After a couple of seconds of waiting and seeing Elias was not getting up from the ground Max sighed in relief.
He took a few moments to catch his breath while using his poleaxe as support, it was really unbelievable... he actually managed to defeat a Metal Elemental, he would have lost if Selena hadn't helped, that much was true, but it was still a great accomplishment.
Max felt utterly spent, every single movement including breathing was agony, his limbs felt wobbly and a headache was already coming in...
His skin was returning to its normal color, the vein-like things on his Nodes were fading, the burning feeling started to dissipate and the world felt... colder.
Max could feel the strength being sapped from his body as his knees started to buckle, yet before he could fall a Cloud wrapped itself around his upper torso like a floatie, releaving his body of some weight and buying time for Selena to speedwalk her way over.
She put his arm around her shoulder as he leaned on her, Max didn't have the energy to object before she started walking over to where Vitria was laying.
When they got there Max got on his knees and touched her on the shoulder, then he sent life-force strings to check her injuries, which weren't that bad, just a concussion and some bruises that healed quickly.
When they finished healing and she started waking up Max moved to his other patient, Selena, turns out her injuries were severe, coming short only to Max's own.
Her clothes were a mess with slashes and tears leaving them tattered, the cuts all over her body seemed purposeful, done to inflict pain but not deep enough to draw much blood.
Max fixed the cuts along with her clothes, leaving them as good as new, of course that was if you didn't count in the dried blood.
As he was doing that Gareth walked over from the woods, his clothes were torn and dirty while his arms and legs had small cuts all over them, as if he had put them inside a bush full of thorns, which wasn't that far off from what actually happened...
He carried what looked like a metal pipe in one hand and Mark's backpack in the other.
Vitria looked at Gareth as he walked closer. "What's that?"
"Some souvenirs... Let's just say Mark and his rifle aren't going to be a problem..." After saying that he sat down besides Vitria and opened up a granola bar from Mark's backpack.
After Max finished healing Selena he went to touch Gareth on the shoulder to finish up healing his teammates but he slapped his hand away.
"Whu-?" Max looked at Gareth with confusion, his eyelids were starting to feel heavy.
"Heal yourself." Gareth said as he took a bite out of the granola bar.
"But-" Max was about to object but Gareth cut him off.
"No buts! Heal. Yourself." Gareth replied.
Max didn't want to argue as much as he didn't have the energy to, so he did as Gareth said and healed himself, as it turns out his injuries were more severe than he thought, he had a couple of thin cracks on his ribs and on his limbs, it was serious enough that he had to make a root come out of the ground and wrap around his hand, unlike with Selena and Vitria who had enough nutrients and no broken bones.
Max didn't know how much time had passed but after fighting with his fatigue he managed to heal almost completely, only leaving some bruises that were too small to be bothersome.
After healing up the group decided it was time to skeedadle before their enemies regained their consciousness and wanted to go for a second round.
They all got on Selena's cloud, which slowly but surely moved forward into the forest, leaving behind the chaotic battlefield and an Earth Elemental that was still floating above the ground.
The group decided to go north after grabbing all their stuff along with some supplies their unconscious enemies so kindly left for them.
While on the way Gareth decided to break the ice.
"So... Did you actually leak photos of Elias' girlfriend cheating on him?" He asked in a nonchalant tone.
"How did you- Wait, that blabbermouth told you, didn't he?" Selena sighed. "Yes, I did... but it was in middle-school, years ago! The "cheating" was Alex kissing a guy on the cheek..."
"Wait, really? We fought just because of that?!" Vitria said in an agitated and exasperated tone.
"Yup, stupid, I know... that bitch has been on my ass about it for years, she took revenge a couple of times in the past too, this is just the biggest and most recent of her plans..." Selena rolled her eyes in annoyance as the Cloud sped up slightly.
"Uh... but why did you do it in the first place? That Alex gal sounds like someone you wouldn't want to be on the bad side of..." Gareth asked as he finished his granola bar.
"It's... Complicated..." Selena didn't continue the sentence and focused on the path ahead.
"Well, atleast try to explain, i think we deserve to know why we got beaten to a pulp..." Max piped in, he decided to do so because it would help in keeping himself awake, which was getting harder by the second.
"It's embarrassing..." Selena lowered her head while Max looked at her completely unamused.
"Alrigth... I- I had a crush on Elias OK?! I was so angry that Alex did that to him... So I got proof and told everyone I could about it..." Selena spilled the beans and crossed her arms while looking away from the path ahead.
