Sorry, Luz." Willow said with a frown.

Luz let out a sigh as she slumped her shoulders, her first Grudgby game was now a bust until she enrolled next semester.

"It's alright, at least you tried." Luz said before looking to Gus and Willow. "But why didn't you guys go with them?"

"Luz, we're your friends. We weren't just gonna leave you behind." Willow said with a caring smile and her head tilted.

"I tried." Gus said before Willow punched him in the shoulder. "I mean I tried my best to make them wait too but you know what happened! He he he."

"Well...is there a way we can still get there? Another bus or maybe walking?" Luz suggested as she ignored Gus's quick word save.

"No other bus is heading to Glandus and the school is..." Gus said before rolling his flags and posing with them. " all the way in the middle of the island."

"Uh, great." Luz said as she looked away.

"And I can't ask my parents to give us a ride on their staff because they're working right now." Willow said with her arms out.

"A staff huh? Maybe I could ask Eda if I could borrow her's, so we could go to the game." Luz suggested as her friends look to her.

"Really? She'd be okay with that?" Gus asked.

"Not entirely but it's better than nothing. Come on!" Luz said as she gestured for them to follow as she ran back to the owl house.

Though instead of running, Gus decided to jump and plie like a ballerina while waving his flags around.

'That boy needs some testosterone.' Luz thought with a bland look as she glimpsed at him before refocusing on the path.

After arriving back at the owl house, Luz told them to wait outside as she went into the house.

"Eda, King! You guys here?!" Luz called out to them as she looked around, not finding them in the den or the kitchen. "Must be upstairs then."

Heading up the steps, Luz turned to see King standing in front of Eda's room as he shut the door behind him with her staff leaning on the side behind him.

"Hey, there you are. Do you know if Eda is up?" Luz asked as she walked to him.

"Who-OH! Eda! Hehehe! Nope, she's uh actually asleep right now." King said as he looked away from Luz until a growl like sound came from her room. "She's REALLY out right now, hehe. Best not to disturb her when she's like this."

Thinking that sound was a snore, Luz groaned as face palmed herself.

"Damn, I wanted to asked her if I could borrow Owlbert for a few hours." Luz said as she looked to the palisman on the staff, right behind King as he turned to it. "I wanted to use him to fly me, Gus, and Willow to the Grudgby game at Glandus."

"Well if it's for a Grudgby game, then of course you can borrow it!" King said as he quickly grabbed the staff and gave it to Luz. "Go on, take it! Eda will understand!"

"You sure? Eda said she'd slaughter anyone who messed with Owlbert." Luz said as she held the staff in her hands, remembering what she said this morning.

"You'll be fine! Eda trusts you and she knows you'd never hurt Owlbert!" King said before a sudden shriek came from Eda's room. "OOPS! You better hurry, you don't wanna see Eda when she's grouchy!"

Though it didn't sound like a normal groan, Luz looked down to Owlbert as she thought about Gus and Willow.

'I did ask them to hold the bus for me and even when they couldn't, they stayed behind cause I was their friend.' Luz thought, thinking back to the last time she had true friends like them but...she couldn't find one. 'I really should make it up to them, not just for this but for being so friendly to me since we meet.'

"Okay, I guess you're right. If Eda wakes up before I get back, just tell I borrowed it, okay?" Luz said as she looked down to King.

"You got it! Now go on, that Grudgby game ain't gonna wait for ya!" King said with a cheeky smile.

"See ya later, King." Luz said as she hurried back to her friends with the staff in hand.

Coming out of the door, Luz got Gus's and Willow's attention as she held the staff in her hands.

"Alright, guys. I've got the staff, we'll be on our way to Glandus in no time." Luz said as she looked to Owlbert, scratching him softly to wake him up.

"Hoo." he let out as Luz smiled softly at him.

"Hey, Owlbert. Sorry to wake you up but I need you help a little to get me and my friends somewhere." Luz said as Owlbert turned to Gus and Willow.

"Ooooh. Wow." they said in awe of Eda's palisman.

"Alright guys, hop on and hold on." Luz said as she got on the staff and held it in her hands.

Willow got on behind Luz and Gus sat near the end with his flags still in hand.

"Wow, this was impressively made. You can practically feel the perfectly, even power to weight ratio." Willow said, inspecting the staff.

"I can't wait to see my boys fly in the wind!" Gus said as he held his flags up.

"Alright Owlbert, let's head to Glandus High." Luz said as Owlbert unfurled his wings. "Up up."

Acknowledging her words, Owlbert flew them a feet feet into the air as they maintained balance.

"You need me to guide you to Glandus, Luz?" Willow asked.

"Some directions would be nice." Luz said as he looked to Owlbery. "Alright Owlbert, let's get going with a little gas."

Giving a slight slap to the side of his base, Owlbert took off faster than any of them thought as their hats flew off!

"YAAHH!" they screamed as Owlbert dived into the forest and began crashing wildly into every tree!

"OWLBERT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Luz shouted as him as they were on a crash course with a large oak tree! "NO NO NO, STOP!"

Thinking fast and without caution, Luz hit Owlbert with her left fist and made him dive into a crash on the forest ground. The trio were sent flying into some bushes as Owlbert clattered away from them. Getting up from the crash, Luz rubbed her head before turning to the palisman a few feet from them and gaining an upset look on her face.

"Owlbert, what the hell was that?! I said a little gas, not the whole damn tank!" Luz shouted at him as she marched towards him. "We could've gotten seriously hurt because of you! What happened that made you jus-"

Arriving at the palisman, Luz stopped her shouting and look shocked to see a large crack down the middle of his head...right where Luz hit him.

The trio gasped at the sight of her as she walked forward, standing behind her babies as Bat Queen kept her gaze on Luz.

"Hello, fighting human." she said with her hair more out of place than usual as as Owlbert hid behind her.

Everyone stood in silence for a moment as Bat Queen breathed heavily and stared down with Luz.

"Yo-You-You're-" Willow stuttered out as Gus held her arm.

"The Bat Queen, we babysat her kids once." Luz said as she didn't look away from the queen, handing Willow the staff. "Hold this, I'll talk to her."

Quickly taking the staff from her, Willow watched as Luz turned back to Bat Queen and cleared her throat.

"It's...nice to see you again, Bat Queen. I hope everything has been well since we last say each other." Luz said before looking down to the trio of her babies. "I'm glad to see your babies are looking healthy too."

Her kind tone and compliments didn't nothing as Bat Queen growled at her and glared a Luz. The human didn't waver at the growl but she did sigh a bit before taking a deep breath to speak again.

"Okay, I see you're not in the mood for small talk, so I'll just cut to the chase. I screwed up, I wanted Owlbert to take me and my friends to Glandus but things got out of control. We crash, I hit and yelled at Owlbert, but I should've never done either of those. I just want to get my friend and take him home." Luz said as she took a step forward but Bat queen kept her in place with her foot.

"To be careless with a staff and a palisman is foolish, grave error. I protect him." she said as she narrowed her eyes at Luz.

"And I'm thankful you're doing that but Owlbert belongs to Eda. He needs to come home to her." Luz said as she pushed the large foot off her and to the ground.

"The Owl Lady is careless to leave her staff for human to take without permission! Human that screams, that hurts, and frightens Owlbert when all is human fault!" Bat Queen said as she marched forward, making Luz take several steps back as Owlbert stayed at her side.

"How did you-" Luz asked in surprise, not telling her it was her fault for slapping the staff in the first place.

"Because Owlbert tell all!" Bat Queen said as her and Owlbert's eyes glowed bright yellow.

"Owlbert, I'm so sorry. I never wanted to hurt and I never should've hit you." Luz said with a sad look as she kneeled down to him, holding her hand out. "Please, you have to believe me."

With his eyes ceasing their glow, Owlbert flew up to perch Bat Queen's head before their eyes flashed yellow once more.

"You want trust back, you must earn it!" Bat Queen said as she flew into the air with her babies following and into the shadows, landed on a sort of large geyser or tree stump. "Through trials!"

With a spread of her wings, flames sprouted out from 3 smaller geysers/tree stumps as the cave was lit up, revealing a large pile of treasure and treasure chests behind the Bat Queen. The treasure was living proof she really was the richest demon on the Isles.

"Trials?" Gus asked with a smile as he wave his flags.

"Luz, these trials are well known for being impossible to complete. Bat Queen makes it her personal mission to make them impossible to pass." Willow said as she adjusted her glasses, walking up to Luz with the staff still in her hand.

"I don't have a choice, Willow. I need to show Owlbert how sorry I am for what I did, no matter what." Luz said as he looked Bat Queen dead in the eyes, gaining a determined look. "I accept your trials, Bat Queen. I and I alone."

"Alone?" Willow said as she and Gus looked surprised at Luz. "But Luz, if we work together-"

"-We can ace these trials no problem!" Gus said as he raised his flags up.

"I'm the one that screwed up, guys! I have to be the one who fixes it." Luz said as she looked back to them.

"It is truth, she must face trials." Bat Queen said as she held up her right foot, clenching it shut as it glowed with magic. "Alone."

Webbing suddenly sprang from the ground and wrapped Luz's friends up, preventing them from helping her.

"Now, human. Let the first trial begin!" Bat Queen said as she spread her wings, making the flames flare up. "First trial is...milk the spider demon!"

Using her wing to point, everyone turned their heads to a large spider demon with horns like a cow, four legs, a bell around his neck, and a large pair udder under it's thorax walk up to Luz. It was carrying a bucket in its mouth before it lowered it down to Luz and stepped back.

"Yeesh." Luz said as she looked over the spider demon, before looking down to the bucket and picking it up.

Luz took a deep breath before exhaling and turning to look eyes with Owlbert as he watched her.

"Oooo?" he let out as he tiled his head.

Nodding to him, Luz turn back to the cow and rolled her neck a bit.

"Alright demon, let's do this." Luz said as she walked towards it and reached for the udders.

The demon screeched at Luz before it jumped over her and she ducked down, looking to it as it ran.

"Oh no you don't!" Luz shouted out as she took off running after the demon.

Watching as she ran after it, memorizing it's timing as it jumped away from her every time she got close, Luz came up with a plan to catch it as she kept chasing after the spider.

'One, two, three. Jump. One, two, three, four. Jump.' Luz thought as she kept missing and kept running, watching the spider practically dance around her. '3 to 4 springs before jumping. That's it's pattern. I just need to time it just right and...'

Watching it spring 3 more time and jump above her, Luz quickly turn on her feet and prepared her gloves!

"NOW!" Luz shouted as she pressed her plant glyphs, summoning vines to her hands before she lashed them at the spider!

As the spider was landing on the ground, it's front legs were suddenly wrapped in vines as Luz quickly pulled back and made the beast fall to the ground head first!

"Gotcha!" Luz shouted as she ran to the spider, tying it's legs up so it couldn't escape. "That milk is mine!"

Setting the bucket near the udders, Luz grabbed them and began to milk the beast. It was a little awkward at first but she got the hang of it and soon the bucket became full of strangely colored milk. Nodding at the completed trial, Luz untied the spider's legs and brought the bucket of milk to Bat Queen while only spilling a few drops. To show her completion of the trial, the stump/geyser on the far right slowly extinguished it's flame.

"Hmph!" Bat Queen let out, upset that Luz completed the first trial before she moved on. "Second trial, remove the bee's nest!"

Pointing to a tree near her nest, Luz saw a green nest in the shape of a tear drop hanging from a branch.

"Alright, seemed easy enough." Luz said as she walked away from Bat Queen and made a fireball in her right hand. "One nest removal, coming up!"

Throwing the fireball with a grunt, every watched as the fire hit it's target but were surprised to hear a screech of pain coming from it! As the flames were shaken off by the "nest," Luz watched in shock as it turned from green to purple and a large bee/wasp like body crawl from behind the tree. Turning it's sight to Luz, the large insect demon roared at Luz while revealing sharp teeth and bat wings.

"¡Dulce madre de las avispas!" Luz shouted in Spanish as the bee flew at her in rage.

Thinking fast, Luz pressed her fire and light glyphs and unleashed a stream of golden flames on the giant wasp as it screeched in pain as the stream consumed it. The screeching came to a slow halt as Luz stopped her attack and watched as the charred body of the bee demon fell to the ground on it's back, the legs curled inward as it was cooked to a crisp.

"Uh...You don't happen to well done bee, do you?" Luz asked Bat Queen as she looked from Luz to the bee and back to her for a moment.

"...You lucky, I do." Bat Queen said as the geyser/stump to the left extinguished itself.

"Whew." Luz let out as Gus and Willow cheered for her.

"Nice job, Luz! Only more trial to go!" Willow said with a smile as Gus waved his still free flags.

"You got this, Luz!" He said with less movements and pizazz as he wanted.

"Grr! Third Trial!" Bat Queen said, growling the Luz made it this far in her challenge. "Give babies a bath!"

Using her magic, Bat Queen summoned a washtub full of soapy water and scrub brush next to Luz as the 3 babies flew down to her.

"Okay, a simple bath. This shouldn't be too hard." Luz said as she grabbed the scrub brush and dunked it in the water, looking down at the babies. "Okay, guys. I don't want to get rough with you. Just make this easy for all of use and everything will be fine."

Though this was a demon realm, Luz had forgotten that babies didn't listen very well some times and they all tackled her to the ground! The kickboxer didn't give up though as she endured their struggles, screeching, and biting to scrub each and every one of them clean.

"Luz, if you need help, just burn us free and we'll each take a baby!" Gus suggested.

"Yeah, let us help!" Willow agreed.

"No, I said I have to do this alone!" Luz said as she kept scrubbing. "It's my fault all this happened in the first place. I took Owlbert without asking, I spooked him into a crazed rush, I hurt him when it wasn't his fault! I don't care what I have to endure, I won't stop until he knows I'm sorry!"

Finishing her scrubbing, Luz grabbed the washtub and doused the three babies to rinse them clean. When the water cleared the trio of babies looked actually normal with shiny skin and combed hair?

"Wha?" Luz said in confusion as she set the washtub down.

The babies them shook themselves dry and hissed at Luz as they returned to their normal looks! Luz yelped in fright before getting angry, having had enough of their attitudes since this trial began! She knew she had to be patient with little kids but patience always run thin!

"SIT!" she screamed at them, echoing through the cave as everyone watched her and the babies.

The trio of babies immediately went silent before whimpering to Luz and sitting on the ground. Luz breathed heavily to calm down before taking a deep breath to finally calm down.

"Good, now go to your mother." she said as she stood up and pointed to Bat Queen.

The babies quickly flew to her and hid in behind her as Bat Queen kept her gaze on Luz and the final flame geyser/stump extinguished itself.

"Okay, Bat Queen, the trials have been completed and I've proven that I am dedicated to making things right with Owlbert." Luz said as she moved her gaze to Owlbert, who was now perched on the tree stump/geyser next to Bat Queen's feet, taking slow steps towards him before going onto her right knee. "Owlbert, no amount of apologizing can ever make up for what I did but I want you to know that I will never hurt you or borrow without permission again. I will treat you just as precious and careful as Eda does. Will you please come home with me?"

Holding out her left palm to him, Owlbert looked at the hand before looking to see the pain and regret for what she did to him today along with determination to make things right. Chasing a spider demon to milk it, roasting a giant demonic bee, and bathing three demon babies while enduring their struggling, biting, and screeching just to earn his forgiveness. If that wasn't a true friend, then what was?

"Hoo hoo." OWlbert said as he flew from Bat Queen and landed in front of Luz.

Luz smiled down to her friend as she moved her hand to rubbed against his right cheek.

"Thank you, Owlbert." Luz said as she held hand out for him to hop on.

But before Owlbert could take a step towards her, Bat Queen raised her left foot and summoned webbing to restrain him to the ground like Willow and Gus.

"Eeh!" he screeched in surprised of his sudden capture.

"OWLBERT!" Luz said before looking up to Bat Queen, hardening her face into a glare. "What do you think you're doing?! We had a deal, I beat your trials and Owlbert has forgiven me!"

"NO! No go! Not until final trial! You must face...ME!" Bat Queen proclaimed spread her wings out, the geyser she was sitting on blazing with fire as she glared down to Luz. "RAH!"

Luz quickly jumped back as Bat Queen landed behind Owlbert, rolled onto her feet as she glared at the queen.

"You will never get him back!" Bat Queen shouted at her.

It was safe to say that this was the final straw for Luz as she roared to the cave ceiling!

"THAT IS IT! I'VE HAD ENEOUGH OF YOU!" Luz screamed as she glared at the Bat Queen. "I WENT THROUGH YOUR TRIALS, I EARNED MY FRIEND'S TRUST BACK, AND NOW YOU WANT TO GO BACK ON YOUR WORD?! THAT SHIT AIN'T GONNA FLY, QUEENY! SO IF YOU WANNA FIGHT, YOU GOT ONE!"

Charing in a burst of rage and speed, Luz threw her strongest right hook to Bat Queen's cheek. The hit made her flinch but she held her ground used a wing to knock Luz back. Bat Queen charged at Luz and tried to grab her but the human rolled out of the way, she then began swiping her wings at Luz again but Luz ducked, dodged, and slide under her attacks. Luz threw a kick to her nose and followed with a spinning back kick to the cheek, causing the queen to shake her head before glaring at Luz. Luz glared right back as she activated her gloves and sent fireballs at Bat Queen, but the large creature just flew into the air to avoid them.

"RAH!" she screamed as she flapped her wings at Luz, sending a gust of air to push Luz back.

'Damn it, with those wings, she's got the advantage in distance attacks. I need something to hit her if she keeps doing this.' Luz thought as the gusts stopped and she saw Bat Queen flying at her again.

An idea came to mind and she quickly activated her glyphs for a new combination, a vine grew from her palm and was coated in flames as Luz kept her eyes on Bat Queen.

"Let's see if it's as easy as Lion tamers make it!" Luz said before whipping the flame vine at Bat Queen, causing her to stop mid flight to avoid the attack. "Get back, get back!"

Throwing more whip attacks, very sloppy ones but getting better each time, Luz pushed Bat Queen back before her whip was grabbed by B.Q.

"GRRR!" she grunted as she used her magic to make it bearable before pulling on the whip!

"WHOA!" Luz shouted as she was pulled towards Bat Queen and caught her in the right foot claw.

"THIS END NOW!" Bat Queen shouted she flew to the ground and landed with Luz underfoot, sending a BOOM through the cave!

"GUH" Luz grunted in pain as the breath was knocked out of her and she tasted a little bile mixed with blood rising, but chocked it down and grabbed the foot to push it off her body.

"LUZ!" Gus and Willow shouted at their friend being slammed into the ground.

Bat Queen continued to hold Luz down as she kept fighting, even though it looked to be over.

"Give up, trial is over! You lose!" she said as she glared down to Luz. "Owlbert will stay!"

Luz growled at Bat Queen as she clenched on the foot, a new idea coming to mind but she wasn't sure it would work.

'You never know until you try!' she thought as she pulled her right hand and made a fist, pressing the plant glyph in the process.

"LIKE HELL IT IS!" Luz shouted at her before she slammed her fist on the cave glow, creating a green glow under it before it spread and slowly faded.

Bat Queen watched as nothing happened from her failed attack before everyone felt the cave shaking.

"What is this?! What you do?!" she asked Luz before she felt a large amount of magic build up in the floor a 10 feet from her.

The ground broke open as large vines rose and began to form something, a large hand! The hand then curled into a fist as Bat Queen looked back to Luz and saw her smirk up to her.

"Let's see flinch at this punch!" Luz said as she moved her right arm like she was punching across her chest

The giant fist seemed to follow her command and rushed in the same motion, right towards Bat Queen and smash into her cheek. The attack made Bat Queen release Luz and slammed her into the ground next to her before the vines spread to hold her down. As Luz rose, she was left in a bit of awe of her attack as she took several deep breathes before she began chuckling and shooting to her feet!

"Hahahaha! WOO! It worked, I can't believe it worked!" Luz cheered, not expecting to create such an attack but she was glad she did.

As she cheered, Bat Queen tried to get out of the vines but couldn't as they were to strong. This alerted Luz to her as she got her guard back up before she noticed something on Bat Queen's right foot.

"Huh?" Luz said in confusion as she stepped closer to take a look before she gasped at what she saw. "That's...an interlock."

True to her eyes as Bat Queen stopped struggling, her foot had a round opening with a slant inside it like Owlbert but this one was rectangular.

"That's why you're being so aggressive with this." Luz said as she looked up to Bat Queen, seeing her shocked and fearful look on her huge face. "You were someone's palisman, weren't you?"

The cold silence that followed gave Luz her answer as she put a hand on the vines to make them release Bat Queen and let her stand up on her feet fully. The two continued to stare at each other for a few moments as the wind blew and their hair picked up, the only sound being present as Bat Queen soon took gave a crestfallen look, lifting up her foot to look at her interlock with shame.

"Yes, I was. Made for a staff befitting a giant, nay the titan itself even!" she said as she turned around, flourishing her wings to make her point before folding them in. "I became broken and soon, discarded."

"And that lead you to become so angry when you saw what happened to Owlbert, you hate the thought of him being thrown away like you were." Luz said, finally understanding why Bat Queen did this.

"Not just him." Bat Queen said as she turned back to Luz, her eyes glowing bright yellow again. "All of them!"

Multiple eyes glowed in the darkness of Bat Queen's nest, revealing hundreds of animal shaped Palismans with their interlocks revealed and their wounds displayed. Cracks, limbs lost, large scratches marks, chips from their bodies as birds, insects, mammals and amphibian type palismen filled Luz's sight.

"I created this refugee in this forest. A home for all lost and broken." Bat Queen said as he eyes stopped glowing and she looked to Luz. "They are my people and I am their queen."

"I understand why you're doing this, no one likes to be thrown away by the people they loved, but Owlbert isn't like that. Eda loves him, I love him, and he has a home waiting for him." Luz said as she put a hand on her chest.

Bat Queen stared at Luz for a moment before closing her eyes and turning away.

"No, my decision final. Owlbert stay." she said as she walked away from Luz.

"It's not your choice to make, Bat Queen!" Luz said as she glared at Bat Queen again.

"Well it not yours either!" she shouted, turning back to Luz to attack again.

Luz readied herself to fight again before she saw something fly in between her and Bat Queen.

"Owlbert!" Luz said, seeing the small owl holding his wings in front of Luz to protect her, ceasing Bat Queen's charge.

"Hooo." he let out as his eyes glowed, speaking to the queen once again.

"You..." she let out as her eyes glow, understanding Owlbert as she relax. "You care for her as much as she does for you."

Their conversation lasted a few seconds as the wind blew once more, before Owlbert's eye returned to normal and he nodded to his "queen."

"Hoo hoo." he said as he turned, walking to Luz as she kneeled down to him and picked him up in her hands.

"Thanks, buddy." Luz said as she brought Owlbert up and he nuzzled her cheek.

"Very well, go. You may return with him and your friends are free." Bat Queen said as she held her foot out to them, releasing them from the webbing as they ran to Luz.

"Luz!" Willow called out as they hugged her and Owlbert. "That was amazing! I've never seen anyone do that with Plant Magic before!"

"So awesome, it was totally worth getting caught in weird webs!" Gus said as the hug broke and Luz chuckled a bit.

"Hehehe, thanks, guys." Luz said as Owlbert flew out of her hand and grabbed the staff from Willow, flying it back to Luz before perching on her shoulder. "Thanks buddy."

Luz turned back to Bat Queen as her babies flew to her and she embraced them in a hug, smiling as Luz stepped her again.

"Hey, Bat Queen. Do you know what happened to the one that made you, your old owner?" Luz asked her.

"No, it has been too long." Bat Queen said as she shook her head at Luz and her friends. "Thousands of years has made forgotten."

"Well, if you ever want to search for the truth or ever need a favor from me, you know where to find me." Luz said as she gave a small smile to her, the hard feelings from before now forgotten.

"Thank you, strong human." she said as her babies grabbed her hair, flying off into the forest as her palismen people faded into darkness.

After a few moments of silence, Willow turned to Luz with a wide smile.

"I can't believe you took on the Bat Queen and won! No one is going to believe this!" she said to Luz.

"I hardly believe it and I saw it!" Gus said as he waved his flags around.

"Yeah. Thanks again guys for coming with me to get Owlbert back." Luz said before smiling sadly. "Sorry you had to miss the Grudgby game though."

"Are you kidding? That was even better than the Grudgby game! Action packed trials, an amazing fight, and I was only slightly traumatized by the giant, plant fist! Hurray!" Gus said with a small cheer and flag wave at the end.

"Hehehe, same old Gus." Luz mumbled with a chuckle as she turned to Owlbert. "Come on, guys. Let's get Owlbert home."

After a more controlled flight home and wave goodbye to Willow and Gus, Luz and Owlbert entered the owl house and sat on the couch as the day came to an end.

"That was crazy, I don't think I'm gonna be borrowing you again any time soon, Owlbert." Luz said as she sat on the couch, looking down to Owlbert and the crack she put in his head. "Again, I'm sorry for hitting you Owlbert. I should've found another way to get my friends to Glandus instead of borrowing you."

"Hoo." Owlbert said as he shook his head to Luz, letting her know their was no hard feelings anymore.

Still, Luz felt guilty that he would have to deal with that chip in his head for the rest of his life and wanted to find a way to help him before a new thought came to her mind. If she could use the plant glyph to make that giant fist, could she use it to fix a wooden palisman? Eda did say she made him from a tree, so maybe the plant glyph could work on Owlbert.

"Hey, Owlbert, you mind if I try something?" Luz asked as she held her hand out to him. "I promise, it won't be anything bad."

Seeing the honesty in her eyes, Owlbert nodded to Luz as she moved her hand to his head and pressed the Plant Glyph on her right glove.

'Let's hope this works.' Luz thought, placing her hand on the owl palisman and watching his head glow with green energy.

Luz held her hand there for a few seconds before the glow died out and she moved her hand to see the crack was gone! Like it never happened in the first place.

"It worked! I guess I can heal palismens now." Luz said with a smile as Owlbert hooted to her in relief.

They sat in silence before the door was opened and Eda came in looking tired.

"Owlbert? Why are you off the staff?" she asked as King came in by her legs, crossing her arms.

Before Luz could say anything, Owlbert flew to his master's/mother's shoulder and hooted a story.

"Luz took you out on the town and got ice cream?" she translated as Owlbert nodded to her. "Aww, well that's...the worst lie I've heard all day."

Owlbert just had a look that said 'I tried' while Luz chuckled and shook her head, admitting they didn't do that.

"Well, consider yourselves lucky that I don't care. I'm going to sleep." Eda said as she walked off to her room.

"And I'll...be going going back to the playground." King said as he left the house again, going back to finish things with the "usurper."

Watching them leave, Luz saw Owlbert fly back to her shoulder as she looked to him.

"How about we keep today our little secret, buddy? I'll even head back to Bat Queen's place and fix up some of your friends too, huh?" Luz said to him as Owlbert nuzzled her cheek. "I'll take that as a yes."

Chapter Text

The sun was bright and shining as the market place of the Boiling Isles was hustling and bustling with business but not the usual business. Today's business was full of nothing but lovers of the finer text as a book fair was being held for all to enjoy. Luz, King, and Eda walked though as the kickboxer of the group gazed around the fair with awe, not been to such a book fair in so long. Luz might have been a tough girl and a kicker of many asses, but she was always a book lover at heart and she was curious to what other types of literature the Boiling Isles had to offer outside of her Azura books.

'Which reminds me, I should probably find other books to read. Azura is good and will always number one to me but it's nice to expand.' Luz thought as she had her hands in her pockets.

"Can someone tell me why anyone would come to a fair without any rides or fair food?" King asked, not really feeling interested in the book fair.

"Because some people enjoy to read?" Luz said to him with a a raised bow.

At the same time, a random boy around King's size with a backpack full of books stopped in front of him with a large smile on his face.

"She's right, you know. Who needs rides when this can take you on an ride like never before?" he asked while pushing an open book into King's face, almost forcing him to read it.

"Remove your book from my face, whelp!" King said as he pushed the book out of his face and got into a kickboxing stance, very slowly and not well maintain. "And taste the might of the king of demons! Hyah!"

In a sloppy fashion with barely decent speed, King punch the small boy in the face, sent him tumbling away until he fell on his back and became weighted down by all the books in his bag.

'I see King's been copying me in his spare time, sloppy but still a bit decent.' Luz thought, judging his technique as they kept walking.

"A. That was funny. B. I'm bored now. And C. I think I'm gonna go pickpocket these nerd, find me if you need me." Eda said before she walked off, leaving King and Luz.

"Come on, Eda. At least give it a chance." Luz said as she left before turning to King. "What about you, interested in reading?"

"Nope. Not now and not ever." King said with a head shake. "But I will stay because it'll be fun to see you kick someone butt. And because I can right in your hoodie."

"Okay, and while I'll enjoy the company at least, I will not be kicking someone's butt at a book fair. That's just sad." Luz said as she picked up King, putting him in her hoodie to ride in.

Walking back through the book fair, Luz saw that it had everything a young book lover could ask for. Scene workshops, meet and greets, review corners, and a banner that said...

"A writing competition?" Luz asked with surprise as she saw a crowd of people gathered around the stand with two people manning it.

On the right side was a man with fair skin, a shaved head with a green mohawk swept to his right, purple, circle glasses, a thin mustache, 4 lines of hair on his chin, and pointed ears wearing a blue jacket, a lighter blue sweater underneath, a red scarf, gray pants and pointed shoes. On the left was a lizard man with green skin and three blue eyes with the middle one shut wearing small glasses that rest at the end of his nose, a long red jacket with yellow trimming, blue hat, and black shoes.

"Yeah, what of it?" King asked as someone walked past Luz, Skara from her kickboxing class.

"Before getting into kickboxing, I kind of wanted to be one myself. Not world famous but still a good one." Luz admitted.

"You, a writer? You're better off as a kickboxing witch." King said to her.

"Yeah but I still want to at least try to be a writer. A career in kickboxing could be cool but it's nice to have a backup if it doesn't work out." Luz said to him as she turned back to the banner. "I'm gonna enter the contest."

"Coming though, Luz!" A voice called out, making Luz quickly move to dodge as Bo came running by with a smile and a book in her arms.

"Yeesh! What's with her?! It's just a dumb book thing. Why are these basement dwellers to excited?" King said with narrows eyes.

"Um...excuse me?" Another voice called out.

Turning to the new person, Luz and King saw that it was Tiny Nose with a book above her head frowning at them.

"We are not "basement dwellers." We are loyal book readers and fans of John De Plume, the most famous writer on the Boiling Isles and author of his best seller, The Worm Warriors series!" Tiny said as she pointed back to the stand, right at the man with blue glasses that signed Bo's book.

'Oh. It makes sense now. If it was the author of Azura, I'd be like that too.' Luz thought as King turned back to Tiny Nose.

"I'm gonna ask him to ready my story after he signs my book." She said with a determined look before whispering, "and to marry me."

Ignoring her crazed fan fantasy of marrying the author, King turned back to John and saw that he was being showered with love, admiration, and respect from his loyal/crazy fan base. Even signing a man's baby for crying out loud!

"This power, this command over the mindless masses. It must be mine!" King whispered to himself before speaking aloud! "I've decided! I shall enter this book contest as well!"

"Really? You want to write a book?" Luz asked before chuckling at the thought, finding it to be crazy considering who she was talking to. "I can already see what you would have in mind. People would LOVE it."

How could Luz not be sarcastic about this? Whatever King would write would make anyone laugh at how cute it might be when he wanted it to be gory.

"Of course they would! I know what the people love! In fact, let's work together and make a book no one has ever seen!" King suggested to the human.

"Us? Work together?" Luz said before chuckling as she turned to make them leave. "Maybe, just maybe, King. I could share some pointers if you need them."

"I will need no pointers! I know all I need for my masterpiece!" King shouted at Luz, determined that his book will be amazing.

After a walk back home without Eda, Luz and King went up to her room to work on their books and share ideas. To help, Luz brought in an empty pin board with a line down the middle for each of them to have a side.

"Okay, before we get started we need to right down some ideas we want to see in our book." Luz said as she looked down to King.

"Can they be anything we want?" he asked with his arms out.

"Of course, it's called brainstorming." Luz said as she handed King a stack of notecards and a pencil. "When it comes to brainstorming, no idea is a bad idea. It's just part of the creative process."

Pulling out her own stack of cards and a pencil, Luz sat down and began writing ideas with King for their book. A few minutes passed before the silence was broken by King.

"Done!" King said as he held up a notecard before he stuck it to the board with a tack.

"VIOLENCE." it said in big letters as Luz looked over it.

"Hmm, while I can agree we should have some violence in it, there's gotta be more you want then just violence, right King?" Luz asked him as she turned to him.

"Huh. You're right." King said as he picked up another flash card and wrote on it.

Turning it around, Luz rose an eyebrow to the card as she felt the genre King wanted for their book.

"BLOOD. :)" the card said.

"Okay...that's also good but a story should be more than just blood and violence." Luz said as she began writing on several notecards before sticking them on the board a few minutes later. "A book needs all sorts of elements to make it a good story. And these are just the few of many."

Watching Luz closely, the small demon read all of the words she wrote on the brainstorming board that were themes and place they could use.

"GOOD, EVIL, ADVENTURE, TRAGEDY, KINGDOMS, DARKNESS, LOVE, HATE, PASSION, ANGER, MAGIC, MARITAL ARTS." they all said as Luz turned back to King.

"You get it now, King? A story could be built from all of these and so much more but first of all, a story will always need a main character." Luz said as she pulled out another notecard, this one with a drawing of her self dressed as a rogue with fire on her fist and Luzura "written" under it. "This is my character, Luzura. I know it's a bit clichés for a writer to put themselves in a story but sometimes the clichés work the best."

Using another thumbtack, Luz put her picture on the board as King pulled out his and stuck it right next to her. It was a doodles of him with a large crown on his head and a flaming staff in his right hand.

"This shall be my character, the Ruler of Demons! With this unstoppable duo in our book, no one will stop us from winning the contest!" King proclaimed with his fists in the air.

"Don't get so confident, King. The brainstorming is only half the battle in making a book." Luz said as she went to a chest, opening it and pulling out a typewriter with eyes on the sides and teeth where the paper exits. "The other half is actually writing a book."For the next few hours, the two friends began to write their story while clashing ideas. The agreed, they argued, and sometimes they made each other made but they kept at it as the time flew and they made the perfect title for their masterpiece. "Magic and Martial Arts." It hung from a banner above Luz as she continued type while King read from one of their pages.

""Luzura cried tears of heartbreak as she stood over the body of the prince, a traitor to his own kingdom that she was forced to vanquish to save her home. Though it was a a heavy price, sacrificing the one she loved most to save the masses." I like it but it feels like it's missing something." King said as he rolled his hand, gazing towards Luz.

"I get what you're trying to say but I still think it's better than just Ruler destroying everything in sight." Luz said as she stopped typing on the typewriter and gazed at King. "You'd be surprise how popular a story can be when there's a dead lover involved."

"Yeah but at least it's better than shipping two "enemies that don't knowing their enemies" together." King said as he shut his eyes, missing Luz flinched and glaring at him until he opened his eyes.

"King, I'm only going to say this once." Luz said as King flinched under her glare. "Shipping is what makes a single story, grow into a fandom. So NEVER insult shipping in front of me."

The small demon nodded rapidly before Eda called out to her, having arrived home who knows when.

"Apprentice! I need to speak with you!" she said.

"I'll be right back and sorry for the glare, I just want our story to be just right before we submit it." Luz said as she got up and left the room, leaving King with the typewriter. Alone. Without anyone to stop him.

"Yay! I get to write now!" King cheered as he threw his hands in the air.

Meanwhile with Luz, she had walked down to the living room to find Eda donned in a black cloak with a strange scroll in her hands.

"You called, Eda?" Luz asked as Eda rolled up the scroll and turned to her.

"Yeah, I just needed to let you know I'll be going out for a few days to get something." Eda said as she put the scroll away and pointed at Luz. "You're in charge until I get back, got it?"

"Okay, sure but can I ask what this "something" is?" Luz said with her hands in her pockets.

"No you cannot." Eda answered as she walked to the door, pulling her hood up. "Now no more question! See you later!"

The door slammed shut as Luz rolled her eyes, knowing whatever Eda was going to get would be something crazy powerful and crazy dangerous. Putting that thought aside while putting any worry for Eda aside as well, Luz walked back upstairs to King so they could finish their book.

"Hey, King, Eda said she'd be gone for a few days and that she left me in charge." Luz said as she opened the door to the room, only to gasp at how much it changed in how little she was gone!

The storyboard was covered in King drawings, all the pages Luz typed were in the trash, and their was crossed out with new words written on it, "RULER'S REACH!"

"Luz, great news! I'm almost done with our book!" King said as he was at the typewriter.

"King, what the fuck did you do!? "Luz asked as she walked to the typewriter.

"Like I said, I'm finishing our book and adding a few small changes." King said as he pinched his claws together.

"Small changes?" Luz asked before she picked up a paper and showed it to King, her main character with an X over her. "You killed me?!"

"It's just like you said, a dead character is popular! It'll be such a great twist!" King said, loving his work.

Luz took a breath to calm down, rubbed her forehead gently as she tried not to be too mad at King, they made such great progress until now and she didn't want to lose that.

"King, listen to me for a sec, okay? I'm glad you want to pitch in more but you can't cross a line like that by killing off the main character in the possible first book." she said gently.

"But I'm crossing a line into greatness! Don't you want to win the contest?" He said to her, not seeing how killing Luzura made Luz feel.

It was like he just shut her out, pushed her aside, and made it seem like he didn't care about how she felt in the matter. Almost like everyone back home when they found out how tough and scary Luz is with her kickboxing.

"You know what? Forget it. You want to win the contest like this? Submit it on your own, I don't want any part of it anymore." Luz said as she walked out of the room, masking her sadness with a straight face.

"What?" King asked before he shook of his sadness. "Whatever, go ahead and leave! I show you my story is a 1000x better than yours ever could've been!"

Shutting the door behind her, Luz stood in the hallway for a moment as she clenched her fists and growled in frustration.

'Damnit, King. How could you just stab me in the back like this? I thought we were friends.' Luz thought as she she left for her training shack behind the house, needing to work out this frustration. 'I guess I was wrong. He really is a demon.'

Demon: a cruel, evil, or destructive person or thing/reckless mischief; devilry

This fit King to a tee as he cared more about winning a book contest than writing a book with his friend.

-Time skip, 2 days later.-

After King finished his book and took it to the contest, he had actually won and got published by the holder of the contest. Piniet of Piniet Publishing House, the green lizard man from the book fair, found it to be a step above all the others and took him on as one of his authors, turning the small demon into an overnight sensation in only two days time! Just like that John De Plume guy. Meanwhile with Luz, the kickboxing girl was still at the owl house with her mood still sad from King's backstabbing. She hadn't talked to him since and she wasn't planning to until he apologized or she forgave him, both of witch seemed unlikely as she was back at the typewriter. Luz knew the contest was over but she still wanted to type her story, Magic and Martial Art. It meant a lot to her and she at least wanted to show people her heart though her writing, despite what anyone would say about it. Friend, enemy, or random stranger.

"Hey Luz." a familiar voice called out, making Luz glance to the door to see King leaning against it wearing a brand new author get up.

It seemed like he took a lot of inspiration from John De Plume as he wore a brown jacket with lime green patch elbows, a beige scarf, and red sunglasses.

"Guess who won the writer's competition and became the biggest star on the Boiling Isles?" he asked smugly as he pushed his sunglasses up.

Luz didn't bother answering him as she went back focusing on the typewriter as King slid into the room.

"You guessed it, me! Me!" he said with excitement as he held up the scarf around his neck. "This scarf was knit by a fan from his own hair, it reeks! Wanna touch it?"

Luz still didn't answer him as she kept typing, not even looked as King pulled out a red envelop from his jacket.

"Anyway, the reason I'm here is because my publisher is throwing a huge party in celebration of my book, Ruler's Reach!" King said as he put the invitation on the table next to the typewriter. "And...I'd be so glad if my one of my best friends could be there."

'Best...friend?' Luz thought as she stopped stop typing, clenching her fingers against the keys as she looked towards the invitation. 'You stab me in the back, insult my ideas, and take the book for yourself yet you still calls me one of your "best friends?!"'

Still not saying a word, Luz picked up the invitation...and crumbled it into a ball before dropping it in front of King. This made the demon flinch as Luz went back to typing, still not looking at him as he had a hurt look on his face. He sniffled a bit as he blinked away a tear.

"Okay...fine. Who needs you?" King said as he pushed his sunglasses down, tossing his scarf over his shoulder as he left the room.

After a bit more typing, Luz stopped again as she looked to where King was. Still so sad and angry at him, yet missing him at the same time as she let out a heavy sigh.

"Girl, forget him. You know what he did." the typewriter said, being alive this whole time but never saying anything.

"I know but...he's still my friend." Luz said as she looked to the crumbled up red envelope. "I don't want to stay mad at him forever."

Getting up from her seat, Luz picked up the envelope to uncrumbled it and see the ticket to the party.

MEET THE -AUTHOR-. TONIGHT ONLY BONESBOROUGH LIBRARY.

A picture of King in a purple sweater giving an interested look, his author's photo, plastered right on the orange ticket. Swallowing her anger and preparing some things, Luz grabbed her bag and exited the owl house as she headed towards the Bonesborough Library a few hours later to see a massive lines of fans outside of it.

'I pray to god this ticket can get me in.' Luz thought as she walked up to the steps, moving past the long line of people that strangely didn't mind.

The reason behind it was that they weren't waiting to get in, they were waiting for an autograph from King! That many people loved Ruler's Reach as it baffled Luz, was the small demon that good of a writer?! Those answers could wait as Luz came to the bouncer, a large and muscular lizard man in a red robe with no sleeves, a rope acting as a belt, red forearm covers, red pants and red shoes(?), standing at the doors and showed him her ticket.

"Go ahead." he said to her as he took the ticket, tore it in half, and gave Luz back one half.

The human girl nodded to him as she entered the library, her red hood up as she looked around at all of the fans of King's book. This only made Luz sadder as they enjoyed the book that cast aside her ideas and paved a way for King to become a successful writer.

'Maybe I should've have come after all.' Luz thought as she walked around, her hands in her pockets as she half heartedly looked for King.

"Luz!" a voice called out, making Luz stop and see King running up to her with a bundle of papers in his hand. "You actually came! I'm so happy you're here!"

"Yeah, I did. Look King, I'm sorry about what happened earlier at the house. Even if you did toss all my ideas out the window, I should still be happy for your success. You are my friend after all, so...congratulations on your best seller." Luz said to him with a small yet still sad smile.

"Thank you, Luz. That's so great because I need A LOT of help with my next book, Ruler's Reach 2!" King said as he held up the bundle of papers, revealing it to be his manuscript for the second book.

"Huh? You need my help?" Luz asked him in surprise.

"Yeah, here's the thing. Apparently I can't make my amazing work unless it's clashing and crushing against your gushy, fantasy fighting crap." King said as he waved his fingers around playfully.

"Gushy, fantasy, fighting crap?" Luz repeated, blushing in embarrassment and anger.

"Yep yep yep! Turns out, we're two half of this lean, mean, writing machine! So why don't we get started?" King asked as he pulled out a pen, holding it and his book out to Luz. "Clock's ticking, Luz."

Still blushing at King, Luz took the pen and book in one hand before she held them up.

"Okay, I'll help you, but you know, this reminds me of an old saying back in my world." Luz said to him.

"Yeah, what about it?" King asked, jittery about the book.

"It's about trying to do too many things in a short amount of time and being overwhelmed by the work load. I think it was something like this." Luz said as she pushed a glyph on her glove, right below the thumb. "You're burning the candle at both ends, King."

A ball of fire erupted from Luz's glove, burning the book and the pen as everyone around them gasped while King screamed in horror.

"NO! What have you done?!" King asked before Luz kicked him in the stomach, knocking him into a book shelf! "AAAH!"

"Giving you a goddamn wake up call!" Luz shouted as she marched over to King, glaring down at him. "Did you honestly think I'd work with you again after you just called my ideas "crap?!" What kind of person do you take me for?!"

"UH! Someone who helps their friends when they need it." King groaned out, holding his stomach.

"OH So now we're friends?! Where was this when you stabbed me in the back and threw away my ideas?! Where was our friendship then?!" Luz asked, reminding him of what he did just two days ago!

King tried to reply but he didn't have the words, not after realizing that his writing is garbage without Luz. Without all the work she did, he wouldn't have been able make a book even half as good as he had now, almost exactly like what Piniet said about "Ruler's Reach 2."

"Nothing to say?" Luz asked him as she glared down at him, slowly huffing as she calmed herself down while King remained silent. "That's what I thought. I hope all this fame was worth losing one of your best friends."

Turning away, Luz walked away as King watched her leave with a feeling of dread in his throat.

"W-Wait Luz. Do-Don't go." King said as he leaned over the ashes of his book, crying a bit as his arrogance and lust for power cost him a dear friend. "Come back. Please."

Meanwhile behind the bookshelf King was kicked into, Piniet was watching the whole thing from the shadows and came to one solitary conclusion.

'That girl, she's the reason Ruler's Reach was a success. Without her, King's career is over and my sales will plummet.' he thought as he rubbed his chin, narrowing his eyes at where Luz left. 'I have to get her back.'

About 30 minutes later, the library was all but cleared out as Luz walked down the aisles. She was still angry with King for what he said and still wanting her to work with him just so he could stab her in the back again! The nerve of him! Even though she felt a bit back for kicking him into a bookshelf, he deserved it for caring more about his ill gotten fame than their friendship! She was so lost in thought and anger, that Luz almost ran into a banner hanging from the ceiling of King. It had the exact same picture from the ticket and the full name of the book above him, "Ruler's Reach: Enter the Bad Boy."

"Ugh, even got his good angle." Luz mumbled, hating that they made his author photo look good.

Looking at the ground, Luz was shaken from her thought as two heavy footsteps caught her attention. She looked up to see the lizard man bodyguard from before and a possible twin brother next to him standing in front of her, the one on her right having his arms crossed.

"Uh, hello gentlemen, can I help you with something?" Luz asked, cautious if these two were looking for a fight like she was thinking they were.

The two burly lizards said nothing as they moved aside to reveal Piniet standing behind them.

"Perhaps you can, miss. I've heard word that you wish to be a great writer." he said wit his hands together and a tiny sinister smile on his face.

"Yeah, so?" Luz asked cautiously, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Well, I'd like to help you help me. All I need you to do, is come with me." he said, holding a hand out to Luz.

Looking at his hand and back to Piniet, Luz gave her response to him.

"No thanks, I was raised not to trust strangers. Famous or not." Luz said as she turned around to leave, only to find his bodyguards standing in front of her. "Hey, move, Pendejos!"

Piniet just chuckled as he nodded to his guards, having them move to capture Luz. One rushed to grab her but Luz jumped into the air and stomped his head to the ground! The other guard went to help but Luz gave him a spinning back kick to the jaw, make him stumble and hold his jaw. The first rose up, sending Luz into the air as she flipped twice and landed on her feet.

"Get her!" Piniet shouted as he pointed to Luz, angry that this was taking too long!

The bodyguards rushed at Luz again as she got into her fighting stance.

"Okay, bring it!" Luz shouted as rushed forward.

One guard threw a punch but Luz sidestepped and delivered an upward elbow to his chin! Putting all her force behind it hurt but it was enough to make the guard dizzy as his brain was rattled! His fellow guard moved him out of the way as Luz charged at him, he tried to slash at hurt but Luz ducked and rose to send a flying knee...right into his crotch!

"AAAAH!" he screamed in pain before Luz ignited her fist with fire!

"Eat it!" Luz shouted as she delivered a bolo punch to his face, burning him as he was sent to the ground.

With both bodyguards down, Luz turned on her heel to Pinet and charged at him.

"YOU'RE NEXT!" she shouted, making the small lizard man fear for his life.

"Think again!" Piniet shouted back as he drew a spell circle and instantly trapped Luz in a giant purple cube!

"Que Carajo?!" Luz said as she looked over the cube before punching the wall but it didn't break. "Let me out of here, you creep!"

"Unfortunately, I can't let that happen." Piniet said, calming down his racing heart as his bodyguards slowly recovered. "You see, I was there when during your little argument with King and I can't have you two not working together."

"This is what this is about? His dumb book?!" Luz aksed him.

"Dumb or not, it's a best seller! And if I want to keep the money coming, I am going to need another one. Meaning you and King are going to work together again, whether you like it or not." Piniet said before he snapped his fingers.

In the blink of an eye, Luz and the cube she was in were teleported from the library to a whole new room. It looked like some sort of dressing room, pretty normal if you don't count the bones uses for clothes racks and the mirror had horns on them.

"Damn that lizard! If he thinks I'm just gonna take this lying down, he's got another think coming!" Luz shout as she pressed her gloves, activating light and fire glyphs to make gold flames on her fists. "I'm getting out of this damn box!"

Throwing everything she had at the cube, focusing on just one spot to weaken it, Luz hit it and hit with every punch, kick, knee, and elbow strike she knew but it wasn't doing any damage! 20 minutes of trying had produced no results except exhaustion as Luz fell to the ground to sit and rest.

"Huh, huh, huh huh. Damn, I'm not making any progress." Luz said with deep huffs, deactivating her gloves to wipe her forehead clean from the sweat.

As she rested, Luz noticed that the cube seemed...smaller than before but that couldn't be right. Piniet was nowhere to be seen, so he couldn't have tampered with the cube. Unless...

"He made it preset to crush me!" Luz shouted, her panic reenergizing her as she looked towards the edge to see it was getting smaller! "I have to find a way out of this thing!"

A few seconds later, the door opened to show Piniet and a confused King as he looked to see Luz in a purple cube!

"Luz!" he shouted in worry as he ran towards the cube, putting his paws against it!

"King, get away from him! That creep put me in this box thing to force me to write for him!" Luz told him, still mad but not mad enough to ignore him when she needed help!

"Indeed, I did." Piniet said before raising a hand and closing it, making the cube shrink even more more.

"Oh man!" Luz shouted as she fell back to the ground, activating her plant glyphs to make large vines grow inside.

This managed to hold the cube from shrinking but they couldn't last forever.

"What do you think you're doing, Piniet?!" King asked, turning to his publisher in anger.

"Just as the human said, I need her to write for me and with you." he replied as he walked to the cube, gazing down at King. "If you want to save your friend, you and her will write Ruler's Reach 2 together just like Ruler's Reach 1."

"You must be off your rocker if you think we're gonna work for you!" Luz screamed at him through the cube.

"Maybe so but you'd be surprised how many wonderful books can be written on literal crunch time!" Piniet joked as he clenched his fist more, making the cube shrink more as the vines continued to fight!

"AAH!" Luz shouted as the cube was now the size of a washing machine! "You know that is nothing but a toxic mentality that ruins a writer's craft! Come on, King, do something!"

Seeing his friend in danger, King growled as he marched to Piniet.

"Let my friend go right now or else!" King said, pointing to Piniet.

"Or else what? You walk away? Let me remind you, that you are under contract." Piniet said as he reached into a jacket, pulling out a contract with King's pawprint on it.

Said contract gained a pinkish red glow, lifting King into the air as he panicked!

"Whoa!" he shouted!

"King!" Luz called out before he was blasted to the cube, right as a small hole opened to let him in before closing a second later.

The small demon groaned as he sat up before he and Luz saw a pile of papers fall before them with a pen.

"I suggest you make your deadline, young writers. Or else I'll make sure you'll never be able to write again. Just like John." Piniet said as he pulled out a...

"Help me!" A SHRUNKEND DOWN AND CUBED JOHN DE PLUME!

"John, NO!" King shouted, holding his head in shock.

"That's what this cube does!?" Luz asked in shock as her vines broke apart!

Piniet nodded to them as he pulled out a briefcase, opening it to reveal 31 other cubed demons! All writers that Piniet made famous before he cubed them!

"Help! Save us! Please!" they called out to Luz and King before Piniet put John in an empty slot and shut the briefcase.

"I'll leave you two to work." he said as he smiled evilly, leaving them room. "I look forward to your exciting sequel."

The door shut as Luz and King were left in the dressing them, the cube shrinking again as they jolted at it.

"Oh no! How are we going to write a book that fast? It's impossible! We're cubed like ice!" King said as he held his face.

"Well...not necessarily." Luz said as she reached into her bag, pulling out a bundle of papers. "We've still got my story."

The cover was of Luz in a rogue outfit with her fists up and blazing in fight, the title was above her and said "Magic and Martial Arts: The Essence of the World."

"But that's not blood thirsty enough! It's not my work!" King said as he shoved the book down.

"Your work? Your work?!" Luz asked, getting angry once again! "YOUR WORK IS THE REASON WE'RE IN THIS MESS! BECAUSE YOU TOOK OVER THE BOOK, YOU THREW AWAY MY IDEAS, AND YOU CARED MORE ABOUT FAME THEN ABOUT OUR FRIENDSHIP! NOW YOUR WILLING TO RISK OUR LIVES FOR IT?! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

King backed away from Luz, not much room as his back hit the cube wall. He was shaking in fear once again at Luz's anger but...King didn't argue against her words. Especially since his last verbal lashing about half an hour ago.

"I-I-I just wanted people to respect me! I wanted them to not treat me like some little pet!" King shouted as he trembled, slowly crying as Luz stopped being angry at him. "I just wanted to be looked at as someone who was worth acknowledging, but I never meant to hurt someone I cared about because of it. I'm so sorry, Luz."

The small demon held his face as he cried, letting all of his guilt and sorrow out before he was suddenly picked up and pulled into a warm embrace.

"Luz?" King asked, wondering why Luz was hugging him. "I thought-"

"I know what I said and I still mean it but I can't stay mad at one of my best friends." Luz said, rubbing the demon's back to calm him down. "What really hurt me more wasn't that you took over our book, it's that you tossed aside our friendship for it."

"I know and I never should've nor will ever do it again." King said said, nuzzling into her embrace.

"Promise?" Luz asked him, not caring if the cube shrank again to the size of a mini-fridge cardboard box.

"I promise." King said as he pulled away, wiping his tears away.

"Great. Now, I've got a plan that will get us out of here if you trust me." Luz said to King, picking up the pen.

"All ears, boss." King said with a nod.

-Timeskip, 3 minutes later.-

With their plan set and the book ready, Luz and King called Piniet back into the room to show him.

"Oh my, you completed it a lot faster than I expected." he said, seeing Luz and King in an even smaller cube, King being sat on as Luz was sideways with her legs over him.

"You'd be surpsied how fast someone can write when their life is on the line." Luz said as a small hole opened on top of the cube.

