"What—what is this?" Baler asked, feeling his well-managed Mana reserves getting eaten away but the Dark Magic that was now spreading through his entire body.
And then he felt something swinging at him and looked to the side just in time to see Caius swinging his practice sword at his face.
Baler cast a defensive spell and could immediately tell that that only accelerated his Mana loss. Fortunately, the Frost Pill was still augmenting the chill of his magic so he only needed to do very little to defend properly against Caius's attempted attack.
Alas, he only then realized the practice sword swing was a feint.
The moment his attack was blocked, Caius was already pivoting on the spot to spin around and swing his left arm to strike at Baler's cheek with a wicked backhand.
