TURN 11, OMAKE 11 [
Lipita]
Lipita Delphi 26: The Delphi Rise
Calliope Delphi, Core Formation elder and arch-councillor of the Delphi bloodline sighed, considering the situation pressing upon her. Pelagos was a masterful adjunct coordinating the activities of the Delphi family council with consummate professionalism but even he was looking a bit frazzled at the task she had set upon him. Dealing with her subordinate elders was a headache at the best of times and this… this was not that. She rolled her shoulders as she thought back to developments of the last few years. War with Jingshen had been a wary consideration of every legate and head of influence within the Golden Devils ever since the Battle Blood Cannibals had been ousted, disrupting the long lasting detente between the three great powers of the Organ Meat Desert. Informal strategic analysis amongst her peers had estimated that the merchant lords of Jingshen were unwilling to muster up the critical mass and will for an offensive push into the Clan's lands even with their superior number of Nascents, to claim the Scorpion Road they'd long sought and direct access to the Plains with it. Their silence in response to Sheng Yu's raid gave strength to that line of thought. No, consensus was that the grasping traders would seek first some backing from more able members of the Righteous Path to back their play. More than a century ago in her role as aide to old Philos, she would have bet on the Seven Divine Saber Palace as the natural ally for Jingshen but things had changed and all reports were that relations between the two factions had soured. Old Gold has scored a coup by currying favor with Strength Purity Sect and that had put a hitch in any plan Jingshen had to win over the other anchor of the Righteous Path.
The Archegetes selecting Sheng Yu over Olympiodora Rhangabe to replace Heraclius Staurakius as Protostrator had been a wind change in the calculus of war. Things had moved quickly after that in startling change. An exceedingly light toll in the Hundred-Year Trials had been the first snowflake down the mountain slope. Lady Yao Zhihao taking refuge in the Dawn Fortress had then sealed an alliance to aid the Clan in exchange for help refounding the Flood Dragon Gang. Manuel Konstantinos had somehow pulled a miracle from under his shadowy robes and elevated Kleisthenes Sarantapechos to Second Grand Elder, in a few short years overturning the table to claim Nascent superiority in the Desert. To counter that good fortune, Xie Xinya had brought dire news of imminent threat of Jingshen leapfrogging the Clan's recent gains to overwhelm their territories with four Nascents. At that point, the lay of the land lay clear to anyone with eyes to see. The Golden Devils either struck now while surprise and strength were with them or risked being overcome later.
All this had seen her family and the legion under her watch leap into action. The 72nd legion, the Compass Rose, was hers to command as it had been for Philos and innumerable Delphi elders for centuries. The legion was the family by this point, Aspirants of the bloodline bought and paid for in Contribution Points, at a cost made bearable only by the infamy of their haunted legacy. Production of artifacts, pills, and arrays had soared by an order of magnitude that had seen every hand brought to bear, even idlers like Linus. Poor Pelagos and his assistants had suffered to see her vision made successful but they'd done it and their contribution had been noticed and marked in the quiet way of such things. The balance of favor for the family's support of the war effort weighed heavily now and she'd wield it to seek greater heights for the bloodline. Which brought her to now and the longstanding pain in her side wandering her office like an excitable toddler.
"Chemos, put down that wine bottle now before I break your wrists." Threats of bodily harm were the fastest way of getting through that thick skull.
Quickly placing the very expensive bottle of 500-Year Yin Grape spirit liquor back, Chemos Delphi spun around arms behind his back in a pretense of innocence that fooled no one. "Haha, no need to get yourself in a bother, my dear Calliope. I was just looking, no harm done now."
Looking at the man fidgeting across her desk, Calliope only lifted an eyebrow. Chemos had the wizened features of a venerable elder, hair and beard gone steel gray with wrinkles and all, yet he acted as though he was a newly awakened junior.
Placing both hands on the wooden surface of her table, she leaned forwards. "You know why we're here. Pelagos has assured me that he has personally seen to it that you received the material for the council's plans for the serving legionnaires of the family. You are not going into the Jingshen heartlands on raids. You're too valuable to risk."
