Sisia went for Mukinsa first. Even though very little of who Sisia was remained in this hideous, twisted Demonic caricature. She still harboured a greater hatred for her former vile captor, than either Shelly or Kelina or any of the other prisoners.
The Demon easily restrained Mukinsa from behind. The bandit tried to fight back only for the monster to easily break her arm. It then smashed the bandit queen's face off of some nearby ruins, breaking her nose and several of her teeth in the process.
Silverica tried to suppress his laughter. Not for Mukina's sake obviously, he just didn't want to draw the Demon's attention. Both Kelina and Shelly, as well as some of the prisoners meanwhile tried to intervene. (Though even then Kelina only helped because had Shelly thrown herself into the conflict. Otherwise she would probably have joined in with Mukinsa's brother in laughing.)
The Demon easily batted all of its attackers away, though the few seconds they distracted it were long enough for Mukinsa to wriggle free, and stumble towards the forcefield.
This time however when Mukinsa reached the end of the city, she felt something different. Rather than a physical force holding her back, it was overwhelming pain, so much fell backwards towards Sisia who had disposed of all her attackers.
Sisia prepared to bring her foot down on top of Mukinsa's head, which would have crushed it into a pulp, but she was stopped by Jade's tale which wrapped itself around the Demon from behind.
Before Sisia could tear her way through the tail. (Which she would most certainly have been strong enough to do.) Jade pulled the Demon away from the others and threw her into the ruins of a small temple. Sisia then stood up to face her attacker. Jade knew she couldn't outfight the monster. All she could hope for instead was to distract Sisia long enough by evading her attacks until Diassa had destroyed the last part of the forcefield. Diassa using a powerful spell which had almost drained him, had managed to create a tiny rip in the magic of the city itself. It had taken him a while, but fortunately he hadn't been disturbed due to the black Tyrannosaurus scaring the Scorisio away and otherwise keeping them distracted.
The Wizard had figured out from his past experiences that all of the magics in this city were connected. It was how the city traveled, as the magic that ran through the city, is also what both shielded it, and carried it from one place to another. He had seen other similar magics throughout his time used in the construction of planes, cars, even war vessels and space ships, but never one on quite this scale before.
The rip Diassa had created however was unstable and small. It had allowed the black Tyrannosaurus to enter, which Diassa had hoped knowing it would go after the Scorisio first. Despite the fact that the Dinosaur preyed on humans, it also did not tolerate any threats to its territory, and both the Scorisio and the Gyslox would certainly be perceived that way by the Tyrannosaur, being two rival alpha predators. The Dinosaur had been able to survive travelling through the unstable forcefield due to its strength, but evidently a human could still not endure it. The Wizard fired more magic into the forcefield in front of all the prisoners, causing it to ripple.
"Hopefully that might hold it. You have to go now! It's still unstable. I can't promise anything." Mr Diassa said.
Mukinsa tried to stick her hand through the forcefield again, but it hurt even more this time. Kelina not wanting to wait for either the black Tyrannosaur or any of the other horrors in this city, tried to throw herself through the field, but instead ended up caught in it. Her screams echoed through the entire city.
Within less than a minute, the Scorisio soon began to emerge from the ruins and buildings nearby (having been hiding from the Tyrannosaurus.) In truth however it was the forcefield being disrupted that had drawn them there more than the screams.
Diassa tried to fire at the forcefield again with the last tiny bit of magic he had left, which caused it to glow red.
"Come on, come on!" He shouted desperately before Kelina (who had passed out) eventually fell through to the black woods outside.
"Go now" Diassa shouted as the monsters began to advance, but most of the prisoners were still reluctant, except for Shelly who obviously wanted to see if her sister would be okay. Shelly felt unbelievable pain, but not enough to stop her from pushing through to the other side, which she did in a matter of seconds. The pain then wore off and she was otherwise fine. The horrible, slimy, black woods had never looked so appealing.
Some of the other prisoners followed, whilst others were still unsure. A few further seconds later however when the Scorisio advanced on Diassa, they all soon followed, though sadly not all of them made it with the Scorisio dragging several back.
