The hooded figure was startled after it noticed Max and Vitria run towards its location.
When it turned around it saw Gareth who was also running towards it with a stick on his hands that looked like a wooden sword.
The trio ran towards it while forming a triangle shaped net, if the hooded figure tried to escape atleast one of them would manage to give chase and not be left behind.
Yet... the hooded figure did not escape, rather, it remained in place.
As the trio got closer to it they managed to get more details, it wore a black hoodie along with black pants and had no backpack, a bizarre combination considering it was barely noon.
Yet what surprised them the most was that the hooded figure started to calmly remove its hood, revealing a familiar face that had one of her eyes covered by a fringe of gray cloud-like hair.
Selena stood there with an annoyed look as the group stopped on their tracks, completely flabbergasted.
"What are you idiots staring at?" She grumbled as her words snapped the trio back to reality.
"I- I wasn't expecting it to be you, if im being honest..." Max said as he looked at Selena in bewilderment.
"Yeah, that was pretty unexpected... but the real question is: Why are you following us?! I was just joking when I said she may be your stalker Max... I didn't predict this! Not at all!" Gareth said in a half serious and half joking tone.
"More importantly... How did you follow us? The Long Range Department had a camp quite a bit away from ours, did someone tell you about which way we were going?" Vitria asked in a slightly angry tone.
"First, I wasn't following you, atleast originally... I was just running away! You have no idea what has been going on in these few hours... it's been a total shitshow!" Selena spoke while freaking out slightly.
"What do you mean "A total shitshow?" Did so many people get disqualified?" Vitria asked.
"No, it was worse, when a big group of Students from your department came from the north they wanted to form an alliance, everything seemed peaceful and we still had time until the countdown finished but- Two guys suddenly started fighting, from opposite departments, some tried to make them stop but others joined, in just a few moments it was an all out brawl!" Selena explained with exaggerated hand movements.
"But- why would they fight? We have more chances to get through the exam if we stick together!" Max said, something didn't fit.
"Well... At first it was because of some girl or shit like that, but even before the countdown finished the teacher's appeared and told us a rule they hadn't explained... A student can take the lives of another if they beat them in a fight." Selena said as she got on guard, expecting to be attacked any second.
Yet, the trio just stood there, dumbfounded.
"Are- are you saying the truth? But- why- why would they want us to fight eachother? Aren't we supposed to team up?!" Vitria asked, not believing a thing Selena said.
"That's not the important part! After dropping that bombshell on us the teacher's just... disappeared, and all hell broke loose. The all out brawl with two sides turned into a free for all. I'm pretty sure some guys ended up unconscious... After that was over the strongest students formed a group and started hunting down everyone else, even after they took a life from someone they tied them down and waited until the hour was over to get a life again... I barely managed to run away from them..." Selena finished her explanation yet remained on guard.
"So- We're in big trouble right now... we need to get the heck away, If we continue west we may be able to outrun them!" Gareth said as he pointed at what he thought was west.
"Uh... You do know that's southwest, right?" Selena said as she looked at the direction Gareth was pointing at in confusion.
"Whu- it's west! The wall is at the same distance at which we started at, so we've been walking west all this time." Gareth explained as if it was an obvious thing.
Selena facepalmed and then explained with a frustrated tone "That's southwest you idiot! The wall curves in this area, it's not just a straight line! If you walked directly west the wall would have gotten farther, not closer."
"Oh- it does?" Gareth scratched his head in embarrassment.
Selena rolled her eyes and massaged her temples. "I swear- don't you have a compass? It's a camping trip for Heaven's sake, not a walk in the park!"
"Uh... No? I didn't think it would be necessary..." Vitria said with evident embarrassment.
"Great- don't tell me you brought a Vintendo Swap rather than actual clothing too?! I fucking swear if I didn't need your help I would have already walked away-" Selena said with an annoyed huff.
"And what makes you think we will help you, miss know-it-all? It seems you're doing fine enough without us." Max asked with a slight edge in his voice and obvious sarcasm.
Gareth and Vitria looked at Max with dilated eyes full of surprise, as if he had been replaced with a skinwalker just now.
Selena did the same, yet he regained her composure faster than the other two.
"I- I wouldn't need your help if I had my bow! I can't hunt to save my life and when I tried spearfishing a YellowRamer almost made me fall into the water." Selena crossed her arms and looked at Max in anger.
"Ah, So we have to help you just because? What's in for us?" Vitria saw the opportunity and decided to take it.
"I-... I can purify water for you, and we can use my compass..." Selena's demeanor did a 180° as she suddenly turned anxious and unsure.
"Hmmm... still not convinced, another thing?" Vitria asked as she weighted their options.
"I- Uh... I can carry your stuff?" Selena said.
"Sounds good to me, welcome to the team!" Vitria gleefully took her on the offer.
"Awesome, my shoulders were killing me..." Gareth said as he took off his backpack.
They passed their backpacks to Selena, who gave them an amused look. "You do know I could steal all your stuff this very moment, right?"
"Yeah, but I don't think you'll do it." Gareth said as he rubbed his aching shoulders.
"Why is that?" Selena asked as a small cloud descended from the sky, she unceremoniously dropped the backpacks on top of it, her own backpack was already there too.
"What?! You can do that?!" Max pointed at the cloud in complete disbelief along with Gareth and Vitria.
"Well, duh. That's why I wasn't afraid of fighting you guys, if push came to shove I could run away easily." Selena explained as she looked for something on her backpack.
"Uh..." Gareth wasn't so sure about his prior statement now.
"That has to have some limitations right? We could-" Vitria was thinking out loud but Selena cut her off.
"Nope, it can't hold our combined weight, also the more weight it has to bear the slower it is, so now that its carrying all of our backpacks it's going to be about as slow as us." Selena already know what Vitria was thinking.
"But-" Vitria wanted to continue but was cut off again.
"Nope again, its already costing me a lot to maintain, I would run out of Elemental Energy in minutes if I changed it so it could carry all of us and go slightly fast."
"..." Vitria was out of questions so she decided to not ask at all.
"How did you know what she was going to ask?" Gareth asked.
"Because everyone always asks the same things..." Selena replied with a sigh as she took out her compass from her backpack. "Alright, this is what were going to do..."
"Who said you're the leader?" Max pointed at Selena as he cut her off.
"And who's the leader then?" Selena asked in an annoyed tone.
"No one, we have a democracy here! It's all by vote." Gareth explained the obvious.
"Alright... My plan is that we get to walking right this instant, what are your votes?" Selena said as she rolled her eyes.
Max, Gareth and Vitria put a hand up to their head level.
"I'm going to take that as a yes then..." Selena huffed and got to the front of the group, leading the way.
The others followed her, and that's how the trio became a Squad.