Hmmph... this junior is a good seed [Cultivation Management Quest]

[Falconis]

Paulus 2: Paulus Harder


"Go! Go! Go! Go! Move those legs faster! My honoured ancestor can move faster than you, and she's dead!"

I swear, the first thing i'm buying when I get in is a flying carpet. I don't care if they don't exist, I'm going to pay to have one made just so I can wrap this guy up and roll him down a dune.

The trip to the recruitment point turned out well and we only suffered two ambushes by vicious beasts on the way, both of which were handily dealt with by the caravan guards. Once we got there we found out it'd only been a few months since the last sweep and it was unknown when the next one would be so we had time to get everyone some training. I even found a foundation tier expert who was willing to give me a few pointers until it was time for us to leave. Only…

"Why are you slowing down! You've got three dunes to go and you're burning daylight!"

He was a bit...overbearing.

I was running as fast as I could, had been for the past twenty minutes with Hong Li shouting in my ear. My muscles were burning and I could barely suck down enough air to keep myself conscious. I'm pretty sure the only thing that kept me moving was sheer spite and the fact that Hong Li had done the entire run backwards while shouting at me, and he hadn't even broken a sweat.

High spec bastard.

"Why do I even need to do this anyway?" I growled out between breaths "I told you I'm training for officer stream."

Hong Li gave me one of those classic sneers that all the girls went crazy over when the rich kid did it and I swore a vein burst in his shiny bald head as he inhaled.

"CULTIVATORS. NEED. CARDIO! I don't care if you're aiming for Beast Master or Grand Cook! If you can't circle these dunes in under an hour the only thing you're training for is a swift death!"

He leaned in until his face was centimeters from mine, which was kind of impressive if you considered that we were still both running.

"Do you think those Blood Cannibals are going to slow down just because you have a fancy helmet? A sixth heavenstage cannibal can sprint this route in FORTY FIVE MINUTES and he'll still have the strength to swallow you whole at the other end! If you can't do better than that you won't even save your skinny little be-hind much less do your duty and warn the garrison!"

Why the hell was I suddenly being compared to a sixth heavenstage? Who the hell does he think I am?

"Now, if you have air to talk you have strength to burn. Move it! Move it! Move it!"

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"I'm gonna hit him."

"Mmm mmm."

"I swear. Pow, straight to the heavens. I'll call it the instant ascension fist."

"Mmm mmm."

The table was nice and cool against my face. Nothing like the hot grit I'd been forced to run through every day for a month now. At first I was against getting extra furniture since we were moving to the sect anyway but I had to admit, Filia was right. Real balm to my soul.

Spiros slid a bowl of Pebbleback Boar Bites over to my side, and the scent eventually enticed me away from my new favorite bed. At least the boar was good. Just enough spice that I could taste something other than sand.

"This is great. Where'd you get the Boar?"

"A man on yesterday's caravan was selling a preserved flank."

"...can we afford it?"

"We still have some money."

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"What do you think you're doing Paulus?"

I froze and stared at my teacher. It had been six months after we started cardio when he finally seemed resigned to my inability to beat the speed of someone five realms higher than me and decided to move on to weapons training. On the plus side this let the gang come and watch since they didn't have to keep up with a pair of superhumans zooming across the dunes, on the minus side Hong Li seemed a bit more into weapons than running.

"I'm practicing the spear forms? Sir?"

He slapped the training weapon out of my hand with a disgusted motion. "What you are doing is an offense to the very heavens themselves. I'd normally compliment you on that but you had to go and make it an offense to me too. Pick up that sword."

I picked up the swo-

Thwack

"No, you're already terrible. Try the axe."

Anger played a suggestive beat through my skull as I reached for the axe. Don't try and fight the foundation stage cultivator Paulus. It didn't work out last time and it won't work out this time. I picked up the training weapon, trying to remember how I'd seen passing warriors handle theirs-

Thwack

"Oh come on!"

Hong Li flashed one of his trademark sneers and folded his hands across his chest.

"If you cannot maintain your hold on your weapon, it's the same as having no weapon at all. Pick up that spear."

Oh no you don't you high spec bastard. I know what you're doing and I'm not having it. I leapt over to where the spear had fallen, grabbing it firmly with two hands and bringing it up to the first posit-

Thwack

The spear went flying and with it went the majority of my patience. I held on to it by a thin thread, beating down my reflexive response as I turned to face my teacher. Whatever I wanted to say died in my throat as I saw the man grasping all the training weapons Filia had made me in a sheathe of qi. He wound up and threw them into the distance with all the force a foundation establishment cultivator could put behind the effort. I swore one of them twinkled as they flew out of sight.

He brushed the sand off his hands and looked back at me with a questioning quirk of his eyebrow.

"What are you standing around here for? Pick up that sword." He said, gesturing vaguely at the horizon

Snap
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We'd stretched our funds as far as we could, but a year appeared to be the limit. If Hong Li had been charging me anything for his abuse services we would have run out months ago, thankfully he seemed satisfied with me just obeying his every order and he'd gone off somewhere without saying anything a few days ago.

This was the perfect time for us to get some cash.

Spiros, Filia, and I were out hunting today. Rumor had it that some weak spirit beasts were migrating through the area and the resident hunters had been living like kings for weeks. It was time for us to get a share.

After hours of searching we finally found something that looked only mildly threatening. A giant lizard almost as long as I was tall. It had a mix of black and brown scales that formed a repeating pattern down its back and a thick tail tipped in dark red. It basked lazily in the sun at the base of a sand dune, and we regarded it from the peak.

Filia scrutinized a small clay slate covered in Leto's tight handwriting.

"I see it here" she whispered "The description matches a Blackscale Stilio, a first heavenstage spirit beast. Rumored to have a weak dragon bloodline, but it's not very smart. The scales can be sold."

"Anything else around?" I queried

"Nothing in sight boss." Spiros answered, his greater height letting him see way more than Filia or I could.

"Alright. We'll move to corral it. Triangle formation. I'll start us off. Everybody ready?"

Nods all around. Okay time to make it happen.

I leaped over the top of the dune and started sliding down the sunny side, sand rushing by beneath my feet. Twin impacts followed me as Spiros and Filia took the flanks, and I raised my spear with a grin. I couldn't help it, it was great to be with the team again.

The Stilio noticed us of course. While we were still halfway down the side it perked up and hissed, scales rippling out to make itself look bigger. I kept on moving straight towards it, and the stupid beast charged up the side of the dune to meet me. What an idiot.

At the last second I jammed the butt of my spear into the dune and vaulted over the Stilo, dodging its pointless snaps by curling up; Sometimes being short paid off. I skidded to a halt behind it, digging in my heels to stop the slide before bringing my spear back to a ready position. Predictably it whirled on me and charged, intent on tearing out my throat.

Spiros crashed into it from the left, his boar killing spear slicing a deep gash in its side. It hissed in anger and turned to him only for Filia to slice across the other flank a second later. Spiros hopped away and the Stilio turned its attention to Filia, leaving it wide open for me to jab my spear into its back. I no longer had the benefit of momentum, but the pain from the attack was enough to draw its attention off of Filia and back to me. Jackpot.

We traded the Stilio between us. Every time it changed targets the other two would get one or two shots in. The wounds were nothing like the first two, but every few hits we managed to get through the scales and get it bleeding. The lizard writhed and flailed to force us back but all we had to do was wait for it to pick another target before going back to the strategy.

The fight migrated down the dune over the course of ten minutes until we were back on flat land. The Stilio was covered in wounds but it barely seemed hampered. Meanwhile we were dripping with sweat from fighting in the heat.

"How are you doing over there guys?"

Spiros grunted in annoyance and Filia didn't even manage to respond between strikes. That cinched it, they were tiring faster than the beast. I had to find an opportunity for us to break off and regroup. This thing would keep bleeding and we could stalk it for a few hours until-

The Stilio's pattern changed while I had its focus, it crouched down low and hissed and a second later its red tip tail ignited in flame.

"Holy fu-"

It spun in place and I leapt back, blocking a bone rattling strike with the haft of the spear. Heat washed across my face, and I staggered back blinking tears out of my eyes. Spiros shouted and I heard the sound of pounding feet followed by the woosh of air and the clatter of fallen wood.

I wiped my face hurriedly and got my sight back in time to see the lizard rounding on Spiros, the big man having taken its attention with a heroic play. The only problem was Spiros was now unarmed. He had dropped. his. spear.

"HEEEEY! Get away from him!" I was out of position from the tail swipe and Filia was even worse off, lying on her butt in the sand and still blinking spots out of her eyes. There was no way I was going to make it before that thing got its jaws on Spiros, so I did the only thing I could think of and threw my weapon.

The spear wobbled through the air like a drunken jackdaw and miraculously impacted the Stilio tip first right on its snout. It recoiled in pain and whirled on me. Mission accomplished, I got its attention. Only now, I didn't have a weapon either.

I ran.

An outraged hiss sounded out behind me and the thump of meaty legs charging through sand told me my ruse was successful. The Stilio was chasing me and not going after Filia or Spiros, now what?

I had to keep going until I could lose it somewhere. Maybe I could loop around the dune and reestablish the formation?

HISSSSSSS

Nope nope, just keep moving. This thing had terrible acceleration but if the sounds behind me were correct then its top speed was nothing to sneeze at. Trying to turn might be the last mistake I made.

I kept running.

An hour later I was beginning to regret my decision. The thing had moved in lockstep with me the entire time. Trying to distract it with other wild beasts didn't work, the damn things just took one look at us and made themselves scarce. Dodging through a rocky patch didn't slow it down for a second, the Stilio just charged through like they were nothing and kept at me.

First Heavenstage my ass.

By the second hour I was wondering if Stilios were secretly world class sprinters. We had gone way outside any territory I was familiar with and I was beginning to think trying something tricky might be a better idea than running into something even nastier when salvation came flying over the dunes.

Hong Li rode a flying sword over the top of a nearby dune. He took a look at me and soared over, matching my speed in an instant. I grinned at him in lieu of greeting, any breath I could use for speech long since utilized to keep me moving.

"Your companions informed me of your predicament." he spoke in easy tones.

They'd done it. I knew we'd find a way out of this. Hong Li looked me up and down, not sparing a glance for my pursuer only a few feet behind me.

"I see that you've lost your weapon. Good. Good."

No way.

"The Blackscale Stilio is a First Heavenstage spirit beast renowned for its stamina. With the wounds your group has dealt to it you could have perhaps slain it with just a few more blows." He sneered " As is you'll only have to last a few more hours before it expires. Good luck."

Yes way. He really is. Hong Li soared away into the sky leaving me in the exact same position as before. Weaponless, covered in sweat, and being chased by an angry fan. I grit my teeth and kept running, there was no time for anything else. At least now I had something to look forward to.

Wam! Pow! Straight to the heavens!

-------------------------

CLACK

The blow knocked me back a full three feet, but I managed to hold on to the sword for dear life. This was the hardest one to hold on to without being able to get a proper two handed grip, but I'd finally done it. I could hold the weapon.

For some reason this accomplishment felt really depressing after two years of hard work.

Hong Li regarded me from across the training grounds with grudging acceptance, brushing his recently regrown brown hair out of his face.

"Adequate. Of course once you've learned how to properly use your qi, this ability will be practically meaningless" he sneered

I swear. Wam! Pow!

"But I've seen enough. You pass." Hong Li folded his hands behind his back and with a visible ripple of air his full cultivation base was revealed, pressing down on me until I fell to my knees.

"Aspirant Paulus, I am Examiner Demios. Several years ago you indicated an interest in joining the Legions. Does that remain the case?"

What the what? What the what?? My mind was whirling, trying to process a dozen different things as I raced to connect the dots. Hong Li stood there radiating power as he awaited my answer, his brown hair (no, bronze hair) fluttering in the wind. Luckily my mouth was faster than my head this time and I managed to bark out an answer before he took silence as refusal.

"Yes! Why the heck do you think I've been putting up with you all this time!"

Maybe that wasn't so lucky after all.

Hong Li, no Demios, only smiled at my response and suppressed his cultivation back to a less oppressive level. "Then I'm afraid you'll have to 'put up with me' a while longer. Your application is accepted, son. Welcome to the Golden Devils."

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And Omake.
I wasn't super clear on whether or not I had to do one before I officially showed up, but I decided to do one up regardless. This is a direct follow up from his intro an covers the years between starting cultivation and joining the sect.

I don't have a particular bonus in mind, if this qualifies for one. Anything you think is interesting or appropriate I guess.
Next omake will likely be focusing on events just after joining and depend on what goes on in the next update.

Fixed the sentence thing. Thanks to the great Oni.

 

[Falconis]

Paulus 3 : Reckoning

He'd set me up completely.

I looked out at the gaggle of first heavenstage cultivators that I'd be working with for the foreseeable future with resignation. The vast majority of them were already breathing heavily or sprawled out on the ground after the evaluation run, with only a dozen or so looking as fresh as I felt. This wasn't even half of what Hong Li (no, its Demios, gotta remember) demanded of me back in training.

Instead of pride I felt a black emotion smouldering in my gut, making its way up my spine and tickling at the edges of my thoughts. Examiner Demios smirked from my right and awaited my inevitable reaction.

"Why the hell did you make me do all that work if this is what I'm up against?" I eventually grumbled out.

He mosied over and clapped me on the shoulder like we were old buddies or something.

"You said you were going for Officer, right? Well now you're definitely a shoe in for squad captain. Make good use of it."

He chuckled softly as he moved off, hands folded behind him.

"Oh and one more thing." he paused, turning back to face me, "Legionnaires train, eat, and sleep together during the initial training period. After we're done here go get your kit from those friends of yours and say your goodbyes. For the next few weeks the only friends you'll have are your spear, shield, and formation manual."

----------------------------------------

I slammed my fist on the solid stone desk.

"Gimmie a flying carpet." I demanded

Filia put her hand on my chest and I stepped back with a sigh as she smiled at the confused craftsman.

"A single-use defensive charm please. First Grade if you can make it in a month." She raised the jade slip marking her as an official servant representing a Legionnaire and the man smiled broadly as they began haggling out the use of his services.

Servant was the only way I could think of to get them into the Golden Devils with me. For now they'd only be allowed among the camp followers but that was way better than the closest mortal city a few days travel away. I had to pay them from my own pocket a certain minimum amount mandated by the Legion rules, but since the money was going to our family anyway I figured it wasn't a problem.

That it let them get access to cultivation materials by requisitioning them in my name was a plus too. Nothing fancy, but way better than could be found out on the streets. Hell way better than the stuff I'd gotten years ago, come to that. I'd just have to work harder to make up the difference and save up points to get them in my Cohort.

----------------------------------------

Demios was right. I was made a Squad Captain for the training period, one of several in this Century. The only problem was that as a no-status, no-backing, fresh faced recruit, I was definitely not getting the best of the batch. The Legion picked them well enough that I wouldn't have trouble with rebellion or anything, but that didn't automatically make us friends either.

Each Legion had a slightly different setup. This one broke us up into ten cohorts, which were made of ten centuries, which were made of fifteen squads of eight men each. Each squad was led by a captain (me!) that mostly existed to make sure each squad knew what the centurion wanted and each could form a solid Hoplite Formation.

While everyone in my squad was fresh to the Legions, not everyone was fresh to the Golden Devil Clan. Two of my members were men that were older than me who just so happened to awaken their blood and start cultivating late and rushed over to do their duty. One of them was a bronze skinned man named Marcus who was at the Second Heavenstage of Qi Condensation. He probably would have made squad commander over me if he wasn't already pushing fifty and had any combat experience at all. That being said he had access to way more general clan knowledge than I did and I intended to make use of it.

"Okay, run it by me again. How does this Hoplite Formation work?" I asked

"The Hoplite Formation is the greatest weapon and the firmest foundation of the Legions, sir." he exhorted with a smile on his face, bald head gleaming in the torchlight "When using the power of the Hoplite Formation, the Legionnaires are able to act with one heart and one will to manifest the shadow of one of our ancient defenders and strike down opponents, even those of higher stages!"

"Well yes, that sounds good but how does it work?"

Marcus looked at me as if I'd asked him how to get drunken elephants to stop tapdancing in across my spine. I cut off his blubbering with a swipe of my hand and rubbed the bridge of my nose.

"Okay, no, better yet can any of you actually use this thing?"

A chorus of 'no's and 'not really's.

I sighed. Well at least everyone here was still in training. Tomorrow morning we'd have the first squad contests and they'd probably teach us the basics after they saw how we worked together. I shouldn't have to worry about formation stuff till then.

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"HOPLITE FORMATION!"

Son of a-

--------------------------

Well, one out of two ain't bad. The newly appointed 10th squadron just so happened to be filled with snooty clan kids that had been taught the basics as soon as they could walk. Our loss in the squad contests was nothing to be ashamed of but it still rankled. As soon as all the squads had shown their stuff in a few basic situations (each of which my 3rd squad lost) we'd been grouped together and ushered into a nearby lecture hall to be informed on the basics of Combat Formations. Even the ones that already knew about it had to show up for the training period.

Our teacher, Instructor Nabu, was a veteran Legionnaire with the most obvious manifestation of the Blood of Bronze I'd ever seen. His hair bore a metallic sheen and when he opened his mouth I saw that his teeth were just bronze sheets sharpened to a point. They audibly rung every time he spoke, creating a strange resonant backdrop to his otherwise standard lecture. There was no way those were real.

"Discipline, Blood, and Formations. These are the fundamental elements at the core of the Legion's strength. Not all of you have been blessed with the Blood, and those of you who have been may not even know until your cultivation improves, but all of you will be required to embody Discipline and have at least working knowledge of our three major Combat Formations."

He gestured lightly, his hand raising up and closing around an invisible spear. The air around him rippled and the shadows at his feet thickened and rose up to engulf him and even tower over him. In seconds a humanoid being made of shadow had manifested around the Instructor, bearing a spear of polished bronze in its right hand and a shield of the same in its left.

"The Hoplite formation is the greatest and most used Combat Formation available to the clan. As you can see it can be performed even by one person, but its efficacy is minimal with only one user. This formation truly shines when used by multiple cultivators at once to direct their strength to a single point or their resolve to a sturdy bulwark."

He punctuated his statements with the moves of the Standard Legion Spear Forms I'd been taught by Demios, and the construct enveloping his form imitated his moves as he made them. The speartip gleamed in the firelight and the wind from the shield's movements rustled my hair even though I was dozens of meters away. That thing was no joke.

Instructor Nabu completed the preliminary forms smoothly and easily, clearly slowing himself down so we could study the Hoplite Formation in action. When he was done he gestured again and the construct rippled before fading away, the shield and spear falling to the earth with an audible clang before they too dissipated.

"The shield and spear are the only tangible elements of the formation, any attacks you do not block with the shield will strike you, and strikes you make without the spear will be as air. Your journey to mastery will require you to become familiar with these key points, I will leave you to ponder the rest on your own."

He flung his sleeves widely and jade slips, no doubt bearing instructions on how the technique was performed, appeared in each of our laps. He allowed us a moment to store them away before continuing in a much deeper voice, the resonance from his teeth giving it a harsh edge I was sure would make a happy child cry...or a crying child shut up.

