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A month had gone by with Layla and Amber frequenting Blake's apartment to learn from Maria (and fight off Ryne). Now, Amber had become efficient with her aura to be able to activate it quickly whenever necessary. Blake had been training to keep her aura steady enough to support both herself and Layla so that the two could fight without too much problem. Maria looked on in good spirits while keeping Ryne hung on the ceiling for every time the girls came over to train. Layla, Amber, and Blake had just finished their training session for the day and were out in the town to take a relaxing stroll. Layla and Blake were discussing battle plans with one another to make sure that Blake wouldn't be overly tired during a fight.
"I think it would be better if you only place your aura around me when there are to many Ires near innocent people," Layla was saying, "If they aren't posing a threat directly to the innocents, we don't have to really worry about giving me protection since I would also be far away from the fight."
"That's true, but anything could happen. I just want to play it safe, you know?" Blake replied, sounding doubtful. The two continued to go back and forth with each other on how to react when an attack happened when suddenly the three girls heard a scream in the distance.
"What was that?" Layla asked worriedly.
"Doesn't sound good, though. Should we check?" Amber spoke up.
"It may be an Ire attack. Let's go," Blake concluded, rushing towards the direction of the scream. The three girls didn't run long before hearing a large explosion in the direction of that same scream. They stopped as they began to notice hundreds of frightened people running for their lives. What's going on, was the only thought rushing through Layla's head as the cause of the mass panic came into view. Right before the three girls was a large mess of fire and chaos. Multiple car crashes centered at the middle of an intersection on fire. Bodies piled high among the flames as the screams of some burning alive tore through the air. The one thing that bothered them the most? Dozens of Ires dancing on top the dead and trying to suffocate the living as innocent people ran for their lives. Just as the trio had feared: an Ire attack.

"This is...," Layla began.
"Horrible," Amber finished, "This is all just... horrible."
"We gotta do something before this gets out of hand," Blake tapped them both, "Focus. Amber, try to drive them away for now while I prep Layla. I'll join you as soon as I can."
"Got it," Amber quickly focused herself at the task at hand, activating her aura. With a flick of her wrist, she created a thin stream of pinkish light and used it like a long whip to drive the Ires back. In the meantime, Blake quickly closed her eyes and waved a hand towards Layla, creating the black armor and gun that Layla had since been accustomed to.
"Remember how we trained: Help the innocent but don't engage the Ires unless it's absolutely necessary," Blake reminded Layla quickly, punching a nearby Ire away. Layla gave a firm nod and immediately went off in the direction of the other innocent people, firing accurate shots at incoming Ires along the way. Blake chuckled at the sight for a while and then turned to aid Amber, creating an armor set of her own sans the gun. In replacement, two knives formed in her hands as she hacked and slashed her way towards Amber, who looked to be having trouble driving away a stubborn crowd of Ires from innocent people running away.
"Need help?" Blake joked dryly as she rushed in front of Amber to knock down a few Ires coming too close.
"Absolutely," Amber laughed, raising her hand once more to drive away another dozen Ires. Blake smiled as she knocked down another dozen Ires away a people continued to run past. During the month that Layla and Amber began learning more about their situation, Maria had informed them about how people outside viewed them fighting Ires.
"It's as if your auras make you invisible to them," Maria explained, walking over to Blake's apartment door. She raised her hand and covered herself in her golden aura and stepped in front of a neighbor's door. Blake had a general idea as to what was about to happen, but she was just as surprised as everyone else as Maria kicked the door down with excessive force, revealing the apartment complex on the other side. The owner inside rushed out the door and noticed them looking in with an open door and screamed bloody murder as the door magically fixed itself right in front of her eyes. Maria then re-entered Blake's house and waved her aura away, smiling sweetly as if nothing had happened.
"In short, only people like us and the exceptions of Layla here can see Guardians and Knights against the Ires," Maria concluded with a flip of her hair, "Bear that in mind when you fight so that you don't have to worry about them finding out about you."
"It's a good thing too. Otherwise I may as well be pinned a psycho for hitting the air so many times during a time of emergency," Blake muttered as she kicked two dozen more Ires into a nearby shop.

