The smoke from the burning lightning slowly dissipated, leaving behind a haze that stung the eyes and the faint, acrid scent of ozone.
Not far ahead, the man stood hunched over, his body trembling faintly as crackles of residual electricity still danced along his skin.
I flexed my fingers, clenching and unclenching my numb fist. My arm felt heavy—tingling from the discharge. That last hit had carried more voltage than I'd planned.
But before my strike could fully connect with his chest, something had stopped it.
A faint shimmer. A flash of black.
Then came the sound—crack, crack!—as shards of dark ice shattered and scattered across the floor.
'Black ice…?'
I narrowed my eyes, realizing what had happened.
'He blocked it—in that instant?'
The thought alone was irritating. My attack had been near-instantaneous, impossible for most to react to. Yet somehow, he'd managed to conjure a defensive spell in that sliver of time between impact and death.
