Aldrich paused for a tense moment as he heard Rella's words of challenge. Valera immediately followed suit, standing firmly beside him with a strong grip on her shield. His magical energy swirled around him in a rippling aura of green, simmering in a state right before it boiled up into full blown explosiveness.
He had never been this tense even with someone as powerful as the Death Lord because he understood the type of person she was. She might have joked about fighting Aldrich, but at the end of the day, it was just that: a joke. He could tell this in her mannerisms. In her non-committal body language and her barely concealed smile that made it obvious that most of her words were to be taken lightly.
