At the same time The Squad had formed for the first time another figure was watching from afar.

It was looking at the group slowly walk forwards through its binoculars while holding a walkie-talkie on one hand.

"I've found them, but that cloudy bitch got to them before I could approach. " The figure spoke into the walkie-talkie as the group continued walking.

"Just great, can you do anything right? I gave you simple instructions, how can you mess this up?!" A female voice spoke from the other side of the walkie-talkie.

"You told me they were going west! So either these idiots have an awful sense of direction or your source lied." The figure barked back as it put the binoculars down.

"They wouldn't dare... they probably changed directions halfway to throw off anyone that followed, which seemingly worked wonders..." The voice responded in a snarky tone "Fucking great, now that bitch has them dancing on the palm of her hand... I don't know how but you're going to fix this, I don't care for the price, just get that whore out."

"Well, she only got 2 lives left right? That's 2 bullets I won't be able to use... and considering my limited supplies..." The figure tried to finesse his way into being paid more.

"I know I said I didn't care about the price, but don't think I'll let myself get ripped off... If you try that again I'll rip your face off! Now who's being funny?!" The voice replied with an icy tone that made the figure shiver.

"Sorry... I'll just get going..." The figure shut off the walkie-talkie and grabbed his rifle from his backpack, he positioned himself as the tree branch he was on top of twisted and bent.

Once he locked on the target the tree branch stopped its seemingly bizarre movements.

After a few seconds to make sure the shot would land the figure pulled the trigger of its rifle, sending the rubber round out at breakneck speeds.

Yet... the shot did not land.

Max was the first to hear the firing of the gun and thankfully was close enough to Selena to instinctively push her out of the way.

The rubber bullet passed besides her head and hit a tree a few ways ahead, it hit the bark and completely decimated it, the bullet deformed on impact and ended up encrusted into the tree.

The quartet looked back to see where the bullet had come from, yet the figure had hidden itself from their view.

After using a few moments to regain their bearings they ran towards different trees to use as cover.

Selena recalled the Cloud as it dropped the backpacks on the ground and rapidly moved to her side.

"Shit! Better skeedadle-" The figure said as it put the rifle on its backpack again and jumped to another tree, which changed its shape to aid him in his escape.

The tree branches moved towards him as he used them to get down into the ground,once on the ground again he started running away as fast as his legs could carry him.

The group noticed him running away and gave chase.

Selena was the fastest with her cloud, which Vitria jumped on so to not be left behind, Gareth managed to keep up with them as his body looked almost weightless thanks to an air current.

Max tried to run after them but was quickly left behind...

The figure had some vines wrapped around his arms that he used like whips which wrapped around tree branches high up, after getting a running start the figure used the vines to swing from tree to tree with incredible agility.

The branches twisted out of the way to make a path for him as even the tree crowns swung to give him more speed.

'I don't have enough Energy to keep this up for long...' The figure thought as he swung to another tree. Selena, Vitria and Gareth were on hot pursuit and slowly getting closer.

The chase continued for quite a while, yet what finished it was a single move.

After being on the figure's tail for a while but never managing to catch up Vitria grew tired and grabbed a rock from the ground while the Cloud was still moving, then the rock heated up and changed shape, becoming a long yet very thin javelin.

While it was being shaped the stone looked more and more like Vitria's hair, the javelin even had some crystalline parts.

After it was done she took out an Atlatl from a fanny pack hanging from her shoulder and inserted the javelin in.

"Keep it steady, I need a clear shot!" Vitria said as she aimed at the vines the runaway figure used to swing around.

"Oh, so you didn't bring your Spear but had the space for a shitty gadget?! What is that even supposed to do?!" Selena groaned and her face was ashen, she was running out of Energy... yet did as Vitria said anyway.

The Cloud stabilized but became slower in exchange.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

After a few moments Vitria threw the javelin using the Atlatl, it hit a branch the figure was using to swing, shattering the javelin yet also severing the branch, leaving the figure in an awkward position as he had just let go of the previous branch.

He couldn't adjust his trajectory or grab another branch in time and ended up smashing into the ground quite badly.

He rolled for a few meters and lay on the ground, unmoving.

The group quickly caught up and walked over to the figure that was just now getting up from the ground, yet they stopped on their tracks as the figure that seemed to be wearing shorts and a shirt with camo patterns screamed bloody murder.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKERS, YOU BUSTED MY LEG!" He screamed and continued hurling curses at the group as he clutched one his legs while on a fetal position.

"Uh? What's this guy yapping about? It wasn't even that bad of a fall..." Gareth said as he walked closer to see what the screaming was about.

Selena expected it to be a trap yet after a few more moments of cursing and screaming the guy was already crying in pain.

"I think he's actually hurt... What do we do?" Vitria spoke as she kneeled over him to check his condition, he had a few scrapes yet nothing indicated a major injury.

"Hmmm... Isn't he a Plant Elemental? He can heal himself..." Selena said as the crying continued.

"I don't think he can in this situation... Maybe Max can help? Hey Max-!" Gareth looked around, yet there was no Max "Uh? Where is he?"

Vitria facepalmed "We left him behind, with the backpacks!"

