It was mind-boggling how quickly the tables could flip in a situation.

One second they were interrogating a guy and in the next they were running for their lives.

Quite literally actually.

Just a few moments after the voice sounded from the walkie-talkie and the confusion settled the quartet was attacked from the north by a group of 7 Elementals, quickly followed by a scramble to get their backpacks while evading attacks from the enemy.

It was pretty hard considering that the group attacking them was mostly made out of Fire Elementals, yet they managed to do it with just some grazes and a few burnt spots in their clothes.

Mostly thanks to some well aimed wind blades that saved them in the nick of time, Max made a mental note to thanks Gareth for that later as he grabbed his backpack and got the hot foot out of there before the rapidly approaching encirclement could catch up.

Mark ended up being left behind, yet he didn't seem bothered by it as he smirked at the group while they ran away.

Vitria had caught a ride on Selena's cloud while Gareth was using an air current to be seemingly weightless, the only one that was being left behind on the speed department was Max...

Vitria and Gareth looked behind with worry as Max was struggling to even reach them, Selena was more preoccupied with the Cloud not smashing against a tree so her eyes did not deviate from the path ahead.

Max looked at them and responded with a thumbs up, he had a plan, no need to worry about it.

Quite recently he had found something very interesting about the vein-like things, he could make them get together and then slot into place, this made the boost to his physical abilities much greater, yet it also caused an issue, once they entered his joints they became what Max called a "Node" and couldn't be retrieved.

He could choose when to turn a node "On" or "Off" yet he could feel a small boost even when a node was off.

He lost 3 vein like things when he turned his left shoulder into a Node, yet when he tried to add more only two were added and the others phased through.

With that information Max decided to turn his hip joints and knees into Nodes, that would use up 20 Vein-like things which was about 70% percent of the total he had yet it would be worth it.

Moving the vein-like things around while running was hard but Max was already becoming proficient at it so it only took a few tries.

Max felt the warm feeling around his joints signaling that the Nodes had already formed so with but a thought they awakened for the first time.

The change was instantaneous, Max speed skyrocketed as he went from being left behind to keeping up with Selena and Vitria while Gareth was much faster than them.

Even the rough environment of the forest that used to slow the group down was barely a hindrance to him now.

It was an intoxicating feeling of pure speed 'Even someone going full throttle on a bicycle wouldn't be able to keep up with me right now! Actually, they probably could...' Max thought as he gave the group a grin while they could only look at him in complete disbelief.

They wanted to ask him a ton of questions yet it wasn't the time as their attackers were still going after them while hurling fireballs in their general direction.

Yet one question could not be dodged. "Plan B?!" Vitria asked loud enough so that Max and Gareth could hear her and they nodded in affirmation.

The fireballs that impacted the trees created an explosion of flames that burned the area around them, yet Max noted that the fire was being put out just as fast as it appeared, he didn't know who or what was doing it yet not having to worry about a forest fire was good.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The chase continued as the group started leaving their pursuers in the backfoot, the fireballs they threw made a noticeable arc before exploding on the ground uselessly and with the trees blocking visibility it wouldn't take long before they could pull off plan B.

The time came not long after that as the quartet left their pursuers on the dust, it was set-up time.

They hadn't spent the limited time they had while preparing the food in talking about random topics... mostly, they came up with an escape plan incase of a situation like this one.

Max jumped on Selena's Cloud while Gareth made a sudden U-turn and focused the wind current that was carrying him into a single point as he ran towards them.

Max held the Cloud tightly, Vitria did the same except with only one hand while extending an arm towards Gareth, Selena concentrated in preparation for the next step.

When he was only a few steps away from the Cloud Gareth suddenly jumped up and threw the vortex of concentrated air right below the Cloud while extending an arm towards Vitria.

The vortex exploded creating an extremely strong wind current that made the Cloud skyrocket into the air, Vitria managed to catch Gareth and pull him up while the Cloud ascended.

It wasn't the smoothest ascent and when it stopped parts of the Cloud had lost their physicality, making those that weren't a Cloud Elemental feel like quick sand was rapidly swallowing them while Selena did her best so the Cloud didn't completely dissapear.

After just a few moments it stabilized and Max, Gareth and Vitria sighed in relief as the Cloud they were sitting on stopped their sinking and pushed them back up.

"Thank Heavens... my foot was already halfway through when it stopped..." Max panted as he looked down nervously into the forest canopy.

"Yeah, I can't believe that crazy plan worked..." Gareth chuckled as he wiped the sweat off his brow.

"Have more faith in me next time, and shut up before those idiots get closer and notice us-!" It started loud yet at the end Vitria's voice was barely a whisper.

They stopped talking while Selena continued her concentration so that the Cloud wouldn't plummet into the ground.

Their pursuers passed below and didn't notice that their prey had slipped right between their fingers.

After making sure the coast was clear the Cloud slowly descended and everyone got off before it dissipated into a fine mist.

Selena massaged her temples and felt a headache coming in, one of the aftereffects of using an amount of Elemental Energy the body wasn't accustomed to.

"Alright, what now? Should we continue the same way or...?" Max asked as he looked at the direction their pursuers had gone to.

"That would be for the best, they caught up because we stopped for lunch so next time we should eat on the run." Vitria said as she took a last sip from her now empty water bottle. "We also need water..."

"Sounds good to me, but can we get a breather before setting out? I'm spent after all that running..." Gareth said as he chugged down his water bottle.

"No, we need to get going before they notice we escaped their ambush!" Vitria spoke as she put on her backpack.

"Please, my legs are killing me..." Max pleaded too as he drank some of his own water.

"... Alright, we'll walk slowly..." Vitria negotiated, which was followed by some exasperated groans. "Until we find a shelter to pass the night in...?" Max, Gareth and Selena nodded in approval.

"Alright, let's get going!" Vitria walked on the front, followed by a tired Max and Gareth along with a Selena that was now annoyed by any minor sound.

The group slowly walked southwest with a tiny bit of paranoia, they feared getting found out and chased again but after a while the tranquil sounds of the forest eased their nerves and allowed them to slowly relax.

Yet that was a grave mistake, because as their guard fell they suddenly heard a scream coming from the distance.

"Watch out!" It was too far to distinguish from where it came from, yet Max was already aware of the danger.

A fireball- No, multiple fireballs were coming at them from their right, Vitria had made a wall come out of the ground that blocked the fireballs aimed at her. Selena managed to make a Cloud that took the brunt of the attack, which gave her time to hide with Vitria. Gareth used wind blades to intersect the ones aimed at him and dodged the ones he couldn't.

Max... was defenseless, atleast according to what everyone other than himself thought. Experimenting with the Nodes wasn't the only thing he did on his free time.

He came to the realization that he wasn't a Plant Elemental. It was a stupid thought really, he had these weird powers that no Plant Elemental should have, it was obvious... Yet it hadn't really hit him until the moment he took out the cupcake tin with the cupcakes he gave to Vitria and Gareth earlier from the oven.

He had done so... without gloves, yet he didn't notice until he saw the gloves on the counter and looked at his own hands, they were not burned or gave him pain at all.

The realization hit him like a bag of bricks.

Now... what he was about to do was a bit different than taking out a hot pan out of the oven... yet he felt a certain confidence that it would work.

When the fireball was just a few meters away from him he extended an arm and grabbed it.

He spun around and threw it back at his attacker with zero hesitation to the astonished glances of everyone present.

After doing so Max looked at his hand, it felt hot and a bit painful yet the elation of what he had just done overshadowed everything else.