Luz pushed the book through as Piniet stet his briefcase aside and took it.

"Magic and Martial Arts, interesting title." he said as he opened his third eye, flipping through the book and reading it at highspeed while all three eyes glowed green. 

"Hmm, a bit different from your last book but not bad."

"If you like it now, just wait until you get to the ending. You'll feel a blaze in you heart like never before." King said with a nod.

Humming with interest, Piniet continued to speed read as Luz and King watched intently. Seconds went by until Piniet finally stopped at the last page.

"What is this suppose to be?" He asked, turning the book to show a FIRE glyph on the last page!

"FIRE!" Luz shouted as she forced her arm through the hole and slapped the glyph!

The book began to glow bright orange before exploding in a ball of fire, catching Piniet's jacket on fire!

"AAAH!" he screamed as he took off his jacket throw it to a corner before growling back and Luz and King. "You tried to burn me?!"

"Well yes and no. " King said to him with a smug face. ""Yes" to the burning part but "no" to you being the target."

"What? Then why-" Piniet said before gasping, turning to his burning jacket. "The contract!"

Burning with the fabric of the coat, King's contract slowly crumbled to away as the magic cube released them in a pop.

"YES!" King cheered.

"Now to deal with you!" Luz shouted, charging at Piniet.

The lizard pointed a finger to cast a spell, but Luz stopped him by kicking his hand and breaking his pointer finger!

"AAAH!" Piniet screamed before he was punched in the face.

"Not this time!" Luz shouted as she showered Piniet with a barrage of hooks, a legendary Dempsey Roll.

An unorthodox move for Luz to try and sloppy if she was honest but it was enough for her to injure the crooked publisher before knocking him down with a downward elbow!

"Let's go, King!" Luz said to him.

"Just one more thing!" King said as he opened the briefcase, releasing John De Plume and all the other authors as they bounced out. "Be free!"

"Yay! Woohoo! Thank you!" they cheered as they hopped to the door.

King ran to Luz and jumped into her arms as she kicked the door down, surprising the bodyguards as Luz ran past them.

"Later, gators!" Luz shouted.

"I quit!" King shouted as one ran after them while the other went to check on Piniet. "Luz, one of them's coming after us!"

"Not for long!" Luz said as she put King in her hood and clapped her hands together. "Let's see if this works!"

Pulling her hand apart, Luz created a plant ball and threw it at the bodyguard. The guard say this and slapped it away, only for it to explode into vines that wrapped around him and trap his limbs!

"GUH!" he said as he fell to the ground!

"We're home free!" King cheered as they exited the library, heading for home.

'And that's one more attack in my arsenal.' Luz thought before she continued to run.

Eventually, the two friends made it back to the owl house safe and sound before they collapsed on the couch.

"Thank titan that's over." King said as he took off his jacket, scarf, and sunglasses; tossing them over the couch before laying down.

"Yeah. And I think I'm gonna stay away from books for a bit. The world of writing is too crazy here." Luz said as she leaned against an arm rest.

The duo sat in silence for a bit before the door opened to reveal a leaning Eda.

"Hey, kids. Ugh." Eda said before she popped her back, standing straight. "That was one rough couple of days."

"You think your's was rough? You don't wanna know what went on her." Luz said as she sat up, making room for Eda.

Th owl lady plopped down on the couch and let out a sigh, easing in comfort.

"Eh. Nothing a tall glass of apple blood and nice book won't fix." Eda said, making King open his eyes at her.

Both of them groaned loudly as Eda looked at them in confusion.

"Don't talk about books." they said as they left the den.

Eda was left in confusion before she looked on the coffee table and grabbed a book she didn't recognize. It was a red to orange sunset hard back book with a picture of King wearing a cloak with an axe in his hands named "RULER'S REACH: ENTER THE BAD BOY. Eda took the book in her hands and turned it over to show an author's photo of King in a blue sweater looking to the side dramatically.

"What the heck?" Eda questioned as she wondered just what happened while she was gone!

"Girl you would not believe me if I told you." said the typewriter as it sat on the table next to the couch.

Chapter Text

It was coming up soon and Luz was excited to see both her friends and any other magic the school had to offer.

"Huh. This school really is different from back home." Luz said, commenting on a fact she read.

"Hey, I though you said you'd lay off books for a while." King said, complaining that his snuggle time was being interrupted.

"I did but this is a pamphlet, so it's different. Besides, I need to learn all that I can before going so I can make a good impression." Luz said as she sat up, moving King over her stomach to her lap. "Most of the students know me as a kickboxer but I want them to know I'm a good student too, especially since this school is like no other from my world."

King groaned and tried to bite the pamphlet but Luz quickly moved it out of his range. The door was suddenly kicked open before Eda stuck her head in.

"New alert, free loaders! Today is a special day!" Eda said with her hand on the frame.

"A special day?" Luz asked.

"Is it a birthday? My birthday?" King asked as he sat up.

"Close, it's my birthday actually." Hooty said with a smile and a nod.

"That it is but that's not it!" Eda said as she stepped into the house, closing the door and revealing the eye portal in briefcase form in her other hands. "It's human treasure day!"

Eda threw her magic doorway in the air and watched it expand to a full door before it opened, letting Owlbert fly in and drag a large bag into the room before it ripped open to reveal a large pile of human treasures/possible trash. The doorway soon closed as Eda jumped onto the pile and hugged it.

"Aaah. Fresh garbage and soon to be profits." Eda said with a smile.

"Oh! What surprises does it hold?" King asked as he ran to the pile and dug into it, pulling out a white teddy bear with brown paws and blue eyes. "Yes, a new recruit!"

King pulled the draw sting in the back and heard the stuffed bear say,

'I love cuddles and kisses.'

"Yes, death cuddles and torture kisses!" King said to the bear.

Luz didn't bother digging into the pile as she continued to read the pamphlet, making Eda look to her.

"Hey, kid. Aren't you gonna dig in? There might be some more stuff you could use for your workout spot out back." Eda said as she dug into the pile and pulled out a clothes hanger. "OH! I think keep this human earing for myself though!"

"I'll got through it later." Luz said, not looking up from the pamphlet before she read something interesting. "Hey, Eda, did you know Hexside was a different school before it was conquered and built on the bones of the old school?!

To show truth to her words, Luz opened the pamphlet to show them a picture of Bump when he was a student standing over a pile of beaten students while holding a banner for Hexside as his fellow students cheered on his right and a burning school was to his left.

"Yes, I do. I used to got to Hexside if you recall, very harrowing phase." Eda said while looking into a mirror as she found another clothes hanger and wore them both on her ears, modeling for herself. "Hello, beautiful."

"Well, either way, it's gonna be really cool to be studying with my friends and students from my Kickboxing class. Especially, Amity." Luz said, mumbling the last part to herself before she remembered something. "Oh crap! I forgot that I was gonna met to get my Azura book back!"

Stuffing the pamphlet into her pocket, Luz ran to the door and threw it open.

"I'll be back later, guys! And happy B-day, Hooty." Luz said quickly before shutting the door and running into town.

"Thanks, Luz!" Hooty said as he watched Luz run to town.

Making it into the town market with in a few minutes, Luz looked around for Amity as she kept running.

"Now if I were a star student, where would I be waiting?" Luz asked herself before she stopped and found her. "There she is!".

Amity stood in the middle of the market, dressed in a whole new outfit outside of her Hexside uniform. She now wore a black short sleeve dress, orchid leggings and black point shoes with golden crescent moon buckles. Around her neck, she wears an amulet with an orchid gemstone while holding a purple purse on her right.

'Nice outfit.' Luz thought before running over to her.

"Amity! Over here!" Luz called out to her before...

"Hey, Luz!" Emira and Edric suddenly popped up in front of her.

"Aaah!" Luz screamed as she stumbled back, almost tripping on her feet. "What the heck?! Don't just pop up on someone like that!"

The twins just laughed at her stumble before Amity walked up and pushed them aside.

"Edric, Emira! Leave her alone." Amity said before looking to Luz. "Sorry about that, they decided to tag along for whatever reason."

"Because we love our little sister." Emira said as she tussled Amity's hair and messed with her cheeks.

Amity pushed her away before she fixed her hair.

"They've been a bit too protective and too nice since the whole thing at the library to try and make it up." Amity said to Luz.

"You mean after I slammed Edric to the ground and kicked Emira into a shelf?" Luz asked, getting a cute giggle from Amity. "I'd expect them to or else I'd kick their asses again."

"Please don't." Edric said before Amity pushed him away.

"Painful memories aside, here's your book back." Amity said as she pulled out Azura 5 from her bag and handed it to Luz.

"Thanks." Luz said as she took it. "So, what did you think of it?"

"It was...nice." Amity said, turning away while Luz noticed something in her book.

Flipping through it quickly, Luz stopped to find a notebook page inside with a drawing of a blushing Amity wearing a fluffy dress and in the arms of a man with black hair draped over his left eye.

"This love is Forbidden!" in a word bubble as she held the man.

"Uh huh." Luz said as she folded the drawing twice and held it out to Amity, leaning forward to whisper to her. "I never took you for a big fan of Malangane the Mysterious Soothsayer. Don't worry, your secret is safe with me."

Amity blushed at this before she quickly snatched the drawing, stuffing it in her bag to hide from Edric and Emira.

"You saw nothing!" Amity whispered back as Luz stopped leaning.

"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I'm glad that you liked the book. Maybe when I enroll in Hexside, we can start a book club." Luz said as she held the book under her right arm.

"Kickboxersaywhat?" Amity asked in confusion, raising a brow to her.

"Yep. After a talk with Principal Bump and some help from Eda, I am now allow to both teach kickboxing and enroll in Hexside as a student." Luz said as she pulled out another pamphlet. "I already know of the placement exam and I've been studying up on basic runes. I don't have to worry about the 2 spells minimum since I already have 3 spell glyphs."

Right on the money, the pamphlet's front showed the exact requirements to get into Amity's class level.

"Wow, that's great! And 3 spells? The last time I saw you, you only had two, light and fire." Amity said, impressed and happy that Luz was already ready.

"You can thank Willow and Gus for that, I was able to find the plant glyph in the plant track room and added it to my gloves." Luz said, showing Amity the plant glyph below the center of her palm.

"Wow, that's so cool, Luz! It's gonna be a blast having you at school." Emira said as she and Emira come out from behind Amity.

"Yeah, and maybe we can even join this kickboxing class. If you allow upperclassmen." Edric said as he and Emira nodded.

Thought the idea did sound interesting to have them in her class, Amity subtly shook her head and mouthed 'NO!' repeatedly.

"Well...I don't know. You two don't seem like the type to be interested." Luz said to them, acknowledging Amity's panic.

"What?! We so are! And we can prove it!" Edric said as he crouched down in front of Amity while Emira leaned on her head, sandwiching the girl between her twin siblings.

"We can all train together at The Knee and we can show you we have what it takes to be in your Kickboxing class!" Emira said, knowing exactly what her brother was thinking.

"What do you say, Luz?" Edric asked as he and Emira looked hopeful at Luz while Amity looked irritated.

No one likes to be sandwiched between people uncomfortably.

"I'll admit, that does sound like a good idea, except I have no idea where this "knee" is." Luz said to them.

"Then ask your magic teacher where it is. Eda, right?" Edric asked, wondering if he got it right.

"Yeah, it's Eda." Luz confirmed for Edric.

"Then it's settled, we'll meet you on the Knee!" Emira said as she and Edric un-sandwiched before walking away, dragging her by the arm.

"And wear something warm!" Edric told her as Luz stood in the market, confused on what just happened.

Ooookay." Luz said as she turned around, walking back to the owl house while asking herself...

'How the fuck did I get roped into that?' She thought.

After a quiet walk to the owl house, Luz walked into the kitchen to see Eda cooking at the kitchen island counter with small electric stove, a pot of boiling water, and bottles of random potions on the left while a squash, scallion, onion and apple stood on the right. Eda also had her right hand detected so it could holding up a cook book or a spell book.

"Hey, Eda, you got a minute?" Luz asked as she walked to the counter.

"Yeah, just a second. I gotta make these veggies cook themselves." Eda said as she picked up a clear bottle with green fluid inside.

"Cook themselves?" Luz asked herself as Eda poured the liquid on the vegetables and fruit.

The liquid bathed them in a green glow before the vegetables and fruit suddenly grew limbs, standing on their own as they turned to Eda.

'Wow...that food fanfiction girl would love this.' Luz thought, remembering her from when her first day here.

"Alright, you four. Into the pot." Eda said, gesturing to the pot of boiling water.

"AAAAH!" the food screamed, running for their new lives as Eda watched.

"You'd think I'd learn they don't listen to me by now." Eda said with a frown, her food gone before she turned back to Luz. "So what's on your mind, kid?"

"Well, I was wondering if you know where or what "The Knee" is. Edric and Emira invited me to train with them and Amity at it but I don't know where it is or how to get there." Luz said to her teacher.

"The Knee, huh? Well that is a place I haven't been to in a long time." Eda said as she picked up the cook book and tossed it in the pot. "The Knee is one of the purest places magic flows on the Boiling Isles, witches of old went there all the time to harness the magical energy that resides there to develop their spells. Your friends picked a good spot!"

"Okay, that's good to know but where is it? What's it like?" Luz asked Eda.

"The Knee is the actual knee of the titan and it's frozen tundra of snow and ice with no one living there, the perfect place to train your magic AND learn a new spell." Eda said, picking her hand up and putting it back on her wrist. "I've been meaning to teach you how to learn a spell naturally without relying on your phone thingy and this is a good opportunity, so I'll be coming with you."

"You are? I just expected you to give me a ride." Luz said before Eda shook her head.

"Nope, I'm coming with you and that's that. Time for a magic boot camp." Eda said as she hit her hand with her first.

"Did someone say boot camp?" King asked, coming in front the back door with the white bear still with him. "I shall be the one to run it. We shall wake up at dawn and I will constantly judge your performance as I push you to your limits!"

"No. You will have no part of this. Luz will need absolute focus, meaning she can't have distractions when you do something cute." Eda said as she pointed to King.

"I am not cute!" King said, stomping his foot before he heard a camera click.

Looking up, King saw Luz had taken a picture of him mid tantrum and quickly typed something.

"Wittle Guy's Wittle Tantrwum, saved." Luz said as she put her phone away.

"See?" Eda said as she crossed her arms.

"EEEEYYYHHH!" he squealed in rage before marching out the back door and tried to slam it shut but failed.

It took about 2 more times before the door finally stayed shut.

"Alright, no time to lose if your little friends are waiting for you. Let's head out." Eda said as she drew a spell circle, suddenly putting her and Luz into winter coats, gloves, leggings, and fur hats.

"Woah! Can you at least give girl a warning before you suddenly change her clothes?" Luz asked Eda as she looked herself over, seeing her legs covered in thermal leggings and wearing snow boots.

"Where's the fun in that? Now leave the phone thingy behind and let's get going!" Eda said as she made her way to the front door.

Letting out a sigh and rushing to put her phone away in her room while also grabbing a pen to write the glyph, Luz rushed back to her teacher and hoped on her staff before flying them high into the sky toward The Knee, the right knee of the titan's corpse to be exact. When they landed, it was just as Eda said it was, covered in frost and snow as far as the eye could see with a forest of pine trees present too.

"Breathtaking, isn't it?" Eda asked as they walked down a trail through the Knee.

"Yeah, it is." Luz said as she saw the ruins of an old castle long since crumbled. "It's just as you described it, no one lives here anymore."

"Yes, that is true but you have to be wary of the creatures that can survive here, Like that." Eda said, pointing to a large monster with white fur, large 4 clawed appendages, and wide mouth filled with razor sharp teeth that were biting into a tree. "The Slighterbeast, a monster like no other that will tear you apart at the slightest provocation but as long as you don't both it, it'll leave you alone."

Luz remained silent as she eyed the beast, wary of it as it finally bit through the tree before turning to Luz.

"Woah! Okay, buddy, I'll stay away from you." Luz said as she followed after Eda.

Before long, the duo had stopped at an area with various sized rocks around them.

"Alright, Luz, this seems like a good spot. Now where are your little friends?" Eda asked looked to her apprentice.

"I don't know. They just said to meet them at the Knee but they never said where, who knows where they could be?" Luz said as she walked away from Eda, looking around for any sigh of the Blight Trio.

Some more ruins of old castles were around her, taking her attention until Luz noticed something in the corner of her eye. Turing more to the left, Luz saw a magenta and white fireball coming at her!

"WHOA!" Luz shouted as leaned back to dodge it, making it hit a large rock behind Luz.

Looking towards the source of the purple fire, Luz saw that it was the trio she was looking for. Amity, Edric, and Emira Blight; all in winter clothes while the youngest held a wand in her left hand.

"Sorry, who-Luz?!" Amity said with surprise.

"Hey, you made it!" Edric shouted as he and Emira waved her over.

"Well, look at that. We found your friends already." Eda said as she walked over to her student, looking over to the Blight trio.

"Yeah, lucky us." Luz said as Amity walked over to them while Eda walked away, possibly to prepare her lesson on learning/finding a fourth spell glyph. "And hey, don't mention it. I was about to dodge that spell, didn't know you had a fire spell."

"Actually, I don't yet. I'm trying to learn it so I can beat Ed and Em's high score on the exam." Amity said, a bit embarrassed as she held her right arm.

"Aw Mittens, you know you can't do it." Emira said, suddenly popping out from behind her sister.

"Yeah, especially if you need to keep using a training wand to learn new spells." Edric said, popping out just the same. "So, how we get to training? Show us some of your kickboxing?"

"Without hurting us, this time." Emira quickly added, remembering what happened at the library.

"Sure but first I need to check with Eda, she wants to help me learn a fourth spell while we're here and I want to know when I'll be free to show you guys." Luz said to the twins.

"Luz!" Eda called out, making the human turned to her as the witch was carrying a basket full of snowballs. "I've decide that the spell you'll be learning her should be an ice spell. And to do so, you'll need to feel it, understand it, and finally connect to it. The first step, tasting the snow."

Grabbing a snowball, Eda placed it in Luz's hand as the human looked confused at the snowball.

"You want me...to eat a snowball...to learn ice magic?" Luz asked slowly to make sure she got Eda correctly.

"Yep! Wild magic is more hands on than what they teach at Hexside! You'll need to get ready to for some strange stuff but in the end, it'll be worth it when you make that connection." Eda said as she took a snowball herself and took a bite out of it. "Just thinking of it like a flavorless ice cream."

"Is this how witches used to learn magic?" Emira said, watching intently as Edic did the same to the unique lesson.

"I...don't know but if it will help me learn the spell, I guess Eda isn't wrong." Luz said as she slowly took a bite of her snowball, letting it melt in her mouth while chewing just a bit. "I'll catch you guys later when I get a break."

"Yeah...see you, Luz." Amity said, still confused on this lesson as she left to go back to her training.

"See you later, Luz. Let us know how the snow tastes." Emira said as Edric picked up a wad of snow himself, about to taste it as well.

But his sister smacked the snow back to the ground before she dragged him back to Amity.

"Aw, my flavorless ice cream." Edric said in sadness.

After they were gone, Luz and Eda got to work on more steps in learning an ice spell glyph in this frozen tundra. Smelling moss, identified different types of rocks, sorting twigs, gazing at the frozen icicles. Luz followed Eda's instructions, no matter how crazy they seemed, even finding her hand that fell off her arm. Their were some breaks from the steps so Luz could show the twins some kickboxing and get some private lessons with Amity that they never worked out until now. Edric and Emira, despite all the jokes and pranks, were decent and could use their illusion magic rather impressively.

'I guess I'll have two new students to teach after my first day at Hexside.' Luz thought as she came back to Eda, seeing her drink a warm drink at the campsite she made for them.

Nothing big, just a roaring camp fire, 2 logs for seats, and a makeshift tent made out of a monster's maw and teeth.

"Alright, Eda. What's next?" Luz asked her, standing next to the log Eda was standing on.

"Okay, kid, you've done good so far. You're really putting in the effort to connect with nature, just like the earliest witches. I can tell you're almost there." Eda said to her, getting a smile from Luz. "Now, onto the final step. You have to listen to the island."

Eda guided Luz to a ridge and sat her down on a stone, overlooking the Boiling Isles. It was just as breathtaking as the first time Eda showed Luz, except this was close enough to see the ribs of the Isle towering over the mountains, the cannons, and the forests while the skull laid in the center of it all.

"Take it all in, Luz. And focus on what the island is trying to tell you." Eda said as she walked away from her student, leaving her to make a connection.

"Okay, Luz. Make a connection, focus on what the giant corpse is trying to tell you." Luz said to herself as she stared at the land, waiting for something to come to mind.

Luz sat at this spot and stared for however long she had to, not giving up until she got the spell glyph. 30 minutes had gone by, the day becoming early night, and Luz had found nothing! Not a whisper, or a sign, or anything! It was just as silent as she started!

"Ugh!" Luz groaned loudly as she fell to the ground, the snow crunching underneath her as she looked up at the sky! "This is getting me nowhere! I know Eda said to focus on what the island is telling me but this giant corpse is telling me nothing! What I wouldn't give to speak to the dead right now."

The human remained in the now as she stared up at the night sky, the stars slowly appearing as she wondered what to do but suddenly, Luz noticed something forming within the stars. Something so familiar yet she couldn't place it until she reached for it, catching a glance at her glove. Flipping her hand to see it, Luz gasped as the now knew what the symbol was!

"The light glyph!" Luz said in awe, gazing back at the glyph in the stars as the snow began to fall. "So that's where it came from, the stars! So if the light came from the stars, then that means-"

A snowflake landed on Luz's glove, making her sit up and gaze at it to find...A GLYPH INSIDE IT! It was a large diamond with a line down the center, sat atop another line across the bottom of the circle while across the diamond is a curved line and a smaller diamond at the bottom of it.

"The ice glyph." Luz whispered as the glyph melted but she still had it from memory.

Using her left hand, Luz slowly drew the glyph into the snow and gently pressed it. A small iceberg erupted from the glyph as Luz pulled her hand back.

"I made the connection. I MADE THE CONNECTION!" Luz shouted in glee as she stood up, bouncing in victory! "That's four spells! Hahaha! Thank you, Eda!"

Quickly pulling out the pen she brought, Luz quickly and carefully drew the glyph on her gloves between her thumb and pointer fingers! She then rushed off to find her teacher and show her that her weird lessons paid off!

"ROOOH!" Something roared, causing Luz to pause mid rush!

"What...as that?" Luz asked herself, her glee replaced with worry before she ran to find Eda again.

This time, to make sure she and the Blights were safe from whatever that roar was!

"EDA! AMITY! EDRIC AND EMIRA!" She called out to them as she rushed back to where she last saw them training.

"LUZ!" Eda called out, making Luz change course to her voice and run to her.

Rushing into a clearing, Luz saw that things had gotten CRAZY while she was connecting with the island! Her magic teacher had been captured by the Slitherbeast and the Blights were trying to rescue her, the twins had the beast by its arms with magic tethers as Amity stood between them!

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!" Luz asked in shock, running to them!

"Well, it's a funny story, Luz!" Edric grunted out, struggling to hold along with Emira.

"It's not funny! They thought they could try and get the Slitherbeast as a pet and ended up making it mad!" Amity explained, cutting off her brother!

"Seriously?! Are you just a magnet for trouble?!" Luz shouted at Edric.

"I'm a complicated guy, alright?! Just help us!" Edric said as he was losing his footing.

Groaning at the Blight male, Luz turned to the Slitherbeast and prepared her gloves.

"When this is over, I am going to knock some sense into you. AGAIN!" Luz shouted as she pressed the plant glyphs and created vine whips in her hands.

With a shout, Luz lashed them at both arms of the beast, helping Edric and Emira hold it down!

"You got it down, now finish it!" Eda called out, still captured in it's left paw!

"I got it!" Amity shouted as she stepped forward, using her training wand to draw a spell circle to attack, but it just fizzled to the ground. "What?!"

Checking the wand, Amity looked to see the battery was empty! She had used too much in training!

"My wand is empty!" Amity shouted to them.

"Then summon an abomination! I don't know how much longer we can hold it!" Luz called out to her, pulling as hard as she could with the twins!

Unfortunately their efforts were for not as the Slitherbeast was finally about to break free, snapping Luz's vine whip as she fell back while the twins fell forward!

"Edric! Emira!" Amity said to them before them Slitherbeast beast picked them up but dropped Amity in the process.

Feeling content with its hostages, the Slitherbeast held them all in its left hand before it ran away, leaving Amity and Luz behind as it retreated to its lair!

"No!" Amity shouted as she ran to see where it entered the forest with Luz getting up with a groan.

Looking back and forth between the forest and the human, Amity went to check on Luz to make sure she wasn't hurt.

"Luz, are you okay?" Amity asked her, checking for any injuries.

"I'm fine, it was just a little fall. I've taken harder hits than that." Luz said as she stood up, rolling her shoulder before focusing. "We've got more important things to worry about right now, like saving Eda and your siblings from that monster."

"I know but I think you should rest a bit more. Even if it wasn't a big fall, it could still cause problems." Amity said, worrying for Luz as she stood next to her.

"Amity, I know you're worried but I said I'm fine. You know how tough I am. And the more time we waste, the more the people we care about are in danger." Luz said as she grabbed Amity's hand and began rushing after the Slitherbeast, dragging Amity with her. "Now come on! We've got a beast to hunt!"

Though Luz was right about the task at hand, Amity was a bit focused on how firmly Luz was holding her hand.

'So...strong yet gentle.' She thought about Luz's grip, blushing a little before she shook her head! 'No! Luz is right, we need to save them!'

Following the tracks of the Slitherbeast, the duo founds its lair within a few minutes. It was a large cave in the side of a mountain with an icy fog surrounding it and growls of the monster could be heard from outside.

"Ready?" Luz asked her, still holding Amity's hand.

"Ready." Amity replied, nodding back as they entered the cave.

The two still held hands as they walked silently into the cave, using stalagmites on the cave floor for cover and catching sight of the trio that needed to be saved. Currently, Eda and the Blight twins were stuck to a wall with some sort of purple slime keeping them bound and their hands useless, so they couldn't draw any spell circles to help them escape.

"Okay, the beast is gone for now, so we have to get them out fast before it returns to eat them." Amity said as she began to think of a plan. "Maybe if one of us acts as bait, we can lure the Slitherbeast away while the other saves them."

"Sounds like a plan." Luz said with a nod as she pulled her hand away and cracked her knuckles. "When I get the monster's attention, you go over and-"

"Hold on, who said you were gonna be the bait?" Amity asked, making Luz turn to her in confusion.

"Well, not bragging, but I was the bait last time with Otabin, so I'm used to it." Luz said with a shrug. "Plus, I'm faster than you and I can handle myself more than you think."

"But you're reckless, you'd just end up getting caught like last time, so I'll be the bait this time." Amity argued as she pointed to herself.

"Hell no you're not! I am the bait!" Luz said, leaning forward while pointing to her chest. "So just follow your own plan and save them while I lead the Slitherbeast away!"

"I am following my plan, I am the bait! You are saving everyone!" Amity said as she pushed Luz's finger away and glaring at her.

The two hot headed women continued to glare at each other, arguing over who would be the bait, until loud stomping caught their attention. Looking back to Eda and the twins, Luz and Amity saw it was sprinkling them with something in its claws.

"ACHOO!" Eda sneezed. "Ugh! I hate garlic!"

"Garlic?" Luz asked before the realization hit her! "It's seasoning them! We can't wait anymore!"

The human ran out in the open as Amity tried to stop her but she was too fast.

"Luz!" Amity said as the human stood in the middle of the cave, glaring at the Slitherbeast.

"Eh! Aquí, cabrón feo!" Luz shouted out, getting the Slitherbeast to turn to her. "Get your giant furry ass away from my friends!"

Pulling her right hand back, Luz pushed her fire glyph and threw a fireball at the monster!

"RAAAH!" It reeled in pain, it's fur scorched of near the left of it's eyes!

It roared at Luz as she turned to run, following after her to kill her for that! As it left, Amity watched with both worry and anger at Luz for just running off before they could finally decide who would be the bait!

'Darn it, Luz! Why couldn't just let me be the bait this time?!' Amity thought, hating that Luz risked her life for her AGAIN! 'When this is over, I'm gonna kill you myself!'

Putting her angry worries aside, Amity ran over to Eda, Edric, and Emira to save them. She had to climb up a broken stone pillar to reach them but it was easy enough with how fast she went.

"Amity!" Edric said as the trio smiled to at her.

"Quick, use that fire spell we taught you to get us out." Emira said as looked hesitant but quickly shook it.

If she didn't hurry and save them, Luz would be Slitherbeast food!

"Okay, here goes." Amity said as she drew a spell circle with her right hand, before focusing on the spell she needed.

She concentrated and molded the circle until it rose up and became a magenta fire before her.

"Alright, you did it!" Edric said with a smile.

"Yeah, way to go, Mittens." Emira said, though she doubted Amity would get it.

Amity raised the fireball to the slime holding them, letting it melt before they fell from the wall. Free at last and slime free. A sudden shout alerted them to Luz as she was still running from the beast.

"Luz!" Amity said as she looked back to where the human ran, rushing off to her as the rest follow!

Back with the human, Luz was using her fire glyphs to go faster as she was still running from the Slitherbeast and made it outside of the cave!

"Alright, that should be distracting enough!" Luz said as she turned around, gazing back at the Slitherbeast. "Now to deal with you!"

Activating her plant glyphs, Luz slapped her hands together and created a large plant bomb in her arms.

"Fetch, fido!" she shouted as she threw the bomb to the Slitherbeast.

"ROAAAAR!" it roared before catching the the bomb in it's mouth, causing it to burst as vines wrapped all over it's body and hold it to the ground. "ROOOAR!"

"HA! Suck it!" Luz shouted before some of the vines begin to break already. "Crap! That's not gonna hold for long! Time to see what this ice glyph can do!"

Pushing the glyphs with her pointers, the glyph glowed light blue as Luz put her hands on the ground and made a giant ice spike grow out of the ground to tower over the Slighterbeast.

'Cool attack! Not what I was going for but I can work with this!' Luz thought as she took off running around the beast!

Repeatedly punching the ground, Luz created more ice spikes to grow over the Slitherbeast until it was trapped in a makeshift ice cage!

"YES! That should hold you, even if you get out." Luz mocked the Slitherbeast.

"Luz!" everyone called out as they ran out of the cave but stop to gasp at the sight before them!

The Slitherbeast, bound and gagged, while trapped in a giant ice cage make of ice spikes!

"What took you guys so long?" Luz asked as she leaned against one of the ice spikes.

"W-Wow! This is incredible!" Edric cheered as he and Emira ran towards the cage, gazing at the trapped beast. "When did you learn ice magic?"

"A little while ago, actually." Luz said as she smiled towards Eda, walking towards her. "A great teacher taught me to listen and make a connection, it was infuriating at first but worth it in the end. Her methods may be different but they're on point. Thanks, Eda."

""Yeah. you sure did." Eda said as she tussled Luz's hair and her hat. "Nice work, kiddo."

"And great job for you too, sis." Emira said as she and Edric came over to Amity.

"Yeah, nice work, kiddo." Edric said as he tussled Amity's hair before she pushed him away.

"Knock it off!" Amity said before she fixed her hair and walked to Luz. "And as for you."

Before anyone could blink, Amity punched Luz in the cheek and made her stumble back from the sudden punch.

"Wh-What the he-" Luz said, regaining her bearings before she was suddenly hugged by Amity.

"That was for making yourself bait again. I hate seeing someone I care about throw themselves into danger just to help me." Amity said, blushing as everyone watched in surprise.

"I-I-I-" Luz stuttered out as she slowly hugged Amity back, her shock fading as she frowned and blushed. "I'm sorry. I just think more with my gut sometimes but I'll try to work on it when we're at school."

"You better." Amity said as she moved away from Luz, smiling at her. "It wouldn't be much of a book club if only one of us could comment deeply on Azura."

"Hehe, you got it." Luz said as she smiled back at Amity.

"ACHOO!" Eda sneezed, making them finally notice the witch was standing by them as she inhaled deeply. "Okay, this adorable moment is making me more sick than the cold and the garlic. Let's go home already!"

"Okay, Eda. Calm down." Luz said as she waved Amity goodbye. "See you later, Amity. Make sure to keep your brother and sister in check when I'm not around."

"I always do." Amity said, chuckling at the joke a bit.

Stepping back with her teacher, Luz activated her ice glyphs and drew a circle around them before a pillar of ice grew under her and Eda to send them flying into the sky!

"WOOHOO! HAHAHAHAHA!" Luz and Eda cheered as they disappeared over the tree, leaving the Blights as they watched them go.

Silence was heavy as they watched where they left, until...

"So are you going to tell us about you and Luz or are we going to have to tease you before you do?" Emira asked her sister as Amity blushed but kept a straight face.

"I have no idea what your talking about." Amity said as she walked off back to their campsite.

Chapter Text

It was a new day for the Boiling Isles, a special day for certain witches as Hexside was having it's annual placement exam tryouts for it's upcoming semester.

"Alright, kid, you ready to show him what you got?" Eda asked her, backstage at the auditions.

"Yeah, I am but I'm a lot more nervous than I thought I'd be. Principal Bump has already seen my kickboxing and he should know I already know two spells but I'm still nervous." Luz said as she took deep breathes.

"It's natural to be nervous, kid. I did the same thing when I was your age, it's basically a right of passage. Though I was more skilled in magic." Eda said, bragging at the end.

"Eda." Luz groaned at her.

"Right right, it's about you and you got this! I've helped you train for this." Eda said as she turned Luz to the stage. "Now get out there and show Bump what you can do!"

With a push given by Eda, Luz went out on stage as the curtains moved to shine a spotlight on her with a banner for the entrance exams above. The only one in the auditorium was Principal Bump and he held a clip board in hand for the exam.

"Alright Luz, I already know you can somehow do magic with your...humany parts and perform interesting fighting moves but I don't know what types of magic you can use or how you use them. Please, show me what else you know." Bump said to her from his seat.

"Alright, I'll show you all that I know." Luz said as she turned to the side and got into her fighting stance, bouncing on her feet.

'First, let's show him some light magic.' Luz thought, hitting the light glyphs on her gloves.

The glyphs flashed yellow before her hands were consumed in light and Luz perform a flurry of jabs with each hand, letting behind light trails of her speed before making a giant light ball and threw it to the ceiling. It exploded and fell in a gentle shower of orbs before Luz switched glyphs.

'Now fire.' Luz thought as her fists were set ablaze, spinning around to give a downward hook, uppercut, and straight jab that launch a fireball into the wall, leaving a scorch mark.

Crouching with a spin, Luz dragged her hand on the ground to leave a trail that grew in a ring/pillar of fire around her!

"My word!" Bump said in shock before Luz burst out, flames coming from her hands as she flew around the room.

'Steady, just like you practiced with Eda.' Luz thought, flying a bit uneven but stable enough before she landed by on the stage. 'Now for plant and ice.'

Using the latter glyph, Luz dragged another circle under her before she was pushed into the air under an ice pillar! Luz back flipped off the pillar after 12 feet and landed on the stage before using her plant glyph.

"Now for the finisher!" Luz shouted as she slammed her hands to the ground, a green flash washing over the stand before large vines grew behind Luz to form a familiar giant plant fist! "Nature's Wrath!"

Spouting a name without thinking, Luz reeled her right fist back to control the plant fist and make it smash the ice pillar into pieces! Taking deep breathes to alum herself after her fast pace display, Luz pulled her arm back and let the giant plant creation recede into the ground. She turned to Principal Bump to get the results of her exam and saw he had a shocked face with a dropped jaw.

"So...what's my score?" Luz asked as she walked to the edge of the stage, hopping down to the floor.

Bump didn't say anything, just handing Luz a red pamphlet that had a raging, green, muscular one eyed monster holding up a giant book.

"I guess this means I pass." Luz said with a smile, holding the pamphlet.

"Way to go, kid!" Eda cheered for her.

The very next day, Luz and Eda flew back to Hexside for Luz's first official day as a student. She was donned in a different uniform from the standard one, it was a white, pale gray, and slightly pink version. She also had a purple backpack on on the end of the staff and her glyph gloves still on her arms. The whole ride had been a bit silent as Luz was preparing herself for the school, wanting to make a good impression as an official student.

"You nervous, kid? You've been pretty quiet the whole ride." Eda said to her.

"How could I not be nervous? Magic school is completely different from normal school, it's my first chance to make a better impression than coming off as a tough girl that can knock your teeth in." Luz said, describing her time back in her realm.

"Hey, you don't have to be nervous, kid. They already know how cool you are from the Covention and you said you've got some students in the kickboxing class you teach that like you, you'll be fine." Eda said to her, looking back to her. "And if you need to assert your dominance, just punch the biggest kid in the room."

"...Eda, this is not a prison. This is school." Luz said as Hexside was over the horizon.

"It's the same thing, Luz." Eda said to her.

Landing in the campus grounds, Luz hopped off the staff and grabbed her backpack from the end.

"You know, if you want to back out now, you can earn the latest patch of the bad girl coven." Eda said as she pulled out a merit badge like patch with an elf wearing an orange sideways cap and black shirt. "The quitter badge, you can try once and then give up."

"The day I quit is the day I quit kickboxing, which will never happen." Luz said as she put her backpack on and walked ahead. "I'll see you after school, Eda."

"Now hold on just a minute." Eda said, unscrewing her hand and throwing it at Luz.

It grabbed her head as Luz didn't even flinch, simply turning back to Eda and snatching it off her head.

"Don't do that." Luz said as she threw the hand back, which Eda caught.

"Duly noted but I needed to tell you to stop worrying. You got this." Eda said as she put her hand back on her arm.

"Thanks, Eda. I'll keep that in mind." Luz said as she walked to the school, waving goodbye to Eda as she flew back to the owl house.

As she walked to the school entrance, Luz past by a familiar girl with giant beige horns on the sides of her head from the abomination track and a tall, skinny guy from the Construction Track tying a unicorn to a bike rake.

'A unicorn is a bike here?' Luz thought in confusion before she ran into Amity.

The Blight student had an Abomination walking behind her, was mimicking her movements as she carried two books under her left arm and it did the same.

"Hey, Luz. Great to see you passed, I heard you actually made Principal Bump's jaw drop." Amity said with a giggle.

"That I did and that it did happen." Luz said with some confidence as she held her hand up. "Give me five."

Knowing what a high five was, Amity gave Luz a high five but the human quickly dodged as the abomination copied the high five and almost hit Luz's face with it.

"Sorry about that." Amity quickly apologized as Luz stood straight again.

"It's fine, I'm fast enough to avoid it. I'll see you at Kickboxing class after school." Luz said as she and Amity parted ways.

"See you, Luz." Amity said, waving goodbye to her.

After Amity was gone, Luz had only one question for herself about something important.

"I'm still wondering why they chose to begin the the new semester on a Friday." Luz said to herself.

"Who knows? Schools are weird." a familiar voice said, surprising Luz as she looked to see King coming out of her backpack!

"King?! What are you doing here?!" Luz said as she grabbed the demon and pulled him out of her bag.

"Just hitching a ride!" King said as he jumped from Luz's hand and into a nearby garbage can, scrounging until he pulled out a half-eaten donut with purple frosting. "This place is a half-eaten buffet, so much delicious food left un gobbled up!"

"Okay, fine. Eat to your hearts content but if someone asks why your here, I don't know you." Luz said as she walked away, leaving him to his garbage.

"Whatever. Have a great day, random person." King said until he turned around and saw a student standing near the garbage can.

He was in the abomination track, had green skin, round buck teeth, and a head with slightly pointy bumps around it.

"I really needed that, thank you." he said to King before he left on his merry way.

Back with the human student, Luz had reached the front of the school and saw her friends waiting for her.

"Luz!" Willow and Gus said with glee.

"Hey, guys! Happy to see you came to greet me." Luz said to them.

"Who wouldn't want to greet a fellow "classmate" on her first day?" Willow asked with a wink and a pose.

"We'd be idiots to miss this." Gus said as he drew a spell circle and threw up an illusion banner but instead of saying "Congratulations," it said "Better luck next time!"

"...Is this some kind of joke?" Luz said with a blank face as Willow glared at Gus.

"Sorry, I was just...covering all bases." Gus said, embarrassed.

"It speaks volumes about you that you would assume I would fail, Gus." Luz said as she shook her head at him.

"Anyway Luz, turn around and look at those banners." Willow said as she walked up to Luz, gesturing to the banners that hung around the front of the school. "Each one of the banner's shows the heads of the main nine covens. Each one excelling during their time in Glandus High, St. Epiderm, or Hexside. You ready to walk the same halls as they did?"

"You bet I am. I'm as ready as title match." Luz said as she hurried inside. "I'll see you guys at lunch, at least."

Rushing to the locker she was assigned, tickling it to put her bag inside, Luz then headed for Principal Bump's office and entered to see him watching a crystal ball.

"Good morning, Mr. B. Just here to pick up my school schedule before the bell." Luz said as she walked up to Bump's desk, her hands in her pockets.

"First, do not call me that. Second, I'd like to inform you that the Emperor's Coven will be sending an inspector to evaluate the school, so you'll need to pick a coven track first before you can receive. your schedule." Principal Bump told Luz before picking up a rule book on his desk. "And before you go think you can choose multiple tracks, the rulebook clearly states that each student must "hocus focus." One track per student, just like the coven system."

'I should've guessed that.' Luz thought as she looked up at the nine coven mini banners above Bump's desk.

From left to right, it was Potions, Abominations, Plants, Healing, Construction, Beast Keeping, Illusions, Bard, and Oracle. Each track had an amazing aspect about it and Luz wanted to chose more than one for that aspect, but she couldn't afford to get in trouble on her first day as a student or afford to be late for class. So, Luz picked the one that had interested her the most since seeing it at the Covention.

"I choose...the Construction Track." Luz said, pointing the dark brown banner with a rock fist as the symbol.

"Construction eh? Interesting choice." Bump said to her, looking at the banner.

"Well, they caught my interest at the Covention with those power glyph patches, so I want to learn more about them." Luz said.

'And maybe see if I can get some for emergencies.' Luz thought as she remembered the boost of strength the patches give in both body and magic. 'If I can get those for my gloves, it'd be a major power boost.'

"Very well, construction track it is." Bump said as he drew a spell circle, causing Luz's blank Hexside uniform to transform into one matching the Construction Track.

A grey tunic and a small darker grey cowl over it with brown sleeves and leggings.

"Seriously, you guys need to tell a girl before you suddenly change her clothes. It feels too weird." Luz said, getting shivers up her spine like when Eda changed her clothes for the Knee.

"Apologies. And I expect you to be on your best behavior, Ms. Noceda. With all the incidents that have happened last semester, the school could use a donation from the Emperor's Cove to fix it all." Bump said as Luz looked over all the incidents listed.

'Oh my god, these all include me.' Luz thought with wide eyes.

From top to bottom, pictures were shown of the the abomination classroom covered in abomination muck from when Willow brought her in as her abomination project, the burned detention door and room from when Gus brought her to Hexside for the Human Appreciation Society, and the school hallways with multiple vines in the halls from when Willow helped her escape after Bump wanted to dissect her for being such a high grade "abomination."

"I...will be sure to not cause any trouble, sir. I promise." Luz said as she held up her left hand and put her right hand on her chest. "Kickboxer's promise."

"Good, now off to class." Bump said as he drew a spell circle, making Luz levitate out of his office.

Though as Luz was levitated out of his office, she screamed as a strange looking brown witch hat with a creepy looking face attacked her! One quick fireball later and it was on the floor in ashes.

"The Choosy Hat, it brok-" Bump said before pausing, seeing the hat as a pile of ashes on the ground. "...Consider that extra credit for your first day, Luz."

"Um, thanks?" Luz questioned before she walked off to the construction track classroom.

Walking through the school, Luz reached the Construction Track classroom and saw it was almost like high school shop class except the their were no power tools, all the current tools were old fashion, and there were provided crates of hard hats and safety goggles. The construction track teacher was one of the same witches from the Covention's Construction Coven presentation and he was waiting for the students to get their hard hats and safety goggles for class to start.

'Better hurry.' Luz thought as she quickly grabbed a hard hat and goggles, both of them seemed to be too big for her until they suddenly glowed and shrank to match her size. 'And magical adjustment, nice.'

"Alright students, settle down." The teacher said as everyone went to a table, Luz taking the one on the second row to the front near the door by herself. "Today, we will be reviewing what we learn about the power glyph. A simple item yet it can grant great power, a power that is needed for handling any big construction or deconstruction job. Today, you'll be using the power glyphs provided at your table to lift and break apart the boulders provided."

'Boulders provided?' Luz thought in confusion as she watched the teacher draw a spell circle and summon wrecking ball sized boulders onto each study desk, two for tables with two students at them. 'Oh! Alright then.'

Turning her gaze at the rectangle bowl on the table, full of the same power glyphs she saw at the convention. Square patches with a stone gray colored fist that had a thunderbolt crack through it on the front. She picked one up and peeled the back off before looking at the front.

"Okay, let's see how strong you can make me." Luz said to herself as please the sticker on the back of her right glyph glove, feeling a rush of power flow through her before she got a bit dizzy. "Woah! Head rush."

Shaking her head clear, Luz turned her focus to the boulder on her table and took a breath before she grabbed it. Luz thought it would be impossible for her to lift it but she was shocked to see she could lift it easily! It didn't even feel heavy at all, like a pillow in her arms instead of a large rock!

'Holy shit, these things are awesome! No wonder Tiny went crazy at the Covention, anyone would with this power boost!' Luz thought as she tossed the rock in the air and caught it with one hand before tossing it back. 'I could get use to this. Wait a second...'

Remembering her gloves main ability of allowing magic to being imprinted on them, Luz set the boulder back on the table before she pulled the power glyph off...to see the stone fist had been imprinted on the back of her glove! This was a shock to Luz, she only thought the original magic glyphs could be imprinted but apparently patch glyphs like these could be added too!

"Well this is a good day." Luz said to herself, smiling brightly as she put the power glyph patch on the table and tap the new symbol on her right glove, watching it flash brown as the power boost from before came back. "This will be a great for the future!"

Focusing back on class, Luz spent the rest of the period testing her new strength with her power glyph. Apparently it worked like a light switch, push it once for a boost in strength and push it again to turn it off. Eventually, the class came to an end with an unusually gentle ringing instead of the usual screaming and ringing.

"Well, that was a good workout." Luz said as she rolled her shoulders, walking out of class. "And I get a new power up from it, now let's see what the rest of my day is like."

Pulling out a scroll from her pocket, Luz saw it was full of classes related to the Construction Coven.

•Building for Beginners

•Demolishing for Beginners

•Building for Beginners (again)

•Heavy Lifting

•Tool Use and Management

•Demolition with Tools

"Yep, just about what I expected from a track revolving around building but at least it'll help be bulk up." Luz said as she put her schedule away.

She was about to move on to her next class, Luz felt something hit her foot and looked down to see a purple crystal ball rolling on the ground.

"What's this doing here?" Luz asked as she picked it up, gazing at her reflection. "Who would leave a perfectly crystal ball just rolling in the hallway? Or maybe it rolled off by mistake?"

Looking around the hall, Luz caught the sight of an open closet full of crystal balls but one stand was empty. This confirmed that the crystal pall must've fallen off by mistake, probably from someone not closing the door right or the shelf is unstable.

'Better put this back and hurry to class.' Luz thought as she walked to the closet, placing the crystal ball back on the stand. 'There we go, all be-'

"What do you think you're doing, Ms. Noceda?" A voice said, making Luz flinch before she turned around to see it was Principal Bump looking down at her with disapproval.

"Oh it's you, Principal Bump. I was just putting this crystal ball back on the shelf, you see it rolled off and hit my foot and I was just putting it back." Luz explained to him.

"Yes, it does appear that way...OR you could be sneaking to study other coven tracks when I specifically said you can only study ONE." Bump theorized, narrowing his eyes at Luz.

"What?! No, I was just putting it back. I swear!" Luz said as she turned to him, taking her hands off the crystal ball. "You know me, I wouldn't do something like that. Though I am curious of the other tracks, I'm respecting your rule!"

"Perhaps but on a day as important as today, I can't take that risk." Bump said as he grabbed Luz by her left wrist. "You'll have to come with me."

Before Luz could reply, the school principal pulled her though the halls of the school as everyone else went about their day.

"Wait, this is just a huge misunderstanding! You gotta take my word for it!" Luz said as they passed a trash can, where a certain little demon popped out after eating some "snacks." "King, you need to vouch for me!"

"Oh, okay! I don't know you." King said, remembering what Luz said about embarrassing her earlier today.

'God damnit, you stupid, adorable, fuzzball.' Luz thought as she mildly glared at King while Bump kept dragging her down the hall.

Before long, Bump had arrived at a classroom with bars on the door window before he opened it and pushed Luz inside. The inside of the classroom looked more like a prison with dull gray walls and bars over the windows and inside, and 3 random student and one teacher sitting inside.

"Principal Bump, where are we?" Luz asked as she turned to him.

"This is a place we're all who attempt to cause trouble are put." Bump said as he drew a spell circle, turning Luz's uniform legging and sleeves from brown to gray. "This is the Detention Track."

"Detention Track?! But isn't detention suppose t-" Luz shouted in shock.

"Be shut down for fire damage repairs? Yes, it is but I'm using this room for a new track to keep troublemakers away from the Coven Inspector." Bump said as he turned to leave. "You can try for a new track NEXT semester."

"Next semester?! But I won't be here for next semester!" Luz said to him.

"Then perhaps this wasn't meant to be. I'm sorry, Luz." Bump said as the door shut in Luz, leaving her in the Detention Track.

"Urgh!" Luz groaned as she clenched her hair, HATING how today went down the toilet so fast!

If there was one thing she hated most about school, it was being unlawfully thrown in detention, something that happened a lot back home. Removing her hands from her hair, Luz sighed heavily as she turned to everyone else in the Detention Track currently staring at her.

'Another thing I hate, being stared at in detention.' Luz thought as she walked to the other students, sitting next to the only other female inside the room.

The girl had brown hair with four wefted bangs and a messy bun held together by a dark orange, spiky hair tie, green eyes with one lash on the top and one lash on the bottom, and a fishhook earring in her right ear. Her uniform cowl patterned ripped and held together by a large thumbtack in the middle and her skirt is ripped on the side and tied together. Next to her was a dog had a human-like face, covered with chestnut fur with light tan fur on his stomach and neck area. He had dark orange tufts of hair on his head and two ears pointing upward, with a small gold hoop earring on his right ear. He had blue eyes hidden behind green tinted square glasses with white tape in the middle and black eyebrows. His uniform was only a cowl and two sleeves for his front legs. Next to him was the last of the trio and the tallest of the group, he had brown short hair wefted over the right side of his forehead, thick black eyebrows, a pointed nose, and brown eyes. His uniform was normal except that his cowl hood was ripped.

"Hey." Luz said to the girl, who simply looked out the windows of the room instead of answering. "...Nice spiked hair band, I guess."

"Hey! No talking in detention!" The teacher said as he looked up from his scroll, he had a long head, white hair with matching mustache, pinkish purple skin, and three pairs of red eyes with glasses over each, wearing a black robe with white sleeves. "One more peep out of you kids, and you're cleaning this room again."

Of course the teacher not even fully watching them was an asshole, still Luz couldn't let him unjustly punish all of them just because she tried to stir up a conversation.

"Hey, lay off them! I was the one trying to make conversation. If you're gonna punish someone, punish me." Luz said, taking the blame as she stood up from her spot as the other three turned to her.

"Oh, so you want to be a hero, kid? Fine by me." He said as he drew a light blue white spell circle, making a mop and bucket appear in Luz hands. "Now get cleaning."

Grunting at the ass of a teacher, Luz left to clean a corner of the classroom as the girl that didn't reply to Luz smiled at her as thanks for taking the blame for them. Even if they didn't do anything wrong in the first place, it was still nice. Two class periods of time passed as Luz had spent it cleaning the the detention room as the man that was watching over them was just sleeping in the chair he sat in, not even bothering to teach them anything or even let them do anything.

'This is even more boring than detention back home, at least we had some school work to do.' Luz thought as she used a rag to clean some bars on the open window, right as a group of young witchlings were coming by with a spider woman leading them.

"Now, class. Today we're going to have a special field trip, to the astral planes." she said with a smile on her face.

"Yay! I do! Me!" the 5 children cheered as they followed after their teacher.

"Lucky, even if that seems to dangerous for kids." Luz said with envy, leaning against the window sill.

"Luz!" a voice called out, making her turn to see Gus and Willow running up to the window.

"Guys? What are you doing here?" Luz asked as she leaned up.

"We could be asking you the same thing." Willow said to her, looking up to Luz.

"We didn't see you in any other classes." Gus added.

"Well, thanks to a certain misunderstanding involving a crystal ball and a need to impress an inspector, Principal Bump placed me inside the Detention Track under the crime that I was studying beyond my track." Luz said to them.

"The Detention Track?! You don't get to do anything in there!" Willow said in shock, knowing of the unwanted track.

"You'd learn more from paint drying than being in there." Gus added.

"Yeah, I know first hand." Luz said with a sigh, crossing her arms outside of the bars. "I just wish I could talk to him and explain but that stupid inspection is all he can think about."

"Well maybe we can talk to him for you." Willow suggested with a smile.

"Yeah, we'll get you out of that room! Or die trying!" Gus said with a determine look.

Willow just turned to him and gave a stern look with narrow eyes, shaking her head in disappointment.

"Okay, nobody dies." Guys quickly said as Luz giggled at the moment.

It felt so nice having friends that would have your back.

"Thanks, guys. And good luck." Luz said before they left her to find bump, mumbling the last bit. "You gonna need it."

Sighing to herself, Luz got up from the window sill to get back to cleaning until she felt someone tap her shoulder.

"Hmm?" Luz hummed as she turned around to see the girl with the spiked hair band standing behind her.

The girl had a smirk on her face as she gestured for Luz to be quiet, pointing to the sleeping teacher.

'Don't talk, or you'll wake him.' Luz interpreted as she nodded to her. 'Okay, so what do you want?'

The girl waved for Luz to follow her as they walked to the chalkboard to the right side of the teacher, the girl picked up a piece of chalk as she smiled back to Luz.

'Alright, you have some chalk. Now what you to tell me?' Luz thought as she raised an eyebrow at her.

But instead of words, the girl drew a square with a keyhole in the middle before tapping the keyhole and twisting the chalk like it was a key. Luz was surprised to hear an actually sound as the square glowed before opening to reveal a secret hallway!

'A secret door? This school just keeps getting cooler.' Luz thought as the girl climbed into the square door and gestured for Luz to follow her, which she gladly did.

