S and I left the guild hall.

Well, that was pretty painless, wasn't it? To be honest, I almost feel silly putting it off for so long. I really should have just dealt with everything earlier. But... I've never been fond of going to the doctors. I know, that's a silly reason, but... 

Well, it wasn't so bad this time, anyways. Yeah. 

S and I were kinda just standing outside of the guild hall for a bit, trying to think of something to do to end the day. 

S seemed to have calmed down quite a bit. Though I thought he was pretty cool earlier, I'm glad he's back to normal. It's never fun to see someone you care about in pain.

He looked down towards the ground, seemed to be thinking about something.

...

I was gonna suggest we head back to the inn and just take an early night, or something, but I'll let him finish.

...

Wonder what's up with that whole 'Dark Lord' thing. Seems cool.

...

Man, I haven't had anything sweet today...

...

Ah crap, I gotta get more money, soon, don't I? Probably should've checked out the job board, while we were at the guild hall. 

...

Oh, shoot, I never paid for my meal at the inn, did I? I guess S probably left enough... I'll head back there in a bit

...

We stood there for just under a minute. 

"Hey, Beyes..." S said. Oh, cool, guess he's done.

"Wha?" I asked.

"I've been thinkin'... I gotta get something off my chest. Could you warp us..." S paused, looked out at several people on the street, and sniffed once. "... Somewhere far away?"  

I felt my heart skip a beat. What could this be?

I nodded. "Does Basenholm work?"

S looked irked for a moment, after I said that. "Uhuh." He said, nodding, and peeking around suspiciously.

"Oh, crap, should I not have-"

"It's fine. Let's move, quickly." 

Ah, probably didn't want me to say that. Ah well. Regardless, I moved quickly, as requested, over to one of those conveniently placed alleys, where I created the holes and brought us from Starsford to Basenholm. I put us in the woods, just outside the ruins from earlier. Which seemed to be a good idea at the time, until I realized that it was pretty dark outside town. There was a little torchlight coming from the ruins, at least. 

Without missing a beat, S grabbed one of those yellow - glowy potions from earlier, and downed the whole thing. Suddenly, a good amount of light began emanating from S. Cool. Man, that was quick. Did he figure I was gonna put us here?

It was a little chilly out there. Not, like, super cold, but enough that I could feel it through my robe. 

"Sorry. This wont take long." S said. 

"No, it's fine." 

"Right..." S paused, and looked downward at the grass, probably collecting his thoughts. I got the feeling that whatever this was, it was gonna be important. Still, I made sure not to let myself get too excited.  "So... Remember when I was fighting Catface, right?"

Oh, it's about that, huh...

Anyways, uh, yeah, I do remember, obviously. It did happen, like, just a few hours ago. I keep the sarcasm to myself, though. "Yeah. Looked pretty intense." I said. Gonna be pretty hard to forget that event, actually. 

"Well... That's uh... That's the problem. It wasn't."

Huh? "Uh... Elaborate." 

"Right, uhm... Basically..." S began, before closing his eyes, and taking a deep breath.

"... Basically, it was barely even a fight."

Really? 'Cus it sure as hell looked a lot like a fight to me. Once again, I spared the sarcasm, and just looked at him, all confused.

"A fight would imply that the both of us were in danger." S said, and sighed once more. He looked down towards the ground, pensively. "Catface... Wasn't in any danger." 

... What? I mean, Catface is strong, but... "O-oh, w-were you, like, holding back?  Like, you didn't really wanna-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there." S said, looking up at me again. "I was fighting. Hard. Perhaps harder than I ever was before."

PHRASinnng... No, this isn't the time for that. 

"Even then," S continued. "I never stood a chance." 

"Oh." I said. I was stunned. Honestly, it's a little strange for me to think that S even could lose, in the first place. "I guess they would have a pretty big advantage the air. But on the ground, you had them on the defensive. You were winning, then. And, I mean, look at you, you're barely injured." He barely had a scratch on him. At worst, that'd make it a tie, right?

"No, you're not getting it." S sounded a little cross as he said that. "Don't you think it's odd that, as hard as I was fighting, by the end of it, I wasn't even bleeding?"

Wait... Yeah, come to think of it... Neither of them were injured, were they? Actually, I was the only one that was. And that was only because I interfered. 

"S-so, maybe they just defended the whole time. Y-you might've just scared them." I attempted to reason.

"If they were really defending, they would've at least gotten me a little. That's just the nature of fighting." He said, shaking his head. "But, you were right about one thing. They were afraid. I could smell it." S conceded.

Until he followed that up with "They were afraid that they'd accidentally hurt me."  

I just... Blinked, for a moment. I really don't know what to make of that. Just what is Catface thinking? Like, ever? 

"W...why?" 

"I have no damn idea."

S gently shook his head. And then, there was a moment's pause.

"In the end, she didn't attack me at all. She could've, I could tell. At any moment. The whole time, her body was screaming that it wanted to. But, she never did. For whatever reason, she really, really didn't want to." 

Phrasing? Eh, that's reaching a bit.

He looked down, and thought for a moment. Y'know, he sure does look down a lot. 

"In that moment, I could feel the power she had. It was overwhelming. I've never encountered anything like it." S sounded... Utterly defeated as he said that.

Oh.

I guess... I guess S can lose. Rather, he did lose. That's... 

Actually, a little reassuring, surprisingly. 

Huh...

...

Well, moving past that...

"So... What does all of this mean?" I asked. While I have no idea what he meant when he said he could 'feel the power', I'll think about that part some other time. 

He looked up at me. "For you, it could mean anything." He said. Then, he looked up at the night sky, up at the sliver of moon that resided up there that night. "For me, though, I'm gonna train." A grin grew on his face. "I'm gonna train, so that next time we meet, I can throw sand in her eyes and punch her right in her stupid face."

"Oh. Okay." I said.

I guess that's a good a goal as any.