The Al had finally reached the end of the black woods which was a large beach, covered in rocks and leading to a green ocean up ahead. Fortunately during his long trek through the forest, none of the creatures had disturbed the Al, as most of them bowed before the Witch King, and none of therefore would dare risk harming the Al, even to bring it to him. They knew Tyresian liked to do things his way, though many of the Demons and Goblins did still signal where the Al was to the Brontosaurus and Tyresian's other minions.
Unfortunately for the Al however it was about to enter the domain of one of the few creatures who showed no fear of the Witch King (or indeed anything else on Tairos for that matter.)
The little Dinosaur was curious at the sight of the strange ocean before it, and with the Brontosaurus not too far behind. (It was travelling underground, but the Al could sense its presence, due to the dark magic it radiated, even in these woods.) The Dinosaur hybrid knew it had to go forward and so it ran down the beach and into the water.
The Al's instinctively knew how to swim. It was programmed into them from birth. They had to be the most efficient warriors in all possible environments after all. The Al was able to use its tail to help paddle through the water, almost like a duck and got quite far out to sea, before it was suddenly attacked by a large, tentacled creature. A Kraken!
The Krakens were common throughout all of the oceans of Tairos. Gigantic Tentacled Demons from a far away hell world. The Krakens were one of the few creatures that could actually hold their own against a fully grown Tyrannosaurus Al, never mind an infant.
The Kraken could reach over 60 feet long. Its body was shaped much like a giant squid, except that its skin appeared to be made out of reinforced, silver steel! It also only had one single green eye, whilst each of its tentacles ended in mouths with razor sharp teeth. Finally its tongue which protuded from a beak like mouth was long, capable of stretching out over ten feet and ended in a spike.
The Kraken made its presence known to the Al, when several of its tentacles emerged from out of the water all around the infant Dinosaur. The Al shrieked in terror as the 30 foot tentacles all hovered over it, each one snapping its jaws.
The Al had no choice but to dive beneath the water as the tentacles were blocking its way forward. Under the waves however the Al could see the monster squid's massive jaws open up. It was narrowly able to dodge the monsters tongue that shot out at a lightening speed. (Though the tongue did still narrowly scrape by the Dinosaurs skin, cutting it slightly.)
The Al however did not back down. Instead it waited for the Kraken to try again. After several near misses, the Al was finally able to bite down on the Kraken's tongue.
The Al bit as hard as it could (which even at its age was still stronger than most other animals) and actually managed to severe the Krakens tongue completely! Whilst the monsters tentacles writhed in pain and thrashed around the waves, the Al swam as fast as it could through the water.
Unfortunately for the Al, not only would the Kraken be able to regrow its wound in a matter of minutes, but the animals blood also swept through the water attracting more predators, and a trio of Sharks, or Shark like creatures soon began to head in the Al's direction.
They were all about roughly twenty feet long, with similarly green, scaly skin and piercing red eyes.
The Al froze at the sight of the monsters at first, but unfortunately those seconds delay cost him as they allowed the Kraken's tentacle to wrap itself around the little Dinosaur and hoist it high into the air.
The Al could see the Sharks fins below retreat at the sight of the Kraken, which began to emerge from the sea, to devour the young Dinosaur, only for the giant to suddenly drop its prey.
Wasting no time, the Al swam as fast as it could back to shore. As it looked back however the Dinosaur could see another large creature attacking the Kraken. It looked like an enormous White Whale. It was even larger than the Brontosaurus. Its head alone was bigger than the Kraken and it easily held the giant squid above the water in its jaws.
The Whale's massive teeth were able to pierce the Squids metal body no problem, and despite its robotic appearance the Kraken bled. It's tentacles writhed desperately lashing out at and biting at the Whale in a series of futile gestures, before the Whale bit down harder and completely crushed the Kraken's body and then swallowed its remains in a single bite.
Once the Al reached the shore it couldn't help but stare in wonder at this new monster. The Whale must have been several hundred feet long, with the Al getting a good look at just how immense the animal was when it rose out of the green waves on its tail, letting out a deafening roar that could be heard for miles and miles around.
The Al's attention however was soon taken up by several large crab like creatures emerging from the water. They were all roughly 10 feet long and blue in colour, except for their claws which were metal, silver and stained in blood.
Close to twenty of the monsters emerged onto the beach in total. Little did the Al know they were actually being controlled by the Whale.
The White Whale's were ferociously powerful predators not just due to their size. Much like the Al itself they had many magical properties that allowed them to prey on a wide variety of supernatural creatures.
