Mane's wide grin unsettled his colleagues. They clearly held the advantage, so why didn't it feel that way. The chill that went down their spines was not understandable considering the current situation. After all, no matter how one looked at it, they had their enemy surrounded, cornered.
Mane stretched his arms wide apart, his legs just as widely separated. Almost in response to his actions, the winds began to howl ferociously. Although he used the winds to increase the area of his flames, it was a difficult thing to do. If he got it wrong, the winds would disperse the flames. In other words, extinguish them. Hence, he didn't use that method so often. Abe had realised that his control over wind was not as great as the others, so he had employed the strategy to have John slowly take care of the fire. They had ignored one thing though. Controlling the wind so accurately may be a problem, but recklessly unleashing it wasn't so hard. And that was Mane's goal right now.
"Explode!" Mane screamed. A strong wind swept around the battlefield with Mane at the centre. It swept through the battlefield like a shockwave. The weakest of the group, Selina and Frederick, were knocked back, losing their balance in the process. The unfortunate duo were knocked into some trees and fell down hard.
"Two down, three to go" Mane stated, not bothering to look at the high level members of the Student Council he had so ungracefully knocked out.
Abe calmly stood up from his crouching position. He had lowered himself to get as close to the ground as possible, reducing his centre of gravity and conjuring some earth spikes which he held onto. Jake had been knocked away by the blast, but remained unharmed. He flipped mid-air, and conjured some flames to help him land safely. As for John, his shield wall had done the blocking for him.
Mane calmly walked towards the trio, his huge grin now reduced to a small smile. Abe and the twins responded to their captain's march, walking towards him as well- John at the right, Jake at the left, and Abe right in the centre. No one knew who started it, but halfway through the march, they began to sprint. And it was Mane who launched an attack first. The remaining flames had been swept away by the outburst earlier. Hence, Mane could only use the wind. As for using his physical body? Well, that was a suicidal attempt. He normally enforced his body with inner energy, so without it, his blows would not be as effective. Attacking wielders like that was a bad idea. It was highly likely that he would be the one who got hurt after throwing a fist or a kick. If only he had trained his physique as well. Unfortunately, it was a few years too early for him to have that kind of training.
He spun 720 degrees to gather some wind, and thrust the gathered wind in the direction of his opponents. The wind blast was directed at Abe. John did not erect a water shield this time. It would be a useless endeavour. The wind would have dispersed the water easily, and continued its pursuit. As for conjuring ice, his understanding of the elements hadn't reached such a stage. Its remnants would then be made available to their captain. Jake couldn't use his fire either. The reason had been stated numerous times already. He was able to use it to land safely, because he was so far away from Mane. However, forcefully extinguishing the flames took more energy than conjuring them. Also, who knew if the flames would rather become fuelled by the wind and cause more damage instead. That left just one available option. Abe had to conjure an earth shield. It wasn't a good option either. After all, unlike the other two elements, once Mane had his hands on some dirt, he could use it without worrying that it would run out. Unfortunately, that was the only thing that could truly stop Mane's attack. It was either that, or take the attack head on. But he chose the not so secretive option number three- evade it.
"Split" Abe instructed. The twins moved further away from the centre. Unlike Mane, the trio had their inner energy and used that to bolster their speed. Abe also shifted out of the way with incredible speed, rendering Mane's attack completely useless. Abe didn't have time to relish this small accomplishment, for he saw Mane's smile. A smile that seemed to say, "Gotcha".
*BOOM*
The loud explosion caught the attention of all on the battlefield. Except, one of them looked pleased whereas two others had ugly expressions on their faces. As for the last person? Well, he was the object of the explosion. John lay on the ground unconscious. He had sustained some small burns, but all of them were superficial.
"You are so focused on not using your elements, that it has become very easy to read your movements. Did you really think that my control of the wind was that shallow? Granted, it's not as impressive as my control over the earth element. However, it is very close." Mane had a smug smile on his face as he explained. It was a smile that made Abe want to pin him to the ground and pummel him ruthlessly into it, several times over. Ignoring Abe's expression, Mane continued with his explanation.
"Abelard, you seem to have forgotten that I am the strategist of this team, not you. I intentionally made you believe that I did not have excellent control over the wind element. This caused you to think the fire had been dispersed and extinguished by the wind. However, I used the commotion to compress the fire into a designated zone, wrapping some air around it to keep it from burning anything."
Mane didn't have to finish his explanation for Abe to get what he was saying. He had basically been baiting them the whole time. It was now clear that the reason Mane was walking before wasn't to create an explosive climax. He had done so because he was focusing all his attention on controlling the ball of fire. The skill the blue eyed boy had displayed was highly complex. He had perfectly complemented one element with another. It was only when he had adequate control over it, did he begin his sprint. He had then sent a wind based attack their way when they were at the right place, to lure one of them into the region where the flames lay hidden. The unfortunate John had stepped onto the 'mine'.
Actually, Mane was quite lucky- no, very lucky. You see, he expected to try this routine at least a few times before it worked. He also knew that the more he did it, the more suspicious Abe would have gotten. The boy would have figured out eventually that there was a trap somewhere. Also, the tall grass made it difficult for his friends who were focused on him to notice his shenanigans. Luckily, he got it done on his first try. And it was John too. This made things much simpler.