Smiling contentedly, Chemos replied. "No, I will not be doing as you described. You might be forgetting in your senescence that you're not my legate. I specifically joined the 63rd to avoid being under the command of the family anymore than I had to."
Calliope briefly entertained the daydream of leaping over her desk to strangle the insufferable irritant before her. "You are the member of the family with the greatest chance of advancement into Core Formation. We have only a handful of Experts in the Great Circle of Foundation Establishment and none as tempered as you. Even I have to acknowledge your accomplishments amongst your more foolhardy exploits. The family needs you safe more than it needs you winning glory in war."
That smile never wavered as Chemos wagged his finger at her. "Calliope dear, the family's fine. Business is up, the juniors are blossoming nicely and we have you to thank for that. The family has no need for me."
Calliope's voice turned harsh. "You know as well as I do that I'm at best a stop-gap, a placeholder in this seat."
Her hands dug deep into the hardwood surface of her desk as the pain of that hellish tribulation was brought to the fore of her mind. The ache that lingered ever present in her bones flared, the lifelong curse of her blood roused from quiescence ever since that day barely bridled to her will. Even now she could not bear the touch of clothes on her form without being driven to flay covering and skin alike off. It was a dear sacrifice she'd paid but one she'd do in a heartbeat again for her family.
Her qi flared, demanding attention with the potency of a cultivator who had surmounted tribulation after tribulation to reach the third great realm, a step below the supremacy of Nascent Soul. Yet that same strength was fragile, hollow, giving an unsettling sense of precariousness and highlighting the flaws in the process that had led to her current position. "The family needs... no, it deserves more than an arch-councillor who is stalled, unable to advance. The tides of fate are shifting as you should know. I and those more adept than me perceive the dawning of a Great Era. The family requires strength that can catch the winds of the oncoming storm and be shield and sail alike to bear it safely through. I cannot do this but you, your promise, shines like none other. But that means nothing if you get yourself killed before you can fulfill that promise."
Finally the smile faded and seriousness hardened Chemos' face. "You speak of my promise, some outstanding potential I possess but what is that but the fulness it who I am. My blood stirs for Clan, to fight for it with the works of my hands. The call has gone out to bring the wrath of the Blood of Bronze to our enemies and I must answer in service to ruin. You ask me to betray myself, to forego my oaths for safety? Better you wish me to shatter my cultivation here and now for that would be the course you set me upon."
Sighing, Calliope sat back in her chair. She'd predicted this outcome but it would have been nice to have some security for the family, and selfishly, herself. Observing the resolute cast of Chemos' features, she was ever the more convinced that here was a man who could make the leap in due time she'd been unable to transcend. That future had to be safeguarded and if she could not hold him back then all that was left was to aid his cause.
Pulling out a jade slip from her desk drawer, she lifted it up with qi towards Chemos. As he examined the slip, his controlled expression slipped. "Is this accurate?" He asked, almost shaking.
"That's a blank check to the stores and vaults of the family except the reserve strength." Seeing the excitement that suffused Chemos at her confirmation, she cautioned him. "Don't clean us out. You're a veteran centurion so for the Imperator's sake, take only what you truly need for your mission, not just anything that catches your fancy. By the way, I spoke with your legate Aurelian. You're on secondment from the Sojourners to the Compass Rose. If you're going to be risking your life, you're doing it under my nominal authority."
Saluting with palpable excitement, Chemos grinned. "Aye, ma'am. Happy to serve."
Scoffing Calliope dismissed Chemos. She was half surprised he didn't leave a dust trail with the speed of his departure. She enjoyed a few brief moments of silence before Pelagos approached, announcing his approach with a polite burst of qi.
Stepping into her office, he placed a slip on her desk for review. Looking through the material while he waited silently, she idly observed that the usually immaculately put together secretary was looking a little out of sorts for himself. He'd been wearing that tunic for two days now she reckoned and his hair was missing it's customary application of unguents. Nonetheless he'd not complained about the increased workload. She made a note to increase his bonus, proper service demanded recognition.
"These are all those available, I take it?" She asked, finished with her reading.
"Yes, councillor. The notice was sent out to all family members who have signed up. The number was larger than expected but perhaps that's for the best. We appear to have a lot of new blood itching to break away from tradition." Pelagos replied.
