Damon felt his head throb as his shadow energy slowly recovered. He sat still, shoulders slightly hunched, watching the amorphous blob roll across the floor. Its body rippled and folded in on itself as jagged teeth spread wide, crunching down on what had once been its cocoon.
The sound was wet and unpleasant. The creature was not even the size of an adult cat, barely half that but its appetite was disturbingly ravenous.
He lifted a hand and pressed it against his temple, fingers digging in as irritation crept through him. His mana reserves were in shambles. Even after absorbing seven rank three mana cores, the recovery had been insignificant.
With a quiet click of his tongue, Damon pulled out a mana crystal he had taken from Aetherus. He crushed it in his palm, instinctively trying to draw the mana into himself.
The energy vanished.
It was ripped away before it could even brush against his heart, seized by the world itself and denied to him outright.
