I would give the Strength Eaters more credit in the effort to stop Malik. During their first meeting after MC was captured, when Malik offers to come rescue us (such a bro man, love that guy), Xhante comments not to underestimate their enemies to which Malik says something along the lines of "I didn't expect them to have Strength Eaters", implying that they were the ones bothering him the most.
Like, sure, Eisheth and her Estries locked him up in the Undines water, but it seems like the Strength Eaters were the ones taking the assault to him.
Also, about the possibility of the twins evolving, it could explain if they're the ones affecting MC, since Michael in his lvl 2 trance could suck him off with such force that MC backed away; not saying he would have died or anything, just that we have some precedence that the effect could be more extreme (especially on their case, since the effects of Strenght Eaters are supposedly worse the stronger you are).
Could be. The first time Malik mentions them he says that Undines and Strength Eaters together are trouble. Then he only mentions Strength Eaters. Then we learn that Eisheth herself made the barrier.
The sense I get from the scene, with all the extra knowledge we have now, is that Strength Eaters worked as Load Balancers. Malik probably thought that by staying in his Sun form and increasing the intensity he would have enough power to break through the barrier despite the water, but he never expected Strength Eaters. Perhaps he is less cognizant in his Sun form, or it takes too much effort to switch between Sun and Normal form?
The simple truth is that while we know the concept behind the monster, we don't know how it works in practice. I have a hard time picturing a monster being able to drain Malik in any serious capacity, This is my thought process:
1. It's unlikely that a monster is capable of draining Malik's power in any serious degree. Also when Malik finally broke through the barrier, he didn't seem drained at all.
2. The Twins seem to have a regeneration ability which is uncharacteristically strong compared to every other Superhuman except shapeshifters. So I suspect that regeneration is also part of the Strength Eater trait.
So combining these 2, if Malik stayed in his Sun form and tried to kill Strength Eaters with his "Seekers", they probably absorbed and regenerated the effect, probably because the water also mediated to take the edge off the attack, so they tanked the attacks that meant to destroy the barrier and it took significantly less damage than Malik expected.
