The battlefield was deathly quiet, it had been a couple dozen of seconds after the Fire Elemental was taken out of the fight and his teammates were now feeling a bit panicked and considered a tactical retreat.
Yet that option had already been taken from them.
Susan called out as she felt the fog being displaced by a strong wind current, yet the fireballs they threw could not destroy it and died out just as they touched it.
That wind current was the Wind shield Gareth was continously feeding Elemental Energy to, it worked just as intended and every fireball that got slightly close dissipated instantly, yet it also used up a lot of Gareth's limited Energy supply to stay working.
That's why they were running as fast as they could towards the enemy, the Wind shield had the side-effect of working like a turbine, sucking Max and Gareth in while also pushing the air away from them, boosting their speed slightly.
Yet it wasn't going to be so easy, as the walls the opposing team was using as cover fused to create an almost 2 meter tall wall that blocked their path.
The duo continued running as if the wall wasn't even there while the Wind shield positioned itself on the ground a meter and slightly tilted towards the wall.
Max and Gareth crouched and slid on the grass for a few feet until they ended up above the Wind shield, right there they jumped with all their strength and just as they left the ground the Wind shield impoded, boosting their jump immensely.
They crouched midair to set foot on the top of the wall to use as leverage for a second jump, yet just as they did they noticed the enemy had set up countermeasures in the shape of 4 fireballs, 2 for the sides and 2 for the top of the wall.
With zero hesitation Max jumped forward before Gareth could react and slapped away the fireball aimed at his teammate and then took the other one to the side of his torso, the force of the explosion sent him tumbling to the right and almost colliding with Gareth, who barely managed to dodge by having jumped a moment after Max.
Garet could only give Max a side glance filled with worry as he hit the ground and rolled for a few feet, The air around Gareth's feet almost solidified as he used it to do a double jump towards the Earth Elemental that was still in shock.
Filled with anger Gareth jumped again and prepared a drop-kick midair, which hit the Earth Elemental in the face and sent him head first towards the ground.
The Earth Elemental slid for almost a meter before stopping, any other Elemental would have been knocked out cold yet Earth Elementals were known to be tougher than regular, not tough as nails as Metal Elementals but still pretty hardy.
The Earth Elemental showed this by shrugging off his headache in the making, albeit with some difficulty, and tried to get up.
He felt his blood go cold as he saw Gareth falling down from the air towards him with a punch ready to go, which scared him shitless, not wanting to risk his broken nose getting even worse he made Earth spikes come out of the ground and form a defensive cocoon around him.
But that was part of the plan all along, as in his panicked state he had forfeited from his battle of wills with Vitria, giving her control of all the Earth on the battlefield.
Gareth slowed his descent and stood above the cocoon made of earth spikes while giving the Water and Fire Elementals a smirk.
Their expressions changed from confusion to somber realization as Earth spikes came from the ground and held them in place, taking their life's on the way too.
"Student Susan Douglas has lost a Life.
Student Aleris Iverson has lost a Life.
Student Kate Zou has lost a Life."
In one move Vitria had multiplied her lives and won the battle, it was a true checkmate.
Gareth sighed in relief yet just a moment after he looked to his left with trepidation.
There Max was on his knees holding himself up with an arm while the other held the left side of his torso which had a painful burn, his breath was haggard and rough while his face was growing alarmingly paler, making his faded freckles stand up. The side-effects of going all out had caught up to him as he felt the world spin and the edges of his vision go blurry.
In the heat of the fight he had completely forgotten about his own limits, the feeling of power he felt when fighting with the vein-like things and the Nodes was intoxicating, so intoxicating it clouded his better judgement into believing he could push himself just a tiny bit more. And it backfired tremendously.
The feeling of searing pain was the only thing keeping him from passing out, and he used it to its full extent as a root came out of the ground and intertwined with the hand that was keeping him up, from his other hand came 5 strings of life force that went all out to heal the burn as quickly as they could while the root transported every single nutrient the tree it came from could absorb to Max.
When the coconut-sized burn healed it left behind a scar the size of a big marble.
After using up the last of his mental and Elemental energy Max's consciousness started to slip as he fell on his now healed side.
Selena was quick to recall her cloud yet Gareth and Vitria stopped her and got Max up, they moved his arms around their shoulders and started carrying him away from the battlefield.