Layla continued to look after the innocents running away, trying her best to evade the destruction left behind by all the chaos. So far, people had been crowding towards a nearby mall for shelter, so Layla felt a bit more relieved. This meant that she only had to defend one entrance for now unless something new happened. I gotta keep focused, she readied herself, I'm fighting this battle too! As the last of the citizens safely went inside the mall, Layla kept herself stationed at its only entrance as a guard, keeping in mind that none of the people inside could see her. She kept a silent vigil over the area, weapon ready to fire at any time.
"Hopefully they're doing okay," Layla murmured to herself as she listened in on the destruction in the distance where she knew Amber and Blake were. She knew that they would be fine, but she couldn't help but worry. These same people were still her friends and classmates; she was still worried for their well-being. I just gotta focus on my end and let them handle theirs, Layla convinced herself. Just as she thought that for herself, she heard a scream coming from inside of the mall. Without much further thought, Layla rushed inside and pushed through the crowd of panicking people to see a couple Ires destroying parts of the mall to terrorize nearby people. IN the midst of the chaos, Layla steadied her breath and looked over her surroundings. There were more than one hundred innocent lives behind her at the moment so she had to push the Ires away. At the same time, she couldn't stay inside for long; the Ires outside far outnumbered everyone inside the mall, herself included. I should just focus on killing each one with one shot each so that Blake doesn't have any wasted aura, Layla analyzed, who knows what kinds of effects Blake is going through just to give me this kind of power.
"Alright, let's focus here," Layla told herself, raising her gun at one of the Ires slashing at one of the walls. She steadied herself, focusing on her target as Blake had taught her before earlier in the month. She and Blake had gone to the roof of the apartment to practice shooting. From what she had heard, Blake had some experience with shooting a gun through fighting against Ires by herself.
"Stay calm. Relax and focus on the target in front of you," Blake had told her, standing off to her left. Layla took in a breath and held her gaze at the soda can balanced precariously at the edge of the roof. She raised her gun at the can and fired, missing the shot.
"Dammit!" Layla cursed in frustration, "This always happens. Why can't I get it right?"
"That's probably because you're rushing to take the shot," Blake replied calmly, "You need to give yourself time to make the shot count."
"But the Ires won't give us that kind of time! I have to be quick!" Layla protested. Blake shook her head and gave Layla a knowing look.
"You will be given time. Give it to yourself," Blake explained, "It may never seem like it, but there's a lot of time between steadying your aim just right and an Ire rushing to harm you. Just those precious seconds in between will be enough. Trust me."
"Relax. I have time," Layla calmed herself, taking a breath. She counted the seconds before taking a shot. One... two...
"THREE!" She cried out as she fired a shot. A small ball of black light shot out from the gun, striking the Ire right in the face. The creature screeched and fell back, disappearing immediately. In rapid succession, Layla repeated the process and took out the remaining Ires in no time at all. Satisfied with her work, Layla smiled as she turned around to return to guarding outside.

The fight against the horde of Ires eventually died down without much casualty. As soon as the fight finished, Amber relinquished her aura and fell to her knees in exhaustion.
"Phew! I didn't think that this would be so tiring," Amber called out as she watched Blake dispatch the remaining Ires without much of a sweat. Blake looked back over towards Amber with a sigh, giving an ambushing Ire behind her a good back slap towards another building.
"Oh you'll get used to it real quick if you do this for long enough," Blake laughed it off, giving Amber a hand to stand up, "Now come on. Let's head over to help Layla." The two of them quickly made their way over towards the place where they had left Layla. Blake didn't dare to relinquish her aura in case Layla would be in trouble. I really do need to find a way to up my stamina, Blake mentally noted, holding out my aura like this is a lot harder than I thought when I'm trying to fight as well. By the time they caught up with her, they found Layla deftly taking out a group of Ires in rapid succession. Her aim was constantly on target, and each shot was never wasted as Ires disappeared from the area. After cleaning up the last of the Ires in her area, Amber just stood there dumbfounded and Blake smiled proudly as Layla let out a breath she had been holding from the sheer concentration. The girl smiled in relief with a feeling of accomplishment as she finally lowered her tired arms.
"Well done, Layla. I'm very proud," Blake said as she approached Layla, clapping her hands. Amber followed almost mindlessly, still trying to recover from her shock while Layla snapped out of her focused trance to happily wave at them.
My best friend is such a bad ass, her mind thought, putting a goofy grin on her face, I have the hot girl crush of my school as my Knight and my best friend is a complete bad ass; this is awesome.