Elementia Tellurian

Chapter 5

“ Hi, I am Calyx from Meta Regnum. Nice to meet you. ”

Calyx extended his hand to the tall man from Terra who was wearing a green tracksuit, he has a pale skin color, gray eyes, and what stands out the most from his features was his silver hair. The man accepted Calyx’s hand. “ I am Birch from Terra, ” he coldly said. He was one of the best in Terra. He ranked second on their assessment on their regnum’s academia.

Calyx pretended to be in shivers. “ Your name and features reminded me of a Birch Tree. ”

One man laughed by Calyx’s remarks. It was a man wearing a white tracksuit named Alistair from Regnum Aeris. He ranked third on their regnum’s assessment but he was someone who you should not underestimate. “ I am Alistair from Aeris. I am glad to be surrounded by people from the higher ranks. ”

Alistair looked at everyone on his team starting with Leed. “ You are the Aqua’s first. ” Leed tsk-ed but he actually liked the recognition he got. Next, he looked at Sera, “ You are one of the first together with Princess Idalia. ” He next both looked at Calyx and Birch. “ Both of you ranked second on each of your regnum. ”

He smiled wide. “ I ranked third so I’ll be happy to be in your care. ”

Sera nudge at Calyx’s elbow. “ Looks like you are not the only talker here, ” she whispered. Calyx chuckled, “ Glad we are still not extinct. ”

Leed stood up from sitting. “ It is best if we stop now with introduction. It is just a waste of our time. Hey you, ” he pointed at Sera who was standing beside Calyx. “ Let us battle. ” Leed announced as he rolled his tracksuit sleeves up.

Birch looked at him with a pissed expression “ This is a training. This is not the time to show off to know who is better between you two. ”

Leed faced him and grabbed him by his collar with his right hand. He looked at him in the eyes. “ Are you saying something? ” he said in gritted teeth. He started drawing energy from his body to his left hand and specks of water started appearing, floating on his hands. They were already starting to attract other teams’ attention.

Birch smirked. " You cannot scare me with your water, water boy. "

The ground beneath them started shaking. All of the competitors didn't expected it and that resulted for all of them, except for the Terra competitors, to be thrown to the ground. Leed got thrown by the unexpected shake, too. Birch looked down at him and flashed a proud smile.

" That hurts, " Joash said as he stood up when the ground stopped shaking. Everyone got to adjust their balance and started standing up.

" You knew that silver-haired guy? " asked Joash to his team from Terra, Craig.

Craig nodded, " Yeah, He is Birch. One of the strongest in Terra but I didn't know how does that man from Aqua got to be able provoke him to use his element this early. "

" He bothered Sera yesterday, too. " Joash took a glance on Sera who was already standing. She looked very displeased with what she was witnessing right now. Leed recovered from being thrown by the shakiness of the ground. He grabbed Birch's collar again. Calyx and Alistair were now separating both of them to avoid escalating the tension.

“ Should we go to the other room? I have heard they have prepared different rooms for different teams, ” Coro from Aeris suggested as being with other teams would just distract them from their training, just like right now.

As much as possible, Coro wanted to established a good relationship with his teammates since they will be working together until the team challenge would be finished. Establishing a good rapport would give them an advantage especially, that the team where mostly the ones and twos were found were not in good connection right now. Coro’s been observing for the past two days that both of the ones from Regnum Aqua and Ignis, Leed and Sera respectively, were not really in good terms and it seemed that there was a tension between Leed and Birch, too. That would be a disadvantage for their team and Coro’s team should grab that opportunity.

“ Yeah, I think we should, ” Aenon from Aqua agreed. Out of the fifth competitors from Aqua he was just in the fourth place. “ And knowing Leed, he might just would keep on provoking his other team mates to have a battle with him to show off how good he is, ” he added.

Aenon had known Leed since they were a child. Leed never wanted anyone to be in equal with him. He always wanted to be above all else and being around here with other elites from other regnums would make him feel inferior and he didn’t like that feeling since day one especially that Sera from Ignis put him to second during the etiquette test.

“ We should head now then to prevent wasting time, ” Sedi from Meta proposed. Joash, Craig, Coro, and Aenon nodded.

Joash looked at Sera’s team one more time. Leed and Birch were already in a calm state. Coro tapped on Joash’s shoulder and headed outside. All of his teammates were already out from the general training room.

“ Where are the other teams going? ” Alistair asked as he noticed other teams were starting to head to the door.

“ They are going to their respective training ground as what I have heard from the other teams. Should we go to ours too? ” Calyx asked and looked at Sera. Sera nodded. If the other teams were, then they should too.

Leed started heading out with his hands in his pocket. “ You should decide on yourself, Calyx. If you want to be king, you should not let others decide for yourself. ”

Alistair followed him, “ He’s right. ”

Sera sighed. As a team, they should decide as one. Asking one team mate for his or her opinion would help them decide what should be done as a group. As of now, they should work as a team and not as an individual.

“ We should work on our senses. Since we will be going to deploy on the forest we should at least improve our reflexes. We don’t know what is ahead of us. ” Leed suggested as they had arrived on their own training ground.

