Aspel/Merri/Drake/Ari
Sleep hadn't worked, and Merri was out of mana. There was nothing he could do but watch as Drake tried his best to incapacitate the woman, or so Merri hoped. He was helpless when Drake seemed frozen and his shaking hands had found the hilt of his rapier. To use this in actual battle against a hume -- an unarmed hume now, even -- it was unthinkable! And yet he couldn't let Drake...
A melody floated to Merri's ears, distracting him from the dilemma at hand just long enough to feel rejuvenated enough to cast again. In that timespan, however, he watched Aspel attack the woman. Time seemed to slow as she brought her sledgehammer down for what would have been a deathblow, should have been a deathblow, and Merri found that he let out a sigh of relief when she missed. But now he could do something to help, and to start, he tried Sleep on the woman again.
Nothing.
He frowned; he was sure he'd cast it correctly. He tried one of his more reliable spells, Stun again, and still nothing. Maybe Slow, just to buy them time... but she moved at the same speed as she did before, free from Drake's grasp, and Aspel moved as though his spell had affected her instead of their opponent.
Merri was out of time. The woman reached for her gun again, and if he didn't act now Drake or Aspel or Ari would die but he didn't know what he could do without hurting the other woman. More, he didn't have the time to attempt Esuna over and over again until he got one of the spells correct.
"Oh Faram," he murmured, "please forgive me."
Merri cast Aero at the woman to knock her down, or, barring that, the gun out of her hands. He gasped out an apology before he redirected his efforts to Esuna to relieve Drake from his stasis. Luck shone down on him, and it worked the first time.
"Don't kill her," he begged, his voice hoarse. He wasn't sure if anyone heard him. Merri swallowed saliva to try to wet his throat so that he could begin casting again: Dispel, and then Sleep and Stun and anything he could cast upon the woman that would only immobilize her without hurting her. Then Drake and Aspel could arrest her instead, or something, and nobody would have to die.