The Ishika carrying Ashlei came to a grinding halt as soon as it saw the Kardon hovering above the city. For the first time Carlene was able to get a good look at the monster above her.
It was completely black, with large piercing red eyes, though its iris was just as black as its skin. Its mouth was filled with massive silver fangs and a long pristine tongue, whilst it had a snout like nose. Its ears meanwhile were shaped like a bats, whilst two gigantic reptillian looking wings emerged from either side of its back. The creatures entire body was scaly, whilst a long tail ending in a spike emerged from just above its legs.
Whilst the Ishika carrying Ashlei was distracted by the giant, Carlene reached into her beehive and pulled out a silver knife. Now that the creature was still she had a far greater chance of hitting it. She didn't have a choice anyway. She had to get Ashlei away from that giant as soon as possible. Carlene hurled her knife right into the Ishika's heart, killing it instantly.
Ashlei then tried to swim back towards Carlene, who in turn headed towards Ashlei as fast as her vampiric strength would allow her.
The Kardon however reached down and managed to scoop both Carlene and Ashlei up in its immense claws, (smashing through the ruins of several buildings in the process.)
Carlene couldn't believe the monster could even see her and Ashlei it was so large. The monster however had a very special interest in the time travellers. It knew right away that they did not belong here and wanted to know how they had been able to enter the earth's core.
Carlene and Ashlei both lay in the palm of the monsters hand, but before it could close into a fist and seal them in, Carlene jumped through the monsters fingers whilst holding Ashlei.
Just being near that monster was enough to make Carlene want to tear Ashlei's throat out and crush her bones. Still Carlene had spent her entire life fighting the evil of the Kardons within her, though even then it was still a greater struggle than any she had ever felt before.
Carlene swam for the ruins of a nearby building with Ashlei in tow, but the monster reached down and tried to grab them again, taking a large chunk of the building this time. Carlene and Ashlei however evaded the Demons giant hand, and Carlene using her superhuman strength, managed to propel herself and Ashlei through the water to ground of the city below. The landing would have killed Carlene (who absorbed the shock of the impact) had she been human.
The Kardon soon started to smash the ruins to pieces in order to try and find its tiny prey. The rubble from the buildings went flying everywhere, and Carlene did her best to try and shield Ashlei from it as they scrambled through what was left of the city to try and find a safe place.
Several large pieces of rubble hit Carlene. A few even impaled her, but she barely noticed them she was too focused on protecting Ashlei.
The Kardon spoke, its voice echoing through the oceans. "Who are you strangers? How did you break down the wall? Why would you choose to come here of all places? If you tell us, I will allow you to join our children. If not? Suffer as those fools who defy us do now."
Florence meanwhile despite the giants presence was still focused on finding the Strange Boy who had vanished on the other side of the city. The Siren swam to behind a small crumbling building she had seen the Ishika head for. As she neared it however one of the Ishika's heads floated by. When Florence got behind the building she could see the Strange Boy wrestling with one of the Ishika. Despite his smaller size the child vampire had the upper hand in the scuffle. The little Jiang Shi managed to clamber on top of the Ishika's shoulders and dig his talons into the Demons head. Though the Ishika tried to throw him off it was no good. The Strange Boy was absolutely savage in dealing with the Demon and after mangling its prey, crushed the Demons entire head.
Even after he had killed it, the Strange Boy continued to tear chunks off of the Ishika's body in his fury. Florence approached the child vampire slowly and carefully, but the Boy soon noticed the Siren.
"Please it's me Florence." She said softly.
"Try and remember, we're friends, well sort of, well not really, but we travel together." Florence said.
The Strange Boy made a sudden jolt towards her, but Florence still didn't back down. She simply floated there, hoping that something would click in the Jiang Shi's mind.
The Boy stared at her for a few minutes before Florence's attention was drawn to the sound of the Kardon crashing over several nearby buildings towards them. Florence grabbed the Strange Boy and swam in the opposite direction. The Strange Boy suddenly didn't appear to react to anything around him. The presence of the Kardon had seemingly terrified him into almost a trance.
