It hurts. The fire that rises stings down to the flesh. It burns and eats away. Unlike humans, witches, a flame can burn forever. But what if one catches that flame as their own?
Bounty hunters arise in Bonesborough, in every carcass that spill over the sight of the Demon Realm. Most are venerated as the strongest of their town, even in a huge part of the realm (such as a continent). All seeking to kill without mercy only for snails. For just a bit of money. To at least not starve to death. As if getting brutally beaten to death is a better way to go.
Staffs flying over every Isle like the airplanes that exist in the Human Realm. Only one lands down in the Boiling Isles, overlooking the titan's carcass from atop the clouds. An unamused expression on his face. His eyes scanning the area like a lion, searching for his next prey.
That one person is not surprisingly a bounty hunter. Around his neck is a snake, laying like a scarf, which also overlooks the carcass. This one person is an enigma. Which many have thought it was his name. A young adult, maybe late teens at most. Going out to kill for cash. What a tragic fate indeed. He pulls out a cigarette and lights it up. The wind blows past his face, but it still catches fire. 'Enigma' takes a puff, then cracks his neck. Ready to go down and "brawl".
Meanwhile, sitting happily at the lunch table- Luz happily eats a sandwich of sorts, around her the usual squad. Willow, Gus. Even her new friend, Amity. All enjoying a lunch together. They talk and barter. The atmosphere in the cafeteria is friendly at most, if you don't count some of the bitchy groups, such as Boscha, the movie type, normie bullies with wings or all sorts of arrangements. To these witches (and human) life is happy. Hadn't experienced hardships or had to make sacrifices yet. Still learning to fight, to draw spells correctly.
That is the true turn of life. Some get strong through small hardships. Like a breakup, a friend that didn't want them anymore.
Minimal efforts to be done. Meanwhile some experience more. Death. Betrayal. All sorts of catastrophic events that lead to evil- a villain.
Before long, Luz finishes her classes at Hexside, with new magic and info in store, she waves goodbye to her friends as Eda picks her up. They fly home, not minding anything, since it was such a beautiful day.
A large stone hand knocks them out of the sky. They roll on the floor before Eda rushes to protect the now tear-ridden Luz as she holds a scratch, maybe a bruise or two by her thigh. A massive abomination with stone gauntlet-like hands is being used in a fight. That is a familiar face as you may know him. 'Enigma' is fighting a infamous, small-time wild witch, whom throws their own attacks at other witch.
The two girls watch, the human more in horror than worry, which is what the older witch feels as she holds her.
A mad sight. Citizens yelling, some injured aswell. The two fight, unleashing spell after spell, handing out punches for the other to take, their palismen along with them. It was a sight to behold as the buildings began to deteriorate. The Owl Lady face goes pale.
"Shit. You're gonna have to hang on tight now!" *Eda quickly says, as she grabs her staff and soars through the skies with Luz in her arm, swiftly dodging the scene without even being noticed by the two. They land down at the steps of the Owl House. Hooty extends his head in worry as they collapse down, Luz's pants torn with a bit of blood seeping out of the material.
"HOOT! MEDIC NEEDED! HOOOOOT!" *He yells. Before Eda can shush him, he hurriedly breaks a window and rushes with wind speed inside for medical supplies. Eda facepalms while Luz daydreams.
"A true witch duel." - She thinks. Making up all kind of scenarios in her head. It is true, she has many fanfictions but this one may be the best yet to fuel it. She keeps thinking about it profusely, before long she comes in contact with the real world (or atleast this fantasy-like one) with Eda and Hooty by her side. The older witch patching up her wounds.
"You okay, kid? You scraped off quite a bit of skin here." Eda speaks softly, looking up at Luz, still wrapping a bandage around her leg. Luz only manages to retort a small "Yeah. I'm.. fine." as she continues to lightly daydream. The thought of watching more battles like that excites her, but it quickly fades off as night falls. She eats and gets to bed as usual, in the morning it's back to school.
On her way to Hexside she remembers the battle, only because of the large crater that was left behind. Buildings torn down, charcoal and half-burnt wood all around that area. Probably an epic battle will happen later too, so she'll be on the lookout for that.
The enigma, being inconspicuous for now, rides a hood over his face, eating what seems to be a fairy pie as he's strolling through the town. Very innocent for a criminal, a wild witch, a monster that just killed for a bit of snails. How silly of him. But Luz doesn't notice him, even as he sits in the vicinity of the school, just next to it at a restaurant. While she does look around, she finds nothing.
Days pass. The enigma's name is spreading through Bonesborough. Officially recognized as "ENIGMA" on his bounty poster, shown with a dark image of a witch in a hood with glowing eyes with a snake wrapped around his neck, looking behind his shoulder.
DEAD OR ALIVE
ENIGMA
100.000.000 $
Now being just behind the Owl Lady, not counting that he's 900 million snails behind, he rules as a bounty hunter. Known to kill and dash, collect and flash. Only so many people see him a day. But the human knows more.
Luz scouts a few areas "out of curiosity" which got the better of her. She observes over a small hill, the enigma himself sitting on a beach. Throwing stones into the Boiling Sea. She keeps her distance, but before she could enjoy the show, he's already out of sight. The human curses under her breath and leaves, now more intrigued than ever.
It's more like a hobby. To see the battles he commences, but she doesn't appreciate the aftermath, injured, dead or even mutilated people. Which only makes her hurl on the spot. But, she does appreciate she perhaps found a witch... who could even go toe-to-toe with EDA!