In response, Diassa fired a massive red blast of magic that covered the entire area. He normally wasn't capable of doing so. He had simply drawn some of the the power from the unstable forcefield. It did absolutely nothing to hurt the monsters however. It was really nothing but a cheap magics show, but it did at least draw their attention back to him, allowing the last prisoners to flee.
Diassa meanwhile was completely surrounded and exhausted. The monsters gathered round to finish him, but help soon came in the most unexpected form. The black Tyrannosaurus having also been drawn by Diassa's lights show (which he had hoped it would,) came smashing through several of the nearby buildings and naturally turned all of its attention to the Scorisio again. The famous Demon killers up close did not live up to their reputation as they all instantly fled as fast as they could from the Dinosaur who followed them and managed to scoop up and devour a further three.
Diassa then turned his attention to Jade and Sisia who had continued to fight throughout the entire ordeal, or rather Jade had continued to mostly avoid the Demon's attacks. She had managed to land a few hits on the Demon, but they were not able to do any harm. If anything Sisia seemed to get stronger by the minute, as she kept mutating. At one point however this proved to be an advantage for Jade, as Sisia collapsed to the floor whilst her bones began to break and reform. Jade used this chance to wrap her tail around Sisia's throat, and try to break her neck, but she couldn't muster the strength, so instead she threw Sisia into a nearby small building, which using her tail to strike at the weak points. Jade caused to collapse. It only held Sisia back for a few seconds however, and when she rose from the rubble she was even larger and more deformed. At this point Diassa tried to intervene, but his magics were so virtually non existent after trying to pierce the forcefield. He was completely drained. It was possible that he could absorb more of the magics from the city, but even then it would be risky to absorb dangerous, and unknown magic in large quantities and so when he tried to use force Sisia easily tossed the Wizard aside and focused entirely on Jade, who knew she couldn't keep the fight up for much longer. The pain in Jade's hand which was still glowing, was beginning to overwhelm even her superhuman constitution. Worse the blue light had also started to crawl its way up her arm. She kept fighting on as best she could until the blue light eventually covered her entire body again. Sisia not showing any fear struck Jade. It should have been enough to punch a hole through Jade's chest normally, but instead it simply sent Jade flying a few feet, after which she stood back up and whacked Sisia with an even greater force using her tail.
When Diassa ran to try and help Jade, she wrapped her tail around him. Diassa could see that the light was also beginning to twist Jade's face, stripping away any humanity she had left and making her much more Demonic. The roar or rather the screams from the victims in its stomach from the black Tyrannosaurus however soon caused Jade to snap out of it, and the blue light vanished again (except for on her hand.)
Jade then slithered with Diassa in tow through the forcefield, just before Diassa's spell wore off.
After a few seconds of incredible pain exiting the city, Diassa and Jade found themselves back in the black woods with the rest of the prisoners who were all gathered round. Some of them had fainted trying to come through the portal. Sadly Kelina was the worst off. She was lying on the forest floor shaking from and not even responding to Shelly's attempts to comfort her.
Diassa instantly went to examine her.
"Please tell me you can help her. Please!" Shelly asked the Wizard.
"She's absorbed the Scorisio's magics. You see the forcefield that protects that city, is also what transports it from place to place. I was able to disrupt it for a few moments, but even the rip I did create with all my power was unstable. Your sister went through just a bit too early before I could make it safe and... some of the magics of the forcefield became fused to her."
"What does that mean?" Shelly who was getting more than a little frustrated with the Wizard asked.
"That forcefield is designed to latch itself onto a host body, like the city which is fine as that's not a living organism. It's too strong for any living creature to take. Even if it tries to help them, it will still crush their bodies. Either it will kill her, or." Diassa paused for a few seconds.
"Or what?"
"It will try and rearrange her body to be capable of withstanding the pressure. It will probably kill her in slow and painful way in the process, or it will turn her into something else. Something not human."
"You have to do something!" Shelly said in both panic and anger.
"I'm afraid there is nothing I can do here." Diassa replied.
"We have to get back to my palace. There I have access to my full magics. The only problem is the city seems to have taken us to the other side of the black woods from where we were."
"Your magic for gods sake, can't you just teleport us there." Mukinsa interrupted. She wasn't worried about Kelina of course, more just the idea of having to make her way through these entire woods.
"I'm fine by the way." She continued as she clutched her arm.
