Ssarak Dyreackthanose

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The death of the bird made Ssarak’s next decision for him. He saw Lyn re-enter the gala and intended to speak with her, but there was first another matter that quickly presented itself to him. He felt pressure against his ward, much more than before. Fortunately, his training clued him in to the nature of this attack, being that it originated from a group of psychomancers. This was not something he could ignore. 

It did not take long at all for Ssarak to react. He leaned himself up against the nearest wall and placed his concentration first in to his own defense. He reached his hand into one of his pockets and placed his hand over one of the psychomancy runes the college had supplies to each student. He did not yet need it, but if he found himself starting to be overwhelmed, he could use it to bolster his defense. He hoped it would not become necessary, as this was his first real challenge at the gala. The first chance to demonstrate to at least a part of the Djarkel court the might that the College could bring to bear. 

Ssarak could have attempted a wide concentration attack against each of his opponents at once, but that was not his specialization. His expertise was in focused concentration, he felt he could overcome that particular limitation with some creativity that played to his strengths. With his expert focused ability, he could break through a weak ward quickly, and often without notice. So, he quickly surveyed his attackers as best as he could and singled out the weakest ward he could locate within the few seconds he gave himself. From there, he worked to break through as quickly as he could while still maintaining his own ward. Once he was through, he intended to maximize the effect with the least amount of magical effort as possible. The psychomancers attacking him were all across the room, but their locations would be irrelevant. He would influence his target’s psychomantic “perceptions” to direct him or her to attack the wards of one of his allies, specifically the strongest ward of an attacker that Ssarak could currently identify, all while still thinking that they were attacking Ssarak’s wards. The result of this single action would be threefold: one less opponent would be directing attacks on Ssarak’s ward, another opponent’s attacks would be weakened by the sudden attacks against their ward, and Ssarak would gain unwitting help in retaliating against his attackers. All-in-all, it would have a fairly drastic impact on the mental battle compared to the amount of effort Ssarak had to put into his trick. And the more times he could do it, the more times the effect would compound. As long as he could maintain his own ward, it would not be long before the advantage turned towards him. He would just need to think of an appropriate punishment for his opponents that was not [i]too[/i] extreme.