"Alright let's get this started, have them muster in the central assembly by dusk. I'll meet them there." Calliope ordered.
Pelagos nodded in acknowledgement and hurried off to see her order fulfilled. Calliope rose from her seat and followed after him. There were several urgent tasks to attend to before the muster and companions to awaken.
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Emporikipolis was a bustling hubbub, even more than usual with the war. The conflict in the east had disrupted trade along the Scorpion Road. Jingshen was no longer sending their stones westward bound and all consignments moving towards the great power had been intercepted for 'inspection'. The varied merchant houses of the trade city were in uproar about the situation, some seeing ruin in the breakout of hostilities and others capitalizing on the war market to boost their position. Lipita had borne witness to that upheaval herself after her convalescence. As soon as she'd been deemed fit, she'd been thrown into crafting arrays and talismans without cease. She swore she could write out the sigils in her sleep now with how much of that she'd been doing. Elder Linus had personally picked her out for his workshop when she'd drawn notice for her speed and quality of work among the junior production ranks. The artifact compass she'd crafted with Kokkinos Laoshi's assistance incorporating the Orienting Bezoar won from her exploits in the Man-as-Mountain realm had eased her craftsmanship considerably. Fastened around her neck and attuned to the Sahasrara chakra, her acuity had grown in leaps and bounds to allow her to craft complex sigilcraft normally the province of those several small realms above her. It was a bit more difficult applying that new competence to alchemy and pill refining with how little she'd done so far but even there considerable improvement was discernible.
Hurrying through the estate entrance waving her family token to the guards in passing, she made her way to the central assembly hall. It was unbecoming to be late to a gathering called by the arch-councillor herself but physical training had run over long. She imagined senior Gaius and Simon would be pleased that she'd maintained her combat training routine. The Orienting Bezoar remarkably offered some utility in live combat against humans so she'd been practicing with several more experienced Qi Condensation legionnaires she'd become acquainted with. Reaching the Great Circle of the first realm in two decades was an uncommon feat and she'd outpaced the usual strategies for managing growth. Few of friends from her Aspirant times were up to sparring now so she'd Ben getting beat down by veterans. Not always, though and she smiled as she rushed through the wood-inlaid halls, remembering today's practice session where she led Tomus around like a flailing drunk, predicting every attack by observing how his qi flow gave away his intentions beforehand.
Bursting into the assembly grounds she found herself at the rear of a sizable gathering of Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment family members, well sizable for a family like hers if not exactly large enough to fill the expansive space of a hall designed to accommodate a full family mustering. The several dozen members stilled their milling and chatter just as she entered, a daunting weight settling across the group. Looking forward towards the other end of the hall, she watched legate Calliope Delphi enter, trailed by four dissimilar constructs, two on either side. Lipita immediately grasped that this was not going to be a simple meeting if the arch-councillor was actively deploying the Four Idols of Ariadne. Centauroid, humanoid, avian and arachnoid, the Idols were the puppets that the elder wielded in battle, building a reputation in her days as a Foundation Establishment Expert as a nightmare for entire squads of peers to face. The responsibilities of being legate and arch-councillor had seen elder Calliope given little opportunity to demonstrate how she'd earned the moniker, The Dread Hand of the Moirai but perhaps that was about to change. She couldn't make out any obvious mechanisms of control even this close and she marveled at the mastery on display. Word among the younger members of the family was that each puppet had been augmented with the remains of defeated peers - Spirit Beasts and humans - their bodies melded with artifice to become a supplement to her strength to make up for the sacrifice of her potential she'd made to breakthrough quickly to Core Formation in order to maintain the command of the 72nd legion for the family.
Her admiration of the constructs was interrupted as the ground below elder Calliope lifted up into a platform and she began to speak, drawing the focus of all in the crowd with a gravity of presence that made her nudity on display seem regal. "You all gathered here are assembled because for some reason, be it foolishness, bravery or ignorance, you have volunteered to serve in the front lines striking directly at the Jingshen lands."
