10 The Demon Within: Special Meat
As Lindsey and the Maliak made their way through the tunnels, they could see a light shinning ahead.
The light led a to a large, empty room where the bodies of several Maliak were scattered. Right at the far edge of the room Lindsey could see the bodies of Professor Fang and Kirsteen.
She ran towards them in panic. "Kirsteen!" "Professor!"
Both began to stir.
"Oh thank god."
"It was a close thing." The Professor said.
"The ground gave way and we fell over 200 feet. I was able to break Kirsteen's fall."
"Thank you Professor" Kirsteen said as she hauled herself up.
"We better help the men."
Suddenly however an immense roar bellowed from above. The three time travellers looked above to see a gigantic monster crawling down the wall.
The beast was over 30 feet long. It had a squat face with four black eyes like a spider, two massive poison tipped fangs, a large serpentine tongue, four pincer like limbs, a long body with large spikes that ran down the centre of its back, and three tails, all of which ended in similar hideous squat heads.
Quick as a flash the monster jumped in between Lindsey, the Professor, Kirsteen and the soldiers, with its heads at both ends being ready to strike.
The demons three heads on its three tails prepared to attack the unconscious soldiers, whilst its front head held off the Professor and his companions, as well as the Maliak that had escaped the pit with Lindsey.
The Professor jumped on top of the monsters single head and held onto its two poison tipped fangs from behind. Their poison may have been toxic to most life forms, but as a vampire, the Professor was completely immune.
The three heads on the monsters tails soon turned to face the Professor instead. They all bit him, but again their poison had no effect on the Vampire. The three heads bit hard and tried to pull the Professor off, but he held on with all his inhuman strength.
Whilst the demon was distracted, Lindsey, the Maliak and Kirsteen tried to help the wounded soldiers get away to safety, but the Professor overwhelmed from so many demon bites eventually lost his grip and was thrown across the room.
Lindsey, the Maliak and Kirsteen all stood in front of the soldiers as the monster towered over them.
"I've got to wake up any minute now" Kirsteen thought to herself.
The entire room suddenly began to shake and rocks fell from the ceiling. The giant stumbled a little whilst Lindsey and her Maliak companion both picked up large rocks that had fallen from the ceiling and started to fend off the monsters heads with them.
"Get the men to safety" the Maliak shouted at Kirsteen. One of the creatures three heads however batted the rock from the Maliaks hands. The monster tried to strike at the alien, but Lindsey got in the way, holding the rock up, and causing the monster to bite the rock instead, breaking its front teeth in the process.
As the creatures three heads rose up to tear Lindsey and the Maliak to pieces. The Professor having healed from his wounds, jumped onto the beasts back a second time, whilst carrying a massive boulder, (larger than his own body.) Before the monster could even react, the Professor brought the boulder down on the demons main head. With a few strikes the Professor smashed the monsters head in, before using the rock to impale it through the spine into the ground.
The three heads on the creatures tails writhed and screamed and the Professor then jumped onto the middle head and started to choke it. The other two heads started to bite him, but Lindsey and the Maliak seized their chance and attacked the heads at either side. The Maliak struck the neck from behind with a large, sharp rock repeatedly until he cleaved it in half. Lindsey meanwhile faced the monster head on. When it tried to bite her she would hit it with a rock. She hit it a few times until the head collapsed from the pain before she finally brought it down on the monsters skull smashing it open.
Kirsteen meanwhile had managed to wake the few surviving soldiers. Only four of them in total had survived the fall, including the leader. One had a broken leg, whilst another had several broken ribs. The leader meanwhile was barely even hurt. The room suddenly started to shake again, with Lindsey only barely managing to push the Maliak from the pit out of the way of another falling boulder in time.
"We need to get the men out of here now" The Professor said as he dusted his torn clothes and wiped the demon blood off his hands.
"What is going on?" One of the winged demon commanders shouted.
"It's the Maliaks. They have ensnared us in their tractor beam."
