Noticing the odd girls reaction to the thing, it seemed she knew it to be a bad creature of sorts. He moved with her to back her up, but didn't attack at first. He had been reprimanded before when he jumped in on a fight without permission. 

As the creature threw the board back, Echo assumed it meant her harm as well now. Even if it was only self defense, he was going to side with the girl until the violence settled. It's next actions were unusual, but then it retreated into some bushes before Echo could act on it as well. He did notice it keeping a tentacle to her now though and that was certainly unacceptable. A white wisp appeared in his lantern and glowed rather oddly. At least maybe the minds litter would see its oddity. The light spanned several realms in a fiery fit. As he came down on the tentacle it was smashed and began to burn. 

The whole ordeal seemed to take less than three seconds. The girl seemed a little shocked and he was worried of her care. He didn't what this creature did to her. He couldn't ask her how she was, so he merely rubbed her back to try and console her. That is unless the creature still decided to reach out. Then he would certainly react with hostile intentions.