Olimpia

I crouched low as I slipped between the stalks of tall grass, careful to leave as small a trail as possible. I used the occasional mental strand to brush a grass clump to the side, but I mainly used my shielded hands. There was no point in wearing myself out this early. No real need either. We were still close enough to the fort that I could see the occasional horse picket off in the far distance.

Everything came down to me being relatively sure there were no beastkins this close to the Triad. So, over the last morning and into the late afternoon, I paid less attention to looking for beastkin wanderers and more attention to looking for mistakes by my trainees.

This isn't the intentionally nitpicky, "I see a spot on your blade, so clean all of your equipment again!" that a fish must endure during training. It's the, "you dropped your shield for a moment and left a trace, and now everyone is going to be attacked and killed in the middle of the night." kind of mistakes.

I wasn't expecting to encounter beastkins until we got to the forest, so I planned to make the most of the journey and check over my troops for any obvious faults that could be fixed as we traveled across the grassland. I broke the trainees into small four-man squads to make the task easier for me. Technically, I was a part of one of the groups, but until we got into a more dangerous location, I was not going to help or lead them.

As for the leaders of the squads, I chose those who seemed to have the most potential, which were Traig, Anooha, Joxin, and Kathren. To be honest, a big part of my choice was that I didn't remember anyone else's name, but that in itself showed a type of potential, didn't it? Currently, I was trailing behind Joxin's group. He was the last I was going to inspect before I returned to mine.

They were spread out in a loose line about ten feet apart, with Joxin slightly ahead where everyone could see him. Yeah, his teammates could totally see him if they knew where to look and could separate him from the tall grass he slipped through without much, if any, of a ripple marking his location.

…Which no one else but me was able to do. Joxin's pretty good. I thought with appreciation. Even I lost him a few times and had to use the other three as reference points to get an approximate location and wait to catch sight of his cloak or another piece of clothing.

Joxin's teammates would have been completely lost if they hadn't been sending out pulses every few minutes to correct their separation and direction. The waste of their energy was bad enough, but their trails through the tall grass were like they curled up into a ball and rolled along the ground without a thought in the world.

While I wasn't sending out a mental pulse so as not to alert them, and I wasn't so close as to sense the castings with my will, I roughly knew what they were doing thanks to my detector technique. It was a fancy way to say a half dome a couple feet in diameter that could be used to pick up the traces released by castings. Useful as it might be, it takes a lot of practice to interpret the impressions you get from it, and it has its limitations.

No matter how controlled a casting was, it still sent out small vibrations into the surroundings that could be picked up on by those who listened or were close enough. This was why people could sense other people's tendrils without any detectable means. Usually, a casting had to be strong to register on someone's senses when they weren't using a perception sphere or pulse, but that wasn't an option when you had little power or wanted to stay hidden.

In came the detector, a trick my father passed down to me. The range wasn't great, only a couple hundred feet, but it was far more than I could project a tendril or focus my will and sense unaided. Though the casting wasn't much of an advantage when dealing with beastkins, I found it invaluable when I was stationed on the border with the Imperium.

The information that it was telling me now was that every one of Joxin's squad members other than him was having trouble maintaining their shields. I should be picking up a steady hum for a constant body shield, but there were far too many dips and spikes in the noise for that to be the case. The vibrations would drop low in power before surging in strength, only to flatten to the point of vanishing entirely before busting forth once more.

Not to say Joxin was perfect, as he was having spikes in his shell, but at least he was able to keep it solid. It was a start that could be accepted and refined going forward, all things considered.

Seeing all I needed, I glided forward, picking up my pace, and within a few minutes, I was ten feet from Joxin's back. I thought about speaking and declaring my presence but changed my mind as I decided I might as well test him to see how long he took to notice me. Dropping the mental shield shrouding my mind, I waited.

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Unsurprisingly, the first person to notice me was a man to my left. He was having the most trouble keeping track of everyone and was sending out a pulse regularly. The nearly immediate second wave of mental energy he sent out after the first felt a little too much like panic and caused everyone else to send out a pulse of their own to see what had startled him.

When I felt Joxin's mental energy wash over me, I put on a welcoming smile as he whirled around to face me, his hand lowering to the hilt of his knife. Not moving, I gave him a moment to register who I was before waving for him and his squad to approach.

