With the crossbow-wielding assailant having just revealed himself as a vampire, Tiral bit him lip before directing his construct to turn around and continue chasing. Though it had barely managed to dodge the statue (what sort of person threw statues, anyhow?!), the ice creature's momentum certainly looked shot. Maybe it was because the idea was still experimental...?

Ah, well. It was worth a shot, at least. Maybe he could look into it more after his initial curiosities. But first, taking care of this man... Probably took priority. Right.

Leaving the ice beast to chase as it pleased, Tiral took note of the positions of everyone in the area as best he could, withdrawing from the front lines for a moment to begin another spell. So long as he could differentiate between ally and enemy...

[i]"Damn, this sort of thing would be MUCH easier if he had time to prepare beforehand!"[/i] he cursed inwardly before completing his incantation and kneeling to the ground, slipping his knife between a gap in the bricks at his feet. A cool blue light enveloped the blade as a single stream of water began to slip in between, seeping into every nook and cranny as it traveled along. Near allies, the water remained in place, while against enemies, the water would freeze as they moved across it at defrost as they left. For the most part, though, it was just water, which lessened the burden of having to manually control when things would freeze up.

This sort of method felt a bit more comfortable, at least. Admittedly, maybe a mission like this wasn't the [i]best[/i] place to experiment with styles of combat, but... Well, the earlier he figured out what he could use from the notes, the better. The Court Mage had mentioned a few things about efficiency, and though he was already looking into streamlining his own magil usage, well... This sort of maneuver seemed to work.

Granted, it might also be possible to repurpose this sort of spell for other uses, but that could be handled [i]after[/i] this ordeal was resolved.