The Ghost rose, its movements still fluid but now carrying a perceptible, humming charge. "The primary target adapts. Withdraws the easily harvested energy source. Employs… less nutritious tactics." It observed as Julian's shadows coalesced around him, forming blades, whips, and shields of pure darkness—attacks that offered no energy to steal, only solid, nullifying force.
"A wiser choice," the Ghost conceded tonelessly. "But insufficient."
It attacked again, but its style shifted completely. No more simple blades. Its arms morphed into complex, segmented weapons that crackled with contained electrical fields. It fired shards of superheated, magnetized metal. It created localized distortion fields that tried to warp Julian's shadow constructs. It was fighting now with a combination of its advanced technology and the raw, violent energy it had stolen, a hybrid assault that was both brutally physical and dangerously energetic.
