For a second there was no color. Max's vision was flooded with a bright light, and the roar of the fire drowned out Max's thoughts. His lungs burned, and his skin warmed up instantly, but his reinforcement held. His instincts screamed at him to slam his flux forward like a shield, and the flames licked his scarred knuckles, cooking his flesh. Keiji's voice cut through the overwhelming sound. "Don't fight it, redirect it." Max's grip tightened on his staff, and his Flux flowed through it, lighting up the engravings on the side. The iron caps hummed, and a shimmering red glow formed on the side facing the fire. At that moment, the heat changed. The flames split, leaving a sparkling layer of glass in their wake. They shot past Max's shoulders, and he was spared from the full force of the fire. The heat still rolled forward, drying out Max's eyes, but the fire didn't do any serious damage to his body. A heartbeat later, Kayla's fire stuttered out, leaving the courtyard full of steam from the melted snow, along with the red haze from the Flux in the air. Max's staff was smoking, and he noticed the runes flicker, before finally going dark.
Kayla coughed and waved the smoke out of her face. "Oh my God. I'm so sorry. Are you- Are you alive?" Max didn't answer right away, still shocked that he'd made it through that blast without being cooked. He pulled in a deep breath, shallow and shaky, before lifting his head. "Yeah." he rasped. Kayla's shoulders sagged with relief, and then she winced, eyes flicking to Max's hands. While he was left mostly untouched by the flames, his knuckles where he held the staff were raw, and the fabric at the end of his sleeves was browned and curled. Keiji stepped forward. "You were slow. If you were any later, you would've been burnt to a crisp there." Kayla made a face. "Okay, sorry Sensei, but he didn't die, so maybe-" Keiji's eyes snapped to her. Kayla's mouth snapped shut, and she stepped back. "I tried, sorry." She mouthed to Max. Max swallowed, and wiped the soot off his cheek with the back of his hand. He looked down at his staff, and something felt… Wrong about it. The wood was blackened where the fire had hit it, and the runes and symbols carved into the staff were slightly cracked. Keiji noticed his gaze. "You see that? That's because you flooded it with Flux without thinking." Max's jaw tightened in frustration. "I'm trying, okay." "I know you are. You panicked, and lost focus. I don't blame you, but that doesn't change the fact that you need to learn to defend yourself." Keiji said, his voice softening slightly. "I want you to try again, but brace a bit earlier. Try to imagine the wedge splitting the flames again, but before it hits this time." Kayla's eyes widened in shock. "Wait, you want him to-" "Again." Keiji repeated, more firmly. Kayla sighed, and raised her hands again. "Okay, but I'm not putting nearly as much power into this one."
Max lifted his staff and planted it again, his feet settling into a stable stance. The demonic circles on Kayla's hands began to glow again, and the flames shot out. They were darker this time, a more yellow-orange hue, in contrast to the blinding white from before. Max split the flames sooner, and this time, the fire didn't get to touch him. His staff left a pocket of safe space behind it, and by the time the attack was over, Max was standing there unscathed. Max's hands trembled, and he took a deep breath. Kayla was equally exhausted, clearly spent as well. "Wow…" She said, breathing hard. "That was so cool!" A small smile formed on Max's face. "Yeah, I guess it was." Keiji crossed his arms again. "Alright, you two are clearly too tired to continue. Meet here at noon tomorrow, we'll continue our training then." He started to turn towards the door, but then paused. "You did good today. Both of you." Kayla watched the old man disappear into the building, then leaned closer to Max. "He likes you." Max snorted. "Are you sure? It kinda feels like he wants to kill me." Kayla laughed. "Yeah, he's like that with everyone." She said, " But over the past year, I've never heard him give that level of praise to anyone."
Keiji completely changed the style of Max's training after that. Instead of personally sparring with Max, he pitted Kayla against him instead. She was very agile, and her flame attacks could come from any angle. The broken stone pillars spread across the courtyard seemed to provide cover from the fire, as well as high ground for Kayla to use to her advantage. Max steadily got better at deflecting the flames, and by the fourth day he'd mastered the staff reinforcement, so it wasn't under as much stress. It still hummed wrong after a long sparring match, but it didn't feel like it was about to explode anymore. Max and Kayla fell into a rhythm, with Max spinning his staff, deflecting her fire, and sweeping at her legs. To her credit, while not exactly a strong melee opponent, she was incredibly fast, and could dodge almost all of Max's attacks with little effort. Keiji always circled around them, giving pointers and correcting stances. The whole time Max was training, Ren and Devon seemed to be missing. Max had asked about it, and was just told something vague about a new assignment. It was mildly frustrating that no one told him anything, but Max had come to get used to it at that point.
On the last day of the second week, the building felt off. It was too quiet. The training hall was empty, and the halls were dead, as if everyone had left. Max checked his phone, but there weren't any messages about anything going on that day. Max approached a junior agent in the halls, and tried to keep himself from sounding worried. "Hey, have you seen Ren?" The agent's eyes flicked away from him suspiciously quickly. "Uh… no. Sorry." "Devon?" Max asked, tapping his foot on the tile floor. "Well-" She started to say, before looking down. "No. Haven't seen him either." Max stared at her for a second, then nodded like he bought the obvious lie. "Alright, let me know if you see them around." The agent nodded her head, then swiftly turned and walked away, practically running down the hall. He headed to the courtyard, and Kayla and Keiji were there as usual. Training was quiet; Keiji mostly stood on the sidelines observing, and Kayla kept to herself, uncharacteristically silent. Keiji ended the training session early, murmuring something about a meeting. As he walked away, Kayla started to say something to Max, but changed her mind last minute, and followed Keiji inside.
Later that night, Max got a knock on his dorm room door. "Who is it?" Max called. Maybe Ren's back, he thought, before he heard Kayla's voice on the other side. "It's me, Kayla! This is really important, can we talk?" "Come in," Max said, looking up from his desk. Kayla opened the door, and walked inside, closing it carefully behind her. Her blonde hair was messy, hanging down over a loose fitting hoodie. "What's up?" Max asked, leaning back at his desk. "I overheard something earlier," She said, hands in her pockets. Curious, Max shifted his chair back, and turned to look at her. She was worried, her hazel eyes wide. "Oh? What'd you hear?" Kayla lowered her voice. "Keiji was talking to someone, and I was… Well, not spying per se, but…" "Kayla," Max started to say, rubbing his temple. "They were talking about a mission!" She blurted out. That got Max's attention. "What mission? When?" Kayla hesitated, then continued to speak. "They found that arsonist. The one that burned you? They're sending a strike team out tonight to take him down." Max was already moving, standing up from his chair. He grabbed his sweater, and turned to Kayla. "Where?" He asked, now dead serious. "The church on Trent street, near that big construction site." Max picked up his staff, and started for the door. "Thank you, Kayla. I really appreciate you telling me about this." She started to speak again, but he was already heading out, running down the hall. She looked down, unsure if she did the right thing. "Good luck…" She whispered. "Don't die, Max."