Unfortunately these Imps were now being quite aggressive. Despite being unnerved by the human's sudden show in combat strength they were not backing down and before any of the others could act they were quickly on the offensive once again. Luckily there were only 5 left with two of them being quite beaten up. Of course the Imps weren't the only ones beaten up either. Sasha had taken some heavy damage and Ren was down some health as well. One imp though, seeing Lucian take down one of them with his Bo Staff, quickly rushed at him from about a few yards away, its speed allowing it to close the short distance between them quickly and aim its claws for Lucian's neck. --- Imp Claw Attack: 57 Lucian Parry: 4 (Critical) Miss --- Fortunately the Staff Mastery Skill seemed to be in full affect here. Lucian would be able to easily brush the claw attack aside with a skilled movement of his staff. In fact it was skilled enough to where it actually knocked the weakened Imp down onto its back with how sudden it was, allowing Lucian an opening that would allow him to strike the now downed creature. Of course his skill with the staff seemed a little higher right now as two windows appeared in front of him. The first said that his Staff Mastery Skill's Level had increased by 1 and the other said thus: [hider=Second Window] Your incredible show of prowess with the staff has further increased your talents for Melee Weaponry. +1 Melee Weaponry. [/hider] --- Lucian Free Strike: 30 + 25 (Free Strike) - 5 Melee Weaponry - 7 Skill Bonus = 42 Imp Dodge: 72 Hit! Damage Dealt: 7 --- It must have been thanks to the newly leveled Staff Mastery Skill, but Lucian's attack hit straight dead on, right in the creature's chest. It let out a loud 'aaagh' of pain the moment the blow connected, vanishing as if the weight and strength of the blow destroyed it. Right after Lucian destroyed the creature yet another two windows appeared, one appearing first and then disappearing, giving way to another window. [hider=First Window] A Skill has been created through a special action. The ability to immediately counter an opponent's parried strike, Riposte, has been created. [/hider] [hider=Riposte] Riposte (Active: 6 MP) (Lv 1: 0/100): +1 Dex. You can use right after you dodge or parry an enemy's melee attack to deal a very fast counterattack. This Skill has a -25% to its Attack Speed. To Level Up, either successfully perform Counter or fail on an attempted Counter. [/hider] The new skill seemed strong, but also seemed to take a small chunk of MP. Still the ability to counter attack would come in handy, but how to use Active Skills was still something that was a bit unclear to all of the Gamers except for Ren. And speaking of Ren as Lucian destroyed the Imp with his skilled counter attack another Imp seemed to head straight for the young boy, teeth gnashing and claws raised. It was one of the weakened ones, but it still seemed quite angry and wasn't letting any signs of its weakness show as it barreled right towards him, aiming to strike the boy down with a powerful strike of its claws. --- Imp Claw Attack: 13 Ren Dodge: 37 - 23 Dodge = 14 Hit! Damage Dealt: 0 Damage (Nullified by Resilience) --- The Imp's charge was dreadfully accurate, as was its strike, which barely managed to hit the very agile Ren. Unfortunately though the strike seemed to bounce harmlessly off of Ren, feeling more like a common scratch rather than tearing claws thanks to both his own physical resistance plus the glowing blue 'armor' of Mana around him. Another Imp though, one of these not being weakened, decided to aid what could be called a comrade, again it was unclear of how these creatures thought of one another. It also charged at Ren, the two Imps now in front of Ren making it harder for the agile boy to dodge this next oncoming strike. --- Imp Claw Attack: 14 Ren Dodge: 2 Critical Miss --- Luckily Ren was ready this time. With incredible agility he managed to not only dodge out of the way with ease, but managed to get into the Imp's blindside as well. The moment he was there he saw the opening and quickly brought his knife down upon the Imp, hoping to end this creature quickly with this sudden counterattack. --- Ren Free Strike: 18 + 25 (Free Strike) - 19 Melee Weaponry - 10 Skill Bonus = 14 Imp Dodge: 29 Hit by Half (Auto Max Damage) Damage Dealt: 15 --- Ren's counterattack was quite effective, the boy getting close to the enemy and slashing the knife along the creature's side. It let out a loud cry of pain as it clutched its side, which didn't bleed at all, and now glared angrily at Ren as it was certainly weakened, but not out. Unfortunately another Imp saw Sasha as the 'weakest' link right now, being quite hurt herself, and charged towards her. Luckily she had backed away towards the others, so it had to cover a short distance to get to her. Still the beast was on the charge and if Sasha got hit then it certainly wouldn't be pretty. --- Imp Claw Attack: 22 Sasha Dodge: 99 (Fumble) Critical! Damage Dealt: 38 --- And quite unfortunately it wasn't pretty at all. Perhaps she tripped or just wasn't prepared, it was hard to say. Suddenly the Imp was in front of her, the little beast being quite quick. Its claws suddenly tore into Sasha like an otaku would tear into a newly released video game. The claws hurt, alot, and the quite deadly strike would cause Sasha to fall backwards, all of her HP being taken away by that one Critical strike. --- Staying Alive? (Focus): 15 - 10 Focus = 5 --- Somehow or another, despite the incredibly painful and rending blow Sasha was still standing, if not by the skin of her teeth, literally. A very strong will allowed her to stay standing, but unfortunately above her head in dark red, ominous looking text was the word 'Deadly', that had a small skull next to it. Something allowed her to still survive an attack of that strength, but surviving again would probably be impossible, so Sasha retreating for now would probably be the most advised strategy. Still if one good thing came out of that a window appeared saying that her Physical Endurance Skill had increased by 2 levels. Luckily no other Imps went after Sasha during those few seconds. Instead another rushed Lucian, as it had seen Lucian destroy yet another Imp with his staff, its claws also bearing down towards Lucian's neck in a bestial fury. --- Imp Claw Attack: 98 (Fumble) Lucian Parry: 65 - 6 Melee Weaponry - 7 Skill Bonus - 53 Miss --- Luckily Lucian didn't need to know how to use his brand new Skill. The Imp's attack was so uncoordinated thanks to its rage that it stumbled itself, allowing Lucian to easily brush aside the stupid creature and knock it down with his staff in the process. This, once again, opened up Lucian to another counterattack without even needing to use his newly acquired Riposte skill. --- Lucian Free Strike: 61 + 25 (Free Strike) - 6 Melee Weaponry - 7 Skill Bonus = 72 Imp Dodge: 80 Hit! Damage Dealt: 6 --- The strike hit dead on. Unfortunately it wasn't entirely accurate and the Imp's tough skin seemed to reflect most of the attack. Still a window appeared for Lucian, stating that his Riposte Skill had increased in Level by 1. Unfortunately this wasn't the time to celebrate, especially with Sasha in the condition she was in, despite still being standing. "Get back Sasha, its too dangerous for you right now!" Ren shouted this out, his usual chill in his voice not there. If anything it cracked a little bit. Ren may have hated people but by no means did he wish any ill will or death on others, so seeing Sasha in what he assumed to be some critical state where even a bee sting could be deadly was enough to get Ren in a panic. Unfortunately he had his own problems to deal with, namely the two weakened Imps right in front of his face, so he couldn't get to Sasha to help right now. Instead he jumped backwards quickly, not even caring that he opened himself up to two free attacks from the Imps. --- Imp 1 Free Attack: 31 Imp 2 Free Attack: 32 Ren Dodge: 79 - 25 Dodge = 54 Hit! Hit! Damage Dealt: 3 Damage Dealt: 0 (Nullified) --- Ren took both hits, the first one seeming to get a cringe of pain out of him as it got through his glowing armor, but the second one bounced harmlessly off the glowing barrier of Mana around his skin. Instead he focused now with all of his might, crying out [i]"Mana Bolt!"[/i] as two bolts of energy shot from Ren's palm and straight at the Imps. --- Ren Mana Bolt 1: 47 - 9 Projectile Weaponry = 38 Imp 1 Dodge: 76 Hit! (Half below, auto Max damage) Damage Dealt: 12 Ren Mana Bolt 2: 89 - 9 Projectile Weaponry = 80 Imp Dodge: 2 (Critical!) --- The first bolt targeted the Imp that Ren struck with his knife, hitting dead on and in a small explosion of blue energy the Imp vanished into thin air. The second one, however; was far off the mark. In fact the Imp, using its agility, used the moment that Ren fired both bolts to actually get close to Ren, actually getting off a counterattack of its own against the young boy. --- Imp Claw Attack: 12 (Got a Critical on the Roll, Free Strike penalty brought it to 12) Ren Dodge: 37 - 25 Dodge = 12 Critical Strike! (Double damage, but not max damage) Damage Dealt: 14 --- The Imp's slight distance and it attacking suddenly on an opening gave Ren just the edge he needed. Still the attack was deadly accurate and managed to get through Ren's defenses regardless, dealing quite a nasty blow that could have been real nasty if Ren hadn't gotten lucky. Luckily Ren's 'MP Armor' served its purpose and seemed to prevent Ren from being in serious danger, but still things were pretty bad right now for him though since there was still an Imp right in front of him and Ren was pretty wounded. Things were looking pretty bad for the small party despite their only being 3 Imps left with two of them being wounded. Still if there was anymore solace out of all of this right now, its that everyone's Level, except for Ren's, increased by 1, making them all Level 3 now.