14 Flying

Harrison informed them that it will most likely take a week to get to the Dalia Kingdom. Flying was fast, however, there were limitations. Harrison was only an advanced level stage three magician so hecould not keep flying for extended amounts of time. He lasted about half a day before they had to land and camp out. Dalia Kingdom's capital was also a long distance from the capital of Elysa. Since they had nothing better to do, Greyson and Claude decided to meditate and chat with Teacher Harrison along the way. He knew much more about magic then they did, so any questions they had about the basics were answered along the way. He imparted a basic meditation technique which everyone in the academy receives in the beginning. Although it was a common technique, Greyson had never gotten a meditation technique before. Following the directions of the technique his meditation speed almost doubled and he was already closing in on the novice level fifth stage. Harrison witnessed his talent and was even more excited to bring Greyson back to the academy. Claude's advancement was mediocre in comparison, however, he was not jealous or narrow-minded. He continued to work hard at his own pace. Harrison also nodded in approval seeing Claude's attitude. He knew of a lot of young magicians who give up or start to have sinister thoughts after witnessing other kids with more talent then themselves. They have too much pride and haven't struggled enough so they are quick to veer off the correct path.

...

After flying for around 4 days, Greyson and Claude were still assiduously meditating and tried to advance their stage. Harrison really appreciated their perseverance and patience at a young age. He felt their attitude was a more important factor towards success than their talent. Most noble kids only knew about playing around and had a hard time with meditating for long periods of time. Even if they had amazing talent, it would take a longer time for them to realize they should try to take advantage of their youth since their families would take care of their struggles for them. He guessed that geniuses from a poor background have huge achievements because of the difference in experience. Those who were poor knew the struggles of commoners and appreciate gaining power and working hard more.

The atmosphere had been peaceful throughout the entire journey, they had yet to meet any troubles thus far. However, the fact there had been no issues bothered Harrison. He almost felt it was too quiet. There were usually bandits everywhere. He felt there was something coming and the sense of foreboding was extremely uncomfortable. Since the boys were so well-behaved, Harrison tried not to bother them with his faint suspicions based on instinct. He only slowly continued their journey waiting to see if his feeling was correct or if he was worrying too much. Suddenly, Claude spotted something from far away.

"What is that black cloud coming this way? Is it going to rain?" Harrison followed his line of sight and saw the black ominous looking "cloud" and his face immediately turned pale. He ordered Argus to speed up and the bird started flying much faster trying to escape from the cloud.

"Teacher, what is going on?" Greyson seemed to notice his fear.

"It's not a cloud! It's a flying beast horde. They attack in groups and, although they are usually not strong individually, they cause a lot of grief in a group." Harrison's tone was very grave as he informed them. Both the boys suddenly understood the danger they were in and prepared to fight. Although Argus sped up, it was not in time. The beasts had already spotted their group of three and headed in their direction. As they came closer, Harrison informed them that it was a group of Wind Blade Birds. They were all of the wind element, but they were not very strong or intelligent. However, as a group, they worked really well together on instinct.

The flock of birds finally caught up and began attacking. Harrison whispered a spell and a round water shield was produced around them. It was much sturdier then the ones Greyson had seen before and kept the bird out. Argus then screeched and let out a bunch of water spikes all around. The spikes went right through the shield and started to take down a bunch of the birds. Greyson and Claude saw this and began to feel much better about their chances. However, they forgot that it was already midday and Harrison had been flying for a while now. His face started losing color as his mana was running out. He continued the same defense and offense trick until half the flock was gone. At this point, Argus was starting to fade out and even the boys were realizing their teacher was reaching his limit.

"Teacher, should we start to try to land?" Greyson started to worry about the altitude more than the birds.

"I'm trying to lower us. It's just hard to concentrate on defending you guys and attacking the birds while also thinking of where to land." Harrison seemed to be exhausted at this point.

"Could we help attack them? I know we're not that powerful but we could at least try to distract them." Claude suggested.

"Ah... I guess that's all we can do. You two start attacking them!" The boys nodded and started to send out their magic. Claude was significantly slower since he had to keep chanting the spell, but Greyson kept firing out water spikes like Argus did earlier. Although they couldn't take down the birds with their power, they successfully distracted them while they felt Argus lowering to the ground.

"Oh no, get down!" Just as they felt they could succeed, Harrison screamed out to warn them. They looked up and saw the group of birds create a group spell. A large wind blade came hitting down onto the shield. The shield shattered and Harrison spat blood and passed out. Argus completely disappeared and the boys, Harrison, and Lucius all started to free fall from the air. Not knowing what to do Greyson panicked while looking at his friends. A similar feeling started to come over him, similar to when Sister Lily was attacked by the drunk man. He couldn't understand the pull of instinct so his body just moved on its own. He couldn't see it, but his eyes changed to a beautiful emerald green and began to glow. He grabbed onto everyone before he closed his eyes as he saw the ground coming closer. However, the expected pain of impact never came. He slowly opened his eyes and peeked down only to see his body and everyone else stopped in mid-air. The wind was cushioning them so they wouldn't hit the ground. However, just as he was surprised, the wind stopped holding them up and they crashed onto the ground. This time the ground was much closer so other then some bruising the fall did not do any serious damage. Greyson saw everyone was okay before he fainted yet again.