The group spent the rest of the night relaxing and enjoying the starlight along with the Firelights. It eased the last bit of weariness that remained in their minds.

When the sun rose the next day a familiar robotic voice was heard through the forest.

"Attention to all students, the exam has officially concluded, return to the campgrounds at your earliest convenience, if movement is an impossibility a group will be dispatched to fetch you."

The group was eating the last few granola bars that remained in Mark's backpack along with the Spiral Berries they foraged for breakfast when they heard the announcement.

"Damn... guess this is where the fun ends, uh?" Gareth spoke after taking a sip of water.

"Fun?! this was an absolute nightmare! I'm going to take a shower the second I get home." Vitria said as she put all the discarded wrappers in a bag.

"Same... i think there's dirt in places dirt shouldn't be." Max shuddered at the thought.

"Oh yeah, having to do number 2 out in the bushes was... an experience." Gareth added.

"Can you lot not talk about gross stuff? Someone's eating over here!" Selena grumbled as she put away the granola bar, the mental image was enough to kill the little appetite she had.

"Oh c'mon, let's talk about gross stuff! There was this one time back in-" Max was about to continue the story but was rudely interrupted by a half-finished granola bar hitting him in the face.

The attack was followed by a brief moment of silence, which was stopped by a laughing fit coming from Vitria.

Gareth came second, who started coughing at the same time because he had been taking another sip from his water bottle a moment prior.

Max himself came just after Gareth, the moment was kinda funny but not enough to get more than a chuckle out of him, what had caused his laughing was that Gareth had spouted a jetstream of water out of his nose.

Selena came last, she was the catalyst of the events that had just unfolded yet it took a second for it to register.

After the laughter died down the group finished breakfast they started packing up their stuff and getting ready to leave for the campgrounds. The walk back was rather uneventful, the robotic voice spoke again a few minutes after they left their makeshift shelter, explaining that as the exam was over any student that attacked another student would now be punished, the group talked about who could have been stupid enough to attack another student while they walked southeast.

Even though they walked with a relaxed pace they calculated that by 1 pm they should already be back at camp.When the quartet was about 40 minutes from the campgrounds they saw the forest had become upturned, whole trees uprooted and burned to ashes, almost a full acre of land turned into a winter wasteland and random fortifications and other structures made of stone destroyed until only rubble remained.

"Woah... what happened here? Did an Elemental Beast attack?" Vitra said as she inspected a makeshift hut that had been smashed in half.

"I don't think so, we would have heard about it if an Elemental Beast had appeared out of nowhere, they're watching us all the time so i don't think one could slip in unnoticed." Max spoke after taking a look at the trees, they were naturally resistant to fire so wathever had burned them so badly must have been extremly hot.

After walking through what seemed like a battlefield they managed to reach the camp by 1 pm as expected.

"Congratulations on surviving the first exam! Did you guys already have lunch? We got some leftovers if you want." Ian, the Plant Elemental Teacher that had supervised their first activity of the camp, spoke as he approached them.

After having some well deserved food and catching up with the other students on what had been going on, it turned out that their experience was calm compared to what the others went through.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Betrayal, kill-stealing, and theft was common place as everyone only had one goal in mind, stand out and get a good score on the exam.

The situation devolved even further as the group of the strongest students also backstabbed eachother, turning the forest close to the campgrounds into a war zone.

"Great Heavens... and i thought we had it bad..." Gareth said as he finished his plate of reheated curry.

"Yeah, I wonder how our scores are going to be, I mean... the teacher's didn't really want us to fight, right?" Vitria added with an unsure tone.

"Let's hope so... but even if they did, I think we did pretty good." Max responded. "Not a single loss on our part, if that doesn't get us a 100% then I'll eat my shoe!" His expression turned into a smug smile.

"I'll hold you up to that." Selena said as she pointed at him with her fork.

Max smile became strained as the possibility of having to eat his own shoe crossed his mind. 'I should think more before opening my big mouth...'

"Uh... it's just a saying, not a bet!" Max backpedalled as his smile turned awkward.

