Running through the forest at full speed, Leo got ready to jump into combat at any second. He had no idea what his team could be fighting. He wondered if, without a weapon, he would be of any help.

Still, he didn't plan on stopping and charged forward, and with next step, he would arrive at the place where he saw the light. Jumping from behind a tree he noticed three figures. One of them he knew, belonged to Jennifer and the other two were elves. They wore a green cloak that hid most of their heads and body, but he was sure that they had some kind of armor under it. He looked for JJ and didn't bother with Black, he knew that he would be hiding somewhere.

He found the earth mage in his golem form being covered by roots, there was also a colossal bear lying next to him, pierced by a black pillar. Looking back at the elves, he noticed that one of them was an animal contractor. He could tell thanks to the two-tailed fox that stood in front of him. While their animals gave them additional magic energy, pairs of eyes since both shared their five senses and support when one died the other was put out of the fight for a long time and unable to use magic for even longer.

He also had two other alive animals by his side, but he was sure those were only tamed from the way they behaved. That didn't mean they were any less dangerous. One of them, a mole-like animal, just burrowed itself under the ground when Leo jumped backward to avoid an eagle with long, metal claws catching him.

Still being wary of the other elf, he got closer to JJ and placed his hand on where the roots constraining the giant began. When his hand glowed slightly in bluish, semi-transparent glow, the magic that strengthened the roots disappeared, and JJ could free himself easily.

"Where were you?!" shouted Jennifer at Leo.

"I got a little lost," said the boy. "Let's talk later. For now, I will take the smaller one."

"Are you sure? None of our attacks worked for her, she even blocked my spells with some weird barrier. She didn't do much till now, but we couldn't break her roots she traped JJ with, and I think she knows where Black is."

"She?"

"Yes, she spoke to the other elf, and the voice was feminine. Why does that matter now?"

"I think she may be dange­—" Leo couldn't finish his sentence as a stream of fire flew at them.

A moment before it reached them a blue barrier was erected in front of them.

"Don't make me do more than it's needed. Do your job…" said a disembodied voice of Black.

"I don't want to hear that from you!" shouted Jennifer while creating balls of white light and launched them in the direction of a diving eagle, forcing the bird to dodge. One of the shots touched the bird left wing, and it screeched in pain, second later falling to the ground. It looked like it wouldn't pose more danger.

As the fire released by the double-tailed fox licked against the barrier, the ground beneath them shook. Momentarily, JJ stomped on it, and it stopped, then a hole in the ground opened, and a giant mole was pushed out of there.

Leo jumped up and kicked the mole, causing it to fly through the air. It was on a trajectory of a collision with a tree, but a second before the animal connected with it, vines came down from the tree and caught it.

"I will distract her, I'm pretty sure that she is a forest seer and they are the main reason why no one wants to fight elves on their continent," said Leo. "In the meantime get the other elf."

He saw Jennifer nod, and without waiting he jumped from behind of the barrier, the fox stopped its attack and looked at Leo with intent to attack, but fortunately, Jennifer saw this and distracted the animal with one of her spheres.

Leo pushed onward, but after few steps, the other elf took notice of him and with a swipe of their hand a multitude of roots sprouted out of the ground and tried to catch him. He didn't pay them any mind, and as soon as one touched him, it lost it energy and stopped.

The elf initially surprised collected herself fast and created a big, thick bush in front of herself.

Leo considered getting rid of it but burning it would cause some damage to him with his broken magic circuits. Absorbing magic from the bush would also only weaken it, not get rid of it.

In the end, with two quick jumps, he went around it, after arriving on the other side he saw… no one. Looking around, panicking a little, he wondered where the elf had gone. Losing sight of them was terrible.

Suddenly roots appeared from under him, he avoided them by jumping up but when he got into the air vines came down from a nearby tree and caught him, he had no way of escaping them in the air.

Using his magic to weaken the vines he tore them with his arms and fell to the ground. As he fell to the ground, the earth shook. He wondered what was going on, but then he saw as one of the trees moved.

The tree slowly fell apart, Leo dodged around the falling wood as they were hitting the ground. It looked as if the tree was being sculpted into something. Suddenly the whole upper part that wasn't being slowly chipped at lose it balance and started falling at him.

Like that few hundred yards long piece of twenty yards wide wood started falling on him. He barely got out of the way as the ground shook underneath him and a loud sound threatened his eardrums.

Hearing light pitch in his ears, he looked around as the dust calmed down. There he saw a big wooden golem, at least 100 yards tall. Its limbs seemed little thin for its size, but it stood stable.

Having no time to waste, Leo moved to avoid the strike from the wooden creation. The treant swung its right hand at Leo, despite its enormous size it didn't act slowly as Leo was only barely able to get out of the way before the arm connected with the ground next to him. The force of the strike was even stronger than when the whole tree fell to the ground, which was in a way quite terrifying. The forest seers ability to enhance and control nature was more then he expected.

Leo staggered a little from a shockwave created by the hit. Gathering himself fast enough to dodge treants left arm he jumped on its right arm and running up on it he kicked it in the chest. He used the full power of his strengthening, but the treant didn't even move a twig.

Losing his footing, he was begging to fall but before gravity could do its work on him a wooden hand grabbed him. He tried to force himself free with brute force, but it didn't work only when he absorbed the magic in the giant hand the wood cracked, and he released himself free.

