PtM Book 17 - Chapter 15: The ABC’s of Warfare

3/3 this week.

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Meetings, no matter the setting, were controversial at best, in that they were necessary to iron out details but a horrendous waste of time. Huxian tried to avoid meetings, but in times of war, it was hard to say no; a single missed meeting might result in hundreds of thousands if not millions of lives lost or displaced.

Forty demons and ten humans sat in a circular arrangement in a council-type chamber, wrapping around a planetoid construct that functioned as an interactive map. Huxian had built the map, and actively controlled the information it displayed. This awarded him a certain amount of sway in the room, so he sat near the front, and Jadefall and Wu sat beside him,

Enclave Lord Twisted Horn had just finished summarizing recent troop movements. “After a three-week campaign, we finally finished pushing the War Stripe Region’s troops back into the Shard Stone Plains. They are vulnerable and exhausted, and I recommend an immediate attack with the support of the two strategically elevated positions we’ve occupied.”

“Let’s not be hasty,” a man said. No, not a man - a demon, and only a projection of one. Like Twisted Horn, this man was one of the three enclave lords of what was now known as the Hallowed Turtle Ox Region, Enclave Lord Hallowed Owl.

The Enclave Lord was a very noticeable individual, in part because of his too-round eyes. His shimmering robes also drew eyes – they were black as night but speckled with pinpricks of concentrated starlight. “We managed to conquer this territory after a lot of hard fighting. Five cities were reclaimed, as were many other important resource points. We could try to swallow up more territory, but I’m of the opinion that it’s time to reinforce and stabilize.”

“But if we don’t strike now, they’ll escape!” Twisted Horn said, slamming his fist down onto his table, cracking it slightly.

Hallowed Owl was unfazed by his outburst. “I believe it’s worthwhile to hear input from all our representative before making any rash decisions. Don’t you?”

The forty demons and ten humans began speaking in turn order. Most of their speech was predictable, so Huxian tuned them out to review the current state of affairs.

In his opinion, things were going quite well. They had been quite divided at the start of the war, but after a year of repelling attacks from both the Paper Tiger Clan and Dao Lord Blood Leech, the three Enclave Lords had decided to go forward with Huxian’s unification proposal.

Jadefall and Wu were instrumental to the merger. Unlike Huxian, who was constantly at odds with Enclave Lord Twisted Horn, they had accepted the mentorship of their respective enclave lords and now held great sway in their regions. The fully merged Hallowed Turtle Ox Region included three provinces: the Twisted Horn Province, the Hallowed Owl Province, and the Dragon Turtle Province. Each province had something unique to bring to the table.

The Twisted Horn Province was where Huxian had been assigned as warden. It was extremely large and filled with spatial instabilities. While historically it was a barren region, the level of spatial damage in the region had accumulated to the point that stable pocket realms were commonplace. As a result, it was a resource-rich region where war broke out there at the drop of a hat. Or it had, until recently.

On the other end of the Hallowed Turtle Ox Region lay the Dragon Turtle Province, where Wu resided. It was the smallest region of the three by far, and only occupied a quarter of their total territory. There were no spatial rifts in the Dragon Turtle Region. Not a single one. Most of the territory was filled with defensible mountains that sheltered cultivation wonderlands.

The Hallowed Owl Province wrapped around the Dragon Turtle Province in such that it shared half the neighboring region’s border. It contained a fair number of void rifts, but fiends did not survive long in this region. This was largely due to the divine astral winds that periodically swept the land, exterminating all things evil and otherworldly.

These three territories had officially consolidated as a single region, but only two of the provinces were neighbors. The Twisted Horn Province was flanked by the paper tiger clan to the west and a henchman of the Princess of Light and Glass from Slovana to the east.

Dao God Blood Leech’s territory neighbored the Paper Tiger Clan’s territory, and as such, the Hallowed Turtle Ox Region was forced to defend against them on three fronts.

In terms of philosophy, the three regions were not a good fit, but Huxian’s philosophy of warfare and life in general had changed that. Speaking of which, his ears twitched at a silly utterance, pulling him out of his planning bubble to zealously interrupt a silver blight hyena demon.

“No,” Huxian said. “Absolutely not.” As he spoke, the room grew quiet.

