“All soldiers! Take aim! Fire!”

The sound of gunshots and smell of discharged gunpowder filled the air around the Londrian castle overlooking the frozen ocean. Olivia was conducting a training drill with the royal guards while Leona carefully watched her issue orders as the soldiers assumed different formations. Krieg carried Phoebe in front of his body with the harness she made, though doing so made him look like a father. A very displeased one at that.

“They sure are disciplined.” The high elf commented. “But can they really kill a normal death angel like that?”

“Beats me.” Leona replied without taking her eyes off the captain, who was still issuing commands for them to reload. “But I assume concentrated fire like that is bound to cause significant damage. At least it’d be more effective than sending soldiers to their doom.”

“Take aim! Fire!” Another volley of shots managed to hit the opposite target made of a transparent gelatinous liquid the size of a plate. “All soldiers! Unload your weapons!” Almost in sync, they began to cycle through the leftover rounds inside their weapons until all were empty. “That’ll be all for today, dismissed!”

“Yes captain!”

They all saluted before marching off towards the barracks. Their uniforms had a different hue of blue and were decorated with white trims and shoulder pads, that being said, they were a caliber above their army counterparts.

After they left, Olivia approached the group.

“I must apologize, had I known you were interested in commanding troops I would have assembled my battalion.”

“Oh no, no, this was more than enough. Thank you, Captain.” She shook both of her hands in front of her body. “Though I must ask, what is that the soldiers were shooting at?”

“Dead slimes, they closely resemble the human body, or so one of the scientists said. It’s very useful to actually see what happens when you manage to hit a shot at it. At least for the morale that is.”

“Slimes? Now that’s interesting.”

“It’s a great way to test ballistics.” The familiar female voice came from behind Leona, upon turning around she noticed it was Athena wearing the usual military garb, she seemed recovered enough to walk with only the aid of a walking cane. “Who would’ve thought that slimes resembled the muscle tissue of animals.”

“Athena? What are you doing here?”

Leona asked curiously.

“I’m here at the behest of the workshop. I thought of a new weapon design and came to bring the idea for a possible buyer, namely, captain Olivia here.”

“I see. How is the flying vessel coming along?”

“It’s ready for production, I’m waiting for Lawrence to assemble the team. Though I’m not involved in the building itself, I am responsible for overseeing the process so I need to get going soon.” She pulled a stack of papers from the bag she held around her shoulder and gave it to Olivia before saying. “We are holding on to the blueprint in case you’re interested in it.”

“Thank you lieutenant.” Olivia grasped the stack of papers and held it against her forearm. “Well, since now I have some paperwork to go through I’ll head back to my office” She was about to leave before she turned to face the tactician. “Ah, but feel free to use the training dummies Princess Leona just be careful to not burn anything.”

After nodding to Krieg and Phoebe the captain headed inside the castle.

Athena then turned to Leona before heading back herself.

“Pass by the workshop in the evening, we should be working on it by then.”

“Hmm, I will. Thank you Athena.”

“Hey no problem.” She smiled. “I’m thankful we are finally getting somewhere with the engine. I was worried about the specifications and whatnot, but lady Fye was kind enough to make sure the blueprints met the previous parameters- ahem, in any case, did you come here just to see the captain in action?”

“Ah, no, not really, I asked her if there was any training materials for spellcasters and well…”

The tactician turned towards the half destroyed training dummy made of slime gel. It vaguely resembled a humanoid body, except it was twice the knight’s size and it was slightly blue.

“I see. Well why not give it a go? You never know until you try it right?”

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“Hmm…” She stared at the target while trying to picture a death angel in front of her. After doing so she raised the palm of her left hand towards it. “Northern winds hearken to me, pierce through my foe, Ice Spear!" The thin lance of ice was launched at a decent velocity, much akin to a javelin being thrown before embedding itself about halfway through the gel before it became stuck, though the result was acceptable and it could badly maim anyone caught by it, it was not enough for Leona to be satisfied. “I don’t know how to make this better.”

Athena scratched the side of her head as she asked.

“You use wind magic to launch the spell after it’s made, right?”

“Huh? Yeah, why?”

“I see, then can you make it so the wind spins the icicle? It doesn’t matter the direction, just so it spins.”

The inventor motioned with her right index finger, making a few circles in the air.

“Spin? Like a pinwheel?”

“A spinning top, more like it. But yeah I think you get what I’m trying to say.”