"I thought we destroyed all of their bases?"
"We never found the one their supposed god was hiding out in."
The general laughed. "The fool. Even if he caught us, he's just exposed where he is to our armies."
"Why would he take such a risk for a scout ship?"
"It must be the special meat. Whatever it is we can't let them have it!"
The time travellers and their companions meanwhile were lost in the catacombs below. The Professor carried two of the soldiers, whilst Lindsey and the Maliak from the pit carried the other.
"Well no offence special meat." The Maliak from the pit said to Lindsey. "Your friends here aren't quite what I was expecting?"
"I just helped to save you all from an ugly four headed monster. Isn't that enough?" The Professor said angrily as he looked around the dark, dank caverns.
"And my name is Lindsey!" She protested.
"His last plan didn't exactly work out. I've lost almost my entire platoon." The leader of the Maliaks said with regret and sorrow.
"I'm sorry" The Professor said. "These demons have changed since I last saw them. I still don't understand it? How were they able to get hold of this technology. They're just animals."
Suddenly one of the Asikori Demons snatched one of the soldiers the Professor was carrying from above. The Professor held onto the soldier. His strength was slightly above that of the average of Asikori, but several more of the monsters soon descended from the darkness above and restrained all of them.
There were too many of the Asikori for the Professor and the surviving Maliak soldiers to fight back, though it still took three of the winged beasts to restrain the Professor. The demons flew their prisoners up a large shaft where they were taken to the leader of the Asikori vessel on a cliff top.
"I'm impressed." The demon leader said. "You're the first prisoners to escape the Hiliaxar demon in those caves. Though I suspect it was more down to the eh, special meat."
"I'd rather you just eat me than keep calling me special meat" Lindsey said as she winced in disgust.
"Whatever you are you may just well have helped us find their god."
"What do you mean" One of the Maliak's said with fear.
"It seems your god has an interest in the special meat too. So much so he's willing to risk everything."
Whilst the Demon was talking the Professor used his chance to jump over the leader's head. Rather than try and fight him however, the Professor simply fled.
"Where are you going? You got me into this you fucking coward!" Kirsteen shouted after the vampire.
The Maliak leader meanwhile seized his chance and jumped the Asekori leader. Catching the demon off guard he pulled the winged abomination to the ground and started to beat him.
Lindsey and the Maliak survivor from the pit both joined in and started to attack the Asikori troops around them, whilst Kirsteen helped the Maliak leader. She jumped the Asikori leader from behind just as it had overpowered the Maliak commander.
Kirsteen's intervention proved timely as it allowed the Maliak commander a chance to grab the demon in a headlock where he snapped its neck.
The other demons gasped in horror at the sight of their leaders death, before descending on the Maliak commander who they started to savagely attack. Kirsteen, Lindsey and the survivor from the pit tried to help him but they were all easily overpowered.
Just as all seemed lost the demons were suddenly knocked to the ground. The Professor had managed to say the enchantment in time. He had run away only so that he could say the enchantment in peace.
"Sorry about the whole calling you a coward thing." Kirsteen said sheepishly.
"Now, now Kirsteen if you're going to be part of this team you're going to have to accept my more unorthodox methods." The Professor said proudly.
"I don't want to be a part of this team." Kirsteen snapped back.
The whole mountain began to shake again as a large green light enveloped it.
"What's going on." Lindsey asked.
"It's one our bases. It's pulling the mountain towards it in a tractor beam." The Maliak leader said.
"Can you stop it." Kirsteen asked.
"Not without activating the security system, which only their commander can operate."
"And you had to kill him". Kirsteen said.
"It probably wouldn't have worked anyway."
The mountain was suddenly tipped to its side causing two of the wounded Maliak soldiers to fall off the top. The Professor, Lindsey, Kirsteen, the leader and the survivor from the pit all held on as the mountain went hurling towards the ground.
"Hold on this is definitely not going to be a smooth landing!" The Professor shouted.
To Be Continued
