"If you don't let me go now, we're all dead." The Hylexan commander insisted to Florence.

She knew he was right, but at the same time if she released him she and Keptis would most surely die. Maybe it was better to take the aliens down with her than let Keptis suffer in the pit?

The ship started to rock back and forth as the monsters attacked it.

"Release the prisoners from the pit and I'll release you" Florence said more firmly.

Knowing he was out of options, the Hylexan commander was forced to agree. He was genuinely shocked that she had not given in, having always assumed due his dealings with the Quilax that humanoids were somewhat cowardly.

"Release the Quilaxs and the strange green alien for now." The commander ordered.

The Hylexan soldiers however refused.

"You heard what I said. Release them now!"

"We cannot obey. A Hylexan commander must never give in to enemies’ demands. You have lost your right to command." The red Hylexan replied.

The Hylexans magic was linked to how obedient they were. If any Hylexan disobeyed their Emperor's orders, then their own magic would destroy them. The Hylexan commander knew this, and ironically all Florence had done was finally push him to be willing to sacrifice his life in order to pass on his command to another member of the crew.

The red Hylexan's skin started to turn black as the magic of the vessel upgraded the red Hylexan to the rank of commander, whilst another blue Hylexan's skin turned red as it was upgraded to the rank of second in command.

The black Hylexan in the Circus meanwhile screamed as it began to vanish into a puff of green smoke.

"DESTROY THOSE MONSTERS" The new Hylexan commander shouted as magics fired from the flaming craft into the giant ravenous Lystergias outside. One of the serpentine beasts exploded completely whilst the others began to scatter. As the Hylexan commander prepared to fire another missile however, he suddenly saw something else come into view. It was a gigantic flying, glowing city!

"Incredible. I can't believe the Quilax's have created such a thing!" The Commander said.

"You are not allowed to praise our enemies" The second in command said or rather thought angrily.

"I apologise. The city may look striking, but it will easily crumble before our weapons."

"It doesn't even look striking" the second in command insisted.

Florence meanwhile searched frantically through the weapons chest to try and find a weapon that could hurt the monsters. Suddenly however almost all of the magic on board the tent mysteriously vanished. Florence felt that it had to be the work of the Hylexans, but how? "If those monsters can drain this ship, why did the commander sacrifice himself?" She thought to herself.

Whilst Florence was searching for a suitable weapon, the Strange Boy grew impatient and hopped out of the tent. Florence didn't even notice at first, and neither did the Hylexans. The Strange Boy jumped onto the back of the new Hylexan commander.

Before the octopus-like creature could respond, the Strange Boy dug his talons into both sides of the monster’s amorphous body and pulled with all its strength, ripping the Hylexan in half down the middle. Without the commander the ship began to spiral out of control.

The second in command's skin started to turn black. The ships had to be powered by a being of incredible magical power, the commander. Only the strongest members of the Hylexans could become the commanders however.

There would always be a few back ups on each vessel, but if the Strange Boy could kill them all then the vessel would crash. The Strange Boy meanwhile without knowing still went after the red Hylexan as it was in the process of changing, and pulled it towards him, impaling the octopoid on his hand.

Two more Hylexan soldiers wrapped their tentacles around the Strange Boy and started to dig their tentacles under his skin and shock him. The Strange Boy tried to fight back, but as more and more tentacles poked their way under his skin, even the mighty Jiang Shi was soon unable to even move.

Florence, having heard the Hylexan's cries when they were slaughtered by the Strange Boy, struck both of the Hylexan's attacking the vampire with an axe. The axe was not magical and so it only produced a minor wound on both monsters which quickly healed, but it was enough to distract them long enough for the Strange Boy to escape the beast’s tentacles.

The Strange Boy then jumped onto the new commander who was in the process of changing. The vampire and the alien wrestled with each other, whilst Florence did her best to distract the guards. She spent most of her time simply dodging their attacks and occasionally striking at their tentacles with her axe. Each time she sliced a part of them off however, the tentacle would simply grow back.

Outside of the Hylexan ship meanwhile a fleet soon began to amass around the Lystergias and started firing on them.

The giant monsters didn't last long. Whilst they were capable of breaching the Hylexan's defences they were vastly outnumbered. Still at the very least the giant serpent creatures held the fleet back, even if only for a short while from the flying city.

With Denika's help the Circus Master meanwhile began to cobble together some of the magics from the city itself to try and create a weapon. He was forced to make a weapons building disappear in the process.

"It took us ages to build that. It was our main defence center. You better know what you're doing" the angry general said.

