Claws of Truth

ABC's

"Alright, blondie. I'll give you one last chance to beat it. You and I can both walk away from this and pretend like it never happened." Eda knew her attempt at saving face, acting like she wasn't fully taken aback by this witch who could harness magic like a Clawthorne, was in vein. "All you gotta do is power down."

"Oh no." The witch growled, her deep, venomous voice echoing throughout the bar. "You don't get to hurt my best friends then tell me to walk away. You're going to pay for what you and your little-" She stopped mid sentence to glance over towards Luz, who was standing idly between the witch and her demon partner. But she eyed the fallen demon first.

As the blonde witch's eyes moved from the demon to Luz, their gazes met, and Luz could feel her stomach drop. There was anger in those glowing blue eyes before, but now, it was pure rage.

Luz planted a foot behind her and slowly pulled out the staff she had only received the day before, drawing it into a defensive position. Her grip on the pole was firm, but the sweat dripping down her arms and hands into her palms made it slippery and unstable. She had occasionally sparred with Eda using poles, or even Owlbert at times, but this staff felt different from them both. And she was a lot less nervous then than she currently was.

The blonde witch's teeth ground together, the veins on the sides of her head and atop her hands were throbbing, and her grip visually tightened around her staff.

Luz's heartbeat drowned out all other sounds around her as she hyper-focused on the threat in front of her. Luz bent her knees just slightly, trying to pull on every ounce of knowledge from her staff training, and ultimately feeling as though it just wouldn't be enough. After all, this witch gave Eda a run for her money, so what's to stop her from steamrolling Luz? Luz attempted to swallow, but the anhydrous environment in her mouth prevented such an action.

This is it. Luz thought, horrified. This is how I'm gonna die. In the deadliest city on the Isles. In a shitty little bar. As a sweaty mess. My corpse is going to smell so bad. And the worst part, I'll never be able to tell-

Her thoughts were cut off by the deafening cry of the witch, barreling towards her with her staff bathed in blue energy, cocked up, and ready to take a devastating crack at Luz. Luz's mind went numb, but her body held firm. If there was one thing that she refused to do, even when staring adversity and certain death straight in the eye, it was turn tail and run. She would never run from anything that threatened her family.

The blonde witch was within feet of Luz, still charging forward, when she went to take the swing at her.

Luz forced her eyes shut. Even though she refused to move, she really didn't want to see her own death occur. Or serious mangling if she were lucky. Luz waited a moment. Then another, and another. But... nothing happened? She should have felt something right there. Luz carefully cracked an eye open and saw Eda bent down on one knee, propping herself up with her forearm. She was breathing heavily. Her feet and one of her hands were glowing, sputtering, more accurately, with that familiar yellow hue she knew from those years ago. Eda must have jumped in and saved her from the-

Another scream erupted from beside Luz, through a newly created hole in the wall. A blue light came firing from the other side of it, shooting towards Eda.

Eda hastily threw her staff in front of her with a twirl. A small yellow shield manifested in front of her, diverting the blast away from herself and Luz, and into a far off wall where it left another hole.

"Luz! Get out of here, now!" Eda commanded, pointing towards the exit.

"No! What about you?" Luz pleaded.