"Yeah, right." Selena continued eating her food, seemingly uninterested in following the conversation further.

Max was grateful for that and finished his own meal.

•••••

After the teachers got all the students to the camp everyone was checked over for any injuries or tore clothing, which were promptly healed and fixed by Ian.

Following the check-up everybody had their clothes cleaned by Alex, the other assistant of Professor Oberis who shared a name with the quartet's new found enemy.

"Alright, I'll make this quick because I'm sure you all have been through hell and just want to go home- It was nice meeting you, I hope you atleast had a decent time, and see you next time!" Mike spoke out loud so everyone could hear him and started calling out names while writing something in his clipboard.

As it turns out the departments ended up scrambled, with a mix of both having to go up in the same bus, the teacher's were going to compare notes when they reached the other campground and make sure no one was being left behind.

The ride back was unexpectedly calm, Max finally had the chance to continue reading the comics he brought, which he started doing the second he sat down.

After awhile of reading Max heard some huffing and puffing from the seat next to him, Selena was putting down her comic, groaning, holding her chin with a thoughtful expression and tapping her phone in that order.

"Hey-" Max raised an eyebrow and spoke yet he got cut off by Selena."Something's been bugging me ever since we left..." Selena said as she held her phone closer.

"I can see that..." Max spoke with an unreadable expression.

"How did Elias and his cohort follow us, even when it was night and we had multiple hours of advantage on them? And when we used my cloud to escape them the first time, how did they notice we avoided them so quickly?" The Cloud Elemental didn't know what to think, the situation made no sense to her.

"Uh... Maybe Mark helped them track us down? But that wouldn't work, the trees can't see at night, and they wouldn't remember us by the time-" Max got cut off again.

"Trees can see...?" Selena was half unconvinced and half concerned.

Max's expression flashed with annoyance for a second but it returned to unreadable after he sighed to get it out of his system "Yeah, and they remember stuff too, just not for long... i don't know how other Plant Elementals do it but they just show me what they've seen." Max tried to explain how it worked. "They dont "See" like us, their sight and touch are the same, but they "Feel" the life force of other beigns around them."

Selena's expression turned into a mix of shock and abject horror.

"Like i said, they don't remember stuff for long, so whatever you did is probably forgotten by now." Max chuckled as Selena's expression softened, yet her shock remained.

"Wait- Can all plants see or only trees? Are some kinds of trees more likely to keep their memories? Since when can you talk to them? What is-" After the bombardment of questions Max undestood why Selena was clear cut with the answers about her cloud.

"All of them can, but only the old ones can actually recall stuff, the older a plant is the more... Solid their counciousness is, I even met a tree that could talk! but it was back at my grandparents place... And it's something i've been able to do since... Ever, actually." After a few minutes of explaining Selena didn't have any more questions.

"Alright, let's get back to the point- You said Mark wouldn't get anything from the trees... So how did they find out where we went?" After much deliberation the two still couldn't find a proper explanation, so they decided to leave it for later and go back to their own things.

Max was reading his comic while Selena texted on her phone, after a while of doing so she put the phone away and sighed with annoyance, something Max chose to ignore.

"I'm bored." The Cloud Elemental said as she tapped the cover of Max's comic to get his attention.

"I'm not." Who chose to ignore her yet again.

"Can we atleast talk while you read? And Kelda will win that fight, those Asura stood no chance." Selena grinned as Max groaned and put the comic down to not get spoiled further.

Max thought for a bit then spoke. "Who we're you texting?"

"My parents, they saw we left the camp on Live180 and-" Selena suddenly realized something and checked her phone again as Max stared with mild interest.

After a few moments of fidgeting with her phone Selena came to a sudden realization that left her shocked while Max eyed his comic.

"That bitch..." Selena muttered under breath, loud enough for Max to hear but no make out what she said exactly.

"Did you say something?" Max asked as he put the comic down again.

"Nope, I don't want to talk anymore." Selena crossed her arms while brooding it seemed someone was going to get an earful.

Max rolled his eyes and got back to reading, being none the wiser that Selena had just discovered a scheme against her.