"I've only known them a short while, but trust me they do," Carlene replied.

The Circus Master and Denika constructed the gun in a matter of minutes through various enchantments. The Circus Master seemed to do most of the work. Whilst he may not have been as skilled as Denika at practising magic. In some ways the Circus Master's knowledge of magic eclipsed hers in certain areas.

"There that finally seems to be it. Denika, you just be ready to catch it when it falls." The Circus Master said as he aimed the glowing, red cannon.

"Care to fill us in?" Ashlei asked.

"I've cobbled this weapon together from spare magics in this city and some spare magics from Denika. It won't be able to destroy the vessel up ahead, but if I'm correct then we might be able to shut down all of the magics in the ship, reducing it to just a hollowed out metal shell. Denika will have to catch it afterwards if we are to get the Tent back."

"How good a chance do you give us?" Ashlei asked. The Circus Master didn't respond and simply fired the canon. The Hylexan's ship containing the tent began to spin out of control. Inside the floor began to vanish, as did all of the equipment.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The Hylexan commander meanwhile managed to get the better of his vampiric adversary who was distracted by the ship rocking and throw the Strange Boy across the room. The commander then took control of the ships remaining weapons and fired them at the city.

Denika was barely able to block the blast with her magic and doing so threw her 20 feet from the edge of the city and knocked her out cold.

"What are you waiting for?" One of the Quilax commanders shouted at the Circus Master who had stopped firing the cannon.

"I can't fire. Denika can't catch it in our current state. We'll lose the Tent and this city which draws energy from it will fall out of the sky."

The Circus Master ran towards Denika and along with Carlene and Ashlei tried to rouse her, but again it was no use.

The last surviving Lystergia meanwhile followed its masters in the city's lead and attacked the Hylexan vessel Florence, the Strange Boy and Keptis were locked in in its weakened state, buying the Circus Master, Carlene and Ashlei the time to wake Denika.

"Finally. Great time to blank out on us Denika." The Circus Master said angrily.

"Sorry I only got hit in the face by a giant magical death ray!" Denika replied.

The Hylexan fleet surrounded and vaporised the final Lystergia from behind. The Quilax watching from the city all bowed their heads in respect. The Lystergia race had existed for millions of years before even the Quilax themselves, and they had always been seen as symbols of great power, even beauty among their people. At one point the Quilax's early ancestors even worshiped them as gods. Now if the last of the Quilax survived, none of their descendants would ever set eyes on one of these beautiful, unique creatures. Nevertheless the creatures sacrifice had bought the Circus Master enough time to blast the Hylexan vessel containing Florence and the others with his cannon, completely destroying the magic of the ship.

Denika managed to catch the empty metal shell the ship became in a magical tractor beam. It was an incredible strain for the witch just to hold it in place however.

As the Hylexan fleet drew closer, the Circus Master started firing at them. He managed to bring down dozens more ships, but the Hylexans also managed to fire several shots at the city too. They destroyed dozens of buildings, killed hundreds of Quilax civilians, and caused the back section of the city to collapse.

Inside the Hylexan vessel containing the Circus meanwhile the dark matter dungeon vanished and all of the Quilax, the Hylexans, the Circus as well as Keptis were thrown together inside a small metal room that could barely contain them.

The Quilax prisoners instantly started to attack the Hylexans but they were easily overpowered and ripped to pieces. Keptis meanwhile, overcome with rage, grabbed his flaming saw and stabbed it into the Hylexan commander from behind whilst it was distracted by the Quilax, before slicing it straight down the middle.

Whilst they were fighting, Florence ran back into the Tent to search for more weapons. She managed to find a few of Carlene's spare gas bombs which she used to scatter the Hylexans. Florence's vampire senses allowed her to see through the gas and she pulled Keptis, the Strange Boy and the three remaining Quilax back into the Tent.

"I'm glad I got the commander at least." Keptis said.

"Actually that was a different commander, but he deserved it anyway." Florence said as she piloted the ship. Florence thought about the Circus Master, whose link with the Tent was the strongest as she threw the coins into the main fountain hoping it would take her to him. She didn't know what situation he was in, but she felt she had to find the rest of the team to warn them about the Hylexans.

In a flash the Circus vanished in a puff of smoke and appeared at the every edge of the city in front of Denika, the Circus Master and the crowd of Quilax.

"Thank god" Denika said as she let the Hylexan vessel fall thousands of feet to the ground. She couldn't take the strain of holding it up much longer.

Florence, The Strange Boy, Keptis and the Quilax soon emerged from the tent, with the three surviving Quilax's families running to them.