Few of the fingers broke and fell together with him to the ground but soon his hand regenerated and the giant attacked him again. Dodging it took all he had and he knew that without his weapon he didn't have any optimal way of fighting this thing. His constant use of the absorption spell was already tiring him, and he had just rested and restored a big chunk of his magical energy.

Avoiding next strike he wondered what he should do, waiting any longer would only put him at a disadvantage since that just gave more time his opponent to cast other spells. Looking around he looked for any place where the elf could hide. Then it hit him, the only thing that something could hide in was the bush he avoided previously.

Avoiding next strike from the treant, despite its surprising speed and toughness it behaved simply and predictably, he jumped with full speed towards the bush and activated his absorption field on his whole body before hopping inside.

He got past the first of leaves quickly and inside he saw the elf who looked at him surprised. There was a bit of space inside, without giving the elf time to gather herself he spun around and kicked her straight in the chest. The kick had enough force that the elf coughed blood and was thrown out into the air and out of the bush leaving a hole in the leaves.

Leo jumped straight out after, but just as he did he felt a small prick in his right arm, looking at it, there was a thorn of the size of an index finger sticking into his arm. The elf must have focused most of its attention to it in that short span of time to get past the skin of his armor and absorption field he had on him.

He pulled it out, and there was a small stream of blood that left his forearm. For some reason, he didn't feel much pain, stumbling a little he grabbed his head. He didn't feel the best, he looked at the thorn he just pulled out of him. His legs felt light as the poison moved at lightning speeds through his body, it seemed that the increased blood pressure from his strengthening spell had its disadvantage.

Getting weaker he fell to his knees, he noticed that the elf he kicked had already gotten up and was standing there when the treant she created moved to him and prepared itself to swing its arm.

Just as he was going to get attacked a single red bolt hit the elf from behind and penetrated her chest to the other side. With a single cough, Leo's opponent fell to the ground as a small pool of blood leaked under her.

"Are you alright?!" shouted Jennifer running from behind where the elf stood.

"More or less, I think I got poisoned," he said as he released his spell and with his strength leaving him he fell to the ground on his back. "What was that?"

"In the black box, we got a single magic gun. It's not that great against a monster, but against an elf, it works magic," she said jokingly, beckoning behind her she said "Black, could you heal him?"

"I already used a lot of energy..." said Black from a bit away already getting ready to rest down.

"I will make you carry him."

Slowly Black got back up and walked up to them, removed his helmet and placed a hand on his forehead. Slowly it shone in the blue light, and Leo felt the numbness leaving him. "He should be alright, it was just a paralyzing toxin. He should rest for a while though."

"I feel good now though," said Leo sitting up and stretching his arms.

"You need to rest," said Black in a voice that didn't leave any compromise and went back to lying down against a tree.

Leo couldn't tell whatever it was him that was supposed to rest or Black wish. Shrugging he looked at Jennifer "How did your fight go and where is JJ?"

"We won rather quickly when the other elf didn't support him, and JJ went to pick up the bag we left when the fight started. There is some food in there we need. I doubt they are letting us out before we finish the test or end up incapacitated."

"I see... wait I was supposed to talk to Jenny tomorrow!" Leo suddenly realized and started panicking. He worried she may get angry at him or leave this place when he isn't looking.

"I guess that will need to wait, for now, let's get ready to rest, we will have a lot of work to do to get out of here." she trailed off.

"Are you alright?" they heard a voice of JJ nearing up to them. Leo nodded in response. "Where the hell have you been till now?"

"Ah, well. When I got to the top of the tree, I kind of saw the mountains, and then I got grabbed by a quite a big wyvern. After I cut it I lost my weapon and fell together with it somewhere to some kind of nest with big scorpion like things that shoot web, and after I got away I started looking for you." explained Leo in the shortest way possible.

"I'm amazed you survived that," said JJ "Do you at least remember the direction in which the mountains were?"

Leo looked around and wondered, but every tree looked the same to him, he tried to guess the direction he came from, but even that was hard to do in those woods where everything seemed the same. He shook his head and answer "No idea. I could try climbing again."

"I want to say no to what happened, but it's the best shot we have to get any idea where we are. Let's just wait till morning with that, you won't see much in the dark anyway," said JJ. "For now let's rest. I will take the first watch."

Leo agreed and looked around for a place to rest down. "Is there anything in the bag that we could use as a makeshift bed?"

"Not really," spoke JJ before starting looking through the bag "Wear this."

JJ threw him some piece of cloth, it was one of the cloaks he saw earlier. Looking at JJ and Jennifer, he noticed that both of them were wearing one. He started putting it on and asked: "What does it do?"

"It works quite simply when you fuel it with mana and lay down next to something it will change color and camouflage you to look like the thing behind you. It's a simple illusion but sometimes its enough to hide."

"Quite convenient. Why is black not wearing one?" Leo asked as he finished putting it on. It was quite long and reached up to his ankles.

"He said it would make his headache when he had to hide and at the same time would need to make the cloak invisible without activating it," explained the big man. "Thinking about it invisibility is quite a complicated spell. Now go to sleep. We will spare you today from taking a guard."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, you already went through enough today. Rest enough so you can be useful tomorrow. Ah, and wear your helmet it may be more uncomfortable to sleep in, but it got filters inside. When we first were attacked by that elf woman, she tried to put us out with some kind of plant spores. Better be safe than sorry," said JJ.

Leo nodded and grabbed his helmet, he felt quite a bit tired after everything that happened, and after finding a tree that didn't have any vegetation on it, he laid down and fell asleep with his back on it.