Felix began wrapping his other hand, eyeing me confidently. “Give this fight everything you got. I want to see the Dragon Head in action.”

I bounced lightly on my toes, loosening up my shoulders. “Careful what you wish for.”

Deep down, I think Felix knew I gave the W to Gun. He just wanted to rev me up for a fight. And it worked. After all, I was missing a good chunk of training time in my segment, so I might as well spar with Felix. Not only that, I’d never seen the guy work his wind powers, besides that one time he fanned the smoke from the kitchen in Reina’s horrendous cooking fiasco.

“You’re going to fight me with those?” I said, referring to his fists.

“Sensei said I have to stop relying on my extender weapons when tapping into my talent.”

“Words from a wise man. But you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage already.”

“Don’t worry. I like a challenge!”

We made a ring out of the backyard, Felix circling me as he squared up his fists to his face. Without wasting time, he lunged forward, throwing quick consecutive jabs at me. I slipped the first two, but his agility was higher than mine. The breeze from his fists were slicing at my skin, my physical immunity protecting me from getting cut. Despite my trait, I was immediately forced to defend, the barrage of punches getting faster with every throw. He followed up with a left hook, putting his hips into it. I raised my forearm, blocking the blow. I had to give Felix some credit—he’d studied the fight I had with Gun and was flustering me up.

He continued tossing strikes, Felix light on his feet as he danced around me. I continued playing defense, getting a feel for his style. He had good form and speed, and awareness to know when to switch up his range and follow up. Felix wasn’t a telegraphed fighter, but I needed to turn him into one. So I studied patiently, allowing Felix to continue raining down blows from all angles. I kept my guard up, deflecting and blocking, biding my time. Suddenly, I saw an opening. Felix overextended on a right cross, leaving his ribs exposed. I slipped the punch and countered with a left hook to his side, but my fist felt resistance.

What the hell? Was that a wind cyclone?

I realized it a moment too late, my punch falling into the whirlwind he summoned to protect him from my shot. When my knuckles dove deeper into the wind pocket, I went with it, first my arms, then my entire body, twirling around like I was in some god damn rinse cycle.

Once he was tired with swinging me around, he spat me out, and I flew right into a tree. My head was disoriented as I opened my eyes, where I noticed Felix charging right at me with an uppercut.

I made a sloppy attempt at getting out of his way. As soon as his front foot slammed the ground, his fist went up to the sky. He summoned a spiraling wind vortex that wrapped around the body of the old tree. With the tree being weak, Felix effortlessly whipped strips of bark out with his meta, and then flung them like javelins in my direction.

I dove out of the way just in time as the barrage sailed over me, splintering as it crashed against the ground. Felix was a master of momentum as he picked up large chunks of jagged trunk pieces from the ground, using his wind to toss them back at me.

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Over a dozen projectiles chased me across the field, and I was burning so much energy dodging and scorching each of them. The more I warded them off, the faster he generated more wind. I was being backed into a corner quick, so I had to find a way to break his momentum. I needed to stop dodging and start countering. But Felix wasn’t being careful with where he was leading me, into the heart of sensei’s precious garden.

“Felix, wait—” I warned him.

But before I could finish, he shouted, “No holding back, Nero!” He smiled. “Come on, I haven’t seen anything from you yet!”

“Hayashi is going to bust our ass if we—”

“Use more of your flames!” he demanded. “All you’re doing is avoiding projectiles. We both know you can take a hit.”

Felix was starting to get carried away. He summoned an air ball between his hands, the damn thing growing to twice the size of his head. At first glance, it didn’t look threatening, but when he tossed it at me, I realized just how powerful it really was.

First off, it was stupid fast. I drew an X with my arms over my face to absorb the blow. It kept on spinning and warbling, Felix increasing its intensity the more his fingers curled. The soles of my feet were being pushed into the ground the longer I resisted, and the impact rippled against my arms like a buzzsaw. I squinted harder, the wind blinding me, and the force keeping me from making a move.

Too bad Felix didn’t wait for me to make a move. He made the air ball explode, sending me flying backwards. I landed inside the garden, crushing Hayashi’s collection of blooming flowers. Now, Felix got me pissed, because I’d tried warning him before, but he was more preoccupied with kicking my ass to listen!

“Felix, stop!” I groaned. “What’s wrong with you?”

“I just want to see your true power!” he yelled back. “Use your flames!”

“You want flames? Fine!” I retorted, getting up on my feet. At this point, there was no saving those flowers, so I stomped my foot on the ground, and a pillar of flame shot out of the earth like a geyser. The dirt and leaves swirled up, my flame tower shooting twenty feet into the sky. The heat was so intense, I could feel the air around me distort, the oxygen thin and dry.

I concentrated my extension into the pillar, and it shifted into a dragon. Pure power and energy vaped from me and fueled my flames, increasing the size of my creation. It opened its big mouth and stretched its long neck, casting a shadow over Felix. I sent the snake dragon to attack Felix, and I was itching to see what kind of counter he had for it.

Felix kicked his foot in the air, keeping his legs straight. And then, he began to spin, creating a ring of wind around him. A diagonal topper was his repellant, Felix confident that it’d destroy my flame beast. And even though this was my first time summoning a dragon out of my flames, I was confident he wouldn’t defeat it.

The dragon roared and lunged, its claws tearing at the wind shield. The wind whipped around them, dirt and debris swirling in a chaotic vortex. Felix’s concentration was unwavering as he channeled more of his power into the wind. The wind shield held as it grew, but I could tell that it was a struggle. Each swipe of the dragon’s claws sent tremors through the barrier, and Felix was running out of stamina fast.

He knew he couldn’t keep this up forever. My dragon was relentless. Felix had to find a way to break through my attack. But just like he wasn’t easy on me, I wasn’t easy on him. I ordered my flame dragon to take a snap at the vortex with its teeth. The wind swallowed it as expected, and just like that, Felix was creating his very own furnace. The more he spun, the hotter it got. Until he enveloped himself completely in a flame ball, Felix having no option but to disengage his cyclone.

I gave him what he wanted. He was suffocating in flames. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he began to back away, summoning the air around him to put out the fire eating at his skin. I did my part in tapering my flames, and when the ruckus was finally over, I walked over to him.

“Are you all right?”

He continued to cough, a big smile etched on his face as he tried to catch his breath. “I knew it,” he said. “I knew you were holding back.”