In all honestly, Max was still not so sure about standing up to Elias, the facade of bravado and confidence he put up was mostly for himself, he didn't really thought he'd actually beat the Meta Elemental. Buy some time maybe, but actually beat him in a fight?
There was a high possibility he would end up with his ass kicked, failing the exam in the way too.
Yet he had a burning feeling in his chest, it wasn't shame or anger this time... rather, it felt like a frenzied flame burning with anticipation that begged to be let out.
Max was more than willing to comply.
He held the head of his poleaxe low, seeing that Elias was taking his sweet time walking over he decided to take the fight to him.
Max ran forwards while preparing an upward smash.
Elias prepared himself too, but for a horizontal swing instead, to counteract any funny business Max could try to pull.
Yet that failed spectacularly as rather than complete the swing Max let his weapon go when he was just a few steps away and a hair's breadth out of the range of his warhammer, catching Elias by surprise and hitting him in the face, but Max didn't stop there as he took the opportunity to grab his poleaxe mid air and go for a double whammy, holding the poleaxe as close to the bottom spike as possible for optimal strike force.
With the first swing Elias only lost his footing but the second sent him head first towards the ground, his previously pristine nose was now broken and blood ran down from it.
While the Metal Elemental was trying to regain his bearings Max didn't let go of the chance to get a couple more hits in, swinging with all the strength he could muster with blows straight to the sides of tbe head, he could only get two in before Elias grabbed the hammer head of his poleaxe with his free hand, as Max tried to get it back Elias swinged horizontally with his warhammer, the awkward position made the hammer carry less force but it still hurt like hell.
Max grasped the side of his torso while his face contorted in pain, he decided to cut his losses and leave behind the hammer head of the poleaxe and disengage.
Now that Max wasn't smashing his head in Elias got up from the ground and dropped the now useless hammer head from his hand and wiped the blood from his lips while holding his Warhammer tightly. The intense anger on Elias' eyes could burn holes in Max's skull yet he stared back in defiance.
•••••
"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Edward asked as he saw the camera feed along the readings of the EES (Elemental Energy Sensors.)
"Mhm..." The voice on the other side of the call responded.
"How is the Elemental Energy flowing in his body but he hasn't transformed? That's absolutely impossible..." Edward spoke as he checked the readings twice so to be completely sure.
"What do you mean? He did transform, it's just very weak, that's why the changes aren't apparent." The voice chuckled. "Can't you see it? His skin is gray like stone, the Magma flowing where his Nodes are... it's incomplete, but it's still there."
"Uh... But how is he able to do that? It takes years of training for an Elemental to transform, some can't do it at all, and he's going at it like it's nothing..." Edward sighed as the two Elementals on the screen continued trading blows.
"It's draining him quickly, most of it goes to waste because he doesn't even knew what he's doing." The voice grumbled as Max ended up on the backfoot after one his attacks backfired.
"Do you think he's going to be fine...? The Argen is going to be a tough nut to crack." Edward spoke with a slightly worried tone.
"Don't worry about it! I'm sure he'll be fine... a bit roughed up but fine." The voice replied nonchalantly.
"'A bit roughed up' coming from you means unconscious with serious injuries." Edward grumbled as he wrote a report.
"And what's the problem? The kid is going to be absolutely fine, it'll be a learning experience!" The voice replied nonchalantly again.
Edward sighed as he stopped writing the report. "... Should I scrub him from the recordings? I have to send them to the Ministry..."
"Nah that'll just get their attention unnecessarily, let them know about him and I'll deal with them later." The voice replied as the fighting on the screen came to a standstill.
"If you say so..." Edward continued writing the report while looking up to the screen every once in a while to check how the fight was going.
•••••
Max panted as he held his poleaxe tightly, he had a few new bruises on his arms and legs while a trickle of blood ran down from his nose after a sucker punch from Elias.
The Metal Elemental wasn't doing so hot either, he had bruises on his limbs just like Max while the eyelids of one of his eyes was beginning to swell and become purple after Max had retaliated with a mean left punch.
They stared at eachother for a few more moments and then Elias ran towards Max. "This ends now, you useless shrub!".
Bringing Max's Element into this was a low blow, but he would respond in kind.
"I'll like to see you try, you piece of scrap metal!" Max ran towards Elias with a defensive stance.
