Vroom vroom.
It was currently the middle of the night and Kian sat in a floating car, Julius beside him, posture stiff, gaze locked straight ahead.
"You know," Kian said, eyeing him, "for such an advanced city, don't you have some kind of vocal implant?"
Julius scribbled on his whiteboard: "I just didn't like knowing there was something else in my body."
Kian nodded. "Yeah... I can relate."
As they flew through Amita's skyways, Kian glanced out the window, taking in the view. The city really was beautiful—clean, sleek, almost glowing. Though the absurd amount of building-sized ads kind of killed the vibe.
Down below, a kid zipped past on a hoverboard. "Woah, I gotta get me one of those."
He barely registered the tap on his shoulder.
Julius raised his board: "We'll be at the testing site in five minutes. I figured I should give you the rundown."
"For the past week or two, there've been reports of a bird made of fire circling Amita and chucking rocks at random people… weird, I know."
Kian raised a brow.
"It'd be an easy mission if it were just a normal scourge-tier monster. But since it's a mythical beast, it ranks up to feral menace."
"The Captain told me about your fight with that winged creature. Expect something on that level—just different abilities."
Kian nodded again, propping his chin on his hand, eyes drifting to the sky. He wasn't sure if he was excited or just trying not to think about what was coming.
"So what even is a Dark Phoenix?" Kian asked, finally turning from the window. "The Captain just said it was some corrupted version of the Great Phoenix… which I also don't know anything about, by the way."
"You'll learn that in history class." Julius wrote on the white board. "Everyone keeps saying that." Kian muttered, annoyed.
The next five minutes were quiet. I mean, obviously. Julius wasn't exactly a chatterbox. Kian just kept his eyes out the window, admiring the city. Compared to Felgardis, Amita looked like heaven.
'I'll have to explore this place as soon as I get the chance.' Kian thought in the back of his head.
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The car finally landed a mile away from the outskirts of Amita. Stepping out, Kian had to cover his eyes as Julius walked out of the car. His silver armor reflected the sunlight, nearly blinding.
"And I thought your armor was bright enough on its own." Kian commented. Julius simply nodded and walked past him while he unsheathed his long sword from his hip.
"Sheesh tough crowd." Kian followed behind him, watching closely as Julius pointed his sword into the sky and it glowed with an ethereal energy.
Soon after a rock came flying out of nowhere and bonked Kian on the head. "Ow!" Kian clutched his head, a bump already starting to form. "Who the hell did that?"
Turning around Kian would spot something in the sky and before he knew it more rocks were launched towards him. He'd quickly hide behind Julius, poking his head from around him.
"Did you summon that thing or something?!" Kian yelled as more rocks came causing him to duck his head back behind Julius. Seemingly unbothered by the stones, Julius wrote into his white board and handed it to Kian.
It read, "I released a small burst of my arcane energy to draw it here." Kian took a deep breath. "So you want me to beat that thing?" Julius nodded in response causing a huge grin spread across Kians face.
"Well then I'll take great pleasure in teaching this damn bird a lesson." He'd say as he cracked his knuckles. But before Kian could go out to fight, Julius tossed him 2 clawed silver gauntlets.
"Heh thanks." Kian said as he placed them on his hands with Julius nodding in response.
"I swear, if the next thing I fight also has wings, I'm gonna start taking it personally," Kian muttered, tightening the gauntlets around his wrists. The silver claws shimmered faintly, like they were hungry for something.
Kian exhaled, trying to center himself. 'I still don't fully know what I can do with these powers… but that didn't stop me before!'
Without warning, a spike of stone erupted from the earth and launched him skyward like a missile.
The Phoenix reacted instantly—its wings tucked in as it dove, heat rippling in the air around it. Kian twisted midair, his right hand flaring with red arcane energy, the gauntlet humming as it amplified the force building in his fist.
He could feel the heat peeling at his skin as the Phoenix dove. But under all that pressure, something inside him just grinned harder. Maybe he really was starting to like this.