"Be warned, this technique can only be performed by the resolute. We have no fear of giving out this information as the average cultivator would only be wasting their time attempting it. If you cannot trust the members of the formation and know with absolute certainty you will all choose the same, your efforts will be in vain. After you complete your training, this certainty will be bone deep. I guarantee it."

He smiled then, teeth gleaming in the firelight.

" Dismissed."

--------------------------------

"I can't believe Singing Fang Nabu is our Formations teacher. I grew up hearing stories of him as a boy!" Marcus gushed as our squad arrived at our assigned tent. The middle aged man had done some variation of this three times already on the walk back and he looked ready to launch right back into praising Instructor Nabu's prowess.

"Yea, I get it, he's super great. Eats iron and spits out swords or whatever. How about we practice this Formation thing so we're ready for the squad challenge tomorrow?"

Marcus looked about to say something but as the rest of the squad sat down cross legged by their cots he muttered a simple "Yes Captain" and retrieved the jade slip containing the information on the Hoplite Formation. I joined them a few seconds later, immersing myself in the information contained on the slip.

The Hoplite Formation was actually pretty simple, way more so than a lot of the mid-heavenstage level combat arts I'd managed to get a glimpse of before, if not get to work. I didn't really understand the high level stuff, but just manifesting the construct wasn't hard at all. In a few hours every one of us had some measure of success in a solo manifestation.

"Alright Marcus, lets try a two-man formation."

The older man nodded and joined me as I walked to the center of the tent and together we circulated the energy inside us and pushed it out the way the formation diagram dictated. Shadows pooled beneath our feet and ran together, becoming ever so slightly darker as they bubbled up around us both and a larger construct standing almost four meters tall came into being. The shield was big enough to cover one of us completely, and the spear...well its reach would be ruinous for any kind of melee combat.

"Lets try moving, first spear forms." I suggested and Marcus nodded, brow furrowed in concentration. We stepped forward and thrusted in the way of the First Advance and the formation broke around us in a flash of light, dissipating into nothingness before the motion even completed.

Feedback raced up my spine from my dantian, flowing down my major channels until even the tips of my fingers grew numb. I couldn't help but close my eyes and grit my teeth as I forced my qi back into some semblance of order. When it finally dissipated I found myself on my hands and knees unsure of when I got there. Marcus was only bent at the waist, his slightly higher cultivation saving him from the brunt of the backlash.

"What happened?" I queried

He shook his head in clear confusion, unable to give me an answer. This was going to be more complicated than I thought.

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We still hadn't figured out multiple man formations by the time the next day rolled around so we ended up going into the squad contests no more powerful than the day before. Though this time at least we had knowledge about how the basics worked. The squad across from us stood in an inverted V formation and with a shout from their Captain the group manifested a twelve meter tall Hoplite over the course of thirty seconds, its spear and shield gleaming in the light. There was no way we could take this head on, a lesson I'd learned painfully the day before.

"Split up in pairs and surround the thing. These guys may be able to manifest, maybe even fight with it since it's their opening move, but I bet that they can keep up with us while doing it. Marcus, you're with me. We'll circle around to the far side, everyone else pair up as you wish. Now move!"

The men shouted affirmation and broke off in pairs after a bit of fumbling, but I was already running ahead with Marcus right by my side. Our opponents clearly didn't expect it and they reacted a few seconds late to the start of the maneuver. Still, nowhere near long enough.

Their captain shouted again and a second later they thrust out at one of our pairs, the ruinous length of that spear increasing their reach a hundredfold. The spear struck true, blasting the closest group backwards and out of the sparring grounds. The construct hung there in that position for a second before the captain shouted again and they returned to a more neutral stance.

We'd lost a quarter of the squad getting into place but we were already leagues better than yesterday so I raised my own (mundane) spear and charged at the enemy formation. If we could force them to break formation the feedback would hopefully be enough to get us time for the win. We only needed one or two of us to get through to seal the deal.

The enemy thrust out at another pair, moving too quickly for them to react to the summoned bronze. Seconds later the summoned shield smashed into the ground, putting a wall of metal between the third pair and the formation. Joy bubbled in my heart. With both arms out of position there was no way for them to turn to us in time. Marcus and I charged forward with grim determination, stepping past the giant warrior's guard.

The spear whistled through the air before it struck the ground ahead of us, blasting us back in a wave of sand. The shaft was partially through the warrior's own shadowy torso, the construct none the worse for wear as it pulled back for another strike.

"The shield and spear are the only tangible elements of the formation" Nabu had said. Of course it didn't have to move like a human. Stupid. The construct thrust its spear into the pair trying to get around the shield, pushing its hand through its own head to accomplish the feat and then without ceremony pushed the shield through the sand towards Marcus and I, burying us in grit as easily as a child playing in the dunes. It would cost us precious seconds to dig ourselves out, seconds we did not have.

Note to self: Giant bronze shields hurt when they hit you.

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Not all of the squads managed to make use of the Hoplite Formation and for those guys we could more or less eke out a win half the time. But against the 10th squad or any other squad that managed to get a basic multi man manifestation down? Losing was almost a certainty.

The formation was ludicrously versatile and at this level of cultivation there was barely anything we could pull out to overcome its sensible use. Investing a bit in ranged attacks to keep the shield locked down was a great tactic against the less experienced, but the clan brats just started using variations with less cultivators to chase us down and harry us. Instead of one massive shield and spear we ended up having to deal with two or three smaller ones hemming us in before brutally knocking us out.

It was kind of pissing me off to be honest.

I vented all of this at Filia one night when she came to deliver my newly made shield talisman, just a little thing that would hopefully help turn a bad situation into a slightly less bad situation. She listened to me calmly as I ranted and even began braiding her hair partway through. A part of me noticed that she looked different now than before we left the city. The years off the street had been good for her, good for all of us really. The exasperated smile she gave me was still the same though.

"How long have we known each other, Paulus?" she interrupted

I paused, mulling the time over in my head. "About..seven years now or close to it? The last few years have kinda passed by in a blur."

She nodded. "Do you remember what we were like when we just started working together?"

"Yea, you hated my guts; Acted like I was going to sell you off to the cannibals myself."

"No. I never thought that. But I did think you were trying to make a move on me." She said dryly

I kind of was, but I let that thought stay in the back of my head. "What's your point?"

"Do you remember when we broke into Fatty Tang's office?"

The name brought back memories, good and bad. The man had decided he wasn't going to pay any of us after a hard day of washing dishes, and I had decided we were going to get paid.

"Yea. You slipped on the windowsill and tripped the alarm formation." I reminisced

"I seem to recall that it was your rough handling of the safe that alerted him." she shot back "In any case, we ended up getting beaten up with nothing to show for it. If Spiros hadn't smuggled out some supplies in the chaos we'd have gone hungry too."

"Yea...I thought you were going to leave after that one."

"But I didn't and you never let it happen again." she smiled at me "It takes time to get good at something, Paulus. It took you years to convince Demios you were ready for the Legions, even if he was messing with you.Don't beat yourself up just because you aren't instantly a master."

She placed the shield charm on the small table beside my cot and made her way back out towards the servants area while I thought about what she said. She was right, it had taken us the better part of a year to start operating smoothly enough to stay out of trouble, and years more than that to really start getting ahead. But I didn't have years to mess around with this, the training period would be over in a few weeks and if I didn't make a good showing I could be stuck here for who knows how long?

There was some part of that talk that I could work on immediately though. The gang and I had gotten better as a team in part because I got to know them and understand where they worked best. I didn't even remember all of my current squad's names.

I sighed, knowing what had to come next. I was going to have to do team building exercises.

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Marcus, Cassius, Phillip, Atria, Galio, Julia, Titus, and me Paulus. That was my squad. We were all roughly the same in cultivation save Marcus, but we were all pretty different otherwise. Each of us had learned the Legion Weapon Forms differently and leaned towards different weapons.
Marcus and Atria used the spear, Cassius the bow, Galio and Julia preferred swords, and Titus wanted to be a doctor and really just put the bare minimum into weapons to get in.

While spear users would probably find the formation more intuitive, there was nothing in the instructions that said only people that could use the spear could use the formation. What was more important was timing and confidence. With that in mind I finally landed on a solution I thought would get us on the same page.

Dancing.

My squadmates watched in disbelief as I boogied down to the music I had my 'servants' playing for the training (Spiros played a mean drum). It seems the order to dance was one step too far past even the 'Legion discipline' threshold.

"Captain is this really...necessary?" Julia asked with some hesitation. She was a serious looking woman ten years my senior with her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. She, like all of us, was dressed in the plain brown training robes given to us on the first day.

"I must admit, Captain, that this order seems illogical." Titus chimed in right after her. He was a round faced man with low cut hair, and he probably would have looked quite jolly if he smiled. Ever. "What possible benefit could this dance provide us that would be worth the embarrassment?"

I kept moving as they spoke, doing my best to keep in time with the beat.
"It takes years and years to really learn how to fight together with another person" I spoke, stepping forward and clapping twice as the dance demanded. I slid to the side with all the seriousness demanded of my station and took two steps back before clapping again.

"Everybody has different ticks, traits, and timing. Over time you can pick up on the other guy's thoughts and try and fit together but one of the easy ways to get a base competence is by matching timing, and dancing is all about timing.

Clap clap, spin.

Titus nodded as if what I was saying made perfect sense and joined me on the training grounds, slipping into the simple dance I'd been repeating this whole time after a few moments to get adjusted. The rest didn't look so convinced.

"Look, just try it for a day and If we can't get at least a two man formation going by tonight I won't ask you to do it again."

"Fine then." Julia agreed.

With the three of us getting into it the rest gave in and joined us. None of us really knew how to fight together, but I was right to think that following a simple beat was simplicity itself for even the weakest cultivator.

Today, the Scorpion Slide. Tomorrow the world.

-------------------------------------

[10th Squad POV]

We would be facing the fools from the 3rd Squadron again. Unfortunate, as it would barely serve as warm up for the later matches. I led my men in manifesting the Hoplite as our opponents filed unto the field, smoothing out snarls of qi that would threaten the whole.

The 3rd surprised me by manifesting a towering Hoplite of their own, though I couldn't help but sneer as I observed it. The body was filled with tangles of unstable qi and the bronze of the shield and spear were dull, resembling a coat of paint on old wood more than the shining metal of our own manifestation. The 3rd had crossed the first hurdle, but it was clear their understanding was yet lacking.

The observing judge signaled us to begin and I pulled on one of the many threads of qi making up our guardian sending my intentions to my allies. Plucks and pulls signalled agreement and we marched forward with our weapons raised, intent on striking straight through the opponent. I took the center of the formation, smoothing out tangles as they formed and braiding lengths of qi together to support our impending attack. I would have preferred to lead the assault, but no one else could manage the formation as well as I.

The 3rd surprised me once again as they moved forward to meet us, their guardian almost bouncing with eagerness as they advanced. The construct visibly rippled as qi moved violently and chaotically under its shadowy skin but somehow they managed to keep it under control long enough to meet us in the center of the ring. Disappointment bubbled up inside me and I shouted to signal the beginning of the assault, threads of qi too tangled now to use for effective communication. I was a fool to begin to hope for a challenge.

We thrust forward and the construct melted before the blow like all the others before, the shoddy craftsmanship unable to stand up against our… no. The construct split in two immediately before the blow hit, the members of the 3rd sliding across the sand in opposite directions in time. In the seconds it took us to retract the spear they had already begun building smaller constructs on each side.

A clever trick.

I glanced at my second and she nodded, taking half of the braided qi from my control as we split ourselves smoothly to match them. Unlike 3rd squad we had no need to break our larger formation to act effectively. My half took command of the shield, and the other the spear. In this way we maintained our combined strength while allowing more complex interaction.

We met them bronze for bronze, easily overpowering them with our larger formation. They slid around our construct, searching for a way past my shield or desperately blocking the spear blows of my counterpart without success. Soon we herded them next to one another, using their lack of skill to block their way.

The third surprise was the worst. Instead of disrupting one another and being paralyzed by feedback as I expected they smoothly stepped into positions beside each other and thrust at our core even as their Hoplites were breaking apart in a chaotic mess of unmanaged qi. The twin spears remained solid just long enough to impact us and send us flying.

Our formation broke and feedback locked my muscles in place as we flew through the air. How did they avoid feedback from the other disrupting their formation? They would have to drop each manifestation deliberately, immediately before contact while planning the strike. Even if they had planned to do so, the timing for the execution would be demanding in the extreme to execute in the moment.

A moment earlier and we would have noticed the ruse, a moment later and feedback was almost a certainty.

Impossible.

---------------------
[Paulus POV]

Cleaning up a bunch of feedback paralyzed cultivators was pretty easy all told. Even though we couldn't get them all in the brief window where they couldn't move, the difference in numbers afterwards wasn't something they could overcome with all their qi wasted.

"Your suggestion worked, Captain." Titus observed. "Even after seeing your logic, I must admit I did not truly believe success would come so quickly."

"Don't get too used to it. We may have beaten the 10th but at least half of that win was surprise. I'd bet you anything we get blown up next time we fight them."

"I would not take that bet, Captain." Titus demurred with a shake of his head, "However the question still remains. How did you come up with this method? Do you perhaps follow the Dao of Dance or Formations?"

"What? No. I didn't even know there was a Dao of Dance."

Titus frowned. "Then perhaps the Dao of Time, or War? Forgive me captain but for all your strengths I do not believe you to be a very warlike person."

"No no, nothing like that Titus. I haven't really chosen anything like that you know?"

Titus frowned further and looked at me in a way that reminded me of Leto studying the bestiary. "You must have some idea of your path, Captain. Even if it is vague, a cultivator does not oppose the heavens without something at their core. I apologize if I am being too inquisitive, Captain, but if I do not get some manner of answer it will occupy me for weeks. As such a thing would be detrimental to my cultivation, I must request that as my senior in the clan you assist in this matter."

I snorted and looked away from him. This guy, he didn't seem like he was the joking sort but he clearly had jokes. Still he had a point about cultivators so I gave it some thought. Marcus and Cassius were talking together at the side, joking about something I couldn't hear. Julia, Atria, Galio, and Phillip were going through the motions of the Scorpion Slide, practicing trading partners while they waited for the next move. Everyone was happy at the win and our progress with the formation, each expressing it in their own little ways. As I watched them, something clicked into place and I spoke up with the certainty that this was a moment I'd remember forever.

"People. If there's anything at my Core, Tite, it's understanding people."

As Titus frowned even further at the nickname I'd given him, I felt that certainty blossom into satisfaction and I smiled.

It was a good day.

-----------------------
-----------------------

Badabing Badaboom. That should be my last update for the turn.
I tried to show a little of what a Legionnaire might be experiencing in the rebuilding of strength. Not everybody is an elite, but certain standards have to be met for the Legion's strength to remain.
I couldn't really reflect any of the high level happenings from this perspective. Perhaps next time there will be more things 'visible' to a low level cultivator. Enjoy!

 

[Falconis]

Paulus 4 - Strong to Weak

There's a recurring dream I have. It doesn't show up every night, it shows up in small batches here and there. Sometimes I can go for months without having it until I almost forget about it, and other times I have it three or four times a week. Waking up it slips through my fingers like dust, it's almost completely forgotten by the time I blink the grit out of my eyes save for the firm knowledge that I'd had the dream again. But going in it's like a crystal clear vision of the present and I instantly know where I am and what I'm doing; That I'm having the dream.

It always starts with traveling across the desert at high speeds. The wind of my passage is hot on my face, and so powerful that I have to squint to protect my eyes. The regular but rapid beat of footsteps running across the dunes reaches my ears, but I can't feel myself digging my toes into the grit and launching forward to the next sandy peak. I'm not the one running, I'm being carried.

I'm younger in the dream, younger than the twins even. I'm bound up in a cloth harness on the back of a man who dashes and leaps across the sands, covering hundreds of meters in a single bound. I can tell that he's trying to be gentle in his movements, only leaping when he can guarantee a soft landing skidding down the far side of a dune, but I'm still left clinging desperately to his neck to keep myself from being jostled out of the harness. I can't change what happens, but I can see and feel everything happening as if I was there in full wakefulness. I lick my cracked lips with an equally dry tongue and wait for the brief moment when he's in the air between sandy peaks to ask the question I always do.

"Dad, why are we running?" The sound is lost in the wind and the impact of his landing, but somehow he still hears me and answers.

"We run because we are weak, child." He doesn't pause his steps as he replies and I hear him just as much as a vibration through his back as a voice from his lips. He takes great ground eating steps as he charges down the side of a dune, picking up speed for a new leap. It gives me just enough time to put some real indignation in my voice.

"No way! You're the strongest!"

He rumbles vaguely by way of response, focusing on his footing for the landing before opening his mouth to continue.

"Your mother has been lax in your teaching. Weakness is not the opposite of strength, nor its absence." His voice takes on a familiar commanding lilt, and I'm lost for a moment trying to remember other times I've heard it before he continues. "Take the desert for example. Though I scatter countless grains with my every step I would be hard pressed to defeat a single dune. I may rage at the ground beneath me for days only to find the sands perfectly fine after my rampage and by the day after any sign of my existence might well be forgotten."

"I don't get it." I eventually admit.

"You will, in time." He rumbled with such certainty that I felt myself believing him. "A city isn't raised up all at once; It is built brick by brick over the course of a lifetime. Now hop down and make some room. This is going to be messy." He slides to a halt on the leeward side of a dune and slings my harness off with gentle but firm motions. I stumble as I am suddenly standing on my own feet again but instead of trying to get my footing I scamper away from him as quickly as I can, falling to my hands and knees and even resorting to rolling down the side in my haste.

I'm not a second too soon. A whistling in the air and a muffled impact heralds the arrival of another. I can't see who it is since I never turn around in the dream but I can hear his voice just barely over the sound of my own rough breathing as I skitter around a nearby rocky outcrop. It's a rough and masculine voice filled with malice and dark excitement.

"Leaving so soon?" The unknown man speaks. The words tumble out almost on top of each other in between wet wheezing breaths.

"I have no quarrel with you, leave me be."

"Ohhho~ but I have a quarrel with you... I've got a real beef to take out of your hide, and I'm not leaving until I findouthowittastes-!"

The last rushed words prelude twin explosions of sand and dozens of impacts as flesh meets flesh. I've never quite been able to tell how many blows they exchanged over the next six seconds, and I'd forget the count by the time I woke up anyway so it's meaningless. It ends with the sound of breaking bone and a sickening thud and in the next second I feel myself being swept up by powerful arms. I see my father, stern face splashed with blood and several bite sized chunks missing from his right arm. It's the most wounded I've ever seen him and the grimace of pain he makes as he swings me behind his back drives a nail through my throat. I scramble into the harness as quickly as I can and I catch the smallest glimpse of a headless corpse sliding down the dune behind us before the world blurs and dad leaps; We're on the move again.

