Board Thread:Jobs Board/@comment-49.146.192.48-20131231074513/@comment-49.145.105.114-20140102092703

So that means you can choose your SS's 'target' even if it's empty air then, assuming that's what Asuna did, rather than stopping the system skill herself.

Also, the battle with Heathcliff can be taken as an example since he didn't use much skills especially by blocking Kirito's sword with a shield. Heathcliff had either higher or equal stats to Kirito so the simple block with a shield, assuming it has high durability while Heathcliff has enough STR to block without effort, is possible.

But the battle is just an example to what I meant that as long as you have high enough stats, you can really stop a SS without using skills.

On another note, I don't know if this is considered off-topic, I also remembered Kirito mentioning that using some skills or not, they cannot damage the environment but from what was shown in the anime and some parts in the LN that there were some damages that happened (only they weren't very noticable due to all the action).