As they trudged through the muddy terrain, the diminishing sunlight made the journey even tougher for Mako and the group. Nightfall had set in, compounding the challenge as now they had low visibility as well as beasts were now more active, increasing the odds of them getting attacked.

To address the situation, Leon suggested carrying Bill for a while, which Mako approved. Consequently, Mako took up the rear, keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings while also being the only source of light due to his fire ability.

Their pace had slowed down significantly and now Mako was concerned whether they would be able to reach the top before the rain became too worse to bear. However, there was nothing he could do other than just keep moving forward.

Despite several hours of traveling, Mako and the group hadn’t reached the summit yet. Mako realized that at their current pace, they wouldn’t make it to the summit before the approaching storm worsened. Being caught in the open with no shelter was not an option either as it would be almost guaranteed disqualification. 𝗼𝐯𝐞𝐥．𝐜𝐨𝗺

Mako had to make the tough decision to abandon their current journey and use the remaining time they had to find a place to seek shelter while the storm continued. He knew it wasn’t going to be easy steering away from their journey after that they had progressed so much in it, but it had to be done in order to ensure the survival of the group.

“Stop! We won’t get there in time at this pace.” Mako said as he stopped the group from moving.

Upon hearing Mako’s unexpected statement, Leon, Erin, and Iris turned toward him and inquired about its meaning. With their eyes fixed on him, Mako clarified his statement as they waited for an explanation.

“Listen, we are covering less and less distance as time goes on because it is just too dark and wet to move forward at a reasonable pace. At this rate, we will be caught right in the open when the rainstorm begins to worsen. I propose we use what time we have left to try and find a place where we can seek shelter and spend the night while planning out our next move in the morning.” Mako said.

Even though Mako was deviating from the original goal, he did have a valid point and if they didn’t listen to him, then it was most probable that what he said would indeed come true.

After thinking about it for a couple of seconds, Leon was the first to agree with Mako’s proposal. Leon acknowledged his weakness in making such judgments and recognized Mako’s proficiency in this regard, based on his previous successful decisions.

Although the girls were initially hesitant to accept the revised plan since they were eager to reunite with their teammates, Mako reassured them that their ultimate objective remained the same, and they would eventually reach Andrew’s camp. He described the new plan as a minor diversion from their original route.

With everyone in agreeance, the group started moving once again, but this time it was being led by Leon who had been instructed by Mako to try and sense if he could locate the side of a hill or a giant rock using his Earth Ability.

Leon could sense his aura reacts as he moved from place to place. The amount of earth available in a location would determine the strength of the ability user, and now Leon was using this reaction as a sensor to detect large bodies of earth such as hills or massive boulders.

This reaction was present for all ability users who manipulated something physical like Wind, Earth, and Water. These ability users would feel more confident and powerful when they were surrounded by their element and will appear a lot weaker when they are caught in an area where their element was scarce.

Following Leon’s Lead, the group traveled for about half an hour to an hour, this time moving more inland rather than moving right next to the stream. After that, the group arrived at the side of a large steep rocky hill that looked like a dead end, and they would have to circle around if they wanted to continue moving in that direction.

However, this was exactly what Mako was looking for. Now, Mako instructed Leon to create a brand new cave on this side of the hill. Leon was a bit taken aback by the level of such a request and he asked Mako once more to affirm that he had heard him right.

“I am not sure, I am strong enough to do that. Perhaps Bill might be able to, but I can’t,” Leon said refuting Mako’s request as he didn’t feel worthy of completing such a massive task.

But, Mako was having none of it as he knew that even level 1 Earth ability users could dig into a wall for crying out loud. It was Leon’s insecurities about himself that were blinding him from seeing his true potential and right now, they needed him the most.

Mako gently grabbed Leon’s shoulder and didn’t shake him despite being very tempted to do so as he was still carrying Bill on his back. He grabbed onto his shoulders tightly as he began to give Leon a personalized pep-talk to make him change his mind.

“Leon! Are you even listening to yourself right now? Even Level 1s are able to dig into the side of a hill or mountain as the only thing that changes is the rate at which you guys do it. Right now, we’re literally minutes away from a thunderstorm that we don’t even know if the girls will be able to protect us from.” Mako said.

“Who do you think will be blamed if God forbid, we end up not able to seek refuge in time and are caught in the middle of a violent rainstorm, at night when beasts are more active and likely to attack? Do you think you will be able to live with yourself knowing that you didn’t even give it a chance before giving up and dooming us all?” Mako continued on with the pep talk.

“You are the only one amongst us at the moment that has the Earth ability and only you can create our shelter. It is too late to look for anything else, it’s now or never!” Mako finished with his small pep talk and it looked like it worked a treat as a wave of determination washed over Leon as he processed Mako’s words.

He gently laid Bill against a tree and Iris stayed next to him to make sure he didn’t get wet. He walked over to the hill and gently placed his hand on it. Waves of energy emanated from within Leon as he directed his aura toward the massive hill. The energy was intense and yet controlled, but it was only being felt by Mako alone.

The rest of the group could feel anything and could just see Leon concentrating while placing one of his hands on the wall of the hill. Mako’s energy manipulation ability had subconsciously activated and he could sense how Leon was placing his aura inside the wall itself and redirecting it into the form of an arch.

Once the aura was dispersed, the only thing left to do was to order it to move and that was exactly what Leon did. The outline of the arch appeared on the side of the hill and now the only thing left to do was to hollow it out and get inside.

Mako had chosen this approach as this ensured the same level of safety that their previous cave had provided, but with the added bonus of no surprise attacks from beasts because the cave was man-made and had no fake dead ends or weak points.

Leon started to work fast as he started to use his Earth ability to take massive chunks of rock out of the hill and hollow it out to make a decent-sized cave.

While Leon was busy with that, Mako didn’t just stand idly by and cheered him on from the sidelines like a cheerleader, he was already planning out their next moves. The only problem that they would run into if they were to stay in this cave for the entire duration of this thunderstorm was food.

They didn’t have much, to begin with as the only thing that Mako was carrying was the leftover cooked fish from before.

Aware that the scarcity of food could potentially become a concern later on, and that it may not be possible to leave the cave to replenish their supplies, Mako set out to gather as much food as he could before time ran out.

Luckily, there were several fruit-bearing plants close to where they were making their cave, and Mako got tight to work.

There were a few mango and guava trees scattered around the area that had absolutely delicious ripe fruit waiting to be picked and eaten. Other than that, Mako also found some berry bushes. Looking at their color and shape, he determined them to be Acai berries, which were quite nutritious and safe to eat.

However, Mako’s search for food had just hit the jackpot as he stumbled upon a pond that was a 15-minute walk away from their cave. The pond was home to fish swimming around and ducks that were sleeping near the bank, making it a potential source of sustenance for the group.

The only thing Mako was concerned about while collecting fruit was the fact that, they didn’t have any protein in their diet and it was very important to have some especially when you are in a survival situation where you have to constantly push your body to its limits.

Mako began hunting both fish and ducks and tried to get as many as possible before they had to get stuck inside the cave.