We encounter more people as we travel, some from ahead, most from behind. They arrive in ones and twos and I spend brief minutes on my own two feet as they clash with my father. He wins every time, and every time I see him again is the worst he's ever looked. Eventually the one who comes to pick me up isn't my father but a man in strange robes with foreign features.

He sneers at me and taps a jade token on my head, throwing me roughly to the ground when nothing happens.

"Just some snot nosed brat." He calls out.

"No reaction from the token?"

"Nothing. Either he's not one of them or it's too weak to matter."

"Mmmh, cut his throat just in case. I don't want some cliche story where he shows up in thirty years for revenge."

The man scoffs and leaps away from me vanishing out of sight of my hiding place as he replies.
"My karma is shakey enough as it is. If you want to risk killing some unrelated brat then go right ahead."

"Pass. If I have to visit old man Gong again I'll lose my mind."

"Just sea-"

The remainder of their conversation is drowned out by twin explosions as the two leap away, and try as I might I can never figure out any more of what they said as they leapt away. I stay there for the rest of the night, curled up in a hollow in a stone. The dream ends before I get the courage to venture out.

"Paulus!"

I snap awake instantly, the knowledge that I had the dream again the only thing remaining as I turn to look at Leto. I'm in my 'personal residence' by the fortress, really just a big tent that can sleep a bunch of people and store all my stuff. While most cultivators tend to use rings for storage as soon as they can afford it, It's just not in my reach yet.

Leto looks at me with arms crossed, tapping her foot impatiently as she waits for me to wake up properly. Normally she's pretty patient with me, so I guess she's been trying for a while.

"What is it Leto?"

"You promised you'd help me today?"

I racked my brains trying to remember what she was talking about and came up short. There was a reason why I'd slept here instead of with the squad last night but my mind was still spinning and grasping for the dream.

"Remind me what we're doing?"

Without missing a beat Leto pointed at my side table where I had 'Library Raid Today' written down on a slate in bold script, circled and with several arrows pointing to it. Ah, yes of course. We were going to the library.

--

The clan maintained several areas for members of the Legions to hone their skills. From forests full of spirit beasts and finicky herbs to great storehouses of knowledge and techniques passed down by prior generations. Assets that could benefit anyone from a heavenstage cultivator to a core formation elder preparing to make another big leap were carefully gathered, catalogued, and prepared for use at any time across a number of disciplines. One of those places was a core formation array library, but it wasn't just any library. This was located in the heartlands of Golden Devil territory, past the Indomitable Peaks, across leagues and leagues of security arrays and the full might of the clan ready to fall on any interlopers. It was built in the shadow of the Dawn Fortress itself, a place so laughably secure that the thought of anyone breaking into it was probably the furthest thing from anyone's minds.

So we were going to break into it.

With primary training done, we were allowed to move about and do what we needed to cultivate again and I, like all aspirants, had spent the last few years all but locked into the Dawn Fortress getting whipped into shape. Nobody would bat an eye at an aspirant stepping out to explore the area or making a trip to the city as soon as we got the chance. I'm sure many of my own squad members were doing just that and I would be doing the same had Leto not stumbled on some interesting information the other servants were whispering about

The situation as it was explained to me was such. The clan had lost a bunch of core formation cultivators several years ago and hadn't had time to replace them all yet. The remaining core formation elders had been spread thin across areas that desperately needed their attention and that had thrown a lot of normal procedure into disarray. Foundation did the work of core, heavenstage did the work of foundation, and some places left largely unmanaged if they could help it, the elders preferring to make use of able cultivators out in the field. That meant that places as otherwise secure as the library we meant to visit barely got a look by a guard every now and again, and the arrays required to access it had been simplified quite a bit to allow elders not specialized in the field to access it without having to find said overworked guard every time they wanted to get inside.

None of this would have made a difference if one of the elders hadn't replaced said simplified array with one that was juuuust complicated enough that it wouldn't be broken by a curious trainee, but simple enough for them to get in with a wave. One that was apparently simple enough for a determined servant girl to get her hands on with some work. Leto was sure that the formulas she'd gotten her hands on would be enough for her to slip in and take a look at something good to share with the family. I wasn't quite so optimistic but she was going to try it with or without me and I figured that if I went along I could at least play it off as a wrong turn or a prank when we got stonewalled.

Getting to the library was as simple as I expected. Nobody spared us a glance as we walked the halls and slipped out into the fields. In the hour of walking from the fortress we never saw so much as another person, and to my massive surprise when we got to the grey stone building that was our target, Leto slipped in through the first set of doors after only a few feverish minutes of waving a stick around and muttering under her breath. She still had several inner doors to get past, but maybe this would all go smoothly after all.

"Captain Paulus."

I should not have thought that.

I turned to face Singing Fang Nabu, already snapping to attention as the man leisurely strolled across the golden fields. He ran a hand through the towering stalks of wheat, smiling as his hands struck a solid core that refused to bend.

"Instructor Nabu. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

He quirked an eyebrow at me and flashed me a smile full of gleaming bronze teeth as he crossed the last few meters to stand before the doors.

"I could ask you the same thing, young Captain. I am merely doing my rounds to ensure this array library remains intact. It is far away from the others, you see, and care must be taken to ensure its contents are not damaged by foolish hands."

"Ha ha, yea of course."

He studied me for a moment, lips curled up in a genial smile. "I know you must be itching to get away and join your friends after all that training, but If you are free for the moment you wouldn't mind accompanying an old man for a game?"

A game was the last thing on my mind at the moment, but if I could get Nabu out of here without him asking questions I'd call it a win for the cause.

"That sounds great, Instructor. Where are we going?"


He smiled in response, waving a hand and producing a squat table from an aperture. The table was made of polished brown stone and was covered in thin black lines that formed an orderly grid.

"Oh, nowhere at all young captain. While my task is a simple one it does require me to remain on site for- oh maybe an hour or so. Without proper entertainment sometimes I get bored and browse the shelves but I find this a much preferable pastime. Don't you agree?" A gesture slid open two drawers in the side full of small round stones, one set black and the other white. He sat crossed legged on one side and beckoned for me to do the same.

My lips twitched as I fought against the frown threatening to overtake them. Instead of answering verbally I nodded brusquely and took a seat on the opposite side of the board.

"Do you Ludus?"

"Can't say I have, Instructor." I said with a shake of my head. I'd seen a lot of games while growing up, some even played on a board, but this one had way too many lines compared to anything else I'd played.

"No matter. Ludus is simple to learn, though difficult to master. There are many variations but in its most basic form each side controls fifteen pieces total, ten heavenstage, four foundation, one core." He dug around in the drawer full of black stones and pulled out three with slightly different sizes, pointing to each in turn from smallest to largest as he named their categories, "The goal is to defeat your enemy's pieces before they do the same to your own."

He went on to explain the way the pieces could move, what they could do, and where they were placed to start the game. Then, he destroyed me. He approached every game by ruthlessly taking advantage of my lack of understanding, repeatedly defeating me until I could figure out a way to at least survive the strategy. Then he seamlessly switched over to something that defeated my counter strategy and beat me over the head with it until I could figure out another route. Sometimes he ended up going back to previous strategies when whatever I was currently doing "did not properly respect the opponent" in his words and I had to figure out how to protect from whatever new stuff he'd pulled out without making myself vulnerable.

Needless to say I didn't end up taking more than one piece a game from him, much less winning, and even that was because it was nigh on impossible to stop a core piece from sacrificing itself to take a heavenstage in a fit of spite. After almost two dozen (very short) games he chuckled and swept up the Ludus set with a wave of his hand.

"I think that's enough for now, young Captain. While it is always interesting to see new players, I do have guard duties to return to." He glanced at the door to the Library meaningfully and stood up to walk away. "Besides, I'm sure we'll be meeting again soon."

I tried to puzzle that out as he disappeared into the distance, but before I could decide whether or not I was in real trouble I heard the door creak open and Leto tiptoed out with a frustrated look on her face.

"Breaking into a core formation library wasn't as easy as you thought?" I ventured

"I almost had it!" She huffed back indignantly. "Just when I drew the last line it changed on me and now it's all-" she raised her hands and gestured vaguely in a way I guessed was supposed to be about the door array "different! Ugh."

She stomped away back in the direction of the fortress and I leapt to my feet to keep up with her. She grumbled all the way back about the way the array had changed just before she finished opening the seal and how they weren't supposed to do that. By the time we got back to the fortress however she was looking more thoughtful than upset.

"...Give me a week to figure this out. I think I have an idea."

We parted ways at the servant's quarters and I made a beeline towards the contribution boards. There were vanishingly few tasks someone at my level could even qualify to take, especially since all but the most out of the way were being swept up before I could even get there for some reason, but I had to do what I could. Everyone was working hard to get ready to join up properly, I had to do my part to pave the way.

I grabbed a task for cleaning some out of the way tomb and dashed back out the side gate. If I worked fast I could make it back in time for the next round of training. I'd be cutting into my cultivation time but this should only take a few months. I could make it up on the back end.

-----------------

That was ten years ago.

The missions never got any better paying the entire time. More often than not all I could find were dregs of dregs, and a look at stuff above my strict power level told me the pickings were equally slim all the way up to the end of my clearance to view at foundation. Because of that a task I expected to knock out in a few years was still unfinished. We'd accumulated enough between us to get Filia and Spiros into training, even with no guarantees about them ending up in the same place, but Leto and Korina were still on the outside.
That made her trips to the Library even more important. At first we'd come back every week, then every month, and after a while we ended up only stopping by once or twice a year. By this point both of us figured there was something fishy with the information, but she was making progress and learning from the attempts besides. Since nobody had shown up to stop us there was pretty much no reason to stop ourselves. In fact I never saw the place in use or anyone coming or going from this place on our trips. Except Nabu of course.

Singing Fang Nabu showed up for our every attempt, arriving shortly after Leto slipped inside and suddenly remembering some business he had to attend to minutes before she came back out. And always, always he had his Ludus board.

I was starting to survive almost half an hour now, though that was more due to the amount of time I had to think between moves than an appreciable improvement in how many turns it took me to lose. I could and did blow countless turns on empty maneuvering back and forth to make it more tedious for Nabu to defeat me, but the man never showed a crack.

"You are hardly the first to attempt such a delaying tactic, young Captain. It is in fact a valid strategy at higher levels of Ludus and indeed combat in general. I've had a game going with Elder Xu for about 43 years now and we put in a few hours every week. Though to be fair that board is quite a bit bigger than this one." He'd said with a smile, shortly before throwing his Core piece into a trio of heavenstage I'd let drift a bit too close together.

It usually went like that, Nabu laughing and joking and dispensing tidbits of wisdom while I wracked my brain for any tiny advantage. This time however Nabu watched the board with silent consideration. It was our longest match yet and I was on top of my game. My fingers drummed a rapid beat on my kickass new spear Filia had forced me to buy as I waited for his next move. The board was finally in my favor for once after Nabu lost one of his foundation pieces to a trap. Of course it put some of my own pieces out of position so this victory was definitely going to be short lived, but I had a few more ways lined up to shave his momentum after he went after them.

"You are weak." Nabu snorted and grabbed his core piece, sliding it into my back lines instead of making an attempt at my over extended foundation pieces. I noted absently that he'd put me in an even worse situation than I would have been if he'd gone for the quick advantage. It wasn't going to mean much for me in the short term, I could withdraw and form a solid core of defense, but even the slimmest chance of outmaneuvering him to let some heavenstage fritter out into the rest of the board and eat time had been lost utterly. But that wasn't what was taking up the bulk of my attention. He'd called me weak.

"Excuse me?" I wasn't offended exactly. I was weak, I knew I was weak, and he was hardly the first person to say it. What it was however was the first time Nabu had said it, to me or anybody to my knowledge.

He quirked an eyebrow at my tone and seemed to catch my meaning after a second, waving me off with an annoyed gesture.
"Take no offense young Captain, I do not mean it as an insult. When I say you are weak, I mean that you are skilled in weakness. While your Ludus game is truly atrocious your dabbling with these less powerful pieces are at the level of one, ohh maybe twice your age."

He snorted at my attempt to consolidate my position and simply drove his core piece in deeper, cutting half of my formation pieces away from the others. I could take it down with only two turns of maneuvering from that position, but if I tried his own foundation pieces would fall on my group like a storm.

"An understanding of weakness is an important element for any commander to have and most never really grasp it in a way I would call acceptable." he continued, systematically breaking apart my every attempt to rally simply by diving in with his big piece and daring me to waste time attacking it. Even without being able to take my pieces he was throwing my army into disarray while they attempted to move around him.

"But you have no respect for strength."

The game moved quickly after that. There was no move I could make that wouldn't result in the moved piece being destroyed thereafter, and there was no chance of me taking any of his other pieces with how he'd shattered my offensive paths. I was tempted to give it up there, but I played it out anyway for the experience. And his words.

"It has been ten years since you came here, no? And yet you are still first heavenstage."

"It has been enough." I grumbled in reply.

"For now, yes. There are many enough places to be polished that simply rubbing a dirty rag haphazardly over your group would result in some improvement. And while there has been improvement amongst your fellows, you dear captain are lagging behind."

"I've been busy. I'll catch up." I was down to heavenstage pieces in the corner. His time to victory was only hampered by the amount of units he could fit in the space to fight.

"That my boy is the problem. You seek to 'catch up' instead of excel. Surpass!" He slammed his fist into the board and the pieces jumped, sending his core piece flipping into my remaining knot of heavenstage groupies and scattering them to the five winds. We both looked down at the resulting carnage for a second before silently agreeing to let it pass unremarked.

"It may sound trite, boy, but strength is a strength all its own. You must learn to appreciate it lest you end up the King of Mediocrity, a terrible waste of a throne." he continued, voice taking on a bit more of that odd ringing tone from his resonating...teeth. "And besides, you are running out of excuses."

He gestured and the board vanished and was replaced by a hand sized bit of parchment covered in flourishing, glowing script.

"Congratulations are in order, young Captain. It seems your servant has at long last passed the array engineer trials. Should she accept she will be accepted as an aspirant immediately with all associated costs paid for by the Legions with a focus on developing her talents for its benefit."

Leto. He was talking about Leto. She'd spent the last ten years picking away at this door to get at the juicy manuals inside so she could prepare for her own trials only to find out at the end that this was some kind of special hiding skullduggery trial. Remembering my own such encounter I began to wonder what kind of person invented these entry procedures.

He raised a hand and patted me on the shoulder twice, raising himself and shaking his head as he walked off, ostensibly to do the rest of his 'patrol'.

"Don't get left behind."

-------


And that's it for Paulus 4 ladies and gents. With how busy I've been I didn't think I'd get it done till later in the week, but here we are!
Originally I'd planned to do a bunch of fights for this one but it morphed at least twice into something else. I figure there's enough time for fights some other time anyway.
My boy Paulus had a rough time the last 20 years, not advancing a single step while he was running around trying to get his family and squad up to snuff. Somehow he'd forgotten to deal with himself...or perhaps he believed he didn't need to? I wonder where he got that idea.

I don't really know what to ask for for rewards. Do whatever you think is the most interesting, Occi and I'll work with it.
Will update base sheet with character list and his Turn 6 rewards momentarily.

 

[Falconis]

Paulus 5 (Part 1) - Sinking Sensation


Life wasn't all hustling for missions, helping to keep the family afloat, or questionable cultivator board games. Like all full members of the Legions I had duties to complete for the benefit of the clan and the mortals under our protection. Duties like killing bandits, tracking down ornery spirit beasts, or guarding resource stockpiles, and twenty years after I'd first signed up we were finally in a decent spot. Everyone on the squad had advanced one or two heavenstages and picked up a few higher level techniques to fit their roles better.

Everyone except me, that is.

I watched with expertly concealed frustration as Atria wrestled a first heavenstage Ironbone Serpent to the ground, her metallic skin gleaming in the desert sunlight. The beast coiled around her limbs and squeezed with all its might but Atria just laughed and pulled harder on its head. Iron bones struggled against Bronze muscle and lost and with the sickening sound of warping metal and a grunt of effort, Atria pulled the head right off the serpents body. The four meter long spirit beast fell limp and Atria rose to her feet with a languid stretch and a content smile.

"You know I used to be really afraid of these things but now I kind of look forward to fighting them." she said with a happy sigh, "I think that last one worked out a kink in my shoulder that's been bugging me for hours."

"Congratulations." I grumped

She turned to me with her fists on her hips and an amused smile gracing her lips. "Captain, don't be grumpy. I'm sure you'll overcome your block eventually."

I grunted in reply and she smacked me on the back, almost sending me sprawling onto my face.

"Oops. Sorry Captain, forgot to turn it off again." Atria muttered with a wince. She closed her eyes and breathed out deeply, letting the technique she was holding on to fade away with the act. She opened her eyes and regarded her now normal arm with a smile. "Ah, it's just so easy to forget about. I can't believe some people are born like that. Do you think I could keep it on all the time eventually?"

"I wouldn't recommend it, Atria." We both turned to look at the third member of our little patrol, Titus the staid doctor. Like everyone else he had advanced in cultivation over the past twenty years of operation but almost all of his strength was focused on being better at...doctor things. He could diagnose mundane problems with a glance by now and produce a workable solution, but I was pretty sure I could beat him in a fight even with our difference in cultivation.

"The Reflected Purities Technique requires far too much to use for the average clan cultivator." He continued in a dull monotone, " While it is extremely useful to those just starting out, the qi pattern is too complex to allow other techniques to be used at the same time. This limitation is why it is generally only used by those seeking to hasten the awakening of their bloodline."

"Oh I know, but I'm beginning to think that wouldn't be so bad?" Atria replied thoughtfully. She flexed her muscles and qi in sync, causing a weak bronze tint to shimmer across her exposed arms before fading away. "I can still contribute to the formation and it's not like I'll be swimming in contribution points for anything better any time soon."

"A valid point. Our current posting leaves much to be desired where potential for earnings is concerned."

They both turned to look at me, and I winced. The Legions were famous for their discipline and Nabu had been true to his word about beating it into us before we were allowed to leave training, but even the most disciplined cultivator would be frustrated after a decade at base pay and some bonuses.

"I hear ya. I'll look into getting us moved somewhere more exciting but I doubt the centurion will budge. We're all stuck in this zone until the spirit stones are mined out anyway."

It was a known problem and so instead of arguing the two nodded in acceptance and, after Atria retrieved her unused spear from where she'd dropped it, we continued our patrol. None of us really wanted to be out here but we couldn't just up and leave without the Centurion's order and the way things were looking we would be here for another decade at least. A mortal city had opened up a new quarry only to discover that it contained not the valuable granite they had been seeking but the far more valuable spirit stone. After reporting it to the Legions we had been moved in to secure the place right out of training and after several months of surveys it was looking to be a real rich find.

So that meant long term Legion activity, which meant camps, supply chains, and patrols. Patrols like the one we were now on. The entire place was well within Golden Devil territory so we didn't expect to see much action, so even though we kept our eyes open it was more for the routine now than anything else.

The problem with patrols though, is that sometimes you found things.

The three of us abruptly stopped walking and tensed as a wave of foul energy washed over us, filling the air with the smell of filth and rot.