It was an elongated four-sided corner room. It was not like the general training room they had come from where it was plain. Their team’s training group was set up as a forest. Everyone looked up and saw the sky and bird dancing above.

“ It is like we are outside, ” Alistair commented in awe.

“ In order to improve our senses in this environment, should we separate and attack one another? ” Sera recommended. “ This is a big area so it will take a minute to be able to find each other. This will give us an opportunity to surprise each other with our attacks. That will improve our reflexes and our hiding, ability too, ” she added.

“ That is a good idea. Since we won’t be alone in the forest and we don’t know what will be our mission. We should assume that other teams will attack us. That will improve our defense and offense, generally, ” Calyx added.

“ Do you all agree with that? ” asked Calyx to Leed, Alistair, and Birch. Leed didn’t answer but he started walking in the west direction.

“ I agree. See you guys, ” Alistair answered and walked on the direction in front of him, northwest.

“ I guess that was a yes. I’ll be off then. ” Calyx took off running to the direction of the north.

Sera faced the east direction. “ I’ll go ahead, Birch, ” she said and started walking.

As Sera entered the forest, it was quiet and still. Tall trees were surrounding the area. Leaves were on the ground and every time she walks; leaves were making a sound. “ So this is how the forest looked like inside, ” she mumbled as she remembered the view she saw from her balcony yesterday.

Should she be able to use her fire here? It would be dangerous and would possibly cause a wildfire. She looked up and the sky was starting to get dark. Is it about to rain? she thought. Streaks of lightning appeared on the sky. Sound of the roaring thunder followed after.

“ Is this Leed’s doing? ” she said. If Birch was able to cause an earthquake earlier could Leed be able to manifest rain, as well? Hmmm, “ That idea is still not sure. I need to see it before believing. ”

The streaks of lightning and the sound of the roaring thunder appeared again. It would be a great disadvantage for her if it starts raining however, she knew she could fight them in physical combat.

Sera stopped for a moment when she heard a rustling sound behind the bush near her. If there were birds earlier, there must be other animals here in the forest. She climbed on the tree she first saw. Being on the higher ground is an advantage. No one can spot you easily.

She blinked when a water dropped on her face. It was starting to drizzle. “ Geez, the forest looks like it is not on my side. ”

She moved from one tree to another, cautiously. She should not move in haste for that would cause a noise.

Leed was headed to the west. Alistair on the northwest. Calyx on the north. So it is possible that she would meet Birch anytime now.

The rustle of the bush below her caught Sera’s attention. Was the animal earlier followed her? She shot a small amount of fire to the direction of the thing that kept following her. It was enough just to scare it and expose itself and not put the whole forest on fire. When her fire touched the bush a bunch of spiky rocks flew to her direction. Sera was caught off guard. She had dodge most of the rocks but it still manages to scratch her cheek. She jumped and landed on the ground.

“ How long have you been following me? ” asked Sera as she threw another fire to the direction of the attack.

The rain was also already pouring so her attack just vanished into the thin air that only leaves sizzles. She tried another shot but it was useless. Her shot vanishes before it can even reach her target.

“ So this was your weakness. ”

Birch went out from his hiding. The pouring of rain already had taken effect on him too. His hair and tracksuit were already drenched. “ I have been following you since you entered the forest, ” he calmly said. “ You have notice me but you didn’t act immediately. ”

He stomped his right foot and a part of the ground rose. With a flick of his finger, he was able to send it forward to Sera’s direction. Sera countered it with a kick in order destroyed it immediately. The forest’s soil was not as sturdy as a rock especially that it was raining. The water can soften it.

Sera laughed, “ I thought you were not as competitive as Leed. But it seems like you want to fight me as well. ”

He would not follow me if that was not his attention. It was possible that we can give each other surprised attack if we had meet each other halfway but, he followed me since I entered the forest. Fighting me was his intention, after all.

“ I am competitive as Leed. I would not join this competition if I am not. I don’t know why other competitors are intimidated by you. You are not special, at all. ”

Sera tried to release her fire but it was still useless due to the heavy rain.

Birch shot her with another bunch of spiky rocks. Sera was able to dodge some but some still hit her. It caused a tear on her tracksuit. The ground wouldn’t be able to help him since it was still so soft and won’t be able to give her any amount of damage but it would help him slow her down.

“ You are just lucky you caught me on a bad timing. ” Sera announced. She would not let him look down on her. She closed her eyes and concentrated. She tried to absorbed the energy around her.

If she is trying to call her flame it would be useless. The rain would not let her, he thought. Birch threw another rocks on her and raised the soft ground in front of him to deploy it on Sera’s direction. The rain was pouring very heavy. He cannot clearly see her on the other end. When his sight already adjusted, he saw his spiky rocks coming back at him. He immediately produced a shield of rock to protect him but just like Sera, he was not able to dodge all of it and it had caused a tear on his tracksuit’s leg part.

“ You are right. I am not special. ” Sera appeared in front of him and punch his stomach.