Chương 68: The sea shore

3: 00 AM. The Fairy Guard Guild was completely silent. Everyone was asleep. Mochi was sprawled across a couch, hugging a pillow with a huge, contented smile on his face. Faesha was curled up nearby, breathing slow and even. Tony was buried beneath a blanket, only the tip of one ear visible. Ace sat upright in a chair with his arms crossed, somehow still managing to look serious even unconscious. Amelia had drifted off with her head resting against the arm of the couch. King and Krystal were both completely out.

Max was snoring loud enough to rattle the nearby shelves. Thomas had, once again, fallen asleep in his chair. Then the guild doors were thrown open. Benkay marched in with far too much energy for the hour.

"Wake up!" Nobody moved. He frowned.

"Everyone!" Silence. He took a slow breath.

"It's three in the morning!" Mochi's eyes shot open.

"Who's attacking?!" He rolled off the couch and hit the floor. Ace's eyes snapped open a heartbeat later.

"Where?" Amelia sat bolt upright, blinking in confusion.

"What... what happened?" Tony's head emerged from under his blanket.

"Is the world ending?" Max rolled over without opening his eyes.

"Five more minutes." Benkay walked over and gripped his shoulder.

"No." Max groaned.

"Please master..."

"No."

"Ten more minutes?"

"No way."

"Three?"

"It's already three in the morning." Max cracked one eye open.

"That's exactly my point." King rose slowly, looking like he hadn't slept properly in days.

"Master Benkay." He rubbed at his eyes.

"Is there some kind of emergency?"

"No. We're heading to the coast, remember?" King stared at him.

"Right now?"

"Right now." Benkay said firmly.. Krystal sat up, exhaling.

"It's three in the morning."

"Why are you so awake?" Benkay grinned.

"Because I'm built different."

"I am strong and disciplined unlike you sleepy heads.. Ace muttered under his breath, "Annoying is the word I'd use." Faesha appeared beside Benkay a moment later, already fully dressed, looking wide awake and thrilled about it.

"Faesha is ready to go to the coast, Uncle!" Mochi's whole face lit up.

"Yes! Coast training!" He was suddenly, inexplicably full of energy. Amelia yawned.

"Mochi, how are you already awake?"

"The moment I heard training, I had to get up!" Tony stared at him.

"He's just built different too, apparently." Benkay clapped his hands together.

"Alright, everyone line up. We're doing a head count before we leave." The group slowly gathered, still half asleep.

"Mochi?"

"Here!"

"Amelia?"

"Here."

"Ace?"

"Here..."

"King?"

"Present."

"Krystal?"

"Here."

"Max?"

"... Here."

"Tony?" Tony raised one paw.

"Unfortunately here." Benkay paused.

"Thomas?" Everyone looked around. Thomas was still asleep in his chair. Mochi pointed.

"He's right there still snoring away..." Benkay walked over and leaned down.

"Thomas." No response.

"Thomas." Nothing. He leaned closer.

"Thomas...." Still nothing. Benkay sighed and raised his voice.

"Thomas wake up!" Thomas's eyes flew open.

"I'm awake! I'm fully awake!" He shot to his feet and nearly toppled sideways. Everyone stared at him. Thomas blinked, gathering himself.

"... Why are we all up?"

"Because it's three in the morning," Benkay said flatly. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Thomas looked around at the group.

"Ah." He sat back down.

"I'm going back to sleep.." Benkay grabbed his shoulder before he could get comfortable.

"No. You're coming too."

"You're supposed to be a role model for crying out loud!" Thomas sighed.

"Fine..."

"I'll go, you know complaining so much will make you old like me Benkay."

"..." Benkay finished his count with a satisfied nod.

"Excellent. Everyone's accounted for." Benkay led them out to the guild's flower transportation platform.

"Alright. We're taking the flower." Mochi hopped onto it immediately.

"Let's go!" One by one, everyone climbed aboard, in various states of exhaustion. Ace stood with his arms folded. Amelia was still yawning. King looked barely conscious. Krystal leaned quietly against the flower's petals. Max looked seconds from falling asleep on his feet. Tony curled into a tight ball near the center. Thomas simply sat down where he stood. Benkay stepped into the middle of the platform.

"Is everyone ready?" Mochi threw both fists in the air.

"Ready!" Everyone else answered in far less enthusiastic tones.

"Yeah..."

"Sure."

"Mm."

"Let's just go already." Tony muttered, "I want my bed." Benkay ignored him entirely.

"Alright, here we go." The massive flower began to glow, its petals unfurling slowly, releasing a gentle magical breeze across the group. Then, in a burst of soft light, it lifted off the platform and rose into the night sky, carrying them out over the Fairy Quadrant. Mochi leaned over the edge, grinning at the view.

"This is going to be amazing." Ace closed his eyes.

"Wake me when we land." Amelia mumbled, "Same..." Tony was already asleep, snoring softly against the petals. Benkay looked around at his thoroughly unenthusiastic team and smiled anyway.