"What the hell was that?" Atria muttered, gripping her spear tightly.

"Dunno. Stay alert."

That I could feel it even with my low cultivation was worrisome to say the least. At the first heavenstage my sense for qi was barely better than a particularly enlightened mortal's and I usually couldn't sense anything unless it was within a few meters or way above my league. This was looking more like the latter and that was a decidedly bad thing.

Before I could decide what to do about it a figure crested a rock formation ahead of us. It was a snake, a regular ordinary desert rattler. Then another joined it, and another, and another. In the blink of an eye there were a dozen rattlers slithering over the sand and stone with more following hot on their tails. They moved with wild abandon, flinging themselves bodily down the stoney cliff in their haste to advance.

"Woah that's a lot of snakes!" Atria yelled as she fell into step beside me.

"Guess they heard about your back problems." I stated

"Hey! Don't put this on me, I didn't summon these things."

"I must comment that the timing of this event is rather suspicious." Titus muttered

"I didn't do it!"

"Hold on, we have to retreat."

The two looked at me with quizzical expressions.

"Retreat, Captain?" Atria asked, "They're just normal mortal snakes. A bit more than I'm comfortable with but we could probably squash them with the shield if it comes to that."

Wordlessly I pointed up where, falling from the sky were specs of darkness growing larger by the second. Hundreds of them. All of them, snakes.

"Ah…"

"A bit much for the shield, huh?"

"Ugh, shut up."

We started jogging away from the snakes on the ground, easily outpacing the grounded and falling snakes alike. A normal snake or two was very little concern to a Legion cultivator, but they weren't something we were suited to tangle with in such large numbers.

"Maybe if we held it above us like an umbrella?" I prodded

"Alright, alright I get it. They're still just mortal snakes. I could kill ten by accident just moving around now! Between the three of us we could probably handle even more than this."

Just then another wave of foulness washed over us and the sky ahead of us darkened ominously. Dark clouds formed overhead, writhing and twisting in anger. No, not clouds. Snakes. It was all snakes.

"Atria."

"Yes Captain?"

"Stop talking."

"Yes Captain."

"Let's pick up the pace. I don't want to be caught in whatever this is." I called, immediately taking my own advice and increasing my speed. My squadmates seemingly agreed as in short order they charged past me, their higher cultivations making each of their steps worth three or four of my own.

Snakes began hitting the ground, first individually and then in groups. Most of them I could see died on impact but some barely survived by landing on another of their brethren and the ground was quickly becoming more snake than stone.

Atria and Titus began attacking the falling snakes while I did my level best to keep up with them. A confused rattler fell on Atria's shoulders and bit fiercely but was stymied by flesh that was suddenly made of gleaming bronze. She reached up and pinched off its head before shaking the twitching body off with a grunt of displeasure.

Titus reached into his robes and pulled out a handful of needles that he flung with pinpoint accuracy into nearby snakes, nailing them to the ground or throwing them out of the path ahead.

"Captain. I sense another pulse incoming." Titus warned.

I braced myself and let the pulse wash over me. It didn't hurt as it passed, but it made the inside of my mouth taste like curdled blood and week-old refuse. I gagged and spat, gasping for breath as I tried to keep pace. The sky darkened further and I could see even more snakes raining down ahead of us.

"We can't outpace this on foot. Form Kataphrakoti, now! We'll charge right through!"

My squadmates shouted in assent and slowed till we formed a rough triangle, Titus and Atria taking the base while I formed the head. I cursed myself for not asking one of them to take the driving position but it was too late to clarify, already I could feel tendrils of qi reaching out from behind me and I had no choice but to take hold of it and complete the formation or slow us all with feedback.

I grasped the tendrils with my will and hurriedly wove them into the second of the Golden Devil Clan's great formations. Shadows deepened around us, pooling and whirling like a living liquid before ballooning outward and upward, raising us off the ground even as it enveloped us. Ethereal flesh formed first a massive horse, three meters from shoulder to hoof that carried us in its body and then an equally massive rider that rested on its back. An instant later the bronze armaments of the Kataphrakoti manifested. A lance of solid metal that reached even further than the long spear of the Hoplite appeared in a shower of bronze sparks followed by a helm engraved with the signs and sigils of the Imperial Optimatoi. Finally a shining cuirass bearing the mark of the 3rd Squad slid into position, the front and back pieces affixing themselves with an impressive clang.

All at once our speed redoubled as qi-formed legs took over from physical ones and the power of the formation pushed us forward at higher speeds than any of us could manage individually. The Kataphrakoti wasn't the strongest formation and compared to the much more refined Hoplite it cost a king's ransom of qi to manifest and maintain, the lion's share of which was currently being paid by Atria, but it had one major advantage over the other general formations we learned as aspirants; Pure unassailable speed.

We charged forward, crushing all the snakes in our path under shadowy hooves or sundering them with the mere strength of our passage for hundreds of meters. Snakes were blown off course, blown apart, and straight blown up by the might contained in the Legion's second major array. Nothing could bar our path and our pace only increased.

Another pulse of foulness washed over us but it was weaker, more distant. The subsequent rain of snakes failed to catch up to us as we retreated double time. We'd broken through.

I pushed us another six kilometers before dismissing the formation, setting us down at the peak of the largest sand dune I could find. The shadowy body rippled and deflated as the qi holding everything together was slowly cut off and shadowy flesh set us down softly before the whole construct vanished like a mirage.

"Ugh. I hate using that thing. It's like a bottomless well for qi." Atria groaned.

Titus said something in reply but I tuned them out in favor of checking out whatever had caused that crisis. No matter how we joked it was almost certainly not Atria's fault. Probably. We'd managed to get a decent gap between us and the snakes and with any luck we would be able to outpace the waves on foot from here but I had no idea what would even cause something like that.

Several kilometers away from where we'd even started was a giant creature crossing the desert. It was a man, it was a snake, it was both. The upper body of a man as big as a building attached to the body of a snake a hundred meters long. It twitched and writhed as if in agony as it moved and as I watched the creature opened its mouth in a scream I couldn't hear but could see the effects of by watching sand explode away from it. Snakes poured out of its mouth by the hundreds, most falling to the ground around it but some being flung far away by the sheer force of its wails.

"What the hell is that thing?" The question escaped me before I could even think about it.

"I...don't know, Captain. I've never seen something quite so...grotesque." Titus answered, stepping up beside me.

We stood there for another minute in silence, just observing this miserable wretch contort itself into various painful looking shapes and somehow continue moving forward despite that. Atria joined us at some point and grimaced at the unholy monstrosity before speaking.

"Ummm, Captain, do you think that thing is…"

She trailed off in concern but I could see what she was talking about. The creature was moving in a single direction despite what appeared to be a combination of random agonized contortions flinging it this way and that. The resulting motion was deceptively quick and If it continued on its current heading it would inevitably collide with the spirit stone mines, and more importantly the mortal town that worked it.

"Yes, yes I do. Send up a signal."

Titus dug into one of the many pouches he carried on his person and pulled out a tiny square of jade covered in complicated array script. With a flick of his wrist he snapped it in two and flung it into the air where it turned into a ball of bright yellow light and rocketed into the sky. The garrison needed to be alerted to this, and they needed to know way before we could get back to tell them at the rate this thing was moving.I just hoped this thing was weak.

--------------------------------

"Bad news is it's way stronger than us."

Leto set down a honest to goodness dusty ancient tome on the desk, sending up a puff of sandy grit and book dust into the air of the tent. Three entire Legion Squads and half a dozen array operator attaches were crammed into the command tent to hear what she had to say, the full complement of troops placed in the city.

"I could have told you that from the size." Rosetta Stone, captain of 8th squad grumbled out. She was a short, mousey woman with chocolate brown skin that was lightly dusted with freckles and curly black hair that bounced every time she turned her head. She was soft spoken but had a sharp tongue and I was pretty sure she could snap me in two like dry kindling.

"I remembered seeing the description in one of the old books in the Library. It's a Blasphemer Beast, a Blasphemer Serpent to be precise." Leto continued, ignoring the interruption.

"Wait, are you talking about the Library by the Dawn Fortress? The Core Formation Library?" I pressed

"Well, yes but-"

She was cut off by sharp intakes of breath and sudden curses from around the tent. A Core Formation Beast, even a wounded one, would destroy this place without breaking a sweat.

"A Core Formation Beast here? In the back end of nowhere?" Oman Jeru, 5th squad captain hissed. He was one of those classical heroes in body shape and had the strength to match. Tall, imposing, jaw that could break a boulder in two. His pale skin refused to be bronzed by the desert sun but it was covered in scars from a storied life before he joined the Legions.

"We'll have to evacuate immediately." Rosetta mumbled, shaking her head from side to side with a pensive look on her face. "Our mounts can carry a few each, but more than that would be unwieldy."

"Perhaps some manner of sled could be put together?" Oman suggested, "No, even with that one squad of horses isn't enough to evacuate a city, no matter how mighty they may be. If we are forced to move at mortal speeds we would be caught by this Beast in no time."

"Alert the Legate?" I hazarded.

"He's days away from here even at his speed." Rosetta shot me down, "Days we do not have if that thing pursues us."

"Hey wait I wasn't finished!"

We all turned to look at Leto who was regarding us with irritation. "Blasphemer Beasts could become Core Formation if they get enough energy, but they're actually the result of a type of failed breakthrough due to a known flaw in an uncommon cultivation school that resurges every few hundred years. They vary in strength but based on what you said this one should only be Great Circle of Foundation Establishment"

Sighs of relief filled the room and one of the array attaches actually fainted.

"Oh good, so it's only fifty times stronger than us instead of a hundred times." Rosetta mocked, "The boulder that crushes us will be smaller than we expected."

"It's a damn sight better than we were before. That thing will still crush the walls like dried leaves so we will still have to evacuate the city, but now we might stand a chance of getting away." Oman mused

"We still have to worry about the snakes. If we leave the city we lose the Beast Pillars." I reminded

"Can they be moved?"

We all turned to look at Leto who blinked at the sudden focused attention.

"Uhh, the arrays in cities aren't really designed to be moved. They're really, really heavy and if you move them you'd have to do a bunch of math so they can get power again wherever you stop."

"If it's power you need we have many spirit stones stored up for the next delivery." Rosetta said.

"They're expecting that delivery back at the fortress." Oman said sternly.

"Given the circumstances I think we'll be forgiven." Rosetta continued with a huff.

"I'm with her. We're losing the whole mine if we evacuate anyway. Can you make it work L- Attache Leto?"

She looked at her fellow technicians pensively and they shrugged as one. I wondered when they had time to practice that.

"Mmmmmaybee. Even if we forcibly activate the array it should be weaker than the fixed version and it's still going to be heavy. If we burn seven septuagenaries per hour we can-"

"The summary, please. We are in a crisis." Rosetta said.

Leto frowned. "If they're just normal snakes we should be able to do enough to keep them away. We can't do anything about the big one. Not even if we didn't have to move the arrays."

"Then the matter is clear. We can evacuate the mortals and carry enough stones to power the array until we escape." Rosetta continued

Oman crossed his arms before his chest but remained silent. This was no time for disagreement and we had him two to one. I nodded to Rosetta and turned back to Leto.

"Get it done. We need to leave before that thing gets into range."

-------------------------

By the time we got the mortals to the city gates snakes were already raining all around us. A modification to the Beast Pillars by our harried Array Engineer Team (though really they were all still Technicians) kept the worst of it out by adding a visible qi barrier above us. The modification ate through our store of stones at a visible pace but it turned the impossible task of keeping a towns worth of people safe from the snake rain to a much more manageable policing of the perimeter for any snakes that fell too close and weren't immediately driven away by the array's primary function of beast repelling.

Hundreds of people huddled inside our encirclement, looking at the unnatural weather with fear and bewilderment as we ushered them out from the walls in the direction of the closest city. It was slow but orderly work thanks to the blanket deference mortals in their territory had towards the Golden Devil clan and it was going way better than I thought it would all things considered.

Still the only thing I could think about right now was why the array couldn't stop the inside of my mouth from tasting like ass.

"The Beast, it fouls the very energy of heaven and earth around it with its words." Marcus explained. Once he'd found out what it was the middle aged soldier remembered all kinds of stories about the nasty Blasphemer Beasts. The man had turned out to be a wellspring of lore and tidbits about all kinds of things over our years together. Stories about cultivators were something of a pastime of his before he suddenly awakened the Blood and rushed over to join.

"I suppose that's where the 'Blasphemer' part of the name came from?" I asked, wishing I could turn off my tastebuds.

"Just so, Captain! Or well, it's a part of it. Whatever miraculous method these...creatures use to gain power stands against the logic of the world more firmly than even we do, at times. The stench and ah, other transformations are simply manifestations of this rejection."

"受苦!"

We winced together as another wave of foulness washed over the procession accompanied by the echoes of a distant shout and a refreshed rain of snakes. The Beast was barely in sight but the range of its howls was insane.

"Mmmm. Cluster of snakes to the east, let's break it up before they get caught inside." We jogged over to a panicking tangle of snakes and made quick work of them as soon as the edge of the repulsion effect passed over them. While the array was perfect for keeping snakes from approaching it was a different matter if they were already inside. The array wasn't' meant to be moved, and we were already running into problems that wouldn't have existed if it had remained in one place.

We walked alongside the procession as it exited the city, watching for snakes that couldn't get out of the way in time for one reason or another. Oman's squad took the front, and mine the flanks, while Rosetta's handled the moving of the Beast Pillars at the back of the procession, but even with all of our squads mobilized it was still eighteen Legionnaires watching hundreds of people, and six of us were occupied with moving the heavy pillars. It was only a matter of time before something slipped through.

"前进!"

Sand fountained up in the procession of mortals up revealing a ball made up of dozens of snakes that had somehow found themselves underground. They twisted and writhed, trying to escape one another but accomplishing nothing but hurting themselves and becoming more desperate.

Three people went down under a storm of sudden bites from the snakes in a matter of seconds and the orderly procession broke apart in a chaotic sprawl around the knot of confused snakes.

"Marcus! Someone get Titus over here!"

Before we could step closer a trio of bronze arrows sliced through the ball of snakes, cutting heads from bodies and tearing bodies asunder. Cassius knocked another arrow angrily as he stared at the mess of dead snakes, daring them to move.

Titus raced over with all the power of a fourth heavenstage cultivator, easily twice as fast as the fittest mortal. He skidded to a halt by the fallen people, already pulling tools from the bags around his waist. There was already nothing for me to do, my much stronger squad members reacting much faster than I could.

I seethed and clenched my jaw in anger. What the hell was Oman's squad doing? How do you miss a ball of snakes going underground? I raged in my mind to distract myself from my own weakness just as another wave of foulness washed over the host.

"屠杀!"

Six more spots in the procession exploded into sand and snakes just as the rain of bodies around us intensified. The plop plop of falling bodies almost drowned out the sudden increase in screaming up and down the line as more snake balls began scything their way above ground.

A form blurred past me and I glanced down the line to see Marcus already charging towards one of the snake balls. I could see Atria and Julia charging towards another pair even as Cassius aimed at another. Titus looked between the bitten mortals he was working on and the new eruption with a grimace before leaping up and rushing off to the closest one. I swallowed a curse and dashed towards the last, hefting my spear and shield in my hands.

With an effort of will the Hoplite manifested around me, shadowy flesh enveloping my own and the bronze armaments sinking into my own spear and shield seamlessly and enhancing them. Qi like mist glided over the surface of my skin and sank into my muscles in the most basic enhancement I could muster, pushing a whole half of my stores into the technique.

And then I ran.

Sand and pebbles fountained up behind me as I approached the steadily destabilizing procession, a sign of my wastefulness in using a technique far above my station. I crouched for a bare moment before launching myself above the heads of the crowd directly at the ball of snakes.

"Out of the way!"

A taller man barely ducked out of the way before I slammed into the ball of snakes shield first, eliciting hisses of pain and confusion. A sound like rain on a metal roof resounded as my Hoplite reinforced shield weathered a handful of reflexive bites and then I was on them. My twice enhanced spear cut through the mortal snakes like they were made of particularly cheap fabric and I whispered mental thanks to Filia once again for forcing me to buy it. The weapon opened wounds that would bleed profusely and resist healing, and the mortal snakes had no defense against it.

The ball of snakes proved to be an easy target and after a few thrusts the rain of blows against my shield slowed enough that I could push them back safely. A few more strikes into the confusingly knotted mass of flesh silenced the snakes altogether.

I gave them a few more stabs for good measure.

I released the Hoplite as soon as I was done and with it the nameless enhancement technique and the greater portion of my qi stores. I would pay for that later I was sure, but it was one thing to lag behind in cultivation and another thing entirely to lag behind in effectiveness. I won't be left behind.

I backed away from the corpse ball of mortal snakes, thankful that they hadn't gotten to separate or cause more damage. I scanned the crowd around but gave it up as a bad job after a few seconds. I had little to no medical training and I couldn't tell who had been bitten or just been hit by gravel spray. I needed Titus. We needed to regroup.

"And I need to know what the hell is going on with these snakes." I growled.

One snake ball was bad enough. With all the weirdness in the current situation I could stomach the idea that a bunch of snakes had somehow tangled up together and ended up under the sands before they could escape. I could even believe that they had somehow gotten past Oman's squad without being detected. But seven of them? All in similar sized groups that happened to burst out of the ground at close to the same time?

No. That was a meal I couldn't swallow at all. The more likely option was obvious in hindsight. They were being controlled, and there was one guess as to by what.

"前进!"

The crowd was scattered enough for me to see straight to the edge of the Beast Repelling Array from where I stood, so I could easily see the waves of flesh slithering about outside. Layers upon layers of snakes slithered around the barrier, probing the edge for weakness with their bodies. Sand and grit fountained up outside the array as more hidden snakes tore themselves out from underground and joined the questing tide. It was as if all the snakes that had been falling in the surrounding lands had rushed over in the last few seconds to try and break through, doing the exact opposite of what the array would have them do. That they hadn't broken in completely was the only reason I knew it had any effect at all.

"Captain!"

Marcus dodged around a group of mortals before coming to a stop beside me, his armour covered in scratches from questing fangs.

"Fifth squad is encircled outside the array with a small band of mortals."

"Encircled, not dead?"

"No captain."

There was no way six people in this power range could survive what was happening out there. The only reason why they were alive is because they were supposed to be. We had made a mistake.

The truth came rushing to me as I watched the writhing snakes slithering over one another in an attempt to get inside, only to be stymied at the very end by their own instinctive rejection. There was no way a Beast like that could hide from us, so it let us see it far in advance. We saw the snakes ourselves and decided that we could get away.

"Captain. What are your orders?"

But why would it go through all that trouble? Even from here I could tell the power in the Blasphemer Beast was the real deal. The city couldn't stand up to it even if it had just brazenly advanced the whole way.

"Captain?"

But if it did that some people would undoubtedly be crushed in the assault or even hide themselves away. Even now with Oman's squad caught outside the range of the array they weren't being killed. Whatever it's intentions it wanted people alive for it, and that little punk wouldn't even give up a mouthful.