After closing the door, Luz looked around the hallway and saw didn't have much in it. Just some decor and lights.

"What is this place?" Luz asked, knowing it was safe to talk now.

"This is the last room you'll ever see alive." The girl finally spoke, glaring at Luz as she jab her finger into her chest.

This didn't intimidate Luz as she glared right back and grabbed the girl's finger.

"Is that a threat?" Luz asked as she began bending the girl's finger, making her drop the act.

"No no! It's a joke, I was just messing with you!" She said, feeling a lot of pain right now!

"Really?" Luz asked as she leaned forward before smirking, releasing her finger. "Me too. Sorry if I scared you too much."

"It's fine, I might've started off on the wrong foot with intimidation. I'm Viney." The girl said, Viney, as she shook her finger of pain. "You're the human everyone's been talking about, the one with that kickboxing stuff?"

"That's me, names Luz." Luz said as she shook hands with Viney. "So where are we anyway? Not that I'm complaining."

"A place where I wanted to say thanks, no many people would defend me and my friends like that." Viney said as she lead Luz down the secret hall. "As for what this place is, it's something unreal. Something only troublemakers like us an appreciate."

"Troublemakers like us? Well, I won't deny that." Luz said a she thought to her school record in the human realm.

"And you shouldn't. Be proud of it because now, Luz, you have access to..." Viney said as she opened the door at the end of the hall, ignoring the keep out sign. "The Secret Room of Shortcuts!"

True to its name, Luz gapped in away as she stepped into what looked like the inside of a tower with trap doors, front doors, and windows covering the walls all around. Doors and windows of varying shapes, sizes, and colors layer over gray bricks with a spiral ramp under all of them.

"Holy shit." Luz mumbles as Viney shouted to a random door.

"Jerbo, Barcus! You can come, she's cool!" She said as a random door opened, letting Jerbo and Barcus reveal themselves.

"I don't know, V. How do we know she ain't a rat?" The tall one said before looking down to the dog student. "Barcus, what do you think of here? Can she be trusted?"

"Ruff!" Barcus said, or barked, as Jerbo seemed to understand him.

"Interesting. Barcus says your aura is strong and fierce like a ragging flame yet gentle and warm with the silliness of a baby's laugh." He said before he smiled at Luz. "Welcome!"

"Thanks. And don't worry, your secret is safe with me." Luz said as she looked over the room again. "I can't believe Hexside has a place like this, it's insane! Do you guys know where all these doors go?"

Walking to the closest door on her right, Luz opened it to peak and see the hallway of Hexside with Amity pacing in the middle.

"So she goes to school with you now? That doesn't change anything, it's no different from class every week." Amity said to herself, talking about something before Luz silently closed the door to stop watching her.

'That is not my business.' Luz thought.

"These doors lead all over the school, to any room you can think of." Viney said as Luz turned around to her. "We stumbled upon it after Bump threw us in the Detention Track. The one who made this room is known as...Lord Calamity!"

Gesturing to a picture frame in the room, Luz saw a portrait of someone with artistic graffiti all over it and names of other people, including Viney, Jerbo, and Barcus, all around it.

"This wall has become a symbol of the righteous troublemaker of past and we have added our names to honor it." Jerbo said as he walked to the painting, preaching like it was religious.

"Yeah, that does seem pretty cool but what do you use this place for, besides obvious shortcuts through school?" Luz asked Viney as Jerbo joined her.

"Since we aren't allowed to study any coven track, we use the doors to peak in on all of them and study in secret." Viney said as she pointed up to Barcus, who was watching a lecture in the Oracle Track.

Luz went up to catch some of it herself...but all she saw was the teacher making a paper fortune teller.

'Seriously?' Luz thought, her impressed feeling being equalized by disappointment.

Seeing Barcus make one himself, Luz smiled at how happy he looked before she jumped down to join Viney and Jerbo as they sat on the floor.

"You guys seem like the one that love going to school, so why would Bump throw you in the Detention Track?" Luz asked as she sat next to Viney.

"Well, we might've loved it too much. The reason we're all here is because we all tried mixing magic from two different tracks." Viney said with an awkward look on her face.

"I tried mixing plant magic with abomination magic, ending up destroying the Plant Track room." Jerob said with a nervous smile before looking at Barcus, who came to join them. "Barcus tried mixing potions with oracle magic, scared the teacher unconscious."

The dog like demon nodded to Luz as he rubbed the back of his head.

"I tried mixing healing magic with beast keeping to have an assistant, but ended up breaking a wall." Viney said before smiling to Luz. "We may have made mistakes but that just shows how much we want to learn. We all want to study more than one track but Bump always says...

"Hocus focus, one track per student. I know but I don't agree with that. There's nothing wrong with mixing magics, it could turn out into something entirely new and amazing." Luz said as she used her gloves to summon a light orb and a fireball, pulling them together to form a golden flame. "Sure you caused some accidents but that all a part of progress, I think you guys are cool for wanted to mix magics."

"Yes! Finally someone sees that! If only Principal Bump could see that!" Viney said as they all smiled to Luz, who extinguished the gold flame.

"I think he could but his mind is stuck on this dumb inspection today. Maybe if we talk to him, we can convince him. We're his students, our education should mean more then stupid rules." Luz said before a new voice rang.

"Luz! Are you here?" Willow called out, making everyone turn to the chalkboard door. "We're here to get you out of this horrible class!"

"...For the record, I did not say this was a horrible class. You guys are really cool in my book." Luz said as they all turned to her.

Deciding to check out who this was, Viney walked towards the secret door and opened it to peak at Willow and Gus standing in the detention room.

"Maybe Luz already left?" Gus suggested.

"I don't know, maybe she went to the bathroom. They can get bathroom break here, right?" Willow asked as Gus shrugged.

"Friends of your?" Viney asked Luz as she looked back to her.

"Gus and Willow, I asked them if they could talk to Bump about this misunderstanding but now, I'm going to see if I can talk to him about you guys too." Luz said to them.

"You'd really do that for us? CAN you do that for us?" Jerbo asked with some hope in his voice.

"Achoo./(Your light is even brighter than the expected.)" Barcus sneezed/said with a look of surprise.

"Of course, I'm not gonna leave my new friends high and dry. Us troublemakers stick together, remember?" Luz asked as she held her fist out to Vinet before quickly explaining. "If you don't know what this is, it's a fist bump. Humans do them to show friendship or to go with greetings."

"Oh! Cool!" Viney said as she bumped her fist with Luz's. "And thanks Luz, it means a lot to us."

Nodding to her new friend and waved them goodbye, Luz opened the chalkboard door and stepped out.

"Hey, guys." Luz said as Willow and Gus turned to her, seeing her close the door.

"Luz, there you are. Where were you?" Willow asked as Gus looked to the sleeping teacher, holding a mop in hand.

"That's a secret but something else comes first. Did you guys manage to talk to Principal Bump for me?" Luz asked her.

"No but we have a way to get you out so you can talk to him yourself." Willow said as she looked to Gus. "Gus, get the thing."

"On it." Gus said, dropping mop and running out of the room before coming back with a trash can. "You can use this as a disguise so we can get you to Bump. It's even got holes in the bottom for your legs!"

Luz stared at the trash can for a few moments before she began walking and pasted Gus.

"I am not wearing a trash can, I'd rather risk getting caught by the trouble sniffers." Luz said as Gus and Willow looked at each other before dropping the trash can an following Luz.

Though for some reason, Gus quickly ran back to the Detention Track room and picked up the mop.

'I must know how deep a sleeper you are!' Gus thought as he propped the mop onto the teacher's face.

The teacher showed no reaction to the wet mop as he continued to snore and push a bit of the mop from his mouth.

"Man, you are a DEEP sleeper." Gus said before running off to catch up with Luz and Willow.

The walk to find Principal Bump was mostly quiet as the group steered clear of any trouble sniffers, determined to get Luz and the others out of the Detention Track.

"So Luz, before you were put in detention, what coven track did you choose?" Willow asked.

"Construction. It was mostly for the power glyphs but it is an interesting class, I even got a need power up from it." Luz said as she showed them the back of her right gloves hand, the Construction Coven symbol on it to symbolize the power glyph. "It's works like a switch, push it once for a boost in strength and push it again to turn it off."

"Cool! That's gloves really are the coolest, I want a pair of them myself." Gus said to Luz.

"Sorry, Gus. Eda said this material is rare, so you might not be able to find it just like that." Luz said as she snapped her fingers.

"Dang it! Man, I would've been so cool." Gus said before noticing a teacher running down the hall next to them with a large creature chasing her! "What the heck is that thing?!"

Turning to where Gus pointed, Luz and Willow gasped as the teacher tried to fight the monster! Only for it to EAT her spell before she fell over, grayishly pale with a look of horror on her face!

"Aaah!" The trio screamed as Willow and Luz hugged each other in fear.

"Hehehe." The monster chuckled as they took in its appearance.

It had a head of indigo hair held up in a swirled bun with some dangling off the sides, pale yellow skin, green eyes that were froglike and droopy, Webber ears, and a serpentine body with large, sharp scale clad arms and hand with claws. She wore a torn dress is torn and widened, and the entire body is serpentine. The most intimidating feature was its large mouth that could open up abnormally wide, filled with m sharp teeth rows of teeth, and could swallow enemies whole!

"Such cute little morsels!" It said in a female like voice, licking her lips.

"We may be cute but we're not your morsels!" Willow said as she drew a spell circle and slammed it into the ground, creating a plant monster with four petals that held a giant eye each, a maw in the middle, and four large vines behind it.

'Damn! Since when could Willow make plant monsters?!' Luz thought in awe before shaking her head!

"You're going down!" Luz shouted as she made fire fists with her gloves, getting into her stance.

"Let's do this!" Gus shouted as he drew two spell circles, summoning 3 clones of him self while also transforming Willow's plant monster to have veiny, muscly arms! "Bring it on!"

"Correction, bring it to me!" The monster said before she opened her mouth, sucking in air as they all stood strong.

Though, that wasn't any good either as Luz watched in horror as it sucked up all of their magic! Her flames, Gus' clones, and Willow's plant monster; all of it was eaten like a meal!

"She's eating our magic!" Luz shouted before her friends fell to the ground, becoming pale. "Guys!"

"What...happened? I feel so weak." Willow said as she tried to draw a spell circle but it crumbled to the ground.

"Foolish children, did you really think you can stop me?" The monster asked them before looking at Luz, seeing she wasn't like the others. "Mmm, looks like I forgot some dessert."

Taking another deep inhale, Luz stood firm as the beast sucked in the air around her but no magic! The reason was that Luz didn't press a spell glyph, so her attacks couldn't be eaten!

"What?! Where is the magic?! I ate your first spell earlier!" She said, leaning forward to sniff for any magic on Luz. "Where is your magic?!"

"Well sorry to disappoint you, but..." Luz said as she pushed her power glyph, feeling a rush of power through her body. "I'm a human, bitch!"

With the strength of the power glyph, Luz uppercut the monster and sent it tumbled down the hall to crash into the lockers!

"Guh!" It let out in pain as Luz picked up her friends!

"Suck on that, you freak!" Luz shouted as she ran off, carrying her friends to safety! "If that thing has been draining people all over school, there might be only three people left to help me!"

Rushing back to the Detention Track room, Luz saw the door was still open and quickly got inside before kicking it shut. The teacher was still sleeping without a care, with a mop on his face but Luz didn't care about that now.

"Hang on, guys. I'll get you someplace safe." Luz said as she looked to the secret entrance and unlocked it, pushing Gus and Willow though. "Sorry for the drop!"

Picking them up again, Luz rushed them into the main tower room and kicked the door open.

"Luz, you're back!" Viney said in surprise.

"Yeah but not for what you think, the school's in trouble!" Luz said as she gentle put her friends on the ground, making the trio got to them in worry.

"What happened to them?" Viney asked, her time in the Healing Track making her worry for their health.

"Some giant snake thing is in the school and it's draining everyone's magic!" Luz said as she turned off her power glyph, walking to a door on the spiral walkway and cracking it open for them to see.

The saw the same monster as before in another hallway sucking the magic out of other students before Viney quickly shut the door with Jerbo and Barcus walking up to them.

"We can't let it see us. I know what that thing is, I heard about it from a Beast History class and my cousin at St. Empiderm. It's Greater Basilisk and they're suppose to be extinct!" Viney explained to Luz.

"Well this one seems to have survived. And so think I know how, it must've been impersonating the inspector Principal Bump was talking about to get in and drain everyone. Probably got the other magic schools to like on the news." Luz said as she looked over the trio. "If we don't stop it, everyone might never recover."

"But if Principal Bump-" Jerbo tried to say.

"Who cares about the rules?! Saving the school takes priority and if Bump can't see that after we're done, fuck him!" Luz said as she jumped off the walkway and turned back to them. "Our school needs us and we're gonna save it! Now, how about we troublemakers cause some trouble for that Basilisk?"

Looking towards each other, the fellow Detention Track students nodded with determination in their eyes. Back with the Greater Basilisk, the creature had recovered from the blow from the human and continued to drain more students of their magic. Though, for some reason, a few random students managed to get a kick or a punch in her before she drained them.

"More. I need more." She said as she drained Amelia, leaving her on the ground as she moved on. "My hunger is not satisfied."

"THEN HOW ABOUT A NICE KNUCKLE SANDWICH!?" a scream came before the basilisk was suddenly punched in the in the jaw by a speeding something!

It sent a few teeth flying as the monster hit the ground, groaning as she rubbed her and slowly rose to see the HUMAN from before flying in the air with fire coming from her hands! It would be more difficult normally but with some help form her new power glyph, Luz managed to pull it smoother than the first time. Both in the flight and the strength behind that punch.

"YOU!" she screamed in rage, growling at the human.

"Yeah, me." Luz said as she wavered in the air a bit but still managed to stay flying, a still needing practice before getting used to flying. "Still hungry, you slimy bitch? Then come and get some Grade A human beef!"

Taking off to the right, Luz flew off as the Greater Basilisk crawled after her in rage to eat her with her bare jaws! She didn't care if the human had no magic, she just wanted to tear her apart and eat her alive!

"Viney, now!" Luz shouted as she landed with a skid, spinning to face the basilisk.

A griffin suddenly flew out from another hallway and tackled the beast to the ground, holding it in place as Viney ran up to them.

"Good girl, Puddles!" she said before shouting to the floor. "Now Jerbo!"

Below her, Jerbo was in the secret shortcuts room and prepared a spell circle while an abomination opened a new door on the floor next to him.

"Got it!" He said as he summoned vines from his spell, reached to a door at the ceiling.

As the Basilisk knocked Puddles off her stomach, a magic shortcut doorway opened under her and caused her to fall in as Luz and Viney walked to it.

"Time to end this!" Luz said as she jumped into the door.

Falling into the secret room of shortcuts, the basilisk got stuck in the door Jerbo's abomination opened before Luz stomped her through! Both of them landed in the auditorium as Luz hopped off the monster while the basilisk crashed into the floor.

"Barcus, show her her fate!" Luz said as she landed on stage.

"Ruff.(Got it.)" He said as he walked to the Basilisk's right hand, pouring a purple potion on it before giving her a palm reading.

"W-What's going on?" she asked as she turned her head to Barcus, watching as his eyes gained a purple glow with magic fire pouring from them.

"Ruff ruff ruff ruff. (Your future is full of pain.)" he barked/said as the monster looked confused.

"What is her doing? What if he saying?" she asked with worry.

"Just a little palm reading and he's saying your future is painful." Luz said as Jerbo and Viney stood next to her, smiling deviously at the monster before Luz walked up to her.

Using the ice glyph, Luz froze the monster's hand to the ground as she nodded to Puddles and the abomination Jerbo summoned. Jerbo's abomination pulls at a rope before Puddles cuts with her beak. The rope drops sandbags onto the inspector's stomach, forcing her to scream as all of the magic it ate is released in a beam tat separates into hundred of magical orbs that flew away to return to the bodies they were taken from. In the aisle of the auditorium, two orbs flew back into Bump and Amity as their color returned and they took a deep breath of life. Students and faculty all over the school did the same, breath deeply and regain their color with their magic, as many more flew out of Hexside to return to other people of Glandus High, St. Epiderm, and so on. As everyone else reclaimed their magic, Viney was healing her griffin from a small injury before it nuzzled her and flew away.

"Hahaha! We did it!" Luz said as she hugged Viney before breaking away as Jerbo and Barcus walked over to them. "You guys came, you saw, and you rocked!"

"And you shall be punished for it!" Bump said as he got up, walking to the group. "Leaving your homeroom, mixing different magics, and having a secret hideout inside the school!"

The hideout Bump was pointing upwards to was the Secret Room of Shortcuts, where Willow and Gus had awoken and hidden in to prevent getting in trouble.

"Okay yes, to all of that but who cares? We saved the school, THEY saved the school! Shouldn't that mean something?" Luz asked as she gestured to Viney, Jerbo, and Barcus; who looked ready to accept punishment. "And if you think about it, wouldn't they have a reason to have a secret hideout?"

"Maybe but the criminal mind is not meant to be understood." Bump said as he pulled out a rule book. "And if I could get an actual inspector this time..."

"ENOUGH WITH THE GODDAMN INSPECTOR! Is getting coven money for the school really more important than the welfare and happiness of your students?!" Luz screamed at him, reaching her limit about this money for repairs B.S.

"What?! Of course it's not! I-" Bump said back before noticing the looked of the three students he put in the Detention Track.

Viney and Jerbo focused more on the ground, not wanting to look at the possible disappointment and anger in his eyes, while Barcus stared at him with a look that said, "But I didn't do anything wrong."

"What the point of getting money for repairs if it means hurting your students in the process? They saved the school from the Greater Basilisk, which would've done more damage and cost more money to repair if we didn't stop it, but they get punished for it? They should be rewarded, not scolded!" Luz said as she crossed her arms at him "I get that rules are important but if you focus on them too much, you'll blind yourself to what's right in front of you."

"And...what is it?" Bump asked, feeling the weight of his mistakes.

"Three students with a lot of potential and you're gonna make it go to waste if you don't take your nose out of that rule book. You know what you need to do, sir." Luz said to him.

"B-But the rules." Bump said as he held the book close.

"Stop listening to the rules for once, ya dingus! Do the right thing!" Gus shouted from the roof door, throwing a fist into the air.

Feeling outnumbered and outsmarted, Bump gave a small smile as he put the rule book away and finally bent the rules.

"Very well, I can't fight such compelling arguments with such strong passion to back them up." he said as he turned to Viney, Jerbo, and Barcus. "Which covens would you three like to be in?"

The trio smiled brightly as they could finally study more than one track, all thanks to Luz. She keep her promise!

"Healing and Beast Keeping." Viney said first.

"Plant and Abomination, good sir!" Jerbo said with his hands on his hips.

"Ruff. (Potions and Oracle, Principal Bump.)" Barcus barked/said.

"So be it but you better not cause anymore incidents or else." Bump said as he drew a spell circle, turning their gray Detention sleeves and leggings into their desired coven tracks!

Barcus now had a right purple sleeve for the Oracle Track and a left yellow sleeve for the Potion Track, Jerbo now had green sleeves for the Plant Track and magenta leggings for the Abomination track, and Viney now had blue sleeves for the Healing Track and orange leggings for the Beast Keeping Track.

"What about you, Luz? Would you like to return to the Construction Track or do you wish to be in more than one like your friends?" Bump asked her as Luz looked down at her uniform, wondering what to do next.

"Personally, I don't know. All the tracks at school are so cool and interesting in their own ways but if I had to choose and even if it would be a work load, I'd like to study all of them." Luz said as she looked up to Bump.

"If you can handle it, so it shall be." Bump said as he drew a spell circle and changed Luz's uniform.

Her sleeves and leggings were washed over with a white light before fading to reveal her uniform was now multicolored! Her right arm had light green and dark green, her left arm had light blue and purple, her right leg had magenta and red, and her left leg had light blue and normal blue.

"Whoa! This is amazing." Luz said in awe of her one of a kind uniform.

"You know, there was one other student who wanted to study all the tracks as well." Bump said, drawing a spell circle and summoning...the portrait from the secret room of shortcuts? "Sad to say though, I never gave her the oppertunity."

With the wave of his hand, Bump cleaned the portrait to reveal the student who discovered the secret room of shortcuts, started the delinquent name wall, and wanted to study all the tracks at Hexside like Luz...was Eda when she attended Hexside. Her hair bright bright orange, her arms crossed, and a confident look on her face.

"Eda." Luz said before chuckling softly and shaking her head. "Why am I not surprised?"

After the Greater Basilisk was restrained and her mouth was clamped shut, the school day proceeded as normal as possible with four new students in multiple tracks. A historic day in Hexside history as the first school to allow students to enroll in multiple magic tracks.

Chapter Text

Once classes had come to an end, all students began making their way home to enjoy their weekend and unwind from the madness they experienced today. Though for certain students, they stayed after school for a special human's kickboxing class, now even bigger with several new students joining, but before that could happen, Luz had to tell them why she was wearing a multi colored uniform when they all had only one color. One story of heroism, new friends, and a secret room that Luz refused to reveal how to get in later, the class was left shocked (minus Gus, Willow, and Amity) to hear that Luz and 3 others saved Hexside from the Greater Basilisk and were allow to study multiple tracks! It had never been done before and to hear that Luz chewed Bump out to get this reward, made them respect her more...and fear her more.

"Alright, now that story time is out of the way, I'd like to say good evening, everyone. I'm glad to see you could make it for the first class of the new semester. It makes me happy to see that you all wish to continue to learn." Luz said, standing on the boxing ring to address every while still in her uniform. "Before we get started, I'd like for all the new students joining us today to introduce themselves. Please give us your name, Track, and favor types of magic."

Looking towards one of the new students, everyone watched as a girl from Amity's friend group stood up and cleared her throat. She had dark skin and brown wavy hair with a side bang, wears squared glasses with black frames over her brown eyes and has a red lower lip. Her Hexside uniform has blue sleeves and leggings, showing that she was in the Healing Track, and black clog style shoes.

"Hello, my name is Cat. I am a proud student of the Healing Track, and my favorite magic is levitation magic." Cat said as she drew a spell circle, making her self glow in a blue outline before making herself float in the air 2 feet.

"Levitation magic, very interesting in." Luz said with a nod.

"It has its uses." Cat said as she floated back to the ground and sat back with Amity's group.

The next two to stand up were Edric and Emira Blight, two of the oldest in the class and the newest students as of today.

"Hello, everyone. I don't know if you already know us but I'm Emira and this is my brother, Edric." Emira said as she gestured to herself and to Edric.

"We're Amity's older siblings and students of the Illusion Track. Our favorite magic is, and this should be obvious, Illusion Magic." Edric said as he and Emira drew spell circles to poof themselves in smoke.

When the smoke cleared, both Blight twins were shown to have new appearances because of their magic. Emira now posses 3 pairs of arms, all four sprouting out of her back, and Edric's arms were now 3 times as long.

"Oooh!" Everyone said before they clapped for the Blight twins.

'Impressive, those kinds of physical illusions can make them instant winners in a match.' Luz thought with a nod as the twins undid their spells and saw back down on two mats in between Amity's group and the H.A.S.

"Alright everyone, before we get started on today's lesson, I'd just like to say something." Luz said as everyone watched with curiosity. "Jerbo, Viney, Barcus. I know you guys are watching. If you wanted to join the club, I have no problem with it. Everyone is welcome here!"

Curious to why said that, a door suddenly opened above Luz as everyone looked up to see the three from Luz's story peak in.

"You knew we were watching?" Jerbo asked in surprise.

"Bark!/(You must have ESP!)" Barcus said/barked with wide eyes.

"I had a hunch you guys would be interested but you could've just asked to join the class. I wouldn't have turned you guys down." Luz said up to them as everyone else (minus Willow, Gus, and Amity) gazed at them in surprise.

"Yeah...I guess we were just nervous about people judging us." Viney said as she rubbed that back of her head.

"Well you won't have to worry about that here. No one will judge you because of your magic or anything else, that's a rule of my class. Now come on down and join us." Luz said as she smiled to her friends, gesturing them to jump down from the door.

Looking towards each other with smiles, the trio of duel trackers jumped from the door and shut it with Jerbo being last. They landed in the ring next to Luz and waved to everyone.

"Hi, everyone. If you hadn't guess, we're the fellow troublemakers Luz mentioned. I'm Viney and my favorite Magic's are Healing and Beast Keeping as you can see." Viney said as she gestured to her blue sleeves and orange leggings.

"My name is Jerbo and I favor Plants and Abominations." Jerbo said with pride, letting his green sleeves and magenta leggings show his pride.

"Ruff ruff, bark./(Name's Barcus, favorite are Potions and Oracle.)" he said/barked with a nod to everyone, raising his purple and yellow sleeves to give a double thumbs up.

"Hi! Hello. Nice to meet you." Several people said as they waved to the trio.

"Alright, now that ALL of us are here, why don't you guys find a spot to sit so we can get started?" Luz asked them before the Blight Twins raised their hands.

"They can sit with us!" Both said, wanting to sit next to the troublemakers.

Though they didn't mean to cause trouble, the twins wanted to know if they had any other stories to share about their experiments in mixing magic.

"If that's fine with them." Luz said as she turned to them, seeing them nod before making their way out of the ring. "And it appears it is. Now, before today's schedule begins, I'd like to discuss an important topic in kickboxing. What main type you classify as."

"Type?" Willow asked before raising her hand. "What do you mean by that, Luz?"

"What I mean is what kind of type of fighting you would prefer from the appearance you give. For me, there are 4 types a fighter can be classified in for a combat sport." Luz said as she held up her fingers to explain." First, there's a "Striker," someone that specializes in attacking and relies on power, precision, or both in their strikes to win a match."

Everyone that saw the fight from the Covention, visualized Luz delivering a barrage of punches to an opponent and overwhelming them with ease.

"Next, is a "Slugger," someone that specialize their defense such and blocking or dodging, focusing on tiring you out with their defense strategy to make up for the lack of a KO or knockout power." Luz said as she held up two fingers.

This time, everyone visualized Amity in her abomination armor with her guard up and tanking all hits given to her.

"Thirdly, is an "Outboxer." Based on the "Slugger" type I explained before, this type can focus more on speed, footwork, and precision to win but it sacrifices striking power and defense power. You'd have to be fast enough to dodge and strike if you face an opponent with more weight than you." Luz said as she held up three fingers.

With the newest addition of Jerbo to the class, everyone was able to visualize him dodging attack and striking with swift speed but small power.

"Finally, the last type is "Balance," a fighter that has a perfect combination of speed, power, and defense in their fighting style. This makes it hard to identify when fighting them and hard to overcome them if they surpass you in one area or more." Luz said as she held up four fingers.

"Okay, so today, you'll help us classify what type we all are?" Cat asked before Luz shook her head.

"I'm afraid not. I can guide you to a certain type but it's up to do to decide what type you'll be. I myself worked hard to try and fit into the "Balance" type in kickboxing but lean more being a "Striker."" Luz said as she rubbed her chin, looking." If I went by view alone, I could say that Willow and Bo could identify as "Sluggers" types because of their slightly big body types, Jerbo and Gus could classify as "Outboxers" because of their thin or small frames, and Amity and Boscha could be considered "Strikers" for their athletic builds. And that's not even taking into account the magics you guys could use."

Taking in all the information, everyone mumbled amongst themselves as they wondered what type they could be while those that Luz identified by looked over themselves to see if she was right or not.

'Well...I suppose Luz isn't wrong. All this muscle could help in taking hit.' Willow thought as she flexed her right arm a bit, seeing the muscle she's built up.

'Hmm, I wonder if my magic could help me be a "Striker" and an "Outboxer."' Gus thought as he wondered back to Edric's example of illusion magic, those longer arms could help with striking.

'Yeah, that seems about right.' Amity and Boscha thought, having some history with sports that made them more athletic than their friends.

From there class went as everyone, aside from the six new students, remembered.

1. Warm Up Exercises: Push ups, sit ups, jumping jacks, squats, and mountain climbers.

2. Stance and Movement Drills: Basic review of the stances, strikes, and movements from the last class. Including leading them movement by movement.

3. New Techniques/Exercises: Luz decides to teach the class a new type of punch that worked best for a Striker's K.O., The Russian Hook, and the importance of footwork for all types. More so Outboxers than the rest while Barcus had some trouble do to his four legs but he managed to get it down.

(A Russian Hook differs from a normal hook, a rounded punch to either the head or body in an arching motion, because it has greater power behind it due to the more arching force provided. The downside is that if used at the wrong time, it leaves you open and defenseless. Should be used only for a finishing/K.O. punch.)

(Footwork is one of the most important factors in combat sports and other martial arts. It makes us hit harder by allowing us to throw our body weight behind our punches and kicks, puts us in a position to hit by allowing to move and zone to the areas where the opening may be available, and lastly it gets us out of danger by allowing us to move and evade any incoming attacks.)

4. Review Rounds: Everyone shows what they learned from before and how they mix it with their favored magic spells.

5. A short break, 15 to 20 minutes, with provided bottles of water. Though this time, health snacks were provided as well.

6. Solo Drills: This time, everyone chooses something to work on, either from before or something new they learned today to help make it better. Surprisingly, Amity, Boscha, Willow, Bo, and Viney decided to work on the Russian Hook despite the downside of it. Mostly because they had the builds to make up for the opening after delivery.

7. Attack and Defense Drills: Everyone paired up to show and practice everything they know in terms of striking and defense.

8. Second water and snack break, 20 minutes.

9. Situational Sparring Games: Sets of games with preset rules to help them improve in certain areas, everyone had a choice of which game they wanted to play. Give three, get three (throwing three strikes before giving three of your own), Limit (Only using one set of punches or kicks in a certain stance), Evasion (One person is constantly attack with the other only defends or dodges), Cat and Mouse (One person pressures the other, who does all they can to evade and keep a good distance), and Punch and Clutch (utilizing clinches , two people go in with one trying to clinch while the other tries to keep their distance).

10. Review Rounds 2: Everyone chose two lessons to show and display for the 30 second rounds as class slowly drew to an end. Just as Luz predicted, Jerbo showed that he had great potential to be a Outboxer as he dodged swiftly and used swift footwork.

11. Cool down and stretch: Everyone stretched and relaxed to avoid soreness in the next morning. A hot shower or bath was also advised just in case the stretches weren't enough.

Looking towards the clock, Luz saw it struck 6:30 p.m., an entire hour later then last time.

'Hmm, maybe this should be the latest we stay. Can't have anyone getting in trouble because of me.' Luz thought as she looked over everyone.

"Alright everyone, that's all for today. I hope you all take what I've taught to heart and pick what type of fighter you are." Luz said before walking to the door and opening it for everyone. "I hope you guys have a great weekend and I'll see you guys next week."

Everyone gave Luz a wave and a goodbye as they went on their way home, with the 6 newest students going last to give Luz some comments.

"Boscha was right, your class is pretty cool and it's a great workout." Cat said with a smile and a handshake to Luz before she left.

"That was even better than I thought it would be!" Emira said with a nod. "I am so coming back for more!"

"That makes two of us." Edric added as they gave Luz hug and a double noogie. "See yeah next week, teach!"

Breaking away from the twins and fixing her hair, Luz turned to the last three.

"So guys, how'd you like your first kickboxing class?" Luz asked them.

"Amazing!" Viney said with a smile.

"Incredible!" Jerbo said as he punched the air!

"RUFF RUFF RUFF RUFF!/(I MAY NOT BE THE BREED BUT FROM NOW ON, CALL ME A BOXER!)" Barcus barked/said as he hopped on his hide legs!

Luz chuckled at their excitement as they gave their goodbyes, heading out of the classroom so she could lock up. Three classes, a group of new friends, and a new group of kickboxers in a world of magic. What more could Luz ask for?

Chapter Text

The weekend came and it passed, with Luz using it for all the track homework she got and for practicing in her Kickboxing hut in the back, the human girl was in the kitchen with a crystal ball in front of her and books at her side as Eda was steering something in a pot at the stove. It was a nice little Monday morning and Luz was spending it having a video chat with Gus and Willow over the crystal ball while having a sandwich for breakfast.

"So these guys at the market told me that humans aren't anything special. That they're just "weak flesh bags." I changed his tune by kicking his ass with a sack of snail as a bet." Luz said to them, dressed in her school uniform and her glyph gloves.

"Did you really have to do that? Seems unnecessary just because he was a bit disrespectful." Willow said to her.

"A bit? Willow, he was laughing about it! What else could I do beside shut him up? Do a little human magic trick? Like this?" Luz asked as she appeared to be removing her thumb, one the oldest "magic" trick human could pull out. "It's just misdire-"

"OH MY TITAN! You ripped off your thumb! Why would you do that?!" Gus asked in shock and fear.

"Hehehehehe, maybe that would've worked better." Willow said, understanding the trick and giggling at Gus' reaction.

"Maybe but actions speak louder than words." Luz said as she "put her thumb back," before King climbed onto the table.

"Luz, stopping talking with your friends! You don't wanna miss out on our comedy hour, do you?" King asked to her, standing on the table.

"Please no, anything but that comedy hour." Eda said, looking back at them from from the pot she was stirring.

"This week, I've been experimenting with props!" King said as he turned around and turned back with a toilet paper tube on his nose. "Oh dear! However will I eat with this tube stuck on my nose? I think I might be TOAST."

He then took the bread from Luz's sandwich and pushed his he through it, falling on his back and looking up to Luz.

"Eh? Eh?" he let out as Luz looked at him, a goofy smile growing on her face.

"Hehehehe, okay that's a good one." Luz said, laughing at his joke.

"An entire hour of this! And for what?!" Eda asked with a frustrated look on her face!

"For laughs, Eda. Now get up, DOUGH boy. Now's not the time to be LOAFING around." Luz said as she flicked the tube on King's nose, making jokes of her own.

"How about you try and BAKE me?" King retorted jokingly before they both laughed.

Their laughter was soon cut short as Luz's crystal ball made an alarm sound and flashed red, making her look to see it flash 08:00 below Willow and Gus.

"Time to head to school, I'll meet you guys at the front." Luz said as she waved her friends goodbye.

"See you soon, Luz." Willow said as she smiled and waved goodbye.

"Don't forget to get your thumb stitched up!" Gus said, still thinking she ripped it off.

Luz slapped the crystal ball to make the red alarm fade and the video chat end, hearing King sigh in defeat as she looked back to him.

"Don't worry, King. We'll have plenty of time for comedy after school." Luz said as she removed the bread from his head, ignoring the large hole and put it back on her sandwich. "Be good, okay?"

Filling her school bag with the books and grabbing the sandwich, Luz gave King a quick kiss on the head before she rushed out the back door while speed eating her breakfast.

"Bye, Luz!" King said with a giggle.

"Buh, Kuug!" Luz said with a full mouth before she shut the door.

Walking around to the front of the house, Luz finished her sandwich and swallowed roughly while pounding her chest a bit.

'Note to self, grab water to wash down next time.' Luz thought as she let out a breath of relief.

Luz was halfway towards seeing Hooty before a envelope with batwings flew up to her and made her stop.

"Huh?" Luz let out in confusion before seeing the school symbol on the front. "A school letter?"

Grabbing the envelope and making the wings stop flapping, Luz opened it and pulled a letter with bold letters on it.

-Due to unforeseen circumstances, an infestation of pixies has force our facilities to shut down temporarily. Please reframe from coming towards school grounds until the situation is handled. Thank you.-

Sincerely, Principal Bump and the Faculty of Hexside.

"Pixies? Are they the demon realm equivalent of rats?" Luz asked before she shrugged her shoulders. "Guess there's no school today."

Turning back, Luz walked back to backdoor of the owl house and opened the door again.

"Luz? You're back already?" Eda asked in confusion.

"You're back!" King said in glee before he climbed up Luz and laid on top of her head. "It's not like I missed you or anything but I'm happy you're back."

"Whatever you say." Luz said with a playful eye roll. "Anyway, got a letter saying the school is overrun with a pixie infestation, so there's no school until they handle it."

"Geez, that sounds real CRUMBY." King said as both he and Luz laughed, while Eda just stared at them like a real owl.

Before another joke was told, Hooty stretched into the kitchen.

"Hey, guys. Guess what I'm about to throw up?" Hooty asked before he began dry heaving to the floor.

This made Eda give him a bland look while Luz and King gained disturbed faces at the sight, silently wishing they could look away. After a few seconds of heaving, Hooty vomited up several envelopes and a medium sized packages covered in his saliva.

"The mail!" He said with sweat on his face.

Not disturbed or disgusted, Eda picked up the envelopes and began looking through them.

"Junk, junk, usual death hex." Eda said as she threw a letter behind her into a small trash can, making it glow purple before it suddenly crumbled in on itself. "Oh, hey! A carnival is in town!"

To show she was telling the truth, Eda pull out a flyer and showed it to the group.

"A carnival? Sounds like fun." Luz said as she picked King off her head and held him in her arms. "And sounds like the perfect opportunity to spend some time with you since I've been busy all weekend. How about it, King?"

"Yes! A day out together is perfect!" King said with glee to Luz.

"Yeah. What about you, Eda?" Luz asked her teacher.

"Count me in! Let me get my things!" Hooty said, stretching away to get his "things", whatever they may be.

"Ignoring Hooty, carnivals are primo places for primo crowds of suckers. A perfect chance for a new scheme for dozens of snails." Eda said as she put all the mail in her hair and pulled the wooden spoon, which was actually her staff, out of the pot. "Count me in!"

"Alright, just let me change and we can head out." Luz said before Eda stopped her.

"Allow me. And this time, I'm warning you in advance." Eda said as she drew a spell circle, changing Luz out of her school uniform and into her normal clothes.

With the day they went to the Knee and the day Luz was admitted into Hexside as reminders, the human made it clear to Eda that she had to warn her before changing her clothes so she could mentally prepare herself. Even if it was magically, it felt like a tiny flash of nakedness washed over her and that just didn't feel right unless you're prepared.

"Thanks. Now, let's hit the fair grounds!" Luz said as they all exited the owl house, leaving Hooty to himself the whole day.

Unless you count a random fly as company.

-A short flight into town later-

Landing before the gate of the carnival, Luz looked around to see it was like a normal human carnival mixed with the haunted house they only bring out on Halloween. Large stands of food of games that looked like monsters, candle lanterns hanging all around, and monster rides that may or may not be alive like a giant starfish like Ferris Wheel with an eye in the middle.

"Well, he we are kids. You can smell the fresh meat in the air." Eda said as she, Luz, and King looked over the people at the fair, one of which was a cyclops eating a "fresh"/rotting chicken on a stick.

"Yeah, I can smell that. With lots of other things." Luz said as she took a whiff of air but inhaled a fly up her nose. "ACK ACK ACK KAH!"

She managed to cough it out before whip her mouth and nose from it.

"Yeah, it reeks of fun!" King shouted out, wearing a light blue Fanny pack from some reason?

"Gross." Luz mumbled to herself.

Meanwhile on Eda's staff, Owlbert had awoken and gazed around to see they arrived at his favorite place! A carnival! He wanted to twist himself off to go play some games but his mother/master stopped him.

"Sorry, Owlbert. This is a work day, not a play day. We've got scams to run and I need my wing man." She said to him as the palisman sighed in defeat.

"Hoot." He said in sadness before becoming inanimate again.

"Friends! Welcome!" A familiar voice said, causing the trio to be on guard as it landed before them.

Looking towards the source, the trio was meet with a familiar pig demon except this time he was in a ringmaster coat with a gold vest, red tie, top hat, and a cane.

"I'm so glad that my post card made it to you." The pig demon, Tibbles, said as he adjusted his top hat.

"Tibbles? You sent us this flyer?" Eda asked as she pulled out the flyer, now noticing it had a hologram of Tibbles leaning on his cane on the back with writing.

Eda moved it around to see hologram Tibbles move side to side in a dance before pulling it down to see the real Tibbles doing the same.

"Mm hm." He hummed out with his tail standing up.

"Um, no offense but why would you invite us to a carnival? We did destroy your night stand by accident." Luz said to Tibble with a confused look.

"We also ruined your life." King said, not caring if it was hurtful. "That was great."

"Water under the bridge. After my stand was destroyed, I was able to find my true calling." Tibbles said as he walked over to a close by a red tent. "You are now looking at the proud ringmaster of Tibbles' Tent of Tiny Terrors!"

With the crack of a whip, Tibbles gestured to a hamster terrarium on a blue and yellow stand. Looking closer, they saw it had small creatures inside of it with a circus ring set up and tight rope walk! The animals inside were two unicorns, a manticore, and a griffin!

"Wow, this is something! I've never seen a circus act like this." Luz said as she gazed into the terrarium, seeing the tiny griffin his at her. "So tiny and yet still trying to look tough."

"I don't believe this for a second." Eda said as she walked up, making her staff disappear before crossing her arms. "What's your game here?"

"No games here beside the carnival ones." Tibbles said before pulling out a purple glass bottle with glowing blue liquid inside. "And to commemorate this new peace between us, I offer a drink for all. Non-alcoholic, of course, for the little ones."

"Hey!" King shouted as Luz held him back, offended by that "little" comment.

"A drink huh?" Eda said as she took the bottle from Tibbles. "Well who am I to- LUZ FIRE!"

Eda threw the bottle into the air and Luz looked up, taking aim as she hit the fire glyph on her right glove! A small fireball formed as Luz flicked it towards the bottle, destroying it and sprinkling it's remains to the ground.

"Do you honestly think I would fall for that? I'm potions expert and I know poison when I see it!" Eda said as she slightly squatted, pointing a finger at Tibble. "Don't try to scam a scammer, pig! Now, speaking of scamming..."

Eda walked to a stand selling snacks and other things run by a snake man, knocking all of it to the ground.

"Get lost, loser!" Eda shouted as the snake man ran away in fear as she jumped inside. "Step right up to..."

Drawing a large spell circle, Eda transformed the stand to be filled with pictures, clothes, and...diagrams of Luz?! with Christmas lights all around and a model of Luz's head peaking over the top!

"Eda's Human Horror House!" Eda said, gaining some people's attention as they came up, interested in all of the human items displayed! "Learn how humans shed their skin and feel the evidence I have acquired!"

To make her point, Eda pulled out something else she stole from Luz's things. Something rather...private!

"Did Eda steal your fishnet-" King said before Luz covered his eyes.

"MOVING ALONG! Let's go play some games!" Luz said as she picked King up, blushing brightly as she took him away from the stand.

'DAMNIT, EDA! YOU RAIDED MY UNDERWEAR AND SOCKS!' Luz thought in embarrassment and promising to get Eda back later, missing Tibble watching them from his tent.

"Have a good time while you can, owl house cohorts. It won't last." he said menacingly as he moved into back into his tent.

After getting a good distance from Eda's stand and putting King down, Luz walked with the small demon as they passed by several games and rides that caught her attention.

"Step right up, folks! Dunk the skeleton and win a prize!" Shouted the same kid with green skin, round buck teeth, and a head with slightly pointy bumps around it from the abomination track.

He stood beside a dunk, or in this world gunk, tank game with the objective was to knock a skeleton into a cauldron labeled "SKIN" to win a prize. 

Some managed to get a bullseye and dropped the skeleton inside, making it rise to reveal it now had a flesh, eyes, and skin!

"Aah! I've got pores!" The new humanoid said as Luz and King walked past him.

"This place is crazy and I like it." Luz said with a small smile before looking down to King. "So what do you want to do first, King? Ride that..."Mollar" coaster? Or get something to eat?"

To make her points, Luz gestured to a roller coaster shaped like a dragon head with its mouth open like a "U" and the carts looking like teeth while it went back and forth on the track before gesturing to a poster with some green ball of a mystery content called a "Fried Orb."

"Oh! Let's start over there!" King said as he ran off to a prize stand.

It has balloons, tickets prices, and various prizes from stuffed animals to weapons. The man running it had lime green skin and three eyes like Boscha while wearing a red tarp collar, blue tracksuit with yellow strips on the sleeves with a matching checkered hat, a red waist band and a gold ring in his right ear. King stopped before the stand and looked up to two bracelets hanging in a frame, each one with half a heart attached.

"Hmm, it looks to be some kind small flail weapon." King said as he examining on of the bracelets.

"Sorry, King. That's no weapon, those are friendship bracelets." Luz said as she walked up behind him.

"Friendship bracelets? Is that a different kind of weapon?" King asked with a claw on his chin.

"If you could use friendship as a weapon. No, King. These brackets are usually used to show everyone two people share a strong bond of friendship and are the best of friends." Luz said as she gestured to the bracelets.

"Ooh! So it's just like becoming blood brothers but safer! We've got to have them!" King said with excitement.

"1 millions tickets then." The carnie triclops said, waking up from his nap from their talking. "If you two want the bracelets, you'll have to play the games and get 1 million tickets. Carnival rules."

"Makes sense but don't you think that's a little much?" Luz asked the carnie.

"Of course I do but I don't make the ticket prices. Sorry, kid." The carnie said with a shrug, not really sorry.

"Okay, I guess. Games it is." Luz said as she smiled down to King.

"Then let us dominate the games and win those tickets!" King said as he pushed Luz, getting a giggle from the human with her excited he was.

"Games, games, games!" They chanted before...

"Luz!" Gus and Willow said, dressed in their normal clothes as they all stopped in front of a "House of Death."

"Guys, you're here too?" Luz said in surprise, hugging her friends as King watched. "I didn't expect to see you guys here too."

"Well, we go an invitation from Tibbles, so we decided to come." Willow said as she pulled out a similar flyer that Eda got.

COME TO THE CARNIVAL!

TO: YOU OTHER TWO

"We figured he had a trap for us since we ruined his night stand." Gus said, reminding them again of what they did on Conjuring Night.

"But who cares? It's a carnival! It even has a Scaris Wheel!" Willow said with glee as her hands curled up under her chin!

"It's like a normal Ferris Wheel, except it gives you long lasting nightmares!" Gus said as he held his head.

"Wow! I DID NOT expect that thing to give a person nightmares but I does sound cool." Luz said, recalling seeing the Scaris Wheel earlier. "But I'll have to check it out later, I was just about play some games with King. He's got his heart set on a special prize."

"Oh, we can help if you want." Willow said as she put her fists together.

"Aww, does the wittle guy want a pwize? He does, does he? A wubababababa." Gus said, baby talking King and wiggling s finger in front of him.

"Nyeh!" King let out as he slap his hand away.

"It sounds like a good idea but what do you think, King? Your opinion matters too." Luz said, looking to him.

The small demon looked unsure of this suggestion, simply wanting Luz to have fun with just him instead of having Willow and Gus tag along.

'Still, the more people that help, the faster we can get the friendship bracelets. And Luz seems to be fine with them and she did ask me first.' King thought, thinking more of the positives than the negatives of this.

"Uh, sure. I guess. The more the merrier, right?" He said with a nod, though hesitation was in his eyes.

"Alright then, let's go have a ball!" Luz said as she picked up King, putting him in her hood to ride as they ran off towards some games.

Their first stop was at a skeeball game, though these games were alive with red and black eyes and teeth around the hole the ball was to roll into. Each of them took one game, with Luz and King playing together on the one in the middle, and managed to get a decent amount of tickets. Though King was more into throwing the ball instead of rolling, causing the game to react angrily and spit a ball in his face!

"EEH!" He said in pain as he held his head, making Luz stop and hold him.

The human glared back at the game and held a ball up, quickly pressing her fire glyph to set it aflame and scare the game.

"Open wide!" Luz said as she rolled the ball, causing the game to scream and swallow as the flaming ball went in.

This actually got them more tickets as the living game was left smoking in pain. For their second stop after King recovered, the group stopped by a photo-stand with 4 opening for all of them. They all decided to take a picture together and stuck all of their heads through the holes. After the camera flashed, Luz went up to get the photo and frowned a bit at the sight of it. It was of them at the carnival with her, Willow, and Gus as clowns while King...was in a trash can with flies around him.

"That will be-" the camera carnie said until Luz ripped the photo up and dropped the pieces back into his hand.

"I am not paying for that." Luz said as she dragged her friends away, though King looked happy that she ripped it up and didn't pay for it.

He must've noticed he was in the trash can after they took the photo. Noticing it was around lunch time, the group decided to share a small snack and got themselves a fried orb to share.

'Looks okay, smells okay.' Luz thought as she held the food on a stick before taking a bite, getting a purple filling on her lips. 'Tastes...like rump roast mixed with cotton candy.'

It wasn't a bad taste, it was just a weird combo. Still, it was typical for a realm like this. Passing the orb to her friends, Willow and Gus took bites that finished it quickly. Thus, leaving none for King since Gus took the biggest bite, making Luz quickly slip away to fix this problem.

"Hey!" King complained before he felt a tap on his shoulder, turning to see Luz.

"Guess what?" Luz asked as she she revealed a second fried orb, just for King. "A big treat for my little buddy."

"YAY!" King cheered as he took the orb and eat it happily, getting head pats as Luz smiled at him.

Their fourth stop was at a dart game called "Pop the Poltp," a stand with a target covered in slimy puss pimples. King decided to play this one alone while Luz was listening to Willow about how the spice infestation at school started.

"So the pixie infestation was actually started because Boscha's pet pixie escaped from it's cage..." Willow said as they leaned on the counter.

"Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm." Luz hummed with head nods before noticing King, struggling to get up on the table and aim. "Just a moment, Willow."

Turning around, Luz quickly picked up King and set him on the table for him to play the game better.

"Thank you!" He said as he began throwing darts, popping plotyps as Luz went back to listening to Willow.

Though this was fun and all, King still wished it was just him and Luz having fun like she said back at the house! It was Willow's and Gus's fault for running into them, ruining their day together! He had to get rid of them somehow, even if they were helping to get tickets, it was mostly him and Luz doing all the work! If they weren't going to help, then they should just go somewhere else! As he had finished the game, King collected his tickets and began counting them as Luz and her friends went off somewhere. Either it was for food or for more games, King couldn't join them because he was busy counting the current number of tickets he had with him in his fanny pack.

"Sometimes, I wish Luz's friends would just disappear." King mumbled to himself.

"Disappear, you say?" someone said, making King stop counting as he turned around.

Standing below the game table, was a demon that looked a lot like Tibbles, except this demon had a blue and yellow wizard hat with matching robe and a moustache.

"Huh? Who are you?" King asked as he put the tickets in his fanny pack.

"Allow me to introduce myself, I am Obvioso, an all seeing psychic." he said to King as the demon jumped down to him. "My abilities of perception have allowed me to foresee your problem and I wish to help."

"My problem?" King asked in confusion and suspicion.

"Yes, you wished to spend the day with your friend until her friends came along and ruined it, even though they are helping you reach your goal." Obvioso said.

"Then what is my goal?" King asked him, wanting to see if he was for real.

"Your goal, as clearly stated in your mind, is to win a pair of friendship bracelets for you and your best friend!" he said, making King gasp in shock.

"You are psychic! That's exactly what I want for me and Luz!" King said with excitement.

"That I am, that I am. Now about you problem, I believe I have the perfect solution." Obvioso said as he pulled out a purple bottle with a white spray nozzle. "This is a special elixir that will make anything you spray, vanish into thin air. All you have to do is spray Luz's friends with it and poof, they vanish temporarily!"

"Temporarily?" King asked him as he took the bottle from Obvioso.

"Of course, nothing can stay vanished forever unless you want it. You just have to tap your cheeks and what was sprayed shall reappear." Obvioso said as he tapped his cheeks twice. "Safe and sound."

"Really? Wow! Thanks!" King said as he was about to leave but stopped and turned back to him. "Just one more question, will I ever find love someday?"

"Love? Hahaha, of course. Love is a universal force, all creatures find love someday. It's just a matter of patience." Obvioso said with a nod.

"Such wise words from an all seeing psychic, thanks!" King said as he walked off with a giggle.

"No no, thank you, King." Obvioso said with a wicked smile as he grabbed his mustache, taking it off with ease to reveal that he was actually Tibbles. "Thank you."

Back with the small demon, King was walking through the carnival to look for Luz as he gazed at the bottle in his hands. This was the solution he was looking for but for some reason, he was hesitant to use it, even though Obvioso said that he could just bring them back by tapping his cheeks.

"Am I reallly sure about this?" King asked himself.

"King, there you are!" Luz said, making King stop to see her, Gus, and Willow running up to him.

The small demon quickly put the bottle in his fanny pack and looked happy to his human friend.

"Luz, there you are! I've been looking for you after I was done count our tickets." King said, half lying as he looked up to Luz.

"Sorry about that, dude. We just went off to see what rides we can go on later." Luz said to him with a hand on her right hip.

"Awesome, then let's hurry and win them so we can go." King said as he grabbed Luz's left hand, dragging her back to the carnival games.

"Wait, we can do that later. There's no line for the Bumper Carcasses." Gus said as he grabbed Luz's right hand, making her turn to him.

"No, games first." King said, firming his grip on Luz.

"Carcasses." Gus said, adding both hands to her right arm.

"Games!" King shouted at him.

"Carcasses!" Gus shouted back while Willow watched from his side.

Meanwhile with Luz, she had reached her limit with this living tug of war.

"If you both don't let me go, the next things that will happen are two black eyes!" Luz said as she glared at them, making them flinch and let her go. "There is time for bot, okay? Just calm down and we can do all of that."

A loud rumbling sound came into play as Luz blushed a bit and held her stomach.

"RIGHT after I get some Rotten Candy real quick. Just sort this out before I came back, okay?" Luz said to them before running off to get the fair food.

As Luz left, Gus and Willow kept talking about all the rides they could go on but the problem was that it was all in sets of three. The Three Man Cauldron Spinner, the Triple Swings; heck even photo booths that only had room for THREE people! They were completely cutting him out!

"B-B-But today was about me and Luz. Just us having fun." King said, making Gus and Willow turn to him.

"Aww, do the wittle baby demon miss his Luz?" Gus asked as he picked up King, baby talking him again.

"Hehehehe." Willow giggle at the sight.

"Does he? Does he? Oh yes he does. Yes he does!" Gus said as King pushed away from him, still in his arm. "Ahahahahaha!"

"Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP! Let me down!" King shouted at him before kicking Gus in the face, dropping him.

At the same time, the bottle King got from "Oblivioso" feel from his fanny pack and sprayed the two witches by accident.

"Huh?" Willow and Gus said, the latter rubbing his cheek, before the vanished in burst of magic flames.

"Oh no! Oh no no no no no!" King said as he got up, picking the bottle up in a panic. "What did I do? What happened?"

Hearing footsteps, King quickly put the bottle back in his fanny pack as he turned to see Luz had come back with the rotten candy.

'Funny, I thought it'd be gray or green or something, but it's normal cotton candy.' Luz thought before she noticed Willow and Gus were gone.

