“Don’t look at me like that,” Lhogan said as he and El walked over to the weapons rack.

“If I explode, I’m exploding on you,” El said and poked him in the chest.

“Seriously, you don’t need to worry about it. I’ve tested out a few of these myself. Worst I got was a headache and a few bruises. Be careful with this one.” Lhogan tapped a long tube-like weapon wider than her arm. “This is the artillery I was telling you about, but it has quite a kick.”

“The bruises?”

“Yeah. Maybe start with one of the smaller ones?”

“This the new artillery you were talking about before? The one they are thinking about deploying early?”

“Yes… but…”

El gently lifted the tube from the rack. Three feet long and weighing close to twenty pounds, one end opened wide, like a trumpet, while the other was clearly for her to insert her hand. So, she did. The tube swallowed her arm almost all the way to her elbow before her fingers found some kind of handle.

“The hilt inside is electrum, of course, like the weapons on your belt,” Insulad explained as he joined them. “However,” he said very urgently, “do not ignite the weapon unless you’re ready to fire it. This has no idle mode, like your sword does. It’s either shooting, or it’s not. Understand?”

“Got it,” El said. “I just point this at the target and ignite?”

“That is correct. Are you sure you want to start with this one, though? It’s caused the most cases of exhaustion and…”

“Spontaneous combustion?” El almost put the weapon down.

“I was going to say bruising, but yes, that too. It was a long time ago, though,” Insulad said.

“And he’s still going to be in the hospital for another twelve to sixteen weeks?”

“What are you waiting for? An invitation? Put her on the mark and let’s go!” Felps yelled.

“Really, you can try something else if you’d like,” Insulad offered.

Spontaneous combustion, could that actually even hurt her with the Spark? And, would that be worse than being entombed in ice? No. And the whole reason she was here was to find a weapon to stop those blue newts. If this was it, she couldn’t back down now. She owed it to her friends.

“Let’s do this,” she said, and hefted the weapon.

“Okay, the mark is over here,” Insulad said and led her to the middle of the room. “Now, this weapon will be unlike anything you’ve tried before. We’ve developed a new process for the electrum. We call it double-forged electrum, and it not only channels the Spark, it magnifies it.”

“How much?”

“Between three and four times, we estimate,” Insulad said, and pointed at an X on the floor. “Yes, right there, please,” he said as El took her spot.

“Why is where I stand so important?” she asked.

Lhogan pointed to the mattresses leaning against the wall fifty feet away. “Told you, a bit of a kick.”

El looked at the distant mattresses, then at the weapon in her hands. A bit of a kick?

“This is a ranged weapon, like your bow, so your target will be those four dummies down at the far end of the room, but don’t ignite until we’re out of the way,” Insulad said, and quickly backstepped.

“You got this,” Lhogan said, and gave her two thumbs up.

“Anything happens to me, you get to explain to my brother,” El told him.

Lhogan paused and his mouth worked, but no sounds came out.

“Loogie, out of the way unless you’re offering to be a target!” Felps shouted.

El gestured toward the target dummies. She was game if Lhogan was.

He wasn’t, and scurried over to join the other three. Why were they standing behind a blast shield?

El looked down at the weapon in her hands. What the Blaze was this thing going to do?

Time to find out!

With the aid of her flame armor, the weight of the weapon was barely noticeable as she lifted it parallel to the ground. She slid her left foot back to brace herself and focused on the central target dummy.

“Uh, El, maybe you should—” Lhogan started.

El ignited the weapon.

KA-SHOOOOOOM

The world tinged red from the horse-sized, miniature sun that exploded from the barrel of her weapon like it was sprinting. Streamers of flailing plasma scorched the floor, heat rolled outward in a visible wave, and the sound, a roar like standing at the foot of a massive waterfall.

It moved away from her at blistering speed. No, that wasn’t quite right. She was moving too. In the opposite direction.

The ball of fire soared past the target dummy and struck the reinforced wall behind at the same time she hit the mattresses hard enough to feel it through her flame armor.

Mattresses wrapped around her to absorb the impact while the fiery projectile erupted in a conflagrating expansion that stretched fifty feet in every direction. The flames reached the ceiling, consumed the target dummies, all of them, and slammed against the blast shield protecting the four spectators.