"Captain, what should we do?"

I looked at Marcus, and came up blank. I had no idea what to do.

"受苦!"


------------------------------------
Count: 5237 Words

This one kind of got away from me. This actually takes place during Turn 7, but a bunch of stuff came up and the story changed and lengthened a few times so I ended up posting it only now.
Part 2 of this should be coming soon and then I can catch up and post stuff for the current mission and war.

Since this is actually my first omake post for Turn 8, I'll take a Cultivation boost.
Requesting threadmark and spreadsheet addition from a collaborator. Pinging @BungieONI .

 

[Falconis]

Paulus 5 (Part 2) - A Change of Perspective


My salvation came on horseback. Rosetta's 8th squad charged up from the back of the procession on their mounts, already decoupled from the heavy Beast Pillars they had been pulling. Her gaze landed on me and she gracefully turned her mount, navigating through the panicking crowd without even needing to slow on her way to my side.

"Paulus! What is going on up here? Why is everything in chaos?" She shouted as soon as she drew close enough to be heard over the sound of the crowd and hissing serpents. I opened my mouth to speak but no sound came out, leaving me staring at her dumbly. Absently I thought that I was handling this situation worse than I'd expected myself to.

"Uhh, Captain Paulus is deep in thought, Captain Rosetta." Marcus jumped in, "I have just delivered news of the situation at the front. 5th squad is encircled outside the range of the Beast Repelling Array. Last I saw they were being forced away by the snakes."

She glanced between us and frowned sharply.

"Hmph. This is why Oman is just a fifth, and you are a third. Pull yourself together Paulus! Eighth Squad, to me! Form Kataphrakoti!"

Her mounted squad formed up around her at her cry, each of them weaving through the panicked crowd without so much as needing to slow their mounts. She gestured with her spear towards the head of the procession and as one they moved off, the shadows of Kataphrakoti already building around them.

"Wait! They'll get torn to bits!"

I was too late to stop her. By the time the words had left my lips the increased speed of Kataphrakoti had already taken them outside the array and into fray. I swallowed a curse and made to run after them, but a hand on my shoulder stopped me dead.

"Wait captain, look!" Marcus shouted. A look of bewilderment on his face.

Shadowy flesh enveloped the 8th, but it was different than I knew. Instead of ballooning outwards and lifting them it twisted inwards and layered itself over their bodies and that of their...

"Mounts!"

"They're using it as a spell?" I was no stranger to this method of using the clan's formations, I'd done it myself just minutes ago with the Hoplite but I could never figure out how to do it with Kataphrakoti and I'd never really considered a mount myself.

The formation built around them, turning their spears to lances and layering each of them in spiritual bronze armour. The horses turned into dark things of roiling shadows, becoming light as air and growing twice as strong. Lines of shadowy qi snapped into existence between mount and rider and between every member of the 8th, reinforcing the weak and sending strength to the front of the formation and as one, they moved.


The cavalry surged across the sands like the shadow of a distant eagle, completely unimpeded by everything between them and their destination. Blazing bronze auras from the tips of their spears-turned-lances parted the tide of snakes like a curtain and what was not immediately destroyed was trampled under shadowy hooves for good measure. Blood and gore followed their every motion and Rosetta led them on a long, winding route around Oman's pinned squadron and in seconds they cut a bloody swathe through the snakes, buying Oman some room to maneuver.

"前进!"

A fresh rain of snakes followed the distant howl and the remaining ones on the ground surged forward as a wall of unified flesh, all pretenses of operating like normal snakes dispensed with. Hundreds of snakes curled together into a fist, raising up in Rosetta's path and striking out in a truly mind bending fashion.

She broke through it.

The Kataphrakoti kept moving completely unhindered and I could see the 8th squad riders flicking their lances this way and that like children playing with branches. I realized with a start that they were knocking snakes out of the air before they could ride into them, trusting in speed to leave the ones directly above them behind.

More snakey fists rose up ahead of them, grabbing, punching, chopping, even throwing parts of themselves or boulders if there were any handy. The 8th broke through or wove around every attack without losing stride or breaking formation. The shadowy bands tensed and relaxed, letting the members communicate far faster than a shout and react to threats some of them couldn't see as a cohesive unit.

She was strong. The whole squad was strong. It was a level of skill I wouldn't have expected from someone below Foundation and though they weren't perfect, far from it, but they were enough. Even as I had that thought some traitorous part of my mind silently wondered how long they could keep it up.

But you have no respect for strength.

I growed and turned away from the display only to find myself standing with more than just Marcus. Everyone but Titus had found themselves next to me, watching the 8th tear a path through the snakes. Said path quickly closed up behind them, but every pass they made let Oman's 5th retreat a little bit further. This was no time for gawking.

"Report." I bit out, surprising myself with how frustrated I sounded.

Cassius stepped forward, tearing his eyes away from the charging 8th to face me. A flicker of light in his pupils told me he had been using a technique.

"The hidden snakes seem to be dealt with, Captain, but the mortals are panicking. A few ran out of the array in the confusion and were swept away by the tide of snakes. Status unknown, suspected dead. With the 8th no longer carrying the Beast Pillars the procession has halted. Titus is tending to the wounded."

I nodded in acknowledgement and racked my brains for some way forward. Even if the 8th could cut through this it didn't mean much if the mortals couldn't handle their pace, and I doubted they could manage this while carrying the Beast Pillars besides. Moving forward would only let more hidden snakes into the barrier and retreating to the city would just put us back where we started, and probably worse off for it since the city wasn't being protected while we were out here. I couldn't think of a solution. So it was time to stop looking to myself.

"Alright gang, any ideas?" I asked with some reluctance. That everyone looked surprised that I was asking made me feel like a different kind of heel, but I squashed that under years of self confidence mantras.

They looked between each other with some hesitance but after a beat Phillip spoke up. The man was the only one of us not even carrying a spear anymore, instead bearing a multi stringed slab of wood on his back. The instrument allowed him to use the techniques of the Tunists and if all else failed he could hit someone with it so I didn't give him any trouble over the weapon.

"The 8th's method seems to be working, Captain. If they can sustain that formation for a while then perhaps they can ride ahead and clear out any more dug in snakes while we travel. I would tease them out myself but the Blasphemer Beast has me soundly beat in the noise department." Phillip said with a shrug.

A distant roar punctuated his statement.
"哄骗!"

"I could see them as well if we went to the front." Cassius chimed in, his pupils still flickering with a dull golden glow, "My Eye of the Archimedean can be maintained for extended periods. Without the mortals in the way I could spot any buried tricks as soon as they slipped under the barrier."

"Does it matter who takes the front?" Atria questioned, "Don't get me wrong I'm not looking forward to hauling those Beast Pillars around but these snakes are surprisingly weak once you know they're there to deal with. Not even you got bit in that scramble, Captain."

"Say that again Atria?"

"Uhh, no offense Captain but-"

I raised a hand to pause her as my thoughts started shifting from the molasses like slowness of my confusion to something a bit more active. "No, not that. You said the snakes were weak?"
"Well...yea. If it wasn't for the mortals we could just blow through this place without stopping." Atria admitted, looking nonplussed. "Not that I'm suggesting we leave them behind." she added hastily.

"We could, couldn't we..." My mind whirled. There was something there in the pieces that I had missed before. Something so obvious that I could already feel myself getting annoyed at the past me for not figuring it out even as present me wrestled with the concept on the edge of comprehension.

The snakes were weak. Even caught off guard by the effect and with only a patrol group we were able to escape it and charge through. The numbers, the churning sky full of flesh, and the grotesque beast gave them a lot more presence in my mind than they probably should have had, but they were weak. Titus was already treating the mortals that got injured in the ambush, injured but not killed. Oman was caught out with his squad but based on what Cassius was saying they weren't being killed either, just held in place. I knew we were being played here, but why? What reason could an almost core formation enemy have to be doing all of this.

My gaze shifted back to the front of the column where the 8th were tearing their way through another wave of snakes sent to kill them, and the pieces started coming together. The snakes kept pulling themselves together in an unnatural fashion until they resembled giant reptilian limbs. Rosetta led her squad through them fearlessly and by her efforts carved a relatively snake free zone around Oman's 5th and the man himself was focused on anticipating Rosetta's movements and making his way back towards the array with her help. They were crushing dozens of snakes with impunity between them but that treacherous thought from earlier blossomed into certainty as I took in what was happening around them.

Rosetta crushed the snakes and scattered them but new bundles would come together in seconds, fed by the constant effect in the sky. The unnatural fists threatened her flanks, forcing her to meet them head on or lose the benefit of the Kataphroki when they struck at her in turn and each diversion lengthened the time it took for her to loop around by a tiny sliver, altogether the interruptions were adding precious seconds to her circuit and bleeding the formation's duration bit by bit. Already the massive gains in ground Oman was making were being shaved off by a renewed snake offensive. At this rate they would make it back, but it would cost them dearly in time and energy.

It was a strategy I knew. It was one I recognized from my own use of it on the streets and most recently in games of Ludus. The strategy of the weak. A plan started forming in my mind.

"We've been looking at this the wrong way. Escape, escape, escape. It's the obvious move here and because of it we fell into a trap. If we keep trying to creep along like this we'll just get bogged down and waste all our strength. We need to attack."

Marcus nodded firmly. "Just so, Captain. With our help the 8th should be able to rescue the 5th much more quickly, then we can cut through these snakes and have the mortals follow."

"No we aren't attacking the snakes, forget the snakes. No more wasting time we have to go after the source." I said pointing at the distant Beast that was steadily growing close enough for my near mortal sight to see clearly.

My squadmates turned to look at what I was pointing at and then shared a look between themselves like they were debating how to tell their superior officer that he was an idiot without breaking protocol. Eventually they came to some kind of decision and Atria looked at me with a gentle smile. Yea I didn't have time for that.

"Stop. I'm not crazy. Doing something unexpected is the only way we can break this net." I interrupted.

"Captain! It's fifty times stronger than us! At least!" Atria shouted in bewilderment

"We have eighteen cultivators here, more if we include the Techs."

"You're counting the nerd squad? Wait- no it doesn't work like that anyway. The power just doesn't add up Captain."

"If it's power we need we've got some extra around the back."

Atria looked at me in confusion before visibly recalling the shipment of spirit stones we were already pilfering from to keep the array powered while moving it. They weren't the best things to work with for quick power, but it wasn't impossible either.

"...That still can't bridge the gap." She said with conviction after a moment's consideration and she was right too. If we had the entire century here, or even just the Centurion we could make a solid go at it but I didn't think we could reasonably fight something like that at this point. Oh we could hurt it, but at our level we would run out of strength long before we could kill it and it would have no such limitations in our case.

"We don't have to. All we need to do is keep its focus away from the mortals. Make it pull back all these snakes into dealing with us" I said pointing to the sky. "If we can manage that then the mortals get out without needing babysitting."

"And what about us?" Julia broke in, her visage as stern and sober as ever.

I looked away from Atria to face her and shrugged, giving my best smile. "We'll catch up after they get out of range."

She studied me for a moment in silence before turning back to the rest of the squad. They had another silent debate (that made me realize I really didn't know them as well as they knew each other since I was always off on missions) and seemingly decided that was good enough.

"Very well," Julia said with a nod, "Not quite as glorious as I'd hoped but, you are the Captain." That statement was heavily loaded but I didn't have time to dig into that right now. This would have to be enough. Legionnaire discipline wasn't infallible. They wouldn't throw away their lives for nothing, but they would spend it for something. Fortunately for all of us I had no intention of doing either.

---------------------------

My fellow captains were easier to convince than I had expected, far easier than the rest of my squad. Once the 5th and 8th came back looking sweaty and battle worn I approached the two captains with my idea and received instant agreement.

"Don't look so surprised Paulus, I was thinking the same." Rosetta scoffed, "We will accomplish nothing by retreating and remaining in place only delays our death, so why not attack?"

Oman spat on the ground, his face thunderous beneath a coat of snake blood. "That blasted Serpent played us for fools. Every time we tried the Hoplite the snakes surged forward to disrupt us. These are no mindless beasts!"

So immediate was their agreement that I felt the urge to stop and reassess things, but if this was supposed to go the way I wanted it to then we had no time to waste. The Blasphemer Beast was slowly approaching but it wasn't so slow that we could have another war council in here. We quickly hashed out the details and regrouped at the back of the column with the Array Operators to let them know that they could stop feverishly doing advanced calculus on the fly and instead feverishly set up a new stable array and get ready to head out into the field with us.

There was arguing and pleading but the three captains stood firm. That and the hopelessness of the situation should we fail eventually brought them around. There was no choice, we needed them for this and not just because they were extra bodies to hold a spear. Legionaries were good at fighting, but if you really wanted to mess with formations you needed brains. And we had a lot to mess with and not much time to do it.

After an hour of hasty work we ended up splitting the Operators evenly between the squads and shuffled our members around as needed to best do our jobs. Leto came around and dumped a pair of ominously glowing bundles of stones in my hands. Enough stones were in each bundle to support a Legionnaire's cultivation for an entire month and each one was covered in sloppy array script and leaking qi like a bad technique. I raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Use them if you're going to get blocked. Just shove a signal jade inside to activate them and stand back. They won't last more than a day so don't worry about holding on to them." she said with a pained sigh. "I really wish you three had decided to fight back before we left the city. The repelling array is stable now but the nodes are all misaligned and it will probably burn out in a week without maintenance."

"Shouldn't be a problem. If we bite it then the barrier won't keep out the Serpent anyway. They'd be dead within the day." I shrugged and secured the bundles around my waist. "You're going with Rosetta right?"

She frowned in reply and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I really hate you right now. Yea, she'll need me for this stupid plan you've all cooked up. Take care of my Operators, okay?"

"Duh."

Leto glared at me and stomped forward and wrapped me in a surprise hug, making the bundles of stones rattle against our armour.

"Take care of yourself too, okay?"

"...Yea."

We stood there for a second longer and then she broke the hug and jogged over to where Rosetta's 8th was preparing to head out. I watched her go for a moment and then turned and trotted over to my own squad and the two extra Array Operators left for me, hefting an entire crate of spirit stones on my shoulders. They greeted me with stoic silence, no sign of the ribbing such a display might have caused in more peaceful times.

"They have cool horses, we don't, so this is probably going to suck more for us than for them. With any luck it'll suck for the Serpent even more than for us." I shoved a glowing green spirit stone into each pair of hands and nodded at the rest of my squad. "Atria, you're driving. Form Kataphrakoti."

A moment later shadows began bubbling up around us just as it had hours before, but there were some important changes that made me more confident. Tendrils of qi reached out not to each other or to the leader but to our twin Techs who skillfully and quickly wove it into an eye watering design and separated the flow into countless tiny strands all pulsing at the same pace. Twenty thin strands reached out to Atria and wrapped around her and another five reached out to each other member of the squad, all except me. Being so much weaker than everyone else meant that including me was particularly pointless with all the stones we were throwing around, and besides that I had a much more important job.

The shadows of Kataphrakoti sprang up much faster and much more solidly than before, bearing all of us up in its dark depths. To our right I saw Oman leading his own group in the same.

"Lets go stab some tail!"

And then we were off. We charged out of the once again stationary array and plunged into the tide of flesh, trampling snakes under shadowy hooves.

"哄骗!"

My mouth filled with a rotten taste mere seconds after we got underway and the snakes ahead of us slithered into piles, forming walls and pillars of undulating flesh.

"Get out of the way, weaklings!" Atria roared.

Snakes exploded outwards or simply exploded, their weak bodies unable to feasibly stop us or even slow us, but the walls kept rising up. The shimmering bronze lance rippled as the Tech's struggled to stop it from wasting its payload early and snakes slipped in through the gaps in their concentration.

Slithering bodies plunged into the shadowy flesh of the construct and swam unerringly towards the Techs maintaining the whole thing, fangs bared to strike and obviously not expecting the four feet of enchanted bronze that met them.

"Bet you thought you were smart!"

I swam through the formation with my shield and spear meeting any stray snakes and batting them away or impaling them if I could pull it off. The snakes quickly adapted and shifted towards the legionnaires sharing their qi and focus but with the majority of the formation's burden handled by the Techs each Legionnaire could at least stop the snakes from biting them until I got there. More and more of the leftover snakes dipped into the formation and found themselves swept away, and I knew there would be someone else doing this for Oman's side. Our charge continued for a full minute and just before I started getting (more) worried about our course the tide of snakes fell away and we broke through the edge of the encirclement.

A distant, wordless howl of rage brought a grin to my lips and a new set of snakeclouds to the sky between us and the Blasphemer Serpent. I swam through the formation and doled out spirit stones to everyone to keep them topped up, giving a double share to the Techs at the center who were starting to flag. Kataphrakoti was never meant for long stretches, but slowing down here meant death.

We continued charging across the sands in the straightest line we could manage. The next rain of snakes barely did anything to us and I ended up not having to do anything but get pulled along. Without the sheer numbers they just couldn't threaten Kataphrokoti and it seemed like the Beast realized it because after a second wave where we just outsped the rain entirely the clouds stopped forming over our position and started forming above the snake instead.

Minutes passed in silence as we approached and the Blasphemer Beast didn't waste that time. As we came close enough to feel the physical force of its shouts rippling through the formation I could see a thick mat of snakes all around the Beast undulating like the surface of a stormy sea. The towering Blasphemer Beast contorted in agony in the center of the effect, its motions still taking it slowly but surely towards the mines and its roars blasting snakes into the sky only for them to rain down around it.

"远离!"

Walls and pillars of woven snakes rose up from the seething mass at its order, taller than ever before. They loomed with an unsubtle menace that only grew as we drew closer and I knew that they would fall on us and tear us to pieces even at our current speeds. I could see what it wanted us to do, what I would have wanted in its place. We would turn away from the obvious trap and waste our time circling, no doubt falling into a hidden trap later. Maybe a hidden pit, an unseen boulder, or just dragging out the timer until we ran out of strength. Even with my suspicions I still wanted to shout to Atria to adjust our heading just a tiny bit to slip around the worst of it.

What does it mean to be strong?
…
Screw it.

"We're punching straight through! Don't stop until we get to stab that ugly git!" Time to steal some moves from the meathead style of combat. Maybe they would even work.

"Now that's what I like to hear!" Atria roared and pulled harder on the weave of qi. Legionnaires groaned as their burden increased and I swam around handing them spirit stones to top them up. The shadowy flesh grew rough and disturbed as barely refined qi from the stones joined the flow, but it would hold long enough. It had to hold.

"Lets see if this works." I pulled out a signal jade and slotted it into one of Leto's extremely expensive bundles. The entire thing flashed with golden light and then rocketed out of my hands straight ahead, almost clipping Julia on the way ahead. I watched curiously as the signal flare spiralled drunkenly as it flew and even plowed through some sand before it suddenly curved upwards and the signal light intensified growing brighter and brighter before it finally detonated.

"Gah!"

"▃▃▅▅▇▇▇!!"

A new sun was briefly born in the sky and the pillars of snakes fell away from it in agony, the Blasphemer Serpent's contortions taking on a fresh urgency as it tried to look away. The shadowy flesh around us protected us from the worst of it, but I was still left blinking stars out of my eyes when the light finally winked out.

