The Fire Elemental that got hit with his own fireball wasn't really hurt, his clothes ended up a bit burned, the force of the impact made him fall on his butt and slide a few steps yet he was relatively unharmed.
What stopped the fight wasn't the retaliation, but the act itself. Who everyone thought was a Plant Elemental had just done the unthinkable and not only caught a fireball midair, but returned it to sender too.
They were all quite shocked frankly and it was pretty apparent as they stared at Max like he was an Elemental Beast ready to pounce and rip them apart. The many stares did make Max slightly uncomfortable yet he put on a brave face and looked at the Fire Elementals with confidence.
The staredown continued until Gareth snapped everyone out of it by sending out 3 wind blades at the Fire Elementals, 1 of them barely managed to dodge and the other 2 got hit, the force of the attack did most of the work as those that got hit were sent tumbling on the ground.
The one that managed to dodge was the closest and the one that reacted the quickest to Garets attack, yet after jumping to the side but before being able to get up again he ended up on an awkward position as Max was running at him with a knuckle sandwich ready to be delivered.
The Fire Elemental reacted quickly and threw a fireball at Max, which ended up being slapped away dismissively.
The fireball exploded on the ground a few feet away just as the one that threw it got punched on the side of his face, Max was aiming for the nose but the Fire Elemental moved his head just in time for a less damaging hit.
The "Less damaging hit" still made the Fire Elemental reel in pain and see stars for a few moments, Max had used his left arm which already had a Node, so the punch was extra spicy.
While the Fire Elemental held his head in pain and tried to regain his bearings Max was hard at work making roots come out of the ground and wrap themselves around the unsuspecting victim.
While trying to restraint the Fire Elemental Max was attacked by the others, he slapped away most fireballs and dodged those that were too fast, yet it was far from easy.
Just as the Fire Elemental stopped seeing white he was already tangled in roots, it would take a while for him to burn through them yet by then the fight should already be over.
Before he could even start the plan a wind blade appeared just a few centimeters away from his neck, leaving a small cut.
"Student Kai Smith has lost a Life.
Student Gareth Syrocco bas gained a Life."
The robotic voice spoke and took the opposing team by surprise, they probably didn't expect one of their own to be taken out so soon.
Their enemies were down to 6, a 1.5 to 1 if you will, and the odds weren't in favor of the quartet.
Max couldn't get closer to them before being burned to a crisp, he wasn't immune to Fire... yet.
Gareth managed to get a hit or two yet their attackers weren't all Fire Elementals, 2 of them were Earth Elementals while 1 was a Water Elemental, a very familiar one at that...
The Earth Elementals made cover for their comrades while Vitria did her best to do the same, yet being only one she could only do so much before they tried to wrestle control of the earth from the group's side of the battlefield from her, Max and Gareth had to work with only half walls while their enemies had full cover.
Vitria was busy fighting a battle of wills while Selena felt useless as her powers didn't have offensive capabilities and without a bow there wasn't much she could do...
That was until she got an idea, an idea she repulsed yet it was the only way to not be useless on this fight.
Selena sent her Cloud forward and once it was in the middle of the battlefield it started expanding, covering it whole in a matter of seconds.
As it expanded it turned from a cloud to heavy fog that lowered everyone's visibility, excluding Gareth, Max and Vitria of course, they could still see perfectly fine even though their enemies couldn't.
The fog not majorly inhibiting their vision was a bit weird, it was more like a light mist rather, for them atleast, their attackers could barely see a foot or two ahead.
This made them panic slightly and hold on to their fireballs to light the area around, It gave them some extra feet of visibility yet not that much solace on their situation.
Max used the chance to try and get closer-
"Over there!" One of the Earth Elementals pointed in Max direction, which was quickly followed by some fireballs. He barely managed to dodge by jumping to the side yet even after the fireballs hit nothing the bombardment continued for a bit.
Max got up from the ground and looked at the group that attacked them, they kept some distance from eachother and watched Gareth's direction in high alert, he had already tried to catch them by surprise but the Water Elemental could feel the fog being displaced and called out just in time to help her teammates.
Gareth cursed under his breath as another one of his wind blades missed its target, he couldn't keep throwing them willy-nilly, his limited supply of Elemental Energy wasn't helping either...
