When the explosion came roaring out, Ryuuko reacted the same way that she had planned for traps: try and pump mana into it and overload the spell, and failing that hope that her outstretched hand would divert the magic so that the damage would go off to one side and leave her unharmed. Unfortunately, this wasn't a trap and didn't work the same way the maid's runes had and the attempt could at best be described as 'barely successful'. Instead of being significantly disrupted, the explosion was merely weakened slightly and drawn towards her arm--leaving light but noticeable burns and down one sleeve. Her hand got the worst of it but, though the heiress' grip didn't slack. Pain was too little reason to let herself be weaker.

"You're lucky that wasn't worse. My father would never let you go if I were to die to some common criminal," she said, annoyed at being even further back than her initial position. She would have to take this with more seriousness, even though the idea of striking with full force at a seemingly defenceless girl was nauseating.

This time, when she darted forwards, it was with magic reinforcing her base abilities and moving faster than any human had good reason to be. In a race between Ryuuko and Kitty's reactions, she planned to delay the blonde by working out [i]what[/i] she was doing. Step one: cut the previous explosion's origin mid-dash.

If that forced her to do something else, she just had to outlast the mage.