However…
Quinlan's mind, sharpened by the desperation of his depleting energies and a need for any light at the end of this particularly brutal tunnel, caught a crucial detail.
As he remembered back to how he held her, how he pushed her previously... Her sheer physical power, that overwhelming, ancient pressure that should've been there, was dialed down.
Yes, he couldn't tear the wench off his manhood previously, but it was a real struggle between the two. A fight he felt he had a chance at winning if he approached from a better angle.
If Nyxara were at her full powers, there shouldn't have been such a sensation. The only thing he should've felt was the hopeless sensation of being caught between the fangs of a terrible predator, and that it was the end of the road.
Such a feeling never came, not even once.
'She's scaled down, nerfed,' he realized. 'A debuff... Furthermore, she thinks she can toy with me because she's the master of this domain.'
