Hunted Hunters

Welsher yelled out to the rest. "Protect the students! A large fang dug into his side pinning him to the ground. He pulled out a dagger from his belt and swung at the beast it was not long enough to reach but that mattered little to the dagger. It was infused with wind properties that gave it reach when needed. 

The large creature whimpered as it backed away from Welsher. Laughing the large fey looked at on to the rest and exclaimed "Oh they, saw us coming, Must be getting rusty! Stay on your toes, these things are tough in a pack. It seems like cubs though so we should be alright."

Nyssa pulled out a potion from her bag and ran towards Welsher. "Take this!" She uncorked the bottle and handed it to him.

"Thanks, I will gladly drink this." He responded as he downed the drink in one gulp. The wound on his side began to feel tingly as the healing factors began to take effect.

Doric was on his guard, he saw the one come from the side and more were on their way. He scanned the area the other one was spotted and noticed that it was now gone. "Welsher, the other one is missing!" 

Welsher looked in the same direction and then called out "To your right Skia, it will be coming soon!"

Skia was scared now. Out of habit, she reverted to using her shadow powers to hide the group from sight. Onyx saw what she was doing, "It's not going to work on these ones, they use smell to find their prey!"

Skia whimpered a little as she dispelled the spell and fell on her butt. She felt useless in this fight she was not confident in her abilities whatsoever. Onyx saw this flaw in her and sternly reassured her. 

"Remember what I taught you, You are stronger than you think." Skia shook her head and continued to tear up.

"I don't know what to do!" she cried as the Zolgos appeared next to her. Charging forward with swift and deadly aim for her throat. Doric quickly used his psychic powers to move Skia out of the way. Just enough for the creature to miss her and kick off the ground back into the forest.

"They are using guerilla tactics, Prepare a circle and keep an eye out for any movement."

Everyone nodded and created a circle around Skia who was still terrified. The Zologs dashed towards Onyx who whipped it away with a shadowy tendril. Again it would lash out this time at Mauve who splashed an acidic potion at it causing it to whimper and back away.

Silence fell for a few moments and it did not attack again. But the group kept up their guard.

"Why isn't it attacking?" Nyssa questioned with a nervous gulp.

"It's either watching us or getting help," Mauve responded.

"Should we wait or continue moving?" Doric looked over to Welsher who was holding his side. "What about you Welsher, are you doing alright?"

Welsher grinned and waved his bloody hand. "Oh it's nothing, your friend's potion helped stem the bleeding quickly so I am doing better than I would have."

A howl was heard in the distance followed by multiple howls. "Look's like it's calling the pack to it." Onyx seethed at the thought of fighting a whole pack.

This situation was getting worse and Doric was thinking through as many options as he could to counter this onslaught. One did not seem like a serious deal but when faced with a pack even their group would probably see some losses if not complete failure.

He wracked his brain on what to do. He had died many times before already so he was not worried about death but he was worried about losing all his newly made friends.

"Wasn't this supposed to be a fun hunt not a fight for our lives…" Doric muttered under his breath.

Welsher laughed hearing the skulls lament. "Hey, I said if you do this you get a week off, I wasn't going to give you an easy task for something so grand a reward!" 

He whistled and Onxy and Mauve flew to his side. "What is it?" Mauve looked excited. "Is it time for that?" Onyx was also uncharacteristically as excited.

Welsher nodded and shot his hand up to the sky. Out of his finger came a firework that shot into the air. It looked a lot like a flare. Moments passed before 2 more flares were seen in the distance pretty far away from them.

Doric looked at Welsher and the two sprites and had no clue what was going on. "Are we regrouping?"

"Not quite, We are forming a barrier around this pack with the other two groups so we can wrangle the group in and deal with them. If we take this pack out the thinning should be complete."

Nyssa pulled out a few more potions and handed one to everyone. "These potions are for later. If you need to escape take the yellow potion, If you are injured take the red one and if you need an emergency boost take the blue one. The small vials were placed in everyone's packs. Doric held them near him with his psychic powers and wondered if perhaps they would even work on him.

Welsher turned to face the group and gave an ominous grin. "We are going to become the hunters once again. Everyone, go out about 20 feet from each other and form a line. We are going to meet up with the other two groups. Based on their signals it should be about 15 mins before we make contact."

He put his hand to his ear and waited for another howl. "Based on their cries it will be about 10 mins before the zologs get to us. Everyone drink the yellow potion when I give the command and prepare for combat."

Everyone nodded and headed to their designated spots as they slowly began moving forward.