A Mere Graze

....

As the giant cat that is Garfiel looked down on me with his predatory gaze, I just stood there calmly while examining his current form.

"You coming or not?"

Hearing me, he immediately pounced towards me and tried to put me under his two front paws. Seeing this, I immediately dodged it before noticing his two paws starting to sink into the ground.

"Murak."

Casting murak on myself, I immediately flew off the ground with my reduced weight as the ground began to erupt.

*boom*

As ground flew up into the air past me and dust flew into the air to block my vision, I used my strengthened eyes and noticed a mana signature launching itself at me.

And as the dust cleared from his leap, he went flying towards me with an open mouth ready to swallow me whole.

"El Murak!"

Using the mana remaining of the spirit inside my necklace, I immediately cast El Murak causing Garfiel's large teeth to stop directly in front of my face before flying towards the ground.

*boom*

As another plume of dust went up, I dropped down and immediately used a reinforced kick to blow it all away and reveal Garfiel struggling on the ground. Seeing him still under the spells effects, I landed on top of his back and took off my necklace before immediately stabbing it into his back.

"Do your thing."

Jumping off with the effects of Murak, I floated safely towards the ground and took a few steps back as Garfiel started to revert back to his human form.

Interestingly enough, his huge cat form seemed to almost compress in on itself before taking the form of human Garfiel. And I could see that the Od that was used to activate and produce the transformation had returned to Garfiel instead of disappearing.

The mana in his body was rapidly being rapidly drained making the synergy between the two energies break off. And as the two energies couldn't work together, his body couldn't sustain the transformation and made him revert back to 'normal' Garfiel.

Anyways, now in his human form. He shook his head before looking at me with rage and confusion.

"What did ya do t'me? Y'should be b'neath my clawed b'now!"

Sticking a finger in my ear, I made a bored expression towards him before staring to walk slowly towards him. "I don't need to tell you anything."

Seeing me approach him, he immediately flinched before facing me with a serious expression. Seeing his flinch, I took my finger out of my ear and looked at him directly in his eyes with a flat expression.

We then gazed into each other's eyes until Garfiel looked away for a slight moment. Noticing this, I immediately let out a small smile.

"You act tough. You also claim to be the protector of Sanctuary. You even say you are the strongest."

"But I can't help but see you as the opposite. You act tough but all I see is a scared little boy."

You say you want to protect the Sanctuary, but you can't even protect yourself. You say you are the strongest, but you're getting your ass kicked by me."

"You've also been constantly questioning both my own and Roswaal's intentions in freeing this 'Sanctuary'. But that makes no sense to me as the people's 'protector' should want them to be free."

And with a laugh, I walked in front of Garfiel and proceeded to lean forward and look directly into his eyes with my own.

"You are but only a scared little boy who thinks they know everything about the world. You have deluded yourself with this idea that the people inside of this Sanctuary would be better off to stay than to escape."

*swish*

Easily leaning back and dodging one of his punches. He immediately started to throw s barrage of punches towards me.

"What d'ya know y'bastard! Y'don't know what I've seen out there!

"I don't give a damn what's out there! T'place took away m'mother and even m'sister!"

Dodging all of the punches with ease, I let out a yawn before stepping out of his range and looked at him with a bored expression.

"So a bad thing happens to you and everyone around you has to suffer because of it? You aren't just a hypocrite, you're a dangerous one."

*swish*

"Endangering the lives of your so called 'loved' ones with what you think is best. Instead of being their protector, you're a jailer!"

*swish*

"If Roswaal is a clown! You must be the circus!"

Enraged from my words and ability to dodge, he threw a wild hook in both panic and frustration. "S'tup already!"

*pow*

Punching him in his liver with a reinforced left upper at full power, his legs flew off the ground making his aura disappear. Noticing this, I decided to put the nail in the coffin and aim for his liver once again.

*Pow*

As the sound of my fist hitting his body resounded out throughout the forest, his legs totally shut down and he crumpled to ground. Looking down with an bored expression, I looked to see what the time was and noticed the sun nearing it's time to come up.

Hearing sobs, I looked down and saw Garfiel's body convulse from his sobs. And with an emotionless face, I picked him up by his hair and made him look directly into my eyes.

"If you want me to tell you about your mother, you need to beat your past. And if you want me to take you to your mother, you need to exit this place you call 'Sanctuary'."

"If you want to someday beat me, go out into the world and make a name for yourself. Once you do that, then maybe you could make for a 'warmup'."

Letting go of his hair, his face made an audible slap as it hit the cold and hard ground. And with a yawn, I decided that now is a good time to check on Emilia.

Reinforcing my memory, I went over how Garfiel led me here before taking a step in what I assume to be the right direction. But before I could take a step with my other leg, I felt a hand wrap around my ankle.

"I-I s-swear, I-I'll p-pay you b-back.... y'... bastard....the-... then you'll.. t-tell me about.... m-mother....."

And as the damage from his transformation and my blows ran throughout his brain, he passed out while still grasping tightly onto my leg. I then felt a hot liquid flow down slowly from the back of my head and reached up to touch it.

Putting my hand in front of my face, I saw just a bit of blood so I can probably count it as a graze. I then stared down at him for a few a seconds before nodding and grabbing him by the back of his shirt only to throw him onto my shoulder and started to walk.

"Congrats kid, you managed to graze me. So pat yourself on the back, you deserve it."

Oh wait he's unconscious.... I got a good idea.... let me just....

*pat*

"There we go!"

...