“Hmm… I can try…” She took a deep breath while extending both hands out this time, the right palm was fully stretched while the left hand was just below it as she began to chant. “Northern winds hearken to me-” The sharp icicle started to take shape and as it, strings of mana began to pour out from her left wrist and shape the air around it like a horizontal tornado. “-pierce through my foe, Ice Spear!"

The moment she released the spell the lance of ice seemed to cut through the air like a bullet and it pierced through the gel and shattered on the opposite wall after making contact with it.

“On your first try! Not bad Leo.”

Athena clapped with a smile on her face. The tactician was staring at both her hands, despite using a bit more mana the resulting spell became much more powerful.

“Athena, how did you know that using a wind spell alongside it would increase its power?”

“Oh no, I don’t know anything about magic, what I just told you to do was to apply the rifling theory that my father studied about. By spinning a projectile, it becomes more stable and given the right shape, it can literally ‘cut’ through the air, maintaining its lethality over greater distances.” She pulled her derringer and unloaded the gun before handing it over to Leona. “Here, check inside the barrel, you’ll see there are grooves that simulate a spiral. When you shoot a bullet through it, those grooves are made so the bullet can spin just like you did with your spell.”

Upon inspecting the gun, Leona took notice of what the inventor had said and gave her back the weapon.

“Do you have anything else to share? I need to improve with my magic as well so I can have my mind at ease once we depart.”

“Hmmm… I do have a theory I couldn’t put to the test, if you’re willing.” Leona enthusiastically nodded. “Very well, from what I observed in Akrapocalis, most of the ammunition made for rifles are quite ineffective against uncommonly big targets, such as death angels. However, I believe if I made the bullets a bit bigger they would be able to at the very least pack enough of a punch to hurt those things badly.”

“Bigger you say, but then wouldn’t that make the projectile slower?”

“In a way yes and that is exactly what I wanted to find out about, how much can I increase the size before it becomes too slow.”

“I can try, but I’m not sure spells could achieve the speed bullets already do.”

“It’s fine as long as you can make anything that vaguely resembles the ammunition we use.”

“Very well…” She closed her eyes and extended both hands just like before. As she slowly exhaled a much smaller icicle began to form from the coalescing air, however instead of a dart it was small and round, akin to a bullet. "Winds of time, grant thy power upon myself, Windshot!"

Upon releasing the spell, the small projectile was shot at an incredible speed until it hit the surface of the gel, shattering into bits and in turn making the gel reverberate.

“Huh?”

The shattering effect caught Athena’s eyes.

“Should I increase its size-”

“Leo, wait. Do the same thing you just did. But let me see how you make the spell.”

“Eh? Okay…”

She raised her hand again, focusing on creating the same ice bullet. As the air coalesced into the round bullet-like shape, the inventor approached and looked at it very closely while taking out a piece of paper and a charcoal pencil to make notes.

“Very well, you can release it now.”

Leona nodded before turning her attention to the slime target.

"Winds of time, grant thy power upon myself, Windshot!"

As soon as the spell left her fingers, the bullet-like projectile impacted the gel once again and shattered into bits, sending waves through the solid-liquid surface.

“So a flatter surface transfers more kinetic energy into the target than a pointed bullet does…” Athena was mumbling to herself as she jotted down in her notes. “I think propellant is in order…”

“Huh… Athena, why do you want to make more ammunition types? Don’t you already have the anti, whatever you called it, for bigger targets?”

“There is a fatal issue with that kind of ammo. Not everyone can shoot it out of a rifle without the proper training, and let’s say that proper training takes too much time.” She finished jotting down on the piece of paper and stuffed it in the front pocket of her coat. “Anyway, the point is, we need something even a peasant could be able to use to defend themselves-”

The pleasant talk was cut short by a hurried step coming from behind them, a soldier wearing the londrian uniform came into the castle courtyard almost out of breath.

“Lieutenant Athena?” He was gasping for air whilst holding his weight against his bent knees. “I have terrible news…!”

“Settle down soldier, tell me what happened.”

“An… an Arcadian envoy at the behest of the acting king desires to talk to you. General Vaan is currently keeping them busy but we fear it might be because of Lady Leona.”

Both the inventor and the tactician exchanged worried glances to one another before Athena finally answered.

“Prepare the carriage, I’ll go meet with the general.” She then turned to Leona. “I need you three to go back to the warehouse, make sure to not be followed.”

Leona nodded as she glanced at Krieg and Phoebe.

“Let’s go.”