The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

#102 The Mighty vs. The Beast

With the trident back in Teri's webbed hands and the Twins fully powered, refusing to hide once again, they faced themselves against the shadow beast that stood before them. Howling into the air in a great rage before bearing down upon the trio.
No more running from danger. This time, they were ready to take this thing out once and for all!
The beast huffed and began to charge, eyes set on destroying its enemy. Teri and the Twins were quick to dodge as the monster quickly leaped over the rushing river. The Twins unfolding thier wings and pulling themselves into the air while Teri rolled off to the side and struck a defensive stance. At such a massive size, there was no way the beast could catch all three of them at once. Before it turned around, everyone charged and struck as hard as they could. The Twins keeping to the skies, distracting the creature with their own strength as Teri ran around on the ground below, slashing and stabbing away. Mostly aiming for its legs, hoping to bring the beast down so they had a better chance of killing it. But she had to be careful. The river running straight down the middle of the rocky ground made it difficult to get around without falling in herself. And with the Twins' enlarged wingspan, dodging each attack was getting increasingly difficult. Sure it moved slowly, but its reflexes were as sharp as ever.
Soon, Teri was hardly able to land a hit while the creature stamped around in a wild rage. It didn't seem to be worn down at all. Neither Teri or the Twins were sure they could keep up their barrage of attacks going long enough to bring it down.

Teri quickly evaded another of the creature's attempts to bite her arm off and jumped away. She quickly realized their efforts weren't proving very effective. If they wanted to bring this thing down, they had to coordinate. She switched her trident to her other hand and focused on the river before her. Bending the water behind her back and pushing down hard until she rose into the air, waving the trident around to get the Twins' attention.
"Hey! Over here! Listen to me!" Teri shouted. The Twins quickly glanced at her and flew upwards, just out of the creatures reach.
"I don't think this is working! It doesn't seem to be wounded at all!"
"Yeah, I noticed. But we can't give up, we have to-"
Teri was unable to finish her explanation as she was struck from the sky, releasing the trident from her hands as she plunged into the river. The Twins watched in shock as they spotted her pink tail going over the falls. They began to dive towards her, but the beast jumped in front of them and opened its jaw wide. They almost couldn't avoid it and split paths just before they lost their own heads. They had to circle around and come back. Teri was surely gone by now and without her, they weren't sure if the two of them would be strong enough to bring the beast down on their own. They slowly flew backwards as the best began to approach.
"I think we need to try something different." Fleetfoot stated.
"You might be right. But can we really defeat that?" Flyboy pointed at the monster.
"We can handle it. Remember what Sophie taught us? We just need to improvise."
Flyboy smirked and tilted his head upwards, an idea suddenly arising.
"I got it. Let me go first."
Flyboy quickly dived towards the ground as the beast lunged towards him, hoping to catch him as he landed. But Flyboy was quicker. He sprinted around the beast and slid into the cover of the trees, scooping up as much dirt as he could scrape from the ground. He flew back into the air and scattered the dirt into the eyes of the beast, momentarily blinding it. The beast hissed and scratched at its own face. And in its rage, it began to thrash around wildly. Flyboy wasn't able to abscond this time and was kicked to the edge of the flowing falls. Struggling to pull himself up as his feet grazed the surface of the rushing water. Fleetfoot flew around the beast's tantrum and outstretched a hand to his brother as the water began to drag his feet overboard. He was able to grab his wrists as Flyboy's lower torso was pulled into the river, but unable to pull him out. The current was too strong for him to pull against and he grunted loudly as his own feet began to slip against the ground.
The beast let out one more howl or rage, dramatically shaking its head as its sight was finally restored and locked firmly onto the brothers. The Twins quickly glanced back, unsure if they could avoid the beast this time. Until they noticed its gaze lifting upwards, no longer focused on them. They looked behind them to see a figure rising into the air. Their expression turned into a surprised look as they watched Teri rise above them, her large liquid wings bubbling with every beat as three skinny rings of water floated around her. Spinning faster and faster as she glared furiously at the beast. She grabbed one of the rings and slung it towards Flyboy. It whipped around his chest and Teri cracked it, causing Flyboy to flip out of the water and Fleetfoot quickly pulled him away from the edge. The beast roared in her direction and Teri yelled back. She whipped the two remaining rings towards the waterfall, pulling up two large streams as they began to completely cover her arms. She finally rose up and sped towards the creature, arms raised as the watery shield formed into liquid fists and landed a fearsome uppercut. The beast coughed and sputtered, not expecting Teri's oncoming offense. Thrashing and bashing her fists with all her strength. Parrying the beast's defensive strikes and delivering strikes of her own. The Twins watched in suspense from afar, not sure what to feel.
"Hey! I could use a hand here! Quick, my weapon!" Teri yelled at the Twins. They quickly stood up and spotted the trident stuck in the ground.
"Let me, I got this one." Fleetfoot offered and sprinted towards it. Teri let herself fall for a moment, punching the legs of the beast and causing it to stumble and trip over the river. Away from the trident, giving Fleetfoot a chance to get near it. His limbs glowing bright as he showed no resistance from pulling it out of the ground.
"I got it! Now what?"
"Throw it to me! Into the air!" Teri responded.
Fleetfoot grabbed both ends with all his strength and shot the trident directly up into the air. Teri landed one last blow before shooting upwards herself, almost unable to spot where her weapon was thrown from the sun blinding her momentarily. She snatched it successfully as it came back down and looked down herself. Aiming for the beast before diving and grasping the trident firmly. The Twins watched as she dove straight down and impaled the creature in the head, a faint ringing sound emanating from the impact. The beast shrieked, its cry echoing throughout the forest. Its spinning red eyes finally fading as it collapsed onto the ground. It's swirling, inky body steadily rising into a thin, black smoke and its physic melting into the ground. Teri still on top of its head grunting loudly and trying to catch her breath. Her water muscles dripping away as she yanked her weapon out of the sludge and jumped to the ground. The Twins quickly rushed over.
"Teri, are you alright?" Fleetfoot asked worriedly.
"Teri, that was amazing! You killed it in one move!" Flyboy shouted excitedly. Teri sighed loudly and laughed softly.
"Yeah... I'm okay, I'm alright. I... I really did that, huh?"
"That was the most amazing thing I've ever seen! You gotta teach us that move!"
Teri's eyes flashed as she suddenly realized something. She almost forgot...
"Wait, wait, wait..... where's... where's Apollo and Sophia?"
The Twins' smiles were wiped away instantly and they glanced at each other, remembering that they were still in danger. But Teri's question was quickly answered when something boomed in the distance, making everyone's head spin. They all flew up into the air to get a better look at the source of the thundering.

From afar, a strange swirling mist of black was circling a far off area of the forest, followed by a small, bright explosion. Causing thick smoke to drift upwards. Those firey bursts could only belong to one person. And wherever black shadows could be seen, trouble followed.

They sped towards the black storm without saying a word.