Running through the forest, Alvis was attempting to get to a new position in one of Flare's blind spots. His intention was to use the vegetation as cover and to shoot Flare from a distance before moving to another spot so he wouldn't be tracked down. However, unlike Floris, his weapons were unpoisoned - meaning he'd have to hit one of Flare's vital spots in order to take him down. An arrow in the neck, heart, liver, lung, or maybe just getting one in his leg and crippling him would be enough for him and his team to move in on their mentor. After witnessing what Flare could do, with relative ease, Alvis knew a head-on assault was practically suicidal.
As Alvis scrummaged through the forest, he kept an eye on where Flare was. He was still standing in the middle of the open field with his arms crossed, barely doing so much as moving a muscle. Alvis snarled and gritted his teeth as he looked at Flare, not caring much for his cocky attitude. He dove into a bush that was roughly at Flare's o'clock and should have been out of his vision. Alvis prepared an arrow, aimed for Flare's neck, and let it fly.
The bowstring snapped, releasing the arrow at a high rate of speed, whistling through the air as it headed for its mark with terrifying accuracy. But without even looking, Flare lifted his chin, letting the arrow pass by him, missing his throat by mere inches.
Alvis stared at Flare with a face of utter disbelief. He quickly rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't dreaming, then looked at Flare again to see he was still standing in the same position with his arms crossed. "You've got to be kidding me! That's so annoying! But at the same time, it was sooooo cool!" Alvis thought, not wanting to speak out loud. He reached over his shoulder to grab another arrow from the quiver on his back but stopped when he noticed Flare slowly raising his left arm. Flare's hand began to glow a bright fiery orange, giving Alvis all the motivation he needed to turn tail and run.
Without even looking where he was aiming, Flare stared at the ground in front of him and whispered, "Dragon Spit!". Numerous fireballs were released from Flare's palm in the direction of Alvis' last location, releasing a raging hailfire storm that ripped the earth apart with every impact. Fireballs crashed through the trees with ease, they shattered boulders, and left the ground scorched and pitch black. Alvis narrowly escaped multiple fireballs as they impacted against several objects around him, the shockwaves nearly knocking him off his feet.
Alvis ran like a madman as fast as he could, looking for anything he could hide behind for cover. His eyes were so wide, one would think they'd pop out of their sockets if they saw him. To make matters even worse, Flare knew where he was all along and had his hand constantly following him, making the endless rain of fireballs come his direction, forcing him to keep running. He frantically looked around for something - anything to take cover behind. Eventually, he misplaced his footing, and tripped through some thick bushes and over the embankment of a small creek, saving him from the fire.
Realizing that Alvis was now out of his range, Flare ceased the spell and returned to his former position - standing with his arms crossed.
Kathrina, who was on the other side of the forest, watched what had happened through the bushes she was hiding behind, dumbstruck by what she had witnessed, "How in the world are we supposed to beat that?! We're only Associates, and we have to beat an Elemental Guard?! There's no way we can match that kind of strength! Still... nothing ventured, nothing gained!"
Kathrina reached into her backpack and pulled out a few scrolls. She closed her eyes and tried to form a plan, trying to decide if she should try a similar tactic to what Alvis tried, or go for something a bit different. Maybe doing something unexpected would be enough to make Flare lower his guard just long enough for her to land a blow. The bare minimum she had to shoot for was to give Floris a little more time to see what Flare's intentions were. Thinking that she had a plan, she snapped her eyes open and ran through the bushes into the open field, grabbing one of the scrolls and opening it as she ran directly at Flare, "Take this!"
A gust of wind emerged from the scroll, forming a small tornado that quickly danced its way towards Flare at an alarming speed. Flare looked at Kathrina with a disapproving look in his eyes, then ignited his entire body on fire, turning himself into a raging inferno. The heat he generated started to push back against Kathrina's spell and eventually forced it back in her direction.
Kathrina's eyes widened from surprise and awe, and she quickly moved to avoid being caught in her own spell. As she ran around to Flare's back, she grabbed another scroll and threw it at the ground, letting it roll out. "Summon Scroll! Entity Ram!"
Emerging from the scroll was the ghostly figure of a mystical dark blue Mountain Ram who appeared to be of an essence that looked like the night sky. The body was covered in bright luminescent stars, while its eyes represented planets. One eye was a bright icy blue, while the other was a reddish-orange that looked like the hottest fire. The ram stood on its hind legs and kicked its front ones in the air before charging at Flare at full speed with its horns down.
Again, with very little effort, Flare countered the spell by grabbing hold of the ram's neck and squeezing it so hard that it popped out of existence, turning it into a cloud of white smoke. Flare didn't even bother to turn around to face Kathrina and returned to his former position.
Kathrina gritted her teeth and prepared one more scroll, "One more time!" She let the scroll fly out in front of her and prepared to unleash its contents, but she was interrupted when she saw Flare run at her. She barely had enough time to put her arms up to protect herself. She was grabbed by the throat and dragged along the ground before having her back slammed into a tree trunk, which forced her to cough out blood as she screamed from the pain and shock. Her entire body had been carved onto the trunk, leaving an indicator as to how hard she was slammed against the tree. She was barely conscious but could see Flare clearly as he held her in the air by her neck.
"You made a critical mistake, Kathrina. If this were a true scenario, you would likely be dead right now. A support mage should never work on their own unless they have no other option." Flare stated dryly.
Kathrina looked down at Flare, amazed and terrified by the amount of power he had at his fingertips. It must have taken him years - decades even to have accumulated to much magical power and become so powerful. His level of experience far surpassed her own, leaving her to wonder if she would ever amount to anything with her career in the guild. Her eyes widened as she watched him raise his free hand up and set it ablaze as if he were about to release a spell, making her think her life was about to come to an end.
Suddenly, Flare split the fingers on his free hand apart, catching an arrow between them without even looking. In the distance, Kathrina could see Floris waving at her from atop a tall tree, giving her all the information she needed.
"That's the signal!" Kathrina slipped a scroll she had been hiding up her sleeve down to her hand, and activated it, giving Flare a cocky smirk of her own as the tree started to devour her.
"Clever girl." Flare said, watching as the body he was holding to turn to wood, followed by his own arm.
The bushes beside the tree started rustling, and Kathrina shot out of them, running as fast as she could past Flare, and giving him a sassy wink and salute as she ran by, disappearing into the forest.
Flare watched his student with a somewhat amused look under his mask as she disappeared, then returned his attention to the tree that was slowly devouring his arm and turning him into bark. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, then snapped them open, again. The entirety of his eyes turned into a flaring and fiery red color, letting him emit more powerful magic. He clenched his fist that was being seated by the tree, and set it ablaze, sending a fiery column a mile into the sky, reducing the tree to little more than ash and freeing his hand.