Oh, that was interesting, Lipita thought The announcement made Lipita consider her neighbors with fresh eyes, noticing the people who'd apparently echoed.her choice. She'd thought she'd be unusual among her family for volunteering for such an aggressive role given the Delphi but there was a surfeit of variety available among those gathered in the assembly hall. The hulking giantess Gaia to her far left was more who she'd imagined as joining such a mission from passing familiarity on the training field, not say the scrawny fellow a few bodies to her right. Anaias was a familiar sight from the workshop but a very surprising presence here from the elder's description of the attendees.
Elder Calliope continued her speech. "The Archegetes has proposed firstly that the Clan raise up a great clamour within the territory of Jingshen."
Her eyes fell upon the crowd, ebon orbs hiding all emotion. "Legionnaires are commanded to strike deep into Jingshen territory, the Clan's talents in both Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment wreaking havoc. The mission is not a defensive operation but a vicious offensive to rob caravans, kill cultivators, destroy defenses and arrays designed to detect. The goal is to blind the Jingshen and make the cost of not fighting ever-greater."
A grim tone colored her voice. "The Qi Condensation cultivators amongst you will be sent to the south, raiding villages and roads and stripping the land bare of anything that might be of use to the Jingshen. Success would mean weakening the Jingshen conventional forces by some degree. A failure would see the Jingshen more easily hold their lands."
Calliope looked down at a figure rocking in the front, a very familiar qi signature apparent now that Lipita's attention had been drawn. "Those few in Foundation Establishment who have volunteered will be deployed deep within Jingshen lands, their abilities as Experts making them crucial in the various raids that can destroy and damage the Jingshen in their heartlands. Success would mean that the Jingshen fear to come out of their holes, forcing the Nascents of the Jingshen to take the field. Failure would mean that the Jingshen morale will hold and their forces can more easily hold the field against our Legions, forcing the Archegetes to engage them in unfavorable ways."
Calliope's manner was now that of a stern taskmaster, her aura rapping at the senses of those gathered. "You have declined to serve within the workshops in our estates. You have passed on less demanding missions, safeguarding looted Spirit Stones to the plains or manning the conquered forts along the Scorpion Road. Instead you have set yourselves upon ambition that has often laid low those of our bloodline."
The elder's presence seemed to swell, making her loom in the senses. "I will not have you disgrace our family name in failure, whether it be to the Harrowing or your own weakness so I have taken it upon myself to ensure that you are fit for the task. For the next few weeks, I will do my level best to break you down so that you can be reforged into fitting spears for the Clan. Your lives and your deaths will be made useful for our glory."
Lipita Delphi lost track of the rest of the speech, as she wondered if she was somehow cursed. The personal attention of veteran seniors in training was invaluable, she realized but why did every experience of it she went through have the threat of heightened physical torment? These were going to be very long painful weeks if this beginning was any indication. As assistants to secretary Pelagos entered the hall and handed out personalized schedules, Lipita resigned herself to spending her evening cooking up several vats of her mothers' patented liniment. She was going to need the relief to survive.
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Chemos Delphi bounced on his feet, expressing the buzz of excitement he was feeling. His fellow companions on the private training field in the family estate were on the whole more restrained which he thought a shame. How often did anyone get to say that an elder took them in hand for personalized training? Where was the anticipation of experiencing the gulf between great realms, of witnessing the fruits of the heights yet to be climbed? Looking at the young fellows with him he shook his head, where did the zest, the wonder go so quickly. As he surveyed the field, his sub-mind pulled up references on all present, compiling a dossier that his conscious awareness scanned through, disappointing in its blandness. None present were above Mid Foundation Establishment and one was a newly broken through Expert who hadn't even fortified her first pillar. Couldn't be blamed, the family did make a habit of going on about safety, keeping to tradition and minimizing risk. Besides, they were here, because they'd volunteered for a challenge, some daring to liven the blood. That had to be acknowledged though not enough that he'd be remembering their names. Much better to use the descriptors he'd come up with.
