The Voranth lunged directly at Garrick. Blood wrapped around its arm and hardened, creating a coating around it.
Garrick's fist collided with its clawed hand.
The impact sent a shockwave across the courtyard, but before it could do any significant damage, Garrick redirected the force.
The Voranth's body twisted violently.
Garrick grabbed its wrist and redirected its momentum toward the ground.
BOOM!
The creature slammed into the pavement. Cracks spread beneath it. Garrick then raised his hand, and following his command, every piece of loose metal in the courtyard began to tremble.
Broken railings. Fragments of benches. Metal framework from the damaged classrooms.
They all rose into the air.
The Voranth looked upward with a concerned expression.
Garrick closed his fist and the metal descended.
A storm of steel fell from the sky, it was as if an entire building collapsed on its body. The creatures was buried beneath the rubble.
There was silence for a few seconds.
Then—BOOM!
The metal exploded outward. The Voranth emerged from beneath it. Its body was covered in wounds. Blood ran down its face. Its breathing had become heavier.
Garrick noticed immediately.
The creature's regeneration was slowing. The Voranth noticed too, and it was very confused.
This had never happened before. The Voranth was the epitome of cockiness due to its regeneration ability; it was proud of it, and how could it not?
It was capable of regrowing limbs, heal wounds, regrow organs and much more.
Unbeknownst to the Voranth, Garricks's magnetic fields were affecting how the blood acted on its body. He had noticed this phenomenon during their fight.
It was strange, he had participated in many battlefields and never realized that his magnetic fields affected blood as well. Of course he had tried it before, as he knew that there was iron within each blood cell.
Unfortunately, his experiments, which consisted of a single attempt when he was of a lower rank, resulted in failure. After speaking with scientists and doctors, he learned that the iron in blood is bound inside hemoglobin molecules, not floating as free ferromagnetic iron.
He decided to leave that experiment for a later day, but never got around it again. Until now, who would have thought that one he would have fight a creature capable of controlling blood?
After realizing that its regeneration was being halted, the Voranth lost its smile for the first time since their battle started.
Garrick stepped forward, forcing the Voranth to attack again. This time, Garrick met it head-on. He moved with a speed unlike before and struck the creature's ribs. The force behind the blow sent it skidding across the courtyard.
Before it could recover, Garrick accelerated his own movement. He crossed the distance in an instant.
Another strike.
Then another.
Each blow carried a redirected kinetic force. The Voranth couldn't do anything and was driven backward.
It tried to strike again, refusing to go down this easily, but Garrick seized its arm.
He redirected its momentum and threw it across the courtyard. The Voranth crashed through a wall, making the remaining structure collapse over it.
Dust swallowed everything.
Garrick stood still and slowly lowered his hand. The battle was over, or so he thought.
The rubble shifted, and the Voranth emerged. It was badly wounded. One arm hung loosely at its side. Several deep wounds covered its torso; it was obvious that its regeneration struggled to keep up.
Garrick looked at it.
"It's over." He said while staring directly at the creature's crimson eyes.
The Voranth stared back, and for several seconds, neither moved.
Then the creature looked down at itself. Its fingers trembled. It looked toward the destroyed courtyard.
Then toward Garrick. A quiet laugh escaped its throat.
"Yes." It said, with a forced smile on its face.
Garrick's eyes narrowed, and the Voranth's smile widened.
"I've lost."
Garrick took another step.
"It would be best for you to surrender. I really don't want to kill you, there's a lot we need to talk about." Garrick answered as he slowly approached it.
Then, the Voranth's gaze shifted. It moved Past Garrick; toward an unconscious boy lying several meters behind him.
Allan.
The creature stared at him for several seconds. Then it looked back at Garrick.
"No." It continued while looking at its clawed hands.
Garrick's stance tightened at that.
The Voranth's smile returned fully, as it had never faded from its face; its crimson eyes shone with a red hue underneath the sun.
"This was never about defeating you." It slightly tilted its head to the right.
Silence.
Garrick said nothing, but Voranth continued.
"You believe I came here to kill you all." It continued, by now its smile literally stretched from ear to ear, showing its sharpened teeth.
Its crimson eyes returned to Allan.
"But things are not as they seem." It said while slowly returning his gaze towards Garrick's direction.
Garrick's expression hardened.
"What are you talking about?" Responded while his eyes slightly narrowed and his hand started to rise slowly.
The Voranth chuckled.
"You seem to think this attack was a failure, that we didn't accomplish our objective."
Its body began to dissolve. Blood seeped from its wounds and spread across the pavement.
Garrick immediately reacted.
Metal fragments shot toward the creature, but the Voranth's body scattered into countless droplets.
The metal pierced empty space and Garrick's eyes followed the blood.
The Voranth's voice echoed through the courtyard.
"Perhaps you should ask yourself…"
The blood began disappearing.
"…why I stayed as long as I did, while knowing your strength."
Garrick froze. His eyes widened slightly.
The Voranth's voice grew faint.
"Why did I allowed you to learn what I could do?" It said as the final dropped of blood seeped between the cracked pavement.
"And why…"
The droplet vanished.
"…I needed to see him."
Silence.
Garrick slowly turned. His eyes settled on Allan's unconscious body. For the first time since the battle began, uncertainty crossed his face.
The Voranth was gone, he could feel it, its presence no longer could be felt near the school.
But its final words remained.
Garrick stared at Allan. Then at the empty space where the creature had disappeared. Something about the encounter had been wrong from the beginning.
And now Garrick understood one thing.
The Voranth had never considered this a failed attack. It had accomplished something.
He just didn't know what