"Captain! Another one!" Cassius yelled through gritted teeth, his eyes blazing with barely contained light.

We were already in the tide of snakes, Atria hadn't paused a bit even if she couldn't see. I squinted through the formation to see more walls already being built up ahead of us. I scrambled for another Disco Ball (hastily named) and slotted in another signal jade, aiming as best I could before it flew out of my hands. I turned my eyes away just in time for another sun to bloom and an agonized scream from the Blasphemer Serpent to rock the formation.

Blinded and confused snakes rained to the ground, failing utterly to block our path. Kataphrakoti ate up the ground in large strides and in seconds we had crossed half the remaining distance to the Serpent. The ground shook as it tumbled about, hands the size of horses covering its eyes as it screamed. Its tail whipped about, crushing more of its own snakes than we ever could. As I watched it turned one bloodshot eye to glare at us through a gap in its fingers. I flipped it off.

"I sense another pulse building." Titus shouted from behind me.

"Do we have any more of those?" Marcus yelled.

"Fresh out! Oman's group should have so-"
I turned to the side, suddenly remembering that we weren't charging alone in here. Oman's 5th weren't beside us at all. When did that change?

"Uhh."

"Do we turn?" Phillip asked.

"No. This is our only chance!"

The Blasphemer Serpent raised itself up on its hands and turned to face us, tail still lashing uncontrollably behind it. A visible pulse of curdled qi swept up from the tip of its tail all the way to its mouth where it twisted and formed into countless snakes, building to the point where even the Beast itself would drown if it did not release them.

"去死!"

Snakes exploded from its mouth towards us, riding a wave of black qi. All the numbers of a full rain instead directed at our path ahead. This wasn't something we could beat with speed and even if I'd had another Disco Ball the chance to use it had passed. An order built up in my chest for us to change course and slip around the attack. Instead I swam to the center of the formation and threw the rest of the stones in the crate into the weave there.

The weave bulged and twisted and the thickness of the threads instantly quadrupled as the Operators wrestled with the sudden influx of raw, untamed qi. The entire projection rippled and ballooned outwards in an unstable manner and a violent green light began leaking out between the bronze plates.

Atria whooped as the threads wrapped around her multiplied and green light started pouring out of her pores. It engulfed her like a flame and spread through the rest of the construct in the space between seconds, shadowy flesh becoming thicker and realer for just a moment. The lance expanded dramatically and shattered when the existing metal could no longer keep up with the growth, becoming a cloud of bronze shards that was only barely held together by the forceful grip of violent raw qi trying and failing to manifest more of itself.

After that, I lost a bit of time. One moment we were surrounded blazing green flesh and in the next I was tumbling through the air like a human ballista bolt. I tumbled uncontrollably head over heels, unable to tell which way was up until I felt arms like steel bars wrap around me seconds before I collided into, and utterly destroyed the peak of a sand dune.

"▃▃▅▅▇▇▇!!"

The ground shook and my ears rung, my mouth filled with a combination of blood and rotten qi. Pain flowed through me from head to toe and a pained groan forced itself from my lips. I couldn't see or tell which way was up, my attempts to move my arms were inconclusive. I lay there for a few fear filled minutes until my eyes cleared up enough to work again and the pulsing of a translucent blue barrier around me told me why I was still alive.

"A-atria!"

I rolled my head to the side until I could see the older woman. Her eyes were rolled back in their sockets and unrefined qi glowed dangerously under her bronzed flesh. A chain with a small shield pendant on it pulsed with blue light around her neck, powering the defensive bubble that encased us. Her arms were wrapped around me in a grip I had no chance of budging, making any attempt to move my arms a pipe dream.

I rolled my head to the other side and gazed through the barrier, trying to see through the cloud of sand we'd kicked up on landing. Oman's Kataphrakoti rode around the Beast, shooing giant arrows made of bronze that plunked harmlessly off its flesh. The Beast struggled to hold itself up on one arm. Tattered flesh hung where its other arm would have been and black blood that formed into snakes mid air fell from the remnants of its limb, but that was all. It was still alive.

The beast reared back and gathered snakes in its mouth once again only to be interrupted by a Disco Ball detonating right in front of its face that left it choking and spluttering as it tried to protect its eyes and finish its attack at the same time. But it was still alive.

Dammit...I thought…

I blinked and when I opened my eyes the Blasphemer Serpent was further away, still being harassed by Oman, but now it was focusing on advancing and ignoring the useless attacks from Kataprakoti's second mode.

I blinked and when I saw again the sun was lower in the sky and Atria and I were surrounded by shouting Legionnaires stabbing snakes. Cassius roared and twin beams of searing light shone from his eyes, cutting through everything in their path. Titus was slowly forcing his way through the barrier to get to us.

I blinked and the ground rumbled and the sky turned green from erupting spiritual energy. I couldn't feel Atria anymore. A loud hum filled the air.

I hope that's Leto and Rosetta blowing the mine and not that thing ascending.

Titus loomed over me, his armour covered in scrapes and gore but his hands sparkling clean and surrounded by qi. "Back to sleep, Captain." He tapped me on the head and I was gone.

---------------------------------

When I opened my eyes again I wasn't laying on the sand surrounded by dead snakes, but on a bed inside a tent. The sound of a quill on parchment drew my eyes over to a table where the instantly recognizable Singing Fang Nabu was working his way through a pile of something. Probably reports.

He looked up as I shifted and broke into a wide, bronze toothed smile.

"Ah. Paulus, I see you are finally awake. That is good, I am just about finished writing these evaluations. No, no, do not attempt to sit up. Your medico tells me you were thrown from your formation when it became too unstable to hold mere passengers in its grip. You are fortunate to be alive."

"A-atria." I managed to mutter, my tongue strangely heavy in my mouth.

"Loyal squadmates are part of one's good fortune, of course." He said with a smile. He rose from his seat and walked around the low table to the bed where I rested. " Or did you mean to inquire after her health and not assign her credit for your survival? She is quite fine, better than you in fact due to her higher cultivation. Which brings me to my purpose here."

"You are hereby relieved of your command." He said with a soft smile on his face, like a grandparent speaking to a favored grandchild. "Until your cultivation improves you will not be allowed command of or membership in any squad. Go and be weak elsewhere."

He tapped me on the shoulder fondly and turned away, sweeping up the desk and papers together with a gesture of his hand.

"The spiritual energy here will be quite rich for a while with what you three did to the mines so I would suggest recuperating here for as long as possible before you vacate the premises, we will not turn out an injured man after all. Good fortune on your advancement, young Legionnaire."

And then he left me there. Alone.



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Count: 5662 words

Somehow ended up longer than part 1 despite my attempts to shorten things. I guess that's what happens when you try and hint at 20 years of character development in one big scene. This is still talking about the events of Turn 7 where Paulus failed to advance his cultivation at all and remained at First Heavenstage.
His advancement potentially skyrockets after this but I'm still waiting on some clarification on that.

We shall see!
I don't think I'll get to put out anything for his turn 8 activities given how long this took, but that is a bit more easily handled I think. I dunno how to feel about this one at all but here it is.

Requesting threadmark and spreadsheet addition from a collaborator we're told to. @TehChron

 

[Falconis]

Paulus 6 - Drunken Sage

Kalliope stared at the map in frustration, trying to force it to give up its secrets by sheer force of will.

If I was a half-man, half-dog monstrosity, where would I be?

"Do you really have to do that right now, Kali?" A rough male voice grumbled, pulling her out of her musing. The man that met her rising gaze across the table was a swarthy fellow with an attractive assortment of scars across his face telling of the number of battles he'd survived. Generally he could be seen with a bright smile on his face or with a song on his lips as they patrolled their little section of the Xin Kingdom, but at the moment he favored her with a look of mild annoyance.

"I'm sorry Justi, it's just these cannibals bothering me. If I could just figure out where they are going next…" She had a responsibility to these people to protect them and they couldn't do that if the Dervishes were allowed to run rampant.

"Of course. It is a very serious matter, Kali, but do you think you could take a break for just thirty minutes?" Justi gestured with his remaining arm, drawing her attention to the little Legionnaire restaurant they sat in. It wasn't anything high class but places that served a proper pilaf were few and far between, especially out here in the borderlands. It was a common haunt for off duty Legionnaires like her and Justi.

"I'm ruining our date…" she sighed, rubbing her forehead in a vain attempt to alleviate her growing headache.

"A little bit, yes." Justi agreed with a shrug. "But it is not too late to recover. If you could put the maps aside while we eat?"

She compromised by setting them on a free chair at their table. Not completely wrapped up but no longer raised between her and her husband. He smiled at her and pointed at her pilaf with his chin, prompting her to take three quick bites.

It was a good pilaf. The mutton was from the same batch of Three Seasons Goat that had been hastily sold by a herder fleeing some manner of cursed soup pot last week and was spiced to perfection. The chef, whoever that was, understood Golden Devil recipes.

"This is nice, right?" Justi prompted.

"Mmm hmm."

"Good food after our watch is over, spending some time together?"

"Mmm hmmm."

"Maybe once we are done here we can go somewhere a bit quieter."

"Mmm, Bianxong."

"The city?" Justi asked curiously, "That is a bit far for an after hours trip, 3 days one way I think, but I would not be against the attempt. What is to be found in Bianxong?"

"Two hundred thousand mortals just a week away from the border. It's a prime target."

The sound of cutlery hitting the table made Kalliope look up from her steadily vanishing pilaf to look at the frowning face of her second-in-command.

"You are talking about work." Justi opined.

She blinked and ran the conversation back through her head trying and failing to identify the point where she shifted tracks again.

"Ah…I'm sorry Justi, I don't know where my head went."

"They went right back to those maps, I believe. This is not a difficult request, Kali. Just thirty minutes together."

"I know, I know. It just feels like the answer is on the tip of my tongue. This could be really important."

"We are important as well, Kali. There will always be cannibals around the corner, if we never take care of ourselves then we will waste away before they can even attack."

"Hmph, weaklings."

Kalliope and Justi looked at the man who had spoken. A short Legionnaire in unkempt armour, stinking of bottom shelf spirits. He slurred out a laugh as he stood beside their table, looking not at the arguing lovers but the maps set on the chair.

Justi's frown deepened and he released a longsuffering sigh as he regarded the drunken off duty Legionnaire.

"Excuse me, friend. You are disturbing a private conv-"

"Weak doggies don't wanna fight the Legions, hmm?" The Drunk said loudly over Justi's objection, not giving any sign that he heard him at all "But the Legion has the big glass spear. Can't reveal themselves before they get rid of it or no more cat and mouse… heee heee, dog and cat? Hmmm."

"Ah! The Golden Eye Array Node! That's what they're after! Justi come on we have to send warning."

Kalliope shot up from her seat and dashed out of the restaurant, leaving her second-in-command behind to glare at the Drunk and scrape the maps together before following.

The Drunk watched the maps vanish with sorrow and then took another swig from a flask before stumbling into one of the vacated chairs and helping himself to some pilaf. He would forget the incident by morning.


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Count: 814 words

Behold the turn 8 contribution to the Growling Dervishes Mission of a madman. Demetrius's crimes against food shall enrich plates on the other side of the kingdom. A true chef provides even when he isn't the one serving the meal.

I didn't want to leave turn 8 out but I also couldn't write another big thing before seed report so here's a little scene with an inconsequential man of no great cultivation. This also(hopefully) marks the end of sad Paulus, Turn 9 is gonna be hot.

 

[Falconis]

Paulus 7: Match Cut

Kalliope wished she had kept her mouth shut.

The warning she had given about the possible attack on the Golden Eye Array was nothing the higher-ups hadn't expected themselves and even as she spoke to the Legate reports had come in of continued skirmishes with the Dervishes following their attack on the Array Nodes. An attack that had occured while she was fretting over the maps.

Giving warning too late was embarrassing enough but the Strategos had complimented her insight and offered her a post in their command. Guilt had weighed down her stomach until she confessed that the insight had not come from her but some random drunk Legionnaire. This led to a series of questions that culminated in her scouring the city for the man and eventually leading the Strategos to where he now sat at the other end of a Ludus board.

The game, while not played by every Legionnaire, had a solid enough following in the Legion that one could find a few permanent boards wherever the Golden Devils put down roots. Kalliope herself played a bit but the board where she had found the Legionnaire waiting for an opponent had far too many lines for her liking and was large enough for each player to control a hundred pieces each.

The Strategos sat down without a word and grasped a waiting bowl full of white pieces and began setting up the board and the Legionnaire did the same with the black pieces without even looking up at his opponent. After half a minute of preparation they launched into the game, the Strategos making the first move with a bold central advance. The Legionnaire replied with a probe on the east and the game began in earnest. Both players shifted their pieces rapidly one after the other, each barely waiting for the opponent's piece to touch the board before taking their own turn. It was not a timed game, Ludus rarely was outside of competitions, and yet neither seemed willing to slow and think.

Kalliope quickly found herself losing track of their intentions and found herself reduced to simply observing the board. The Strategos advanced her foundation and qi pieces in lockstep, using one of the greater pieces to support a handful of the lesser and using each grouping to support the others. One of her Core pieces was planted audaciously in the center of the board, threatening a quarter of the map with its sheer presence. White pieces advanced in a line slowly and steadily like a Century of Legionnaires, daring the opponent to test their might and fall upon their spears.

The black pieces on the other hand ate up the board in a mad dash, disdaining formations and safety alike in exchange for speed. It was a much faster advance than the white pieces could manage but it left them hopelessly vulnerable in transit, she thought. The Strategos seemed to agree and already the black pieces were falling like flies as squadrons of white qi condensation pieces led by a foundation piece fell upon their scattered war parties with barely any losses. Skirmish after skirmish happened with the white pieces coming ahead in every one and soon the black pieces were forced to fall back as disciplined rows of white surged across the board and crushed them under heel.

A cry went up as a core formation expert of the finest polished black stone flew across the board full of panicking black raiders and forced the Legions to pause their advance. He crashed boldly into a formation led by an accomplished foundation piece and destroyed them utterly in two moves, buying time for the raiders to regroup. Who could have expected a core piece to engage this early in the conflict, and only to strike out at pieces two whole realms its lesser. It was brazen, it was audacious! It was unwise.

A core piece in resplendent white surged over the field of broken stone to meet its counterpart and quickly engaged it in battle while the stoic Legions rushed to support it. The black core piece skillfully avoided a full engagement and flew backwards only to be met by the second white core piece rushing over from the center of the board. The black piece turned away from the advance but it was too late. In a handful of moves he was trapped between the two powerhouses. With its last move it plucked two of the white qi condensation disciples from the board and shattered them before dying itself. In the end the White Legions were up one core piece to the Black Raiders.

The battle continued with the Raiders falling back from the advance of the Legions, the small groups of Raiders scattering like chaff before the steady formations. The Legions chased them down methodically, forcing the Raiders into disadvantageous positions where they could be picked off with minimal losses. Another Core piece of polished onyx flew forward to scatter a formation but only managed to take out half the units in the squadron before being subdued by White Core reinforcements. With the Core advantage firmly in their favor the Legions set about claiming the remainder of the board.

The Legions marched out without needing further encouragement, led by their Core Formation Elders and forcing the remaining Raider Elders to rush to meet them in battle two versus four. The six Core Formation Elders met in the center of the field, sizing each other up for the final engagement. The Raiders moved first, the remaining two elders moving as one and diving into the deep embrace of the opposing Elder's prepared formation...and continued, ignoring them utterly as they crashed into the formations of Foundation and Qi condensation disciples waiting in the distance. The Legion Elders responded immediately with ugly faces and instantly slew the two dishonourable Raiders, but the damage was done. Another crop of good men was lost to their underhanded methods.

Still, now the Raiders were left with no Core formation of their own and would quickly perish under the combined might of the Legion's own Core Elders. Their armies were scattered around the field, not even maintaining formation in their haste to escape. An elder with a body of carved alabaster stepped forward, hand raised to utilize his great might, and stopped. A rope lashed around his hand leading back to a terrified qi condensation Raider. With a flick of his hand the Raider perished and he stepped forward...and paused as another rope landed around his waist.

More and more ropes flew out from the surrounding qi condensation Raiders to land on the Legion's Elders. A cultivator of their strength would hardly be phased by anything a qi condensation could manage in their wildest dreams and yet the Core pieces struck them down one by one. It was ridiculous, It was madness. Ah.

Kalliope blinked and saw the board again, the image of a bloody battlefield fading by the second. There were no Raiders, no Legions. Just pieces. The Strategos looked on with pursed lips at the remaining black qi condensation pieces. What had just a few moves ago like a haphazard scattering was now arranged just so that the white core pieces could only take them one at a time. Meanwhile the black foundation pieces skirted the edges of the battle and made quick work of the leaderless white qi condensation pieces. It would be just enough of a chore to get the Core pieces out of the encirclement that they would have essentially no support once they did. The battle was far from over, four Core pieces could still take on an army of lesser pieces without being taken themselves, but it would be much harder to arrange.

"You know this would never work in a real combat situation." The Strategos mused, steadily working her powerful pieces through the wave of trash.

The Legionnaire shrugged, shifting a foundation piece to take another pair of qi condensation pieces too close together. "It's Ludus."

The Strategos hummed in agreement and nodded. "I've seen enough. I had to be sure that your previous prediction was not the fluke of a mind expanded by drink. We need more like you in the command tent, you are to report to Regional Headquarters by the end of the day."

The Legionnaire glanced up in confusion, looking over his opponent for the first time. His gaze lingered on the symbols of her office and he visibly swallowed a much ruder objection before speaking. "I am...under orders to the contrary, Ma'am."

"By whom?" the Strategos asked.

"Nabu."

The Strategos waved a hand dismissively and rose from the unfinished game. "A well known name, and one that belongs to my technical equal, however in this situation I outrank him. The local region is being overrun by a named group of cannibals, The Growling Dervishes. Every Legionnaire in this province not on a mission of secret class or higher is being pulled into active duty. You would have received the call in a few hours anyway, I will simply not see bright minds wasted in the lines when we need all we can get in the Tent."

"And you decided I matched because I beat you in Ludus?" The Legionnaire brazenly questioned the Strategos.

"Of course not." she replied, smiling tightly,"I picked you because you didn't lose. Ah, stalemate." The Strategos moved her Core pieces closer together with one hand, placing them flush against one another so they couldn't be overwhelmed by the lesser pieces at all. The overwhelmingly powerful Core pieces wouldn't be able to attack at all with this formation, but without Core pieces of his own the Legionnaire had no ability to break it either.

He seemed to pick this up in a few seconds of looking at the board, his face growing uglier by the second. He looked up at the retreating back of the Strategos and frowned.

"What the f-"
------------------------
-------------------------

Paulus 7 hits. This was originally going to be much, much longer but I saw an opportunity I want to jump on that will sadly be eating most of my wordcount for this turn.
Perhaps one day I'll get to return to 'learning tactics with Strategos Merida'.