Panning across the group, his finger pointed as he called out. "Bucktooth…" For an Expert at Mid, advancing hadn't really done much to improve his features. "Antsy…" Come on, an Expert, even a new one, had to have some pride rather than shivering and muttering like a young woman on their first date at the prospect of training with the old bat. "Tightass…" Seriously, his posture couldn't have been straighter or more wooden if a flag pole had been providing posterior support. "Clouds…" Really young man, it was not a good look on your first day to show up blissed, giving every impression that you were halfway up Mt Tai on dreamleaf.
The training ground had been silent in the early morning before Chemos had spoken, every other person unwilling or unable to start up conversation. Now Chemos had made himself the center of attention.
Tightass was the first to reply, "My name is Centurion Agrias Delphi of the 72nd Legion, not Tightass. You would do well to respect my rank." He said coldly.
Wiping her hands nervously on her pants, Antsy grimaced. "Sorry I'm just so nervous because it's the legate training us, you know. That's a big thing. Ah, I didn't introduce myself. Centurion Medea Delphi."
Bucktooth merely rolled his eyes and kicked a stone into a nearby tree. "Laugh it up old man. Everybody's got a comment about the teeth. Agrippa's the name, and the teeth don't stop the ladies from giving me a good time so I say what's it matter to you."
Clouds kept quiet but Chemos' experienced perception caught that the silence was not from obliviousness if the tight weave of qi being maintained was anything to go off.
The rejoinder Chemos had planned was interrupted as a piercing shriek drew all eyes upwards. Circling above a man-sized biomechanic avian automaton circled the field which they all recognized. A loud clap forcefully brought their attention back to the ground as Calliope stood in the shade of the tree so recently assaulted by a rock. Chemos updated his notes on Calliope's abilities because he'd not picked up a whisper of her arrival even with puppets in tow. Being stuck at Early Core it would appear gave a woman an appreciation for subtlety. The other Experts straightened up in the presence of the elder, even Clouds, not as out of it as he affected. The flying construct landed and Calliope stepped forward.
"I will be brief and direct since the bulk of what you needed to know should have been available to you from the slips provided yesterday. This is intended to be a series of training sessions to temper your combat abilities before you serve on the front lines." Calliope wasted no time, ignoring small talk. "The Resonant Bronze Compass that is our bloodline inheritance makes prolonged combat engagement a losing proposition for the average family cultivator. You are not average but have shown the grit to fight through the pain and confusion. You have also attained the base physical ability to begin truly leveraging the combat effects of our legacy arts. Celerity's Awakening and Augur's Hagiography are within your grasp now."
Looking at Chemos and Bucktooth, she continued. "Some of you have even gained attainments with mind forking and other more advanced techniques. That's all well and good but good is never enough. The average combat experience gathered here is less than a third of a similar grouping of Experts in most legions. Your fieldcraft and formation competence are at best average. This is not a mission within our borders or even our vassals. You are being tasked with deep raids in enemy territory against hardened targets, aware and motivated."
Calliope broke into a smile that sent shivers down spines. "You each represent an investment of time and resources I will not see go to waste, so I will see your good transformed into excellent. There will be rotating combat practice with myself and my constructs interspersed with joint combat exercises. I will be supervising extended ranging exercises for you as well. Each of you will be expected to have mastered the legacy arts for your realm to perfection. By the time I am done with you, you will be as close a facsimile of the legends of old who staked out our family's name in antiquity as we can get in this fallen age."
She called out the initial assignments, leading off members of the group with her puppets. Finally, it was left with just Chemos and Calliope at the original meeting point. "Oh hoho," he chuckled, stroking his beard. "Leaving yourself all to me, Calliope dear, you do me too much honor."
Shaking her head faintly, Calliope cracked her knuckles. "Old fool, I could never pass up the opportunity to beat you into the ground in person."
Chemos' painfully won wealth of experience from a lifetime of active service and the strength of his cultivation base meant that he'd had accelerated perception and predictive techniques primed for activation which was the only reason he was able to see the punch that launched him across the field. He swore in his mind as he reached the apex of his arc and felt threads of qi wrap around him. His sub-mind predicted that based on Calliope's known combat preferences, his meeting with the ground would now be forcefully assisted. He left a deep crater in the ground from the impact, force and the increased weight of his frame under his preferred body reinforcement technique. From then it was a blistering blur of being manhandled like a punching bag as blows hammered at him and he was pulled in all directions. In the hands of an Elder pursuing the Dao of Puppetry, he might as well have been a marionette.