Max grabbed a stone from the ground and threw it a few meters to his right, one of the Earth Elementals took notice and called out, a few fireballs passed through that direction and flew by the stone Max had thrown.
Proving one of his theories right, Max grabbed a couple more stones and piled them up close to him, after his preparations were complete he put one hand on the ground and made a root come out of it.
The root slowly but surely slithered its way towards the enemy group while he continued to distract them by throwing stones randomly. The plan worked like a charm and the root managed to reach close to a Fire Elemental yet that wasn't his target.
After almost a minute of randomly throwing fireballs around the enemy team didn't seem all that tired, rather, they looked... confident.
That didn't last long though, once the root got close enough to one of the Earth Elementals it yanked him by the ankle and dragged him all the way to Max who quickly tied him up with some roots, some payback was needed too right?
"Student Angus Strate has lost a Life.
Student Maximilian Avasius has gained a Life"
The robotic voice speaking again enraged the opposing team, making them hurl fireballs in Max direction, thankfully Vitria's wall held strong now that the fight to control the ground was a fair one.
They tried to attack Gareth too yet he did the same as Max and used the half walls for cover.
Yet that had the foreseen consequence of revealing to the enemy the location of their cover, that's why they bad been careful to not be close to the walls until now, the explosion of the fireballs so close to them would be hard to ignore considering that there hadn't been a tree there when the fight started.
That's when the Fire Elemental changed to Mortar tactics.
Calculating the perfect angle to throw a fireball so that it would fall exactly where it should was hard, so Max and Gareth still had some time left before their cover was useless.
Which wasn't much as the Fire Elementals decided to forego calculations all together and just try until it worked.
Max quickly came up with a plan and made the root he used to grab the Fire Elemental come out of the ground again while it extended and became thinner at the same time. With a snap of his fingers he got Gareth's attention, after explaining the plan with just a few hand motions which boiled down to pointing at the now whip-like root and then at the enemy team.
The sound caught the attention of the target of the plan, yet they couldn't even make out what it was before the trap was already sprung.
Two wind blades came to them from opposite directions one after the other, they were easy to dodge, yet that was by design as one of the Fire Elementals ended up being a bit away from their team, and that was the moment to strike.
The whip-like root came like lightning and grabbed that Fire Elemental by the leg, pulling him away before his teammates could even react.
"Student Aurel Olvera has lost a Life.
Student Selena Galia has gained a Life."
Just as Max finished tying the guy down a tentacle that was seemingly made of clouds clumsily struck at his face, it barely carried any force but it somehow counted as losing a life.
Max and Gareth looked at where Selena and Vitria were taking cover, Vitria was still fighting a battle of wills over the ground of the battle field, they both would have already ended up trapped if it wasn't because lf her.
Vitria and Selen weren't holding up well, Vitria was sweating and her face was starting to get pale, she was holding back the urge to scream at the two idiots looking at her to hurry the fuck up. Selena gave them an annoyed look too, her face was more ashen than before.
The idiots in question gave them a nervous smile and concentrated on their current goal: Set up a checkmate.
Now it was truly a fair fight, with both sides having only 4 fighters.
Yet the Earth Elemental was top priority, without him the opposing team would have no one protecting their ground and Vitria could easily catch them.
"I got an idea, but it would involve you fighting 2 guys by yourself at a minimum if Susan doesn't intervene, are you up to it?" Gareth asked Max as he set up two wind blades as if they were the blades of a fan.
"I was born ready." Max gave Gareth a grin while holding his hand up.
Gareth responded with a grin and completed the high-five.
After the "plan" was explained Max was actually very unsure about it. It was hilariously simple, rush the enemy while the wind shield Gareth made would cover them from the fireballs, Max would go in guns blazing and distract the Fire Elementals while Gareth took care of the Earth Elemental.
Max sighed as the wind blades started spinning clockwise, generating a strong air current that made his already messy air return to its Primal state and get in his eyes.
'It would have to be Red for that...' Max pushed the thought aside as he shook his head at Gareth. "Are you sure about this? I don't see how this "wind shield" can hold up..."
"Don't worry about it, and you already agreed so no takesies backsies!" Gareth chuckled as he prepared himself for the sprint.
"Pffft... What, are you seven or something? "No takesies backsies"? Who even uses those words anymore..." Max chuckled as he also prepared himself.