"Alright, bird brain…"
With a wide grin splitting across his face, Kian cocked his arm back.
"Let's see who hits harder."
Boom
A brilliant flash red filled the sky, with both Kian and the dark Phoenix being launched apart and towards the ground by the force behind their attacks. Wasting no time Kian flipped back onto his feet and started sprinting towards the downed Phoenix.
But the phoenix had prepared as fire erupted from the ground and almost burned Kian alive of not for him stopping last second. 'Ah shit that was close.' Kian thought as sweat dripped down his cheek.
As the flames thinned, the phoenix soared above—Kian finally saw it clearly. It looked like how you'd expect a normal phoenix to look like but it's eyes leaked a black smoke and the tips of its flames were also black.
The air shrieked with the sound of tearing flame as the phoenix unleashed a storm of flaming feathers, like a meteor shower. Sprinting towards it, he'd try his best to swerve between the feathers but would still get hit by some of them.
Kian hissed in pain, clutching his shoulder. The feather hadn't just burned—it decayed him, eating away at flesh and nerve like acid. But then something inside him stirred...
Something deep in his chest stirred—hungry, snarling, and very, very awake. And a second after that the rot was gone and his shoulder was fully healed, although he got incredibly hungry.
"Heh, looks like you can't even kill me correctly! You know what that means I WIN" Kian exclaimed. If the phoenix had an actual face then Kian knew it'd look annoyed.
In retaliation it opened it's beak and a dark smoke exited and filled their surroundings. "So your trying to hide huh well th-" Kian was cut off as the bird screeched and then all the black smoke in the air suddenly combusted.
BOOM
Kian was launched back and he almost collided with Julius, who caught him and stood him back on his feet. "That really hurt, now this guy's really gonna get it.". Kian said as he tried to walk forward but collapsed instead.
"Ouch" he said with his face in the dirt. Shaking his head, Julius would pick him up again and with all the seriousness in the world he'd hand Kian a white board. "You have to be more tactical with your approach. I saw your fight with that winged monster, you fought with strategy."
"You outperformed a winged creature with twice your speed. Don't let your ego outgrow your instincts."
Kian wiped a year that was coming down his cheek as he says, "Damn that was so heartfelt that I might start bawling." Julius just pointed at the phoenix who was currently releasing more of that black smoke.
Kian slowly stood up, his body still aching from the previous blast but this time he was ready. Based on what he'd seen so far he's already thought of the perfect strategy to beat this damn bird. This time he'd WIN!
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Caleb woke up an hour after Kian left for the test and now he was kinda just sitting there thinking of the day, thinking of his dad. He was just waiting for something to happen.
But a knock on the door of room 8 caused him to jump from his position and land face first on the floor. "Ugh, coming!" Caleb yelled out as he ran towards the door and opened it. Standing there was Cyrus who had a concerned expression.
"Are you okay?" He'd ask but Caleb would just cross his arms on his chest and smirk. "Of course I'm fine!" Cyrus didn't believe him but decided not to press on any further.
"I just came to check up on you and see how you were holding up. Thought you might want some company… or at least a distraction," Cyrus added, hands in his pockets, expression softening.
Caleb gave a half-hearted chuckle. "A distraction, huh? Unless you've got snacks and a time machine, I think I'm stuck with my thoughts."
"Well…" Cyrus raised a small paper bag. "No time machine, but I did bring snacks. Courtesy of the cafeteria. Don't ask what's in the bagel." He stepped inside, shutting the door behind him. "You heard from Kian?"
"Nope," Caleb said as he flopped back down on the bed. "Apparently he's off fighting a bird made of fire or something. Like, what even is our life anymore?"
Cyrus smiled faintly and sat in the chair near the desk. "Better than it used to be."
Caleb simply gave a sad smile as he reminisced about his dad.
"I'm not completely sure yet."
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Heh I'm so cool