I tightened my grip on Ellis Mitchell's wrist, watching terror bloom in his eyes as realization dawned. The pain from his poison still burned through my veins, but my mind remained clear, my strength intact.
"You thought I'd just swallow a strange pill without precaution?" I asked, my voice deceptively calm despite the rage building within me.
Ellis struggled against my grip. "Let go! That venom should have destroyed your spiritual channels entirely!"
I pulled him closer, my golden energy pulsing against his skin. "I isolated your poison with my qi the moment it touched my tongue. I let just enough through to feel its effects—to confirm my suspicions about you."
His face paled. "That's impossible! No one could—"
"Yet here I stand," I interrupted, "while you grovel and beg."
