Caspin stood in his battle stance staring at the dingos, as much as he would enjoy to blast one of these creeps into hell with a laser he knew he should save it for when they saw the stone spitting skinless primates they were after. He only had the energy for a couple of shots after all. So he decided to weight how dangerous the little hounds were and crossed his arms, knife held southpaw, preparing for the closest one to do its worst.

------
Defensive stance.

Fie grinned ever-so-slightly. The start of combat always felt so loose compared to the later parts where everyone was calling for aid.

He began chanting quickly under his breath, summoning the power of the winds.

--
Begin casting Aero on Dingo 4.

The White Mage healed both him and Caspin after insisting that all the in-fighting stopped, which Argath agreed to only to keep him happy. But damned if he was going to take any crap from the Hume or the Viera. Zephyr had been far too confused at seeing Argath attack someone he had been traveling with, and simply stayed out of the way, though he accompanied his master as he was being healed, offering what comfort he could. After, the entire party turned in for the night.

They started off the next morning with an incredibly delicious breakfast, courtesy of the old lady. Then they set off, entering the woods to begin their search for the Udrafresk. Soon, they were set upon by a pack of dingoes. Finally, some proper action.

Facing one of the dingos, he lunged, attempting to thrust his spear right through it. This time, Zephyr knew who the enemy was, and threw itself at the same dingo, attempting to bite down on it.
-----------------
Aggrieve Dingo 3! Zephyr attacks the same target.

Docus grinned. The day had gone well so far. They'd manged to talk everything out, and while there were tensions, he felt those had defused somewhat over breakfast. Vera had her money, Argath had his, Caspin seemed to be keeping to himself. Sooo... not much talking to do, today. But he could make himself useful in other ways. At least now that he had targets.

He reached into himself again, into the bright orb power that he kept, somewhere inside his mind. Just a visualisation, of course, but an effective one. His vision became hazy as he drew off a smidgen, just as much as he could safely handle, and started to focus it. He retained an awareness of the battle around him, though, and, as he felt the air around him start to heat up, he noticed that Fie's attention seemed to be fixed on the animal threatening Caspin. His grin widened as he began to cast fire on the same target, figuring they'd kill one of them right here.

-------

Cast Fire on Dingo 4.

Prasad, who had obviously been there all along and the life of the party the whole time you don't even know don't pretend like you do, grinned nervously at the sight of the hungry, hungry dingos. His first instinct being to back away from the predators, he quickly realized such an endeavor would prove fruitless, and held his position, putting on his best cocky little poker face.

"Good doggies... Nice doggies," he breathed, giving his dice a roll, "You don't want to eat us. We're all tough and stringy and hopefully really, really hard to catch..."

-----------------
Executes Ninja's Roll.

The rest of the night was fairly calm, although Vera was a little sad about returning the money. Alas, today is a new day. She behaved while they got up and got ready, returning to trying to keep a lower profile.

Vera inched towards the nearest fighter as the Dingos surrounded them, drawing her knife. She'd like to get back with the mages and avoid most of the direct combat but one of the dingos was a little close for comfort, so she lashed out with her knife.

-------------------------
Stab that dingo.

The dingo before Argath leaps to the side as Argath lunges forward, but too slow as his blade still catches the creature's flesh, tearing through it viciously. The dingo, however, stands its ground, and charges forward through the blast from Zephyr, teeth gnashing toward the young Dragoon.

Unfortunately, just as Argath moves to defend himself, Prasad's dice come up four and six, and with a flash of light return to the moogle's hands, as everyone in the party feels as though a massive weight has been tied to them. Argath, suddenly feeling the weight is unable to do anything more than throw and arm in front of himself, the Dingo's teeth tearing into his flesh.

Vera's knife flashes out, aiming for the Dingo's throat, but the creature is fast and leaps back away from the potentially fatal blow, though the blade still carves a red line across the beast's face, but the wound only seems to enrage it as it leaps toward her. The thief is nimble, however, even with the weight from Prasad's ill luck, and merely dances out of the way of the attack, leaving the dingo to fall to the ground where she had been standing moments ago.