"Wonderful. What a motivated group we've got here." Thomas, half asleep again already, murmured.

"You're going to regret saying that." The flower drifted on through the moonlit sky. Their strange training was about to begin. Without warning, the flower accelerated. Mochi's grin disappeared.

"Uh." Benkay grinned wider.

"Hold on tight!" The flower shot forward violently, and everyone was thrown backward against the petals.

"Whaaaaat!" Mochi grabbed the edge with both hands, wind tearing at his face. Tony's ears flapped wildly.

"Why are we going this fast?!" Max grabbed King's arm on instinct.

"Master Benkay!" King fought to keep his footing.

"This was not part of the plan!" Amelia clung to the nearest petal for dear life. Ace remained standing, somehow, though his hair was blown completely flat against his skull.

"Can everyone please stop screaming?" Another burst of speed lifted them slightly off the flower's surface entirely. Within minutes, the flower descended sharply toward a second, larger flower waiting along the distant coastline, and settled down with a heavy, final thud. Nobody moved for a long moment. Mochi slowly lifted his head.

"... We're here?" Tony was sprawled flat across the petals.

"I saw my whole life pass in front of me." Max climbed unsteadily to his feet.

"I've lost feeling in both legs..." Benkay stepped off casually, as though none of that had happened.

"Come on, then."

"Let's go.." Everyone followed, slower and far less enthusiastic. The moment they stepped onto solid ground, the view in front of them stopped even Tony's complaining. The coast stretched endlessly beneath the night sky. Dark blue waves rolled gently toward the shore, catching the light of an enormous moon that hung low over the horizon, its glow spread across the water like a sheet of polished glass. Tall cliffs framed parts of the coastline, faintly lit from within by the same strange silver light.

Beyond them, wide fields of pale flowers swayed together in the sea breeze. But something about the moon itself wasn't right. It was too bright. Far brighter than it had any reason to be. Thin threads of silver energy trailed down from it, disappearing into the surface of the ocean and rippling outward across the water in slow, glowing waves. The whole coastline felt peaceful.

And underneath that peace, something pressed down on all of them, heavy and constant, like standing too close to something enormous that hadn't noticed them yet. Benkay stretched his arms overhead.

"Alright, then." He turned to face the group.

"What are you all waiting for?" Nobody answered right away. King finally spoke up.

"Master Benkay. Why can't you just teach it to us directly? Wouldn't that be faster?" Benkay's easy grin faded slightly.

"Because I never learned it myself..."

"I know as much as you do to be honest.." That got everyone's attention. Amelia blinked.

"Wait, you don't know how to do it either?"

"I know what it does," Benkay said.

"That's all.." Thomas spoke up from where he stood, arms folded, sounding more awake than he had all night.

"Lunar magic isn't like your standard Magic Skills," he said.

"Lunar magic is seperate to the casual magic skills.."

"It links to one of the 5 magic types""Lunar magic, Solar magic, Creation magic, Destruction magic and Life magic.."

"This is what we call magic of the Quinta Wheel which are magic related to the five legendary Gods.." Mochi aid curious"Legendary Gods? Quinta Wheel... this is complicated.." Thomas let out a long sigh..

"I'll just explain it later.." Krystal frowned.

"But Master Benkay, how is Amelia supposed to learn it at all?" Benkay raised a finger..

"By failing at it enough times that the shape of it starts to make sense,".

"Which is exactly why all of you are here. Not to watch her learn it. To help her find it." Amelia looked down at her own hands.

"So this whole time..."

"You're the only one who can do this part," Benkay said.

"The rest of us are just here to keep you from giving up." Mochi nodded firmly.

"That settles it, then." He turned to Amelia.

"You heard the man. Time to get weird with it." Amelia let out a small, nervous laugh.

"Right." King stepped forward.

"Let's start simple. Amelia, try channeling your magic into a defensive shape, the same way you would with your Cracker Wall, but focus on the moonlight instead of your usual source." Amelia nodded, raising both hands.

"Okay. Magic skill: Cracker Wall!" A large, familiar wall of hardened magic snapped into existence in front of her. Everyone stared at it. Mochi sighed.

"That's just your normal Cracker Wall." Amelia lowered her hands, embarrassed.

"Right. Sorry." From a cluster of large rocks nearby, Benkay, Thomas, and Faesha had already settled in to watch, Benkay lounging back with his arms folded behind his head, Thomas sitting cross legged with a small thermos of tea he'd apparently packed for the occasion, and Faesha perched on a rock between them, swinging her legs.

"That one didn't count," Faesha announced.

"Faesha's seen that one before."

"Astute observation," Benkay said, sipping from a cup he'd produced from somewhere. Mochi raised a hand.

"Okay, new idea! Try imagining the moon is protecting you specifically!" Amelia closed her eyes and pictured a silver barrier wrapping around her body. Nothing happened. She cracked one eye open.