"Hey, where'd Willow and Gus go? Did they head to the rides without us?" Luz asked as she looked around for them.

"U-U-Um, Luz. I-" King tried to say until Luz cut him off.

"Eh, whatever. I can always go on the rides later." Luz said, shrugging as she turned back to King with a smile. "We'll probably see them again later. Right now, let's do what I promised and get those friendship bracelets, okay?"

"Uh, okay. Sure." King said with a nod, walked past Luz and grabbing her hand to pull her back to the carnival games.

'Willow and Gus can let a little while vanished right? I can always bring them back by just tapping my cheeks like Oblivioso said.' King thought.

"Alright buddy, let's hit it. We'll get those tickets before you know it! Let's get ready to "crumble!"" Luz said to him, making another bread related joke.

"Yes, the comedy hour still lives!" King said, with hits fists pumped!

-Timeskip, several carnival games later-

Luz and King had gotten all the tickets they needed and returned to the prize stand, where the triclops carnie from before was currently counting all of their tickets.

"1,230. 1,231. 1,232." he counted out loud as Luz and King waited patiently, though the King of demons was busy eyeing the bracelets.

"Eee!" he squealed as he held his claws together.

"Glad to see you're happy King but can you tell me why those bracelets are some important to you? I thought you'd want something like this horse skull for a prize." Luz said as she pointed to an old horse skull with red jewel eyes and a ring in the back to have it tied up to a nail.

"Gaaah! I am the king of the night and every breath you take will only bring you closer to the eternal darkness!" it said, coming to life as it's eyes glew bright red.

O_O... Luz could only stare at the skull in shock before turning back to King.

"Nevermind, forget I said anything." Luz said as she pointed at it.

"Okay and yes, I have my heart set on those bracelets! But the reason is...kinda personal and important, okay?" King said to Luz, hopping she would understand.

"I can be important to you! Just choose me and I shall-" the horse skull said before Luz slap it off the nail and too the ground.

"I am sorry but that thing was just freaking me out." Luz quickly apologies to the carnie as King nodded in agreement.

"No problem, I was about to shut him up with a broom. You did my job for me." he said before turning back to counting their tickets. "Now, where was it? Ah! 2,375. 2,376."

As Luz and King went back to waiting for him to finish counting their tickets, something sticking hit Luz's hair and made her flinch at the feeling.

Ugh! What the?" Luz asked as she reached up, feeling the sticky thing. "It this gum?! Did someone throw gum in my hair, URGH! King, stay here and wait, please. I gotta find a mirror and possibility the jerk that did this!"

"Okay, Luz!" King said as he waved goodbye, turning back to focus on the prize carnie.

Searching around for a bathroom or some sort of weird mirror, Luz walked while trying to get the gum out but she couldn't do it right without seeing it.

'Goddamn gum throwing demon. No matter what dimension you're in, there's always an asshole that doesn't look where he throws.' Luz thought to herself before spotting something...strange.

Like REALLY strange.

"What the hell?" Luz mumbled to herself as she stopped in her tracks, seeing...a trail of arrows made from rotten/cotton candy pointing towards a tent that was titled, "House of Mirrors", "This is crazy, convenient, and coincidental all at the same time, something's not right."

Narrowing her eyes at the tent, Luz decided to follow the arrows with caution and enter the tent. She saw nobody else inside as she continued forwards, gazing at all the mirrors and seeing different reflections of herself. Herself as a furry, a walking skeleton, a pumpkin monster, an octopus monster with dozens of tentacles, as an anime character, and as a mass of space dust and stars.

"If I wasn't so focused on these arrows, this would be really cool right now." Luz said before using one of the mirrors, the furry one, to get the gum out of her hair. "A little ice magic should help."

Quickly tapping the ice glyph, Luz used her pointer finger to gently touch the gum and freeze it over before pulling it out of her hair.

'Now that the gum is out, let's see where these arrows lead.' Luz thought as she continued, tossing the frozen gum aside.

Following the arrows for the next 30 seconds, Luz looked down to see a message made of rotten/cotton candy for her.

"YOU MADE IT!" it said with left over bits around it.

"Made it to what exactly?" Luz asked before looking up to see...Willow and Gus standing tall above her in a mirror. "Gus? Willow? What you guys doing here? Was it you that left that message for me?"

Willow and Gus didn't reply as the plant witch just pointed down, making Luz turn her gaze down to see HER FRIENDS THE SIZE OF DICE!

"HOLY SHIT!" Luz cursed as she took a step back before quickly kneeling before her friends. "What happened to you guys?! Why are you so small?!"

"It was King! He had some sort of weird bottle and he sprayed us with it!" Gus said as Luz put her hands out, letting them climb on.

"The next thing we know, we the size of bugs! We had to hitch hike a ride on a fly just to get here and make you this message!" Willow said as Luz lift them up to her face.

"King did this? But why would he-" Luz asked herself before...

"Luz, great news. I got the bracelets!" King said as he walked into the house of mirrors, seeing Luz's back to him.

With the culprit in question right before her, Luz stood up and turned to him with her hands covering her friends.

"King, would you like to explain this?" Luz asked as she show him her shrunken friends!"

"WYEH!" he shouted in surprise at the sight of them!

"What did you splashed us with?" Willow demanded as she had her hands on her hips.

"I can't go on the big boy rides now because of you!" Gus shouted as he jumped up and down like he was throwing a tantrum.

"B-B-but you weren't supposed to shrink down. You guys were just supposed to vanish." King said before realizing how that sounded. "Wait, no no. That came out wrong!"

"Then how was it suppose to sound?" Luz asked as she glared down at King.

"No, no, no. I can explain this. I just wanted to win the bracelets with you and then your friends showed up and everything just spiraled." King said as he reached into his fanny pack and pulled out the bottle. "At first I was cool with it but I still wanted it to just be you and me today! Then there was this psychic, see? And he gave me this bottle and said-"

Snatching the bottle from King, Luz saw that it was EXACTLY like the bottle Tibbles tried to offer them! He was behind this and he used King as a pawn!

"King, whatever reason you did this, we will talk about it later." Luz said as she looked down to King.

"But Luz, I-"

"We will TALK ABOUT IT LATER." Luz said more firmly, cutting King off as he shivered in fear. "But first, we have to find that fat, little pig, Tibbles."

"You called, human?" a voice said, making Luz and King jolt as they turned to the source before they were suddenly sprayed by purple liquid!

Before they could react, Luz and King were suddenly shrunken down to size like Willow and Gus were!

"Huh?!" They all let out before someone stepped into the light, the very same demon that invited them to the carnival.

Tibbles, the double crossing pig! He chuckled deviously before scooping all of them up in his hands.

"Exactly as planned." he said as he walked out of the house of mirrors.

"Motherfu- I knew you didn't want to bury the hatchet! Inviting us to the carnival, tricking King with some stupid disguise,-" Luz ranted in anger.

"Wait a minute, I knew you looked familiar! You were Obvioso!" King shouted as he pointed to Tibbles.

"That I was!" Tibbles said as he carried them to his Tent of Tiny Terrors. "That potion was of my on design and the only cheeks that can undo it are my own."

"All so you can get back at us for accidentally destroying your stupid stand!?" Luz shouted at him as Tibbles gasped in anger.

"Stupid stand?! I will have you know that stand stood proudly in the Grimhammer family for generations! Our blood, sweat, tears, and trickery went into that stand and you destroyed it!" Tibbles said as he walked into his tent. "And for that, you will pay!"

Though it was dark inside of the tent, everyone could see that the small tent was a lot bigger on the inside than the outside made it look before the group were dropped inside something with Tibbles looking down on them from the edge of it.

"Now, welcome to THE GREATEST SHOW ON THE BOILING ISLES!" Tibbles shouted, holding a microphone as light shined down on the them.

'Is this...the terrarium?!' Luz thought, remembering the terrarium of tiny animals from earlier before looking out to see BLEACHERS!

Freaking bleachers inside of the tent like an actually circus big top tent with a crowd of witches all ages inside and cheering for action!

"Will these young witches and demon survive feeding time?!" Tibbles asked the crowd as he pulls out a small bell. "Time to find out, folks!

After a simple ring of the bell, several growls were heard as the shrunken group turned around to see the tiny terrors coming out of the tiny tent! The manticore, the griffin, and 3 unicorns; one of which was built like a body builder!

"What the fuck?" Luz said as she turned to the other unicorns, seeing them roar at them like savage beasts! "And what the double fuck?!"

The group stepped back as the beasts stalked towards them with Tibbles gazing madly over them like a crazy god.

"For ruining my old lively hood, you'll now feed my new lively hood!" Tibbles said with evil glee as he drew a spell circle.

A living spotlight came to life and shined on a white screen behind the terrarium, like a movie to show the crowd a better view of the action as Luz, Gus, Willow, and King backed into a corner.

"Place your bets, folks! The show is about to begin!" Tibbles said as he walked off stage.

"Um, Luz, does kickboxing work on beasts?" Gus asked her.

"It's more for people that large animals but you'll just have to improvise!" Luz said before she tapped her power glyph, feeling her strength rise! "Especially in life or death like this! Move!"

Dodging out of the way, everyone ran in separate directions as a unicorn tried to impale them with its horn!

"HYUUUUH!" It screeched as it bared its fangs!

"Gus, Willow! You guys handle the manticore and griffin! I've got the unicorn trio!" Luz told them as King stopped in front of her.

"What about me?" King asked.

"Stay out of the way, you've done enough for today!" Luz said as she tossed King over to the water bottle attached to the wall. "We're still gonna talk about this!"

"EEEEEH!" King screamed as he landed on top the water bottle!

Shaking his head, King looked down from the top to see Luz and her friends fight for their lives against the beasts! Luz made ice walls to trap the first two unicorns that tried to impale her before she got in a contest of strength with the bulky one!

'Really glad I got this power glyph now!' Luz thought as she pushed back the bulky unicorn and uppercut it away!

Meanwhile with Gus and Willow, they were proving to take her lessons from class to heart. Gus had created multiple illusion clones and dodged the manticore as it clawed at him, nearly perfect like an outboxer. Willow was currently using her plants to hold the griffin back but the beast was able to free itself with its beak and claws. When it got close to her, Willow had not choice but to wrap her arms in thick briars and block its attacks. Luckily the briar thorns were focused outside and not inside so Willow's arms wouldn't be hurt.

"Aw man, this is bad! They won't last long and it's all my fault. Stupid King!" King said, insulting himself. "I've got to do something! But what?!"

Using the height he gained from being thrown on top of the water bottle, King looked the rim of the terrarium to see a crowd of people cheering at the action, Tibbles laying on a piles of snails from all the bets made, and...Eda in a ridiculous clown woman like get up selling caramel crab apples (apples with crab claws on the sides)?

"Okay, put the aside for later but I can work with this!" King said as he pulled out the friendship bracelets, tying them together.

"King?!" Luz asked as she caught sight of him, struggling before coating her fist in ice and punched the puff unicorn away! "What are you doing?!"

"Making things right! And look out!" King shouted as he turned back to Luz, pointing towards the other two unicorns that got free and charged at her.

Quickly turning back to the unicorns, one tried to impale Luz but she dodged to the right, only for the other one to body check her into the glass wall!

"GUH!" Luz grunted as she slid to the ground, holding her stomach and chest in pain as she spoke hoarsely. "It's times like this I wish I knew a healing glyph."

Hearing more snorting in front of her, Luz looked up to see all three unicorns walking towards her to finish her off! Thinking fast, Luz pushes the ice glyphs on her gloves and made an ice wall around herself.

"NEEEEEEIIGH!" The screamed as they charged at the ice, taking turns to try and break it as Luz was recovering inside!

"Luz!" King said in worry.

The crowd cheered at the carnage before them, loving the fighting of both the beasts and the witches as Tibbles watched with a smile, mostly at Luz cornered by the unicorns!

"Hahahaha!" he laughed as King turned to him.

"One shot, gotta make it count!" King said as he spun the bracelets around like bolos, throwing them at Tibbles.

With his attention on the screen, Tibbles didn't notice until something small touch his left cheek and suddenly left like a bug.

"Urgh, darn bugs." he said as he patted his cheek, trying to get the "bug" away until he realized what he did. "Oh drat."

Suddenly, the group of Luz, King, Willow, and Gus gained a purple glow around them as the crowd wondered what the heck was going on and why the fighting had come to a halt!

"What the heck?! Get on with the show! Kill those kids!" the crowd said along with boos as Eda grew curious about the last one.

"Kids?" Eda repeated before she turned to the show, actually paying attention now to see LUZ, KING, GUS, AND WILLOW glowing on screen! "Wait a minute, those are my kids!"

Watching with new fury and strange maternal nature, Eda watched as the group began to grow bigger than the animals before the terrarium broke along with the barrel under it. The landed on the ground below them as King stood up with glee!

"Yes, it worked! We're back to normal!" He said as Luz and her friends sighed in relief.

Too bad for them that after a second, the 5 beasts that tried to kill them grew back to normal size right behind them!

"Seriously?! You shrunk these monsters too!?" Luz asked in shock and anger as she glared a Tibbles.

"Of course. Something had to be tiny in my Tiny Tent of Terrors!" Tibbles said to the human. "You have to have some honesty in a business."

Meanwhile with the 5 animals, the crowd was still booing at them for not finishing off the kids and small demon. One of them even threw their caramel crab apple at them, which the buff unicorn caught and ate. It had a look of wonder at the wonderful taste and demanded more, getting the attention of his fellow beasts as he growled at the crowd. The crowd grew silent as some of them stared at their treats and knew this would be bad, VERY BAD!

"RRREEEEEEI!" The bulky unicorn neighed loudly, commanded his former tiny brethren to charge and get the treats!

The crowd took off running in a panic as Tibbles looked on in horror, his livelihood was ruined...AGAIN!

"No. No. NO! You've ruined me again! You'll pay for this!" Tibbles said as he reached into his jacket and pulled out the shrinking potion from before. "This time, I'll just cut out the middle man and squash you like ants!"

A hand suddenly grabbed the potion, making Tibbles turn around to see Eda standing over him with the bottle and a box of caramel crab apples in her hands.

"Oh no, Tibbles. I'm afraid entertainment doesn't work that way. The bad guy is the one who gets it in the end, not the heroes." Eda said as she threw the bottle away and poured the box of caramel crab apples on Tibbles.

"Ah! Not the apples!" Tibbles said as he covered himself, getting several of them stuck to his body.

"Hey, girls! I got one last treat for ya! On me!" Eda said as she called out to the three unicorns, who stayed behind to eat all of the caramel crab apples in the stands.

The three unicorns turned to Tibbles, seeing the heavenly treats covering him and licked their lips in anticipation. Tibbles did the same and looked very fearful.

"Oh no!" Tibbles said before he took off running, screaming in fear as the unicorns chased him down! "AAAAAAH!"

Watching from what was left of the stage, Willow had to comment on what she saw.

"Welp, looks like we ruined his life for a second time." she said blankly while holding her hands together..

"Yep, but he deserved it this time. We're on a roll." Gus said with a fist pump.

"You guys are okay, I'm so relived!" King said, happy to see Gus and Willow are alright.

"King." Luz said, making King turn to see her staring down at him judgingly. "You still have some explaining to do."

Realizing that he was the cause of this, King whimpered a bit under her gaze until he looked her in the eye. It was time to come clean.

"I-I'm sorry for everything. The reason I did this was...because I just wanted to spend more time with you. Now that you're going to Hexside more and you hang out with your friends a lot, the time you have left until you have to go home is running out and I...just wanted to be around you more because to me, you're my best friend, Luz." King said as he wipes away some tears building up. "Demons tend to do crazy things when they get emotional and I guess I got really emotional about tod-"

Hugging the small demon tightly, Luz cut him off as she lift him up and looked at him.

"Next time, please just tell me if you want to hang out more. Sure I like spending time with Willow and Gus but you're my friend too. I like the time we spend together, too." Luz said as she smiled at King.

"Really?" King asked.

"Really And personally, I've missed hanging out with you too." Luz said as she gave King a kiss on the cheek, getting him to giggle. "By the way, I found the bracelets but they're kinda broken."

Reaching into her left pocket, Luz pulled out the 4 broken pieces of the friendship bracelets and held them up to King.

"You know what? It's fine. Because now, there's a piece for everyone." King said as he took two pieces and held them out to Willow and Gus. "If you guys want it, that is?"

Gazing at the pieces, Gus and Willow smiled at the gesture and took the pieces.

"That'd be great, King." Willow said with a smile.

"Yeah. Nothing like a jagged piece of metal to solidify our friendship." Gus said as he pocketed the piece.

"That's a sweet thing you did, King." Luz said to him with a smile.

"Thanks, Luz. Say, there's still some time left before the carnival closes, how about we go on some rides?" King asked her.

"King, you BREAD my mind." Luz said, joking with him as they both laughed.

"THE BREAD PUNS REIGN SUPREME!" King shouted in glee as Luz put him down.

"You coming, Eda?" Luz asked as she turned to her teacher, who was know laying on Tibbles' pile of snails. "Or are you good with all the money?"

"Luz, you don't even need to ask. I am fine right here." Eda said as the stands behind her collapsed. "Just the perfect end to a good carnival."

Chapter Text

A new sun equals a new day, thus this equals another day of Hexside as students roamed the halls without worry. Though, today was a special day for a certain witch as she was walking up to two of her friends.

"Hey girls, guess what today is?" Skara asked as she walked up to Amity and Boscha as they leaned against the lockers, holding a punch of red, rolled up objects in her hands.

"Your birthday, Skara?" Boscha said as she was transforming her hands for the perfect fashion.

"That's right and it's time to bug out." Skara said as she picked up a rolled up object, unfurling it to reveal a red butterfly with diamonds on the wings and writing on the wings.

"Invitation only and you guys get the VIP treatment." she said as she gave one to Amity and Boscha.

"Thanks but are these real butterflies?" Amity asked as she closed the book she was reading.

"Yeah. It's only the best for my party, dad said to himself. You only turn 15 once, gotta make the best of it." Skara said with a smile.

"The same could be said for every age, Skara." Boscha pointed out.

"Doesn't make it less special. Hey, do you think Luz would want to come?" Skara asked them as they turned to see Luz and Willow talking about something.

"So, what exactly is a thumb war?" Willow asked her.

"It's a fun little game where you clasp hands with someone like this and leave your thumbs up." Luz said as she held her's and Willow's left and together with the thumbs up. "The point of the game is to pin the others thumb down for at least three seconds and you win."

"Really? It's that simple?" Willow asked with a smile.

"Sometimes, the simplest things in life can be the funniest." Luz said as she and Willow began a thumb war themselves.

"Hehehe, you're right. It's so simple and kinda stupid but so fun." Willow said with a giggle.

"Hmm, I suppose she could come. She is pretty cool, I guess. Even if she's friends with Willow." Boscha said as she shut her eyes, not wanting to look at Willow for CERTAIN reasons.

Though if she did open her eyes, she'd notice her butterfly invitation was molting but it finished when Boscha reopened them to focus on Skara.

"Come on, Bosc. You have to admit, things have changed since Luz got her and Willow does seem to be more confident because of our kickboxing class." Skara said before remembering something. "Which reminds me, maybe I could invite the whole class."

"The whole class? That's new for you, Skara." Amity said in surprise.

"Do whatever you want, it's your party but you may want to tell your parents ahead of time. Don't want them embarrassing you." Boscha said before the trio headed for their classes.

Putting the birthday party of Skara aside, we cut back to Luz and Willow at the former's demon locker. They were currently talking about a class they had together later that day.

"So let me get this straight. Photo class here let's you create photo from your ACTUAL memories, like just pull them out of your head and it's an instant picture?" Luz asked as she opened her locker, tickling it awake to open its mouth.

"Yeah, it's really neat. I can't wait to see how you were as a baby. You were probably so cute." Willow said as she put her cheeks on her face, cooing at the future photos of Luz.

The human girl chuckled to Willow as she pulled a book from her locker, until the locker closed its jaw early to catch the book.

"Hey! Drop it! Drop it!" Luz said as she tugged at the book but the locker wouldn't let go, so Luz decided to use "alternate means." "I said "Dropt it!""

Throwing a jab at her locker, the beast whimpered in pain before it released the book and shut its mouth while tears pooled in its single eye.

"Good. Now I don't want to hurt you, but if you do this again, I'll have to." Luz said to her locker as she patted it like a pet. "So please just work with me from now on, okay? I don't want to put a dent in my locker."

Giving a sound of agreement, Luz patted her locker a few more times as Amity, Boscha, and Skara walked by.

"So do you really think the class will come if you invite them? This party is a bit high class for them." Boscha said to Skara.

"I'm sure at least some of them will come. Most people do fight over just one of my invitations." Skara said before noticing Luz and Willow, quickly stopping and pulling out an invitation. "Oh speaking of invitations, Luz I was wondering if you'd like to come to my birthday party after school."

"Your birthday is today? Well, happy birthday, Skara." Luz said as she took the invitation, watching it unfurl in her hand. "15th, huh? I'll try to make if I'm not busy. What about Willow's?"

"Oh! Well, yeah I could but I don't have anymore at the moment. I'll try and get her one before school ends." Skara said as she, Boscha, and Amity walked away.

Looking towards her friend, Luz saw Willow's attention was drawn to the trio that left. Mostly towards Amity or Boscha depending on the somewhat down look on her face.

'Something's up.' Luz thought, recalling Willow's history with both Amity and Boscha but could the later was mor unknown than the former. 'I'll have to ask later.'

Putting the invitation away and heading to class, all the students of Hexside went about their day in normalcy. Demon realm normalcy but normalcy none the less. When it came time for Photo Class, darkroom-like classroom with various frames, desk with small clothes lines for photos, and glowing spiders to act as lights. Bo and Cat were at one desk, Mattholomule was at a desk by himself, a random student was looking over his memory photos, and Luz and Willow were at the desk in the center. The teacher overseeing the class was the exact same teacher from the illusion track class room. A female devil with light pink skin, blue hair, devil horns, and a pointed tail wearing a large hat over her head and a blue black dress with white shoes.

"Alright, Willow. I'm going to pick on one more memory. You ready?" Luz asked as she picked up a pair of tweezers, demon tweezers with teeth and an eye.

"Ready and waiting." Willow said with a smile, sitting perfectly still.

Sticking the tweezers in her ear and pinching down, Luz felt something was grabbed and pulled back to see a photo covered in a red glow coming out of Willow's ear. The glow faded and Luz looked it over, seeing a black screen like those old cameras that printed the photo right after it was taken.

"And there we go, basically demon brain surgery." Luz said as she hung the photo on the desk clothes line, the fifth and final one from Willow's memories.

"Remember students, when noticing some pictures have greater clarity than others, it means they have a great emotional meaning to yourself or your partner." The teacher said, stopping next to Luz and Willow.

"Cool. So the clearer they are, the more meaning they have." Luz said, looking closely to the last memory photo she took from Willow until the teacher pulled her back.

"Ah Ah Ah. Be careful. If you damage the prints, you will damage the mind and memories of the person they came from." The teacher said before gaining a grime and serious look. "So take EXTREME caution."

"Okay, I didn't think this would be THAT serious." Luz said as she and Willow watched the teacher leave before the photos began clearing up, something Luz notice. "Hey, the photos are coming in.

The last one was the first to develop, showing a younger Willow sitting on a stool for picture day but had an awkward hair style.

"Whoa! Talk about a bad hair day. Looks like we have that in common." Luz said as she pulled out one of her photo memories, a fellow picture day with younger Luz smiling brightly wearing a pink plaid shirt and her hair in 3 pony tails with 5 ribbons. "Cute, huh?"

The rest of the photos followed to show young Willow at the Slayground with two fathers, young Willow feeding a fruit to a large milking spider, young Willow celebrating Christmas(or whatever version they have) with her dads, and...her being at a birthday party while hugging a young Amity who had brown hair?!

"WHOA! When is this memory?!" Luz asked while Willow turned away with a scoff at it, making Luz get serious again and put a hand on her shoulder. "Look, I know you and Amity's history isn't pretty but maybe if yo I talk things out, it could be better. My class has already helped a bit, one of you just needs to take the first step."

"Okay, how about this?" Willow asked before taking the photo and turning it around, making them unable to see it and making Willow happy again. "Like my motto, "out of sight, out of mind."

"Willow, you know that doe-" Luz tried to say before the bell screamed, signaling class was over.

Everyone in class began to leave and Willow wasn't far behind until Luz stopped her.

"Willow, you can't just bury this. Talking about it will help. It might even help you repair your friendship with Amity." Luz said, possibly thinking of ways to help in her own way.

"Luz, I appreciate you wanting to help but it's fine. If it happens on its own, it happens. But right now, it's not happening." Willow said before turning back to leave. "Now let's hurry and get to lunch."

Luz watched as Willow left before looking back at Willow's memory photos, taking another look at her and Amity in their younger days.

"You two seemed like best friends in this. What could've happened outside of just not having control over your magic?" Luz asked as she left, leaving the photo as it was while remembering what Willow told her about her past with Amity. (Back in Chapter 7)

As Luz caught up with Willow to eat lunch, a certain witch was passing the photo class and happened to see the photos of Willow's memories. Specifically, young Willow and Amity at the birthday party.

"Oh no!" Amity said and planned to do something VERY stupid.

Anyway, back with Luz and Willow, the two of them met up with Gus as the illusionist was looking over a walking pin board with multiple photos of people all over school and town.

"So can you tell my why you have a conspiracy board with you at lunch?" Luz asked him.

"If only this was that easy. I have a interview report due for Journalism class tomorrow and I can't figure out who to interview! They have to be interesting, accomplished, and noteworthy but no one fits all three!" Gus said as he held his head in a panic! "Curse my need for perfection!"

"Okay, just calm down and half some non-alcoholic apple blood." Luz said as she shoved her juice in his mouth, making Gus calm down as he slowly laid his head down. "Any suggestions, Will- Hey, are you alright? Your burning up."

True to her words, Willow did look a bit feverish as she was sweating at a fast rate. Like she was in a summer heatwave.

"I don't know but it just feels so hot all of a sudden." Willow said as she quickly drank some water, letting out steam as she sighed.

Willow grabbed a nearby pitcher and poured herself some more...before suddenly pouring it in herself and giving off more steam!

'What the hell?! Is she have a literal hot flash?!' Luz thought to herself as she and Gus watched, the latter still drinking apple blood.

Steam came from Willow's ears as she took over her glasses and wiped them with a napkin to clear fogginess. As she put them back on, Willow's pupils dilated and began all black.

"Uh, hi. My name is Willow." Willow said as she held her hand out to Luz and Gus. "What's your names?"

"Nice try, Willow but this isn't the time for a joke." Gus said, looking away from Willow with crossed arms.

"Gus, I don't think Willow is making a joke." Luz said with growing worry.

"I'm telling the truth. Who are you guys again?" Willow asked with squinted eyes.

"It get that this amnesia joke is pretty interesting but-" Gus said before Luz grabbed his shoulder.

"Gus, I think Willow is serious. Something is wrong." Luz said as Gus turned to Willow. "It's almost like her memor-

A gasp escape Luz as she remembers what the teacher of Photo class told them.

Flashback Begin.

"Ah Ah Ah. Be careful. If you damage the prints, you will damage the mind and memories of the person they came from." The teacher said before gaining a grime and serious look. "So take EXTREME caution."

Flashback Ends!

"Someone is messing with Willow's memories!" Luz said as she got up, grabbing Willow and pulling her to back to photo class! "Come on, Gus!"

Running after them and falling behind, Gus saw Luz abandon all signs of consideration for anyone else in the hall. The reason being if they didn't act fast, who knows what will happen to Willow's mind?

'THERE!' Luz thought as she saw the door, letting Willow go and picking up speed before she kicked the door to Photo Class in!

"ALRIGHT! WHO'S MESSING WITH MY FRI-" Luz stopped mid sentence while, dropping her jaw at the sight before her.

Gus and Willow came in as well, the former tired from his running and the latter sort of woozy like she's happy drunk but Gus was also shocked by the sight before him. Amity Blight, Luz's friend/crush, was trying to blow out magenta fires that were burning Willow's memories! Magenta fire Luz KNEW was Amity's from her fire spell!

"Um...hey guys." Amity said as two photos in her hands turned to ash.

"Amity, YOU BURNED WILLOW'S MEMORIES?!" Luz shouted as she marched up to her, shaking her by the shoulder. "WHY IN SATAN'S UNHOLY HELL WOULD YOU DO THAT?!"

"I-I-I-I don't know! I wasn't thinking! UGH, why would memories be so flammable!?" Amity said in a panic, ashamed that she did something so stupid and scared that Luz was mad her!

"Whoa! Look at this thing, it's nuts." Willow said as she wiggled her fingers, leaning against the doorway before she hits her own face a few times. "Blap. Blap blap."

"Well for whatever reason you did this, we need to fix this!" Luz said before turning to the fire still roaring. "But first!"

Holding up her hands, Luz activated the fire and ice glyphs on both of her gloves before clasping her hands together tightly! They began to smoke before Luz opened them to shot a stream of water at the desk, putting out the flames in a matter of seconds.

"When did you learn to do that?" Gus asked in awe.

"Just now! Let's go!" Luz said as she grabbed Amity by the wrist, pulling her along before she grabbed Willow by the wrist too.

"Wait! Where are we going?" Amity asked.

"To Principal Bump to get excused and then to fix Willow!" Luz said to her as she marched them down the hall with Gus following. "And when this is done, we are going to TALK about what you did!"

Her fear of Luz being made at her skyrocketed as Amity gulped, not looking forward to being yelled at or the possibility of Luz hating her!

-Timeskip to The Owl House-

"And that's why we're here, Eda." Luz said to her mentor, explain what happened at school and why they had come back in the middle of the day.

"So, you...live and sleep here?" Amity asked Luz, trying to ease the tension between them.

"Yes, I do and I have to keep a lot of random creatures away just to sleep. Now focus!" Luz said to her as Eda stood before them.

"Okay, so Willow's memories were set on fire, that is not good. Even the smallest of damage could have huge consequences!" Eda said to them

Speaking of Willow, the amnesiac girl was currently near the couch before she bumped into it while King was sleeping on it.

"Oof! Oh, A chair! I should probably sit down." Willow said before pushed herself up and sitting on the couch...UPSIDE DOWN.

"Yep, her noggin has a lot of screws loose." Eda said as she pointed to her head, making Amity look away in shame and Luz look worried. "Damage as bad as this can be nearly impossible to fix and Willow may never be the same if we don't do this right."

Turning back to the loopy plant witch, Willow had managed to sit herself up right as they watched her.

"I got it right! Oh look, a big furry fruit!" Willow said before noticing King on the couch and picking him up, waking him. "I'm gonna have some."

"What? Why is this is happening?!" King asked as Willow pinched his fur, ready to "peel" him.

"Nap time." Eda said as she drew a spell circle, shooting it at Willow and making her fall asleep while dropping King.

King landed back on the couch and followed Willow's lead to fall asleep, again.

"I didn't hit you with it, King." Eda said with a raise brow and hands on her hips.

"Doesn't matter, this doesn't involve me." King said as he waved his claw at Eda.

"You said it's nearly impossible to fix but that mean her memories can be fixed! How do we do it?" Luz asked Eda.

"Well, there is a way but it's incredible dangerous and partially illegal in some parts of the Boiling Isles." Eda said before smiling widely. "But not here! I'll just send you into Willow's mind so you can fix all the damage!"

"You can!? There's a spell for something as crazy as that?!" Luz asked in awe, never imagining magic would be this crazy!

"Yes there is but it's very dangerous to go in alone. Not to mention who knows how much you'd have to fix in there!" Eda said as she got serious again before turning to Amity. "I don't know why you did this but it was completely careless and complete disregard for Willow's safety!...But what do I know?"

This made Amity's guilt grow to new levels as she looked away, clenching her eyes shut as tears began to form. This was all her fault and now she has to fix it or Willow will never be the same!

"I know and I want to help." Amity said as she wiped away her tears and put on a brave face.

"Good, cuz you're going in with me. You burned her mind, you'll help fix her mind." Luz said to her with a nod as she grabbed Amity's hand, pulling her close before turning back to Eda. "We're ready when you are, Eda."

"Bringing in the one who caused this? Gutsy." Eda said as she drew a spell circle, creating a large spell circle to surround Amity and Luz while summoning a small, white handle bell at the same time. "Use this to signal me when you're done and I'll pull you both right out."

Luz caught the bell and nodded to Eda as she put it in her pocket.

"Got it. Anything for us to worry about?" Luz asked Eda.

"Oh yeah, keep an eye out for her "Inner Willow." She acts as the gate keeper of Willow's emotions and memories, she might be able to lend you a hand." Eda said to them before commanded her spell circle to rise and cover Luz and Amity in a yellow layer of light as the wind made their clothes and hair float a bit. "Hang on tight, this is gonna be a crazy ride!"

Eda waved her arms up and caused Luz and Amity to shout as they become yellow magic particles, guiding them them towards Willow's head and entering her mind through her ear. Inside of Willow's mind, Luz and Amity landed in a pillar of yellow magic in a black void. They waited for a few seconds before the void flashed in a white light and was replaced by a forest of some kind with a cloudy sky and large mushroom shaped trees with purple leaves. Each tree was sphere like in the center with a brown picture frame with nothing but black pictures.

"Whoa, look at this place." Luz said in awe as the two of them began walking through the forest. "I've never see a forest like this before. On Earth or in the demon realm."

"Me neither but we can talk about it later. I don't see Willow's "Inner Willow." Eda said she could help us." Amity said to Luz.

"I guess we'll just have to try and fix what we can on our own. Hopefully we'll find her along the way." Luz said as she stopped in front of a tree without any leaves and black bark. "This must be a damaged memories."

Moving her hand to the photo, Luz wiped off the blackness like it was soot and revealed a dim picture with burned edges of a sort of tent or fort made from logs, string, and sticks with a torn tarp on a beach of sorts.

'A fort?' Luz thought as she raised her hand to the picture, reaching to touch it.

But the moment Luz made contact, the picture glew and her hand just phase through. Like it was some sort of doorway instead of a picture.

"Whoa, trippy. Amity! Get over here, quick!" Luz called out to her, pulling her hand out.

"Yeah? What's up?" Amity asked as she ran over to Luz.

"I think I found the first memory we need to fix, come on." Luz said to her, grabbing her hand again before she jumped into the picture frame.

"WHOA!" Amity shouted as she was dragged inside as the picture flashed.

Coming out of the frame, Luz and Amity landed on their knees to see they were on a beach. It had pine trees, a dock with a sigh that said "Lake Lacuna," and a large stone with a life preserver leaning against it. The colors were dim and their were burned holes in the sky and ground around them.

"Oh my gosh, I know this memory. This is where Willow and I took swimming lessons when we were younger." Amity said as the wind blew through their hair, surprised to see it after so long. "All the ask and burnings must be from the fires."

"That's pretty obvious but that doesn't explain how to fix this place." Luz said as she looked around before casting her eyes on the fort from the original frame but it looked damaged. "Hey, it's that fort I saw!"

Amity gasped as she saw it, feeling good memories rise as she ran to it with Luz following.

"This was our fort in the dunes. One time, Willow suggested we play hooky from our swim lessons and we ended up building this." Amity said as she began fixing the fort as Luz watched.

"Willow playing hooky to build a fort? That does sound more fun than a swimming lesson." Luz said with a smile and a small chuckle.

"It was. Willow said she would protect us from our teacher using an illusion spell." Amity said as she finished fixing the fort but something was still missing. "Wait, it's missing one last piece."

Deciding to look for it, Luz searched the ground for this piece before noticing something buried in the sand.

"There." Luz said as she went to it, right in front of Amity's foot.

Pushing the sand aside, Luz saw that the missing piece was a small flag with "A+W" written on it. Picking it up, Luz looked towards the fort and saw a cup tied to the front of it.

"Got it." Luz said as she got up and placed the flag inside it.

A flash consumed them and the memory before Luz and Amity found themselves outside of the picture, back in the original memory forest. Looking back at the tree they just entered, Luz saw that it was healthy and normal like the others will purple leaves.

"We did it, the memory is fixed." Luz said as she and Amity watched the picture move, like it was a movie to show the memory.

It showed a younger Willow and Amity running and laughing as they got in the fort to hide. Young Amity complained about seagulls, creatures with skulls inside of snail shells with webbed feet and bird wings, on the fort. Young Willow tried to help by making the fort invisible but it just made it intangible, so the "seaskulls" got in and they got feather on them. Their swim teacher then came and dragged them back to swim class with young Willow apologizing for messing up the spell.

"Willow was a-"

"Late bloomer. She didn't gain control over her magic like most her age, I get it." Luz said, cutting Amity off as she looked around the forest. "This place is must be the manifestation of her most important memories. The sooner we fix them all, the sooner Willow gets better."

Looking around for more damaged memories, Luz saw the tree right next to them was black barked and leafless as well with the bad picture day photo of young Willow.

"Let's get to work." Luz said as she and Amity went to it, entering like before.

The duo worked for what felt like hours, possibly because it was hours, to fix any and every damaged memory of Willow's. Cleaning the room of Willow's young school so she could take her school photo, fixing the Slayground swing made with a giant bones to reveal Willow playing at the park with her two dad, placing a library book named "Weapons of Love" back in the Young Adult Romance section of the library back for young Willow and Amity to read, and fixing up an unorthodox mix of a kitty ride and an extreme roller coaster with over 5 large loops named "Roller Ghoster" for young Willow, Amity, and several other memory children to ride but it didn't end well.

"AHHH! I don't feel well!" young Willow screamed as the ride approached it's first large loop.

Before the memory could continue, Luz quickly turned it around before young Willow could gag.

"I do not need to see that." Luz commented.

"Yeah, you're right. Willow had a lot of fun that day but barfed just as much to show it." Amity said with a smile.

"That's gross but it's also sweet." Luz said with a smile before frowning. "I can't believe you'd want to destroy all this for whatever reason you did it for."

Amity sighed as she lost her smile.

"I know. And it was the biggest mistake of my life all because...I was worried about my stupid status. I shouldn't have thought that burning a memory would be my only option." Amity said in shame.

"Yeah, it was a mistake...but it's one you're working hard to fix." Luz said as she took Amity's hand into her own. "And it shows you care more about Willow than your stupid status right now. Maybe it's not too late to try and be friends with Willow again, if you want. I'll even help if you want."

"I...I'd like that." Amity said as she blushed, quickly hugging Luz. "I'd like that a lot."

"G-Good." Luz said as she hugged Amity back, blushing as well. "And I get that some of these might be painful to see again but it's worth it to help fix it. But I have to know, what happened between you two?"

Feeling her blush fade, Amity sighed as she broke the hug and looked Luz in the eyes.

"Luz, I-" Amity tried to say until she looked behind Luz and saw a large round being made of magenta flames coming from behind a tree, making her gasp. "Behind you!"

Turning around, Luz saw nothing but an empty forest with the light shining gracefully over the trees.

"What am I suppose to be looking at?" Luz asked as she turned back to Amity.

"I-I just saw some huge person made out of fire!" Amity said with a scared look on her face.

"Fire? Like the same fire you used to burn Willow's memories?" Luz asked with a raised brow, looking into Amity's eyes to see if her fear was real.

"Exactly! I saw just that." Amity said as Luz could tell this was real, her fear was REAL.

It was just like when she took on any rookies in a Kickboxing match and they knew her reputation, you can't fake the fear in their eyes when they face you and you never forget it.

"Okay, I believe you. Do you know where it went then?" Luz asked Amity with a nod.

"No idea. I just saw it for a moment and then it just vanished, I don't know how." Amity said, relived that Luz believes her.

"Then we'll have to be on guard, if that thing is still here it then it may have been created from the magic fire you used." Luz said as she looked around with caution, walking to a new memory. "We'll have to be ready to stop it if it tries to destroy any more memories or comes after us."

"Right!" Amity said as she rushed after Luz, sticking close because of safety in numbers.

"Okay, now what's this one about?" Luz asked as she stopped by a burned memory of Willow and Amity in a...ball pit of green ovalish balls with yellow polka dots?

"It's a little hard to explain but I'll tell you as we get into the eggs." Amity said as she climbed in the memory.

"Wait, did you say eggs?" Luz asked in surprise as she climbed after her.

After a few minutes of memory fixing and getting egg shell of their bodies, Luz and Amity flashed out of the egg memory while cleaning some of the shells off.

"And that's one more memory fixed. We're pretty good at this." Amity said as Luz pulled egg shells out of her cowl.

"Yep. And by the looks of it, we only have one more left." Luz said as she pointed to the biggest tree in the forest, the one with of young Willow and Amity hugging at a birthday party.

Though for some reason, this one had Amity specifically burned out of it. This one made Amity fearful as Luz began walking towards it.

"Wait! Maybe we can skip that one! Everything seems to be fine, so what's one more memory left damaged?" Amity said in a panic as she ran to Luz, stopping in front of her and cutting her off.

"Eda said we needed to fix all the damage. I don't know what it is that you're worried about but we have to do this to help Willow." Luz said to her as she walked past Amity.

"But this isn't helping! It's prying into your friend's life!" Amity said as she grabbed Luz's wrist, making her stop.

"It's not like we have a choice since YOU caused all this damage! Remember?" Luz asked as she jerked her arm away, glaring at Amity. "Why are you making such a big deal over us going into that specific memory?"

"Because what's inside is none of your business! So leave it alone!" Amity shouted and glared back before smelling something. "Hang on, is that...smoke?"

"Smoke?" Luz asked before smelling it too, making her look past Amity and gasping. "The memories!"

Turning to the same direction, Amity gasped as well as they saw the entire forest was set on fire with the same magenta flames from school!

"No! What did this!?" Amity asked in shock.

The answer came in the form of the same flame figure Amity saw before, coming from the side of a tree and glaring at them.

"ROOOOOAAAA!" It bellowed as it charged at them!

"Get behind me!" Luz shouted as she moved in front of Amity, preparing her glyph gloves.

Using the same combo as before, Luz pushed the fire and ice glyphs of her glove, clasped her hands together, and shot a stream of water at the fire beast like she was a fireman! The beast collided with the water, stopping as steam filled the forest! Luz continued the stream for 5 seconds more before stopping, lowering her hands as Amity looked from behind her.

"Did you get it?" Amity asked as the steam began to clear.

"Yeah but I don't think it's done for. I see something." Luz said as she saw a figure in the stream, slowly burning up as it's flame body grew back. "It's not gonna stay down for long. We need to think of a plan to beat it."

"Beat it? How? You just doused it with a gallons of water and it's still getting up! We need to leave and come back with help!" Amity said, reached into Luz's cowl and taking out the bell.

"Amity, wait!" Luz said before Amity rung the bell, making a loud ringing as she waited for something to happen.

After a second or two, the only thing that did happen was the flame being flared back to life and charged at them again!

"Move!" Luz said as she grabbed Amity and ran away from the flame being, which stopped at the egg memory they just fixed and went in to destroy.

"Why didn't Eda answer?!" Amity asked as she rang the bell over and over!

"Either Eda's busy with something, sleeping, or Gus has her occupied for his journalism paper!" Luz said as she stopped a few trees down and hide behind it. "So until they're finished it looks like we're on her own!"

Looking past the tree they were hiding behind, Luz saw that the the flame being had exited the previous memory and entered another. It may look like just random destruction but Luz looked closer towards specific memories. Ones that...involved Amity.

'That...can't be a coincidence, can it?' Luz thought as she looked over the memories that weren't burned.

One was of Willow at the Slayground with her dads, one was them celebrating the Demon Realm version of Christmas, and another was of them saving Owlbert from the Bat Queen!

"Oh my god." Luz said, making Amity turn to her.

"What? What is it?" Amity asked her.

"I get it now. I get it now!" Luz said as she turned to Amity. "That thing is what you wanted! It's your magic manifested from what you intended to do at school, erase your entire history with Willow! It's going after memories with YOU in them!"

The flame being heard Luz's words and turned to them, honing in on Amity to do exactly what Luz stated! Erasing her existence from Willow's memories!

"ROOOOAAA!" It screamed as it charged them again.

"And since Eda can't bail us out, we have no choice but to fight it!" Luz said as she summoned gold flames to her fists.

"Fight it? But-" Amity tried to say before Luz charged at it! "Luz!"

"Alright, you flamando diablo! No one messing with my friends and gets away with it! YAAAAH!" Luz shouted with a battle cry as she pulled her right fist back.

"ROOOAAA!" The flame being roared as it reeled its left fist back!

Their fists clashed in a burst of fire, pushing both of them back before they charged at each other again! Luz jumped and kicked the fire being, making it block and burn her leg as it pushed her back! It charged with and threw hooks punches, forcing Luz to block them and deflect them while she threw jabs at its face! The being took the jabs and kept going, throwing a straight kick that Luz blocked but was sent back by the power behind it!

'So it can kickbox too? It must've picked it up from Willow's mind.' Luz thought as she used her ice glyphs to coat her arms in ice. 'This should help with the fire but it won't last!'

Charging back at the fire beast, Luz ducked under a straight punch and hit it with an upward elbow!

"Amity! You gonna help or just stand there?!" Luz shouted back, not taking her eyes off her opponent.

Starring at the fight in slight fear, Amity shook in her boots at the creature that was probably fighting to kill her! But she just couldn't stand there as Luz was fighting to protect her for who knows how many times this time!

'No! I can't just let her fight for me again!' Amity thought as she clench her hands into fists. 'Get a grip and fight!'

Finding her courage, Amity drew a spell circle and summoned an abomination to her her side.

"Abomination! Merge and armor!" Amity commanded as the abomination moved over to her, sliding around her body to form and harden in to armor!

Except this time, the armor wasn't as bulky and formed a sort of dress combo around Amity.

(Perfect colors but replace the the red colors with pink.)

"Luz, duck!" Amity shouted as she charged forward, using her abomination armor to boost her speed.

Hearing Amity's call, Luz quickly ducked under the flame being as the Blight deliver a flying kick to it's face to knock it back! Landing before her, Luz got up and got a good view of the new abomination armor, finding it more curvy and shapely of her figure than the last one from the Covention.

"Wow." Luz said, blushing at the sight of it.

"Are you okay?" Amity asked, looking at the singes on Luz's clothes and the ice melting from her arms.

"Y-Y-Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine." Luz said as she turned back to the fire being as it got up. "It looks like that thing isn't done yet. So let's finish it together."

"Agreed. I'm done being afraid." Amity said as they both charged at the flame being, ready to end this fight!

"RROOOOAAA!" It roared as it punched at them but both girls dodged before giving a double punch to it's face!

Luz hit it with a punch to the stomach before Amity kicked it in the face, Luz elbowed it in the side and Amity kicked it in the chin! Both girls worked in a silent tag team as the flame being was at their mercy. Though punching it made Amity's armor harden more, it just made her punches hit harder! With a double straight hit to it's gut, Luz and Amity used a mix of a water blast and abomination goop to put the beast out again before trapping it as Amity made the goo harden! Luz continued to blast it for a few more seconds before the steam finally blew away and let them see...

"Willow?" Luz asked in shock, seeing their friend captured before them.

But this Willow was different from the one they knew, she had a blue glow to her body with the same color magenta flames going off her body.

"No, I think she's the Inner Willow." Amity said as they stared at her, dropping her abomination armor.

"Yes, I am. OR in this case...I used to be." she said to them as she blinked, turning her eyes pitch black as she burned away the abomination goop holding her and stood up. "I was once a being made of ALL of Willow's emotions! Love, sadness, fear but ever since Amity burned Willow memories, all I've been able to feel is burning anger!"

Inner Willow unleashed more flames, burning the force around her as Luz and Amity jumped back.

"STOP!" Luz shouted as she acted quick, shooting two blasts of water around the forest and at Inner Willow!

"AAAAHHH!" she screamed as she was pushed back to the tree, her flames dulled once again.

"You're hurting Willow. You need to stop this!" Luz shouted at her as she focused the water on her.

"But Amity wanted this!" Inner Willow said, pushing her rage and flames against the water while summoning the burned picture of Willow and Amity at the birthday party. "She wanted to burn her existence from Willow's memories!"

"I get that but why?!" Luz asked as Amity looked away in shame.

"How about I show you!?" Inner Willow said as she burst forward, pushing through the water and grabbing Luz and Amity before throwing them into the picture!

Inside the picture, Luz and Amity crashed into the floor of room in the memory. Getting up, both saw it the room had posters, pictures, and toys around with some balloons near the door.

"Wait, this is...my room." Amity said as Inner Willow floated inside the memory.

"You say I'm hurting Willow?" Inner Willow asked as her eyes returned to normal and landed in front of them. "Amity hurt her long before I did!"

Inner Willow washed the flames all over the room and made the memory whole again, adding a magenta tint to the room before the door suddenly opened. Walking in, young Amity was frowning as Willow walked in after her.

"You have to get out, Willow!" she said to her friend.

"Why? Because I can't do magic properly?" young Willow said as she took Amity's hand in both her's. "I-I'm sorry Amity, about the beach. I-I just can't get the spells right yet."

"Well, yeah that's why!" Young Amity said as she took her hand away from Willow, getting mad. "Because you're weak, Willow! You can't do magic and I don't want to be friends with a screw up like you! Now get out!"

With a wave of her hand, Inner Willow made the memory blow away like dust as an angry young Amity and a devastated, crying young Willow were no more.

"And ever since then, you let your new friends pick on Willow for years because you thought she was a weakling." Inner Willow said as she began to float in the air, her eyes turning pitch black. "But now I can erase all that pain. It's like Willow always says, "Out of sight, out of mind.""

"Amity!" Luz said, seeing a ring of fire form under her.

Luz tried to put the flames out but she was suddenly restrained by two flame hands, pulling her to her knees.

"Not this time!" Inner Willow said to Luz.

"STOP! Please, I need to say something." Amity said, shutting her eyes before the flames died out. "B-Before I ended our friendship, something happened that made me do it."

The door to the room was suddenly flung open as a new memory was played but it wasn't Willow's memory, it was Amity's.

"Amity." a male said as two silhouettes towered over young Amity.

"Why is Willow here? There's a reason she wasn't on the guest list." a woman said as Amity looked up to them.

"But, mom and dad, I had to invite her. Willow's my best friend." Young Amity said as Inner Willow looked surprised at this.

"Nonsense. The Blights only associates with the strongest of witchlings. You may chose a new friend from one of the young companions we invited." Mr. Blight said as a black and white image of two girls, a young Skara and young Boscha, looking snooty and bored.

"But they're mean! Why should I be friends with them because you work with parents?" Young Amity argued as she crossed her arms and turned from them.

"Now now Mittens, a good child doesn't squabble with their elders." Mrs. Blight said as she smiled down to her daughter. "Now, sever your ties with Willow and tell her to leave..."

"Or we will do it for you." Mr. Blight said as young Amity gasped.

"We'll make sure Willow is never admitted into Hexside." Mrs. Blight said as the memory began to fade. "Now run along and try not to make a scene in front of the guest."

The door to the room closed shut before the magenta tint to the room and flames holding Luz vanished.

"So...that's why you ended your friendship with Willow." Luz said as she got up from the ground, turning to Amity. "Your parents forced you to do it or else they'd ruin Willow's future."

"Yes, they did." Amity said as she looked up to Inner Willow. "Willow, you were never too weak to be my friend. I was always the weak one because I couldn't stand up to my parents. I can't change the past but I can make things better now."

Reaching into her pocket, Amity pulled out the invitation to Skara's 15th birthday party.

"Starting with making sure Boscha and her crew won't pick on you anymore." Amity said as she tried to rip up the invitation but didn't. "I'm...not gonna rip it up because it's an actually butterfly but...you get what I mean, right?"

"I do." Inner Willow said as she cried a bit, learning that Amity never wanted to end their friendship, as she turned to Amity. "I think Willow should keep her memories of you, good and bad."

"Thank you." Amity said as they held hand, their friendship was on the bath to restoration.

"Now that this is solved, and I'm glad you both finally found peace with it, do you mind if we get back to work?" Luz asked as she moved next to the two of them. "We've still got a lot of work to do."

"Of course." Inner Willow said with a nod, consuming them all in a flash of light.

And with another round of fixing Willow's memories, Amity and Luz stood before the tallest tree in the forest as it was now alive and well. The birthday memory appeared to be the core memory of Willow's mind as the large tree now had a large head of golden leaves. They then heard shuffling behind them and turned to see Inner Willow holding hands with the younger Willow, both smiling at Amity and Luz. Amity smiled back with a wave as Luz was the most emotional, turning away as a tears fell from her eyes. Younger Willow then turned and bumped into a tree but that didn't stop her from running off with joyful laughter as Inner Willow waved goodbye before following her younger self.

'It looks like there are two Inner Willows now.' Luz thought as she dried her tears.

"So, does this mean you and Willow are good?" Luz asked Amity as she held her hips.

"I'm not sure to be honest." Amity said as she looked to the ground. "But...I hope so."

Well, then lets go see for ourselves." Luz said as she pulled out the bell and rang it, thinking that this time Eda will pull them out.

Thankfully this time, Eda heard them an pulled them out of Willow's memory forest and back into the living room of the owl house. Though it wasn't as when they left with it now being a disaster zone with clutter EVERYWHERE.

"What in god's name happened here?" Luz asked as she looked around the owl house, feeling the bell disappear from her hand. "And where the heck is Gus?"

"You're friend's fine, he's just dead to us now." Eda said as she and King walked away in huffs as Luz and Amity watched them leave.

"...That's a mixed message, Eda." Luz said before she and Amity turned to Willow, who was waking up on the couch.

"Hmm?" Willow let out as she opened her eyes and slowly sat up on the couch.

"Willow? Do you remember us?" Luz asked as she took a step forward.

"Umm, an intimidating scarecrow?" Willow asked them before she laughed it off. "Just kidding, I've got all my memories!"

"My girl is back!" Luz said as she rushed to Willow and hugged her tightly. "I knew we'd fix you!"

Breaking the hug, Luz and Willow turned to see Amity approaching the door to the owl house.

"I remember everything you guys did too." Willow said, making Amity stop and turn to them. "With my "Inner Willow." I can't say we're friends right away but...it's a good start."

"Thank you." Amity said with a small smile and a nod.

Willow nodded back to her with a smile of her own before she turned to Luz with curiosity.

"Luz, how exactly did Amity even see the photo in the first place?" Willow asked her.

"Well...I may have turned it over to look at it because I was curious about it as you left." Luz admitted as she saw Amity about to leave, opening the door. "Hey, Amity! Wait!"

"Huh? What is it?" Amity asked her.

"I know this is sudden and random but do you remember when you asked about private kickboxing lessons?" Luz asked her.

