The dakhols strike back

Even as the last of the golden ashes of the Aidan Manikin vanish into the air, you hear a loud crunch of a metal-on-metal impact and a scream of pain. Whipping your head to the left, you see Llwyd with his shield arm hanging limp at his side. His shield is crumpled like the front end of a car that ran into a tree and his arm and shoulder are mangled almost beyond recognition. The dakhol roars in victory and raises its club for another strike, but Ceirios's golem slams into it with a shoulder tackle, shoving it backwards several feet and knocking it down to the ground. You start to shout for the mage to heal Llwyd, but she is already on her way; instead, you say, "Ysbail! Cover Llwyd and Ceirios! Brighid, Maeryn, finish those manikins now!"

Your major spells are still cooling down, so you run forward, hands extended and fingers dancing with the gestures for the Flame Jet spell. Even as the twin streams of flames begin to arc from your hands towards the remaining handful of manikins. You glance over to your right and see the huge, coarsely-furred dakhol slamming its club down at her with its long arms over and over and over. Cai dodges the strikes she can and deflects others with her shield, but every dodge saps her Stamina and the sheer blunt force of the massive creature's club is wearing down her Health bit by bit even though her armor and shield is able to absorb the majority of the impact. Cai's axe is red with blood, and the dakhol's fur is matted and wet, but the patches of skin you can see are unmarred by any wounds. Clearly, while Ysbail may have managed to kill one of these things on her own, Cai will not be managing the same feat today.

"Hold on just a little while longer! We have to kill the other one first now that Llwyd is hurt!" You call out to her, then focus on torching the rest of the manikins. Fortunately, for whatever reason, these have not been protected from fire, and your basic Flame Jet spell is able to kill them in a little over a second each since they have been burned by Brighid's Fiery Aura Ability for several seconds are were already weakened. With two hands directing fire simultaneously, you are able to clean up the manikins swiftly and turn your attention to the dakhol struggling with Ysbail and the golem. Ysbail is missing about half of her Health between the minor injuries she took from the manikins and the attention the dakhol is giving her now. She is able to parry or dodge every one of the dakhol's swings, but such is the creature's strength that every parry causes the adventurer to gasp in pain as a slim chunk of her Health bar darkens.

Unfortunately, the entirety of your current offensive magic arsenal is fire damage based except for Spark of Life and Pulse of Life, neither of which will hurt the living dakhols. Grimly, you reach into your Handy Haversack and pull out the Sun-ray Spear. Until your allies manage to slice the thing open, the best you're going to be able to do is maybe poke it in the side and distract it for the big hitters. "Ceirios, can you get your golem to try and grapple or restrain it? Brighid, Ysbail, try to slice me some deep holes in this thing so I can fry it." Even as you speak, however, you hear a crunch and another cry of pain behind you.

Before you can check on her, Cai calls out, "Running out of Stamina over here! I am alright but not for much longer!"

"Alright ladies, it's do or die time!" You cry out as you lunge with your spear. The dakhol casually slaps your attack away with the a backhanded swipe of its hand, nearly disarming you in the process. However, with you, the golem, Maeryn, Ysbail, and Brighid all attacking it, it is unable to fully defend itself from every attack. You circle around towards the dakhol's front and jab rapidly at it, not even fully attempting to hit it but rather to pull its attention away from the golem behind it. It roars and takes a step towards you, club raised in what would almost certainly be a fatal blow if it connects with you, but the golem wraps it up in a bear hug from behind and lifts it up off the ground. Immediately the dakhol start to writhe and pull at the golem and slam the club into the golem from over its own shoulder, sending a spray of gravel through the air and causing the summoned monster to drop the dakhol. However, exactly as you hoped, the momentarily complete diversion of its attention allows your party members to capitalize.

As soon as she sees the golem wrap its arms around the dakhol, Ysbail brings her sword around in a double-handed grip to her side, tip pointed directly behind her, and lets out a shout as she activates an Ability. Her massive sword begins to glow, at first just dimly but brighter and brighter over the course of just a couple seconds. As she charges up her attack, Brighid fluidly shifts into her Scorpion Stance and begins to rapidly stab and slice into the dakhol's exposed belly. Arrows from Maeryn slam into the creature's head, neck, and shoulders one after the other. Finally, just as the dakhol gets back to its feet after being dropped by the golem, Ysbail's attack finishes powering up and she shouts again. She rears back and lunges forward, bringing her sword around and down in a gleaming overhead slash which catches the dakhol just to the side of its head. Her blade crunches cleanly through its shoulder blade and ribcage, finally stopping in its hipbone, just short of slicing the monster into two uneven pieces.

"Now Aidan!" Brighid shouts, and you are already on it. Unwilling to risk anything less than a complete kill, you drop your spear and rush up to the creature. Even as this grievous wound begins to stitch itself closed, the golem grabs each half of the dakhol and pulls it back apart. You lean over it, sprayed by the fountain of blood shooting from its still-living body, thrust out your hands, and shout the word of magic for Soulfire Blast. Again you feel something tearing out of you as silver-white flames roar from your hands and into the innards of the dakhol. You hold the spell on the creature for a full five seconds until finally it begins to burn on its own.

Before you can congratulate yourself on a job well done, though, you hear another loud crunch of steel on steel behind you then the sound of an armored body falling to the cobblestoned street. Ominiously, you do not hear a scream or cry of pain from Cai, but Llwyd lets out a wordless shout of anguish and fear from where Ceirios is still working to heal his mangled arm.