"Uh... Sorry you had to go through that, it must have been awful..." Vitria said after giving Max a look of disapproval, which he took half-heartedly.
"No, I- i should be saying sorry for getting you guys involved in this mess... I'm so sorry..." Selena said as her head hung lower.
"Don't even mention it, what are friends for if they don't bail you out of a dangerous situation, after all?" Gareth said as he offered her a granola bar from Mark's backpack.
"Friends...?" Selena said as she looked back grabbed the granola bar.
"Yeah, you're our friend! What, did you not have friends-" Gareth was about to continue but he was cut off by Vitria who suddenly screamed and pointed forward. "TREE!"
Selena quickly got her eyes back on the road and dodged the tree, avoiding a collision in the nick of time.
After a collective sigh of relief Selena looked back and spoke.
"I- thank you for the granola bar..." Then she removed the wrapper from the bar and started eating it while keeping an eye on the path ahead.
The journey was relatively quiet after that, with the occasional chatter about what they were going to do now popping up.
They decided to lay low until the exam was over, the second day had been way too much excitement and it drained them not only physically but also mentally.
•••••
It was a beautiful sunny morning, the birds were singing, the flowers were blooming and the group was very very tired.
They had been on Selena's cloud for what felt like an eternity and fatigue had caught up with the majority, Max was miraculously still clinging to his consciousness after having small "naps" throughout the trip.
Gareth and Vitria had done the same, but Selena couldn't as a lapse in consciousness would have sent the group butt first towards the ground.
They had been looking for a place to sleep in since the sun came out, without luck for now.
That was until Max got up from the Cloud and walked over to a big tree in a clearing that had been toppled over and smashed in half, it's trunk was hollow while rotting and mossy bark was the only thing keeping it from being scattered pieces of wood.
While the group only saw a possibly bug infested hole, Max saw an opportunity.
Before they could ask him anything he made the tree become whole again while its bark healed, after just a few minutes the tree looked brand new, as if it had just been toppled over.
"We're going to sleep here." Max pointed at a hole on the side of the tree a person could easily fit through, the tree was tall enough for all four of them to fit comfortably and with extra space for their backpacks.
Before they could retort Max spoke again.
"Do you have a better idea? We can't set up tents, an Earth Elemental could easily catch us underground and... I'm way too tired to think of more arguments, get in!"
In the end they decided that sleeping inside the tree was acceptable and everyone crawled in.
It was spacious enough that they could crouch inside without much trouble, and that they did as they set up the sleeping bags and settled down for the day.
It was the best sleep Max ever had even though it was inside a hollow tree in a random patch of the forest.
He had to open the hole for someone to go outside and do their business a couple of times but it was great.
When he woke up it was night again.
'Damn, first I get knocked out twice in the same day, then my sleep schedule is a mess, being a hunter can't be healthy...' Max would have doubted his decision had be realized how true those words were.
He yawned and rubbed his eyes to get the last bits of sleepiness out of his system, after that he checked his phone to see what hour it was but when he looked around to find it he saw a weird purple glow outside the tree from the breathing holes he made to the trunk.
The purple glow looked soft, completely unlike the light fire and flashlights made.
Max took a peek outside, only to end up flabbergasted.
Tiny specks of purple light floated about outside, flashing in and out of existence lazily.
Curiosity took ahold of Max as he opened the hole and crawled outside, there he saw even more of the specks of purple light floating around, there was dozens of the things going about with no actual pattern, flickering as if they were going to go out at a moments notice.
Now a few steps away from the trunk Max sat down on the chill grass and watched the light show, he compared it to the fireworks that went off in the summer solstice for the Sky Lanterns Festival.
Except this looked far more natural and unlike anything Max had ever seen.
He instantly recalled from where he knew about these things, they were called Firelights, their name came from their similarity to the sparks that come from a campfire, and flickered just like them.
They're also the reason Max loved the color purple, his sister had given him a jar full of the little buggers when he was a kid, he treasured that jar like the most precious thing in the whole world until all the Firelights inside died out.
Max layed down on the grass and smiled lightly as a tear fell down the side of his face.
He was too entranced by the sight that he didn't notice two people sitting down besides him and laying down.
He looked to his sides to see Gareth and Selena also looking at the light show with amazement apparent in their eyes, it was probably the first time they had seen Firelights.
A fourth person layed down opposite to Max, he checked to see who it was even though he already knew it was Vitria.
The group was on a circle, with each pointing at a cardinal direction like a makeshift compass, they stared at the beautiful sight of dancing purple lights with the starry sky as the background silently, with only the slight buzzing of wings as company other than eachother.