"Fair point."

He supposes he at least knows how to deal with someone that is horny. "Make some capes we can then turn into tents," he says to Gabe. "I will make us some lanterns and maybe a fire. Or start with the fire and then the lanterns."

"Sure. I will make us more pointy sticks." He offers the pointy stick to Henry.

They go about doing those tasks. Henry can't start the fire without wood, so he goes about making the lanterns first anyway.

Maybe making the lanterns and/or fire was not such a good idea, as a couple of minutes after they start emitting light they hear what sounds unmistakeably like growling.

Thomas makes sure he has the shield crystal safely secured for use and raises his pointy stick to intercept anything.

Henry shines the light towards the soure of the sound. He makes crystal spikes grow out of his forearms.

Dusk plus heavy rain means it's pretty damn dark, almost night dark. So the feline creatures they are shining their lights on might not actually be black panthers.

They sure do look like black panthers, though. Four of them.

"Make yourselves look bigger..."

"There are too many of them. Aim for their faces."

"...And louder."

"Fight the danger first. Then each other." He has stopped creating the plastic fabric, and is now using what he has as a flag thing to look bigger. Also, he growls at the panthers.

They seem to be trying to scout the three for threats first, and Gabe's flag trick does seem to spook them a bit, but these panthers seem rather more aggressive than one might expect and one of them decides to lunge for him rather than cowering.

Gah! Panther can get a facefull of the thing happens to be holding: the rainproof sheet. Which, Gabe has the presence of mind to put between himself and the creature's mouth.

"No!" Henry tries to get the creature away from Gabe with a kick.

And Thomas will have to watch out for further attacks, because these two clearly don't know what they are doing.

Another panther, encouraged by the first panther's not being immediately killed, decides to go after Thomas who seems smaller and more importantly alone.

Are you ever truly alone when you have a pointy stick in your hand? Likely, but Thomas has a pointy stick and a magic shield that he can raise right before the creature connects. Then his pointy stick can make a deep connection with the overgrown black cat.

Gabe is also reminded that he has magic. And tries to push the panther off himself.

Second panther is appropriately surprised by shield and sticky and gets very stabbed! It does not immediately die but it does become immediately useless.

First panther growls but is successfully pushed off. Second panther's death sets the other two panthers off, who decide to Avenge Their Comrade. Or maybe they're just dumb animals who don't know how to run from danger. Or maybe they're just very very hungry. Who knows. What they do know is that they are now being attacked by two extra panthers, and the first panther tries to go for Henry while the third and fourth ones both try to go for Gabe while trying to keep away from Thomas, who has proven to be the bigger threat so far.

Henry is more agile than Gabe, but in an ill-advised maneuver decides to put the spikes in his forearms to good use by swinging them at the panther's arms.

With his foot, Thomas kicks mud against the other panthers, aware that they will aim for vulnerable targets. "Get up."

That is a good idea. Gabe throws some mud and dirt in the beasts' direction while retreating to get to a standing position.

These beasts are now aware that sharp things are a possibility and so are prepared for Henry's sharpness. The panther jumps out of the way and lands paw-first on Henry's thighs before attempting to bite some un-spiked part of Henry, plausibly his shoulder.

The panthers seem only barely inconvenienced by the dirt—which makes sense, they live in a jungle where it rains a lot, it would be pretty maladaptive if they had trouble with soft material being flung in their direction—but the inconvenience is sufficient to permit Gabe the time to stand up. And then be lunged at by a panther.

(The one Thomas stabbed whines one last time before dying.)

He lets the panther lunge at him, so he can raise the shield and make the thing slide off and above him. Maybe it can hit the rock they have been leaning against.

Ouch. How does the panther feel about more spikes growing out of Henry's body? It hurts. But so do animal bites.