Overwhelming Firepower

Unaware of the ever-changing movements beyond Ironhold’s walls, Lucen was in one of the newly created training grounds for the arquebus, and standing in front of him were the newly appointed members of Thornefang.

Each of the former mercenaries held an arquebus in their hands. It had been a few days since the group of mercenaries started learning from Lucen on how to use the arquebus. Lucen could already see the difference from how they were at the beginning. Their grips had steadied, and their flinching had lessened.

Lucen’s lips curled slightly as he recalled the first day they held the arquebus. That memory still brought a smirk to his face.

***

”This is the weapon that the little leader used. You do know that there are more of us who can’t use aura or mana, right?” Harlik reminded Lucen while curiously looking at the arquebus he was holding.

”This is a weapon that needs no mana or aura to activate.”

There was a moment of silence when they heard the truth about the weapon Lucen had used to fight against the young fire dragon. They then slowly showed a shocked expression as they looked at the arquebuses in their hands in amazement.

It was like watching children pick up a new toy and learn that it had a hidden function. Seeing such hardened mercenaries act like this made Lucen smile a bit before he continued speaking.

”I also provided you with these wooden horns, which I call powder horns. Inside it is the thing that makes the weapon work, and it’s also very dangerous, so treat it with care.”

”Dangerous? Really, the only thing that’s inside these things is black powder. Is it poison?” Renz looked at the contents of the powder horn and asked.

”Remember the thing I tossed that exploded? It’s that thing.”

When they heard what Lucen said, they became very careful in moving, and Renz, who already had a bit of black powder in his hand, was frozen in place.

”L-little leader, save me,” Renz almost cried as he dared not move, not wanting his hand that was holding the black powder to explode. Everyone slowly backed away from Renz.

***

’Yeah, they were quite funny back then, but as expected of former mercenaries, they quickly got used to the new weapon.’

Lucen watched as his men were now able to shoot and reload without much delay.

’Well, I guess this is too expected, one of the advantages of the arquebus is the shorter training time needed to be proficient in using it.’

Lucen had hoped to train them further under Sir Thalos, whose obsession with discipline and close-combat formations would complement their ranged firepower perfectly. But the knight commander had been sent to negotiate with a barbarian tribe

So for now, Lucen was teaching the mercenaries different formations that he remembered seeing in a few shows he watched in his past life. Lucen taught them about firing lines, volley fire tactics, and the square formation.

Of course, the people did not know that Lucen was just copying already created formations, but to the people watching him, it seemed that Lucen was a sort of tactical genius.

While Lucen was watching the men of Thornefang go into a square formation, he felt like it was missing something.

He suddenly remembered that, unlike the arquebus in his gun knowledge, the arquebus they were using was something closer to a musket, thanks to the parts in this world being a bit better than in his past life, and of course, Robert’s ingenuity.

’We can equip this arquebus with bayonets. Even though it would be a worthless thing in close quarters in this world and switching to a sword or spear would be better, but it would confuse the enemies even more. If they see a staff-like object with a pointy thing in the end, they might think it’s just a new kind of spear, well, it also helps as a last-ditch effort.’

With that in mind, Lucen went to meet with the craftsmen near the giant forge and told them of his plan. They agreed to give Lucen a prototype of the thing he asked for, Thornefang. It would take them a few days to finish.

A few days later, Thornefang had the newest version of the arquebus with the bayonet. Of course, the members of Thornefang told Lucen that the effectiveness of the bayonet wasn’t much.

”It’s better than nothing, still, if it came down to it, I would simply switch to my sword instead if I needed to do close-quarters combat. On the other hand, in a dire situation, this bayonet might help,” Harlik commented.

”That should be enough,” Lucen replied.

***

While Thornefang was practicing using the bayonets, Robert came to visit Lucen.

”Hey, are you still studying those alchemy books I gave you?”

”Yeah, I’m still reading it.”

”Heh, who knew that when you went to look for an alchemist to teach you just wanted to learn some books and a little bit of guidance. Well, not like I’m complaining, the yellow tower gets the support of the Iron Duke, and I’m able to experiment on so many interesting things.”

Robert shrugged his shoulders as he spoke with a huge grin on his face. That was when he remembered something.

”Oh right, I heard you added something to the arquebuses.”

”You mean the bayonets?”

”Yeah, those knife-like things attached to the arquebus. Pretty interesting, but I made something even more interesting with the help of the craftsmen and my knowledge of runes, and transmutation, I was able to create something extraordinary. Bring it in, everyone!”

Upon giving his signal, Lucen saw some people coming towards them, pulling something big.

Lucen blinked as the wheeled device came into view. A heavy barrel, thick wooden frame, reinforced metal bracing... It was unmistakable.

A cannon. A true cannon.

”Behold! I call it the Big Arquebus! It works using the same principles as the arquebus but with a bigger frame,” Robert said excitedly. ”This thing uses even more black powder, and it fires super large iron balls.”

”That truly is an amazing thing you’ve made, Robert, but the name needs work. How about calling it something different?”

”Who cares what it’s called? I can call it a little pony, and it wouldn’t matter. What matters is what it can do. Truth be told, I haven’t tested this out yet, but it should theoretically work. As for the name thing, if you really are that bothered by it, then you can name it.”

”Fine, since you don’t want to name it, I’ll give it a name.”

Lucen was about to say cannon, but decided not to since he had a chance to change the name, better make it something that matches this fantasy world.

”Let’s just call it Thunderspear since black powder does make a thunderous sound, especially if you’re going to use it for those big iron balls.”

