When Adam got back down to the ground, landing slowly in the wake of a quick descent, he went straight to work. Now that he knew that flight was a viable option for himself, he needed to make sure that the same could be applied to his companions. If successful, it would be an advantage with many, many ways of using it.

The application was simple. Adam would wrap his companions around his telekinesis, form a spherical forcefield around them, muster a barrier over their skin, and then pull them along into the sky. However, he did not know how to replicate his resistance to high g force. Thus, they would need to accelerate slowly.

Ruk and Caben were not as eager at first, but seeing that Adam was adamant that they had no other choice, they eventually obliged.

The first to try it out was Ruk. Given his size, physique, and weight, Adam figured that it was best to start with him and form a baseline.

Speaking of weight, it was an odd thing for Adam to consider. Throughout his life, he never cared about the weight of anything whenever he used his powers. It was not because he didn't want to consider it, but the fact that he couldn't feel it. Everything felt nearly weightless when influenced by his telekinesis, like holding a lightweight piece of thin plastic, and that was a problem.

Without a sense of how heavy something was, Adam was once prone to overdoing his telekinesis when he was a kid. Apparently, his parents thought that this wasn't supposed to be the case. Psychic power, though powerful, was not all-powerful. Adam was still supposed to feel the weight of everything bigger than a pencil. But he never did. Or even if he did, he barely noticed the difference.

Thus, he learned how to instead control the speed of how he manipulated something with his telekinesis. It was hard at first, requiring a lot of effort and focus. In the end, his mother was more than patient enough to help him succeed.

With that in mind, it would seem that Adam only needed to pull Ruk up slowly with his telekinesis like he had always done to everything else, but flinging someone or something into the distance was different from carrying them several thousand feet above the ground at the speed of sound.

He needed to be careful, or he risked accidentally killing anyone he brought along. Thus, they began.

Ruk stood with ax in hand and a backpack strapped on his back. After a moment, he began to glow. Not as brightly, but bright enough to be noticed even from a distance. Adam didn't need to stretch out his hand at Ruk in order to focus his power. There was no need. Mere mental focus was enough to guide his telekinesis for the purpose of flight, or so it seemed.

Adam wondered why his power was manifesting itself in the form of a bright white light. He wondered why it was showing up in the first place. It never did so in the past. Not to mention the fact that his ability to control his power had seen a considerable improvement compared to before. If he was progressing with his psychic abilities then the growth was exponential, faster and stronger than he initially expected, and his expectations were low to begin with.

That said, there wasn't much time for him to ponder over these changes.

Wrapped by psychic power, the orc felt his feet leave the ground as Adam slowly pulled him upward.

As expected, there was little weight for Adam to consider. Ruk lifted into the air with barely the resistance of gravity. That said, the orc was feeling incredibly anxious the entire time. Ruk didn't show it in his face though, instead maintaining a hard expression. Accelerating slowly, Ruk began to fly. A moment later, he was soon flying around the village at the speed of sound.

Ruk's anxiety eventually disappeared, replaced by the excitement of being able to fly through the air as if he was a bird. He bellowed with laughter not long after as Adam made him go round the village.

As Ruk continued to fly for half an hour, Adam observed the effects of the telekinesis-assisted flight. He measured vitals, took note of physical reactions, and tried to understand the aerodynamics of a large humanoid wearing a backpack and wielding an ax zooming through the air like an arrow.

By the end of it, Adam had most of the information he needed. That said, he was still unsure about some things. After all, he was not an expert about flight. He was just using whatever trivia he could remember about the topic. He sorely missed the internet.

Ruk landed on the ground with a proud but devious look on his face, still chuckling to himself. Curious as to what his partner was thinking, Adam asked.

And the orc's answer was, "I can finally descend upon my foes like a hawk! They shall all fall before my claws!" He said with a trembling fist pulled near his chest as a colorful and violent imagination flashed before his eyes. Afterwards, he gave Adam a thumbs up. "It felt good, brother. This is good. We will crush the vermin like birds of prey."

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Adam nodded, satisfied and relieved that everything went smoothly.

Up next was Caben. Though he was quick to say that he had a fear of heights, Adam reminded him that his daughter was counting on them to come as quickly as possible. Reminded of the reason they were even in this situation in the first place, Caben quickly stepped up and spread out his arms, for some reason.

Adam was almost tempted to make him flap his arms like a bird as a joke but thought better of it. Humor was to be reserved for less serious times.

"You don't need to spread out your arms, Mr. Caben." Adam said as he wrapped Caben with his psychic power. Just like Ruk, he began to show a faint glow all over him, a sign that he was now firmly under the influence, control, and mercy of the young man standing before him.