"Nope..."

"Different idea, then." Mochi rubbed his chin theatrically.

"What if you imagine your magic like a blanket?" Amelia blinked at him.

"A blanket."

"Yeah!"

"How does a blanket help with a defensive lunar barrier?"

"I genuinely don't know," Mochi admitted.

"It just felt like something worth saying." From the rocks, Thomas called out, "That one gets a two out of ten."

"Harsh but fair," Benkay said. Krystal stepped forward next, more measured than Mochi.

"Perhaps you're forcing it too hard. Your magic already carries a lunar quality naturally according to Master Benkay so... Maybe pushing it is exactly what's stopping the shield from forming?" Amelia nodded, taking a breath, and let her magic rise on its own instead of commanding it. A faint silver glow flickered weakly around her fingers. Everyone leaned in. The glow sputtered and died out. Amelia stared at her empty hands.

"... Nothing."

"But I could feel something being produced.." King rubbed his chin.

"Interesting. There was something there, though. Just not enough of it." Max stepped forward, cracking his knuckles.

"Maybe she needs pressure. Adrenaline forces instinct sometimes. I'll attack her." Amelia's eyes went wide.

"Wait, what?"

"Please don't do that.." Max was already moving.

"Don't worry, I'll hold back."

"Max!" He threw a heavy punch straight at her. Amelia panicked and threw up a Cracker Wall on reflex. The impact shattered it instantly and sent her tumbling backward into the sand.

"Owie!" Amelia said rubbing her head..

"Maybe don't do that again!" Max froze immediately, horrified.

"Sorry. Sorry, my fault there. I really thought that would work." From the rocks, Faesha winced.

"That one looked like it hurt." Mochi crouched beside her.

"Okay. Pressure was a bad plan. That's for sure..." Amelia finally sat down in the sand, shoulders slumping.

"Maybe I just can't do this."

"We've been at this for ages.. the sun's even risen.." Mochi shook his head immediately.

"No way. You've barely tried, don't give up yet.."

"I've tried multiple different things!"

"And there's multiple different options left.." King crouched beside her.

"We've got six more days left." Krystal offered a small, genuine smile.

"I'm sure you've learned harder things than this before. Don't give up on this one." Amelia began to tear up..

"You guys..." Mochi sighed"Here comes the water works again.." Ameli stood up, pumped with energy"Let's keep going!" They kept trying. She copied King's defensive stance and got nothing for it. She tried staring directly at the moon until her eyes watered, and got nothing for that either. She tried wrapping herself in her own magic like a cocoon, which only made Mochi laugh. She tried blending Cracker Wall with lunar energy, and the wall simply appeared exactly as it always had, completely unaffected.

She tried forming the shield mid flight, lost her concentration three seconds in, and nearly planted herself face first into the sand before Krystal caught her by the arm. From the rocks, Thomas offered quiet, deadpan commentary on nearly every attempt.

"Four out of ten."

"Two out of ten, but it's creative."

"That one was actually zero. I'm not sure what that was supposed to be."

"Was that supposed to be a shield or a hug?" Faesha, meanwhile, had appointed herself the group's personal cheer squad, standing up on her rock every few minutes to shout encouragement.

"Faesha believes in you, Amelia!"

"That one almost looked like something!"

"Faesha is very proud of everyone, even though nothing has worked yet!" Benkay, for his part, mostly watched with quiet amusement, occasionally offering something closer to actual guidance between sips of his drink.

"You're all trying to force a shape onto it," he called out at one point.

"The Lunar Shield doesn't care what shape you give it. Stop trying to draw the picture and start trying to feel what it wants to look like." Amelia frowned at that.

"That doesn't really tell me anything."

"I never said it would," Benkay said cheerfully.

"I said I could point you in a direction." King tried breathing exercises next, slow and deliberate, which helped Amelia calm down but did nothing for the actual magic. Krystal walked her through a meditation technique she'd learned from her own family, which left Amelia feeling oddly peaceful and still shieldless. Max suggested building up her physical stamina first, on the theory that exhaustion might strip away whatever mental barrier was blocking her.

Tony suggested, with complete sincerity, that she try wearing a cracker on her head for luck. That last one was rejected immediately and without discussion. Eventually, hours into the night, a full day has passed.. Amelia stood in the middle of the beach completely wrung out. Her hair had come loose and was tangled with sand, her clothes were damp from the sea spray, and her hands, when she raised them one more time, produced nothing at all.

"Nothing," she said quietly. Then, quieter still, "I can't do it." Mochi walked over and sat down beside her in the sand, no longer joking.

"You can."

"We've tried everything, Mochi."

"We need to continue tommorow.. I'm very sleepy.." Everyone agreed and looked at Benkay"So amster Benkay.."

"Where are we sleeping?" Benkay's body went cold.. He let out a gulp...

"Uh...."

"I didn't think of that.. did I?" Everyone shouted in unison.

"WHAAAT!!?"