Unfortunately for Sasha, Ren was already out of the gate before she began talking about plans, already confronting the mage. Of course, this would still allow Sasha to begin sneaking into the next yard quickly and quietly while also trying to get a jump on the mage. --- Sasha Acrobatics: 6 - 12 Climbing = -6 --- Sasha was able to quickly and easily scale the fence into the next yard, although it might have been a little more quick if Sasha knew how to climb properly. It was thanks to physical strength that she was able to pull herself up and over the fence both quickly and quietly, now able to continue sneaking towards a path to get a jump on the chanting mage. --- Sasha Stealth: 56 - 32 Stealth = 24 --- Luckily, thanks to being in a back yard of a house still, Sasha was easily able to remain undetected as she continued sneaking. In the meantime, the mage seemed to finish chanting his spell and seemed like he was about to cast it. --- Mage Spell: 31 --- The mage was about to cast his spell, but something happened and the spell fizzled, the man cursing out loud. It seemed whatever Ren did to him seemed to do just the trick and make him a bit clumsier and more unfocused, thus interrupting the casting of his spell. Now Silas began his own counterattack against the mage, first activating the Ban Family Breathing Technique, a window appearing in front of him saying said technique had been activated and a green, misty aura glowing around his body. After that it was time to attempt some fancy footwork, de-summoning the katana after the clash of weapons seeming to startle the man a small bit to try and roll to get behind him. --- Silas Tumble: 26 - 19 Acrobatics - 10 Special Bonus = -3 Fighter Blocking: 47 --- Luckily it worked, Silas now in a great position behind the man to attack, which would definitely not be good for the large, armored man as with Silas' swiftness despite that taking a few concentrated moments he was able to attack after standing up from that position. --- Silas Energy Strike: 30 - 24 Melee Weaponry - 9 Skill Bonus - 25 Distance Bonus = -28 Hit! (Max Damage) Damage Dealt: 23 --- The attack hit square on, very precisely in fact right in the man's back where he couldn't really defend from the damage of the attack and thus take even more, but the man's own toughness and incredibly strong armor seemed to stave off a good bit of the damage, but Silas still had the second attack of his Chain Attack Skill, the Energy Strike carrying over into this strike. --- Silas Chain Strike: 2 (Critical Strike!) Hit! (Critical) Damage Dealt: 86 --- The second attack seemed to hit very deep, even getting through a bit of armor and shearing through, a large chunk of HP dropping from the man, but still the Critical Strike didn't seem to damage him as heavily as it did other monsters, but it still dealt a very large chunk of damage, the man gritting his teeth as the katana did indeed draw some blood. This was a human being, a person who bled, so using a weapon on them with a blade would cut them and wound them. It was needless to say that this would be alot different than fighting a basic monster. Several things went up in level and even Melee Weaponry seemed to get a buff from that after those few attacks. Even if this battle didn't give actual EXP, there was still some great Skill levels to be gained here. Not only that, but two familiar windows seemed to appear, indicating the creation of a new Skill. [hider=Window] A Skill has been created through a Special Action. Through incorporating acrobatic movements into an attack the ability to strengthen your attacks through fast and special movements, Acrobatic Strike, has been created. [/hider] [hider=Window] Acrobatic Strike (Passive) (Lv 1: 0/100): You know how to incorporate tumbling, leaping, jumping, and other forms of acrobatics into your attacks. When you successfully incorporate an agile or fast movement of acrobatics into your attack you deal an additional amount of damage equal to 10% of your Acrobatics Score. [/hider] The man still seemed to have a very good chunk of his HP left, although whether or not killing these guys was on the table yet still had yet to be determined. Ren, in the meantime, was still fighting the mage. Suddenly he called out "Undine! Water Arrow!" A form seemed to materialize from water in front of him. It looked like [url=http://i957.photobucket.com/albums/ae53/Ranire/UndineCardfixed_zps2df8e589.jpg]a girl who seemed to be somewhat made of water[/url], yet also had a physical body as well, the girl being about three or so feet tall. She thrust out her hands towards the mage, something that appeared to be a pressurized blast of water that looked like a comet like arrow shot from her hands towards the mage. --- Undine Water Arrow: 44 - 21 Projectile Weaponry = 23 Hit! Damage Dealt: 26 --- The arrow hit right on target, but the moment it seemed to get right near him the arrow seemed to be stopped by an invisible shield that shimmered blue for just a single moment, the arrow seeming to be blocked by the shield. Ren, in the instant after the arrow hit the mage... --- Ren Reaction: 58 - 18 Dex = 40 --- Unfortunately Ren wasn't able to react quickly enough in time to change tactics as he saw the arrow being blocked by something as the instant after the arrow launched and hit the mage, Ren cried out [i]"Eldritch Flame!"[/i], a dark greenish-blackish fireball forming in his hand and then Ren throwing it at the mage from his hand towards the mage. --- Ren Eldrtich Fireball: 46 - 18 Thrown Weaponry = 28 Hit! Damage Dealt: 28 --- Unfortunately the same thing happened with the fireball. He attempted to dodge, and it hit, but the fireball hit that same barrier and was stopped by it, Ren cursing as the man just laughed. "And here I thought you were a threat from how your friend is faring with my brother, how foolish of me to think that!" And once again he began to chant quickly. And speaking of brother, the large fighter quickly turned around after Silas jumped backwards. Unfortunately, even though Silas was pretty quick and able to jump back, the large man was able to quickly close the gap thanks to his own bulk, swiftness, and the reach of his maul, able to attempt an attack on silas with the gigantic weapon, suddenly though his body seeming to bulk up a good bit as his eyes flared and a strange mist came from his body as he seemed to move with even more power, but was a bit clumsier. Still suddenly he swung his hammer forward. Unfortunately Silas would be able to discern that the hammer was moving with way too much strength for Silas to be even able to block, giving Silas no choice but to dodge. --- Fighter Attack: 71 Miss --- Luckily the attack missed, the maul whiffing through the air as it swung in a sideways arc, slamming into a street lamp that happened to be in the swing's arc. A loud crack could be heard as the metal lamp post was completely broken, it falling to the ground and landing on a nearby house, breaking it. The house, that now had a hole in it thanks to the fallen street light landing on it thanks to the power of the swing. There was nothing inside the house though, literally nothing. It must have been the reason why people couldn't enter buildings, they were completely empty thanks to the power of a Pseudospace to make sure that the normal world wasn't affected, meaning they could blow up this entire block and nothing would happen in reality. It was really nifty how Gaia could do this. Still, if Silas had gotten hit by that maybe he wouldn't have died, but his HP still probably would have taken a nose dive to say the least. Still, despite how strong that blow was, it might have been something that Genji could do easily. This attack looked like it strained the man a bit to perform. Now Silas had another moment to counterattack, although while this man's strength seemed to be doubled perhaps formulating a different plan would be a better idea as whatever was happening to him was probably also making him much tougher as well and maybe getting to a better vantage point using the terrain to try and avoid that man's hammer at the current moment, a hammer that seemed to be able to topple stone lamp posts and send them flying a small bit into a house about ten yards away. Luckily it wasn't Ren's house, but the house next to it, not that it would have mattered thanks to the Pseudospace. Sasha could also continue to try and sneak up for a close assassination attempt, not able to see Ren's attacks on the mage due to being in the back yard of the house in front of the two fighting mages, so she would not know about the mage's shield, so she could continue sneaking up, or perhaps lay in wait for an opportunity to attack.