”Fine, fine, we’ll call it Thunderspear or whatever, now onto the important part, let’s test it out,” Robert said excitedly.

The men who brought the Thunderspear put it into position, aiming it at the training dummies lined up in the distance. Lucen, knowing a bit about how far cannons can shoot, knew that if they fired the Thunderspear in this place, the iron ball would hit the walls.

”How about we test it out in the nearby forest, and let’s inform my Father and the other as well.”

”Tsk, fine, you call them.” Robert clicked his tongue in annoyance that his weapon test was delayed again.

***

Near the forest in the back of Ironhold, several knights were patrolling the area to make sure no spies were nearby. Lucen, Robert, Vardon, Vahn, members of Thornefang, and some craftsmen were now ready to test the Thunderspear.

The Thunderspear stood at the center, its long barrel angled slightly upward. Around it, craftsmen and assistants bustled with nervous energy, while Robert supervised.

Robert put black powder into the wide barrel of the Thunderspear. Next, a thick clump of cloth and tightly packed fiber was pressed into the barrel. This was the wadding. Its job was to sit between the powder and the iron ball, helping to trap the explosive force and push the ball forward when the powder ignited.

A long ramrod was used to push it down firmly, compacting it all at the bottom.

Then came the iron sphere. Nearly the size of a man’s skull and far heavier, it was carried by two men and guided into the barrel’s mouth. With steady hands, they rolled it in. The ramrod was used again to shove it tightly against the wad, sealing the iron ball in place.

Robert stepped forward with a thin metal rod and gently prodded the touch hole, a narrow opening drilled at the top of the cannon’s rear, leading straight down to the powder charge inside.

”Here’s where the spark goes in,” Robert explained. ”Fire catches here, travels down, and hopefully boom!”

Before Lucen could object, Robert snatched the slow match from one of the assistants. A glowing cord wrapped around the end of a long stick

”Now, finally, we get to see how powerful this thing is!”

Members of Thornefang instinctively took a few steps back, and so did the craftsmen. Lucen also took a step back, while Vardon did not move and narrowed his eyes sharply. Vahn also stood in place behind Vardon.

Robert crouched near the Thunderspear’s breech, lowering the burning match toward the touch hole. The cord hissed, the flame caught, and then.

BOOM!

The sound was way louder than the sound the arquebuses made. The ground shook. Thanks to the counterweight, the Thunderspear barely shifted, even as the ground trembled. Smoke was bursting from its mouth.

’Much more powerful recoil than expected, how fun.’ Robert thought to himself.

The noise was so loud that the people in Ironhold were surprised and confused. There was no sign of any lightning in sight, but they heard such loud thunder.

In the forest ahead, a tree as thick as a man’s torso splintered in half, collapsing into the other trees. It didn’t end there; anything that was in the way of the iron ball was destroyed. Bark flew like shrapnel. Birds launched into the sky in every direction.

Some of the knights who were patrolling the area for spies stopped in their tracks and looked at the devastation the Thunderspear caused, and were surprised. They weren’t that surprised by the power since any one of them could do the same with their swords, they were surprised that such devastation was created by something that had neither mana nor aura in it.

”Hahaha, did everyone see that?! That was the damage made by a weapon that had neither mana nor aura. Its power rivals that of a third circle flame spell.” Robert spoke in manic delight.

The members of Thornefang who had seen many weird things after meeting Lucen were amazed by the sight they saw. They already expected that thing to be loud and powerful since it was pretty much a bigger arquebus, but they weren’t expecting it to have the same power as a third circle flame spell.

”Why have I been learning spells all this time? With this thing, you don’t need to get to a higher circle or waste any mana, just ignite it and boom...”

One of the first circle mages in Thornefang felt a bit of despair witnessing the power of the Thunderspear.

”Don’t lose hope, you idiot. That thing can’t be moved around too much because of its size., Also, it takes a lot of time to reload for each shot, well, not like using a spell that powerful is any faster, but still, if you train hard enough, you can become more powerful and chant a spell faster. Finally, if its design is like the arquebus we use, there’s a chance that it won’t fire in a critical moment.”

The second circle mage in Thornefang spoke about the limitations of the Thunderspear and was determined that she would get stronger than it.

Seeing the reactions of the surrounding people made Robert smile in delight. Then someone spoke to him.

”Robert, if I give you twenty blacksmiths and five carpenters placed under your command, how many of those things can you make?” Vardon suddenly asked.

”Hm, if we get better at it, we could make one Thunderspear every two weeks.”

Hearing Robert’s reply, he closed his eyes. He wanted to make more of those powerful Thunderspears for the next monster wave, but at that pace, it was rather slow for his liking, still, he had no choice since it was new technology.

”I will have a dedicated forge for the creation of the Thunderspears, but for now, you use the same forge as the craftsmen who are making the arquebuses.”

”Sure, I’ll do as you ask, but Duke Vardon, since I created something you like, I hope you send a bit more money to the Yellow Tower this time.” Robert shamelessly added.

”Very well, I will give the yellow tower more budget.”

”Also, can I bring more people to help from the yellow tower?”

”... I will only allow a few, and each one of them needs to take an oath to keep whatever is made here a secret.”

”I know quite a few people in the tower who have very tight lips.”

While Vardon and Robert were talking, Lucen was looking at the destroyed trees in the distance, and a vicious smile appeared on his face.

’As expected, if you have allies like Robert, just show him a bit, and he creates something more from it. I can already imagine those Thunderspears lined up and firing at the enemy, let’s see how they would take Stellhart from us.’