"Umm, yes. A few weeks ago? Why?" Amity asked.

"Well, why not stick around and have one? I know Skara's birthday is tonight but I don't think I'd be up for it after the whole adventure in Willow's head." Luz said as she jerked her thumb to Willow.

"Well, if it's fine with Eda, I guess." Amity said as she pulled out her invitation to Skara's party and let it fly out of the open door.

"Great! Great! Let's just head out back and we can use my little training shack." Luz said as she grabbed Amity's hand, leading her to the back door as Amity blushed.

"I'll...just show myself out." Willow said, waving them goodbye as she left out the front door.

Chapter Text

A new day had come as the residents of the owl house were enjoying a nice breakfast as King was watching something on Luz's phone. How is this possible, you may asked? The reason being is that the portal is opened about halfway to let the Wi-Fi connection through but back to the story at hand as King was enjoying the video he was watching while Luz was drawing her glyphs on several sheets of paper so she doesn't forget how they're supposed to be if she's ever without her gloves. Even experimenting with them in some cases for different outcomes.

'Though I practically never got out without them now but still, it helps to be prepared.' Luz thought as she drew a light glyph and a plant glyph.

She tapped both of them to form a ball of light in the air and a pink flower blooming underneath it.

"Nice." Luz said as she picked the flower and sniffed it, humming at the sweet scent.

"If you think that flower is nice, check out this video I found of two warriors in deadly combat!" King said as Luz moved up to the couch, looking at the video King was watching.

The two "warriors" were actually two cute kittens and their "deadly combat" was just them being adorable.

"Well, I see that you've discovered the eternal black hole known as "cat videos."" Luz said to King with a bland look on her face.

"Yes! Fight! Kill! May death be your god!" King screamed, not listening to Luz in the slightest as he focused on the "death battle."

"That's not a death battle, King. And you should be careful about what you watch and read on the internet." Luz said to him.

"Please! What could possibly be wrong about your world's internet?" King asked before reading something. "Oh! So your Earth realm is flat?"

"That is wrong." Luz said as she snatched her phone from King. "That theory has long been disproven."

The phone vibrated as Luz looked to see a text from her mother appeared on screen.

'How's camp today, cariño? Heart Mamá.' It read as Luz let out a sigh, hating when her mother asked this kinds of questions.

'It's fine. Gonna meet up with some friends later. Heart u back, Mamá.' Luz texted back as King looked over the message.

"Ah! A truthful lie, very clever." King said with a nod.

"I know but what else am I suppose to do? I can't tell her I'm in another realm where magic and demons exist while training to be a witch and spreading the art of kickboxing. It sounds crazy just by saying it out loud." Luz said to King.

"True, to a normal human it would sound crazy, so it works out. By hiding the truth from her and giving tiny truths that don't reveal the situation, you're protecting her from potential stress and mental breakdowns from worrying about you." King said, impressively smart for once as he stood up on the couch.

"Hmm, that is some deep and wise logic, King. I'm impressed." Luz said to him.

"Of course you are. I am more than just a king you know." King said as he took Luz's phone back to watch more videos.

Suddenly, the door opened and Hooty greeted Luz with a cheery attitude.

"Hoot Hoot, Luz! It's time to fill that fierce little head of your with some good old-" Hooty said while extending his neck before he began retching, just like he did with the mail, and vomiting several books onto the floor. "delicious, school knowledge!"

Peaking from the door frame, Gus had an uncomfortable look on his face from watching Hooty's disgusting show or just from being around him. Most people are disturbed by Hooty until they get used to him.

"Please hurry up, Luz." he said with a tense look on his face as Willow peaked her head in with the same look.

"The more I'm around him, the more uncomfortable I feel." Willow quickly said, wanting Luz to hurry up so they can get away from Hooty.

"Hoot! Hoot!" Hooty hooted as Gus and Willow leaned back.

Though Luz found the scene funny, she didn't want her friends to suffer as she got up from the floor and grabbed her things.

"I'll see you after school, King. Make sure not to just lay on the couch all day." Luz said before giving him a kiss on the head, walking to the door.

"I will do what I wish!" King shouted at Luz, letting her know he wasn't going to move from that spot for a LONG time.

After shutting the door behind them, Luz began the walk to Hexside with her friends as the small talk began.

"So, I hope you guys weren't tortured too long with Hooty?" Luz joked with a smile to them.

"Oh no, it wasn't too bad." Willow said with sarcasm.

"Yeah, just the worse sixty seconds of my life. I'm sure we'll live." Gus said as a joke before the trio chuckled together. "But besides that, our week can only get better from now on."

"Especially with what's tomorrow." Willow said to Gus, making him remember.

"Oh right." Gus said with a smile.

"What's coming up and what's so special about?" Luz asked, curious.

"We'll tell you when we get to school but first, I have to ask. How did that private lesson with Amity go after I left a few days ago?" Willow said as she turned to Luz.

"Private lesson?" Gus asked as he turned to Luz as well.

"Oh! That... was nothing much. Just going over some drills and helping Amity with some sloppy movements." Luz said as she turned her head, hiding a blush.

"Like what?" Willow asked, curious.

"Just...helping with her clinching." Luz said, not saying anything more. "It's where she's weakest in."

"Clinching? You mean trying to hold you opponent's arms down to prevent them from punching you?" Gus said, remembering when Luz introduced them to clinches.

"Yep. That's the type." Luz said as she thought back to how a simple practice of clinching lead to...an awkward scenario.

Flashback Begins

Everything had been going swimmingly for their private lesson, it was like Amity was made for kickboxing. Every punch she copied perfect, ever kick she could get down instantly. It was almost like Luz didn't need to teach her anything, almost.

"So you're saying my clinches need to be tighter?" Amity asked Luz as they stood before each other.

"That's right. Most people don't think they matter that much but clinches can be essential in kickboxing. Not only does it tire your opponent out if they try to break free but it gives you time to recover or hit them with kick and knees up close." Luz said as he gestured to her stomach. "Though you can build up muscle and endurance for the stomach, if you accumulate enough damage in the same area, you can beat them before they know it when the damage finally sets in."

Nodding to Luz, Amity moved forward to Luz as she got into her stance while the Blight hand her hands up.

"Okay, just move inside of your arms and go for the neck before clasping the shoulder tightly." Amity said as Luz throws a fake punch, moving her head aside to clasp the back of her neck.

"Good, that's right." Luz said as she moved to grab Amity's shoulder before Amity looped her arm to be inside to grab Luz's left shoulder firmly. "And an excellent twisting to grab. You've kept my hand from grabbing your shoulder."

"And like you said, I can kick or knee you in your vulnerable stomach." Amity said as she slowly moved her left leg up to fake knee Luz in the stomach.

"That's right, yeah. I could also chose to block or parry your kicks and knees with my own like this." Luz said as she right knee to counter Amity. "You can switch legs to throw me off and hit me but if I'm fast enough, I can still block it."

Nodding to Luz and ignoring the close proximity, Amity tried what she said and switched between legs to strike Luz as she partied and blocked them. The minute they did it for was somehow long but it became excruciating when Amity tripped!

"Whoa!" Amity shouted as Luz prepared to catch her but she happened to fall back to the ground!

"Urgh" Luz grunted as she hit the ground, holding Amity to prevent her from getting hurt.

"Oh! Luz, I'm so sorry. I-" Amity said before she noticed the position they were in.

Luz noticed as well as she blushed, looking up to see Amity sitting on her lap as he hands were in her waist. Amity's blush consumed her face as she meeped but she didn't move from this position for another minute, a minute that felt like an eternity, until Luz quickly sat up and gently pushed Amity off her lap!

"S-SORRY! I SHOULD'VE BEEN MORE CAREFUL!" Luz shouted as looked away from Amity.

"N-No. I-I should've been more careful! I wanted to rush the lesson and this happened." Amity said as she looked around, not wanting to look Luz in the eye yet.

From that point, the private lesson only continued for a few more minutes as the air was so awkward between Luz and Amity until they parted for the night. It was safe to say they couldn't look each other in the eyes for about 2 days.

Flashback Ends

'Note to self, be more careful with clinches in class.' Luz thought as the trio arrived at Hexside.

Strangely though, everyone seemed to be acting differently as light green balloons that looked like abominations were hung with string everywhere and ribbons decorated the corridors. Students also seemed to be a bit lovely dovey like it was Valentine's Day on Earth.

"Okay, can someone tell me what's going on today?" Luz asked as Willow chuckled at her.

"It's just like I reminded Gus on the walk to school. In 2 days, it's social event of the season." Willow said with her arms pumped with excitement.

"This week, Luz, is your first Grom!" Gus said with a wide smile.

"Gr-" Luz was interrupted as a pair of paramedics rushed past her!

"Out of the way!" One said as they pushed a stretched to a student.

The student himself was a beast track student with dark skin, blonde hair that covers his eyes, and big, pointy ears similar to a bat. Skara was close by as the paramedics grabbed his shoulders.

"You need to come with us right now! We've discovered you have a serious disease and it's advancing!" The head paramedic said with a bone saw in his hand, pushing the student on the stretcher.

"What? Is there a cure, doc?" The student asked.

"Only one, dear boy." The superior said grimly before placing his hands on his check. "You find the perfect date to Grom!"

'...What?' Luz thought as the bat kid was rolled up to Skara. 'Is this for real?'

"Well doc, is that's the cure, then I know what to do." Bat kid said as he turned to Skara. "Skara, would you do me the honor of going to Grom with me?"

To make his point, the bat kid pulled out an ACTUAL BEATING heart with "GROM" written on it.

"EEEEE! Yes! Yes! I will go to Grom with you!" Skara squealed as she hugged bat kid.

The paramedics and surrounding students all cheered and clapped at the Grom proposal as Luz was just confused, looking up to see a golden web banner with GROM written on it.

"Okay...can one of you explain to me what Grom is exactly?" Luz asked as she turned to her friends. "It sounds sort of like "Prom" from my world but I'm going to assume it's WAY different. And can I assume there is some sort of "Grom Queen" as well?"

"Oh yeah. And you might not like it after I explain it." Willow said as she and Gus looked uneasy before someone bumped into Luz from behind.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" the person said as Luz turned around to see..

"Amity?" Luz said as she saw the Blight girl on her knees, with three books and a folded piece of paper on the floor.

Possibly a note for or from someone to ask Amity out to Grom.

"OH! Luz, I'm sorry. I didn't know it was you." Amity said before looking to Gus and Willow. "Willow. Gus."

"It's fine. You must've been in a rush, I can't blame you for that." Luz said as she helped Amity pick up and books and the note. "Here's your books and your note."

Hearing the word "note" from Luz's mouth, Amity quickly snatched the book and the note from her hands with lightning speed!

"Dang, girl! Where have you been hiding that speed?" Luz asked in surprise from how fast Amity snatched the note from her hand.

"S-Sorry about that. It's just...private." Amity said about the note before the P.A. system came on, alerting everyone to listen.

Everyone began muttering about, saying "this is it" and "listen up" for whatever Principal Bump had to stay. Whatever it was, it had to be a big deal to make the students this jumpy.

"Attention, Hexside students, attention! This is Principal Bump speaking." Bump said over the P.A. system, which looked like a purple, ravenous monster mouth with sharp teeth and a speaker for it's throat.

"Oh man, this is it!" Gus said as the group looked towards the speaker.

"The announcement of Grom Royalty this year!" Willow said with her hands intertwined together.

"This year, I have the privilege of bestowing our highest honor of Grom Royalty to..." Principal Bump said with a pause for dramatic effect, then tension in the air reaching it's boiling point as students began sweating! "...Luz Noceda! Our Grom Queen!"

Everyone in the hall gasped before turning to Luz, who wasn't as shocked as they were and looked around at the looks they were giving her. Some were wincing, some were wiping sweat from their heads, and the rest looked a her with pity, fear, or praying for her.

"It's Luz! Do you think she stands a chance?" The students whispered as Luz could hear some of them and was confused by this.

"Um...can someone tell me what this is about and why everyone looks so freaked out?" Luz asked as she turned to her friends, who all looked extremely worried at her. "What's the big deal about being "Grom Queen?""

"It's...kinda of a REALLY big deal, Luz." Willow said with some stress on the word "really."

"Huge is more like it." Gus said to her.

As Luz was still confused on their wording, Amity was having an internal panic attack!

'Luz is Grom Queen?! But that means she's-! She could-!' Amity thought as she gripped her books tightly, as if trying to crack them apart with how worried and fearful she became.

"Look, can somebody just explain to me what the big deal is and why everyone is freaking out?" Luz asked before Amity grabbed her left wrist!

"I'll do it! But you have to come with me to the gym, NOW!" Amity said as she dropped her books yet keeping her note, not carrying about them before rushing Luz through the halls to the gym!

After being rushed to the gym, Amity released Luz as they saw multiple students are setting up decorations for tonight while Principal Bump oversees it all but he was also talking to the Snaggleback for some reason. It had been a long while since she last saw the Snaggleback but it looked like he was doing well, considering he had a new shell with diamonds embedded in it but for some reason he was hanging from the ceiling by a rope and spinning like a disco ball.

"Okay, now that you've dragged me to the gym, can you finally tell me what "Grom" is?" Luz asked Amity.

"It's best if I show you while telling you." Amity said as she walked to a red button on a black and red pedestal with insect legs on the bottom.

Pushing the button, the gym floor rumbles before it opened before them to reveal a ramp leading to some sort of underground arena with large white columns and chains hanging from the walls.

"Whoa! A secret arena?" Luz asked before two walls popped up between her and Amity, with several weapons on display.

Various Swords (longsword, broadsword, fencing saber, dagger, normal swords, buster sword), shields, a club, a mace with a giant eyeball, a scythe, a great axe, a flail, and a single gold knuckleduster.

"What you see here, is the arena where you debut as Grom Queen." Amity said as she grabbed a sword from the right wall and pointed it in the arena, where a strange black goop appears and disappears. "And that is what you will fight, Grom or it's full name, Grometheus the Fear Bringer."

"So you're saying I have to fight a monster for this dance?!" Luz asked her in surprise, seeing a monster under the school besides the monsters from detention.

"Yes, Grom is much more than a dance party. Even though Principal Bump tries to put a fun spin on it and call it a traditional dance." Amity said as she placed the tip of the sword on the ground and drew a spell circle, showing Luz a moving tapestry. "Every year, Grom tries to break free and a select student has to defeat it before it invades the town. And if that happens, Grom will use it's ability to read minds and shape-shift to make everyone's worst fears come to life to lay waste to the Isles."

"Our worst fears, come to life?" Luz repeated, a small look of horror on her face before she shook it off.

"Yes, that's right. Honestly, I thought I'd be the one picked to fight Grom instead of you. My fear is...embarrassing but at least it wasn't you in my place." Amity said as she gazed at her reflection in the sword before hanging it back on the weapons wall. "I can't even think of anything that scares you, you might be able to beat Grom with no problem."

"Yeah...you'd think that." Luz said as she gazed at her hand, seeing it shaking as Amity turned to see it as well.

"Luz?" Amity asked, never seeing her react like this before.

"Nobody is truly fearless, Amity. We can fight to be fearless all of our lives and it would never be enough, it's basic human or in your case witch instinct. A defense mechanism to keep us safe." Luz said as she slowly rolled her hand into a fist, making the shaking stop. "But as a fighter, we have to take that fear and master it. Not to be fearless but to have the strength to overcome fear and grow stronger. We acknowledge that the fear is still there but we don't let it control us. I've felt fear countless times before, it's the reason I began kickboxing to begin with, and it hasn't stopped me before. I won't let it stop me now."

Looking up to Amity, Luz gave a face of determination and eyes of fire as Amity felt the air around Luz change.

'Her aura...it's so heavy now.' Amity thought as she couldn't help but shiver and admire that strength.

"Whatever Grom throws at me, I won't let it stop me. Not now, not ever." Luz said as she walked past Amity, heading to her classes as Amity followed with her eyes. "I swear, I am going to fight and I am going to win."

'Luz...' Amity thought as her heart was beating so face, moving a hand to it as she watched the human march on. 'You...really are an amazing person. Unlike anyone I've ever met before.'

-Timeskip, after school-

After a long day of classes, filled with students wishing her luck and friends from her kickboxing class giving their confidence that Luz can win, the human kickboxer returned home to train herself for the big fight.

'Whatever Grom will make for me to face, whether it's a fear I know of or not, I have to be at the top of my game.' Luz thought as she entered the owl house and made her way to Eda's room. 'I'll have to let Eda know about tonight, maybe she knows some more stuff about Grom I can use to prepare.'

Walking up the stairs, Luz headed for Eda's room doors and knocked on it before entering.

"Eda, I'm home for school and I learn something crazy about tonight." Luz said as she walked in and saw Eda wearing a brown tuxedo with King acting as a tailor.

"Ow! Careful with those pins, King. Blood may not show but I don't want to bleed." Eda said as King was standing on a stack of books and wearing a green apron.

"I don't know why you even wanted ME to do this! You know I don't wear clothes!" King said to her!

"Um, can I assume you guys know what's going on tonight or can I assume Eda's got a date tonight?" Luz asked as she walked to sit on the edge of Eda's nest.

"You'd be right to assume the first one, though the second one isn't impossible for me." Eda said as she flipped her hair back with a smirk. "Old Bumpykins has asked me to chaperon Grom, so I have to look sharp and dress for the occasion."

"And Gus asked me to co-emcee the fight tonight! By the time we're done, that's gonna be a fun-bath instead of a bloodbath!" King said as he pulled out a poster of him and Gus standing back to back wearing sunglasses while Gus held a microphone.

It also said "GROM WITH YOUR GROMMENTATORS, GUS AND KING."

"And speaking of the bloodbath, did they announce the unlucky victim yet?" Eda asked with her hands on her hips, eager to know.

"Yeah but this victim isn't gonna be as helpless as you think." Luz said, seeing their confused faces before just saying it. "It's me, I'm going be throwing down with Grom tonight."

"Huh?" Eda asked as King dropped the poster, letting it float to the ground. "YOU'RE fighting Grom?!"

"Yes, I am and I'm going to be sure to whoop that fear using fuck into next week." Luz said as she cracked her knuckles, showing no fear.

The two of them stared at Luz for a moment before King started laughing awkwardly, thinking this was some joke.

"Hehehehe, G-Great joke, Luz. Now be serious, who's fighting Grom?" King asked as he stopped his laughing.

"King, I'm not joking. I'm going to be the one to fight Grom." Luz said as she pointed to herself.

"You are? YOU ARE?! NONONONONO! This is not good! Eda, you have to talk her out of this!" King said with sudden panic, shaking Eda by her suit before she pushed him off.

"Look, kid, I know your tough and this kickboxing this is a threat to anyone who doesn't know about it but Grom is one a whole other level." Eda said as she crossed her arms. "You're strong, I won't deny that but human's are rather soft compared to witches."

"Soft? You think humans are soft?" Luz asked with a glare as she stood up, feeling her kind had been underestimated and looked down upon as she marched to Eda. "I will have you know humanity could whip witch and demon kind any day of the week! Not only with our advanced technology and weapons but with our vast collection of martial arts! Kickboxing isn't the only combat skill humans can perform. Wing Chun, Tai Chi, Krav Maga, Taekwando, Muey Thai, and Capoeira are just a few of over 170 martial arts humanity has developed! So don't ever call humanity FUCKING soft, got it?!"

The witch and the demon recoiled in fear from the passionate speech of humans and their hidden strength as Luz glared at them with such fire, her teeth grit together as she looked like a predator about to strike.

"Okay, okay, kid! I take it back! Humans are tough!" Eda said with her hands in front of her while King hid behind her hair.

"Good! Now if you'll excuse me, I have some training to do!" Luz said as she turned around, leaving the room before feeling something in her hair.

Reaching to her hair, Luz pulled a hand size golden spider from her head.

"HHHHIIIIISSSSSSSS!" it hissed at Luz but the human just dropped it to the ground and crushed it under her foot.

"Like I said, humans aren't soft." Luz said as she marched off, leaving Eda and King to stare at the crushed spider.

"...Luz scares me sometimes, Eda." King said.

"That she does, I fear what an older human could do if they were a "martial artist" as Luz would say." Eda said as she drew a spell circle to clean up the squished spider.

Meanwhile with Luz, she had marched to her room for a change of clothes so she could train for Grom tomorrow. That's not enough time to get into a good fighting state, so Luz had to hurry and work hard to get ready.

"It should be here." Luz said to herself as she looked through a chest she used to hold her clothes. "There they are."

Finding what she was looking for, Luz pulled out a pair of black sweat pants, one of her usual black tank tops, wrapping tape for her hands, and special kickboxing foot wraps before she close the chest. After changing clothes quickly, including taking off her glyph gloves to a moment, and wrapping her hands and feet with the tape, Luz headed for the backyard to her workout shack and faced her punching back.

"Whatever happens tomorrow, whatever I face, will affect everyone in this realm." Luz said as she got into a stance, focusing on the punching bag and visualizing what fear Grom will form. "I can't let whatever it takes beat me. Not matter what, I have to win."

Shutting her eyes and taking a deep breath, Luz opened them to see that her punching bag had been replaced by a new person. One that Luz met years ago and one that she could never get out of her mind, a tall adult man in a gray sweat suit with the hood up. Nothing could be said about his face, noting but pitch black darkness, aside from his seemingly glowing yellow eyes and a stitch work like mouth that you would see on a scarecrow.

"Hey, you lost, kid? Maybe I can help?" "he" asked with a creepy smile as he held his hand out to Luz.

'Yeah, you can help me.' Luz thought as she grit her teeth, growling at the dark memory that Grom could use against her.

Kicking off with a burst of speed, Luz launched at the "man" and punched "him" in the stomach with great force!

'You can let me knock you teeth out!' Luz thought as she spent the next few hours beating the visualization, showing no mercy as in reality, the punching bag was knock around from all sides!

Whatever this memory was, whatever fear it held on Luz, it was big and it would be her down fall if she wasn't ready for it.

-Timeskip, tomorrow afternoon-

After hours of training mixed with an effortless sleep from exhaustion, the day flew by as Luz was back at home looking through her clothing chest again. This time wasn't for her training clothes but for something nice to wear to the dance. Something she could easily slip out on after she finished her fight with Grom.

"Mmm, didn't pack many dresses but maybe Eda has on I can borrow in my size." Luz said as she pulled out a...otter suit she would use for pajamas sometimes because they were warm and comfortable. "Yeah, I am not wearing you."

Hearing her phone vibrate, Luz put the otter suit aside and checked to see she got another message from her mother.

'Mira! Visiting our fav after school snack spot!' it read with a picture of Camilia doing a selfie with a large burger in her left hand in front of a yellow "Chimichurri Sandwiches!" sign before a new message was under it.

'Miss you BEBE! XO - MAMA' it read.

'Oh what I wouldn't do for that sandwich right now.' Luz thought as she licked her lips before replying.

'Please don't tease me. It makes me crave them more. Luv U, mama.' she texted back before putting her phone away.

"Oh Luz!" Hooty said, suddenly sneaking up on Luz and smushing their faces. "Someone is here to see you."

"First, no smooshing faces. And second, who is it?" Luz said to him as she pushed Hooty away.

"She's already inside!" Hooty said as he pulled himself out through Luz's open window.

Her room door was suddenly opened to reveal Amity walking in with feather in her hair and a sour look on her face.

"If that tube thing talks to me again, I am going to murder it." Amity said as she pulled feathers out of her hair. "And before you ask, the reason I'm here is to help you train."

"Help me train? Why?" Luz said as she pushed the otter suit aside.

"Because this is important and you could use some help dealing with the stress." Amity said as she walked up to Luz and stood before her. "I'm confident in for abilities but if you lose, Luz, everyone will have to live out their worst nightmare."

"You wanna hear MY worst nightmare?" Hooty said, slinking back into the room and smooshing his face against Amity this time.

This made not only Amity angry but Luz as well and the duo began beating the house demon mercilessly!

"OW! OW! HOOT! I'M SORRY! HOOT! OW!" Hooty screamed in pain through the beating!

After teaching the house demon a lesson and being kind enough to patch him up, Amity lead Luz outside to the front where her brother and sister had been waiting for them. Why they tagged along? They never said.

"As I told you earlier, Grom will transform into your worst fear to defeat you." Amity said a she pace in front of Luz, Edric, and Emira before stopping and pointing to Luz. "What do you fear most, Luz?"

Luz knew what she feared most but didn't say it, so she just put on a look of pondering.

"How about we tell you our greatest fears to help you loosen up?" Edric suggested as Emira turned to him. "On 3, Em. 1, 2, 3."

"Being alone/stuck with you forever." Edric and Emira said, the former looking surprised and sad as the latter looked away like it was nothing.

'Ouch. That...is not a subject I want to touch.' Luz thought before she reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded note.

"I don't know if these count, but I made a list of stuff that creeps me out. Grom might use these as cannon fodder or something, right?" Luz said as she gave the list to Amity.

The Blight girl snatched the list away as her older twin siblings walked over to her, seeing the list as Amity opened it to read. The twins chuckled at the list, finding it weird Luz would be creeped by this stuff, before drawing spell circles to create them. On Luz's right, a phone with wings was made with a sleazy looking man on the screen.

"Ugh! Internet creeps." Luz groaned out before a cat with a man head was created on her left.

"Luz, please help me!" it said as Luz quickly kicked it out of existence, poofing into nothing.

"That meme still gives me the creeps." Luz said before elbowing the phone to poof into nothing.

"That's not good enough, Luz. The fear you will face with Grom will go beyond what just creeps or grosses you out." Amity said as she marched to Luz, standing face to face with Luz. "What is your REAL fear, Luz? The one you'll have to face when the cannon fodder is dealt with?"

Feeling the weight of the question on her shoulders, Luz looked up the the sky as she began to recall that one day as a child. That one day...that put her on the path of a kickboxer.

"It...all started when I was just 6 years old." Luz said, not taking her eyes off of the sky as the Blight listened to her story. "I was just a silly little kid and my mom had taken more to a huge convention center hosting Comic-Con, a convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event with comics books, manga, anime, and thousands of genres for people of all ages to enjoy."

'Humans have something like that?' Amity thought with interest, wanting to go to this "Comic-Con."

"I was dressed as little cat girl and exploring the convention with my mom. It was so much fun and I thought nothing could ruin that day." Luz said with a smile until it quickly faded into a frown. "That is until I got separated from my mom and wandered around looking for her. I was so scared and alone, I thought I'd never see her again and I was too small to get anyone's attention so they could help. I was feeling so hopeless and almost broke down crying until someone decided to help me."

"Oh well that's good. So you found your mom a-" Edric said before Luz cut him off.

"IT WASN'T!" she shouted, surprising them as her hands started to shake. "H-He said he could help me find her, so I followed him. I was too young to notice at the time but he was leading me away from the crowd to the back, where it was nice and empty. I asked where my mom was but he didn't answer, he just...pushed me down and looked at me with these crazy eyes and deranged grin on his face. H-He-"

Taking a breath, Luz shook a bit as she exhaled and looked the Blights in the eyes as they recoiled in shock. Luz...was crying but her face was trying to stay firm.

"He held me down and started moving his hands up my costume, trying to get it off me. I struggled all I could be he was too strong for me. He was about to take it off before security guards rushed to him and tackled him off me." Luz said as she let out a short sob and wiped her tears away.

'S-She was almost...' Emira thought as she covered her mouth in shock.

"Luz..."Amity said in shock and horror.

"Apparently, my mom managed to find security and they searched for me. Two managed to spot me and save me before he could do anything but...that look on his face and the fear I felt haunted me for months after we left. I pushed everyone away, I was scared to even be left alone, I even cowered once when my mom grabbed me." Luz said as she took several breathes to calm herself, shutting her eyes. "My mom took me to therapy after that and they suggested I do something that gave me control, that could help me gain confidence to push that fear away. After that, I went to a Junior Kickboxing class and the rest is history."

Opening her eyes again, Luz saw that the Blight rushed her and hugged her tightly while crying themselves. To experience such a thing at a young age, it should've been impossible to recover from but here she is, standing strong and ready to face that fear! Unknown to them, Eda had been listening as well from the door. She couldn't bring herself to interrupt the story after hearing it and couldn't help but feel so useless when she should've been comforting her with the Blights.

'Luz...I know you said humans are strong but...can you really face Grom if it turns to that?' Eda thought as she leaned against the door.

Back with the human girl, Luz had taken several deep breathes during the hug until she calmed down enough to talk.

"I know Grom is going to use that man against me, there's not denying it. But I'm not going to waver and I'm not going to run." Luz said as she clenched her fists as the Blights broke their group hug. "Facing that man, even if he's not the real one, is a fear I need to face to become stronger. Like I told Amity, a fighter must be able to take their fear and master it. I going to fight and I'm going to win."

The three blight looked to each other with worried looked but still nodded in agreement, they knew Luz was a strong girl but they still worried if she could do this.

'If she can't, I'll jump in and save her.' Amity thought as she put a hand on Luz's shoulder.

"Okay, Luz, I believe in you." Amity said with a smile to her as Emira and Edric nodded, agreeing.

"Thank. But before we head off I need to change and I need you to do something for me." Luz said to Amity.

"Sure, what is it?" Amity asked as she moved her hand away.

"First, I need you to hold something for me when I get back and second, save a dance for me after I beat Grom, okay?" Luz requested with a small blush and smile, making Amity blush brightly as Ed and Em cooed from behind.

"Bold move, huh Ed?" Emira asked him "A very unique way of asking someone to Grom."

"Bold indeed, Em. And very crafty." Edric said with a nod.

"S-S-S-Sure. To both ends." Amity said with a shaky smile as Luz nodded, running back into the house to get changed and ready for the dance.

'This is gonna be a long night.' Amity thought with slight dread, not from the fight but from the dance afterwards!

-2 hours later, the school gym-

The gym was fuller decorated and bustling with students as they all dressed to impressed on this night to remember. There was live music played by living instruments, dating duos dancing together, and various other just talking and enjoying the evening, such as Willow using her magic to make corsages for other students Though some people looked nervous about tonight as they knew the fight with Grom was coming up, Eda was that type as she repeatedly checked her watch for when it was time.

'Kid, I really hope you can do this. I believe in you but...I can't help but worry about you.' Eda thought as King walked up to her.

"What's up with the twitch, witch? I don't thin I've ever seen you this nervous before." King said to her with a thinking look.

"Well how could I not be nervous?! Luz is about to go up again one of the worst monsters on the Isles!" Eda said as she facepalmed. "Ugh, so much for Mama's fun night out."

The lights in the gym began to dim as microphone feedback was heard, causing everyone to look towards the stage and see Gus in a gray tuxedo with a white shirt and a blue bow tie.

"Ladies, gentlemen, and assorted demons of all sizes! The time for our annual Gromnite Fight is almost upon us!. Please take a sea in the designated bleachers and be aware that the first three rows of each side are designated splash zones." Gus said as he gestured to a splash zone, where a student is sitting with a raincoat, cap, and umbrella.

The people cheer loudly as they made their way to the left and right sides of the gym, sitting in the bleachers.

"Man, Gus can really work a crowd, huh?" King asked ,impressed as everyone was cheering him on. "They're hanging on his every word."

"Don't look now, but I see Principal Bump has come to the party!" Gus said as he gestured to his right on the stage. "I hope it's not to crash it because we may blow the roof off this place."

A spotlight moved to Bump as he sat in the bleachers, several students clapping and cheering for him as he nervously smiled and did a "raise the roof" motion. 

Meanwhile at the entrance of the gym, Amity was standing and waiting for Luz, wanting to wish her luck before the main event.

"Amity? What are you doing here?" Luz asked as she walked up to her, wearing the same black tank top, black sweat pants, black foot wrap and her glyph gloves with wrapping tape on her hands under them.

'Wow, that's a nice dress.' Luz thought as she saw the dress Amity was wearing.

"I just wanted to let you know I put the bag you gave me in a safe place and I wanted to wish you good luck." Amity said before she frown a bit, taking Luz's hands in her own. "And to let you know, even if you don't want it, at the first sign of trouble I'm jumping in to help you. I don't care what tradition says."

"Thank, Amity. I sort of expected that from you and possibly the others from my class but mostly you." Luz said as they both shared a small chuckle. "But honestly, thank you. It's nice to know I have people who have my back."

"Don't mention it." Amity said before Gus spoke through the microphone.

"And now, to introduce our Grom Queen!" he said as Principal Bump joined him on stage. "You know her, you love her, you've probably seen her throw a punch! THE DOMINICAN DESTROYER, LUZ NOCEDA!"

Walking through the door, Luz found the spotlight flashed on her as everyone cheered for her with the loudest ones coming from the ones she taught kickboxing to.

"I'll see you afterwards, okay?" Luz said as she gave Amity a thumbs up.

"Okay." Amity said as she gave a thumbs up back as Luz walked forward, growing worried again.

Back on stage, the same black and red pedestal with insect legs move to Gus before he slammed the button down to open the arena and raise the weapon walls. Students gasped as the floor shook underneath them before splitting and Skara along with her date ripped their tuxedo tops to reveal T-shirts for Grom.

"GET SOME, LUZ!" Skara screamed with huge intensity!

"GROOOOOM!" bat kid said as he swung his torn tux coat in the air.

Luz stood in between the the weapon racks and gazed towards the sword Amity was holding yesterday on her right.

"Okay, I can work with this." Luz said as she grabbed the sword and pulling out a piece of paper with fire glyph on it from her pocket. "Let's make this interesting."

Slapping the paper on the sword, Luz watched as it glowed before the sword was cover in flames from the hilt up. Smirking at it, Luz held it in both hands as she walked down the ramp and into the arena. She looked around cautiously before hearing something behind her, turning around to see Grom slowly forming behind her.

"Alright, slimy, let's dance." Luz said as Grom formed several human faced cats and they began crawling to her.

"Luz! Help me! I'm really a man!" they said randomly as Luz shivered at them.

"Whoever made that meme is sick." Luz said before swing her sword, launching a flying slash of fire at the cats and destroying them in an explosion!

The crowd cheered for her as Gus and Bump watched from the stage!

"And there she goes, folks! Using the impressive human ingenuity to win the day but I have to wonder why she isn't using her kickboxing, her main forte of battle?! Why don't we ask my co M.C., King?!" Gus said as King hopped up on stage, taking the mic from Gus.

"Hello, Hexside! Great to be here! And to answer you question, Gus, I think Luz is playing it smart for now! Using a weapon can make for a good warm up and then she can beat Grom at her best when she's done with the rest!" King commentated as the crowd cheered, turning back to the fight.

'YES! I didn't choke!' King thought in victory, worried from earlier as he looked down at the battle.

After dealing with the annoying human faced cats, Luz turned her attention towards a large phone with wings and a sleazy creep on the front.

"I really, really hate creeps like you! Real life is bad enough but on the internet it's worse!" Luz said as she spun her sword and slashed forward, shooting a beam of fire at the phone and melting it into a puddle.

"Luz has lasted surprisingly long in the arena but what hideous form will Grom take next against her?!" Bump said as he pulled out his own microphone and watched eagerly.

"Come on, Grom! I know you're saving the worst for last! So let's do this, mano a mano!" Luz shouted as she looked around for Grom until she heard something being behind her, making her turn around to see had taken a new form.

It looked a lot like her mother but was made of black goo and had glowing white eyes as it stared down at Luz.

'Mom? But I'm not afraid of mom.' Luz thought as she narrowed her eyes, her fire sword at the ready.

The "Grom Mom" reaches out to Luz's head with a black tendril and makes her eyes glow before it pulled it back. Grom's eyes glowed as well before it began condensing into itself and forming into exactly what she thought it would, the same tall adult man in a gray sweat suit with the hood up and the only thing that could be seen under the hood were glowing yellow eyes and a stitch work like mouth.

"Hey, there little girl. You lost?" Grom asked, mimicking the man's voice perfectly as it smiled at Luz.

"No, I'm not." Luz said as she threw away her sword, rolling her shoulders as she glared down Grom. "I'm right where I need to be."

"Gehehehehehe!" Grom laughed as Luz bounced on her feet a bit, not breaking eye contact.

A hush fell over the crowd as they didn't expect this, for the Fear Bringer to assume such a humanoid form or for Luz to glare at it so furiously as she prepared to fight it.

'Luz, this is your greatest fear?' Willow thought as she gazed at Grom, feeling unsettled by its grin. 'I may not know why but I can tell it's got a deep grip on you.'

Ceasing her bounces, Luz took a deep breath to calm her heart and calm her hands as they still shook.

'I know I'm afraid and I accept it. That day...it broke me. It shattered my innocence and made it almost impossible to recover.' Luz thought as she remembered crying in her mother's embrace after the stranger was taken away. 'It's a miracle I managed to get some back but...I also gained strength, strength to fight with all I've got and let nothing hold me back.'

Luz got into her fighting stance, but this time leaned forward a bit for a charge.

'It's time I face my fear, my original fear, head on. I won't back down, not now. Not ever!' Luz thought as she clenched the ground, curling her toes to the cement.

"Well, Luz? Are you going to start or sh-" Grom said before Luz's burst forward!

"HA!" Luz shouted, throwing a straight jab into the monster's face!

The impact echoed through the gym as everyone watch Luz punch Grom, sending it stumbling back before she continued striking it!

"I-It's Luz who makes the first move as she hailed Grom with a flurry of blow!" Gus commented with wide eyes, making the crowd come to life again as they cheered for Luz!

Luz gave a barrage of punches to Grom before it grabbed her wrists to stop her, making it a struggle of strength as Luz tried to pull away.

"Hehehehe! Hey, kid. What's the problem? I'm just trying to help!" Grom said with the same smile.

"Screw your help!" Luz shouted before jumping forward, kneeing Grom in the chin!

Luz landed back on the ground and threw a jab but Grom ducked like a rag doll and threw a straight kick, the human managed to duck it by a few inches.

'Just as I though, it pick up on some of my moves when it read for my fear.' Luz thought as she moved back, gaining some distance. 'Alright, you've got the knowledge. Let's see you use it.'

Grom ran after Luz and swung a barrage of attack but the punches were both wide and predictable, so Luz could dodge and blocked them with ease. She continued to bob, weave, and blocked until she found an opening! Shifting to a new stance, one with her left side forward and her left arm in front in a swaying motion while her right arm tucked close to her chest, Luz launched a 5 jab attack on Grom to hit it in the chest and face.

(This is a stance known for delivering a barrage of flicker jabs at high speed and a good tactic for Striker Class Kickboxers, The Hitman Stance!)

Luz pushed onand threw a low kick but Grom slid its legs back while leaning before throwing a limp uppercut! Luz jumped back as the wind behind the punch pushed past her face!

'All power, no technique. Just a mindless monster swinging around!' Luz thought before dodging two more punches and blocking a kick to the head! 'If I can keep this up and think smart, I can win! Time to hit it harder!'

Charging, Luz blocked a side kick before hitting Grom with a roundhouse kick, hook punch to the chest, and a cross to the face!

"RAAAAH!" Grom roared as it went back to throwing a barrage of punches, wide and predictable like before!

Luz charged in and returned with her own barrage, dodging and blocking while striking back! She was slightly overwhelmed by the speed behind the punches but Luz had more precision and experience to compensate!

"IT'S A CLASH!" King and Gus shouted at the same time!

"Without any magic from her gloves, Luz is caught in a no holds barred barrage clash and is matching Grom!" Gus shouted as the crowd was on the edge!

Luz ducked a punch and spun to knee Grom in the leg before jumping into a Russian Hook, slammed Grom to the ground! Luz stopped to breath as everyone cheered for her, she was fighting toe to toe with Grom as it took on her greatest fear!

"Do you hear the, Grom? Do you hear their cheers? It shows that they aren't afraid of you, that you're not something to be feared." Luz said ,gazing down at the fallen monster. "You change into people fear to beat them and I think I know why, it's because you're afraid of being forgotten. Afraid of being weak because in a worth without fear, you're powerless. You're just a pile of sludge. You're NOTHING."

This word echoed in the fear bringer's ears, making it gasp with wide eyes and making it something it had never felt before because of it's primal nature. ANGRY.

"GrrrrrrrRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAH!" Grom roared, echoing through the gym as it rose to it's feet and 4 black tentacles burst it's back. "DIE!"

The three tentacles charged at Luz as she ducked under one but was knocked away by the others, rolling against the ground.

'Maybe not the best idea to trash talk a shapeshifting monster.' Luz thought before using her magic, tapping her power glyph and her fire glyphs for strength and fire fists.

Luz quickly jumped up and away as Grom pounced to destroy a column behind her. Luz got back into her stance and dodged the tentacles as Grom threw a punch to her while Luz threw one herself, both hitting each other in the face!

"Double impact!" Gus commented as students "oooed" and winced at how painful that looked.

'Kid, you better be able to take a punch!' Eda thought in worry as Luz visibly stumbled from the hit before she shook her head.

'Damn, I haven't been hit that hard in a long time.' Luz thought as she blocked a low kick. 'Grom is coming to play this time. I have to end this quickly!'

Luz dodged a tentacle, punched another away blocked the last before she kick Grom away! Rushing to Grom, Luz gave a rush of punches and kicks to push it back, trying to end this quickly. Grom blocked her attacks and waited for Luz to tire out, after a solid minutes of rushing it got the opening.

"Heh!" Grom let out before it grabbed Luz arms and legs with her tentacles, holding her in the air.

"Hey! Get your slimy tentacles off me!" Luz shouted before Grom held her to the floor, standing menacingly over her as it chuckled darkly.

'No! Not this!' Amity, Edric, Emira, and Eda thought in worry!

This is exactly like it was in Luz's traumatic memory but much worse since Grom grew more tentacles from it's back!

"Oh shi-" Luz cursed before Grom mercilessly beat with it's tentacles, laughing nefariously as it beat the girl who dared insult it!

Everyone watched in horror as Luz was beaten, some turning away to not look while others couldn't look away!

"OH! THE WITCH-ANITY!" Gus shouted as he looked away, covering his eyes but peaked through his hand as his human friend was being mercilessly beaten.

This wasn't a fight anymore, this was a slaughter! One that lasted 3 minutes before Grom finally stopped, moving away to see Luz was bloody, beaten, and looking...dead. No one could tell if she was breathing or not!

"RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Grom roared in victory as everyone began fearing, crumbling to tears as they cried over their champion.

'Kid...no!' Eda thought, shutting her eyes as she blamed herself for not stepping in!

"Luz, no!" King screamed as he fell to his hands and knees, sobbing on stage!

"Luz." Willow said as she covered her mouth, holding back her sobs as he best human friend was "dead."

"I...I don't believe it but...Luz has fallen." Gus said as he burst into tears, falling to his knees as he dropped the mike on stage.

"Teach..." Boscha said as she tried not to cry, silently acknowledging Luz was strong as she looked away.

As everyone began crying and fearing as Grom made his way to the ramp, the one most torn up by this was Amity.

'Luz...no.' Amity thought as tears feel down her face but her face was stuck motionless. 'You promised me you'd win, you promised me a dance! You...you...'

The youngest Blight felt her heart breaking as she grit her teeth while turning her eyes to Grom, feeling such anger and hate as it had a smug grin on it's face! She couldn't let this stand! SHE WOULDN'T LET THIS STAND!

"RAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Amity screamed as she jumped from the stands, surprising everyone as she land near the ramp and before Grom. "You are not going anywhere!"

"I...I don't believe this! Amity Blight, the rumored runner up for Grom Queen, has stepped into the area!" Gus said between sobs and sniffles.

"It would appear that Amity is challenging Grom!" Bump said, trying to dry his tears and remain professional. "This has never happened before!"

"Abomination! Rise, merge, and armor!" Amity said as she drew a spell circle above herself before commanding it to the ground, making an abomination rise from the ground and cover her body to form her new Abomination Armor. "You are going to pay for what you've done!"

Amity stomped towards Grom as the fear bringer roared at her in annoyance, finding her just another irritation in its way! Using one tentacle, Grom read Amity's mind to find what she was afraid of but it found nothing!

"?!" Grom was shocked as Amity stopped in front of it and glared in its face.

"You can't find my fear, can you?" Amity asked it as she moved closer. "The reason is because it already came true. Because you...killed Luz."

Amity punched Grom as hard as she could, making it cough in surprise and pain, before Amity uppercut it away. Amity followed fast with several jabs to the face before kicking it to a pillar!

"I-I- And in a surprising turn of events, Amity is now caring on the fight with Grom and is shown to be without fear! How is this possible?!" Gus asked back into the microphone!

"Who cares?! Get it, Amity! Avenge Luz!" King shouted!

Everyone followed King's lead and began cheering for Amity, seeing her fighting Grom with all she had as the fear bringer fought back!

"RAAAH!" Grom screamed as it threw multiple punches at Amity but these strikes were different from before, sharper and more focused.

'Its still learning!' Amity thought as she blocked a punch, moving to put Grom in a clinch before kneeing it in the stomach and kicking it away! 'But it's nowhere near my level!'

As Amity fought Grom, the bloody and bruise body of Luz found herself staring at darkness but hearing a roar of voice as she laid still.

'What...What's that noise? And...why does everything hurt?' Luz thought as she slowly opened her slowly swelling eyes, sitting the light slowly grow and fade as he vision cleared. 'I'm...in the gym?'

Being knocking in the head a few time my have scrambled Luz's mind a bit but it was slowly coming back to her what happened and why she was in pain.

'Grom...I lost.' Luz thought as she slowly turned her head to the ramp, expecting Grom to be walking out but instead...'Amity?'

If her eyes could open wide in shock, that would be her expression as she saw Amity fighting in her place and...crying? She still couldn't hear what she was saying but she could tell it was emotional with how angry and sad Amity looked.

'She's fighting Grom? But...no.' Luz thought as she tried to get up, needing to power through the pain. 'I have to get up. I have to finish this.'

Everyone was so focused on Amity fighting Grom, they didn't notice their kickboxing human girl slowly betting up from the ground. Meanwhile with Amity, it looked like she was getting the upper hand on Grom as she back it into a pillar with its arms up.

"It's time to end this." Amity said, drawing two spell circles and igniting her armor gloves in magenta fire.

As Amity charged at the fear bringer, Grom caught the sight of a certain weapon that made it smirk before diving out of the way of Amity's punch. The Blight followed the fear creature as it grabbed the weapon and swung it, making Amity block with her arms as she went sent stumbling back.

"What?" Amity asked in surprise before gasping, seeing Grom holding the same sword Luz used against it earlier.

"Hehehehehe! Rah!" Grom laughed as it charged at Amity, sliced at her as her armor was tested for it's defense as it's tentacles became sharp like spears! "HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!"

Amity held her arms over her face as the sword slashes and the spear jabs were chipping away at her armor as she was being pushed back, she would've made tentacles of her own to fight back but without the help of a power glyph, Amity's armor was limited and it was being chipped away right now!

'It's too fast! I can't find an opening!' Amity thought as she felt her armor cracking and chipping away from her body. 'And if I don't do something, I'm going to die!'

Feeling desperate, Amity blast Grom with her fire but the monster dodged before delivering a hard kick to send her into another pillar! She screamed in pain as the rest of her armor was cracked, revealing her normal dress as the armor had melted from the exhaust. Amity looked up to see Grom standing over her with the sword and spear tentacles at the ready to finish her off.

"NO!" the crowd screamed!

"AMITY!" The Blight twins screamed as Eda shot up from her seat, ready to intervene this time!

'Luz...I'm sorry!' Amity thought as Grom brought two down on her!

Time slowed as Amity watched the sword swing until a wall of ice rose before her and knocked the sword into the air! Grom stumbled back before vines suddenly wrapped around it's body and it was set on fire!

"AAAAH!" Grom screamed in pain as everyone gasped in shock!

'Where did those spells come from?!' everyone wondered before someone spoke, the hush of the room quiet enough for them to be heard.

"Hey, Gromy." Luz said, causing everyone to turn to see her on her feet and her right hand being held out in its direction. "Forget about someone?"

"LUZ?!" Everyone said in shock.

'S-She's alive!' Amity thought as she cried again but this time with tears of joy.

Luz Noceda, bloodied and bruised, was alive and back on her feet. Her arms were turning purple in some areas, her sweat pants were torn to show her legs were bruised as well, her face had blood coming from her mouth and forehead but she had a head band of ice on her hair to cut down some swelling above her eyes.

"Sorry about that everyone, passed out for a minute there." Luz said as she slowly lowered her arm and walked to Amity, standing above her and giving a kind smile. "Hey. Sorry about worrying you. I hope you're not hurt."

'Me? You look like you're about to collapse and you're worried about me?!' Amity thought in anger!

"I get that you're probably angry but don't worry, I've been beat up worse than this." Luz said as Amity rose to her feet, showing Luz her blushing and crying face.

"Worse?!" Amit asked in anger!

This surprised everyone else as well as Eda fell to her seat in exhaustion and shock, this was an emotional roller coaster!

"If you think I'm going to let yo-" Amity shouted at Luz before the human suddenly tapped their foreheads together.

The world came to a halt for Amity as she felt it was just Luz and her alone in the darkness, not even a recovering Grom was noticed.

"I know you worried and I'm really sorry for that but please, let me finish this. I started this and I have to end it." Luz whispered to Amity.

Though she should've denied this request, Amity couldn't help but feel so calm when Luz spoke to her. Like all of her worry and fear for her melted away, even if she should've felt like that when Luz wanted to keep fighting!

"I-N-...Okay. Just please don't get hurt anymore, okay?" Amity whispered, begged to Luz as the world returned to normal.

"I promise, I won't." Luz said as she pulled away, letting Amity run out of the arena! "You better win!"

"Don't worry, I will." Luz said before she turned to Grom, which had finally stopped burning and was free from the vines. "Well, just you and me again. Ready for round 2?"

Luz spit some blood from her mouth as Grom growled like a feral beast! The human taunted it to come at her, making Grom roar in rage!

"DIE!" Grom scream as it created tendrils and launched them at Luz but the human barely moved from her spot as she dodged all of them.

Luz charged and prepared a right punch with the light glyph, making her fist glow as Grom raised its arms to block but Luz dropped and struck with an uppercut with the left fist! She faked it out! The fear bringer stumbled as Luz stayed on him and kicked it in the stomach, sides, legs, and face! She didn't stop until Grom threw a punch that struck her cheek but the blood on Luz's face let her slip past it and counter punch Grom!

Hope returned to the crowd as they cheered for Luz, shocked but happy to see her injuries didn't stop her from fighting with such ferocity!

"Go, Luz! Go!" Skara cheered as her date wooed.

"WOOOOO!" He shouted will pumping his fist!

"Beat that creep into the ground!" Willow cheered!

"Come on, kid! Beat that thing!" Eda shouted as she stood up again!

"DO IT!" Viney, Jerbo, and Barcus shouted in unison!

Luz jumped back as summoned vines whips, lashing at Grom as it blocked her attacks.

'I get where I went wrong.' Luz thought as she set the vines on fire, making them burn Grom as she kept attacking. 'I treated this like a kickboxing match like back home but this isn't Earth. This is the Boiling Isles, where magic runs wild and free for all to use.'

Luz dropped her whips and held her hands back, using the fire glyphs to boost to Grom and give a high speed knee into it's face! She landed behind it incased her fist in ice, sweeping it's legs and punching it in the stomach to the ground! Grom bounced against the ground before rising quickly and lashing at Luz, but she blocked wit her ice covered arm and rolled away.

'I can't just rely on my kickboxing, I need to use everything I learned to win.' Luz thought as shot fireballs at Grom, gaining more screamed from the fear monster as everyone cheered for her.

Grom roared as it's form was failing, growing unstable from all the hope in the room and the damage it took!

"YYAAAAAAAAH!" Grom screamed as it charged at Luz but Luz dodged it before giving Grom a double spin kick, sending it rolling on the ground.

Luz used the ice glyph to make a wave of ice spikes to Grom, stabbing it into a pillar as the ice trapped it. She then used Nature's Wrath, summoning a large plant construct in the form of a giant fist and smashed it into Grom while destroying the pillar!

"I think it's time to end this." Luz said as tapped the ice glyph on her right glove and the plant glyph on her right glove.

She stood in wait as Grom bust out from the rubble, tendrils wiggling all around it's body as it glared at Luz. THIS HUMAN HAD INSULTED IT LONG ENOUGH! It got on the ground like an animal and ran to her like a beast, foaming from it's mouth. Luz kneeled and slid her hands against the ground, sending a wave of ice spikes and large briar vines to it! Grom tried to dodged all it could until a vine grabbed it's leg and made it trip, unable to stop itself from being hit by both waves! Before long, Grom was encase in ice and wrapped in vines at the same time. Though it's head was free as it roared in rage, demanding to be free!

"And it looks like Luz has Grom on the ropes! What will she pull off to finish this?!" Gus commentated.

Luz stood up and walked slowly to Grom, stumbling just a bit from the pain but she powered on.

"You know, a small part of me has wondered what sort of attack I could have if I used ALL of my glyphs at the same time." Luz said as she looked at her right palm, gazing at all the glyphs she's collected. "Time to test that theory. In order: light, fire, plant, and ice."

With a single push of each glyph, Luz created a orb of light that was soon spiraled by fire, spiked with ice, and wrapped in vines before it all was absorbed into a spiraling ball of yellow, orange, green, and light blue energy the size of a baseball.

'Hmm, looks like that ball from that ninja anime back home. Now, let's see if I can add the power glyph.' Luz thought as she tapped the power glyph on the back of her right hand, feeling a rush of strength surge through her as the energy ball grew larger until it was the size of a beach ball.

"Sweet. I wonder what I should call this?" Luz asked herself before an idea came to mind and she turned to Grom, reeling her right arm back. "Say good night, Grom, because this is the end. Esperanza Brillante!"

Luz thrust the energy ball into Grom's face, causing it to scream as the mixed magic burst against it, freeing it yet consuming it in it's light. Luz held her ground as the light blinded everyone in the gym before it died down in a matter of seconds to reveal Grom...was no longer Grom. Standing in it's place was a tree unlike any other, made of bark and ice the stretched as tall as the gym floor/arena edge. It's leaves were ice crystals that were colored yellow, orange, green or light blue that shined in the gym.

"Woah." Luz let out in awe of her attack/creation.

"I-I-IT'S ALL OVER! THE THE VICTOR IS NONE OTHER THEN OUR GROM QUEEN, LUZ NOCEDA!" King shouted into the microphone as everybody cheered and awed at her creation and the defeat of Grom, some even taking pictures of the tree and Luz to post on Penstagram.

Luz smiled at everyone as she waved to them but felt her injuries get in the way, causing her to lower her arm as she began walking out of the arena. She then noticed a sort of crown made of green metal and a purple flower jewel form over her head to symbolize her "queen" status. Once up the ramp, Luz was met with the three healing track students from her class: Bo, Cat, and Viney. Before Luz could react, they had taken her to the side bleachers as the arena sealed up the elemental tree she created.

