Page 69 of Sealed By Fire (The Nature Hunters Academy 2)

Without a word, Elias held out his hand, and a branch from a tree snapped and flew into his open palm. He grasped it and swung it toward Ace. “Light it up,” Elias shouted.

Ace threw a ball of fire at it, and the limb was suddenly ablaze.

Elias then looked at Aston, and the air elementalist focused his hand at the branch. The burning limb flew through the air, straight for Professor Warren. The woman moved quickly as a blast of water shot out of her hand and hit the branch a few seconds before it would have connected with her.

Meanwhile, Elias had already begun his next attack. He called the earth and rolled the dirt into a massive ball, much like a snowball. It rolled directly toward the professors. When it was less than a foot away, Aston hit it with a blast of air, causing it to explode. The dirt particles hit them with such force that when it cleared, Elias could see the professors had cuts all over their exposed flesh.

“All right, so you’ve got offensive tactics down. What about defensive?” Jax asked. He didn’t request help from the other professors. Nor did Jax give the students time to respond. He threw out his hand, and a wall of sticks rushed toward the four males like bullets. Elias heard Professor Hart speak and knew the professor was using his air power to make the trajectories move faster.Bet Jax loves that.At least the professors, other than Jax, were catching on to how their powers could work together.

Liam reacted first as he raised his arms wide and then slammed his hands together. A loud whooshing sound preceded a huge wall of water materializing between them and sticks headed their way to impale them.

The water slowed the sticks enough that they bounced harmlessly off the students. As soon as the wall of water fell, Professor Bernhardt spoke in a language Elias recognized as that of the elementals: a mixture of Latin and a language he didn’t know at all. The fire flowing from his hands took shape into a huge dragon. The beast took flight and shot into the air, only to then turn and drop straight toward them.

Liam held his hands out over the earth as he looked over at Elias and nodded.

Elias placed his hands on the ground and said, “Terra patentibus.” Suddenly, a huge sinkhole appeared and water began to fill it up, rising from the bottom until the huge hole was practically a small pond. Aston focused his attention on the dragon dive-bombing them and used his power over the wind to guide the missile straight into the water.

Then Liam made the water rise from the pond until single drops filled the air. Aston blew out a breath that turned the water into ice, and then Liam made the droplets merge until they were huge pieces of hail. He and Aston focused them on the instructors, and Elias yelled, “Ace, focus your power to funnel into Liam and Aston, direct it to them.” Elias pictured his power from the earth rising up from the ground beneath Liam and Aston’s feet, pushing it up into them so they could draw on it. The hail soared through the air so fast that had professor Bernhardt not responded so quickly, they would have been impaled with hail.

Jax walked over to a tree behind him. Elias wasn’t surprised that the professor found a three-inch dent in the bark where the hail had hit it with such force.

Elias heard an outburst of applause. He looked around for the first time and realized a crowd had gathered. He felt a pull to his left and turned. Tara stood there clapping with a big grin on her face.

Jax stepped forward and held his hand up to get everyone to quiet down. But he wasn’t the one who spoke.

Zuri practically stomped over and glared at Jax while addressing the whole group. “Now you see why it is so important that we learn to use our powers together. We are much stronger when we are united.” She turned to Elias, Liam, Ace, and Aston and said, “Nice work, you four.” She looked straight at Elias and added, “Just imagine what you will be capable of when you use your powers withher.” She emphasized the last word, and he knew she was implying Tara. “Now, let’s take a lunch break and then reconvene. Next up will be hand-to-hand combat combined with the use of our magic abilities.”

There were excited murmurs as everyone headed toward the doors leading to the dining hall.

Tara walked over with her grin still in place. “That was amazing.”

“It was nothing,” Elias said, proud that she was so impressed with him.

“This was child's play,” Liam said as he walked—well, more like strutted—over. “Just wait until we have Ra back with us. No offense, Ace,” he said as he glanced at the fire elementalist.

“None taken,” Ace said. “I’m guessing the four of you have been hanging together for quite some time?”

Liam nodded. “Once you’ve worked with another person's magic frequently, it begins to recognize theirs and responds instinctively. It’s a little harder with you simply because our magic doesn’t recognize yours,” Aston explained.

“Do the instructors know that?” Tara asked. “It seems like important information.”

Elias agreed. They needed to pass it along. “We’ll tell Zuri and Jax. They can tell the other profs.”

“Hey, T.” The same redheaded girl with ripped-up pants from earlier came bounding over.Gabby.

“Can I eat with you?” Gabby asked Tara.

“For sure,” Tara answered.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop the train. Who is this hotness?” Liam asked as he winked at Gabby. His lips turned up in a crooked smile. Elias rolled his eyes.

“Here we go,” Elias said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“This hotness is Gabby,” the redhead answered. “Who are you?”

“I’m whoever you want me to be,” Liam chided.

Gabby pulled a sucker from her pocket, unwrapped it, and stuck it in her mouth.

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