The Black Woods: Part 3: Cursed City

Shelly grabbed onto the Tyrannosaurs tongue and held on for dear life. The Tyrannosaurus Al meanwhile ran to attack the much larger creature, but one kick from the black Tyrannosaurus sent the little Dinosaur hurling over thirty feet through the air and into some trees. Kelina and Sisia were also both sent flying to, but Jade managed to catch the two women with her tail and lowered them slowly to the ground.

If it were any normal Dinosaur or natural creature a kick from the black Tyrannosaurus would have been enough to kill it, though the Al was still knocked out.

From the distance Diassa and Jade (who were the only two other than Kelina and Sisia who had remained behind and even then it was more out of fear that Sisia had remained) could see Shelly was still alive when the Tyrannosaur literally started to gag on her. Diassa fired up his magics.

"She's finished we have to help the others." Jade said.

"Her chances aren't great I'll give you that, but if there is even a slim chance we can save her from the hell inside that beast we have to take it. I couldn't go on knowing I'd just let someone fall into that hell. Could you?"

Jade didn't answer Diassa's question. She didn't have to.

Diassa fired a magical beam at the Tyrannosaurs jaws and forced them open, as well as keeping the Dinosaur in its place. It took a tremendous amount of energy to do so however. He had wisely never attempted to fight the black Tyrannosaurus on any of his previous journeys into the forest. Diassa could feel his skin tearing in certain places, whilst several of his muscles also began to spasm and the pressure on his bones was so great he was sure they would snap any second.

Still he managed to open the Dinosaurs mouth large enough for Shelly to stand up inside them. Unfortunately she was still too scared to even move however.

"What are you waiting for jump!" Jade shouted.

Unfortunately however the beast was standing completely upright, over 30 feet off of the ground. Diassa couldn't move the Tyrannosaur even an inch without the spell shattering.

The sound of the monsters previous victims screaming inside its stomach only made Shelly panic more and she broke down in tears inside the monsters mouth. It was the first time Kelina had ever seen her sister cry, which terrified her more than anything else in this heinous forest.

"Shelly jump it's your only chance. I'll catch you." Kelina shouted as she ran towards the Tyrannosaur.

"Can't hold on much longer" Diassa said weakly as he fell to his knees.

With no other choice Shelly jumped out of the Dinosaurs jaws, just as they snapped shut. Kelina did her best to try and catch her little sister, but instead Shelly just fell on top of her, breaking several of Kelina's ribs in the process.

The Tyrannosaur knocked over a large tree with its tail in its fury, before trying to crush Kelina and Shelly under its massive three toed foot. Fortunately Jade pulled them both away with one swipe of her tail.

Jade held both women up behind her with her tail, whilst she held Diassa who had fainted from the strain in her arms.

"I think its time we were off." The strange Snake woman said as she slithered away from the Tyrannosaur as fast as she could with Sisia close behind.

"What about the Al" Shelly protested.

"You expect me to carry something that big?"

"We can't just leave him here."

"He'll be fine. The black Tyrannosaurus is more interested in humans and Demons. Also you're welcome." Jade replied as she followed the rest of the fleeing bandits, catching up to them in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately so did the Tyrannosaur who scooped up two more of the bandits in its massive jaws.

As the bandits, their prisoners, and the snake woman fled deeper and deeper into the woods they were soon beset by a horde of winged Demons known as Harpies. In actual fact, Harpies were simply Pteranodon's who had been possessed by Demonic Spirits known as Herraks.

The Harpies kept their distance from the Tyrannosaurus. Whilst it didn't feed on them normally, if any other creature tried to interfere in its hunt it would rip them to shreds.

The Harpies however still cut off the prisoners and the bandits escape route allowing the Tyrannosaur to pick off another bandit. It seemed the winged terrors didn't care who got the intruders in the forest, just as long as someone or something did.

"Sorry about this, try not to get eaten." Jade said before dropping the two sisters and swinging her massive tail into the Harpies, knocking two of the monsters out of the sky.

Two more of the Harpies tried to attack, but Jade was too quick for them and wrapped her tail around another of the Demon Pterosaurs throats and snapped it like a twig, before throwing its corpse into the other.

The Tyrannosaurus however in response turned its attention completely towards Jade, viewing her as its biggest threat.

The Dinosaur jumped through the air. (It was a lot more agile than it's large frame would suggest) and almost crushed Jade. Whilst the Snake woman was able to swerve to the side and avoid being crushed completely, the Dinosaur still caught the very tip of her tail under its foot. Jade tried to pull free but it was no use.