“This is an open discussion, Eight Directions,” Twisted Horn said. “Everyone can say whatever they please. That includes Lady Rabid Claw and her very solid proposal to continue pressing forward.” She was one of Twisted Horn’s few supporters.

“Then you shouldn’t have a problem if I speak up now and say no,” Huxian said. “This is a war camp, is it not? Where we speak of matters of war? Otherwise I’d think it was a schoolyard, because I keep hearing dumb opinions like ‘let’s fight to the last demon’ and ‘hyenas do not run’, along with other childish idioms.”

“So says the cowardly fox,” the hyena shot back. “Have you even tried your hand in a battlefield in your short life? Perhaps you should try it one day. Then your opinions will start mattering.”

Huxian’s eye twitched. “You’re a hyena. Your people are natural cowards. You’re seriously going to be speciestagainst me?”

The hyena snorted dismissively. “Say what you will, but until you’ve witnessed a hyena giving birth, you have no right to call my people cowardly.” Huxian shuddered at those words, because he’d seen a video once. It wasn’t pretty.

“I for one would love to hear an alternate suggestion,” Hallowed Owl said. “If you’ll allow him, Twisted Horn?”

The minotaur-like demon snorted. “Fine. Tell us your great plan, Eight Directions.”

“I don’t have a plan at all,” Huxian said. “Just a philosophy. Tell me, Twisted Horn: What are the ABC’s of warfare?”

Twisted Horn scratched his hairy minotaur head. “Always be… conquering?”

Huxian threw a brick. It popped through a spatial rift and hit twisted horn on the side of the head. It did nothing to the demon, of course, and directly turned to powder, but it was the message that mattered. “Idiot!”

Twisted Horn’s eye twitched. “I dare you to say that again.”

“Idiot!” Huxian said again. “I’ve told you countless times, and you always forget. What are the ABC’s, Hallowed Owl?”

“Always be crawling?” Hallowed Owl said.

Huxian ran his hands down his face. “Every time. Every time! It’s quite simple. It’s only three words! Always! Be! Constructing!

“That’s how you win wars, Twisted Horn. That’s how you win at life. When we crossed the Dreadrift River, did we fight another battle right away? No! We set up camp and built a bridge! And what about that time when we liberated Starfall City? Did we leave, or did we lay down fortifications and set up an impressive tunnel network while we trained up their army for the next attack?”

Huxian wanted to continue, but suddenly, a whirring noise filled the room, interrupting his momentum. All eyes shot to the back, where a machine was slowly pouring out coffee into a disposable cup. The culprit, Lord War Bovine, one of Twisted Horn’s most pro-war lieutenants, froze up, let out an awkward cough as the machine finished pouring his coffee, then slowly edged towards the exit.

He actually shouldn’t be in the room, but it happened often enough, because there were a lot of coffee lovers in this camp and not enough coffee machines.

“Sorry about that,” War Bovine. “There are a lot of coffee lovers in the war room and not enough coffee machines.” He picked up his coffee and slowly raised it to his lips.

“Put. That. Coffee. Down!” Huxian’s words were backed by the impressive power of his cultivation and high-level bloodline, so the demon did exactly as instructed. “Coffee… is for constructors!”

“But I -“

“Get out of here, you’re not needed!” Huxian shouted. The demon scampered off. “Now where was I? Ah yes. Always. Be. Constructing. Always. Construction has been the core of our strategy for the past seven years,” Huxian continued. “It started with a smaller teleportation network, which we grew into a sprawling network, then segued into road building, city building, and the most recent addition, Clear Sky Centers to produce painted demons.

“What’s the point of fighting when we can dig in our heels and grow stronger? Our position is only getting better. We can’t keep fighting meaningless battles. Building is what matters. Constructing!”

Hallowed Owl’s eyes sparked. “And what are your thoughts, Enclave Lord Dragon Turtle?”

“Hm…” The last of the three Enclave Lords was also attending the war council with an incarnation. He was the oddest looking of the bunch due to his skinny neck, too-round head, and the thick, spike-covered armor that he wore everywhere, even while bathing.

Each of the Enclave Lords had their own specialties. Twisted Horn was a Twisted Horn Devil Ox, and typically took on the form of a massive minotaur. He did not wield an ax as one might expect, but thick chains that served as both his demon weapon and demon armor. He was very physically powerful, and his abilities revolved around slowing everyone else down so that he could hit them real hard with his fists or gore them with his twisted horn.