As they gathered around, I crouched down below the grass and whispered. "As you can probably guess," I said, looking at the three scout trainees under Joxin, "you're shit at fieldcraft and need to work on controlling your shields. Nothing we can do about that other than time and practice."

While they accepted what I said, their faces twitched and distorted in a mixture of embarrassment and resentment. That is understandable, as not many liked it when you pointed out how bad they were at something, but I could see they knew the words were accurate, and that was all that mattered.

Looking at Joxin, I continued, "Your fieldcraft is good, and even I lost you a few times, but you need to realize you are with an untrained team. Even if the beastkins can't find you, if they find your team when you are with them, it's the same thing. You need to teach them and give them pointers. Also, never assume that nothing is behind you, as I could have easily killed you if I wanted." Joxin's eyes widened slightly at my words, and he nodded slowly with understanding.

Then I paused for a second, looking at everyone, my face falling into a solemn mask as I said, "Finally, you all made the same deadly mistake I specifically told you not to make." Looks of confusion appeared on their faces, and their eyes flicked to each other, searching for an answer. A moment passed as they said nothing, as none of them could think of it.

"You all relied on your pulses to confirm what was around you. None of you were checking your surroundings with your eyes, allowing me to walk right up." I finished, though it wasn't exactly true. I saw Joxin's mouth open, only to snap shut a moment later.

I knew what he was going to say, but that assumption was no longer accurate. Only those with strong telepathic powers or with great focus and control could shroud their minds from a pulse. Which was a category everyone had been taught beastkins were definitely not a part of. However, that fact was no longer the iron-clad rule it used to be, as the beastkins could now shroud their minds, a reality we had to face head-on.

Not that anyone but me had seen it. But at this point, everything else I reported was verified, so it wasn't like anyone would doubt that singular fact at this point. "Yeahhh~," I said, drawing out the word as the realization sunk in. "If you remember anything from this, remember they can shroud their minds now. I believe…" Looking over Joxin's shoulder at the distant forest, I finished, "That knowledge will serve you the best on this mission."

Don't know why I thought that, but it was what my gut told me. I was these people's trainer, and they all seemed like good enough folks that I didn't want to see them killed like Prick and his hangers-on… So, I would do what I thought was right.

"Thank you, domine," Joxin said, slamming his fist to his chest, a salute that the rest of the squad copied.

I nodded to him as I stood, "Remember, only go two miles into the forest, then fall back to the tree line and wait for me to come to you. If I'm not back by morning, and you don't hear from my squad, report back to the Triad." They nodded in understanding as I restated their orders. "Good, now hurry up and get back into position," I said, motioning for them to continue their advance.

I watched them spread out and gave a satisfied nod when I saw them throwing a few glances behind themselves while being more vigilant. Having done my job else to do, I slinked off into the grass, searching for my own squad. Half an hour of solid movement passed, and I was closing in on the position of where my squad of three should roughly be.

It took a moment for me to catch sight of some movement as I was off of their location by a few hundred yards. They drifted more to the right than I would have guessed. Within a few minutes, I was behind the trio and watching them. I gave them some pointers right after I first made the groups, and we started traveling, but within an hour, I left them to examine the others and give them pointers.

My first impression was that they were closer together than the other teams. All were within ten feet and were making a small arrow, with Kathren at the front. None of them looked like they were experts in the field, but they all knew what they were doing and were leaving less of a trail than the three with Joxin, but not quite as good as him.

I was impressed by what I saw. None of them could be called proficient in using their shield, as they made mistakes, but… the errors were only on the upper parts of their body? Damn, I should have thought of that. Too late now, though. Even with their mistakes and scent being in the air, which was far better than on the grass, they took to heart my warning their pulses couldn't be trusted.

They positioned themselves so each could take up a third of the area around them. And I could detect the traces of what should be a mental link running between them. More than any of the other groups, it seemed like they had taken my warning to heart.

As I crept up, I kept my mind shrouded as I wanted to see how close I could get. When I was fifty feet out, I detected a rapid flow of mental energy. A second later, they whirled around, weapons raised and drawn, but I was already standing up with my hands razed. "Instructor," Kathren said sheepishly, hiding her drawn gladius behind her back.

I smiled at her and her men, "Good," I stated, causing a look of puzzlement to appear on their faces, "With reactions and strategies like that, you lot might actually make it back alive." My words did not seem to fill them with confidence. Which was another good sign.