"Not that that wasn't awesome, Luz, it was so reckless and scare!" Viney said as she drew a spell circle, using it for a healing spell on Luz's right arm.

"We knew you might get hurt but not this much." Cat said as she pulled the ice headband off and used healing spell on Luz's forehead.

"You're luckily to have not loss too much blood." Bo said as she lifted Luz's pants, summoning a stack of patches with the Healing Coven's symbol on it and placing them on several places over her legs.

'Healing glyphs?" Luz thought before she felt a wave of warmth through her legs, making her sigh in relief as Viney bandaged her arm in gauze. 'Those work wonders.'

"You should be okay to dance after this but you will need a lot of rest when you get home." Cat said as they pulled away from Luz, who now had medical gaze on her legs, arms, and her forehead. "If you have anymore trouble, just place these healing patches on the bothered area."

Bo handed Luz the Healing Patches, about 12 left after she put 5 on each leg and 3 on each arm.

"Thanks, girl." Luz said before she got up, feeling her body healed enough, and walked over to her group of friends as they rushed over to her. "Hey, guys."

"Luz, you did it! You beat Grom!" Eda said as she actually hugged Luz. "I'm so proud of you, but you are so not leaving my sight when we get back home."

"Okay, okay, Eda." Luz said.

"You were so awesome!" Gus said with a smile.

"Are all humans this strong? I'm sort of jealous." Willow said as Eda let go of Luz.

"Some are but not all of them." Luz said as she turned to Amity. "Hey, Amity, you still have that bag I gave you?"

"Oh! Yes. I've got it right here." Amity said, reaching into Eda's hair and pulling out the bag.

"Thanks. I'll be right back guys, I just have to change." Luz said as she headed towards the bathroom to change, though Willow came along to make sure she needed any help.

Along the way, Luz was curious of the healing patches and wondered if one patch could work like how the power glyph was printed on her glove.

'One way to find out.' Luz thought as she peeled one and placed it on the top of her left glyph glove, feeling more healing energy go through her body before she peeled it off.

Just as she thought, the symbol of the healing patch/Healing Coven was now imprinted on her glove. Thus allowing her to have the ability to heal now! Which will come in handy in the future. Back to the matter at hand, Luz and Willow entered the ladies room before Luz showed Willow the outfit she wanted to change into.

"Oooo. I like it." Willow said to her.

"Thanks, I thought it'd be good." Luz said as she reached into the bag.

Meanwhile back at the gym, with everyone feeling better than ever before, Amity was sitting in the bleachers as she waited for Luz. She did promise her a dance after all.

'I really hope something bad didn't happen to her on the way to the bathroom.' Amity thought as she saw everyone dancing or talking.

Emira was with Viney by the punch bowl, Edric was talking with Barcus and Jerbo, even Gus was talking with with Boscha and the rest of her crew. Luz's kickboxing class really brought them together more than anyone thought. Maybe this could be a change for Hexside and make certain witches nicer to other people around them.

"Hey, Amity?" someone asked, bringing Amity out of her thoughts as she turned to se Luz looking down at her. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long. It took a while to get into my Grom clothes with my injuries."

"Grom clothes?" Amity asked as she stood up and fully looked at Luz's new clothes.

Out of her ripped and bloody tank top with matching sweat pants, Luz was now wearing a black dress with a yellow crescent moon on the chest with a yellow waist ribbon and three layers of frills from black to dark gray to gray, over it was a sleeveless black vest that reached her thighs, and some black flats that had ribbons on it. Amity blushed at the outfit and Luz's beauty in it, she didn't even mind the bandages wrapped around her legs or her arms.

"Like it? I hoped it wasn't too much or too dark for tonight." luz said as she looked over her outfit.

"You look...perfect." Amity said without thinking, making Luz smile as she giggles.

"Thanks. I hope they don't clash with the crown." Luz said as she lifted the Grom crown a bit before holding her hand out. "No, I believe there's still the manor of our dance?"

Amity jumped a bit while a spot light shined over them, everyone turning to see their Grom queen asking her own queen for the dance of the night.

"Well, Amity?" Luz asked with a smile.

"I-I-I..." Amity said before gulping and shaking while taking Luz's hand, stuttering and breaking her voice. "I'd l-love t-to."

Luz giggled as she pulled Amity to the center of the gym floor, placing her hands on the Blight's waist as Amity nervously put her hands around Luz's neck.

"And now, to commemorate our Grom Queen's spot light dance, I shall play a song from her human realm!" King said into the mic and pulling out Luz's phone. "It's title is stand but the song is amazing. "I Believe I Can Fly!""

Setting the mic on the ground, King quickly scrolled through Luz's phone and found the song before setting the phone by the mic so everyone could hear the music. The melody began and grew, fascinating all the witches as they began getting partners of their own to slow dance themselves.

(I do not own this song or these lyrics.)

I used to think that I could not go on

And life was nothing but an awful song

But now I know the meaning of true love

I'm leaning on the everlasting arms

If I can see it, then I can do it

If I just believe it, there's nothing to it

I believe I can fly

I believe I can touch the sky

I think about it every night and day

Spread my wings and fly away

I believe I can soar

I see me running through that open door

I believe I can fly

I believe I can fly

I believe I can fly (woo)

See I was on the verge of breaking down

Sometimes silence can seem so loud

There are miracles in life I must achieve

But first I know it starts inside of me, ho-oh

If I can see it (woo), then I can be it

If I just believe it, there's nothing to it

I believe I can fly

I believe I can touch the sky

I think about it every night and day

Spread my wings and fly away

I believe I can soar

I see me running through that open door

I believe I can fly

I believe I can fly

Oh, I believe I can fly (woo)

Hey, 'cause I believe in me

Ohh

If I can see it (woo), then I can do it (I can do it)

If I just believe it, there's nothing to it (hey!)

I believe I can fly (woo!)

I believe I can touch the sky

I think about it every night and day

Spread my wings and fly away

I believe I can soar

I see me running through that open door

I believe I can fly (I can fly)

I believe I can fly (I can fly)

I believe I can fly (I can fly)

Hey, if I just spread my wings (I can fly)

I can fly (I can fly)

I can fly (I can fly)

I can fly, hey (I can fly)

If I just spread my wings (I can fly)

I can fly (I can fly, I can fly)

(Woo!) (I can fly)

Fly-eye-eye

The human song entranced everyone as they could dance to it with ease, feeling such love resonate with each of their dance partner this night. Especially with Amity and Luz as they didn't take their eyes off of each other, slow dancing in perfect sync with the music. Twirling, returning, and holding each other close as the entire world faded out so it was just the two of them together, flying in the night sky with the wings of angels flapping behind them. Once the song came to an end, the two couldn't stop themselves as they leaned their heads closer, shutting their eyes, and sealing this perfect moment with a kiss.

Chapter Text

After  the delightful Grom night, lots of great photos, canceling the next  kickboxing class so she can heal, and working out a date for next  weekend with Amity, Luz was now riding with Eda to Hexside for a new  week of school. Though for some reason, Hexside was looking a bit  different then usual as blue and gold flags wrapped around the trees and  a large banner floating in front of the school saying, "Go Get'em  Banshees!" and fireworks were exploding around the school. Eda landed in  front of the school and let Luz get off as she took in the hype for the  Demon Realm equivalent of Football.

"So this is what Grudgby season is gonna be like? Seems like it's gonna be big." Luz said while gazing at the school.

"It's gonna be a really big deal." A voice said, making Luz turn to see a stereotype ghost holding black pom-poms.

"...Are you a cheerleader?" Luz asked him.

"More  like the school spirit but also that." he said to her before he floated  away, wailing like he was haunting somewhere. "Ooooooooooooo."

"Ah,  there's no better time to be in school than during Grugby season. Some  of my best memories of when I played in my gory days." Eda said,  gesturing to herself.

"Gory days? Don't you mean "glory" days?" Luz asked her teacher.

"It's  all the same to me. I was an unstoppable force on the field with my  combination of best moves and best cheats!" Eda said with a cunning  smile while her chin was on her hand.

"Cheating? You know if you  need to cheat to win, then it doesn't count as a victory in my book."  Luz said, pointing her thumb to herself. "Victory taste a lot sweeter  when you work for it instead of cheating for it.

"Eh, what do you  know you "fair sportsmanship?" You may know combat sports but you don't  know magic sports" Eda said as she grabbed her staff, looking blandly at  Luz. "How could a cheater never prosper if I was the star player?"

Luz let out a sigh as she shook her head, somewhat expecting an answer like this from a con-woman like Eda.

"Then  I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree." Luz said before  reaching into her cowl hood and pulling out King, who slept inside on  the way to school. "See you later King, you cute little snoozer."

Luz gave him a kiss on the snout before she placed him on Eda's staff, waving goodbye before he climbed into Eda's hair.

'Okay,  that is officially the weirded place to sleep ever. And just how dead  is Eda's hair anyway?' Luz thought as she continued her way into the  school, wondering if all witches had the potential for magical, storage  hair.

After walking to her locker and greeting her friends, Luz  sat with Willow and Gus in history class as the teacher was giving a  lecture. He was snake man with green skin and a French moustache dressed  in a black robe with an orange end, beige white sleeves, a light gray  hoodless cowl with a matching turban like hat, and black pointed shoes.

"Over  50 plus years ago, Emperor Belos had appointed a head witch to each and  every coven." he said as some students looked bored with the lecture.

Three of them were Amelia, Skara, and Boscha, who were all Grudgby players  with the last one being the captain and wearing a lettermen's jacket.

"I  wonder what Grudgby is gonna be like, I've never seen a game before but  I have been studying it." Luz said to her friends, sitting in the desk  in from the the Grudgby players. "I've been studying about some magical  sports since I heard of it, even watching this."

Luz pulled out a  DVD with Azura on the front playing against an old wizard in an orange  witch hat while a white balls with stitches and a face was being thrown  by her. It was titled "The Good Witch Azura II, The Field of Deadly  Fates."

"It's a little different then Grudgby but it's mechanics  are close enough." Luz said as Willow, who had a hairpin pink flower  with an eyeball in the middle on the left side of her hair, took the DVD  and read the back.

" Azura challenges Hecate in the smibbitch  championship. But will she risk it all by taking a chance on the deadly  Thorn Vault?" Willow reads before opening the case to show the shiny  DVD.

"Oh! Shiny cookie." Gus said as he reached for it before Luz smacked his hand away.

"A DVD is not a cookie, Gus." Luz said to him as she closed the DVD case.

"Ouch, no need to be tough. I'm delicate." Gus said as he blew on his hand.

Back wit the lecture, the snake teacher had taken a step forward to finish this portion of the lecture.

"The  headquarters of the Council of Coven Leaders, lead by the head witches  of the nine main covens, was built and paid for by...?" he stopped,  looking around for anyone to answer the question. "Anyone? Either  someone answers or I call someone out?"

Seeing most of the class  was not brave enough or paying enough attention to answer the question,  he decided to call someone out to answer the question.

"Willow  Parks." he said, making Willow turn to him. "As I asked before, what  paid for the construction of the headquarters of the Council of Coven  Leaders?"

'Okay, okay. I know this...' Willow thought as she tapped her lip for a moment before standing up and clearing her throat.

"It was...the Pixie Dust Taxes?" she answered, feeling only a 50% chance that she was right.

"That...is correct. Very good, Ms. Parks." the snake teacher said with a smile to Willow.

"WOOO!  GO WILLOW!" A student cheered, the one with a lizard/turtle like mouth  and green skin in an Oracle Track uniform, from outside the classroom.

The  History teacher quickly drew a white spell circle to shut the door as  the class complimented Willow, making the plant girl blush.

"Looks like someone is becoming a school favorite." Luz said with a smile as Gus nodded.

"Ever  since you started your class and I patched things up with Amity, I've  really been more confident." Willow said as she gestured to her hairpin.  "I guess it's been showing more than I thought."

Before the compliments could continue, the P.A. system came on and drew everyone attention.

"This  is Principal Bump speaking. Pardon the interruption, students but I  have to important announcements to give." Bump said over the system.  "First, I would like to announce that Grudgby practice is canceled for  this evening."

This caused a gasp to resonate though the whole  school, especially with the Grudgby players! It was their school's most  popular sport and Bonesborough national pass time! What could be some  important that Bump would cancel their practice of the season?!

"Second,  would Luz Noceda please report to my office for an important matter? I  repeat, would Luz Noceda please report to my office for an important  matter?" Bump asked before he shut off the P.A.

This second  announcement made all eyes shift from Willow right onto Luz, making her  gaze around as they wondered why she was part of the announcements!

"Ms.  Noceda, please hurry to the Principal's office." the snake teacher said  in shock as he pointed to the door. "Please asked Principal Bump WHY he  decided to cancel practice for our star player and her team."

"Star player?" Luz asked before she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"That  would be me." Boscha said as Luz turned to her, seeing the letterman  jacket. "And please hurry, I feel like my bile sack is going explode."

'WOW!  Grudgby is a WAY bigger deal than I thought it was.' Luz thought as she  got up from her chair, walking to the door before the teacher gave her a  note.

"Pass to run in the halls?" Luz read before turning to the teacher in confusion.

"Our  Grudgby season takes top priority. NOW RUN, HUMAN!" He screamed at Luz,  panicking as he pushed Luz out of the door. "AND DON'T COMEBACK UNTIL  YOU HAVE NEWS OF OUR GRUDGBY SEASON!"

Feeling her feet skid  against the floor and the door slammed behind her, Luz slowly blinked as  she looked at the note and back to the door.

"...Witches must  take their sports REALLY serious. Kind of makes me fear what will happen  if Kickboxing becomes an official thing here." Luz said, putting the  note away and actually running to the Principal's Office.

Arriving  at Bump's office after a minute of running, Luz entered and saw  Principal Bump working on some papers before he saw Luz enter his  office.

"Ah, Luz, you're here." Bump said as he smiled at Luz, putting his quill down.

"Yeah.  I was even given permission to run her by the teacher. Grudgby is  really big here and everyone reacted-" Luz said, trying to word it  nicely.

"In panic and shock when I canceled this evening's practice?" Bump answered.

"Exactly. Boscha even said she felt her bile sack was going to explode." Luz said with a nod.

"Well,  I should say that's an overreaction but I can understand it. Grudgby is  her realm's favorite sport and everyone lives to see the epic matches."  Bump said before gesturing to his crystal ball. "See for yourself, I  have last year's championship recording on it."

"Thanks but no  thanks. I've already looked up Grudgby and watched some clips of past  games." Luz said as she waved her hand at Bump. "I can tell it's a big  deal but why did you suddenly cancel today's practice?"

"Well,  it's quite simple really. It's because I want you to prepare something  for the next Grudgby game." Bump said as he pointed to Luz. "I want you  to put together a presentation of Kickboxing with your best students to  show not only Glandus but all of the Boiling Isles."

"...What?" Luz said in surprise.

"I  know this may seem like nothing but I think it would lead to something  big in our realm. Perhaps just as big as Grudgby if going over your  progress reports from your classes are anything." Bump said as he pulled  out some papers, reports of progress from Luz's Kickboxing class.

"I-I-I  guess...but do you really think Kickboxing could have a place here, on  the Boiling Isles?" Luz asked, finding her voice as the shock was  fading.

"I believe it could, I also peaked in on one of your  classes and it was a sight to behold. Especially when seeing the  students mix their magics with a combat style so useful. I think it  would be of great opportunity to show all of the Boiling Isles this  Kickboxing." Bump said before gaining a smirk. "Plus, I would like to  rub it in other school's faces that Hexside was on the cutting edge of a  new "combat" sport as you put it."

'Is he really this petty?' Luz thought with some surprise.

"So, shall you do it?" Bump asked Luz.

"I  guess, I could give it a try but everyone has a different level of  skill. The only way to decide on my best, top four at least, is to..."  Luz said before stopping, not knowing if her students would be up for  this or not.

"To what? Don't leave this old Principal waiting!  I've only 400 years left." Bump said, leaning forward while gesturing  for Luz to continue.

"Well...the only way for me to find my best  for students would be to pit them against each other in a tournament."  Luz said delicately. "But it might not work out so well since they've  gotten to be friends and their still beginners."

"Hmm, if that is  true, them maybe you should discuss it with you class after school."  Principal Bump said before turning on the P.A. system. "Attention to all  students that participate in Luz Noceda's Kickboxing class, you are to  assemble in the designated room after school for a special announcement.  I repeat, all those that participate in Ms. Noceda's Kickboxing class  are to assemble after school."

This made Luz gap at the Principal  while the entire school was now curious about this announcement,  especially the ones that at Luz's students in kickboxing! The Human  Appreciation Society, the Blight siblings, even the entire Grudgby team!

"Now,  I trust you to give them the news of the presentation and help them  learn a bit more to see who the best of your class is for the  presentation by the next Grudgby game." Bump said as he pushed the P.A.  mic aside and smiled towards Luz.

"Suuuuuure. I can do that but  what would happen if, say, other people decide to drop in and watched?  It could disturb our focus." Luz said with grit teeth, trying not to be  made at the low blow as Bump was practically forcing her host a class at  the beginning of the week.

"It will be fine, besides who doesn't  appreciate a crowd?" Bump said with a smile before gesturing for Luz to  go. "You may go now, Luz."

"Okay...but first, do you think you can have some outfits made for my class?" Luz asked him.

"Outfits? What kind of outfits?" Bump asked her.

-Timeskip, the end of the school day-

Just  as she expected today would go after she left Bump's office, Luz's day  was full of questions from both students and teachers that knew of her  Kickboxing or her Kickboxing class. It was a lot of dodging or telling  them it was only for her class after school. The most aggressive  happened to be Boscha and her crew, the Grudgby team itself minus Kyle  but Luz was able to keep them calm until all of them were assembled at  the Kickboxing classroom. They sat around the ring in their groups as  Luz stood before them in the ring but they did mix a bit after growing  closer through her classes. Boscha's group (Boscha, Skara, Amelia, Cat,  and Kyle) sat between the mixers (Viney, Jerbo, and Barcus) and the  H.A.S. (Bo, Eileen, and Asriel). The three Blights with the mixers while  Gus, Willow, and Amity sat near the H.A.S. while they talked to the  other groups.

"Okay, everyone let's settle down! I know you're all  wondering why you're here and I can give the answer to you." Luz said  as the all began to calm down and look to her. "Okay, so here's the  truth, Principal Bump called me into his office because he wants us to  give a presentation at the first Grudgby game of the season."

"Presentation? He cancelled practice for that?!" Boscha asked in anger.

"Well  it's a special kind of presentation, one that involves what I've been  teaching you for the past month at least." Luz said, crossing her arms.

"You mean the kickboxing lessons?" Viney said in surprise.

"Exactly,  Viney. Principal Bump wants to introduce/show off Hexside's first  kickboxing class at the first Grudgby game, try and bring it as a new  sport to the isles." Luz said as everyone muttered in surprise. "And for  that, he wants me to pick the four best students for presentation  matches before the first game but the thing is, it's hard to choose you  myself since you all are still beginners. Not matter how much skill and  progress you've shown an made."

"But then how are we gonna chose? Fight each other?" Emira asked as Edric pointed to her, nodding in agreement.

"Actually,  no. Principal Bump wants me to increase your classes to twice a week so  you guys can get better faster. This also gives me a chance to teach  you guys different stances for kickboxing since all I've taught you is  my own." Luz said to them.

As the class was muttering in surprise again, a demonic chest with bat wings flew into the classroom and landed beside Luz.

"The outfits are ready, Ms. Noceda." The chest said as everyone turned to it.

"Outfits? Luz, what is he talking about?" Emira asked.

"It's  nothing much, just the standard kickboxing outfit you'd wear for a  match. Can't have you guys ruining your uniforms, so I asked Principal  Bump to have some made." Luz said as she opened the chest, revealing the  outfits. "Each one color coordinated like your Hexside uniform to avoid  confusion and enchanted to adjust to any size. Bump really wants to  show off Kickboxing to Glandus, so he spared no expense."

Calling  them up one at a time, Luz handed each of them a uniform and let them  examine it for themselves. For the girls, it was a padded sports bra,  shorts, sweatpants, and foot sleeves while the boys only got the shorts,  sweatpants, and foot sleeves. They also had special fingerless gloves,  footpads, mouth guards, and groin guard to protect their hands and  sensitive areas in case their opponents went for those areas.

"Not bad." Boscha commented, looking over the gear.

"Rocking!" Kyle said with a nod as the H.A.S. was fanning over the human world attire they got.

Copied or not, it was like they had a piece of the human world they know now!

"It is pretty cool." Viney said as her's was half orange and half light blue.

"Bark!/(Even I got a some in my size.)" Barcus barked as he look over the purple and yellow shirt and short he had.

"Glad  you guys like them. You can change into them now if you want or you can  save them for the next class." Luz said to them as the demon chest flew  out of the room.

After everyone got their kickboxing clothes,  they turned their attention back to Luz as she began their emergency  lesson. Since this one was exactly planned, so Luz was just going to  show them the stances/forms that could be used for Kickboxing.

"Alright,  the first stance I'm about to show you is the same one I just against  Grom last week, so you should be able to recognize it it." Luz said as  she put her left side forward and her left arm in front in a swaying  motion while her right arm tucked close to her chest, bouncing her feet.  "This is the Flicker or Hitman stance, specializing delivering one  armed barrages of flicker jabs. Keep in mind that it's better to use you  non-dominant arm for the jabs and save your dominant arm for strong  knockout punches."

Luz gave an example by throwing a barrage of  flicker jabs in the air, making them see her fists in almost flashes as  they tried not to blink!

"Whoa! It's just like Grom!" Skara said in awe of the speed.

"That looks like it's best for a Striker." Amity commented as she rubbed her chin.

"You're  right, Amity. This would work out best for a Striker, but you never  know what would work for you." Luz said as she stopped her jabs and  stood straight. "It can also work for fighters with longer limbs since  they have a longer reach to attack."

A hand suddenly shot into the air as Luz turned to it, seeing Bo had raised her hand. Luz nodded to her so she could speak.

"If we were to chose that one, how could we improve to use it?" She asked as the HAS nodded in agreement.

"Well,  the most common yet doubtful training for it, is to grab some leaves  and drop them in front of you. Then you have to try and catch as many of  them as fast as you can before they all fall to the ground." Luz said  to them, seeing some of them look doubtful. "I know it sounds strange  but that the best way to build up speed for your arms."

Everyone nodded and murmured in agreement as Amelia looked the most interested, looking at her long limbs.

'Flicker huh?' She thought, making a mental note for later.

"Alright,  the next stance can be good for Sluggers called "Peek-a-boo." It offers  extra protection to the face whilst making it easier to jab the  opponent's face." Luz said as hold her fists close to her cheeks and  pulls her arms tight against her torso. "Since Sluggers already  specialize in defense, this helps them protect the vitals of their face  and deliver easy jabs. It's also the perfect stance for a move called  the "Dempsey Roll.""

"Can you explain what a "Dempsey Roll" is?" Jerbo asked with his hand raised.

"Sure.  It's a move where you lower your stance, can your center of balance,  and move to aggressively weave in a pattern similar to the shape of an  infinity sign. This can let you put your full weight into hook punches  that can't be fully guarded against." Luz said before she began moving,  lowering her stance to perform the Dempsey Roll! "A major factor is to  put your back and hips into it but you have to be careful, powerful as  your punches can be, this move can be predictable! So you'll have to be  creative!"

Willow took this to heart and the move to memory as she  felt this would be her stance to use, given her heavy body and strong  arms. Luz stopped for a moment and wiped some sweat from her brow before  continuing.

"This next one specializes more in kicks than punches  but it's a bit too common because it lends itself well to kicking and  allows for greater mobility and stability. It's call the "kick stance.""  Luz said as she changed her form. "Stand with your feet shoulder-width  apart and take one step back with your dominant foot before your orient  it so your feet are at right angles to each other. Your other leg should  be relaxed, with the majority of your weight on your dominant foot.  Keep your body straight but maintain the same angle while you hands  should be in the guard position, putting your your elbows forward so  they protect your ribs."

Luz moved to throw rapid kicks, aimed  toward a chest or sides of a body as everyone watched in interest. This  would serve Out-Boxers or any fighter with long legs well.

"The  last one I know is two in one by they can be used together. They're  known as "Sway Back" and "Step Back." They're no guard techniques that  specializes in speed and reaction time. It can be used in all types of  style to dodge punches, kicks, or any other physical technique. They  basically universal in use." Luz said as she move her arms to hover at  her sides, bouncing on her feet. "You can either bounce on your feet or  hop on your feet, either can be good to dodge attacks. Though it is  risky since most people that use this don't hold up their arms in  defense or only use defense when someone gets to close, so they can  focus more on speed. The perfect stances for Outboxers."

"Can we have an example?" Asriel asked with his hand up.

"Sure. I'll just need a volunteer." Luz said as she looked around before pointing to... "Amelia."

"Huh?!" She let out in surprise. "Me?"

"Yes, you. Don't worry. This will be quick, so come on." Luz said to her.

"O-Okay." She said, quickly getting on her feet and hurrying into the ring. "So, how do I-"

"Just  attack me. It's alright, I can handle it." Luz said as she got into the  "Sway/Step Back" stance, bouncing a bit on her feet. "Come on, show me  what you got."

"O-Oh! S-sure." Amelia said as she quickly went into the kick stance, even though it was sloppy. "Here I go!"

Kicking  off the mat, Amelia sent a side kick to Luz but human dodge by bouncing  back on her feet. Though she felt a good amount of wind behind the  kick, meaning Amelia put a lot of power behind it.

'She's a natural with the kick stance, it makes since due to her long legs.' Luz thought as Amelia pressed on.

The  tall plant girl threw mores kicks, side and straight to try and hit Luz  but the human continued to used the "Sway/Step Back" stance to dodge.  Left, back, duck, right; Luz dodged every kick Amelia threw before she  Luz slipped on her feet, stumbling off balance.

'There!' Amelia thought, changing to a punch and she charged to Luz.

Amelia thought victory would be in her grasp until Luz suddenly squat and bounced back to balance!

'Huh!?' Amelia thought as Luz quickly moved out of the way! 'But I thought-'

A fast punch to the chin cut off Amelia's thoughts as she soon fell  forward, collapsing on the mat as Luz stood above her. Everyone was  silent as Luz kneeled down the the girl and began shaking her awake.

"Mmm?" Amelia moaned as she slowly opened her eyes, coming back to conscious.

"Hey, Amelia. Nice to see you're alright, I hope I didn't hit you too hard." Luz said as she helped her up.

"W-What was that?" She asked, rubbing her chin a bit.

"A  common tactic in fighting sports, one hit to the chin and your mind  goes spinning. Best to protect it." Luz said as she patted the girl on  her back. "Still, that was an excellent example of the kick stance. A  bit more work and it'll be just right for you."

"Oh! Thanks, Luz! I'll keep that in mind." Amelia said with a nod as she walked out of the ring.

'Maybe it could be a second stance for me?' She thought as Luz addressed the rest of the class.

"Alright,  those are the four stances I wanted to show you. Now it's up to all of  you which one you would like to work with for the remainder of the  class." Luz said to them before holding up two fingers. "You can choose  at least two to work on and make your desired stance but that's it. I  don't want anyone over working themselves, understand?"

"Yes, ma'am!" The class said.

For the next 2 hour, everyone picked at least one stance to work on that they felt would be best for them.

Those who chose the Flicker/Hitman stance: Amity, Boscha, and Edric.

Those who chose the Peek-a-boo stance: Eileen, Asriel, Willow, and Viney.

Those who chose the Kick stance: Amelia, Skara, Bo, and Emira.

Those who chose the Sway or Step Back stance: Gus, Jerbo, Barcus, Cat, and Kyle.

Luz  went around helping anyone that needed adjustments or tips in adjusting  their bodies to better work with what they thought. Some of them even  gave comments of how fitting their stances felt. Such Gus saying the  Sway Back was perfect for dodging with flare and showmanship, Eileen  mumbles how the perfect the Peek-a-boo was for protecting her eye, Edric  saying the Flicker can be good with hand tricks etc. By the time the  class was done, everyone had gotten used to their new stances and  thanked Luz for showing them.

"Good work today, guys. I want you  all to work hard on your stances so they'll become second nature to you,  alright?" Luz said to them.

"Yeah! Sure! See yeah, Luz." They all said as they exited the class, waving goodbye.

"Hey,  maybe we could practice them a bit after Grudgby practice." Skara said  to her group and team (Boscha, Cat, Amelia) as they left the room.

"Sounds  like a plan but we're gonna have to save it for later. We lost a lot of  practice because of this surprise class, so will have to make up for it  tomorrow." Boscha said to the team.

The team agreed with her as  Luz locked up the classroom for now, at least until Friday. Her friends  were with her as they walked out of Hexside together, planning to head  back to the owl house to hang out together.

Chapter Text

A  new day had come and Luz was doing her morning exercise inside of the  owl house for a change, shadowboxing in her room as she didn't have time  to do it outside this morning.

'Damn me for oversleeping, the one  time I forget to set my alarm.' Luz thought as the punch and kicked the  air, working up a good sweat before she stopped to see the time was  7:12 am.

"Plenty of time to shower and get dressed before walking  to school. I can pick up breakfast along the way." Luz said to herself  as she walked out of her room, grabbing her Hexside uniform 1 and glyph  gloves along the way.

-13 minutes later, 7:25 am.-

After a  nice hot shower, Luz came downstairs dressed and ready for school while  hearing noise from outside of the house. Stopping by a window, Luz  looked out of the den to see Hooty extending from the door and fighting  THE EMPEROR'S COVEN WITH EASE?!

'What the fuck?!' Luz thought with wide eyes, watching Hooty just wiggle around and knock them away while blabbering nonsense!

"Shocking,  I know." A voice said, making Luz turn to see Eda with a yellow scarf  around her neck and a cup of tea with a saucer in her hands. "Hooty can  be pretty useful when he gets the chance. He's like a parasite you can't  get rid of, but he always finds a way to burrow into your heart."

"I  guess you're right." Luz said as she noticed a small cauldron on the  coffee table, being stirred by a wooden spoon coated in magic. "Hey,  what's that?"

Walking up to it, Luz looked inside so see purple  thread or noodles being stirred up inside. What was this and why was it  glowing so much?

"That, my dear apprentice, is Witches Wool. A  fabric that rebels powerful spells, every witch worth their salt has a  cloak made of this stuff." Eda said as she walked to the wool, taking  some in her hand to show Luz.

"Damn. If it's as powerful as you  say, I'd kill for one." Luz said in awe of the fabric as Eda dropped it  back in the cauldron. "Think I can get one after you make yours?"

"If  there's enough, sure. With the Emperor's goons banging on our doorstep,  we could use all the protection we can get." Eda said, looking out the  window. "They've been attacking more frequently lately."

"Yeah, it's almost like a crazy ass obsession with you. It's creepy." Luz said with a shiver.

"Obsession  is right, kid. He wants all wild magic under control with his coven  system." Eda said as she grew determined, looking to Luz. "My capture  has been ordered for years because I refused to fall in line."

"And he's not gonna stop until he catches you?" Luz said with a bit of worry.

Powerful as Eda was, she was still human...elf? Whatever species she is outside of being called a witch!

"Oh  don't look so worried, little puncher. I've become a master escape  artist from my years in the run and the only thing that could slow me  down is my curse but that hasn't flared up for weeks!" Eda said,  throwing her arms in the air.

Black feathers suddenly popped out of Eda's arms, armpits, and hair as she suddenly lost her smile.

"Oh fucking karma." She said before she began changing into the owl beast.

"Oh damn, KING!" Luz shouted, taking a step back!

"Eh? What's going on-" He said, poking his head in, a nightcap on his head before he noticed Eda! "AAH!"

"Elixir! Now!" Luz shouted, pressing the power glyph to boost her strength!

"RAAAH!" Eda roared as she rushed at Luz, causing her to grab her by the feather and stand her ground!

If it wasn't for the power glyph, Luz would be thrown into the kitchen by now!

"I don't want to hurt you, Eda, but you're giving me no choice!" Luz said, pushing back with every step!

The  owl beast pushed forward, fighting Luz's force as she growled at the  human! They remained in this stalemate until King came running down with  an a bottle of curse fighting elixir in hand!

"Luz, I got it!" He said, holding it up!

"Throw it!" Luz said, pushing Eda's chin up and holding her hand out to King! "Now!"

With a grunt, King threw the potion to Luz and watched as she caught it before forcing it down Eda's mouth!

"Time to wake up, Eda!" Luz said, pushing Eda away.

The  owl beast stood still, juggling something in its mouth before spitting  on the empty bottle. It turned back to Luz and growled, showing it's  sharp teeth!

"What?! Why didn't it work?!" Luz asked in shock!

"Oh no! It's just like before! One elixir isn't enough to change Eda back!" King shouted to Luz. "We need the rest in her room!"

"Wait, you knew this?!" Luz asked before jumping out of the way as Eda tried to bite her! "Forget it, let's go!"

Snatching  King up, Luz ran from the owl beast as it gave chase! Roaring as its  prey were escaping! They don't have to run far as Luz knocked the doors  to Eda's room down and turned to the closet, where a case of elixirs  were stashed!

"Get the bottles, I'll hold Eda down!" Luz said as  she dropped King, quickly turning around to grapple Eda's large beast  hands! "Hurry!"

King quickly ran to the closet and got two orbs in  his hands ready, he just needs to wait for Luz to restrain Eda! Back  with the human girl, she was slowly pushed Eda back before she threw her  hands away and tackled her!

"Got you!" Luz shouted, lifting Eda up and throwing her to the other side of the room!

Eda  crashed next to her nest as Luz quickly made a bowling ball sized plant  bomb and threw at at her! The green ball burst into vines that wrapped  around Eda's beats body to restrain her! Luz sighed in relief as she  turned off the power glyph before Eda began thrashing in the vines

"Raaah! Raaah!" Eda screech and roared as she struggled in the vines, slowly snapping them!

"King, you better hurry with those elixirs!" Luz shouted, making more plant bombs and throwing them.

"On it!" King shouted, running up to Eda and forcing her to drink the two elixirs. "Let's see if three work."

King  quickly pulled away, waiting for results with Luz until they saw Eda  still hadn't changed back! She was still the owl beast and she was still  roaring at them!

"Not even after three?" Luz said with increasing worry, the curse was stronger than it ever wax before!

"We need to try more then!" King said as he turned to get more.

"I'll help." Luz said, going after King.

It took ten more elixirs, a total of 13 bottles in all, for Eda to turn back normal.

"Mm?" Eda let out a bottle in her mouth before she pulled it out. "Phew, thanks for that, kid."

Eda pulled herself out of the vines before noticing them and the other dozen of bottles on the floor.

"Oh! And...for those too." Eda said as he scarf came undone and revealed her gem!

"Hang on, your gem is still half dark!" Luz said, pointing to the gem as the bottom half was completely pitch black!

"Uh.. you're seeing things! My gem is fine!" Eda said, moving to quickly cover it!

"Don't  you try and lie to me, Eda. I saw it myself and I saw how you didn't  change back after one elixir! Your curse is getting worse and you're  trying to hide it, aren't you?!" Luz asked as she pointed an accusing  finger at Eda.

Eda sighed in defeat, letting the scarf go and showing her half dark, half amber gem.

"You're  right, kid. Lately it's been taking more elixir to hold the curse back  and more magic to keep that beast at bay." Eda said to Luz.

"And if you can't? Like if your magic runs out?" Luz asked as her frustration.

"Well  I won't die, I can tell you that but I may be stuck at the owl  beast...forever." Eda said plainly with a pause before smirking. "It's  actually seems like a fate worse than death if I'm being honest.  Ahahaha."

"Eda, this is not a joke! Do you remember what I said to  you after I first saw you as the owl beast?" Luz asked before reminding  her. "We're your friends. We deserve to know when you have a problem so  we can all find a way to fix it."

"Kid, of course I remember but  you don't have to worry." Eda said as she put a hand on Luz's shoulder  before pointing to herself. "I just gotta limit my magic a bit is all.  Now come on, where's that smile that makes my day?"

Luz didn't  feel like smiling as she just looked away from Eda, hating how she was  just treating this so casual like. This made Eda groan as she felt some  guilt building up.

"I get it, I'm sorry. If it makes you feel better, we can talk about this after school, okay?" Eda asked as Luz looked to her.

"You promise?" Luz asked her.

"I promise. Witch's honor." Eda said with a hand in her gem.

"Hmmm." Luz hummed for a moment before nodding and suddenly hugging Eda. "You better keep that promise."

Luz let go of Eda as King ran to her, hugging Eda's left leg.

"King demands hugs too!" King said, hugging Eda.

This made Luz feel a bit better as she laughed, walking out of the room and out of the house to Hexside.

"Have a good day!" Eda called out from the doorway!

"Take care of yourself, Eda! And no magic!" Luz said to her as Eda shut the front door.

Luz walked to school with her hands in her pockets, thinking of anything that could help Eda.

'Maybe  I could go to the library for an ancient healing spell? Or maybe I can  talk to Eda's potions guy for something stronger?' Luz thought,  brainstorming until she heard something.

Looking towards a blue  bush, Luz moved the leaves aside to see Hooty and five wounded Emperor's  coven members having...a tea party?

"The roughhousing was nice  and all but my favorite part of our play dates is tea time afterwards."  Hooty said, holding a pot of tea with his snake like body and pouring  it.

The tea just spilled on the ground as one of the five wounded  members tried to crawl away but Hooty would let him. This sight made Luz  move away from the bush slowly, disturbed by Hooty's "play date" before  she took off running to Hexside in a panic.

'Nope, nope, nope,  nope, nope, nope, nope, NOPE!' Luz thought as she ran as fast as she  could, a bit scarred from the new information she learn about the house  demon.

After a few minutes of running, Luz arrived at the magic  school to see a "bus" beast with steps in front of it and several  students around it as Principal Bump held a clipboard. Whatever this  was, it was something big.

'Are we having a field trip today?' Luz thought as she came to a stop next to her friends.

"Luz!  You made it! Are you ready for the field trip of a life time?!" Gus  asked in excitement, holding a small green book in his hand.

"I guess. Where are we going?" Luz asked, a bit tired from the run but mostly fine.

"We  are going to...the Emperor's Castle!" Gus shouted, holding up the book  to show the same title, a shadow of the castle, and the coven symbol in  front of it.

"Oh! We're...going there, today?" Luz asked with caution, knowing this might be a bad idea.

Luz  was staying with their most wanted criminal, Eda! One wrong move there  and Eda is captured in less than an hour to come save her!

"Yes we  are! Just look at all the cool stuff we'll see today!" Gus said as he  got behind Luz, holding the small guidebook in front of her face.

"Like what?" Luz asked.

"Like  the ancient relics of the covens." Willow said as she took the  guidebook, briskly turning to the section in the book. "Check it out.  This is the Plant Coven's Green Thumb Gauntlet! It can grow whatever you  can imagine!"

Underneath the title, a picture was provided of a  gauntlet colored tan and brown that resembles the texture and appearance  of an older gardening glove. 

An example picture was provided to show a  picture of regular trees captioned "BEFORE." The camera pans to the  "AFTER" section, where the tree tops now act as heads, they all have  arms and abs, and one is holding an owl's nest.

"Dang, that's serious power." Luz said with curious eyes.

"And  check this out, The Oracle Coven's Oracle Sphere!" Gus said as he  pointed to a picture of a white orb with a two-headed golden snake  wrapped around it. "It's said to reveal the path to make you your best  self."

Luz looked below the sphere and saw a picture of a royal  blue witch hat with a golden band wrapped around the cone and a hand  peeking out of the side to represent the logo for the Healer's Coven.

""The  Healing Hat, made from the magic of the Savage Ages. It is said to cure  the deadliest diseases and heal any CURSE?!"" Luz read as she snatched  the guidebook, looking closely at the information!

THIS WAS IT!  This was what could cure Eda, probably the ONLY thing that could cure  Eda and the chance to get it was right in front of her!

"See? You  can't miss this trip! It's a once in a life time chance!" Willow said,  assuming Luz was amazed and excited for the trip.

"Students, all aboard who is going on the trip." Bump called out, making everyone going on the trip rush to the bus beast.

Luz looked over the information one last time as a determined, firm look donned her features.

'Even  if the risk is high, this could be the only thing that can cure Eda. I  can't let it slip away.' Luz thought as she rushed to the bus and  sitting next to her friends. 'Don't worry, Eda. I gonna get you that  hat.'

After all of the students going on the trip boarded the bus,  it took off flapping for the Emperor's Coven as they students held  great excitement for it. Well, everyone but Luz, she was quiet for the  entire trip as she looked over the side and thought of how she was going  to get that Healing Hat.

'No doubt is probably guarded and a  front assault would be suicide. So sneaking in is my only option but  how?' Luz thought, gripping the edge of the bus as hard as she could.

This  was just so frustrating and it didn't help that Luz was nervous as  hell, this was the stronghold of the enemy! Emperor Belos and his coven!  How was Luz gonna do this by herself!?

"Luz?" A voice called out, bringing Luz out of her mind.

Turning to the voice, Luz saw it was the concerned look of her new girlfriend, Amity Blight.

"Oh! Sorry, Amity, did you say something? I was just...thinking about something." Luz said, not revealing her thoughts.

"I  asked if you were alright, you've had a frustrated look for the past 10  minutes." Amity said to her, holding her left hand. "Is something  wrong? You know you can tell."

"I know but it's just...It's Eda."  Luz said, revealing some information but not all of it. "She's got this  problem she's been dealing with it for a long time but lately, it's been  getting worse. I want to help but Eda's stubborn sometimes and refuses  to let me. I know she can handle it but still, nothing's wrong with  letting someone help you."

"I get what you're saying, Luz, but  sometimes, people are just too stubborn to listen. Eda knows you want to  help but maybe she just wants to keep you from worrying about her. I'm  sure she'll come to you when she's ready." Amity suggested.

"Yeah. I guess, thanks for that, Amity." Luz said with a smile.

'But  still, I worry that when Eda does ask for help, it'll be too late.' Luz  thought before she shook her head and focused on something else.

"Hey,  do you mind tell me a bit about the castle and Belos too? I've never  heard the full story with him." Luz said, only hearing what Eda's told  her about the magical emperor.

"I'd be glad too. We're actually  almost there, too. You can see if from here." Amity said as she looks  over the edge of the carriage, Luz looking over as well.

Right  before their eyes, was a square out surrounded by large white teeth or  rib bones with a plus shaped piece of land right in the middle. The  castle was most likely in the center or maybe it was a citadel of  buildings, as well some sort of gold platform to it's front.

"Interesting place to put a castle." Luz mumbled.

"Yes  but still, it's a building of great importance. Emperor Belos built it  to symbolize the unity of the Isles, it's people, and magic. Before he  came to power, our ways of doing magic were all wrong." Amity said as  she turned to Luz. "He taught us by joining the coven system, we're  showing respect and thanks to the Titan for all that it has given us  with its death."

"Okay, I get it." Luz said with a nod but internally, she wasn't buying any of this.

'This sounds more like a cult.' She thought as she narrowed her eyes.

"By  the way, Amity, just for curiosity sack. How powerful is Belos compared  to Eda and Lilith?" Luz asked, trying not to show her distrust of the  emperor.

Willow seemed to hear the question and laughed at it, turning to Luz and Amity.

"No  offense, Luz, Eda and Lilith are pretty powerful but Emperor Belos  beats them in both power and skill. He can even talk to the spirit of  the Titan." Willow said as the bus landed before the castle, a large gap  where a bridge was meant to be before them.

'Talk to a spirit?  Now this Belos guy is really throwing up some red flags.' Luz thought as  Principal Bump stood up in front of them.

"Now, students, I want  you to be on your best behavior. The Emperor's assistant, Kikimora, will  be your tour guide today." He said as the students began unloading from  the bus creature. "Please don't make me regret taking you here."

The  students gathered on a bridge entrance of sorts as a rectangular,  mechanical bridge extended towards them over an area of giant sharp  rocks, making them excited as it connected and allowed them to walk on  it. The only one who wasn't excited was Luz, who quickly donned the hood  of her cowl to hide herself in case a coven member recognized her. Once  the class was on the bridge, it retracted to the castle as Kikimora  came to greet them. It appeared to be a female, red-skinned demon  of a short stature and childish proportions. She looked about a head  shorter than Gus, with three-toed, dark brown talon-clad arms and legs  similar to those of a bird's. Only her left eye was visible with a  yellow sclera and a brownish red iris, and her hair appeared to be two  hands connected at the wrist to form a sort of bun with the top closed  fist.

"Children of Hexside, Emperor Belos welcomes you to his  castle. We're honored to have visits from such bright students like  yourselves." Kikimora said before holding up a finger. "You'll soon be  at the age where you'll be apart of the coven system. Maybe some lucky  few of you will find your home here, in the mighty Emperor's Coven!"

This  made students like Amity excited and chattering, being a part of the  strongest coven was the highest of goals and the greatest of honors. At  least to those that believe in the coven system.

"You are all the  future of the Isles and it is my job to make sure you know all of its  past." Kikimora said as she began leading the group inside.

The  interior of the castle had guards flanking either side of a hallway,  saluting Kikimora and the students, as others walk on overpasses. The  walls are covered in tapestries, murals, and statues to tell the stories  of the Boiling Isles.

"Today, the Isles are a place of peace and  prosperity but it wasn't always like this." Kikimora said as they came  to their first stop, a mural portraying witches dancing around a fire  and casting magic freely. "50 years ago, during what we call "the Savage  Ages", witches and demons practiced wild magic without direction or  purpose. This knowledge and practice was corrupt at the time and  dishonored the Titan."

As the group moved on to their next stop, Luz caught sight of a grate near the bottom of the mural.

'Better keep an eye out for more of those.' Luz thought, her mission still on her mind of stealing the Healing Hat.

"It  wasn't until our great Emperor, the Titan's chosen one, ascended to the  throne and showed witches how to use magic for right way." Kikimora  said as she gestures to a mural of Belos holding up a ball of light with  the witches below celebrating his power. "Our next stop is the  Emperor's personal collection, the sacred relics of the covens."

"Oh Luz, you'll like this! Come on!" Willow said as she, Gus, and Amity hurried to catch up with the group.

"Right behind you guys." Luz said, taking one last look at the witches "celebrating" Belos' power.

But  it didn't look like they were celebrating it, it almost looked like  they were...frozen in place. And they were colored gray like stone  statues, why was that? And why did it feel so...ominous?

'I got a bad feeling about this place.' Luz thought as she ran to catch up with the group.

Kikimora  lead them to the relic room and pushed the doors open to reveal an open  room with 8 pedestals having floating items, the relics, on them. Each  having a light shining down on them. On the right side of the room, the relics were:

- A gold bell from the Beast Keeping Coven.

- The Healing Hat from the Healing Coven.

- A silver mirror from the Illusions Coven.

- A white orb containing purple clay, from the Abomination Coven.

On the left side of the room, the relics were:

- The Oracle Sphere from the Oracle Coven.

- A golden harp from the Bard Coven.

- The Green Thumb Gauntlet from the Plant Coven.

- A gold vial of liquid from the Potions Coven.

Though for some reason, there was no relic from the Construction Coven.

"Behold,  the Relic Room. These items are reminders of our great Emperor's  overwhelming power." Kikimora said as she gestured to the Oracle Sphere.  "From the curious and mighty."

"Oooh!" Gus said in awe of the sphere.

"The resourceful and handy." Kikimora said as she gestured to the Green Thumb Gauntlet.

"Wow. I could grow an entire forest of beautiful plants with that." Willow said with her hands together.

"To even the extremely rare and valuable." Kimora said, pointing to the Healing Hat.

While  everyone else kept their eyes on the other relics, Luz kept her gaze on  the hat and how close it was to her. If she wanted to, she could just  take it now and run! But what would happen to the class if she did?  Would they take the blame? Would Hexside pay for this deeply? So many  factors fell in if she tried to steal it now, Luz came to the decision  to wait until the right time.

'If I can get away from the group and get back here, I can take it without getting them involved.' Luz thought with a nod.

"Excuse me, miss Kikimora?" Amity said with a raised hand.

"Ah, Ms. Blight, you have a question?" Kikimora asked her.

"Yes,  ma'am. I was wondering if you could tell us more about this?" Amity  asked as she pointed to white orb with purple clay inside.

"I had a  feeling you would be interested in that one, you are in the Abomination  Track." Kikimora said as she walked up to it. "What you see before you,  my dear, are the remains of the first and most powerful abomination  known to the Isles. Legends say that even a drop of it equals the  strength of 100 abominations today. It's name is "The Primordial Clay.""

"The Primordial Clay." Amity repeated, in awe of the power this simple clay, abomination clay, could hold.

"Now come along, children. Our next stop awaits up." Kikimora said as she began leading the children out of the Relics room.

The group moved down a corridor of torches and tapestries with the coven symbols, along with a few statues of Belos to pass by.

"Here  at the Emperor's Coven, our members are those of the highest  sophistication, elegance, and grace." Kikimora said before a large door  as opened to the right of the group.

Standing in the doorway was  Lilith, the head witch of the Emperor's Coven, with leaves in her  disheveled hair and feathers near her mouth.

She spits out feathers and  makes her staff vanish before walking down the corridor. Luz quickly  moved to the wall, hiding from Lilith as the rest of the group stepped  out of her path.

"Ahh! Make way for Miss Lilith Clawthorne,  students. The head of the coven and most powerful witch under Emperor  Belos." Kikimora said with her eyes shut as Lilith stopped in front of  the group.

"Oh my gosh it's her! The head of the coven! She's even cooler in person!" The students said, minus four people obviously.

Gus  and Willow because they remember what happened at the Covention, Luz  because she was hiding from her, and Amity because...she still couldn't  trust Lilith after what she did to her at the Covention.

Making  her cheat by secretly slapping a power glyph on to her neck. It was one  of Amity's lowest points in her life and it was all her fault. The  Blight girl clenched her fist in anger, hating how she felt that day  before she felt someone slip their hand in her's.

"Hey, it's alright." Luz whispered, making Amity gasp a bit as meet her gaze. "I got you."

It  seems Luz could sense Amity's frustration and quickly came to calm her,  holding her hand and rubbing circles on the back with her thumb. The  smile Luz gave her calmed Amity greatly as her grip lessened and she  leaned close to Luz.

"Thank you." Amity whispered, smiling.

"If  I'm not mistaken, Lilith is on her way to see the Emperor right now.  Let's all wish her luck, students." Kikimora said, secretly embarrassing  Lilith.

"Good luck, Ms. Lilith." They said as Lilith blushed away from their faces.

She took a breath and remained professional for their young minds.

"Thank you, students. I wish you luck as well with your studies and your futures." She said before she continued walking.

"This way, children." Kikimora said as the group began walking their own way again.

But  Luz, had other options in mind as she turned her gaze to Lilith. If she  was going to talk to Belos right now, it must be about the failed  attack on the house this morning.

'If they're going to talk about  another attack on the house, I have to know to warn Eda. It may be  bigger than the last one.' Luz thought as she let go of Amity's hand and  running off after Lilith!

'Luz?' Amity thought as her girlfriend suddenly let go, running off before she could react or see where.

Back  with the human girl, she followed Lilith at a distance as they traveled  through the castle. Upstairs and down halls while the time seemed to  jump from medieval to modernish as large pipes were running down the  halls as well.

'This can't be normal pipes but what could they be for besides water?' Luz thought as she continued to follow Lilith.

Eventually,  Luz followed Lilith to a large corridor leading to what she could guess  double doors to the throne room with touches and many more metallic  pipes around to serve an unknown purpose. Luz peaked around the corner  but quickly moved back as Lilith turned her head. She must've felt she  was being followed. Luz turned peaked back around the corner to see  Lilith facing the doors again and combing the leaves out of her hair.

'Remain calm and composed.' Lilith thought as she fixed her hair, putting her hands together and waiting as the door opened.

From Luz point of view, she saw what looked like a GIANT GREEN HEART beating with the metal pipes connected to it!

'What the what?!' Luz thought as Lilith walked inside, the red doors shutting behind her. 'I gotta get closer!'

Looking  around for the clear, Luz saw the hall was clear and ran to the door.  Luckily, the doors had a keyhole in the middle of the coven symbol  between them, so she could look inside the throne room. Inside,  the room held a massive throne with various guards around Belos as he  sat with a hand in his head. The beating green heart suspended above two  flaming braziers. One guard appeared to have a golden mask mask  resembling an owl, in contrast to all of the crow masks the coven wore,  was standing directly behind the throne at Belos' left side. Lilith  approaches the throne and kneels to her left knee.

"I am at your  service, Emperor Belos." Lilith said, the room had enough of an echo for  the human girl to her from behind the door.

"One moment, Lilith." Belos said as he took deep breathes.

A guard moved to bring something to Belos on a tray.

'What  is that?' Luz thought as Belos picked it up, letting her get only a  blurry glance but it was enough. 'Is that...a palisman?'

What  happened next shook Luz to the door as Belos dug his finger into it and  cracked the head off. Pouring its green essence, it's magic, into the  eye holes of his mask as a sigh of relief escaped his throat.

"Ahhh, much better." He said as his eyes flash green.

Luz  back away from the door, shocked and disgusted by what she just  witnessed! The Emperor of this world...just ate the magic of palisman  like it was chocolate with a cream filling!

'That's not right!  That's just not right!' She thought as she held her mouth, not knowing  whether to gasp or to gag! 'I-I-I need to get out of here! I need to get  that hat and get the hell out of here!'

Turning in her heels, Luz  ran as fast as she could to get away from the throne room! She didn't  know where she was running or if she was caught, all Luz needed to do  was get away from that-that monster of an Emperor! After a few minutes  of running, Luz can to a stop near a window to catch her breath and  think again about what she just saw.

'H-He just ate a palisman  without a second thought! Why? Are they just snacks to him?' Luz  thought, remembering all the times she spent with Owlbert. 'Eda said  Palismen are lifelong companions, bonded to you for life. Does Belos not  care and see them as just food?'

As Luz's mind raced, she looked out the window to see her class LEAVING THE CASTLE! The tour was over and she... was with them?

"What?"  Luz said as she leaned closer, seeing herself standing with Gus,  Willow, and Amity as the bridge extended them back to the bus carriage.  "How in the-"

"Luz." A voice said, making Luz jolt and turn to punch it.

Her  fist was caught as Luz was face to face with Amity, Willow and Gus, who  was focusing on 4 spell circles of illusion magic. He must've been the  reason she saw herself leaving with the class.