Enclave Lord Hallowed Owl was a spellcaster. He used ranged attacks that were mostly based on wind and astral elements. His Demon-Dao laws were based on purity and negation and were the bane of all poisons and afflictions.

Enclave Lord Turtle Dragon was all about defense. His territory was basically impossible to assail, because instead of strengthening himself with his Demon-Dao Laws, he strengthened the land under his jurisdiction. All demons born in the Turtle Dragon province were tough and stronger than normal demons.

“I think we should build a fortress,” Turtle Dragon finally said. He did so in a voice that was so slow it bordered on annoying.

Twisted Horn rolled his eyes. “Of course you want to build a fortress. You always want to build a fortress.”

“I’m not sure building a fortress is the best move in this case,” Hallowed Owl agreed with Twisted Horn. “Perhaps we could build an outpost? This seems to be a good area for trade. It could help boost our supply lines.”

“Fortresses make very good outposts,” Turtle Dragon countered.

“But they take forever to build,” Twisted Horn said. “Look, I’m fine with building. Constructing. Whatever. I really am. I just don’t want to keep wasting time when we have such a huge army sitting around, eating up transcendent crystals like candy.”

“But we’re gaining ground,” said Hallowed Owl.

“We’re wasting resources, is what we’re doing!” said Twisted Horn. And to be fair, he was correct.

They continued arguing for some time, and in the end, they settled on something less fortified. The regional troops would push outwards and secure territory and harry enemy forces as they retreated.

It was a terrible waste of an hour.

“Now that that small matter is settled, let’s move to more important matters,” an exhausted Twisted Horn said. Huxian raised his hand. “Yes, Eight Directions? What else is there?”

“Oh, I was just wondering if you managed to get the void sealing obelisks I’ve been asking for these past months,” Huxian said.

Twisted Horn’s eyes narrowed. “Eight directions, we’re in a war meeting. Can your request wait?”

“No can do,” Huxian said. “Just answer the question, or I’ll escalate.”

The depressed enclave lord, having lost all semblance of momentum, weighed his options and decided that ignoring Huxian wasn’t worth it. He snapped his fingers, and the door opened, revealing four very muscular demons straining to bring a chest into the room. “There they are. You have asked me seventeen times for these obelisks, and they were tough to get, but I’ve pulled through. Here they are.”

“Oh, goody!” Huxian said. He teleported over to the chest, inspected it, tried to lift it with all his strength, but failed.

“I personally placed all sixty-four void sealing obelisks in that chest,” Twisted Horn said. “They were carved out of the finest void sealing stone by the best artisans in the territory. Perhaps you’ll find it easier to empty out the contents and place them into smaller…” His voice trailed off as Huxian flicked the chest into his tail space and teleported back to his seat. “Right then. The general situation. The biggest problem, in my opinion, is Lord Winter Moon of the Paper Tiger Bloodline. If not for him, Dao Lord Blood Leech would not dare act so wantonly.”

“Speaking of Dao Lord Blood Leech, why is he such a problem?” It was a middle-aged man in bronze armor who spoke. He went by the name Sect Master Archaic Armor. He had a nice, bushy mustache, the type you groomed for over a decade and refused to trim, unless your wife insisted on it. “He’s a human, isn’t he? Isn’t the region a demon enclave?”

Twisted Horn raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you here?”

“Yes, but our situation isn’t exactly normal, is it?” Archaic Armor asked dryly. “And it’s not like we have a lot of sway around here. Or we didn’t, until recently.”

It was Hallowed Owl who answered. “Sect Master Archaic Armor, this is a bit of a complicated question, as it relates to bloodlines and what makes a demon a demon, and a human a human. Tell me, Sect Master – If one grafts a demon bloodline and cultivates it to the point that we can’t tell the difference between him and a genuine demon, presence wise, is he really a human?”

“So that’s what he did,” Sect Master Archaic Armor said. “I never could figure it out. And the whole blood leech thing…”

“Monstrous, obviously,” Twisted Horn cut in. “The diamond tooth blood leech bloodline he cultivates is not native to the Chasewind Plane, but it is extremely well suited to the region he was assigned to. It shares many characteristics with the True Blood Region - or is it the Blood God Region now?

“Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with blood-type demons. It’s just that some can get out of hand. The closest example I can think of is the Lightning Blood Wolf King bloodline the Five Desolates put an end to six thousand years ago.” The five desolates were the five strongest demon enclaves on the Chasewind Plane.

“But they won’t do anything about Blood Leech,” Sect Master Archaic Armor said.

“They can’t, because our agreement with the Heartforge Realm,” Hallowed Owl said. “So it falls to us to cleans him up before he causes irreversible ecological damage.”

“Blood leech is obviously a problem,” Twisted Horn concluded. “But I still think Lord Winter Moon is the priorit targety. The greatest problem being that he can coordinate with the rest of his brethren for simultaneous attacks on two fronts.” Huxian raised his hand again, and the devil ox sighed. “What is it this time.”

“I was just wondering if you had an update on the bulk deliveries I asked for,” Huxian said.

“Now?” Twisted Horn asked through gritted teeth.

“Yeah. Now,” said the fox.

The devil ox deflated. “Fine. Fine.” He flicked out a dozen rings, which Huxian caught and inspected. “Five thousand rods of lightward steel, delivered. Three thousand bushels of wolfram weeds, delivered. Six cases of specialty wine produced from Heavensplit Mountain grapes, delivered.

“What about the Life Hexing Salts I asked for?” Huxian asked.

“Delivered,” said Twisted Horn.

“And the bonzai trees? They’re very important.”

“Must you interrupt me with your petty requests?” Twisted Horn said. The entire room froze, and the enclave lord realized he may have overstepped himself. “Ahem, pardon my lack of decorum, everyone. Apologies, Lord Eight Directions. I meant no disrespect. Yes, they have arrived.”

Six years ago, he and Twisted Horn had a very different relationship. Huxian had very reasonably approached him, had been given the cold shoulder, and sworn and oath of revenge. He spent the next three months making the devil ox’s life a living hell. As a result, the devil ox had developed an instinctive fear of the fox. In theory, he could crush him with a single fist. In practice, the odds of successfully striking with said fist were very low.

Now, they had a working relationship. If Huxian made reasonable requests, the enclave lord would fulfill them. Because if he didn’t, things would start to go missing. Teleportation circles would appear out of nowhere, and the eggs of very annoying monstrous demons would get smashed over his house. Said demons would hold him responsible and spray his residence with their feces for days, if not weeks.

There was a method to Huxian’s madness, of course. Many of the things he ordered were important to the war effort. It was just that he didn’t want this importance known, since these items were of strategic importance and were required in large quantities. He had been collecting, all the while biding his time and doing what he did best - constructing.

“As I was saying, the real problem is Lord Winter Moon,” Twisted Horn continued. “His army is much more efficient than Dao Lord Blood Leech, even though Blood Leech’s personal strength is highest, and he’s already reached the early law stitching realm.”

“His foundations won’t be deep,” Turtle Dragon said in his voice that was just slow enough to be tolerable and not annoying. “Blood cultivation is always like this. They grow quickly at the start, chasing after cultivation first, then deepening their foundations after.”

“But a Dao Lord of that cultivation level, if he’s from the Heartforge Realm…” Hallowed Owl said, shaking his head. “Difficult to kill. Very difficult. Especially given the fact that he’s a blood cultivator.”

“Agreed,” Twisted Horn said. “That is why I suggest dealing with Winter Moon first. Now we must look at available forces. The Painted Demons and Daoists – all ten million of them – have helped the war effort tremendously, but they are not enough to turn the tides of battle. We need safety now. We need time…. Time to construct our army.” Huxian gave him a thumbs up. “We have the elites to face him, but I am worried about potential casualties. Lady Wu, how are your wounds. Will they affect your abilities?”

Wu woke up from her meeting nap and looked around the room. Not much had changed in her demeanor despite her improved cultivation. She was an initial fusion realm demon with frightening fundamentals despite her lack of training. “W-wah?”

“Your wounds, Lady Wu?” asked the devil ox. “How are they? How many times can you cast Xuanwu Shield on our battlefield in your condition?”

“Um… deep?” Wu said, looking to Huxian for direction. “Maybe… very deep? I think?”

