Nothing happened. She looked at the metal tube, which sat perfectly quiet and still on its mounting. The others too began to look at it with a disappointed expression, except for Tilia, whom burst out laughing.

"That's it!? Varsylos... Varsylos! I am disappointed!" Tilia pulled out her earplugs.

"Shut it! It's merely a small malfunction! Just wait, it's a... Delayed action! Yes that's it! Just, give it a little bit..." He walked over to the tube, and began looking it over. After a cursory inspection, he picked up a large metal hammer, and pounded the spot where the thread was attached.

A deafening explosion erupted out the fore end of the metal tube, the small brick wall was shattered and at the very back of the big hall, there was a deafening thud as the projectile bore through the sand pile and struck the wall behind it.

She clutched her ears. Despite still using the earplugs, her senses were momentarily muddled by the sound. The sound had caught the others off balance as well and they too reeled from the unsuspected explosion.

"Haha! I did it! It happened!" Varsylos jumped around, looking ecstatic. "I'll add another title to my name now... It shall be... Builder of metal tubes of death... No... Creator of wallbreakers!"

"Fine... I'll admit... That was really cool."

"I told you! Now, if you'd only give me your recipe..."

"No. It's powerful enough... My explosive would probably rupture it, and shower us with massive metal splinters..." Tilia shrugged.

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"You've outdone yourself Varsylos... But I'm curious about your other items..." Rein stood looking at the smaller, thinner metal tubes, apparently braced with some sort of wood body, and secured with reinforced bands.

"Sure sure, I've prepared these small packets for you to use. It contains my explosive, and a small metal ball, just insert it into the end of the tube like so... And shove it home with this little rod here... He quickly loaded up one of the weapons and presented it to Rein, whom accepted it eagerly.

"Now, who wants to try the other one... Hm, how about you? Ferran. This should be just your size... Kind of!"

She stepped up and he handed her the weapon. It felt very heavy, and she had problems trying to find a right balance for it. She was quickly shown how to load it, and finished up by pulling back a small spring driven piece of metal with a small hole in it.

"Now for the firing..." He took out a small vial, and passed them each a small glass bead with a blue fluid inside of it. "This is the firing solution, put it into the hole there... Just like that. When you pull that trigger, it will be pushed into the tube, where it will be punctured, and the fluid will pour over the charge and fire it. Expect a little delay here too..."

He then walked over to a small locker and retreived two pieces of dried meat which he hung on hooks some fifty meters away.

"Okay, now try hitting one of these... The weapon is kind of like a crossbow... So aim and fire when you're ready!"

She took aim, pointing the weapon in the general direction of the piece of dried meat, and began pulling the trigger. It was tough, and it took all her strength to pull it properly.

The weapon kicked back and up, and unleashed a big puff of smoke, obscuring the result. She groaned a little as the wooden back end had given her a very hard knock on her shoulder.

Rein fired next, after having carefully observed her actions. one of the pieces of dried meat came loose and fell to the floor.

"Yes yes! Well done! Before the rest of you can try it. This is why I brought you here... These two projects are important... Spies will arrive soon. No doubt, they somehow heard us firing the wallbreaker, so... Tonight, I need you all to be awake and on alert. I don't care if you kill the spies, just protect my research until I can properly destroy them."