jerian froze , expecting the beast to seize him - but no , the roar diminished , the terrible pain it carried hanging all round him , poised in the air like a blade , one whose arc ran incomplete as he crouched defencelessly , awaiting its bite , suspended in space and time , the moment his life , his life prolonged by something he had neither the will to fight nor the energy to flee , the predator of many spores that stalked him .