This is my first Omake for Turn 9 and it deals with the events at the end of Turn 8 that lead to Paulus getting stabbed by a Foundation Establishment Cannibal. More to follow about the events of Turn 9.

Word Count: 1663 words
Requested Omake Reward: Tribulation Treasure
Turn 9 Mission: Parakoimomenos's Merchants
Other Notes: Heading to Qigai Secret Realm, Cultivation Aim change from default to 10th Heavenstage.

Pinging for spreadsheet help as required. @Alectai

 

[Falconis]

Paulus 8: Family Time


Forty years. It took Forty years for me to rise from the first to the ninth heavenstage of qi condensation. I had reached the pinnacle of the orthodox path at a little over half the age of a normal cultivator, and taken a quarter of the actual cultivation time to do it, and I only had to get run through and almost killed by a Foundation level cannibal once. Thankfully those days were in the past. Nowadays I was the one doing the running through.

"Damn you Golden Devils! The desert will run red with your blood! My clanmates will feast on your flesh and grind your bones to make bread!"

"SHUT UUUUUUP!"

A shield the size of a barn door slapped the raging cannibal with a resounding GONG, sending him flying into the far distance. His scream of rage faded until it was barely on the edge of hearing and the sound of him impacting a distant rocky cliff face finally ended it entirely.

"By the bronze, why are they always so chatty? It's always 'feast on this' and 'swallow that' right up to their deaths."

"The Blood Cannibals don't tend to have many friends, even in their own lands. I imagine they don't get to speak much at all except to their enemies and victims."

The voice answering me belonged to the Strategos herself. Strategos Merida was, in a word, intense. What little I could make out about her cultivation reminded me of the last time I'd met Singing Fang Nabu but whatever gentleness and restraint the man had picked up over his years of teaching aspirants was completely absent in the woman before me. Her gaze felt like thousands of small knives being drawn over my skin and for a brief moment I caught a glimpse of an iris the colour of sunlight seen through a jar of honey before my gaze was forcibly turned away and the sensation disappeared.

Normally I wouldn't expect her to be out here with me, instead moving with her gaggle of junior tacticians or carving up stubborn pockets of cannibal agents with her honour guard. My own assignment to clean up a village that had been overtaken by cannibal raiders was several levels below her concern.

Instead of trying to force myself to endure locking eyes with her, I watched my now distant opponent to see if he would get up and wiped my spear clean in the sand.

"That's depressing. I'm about ready to call this assignment complete though, so if you're here to give me my new one then your timing is pretty good."

"To the contrary, Paulus. I am here to release you from my command. The emergency situation is over and so my orders once again take second place to your own Legion's Strategos."

"I-" I knew it was coming eventually, and sooner rather than later, but even with that knowledge it still felt like the ground was momentarily pulled out from under me. It wouldn't be like last time, I wouldn't lose myself. Though I still would miss the certainty of moving with the rest of the Legion.

It won't be like the last time.

"Of course if you're open to suggestions" she emphasised, "I may have a few targets for you to pursue.".

A blur appeared at the edge of my vision and I flinched, only for a jade slip to slide into my hands like I'd been trying to catch it. She continued speaking without missing a beat. "It should be rather clear how the war effort is going, now, so I expect the Jingshen to return to their old ways as quickly as they can. This includes certain less than official business pursuits in Golden Devil lands, including the Xin Kingdom. Smuggling, in short. "

I sent a thread of qi into the slip and the arrays carved into its surface grabbed the thread and circulated it until a series of images appeared. Names, dates, cities.

"We lack sufficient proof of their actions to force anything, unfortunately, and they are very good at staying hidden once they get underway. On top of that we can't be too overbearing in open surveillance or we'll lose legitimate businesses as well and major Legion movements will be obvious. Someone like yourself could be very useful in this situation."

"Like myself?"

"Largely independent, little to no fame to draw the eye, street smart, passable at Ludus. For your age."

I tried to glare at her but my eyes slipped off her face without recognition. I settled for giving a stern look at her shadow instead.

"I'm eighty." I still looked like I was in my late-twenties, but that's cultivation for you. Haven't grown an inch either.

"Hmm, even younger than I thought."

"Ugh. Fine, I'll do it." With the emergency order rescinded it meant that the cannibal incursion was well within the ability of the standing garrison again. I could keep puttering around here cleaning up cannibals, but they didn't NEED me anymore. Having an assignment would help stave off the listlessness.

"Lovely. Now that business is settled I have something else for you. A bit of mail that came my way from your household as they didn't know how to reach you." A bulging envelope spun in from the edge of my vision and smacked into my raised hand as I tried to bat it away. I fumbled with it for a second before barely managing to get it under control awkwardly between two fingers.

"Is that the only way you deliver messages?"

"Only when it's entertaining." she chuckled. So yes, I guess. "If you'll take advice, try to keep in touch with your people. Regrets will harm your Dao Heart."

"I haven't had the time." I lied.

"It takes mere minutes to write a letter, Paulus, and it can be done while you move from place to place. Lies to yourself will also harm your Dao Heart."

"You seem really concerned about my Dao Heart all of a sudden." I grumbled angrily.

"You'll never make Core with a shaky heart, after all, and you'll need to make Core if you want to play in higher level Ludus. Most of the old fogies up here can't play a fresh game to save their lives. I'm looking forward to a new duos partner in the next hundred years."

I turned to her in incredulity and caught the briefest hint of a cheeky smile before her aura vanished and I was left alone.

High level cultivators are weird.

With nothing better to do (a quick glance revealed that Merida had taken the cannibal with her) I popped open the envelope and scanned the contents. Inside was a motley assortment of letters written on actual parchment from a number of different people.

My old squad was represented as well as Filia, Spiros, Leto, and Korina. Surprisingly I also saw a few from other squads in my legion, Rosetta's 8th, Oman's 5th, even the leader of the lofty 10th Squadron Ru Li sent something on high quality parchment bordered in gold. Well wishes, queries, and accounts of adventures filled page after page and kept me reading in that same spot till nightfall.

Then I reached Korina's letter and I knew the rest would have to wait.

---------------------

The trip back to Golden Devil heartlands took almost three weeks by caravan. I could have done it in a third of the time just by running, but I decided to take Merida's advice and start writing my own letters.

Besides, I didn't want to get there too early.

As it was I arrived in Emporikiporis, the city outside the Dawn Fortress, just in time for the celebrations to really kick into gear. For most of the city it was business as usual but for a small section of land nearby the servant lodges it was the best day of the decade. The streets were swept, the houses freshly painted, and the entire place practically overflowed with flowers and flower petals. Everyone wore their best robes and brightest smiles as they joined in the dancing and singing in the streets, determined to enjoy this rare day as much as they could. And at the center of it all, Korina danced.

Her smile was brighter than I had ever seen and the coquettish looks she shot her dance partner revealed a side of her I'd never even thought of before. Flowers adorned her hair and her many coloured dress stood out even among the cultivator sewn outfits some of the more well off wore. As befitting of the new bride. She looked…

"Old. She looks old." I muttered.

Even as I said it I knew it was unfair. She was old, all of us in the gang were, now. But the benefits of cultivation had kept me looking young and fit while Korina… Her wrinkles were closer to laugh lines and her hair had only the slightest hint of matronly grey, just a few strands, but even that was a rarity in a cultivator city. Even the servants could pick up one or two heavenstages after sixty years living among cultivators, not enough to really make them notable but enough to keep them looking young until the last few years of their extended lifespan. But Korina…

"She didn't have the talent."

A hand landed on my shoulder and I looked over..and up to face a seven foot tall man with an oft broken nose sneering down at me.

"Oi, you've been saying a lot of mean things about Auntie for a while now you brat. How about we take this outside?"

He pushed on his cultivation and the pressure of a second heavenstage cultivation washed over me. I don't know what kind of look I had on my face but whatever he saw turned his sneer into a frown and his hand tightened on my shoulder.

I suppose there were definitely some downsides to looking younger.


----------------------------

I later found out that the man was a servant named Raul, barely thirty years old this year. He was something of a talent around here, having made it to the second heavenstage within a few years of starting practice. He was fiercely protective of the other servants and apparently liked to use his newfound strength to 'correct' anyone who said anything bad about them while he waited for the next Legion recruitment cycle. While I appreciated the sentiment, my new chair to watch the festivities had a lot to learn about picking fights and not judging cultivators by their looks.

"I apologize senior, this one had eyes but could not see the Bronze Gates." he pleaded on his hands and knees.

"Shut up, I'm trying to watch the wedding."

"Of course, senior. This one will be the essence of obscurity and silence. I will walk the Dao of the Ascetic for as long as you wish."

"Why the devil are you talking like that?"

"Do you like it?" he asked, actually sounding genuinely chipper for a second, "This one has read all the novels that have passed through Emporikiporis in the past ten years. The saga of Mistress Ferenike was most enlightening on etiquette and I learned as much as I could. 'Curdles with Soup' is indeed a gifted author to have gotten Mistress Ferenike's permission to write her legacy."

Oh no this was worse than I thought. I was saved from having to respond to that by Korina's gaze finally landing on me between rounds of dance. Her already bright face lit up further and she rushed through the crowd of well wishers to get to me. For a brief moment I saw the energetic little girl that I'd brought with me to the Golden Devil Clan overlaid on her form before it faded and she threw her hands around me.

"Paulus!" She exclaimed, hugging me tight.

"Korina, good to see you." I replied, returning the hug as best I could. She was taller now, taller than me even, but not so much that the hug was too awkward. If she felt any of that awkwardness at all I didn't see it in her. Just love and excitement and a rather curious looking man approaching from where she left him on the dance floor.

"Don't greet me like a stranger, Paulus! We're family! When did you arrive? I thought you were going to come see me. Also why are you sitting on Raul?" A tide of questions flowed out of her mouth one after the other like a rush of terror scorpions and I couldn't help but smile as I did my best to answer them.

"I just got here today, just a few hours ago in fact. I didn't want to disturb your wedding so I planned to wait until it ended before I came by. As for this guy, ask him."
"This one really kicked an iron board this time, Auntie Korina." Raul muttered, still on his hands and knees.

"Did you try and pull your gangster stunt again, Raul? I told you that you would get in trouble for that someday, you're lucky it was your Uncle Paulus and not someone else." she said sternly, surprising me.

The man who had been lightly beaten up and forced to act as a chair for the past hour nodded emphatically but otherwise remained exactly where he was. "Don't worry Auntie, next time I'll strike first."

Korina spent a few minutes chewing out the young man who she was apparently looking after. Following that we broke into light conversation. Korina introduced me to her husband, a wagon driver of meagre cultivation who had been courting her for fifteen years before she agreed to marry him. They seemed happy enough together and I had to quietly admit in my heart of hearts that he probably knew more about her than I did at this point. Still, I gave him the stinkeye promise of violent retribution if he hurt Korina, just to keep him on his toes.

I hung around in the city for another week at Korina's insistence and just...caught up with her when she and her new husband came up for air. She was still my 'servant', I discovered, but when I tried to do something about it she chided me and said that someone had to manage all the wealth the rest of the gang sent home and that she had apparently been doing that for decades already. I suppose that was that.

I was also apparently the proud owner of a dozen children's homes in mortal cities around the Golden Devil territories thanks to her efforts, with the biggest and best being back in our old city with funding and support from old Meathead Romanalis himself. I guess time changes things after all.

As Korina leaned into my side and chattered about her life since the last time we saw each other I reflected, maybe time doesn't change everything. And that was fine too.

----------------------
----------------------
Word Count: 2500
Turn 9 events continue. I wanted to have a short look at the fates of those who don't cultivate. I didn't really get to do all I wanted with this due to time constraints but I hope I illustrated some of the different kinds of satisfaction one can find on the road of life.

Korina never really got into the cultivation thing so they'll end up having less time together than Paulus expected but they can still appreciate each other and enjoy what they have. She's gotten a lot done too!

Next up, Merchant Mission activities.

Pinging for collaborator assistance as stimpulated @Mochinator

 

[Falconis]

Paulus 9 - Heaven's Riches (part 1)


The Golden Devil Lands were some of the worst in the entire Virtuous Flipper Region. In fact other than the lands to the south-east occupied by hordes of bloodthirsty cannibals, we occupied the worst there was to be found. The Clan paid a lot of money and attention to maintaining carefully calibrated environmental adjustment arrays around the cities in their core lands, but their vassals basically had to handle their own affairs. Most of said vassals could barely support a fraction of the numbers that the Clan at large could and in the Xin Kingdom the vast majority of that number congregated towards one region.

That made it very, very easy to figure out where Jingshen agents could be hiding.

I entered The Laughing Carp while the sun was still high in the sky and driving people to whatever shade they could get. My eye catching Optomatoi armour and weapons had years ago been doffed in exchange for a slightly tattered set of high-collar silver-grey robes with a black trim that marked me as a Metal Sorcerer of the lowest level and they rustled in the powerful desert wind as I moved. The cool of the building was a welcome reprieve and I slipped over to my customary seat at the bar with a sigh of relief.

A mug of steaming brown liquid was placed before me before I could speak, and I nodded in thanks before taking a sip of the foul concoction like it was the purest oasis water after weeks of doing without.

"Ah, my thanks. There's nothing like Kopi Luwak to start the day!" I lied with a smack of my lips.

The bartender scoffed and merely added the cost to my tab, no doubt already waiting for me to finish my drink so he could overcharge me for the next one. Over the last three years I had ordered exactly two every day, after all.

"Is my uhh- my associate around? Is Chang Chang here?" I asked warily.

The bartender pointed with his chin to one of the darker corners of the establishment where Chang Chang could always be found and rolled his eyes at me as he continued cleaning a glass.

I bowed nervously at the man and took a moment to gather my courage before making my way across the crowded bar with my drink nursed in hand, taking the opportunity to bounce into or stumble over every person, chair, table, or imagined obstacle in my way, muttering apologies all the while. By the time I slumped into the seat across the table from Chang Chang the man was visibly furious at the commotion and attention.

"You dolt! Did they kick you out of the tower because of your two left feet?" the brutish man whisper-yelled at me.

"I- uh- I'm sorry Chang Chang. I only woke up a few minutes ago and - ah - the Kopi luwak takes a few minutes to kick in."

"It's already afternoon!" he hissed and his gaze turned to disgust as he looked from me to the cup I was nursing. "I don't even know why you bother drinking that filth. Do you know how it's made?"

"Of course I do!" I answered, injecting the slightest bit of spine into my retort, "The methods make it more valuable and...well expensive. About that uhh, Chang Chang, you know times have been tight recently and I was wondering - well if you could find it in your heart to -"

Chang Chang cut me off with a wave of his hand, wincing as the 'rich fragrance' from my cup reached his nostrils. "Ugh. Stop talking and drink that thing already. I don't want my table smelling like dung." He sighed explosively and gagged as he only drew in more of the scent afterwards. He looked at me with reddened eyes and I could visibly see him weighing up the trouble I brought him vs the strength even a terrible sorcerer could bring to bear and my competitive (see: dirt cheap) asking price before he gave in.

"I have one thing you can do. One month retainer for half a gourd of Seventh Grade Vitae per day, and a full gourd of Sixth Grade Vitae if you do one more week."

"A long term thing?" I questioned hesitantly. Inside I was rejoicing, Chang Chang had never asked me for a long term retainer before. Always a day or two at most, and Sixth Grade Vitae would be a blessing to any other low level Sorcerer, and worth many cups of Kopi Luwak to this one.

"Did you think you could scrape around on one-day missions forever Lee?" he wheedled, "If you want to keep taking our money you'll have to start doing more than roughing up some debtors."

Some real hesitance joined my fake one. If this guy started asking me to do some real evil stuff then I would just lance him and call it mission failed. I tolerated this gang because they didn't seem to be guilty of more than smuggling cultivation materials that rightfully belonged to the Devils but if they were doing worse I wouldn't hesitate to come back in my full regalia and stomp their faces in.

He must have seen that he was losing me because he held up a hand for patience. "Relax. It's just a bit of guard work. You won't even have to fight. If anyone tries something you can just throw around some of your Sorcery to scare them off, and you won't even be alone if you do the last week."

I hemmed and hawed and we negotiated a bit more but it was already a done deal for me. Just what could they need a sorcerer to guard, much less multiple? I had a sneaking suspicion that I had finally caught my fish. We shook on it and I smiled.

---------------------------------

Surprisingly Chang Chang had been telling the truth, I didn't have to fight at all during the month of guard work. All he had me do was stand around warehouses in my robes and look sternly at anyone that came close, and there weren't that many in the first place. I got the feeling Chang Chang was more worried about his own smugglers filching the goods than any outside agents.

At the end of the month Chang Chang showed up at the warehouse with three other lowest grade Sorcerers, two Water Sorcerers and one Wood Sorcerer and coached the four of us on what he wanted for the last week. He paced in front of us as he spoke, pausing his stride every so often to look around but keeping his words flowing quickly and quietly.

"My senior will be showing up today to retrieve the goods. Don't speak to him. Don't look at him. Don't even breathe too strongly while he is here, do you understand? I've hired you all to impress him, not get on his bad side. After that you do whatever he says for the next week and If you do well there will be a bonus in this for all of us."

"Um...Chang Chang I have a question.."

The gangster whirled on me with bloodshot eyes and looked me up and down as if he just remembered exactly who he was dealing with. He pressed a finger to the bridge of his nose and nodded, gesturing with a free hand for me to speak even as he turned his gaze back to the door.

"Yes, go ahead Lee. Get all of it out before he gets here. I swear if you weren't so cheap.."

"If this senior of yours is so important, why didn't we just bring the goods to him straight away?"

My question seemed to snap something in the man's mind and he turned to eye me like I was something on the bottom of his shoe.

"Are you crazy, huh? Do you think we can just traipse around the city with stolen goods and just deliver them? These are stolen goods. S T O L E N G O O D S. Did your rotten brain make them kick you out of the Tower huh?"

"What is this?"

Chang Chang immediately stopped talking and fell prostrate, somehow managing to turn to face the new voice in one smooth motion as he did.

"Senior! Welcome to my humble place." Chang Chang exclaimed, immediately the picture of deference. He glared at the rest of us from underneath his arm and flicked his eyes repeatedly until we bowed at the waist. I made sure to take a good look first.

The new arrival was a man of average height with waist length black hair drawn back in a ponytail. He wore a multi-layered blue and white Hanfu with the symbol of the Jingshen boldly emblazoned across the breast and carried a scroll case in his hands. He regarded the proceedings with open distaste and I barely managed to flick my eyes towards the ground before he looked at me.

"Do not make me repeat myself, boy. Why do you have Sorcerers from the Elemental Towers here? And low level ones at that. Do you think this is enough to betray me?" the man asked with an unimpressed voice.

Chang Chang pressed his head lower to the ground, almost certainly eating dirt as he quickly replied. "Great Senior! These are guards I hired for your goods. They would never dream of raising a hand against you."

"And you believe they won't open their worthless mouths the moment they are out of sight? Then you are more foolish than I was led to believe by my Lord Brother."