"Glad to see you made it from those vengeful octopus things'" The Circus Master said cheerfully, though Keptis was in no mood for his humour.

"Can one of you be a dear and hold off the fleet for a bit. I need to check inside the Tent." The Circus Master continued.

Keptis grabbed the Cannon. After what he went through in that pit he wanted to take down as many of these monsters as he could.

The Circus Master searched through the Circus. So much of it had vanished and been reduced to nothing but bland stone. Fortunately the city would not drain the vessel completely. Its power, created by the vandals and modified by both Professor Fang and other powerful beings, was constantly able to renew itself. At the same time however as more and more of the ship was drained then its defences and most of its kitchen and its toilet (both kept separately below the living room) had vanished.

"I spent so long decorating this place" the Circus Master mused to himself as he looked at the engine of his beloved vessel, the fountain. The Circus Master began to chant over the fountain. He hoped to infect it with an invisibility spell, with he and Denika having collected some invisibility spells on their travels, which were now being drained. Invisibility spells could only work on one person at a time. They also weren't full proof. Vampires for instance could still trace people by scent, whilst other demons and even magical creatures could sense the magic used to create the invisibility. In some cases it could ironically make things worse!

Still it was the city's best chance of escape. Even with the cannon they'd soon be outnumbered.

The Circus Master hoped that as the city was drawing from the Circus for power that if he could make the Circus invisible, then the spell would spread out over the entire city. The vandal just had to find a way to stop the remaining invisibility spells from being converted into the magic for the city.

Outside Keptis fired at the Hylexans taking down dozens more of their vessels. Florence had never seen him overcome with such anger. "My god I think he hates these things more than vampires." She thought to herself.

The Hylexans rained down more lasers and magical blasts on the city, killing a few more Quilax. Carlene and Ashlei frantically ran around the city to try and help the fleeing Quilax, but there was really nothing they could do.

The Strange Boy meanwhile simply stood there watching the chaos, completely disinterested. He only seemed to enjoy helping if there was a chance for him to fight. Otherwise he was completely dead to everything around him.

Keptis was so busy attacking the Hylexans that he didn't care about the civilians either. Florence was forced to push him out of the way of one of the Hylexan's rays just in time, but in the process he dropped the cannon that was completely destroyed by the Hylexans rays.

"You stupid vampire". He screamed at her in rage.

Some of the Hylexan vessels began to hover over the city. Clearly they were getting ready for a landing to scoop up whatever Quilax they could for their twisted master, but just as they were on the verge of victory however, to the Hylexan's shock the city suddenly vanished. The Circus Masters spell had worked!

"Denika get us out of here now" The vandal shouted as he ran from the tent. Denika was able to pilot the ship out of the Hylexan war ship’s way without any problems, and into the planet’s atmosphere.

Within a few minutes the surviving Quilax were able to look down on their planet from the stars. Unfortunately the Circus Folk could not use the Circus Tent to help the Quilax still stuck on the planet escape. As it was so linked to the city's core, if they were to use it to escape the city would break apart. Not all of the Quilax would be able to fit in the tent for one journey either.

Hundreds of the Quilax had escaped in the city at least, but even then sadly up to half of the city's entire population had been slaughtered in the bombardment. Carlene, Ashlei, the Circus Master and Florence tried to help the few survivors whilst Keptis just sat at the edge of the city.

Florence was the most concerned about him. Sadly she didn't have time to help him now as there were dozens of Quilax still lying under the rubble.

Suddenly however the entire city's attention was drawn back to the Quilax's home world. In the distance the planet began to burn in a blaze of magical fire.

The Hylexans knew that somehow the Quilax city had escaped the planet. Their vessel could pick up faint traces of the city's magic in space, though they couldn't place its exact location.

Still they knew that several of the Quilax were in space and so they had no need for their planet anymore. They were more than capable of destroying it before now. They only didn't because they wanted the last of the Quilax to hand over to their leader.

It only took a few minutes for the Hylexan's dark magics to burn the planet into nothing.

"An entire world. Gone in a flash. Even at our worst we were never capable of such senseless destruction. We truly are the only survivors now" the Quilax commander said as he bowed his head.

"I'm sorry commander. No one should have to see their world end like that. Still this does not need to be the end of your people. Your world can live on through all of you." The Circus Master said.

The soldier composed himself. "You are right, strange alien. Thank you. Thank all of you" He said to the Circus Folk. "We have to do all we can to help the civilians now. We can't let this all be for nothing."

To Be Continued