Elden Ring, like most Souls games, typically rewards players for figuring out the most effective way to defeat its difficult bosses, either through overpowered builds or cheap, cheesy strategies. However, when the same strategies turn on Elden Ring Runes the other players, things could be sour fast.
Carian Retaliation, a Ash of War skill that can be applied to medium and small shields, lets you parry enemy spells and acquire three floating daggers of your own that then instantly target your enemy after a brief time. That's the way it's supposed.
In reality, skilled Elden Ring players are using the ability to block their own spells either created naturally or using consumables like Glintstone Scraps. This gives them a spammable attack that scales with the shield's level of upgrade to be a terrifying threat to regular mobs, bosses, and other Tarnished alike.
Scarier still is the fact that Carian Retaliation seems to be glitched during online play. While players can see opponents use the skill and the daggers it generates but the attack that follows is invisible, making it extremely difficult to escape even you are aware of what to be expecting.
A quick lookup on the Elden Ring subreddit shows a community in turmoil, with many players calling for Carian Retaliation to be fixed and/or changed by the developers. As FromSoftware removed a similar auto-activation technique in the latest 1.03 patch It's not unreasonable to assume those calls will be addressed in the near future.
In any case Carian Retaliation will be something everyone will need to manage for the time being. Next time you're online and see an invading player who is advancing towards you with three magical knives hovering above their head you might consider disguise yourself in the form of cheap Elden Ring Runes an NPC, until they are bored and leave.