The Tyrannosaur reached down to swallow both her and Diassa (who she was still carrying) but Jade using all of her strength pulled free, ripping off the tip of her tail that was trapped under the Tyrannosaurs foot in the process.

Jade cried out in agony, but fortunately the wound was most likely not serious. Her healing capabilities would normally see her regrow the tip of her tail in no time. She had lost both her arms once and even had her head reattached on another adventure. (The only way to kill her was complete bodily dismemberment, crushing her body, or powerful magics or fire. Also without her head, her body would turn into a savage animal attacking anything that came near until her head was reattached.)

However she wasn't sure if her tail would regrow this time as the dark magics used to create the black Tyrannosaurus were so severe they would most likely overrun her healing powers.

She obviously didn't have time to worry about that now however. The Tyrannosaurus next tried to crush Jade under its tail, which she only narrowly managed to avoid. The beast then tried again to stomp her under its foot, but not only did Jade swerve to the side, this time she wrapped her tail around the Dinosaurs foot and pulled backwards. She managed to not only catch the beast off guard, but used its own gigantic size against it, and toppled the Dinosaur. The beast almost fell on top of both Shelly and Kelina in the process however.

The Tyrannosaurus was barely hurt by the fall, but it would take it a few minutes to get up again due to its small arms.

Unfortunately as the bandits and Sisia alike tried to use those precious moments to flee, the Harpies once again surrounded them.

Jade tried to fight the Demons off, but when she wrapped her tail around one of the Demons neck, it bit into the still raw wound at the end of her tail. The monster then grabbed Jade by her tail and swung her through several trees, breaking the trees in half and knocking her out in the process, before slamming her face down onto the ground.

Several more Harpies then surrounded her unconscious body and started to claw at the Serpentine woman, whilst the rest of the bandits and the prisoners were easily overpowered.

As all seemed lost, until Diassa awoke and repelled the Pterosaurs with a magical blast that knocked them all out of the sky and into the nearby trees (the few that hadn't been toppled over.)

"Magic can take a lot of me, but it also helps me recover rather quickly." Diassa said as he woke Jade up.

Jade's wounds from the Harpies had already begun to heal, though the tip of her tail had still not grown back yet.

The bandits and the prisoners, led by Diassa and Jade fled before the black Tyrannosaurus could hoist itself up.

As one of the bandits looked behind to see that the black Tyrannosaurus had not caught up with them, he noticed dozens of Harpies in the distance carrying the unconscious Tyrannosaurus Al in the distance.

"Those things, they've got the Al." He said.

"What! We have to go back." Shelly said.

"I told you there's no time. The Harpies they work for Tyresian. I guess he got fed up of waiting for you lot and sent his elite guard. They can't go beyond the confines of this forest mind you, so perhaps he was always going to betray you when you arrived." Diassa replied.

"To think you wanted us to stay here and finish the job for that monster." Silverica said angrily.

"So did dear old daddy, and you when he went along with it." Mukinsa replied.

"It doesn't matter now we can't go back" Jade interrupted before the bandits could come to blows.

Shelly however tried to run back to help the Al, but fortunately Jade scooped her up in her tail before she could run right back into the black Tyrannosaurus.

At the end of the patch of woods the surviving bandits and prisoners came across an open space surrounded by the black forest at all ends, but filled with the remains of what looked like a city.

There were ruins, odd castles and fortresses all over the black forest, but even Diassa and Jade had never stumbled over ruins as large as these before, and they didn't even resemble those from the rest of the forest..

"Why are we stopping" Sisia said.

"There's something about that forest? In all the years I've come here to this horrible place. I've never seen anything like this." Diassa replied.

As the Tyrannosaurus came crashing through the woods behind them, the bandits, the prisoners and even Jade all ran towards the city despite the Wizard who was forced to follow's reservations.

As soon as they entered the city however, the Tyrannosaurus and the rest of the woods around the city suddenly vanished.

Diassa tried to run back the way only to find that he couldn't leave. There was an invisible barrier of some kind protecting the city.

"Magic, I'll need a minute or two to work out what kind of spell it is and break it." He said.

"Break it? Are you sure we want to get back outside." Mukinsa asked.

Just then several hideous red skinned, bald, cackling, spindly one eyed monsters began to leap from out of the ruins. There were over 30 of the creatures in total.

"I'm guessing yes." Diassa replied.

To Be Continued