what if the old fart can condense himself into a battle form, smaller, more agile, etc... than his iconic dragon mode, converting at the cry of "by the power of darksmoke" BUT the smaller, more fragile shell can't hold his full power for long, so it's a short duration transformation... or what if he could "squeeze" into a lackey, so like, he's in charge, but it's the lackey' body, transformed by his power, but again overburdened by it so the transformation isn't long-term. i feel like the big lug should be able, through some avenue or another, to get into the action, should dire need arise. and it's a closely guarded secret that he can do this.
what if skytree had knights that served him, something kind of like the above idea, but he gives them a seed than empowers them for a short duration. they merge with the seed when necessary, get super buffed, then spend that energy off and must come back to skytree to report and get a new seed. he wouldn't need many, but every tree has to have roots, right?