The spring from the mattresses expelled El to flop onto the floor, the weapon rolling away, and she pushed herself up just in time to see the fiery explosion vanish without a trace. Well, maybe not completely without a trace. The target dummies slouched and warped from the temperature, heat radiated off the walls and ceiling in waves, and Felps, he was jumping and clapping his hands.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Did you see that?” he asked his two colleagues. “Tell me you got the data for that.”

“Analyzing now,” Insulad said, his eyes on a screen to his side. Was his hair smoldering?

“Well? Well? What’ve you got?”

“Hrm. That was above-average output, with a pull on her Spark well within acceptable thresholds. Ignite time… wow… that’s impressive. Look at this,” Insulad said and waved the other two researchers over.

El stopped paying attention to them, she hadn’t combusted after all, and stood up. She was stiff from the impact, and her shoulder sure hurt from the weapon’s recoil, but all in all, that wasn’t bad.

“Told you it had some kick,” Lhogan said and jogged over.

“You can say that again,” El said, picking up the weapon.

“Here, I can put that back on the rack for you. You want to try one of the smaller ones?”

In answer, El slipped the weapon back on her arm. “Can I try again?” she shouted over to Felps.

“Again?” Lhogan asked. “Once usually scares people off.”

“If we’re going to issue these to Firestorm, we need to figure out how to deal with that recoil. Felps? Can I?”

“Knock yourself out my dear,” Felps shouted. “Literally, if need be,” he added only slightly more quietly.

“You might want to get behind the blast shield again,” El said.

“You’re sure about this?” Lhogan asked.

El just glared at him, and he threw his hands up in surrender and then jogged back to join the three researchers.

Okay, that recoil was something else. Firestorm would be in the air when they ignite though. Would her wings be enough to offset the blast? And how would the pull on her Spark affect her wings? Only one way to find out.

El ignited her wings, lifted a few inches off the ground, and glided forward to hover above the X on the floor.

“Hey, Insulad, think I’ll be able to maintain my wings when I fire?” she asked.

“Given the readings, it shouldn’t be a problem. The weapon was designed to be fired from the air after all,” he answered back.

“Has it been tested?”

No answer.

El double-checked to make sure she was still lined up with the mattresses, then leveled the weapon at the target dummies again.

“We’re ready here,” Felps said. “You show that dummy!”

“Thanks for the encouragement,” El whispered to herself and ignited the weapon.

Like before, the tremendous recoil launched her in the other direction. Unlike the last time, El didn’t focus on the fireball, and instead turned her attention and power to her wings. Five feet she flew backward at breakneck speeds. Fifteen feet and she had her momentum under control. Twenty feet, she stopped.

Not bad.

Felps hooted and cheered. “This is a major breakthrough! You’re the first one not to hit the mattresses! Well, actually, technically the second. I mean there was that one guy before we figured out we needed to put mattresses there at all. But hitting the wall is just the same, right?

“How are the readings?” he turned to ask Insulad.

“Still well within acceptable limits, and there was almost no loss to the efficiency of her wings. Here are the readings for her Spark.”

“Interesting, interesting,” Felps said, putting his fingers to his lips in thought.

“How’re you feeling?” Lhogan asked, jogging over to join her a second time.

El took a deep breath and gently touched down. “That one took it out of me a lot more than the first. Feel like I just ran a hundred-yard sprint. But, it was better. One more time,” she called out so everybody could hear her.

“What? Are you sure?” Lhogan said. “Nobody’s done three in a row.”

“Yeah, one more thing I want to try,” El said and doused her wings. “Have to see if we can completely counter that recoil. Twenty feet is still a long way to go if we’re in a tight formation. Can’t have Firestorm slamming into each other like that.”

“You’re crazy,” Lhogan said with a smile.

“And I’m going to be hungry after this. You still offering dinner?” El asked.

“Hah, I don’t know what you’re going to try, but if you can stay on the X, I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”

“Oh?” El asked and raised her eyebrows. Then she gave him a wink and walked back up to the X.

“I’m… going to regret that offer, aren’t I?” Lhogan asked from beside her.

“Yes,” she said with a single nod toward the blast shield.

“Good luck, I guess?” Lhogan said and jogged off for a third time.