"It's bright and... tingly. Is it really supposed to be like this?" Caben asked as he looked down on his glowing hands, feeling the tingle of an electric current sweeping over his skin. There was a lot of concern his mind, that and a rising terror as he realized that he was about to fly for real.

Tempted though he was to back out, he stomached his natural fears and tensed. His daughter was out there, alive and waiting to be rescued. He needed to be brave.

Caben slowly rose from the ground, his body tensing even further as he gained altitude. It was a slow ascent, slower than Ruk's. He was in no physical danger, but Adam was concerned about his mental and emotional fortitude.

Caben was absolutely terrified. Adam was concerned that his heart would give out the moment he went over a thousand feet which was the altitude that seemed the safest. Not too high. Not too low.

With little time to take things slowly, Adam decided to get Caben used to flight by using the proven and tested method of making him do it non-stop for an extended period of time.

"Mr. Caben, apologies but you're gonna have to fly for a bit longer. It's important that you do." Adam said as Caben came to a stop in the air a few feet in front of him. “Don't worry, nothing bad will happen to you.” The last part was more of an assurance to himself than to Caben.

Surprisingly, despite the absolutely terrified state of mind that Caben found himself in, he voiced no protest. He simply nodded his head, accepting his fate with a fast-beating heart and the expectation that all of this would be worth it in the end.

And thus Caben flew for an hour straight, doing repeated laps around the village and sometimes flying over the surrounding forest. His acceleration was slower than Ruk's, but eventually he reached the speed of sound and maintained it for the duration of the test. Still sensing doubt and discomfort, Adam made him continue for another hour.

Fear eventually turned into an excited thrill, transforming afterwards into a cold indifference as Caben grew numb, but that wasn't supposed to happen. Unbeknownst to everyone involved, Adam's telepathy was passively at work, exerting a telepathic influence over the minds of both Ruk and Caben, either calming or dulling their fear of flying and everything in-between. It was an unconscious action, a result of Adam's own will. And it helped.

It made things easier for everyone, speeding an otherwise lengthy process of familiarization and adjustment. Two hours into the testing phase, Adam considered his companions ready. As ready as both could be.

Caben slowed and landed on his feet, dazed but quick to steady himself now that he was walking on solid ground. The man held back a cough, somewhat out of breath from flying around. His test results proved more insightful than Ruk’s, showing to Adam that humans were more prone to oxygen deprivation during unprotected flight. The solution was, for the moment, to fly below a thousand feet and not exceed the speed of sound. That way, the atmosphere would be thick enough to offset the oxygen lost from breathing for going too fast.

Or at least that was what Adam assumed to be the case. He was unsure. He was confused as to why he didn’t experience the same breathing problems as Caben, even though he accelerated at a faster rate and broke the sound barrier itself. He figured that there was something missing whenever he was making Caben fly, and he suspected the same thing to be happening with Ruk. However, the orc either did not need that much oxygen in the first place or was, simply, that much of a tank to withstand everything thrown at him.

“How are you feeling?” Asked Adam as he walked over to where Caben was now sitting on the ground. He had sat quickly, breathing slowly and deeply, blinking between each breath.

“I’m fine… yeah. I’m just out of breath for some reason.” Caben said.

“Our bodies were never built to fly, and yours has seen better days. No offense.” Adam explained.

“None taken,” Caben said and snorted, “When are we leaving to get my daughter?”

“In an hour or so, before it gets dark so that we won’t be seen. I can’t control the light emanating from myself or the both of you when we’re flying so it’s gonna be better if we arrived before nightfall.” Adam said.

A pair of heavy footsteps came from behind and Ruk soon joined them. The orc looked ready to go, eager to once again use his ax for pest control.

“So we attack during the night? Very sneaky, brother. I like it. We will crush the vermin in the dark.”

Adam turned to Ruk and nodded, “Our mission is plain and simple: rescue everyone being held in that godforsaken place before it’s too late. And we’re not going to be late.”

Caben lowered his brows into a frown as anxiety and despair gripped at his heart once more, reminding him of grim possibilities.

“How are you sure?” Caben asked, his voice caught between a whisper and a cry.

Adam looked at Caben straight in the eye, taking in the facial expressions of the quest giver. He pondered over the question, unsure as to the correct answer. Instead, he settled for the truth, even if it was vague at best, and presumptive at worst.

“I have hope,” Adam said, “And if a stranger like me can believe that we’ll succeed in saving someone’s daughter, then I believe the father can too.”

Hearing this, Caben’s hardened gaze softened as tears formed from underneath his eyes. He wiped them away before they could fall, replacing his anxiety with newfound determination.

All was not yet lost. But victory was far from guaranteed.