𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥『↬』The Owl House fanfiction (𝗛𝗜𝗔𝗧𝗨𝗦)

𝐯𝐢: 𝗸𝗶𝗱𝗻𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝘀𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱 :𝟔

The two teens left the sword's sight to prepare for the upcoming challenge.

Annika closed her eyes and started to take deep breaths. In between breaths, she would mutter to herself repeatedly. "It's not real. They're all just some dumb illusions feeding on our fear."

Hunter also closed his eyes and sank his breathing to the brunette's; he took her mutters as comforting words to keep himself calm.

After moments of this ritual, they stopped when the girl opened her eyes and asked the blonde. "Are you ready?"

The boy wanted to shake his head and run away, but he wouldn't display any more fear in front of the girl; he had already shown her enough, so instead, he nodded.

Annika changed her posture to a confident one. "Let's do this!"

And the two walked toward the illusions. They didn't know how they would react, but the two teens needed to remember one thing: although the sword might try to scare them off, they were not real.

Annika and Hunter entered the sword's territory, and the illusions looked up with terrifying excitement. Illusion Belos aimed a green goopy fist in Hunter's direction, but the boy dodged his attack in time.

Hunter managed to catch a glimpse of Annika's situation; he saw small vague figures trying to hold Annika in place as she tried her best to shake them off her.

Even so, he couldn't afford that distraction when he, too, wasn't safe. Illusion Belos threw as many punches as he could at the boy, which the blonde managed to avoid in time.

He was getting progressively exhausted from the battle, and Illusion Belos could sense his exhaustion because he took this opportunity to strike the blonde's ribs. Hard.

"Crap." Hunter put his hand on his bruised chest as he grunted in pain. He could feel his body weaken as he fell onto his knees from the excruciating pain.

It wasn't real.

It wasn't real, and he knew it. But how could he ignore an illusion that hit too close to home?

Yes, it was hard for him, but he had to remember the good things in life that made him less scared of living it. Hunter forced his mind on information from many books he's read during his life.

Illusion Belos smashed the boy with his fist; his lips curled to the sadistic smile of someone who knew they had won the battle.

However, his smile was wiped off his face as he found his fist being pushed away with all the blonde's remaining strength.

Because Hunter was not one to give up easily; he was a stubborn, determined boy, and there was no way he would let an illusion be the end of him, even if he was facing a realistic fear.

Hunter's eyes searched for Annika, wondering where she was. He quickly found her kicking away the small vague figures from her as she yelled. "You're not fucking real!"

Soon enough, she ran toward the sword; about to take it out of the stone, and that was all Hunter needed to see before focusing back on pushing Belos' fist from pounding him to nothing.

He grunted as he thought about the good things Belos did for him, trying to eliminate his irrational fear.

Shortly after, a shriek reached Hunter's ears; he instinctively glanced in Annika's direction, and there she was-quickly taking her hands off the sword as her eyes widened in sheer horror and tears ran across her cheeks.

"Gloves!" Was the only word she managed to yell out.

Illusion Belos' fist now felt like a heavy bean bag chair; the boy could still feel the pressure, but it wasn't as bad as before.