The Coven's Man: Forever Golden (The Owl House Spin-Off Fanfiction)

Chapter Five - Black Is The New Gold

Fireworks set out. People were cheering. The Emerald Entrails celebrated, while the Scarlet Stripes were left to gloom. Everyone but the captain was dreary. Instead, the captain watched the celebrations in delight. The captain wasn't at all angered by their defeat. Maybe a little, but he was more impressed that the Stripes lost to a great final move from Hunter. They realized they were still holding Hunter's green flag. No point in hanging the flag now, so they threw it away.

"Everybody give it up once again for our winners! The Emerald Entrails!" The announcer screamed into the microphone, continued by the crowd clamoring a lot louder than before.

Viney, Gus, Willow, Hunter, and Skara stood on each of their own palismen in a straight line and held their hands together, bowing to a merry congregation. They weren't too high up in the air, but they were off the ground. Willow glanced to her side at Hunter who was too distracted by the audience to realize that she was glimpsing at him. When he did, he only eyed back at her.

"Not bad, right?" Hunter asked.

Willow giggled, "Yeah."

The two of them held hands tighter as they still received their well-deserved acclaim. While the audience continued their clamoring over the victorious emergence of the Emerald Entrails, something else occurred in the field that no one seemed to notice at first because they were too distracted celebrating.

Hunter was almost happy that he didn't have to go save the world that night. Time suddenly felt like it slowed down for him, the noise of a hundred people faded away from his ears. For some reason that he wasn't sure of, his supposedly unchangeable cheerfulness suddenly shifted into an unbearable feeling of anxiety.

Maybe it was the crowd, but it definitely wasn't. His eyes slowly glared lower before, in a flash, widening over what he spotted flowing under his feet. Fluids of dark green and brown streamed through the grass under him and his team like a snake. After less than a week of seeing the same color, with the same texture, he immediately distinguished what it was.

Hunter's breath began to tremble as he noticed the fluid slithering in a direction behind him. He slowly turned around. Willow and Skara who were by his side, grew curious as to why he was suddenly turning back. What has gotten him distracted from the crowd? Willow knew it wasn't the audience behind his back, given his dismayed reaction.

When he turned around, he noticed several others of the same fluid coming from other directions of the Derby arena, converging towards a single point. A thin blob was made as a result that slowly grew bigger and bigger the more fluid it took for itself.

'No, no, no, not now.' Hunter pleaded while lightly shaking his head.

Willow and Skara eventually turned around to see what he was worrying about. They notice the massive goo that is slowly inflating. Willow, being reminded of the horrifying blotchy colors that she went against five months ago, instantly had her fading smile disappear completely. Since Skara never saw Belos in his full monster form, she wasn't sure what it was.

"What is that?" Skara said with a growing panic. Hunter and Willow couldn't give an answer because of how scared stiff they were. "Guys, what is that?"

Gus was the next to see what had gotten Hunter and Willow petrified, "Oh, no." He said, wide-eyed.

Viney was the last to notice what was going on in the arena. Like almost everyone in the stadium, she thought it was a part of the celebration, but it didn't seem like it, given her teammates' reaction.

"Belos." Hunter lets out a whisper, to the group's disbelief and confoundment.

Out of the blue, a disembodied arm shot up from the giant sludge of green that manifested in the arena. The noise of the crowd begins to simmer down as they witness the body horror that commenced, slowly remembering the creature that materialized in front of them. The arm grew bigger, before quickly forming into a giant singular claw.