Okay, look at Bram's Wall (#71) in this game
here. In the battle replay there, there's a Blindlord wielding a Shadow Brand who gets surrounded by dragonflies. I know he attacks them because his fatigue goes up by 10 when he does. (He's also taking fatigue from, apparently, being in the cloud from a Magma Eruption. That's separate, though.) Nevertheless, no Leeching Darkness animation activates and no dragonflies take splash damage.
-Max