First Blood

JP with Omni and Lorem:

They dropped their burdens and fell into defensive stances. Voah knew that she wouldn’t be able to fend off this many attackers for very long. Especially not in her current state of exhaustion. Scaring them off was not going to work at this point and she thought it best to not mame but kill them as quickly as possible.

“Stay close to me.” she said.

These animals looked skinny but strong… and they were obviously hungry. They were close now, circling their victims and constantly moving to keep attention shifting from one to the next.

Voah saw the first attack come, but it was a feint and she fell for it. The beast had fooled her, allowing a second dog to jump at her from the left just as she moved to cut the first one down. It jumped back with a yelp as she sliced it somewhere behind its front legs on its side, but the other dog found purchase on her left forearm, enough to puncture twice and tear down. It’s jaws were powerful but it did not take hold. This was a tactic to try and tire her out, but it was a mistake on the dog's part. Althought it had managed to get a bite in, the beast underestimated her will to fight. She turned, bloody and fuming, as she let out a mighty growl of pain and vengeance, to decapitate the beast in one fell swoop. She was so tired, but she fell back in line against Goyaul's back as the dogs kept circling.

During this time, a third desert dog was attacking Gonyaul behind her.

Gonyaul could see the caravan continuing to move off in the distance in his peripheral vision. He called for help; however, his dry throat and hoarse voice could barely croak out enough volume for their general vicinity let alone the grow distance to their traveling companions. Why would the caravan just abandon them? He was perplexed that the rest of the group was indifferent to them being in peril.

His attention snapped back to the attacking desert dogs. He could tell The assault had begun by hearing the noises behind him; however, he couldn’t turn to look or assist without compromising himself and Voah’s back to the other potential threats facing him. He would have to trust Voah to handle herself and she would have to trust him, the safety of not just their individual person but the other depended on it.

Gonyaul was confident in Voah’s role, he doubted his own. Yet, there was no time to think. He barked in Vauxian at the dogs confronting him. He held the staff between himself and them; not as a seasoned warrior but as someone using the item as a makeshift obstacle between himself and danger.

The first dog came in for the attack with confidence, as if smelling his fear. Gonyaul awkwardly brought the end of the staff up and out of the ground towards its face, spraying sand in its direction. The beast clamped it’s mouth shut to avoid getting a mouth full of sand and easily dodged around the swinging end of the staff. It neared within striking distance.

Gonyaul thrusted the top of the staff immediately downward so that is vertically accelerated back to the earth; the ends having switched positions. It was a dancing with the stick maneuver, not a combat technique; however, it effectively positioned the staff between him and the lunging dog with teeth unsheathed.

Gonyaul took one step left, and caught the dog’s side with the vertically position staff. Like using a simple lever, he pushed wood into dog and sent it rebounding off balance away into the sand.

The dogs attempted the same hit and run tactics on Gonyaul as they did on Voah. One would lunge forward, close enough to feint a nip and jump back while another made the actual advance to try to take a bite.