Previously on "The Otherworlders": Inez, Ava, and Fiona must face the daunting task of scaling the tower at the back of Enchanted Chancellor's residence to try and find the tablet fragment for their mission. 

Ava's attempt fails, but then Fiona gives it a go. She successfully scales the tower, and inside, amidst an ocean of expensive religious artifacts, she finds the tablet fragment they're looking for. She takes a few pictures and sends them off to Master Achebe.

With their mission now done, the girls are headed back to the ball when they encounter Gabriel, the Chancellor's son, possessed with sharp his fangs and red eyes, blocking their path. Backed into a corner, Gabriel uses his animotronic magic to bring the stone Manticore at the center of the fountain to life. 

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The creature at the center of the fountain descends from its perch, its landing causing the earth to quake beneath its massive weight.

It spreads its wings wide — twelve feet, tip-to-tip — and beats them down into the fountain, splashing up a wave of water, six feet high, that douses Fiona and Inez.

The Manticore roars, and Inez sucks in a breath.

How on earth are they going to defeat this thing?!

Ava, still on fire, dives in and hurls flames at the Manticore's face.

The beast rears onto its hind legs in response then swipes its formidable claws at them, catching Ava by her tail and hurling her into the tower wall.

"Ava!!" Fiona screams as she rushes over and slides down onto her knees next to Ava's crumpled body. She gasps at the sight of her friend's long, elegant neck bent at an unnatural angle and reaches out to gently cradle her in her arms, whispering softly, "I've got you. I've got you now."

Meanwhile, Inez is torn between going to help Ava too and fighting off the Manticore alone.

She steps up to the challenge.

And while she's not a Mage which means her general magic isn't terribly strong, she's still got a few tricks up her sleeve.

Lifting her arms from her sides, Inez begins to murmur a spell in Latin.

Ego voco aestus maximos ad me.

She repeats the phrase three times and within seconds, all the water from the fountain begins to rise, creating a liquid screen, cutting them off from Gabriel and the Manticore.

Fiona looks down and notices Ava stirring back to consciousness, slowly reverting from her avian form back into her corporeal form. She carefully covers Ava with the dress she lost when she shifted and then stands. She turns around to face Gabriel and the monster he's summoned.

Glancing over at Inez, Fiona says, "So, here's what we're gonna do. Why don't you let the wall of water down, slowly and carefully," she emphasizes. "And then once it's about halfway to the ground, you go after Gabriel, I'll go after the beast."

"Okay, but..." Inez starts, "How am I supposed to go after Gabriel?!" she asks as her arms begin to quiver underneath the strain. She can't hold the wall up for much longer.

"I don't know, 'Nezzie!" Fiona retorts. "Distract him! Mesmerize him! Knock him out somehow!"

"All right! All right!" Inez huffs out a breath. She begins to lower her arms slowly, and as they come down, so does the wall.

Now that the girls are exposed and vulnerable again, Gabriel's gaze locks onto Fiona.

Inez frowns. This was not part of the plan!

And for some reason, Fiona's the one Gabriel seems to want to attack first.

Inez flicks her fingers forward, magically splashing water up into Gabriel's face to distract him and luckily, that does the trick!

But after shaking off the deluge, Gabriel whips around, looks at her, and his eyes narrow.

He bears his fangs, and with his sharp claws extended, begins to chase after Inez.

Meanwhile, Fiona is squaring off with the Manticore.

Standing firm in her tattered dress, she blows her wet curly hair out of her face and balls her fists at her sides. "Okay, big boy," she says. "It's time to play. You wanna tussle? Let's tussle." She lets her fangs drop, psychologically revving herself up for battle.

Reaching underneath her slip, Fiona grabs six shuriken, her Ninja throwing stars, from hooks on her garter belt, extends her arm, flicks her wrist, and launches star after star at the Manticore.

Aiming for the point where the beast's wings meet its body, the spot Master Liu showed her where her throwing stars would cause the most damage, Fiona lets her shuriken fly.

With each strike, the Manticore reels back in pain. It's screeching cry piercing the air.

But the beast recovers much faster than Fiona expected. It bends its head and strikes it's paw against the ground, kicking up dirt like a bull ready to charge at a matador.

Well, damn!

Now, she's gone and gotten the thing really pissed off!

In a panic, Fiona glances up at the top of the tower. That's her destination. She needs to lead the Manticore up there.

But to do it, she's gonna need to get cracking!

She starts to make the climb up the tower wall, hoping that if she successfully inflicted enough damage to the Manticore with her shuriken, the beast will be forced to climb after her instead of launching a flying  attack.

Halfway up the tower, Fiona looks back to see the Manticore pounding its powerful claws into the wall, following her lead.

Good!

She shimmies to the top, heaves herself up, and rolls over the parapet, landing flat on her ass.

She scrambles to her feet and surveys the area, realizing that she only has two, maybe three minutes before the creature comes cresting over that wall to come and hunt her down.

Luckily, she spots an old flagpole on the other side of the roof.

Using her enhanced Vampyr strength, she wrenches the pole free, discards the tattered flag, and readies herself, holding it up before her like a spear.

Her hands tremble as she sucks in a shaky breath, whispering to herself, "Element of surprise... Element of surprise... It's all about the element of surprise."

The moment the Manticore's head appears over the parapet and its paws land on the roof, Fiona charges with a shout, "Aaaaahh...!"

With a surprising amount of force, she whacks the Manticore in the face, but her strike fails to knock the animal off the wall.

Crap!

This is going to be a lot tougher than she thought.

She takes another swing at the Manticore, but this time it reaches up and catches the pole in its mighty paw, knocking it aside and flinging Fiona across the rooftop with it too.

She flies through the air, lands with a thud, and then rolls helplessly on the ground to the edge of the tower.

The Manticore shakes its head to regain its bearings, lurches forward, and with a ferocious roar, it coils its scorpion tail high above its head, preparing to strike at its prey.

But suddenly, it yelps in pain as a stream of fire hits it in the face, igniting its furry mane.

The Manticore pitches back, batting frantically at its snout, trying its best to put out the flame.

But Ava keeps the torrent of fire up until Fiona can get back up onto her feet.

Fiona gives Ava a silent nod that she instinctively understands, and she stops the barrage of fire just long enough for Fiona to get a running start.

Moving at incredible speed, Fiona jumps and plants the pole into the ground and like a pole vaulter, leaping through the air with her legs extended before her, she hits the Manticore in the chest with such force, it tumbles backwards and topples over the edge of the wall, falling 50 feet to the ground to its death and within seconds, the Manticore disintegrates into ash.

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A/N - A reader asked me if I added a Manticore to my story because of Percy Jackson (or maybe it was Harry Potter, not sure.) 

But the answer is actually, no. I was inspired by a statue that's a part of a giant fountain outside the Place Saint Michel in Paris.

Unfortunately, I've never seen it in person. I've never even been to Paris. But a girl can surely dream, can't she? 🤩

See you next week!

~ Paula ❤️