She went straight to violence at the slightest disagreement.
Rhode had been wondering whether to muster up another bit of "Dark Magic" to show Malicia, but now it seemed unnecessary.
Mostly because she did not seem nearly as easy to fool as Hearthglen.
In the blink of an eye, just as Malicia began casting, a silver-white figure charged toward her like lightning with a piercing roar, thrusting a sword gleaming with cold light at her!
It was Drake.
As the warrior standing at the front of the party, he reacted immediately when he saw the enemy about to attack.
And it seemed to have worked. The recoil through his wrist assured Drake that he had hit his target.
But he soon realized that what he had struck was not Malicia's body.
It was an Ice Armor Shield!
It was like a barrier of ice walls surrounding Malicia, and it looked utterly impenetrable.
Drake's sword could not advance another inch, but the momentum of his charge still carried his body forward.
He raised his shield in time to protect himself, but the collision with the Ice Armor Shield produced an enormous crash. Drake was knocked onto his back and sent tumbling away.
In this clash between a powerful warrior and a frail spellcaster, the warrior had unexpectedly lost!
Still, Malicia did not seem entirely unaffected.
Even through the Ice Armor Shield, some of the impact from Drake's Charge reached her.
Although barely any force remained, nowhere near enough to injure Malicia, she still swayed involuntarily, and the spell energy in her hands, which had been ready to unleash, suddenly destabilized.
To keep the spell stable, Malicia hurriedly focused her attention on that mass of magical energy.
In other words, although Drake had not hurt Malicia, he had bought his companions the