Calliope lectured him throughout the beating. "Qi reserves that average double the normal capacity of a legionnaire. Heightened qi sensitivity. Refined mental enhancement techniques. An inheritance of knowledge accumulated and added to over the centuries. These are our advantages as Delphi. Sufficient brute force can overwhelm any and all these as I hope you are learning. Show this senile old bat what you can do old man."
Chemos felt as tender as a beef patty barely a few minutes into the spar. He was burning through qi like a wildfire just to stay in one piece. Poison, illusions, elemental techniques, every attack he tried was ignored or countered with ease. Calliope toyed with him, introducing him to various surfaces gleefully, interrupting techniques with whips formed of qi, playing him like a marionette as controlled every engagement. His only recourse was to defend, to deflect what he could, block what was unmoved, recover and restore his body as much as possible in the tempest and cling to survival. Buried beneath the focus of keeping his body intact, he reconsidered if perhaps he should have been a little more circumspect in his conversation considering Calliope was very enthusiastically managing this while splitting her attention five ways between multiple bodies. Finally his bruised body was hurled to rest against a tree trunk. Coughing, he gasped out. "I thought the point of this was to train... not beat me half to death as an excuse for venting."
Calliope stretched her arms up above her shoulders. His suffering had evidently been good exercise for her. "While I will admit that I held back it wasn't all that much. You just survived a Core Formation cultivator attacking you physically relatively unrestrained for several minutes without dying or serious injury. That is not a common or easy feat to perform, especially without extensive preparation beforehand. Jingshen has an abundance of Elders compared to the clan, and given your mission objectives you're going to have to go up against or around them. Better to get the worst case scenario out of the way in practice, wouldn't you say? Rest up and use the stones we supplied you. We're going again in 10 minutes and I expect to see the mad genius I've heard so much about."
Bruised and battered, Chemos felt alive with excitement at the challenge set before him. To be commanded to somehow harm an elder, a cultivator standing a supreme step above him, that was a worthy goal Taking out a spirit stone to recover his qi reserves, he began planning how he was going to deal with those damned strings. An old array he'd been working on took centerpiece in his Palace of Memory as he jury rigged modifications to hold his tormenter hopefully long enough to actually fight back. His sub-mind began work on analysing the movements they'd observed so far to refine their predictive engine and gain any edge against the terrifying physical prowess on display. Battlefield medicine had a surprising number of arrays for use that if one looked at them sideways they made perfect weapons. If he couldn't keep away, then let's see how Calliope liked him getting in close and stopping her heart. Blood sympathy was a useful dagger in the hands of an apothecarist. A feint of Seven Ghost Flaying Poison spat in her face should provide useful cover for the setup.
As he worked his way through multiple strategies and contingencies for his counterattack, Chemos wondered how his former apprentice was doing. He'd been delighted to notice her in the assembly and catching up with her afterwards had been fun and very profitable. The girl still didn't keep a good eye on her supplies, oh well, her loss would be his gain in pain relief after this hellish training.
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Thalia Delphi slurped up the ramen in her bowl, watching amusedly as her brother Galen stalked the training fields, upbraiding the juniors practicing their formations. Every legionnaire elevated from Aspirant had to be competent in the Clan's mainstay combat techniques but there was a vast gap between competent and adept as was being demonstrated now. Varied silhouettes of shadowy Hoplites faced off against one another, Kataphraktoi wheeled in drilled charges and the shrieks of Two-Headed Eagles blistered mortal hearing as they raced above the compound, each qi construct containing juniors under their supervision divided into basic units of four to polish the foundations established as Aspirants. Being able to form a Hoplite fast enough, sturdy enough, to defend oneself and squadmates; knowing where to land a Kataphraktoi charge to blast past raised defenses; having the acuity to understand the movements of the dragonlines of thin qi in the Desert to draw out more speed, more distance when flying within a Two-Headed Eagle; these were battlefield skills that had to be refined by grueling consistent practice which quite a number of those on the field had skipped to focus on their crafting abilities. There was a reason the Legions in the Golden Devil Clan had a general war readiness protocol that took decades to make sure the polish on the shields and spears matched the expertise of the cultivators wielding them. Alas the nature of the conflict with Jingshen had demanded speed to avoid giving any forewarning from the usual massing of troops and combat preparation exercises. The rushed efforts of the family would just have to do this case.
