"Wait... I saw how torn up your clothes were, how did you fix them?" Johnny asked Max as he stirred the boiling Stew.
"Uh... I fixed them myself? They're made of cotton so it isn't that hard... and that's the part that got your attention, not the part where i took a fireball to the torso?" Max responded with an exasperated sigh, his voice started sounding lower midway until it was barely a whisper.
"No- Gareth and Vitria already explained what happened, that's why I wasn't surprised..." Johnny fake coughed awkwardly and looked away.
"Oh... Sorry-" Max said as he gave Johnny an apologetic look.
"It's fine, it was a dumb question anyway..." He continued stirring the Stew but the awkward vibe remained.
Atleast until Max spoke up again.
"So... How did you guys end up here, of all places?" Max asked with a nonchalant tone.
"Oh right, you weren't here- I ran away and ended up separating from my group when the two Departments met and the fighting started, can't believe I made it out in one piece... Elina and her friends found me while I wandered around looking for my friends, not much happened after that..." Johnny was the first to explain himself.
"Yeah, same for us... thankfully we didn't get separated so we moved northwest the first chance we got." The Snow Elemental Max didn't know the name of spoke first and the Wind Elemental who wasn't Gareth that was sitting besides Elina nodded.
Something wasn't sitting right with Max's stomach, it may be because he hadn't eaten anything since lunch but his gut instinct was acting up.
Something was... Off... about this whole situation.
Max couldn't exactly pinpoint what it was exactly, but he felt the air he was breathing in was unusually heavy, as if there wasn't only air on the environment...
"I think it's ready!" Johnny excitedly called out as he tasted the Stew.
Soon after that bowls Vitria had made just a couple minutes before we're passed around, filled with a mixture of water, familiar wild tubers and spices, they decided to save the mushrooms for another meal and added extra fish meat to make up for it.
Max devoured the food in hopes for his gut instinct to calm down, it was pretty delicious all things considered, but he could see how it could get old fast considering that other than the wild spices of the forest hey only had salt to season their food.
Even though the odd feeling in his stomach hadn't left even after going for seconds, Max was weirdly calm. The relaxing atmosphere of sitting around a campfire, talking about random stuff and acting as if this was just a normal camping trip eased his nerves, yet he didn't completely lower his guard, the last time he did a fireball almost hit him in the face after all...
When the last rays of sunlight were retreating towards the horizon the group decided it was time to lay down for the night, they all had walked for most of the day so resting their aching feet was a heavensent.
Elina and her teammates only carried 2 tents so Vitria had to improvise an earth igloo for the night.
When Vitria was setting it up Max and Gareth helped the others set up their tents, yet while doing that Max noticed something... when the light hit the ground just right Max could make out an extremely fine Mist, it spread as far as his eyes could see, covering the forest floor in an almost invisible blanket.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Max brushed it off as just regular mist and went back to helping set up the tents.
The tents ended up taking far less time than expected so Max and Gareth sat down to talk for a bit while Vitria finished up the igloo.
Max looked around to check what Elina and her group were doing and then whispered "Hey... I- I have a weird feeling about all of this..."
Gareth looked at Max with a raised eyebrow and whispered too "Hmm? Anything specific?"
"Not really, just a sense that this whole situation is weird..." Max whispered with an uncertain tone.
"Uh... Well, now that you mention it, it is weird that they appear the second we get into real trouble... " Gareth's brow furrowed. "Wait- do you remember when the fight started and someone shouted "Watch out!" Or something like that? I thought it was one of you guys but- what if they were following us...?"
"Yeah-! With everything that happened after I completely forgot..." The dots started connecting in Max's head, yet they also felt... foggy.
Gareth yawned "True... Let's go our own way first hour in the morning, this is starting to creep me out..."
They both joined Vitria inside the Earth igloo once it was finished and covered the entrance with a towel.
After getting inside their sleeping bags they told Vitria about their suspicions and they all agreed to leave first hour in the morning.
Yet that would not come to fruition...
•••••
"AH FUCK-!" Max was suddenly woken up by someone dragging him out of the entrance of the igloo, he held the entrance of the exit tunnel for dear life as Gareth and Vitria were also woken up by his cursing.
They took some precious moments to shake off the sleep and process the situation, then they grabbed him by the arms and used the walls of the igloo as leverage to pull him inside again.
Max felt two different pairs of arms holding bot of his legs, he tried to kick to shake them off yet they held with a strong grip.
That was until one of the pairs slipped off his leg thanks to his sock, Max thanked his past self for keeping them on.
Without skipping a beat he contracted his legs and then kicked with one that wasn't being grabbed, hitting whoever had scared him shitless straight on the face.
"Student Maximilian Avasius had gained a Life.
Student Aleris Iverson has lost a Life.
Student Aleris Iverson has been disqualified, further attacks will be considered to be outside the exam and thus the perpetrator will be fully at fault."
'Uh- Did i just knock out someone...? Serves them right!' Max thought as Gareth and Vitria dragged him inside, the tunnel quickly closed itself after that.
The trio looked at the tunnel in fear someone might be able to sneak in or break the igloo open.
"Aleris Iverson-? Wait- it's one of those Fire Elementals that attacked us!" Vitria said as she crouched. "Elina and her group are in danger- We need to help them!"
Before Max or Gareth could say anything Vitria opened up the roof of the igloo and reshaped it into a wall that reached their midsection, the trio got up from the ground and looked around.
The area surrounding them was an absolute shitshow, Elina and her friends were fighting against multiple Fire Elementals the trio were all too familiar with...
Right where the tunnel to the former igloo was stood a stunned Earth Elemental, looking at the group and then at the Fire Elemental laying unconscious on the floor.
After weighting his options the Earth Elemental decided to abandon his friend and regroup with his teammates.
Vitria rearranged the former wall into a proper cover for her team and then assessed the situation-
Before she could Max grabbed her arm and pulled her to the side just as the sound of a rifle being fired rang out.
A rubber round passed where she stood just a moment ago and went deep into the dark forest, never to be seen again.
The trio couldn't see where the bullet had come from, yet the unmistakable sound was enough of a clue as to who they were going against.
Said "Sniper" was cursing Max out for messing with his shot again. The group had taken most of his bullets with them so he had to make every shot count, which was hard considering he had to go against Max and his uncanny precognition.
He cursed Max's name again and reloaded his rifle while grumbling.
Aiming was already hard, trying to do so while it was almost pitch-black and with the only usable light being of a phone's shitty flashlight wasnt ideal, the Fire Elementals helped a bit with their constant Fireballs, their hair could have helped but it was merely cosmetic and didn't give much light nor warmth.
The Moon was giving light too, yet it was dim and barely helped.
Vitria reformed the wall into a turtle shell reminiscent of the earth igloo that once stood in its place and slowly moved forward along with Max, both crouched under it.
Gareth took a different approach and decided that going slow was for losers, he made the excuse that the speed would throw off Mark's aim, which actually worked wonders.
He used the same trick from before, turning himself weightless with an air current and zigzagging all over the place, throwing some wind blades around for good measure.