It takes about half an hour more or less for them to reach the open field where the baton is located at. 

And as they take their spots to hide behind several bushes a few meters away from the open field, hidden underneath the trees' shadows, it takes another half an hour for one of them to break the silence.

"Dang it, it's so hot I feel like taking off my clothes," Joy says, breathing out through her nose.

"Same." Wendy simply agrees.

"Why do we have to wear the black ones too? It absorbs more heat and it may not look like it but my body is sweating like crazy right now." The Lighting student continues.

Seulgi glances down at her own turtleneck shirt. They agreed earlier before the session that for today they'll wear the black color one thinking that it will be easier for them to blend and hide compared to the white ones that the opponent team chose, though it is pretty clear to her that two of her teammates are starting to regret their choices in life.

"Really? I feel perfectly fine." Seulgi grins at the girl crouching beside her with her eye smile, only to receive a jab at her side. "Ouch!"

"Sssh can you two be quiet for a second." Joohyun hisses at them from another bush at the front, successfully shutting their mouth when they realize they're making too much noise.

"Argh, it's so damn hot." 

Joy mutters after a while as she wipes the sweats on her forehead with the back of her hand before it can roll down to her eyes. Hiding behind a bush in the same spot while doing nothing except staring at the baton planted halfway into the ground in the middle of the open field for an hour while the weather is hot, clearly is making her frustrated.

"Where are they anyway? It's been over an hour we're sitting idly like this."

"Just be patient." Joohyun glances back at them from her spot. "They're doing the same thing as us. We just have to let them have the baton first and then we'll execute our plan."

"Can we at least make Yeri blow some wind? I'm sweating so much here."

"I'd love that idea if not for the risk of exposing ourselves if we do that," Wendy says in a voice small enough just for them to hear, wiping the liquid on her temple too with her forearm. "There's no movement at all around here, imagine suddenly seeing a few bushes shaking alone despite no wind around... well, except if Yeri can control the wind from long-range."

"I can do that." Yeri states with an innocent face as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Why didn't you tell us earlier!?" Joy whispers harshly while gritting her teeth.

"Not you not knowing about this when we literally grew up together!" Yeri retaliates back with a slightly louder voice, instantly earning a shush from all of them.

When they are sure their hiding spot is still unnoticed and there's no other presence nearby, Joohyun turns her body to face the youngest among them.

"Okay, now that we know you can do long-range, we'll use that to lure them out by making those several bushes," Joohyun points at the bushes far across from them. "and trees, IF you can, shake. They'll get alert from the sudden movement and there's a high probability that AT LEAST one of them will come out of their hiding spot to check on the bushes."

"By that time, we'll know their location..." Wendy says, more to herself. "Yeah, that can do."

"Soooo we'll attack them at that moment?" Seulgi asks, tilting her head a little bit to her left in order to see her teammates better. "We're changing our plan then? No more waiting for them to take the baton first?" 

"No, we'll still proceed with our previous plan. When one of them comes out from their hiding and check on the shaking bushes, one of us will take him or her down." Joohyun takes her eyes from the ground to Yeri. "I think it's best if Yeri takes this role." 

Yeri shrugs her shoulders. "No probs with me."

"Okay. One of us will help with backing up Yeri, two of us will check on the others' location while the la-"

Crack.

All of their heads snap to the back at where the sound of a snapping twig came from, only to see their opponent team's Water student staring back at them with his widened eyes and lips slightly apart in shock.

Seulgi feels something went past her, its speed fast enough for her to not know what flew by her. Only until when Hongseok stumbles backward and falls to his back does she realizes the wet spot on his chest of his white turtleneck shirt.

He lets out a groan as he rolls his body onto his side on the ground.

"Hold him down!" Joohyun orders urgently, still with her palms out even when Wendy and Yeri already hold him down to the ground.

In the midst of it all, he manages to yell at the top of his lungs, informing his teammates of his discovery on their whereabouts.

"GUYS THEY'RE HE-"

Wendy scrambles to cover his mouth with her palm while struggling to hold him down at the same time but it was too late. When you spend the last hour hearing nothing except the distant sound of birds chirping, it is easy for anyone to pick up on that yell across the forest. Their locations are discovered. It's confirmed when they instantly emerge from their hiding. Seulgi feels her heartbeat quickens when she sees two people sprinting towards the baton in the middle of the open field.

"!" Joy curses.

