Maria rolled her eyes at Matt trying to have 'fun'. Did he not realize what situation he was in?! As if to mention her point, the harlequin finally spoke. As he did, three figures appeared. More humans. Great. Three of them, as it appeared. Well, two of them for sure seemed human, a teenage human girl that wore the strange clothes similar to Matt and the older adult human, and a smaller human that... well, he seemed childish in appearance and wore clothes in similar style to that of the clothing from Hau. The third one was so covered in unusual armor, Maria was only guessing at this point. He could be human, but she couldn't tell. And that was an unusual thing. These things... well, they didn't smell human. Sure, the three other humans she had met before smell strange, but they definitely smelled human. These things didn't.
Without warning, the childlike one suddenly lunged at her. What Maria had original thought was a flute suddenly revealed a hidden blade, as the childlike 'human' slashed at her. Maria managed to just bring up her saber in time, knocking away the blade and quickly moving back. Even so, the childlike human continued staying at a close range. While Maria was a skilled swordsman, there was two problems. The first being that even with her defensive maneuvers, the child still kept right on her. The close proximity made it difficult for Maria to get a good thrust or lunge or even slash, reducing the techniques she could use. Second, Maria was not accustomed to dueling opponents of this... stature. For a child, he seemed unusual strong and bloodthirsty. To be honest, that frightened Maria slightly.
Even so, Maria's training kicked in. She kept her stance and footwork, staying light on her feet as the Kino clone continued slashing at her. Suddenly, she felt open air under her ankle. She had reached the edge of the platform. Sensing an advantage, the childlike human attempted another stab. But Maria was still ready. She quickly parried the attack, and spotting an opening of her own, punched the child in the face with the guard of her saber. The childlike human staggered back, and Maria compounded her attack with a swift kick to the kid's side. Now was her chance to finish this. While one may have hesitated when fighting a child, Maria was running on pure animal instinct. She didn't see a small, human, innocent child. It certainly didn't smell like one. What she was up against was a dangerous foe who was intent on killing her. Maria aimed a thrust of her blade down onto the child, only for a sudden shockwave to blast her back. The child had blown through his flute, creating some sort of explosive shockwave that sent Maria off the platform. Luckily, she only fell a few feet before landing hard on a wooden staircase.
The child climbed back to his feet, quickly making his way over to side of the platform. Looking down onto Maria, he put his flute to his lips once again. But instead of another shockwave, fireballs seemed to shoot from it! Maria scrambled up the stairs, attempting her best to evade the fireballs. The ones that missed splattered against the wooden structure they were in, but strangely enough the wood did not ignite. Peculiar. Maria ducked behind another staircase just as a fireball struck her back shoulder. It hurt like heck, but her leather trenchcoat protected her from most of it. Still, Maria threw herself on her back to estinguish the flames. Another fireball whizzed by, and Maria drew one of her flintlocks. Waiting just as another fireball whizzed past, the Lycan jumped up and fired a shot. The gunshot echoed throughout the structure with a thunderous, almost deafening boom. While Maria's aim was good, the young 'human' was still fast. The shot caught the child in the shoulder, causing the child to spin and fall off his feet. Maria quickly ducked behind cover, holstering her first flintlock and drawing her second.