Ashlei and Carlene meanwhile had managed to take refuge inside a large building, though the Kardon had still caused a large part of it to collapse, simply by passing it.
One bit of rubble had fallen on Ashlei knocking her out. She was badly hurt, and worse she was bleeding and her blood was travelling through the water, drawing several Ishika in like Sharks to a feeding frenzy.
Carlene pulled a long silver sword out of her beehive and started to fight the Ishika off. She managed to slice the head off of one of the Demons, and stabbed another Ishica through the heart, before slicing the hand off of another that reached out to grab the unconscious Ashlei.
The remaining three Ishika backed away from Carlene, but six more soon arrived. She couldn't keep this up for much longer, but she couldn't just swim past the monsters either.
"It's just round here." Kile said.
Her ship had been concealed beneath the sea floor to protect it from the Ishika. Kile summoned the vehicle with a remote device, though as soon as she did more Ishika emerged from the various ruins around them.
"Go I'll cover you all." Denika shouted as he started to hurl blasts at the monsters.
Kile's ship was bright green, the same as the murky waters that surrounded them. It had a circular shape with a large red strip running down the middle and a golden circle at the top which was the hatch.
When the Circus Folk made it into the ship, they saw its inside was completely gold too. It looked absolutely beautiful, more like the inside of a luxury hotel than a war ship.
"Why do you need a ship if you can breath underwater." Denika asked as she joined them afterwards.
"Well to start with we're amphibians, and second of all we need these vessels because we can outrun the Ishika and the Kardons with them. See here."
Kile piloted the vehicle through the horde of Ishika that had begun to gather round the vehicle sending them all flying across the ruins of the city before speeding past hundreds of the other Ishika. In the distance, Kile could see the Kardon pursuing a small figure. She tried to turn the ship around in the opposite direction from the Kardon, but the Circus Master stopped her.
"That's Florence and the Strange Boy out there. We have to help them, and Carlene and Ashlei if possible." The vandal said.
"It's too late, your friends won't escape from the Kardon, and neither will we if we don't get out of here now." Kile said whilst trying to wrestle free from the Circus Masters grip.
"Please we can't just leave them at the mercy of that thing." The Circus Master pleaded, but it was no use. Kile was so terrified of those creatures having seen what they were capable of to a greater extent than anyone else.
Denika soon took over and using her magic started to propel the ship forwards. She wasn't really piloting it, she was simply pushing it with her mind, but as she hurled it closer to the Kardon, Kile frantically tried to stop the ship to no avail.
The Kardon soon noticed the vessel and instantly headed towards it. Denika released the ship, but Kile still simply tried to take the vessel in the opposite direction. The Circus Master was forced to stop Kile from driving the vehicle.
"Do you have any idea what that thing will do to us?" Kile asked?
"Yes, believe me I know, but we can't leave Florence or the Strange Boy, or Carlene or Ashlei."
Kile waited for a few seconds. She couldn't possibly escape the vandals iron grip, but she hoped he would see reason. As the Kardon came closer she eventually relented.
"All right, release me and I'll no doubt kill us trying to save your friends." Kile said.
Kile managed to evade the Kardon's clawed hand narrowly and sped towards Florence and the Strange Boy. Florence continued to swim from Kile's vessel however, until Denika fired a magical signal.
Kile took the vessel under Florence and opened the hatch allowing her and the Strange Boy to get in. Unfortunately however the seconds the ship waited to allow Florence and the Strange Boy to enter were enough for the Kardon to catch up to them. The Kardon only managed to to graze the ship with its claw before Kile piloted it away, but the monsters vast strength still caused the ship to go spinning through the oceans.
Denika using all of her strength managed to stop the ship in its tracks with her magic before it smashed into the ocean floor. Kile then got the ship started, but again the Circus Folk would divert her course.