"Guys..." Luz said as she pulled her fist away.

"You were planning on stealing the Healing Hat, weren't you?" Willow asked.

"How did you-" Luz asked before Amity cut her off.

"I  told them what you told me about Eda. Willow said it was a theory but I  didn't want to believe it until I heard it from you." Amity said as she  crossed her arms, glaring a bit at her girlfriend. "Luz, what is going  on? Why did you just up and leave the group? Please don't tell me your  actually planning on stealing that relic."

Luz was between a rock  in a hard place, with her girlfriend glaring at her for the truth and  her friends going to such lengths to make it seem like she was still  with the group, the kickboxer had only one option in this situation. She  had to come clean.

"Yes, I was planning on stealing the Healing  Hat." Luz said as her friends looked surprised at her. "Eda's been  cursed since she was a kid, making her turn into a giant owl beast if  she doesn't drink a special elixir to fight it but this morning, I  learned the elixirs aren't working as much any more. Along with that,  the more Eda uses her magic, the more the curse takes hold. We promised  to think of ways to help her when I got home until-"

"Until you saw the section of relics in the guidebook." Gus said, remembering this morning.

"Yeah,  when I read about the Healing Hat, I thought that it was the perfect  cure for Eda but I couldn't just take it without causing trouble for the  class or school." Luz said, putting her hands in her pockets.

"So  you thought that sneaking off and snatching it by yourself would be  fine?" Amity asked with her glare increasing. "Luz, you can't just steal  the hat!"

"I know but Eda-" Luz said before Amity cut her off!

"BUT...that doesn't mean you can't borrow it." Amity said as she stopped glaring.

"...I'm sorry but girlfriend say what?" Luz asked in confusion.

She was just angry with her and now she's suddenly helping her?

"We figured if you needed the hat, it would be for something important, so we'll all agreed to help you." Gus said with a smile.

"Sure,  it's technically a punishable crime but it's not punishable if we don't  get caught." Willow said while punch her open hand.

Apparently, being around Luz and Eda must've awakened some sort of rebellious nature in side Willow.

"Guys, that's sweet but I can't ask yo-" Luz said before Amity out a finger on her lips.

"You're  not asking and we're not taking "No" for an answer." Amity said before  kissing Luz's cheek, causing her to blush. "Like it or not, you're stuck  with us. So, how about we borrow that hat and leave before we get  caught?"

Seeing how firm her friends were being and how her  girlfriend wasn't going to let her say no, Luz sighed but gained a smile  at her loyal they were.

'I've never had anyone this loyal to me  before, much less a girlfriend.' Luz thought, once again so happy she  ended up on the Boiling Isles.

"Alright, since you guys won't take go away, it's time for a heist. And I think I know where to start." Luz said with a smirk.

From  that point on, the quartet moved through the corridors of the coven  castle and did everything possible to avoid capture. Using potted plants  as cover by making them larger, using two coven disguises to fool the  guards, crawling through air ducts, and making an illusion of Kikimora  to distract the guards and order them away. Eventually, all their  efforts brought them back to the relic room and brought Luz face to face  with her prize.

"The Healing Hat, the best shot of healing Eda  for good." Luz said as she took a breath, rubbing her hands to grab the  relic. "I really hope these aren't booby trapped."

Slowly grabbing  the hat, Luz quickly pulled back and shut her eyes for something to  happen. 3 seconds past and nothing happened; no trap, no alarm, no  anything!

"Oh thank you god! I was so worried." Luz said as the  hat glowed in her hands, making her gasp. "Wow, I can actually feel the  power in this thing. It's amazing!"

"Heck yeah it is!" Gus said, grabbing the Oracle Sphere from its pedestal. "Finally, I can see the road to become my best self."

Using the orb, a blue copy of Gus appeared next to him and leaned to his ear.

"You're already your best self." Copy Gus whispered into his ear.

This made Gus emotional as he began crying into his shirt sleeve! He was already on the path to being the best version of him!

"Gus,  put that back! You shouldn't be playing with it." Amity said to him  before Willow grabbed the Green Thumb Gauntlet. "Willow!"

"I just  want to try it once." Willow said with a guilty smile before making a  large, muscular tree arm appear and quickly put the gauntlet back. "See?  Just once."

"Okay, guys. Enough fun. We got what we need, now  let's get out of here and use this hat before someone notices." Luz said  as the group, including copy Gus, assembled.

A voice sudden rang in all their ears as they froze in shock.

"Wise thinking but I'm afraid it's too late." A voice said, echoing in their minds as they jolted in fear.

'Belos...' Luz thought, remembering that voice.

"We need to leave. Now." Luz said to her friends and girlfriend, backing to a door.

Suddenly, both doors to the relic room were covered in iron barricades! Trapping them inside!

"Huh!" The Gus' and Willow gasped as Amity said "No!"

Luz  gulped at the sight of the covers before remembering something  important, her left glyph glove had a power glyph imprinted on the back!

"Amity, hold the hat." Luz said, putting the Healing Hat in Amity's arms.

"Luz, what are you planning?" Amity asked as Luz held up her right arm.

"I'm planning on knocking that cover down!" Luz said, slapping the power glyph and glowing with new strength! "Stand back!"

Taking  a running start with her gloves facing behind her, Luz pressed the fire  glyphs and blasted to the door at high speed while reeling her fist  back!

"RRRRAAAAAH!" Luz screamed as she punch the iron barricade, kicking up a cloud of smoke as the sound echoed through the castle.

Luz  coughed a bit as she stepped back from the barricade, waving her hand  to clear to smoke so she could see! Lo and behold, she punched right  through the iron and left a giant gapping hold on the door!

"Yes, I  did it!" Luz said as she cut off the power glyph, turning to her group.  "Hurry! No doubt that someone noticed the noise and they're m coming!  We have to go now!"

"I'm afraid not." A voice said, making Luz turn around and see a white raven pointed at her face.

The  one who heard the sound was none other than Lilith, who used her staff  to push the hood off of Luz's head to reveal her round ears before the  human quickly jumped back a few times to her group.

"Well, well,  well, if it isn't Edalyn's human apprentice." Lilith said as she began  to smile darkly. "How fortuitous. It seems the Titan has granted me an  opportunity with you here."

Looking over the others in the room, Lilith saw that the ones that were with Luz were Willow, Gus, and...

'Amity?!' Lilith thought in shock, seeing her too student with the human and holding the Healing Hat! 'What is she doing here?!'

"I  don't know what you mean but keep away from us. You lay one finger on  me, Eda will come after you, but if you lay one finger on my friends,  I'LL come after you." Luz said with a fiery glare.

This brought Lilith out of her mind as she turned back to Luz, raising a brow at her.

"You? Come after me?" Lilith said before giving a little laugh. "What could you possibly do to me?"

"Why don't come here find out?" Luz asked, getting in her fighting stance.

"Tempting but let's be honest," Lilith said before teleporting in front of Luz. "What could yo-"

Luz quickly uppercut the witch, using her arrogance to land a solid hit on her chin!

"Guys, run! Get the hat to Eda!" Luz shouted at them as she side kicked Lilith's hip!

"Grr!" Lilith grunted before she knocked Luz away, hitting her face with the staff!

Luz was send rolling across the room before she the room until she rolled into a crouch!

"Luz!" Amity said in worry as she rushed her.

Willow moved to give her cover and assumed the peak-boo stance while Gus began bouncing on his feet, his arms to the sides.

"Are you two going to fight me as well?" Lilith asked with a raised brow.

"Seems like it!" Willow shouted as she charged, Gus following after he drew a spell circle to make him flash blue.

"Goodbye, me. Thank you for the confidence." Gus said to his copy before he made it vanish.

Lilith  watch as Willow moved, pointing her staff at her until the girl's eyes  flash green. Sudden vines sprouted from the ground and grabbed her arm,  pulling her staff down as Willow threw a punch of her stomach!

"Grrr!" Lilith grunted, surprised by the power behind the punch!

3  more jabs and a kick to her knee were done before Lilith burned the  vines away and hit Willow away with her staff but the girl blocked the  hit with her arms! Gus ran to Lilith with a punch but the elder jabbed  him with her staff, only to see him fade away as another Gus jumped to  the side of it.

'An afterimage?!' Lilith through my before Gus  hopped up to throw a punch to her but Lilith blocked it! 'Has this human  been teaching them?!'

Throwing a wide swing, Lilith watched as another afterimage of Gus was hit as the real one quickly jumped back!

'Too close!' Gus thought with sweat in his brow!

As Gus and Willow kept Lilith occupied, Amity was helping Luz to her feet as the human had some blood on her lip.

"Are you okay?" Amity asked, still holding the hat in one hand.

"Yeah,  I'm fine. Just threw me off with that sucker smack." Luz said as she  wiped the blood away. "Amity, please get out of here and get the hate to  Eda! I'll be fine!"

"No you won't! I'm not doubting how strong  you are but Lilith is a different story! There's a reason she's the  strongest of all the coven leaders!" Amity said in worry for Luz. "She's  not like a monstrous Otabin or a a Slitherbeast!"

"I don't care!"  Luz shouted as she grabbed Amity's face. "Look at me and please listen!  Back in the human realm, I didn't have anyone I truly cared for or was  close to besides my mother! But here, I have Eda, King, my friends, the  class, and YOU. If even one of you was in trouble, I'd help you no  matter what! So please, I am begging you, help me help Eda by getting  that hat to her!"

"B-But Luz." Amity said, almost crying at the choice before her.

The  sound of fighting and loud smacks soon caught their attention as Amity  and Luz turned to see Gus and Willow had been knocked out by Lilith but  the elder witch seemed a bit winded. Apparently, they managed to give  her a bit of trouble before she won.

"Now then, Amity, why don't you hand over the relic? Lilith asked, holding out her hand as white flames flew towards them.

"Look  out!" Luz shouted as she used the ice and fire glyph to shoot the hand  with a stream of water! "Amity, please run! Eda needs that hat!"

"But I can't just-"

"GO!" Luz shouted at her.

Amity  was still hesitant to leave or even fight, Lilith was still her mentor  even if she betrayed her trust! How could she fight her?! And she can't  just abandon her girlfriend like this?!

"She is not going anywhere with that hat!" Lilith said as she teleported behind Amity!

"Amity!" Luz said before Lilith smack her away again, this time into a wall!

"Luz!" Amity said to her as Lilith stood over her.

"I'd  never expect you to be befriend this human, Amity. Or to aid her in  stealing a relic." Lilith said, showing slight surprise at the young  Blight girl.

"Well I never expected you to use me to cheat!" Amity said, moving back slowly from her.

"Amity,  you must understand. What I did was out of precaution. I grew up with  Edalyn and knew here tricks, I was sure she would cheat in the at duel  and she did by giving the human this gloves." Lilith said as she walked  forward to Amity. "You must know she is a criminal and by association,  so is the human. But you can avoid that fate if you return that hat and  leave, I can make it so all this never happened."

"I'm not going  to abandon Luz or my friends!" Amity said before making her decision,  glaring at Lilith. "I'm not the same as I was before, I'm much stronger.  Stronger that I could be with you!"

Lilith was surprised by this  declaration as Amity drew a spell circle, making abomination clay rise  over her body and shape itself into armor as a tendril grabbed the hat  and placed it in her back with two more forming fists.

"You want this hat, you'll have to take it from me!" Amity declared as she got in a flicker stance, glaring at Lilith.

This  was definitely not the Amity she remembered! The look in her eyes, the  way she stood! It was like Lilith was looking at an entirely different  witch! What could've caused this?

'The human.' Lilith thought as  she glanced at the human, who was rubbing her head in pain. 'Her will is  infectious yet, I can't help but feel...thankful to her.'

"...Fine,  apprentice. Have it your way." Lilith said as she prepared her staff,  taking a few steps back. "Let's see what this human has taught you."

Amity  took the challenge in stride as she moved forward, throwing flicker  jabs with her left arm while the left tendril did the same! At her  current speed, she could only throw three at a time so her tendril did  most of the faster hit. Lilith spun her staff to block the hits as  before she stab at Amity, who blocked it with her arm before the right  tendril fist launch a punch to make Lilith dodge!

"Guh!" Lilith grunted as she launched a small fire ball at Amity, who quickly drew a spell circle to fire her own magenta fire!

'When did Amity learn that?!' Lilith thought as the fire balls cancelled each other out.

Amity  then jumped for a spin kick, making Lilith lean back to dodge but was  hit with a thrust kick to her stomach! The Blight didn't stopped as she  threw more flicker jabs, landing a few before throwing an gut punch to  Lilith! This fight was more than Lilith thought it would be, making her  firm herself to stop holding back with Amity! It was a shame that SHE  didn't get Amity to leave of strength instead of the human!

"Enough of this!" Lilith said, throwing a back hand that Amity blocked but still sent her flying into a wall! "This ends now!"

Using her white flames again, Lilith grabbed Amity by her armor and melted it away before she DESTROYED THE HEALING HAT!

"NO!"  Luz screamed in shock, watching the magic hat turn to ash before her  eyes! "What have you done?! That could've been the only thing to save  Eda!"

Lilith scoffed as she teleported to Luz, dropping Amity, and holding the human in the air by her throat!

"These  decrepit relics hold no true power, you were filling yourself with  false hope." Lilith said as she turned to her number 1 apprentice or  should she say "ex" apprentice now. "Listen closely, Amity, if you wish  to see the human again, I want you and her friends to deliver this to  Edalyn."

Throwing her staff, Lilith gave it a spin as it caught  Amity by her stomach and spun to pick up Gus and Willow the same way as  they regained consciousness!

"Luz!" Amity called out, crying as she, Willow, and Gus were forced to fly away!

"Amity!"  Luz shouted before glaring at Lilith, feeling more rage than ever  before at the older Clawthorne! "YOU BITCH! I'M GONNA-"

"Take a nap." Lilith said as she drew a spell circle, hitting Luz with a sleep spell!

"Ki-" Luz stopped as she suddenly passed out, fading into darkness.

-30 minutes Later-

Standing  in the bridge of the castle, Lilith was waiting for her sister as the  entire Emperor's Coven watched from various windows and perches on the  castle. News of her new plan spread, using the Owl Lady's apprentice to  draw her out and beat in a Witches Duel like she did at the Covention.  Only this time, she would have nowhere to run as she could be  surrounded.

"Come on, Edalyn. You know you have no choice, so why  must you be late?" Lilith said to herself as she looked up, seeing Belos  having the highest seat to watch the duel.

Suddenly a bright  flash of lightning struck as Eda appears, floating in the air with her  staff in hand and a glare on towards Lilith!

'Perfect timing.' Lilith thought as she smirks.

That  is until Eda throws Lilith's staff, missing her head by a few inches as  it crashes into the castle wall as a crater! Lilith look to herself  before refocusing on her angry sister.

"Edalyn! So glad you accepted my invitation for a Witches Duel." Lilith said before Eda fired several blasts around her!

Eda  charged at Lilith, coated in yellow lightning as she sped around her  sister, firing multiple blasts at Lilith as the coven witch summoned a  shield to block one blast! Quickly summoning her staff from the wall,  Lilith fired back as Eda knocked the blast away!

"Where is she?!" Eda demands as fly towards Lilith.

"Calm  yourself, sister!" Lilith said, holding a hand out as Eda came to a  haunt in the air before her. "Your human is fine, I guaranteed it."

With  a spin and a tap of her staff, Luz was brought out to the in a blue  magic bubble! The jolt seemed to awaken her as she looked to see herself  captured and Eda floating before her!

"Eda!" Luz said, hands on the bubble and banging on it! "No!"

"You  can have her back, provided you accept my demands." Lilith said as she  walked in front of Luz. "Turn yourself in and join the Emperor's Coven!  He can heal your curse if you just submit to his order."

Eda growled at her sister, not just for the ridiculous demands but for imprisoning her student like an animal!

"You  really must be a bonehead to listen to that bonehead! He doesn't want  to recruit me or heal me! He wants to control me!" Eda said to her!

"Then I shall take you in by force!" Lilith said as she spins her staff at the ready!

"You  know, Lily, you always looked down on me because I was a wild witch."  Eda said as she lands on the bridge. "But unfortunately for you, that  just made me work twice as hard!"

Spinning her staff, Eda summoned  a large owl of pure magic as she was shadowed with glowing eyes before  charging at Lilith! Eda knocked her into the air as the coven members  watched from inside. Lilith stopped herself as appears Eda appears  behind her. Lilith quickly disappears to dodge Eda's swing and reappears  behind Eda, who disappears again to kick Lilith away and chase after  her! From inside the magic bubble, Luz was forced watch as Eda and Lilith zipped across the sky as golden and blue lights!

'I  have to get out of here! Eda's using up too much magic and if she  doesn't stop, she'll turn again!" Luz thought as she prepared to use her  gloves, only to feel plain skin as Luz noticed THEY WERE GONE! 'My  gloves! Thei- LILITH! She must've taken them before putting me in this  damn bubble!'

With her only option of escape gone, Luz looked back to the sky battle and saw Lilith firing a magic beam at her!

"Shit!" Luz cursed as the bubble rolled down the bridge, to the edge of the right side!

"Luz!" Eda shouted as she chances to save her!

Eda  used the boards of the bridge to roll Luz back to her original spot  before Lilith forced herself between them, almost crushing Eda! Eda  retaliated by using her staff to create 3 Hooty golems and tie Lilith  up!

"This ends now!" Eda shouted as she spun her staff, gathering  giant amounts of magic and held it in front of her to fire a giant beam  at Lilith!

Lilith gasped at the sight and quickly moved the bubble in front of her, using it and Luz as a shield!

"Aaaah!" Luz screamed at the beam!

"No!"  Eda shouted as she quickly redirected the beam, making it blast into  the castle wall! "Lilith, you coward! Stopping using Luz as a shield!"

Both  witches were exhausted, using large amounts of magic in such a short  amount of time. Both of them sweaty and out of breath as Lilith freed  herself from the Hooty golems.

"It appears you are slowing down,  sister. Tell me, is it that dreadful curse or are you just getting older  than I am?" Lilith asked with a smirk.

Eda growled at Lilith again, the darkness of her gem growing as Luz gasped at the sight!

"No! Eda, stop! Your magic will run out! Eda!" Luz said through the bubble, banging it with her fists but it muffled the sound.

"Maybe  the curse is slowing me down but isn't that pathetic for you? To not be  able to beat at my worst?!" Eda shouted as she summoned a large spell  circle, breaking it in to 11 different ones and firing a barrages of  magic blasts!

Lilith moved Luz out of the way and made a shield  for herself, protecting her from the blasts, while Luz was rolled  further back on the bridge. Luz looked around for anything to help  before seeing a pointed rock right next to the bubble!

"Bingo!" Luz said as she began moving the bubble to it!

"So  what if you are stronger than me?! I grew to work harder, become  smarter and craftier!" Lilith said as she knelled behind her shield,  trying to remain strong.

"And that landed you a job as a lapdog!" Eda replied as she continued her attacks!

Luz rolled to the rock and made it shatter, freeing herself as she quickly stood up!

"Eda! You need to stop!" Luz shouted to her but she was ignored.

"You always thought you were better than me, thought that I could never beat you!" Lilith replied as her shield began to crack!

"Because you can't beat me!" Eda shouted at her!

Lilith  was reaching her limit, growing angry at her sister with every reminder  of how Eda outshined her all of their lives. Becoming so angry that she  revealed something that shocked her sister and the human to their  cores!

"THEN WHY WAS IT SO EASY TO CURSE YOU?!" Lilith shouted before gasping, quickly covering her mouth!

Luz  and Eda gapped at the witch, ceasing the magic attacks as Eda  remembered the night she was cursed! Only this time, instead of a dark  figure, it was her sister in their youth!

"You did it?! You cursed Eda?!" Luz said in shock, anger, and disgust! "How could you curse your own family?!"

"I-I-I know! But if you just let me explain." Lilith said, reaching out to Eda.

Too bad Eda didn't want to listen, growing more furious than before!

"RAAAAAAAHHHH!" Eda screamed a she charged at Lilith sand shattered her shield and knocking her into a wall to form a crater!

Luz came out of her emotional state and ran to Eda, still worried about her!

"Eda! You can stop! We need to leave before your magic runs out!" Luz warned her, seeing the gem growing blacker by the second!

Lilith  rose from the ground, seeing Luz run to Eda and hearing the information  she screamed. Smirking, Lilith coated Luz in blue magic and made her  halt mid run!

"What the!" Luz said, looking back to Lilith.

"You  should've stayed in the bubble, human. It was more to keep you safe  than imprisoned." Lilith said as she threw Luz of the side of the  bridge!

"Aaah!" Luz screamed as Eda came out of her rage!

She saw her apprentice falling and knew she was more important than her rage towards Lilith!

"Luz!" Eda said, drawing an unstable spell circle and catching her, though she was struggling to hold her.

"Wait! Eda no! You don't have much magic left!" Luz said, floating above a pit of spiked rocks!

"I  know, kid but I get to chose what to do with my magic." Eda said  through her teeth, still struggling as her magic sparked in her hand.  "And until you came, all I ever did was waste it on myself."

Floating  into the air, Lilith smiled evilly as she waved her staff and coated  her hand in blue magic. Suddenly, a large projection of her hand  appeared in front of Luz and pushed her down further!

"No! No! Lilith, you bitch! Stop!" Luz shouted at her!

The gem on Eda's chest was bubbling, the blackness of the curse almost consuming it as Eda looked at it and back to Luz.

"Okay,  Luz, listen to me. I'm going to go away for a while but I'm not sure if  I'm going to come back, alright?" Eda said as her eyes slowly began to  blacken. "Promise me you'll watch over King and feed Hooty for me."

"Don't! Eda, please...don't." Luz said as tears began to pool in her eyes.

"Luz, thank you so much...for coming into my life." Eda said, falling to a knee.

Clenching  her hand, Eda released a burst of magic while screaming as Owlbert flew  to save Luz, blinding Lilith and the Emperor's Coven! The kickboxer was  lifted back to the bridge and ran to Eda as she laid on her back!

"Eda! Talk to me, please!" Luz said to her as Eda rolled to Luz.

"Aaah!"  She suddenly screams in pain before opening her eyes, revealing nothing  back darkness, and roaring to the sky! "Rooooooh!"

Luz quickly moved away as Eda transformed, becoming the owl beast again as she stalked towards Luz and Owlbert.

'No, Eda! No!' Luz thought, backing away in fear until Eda was suddenly pulled back!

Luz looked to see Lilith had landed on the bridge and holding her staff to Eda, using magic restraints to keep her contained.

"There,  there sister. It's alright. The healing can finally begin." She said  with a smile, looking up to see Belos give her a nod before he left the  scene.

'Excellent work, Lilith.' Belos thought.

Meanwhile  with Luz, the human kept staring at Lilith as she smiled with pride. How  could she be smiling after what she did?! After almost killing Luz?!  The human girl grit her teeth, almost trying to break them as hot tears  fell from her eyes!

"You...you...YOU FUCKING BITCH!" Luz screamed, charging at Lilith! "RAAAAH!"

Lilith  turned to the human and saw her throwing wild attacks, no pattern or  reason behind them as she dodged and blocked them. Jabs, straights,  hooks, kicks, knees; managed to most of them but a few go by and struck  her in the stomach, chest, or face!

'The human is faster then before.' Lilith thought before dodging a high kick and grabbing Luz by her throat again!

"Enough, human!" Lilith said, carrying Luz to the front of the bridge and throwing her to the ground. "Leave this place."

Reaching out, Lilith grabbed Owlbert as Luz got it her feet.

"Put him down!" Luz demanded, still glaring and crying at Lilith.

"No.  This palisman belongs to Edalyn, who is with me. Her real family."  Lilith said, tapping the bridge with her staff to make it retract to the  castle. "Take my advice and go back to your world, this one belongs to  us."

Smiling on last time, Lilith watched as the human grew small  in the distance before the coven doors shut. It was over, Lilith had  finally captured Edalyn and Luz,... she lost in a way like she never  felt before in her life.

-20 minutes of walking later-

The  walk back to the owl house was silent, the only sound was Luz's  footsteps as she made it back to her home in this realm. Hooty had just  awoken from a nap and saw his human friend approaching.

"Oh Luz, you're finally home." He said to her but Luz didn't reply as she opened the door. "Luz?"

Looking  inside the owl house, Luz found only darkness before finding  a...celebration set up in the den? Balloons and streamers hung up, party  hats are on the couches, and confetti scattered on the floor. Something  was folded with a bow wrapped around it on the table while next to a  large, strawberry cake that had burned out candles.  Suddenly, King burst  out from the cake and took deep breaths of air with his arms up.

"Surprise!  I was the cake!" He said before noticing the mood, Luz just standing  near the door and Eda was nowhere in sight. "Hey, where's Eda?"

Luz  didn't reply to him as she walked towards the wrapped present, slowly  opening it to reveal a purple cloak/cape with a hood and a tag attached  to it.

'To a young witch from her proud mentor. - EDA' 

Luz stared at the tag for a few moments, slowly beginning to shake as she slid to her knees.

"Damn it...damn it." Luz mumbled, curling her hands around the cloak before she dropped it on the floor.

"Luz?" King asked as Hooty stretched over to them.

"GOD  FUCKING DAMN IT!" Luz screamed as suddenly banged on the coffee table  with her right fist, crying in rage and sorrow as she repeatedly bashed  the table! "RAAAAAAAAAH!"

Hooty and King shouted in fear, backing  away from Luz as she continued to bash the table and scream for about 5  minutes until she slowly stopped. Her screams of rage became cries of  sorrow was she placed her head on the table and cried!

'Eda...' Luz thought as King and Hooty went to comfort her.

This lose, it was nearly soul crushing. How could Luz, how could ANYONE, recover from this? Recover from absolute defeat?

Chapter Text

After  her emotional breakdown in the den and explaining everything to King  and Hooty, Luz changed out of her school uniform and stayed in her room  to wallow in her despair. Her mentor, friend, and second parental figure  besides her mother was captured and Luz didn't know what to do now.  Normally, she'd solve problems with her fists but this problem looked to  be too big to punched out of.

"Luz?" King asked, poking his head in from the door. "Can I come in? I want to show you something."

"Like what?" she asked in a defeated voice, looking out the window.

The cloak was still in her hands, she just didn't have the heart to let it go right now.

"This.  It's the Unauthorized History of the Boiling Isles, the one most people  don't know about or believe." King said, walking into the room and  showing Luz the book. "I know I'm your demon teacher but I never really  thought to teach you about the Isles history. Or maybe Hexiside taugh-"

"Just read it already." Luz said, glancing at the book.

Luz gave it a glance, noticing the book was rather old and the author's name was scratched out.

"O-Okay."  King said as he set the book down, opening it to read. "The Boiling  Isles, born from the flesh and bones of a fallen Titan. This original  magic was so potent, all life on the Isles evolved to wield magic too.  For years, we explored those power freely. Until, a mysterious witch  appeared who declared that he, and he alone, could speak to the island.  He said that we were using magic all wrong. His teachings took hold, his  strength grew, and he became... Emperor Belos. Belos said that mixing  magic was wrong, that only he had that right. So he created the coven  system. And there, our knowledge was restricted, and our potential  sealed away. Those who resist are called wild witches, and they face  harsh punishment. Emperor Belos has since retreated into his castle.  There are whispers that say he's planning something big. Maybe capturing  Eda was a part of it?"

King looked back to Luz and saw she was  still gazing at the cloak, wallowing in pity. King groaned at this,  seeing his friend still depressed over what Lilith did. Something had to  be done or else Eda would be gone for good.

"Luz...I know it  seems hopeless but please, you have to fight. Eda needs help and you're  the only one that can save her." King said as he stood up.

"How? My gloves are gone." Luz replied.

"So  what? You've been kicking ass long before you got those gloves! You  don't need them to be strong!" King said as he walked up to Luz. "Like  when you fought Warden Wrath on the day we met! You didn't have magic  then!"

Luz looked to King as she remembered that day, getting King his paper crown back and saving those weirdos at the Conformatorium.

-Flashback-

"Do  you really think you can beat me?!" he said to Luz as he raised his  left hand, shifting it into a hammer and bringing it down to crush Luz.

The  human girl dodged to her left, barely dodging the hit before she moved  to his ride side. She began punching and kicking his stomach and legs  while moving around him as Warden Wrath just stood there and took the  damage.

"Urgh! I told you, it's pointless!" Warden Wrath  said before throwing a kick, but Luz jumped to dodge and kicking him in  his plague mask.

-Flashback Ends-

"Or when we fought against Adegast and you threw that sword right into his forehead." King said as another memory came to Luz.

-Flashback-

Eda and Luz looked at each other and slowly put their hands up, but as Eda dropped her staff, Luz keep the sword in her hand.

"Hey, throw that sword away, girl!" Adegast said as he pointed to his puppet's sword.

"Really? You throw it away?" Luz asked, getting an idea from his phrasing.

"I said throw it away! Now!" Adegast demanded as he squeezed King harder.

"Okay, okay! Look, I'm throwing it..." Luz said slowly before smirking before spinning the sword to a reverse position. "AWAY!"

Luz  threw the sword like a javelin and impaled the giant squid in the  head, making him scream in pain as he dropped King on instinct.

-Flashback Ends-

"Again  and again, you've shown me that magic or not, you don't give up and you  keep fighting! You never given up before, so why give up now?!" King  asked her as more memories flashed in her mind.

Fighting Eda in  her owl beast form, her match with Amity at the Covention, Conjuring  Night with Gus and Willow against the demon hunters, Bat Queen's trials,  stopping the Greater Basalisk, even her fight with Grom!

-Flashback-

Luz  charged and prepared a right punch with the light glyph, making her  fist glow as Grom raised its arms to block but Luz dropped and struck  with an uppercut with the left fist! She faked it out! The fear bringer  stumbled as Luz stayed on him and kicked it in the stomach, sides, legs,  and face! She didn't stop until Grom threw a punch that struck her  cheek but the blood on Luz's face let her slip past it and counter punch  Grom!

-FlashbackEnds-

Sure, Luz had magic  with her gloves but most of it was her skills as a kickboxer! They  didn't fail her any of those times and they won't fail her now!

'You  only live once, you might as well be a badass.' Luz remembered from her  magazine, slowly smiling as she stood up and turned to King.

"King, thank you. I needed that kick in the ass." Luz said.

"You're welcome, Luz. Now, what's the plan?!" He asked, happy to see Luz was back to normal.

"The  plan is simple. We're gonna find Eda, we're gonna save her, and we're  gonna kick the ass of anyone that gets in our way." Luz said as she put  on the cloak, the end flapping in the air. "You ready to go to war,  King?"

"The King of Demons is ALWAYS ready!" King cheered as threw his fists into the air!

"Then  hand me my boxing tape and grab my notepad of glyphs, we've got a witch  to rescue!" Luz said as she punched her hand into her fist!

"Yeah!" King cheered as he scurried to grab the tape and her notepad!

After  wrapping her hands in tape and put the notepad of (100 pages of) glyphs  in her pocket, Luz placed King in her vest hood so her could be given  magic protection too before she and him left the owl house to head into  Bonesborough.

'Hang on, Eda. We're coming to save you!' Luz thought as she ran into town.

Assuming  that the Emperor's Coven would be on the search for them, Luz decided  that she can King should stick the to the alleyways as they wanted to  collect some information on what might happen to Eda. A news report or  some guard chatter, anything to help them know what will become of Eda.  After 20 minutes of searching, the duo came across a crowd of witches  and demons in front of a shop with crystal balls in the display window.  They were showing what looked like a news report and the man reporting  looked a lot like Gus.

'Guess that's Gus's dad.' Luz thought as she walked out of the alley, the wool cloak hood up to hide her face and King.

"This  is Perry Portor reporting. Here at the Emperor's castle, the wanted  criminal known as the Owl Lady, Edalyn Clawthorne has finally been  captured after all these years! She has been brought before the emperor  and her verdict has been decided. We will now switch to the emperor's  assistant, Kikimora, for reveal of her crimes and punishment." He said  as Kikimora as she stood before a podium in front of the castle

She  also had two small eyeballs with bat wings flying beside her, possible  acting as living cameras with dozens of microphones in front of her.

"For  the crimes of refusing to join a coven, unauthorized use of magic for  decades, and assaulting a coven leader; Eda the Owl Lady has been  sentenced to stone petrifaction at sundown in front of the  Conformatorium!" She said.

"Stone petrification?" Luz said in shock!

The crystal ball switched back to Perry as he had a look of gloom on his face.

"Today  is a grave day, Bonesborough. A grave day." He said as the news feed  switch to an example to come, dozens of former witches transformed into  stone statues!

Each one of them frozen in mid scream, blocking the  spell, or reached out for mercy! It was too much for the crowd as they  dispersed, leaving Luz and King to watch.

"This is bad, Luz.  Petrification is only for the worst of the worst and once it's done,  nothing can undo it as the victim is placed in front of the  Conformatorium as an example." King said to her.

"No. They can't  do this! Eda doesn't deserve this!" Luz said as the crystal balls all  showed Lilith, the Emperor's Coven head. "This is all Lilith's fault!  None of this would've happened if she didn't curse Eda! I swear, the  next time I see her, I am going to-"

Grabbing a crystal ball, Luz  squishing it between her hands in angry and growling like a beast until  the ball cracked on the surface!

'Whoa! Humans have monster strength when their angry!' King thought as Luz breathed heavily, still holding the crystal ball.

"Luz,  please calm down. We need to focus and save Eda before it's too late!"  King said to Luz, who took deep breathes to calm herself before she put  the cracked crystal ball back in the display.

"Right right. First,  we need to find a way to get the Conformatorium before it's too late.  But how?" Luz said before she and King heard whistling.

The two turned to the side to see a coven guard walking by without a care, strolling instead of patrolling.

"Bingo." Luz said with a smirk.

"Who's bingo?" King asked.

"I'll explain it later, King. Right now. We have a crime to commit." Luz said as she came up with a quick plan.

The guard had continued his stroll for a few more moments before it came to a halt.

"Yo, asshole!" Luz called out to him, making the guard turn to her.

Standing  in front a round patch of grass with a DO NOT STEP ON GRASS sign, Luz  and King smiled to the guard as the human pulled out a fire glyph from  her notepad.

"I know we can't TOUCH the grass but does the law say  anything about BURNING it?" Luz asked as she tapped the glyph with her  thumb, dropping it as a fireball formed and set the grass ON FIRE!

The guard reeled back in horror, seeing the sign burning, the grass burning, and the law violated in such a way!

"AAAAAHHHHH!" He screamed in horror!

Before  long, the fire was put out in a rush and duo responsible were thrown in  the back of a police wagon that was pulled by a giant purple horned  worm to be taken to the Conformatorium!

"Exactly as planned." Luz said with a smirk as the door shut on them.

The  kickboxer and the demon now had to just sit back and relax as the  guards brought them right where they wanted to be, now they can save Eda  wasting too much energy getting there! After a relaxing yet nerve  racking ride, the duo arrived at the Conformatorium as the police wagon  passed through the garden of petrified witches. It made King gasp and  Luz sick to her stomach, sure some of the might have deserved it but not  all of them. Especially Eda as two guards were setting down a podium  for her! There was even a bronze plague with her name on it!

"Don't worry, Luz. We're gonna save Eda before the happens." King said as he held the bar of the wagon to see.

"I know." Luz said as she glared the the podium, determined to not let Eda be placed on it.

Her  attention shifted towards a recruitment poster for the Emperor's Coven  with Lilith on the front, smiling at her. This made Luz madder and more  determined than ever to save Eda.

'And maybe I'll knock a few of Lilith's teeth out as well.' Luz thought as she clenched her fists.

The  police wagon entered the prison as the gates slammed shut behind it  before the guard driving it performed a three point turn before backing  up into a docking spot.

"Mission accomplished, sir. The Owl Lady's  human student and pet demon have been apprehended." He said as he  looked back, seeing his superior and an Emperor's Coven member standing  behind the wagon.

Warden Wrath didn't show it because of his mask but he was so happy to have this news!

"Excellent  work." Warden Wrath said with a nod before gazing at the double back  doors, laughing a bit. "Hahahaha. Luz the kickboxer, you don't know how  long I've waited to see you again. Ever since that day months ago, you  have been a smudge on my honor but now, now I'll have my revenge. And it  starts by giving you and the little mongrel front row seats to Eda's  demise before you meet your own."

Warden Wrath eagerly reached  from the double doors and opened, expecting to see Luz's fearful  expression, but instead he was met with a wall of bark branches tackling  him!

"Aaah!" He screamed as his body was wrapped in branches.

"Huh?" The E.C.M. (Emperor's Coven Member) said before looking do back to the wagon!

"Rah!" Luz screamed as she jumped out of the wagon and punched him in his mask covered face!

Luz  didn't stop as she continued her attacks! Side kick to leg, uppercut to  chest, upward elbow to chin transitioning to back fist to face, and  roundhouse kick to knock him to the ground!

"Dang." King said in awe, watching from Luz's shoulder.

"Not finished yet." Luz said to the unconscious before using an ice glyph to freeze his body to the ground.

Warden Wrath broke free of the branches and roared at Luz as his hands shifted into hammers!

"Human!" He screamed as Luz turned to him.

"Where is Eda?" Luz asked with a glare, not afraid of Wrath.

"I'll never tell you!" He shouted before charging at Luz!

Luz didn't move from her spot, standing like a statue as King was wondering WHY!

"Luz! Why aren't you moving!?" King asked but got no reply! "LUZ?!"

"DIE!"  Wrath screamed as he swung his hammer to crush Luz, until the human  girl ducked under them and let the hammers crash into each other! "Huh?  Where-"

Suddenly, Wrath feeling pain like never before as he  screamed while his mask flew off! The reason being that Luz was in a  crouch in front of him and hit him the fastest, hardest kick she could  muster...TO HIS BALLS!

"Oooh!" King winced, shutting one eye as he looked away!

Warden Wrath fell to his knees as he held his crotch, groaning in pain as Luz stood up before him.

"Now,  I'm a going to ask you again." Luz said as she pulled out two ice  glyphs, slamming them in Wrath's shoulders to make his body freeze over  in ice. "WHERE. IS. EDA?"

"S-S-She's  being held i-in the d-dungeon. H-Holding cell." Wrath stuttered out, in  pain and in shivers as his ball STILL hurt while his body was incased  in ice, except his head.

"Map, draw." Luz said as she pulled out a  blank piece of paper and a pencil, shoving the pencil in his mouth  while holding up the paper. "Now."

With a fearful tongue, the  defeated warden drew a crude map of the ground floor so Luz could find  the dungeon with ease. From that point on, Luz (and to some extant,  King) went on a rampage through the castle in their way to the dungeon.  Any guard that got in their way, Luz would glyph them into next week,  and any coven member that got in her way, she would mercilessly beat  into the ground. It really helped with her boiling anger towards Lilith  and got her warmed up for anything else that came their way.

-Ten Minutes of rampage later-

Luz  and King had arrived to a hallway with tattered banners and cobwebs  before they stood in front of a large set of dark wood and gold  accessorize double doors. A padlock with chains connected the two ring  handles as a way to keep anyone from getting in or anyone from getting  out.

"This is it. Eda is just beyond this door." Luz said as she  pulled out her notepad, opening it and ripping out about 10 note pages  with glyphs on them. "Watch the door, King, and don't be afraid to glyph  someone."

"You got it, Luz!" King said as Luz handed him the  glyph pages, seeing 4 fire glyphs, 2 plants glyphs, 3 ice glyphs, and 1  light glyph.

Luz stepped to the door and place an ice glyph on it,  freezing the padlock and chains before Luz kicked them into pieces. Luz  pushed the door open to see it was more like a torture room than just a  dungeon. Chains hung from the ceiling, single person cages were all  around, and spike covered torture areas were all around like a spike  interior covered coffin next to the door!

'This place is just sick.' Luz thought as she pulled out a light glyph, creating a ball of light to look around for Eda.

A growl caught Luz's attention as she looked to see Eda, still in her owl beast state, on a platform in the center of the room!

"Eda." Luz said before slowly approaching her, knowing that in this state she would be feral minded. "Eda, it's me."

The sudden noise made Eda rise, turning to Luz and showing she was collared and chained to the platform!

"Raaah!" Eda screeched as she prepared her claws.

Luz dodged under the claws before she moved the light orb into Eda's eyes, shooing her away.

"Rah!" She screeched in pain.

"Come on, Eda! It's me! You have to remember!" Luz said to her as she made another light out, shining it in Edam's face again.

Eda recoiled from the light as she slowly stopped growling, shutting her eyes and opening them to reveal her normal golden ones.

"Huh? What? Luz?" Eda asked, seeing her apprentice in the dungeon with her! "No no no! What are you doing here?!"

"Rescuing you. Now hold still, I'm gonna try and break this chain." Luz said as she bent before the chain.

Luz  pulled out an ice glyph and planned to do what she did with the padlock  on the doors, placing the glyph on the chain and no ice formed! The  glyph was just absorbed by the chain!

"What?" Luz let out, seeing the result wasn't what she wanted!

"Sorry,  Luz, but these chains are magic resistant. You're glyphs aren't strong  enough to break them." Eda said as she pushed Luz away. "You need to  leave now before the guards show up."

"Trust me, they won't and  I'm not going anywhere." Luz said as she pushed Eda's beastly hand away.  "You're only here because I tried to steal the healing hat. I got  captured because of it and you got caught trying to save me!"

Standing up, Luz began stomp on the chain to break it but it was still to strong!

'Break, damn it! Break!' Luz thought as she stomped harder and harder until Eda picked her up with both hands.

"Luz,  look at me, I need you to stop and you need to listen to me." Eda said  before she set Luz on the ground and gazed sadly at her. "Kid, I'm here  because of my own actions. I spent years going against Belos's laws and I  was able to get away with it until now."

Eda sighed sadly as she gazed into her apprentice's eyes.

"But  like this, without my magic, I can't do much anymore. I don't regret  any of my choose and I got to live freely without many worries." Eda  said as she smiled sadly to Luz. "I even got to meet you, an ass kicking hothead that reminds me a lot of myself when I was young."

"Eda..." Luz said, tearing up a bit from her words.

"Meeting  you was the wildest ride I've ever had and I treasured every moment of  it." Eda said as she wiped Luz's tears away. "But if you stay here, I can't protect you. So please, get out of here, kid."

"B-B-But I  can't! I care about you! You and King, you're both a part of my family! I  can't just abandon you when you need help!" Luz said as she held Eda's  hand.

Eda sighed at her apprentice, pulling her hand away before she reached into her hair and pulled out the portal key. She clicked the  eye button to make the portal appear from the floor behind Luz.

"I  know kid but you already have a family back in your realm. A family waiting for you." Eda said as Luz looked to the door. "You need to go  back to them and when you do, you have to destroy the portal door."

"Destroy the portal?!" Luz asked in shock, looking back to Eda! "But my friends! Amity! You! I'll never see you guys again!"

"I  know kid but Belos wants the portal for some reason. I don't know what  but we can't let him get his hands on it." Eda said as she put the key  around Luz's neck. "Please, kid. It's not just about protecting you  anymore, it's about protecting your home too."

"B-B-But..." Luz  said as her tears fell harder before she suddenly hugged Eda. "This is  my home, too! And I can't just leave. I love this place and all of the  friends I've made! I've grown so much since I came here and I'm not  ready to leave yet!"

Eda was surprised by the outburst before sighing sadly, hugging Luz back with one arm.

'I know kid, I don't want you to leave either.' Eda thought.

A siren suddenly went off as the room flashed with red light, a doorway in the ceiling opened as Eda quickly pushed Luz away.

"Luz, get back!" Eda said as he chains and collar transformed into a cage of pure magic!

The platform Eda stood on slowly began to rise as Luz watched her mentor be lifted away!

"No! NO!" Luz shouted as she ran and grabbed the edge of the cage, being lifted into the air. "No, Eda! Please, don't go!"

Looking between the ceiling and her student, Eda made a choice as she herself began to cry.

"I'm sorry, kid. Goodbye." She said as she pushed Luz from the edge.

"NO!" Luz said as she land in her back, leaning up and reaching for the cage! "EDA!"

The  platform reached the doors in the ceiling and sealed shut as Luz went  to her knees, crying once more at another crushing loss! The portal to  her realm was still open as she cried into her hands.

'Damn it. God damn it! Not again!' Luz thought as she slammed her fists into the stone ground!

The doors of the dungeon suddenly opened as Lilith came in with King in her right hand and her staff in the other.

"Drats! I'm too late!" Lilith said as she was covered in small injuries.

"Let me go!" King shouted to her, also covered in injuries!

While  Luz was having a heart to heart with Eda, King must've put the 10  glyphs he was given to good use as he fought Lilith to stop her from  entering but it wasn't enough.

"Well, at least I found you, human." Lilith said, turning her attention to Luz, stopping between Luz and the door.

Hearing  the head of the Emperor's Coven address her, Luz removed her hands from  her face and stood up from the ground. Her sorrow was turning into  anger as she turned around to glare at Lilith.

"You, you did all  of this. I don't why you cursed Eda, but In don't give a damn! I'm gonna  make you pay, FOR EVERYTHING!" Luz screamed as she pulled out a light  and fire glyph!

With a battle cry, Luz slammed both glyphs  together and sent a beam of golden fire to Lilith but the witch quickly  dropped King and pull up a barrier of white flames to block it!

"Wait! I don't want to fight!" Lilith said as the spells canceled each other out but saw Luz was gone!

"But I do!" Luz screamed as she was right below Lilith!

Lilith gasped before she was punch in the stomach, gasping in pain, before Luz kick her in the chin!

"YAAAAH!" Luz screamed as she tackled Lilith through the portal!

"Luz!" King said as he ran after them!

One  the other side of the portal, the same house Luz entered in months ago  gained a glow as the door way spat out Luz and Lilith as they fell of  porch and sprawled apart on the ground! King came through a second  later. The three of them looked up to see a forest of lush and vibrate  greenery as the human stood up slowly.

'Earth.' Luz thought as Lilith stood up behind her, her hands gaining a blue glow.

"Luz, behind you!" King warned her until vines grew to restrain him!

Luz turned around and dodged out of the way of Lilith spell, pulling out a new glyph and aiming!

"Eat fire!" Luz screamed as she activated it, but instead of fire, the paper disintegrated! "What the?! Where's the fire?!"

Lilith used this moment and tackled Luz to the ground!

"Please, just listen to me!" Lilith said, struggling to hold Luz down!

"I don't have to listen to anything you have to say!" Luz shouted as she got an arm free and punched Lilith in the nose!

"Argh!" Lilith shouted, holding her nose!

Using  this moment, Luz pushed up and switched their positions before she  began wailing on the older witch! Lilith pulled up her arms to block but  it was sloppy and Luz found too many openings to strike her face!

"Why  should I listen to anything you have to say when I know enough?! You  cursed Eda, you forced her to become a criminal, and because of all  that, she's gonna be petrified into a statue!" Luz screamed as she  didn't stop her fists, hitting harder and harder as she got angrier! "If  any deserves to be turned into a statue, it's a goddamn bitch like  YOU!"

"YOU DON'T THINK I KNOW THAT?!" Lilith screamed!

Luz  paused in her beating, shocked by what Lilith just said as she gazed  down at her. Her face was covered in several bruises, her right was  black, her nose was purple, and she had some blood leaking from her  lips. The look she was giving Luz showed nothing but honesty, as the  human moved off of her.

"...If you believe that, then why did you  do all of this? Why did you curse Eda?" Luz asked as Lilith leaned up,  flinching in pain as her arms were bruises as well.

"It all  started when we were young girls, Edalyn and I were the best of friends.  It was my dream to be in the Emperor's Coven, to bring peace and  justice to the Isles and make the world a better place alongside the  most powerful witches." Lilith said as she drew a spell circle, healing  her injuries. "Edalyn wanted to be by my side, younger than me but just  as powerful as I was. Yet that was a problem as we both found out there  was only ONE spot left at the coven tryouts."

"So you did this to get into the coven?" Luz asked, getting angry again.

"No!  Well, yes but it's not like you think it is. Edalyn worked twice as  hard as I did and I worried she would get the spot and, in that moment, I  remembered something Emperor Belos always said. "To be great, you have  to make sacrifices."" Lilith said as her arms were healed.

"And you went to the night market and found the curse?" Luz guessed.

"Only  I didn't KNOW it was a curse. I thought it would only render her  magicless for a day and the next day at the tryout match, Edalyn  forfeited so I can have my dream." Lilith said as she began to tear up.  "That was the day she first changed and was driven out as the students  and coven members called her a monster. I tried to go after her but I  couldn't and I was given a place in the coven. I worked tirelessly to  become the coven head and made a deal with the Emperor that if I  captured Edalyn, he could cure her and she would join the coven as my  co-head...but he lied to me."

'So Belos used Lilith's guilt for  decades to do what he said and never planned on keeping his word.' Luz  thought, growling in anger horrible move Belos made.

"I was  shocked by this and I realized that I was fool, all these years." Lilith  said as she finished healing herself. "Now, I want to fix what I've  done and rescue Edalyn but I cannot do it alone."

"Even if I AGREE to work with you, how would I know to TRUST you?" Luz asked with narrowed eyes.

"Because of these." Lilith said as she drew a large spell circle.

Summoned  to her hands, Lilith offered Luz something that she knew would gain the  human's trust. Eda's staff and palisman, Owlbert!

"Owlbert! You're alright!" Luz said as she took the staff and palisman, holding them close. "I'm so glad, buddy."

Owlbert awoke and saw he was in Luz's arms, hooting in glee as he snuggled into her cheek.

"And that's not all." Lilith said as she reached into her back pocket. "I believe these belong to you."

Looking  up to Lilith, Luz gasped as she saw Lilith holding out her glyph gloves  to her! Perfectly fine and not a mark or tear in them!

"My gloves." Luz said as she put Owlbert on her shoulder, taking the gloves from Lilith. "You kept them?"

"Yes,  I was ordered to destroy them along with Owlbert but I couldn't do it  after...you know." Lilith said as she looked very guilty, wiping her  tears away.

Looking over her gloves and thinking about her offer, Luz nodded as she put her gloves back on and stood before Lilith.

"Listen  closely, Lilith. This may have been a nice thing but that doesn't mean I  trust you completely. The one thing we have in common right now, is  that we both want to save Eda." Luz said as she held her hand out to  Lilith. "So, I'll work with you to save her but you better watch my back  or I'm gonna-"

"I understand and thank you." Lilith said as she took Luz's hand, standing up and shaking it. "You won't regret this."

Waving to King, Lilith undid the vines holding him down before heading for the door.

"We need to hurry back. I know a short cut that can take us exactly where Edalyn is held." Lilith said.

Walking  to the portal, Lilith entered first with King being the second until he  saw that Luz was lingering behind to gaze at her world.

"Hey, Luz, if you need a minute..." King said to her.

"No,  it's fine, King. I'm coming." Luz said as she turned around, entering  the portal inside the tattered house and leaving Earth behind and for  the Boiling Isles.

After they returned to the dungeon, Luz closed  the doorway and hide it somewhere safe before they left to save Eda.  Lilith did as she promised and lead them to a shortcut, before long,  they were in a dark corridor with countless angel statues around them.  Each one wrapped in strange meaty looking tendrils or intestines of the  titan before they stood before a round, stone platform.

"This  platform will take you up to the stage where Edalyn is being kept. If  I'm right, you get to her right before petrification begins." Lilith  said as she gestured to it.

"Good to know, Lilith." Luz said as she and King gaze at it. "But what will you do after this?"

"I...I  will stay in the Emperor's Coven. After everything I've done, making  sure this never happens again will be my penance." Lilith said with a  firm frown and guilty eyes.

Luz nodded to her, thinking that it  was fitting, but before she took a step, a thought came to her mind. A  thought she decided to share with her friends.

"Wait, this isn't right." Luz said as she looked around.

"What do you mean, Luz?" King asked her, confused as he held Eda's staff.

"Think  about it. If something like this could be used to stop the ceremony,  then why aren't there any guards protecting it?" Luz asked suspiciously  looking around the hall!

Right as she said that, Lilith and King  were put on guard until one of the tendrils wrapped around Lilith's leg  and pulled her away!

"Aaah!" She screamed!

"Lilith!" Luz shouted to her!

Another one wrapped around King and pulled him away as well!

"WYEH!" He screamed!

"King!" Luz screamed to him!

Following  her captured friends, Luz saw that Lilith and King were dragged up near  the ceiling before they were suspended on either side of the far wall.  Fires suddenly ignite below them to show a skull-like throne with Belos  sitting on it while in his hand, a strange technological looking staff  with a red orb on top and a white-gold wing next to it.

"Ah, Lilith. One of my most loyal soldiers, it's a shame you had to chose the wrong side in the end." Belos said to her.

With a simple thought, Lilith and King were dragged to upward towards the same platform Eda was held at!

"Guys!" Luz said before her feet were held down, making her trip!

"Ah Puh-puh-puh. Hold on, human. I would like to have a word with you." Belos said with a finger up.

"Oh  you want a word?! How about I give you a FIST INSTEAD?!" Luz screamed  as she activated her power glyph, increasing her strength to rip the  tendrils off!

She then blasted forward with her fire glyphs and prepared for a punch!

"Eat this!" Luz shouted as she got close!

Time slowed down as Luz got close to Belos, who didn't even flinch or move from the attack, until he suddenly melted away!

'What the fuck?!' Luz thought as her fist crashed into the skull throne and destroyed it!

A dust cloud kicked up as Luz quickly stood up, looking around for Belos.

"Not  bad, human. Those gloves truly are impressive." Belos said as he  reformed behind Luz. "If only they were used the right way, You could be  a real witch."

Jumping in the air, Luz spun to deliver a kick to Belos until she was frozen in place by red magic.

'What?! No!' Luz thought as she saw Belos hold up a single finger with a spell circle the side of a marble over it!

"I suppose I can play for a bit." He said as he waved his hand up, throwing Luz into the air!

"Aaaah!" Luz screamed before she righted herself and aimed her hands at Belos, thinking fast! "EAT THIS!"

Pressing  the fire glyph, Luz launched a large ball of fire at Belos as he  disappeared again and let the fireball hit destroyed throne! The human  landed on her feet as the ground began to shift around her, forming  large hands that tried to grab her or spikes to impale her!

'Think fast!' Luz thought, her power glyph still active as destroyed the hands and spikes with punches and kicks!

A  wall rose before her and formed a giant hand that tried to crushed her  but Luz prepared the plant glyphs and slammed them into the ground!

"Nature's  Wrath!" Luz shouted as a large plant hand grew behind her and punched  the stone hand to pieces! "Come on our, Belos! You can't hide forever!"

