Battle in the forest

"Everyone pay attention. Go into your status and learn your personal aspect."

They were a bit confused as to what I was talking about until they went into their status and widened their eyes. As if they had remembered a long-lost memory.

"Now that that's done, follow me," I said as I began to walk around the house. They must have been excited to finally get on their feet since they seemed to be particularly giddy.

We made our way to a similar spot with countless dummies.

"You'll be training with dummies today. But not with your weapons. You'll be using your elements."

"This will teach you how to conserve your ichor and obviously, it will allow you to get a better understanding of your element."

As I said this they all started to take their dummies. Except Noa decided not to do anything. Because this would be revealing her elemental affinity, so she decided to stand still.

I didn't care too much, she was the one that would be left behind by the others. Other than this, nothing much really happened. Just 20 minutes of BOOM and WHISH.

As the day came to an end, I dismissed them all and told them to come back the next morning.

The next day was the same as the previous one. Alex and Stacy battled, while Luca and Colt duked it out. The others did Ichor circulation and dummy training. The rest of the day passed uneventfully.

"Today's going to be a little different. Everyone grab a wooden version of your weapon. Today you'll finally be able to spar." I declared, as they practically jumped up in happiness.

"Although we won't be doing 1v1s. You'll all be in teams of three. From what I've seen, you guys have terrible teamwork and coordination. Whether this stems from bad leadership, defiance or just weakness, we'll be finding out today."

"Once the person is either unconscious, unable to fight or yield, they will be out, and I will pick them up."

"I'll now be putting you into teams. Team 1 will be Aaron, Sophie and Alex." Nothing was said, but it was clear they weren't happy with this team.

"Team 2 will be Colt, Noa and Eric." Much wasn't said about this Team, they just dealt with it.

"Team 3 will be Luca, Liam and Stacy." This team couldn't be happier. Luca was happy with Stacy and didn't care much about Liam, Liam was the same and Stacy was just happy to be with two people she enjoyed.

"And lastly team 4 will be Johan, Lia and Ester." This team was also very pleased. Since Lia and Johan knew each other well, and Lia somewhat was familiar with Ester, they weren't too unhappy with this.

"We'll be going to the forest. I've put up pillars to indicate where the battleground ends and I've checked, there isn't anything that will be harmful." I said before any of them could start complaining.

We made our way to the forest and on our way there I observed the teams. Aaron and Alex didn't talk much, but Sophie was rambling on to Aaron as she grabbed his arm.

Noa could already be seen trying to take command and 'strategizing' on how to take down the others.

"That wouldn't work. Alex is too smart for that, not to mention he's quite fast." Colt protested.

"Yes but if we catch him by surprise he'll be caught off guard. Just do it" She debated.

"... ok." He said, after a slight pause. He didn't agree with it, but there was nothing he could do.

Meanwhile, Stacy, Luca and Liam were just chatting, they weren't stressing nearly as much.

Johan, Lia and Ester were also going through some battle strategies, but theirs were much more plausible.

"We've arrived. I'll be taking each team to a different corner. When you guys see the fireball explode in the sky, that's when the battle begins."

After explaining this, I took each team to their designated corner and made my way back.

3rd person POV:

As all the teams were positioned in their respective corners they waited for the signal.

BOOM

They suddenly looked up to see an explosion. It had started.

Team 2 presiding of Noa, Colt and Eric rushed to the middle as quietly as possible.

Pretty soon they they came across an arguing team 1.

"Why are we going to the middle? It's the most vulnerable spot." Said, Alex.

"We're going there because I said we are. That's where everyone will be, if we can get the jump on them we can win." Aaron argued.

"What kind of stupid logic is that? First of all, we don't know if everyone's headed for the middle and secondly, they could be hiding in wait to attack the first team that comes along. It's too risky."

"Shhhh. Stop shouting, someone might hear us." Added Sophie.

As they all argued with each other, something suddenly jumped out of the bushes, it was team 2.

Noa rushed to Alex as she drew her sword and prepared for a stab, Colt charged at Aaron and prepared for a punch while Eric went for Sophie.

As Noa stabbed Alex, he quite easily deflected her wooden blade and caught her throat around his staff. He held her tight and started to choke her.

Colt zoomed into Aaron as he threw a punch. However, Aaron had already had his shield up and blocked the punch. An ear-piercing BOOM was heard as the fist made contact with the shield.

However, Colt didn't stop there. He ducked down and yanked at Aaron's exposed foot, making him perform the splits as he shouted "YOINK!".

Before Colt could finish him off he saw Noa being strangled by Alex's staff. After a couple of seconds of contemplating, he decided to leave Aaron and help Noa.

As Alex saw Colt making his way to him, he threw Noa to the side while she gasped for air. However, before Colt could initiate combat with Alex, he saw Noa with bloodshot eyes and some sort of bright light in her hands.

It was fire.

"NO DON'T!!!" Shouted Colt, but it was too late. Noa had launched a small wave of fire from her hand at Alex.

It was evident that it had taken a good amount of her ichor.

She smiled at this spectacle, thinking she had gotten the better of him. But suddenly she witnessed all the fire she had conjured, being sucked in, all in one spot.

Alex had emerged out of the sea of fire, as he had absorbed every Ember of it.

"Thanks for the boost." He said as his muscles were visibly expanding with veins popping out from every corner of his body.

As Noa stared at this phenomenon with wide eyes she heard something.

"RUN!!" Shouted Colt as she finally snapped out of it. She picked up her sword and started to run toward Eric and Colt.

Meanwhile, Eric had gotten the best of Sophie, she couldn't keep up with him and in the end, succumbed to the rain of attacks he had given her.

But before he could finish her, Aaron slammed his shield into Eric, sending him skidding across the ground.

As he tried to get up, he saw both Colt and Noa running from something before Alex somehow ended up right beside them.

Alex moved at great speed, courtesy of 1 energy per minute. Even he was surprised by his speed, making him lag a few seconds instead of throwing an attack.

Colt took this opportunity with open arms as he stopped moving and brought his leg up.

"1, 2, 3," He said under his breath.

Alex was ready for this as well, he was readying himself to attack Colt after blocking this attack.

As Colt's leg made contact with Alex's staff, it snapped through the staff as if it was butter, hitting Alex straight in the ribs.

BOOM

A deafening BOOM was heard as Alex coughed all the air in his lungs and was sent flying across the forest, disappearing into the bushes.

Everyone was shocked at what they had just seen, however, they weren't shocked for long as Colt fell to the ground, grasping at his leg.

"Shit!!" He had used too much Ichor in that single burst. He did as much damage to his leg as he did to Alex.

Eric ran to Colt's aid as Noa was standing there frozen. After helping him up, Colt started to speak.

"We need to leave, he won't be down for long." He said with sweat dripping down his face.

Aaron and Sophie didn't try to stop them as they weren't in great shape. They instead went in the direction Alex was launched.

Meanwhile, Alex was lying on a Bush and some broken pieces of wood as he gasped for air.

"Switch your energy to self-heal and take this. It's not serious, it's probably just a fracture on your ribs. You are lucky your aspect gives you high durability." He looked up to see Mirage sitting on a tree. He threw him down a new wooden staff as his last one broke.

"Ok," he said with a forced smile and raspy voice.

During all of this Luca, Liam and Stacy slowly but surely made their way to the loud explosion-like noise they'd been hearing.

They did their best to hide themselves and not make too much noise as they crouched down.

Suddenly Luca and Stacy heard movement from where Liam was walking. As they looked back they were met with Liam holding an arrow right in front of his face, as if he had caught it.