Right, if El was going to make this work, she’d need to do things a little differently than the other two attempts. The first time, she’d stood rather brazenly, assuming the talk of the recoil was wild exaggeration. It wasn’t. But, that had given her a good idea of how much force was actually applied.

The second time, she’d faced it straight on, expecting her wings to be able to counter the force. It had worked, to an extent. Still, even if she’d been flying at the target at full speed when she fired, the blast would’ve still kicked her back midair. The weapon’s recoil was simply beyond the power provided by her wings’ regular ignition. Which just left one option.

El leveled her right arm at the target, and brought her left hand up to brace the weapon. She needed it to line up almost perfectly. Next, she bent her knees and slid her left leg back again for extra support. Finally, she squared her shoulders and took a deep breath.

“You forgot your wings!” Felps shouted helpfully.

“You ready for this?” El asked.

“She forgot her wings,” Felps said again to the three around him. “Maybe she didn’t hear me?”

“We’re ready,” Insulad answered her.

“You got this, El,” she told herself, then ignited the weapon at the same time she flared her wings at full power.

The burst from the weapon pulled on her Spark, sucking the power it needed out, while El consciously pushed the remaining energy into her flared wings. Dual forces of deafening intensity exploded in opposite directions, crushing her in the middle like a vice and vying for superiority.

The whole room flashed red and shook from the roar of the flames. It lasted only a heartbeat, and then the fireball hit the middle target, engulfing it and those around it in the same expanding inferno. El hardly paid attention to it though, dropping to her knee in exhaustion.

Right on the X.

She hadn’t moved. Not an inch. She would’ve laughed at the success, except she didn’t have the energy at the moment. That had been almost as draining as the arrow she’d launched at the Stormbearer. But, glancing up at the target dummy that looked like a melted candle, it was worth it.

These weapons would definitely be able to kill the newts. And, maybe with a few of them, could even stop that Knight.

A hand on her shoulder brought her mind back to the present.

“You okay?” Lhogan asked. “Those three are completely lost in the readings, so I figured somebody needed to come check on you.”

“Yeah, give me a hand?” El asked, and let the weapon slide to the floor.

“You’re not going to break my arm?” Lhogan asked playfully, but took her hand and helped her stand.

“You get a pass this time,” she said. “Especially since you’re going to need both arms to pay for the dinner I have in mind.”

“What does having both arms have to do with paying for dinner?”

“No idea, it sounded better in my head.”

“That was amazing,” Felps said as he walked over to join them. “Absolutely amazing. That thing you did with your wings, can all Firestorm do it?”

“To an extent,” El answered. “Like any skill, some better than others. Can I give you some input after having tried that weapon a few times?”

“Of course,” Felps said, Insulad and Opena joining him.

“Great power,” El said. “But the drain is too much for extended fights. Can you reduce the output by say, thirty percent, for the average soldier? If you’re going to mass produce these, only give this heavier model to the people who can fire it off a few times, and give a lighter model to most people. It’ll be a good balance for longer fights, but if the weapons all look the same, our enemies won’t know which ones are the heavy hitting ones.”

“We had something like that in mind,” Insulad said. “Could you have fired a fourth shot?”

“Not if I wanted to walk out of here under my own power,” El answered. “Maybe in ten or fifteen minutes after I had a chance to recover, but anything sooner would be too much.”

“Good to know,” Insulad said and scratched something down on a notepad he pulled out of a pocket.

“Well, I think that’s enough for today then,” Felps said. “We need to go over this data anyway. Loogie, as a reward for all the help she was, why don’t you go show it to her.”

“Are you sure? I mean, we kind of just met. We hardly know each other,” Lhogan said.

“I’m sure,” Felps said. “Make sure she enjoys it.”

“Uh, you haven’t even taken me to dinner yet,” El said.

“Huh? What? No! Nothing like that,” Lhogan said quickly. “Felps is talking about his other project. It’s still hush-hush, but if he says it’s okay, you interested?”

Another weapon they could use against the blue newts? “I’m interested,” she said.

“Great, let’s go,” Lhogan said.

“Thanks again for your help,” Insulad said. “Now we just need to replace the mattresses before our next round of testing.

Replace the…? El turned around. Oh. A charred cone on the floor stretched all the way from the X to the back wall where a smoldering pile of ashes was all that was left of the mattresses.

Whoops.