This chapter's epigraph comes from the opening lines of Act IV, Scene 1 : "So powerful ... kick!" . It's not a kick, it's a clang. This is a kick that's so powerful that it could have killed the guy. Luckily, the guy's got a formless defense, so he can still breathe. The guy is beyond the level of manticore, so what should he do? He's going to have to shrink the black dragon's armor into a stone so that the guy won't be able to attack him with it