Now that their plan is officially not going well, Seulgi's first instinct is to follow Joohyun's action, which in this case, is to run towards the baton too while Joy takes her position to stand near the edge of the open field only a few meters from the bush that she hides behind earlier as she takes her stance to cover them just in case.

She's hot on her trails when Joohyun suddenly throws a glance over her shoulder.

"Kang Seulgi, you take the other two! This one's on mine!" She shouts while still maintaining her running pace.

Seulgi comes to an abrupt stop at this. She looks at Joohyun’s figure, and then to Joy who’s still standing near the edge of the open field and then back to Joohyun again. It’s not going to be easy for Joohyun to take on two opponents at the same time but she has no choice but to trust her this time. 

"Seulgi!"

Joy points her finger towards her right and Seulgi's eyes follow the direction until she sees a figure standing quite a distance from them. He walks away from the trees' shade and to the open field, revealing himself to them.

It is no other than Jaebum.

He clenches and unclenches his fists a few times, a familiar gesture for Seulgi to see. She always sees him doing that in the sparring class to warm up his body and readying himself to fight.

She exchanges a nod with Joy in silent agreement before her legs kick to a run to him. Joy is running too on the other side, a few meters ahead of her when Seulgi suddenly feels something shifted underneath her. She thought it was just her imagination so she never stops running, but with each step she takes she eventually can't ignore the gradual shaking from the ground.

Something is not right and she can feel it.

It takes no more than 3 seconds for her body to get thrown to the side as if she lost her balance on her footing and suddenly she's no longer running and instead lays down on the grass with her left arm most likely bruised from the impact of her fall. She groans, wincing a little bit as she props up her body with her elbows to look at the ground behind her. 

There are long fine cracks along the ground, making its way before it ends at the spot where her body previously got thrown, she assumes when she sees the elevated ground.

"Sorry about that." 

Seulgi looks up and sees Park Chorong walking towards her. The powerhouse of their opponent's team. Just great.

"Can't let you teamed up 2v1 against my teammate. It's kinda dirty, no?"

Seulgi's eyes fall to the three small figures far behind Chorong, all actively fighting for possession of the baton before her eyes flick back to her. "I think you should tell that to your own teammates instead."

Chorong lets out a smile at this, seemingly very laid-back. Maybe it's just her personality, or maybe it's an attempt to make Seulgi let her guard down.

She tries to stand up, only to fall back down again. Confused, she looks downward only to see her legs are getting covered by the hard soil up to her shins, rooting her foot to the ground. She didn't even realize when did Chorong do that. Seulgi puts one of her palms out towards her, flames already start to flicker while she uses her other hand to free her foot from the hardened soil.

"Don't take any step closer," Seulgi clears . "Please." she adds.

Chorong chuckles, finding Seulgi's politeness a little bit funny even when the latter is being held down to the ground like this. Despite her amusement, she ignores Seulgi's request. A step closer to her, and then a spark ignites before a fireball flies toward her.

The girl in the ponytail immediately dodges away but the flame already grazes upon her body. Seulgi takes this chance to break free from the hardened soil as Chorong struggles to put the flames out.

Her legs wobble a little bit when she gets to her feet, a little frown creasing her eyebrows while her palm still out facing her. Just in case.

She intentionally directs it to her lower body area, attempting not to make any possible injuries near the vital parts of her body and it seems like Chorong realizes this by the slight smirk she has on her lips.

"I already warned you."

Her stance doesn't last long. She was glancing towards her back a little to check on Joy who's currently wrestling with Jaebum on the ground when suddenly a chunk of rock flies towards her. She instantly covers herself by putting her forearms together in front of her. The hit was blunt, but the force is hard enough to send her stumbling back on her feet a step or two. 

She lets out a shaking breath, caught off guard by the sudden incoming attack and now she's sure she just got a shot of adrenaline from that.

"Nice reflex." She hears a whistle from Chorong before the ground trembles again.

This time, Seulgi manages to dodge the controlled soil from the ground by not staying in the same place. She runs head-on toward Chorong, throws her to the ground, and then holds her down with her body.

It was on Seulgi's quick thinking. With this position, the Earth student can't use her ability to hold her down because it will lock her own body down too, but then her grip loosens when Chorong suddenly headbutts her.

She rolls on her body and now Seulgi's the one underneath her, the soil from the ground already making its way to lock around her wrists and ankles. Chorong snatches her hands away when Seulgi wraps her burning hands around the former's forearm, ruining her attempt at locking her down.

Today's weather is as clear as it can be, no clouds visible on the sky so when she feels a few droplets of water fall onto her face, her eyes blink in confusion.

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