Alice only looked for a while before going straight into her battle again. A thin sheet of ice flickered into being at her shoulder, and the head of the hammer skidded along it, scraping off a trail of frost before it struck the stone. Alice was already inside the Gnome's guard, her blade burning white-hot in her hand.
She drove it into the seam beneath his arm, where the weathered skin was thinnest.
The Gnome howled. He tried to turn, but Alice didn't let go. Lightning poured down the length of the blade and into the wound, and she felt it surge through his body, tearing through the darkness that clung to him and searing him from the inside out. His eyes bulged, his grip slackened, and the hammer fell from his fingers and crashed onto the ledge.
She pulled the blade free, and he collapsed.