However one of the Whale's most devastating powers were their telepathic abilities that allowed them to control other marine life. The animals very rarely used it, as they enjoyed hunting, but now and again it would be useful for defending themselves. The White Whales had used this power to protect their domain from land dwelling creatures for several centuries. Ultimately however it just ended up uniting numerous land dwelling creatures and even some marine civilisations who could resist against them. The White Whales were almost hunted to extinction. In fact little did the Al know that they were now so rare most civilisations in all of Tairos believed they were extinct.
This particular White Whale had come to settle in the waters which were connected to the edge of the black woods and led out into one of the largest oceans in all of Tairos. The Whale itself had not come into contact with any other member of its kind in over one hundred years. Every year during the mating season it would journey away from the black woods to try and find another member of its kind, but tragically every year had been a failure.
The White Whale was otherwise content to remain near the black woods however. It enjoyed hunting in the water, and sending the creatures it could onto the land to drag Demons and humans into the water where it could hunt them. The monster though a vicious predator, did at least enjoy giving its prey the potential to escape. The hunt was all it lived for after all.
No prey was too small for the Whale either. The reason it had been drawn to the Al was that it could sense the strange magics in its body, that were unlike anything it had even seen in the black woods. It was determined it would feast on those magics.
The Al knew it couldn't run back the way it came as the Demonic Brontosaurus was still following it. The only way of escape was through a nearby dark cave, though even then who knew what other horrors were waiting for the Al in there. The pride of Dynamos would be tested like never before.
"You need to rest." Kelina said to Diassa.
"No I need to find out what happened to Jade."
"I told you, that Demonic energy that was covering her hand. They have tried to remove it but they can't. She's locked up for now. I don't think you should push them though. They're already mad at us."
"What did we do?"
"Apparently they were working with the Scorisio. That thing that attacked us, the giant toad or whatever it was."
"The Terrible One."
"Yes they had summoned the Scorisio to help them defeat it. Apparently the Scorisio wanted to eat the Terrible One as part of their celebrations so in this case they were happy to help some humans as long as they got the body. It wasn't just the Terrible One though. They hoped the Scorisio could take on the other four leaders, who've all been acting up recently for some reason, but the Terrible One was the Scorisio's main prize and first on their list."
"I couldn't even stand to look at that thing." Diassa winced in disgust.
"Yes well I guess the Scorisio sidetracked into some extra hunting when they caught us, but they were going to unleash that horror that infected Sisia, and working with the army from this place, and their own magics, they hoped they could lay a trap for and destroy the Terrible One. We or rather you messed that up when you let the black Tyrannosaurus into their city."
"Yes well maybe if the Scorisio hadn't been so greedy in wanting us for afters that wouldn't have happened. Besides we should be mad at them. They were the ones that let the Scorisio into the black woods in the first place. Jade wouldn't be in this situation if it wasn't for them."
"Well whatever the case, without the Scorisio as back up, the army didn't stand a chance against the Terrible One, and worse now the monster is coming here in revenge."
"Well then all the more reason for me to better introduce myself to them. Maybe I can help. Where are Shelly and the others."
"Shelly's in the hotel just up ahead. I'll take you there."
"How big is this place?" Diassa asked.
"It's practically an entire city. I'll show you. It's actually rather nice. To be honest I already like the people here a lot more than in Dynamos. They're less stuck up. Though I'm not entirely sure about the people who run it." Kelina said.
"How so?"
"Not all of the former prisoners have been put up in a nice hotel. Some have been locked up in their prison, for past offensives. To be fair from the sounds of things it seems some of them were helping the Demons of the forest. Still the way they treated them."
"Yes well all the more important for me to get to Jade. With her help maybe we can do something for those prisoners. To be fair I wasn't expecting the people who run this place to be normal. I don't understand why anyone would bother building a full city like this in the black woods of all places?" Diassa said as he stared at the beautiful city before him, full of seemingly care free and happy people.
"Apparently that was the point." Kelina said.
"The Witches and Wizards who created this city wanted to prove that their light magic was stronger than the black arts. So they created what they hoped would be the greatest city of this entire continent in its darkest and most corrupt area." She continued.
"Nice, though wouldn't it have been better just to you know save this dark and corrupt area with their light magic?" Diassa asked.
"Well that's obviously easier said than done. They have been trying. For the past few decades since they established this haven. They've tried to undo the black magic that has twisted this area into the hellhole out there. On top of that they've had to deal with the five rulers of the black woods constantly on their tail. Tyresian, obviously, the black Tyrannosaurus, the Terrible One, the Raptor Queen. Not Wereraptors, this is a different, altogether more monstrous, Demonic group of Dinosaurs. The Wereraptors never had any power round here. Finally the White Whale who rules over the green sea that exists outside the black woods. "
"My god I haven't seen a White Whale in over 300 years. I remember when the oceans were full of them. You couldn't travel anywhere, they'd constantly sink the ships. It was hell, but they were such beautiful creatures in a way. When this is done I must go to the green sea and catch a glimpse of that monster." Diassa said excitedly only to be met with a scowl by Kelina.
