Rex didn't waste time sizing up the shades. What's there to analyze when you already know you're stronger?! The thought blazed through his mind as he lunged forward, his fist glowing with Aether, crackling like a miniature star ready to explode.
His punch connected or at least, it should have. Instead, it passed through the shade's body like plunging his arm into a pool of frigid, swirling ink.
The sensation was wrong, sickeningly cold and viscous, as though the shade had briefly swallowed him whole before spitting him back out.
Rex twisted mid-motion, flipping backward with acrobatic precision. He landed in a crouch, his breathing sharp, his skin tingling where the shade had touched him.
"Great! Intangibility. Of course," he muttered through clenched teeth, frustration rippling in his voice. No satisfying impact, no bone-crunching victory, just the smug, spectral invincibility of these things.
