Astral spent his next few hours gliding around in the sky enjoying his flight. His wings were widespread as the wind brushed into his face, his breath was taken away from his flight as he slowed down and circled above in the sky. He had his target as he awaited a response. He looked down to see high walls still standing as someone was looking up at him on the bluff. A soft glow surrounded the person as Astral went into overdrive. 'Here it comes.' Astral twisted left in the air as he braced for impact with a spell. But they missed.
'Not entirely honed in, or its tracking is a bit off.' Astral dived for a few hundred feet before he started to circle again. Another barrage of magic missiles were fired at him as he then went into pure evasive maneuvers. Spinning in the air and cycling in different aerial patterns to get them off. He smiled as these attacks were much tighter in grouping and there was a higher number of them. 'Descend at a pace of forty feet per second. See if she uses any of the auto tags or attacks.' Astral changed his patterns as he smiled. She was sending her full offensive arsenal at her that was equipped to take on flying enemies.
'The difference is, she knows its me, why no lightning or ice?' Astral's descent continued as he got closer and closer until he felt uneasy. He pulled up his light barrier all around him as lightning panged against it. Freezing on contact with the shield. "ALL GREAT MAGES FIND THEIR OWN STYLE!" Astral shouted as he dropped the shield and slammed into the ground. Hopping out of the crater and looked directly at Tina. "I'm back!" She ran directly into his arms and hugged him. She melted into him as he held her up. The two stood in silence as a few people surrounded the two in silence.
"You all are overprotective." Tina broke away as she waved off the four hybrids. She giggled a little bit as they all sat down. "Where has your last year taken you? Mine is a varied bag of learning." Astral smiled as he nodded. Her power had grown by a lot in comparison with his leaving.
"I met with the dwarves and created super powered magical cubes with enchantments to power their technology and research." Astral's left gauntlet flared to life as a hologram of it appeared. "It works well on defense and as a civilization holder. It will not fail them." Astral let his wrist down as it vanished. "Then the seaside elves bound me in chains as they threatened to kill me. I waited the full year there to threaten them all back. But I worked at the docks for that year to eat all that delicious food they had there." Tina's mouth stayed open in awe as she smiled at his story.
"Tell me more about it all!" She was very excited as Astral sat down next to a campfire ring. Sora approached from behind them as Tina sat down and started the fire as Astral put a tea kettle over it to prepare it for the two of them. "Sora, would you care to hear his story?"
Sora waved his hand no. "Astral, you make a return for what reason?"
"Well, I was going to ask Tina if she wished to accompany me to the woodland elves and take back my shoulder plate." Astral smiled as Tina nodded along with him to join on another adventure.
"Well, if she wishes to go, expect the other four to follow along with you." Sora commented as Astral bobbed his head up and down in a silent agreement. "Cool, you can take them all back to James in one piece then. Do you think she could be powerful enough to boost both battlefields against the others?"
"I will be able to judge that some other time, for now all I seek is to spend time with a pupil who has earned it. It is my responsibility. The difference being now I can bring her along due to it being on the way. It should work out time wise to the day." Astral opened his hand as a holographic map formed above them, with projected marching times and travel times.
"We have the most critical detour of them all. Crushing those who disliked what the power of magic can truly do." Tina held her fist in the air as Astral and Sora laughed with her. "My magic was a gift they neglected, the least we could do is show them what it could have done to help them." Astral grabbed the tea kettle and poured the three of them cups of tea.
"Their resistance to your magic and them handing over my piece of armor may be a slower and more." Astral paused as he still saw the small child in his eyes. "Painful process for them than you realize, people will die, it will be them."
"I know, but they ripped my parents from me, treated me harshly, and are the reason gramps is dead." Tina ran her finger around the outside of the cup. "This is vengeance that is long coming. You will strike fear into them as you are with your skills. They by now have heard what happened with their kin. So I do hope we can make their justice exist."
"Revenge isn't always the answer." Astral set his cup down after taking a sip. "I don't blame you for the want of it, the difference is don't seek it as for the only goal to have." Astral drew a circle in the dirt as he made small fireworks fire upward. "Look at it by the point of view from an outsider. You want to show their mistakes from your magic being misused and not utilized by them. Not to crush them with it." She nodded as she took another sip of her tea.
"I ask you to do so for one reason." She paused as she held the cup on her lips as Astral drew a dark circle into the dirt. "Corruption of a mage isn't like a normal person with greed or anger. Its much worse." Astral took a sip of his tea as Sora stood up. "All they seek is to be the most powerful. They let that goal consume themselves and it turns out evil for them. That path of corruption is hard to break. It leads to dark times for mages as evil prevails in their mind. Even the Crown Jewels know this, if they allow darkness to consume themselves, they could be even more powerful and frightening."
"But their downside is they lose their passion for the craft and trade it for power." Astral refilled his cup of tea as he downed it in one gulp. "And for that. I will teach you meditation on the way to the forest." She nodded as Astral and her stood up. "Sora, we will see you in a few weeks? I will be excited to see your leadership on the battlefield." Sora nodded.
"You think they will be ready? Reports say what James is doing to them is debilitating and draining them of key resources." Sora gently asked as Astral gave a slight scoff. "His talents take after your teachings."
"He learned well, he is making them come down to the human level, they won't be well fed or armored outside of the higher ups, their morale is low, he wants to have more of them turn and keep casualties of all sides low." Astral reached his hand out to Tina as she grabbed it. "Most of their loyal will face off versus James, their mediocre will face off versus the human forces you bring. And the worst of the worst will be sent at me." Astral started to walk away as their next goal was in sight. "They will want time to prepare as a unit for the four of them to beat me. They won't care about who lives and who dies, but you should."
Astral and Tina walked away as Bitsy, Errol, Evelin and Sanguine all packed up their camp and followed behind the two, they carried the tents, rations and extra water for them all for their journey as Astral led them across the plains and to the outskirt of the forest. Every night Astral would train Tina under the stars in meditation. During the day they would travel at a brisk and moderate pace. After two weeks, they were on the border of the forest preparing for the last armor piece.