Luz B. Noceda: The Next Belmont

Chapter 7: Exposed

Eda and Luz were at opposite sides of a table, glaring at each other. They were at an epic standoff between each other, where two enter the arena, but only one shall win. At first, it seemed like the odds were against Luz, as Eda had the advantage in this battle.

"Make your move, little girl."

Narrowing her eyes, Luz thought long and hard about her next step, and then it hit her. Even with it seemed like all was against her, she uses Eda's own strategy against and breaks out the one move Eda didn't see coming herself.

"Wild card." Luz said as she sets down a card with a tower on it, which glows green and sets all of Eda's cards on fire. The words "WINNER: LUZ" spell out in fiery letters as Luz sat back with a smirk on her face. "I win."

"Well, played. I've truly taught you well. It surprises me to see how you're able to learn the rules of Hexes Hold'em so quickly." Eda said, revealing that they were just playing a magic card game.

"Yeah, well we have a game like that back on earth." Luz said. "And as we all know, I'm a quick learner."

"And you're much more of an opponent that these two adorable dorks." Eda says, as she points to King and Owlbert.

King retorted by saying "Well, at least we're not as obsessed with the game as you are!"

"I am not obsessed with the game!"

"Please..." King said. "You go everywhere with your deck of cards! You challenge random strangers to a match! You do this almost every week!"

Luz then stood up, and began to back away towards the door, saying "As much as I'd love to get caught up in this, I promised Willow and Gus I'd meet up with them at the market. So, I'll see you guys later."

"Be careful, Luz." Eda said. "Since my sister now knows of your existence, and your heritage...I have doubt that you may have already been marked as a criminal...one marked worse than I."

"Thanks for the tip, Eda." Luz said while opening the door. "I'll be careful."

Bonesborough was something to see for Luz, as bizarre creatures that her family would not hesitate to strike down in a second were living almost practical every day lives, such as three witches standing at a bus stop as a giant egg rolls up to it. The egg cracks, revealing a featherless bird that screeches. It flies away, then the witches enter the egg, one of them closes it, and it rolls off as Tiny Nose runs up.

"Wait, wait! Aw, dang it!"

Luz found it to be funny, but her humor died down as loud footsteps were coming her way. Tiny Nose, screams and runs away at the sight of three brown cloaked humanoids came by, two of them pushing a cart that had a large demon on it. The demon bucks and growls at a chance to escape, but their leader, a demon with an eyepatch draws a spell circle and shocks the demon with lightning, rendering it unconscious. As they continue to pass by, the leader turns and sees Luz for a split second, but the human merely turns the other way, trying not to draw any attention to herself.

"Hopefully, I'll never see them again."

She continued forward until she Willow and Gus just ahead. As she walked up to them, she noticed to that the looked dejected and slump.

"Hey guys. What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing." Willow said before pointing over to a food stand. "Just them."

They see Amity hanging out with three other girls Luz recognized as students from Hexside, she saw them during that whole abomination golem incident. The dark-skinned girl with a pinkish-grey hair in a ponytail, and the red colors of her hexside uniform she was wearing was Skara, the other dark-skinned girl with brown wavy hair, square glasses and blue colors was Kat, and the third girl with pink skin, violet hair in a bun, yellow colors and third eye was Boscha. They seemed to be enjoying themselves, while Willow looked peeved.