It wasn't all bad though since this gave the leadership of the family a chance to slip in a few modifications to the standard curriculum. The Century Oasis Formation was being hammered into the heads of everyone present. She'd have to send her regards and report to Second Chronicler Tisamenos - or was it Ambassador now? The Delphi were definitely backing any request to have the Formation see general application, its demonstrated utility was worth it and it provided a nice way of tempering the spiritual sensitivity of their scions in Formation use. Why that favorite of Chemos, Lipita had apparently mastered it and she was rampaging across the training fields with her assigned squad. Another inclusion was a legacy of the Clan's most recently fallen hero, Jin Muyi, the Philoctetes variant to the Kataphraktoi. Swapping out devastating single hit damage for sustained ranged attacks that also offered damage over time capacity in poison was a perfect fit for the Delphi strength. Galen swore that he'd get this crop resilient enough to make them a nightmare to any Jingshen who wasn't expecting a stratagem of keep away that had them chasing after a Horse-Archer constantly pelting them with arrows of Poisonous qi. The juniors though might not appreciate being forced to suffer through the experience of the varied venoms, toxins and poisons he'd prepared to encourage their comprehension of poison.
Tapping her foot against the ground, she idly traced a quick array that sent out a disrupting pulse of qi in a radius of 50 metres around her. Curses and swears turned the air ripe as behind her, the juniors practicing under her watch scrambled to stabilize their own constructions, some unsuccessfully.
"Let the backlash be a warning. Being too slow setting up your arrays on the battlefield will see you dead from your own fumbling blowing up in your face from active interference or just killed when your opponents catch you with your underclothes around your ankles." She commented lazily. "Everyone start again and this time, those who miss the cutoff get to spend an extra hour of practice with elder Agatha."
The frantic doubled efforts she could sense behind her brought a smile to her face. Remedial lessons under Agatha had become a source of dread for the juniors. It probably had to do with the old witch letting that pet of hers threaten to bite the juniors during practice to encourage their ability to focus. It wasn't lethal but it could make one wish it was.
"The juniors are progressing acceptably so far. After this session, move your batch to ambush schema, starting with Shennong's Earthen Tomb." The shard of personality that Calliope had splintered off and embedded in her mind whispered to her from within her Palace of Memory. Having the legate shadowing her from within throughout this training was mildly disconcerting. She'd only ever had such communion with her twin brother and while the impersonal voice sharing its original's experience into her thoughts was helpful, it would not have been her first choice. At least, her brother was similarly burdened. Calliope was only able to create two such splinters on the basis of her breakthroughs and her stalled development at Early Core.
"Isn't that a bit too advanced for Qi Condensation at the lower Heavenstages? A good chunk of the group has not progressed much beyond the first bottleneck." She queried the ghost in her mind.
"Ordinarily yes, but the way the qi draining properties of the Organ Meat Desert operate in the earth of the Jingshen core territories to concentrate qi in their spirit mines means that that particular array's interplay of Yang and Earth alignments is discounted and much easier to setup." Calliope's shard replied, interfacing with her own sub-mind to share the details of the qi interactions.
Placing her empty bowl away, Thalia adjusted her lesson plans, simultaneously calling out corrections to the work of the juniors she was supervising. The increased pace would put more pressure on the juniors but they were bearing up admirably so far. Surveying the activity on the practice fields she felt pride in her family. Every individual part of the Delphi family was contributing to the good of the whole, from the meanest family member to the arch-councillor herself. The leadership had demanded much from the family and they had not disappointed. The contribution of these family members and others in the various theatres of war would silence any more claims that the Delphi were retiring crafters, relying on the strength of others. Oh yes, Jingshen would be the crucible for a new generation to lead the family to greater heights.
AN: (6105 words)
@no. @Alectai. Please threadmark. Thus I close for the turn and hope the dice don't entirely curse me.
