The magic circle backing the Blood Fiend came like a circular wave of reddish light each time the Blood Fiend went from puddle to humanoid giant. However, after Mindle shrank to below the Blood Fiend's height, the magic circle's light wasn't solely red. Tendrils of magic that looked like cracks in the red light had infiltrated the magic circle.
Mindle noticed what was going on, but the tendrils didn't seem to have any obvious effect on the Blood Fiend, so she continued lambasting it with her paws. But she wasn't splattering the Blood Fiend as easily anymore since it became capable of putting up resistance when Mindle shrank to a small enough size.
The Blood Fiend still lost ten out of ten times. But each time it lost, Mindle lost a significant amount of strength, and it went from three attacks to four, then to seven before the Blood Fiend fell.
