Giselle, Yuna, and Vincent were at the front of the line, and thus the barrage was seen coming before nearly everyone else was able to react, Helena included despite having a front row seat to the whole thing.  The nurse wisely ducked down out of the way of the magically appearing knives.  Getting a sword up in time, Giselle blocked one that would have otherwise hit another bystander and ran in, Yuna and Vincent shooting others out of the air before they could hurt anyone else other than the one person that had one sticking out of his leg.  Getting to Kiruna's side, the half Drow locked eyes with the neko and reached out with every ounce of magical power and focus she had.  "Sleep!"  The spell would work to put the neko out cold if she didn't push past it of course.  Only a few people could have hoped to block her though since she was doing her damn best to diffuse this situation before it got any worse.