Twisted Horn was not an idiot and could see through the act. “Lady Wu, please. This is serious. If we delay any longer, we’ll have lost out on the prime time to strike.” His eyes reddened a little when Huxian raised his hand again. “What is this time.”

“I was doing some math off the top of my head, and I realized we’re almost where we need to be on one of my projects,” Huxian said. “Do you have those Full Moon Dousing Flower cores I asked for?”

“Eight Directions,” Twisted Horn said. “I’m beginning to doubt you take these meetings seriously. Not only are you interrupting me constantly, but you’re even messing around with a communication jade. Who are you even talking to?”

“Me?” Huxian asked. “A pen pal.”

“A pen pal,” Twisted Horn said flatly.

“From across the planet!” Huxian said.

“You are speaking to a pen pal from across the planet during our war meeting,” Twisted Horn repeated. “And you wish to know about Full Moon Dousing Flower Cores.”

“Yes,” Huxian confirmed.

“Get out of here,” Twisted Horn said.

Huxian frowned and set down his communication jade. “Say that again?”

“GET. THE HELL. OUT OF MY WAR COUNCIL!” Twisted Horn shouted at the top of his lungs, shaking up all the demons in the room. The resulting silence was deafening.

“My dear Twisted Horn, perhaps you should calm down…” Turtle Dragon said.

“I don’t need to calm down, Turtle Dragon, I need this fox to start taking this war seriously,” Twisted Horn said. He tossed three boxes at Huxian. “There are your stupid flower cores. All three of them. Now get out. Get lost. I have a war to plan.”

Huxian frowned as he mulled over his options. Was it time yet? Could they do it? He took out his communication jade, exchanged a few more messages, then nodded. “Good. It’s time. Let’s do it.”

“Do what?” Twisted Horn said. “Finally leave this tent? Stop testing the bounds of my generosity and my sanity?”

“Win this war, obviously,” Huxian said. “I finally have everything I need. Everything is in place. Assemble the elites.”

“What?” Twisted Horn said.

“What?” said Hallowed Owl.

“What?” said Dragon Turtle, almost two seconds later.

Jadefall laughed and picked up her battle axe. “Finally. All this waiting was making me rusty.”

The ‘injured’ Wu pulled off her arm sling and unwrapped her bandages. “I’m good now. I can cast.”

Sect Master Archaic armor looked quite confused. “Excuse me, but could you all fill me in on what’s going on?”

“No time,” Huxian said. “We need to get moving. This is war, not a tea party.”

“So now you’re worried about the war effort?” Twisted Horn asked.

“Oh,” Huxian said. “Right. This war council? Super good. Keep doing it. All of you are the right people to have in these meetings. The thing is, killing these two is a lot trickier than you think. I’ve been making preparations all this time, and they’ve finally come to a head.”

“This is a bit much too suddenly,” Dragon Turtle interjected. “Can you please kindly explain what’s going on?”

“No time,” Wu said. “Explanations suck.”

“Oh. Alright then,” said Enclave Lord Dragon Turtle.

“What she said,” said Huxian. “Plus, is it really too much to gather the elites for a small field trip? I know these are your troops, but I’m sure we can come to a consensus on what’s a good and a bad idea once you see what I have to show you and explain the plan.”

Twisted Horn furrowed his bushy brows. “Explain first.”

“Seeing is believing,” Huxian said, sticking to his guns. “Don’t make me teleport your house again, Twisted Horn.” Sparks flew as the fox and the ox stared each other off neither budging an inch. In the end, it was the ox who gave in.

“Just tell me one thing, Eight Directions,” Twisted Horn said. “This isn’t one of those fake war drills you’ve been doing, is it? Because I’ve had it up to here with all of them. I can’t take it anymore.”

Huxian grinned. “This is the real deal, my beefy friend. I’ve been laying the groundwork on for an entire year, slowing everyone down, all for this moment. We’ll hit hard. We’ll hit fast. They won’t see us coming.”

Twisted Horn nodded. “Very good. Everything makes sense now. I’m in.”

“Just like that?” Hallowed Owl asked.

“Just like that,” Twisted Horn said. “Let’s do it everyone. The fox is finally willing to fight, so how can we hold back?” The assembled council let out a cheer and summoned their demon armor and demon weapons.

For demons, constructing was hard. War was what they lived for.