"I don't have that power, or else I would have used it by now. My palace is connected to this hellish place via one portal, which is on the other end of the woods where we first arrived in the blue light. I don't know if we'll make it in time." Diassa said with regret.
"Well we won't if we just sit here talking about it." Jade interrupted as she also clutched her glowing hand.
"Yes I concur, we need to get our." Before Diassa could finish a large red light flashed in the direction of where the Scorisio city was.
"They're coming back we need to go." Shelly said as she tried to help her sister up.
"No I don't think so. Looks to me like they left." Diassa pondered.
"Clearly this part of the black woods was where they were planning their next hunt, but they obviously don't feel up to it now, and after the way I damaged their forcefield they probably don't want to risk anything coming in from this part of the woods. Which makes you wonder what horrors are waiting for us out there." Diassa continued as he looked through the twisted forest ahead.
"Well let's not sit around and wait for them to come to us." Jade interjected. She then picked Kelina up with her tail.
The unlikely companions trekked through the woods together for about ten or so more minutes until they made their way to a massive open field.
It looked completely bare. There wasn't even any grass. The ground was also quite hot to touch, though not scorching. In the very distance meanwhile, Diassa could see what looked like a giant mountain.
Suddenly the earth beneath their feet began to shake, and after a few more seconds, several skeletons burst forth from under the ground. Despite their feeble bodies, the undead monsters strength was incredible. Even Jade found herself struggling with them. Diassa meanwhile whilst having no magical power left, was still a capable fighter in his own right and was able to at least hold his own against these magical creatures. Jade meanwhile made sure to hold Kelina above the horde of undead with her tail, whilst Shelly along with most of the others were easily restrained.
Mukinsa tried her best to escape, in typical fashion by pushing any of the other former prisoners she could into the skeletons, but she only managed to get a few feet ahead, before one of the Skeletons reached out for her arm that was broken and squeezed it hard, bringing the cowardly bandit to her knees.
The skeletons after restraining Jade and Diassa, placed all of the prisoners in a circle. Their leader then screamed a hideous, high pitched, deafening scream that echoed throughout the entire nearby area.
After a few minutes of silence, a horrific, giant figure began to emerge from the direction of the mountain through the dark.
It stood over twenty feet tall and looked like a revolting mish mash of animals. It had the head of a toad, though its eyes resembled a fly's. Its teeth however when it opened its jaws were more similar to Lion. Its body was gigantic, furry and brown like a grizzly bears, whilst its back legs were short, hairless and stalky. Its feet meanwhile were hooves, whilst abomination's tail that constantly thrashed around was long and reptillian like an Alligators. Finally its arms were incredibly muscular and covered in fur, through despite this its hands appeared to be two small stumps
The monster breathed fire, first into the air, to intimidate the prisoners, and then on a patch of earth next to them.
As it drew closer to the terrified crowd, one of the Scoriso's former prisoners uttered whilst shaking.
"The Terrible One. It can't be."
Mr Diassa had heard rumours and legends of the monster known as the Terrible One, but had fortunately never encountered it on his previous trips to the woods. It was said to dwell within the deepest and darkest parts of the woods. An area where even the Witch King dared not venture.
The Terrible One's stump like hands both opened up to reveal five fingers like a human hand. However when it reached its hands to grab one of the Scorisio's former prisoners (actually the one bandit left aside from Silverica and Mukinsa) by the face, they soon saw that the monsters fingers were actually five slugs! The slime from the slugs allowed the "fingers" to stick to the bandits face to such an extent that the Terrible One was able to lift him off of the ground.
The monster then impaled its victim in the stomach, (with the prisoners screams being muffled by the hideous slugs over his face) with a massive skewer that emerged from the palm of its other hand. The skewer appeared to be made of metal, though it was also filthy, rusty and jagged.
The Terrible One then let go of its victims face and held him with the skewer over the fire it had created to slowly cook him. Unfortunately for the prisoner the Terrible One's skewer did not kill him. In fact the monster knew exactly where to stab its prey so that they wouldn't die. The beast was as crafty as it was repulsive.
Diassa and Jade did their best to try and fight their way through the skeletons, but the the Terrible One, noticing their attempts at resistance breathed fire at them before it returned to its first meal of the night.