"We need to get back to the ruins. Ashlei and Carlene are still there." Florence said.
"You are not serious."
"Lets not have that discussion again." The Circus Master said.
Kile took the ship down through the ruins, narrowly missing the Kardon in the process. As the monster chased after them it smashed its way through the entire city in rage.
After a few minutes the ship came across Carlene, still fighting the Ishika off. At the sight of the Kardon, Carlene instantly retreated back into the ruins to protect Ashlei, not noticing the tiny vessel.
"Damn it. I'll need to get out and find them." The Circus Master said.
"Are you insane?" Kile asked.
"You said it yourself this ship is supposed to outrun those Demons." The Circus Master said as he prepared to open the hatch. "If you can keep the big guy occupied I might have a chance to find Carlene and Ashlei, then you can swing back and pick us all up. I'll have to time this right. Please, just give me one chance." The Circus Master said genuinely.
"Okay fine. Not that I have a choice with you whatever the hell you're supposed to be?" Kile said bitterly.
The Circus Master jumped from the vessel as it sped off from the Kardon. The Kardon was too preoccupied with the vessel to bother with him just as the vandal had predicted, but as soon as the Circus Master made his way to the ruins where Carlene was, he was jumped by several Ishika. The monsters soon overpowered the vandal. He fought back valiantly, but they were able to restrain him.
In desperation he shouted on Carlene, but the monsters started to beat and claw at the vandal. Fortunately Carlene heard his cries for help and she struck her silver machete into the Ishika that was holding the Circus Master from behind. With his arms now free, the Circus Master started to slash at the monsters in front of him, driving them away.
Unfortunately almost as soon as Carlene and the Circus Master had finished dealing with the lesser Demons, the Kardon soon turned its attention to them. The Kardon could always sense the presence of its children. The Demon had barely noticed that these strange creatures were its children at first due to the presence of the Ishika nearby, but now that it was so focused on them it had noticed a sense of familiarity which intrigued the Demon even more.
As it reached out to grab the vampire and the vandal, Kile bravely flew her vehicle straight into the Demons face. She hoped that the the Demon might be taken by surprise by the boldness of her actions. Sure enough the Demon was taken aback a little, having never seen any creature run towards it before.
Carlene and The Circus Master used this opportunity to rescue Ashlei from the ruins, with Carlene carrying her out.
The Kardon flew into a rage and started to strike at the tiny ship, with Kile only just managing to dodge its blows.
The ship then sped past the Kardon and towards The Circus Master and Carlene. "This is their last chance." Kile said. "If they don't get on this time I'm not going back."
The Circus Master and Carlene both jumped onto the ship as it sped past them. The Circus Master was able to hold on by digging his talons into the side of the ship. Carlene meanwhile wasn't able to get a good grip and nearly fell off whilst holding Ashlei, but fortunately the Circus Master managed to grab onto her with his other hand and hurled Carlene over onto the top of vehicle into the golden hatch, after which Carlene then pulled him up into the hatch.
"See I told you it would be easy." The Circus Master said after he entered the ship.
"It's a good thing I'm dead darling or I'd have had a bloody heart attack." Carlene replied, as Denika tended to Ashlei's wounds with her magic.
"Thanks love, I, we owe you one." Carlene said to Kile who didn't acknowledge her.
"She's not a people person, don't take it personally." Keptis said.
"Oh right she's like you then." Florence said jokingly to Keptis.
The Kardon continued to pursue the ship through the seemingly endless green waters ahead.
"I can't shake him, we should have just left before he spotted us." Kile said in panic.
"We have a ship of sorts at the bottom of the ocean, if you take us too it then we can." The Circus Master said before the ship suddenly ground to a halt.
In the distance, Kile and the Circus Folk could see two more gigantic red eyes emerge in the distance. Another one of the Kardons had spotted them .
Within a few minutes the two giant monsters had completely surrounded the small ship, with their gigantic wings spread out across the exits.
To Be Continued