After preaching this idea to Eda herself, she only got met with a laugh and a noogie. Obviously upsetting Luz. The next days are the same. Waking up, eating, going to school, looking for cool fights/sights of enigma, then going home, doing some more detective work, eating again, sleep and repeat. The program she follows nowadays. It goes without mention that her friends are also intrigued, accompanying her on most of her visits.
Amity is the one who's surprised the most out of them all. Angry, maybe. How can one witch conjure an Abomination, one that huge, with modifications too? It's madness. Plus activating other spells with that active? Spells which she hasn't even heard of before? It's insanity.
When the friend group met on a faithful day to go sightseeing, they were met with a scarred teenager. Not emotionally, he had small scars across his face. Top of his nose, lip, forehead, etc. A white snake peeking out of his hood. This was no ordinary witch. This was it- this was him.
The enigma himself. He put his hands in his pockets and raised an eyebrow. "Want an autograph or something?" he inquired, being met with an overly excited Luz. Almost automatically pulling out a pen and a paper from her backpack.
"YES, me pleasepleaseplease-" She handed them to Enigma instantly, even with the discourage from her friends. With calloused hands he grabbed the two items, signing a strange signature on the paper, looking at the girl before handing them back to her.
There was almost a smirk on his face, as he began talking. His voice deep, raspy. "You're the human I heard of, I see. Did you know you have a nice bounty on your head?"
Her face fell. The items almost falling out of her hand as she began backing off. He laughed mockingly, waving his hands. "I'm joking. I'm not that cruel to kill kids. I promise." That was the last of him, before flashing out of sight.
In a row, reading from left to right. Gus with his jaw open, Luz staring at his writing on the paper, Amity almost following after him... if she had known where he had gone. And Willow, trying to peek at the paper. Luz quickly hugged them all and smiled widely.
"I GOT HIS SIGNATURE!!!!" She yelled. Excited to finally have met "THE Enigma". Perhaps friendly if she even got to say anything about him, but an air of danger surrounding him, not matter how playful his tone may have gotten. The other were still skeptical, but celebrated with the human. Now all seeking to look at the paper.
They looked at it. There was a graffiti-like writing on it, spreading out, reading "ENIGMA". No special signature, nothing fancy. Just his widely known nickname. Later in the day she had even shown it to Eda, which was almost proud of the human for having the guts to do it. But worried that something might've happened to her even with the reassurance of his promise that Luz mentioned.
A month had passed since Enigma rose through popularity. And since Luz had been intrigued by him. Coven scouts were now on alert. Belos having catched up with Enigma. Since he had wiped out any other bounty hunter that landed in the Boiling Isles, only he was the threat.
(Now, persay, his popularity also rose beyond just this titan. So many chose to just fly past it, but many boys with big balls also decided they'll challenge him.)
She got to see at least one battle up closely, from start to end. Enigma had to fight a couple of Coven Scouts, namely, five. He pulled out his staff and smashed one of their faces in, before his snake jumped on the other one. The others tried to rush him but their attacks bounced back. A shield stood around him just like a forcefield. One even got his own sword smashed into his face.
"Wow. I'm hurt." He said jokingly before dispatching the others with a large spell. It was a huge spell circle but done so fast the other three guards couldn't react as they were burnt down to the bone with a flamethrower spell. His snake returned to him, having killed a guard in the matter of a second with his poison. It may seem like the battle was over but reinforcements came, with Warden Wrath following by. He hurled tentacles at Enigma, but he dodged swiftly. Before cutting off his tentacles with a slash of his makeshift spear.
(His snake palisman focused on regeneration of himself and his user. While he couldn't recover from fatal injuries, he could regenerate body parts from him or Enigma. So, many times, Enigma used a fang from the palisman to put it at the tip of his staff for a little spear.)
Warden Wrath howled, as they all pounced on him. They got met with the harsh, cold floor as Enigma flashed right out of their gaze. They got up and fought him one by one. Now, having many weapons in his arsenal, this time, Enigma used a couple of backhand gauntlets, with three sharp tips that extends from his knuckles and a strong backhand plate, he dodged and pierced or slashed.
He parried the Scouts' attacks, but came into a hand hold with Warden Wrath. "I'LL HAVE YOUR SKIN FOR DINNER." The now wounded Warden said angrily, their strength evenly matched as they pushed each other away.
"I think I'll keep it. You know, still need it." Enigma quipped, as they fought for a bit. Exchanging punches, before the teen witch gave an ultimatum. As he flashed behind the Warden, and a two handed spell circle, he put the former Warden Wrath to an eternal sleep. With only a bloody nose and a few bruises on his face, he cleaned the blood off and Enigma went on his way. Not before waving to the human who was still watching, letting the bodies of the dead behind for others to clean up.
Now, Luz didn't get to meet him again face to face. Unfortunately for her, and fortunately for the others around her that constantly worried about her safety. Even with the glyphs she had found and used, it was still a worry. One night she decided to fly around with Owlbert, just to fool around in the Isles, feeling the moonlight on her skin. From a distance she saw a fire. A large building being burned down. She followed the smoke and light emitting from it. The smell of meat, and something weird filled her nostrils. But she still went on. She landed on the street and ran as fast as she could towards a scene. There stood Enigma. Panting. Bodies of coven scouts burned. Some not. Some just mutilated with their heads off. Maybe worse. Luz froze.
He had multiple scars across his body. His head now fully revealed. A spiky black hair now laced with the tinge of red blood. He was originally looking at the fire, and the building that was charred, filled with bodies and falling down, but after a minute, he looked across his shoulder, sighting the human and spoke.
"Maybe I should take that promise back."
