The Owl House: Tesoro

Chapter 2: 5 Times Hunter's Rebellion Failed & the 1 Time it Failed Again

"Sooooo, how's my favorite steady paycheck doing?"

Luz sauntered towards Hunter while shooting him a cheeky grin. "Human!" A bemused Hunter growled as he shakily stood back up. He then surveyed his immediate surroundings rather nervously. "Where is she? Where's the Blight?!"

"Y'know, you're lucky she's not in earshot right now." Luz retorted. "She hates when people call her that, and she's ticked off at you enough as it is. But, you'll be glad to know that she promised to keep her distance this time, provided that you behave yourself and come with me to the Empress' Coven outpost without a fuss. Deal?"

"Fine!" Hunter snapped at her before he could collect himself. "Just... fine. I'll come along quietly."

Luz pulled out a plant glyph. "Good to hear. Someone's earned himself the VIP treatment; no thorns."

"Lucky me." Hunter watched her approach, trying to suppress the twitching in his right hand. He observed her movements, waiting for the slightest lapse in her concentration, which came when Luz tapped the glyph to conjure some vines to bind her would-be prisoner. That split-second was all he needed to spring his trap. In the blink of an eye, Hunter opened his right hand, revealing the hidden gemstone in the palm of his gauntlet as two wing-shaped protrusions sprung out from underneath the armor plating covering his wrist. Energy flowed from the wings to the gemstone, culminating in a concentrated blast of artificial magic right at Luz's face. His self-satisfaction left him as quickly as he executed his sneak attack, however, as Luz had brushed his right hand aside enough for him to miss her entirely.

"Woah, a hidden staff in your glove, kinda like a switchblade!" Luz uttered with her standard childlike sense of wonder. "A switchstaff!"

Hunter seized the opportunity to fall back, firing off more arcs of magical energy at Luz, who ran up the front wall of Wailway, then kicking herself off the surface, crying "Parkour!" as she soared over the projectiles and landed somewhat clumsily on the ground. She then pulled out a foam disc shooter with an ice glyph etched on its side from one of her pouches. Hunter readied himself for whatever attack might come, while Luz slowly took aim, a mischievous smirk adorning her face, and dryly declared "Now is the winter of your disc-content!"

The ice glyph lit up as she fired a volley of discs, which turned into giant stars of ice in midair. Hunter couldn't help but flinch as the enormous ice shuriken landed around him, creating a wall that closed off any escape route he could have planned and left but one opening which Luz stood in front of.

"So much for the VIP treatment." Luz expressed. "Amity is probably livid with you right now."

"B-but you said she wasn't here!" Hunter immediately blurted in shock.

"Nooooooope." She replied. "I told you that she wasn't in earshot. She can see you, though." She glanced to her left, where a silhouetted figure watched from a distance.

If fear had gripped Hunter's heart before, it was now crushing it to a pulp as he, too, spotted the same person in the distance. In fierce desperation, he fired one more arc into the ground, stirring up an enormous cloud of dust to cover his escape. Running as fast as he could, Hunter spared one last glance at the shadowy individual, who appeared to have melted away. He pumped his legs even harder, trying to put as much distance between him and the other two, but he soon slipped on some dark purple mire, tumbling down the Latissan streets as onlookers continued to look on or get out of the way as appropriate.

He managed to right himself in mid-tumble, but before he could regain his bearings, the puddle that caused his slip-up had inched its way towards him. It then erupted into a giant, flower bud-like structure, which then 'bloomed' to reveal the last person in any realm that Hunter ever wanted to see again: Amity Noceda.