"Welp, it's going to be a long walk then... Let's get started before cry baby passes out." Selena said as her cloud reformed around the crying guy, gently lifting him off the ground.

"Yeah... Max should know what to do..." Gareth said as he grabbed the guy's backpack and the walk back towards their own backpacks started.

•••••

"I don't know what to do! I've never healed someone!" Max said after Gareth, Vitria and Selena explained everything that happened and thanked him for keeping watch on the backpacks after they left, which Max only awkwardly laughed at.

"C'mon, you should know the basics atleast right? It can't be that hard!" Gareth said as he 'inspected' the guys backpack.

"It is hard! But-" Max looked at the guy and sighed, he had calmed down a bit yet he was still clearly in pain. "I'll try my best. "

Max kneeled down and touched the hurt leg with two fingers and the ground with one hand.

From the ground came some roots that gently coiled around the leg, the first part of any procedure that involved healing was making sure the patient had speedy access to nutrients required for the rapid regeneration of tissue.

The roots would absorb the nutrients from the ground and pass them directly to the patients bloodstream, it was exceedingly complicated with other Elementals, thankfully he was a Plant Elemental so the nutrients would be easily accepted. Plant Elementals were actually part Plant after all.

From the fingers that touched the leg came thin strings of green light that wrapped themselves around the leg and started sinking in the flesh.

The second part of any healing procedure was checking for where the wound was exactly. that's what the strings of "life-force" are for, they screened the body for any place where the patients life force was being used or "bled" from.

Max found that the guys Fibula had snapped in one place and was cracked in another...

The third part was actually the easiest of the procedure, if one knew how to do it that is, the actual healing.

Max made the roots on the ground absorb as much calcium as they could and used his own life-force to stimulate the healing factor of the bone.

He had to make sure the bone had set correctly too so that the patient didn't have to have it broken later only to heal again.

Max tried his best to remember the lessons on how to control elements back in middle-school, luckily it was the focus of the last year and he had done pretty good.

'Uh, healing isn't as hard as I remember... ' Max thought as the life-force strings retracted, the process had gone well and the bone was as good as new.

"Damn, and you said it was hard! Maybe I should give healing a try too, it looks pretty useful..." Gareth thought outloud.

"Sorry to burst your bubble but you can't control life-force, how are you going to heal people then?" Vitria asked with a raised eyebrow.

"When there's a will there's a way~" Gareth chuckled as he ate a granola bar from the guy's backpack. "Damn, these are pretty good-... dude."

"My name is-!"

•••••

On a location inside the city walls was a building where the security of the safety perimeter was monitored.

Inside this building were people monitoring the location and current status of the students undergoing the Wilderness Survival Exam.

Suddenly their Elemental Energy Sensors had gone wild with an extremely bizarre signature.

One of the professors in charge of supervising the students had also gone wild when this signature was found and went straight to talk with the principal, who wasn't on the building yet had an open communication channel with it.

"What the fuck is the meaning of this Edward?!" A woman slammed a paper in a desk where a conference with the principal was being held.

"Oh, Mrs Narain... What is the meaning of what?" Edward asked as he looked at the paper through the screen of his laptop.

"Don't act dumb, you knew about this student! How could you not?!" Mrs Narain continued screaming as she pointed at the paper.

"... Could you please explain yourself?" Edward looked at the paper in confusion.

"This student! He has- This Energy signature! How could you not know?!" She continued her screaming as Edward got more annoyed.

"Explain yourself clearly Mrs Narain, I'm busy right now" His tone showed his annoyance clearly.

"I- I saw it through the cameras! Do you have the slightest idea how much life-force that kid used?! At what level it was concentrated?! His strings almost had physical form for Heaven's sake! Yet rather than give him to the Healing Department you throw him at those brutes of the Short Range Department!"

Apparently, life-force strings were not supposed to be able to be seen by the naked eye, which was something Max was entirely unaware of.

"And let's not talk about the wooden weapons he made for those two! An iron trident would barely hurt a YellowRamer, yet that kid literally impaled one with a piece of wood! I saw the readings- the amount of life-force on those things is enough for me to beat you to an inch of your life and then heal you back up twice!" Professor Narain exaggerated, it was enough to do it only once, yet she had to drive the point home, that kid needed to be on her Department.

"Uh... And who is this student? I'll have the transferring papers ready by the time they're back!" Edward said with excitement, it seemed they had found a real genius this time.

"Rowan Maximilian Avasius-" Professor Narain wad about to continue yet Edward cut her off.

"Sorry- but I can't allow you to transfer him, it is very important he stays on the Short Range Department." Edward shook his head.

"But- Why? For what reason would you not want such-" She got cut off again.

"It's a matter regarding my master, I have no explanations to give." Edward said in a firm tone.

"Your- Master...? Excuse my rudeness- I'll be leaving now-" Professor Narain wished the ground swallowed her whole as she speed walked away, yet before she could-

"Wait- I can't have him transferred, but I can ask him if he wants to change one of his hours to have a class with you... that's the best I can do." Edward sighed.

"That... can be arranged..." Professor Narain liked the proposal.