"I mean I understand things must be difficult for them. How can they possibly survive in this place?" Diassa said trying to get it back on topic.
"Simple by hiding. The magic that creates the artificial sunlight up above, also acts like a shield that cuts the rest of this city off from the black woods. This city is actually underground, and the entrance to it from above. Looks like a boulder buried in the earth."
"Fascinating."
"Yes well unfortunately we've ruined that for them too. At least from what I was told. The army wanted to ambush the Terrible One from its cave. They had prepared a trap for him once the Scorisio had chased him in there. They had magics that could protect them from whatever the hell was in that cave. According to the Witch who healed me, and Shelly and even that bitch Mukinsa. The Terrible One's cave is the darkest place even in these woods. Filled with the most ancient and evil magics.They need to wear a special kind of magical suit just to enter it. Unfortunately however when they fought the monster outside and the Frog pierced the suit of one of the soldiers and dragged him back into the cave. Whatever was in that cave broke him and he gave the Terrible One the secrets to enter here."
"It's just one creature against an entire city. Well okay if he has his skeleton army with him then that's a lot, but still with my help I'm sure." Diassa replied before a blue flashing light from just a few blocks ahead drew his attention. Diassa ran to it, ignoring Kelina who warned him not to cross the rulers of this strange, beautiful city any further.
Along the way there the Wizard saw a few more Troglodyte creatures like the one that had saved them from the Terrible One walking around with the humans as well as a few giant flightless birds who stood over 20 feet tall.
The wizard soon reached a large building that was glowing blue. All of the nearby civillians were backing away in fear, but Diassa naturally pushed his way past into the building. His magic had not yet recharged. In spite of this there was no security around the building strangely enough.
When the Wizard entered he saw Jade trapped in a bubble, her entire body glowing blue and her face completely distorted by Demonic energy.
Five people stood around her chanting something, which even Diassa did not recognise.
"Please you have to let me help her." Diassa said only to be ignored. He then tried to run to the bubble Jade was contained in, only for one of the figures, a small woman to send Diassa flying across the room with her mind.
"I am sorry. I just couldn't let you run the risk of getting near that thing." She said.
"That thing is my best friend." Diassa replied.
"She has been overcome with a strange, new mix of dark magics. I've never seen anything quite like it. We really are doing our best to try and remove them, as there is still a trace of her in there but the Demonic energy's hold on her is strong. It doesn't look like." Another one of the figures, a tall man with grey hair said before Diassa cut him off.
"Trust me, I know if you let me we can help her together." Diassa pleaded.
"We know who you are Diassa." Another one of the figures, a tall woman with red hair replied in a more confrontational tone.
"We know of your reputation and whilst I'm sure many of the unflattering stories about you aren't true, we'd be fools not to take them into account, that is why we have placed a lock on your magic as long as you remain in this city. We are the five who rule. Nothing can happen here without us wishing it so."
"Please my magics are different from yours. I've learned them all over Tairos, though even then I must admit I've never seen anything like this city. I'm sure if we work together we can find a way to help her." Diassa begged.
"No! We have the safety of this city to think of." The red haired woman replied.
"You're not doing a very good job are you? From what I hear the Terrible One is about to attack your city, and as for the security around here? I was just able to wander in no problem."
The red haired Witch whose name was Arkia laughed.
"We knew who you were when you came in. Do you think anyone could enter this place without us wanting it? We needed you to see how far gone your friend was. As for the Terrible One, we're ready for him. All of our defense spells have been cast and the armies are gathered near the gates."
"If your armies can deal with him no problem why were you forced to work with the Scorisio? Who by the way infected Jade. I understand you're angry at us for spoiling your ambush, well if it wasn't for you, Jade wouldn't be in this situation. You actually owe it to her."
All of the figures looked at him in anger.
"Or not.... Look." Diassa continued. "If you just give me ten or so minutes I can maybe find a way to help my friend. Like you said there is still a small part of her in there, and trust me knowing her that's enough. If you let me recharge and have access to my magics, I can also help you with the Terrible One. What have you got to lose? I'm hardly going to take on an entire city am I? The way I see it if you're willing to work with those monsters the Scorisio, then whatever tall tales you've heard about me shouldn't put you off."
"Okay fine." Arkia said as she not only removed the block on his magics, but allowed the wizard to draw from the city itself to recharge them.
"I warn you though we can't waste much more time on this. The Terrible One is coming. Our city is now facing its greatest peril." Arkia continued.