Chang Chang hesitated for a few seconds before briefly raising his head only to slam it back into the ground with an audible impact. "Senior, I acknowledge my mistake. I will make sure these four don't talk. I won't order any more Sorcerer guards in the future."

The Jingshen agent scoffed and I felt his cultivation billow out across the small warehouse. The three lowest level sorcerers fell to their knees immediately and I belatedly mimicked them as I tried to sort out what I was feeling. This was my first time feeling the cultivation of someone that wasn't a Devil or a Cannibal, I realized, and it felt different in a way that I couldn't put my finger on.

Is this Heaven's support?

His level itself felt close to my own, maybe even a little bit higher. It boggled my mind to think they'd send someone at the 9th level to do a job like this but since I was also here I suppose it isn't so farfetched. I heard the sound of the scroll case popping open and the man began to speak again.

"No, you won't. Two people can keep a secret only if one of them is dead, understand?"

I risked a glance at Chang Chang from the corner of my eye and saw a pale figure doing his best not to fall unconscious, much less answer the Jingshen agent. I suppose that answers the question about whether Chang Chang is a mortal or not. He just made my job a lot harder.

The agent's aura only intensified as a tightly wrapped green scroll flew out of the case, radiating the distinctive feel of a treasure at the peak of qi condensation. "I always intended to start anew here, but I didn't expect you fools to give me such a good excuse to bring back. I won't even have to lie about it." He gestured and the scroll leapt at Chang Chang's head like a bullet before slamming into a thick sheet of bronze.

The agent's gaze followed the shadowy arm of the Hoplite back to my position and he frowned.

"You aren't a Sorcerer."

"No."

I thrust out with the spear as I answer, but I already know it's a lost cause. The scroll spins backwards through the air and gently brushes the spear aside with far more force than something that size should be able to generate. The agent leaps backwards, folding his hands in front of him as he falls in a peculiar combat stance. It looks for all the world like he's just standing there casually, but I don't buy it.

"A Devil. You revealed yourself for this filth? I would expect you folk to wish to be rid of their kind as much as I do." The scroll floats back to him and orbits his form as he speaks, humming softly to its own internal music. I walk forward and close the distance with as much casual ease as I can manage. Walking isn't exactly difficult, but maybe I can piss him off enough that he focuses his efforts on me instead of these scrubs.

"No love lost between me and ol' Chang Chang over here, but seeing as he's a mortal...well I can't rightly stand by and let you kill a mortal on Devil lands. My Legate would skin me alive."

For a moment my opponent looks actually confused. "Really? The Devils are such bleeding hearts that they would give up an infiltration for a few lives? I will have to travel with a pair to butcher next time. It will make things so much easier."

I answer with a thrust of the spear. The scroll flips into the way again and bats the weapon aside despite my best efforts at holding it firm. I continue thrusting, first using the Legion Spear Forms and then mixing it up however I can but every time I get close the scroll brushes the Hoplite's spear aside as if it was made of straw.

"Hmph, ridiculous. You Devils only rely on t-" He's finally forced to move as I throw the shield like a discus. He leaps into the air, barely avoiding the spinning disk of thick bronze as he ascends. The scroll floats under his feet and turns his sudden leap into a graceful glide to the rafters.

My own leap is not quite so graceful.

I fall into a crouch and let the Hoplite fall away as my body briefly turns to bronze. Qi circulates in the method of the Reflected Purities Technique and suddenly a body that would have broken from what I demanded is capable of so much more. The warehouse floor craters as I take to the sky and I call on the Hoplite once more as I approach the agent.

The spear thrust is brushed aside by the scroll but the follow up kick comes too quickly for it to catch. The agent folds his hands together and stops me dead with a grunt of exertion and fires a kick of his own at me. The shield slips through the Hoplite's shadowy body to block it and I slam the mass of spiritual bronze through the flimsy wooden rafters with the last of my momentum. Wood splinters and shatters and the agent curses audibly as we begin falling.

One and a half seconds till we hit the ground. Plenty of time.

The Hoplite dissipates as I pull on the Reflected Purities Technique again and my body goes from flesh to bronze in the blink of an eye.

I start with a right straight. He catches it on his forearm and winces before chopping at my throat to force me away. I let it hit me and fire back with a left hook simultaneously.

I'm bronze, you're not, get bent.

He realizes his mistake as the chop lands on my neck and hurts him more than it does me, but now it's too late. The hook lands on his collarbone and I take a handful of his robes in a firm grip as I pull us closer together, the cultivator cloth working against him as it refuses to tear. Back in the 1st heavenstage I could manage around ten blows a second in ideal conditions. This is not an ideal case and I only have one hand to punch with but at the 9th I am much, much faster.

I rain blows on him with my right again and again, faster and faster until the Bronze that makes up my body begins to glow cherry red at the shoulder. He blocks, parries, but mostly endures as he learns the error of letting a Devil close in melee. I'm up to fifteen blows when the scroll slips between us and shears off the front of his robes, freeing him from my grip. Bright light explodes from the scroll that pushes us away from each other before I can grab another handful.

Then we hit the ground.

We both go tumbling in opposite directions and I'm forced to physically dig my fingers into the earth to arrest my momentum before I get flung out into the street. The agent tumbles completely out of control until the scroll swoops around behind him and raises him up on a bed of green light before gently setting him back down on his feet. A hand reaches up to confirm his new broken nose and he fixes me with a glare of hatred as I hop up to my feet.

"Slacking on your physical cultivation, eh?"

"Ridiculous. This is not how cultivators fight, like some...common brutes!"

Now it's my turn to look at him in confusion. "Wait, you guys don't train physically? I guess I can just close in and beat you up every time. This will make things so much easier."

He answers by reaching out and unfurling the scroll with a snarl. The treasure aura intensifies and he reaches into his sleeves and pulls out...spirit stones?

"The Great Sage Jangshu was once asked, what is power?" The scroll pulses and the green light begins to shift towards jade. Yea I'm not waiting around for that. Stone and dust fountain up behind me as I push forward with bronze limbs, closing the distance in the blink of an eye. My fist crashes into the hovering scroll with a window shattering boom...and it doesn't even react. Crap.

"Is it to be swift as the waters of the river Yangzu, or to strike with the ferocity of a mighty sandstorm?" He continues chanting as I try and dodge around the floating scroll. It's too wide when unfurled, I can't slip past it. The impact of my punches stirs the dust in the air around us, but the agent stands calmly behind the scroll's protective circle as he chants. If I only had my actual gear instead of this damn costume.

"Is it to be as prevalent as the blazing sun that reaches all corners of the seas?" I slide backwards and let the Reflected Purities fall away and call on the Hoplite with the same breath. My Qi roils with all the quick switching going on, but it's not enough for permanent damage. I can heal up later.

"No, The Sage answered. It is money!" The spirit stones in his hands flicker and collapse into dust as their energy is violently drained and sucked into the scroll. Jade light twists and thickens and in an instant a massive hand made entirely of treasure qi forms from the back of the scroll. It reaches out to me, growing as it does until it reaches twice my size.

I stab and the spear skitters off it with a wash of gold and jade sparks. Crap.

It slams into the shield and almost dissipates it in one go. A wave of jade qi flashes through the Hoplite and in an instant the entire thing is wavering.

"What is lacking may be purchased!" He's not done yet?!

The jade hand grips the shield before I can pull away and I hear a sound like a torrent of falling coins before the construct twists and the shield is ripped away. The bronze of the shield fades away and becomes a whitegreen jade as the arm pulls it back and holds it aloft. Well that was pointless.

I dismiss the Hoplite and take a brief moment to calm my disturbed qi before calling on the shadows once again and projecting a new Hoplite around me shield and all.

"What has been bought can be sold!" The massive hand squeezes and the pilfered shield cracks and crumples before dissipating into qi - MY qi - that flows into the jade green hand, ballooning its size further. Oh this is going to suck.

"Even the heavens have a price!" The hand ripples and makes a grasping motion at the air and suddenly I'm sliding towards it. I slam the shield into the ground but the force is too much, it just drags me inexorably across the earth. I push the shield into the jade hand and dismiss the rest of the Hoplite as the jingle of coins fills my ears and the shield begins changing colour. A few quick steps along the back of the changing shield raise me up over the hand and I'm free from the pull.

What the hell is this?

I force Reflected Purities into place and step unto the arm. Immediately I can feel the technique being drained away, the slightest contact turning bronze back to flesh, but it doesn't spread. The technique still holds. I can still move. So I do.

Minimize contact. A single step is all it takes to close the distance. The scroll reacts but sluggishly, bloated and otherwise occupied as it is. It shudders and falls back and inch. Only a single inch, but that's better than before.

This is going to take longer than I bargained for.

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Wordcount: 3609

Originally this was going to be one piece but continued difficulties meant I decided to cut it here in the end. I hope you enjoy this introduction to a Jingshen fighting method I imagined. Using Wealth to seize what belongs to others, thus increasing their wealth. The Dao of Money is deep.

This started life as a collab with @BadAtScreenNames but took a rather drastic turn afterwards to the point where not even I expected where it ended up. Hopefully my boy survives and we can do something in the future.

Look out for the second half probably sometime next week.

 

[Falconis]

Paulus 10 (but its really 9 Part 2) - Ecstasy of Bronze


I've gotten too used to fighting idiots.

For the past forty years I've been fighting Blood Cannibals, and while they varied in strength and one even almost killed me...they were pretty much the same. Super fast, super strong, extremely direct with very few variations in style at the qi condensation level. Once you figure them out there isn't much depth to plumb there.

I've heard stories about higher ranking Cannibals being clever and sly, and I suppose they'd have to be to avoid being eaten for materials by their superiors once they broke through to Foundation, but I never really experienced it myself. So it was the first time in a long time that I really had to think about the enemy I was facing.

The much abused earth shattered again underfoot as I dodged around the giant jade hand with all my might. The Reflected Purities Technique multiplied my considerable strength even more as the power of a 9th heavenstage practitioner was supplemented by the secrets of the Blood of Bronze, turning each step into a blur that ate up the distance between me and the Jingshen agent, and still I wasn't fast enough.

Claws formed from jade green treasure qi scraped over my stomach, turning bronze back to flesh and drawing lines of hot pain before I escaped. A redirecting step threw me towards my opponent faster than mortal eyes could follow but my fist once again slammed into the protectively curling Treasure Scroll instead of the agent's face. Still, the man flinched in remembered pain as he clutched his broken nose with one hand and another handful of spirit stones in the other. The scroll wobbled, but held on and kept the agent safe.

This guy wasn't an idiot, just kind of naive. I get the feeling that he's never been beaten up before and the way he's burning spirit stones, probably not hurting for cash either. Over the course of this fight he has blown through a sizable portion of my monthly stipend in spirit stones just powering this stupid hand and he was already reaching for more without hesitation.

"Give it up, Devil!" He shouted, crushing another stone in his grasp as he followed me with his eyes. "I'll admit your kind is impressive on the battlefield, with your formations and ludicrous bodies, but when it has been stripped away you are simply prizes for the taking!"

The jade hand rippled and grasped at the air as the new qi ran through it and immediately the unnatural pull returned, almost dragging me off the ground. The earth tore in long lines underneath me as I tried and failed to stand firm and I was forced to once again summon the Hoplite and sacrifice its shield to let me escape. The sound of falling coins echoed out as the hand closed around the shield and turned it from ruddy bronze to a milky white jade and I felt my connection to it fade before the shield was crushed and absorbed into the arm.

It ballooned upwards in size until it could barely fit in the warehouse before becoming indistinct. Treasure qi flexed and split evenly and in bare seconds there were two smaller arms instead of one massive one.

Crap.

The chase resumed with both arms working in sync. I dodged around one only for the second to grasp at the air and pull me towards it. I skidded across the earth and crouched to leap over the much smaller hand only for the previous arm to grasp at the air and pull me back. For a bare, agonizing moment I was stuck in one spot, being pulled from both directions and unable to move. Then the two hands slammed into me from opposite sides and closed around me.

"It's over!"

Immediately I felt qi being rapidly whisked away from me and my body flickered between the solid bronze of the Reflected Purities and the flesh of my cultivator body. I strained against the arms, marshaling every last bit of control I could to keep Reflected Purities growing while I concentrated on not being crushed. All the while, the agent gloated in the background.

"Can you feel it, Devil? The very life being drained out of you? Bought and sold like chattel?"

Massive jade fingers folded around each other and squeezed and the palms worked together to squash me like a bug. My arms burned as I held them back.

"In a few seconds everything you have will be mine. And your empty husk will become food for the dogs in the street."

There was no way I could hold Reflected Purities with the jade hands stripping the qi in the technique before it could take proper hold. The Hoplite was the fastest substitution I could manage, but I had already seen how useless, and worse a liability, it was against these arms. I needed the Reflected Purities if I wanted to get through this, but it needed more than I was giving it. So I pushed.
.
"In just a few seconds…"

My body snapped back to bronze just in time to stop my body from exploding as I pulled energy deep from my lower dantian and flooded meridians that were altogether unprepared to bear this capacity. The channels for my qi, as much physical as they were spiritual, burned inside me and within seconds the lines of glowing hot bronze could be seen with the naked eye leading to all corners of my body. I exhaled and clouds of steam filled the space as my body worked overtime to shed the excess heat. And I pushed.

"...Unreal. How are you generating this much-"

The hands redoubled their efforts to squash me, but with a body of solid spiritual bronze I could endure for a lifetime. Qi flooded into the hands just slower than I could replace it and my channels blazed with heat. My entire body quickly began to glow red and tongues of yellow flame licked over my flesh as the air ignited around me. If my technique failed now I would undoubtedly immediately die from spontaneous combustion. Turning back was no longer an option. So I pushed.

Qi thundered through my meridians in what was undoubtedly the stupidest cleanse a cultivator had ever done shortly before their ignoble death; If it wasn't for the claws draining the excess I'm sure even my enhanced body would have broken down before too long. As it was this was actually a beneficial, if insane, cultivation method. But I wasn't about to ask the Jingshen agent to help me break through or call down heavenly tribulation on this very spot, no, there was a method behind this madness. Qi filled the jade hands and they grew larger, stronger, almost enough to actually do the job and crush me, but then they did as I hoped and hit some kind of upper limit...and split. The jade hands wavered and grew insubstantial, the copious amounts of qi involved reworking themselves from two to four hands in just a handful of seconds,

And I pushed.

In their brief moment of weakness the hands couldn't resist me and I stole just enough breathing room to skip into the air a few meters above the already rapidly reforming hands. The four hands solidified as I reached the peak of my flight and I knew I wouldn't get away with that again. Already they turned to face me, fingers splayed and waiting for me to fall.

And I stepped on Bronze.

The third of the Clan's three 'Great Formations' was not as refined as the Hoplite, nor as powerful as the Kataphrakoti. In another clan or sect it might have been merely a 'useful' formation taught to inner members; a convenient tool for getting from one place to the other. In the hands of the Golden Devil Clan, however, the Two Headed Bronze Eagle was truly worthy of its title of great. For it was not a shadow of glories long past as the Hoplite and Kataphrakoti were, but a living promise of glories to come.

I couldn't drop Reflected Purities, so I didn't. My already abused channels protested as I forced them to run the two demanding techniques at once but if anything the Bronze of my flesh and spirit only helped manifest the Eagle. Light poured from my body and flowed together like a liquid, pooling beneath my feet and then flaking away to reveal the massive form of a Bronze Eagle large enough to carry me as if it had always been there hiding just out of sight. The Eagle turned one of its heads to regard me, visibly running its gaze across my body and spirit before seemingly judging me acceptable and turning its gaze forward. It flapped its massive wings once and screeched, loudly, from both heads, announcing its presence to the world.

Prideful bastard. Now all of Xin knows we're here.

"What..is that?"

The voice of the Jingshen agent brought my attention back to where he stood, gaping up at the suddenly appearing Two Headed Eagle made of solid spiritual bronze. The jade hands bobbed in the air around him like snakes doing a threat display, or maybe scorpions waiting to strike. I'm not good at analogies.

"Something your filthy money can't buy."

He scoffed, seeming to regain some of his confidence. "Nonsense. Even the heavens have a price!" The hands grasped as one and a massive suction pulled the Eagle from the sky, and it followed it gladly. Four hands of treasure jade wrapped around the eagle and squeezed, the jangling of falling coins filled the air...and nothing happened.

The Eagle screeched and began pushing back against the jade hands, fed by my qi and its own bottomless will. It slowly yet surely began to push the hands back. The Jingshen agent pulled another handful of spirit stones from his sleeves and held them aloft.

"Impossible! Money is no object!" he shouted, gritting his teeth in anger. The hands rippled and immediately began shrinking, shoving their qi violently into the Eagle beneath me at the cost of their stability. Lines of white jade began snaking across the Eagle at a snail's pace, at this rate he would perhaps manage to buy it after a hundred years of effort. I could see he couldn't believe his eyes, so I threw him a bone.

"The Two Headed Eagle is a prideful beast. Out of all the formations in the clan, the Eagle will never serve a master without the Blood of Bronze."

He glared at me in confusion...and then terror as the blood drained from his face. "No...you mean... Sapient Formation?"

The Eagle answered itself with a prideful screech. It flapped its bronze wings and the weakened jade hands shattered having failed to do much more than colour a few feathers and even that was slipping away at a visible rate. It dove with claws outstretched and glowing with fell intent at the agent and was blocked by the scroll hovering around him. But while it was blocking the Eagle, it couldn't block me.

I leapt and a red hot fist of solid bronze struck the agent before he could blink sending him to la la land.

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"Stupid stupid stupid dammed prideful motherfu-" I cursed up a storm as I flew into the empty Jingshen safehouse. Even as quickly as I could move after rifling through the agent's storage ring, it turns out that a giant bronze eagle screeching its defiance at the heaven's that wronged it every two seconds was enough to give the Jingshen a hint that maybe something had gone wrong with the smuggling job. I was sure that for the next few days I wouldn't find a single Jingshen agent outside of their rented villas or approved and observed markets.

Even if I forced my way in with their buddy's insensate form as evidence of wrongdoing I'd bet three month's stipend that I wouldn't find a single thing wrong and I'd hear complaints coming up the line about Golden Devils punching out juniors who were just out for a walk in an unknown city and had gotten turned around or some crap.

"And all because YOU couldn't keep your beak sealed for one tiny little fight."

The Two Headed Eagle regarded me impassively and immediately screeched to the heavens again before dismissing itself in a shower of light and bronze. Great, now I'd have to walk back too. Still it wasn't all a wash, I'd gotten more than the locations of a few safehouses from the agent's ring but what I had didn't match the list of known Jingshen 'traders' in the Xin Kingdom or anywhere else in Golden Devil territory.

There's no way around it. I'm going to the Jingshen Lands

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Word Count: 2144

I...really struggled to finish this one and I feel like the next one will probably be just as difficult. Just one of those things I guess. Not much to say.
Edit: I forgot, this was probably one of the first showings of Paulus's 'increased stamina' Good Seed bonus in action. I had originally planned to explain that in story but I couldn't find a good way to put it in.


Since this is technically my first omake for turn 10, I request a Life Saving Treasure. @Mochinator @no.