A pressure unlike any other, one he didn't feel even in the world of dreams, even the one in front of Azmakul and Lanesha paled in comparison to this. Perhaps his first meeting with Ariel was the only competition with this kind of pressure.
However, there was a clear difference, even as his feet dug deep into the sand. There was a clear difference between these two encounters.
He could hold his own.
This wasn't the original Aranus, and neither was it the shadow of the original Aranus in his prime. It felt like it was the same as Alan... young. It was the shadow of a young Aranus, in his teenage years as a human back on Earth, or perhaps just starting out as a dragon.
The greatest evidence of this was that Alan was still standing, his entire existence had not been deleted the moment he had faced this shadow.