When they were just a few steps away from eachothers way Elias swung his warhammer and- let it go mid swing.
Max was surprised to see his own tactics used against him and couldn't react in time to block so the hammer ended up hitting him in the stomach, it sent him gliding through the air and then tumbling on the ground for a few meters.
Max got up from his back and to his side to push the warhammer from on top of him, then he ended up kneeling while holding himself up with both hands while vomiting wathever was left from dinner into the floor.
While trying to regain his breath Elias used to chance to walk closer as the warhammer levitated and returned to its rightful owner.
Max turned back as he heard the footsteps get closer, he did so just in time to see Elias swing at his head-
•••••
Max regained his consciousness and was welcomed by his brain feeling like a ping pong ball bouncing around on his skull, which also felt like it was vibrating.
From Max's perspective the world was spinning and everything was upside down, his vision had doubles and triples so he couldn't even comprehend where he was.
It was still night and he felt grass on his hands, which weren't tied like he had expected, his body hurt all over but the left side of his face was the worst offender.
Max slowly got himself up from the ground into a kneeling position as his vision went seeing triples to seeing doubles.
That's when he realized he hadn't been out cold for long...
Why you may ask? Well, because Elias was slowly waking over to him.
"I have to admit, you are one tough leaf and the only one that's taken this much effort to defeat, so I'll be merciful and only beat you up a little..." Elias left the warhammer on the ground head first and was cracking his knuckles as he got a step closer to Max.
Max was... it was hard to describe, he felt shame for failing to defeat Elias... for failing Vitria... and for failing his teammates.
Yet he also felt happy, because he had finally stuck to something he really believed in, rather than bend to the wants of someone else.
He felt sad, because he wanted to atleast have another day of camping with the group, exploring, finding cool stuff, cooking food...
And he felt a weird solace that atleast he had tried his best...
Yet when Elias was just a step away from him and his punch mid way towards his face... it stopped.
Not because Elias had suddenly realized what he was doing was wrong or something like that.
It was because a Cloud had materialized in its path and stopped it. The fist sunk into the cloud, which refused to let it go.
Max looked at the cloud that was at an arms length with confusion and then moved his gaze to his side, there he saw Selena extending an arm in his direction while the Earth Elemental that was keeping her hostage was floating a few centimeters above the ground in a cocoon made of clouds.
"What are you doing idiot?! Beat him the fuck up!" Selena screamed as the Cloud covering Elias' fist slowly expanded to his arm.
Max obliged and walked over to where his poleaxe had been thrown to in the commotion, he almost stumbled a couple of times but made it after a bit of work.
He took a few seconds to recompose himself while using the poleaxe as support so to not fall over and then walked as fast as he could towards Elias.
The Metal Elemental was too busy trying to get the Cloud off his hand but that ended up being counterproductive as it spread over to his free hand.
Without him realizing Max swung a downward smash straight to the head, taking Elias out of his efforts to be rid of the Cloud.
He looked at Max with reignited rage while Max gave him a shit eating grin, it was a genuine one this time, there was no fear to masquerade.
The Cloud made it hard for Elias to move around as it did its best to inhibit his movements, which Max took advantage of to slip out of his range while also getting a couple hits in.
The fight continued and started to drag on as Max and Elias couldn't find a way to finish off the other, content with hitting eachother until one fell unconscious or gave up, yet they failed to account for the third person that was also fighting.
Elias managed to kick Max away, who got up as quickly as he could but when he was about to run in a couple of clouds materialized in front of him, creating steps that went higher until they ended in front of Elias, ending up to his head level.
Max gave Selena a confused look only to be met with annoyance and an ashen face, she had been wasting her Elemental Energy by keeping Elias slow while Max had been wasting time in not finding a way to end tbe fight faster.
She pointed at the steps, at Elias, and then made a motion of hitting something with a hammer, which was enough to clue Max into her plan.
Max looked back at Elias, who had his face covered with a Cloud that didn't let him see the interaction that had just happened.
Max took a few steps back and then ran towards the clouds, using them to go up until the last step when he jumped and prepared a downward swing.
Elias barely managed to get the Cloud out of his face when he looked around and saw Max jumping at him, he didn't have the time to react before the regrow hammer head of Max's poleaxe smashed against his head, sending him smashing towards the ground.