Meanwhile, Jade swings her oversized knife toward yet another of the creatures, and it attempts to leap out of the way, but her weapon is too large to evade completely and with a yelp, the creature finds a large gash through the front of its chest, its very bone notched by the force of the blow. These feral beasts seem not to know, pain, however, as it leaps forward, meaning to take revenge. Its wounds slow it, though, and Jade is able to easily interpose her sword between it and herself, pushing the creature away with no injury.

The creature near Caspin circles the defensive mage, its hackles raised, before rushing forward toward the mage. Knowing that, with the magical weight upon him, he'd be unable to move out of the way fast enough, the blue mage moves to block the blow and is successful in fending it off to a mere glancing attack.

The other Dingos circle in closer, moving toward the most injured prey, as the injured Dingos wounds begin to stitch themselves closed somehow.

As the party prepares to move once more, Docus and Fie finish their incantations, the wind catching the fire, swirling it about the poor Dingo who had attacked Caspin, the creature trapped within an inferno from which it can glean no air, its charred body falling to the ground, its breath coming in short pained gasps, body immobile.


-----------
Round 1, PC:

Argath-13 Damage, Dingo 3
Zephyr-0 Damage, Dingo 3

Prasad-Bust, -2 EVA for everyone for 5 rounds

Vera-9 damage, Dingo 2

Jade-15 damage, Dingo 1

Dingo 1- 30/45 hp

Dingo 2- 36/45 hp

Dingo 3- 32/45 hp

-
Round 1, Monster

Dingo 3-11 Damage Argath

Dingo 2-Miss

Dingo 1-Miss

Dingo 4-6 Damage Caspin

Dingo 5-Moves to short distance from Argath

Dingo 6-Moves to short distance from Argath

Argath- 14/25 hp

Caspin- 17/23 hp

Dingos Regen 5 hp per round:

Dingo 1- 35/45 hp

Dingo 2- 41/45 hp

Dingo 3- 37/45 hp

-
Round 2 PC,

Fie - 22 Damage, Dingo 4

Docus - 25 damage, Dingo 4


Dingo 1- 35/45 hp

Dingo 2- 41/45 hp

Dingo 3- 37/45 hp

Dingo 4- -2/45 hp

Although his companion was in danger, sometimes the best defense was a good offense. Besides, he'd likely be incapacitated long before Fie could finish the incantation. It was better to think ahead and salvage the rest of the fight for now.

Fie pulled whorls of air down from above the party, preparing for another blast of air on one of Argath's aggressors.

--
Aero on Dingo 3.

E: Tactics change.

Caspin felt the sudden weight of bad luck on his shoulders and felt quite happy he had taken the time to prepare to block. Because no quantity of agility was going to save him from harm this time. The dingo leapt and was pushed off but not without its claws digging a little into his skin. Nothing fatal, but it hurt.

Then came the Taruts with the heavy artillery blasting the damned thing into a fiery whirlwind of death that was beyond its ability to withstand. It fell to the ground, but he could already see its wounds starting to mend. That would not do. His eyes glowed and he grinned a massive toothy grin as the teachings of his old master fell into his hands his knife shaking with hunger.

He pounced, knife thrusting into the creature's gut and pulling all the way up to it's chest. His other hand thrust inside and yanked out the innards with reckless abandon. His head pulled back and smashed into the ribs, compacting them so his knife could cut down the sternum. He gripped both sides and ripped open the chest and grabbed the beast's still beating heart and tore it away taking a savoring bite from it before his hands gripped greedily at the ribs. Bones snapped, his teeth tore tough meat from connective tissue, sucked marrow from broken limb, his knife tore at skin strips to be chewed and swallowed in moments. Into the eye, breaking into the skull, sucking out the scrambled remainder of the brain and eyes, cutting off the tongue. Everything was taken. He cackled in a bloody mess where the dingo used to be and turned to stare at the remaining group, knife in hand, ready for the next victim.

In hindsight he realized he probably shouldn't have done that since they needed it for bait. But what was one snack?

---------------
Caspin uses Devour.

Prasad sighed heavily at the sight of his roll, the powers that be involved suddenly making him feel like a much easier target, and put the dice away with a defeated shrug.

"Son of a kupo," he growled, quickly drawing his pistols and taking aim at the dingo nearest Jade, "Hey sword girl, incoming bullets!"

Squeezing the triggers, he hoped that his aim proved better than his luck this morning.

---------------
Prasad attacks Dingo 1.