While walking away they whispered between themselves yet Max could barely hear them.
"Why-... I could-..." a voice that sounded like Selena said.
"They're-... hear us-... follow-..." Max couldn't discern who said that, their voices were starting to blur and sound like gibberish.
"Is he OK?" That voice caught him off guard, not only because he heard it perfectly, but it also didn't come from his teammates.
Max didn't know what happened next as his consciousness slipped further and he blacked out.
•••••
After an unknown amount of time Max awoke inside a tent, it didn't have much inside, just the sleeping bag he was inside of and his backpack.
The outside was somewhat dark, the only thing illuminating it was the warm orange light of a campfire close to the tent and the distant setting sun, Max could hear people talking and the sound of something bubbling.
After getting out of the sleeping bag Max noticed that he had the same clothes he had fought in, so they were riddled with holes.
After fixing them up he unzipped the "door" of the tent and took a peek outside.
The voices were clearer now and he could even make out what they were saying, as it turns out it wasn't much, just some chatter about the stew that was over the fire and what they experienced on the day.
Max carefully peeked his head out and looked over at the fire, there he saw 3 familiar faces, Johnny the Fire Elemental along with Gareth and Vitria. There were 3 others he hadn't seen before, so probably from the Long Range Department, a Wind Elemental, a Mist Elemental... Wait... was that Elina?
"Oh, so you're up...?" Max's head moved to his left only to find Selena looking at him dejectedly.
Max quickly got out of the tent and nodded "Yeah- I was out for a while uh?" He said after seeing the bright orange clouds and dark blue sky close to the setting sun, even if the trees blocked the view Max was sure it was a beautiful dusk.
"Yup..." Selena replied dryly, she was also looking at the sunset and the fringe of hair that covered one of her eyes also covered most of her face from Max's view so he couldn't see her expression.
"So... Did I miss anything?" Max asked as the silence was becoming uncomfortable for him.
"Not really, Elina and her group appeared out of nowhere after you passed out and guided us here, the guys that were running after us won't bother to search in the dark so it'll be safe until tomorrow." Selena continued looking at the sunset while answering Max.
"Hmmm..." Max didn't know how to reply but he could feel an air of... something around Selena.
"Uh..." He thought about saying something but she took the chance before he could.
"I'm going to go by myself from here on out..." Selena said.
"Whu- why?" Max asked as he turned to look at her again.
Selena looked at him too, there was something on her eyes that Max couldn't decipher as she looked to his side for a split second.
Max looked at his back and saw Elina quickly look forward, it would have convinced him if it wasn't because her hair moved slower than real hair, selling her out.
Max looked at Selena again, who seemed to struggle with her words. "It's- Complicated... it'll be easier for everyone this way..." Even the socially inept Max could pick up that she was unsure of her own words.
"Uh... Well... Maybe if- if we have another test like this... would you want to join our team?" Max asked with painfully obvious nervousness.
"I- I'll think about it..." Selena said as she turned around and started walking away, she was already wearing her backpack so there was nothing else of hers on the camp.
Max looked at her leave, he felt something was off yet though that it wasn't his place to ask...
After Selena was almost out of view he walked over to the campfire and sat down with the rest of the group.
"Did she tell you guys she was going to leave?" Max asked as the smell of the stew hit him and he started salivating.
"Yeah, she just wanted to wait until you got up to "check on you" if you catch my drift..." Gareth joked and jabbed Vitrias ribs, who could only sign in annoyance.
Max chuckled and shook his head.
Elina didn't seem amused. "So... Are you alright Max? Nothing hurts?"
"Oh... Yeah, I manage to heal myself before blacking out so it doesn't hurt that bad..." Max said as he poked the place where his new scar was, healing wasn't supposed to leave scars so he must have done a pretty rushed job if it left one.
"That's great! Could you check on everyone tomorrow? If isn't much to ask of course, I don't want anyone to end up with an infection or something..." Elina said with a sweet tone that made Max slightly uncomfortable.
"Uh... Sure..." Max replied.
"Oh right, I owe you one for taking a fireball for me Max!" Gareth said as he pointed at Max. "If you need someone taken care of, give me a call and I'll nab em'" Gareth joked as he did finger guns at Max.
Max chuckled. "Sure! I'm already having some ideas..."