"Hehehehe, who says I'm hiding?" Belos said to her from the darkness.

Before Luz could react, a giant worm like creature appeared under her with it's mouth open wide!

"AAAAAH!" Luz screamed as it swallowed her whole.

The  worm roared in victory before a sharp pain erupted from its stomach,  suddenly being impales by countless ice spikes from all over its body!

'Hmm,  interesting.' Belos thought as the worm feel to the ground, another  spike appearing and cutting up as Luz pulled the flesh apart.

"That...was nasty." Luz said, holding a thin spike like a sword in her hand.

"Awww, are you tied, human? I thought you wanted to fight." Belos said from the darkness, teasing Luz.

Luz remained on guard as she looked around for Belos, holding her ice "sword" at the ready.

'Where  is he? He has to be here someone, I just have to focus. Focus.' Luz  thought as she took a deep breath, calming herself as she waited for  Belos to appear.

Seconds became like hours as she waited, not  moving and not showing any fear. Luz waited and waited until she head  crumbling behind her!

'There!' Luz thought as she turned around, throwing the ice weapon!

Her hunch was right as Belos was behind her but dodged the sword by leaning back!

"Sharp senses too." Belos said as he leaned up but gasped as he saw Luz in front of him.

"THANKS!" Luz screamed as she punched him in the chest, making contact before sending him flying into a statue!

"UGH!" He grunted as the statue crumbled around him, burrowing him in stone!

Luz  let out a deep breath as she felt herself relax, she knew that wouldn't  defeat Belos but maybe Luz would have enough time to get away!

'Gotta get to Eda!' Luz thought as she turned to run but was soon brought it the ground with more tendrils! 'No! Damnit!'

A beast like growl was heard before a chilling laugh filled the hall.

"I  like your spirit, girl." Belos said as he appeared before Luz, his mask  cracked and a piece falling off as he gazed down at her to reveal a  glowing blue eye. "I would say you would be perfect for my coven if you  renounced your ways of a wild witch but I know that's no likely."

"Yeah, it's not." Luz said as she glared up to Belos.

Their stare down lasted for a few moments before the tendrils suddenly retracted and Belos began pacing in front of her.

"I  believe we got off on the wrong foot. Allow me to clarify a few  things." Belos said to her, his staff acting as a cane as he walked.  "You may think of me as a tyrant, dare I say a monster, but I'm just a  humble messenger for the Titan. A puppet for his will, if you may. In  the grand scheme of things, I will admit that the Owl Lady's life and  even my own life inconsequential."

Belos stopped pacing as he turned to Luz, his blue eye piercing into her soul.

"However,  your arrival was NEVER in the Titan's plan but that's not what matters  right now. What matters is that you have something I need and I have  something you need." Belos said as he leaned down to Luz. "A simple  trade that will benefit everyone, give me the portal to the human realm  and I shall allow you to save your friends."

Luz didn't say  anything as she glared at Belos with defiance! A deal like that is  something she would NEVER agree too and nothing will-

"REEEAAAAAH!" A screeching echoed, making Luz jolt as she looked to the hole in the ceiling!

"It  seems the ceremony has begun. Time is running out for you to save your  mentor and I know what you're thinking, you I simply want to invade the  human realm, but the Titan's will is not so boarish. You'll understand  soon." Belos said as he turned away from Luz. "Tick tock, human. Make  your choice or the Owl Lady won't survive."

Another screeched reached them as Luz looked up, crying at her teacher's pain!

"No!" Luz shouted, hunching over in sorrow!

She  was powerless to help AGAIN! If she gave Belos the portal, she could  save Eda, King, and Lilith but doom her world! And if she keep the  portal, she could protect her world but doom Eda, King, and Lilith!

'What  can I do?! What can I do?! Think, think, think! How can I stop Belos  and save my friends?!' Luz thought as she pushed her forehead against  the cold ground! 'THINK, DAMN IT! HOW CAN YOU PROTECT YOUR WORLD AND  SAVE YOUR FRIENDS?!'

Suddenly, a thought came to mind as Luz felt a  chill run down her spine! A crazy thought that would have terrible  repercussions but what other choice did Luz have?

"...You win. I'll give you the portal." Luz said, still looking at the ground.

"Excellent choice, human." Belos said, smirking under his mask.

Reaching under her cloak and clicking the portal key, Luz summoned the door in suitcase form and hugged it to her chest.

"Here is it." Luz said to him.

"Yes, I see. Thank you for your cooperation, human. The Titan shall be most plea-." Belos said as he reached out to take it.

"Do you know of a phrase that means, everything you do now will work out in the end?" Luz asked Belos, surprising him.

"A  phrase? I don't see the purpose but why not? It's simple, the phrase is  "Sometimes, sacrifices must be made for the greater good."" Belos said,  certain of his answer.

Luz chuckled darkly as she looked up to Belos, glaring at him with a smirk and tears in her eyes.

"My thoughts exactly." Luz said as she dropped the portal, lifting her fists up as they ignited in gold flames!

Belos gasped at this and reached to stop her!

"No!" He screamed in horror!

'Lo siento, mamá./I'm sorry, mom.' Luz thought as she roared, smashing her fists into the portal!

The  eye cracked from the impact as the portal exploded, consummating them  both in a cloud of smoke! Belos swung his staff to clear and see Luz was  gone with only the ash, tatters, and the cracked eye of the portal  remaining on the ground!

'That human!' Belos thought in anger  before hearing something bursting behind her, turning around to see Luz  propelling herself up from the platform!

"Consider this a draw,  Belos! I don't lose but you don't win either!" Luz screamed to him as  she flew to save her friends, still crying over the choice she made with  the portal.

She reached the top in seconds, flying high enough to  show everyone in the crowd and the coven members her arrival her face  was covered by both the hood of her red vest and her cloak but those  that knew her could tell it was...

"Luz!" King called out, inside the same cage with Lilith and Eda!

"It's Luz!" Willow shouted from the crowd, standing next to Gus and Amity in the crowd!

"She's alright!" Amity said, happy to see she was alright but surprised to see her here!

Back  with Luz, she gazed at the large, 3 faced statue and figured that was  what they were using for the petrification due to the light green beams  firing from their eyes.

"Time for a little demolition!" Luz shouted as she angled herself to blast towards the statue! "RRRAAAHH!"

With  the power glyph at her disposal, Luz smashed her fist into the statue  and cracked it all over! The beams soon shut off as Eda, who was  protecting Lilith and King, fell to the ground with her body mostly  turned to stone.

"Eda!" King called out in worry.

"It's  alright, the process wasn't completed! I might be able to reverse it!"  Lilith said as she went to Eda, placing her hands on her and channeling  her magic to fight the petrification.

The human landed on the ground and  turned away from the rubble of the statue, making her way towards the  cage. Being the over see, Kikimora quickly addressed the other coven  members.

"Don't just stand there, attack her!" she shouted, pointing to Luz.

The  7 E.C.M.s quickly came to their senses and summoned weapons made of  magic to attack Luz as the human shut off her power glyph. She didn't  want to punch them so hard she's kill them by accident. So, Luz used her  ice glyphs to cover her forearms to the back of her fists in ice. She  walked calmly to them as they charged at her, brings her fists up. After dealing with the coven members, Luz marched to Kikimora and grabbed her by the shirt before pulling her into the air!

"Open the cage. NOW." Luz said as she glared at the short witch.

Kikimora  gulped and shivered under Luz's glare, quickly nodding to her as she  drew a spell circle at the cage to make it disappear. Throwing the small  witch away, Luz ran to Eda and put her hands in her!

"Eda! Are you okay?" Luz asked her as the stone covering her faded away, allowing Eda to open her eyes to Luz.

"Yeah, kid. I'm good as I can be." Eda said, still lucid in her cursed form.

More  coven members came onto the stage to stop them, making Luz prepare  herself to fight once again! Though, seeing how exhausted she must've  been, Eda got under Luz and force her onto her back!

"Let's get out of here! Everyone one!" Eda said as Lilith and King, who still had Owlbert, jumped on her back as well.

Eda  took flight with her wings, dodging any spears thrown as the crowd  cheered for Eda! Apparently, they all disagreed with Eda's petrification  and were happy to see her go free!

"Amity!" Willow said as she saw Amity beginning to leave.

"Where are you going?!" Gus asked.

"To see Luz!" She said, pushing through the crowd to get to the owl house!

After a short flight, Eda crashed on the front dirt road before the owl house as everyone got off of her.

"Eda!" Luz said in worry, checking on her as Eda was breathed heavily.

"She must be exhausted from both the ceremony and the flight." Lilith said as she looked over Eda.

"Well, can we still turn her back with the elixirs?" Luz asked as she and King looked worried.

"I'm  afraid not but I do know of one way." Lilith said as she grabbed Eda's  face and gazed into her eyes. "I am so sorry, sister, for everything.  For foolishly cursing you, for hunting you, and for working for a  deceitful ruler all these year but most of all I am sorry for not doing  this a long time ago."

Lilith shut her eyes and placed their foreheads together.

"With  this spell declared, let the pain be shared." Lilith said before a wave  of magic over came them, lifting them into the air before their gems  flashed brightly.

In mere moments, Eda's body returned to normal  before her and Lilith descended back to the ground. The Clawthorne  sister had their eyes shut before they opened them and gazed at each  other.

"Eda! You're back to normal!" Luz said as the sisters looked to her, letting Luz see the after effects of the spell.

Eda  and Lilith had gone through some small changes in their appearances as  they both now had Heterochromia iridum, different colored eyes, with  Eda's right eye being gold and her left being gray as Lilith's eyes were  the opposite with her right eye being gray and her left eye being  aquamarine. Eda's gem color had changed and was no longer it's bright  amber color but pitch black as if she was in her cursed form. Lilith now  has a streak of gray hair in her right side while Eda has a new streak  of white on her left. Luz and King went to hug Eda, who hugged back as Lilith watched with a smile.

"What about your magic?" Luz asked.

Eda  pulled back to test her magic, drawing a small spell circle, only for  it to shatter into small pieces and fell to the ground.

"I guess that's a no. It'll take some time to get used to this." Eda said as she gazed at her hands.

"I fell as though I am weakened as well." Lilith said, holding one of her own hands.

"So  you can't do magic anymore, huh?" Luz asked as she looked at her  gloves, thinking of how she would be the same if it wasn't for these. "I  think I can fix that, wait here."

Confused by Luz, everyone  watched as she ran to the owl house. A couple of minutes passed until  Luz came running out of the house with something in her right hand.

"Here, take these." She said, holding her hand out to them.

"Wait! Luz, your gloves!" King said, pointing to them as they were no longer elbow length but wrist length.

Surprised  by this, Eda and Lilith took the items in her hands to see they were  her missing sleeves, expect they were now turned into finger gloves that  reached a person's forearms with the four glyphs down the center!

"Luz, did you-" Eda said before she was cut off.

"I  did and it's okay. I've still got enough to use magic and so do you." Luz said as she put one on Eda's right hand and put the other one on Lilith's left hand. "There. I can teach you guys what I know about the glyphs and what we don't know, we can learn together. And it'll be a lot easier since you both have your own glyph glove."

Eda and Lilith gazed at their new glyph gloves, seeing the glyphs in order of light,  ice, plant, and fire. Curious, they both tapped one of the glyphs to see if the gloves worked. Suddenly, a ball of light appeared in Eda's right hand while a ball of fire appeared in Lilith's left hand, shocking both of them!

'They work!' They thought, letting the flame disappear and the light float into the sky.

"...Thanks, kid. This means a lot to us." Eda said as she turned to Luz, smiling at her. "I look forward to learning from you."

"I do as well." Lilith said with a grateful nod.

Luz smiled at them both before hearing the sound of running coming towards the house.

"LUZ!" Someone said as Luz turned to them.

"Amity?" Luz asked as she saw her girlfriend running towards her.

Before  Luz could react, Amity jumped into her arms and made the human girl  stumble back before has firmed herself to remain standing!

"Woah! Amity, what are yo-" Luz was cut off as Amity suddenly kissed her, melting into it before she kissed back.

Seeing  the two girlfriends having a moment, Eda pulled Lilith and King to the  house so they could have this time alone. After a minutes of kissing,  they broke apart and Amity pressed their foreheads together as she cried  before Luz.

"Do you know how worried I was about you?! After I  found out about the ceremony, I knew you'd do something stupid like that  but you could've at least-"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry  you or the others." Luz said as she held Amity close, letting her cry  into her shoulder. "I know you were worried about me and I was worried  about you too, but I had to do something to save Eda. I promise, I'll  try not to make you worry so much."

Amity sniffled a bit as she pulled back a bit, smiling at Luz.

"We  both know you won't keep that promise but I'll take you up on that."  Amity replied as she kissed Luz again, smiling into the kiss.

After bidding Amity goodnight, promising to see her later for another private lesson or a date, Luz retired to her room in the owl house and made a video message to her mother as King slept on her sleeping bag.

"And that's how I saved Eda and escaped. Though, I had to find out the hard  way that Belos really is as powerful as people say he is. Still though, I  got some hits in and got this as a prize." Luz said to her phone as she held up a piece of Belos' mask before putting it down and growing a little sad. "It's strange remembering everything I went through since coming here and all the friends I gained here but I wouldn't change anything except, wishing you were here with me. But don't worry mom,  I'll find a way home and I'll show you how much I've changed for the better. Deja una luz puesta para mí. Te quiero./Leave a light on for me.  I love you."

Luz ended her recoding, saving it since she couldn't  send it, and fell asleep. She didn't know what would come tomorrow but  as long as she didn't give up and had her loved ones with her, she'll  always fight on. Win or lose.

Chapter Text

The human kickboxer was resting inside of the owl house with a towel in her hand and a pitcher of water on the table. It had been two days since the petrification ceremony and since she saved Eda, Lilith, and King. Since then, school had closed and everyone decided to lay low just in case Belos tried something for them. Since then, Luz had been surprisingly busy. Since sharing her glyph gloves, she had been teaching Eda and Lilith the glyphs she discovered until now and all of the combinations she's made with her gloves. It was surprisingly hard work and Luz was enjoying her break at the moment as she wiped her brow.

"Dang, I never thought being a MAGIC teacher would be harder than being a KICKBOXING teacher but at least Eda and Lilith are happy to still have magic." Luz said to herself.

Grabbing the pitcher from the table and taking a deep sip of water, Luz was enjoying the drink to regain her strength before a knocking came to the door. Putting the pitcher down, Luz looked at it with curiosity.

"Mmm? Hooty, who's at the door?"Luz asked but she didn't seem to get a reply as she rose an eye brow, normally Hooty would normally reply by now.

Or even open fully in his annoying way while singing a ding dong doorbell song. Something was wrong with this, something was VERY wrong.

"Hooty?" Luz asked, putting the pitcher back on the table before she got up and walked to the door as the knocking came again.

The kickboxer opened the door but so no one there? So where do the knocking come from? There wasn't even anything left in the door like when Bat Queen made them babysit her kids.

"Hello? Hello? Anyone there?" Luz asked as she looked around for anyone, slowly growing irritated. "If this is some sort of joke, knock knock jokes are NOT funny!"

Walking out of the house and looking for the source, Luz heard rustling in the forest and turn to it! That could be the prankster!

"There you are!" Luz shouted as she ran towards the rustling!

Luz was determined to find whoever pulled this prank and give them a piece of her mind! Alas, what she found wasn't a person but a sudden portal appearing in front of her!

She tried to stop but the force was too much and Luz was suddenly pulled inside! She screamed as she was flung through a tunnel of mixing colors, a bright shining end coming up quickly as Luz covered her eyes from the radiance of it! Before Luz could prepare herself, she had face planted on the ground of a grassy plain after being spat out by the portal.

'Ow.' Luz thought in pain before she heard someone walking towards her.

"Hey, you okay?" a voice asked her.

Pushing herself up and looking up from the ground, Luz saw that the figure that came to help her and locked eyes with her was revealed.......to be another Luz?!

"What?!" Luz asked in shock.

Luz quickly got up and jumped back as her doppelganger did the same, watching her with curiosity as she took in her appearance. Luz saw that her mysterious twin was wearing clothes like a martial artist; a skin tight black shirt, white pants tied with a purple sash, and black tai chi shoes. The most noticeable feature of her was that her eyes, the scleras, flashed purple for a moment.

"Woah! Who are you?!" "Martial Artist" Luz asked.

"I'm Luz Noceda, who the hell are you?!" Luz demanded as she pointed to her copy!

The copy gasped dramatically as she put a hand on her chest.

"Rude! There's no need for that kind of language! And how can you be me? I'm Luz Noceda and you dress and act nothing like me! Are you a Basilisk? Someone from the Emperor's Coven in disguise?!" She said, clenching her fists like she was ready to fight.

"I was thinking the exact same thing about you! Now drop the disguise and tell me where I am, before knock all your teeth out!" She said as she got into her fighting stance and bounced on her feet.

If this faker wanted a fight, Luz was ready to give it one! The faker took notice of Luz's stance before she moved her arms to flow fluidly like water as she got into a stance of her own.

The copy motioned her hand in a way to dare Luz to attack first, waving her hand to herself. Luz growled at the challenge but kept her cool, this was an unknown opponents so she had to be smart. She bounced forward slowly, wanting to get within range before making a move. Her opponent noticed that her expression and remained in a calm position, she must've known of Luz's kickboxing style. Luz could see the smile on her face, feeling confidence coming from it like she could beat her.

'Oh you bitch!' Luz thought as her opponent charged with her fist at the ready! 'Here she comes!'

Luz charged as well, moving to reel her own fist back to counter punch.....only to feint and throw a low kick! The kick landed, making the copy flinch, before she was grabbed by the head and slammed face first to the ground! Her opponent jumped back as  Luz grunted from the slam into the ground, feeling her nose was broken before she pushed herself up from the ground!

"Urgh! You dirty mother-!" Luz said as she moved her left hand to her nose, she tapped the healing glyph on the back up her glove.

Her hand was coating with purple magic as she fixed her nose while healing it as well. It was painful but it was soothed thanks to the healing magic until she was done. After her nose was fixed, Luz stood up and glared at the copy before seeing the a deck of glyph cards in her hand.

"Oh, so you know of the glyphs too? Well too bad for you, cause I got something better."Luz said as she smirked and pushed the fire glyphs with her thumbs, igniting her gloved hands in flames. "Say hello to my glyph gloves."

Instead of being intimidated, the copy Luz gasped in awe as she gazed at her gloves.

"Glyph Gloves?! That's so cool!" she said before she shook her head and got serious.

The copy ran towards Luz while using an ice and plant glyph, launching large vines and ice spikes towards her.

'OH shit!' Luz thought before her copy jumps over a dozen feet into the air, doing a serious number of front flips while firing a barrage of fire balls with her fire glyphs.

Thinking quickly at seeing the barrage of attacks, Luz blasted fire to the ground to fly in the air to dodge the vines and ice spike! Now faced with the fireballs, Luz pushed the fire glyph in her right hand and ice glyph on her left hand before putting them together to launched a stream of water to counter! This made a field of steam that blinded both of them! Blasting into the steam with her gloves, Luz prepared to through the first hit until she put her arms up to block a barrage of attacks! Luz could barely react at the high speed they were at as they began free falling!

'I'm not gonna quit!' Luz thought as she pushed the power glyph on the back of her right glove!

Luz felt a rush of power flow as her strength increased and she began fighting back with her on barrage! Her hits might have been slower but the power behind them was higher. The copy Luz got hit a few times, but most of the punches were being dodged and deflected before she grabbed Luz by her red sleeveless hoodie.

'What the FUUUU?!' Luz thought before they began spinning around a bit before she was used to break their fall.

"GAH!" Luz yelped in pain, feeling her bones breaking and shifting!

"Sorry about that, but this is a fight, so . . . yeah." The copy says, being awkward for some reason before Luz punches her a few feet away.

A normal person would be knocked out from a power glyph infused punch but this "martial artist" Luz just shrugged it off like a normal punch!

"Ow!" She said before noticing the glyph gloves. "Wait, are you using a power glyph from the Construction Coven?"

"Yeah, my gloves can be imprinted by patch glyphs too. What of it?" Luz said, still in great pain but powered through it to stand up.

Using the magic boosting aspect of the Power Glyph, Luz used the Healing glyph to heal her body back to an almost normal state. A few bruises remained and her stamina hadn't changed either but she could still fight.

"I also got a few more tricks up my sleeve!" Luz shouted, pressing the plant glyph and punching the ground to send a wave of plant magic around the grassy field!

The ground shook like an earthquake before large vines grew behind her and formed a giant green fist!

"Say hello to Nature's Wrath!" Luz said with a smirk.

"So cool!" Fake Luz says with excitement, geeking out as the giant green fist smashes her to the ground. "Ow."

Luz got up and rolled her shoulders as she approached the crater, seeing her copy lying in it.

"Are you done yet? Ready to give up?" Luz asked.

The copy Luz gets up like the hit was nothing, dusting herself off before she gave a challenging glare to Luz.

"Not even close."She says, getting into her fighting stance once more, motioning her hand as a challenge again.

Luz had to silently admit, this  doppelgänger was tough but she wasn't going to stop until she beat her. She may have been faster but Luz could still keep up.

"Fine by me." Luz said as she glared back.

Getting back into her fighting stance, Luz moved closer as they looked eyes and didn't look anywhere else. It was a stalemate as were inches away from each before they clashed with barrage again! Both dodged as many as they could while continuing to land a blow on the other!

Their fight dragged on for about 15 minutes as their stalemate hadn't changed at all until Luzs were bloodied and bruised. All they could do now was attempt to fire one more punch as they reeled their fists back.

"YAAAAAAH!" They both screamed they simultaneously punched each other in the face, blood spilled from their mouths before they both fell to the ground on their backs.

Both of them breathed heavily, coughing a bit as they stared at the sky.

"Ow....I can't move." "Martial Arts" Luz said as she spat out a little blood to the left.

"Ugh, me neither." Luz said as she took shallow breathes.

"I guess . . . it's a tie." other Luz said as she coughed a bit. "You want a truce? Because I'm starting to think this is a multiverse type situation. You know what I mean?"

Luz had to think on that theory and it does sound possible. She was brought to a world where magic and demons were real, so why wouldn't the multiverse theory be real?"

"Multiverse, as in the theory of multiple universes with big or small differences? Yeah, that might be it. Sure, truce." Luz said with a nod, no longer wanting to fight.

The two Luzs continued to rest, occasionally coughing as they didn't move from their spots on the ground. A few minutes past before they gained the strength to sit up and move to lean back to back against each.

"So....how exactly did you end up here? I got sucked in through this random portal after chasing someone for a ding dong ditch." Luz said as she used her healing glyph but healed the "copy" as a sign of good will.

"I had just finished teaching Eda, King and Lilith my martial arts. They headed inside the owl house while I stayed out to train. But then this portal showed up and sucked me in and then I ended here, meeting you."She said as she turned her head to look towards Luz. "So . . . you're a Kickboxer?"

"Yeah, I am." Luz said with a short nod. "So, if you don't mind me asking, what martial arts do you practice? Your fighting style isn't anything I've ever seen or heard of."

"Oh, I don't mind. As for my fighting style, I practice the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist. I was taught by the creator and master, Bang." M.A. Luz said to K.B. Luz.

(M.A. Luz = Martial Arts Luz, K.B. Luz = Kickboxer Luz)

K.B. Luz snorted before chuckling a bit as she looked towards her alternate self.

"Your teacher's name is "Bang?"" K.B. Luz said with a hearty chuckle.

"Yeah, I guess it is kinda weird. I'm not as proficient as master Bang, but I've also been taught the Whirlwind Iron Cutting Fist by Master Bang's brother, Bomb." M.A. Luz said to her.

K.B. Luz laughed louder as she held her stomach in pain but it was worth it!

"Oh my god! Who names their kids "Bang" and "Bomb?!"K.B. Luz  said as M.A. Luz just shrugged, slowly regaining her composure."So, you said you practice this . . . Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist first?"

"And Whirlwind Iron Cutting Fist." M.A. Luz added with her finger up.

"Yeah, that too. It's weird though. I've never heard of these martial arts styles before now." K.B. Luz said.

"Well . . . anything's possible in a multiverse, so maybe my fighting styles don't exist in your universe?" M.A. Luz questioned to her.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense. If they did excise in my universe, a lot of people would be using it. The way you fight, it's like you have real life super powers." K.B. Luz said with a smirk, finishing healing M.A. Luz before moving to heal herself.

"That's because both martial arts push your body to the limit and build you up stronger than ever before. It feels like you die from the training but if you can endure it, you'll be stronger than ever before." M.A. Luz said with passion in her voice.

"Damn. With a pitch like that, I would want to train in it too." K.B. Luz said with slight envy, though she then bit her lip a little as she had a new question in mind. "If you don't mind me asking, what drove you to learn Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist and Whirlwind Iron Cutting Fist?"

M.A. Luz went silent for a moment before she took a breath and released it to relax herself. Whatever her story was, it must've been a heavy one.

"Well . . . I was 10 years old when I saw the dojo. I joined because I thought it was pretty cool. And I was pretty good at Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist for my age. But then things kinda changed when I was 13, last year. Master Bang was out running an errand while me and the other students of all ages were practicing. But then the guy next to me, Garou. He just stopped practicing, saying that he's finished and that there's nothing left for him to learn. He then said that we should fight for real." M.A. Luz said as she paused for a bit, looking to the sky. "Garou then started attacking all the adult students at the dojo, beating them to a pulp like nothing. I panicked and the kids were scared, so I quickly gathered them up and had them run away to the exit. But before we could get there, Garou got in our way . . . covered in blood. The kids were afraid and I tried to stand up to Garou."

She paused for a second time, feeling her breathing beginning to rise as K.B. Luz noticed her mood change.

"You need a minute?" she asked as M.A. Luz shook her head.

"I-I'm good. Anyway, before I could even make a move, Garou grabbed me by the face and slammed me to the dojo floor. I tried to get him off of me, but he was too strong. He then lifted his fist and punched the floor just inches away from my head before I could even blink." M.A. Luz said before she took a deep breath. "I was so traumatized, Garou could've killed me easily, but he told me that a pipsqueak like me isn't worth his time. I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried and, um . . . peed my pants. It wasn't long after that when Master Bang returned. He then fought Garou, giving him a beating before kicking him out of the dojo. Garou ran away before the police and ambulances showed up. Mom came to pick me up and brought me home. The adult students were beaten to near death and hospitalized while the kids were traumatized. The police searched for Garou, but I guess he skipped town afterwards."

"Damn, that sounds horrible. I can't imagine coming face to face with a monster like that. I mean, I could if I had to." K.B. Luz said, remembering having to face Grom and Belos.

"Yeah, he was pretty scary. So about a week after Garou's rampage, I decided I'd go back to the dojo. I went in and saw that Master Bang was cleaning the floors by himself. He told me that everyone quit the dojo after what Garou did. I was the only one who came back. I knew that Master Bang was getting old and that his dojo has been around for generations. So I decided to continue being Master Bang's student, I plan on mastering the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist and teach it to the next generation of martial artists so Master Bang's style doesn't die with him." M.A. Luz says, standing up and clenching her fist as she looks up to the sky with a determined face before looking to K.B. Luz. "So what about you? How'd you end up becoming a Kickboxer?"

K.B. Luz gazed down, taking a slow breath as she continued to heal herself. She had told this story before and she had conquered her fear at Grom, but it still shook her to the core to remember.

"It all started when I was 6 years old. I was just a silly little kid and my mom had taken me to my first Comic-Con, I was dressed as a cat girl and exploring the convention with my mom. It was good at first but we got separated and I wandered around looking for her." K.B. Luz began her story.

"But you eventually found mom, right?" M.A. Luz asked, interrupting her.

"Yeah....but not after someone found me and "helped" me. I was too young to notice but he lead me away from the crowd to the back of the convention center where it was empty. I asked where mom was but he just pushed me down and looked at me with these crazy and deranged look on his face. You can guess what he tried to do, right?" K.B. Luz told her alternate self.

M.A. Luz gasped in shock, covering her mouth as a horrified look befell her eyes. This version of her was almost.....almost....

"Please, tell me you weren't..." M.A. Luz said, begging for it not toe be THAT answer.

"I wasn't. Mom was looking for me too and got help from security, they came and tackled him off before he could get my costume off. But that day, I lost my innocence and it haunted me for months. Causing me to push everyone away out of fear, not wanting to be left alone, and I even cowered from mom's touch once. Afterwards, I went to see a therapist and was given a suggestion of finding something that gave me control again and push the fear away. That could build my confidence back up again, after that I signed up for Junior Kickboxing classes. Been in them ever since and it helped but it made me a bit of a knucklehead." K.B. Luz said as she tapped her head a bit.

M.A. Luz couldn't help but cry as tears steamed down her face, that was the more horrifying story she had ever heard.

"I'm so sorry that almost happened to you!"She says, giving K.B. Luz the biggest hug she could muster as she pulled her from the floor.

K.B. Luz hugged back a bit as she now healed, though still a bit sore.

"Yeah, it was rough but I came out of it alright. After coming to the isles, I meet Eda, gained some great friends, and I even teach a kickboxing class at Hexside." K.B. Luz said to her alternate.

"Wait, you teach a class at school?!" M.A. Luz asked in surprise, breaking the hug. "Wow! I didn't expect that. I only just started teaching Eda, King and Lilith for the last five days since the petrification ceremony."

"Five days? For me, the petrification ceremony was only two days ago." K.B. Luz said as she held up two fingers.

"Really?" M.A. Luz asked in surprise.

"Yeah. Guess our times flow differently in our worlds." K.B. Luz said with a shrug.

"Oh. Okay. So . . . I'm guessing our adventures on the Boiling Isles was more or less the same?" M.A. Luz questioned as she scratched her hair. "Maybe?"

"Well, there's only one way to find out." K.B. Luz said with a small smirk.

M.A. Luz gasped as she put her hands together.

"Story time!"She says with a smile as the two begun to discuss their time on the Boiling Isles to find the similarities and the differences.

The first similarity is that they both got in trouble at school for defending some kids from bullies.The first and most obvious difference is that K.B. Luz has more of a punk/bad girl personality than M.A. Luz.Their early adventures on the Boiling Isles was mostly the same until the Covention fight against Amity.

"So, Amity just created a giant abomination to attack me, I just attacked it with a combo, turning it into piles of mush before taking down Amity." M.A. Luz explained quickly.

"It was that easy for you, huh?" K.B. Luz asked with a smirk.

"Pretty much. Why? Did your Amity give you a tougher fight?" M.A. Luz asked K.B. Luz.

K.B. Luz remembered the fight and the BIG differences. Like the REALLY big differences before she spoke them out.

"We'll, it was a LOT tougher than your fight was. Amity apparently learned some kickboxing on her own and surprised me with it, she even got creative with her abomination mud and made herself ARMOR to fight me hand to hand." K.B Luz said as she gave a few punches to the air.

"Armor? She used her spell to make herself some armor?" M.A. Luz asked in surprise. "That's pretty different. Did you win?"

"Well, duh. Of course I did." K.B. Luz said with a smirk.

"Right." M.A.. Luz said before they continued to discuss their adventures on the Boiling Isles. "So how about Grom night? What was your greatest fear? Was it . . . that crazy guy from when you were little?"

"Yeah, it was but Grom made him a lot more like a monster, especially with 4 black tendrils poking out of its back." K.B. Luz said as she rubbed her jaw. "Those things hurt like crazy."

"Well, were you able to overcome your fear and beat Grom?" M.A. Luz asked her.

"Heck yeah, I did. Kicked his ass and trapped him in crazy tree. Used combo spell I created called "Esperanza Brillante."" K.B. Luz explained to M.A. Luz.

"Shining Hope? That sounds amazing." she translated.

"Yeah, it was. After I got patched up, I had a special dance with Amity. And King played the perfect song from my phone." K.B. said with a smile, remembering that night.

"Really? What was it?" M.A. Luz asked.

"I believe I can fly, by R. Kelly." K.B. Luz said to her.

"Oh.....Okay then?" M.A. Luz said, wondering her punk version's secret taste in music.

"So, how did your Grom night turn out?" K.B. Luz asked, changing the subject.

"Oh, well . . . Grom kinda ended up taking the form of Garou. I still hadn't seen him since he attacked the dojo, so I was still pretty scared of him, even if it was just Grom."She says, twiddling her thumbs before continuing. "Grom managed to copy Garou's strength and skill and I wasn't fairing to well."

"But . . . ?" K.B. Luz asked, feeling their is a "but" in this story.

"Well, I'm not entirely sure myself. But I started fighting with everything I had and more, my strength and speed increasing by the second which allowed me to overpower and beat Grom. It wasn't until after the fight that I realized my left sclera had turned purple. I didn't really have time to think on it as everybody cheered for me. And as Grom Queen, principal Bump told me I can choose my dance partner and I picked Amity." M.A. Luz said with a smile.

K.B. Luz nodded to this, knowing that Amity was an amazing girl and a great dance partner.

"And then, as you danced, you sealed the deal with your girlfriend, huh?" she asked M.A. Luz.

M.A. Luz looked surprised at her doppelgänger, eye wide in surprise.

"Girlfriend?" he asked as K.B. Luz returned the surprise look.

She assumed one of the similarities they had would be a choice in gender attraction and tastes in relationships.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Are you and your Amity not together like me and mine?" she questioned the martial artist."

"W-Wait, you and your Amity are . . . dating?" M.A. Luz asked with a blush on her face.

"Yeah." K.B. Luz replied with a nod. "And you?"

"Oh! Uh . . . n-no! Amity and I are just friends! I-I mean, d-dating? That's crazy! I mean, maybe not for you, but I, uh . . ." M.A. Luz said as she was blushing brighter than before, shocked and embarrassed upon knowing that a version of herself from another universe was dating Amity. "Uh, anyway! Let's keep talking! So what happened to you in the petrification ceremony?"

K.B. Luz could guess that they probably weren't as far into their relationship on an emotional level like her and her Amity. So, she rolled with the subject change.

"Probably the same as you. Got myself captured to get into the Conformatorium, kicked the ass of any guard that got in my way and found Eda before she was taken up. I fought with Lilith, who took my gloves but gave them back, and explained her whole life story with Eda." K.B. said, short and sweet.

"And what about Belos?" M.A. Luz asked.

"Fought him, he gave some crazy speech about being a simple messenger, and.....I had to destroy the portal to save Eda, Lilith, and King." K.B. Luz finished a little sad at the end.

"Oh. Well there's a big difference in my case. I briefly fought Belos for a bit until . . . well, it turned out that Garou had wound up in the Boiling Isles a month before I did. He was a prisoner in the Conformatorium, having been seriously injured by Belos a few days before that and managed to break out by using the keys from one of the guards I knocked out." M.A. Luz said, looking uneasy a bit.

"Ouch, that must suck. You unintentionally released your worst enemy." K.B. Luz said with a wince.

"Well , I wouldn't say Garou is my WORST enemy but he's up there." M.A. Luz said before getting a -_- face with a raised brow to see if she was serious. "Oh, who am I kidding? Of course he's the worst! After Garou explained how he ended up on the Boiling Isles, which he happened to enter through Eda's portal, he insisted that I hand him the portal so he can go back and have a rematch against Master Bang."

"Would Garou really have been able to beat your teacher after a year of training?" K.B. said with doubt.

"I don't think so, but I wasn't going to take the risk. So I ran out of there while Belos and Garou fought each other. When I made it to the top where Eda, King and Lilith were being held, Garou had followed me. But I guess Belos managed to injure him even more since Garou was covered in blood and, get this, his right sclera had turned red similar to me on Grom night." M.A. Luz explained before K.B. Luz interrupted her.

"Okay, you really need to have a doctor look at that. I don't think that should happen to humans." She said, remembering M.A. Luz's sclera flashing purple.

"Well my universe has superhuman martial arts, so maybe it's a side effect?" M.A. Luz questioned before continuing. "Anyway, after I refused to hand over the portal, I fought Garou with everything I had and to my surprise, I could match him. I mean, Garou was already pretty beat up before we started fighting while I was in top shape, but his injuries did allow me to fight him on equal footing as my left sclera turned purple again."

"Of course it did." K.B. Luz mumbled with an eye roll.

"Anyway, we fought like crazy, bloodying and bruising one another until our clash came to an end with both our fists colliding. Our arms were broken in the process, we had managed to become stronger, going past our usual limits and . . . then both my scleras were purple, and both of Garou's scleras turned red. I then managed to break Eda and the others free before escaping and heading back to the Owl House." M.A. Luz said, finishing her story.

"What happened to Garou after that?" K.B. Luz asked.

"I haven't seen him since then, but I heard on the crystal ball news that he's still at large somewhere on the Boiling Isles. Which reminds me . . ." M.A. Luz says, taking out her phone. "Willow and Gus were at the Conformatorium and recorded this before Garou escaped the Emperor's Coven."

Looking over the video, an injured Belos was being helped up by Kikimora and Warden Wrath. Garou, a tan man with a strange hair style in the shape of a "V" and wearing the same clothes as M.A. Luz but with a yellow sash, was smirking as he was surrounded by the Emperor's Coven members.

"As much as I'd like to stay and fight, I've had enough for one day" Garou said as he turned to Belos. "Let's have a rematch when we're both healed up, horn head. And you better fight me one on one, too. Same goes for the pipsqueak! I wanna beat you both at your best!"

"Arrogant human . . . the Titan calls for your death." Belos said with a glare at Garou.

The Bloody human just scoffed him off.

"If your Titan wants me dead, then he better come out and fight me himself! Until then, I'll be as cocky as I please!" Garou said as he flipped Belos off before escaping.

"Wow. I have never seen a more arrogant asshole than I have now. He's even worse than Boscha was before my kickboxing class." K.B. Luz said with a head shake.

"Wait, what?! Boscha is one of your students?!" M.A. Luz asked in shock as she put her phone away.

"Yeah. It's really helped her become less of a bully actually. She still bullies but it's LEAGUES below what she original was." K.B. Luz said to the other her.

"Oh. Well that's different." M.A. Luz commented.

"Yeah, it is." K.B. Luz said with a nod.

"Not only do I have to deal with Belos and his coven, but now I gotta worry about Garou too. I'm not sure what's going on with our scleras and our strange power increasing, but at least I know I won't be alone." M.A. Luz said with a small smile.

"Yeah. Same here." K.B. Luz said as she nodded.

"So . . . any idea on how we're supposed to get back to our universes? I mean, I doubt this is Earth or the Boiling Isles." M.A. Luz said as she looked around the grassy field.

"I'm not sure. But if we work together, I think we'll figure it out." K.B. Luz said as she held her hand out.

"Yeah, definitely." M.A. Luz said with a nod as the two Luz' shook hands.

Suddenly, another portal appeared some distance away as the two Luzs took notice of it.

"Woah! Check it out!" M.A. Luz said as she pointed to it.

"I see it! Com on, let's go!" K.B. Luz said before they took off running towards the portal.

After a few minutes of running, the duo stopped dead in their tracks several meters away from the portal before they see someone exiting it.Both Luzs were surprised to see a witch that looked A LOT like Eda, with short black hair, golden yellow eyes, wearing a black combat dress as well as wielding a tiger palisman.

"Greeting, Luz Noceda. Both of you." the woman said with a smirk.

"Who the hell are you?!" K.B. Luz demanded.

"You can call me "Battle Witch." In case you haven't noticed, I'm not any ordinary witch. I'm a Wild Witch that specializes in magic and martial arts." Battle Witch said to them.

"Uh, okay? But what are you doing here? And what are we doing here?" M.A. Luz asked Battle Witch.

"Well, I've fought and beaten just about everybody in my universe. Warden Wrath, Edalyn Clawthorne, Lilith Clawthorne, the Coven Heads, Kikimora and even Emperor Belos himself. Or should I say, the former emperor?" Battle Witch said with a small chuckle, putting her staff over her shoulders.

"Wait, did you dethrone Belos in your universe" M.A. Luz asked in surprise.

"Yeah, and everybody wanted me to be Empress of the Boiling Isles because of it." Battle Witch said as she shook her head. "But I turned it down, I'm not interested in ruling the Isles."

"Then what are you interested in?" K.B. Luz asked her with a raised eyebrow.

Battle Witch kept her smirk as she chuckled again, leaning forward to the young human witches.

"My name is "Battle Witch" for a reason. What do you think in interested in?" she questioned before answering herself. "PURE. GLORIOUS. BATTLE. After defeating every worthy opponent in my own universe, I used a spell to search for more opponents and discovered an entire multiverse of them! So many battles to have, to watch! And you two are at the forefront of it all."

"What do you mean by that?" M.A. Luz asked in caution.

"What I mean is that you buttercups better buckle up! Because you two are going to fight me, right here, right now!" Battle Witch said, spinning her Tiger palisman/staff as her body was surrounded by a black aura of magic. "Well? You gonna stand there all day or what? Heck, if you win, I'll send you both back to your own worlds."

"You will?" K.B. Luz questioned in surprise.

"Heck yeah, so what do you say? Come on, I'm eager to throw down." Battle Witch said as she tabbed the ground with her staff.

M.A. Luz puts a hand on K.B. Luz's shoulder, pulling her around to whisper to her.

"I think it could be fun, what do you think?" she asked her doppelgänger.

"I guess but if it gets us home, all the better." K.B. Luz said with a shrug. "Besides, I've been curious to see what she can do ever since she called herself "Battle Witch.""

Battle Witch could hear their conversation and grinned widely, glad that they are going to give her a fight!

"Then give it everything you've got! I won't hold back just because you're kids!"She shouted as she attacked, firing magic beams at the teens.

Both Luzs dodged the beams before they each took their stances to get ready for battle! M.A. Luz assumed a stance for Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist while K.B. Luz crouched and ignited her hands in golden flames!

(Replace Itadori with Luz and the cursed energy with golden flames.)

"Let's do this!" M.A. Luz said to the Kickboxer.

"I'm with ya!" K.B. Luz said to the Martial Artist.

Both teens charged towards Battle Witch, the martial arts witch grinned as she fought them both with a mix of martial arts, magic and even using her palisman as a weapon. The teens were fighting with everything they had as Battle Witch seemed to be having the time of her life. That is, until Battle Witch smacks M.A. Luz in the face with her palisman while kicking K.B. Luz in the gut.

K.B. Luz rolled on the ground before she got back to her feet and created two balls of plant vines, tossing them at Battle Witch!

"Vine Bombs? Seen them."She said as she simply batted them away before K.B. Luz jumped to her, forming an ice hammer in her hands!

"YAH!" she shouted as she swung an ice hammer only for Battle Witch to block it with a magic barrier.

Battle Witch then uses a power glyph to increase her strength before punching K.B. Luz in the gut and sending her flying. M.A. Luz then goes in for the attack, applying the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist but Battle Witch blocked and deflected the teen's attacks. Right as M.A. Luz goes in for a kick, Battle Witch blasted her in the face with fire magic!

"Aaaah!" M.A. Luz screamed as she was sent flying to the ground.

The spell burned her face a bit as she opened her eyes, which widened as Battle Witch appeared and aimed to stomp her. M.A. Luz quickly rolled out of the way before returning to her feet.

Battle Witch then proceeds to attack M.A. Luz with her own martial arts, forcing her on the defensive from the speed and ferocity.

'Is she using Lethwei?' M.A. Luz thought.

Lethwei, an aggressive martial arts that focuses heavily on attacking with zero guarding! All strikes are allowed; punches, kicks, elbows, clinches, throws; any strike is possible!

M.A, Luz blocked all of her assaults as K.B. Luz healed herself from the punch to her gut!

"Damn! It feels like she tried to punch a hole in my stomach!" she said as she got up from the ground.

She activated her own power glyph and blasted towards Battle Witch with fire! She got behind her and punched her in the back with all she could muster!

"GAH!" Battle Witch let out, stopping her assault!

'Now!' M.A. Luz thought as she began hitting Battle Witch with her Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist, hitting her with a barrage of attacks.

K.B. Luz followed up with a flicker stance and a barrage of her own punches. The two tag teamed Battle Witch, not giving her a chance to attack, before her tiger palisman came to life and swatted them away with it's claws.

"Ugh!" they grunted as they rolled to the ground.

"Damn, that little thing hits hard!" K.B. Luz said as she rubbed her cheek.

Battle Witch then used the opportunity to gain some distance and fired a barrage of many types of magic blasts, prompting the two Luzs to dodge while trying to get close to her. M.A. Luz used her agility to dodge the blasts while K.B. Luz used her gloves to push herself with fire thrusters!

"This is getting us nowhere if we just go at her toe to toe!" K.B. Luz said to her other.

"I agree but what can we do? I don't think she'll give us time to strategize!" M.A. Luz said before a thought instantly came to her mind. "Actually, just keep dodging for a little longer!"

"What? Why?" K.B. Luz asked her.

"She might be strong, but she doesn't have limitless magic. She'll get tired, or more likely stop before she uses too much. Once that happens, she'll have no choice but to fight us head on!" M.A. Luz said to her.

"I already said it wouldn't work, but I guess we don't have any other choice. But what if it doesn't work?" K.B. Luz asked as she quickly put up a large ice wall so they can rest.

"Then I guess we can go with the backup plan, that is you and me attacking Battle Witch with me deliberately taking damage from both her and you "accidentally" hitting me in the crossfire." M.A. Luz said to her.

K.B. Luz looked at her like she was crazy, jaw dropped as she looked at M.A. Luz.

"What?! Are you crazy!?" K.B. Luz asked in shock.

"Maybe but I need it! The more I'm pushed to the edge, the more I break my limits and get stronger! My eyes turning purple could be a sign of that!" M.A. Luz said as she pointed to her eyes.

That theory did seem sound as the story she told could support it.  Her battle with Garou and her eyes changing, that could make sense but this plan was still crazy!

"Fine, but that's just our backup plan." K.B. Luz said as she pointed to her copy.

"Right!" M.A. Luz said before the ice wall gave out and they had to go back to dodging Battle Witch's barrage of magic blasts.

A few minutes later, M.A. Luz's hunch was proven correct as Battle Witch ceased attacks and she looked visibly exhausted.

"Let's go!" M.A. Luz shouted as they both charged at Battle Witch.

The two Luzs fought Battle Witch in hand to hand again, though their opponent did defend most of their attacks as well as countering their blows.

"You kids are pretty tough, I'll give you that but I think it's time to end this!"She says, combining her martial arts with a power glyph and Lightning magic.

This enhanced her strength and speed to the point where the two teens were forced on the defensive. M.A. Luz peeked to K.B. Luz,  giving her a nod with a firm look. It was time for their back up plan.

'If this doesn't work, please don't die.' K.B. Luz thought as she nodded back.

M.A. Luz then proceeded to move in front of and fight Battle Witch by herself as K.B. Luz continued to fight from behind her, purposely hitting her and making it look like a slip up or an accident so Battle Witch wouldn't get suspicious. M.A. Luz was taking a lot of damage as blood began leaking from her nose and mouth beforeBattle Witch then punches her in the gut!

"Guh!" she coughed out with blood before Battle Witch sent her flying with a kick.

"Crap!" K.B. Luz yelled as Battle Witch began focusing on her, slowly overpowering her.

All seemed lost as K.B. Luz could only block, most of the pummeling. They were too fast and K.B. Luz could barley throw punches before a shouting was heard.

"BATTLE WITCH!!!" A voice called as K.B. Luz turned to the source.

Standing on her feet, M.A. Luz was bloody and snarling like a monster as the scleras of both her eyes had turned purple. K.B. Luz was glad she was alive as Battle Witch punched her away before M.A. Luz charge at her with new speed and a feral look in her eyes.

Battle Witch was surprised as she was punched in the face, spitting up some blood.This made the wild witch smirk as she got into a fighting stance, utilizing several martial arts styles as she fought M.A. Luz on equal footing.

"Your eyes, I've seen them somewhere before." Battle Witch said to her.

"How?!" M.A. Luz demanded.

"Win and I might tell you!" Battle Witch replied.

A blast of fire hit Battle Witch from behind, making her grunt as she looked back to see K.B. Luz on her knees with her hands out.

"Don't forget me!" she shouted, using her gloves to fire more golden fire balls at her back .

"Tigerson!"She said, to which her Tiger palisman came to life and jumped off the staff.

In a flash of magic, it transformed into a tiger humanoid in black jeans and defended Battle Witch as it charged at K.B. Luz.

(Belongs to jeddibub on deviantART.)

"Oh shit!" K.B. Luz shouted as she stopped firing and covered her arms in ice, blocking the tiger as it tried to bite her!

K.B. Luz and Tigerson rolled on the ground before the human kicked the tiger off her and stood up. She saw the threat did a real number on the ice covered her arms, almost getting to her flesh if the ice wasn't thick enough.

'This is gonna be rough but it's fine, I've fought a Slitherbeast! This tiger is nothing!' K.B. Luz thought as she hyped herself up as the tiger palisman was prowling towards her.

"Roooar!" Tigerson roared as his claw glowed brightly, infused with magic.

"You think you're tough? Huh? You think you're bad?! We'll you're nothing but a kitten to me!" K.B. Luz said as she used the ice glyphs to form large ice gauntlets around her arms, the Power Glyph giving her the strength to lift them. "You want some?! Come on!"

(Replace with Luz.)

Tigerson roared at Luz as he charged at her, jumping in the air with his fists ready!

"RAAH!" K.B. Luz screamed as she threw a punch, clashing the ice gauntlet with his fists!

Meanwhile back with M.A. Luz was continuing her clash with Battle Witch as they were slowly on equal ground.

"Grrrrr! I don't care how much stronger and more skilled you are! I'm not gonna give up until I BEAT YOU TO THE GROUND!!!" M.A. Luz screamed as her attacks were still getting faster and stronger, so much so that Battle Witch was slowly going on the defensive, taking more and more hits.

M.A. Luz even began doing the same strategy she used against the real Garou, using Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist with her right hand and Whirlwind Iron Cutting Fist with her left hand!

"Take this! Fist of Roaring Qi, Rending Air!!!" she screamed as she began to completely overwhelm Battle Witch, her opponent being completely unable to defend herself as she took punch after punch.

"Yeah, get her!" K.B. Luz cheered as she held Tigerson back, nearly getting her face bit before she turned back to him. "Okay, I have had enough of you!"

K.B. Luz kicked him in the stomach, throwing strong jabs to the tiger man, dodging Tigerson's wide swings and slash, before she grabbed his face and slammed him into the ground!

"Now stay down!" K.B. Luz shouted as she put her fists together and hammer fisted his head into the ground!

As K.B. Luz was making, M.A. Luz was overwhelming  Battle Witch with everything she has before she landed a powerful uppercut that sent her flying!

"GUH!" she grunted as blood spewing from her mouth, crashing  to the ground on her back.

M.A. Luz huffed as she tried to regain her breath, her eyes turning back to normal, as Battle Witch coughed up blood before chuckling on the ground.

"I guess you got me, kid . . ." Battle Witch said with a smirk.

M.A. Luz didn't reply to her as she almost fell down before K.B. rushed to catch her from behind.

"Hey, hey, I got you. I got you." she said as she held her sit down gently. "You alright?"

"Y-Yeah . . . my body's killing me, but I'll live. Plus . . . every fight just makes me stronger." M.A. Luz said as she turned to K.B. Luz, seeing her with slashes and torn clothes. "What about you?"

"I'm good, that tiger was tough but he was an amateur." K.B. Luz said with a chuckle, smashing her ice gauntlets so they crumble to the ground.

As the two Luzs conversed about their victories, Battle Witch used some healing magic on herself and managed to get up soon after. Tigerson was also up again and transformed back to normal as he walked up to Battle Witch.

"Not bad, kids. You're pretty tough, Luz. Mind telling me what are your martial arts called?"She says as Tigerson changed into staff form and healing the two Luzs while mending their clothes.

"Well, since we won, I practice the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist and the Whirlwind Iron Cutting Fist." M.A. Luz said to her.

"I practice kickboxing but with some elements of boxing too." K.B. Luz said to her.

"Interesting. I've heard of kickboxing in my universe's human realm, but not those other two." Battle Witch said as pointed to M.A. Luz.

"Yeah, it;s a multiverse thing. Now, we beat you and your palisman. Are you gonna answer my question from before?" M.A. Luz asked as she looked to B.W.

"Oh yeah, I did say that." Battle Witch said as she spun her staff and created a couch of hardened mud, sitting on it. "You want me to tell you what I know about the deal with your scleras changing colors."

"I'm pretty curious about that too." K.B. Luz said as both her and M.A. Luz nodded to her.

"Well . . . I traveled to a universe different from my own and there I met a scientist who told me about something called "Limiters"." Battle Witch began.

"Limiters?" M.A. Luz asked in surprise.

"Is that like that old myth of how humans only use 10% of their brain power?" K.B. Luz added in question.

"Similar to that, yes, but very different." Battle Witch said to them. "The scientist explained it to me, Limiters are pretty much the upper limits of any being. Human or otherwise. Your purple scleras? That's a sign that you're beginning to break your limiter and if you keep at it, you'll reach a level of strength far beyond anything you could achieve naturally."

"Wow, that sounds pretty cool! So I'm just starting to break my limiter? " M.A. Luz said as she looked at her hands in awe before gasping."Wait, but Garou's red scleras. That means . . . he's starting to break his limiter too."

"Yes but that's not always a good thing. It all depends on the REASON why you break your limiter." Battle Witch clarified.

"A reason? You mean aside from becoming stronger, like having something or someone to protect?" K.B. Luz asked, using anime logic.

"Yes, that key factor is what divides a man from becoming a force of great good." Battle Witch said as she gained a grim frown, looking to M.A. Luz. "Or....."

"Or what?" M.A. Luz replied.

"Or from becoming a monster." Battle Witch said to them.

"Metaphorically or literally?" They both asked her.

"Both, but physically turning into a monster is fine so long as you keep your heart in check and stay true to yourself." Battle Witch said as she pointed to her chest, right at her heart.

K.B. Luz looked towards her counterpart with a revelation in mind.

"So that's what happening to you and Garou. You're both slowly becoming monsters." she said with slight shock.

The martial artist of the duo looked at her hand, remembering when she and Garou clashed before they both broke their arms.

"I guess but I have a bad feeling that Garou is becoming the bad kind of monster compared to me." M.A. Luz said to her counterpart.

"Yeah but at least you have the right reason." Battle Witch said as she stood up from the dirt couch, making it crumble. "Well, today sure has been interesting. I think I'll take the rest of the day off before seeking my next opponent throughout the multiverse. I'll send you both back now."

"Finally! Not that this hasn't been fun but I want to get back home and rest." K.B. Luz said as she stood up from the ground.

"Oh! Before you take us back, what's your real name?" M.A. Luz asked as she stood up too.