Yet another Legendary skill for Sam’s pot was now in the bag, and he smiled. The mild addictive function of seeing things go up in video games was coming back to him now. Sam closed the notification, and turned to Sarge.
“It worked! I hated you for a moment, but your taunting actually allowed me to break through. I have a fully functioning ranged skill now!”
“Congratulations. I am always glad to be of service. You should probably get your hand checked though.”
Sam looked down at his rapidly bleeding hand, having completely forgotten about it in his excitement. Yelping in alarm, he pulled out a roll of bandages that he had bought on the Interweb. Wrapping it around his hand tightly, he sighed in relief as the mild magic within the bandage increased the clotting speed of his blood. It was nowhere near as good as a true healing crystal, but it was good enough. Sam tightened his fist to staunch the remainder of the blood flow, and waited until a scab had formed before he moved the hand again. With his prodigious healing rate, it took less than a minute for the wound to be sealed. The actual damage, namely the broken bones and pulped skin, would take quite a bit longer to heal, but for now Sam could ignore it. He would need to find Lao to heal it properly.
Sam heard someone shouting from the distance, and he turned to spot Eduardo waving his arms at Sam from next to the mana orb. Sam gave one glance back at Sarge, but the robot was already gone. Shaking his head, Sam rushed towards the orb, making sure to keep his hand from being jostled by the motion. When he reached Eduardo, the man pointed at the orb.
“You just left this for me to pick up. What even is it? Is it going to blow up when I pick it up?”
“Oh. It was the ammunition from the cannon. Apparently it is one million points of condensed mana. That is what it takes to fire that cannon. I was hoping to repurpose the cannon for our own ends,” Sam answered. He probably should have waited until Eduardo was finished with the aliens before saddling this task on him.
“So it isn't going to blow up when I lift it?”
“No, it shouldn't.”
“Right then,” Eduardo said with an apprehensive look. “Here goes.” He started muttering something that sounded suspiciously like a prayer under his breath as he bent down and put his hands around the orb. With a heave, he lifted the orb. Eduardo immediately fell backwards, not having accounted for how light the thing was. He fumbled at it to prevent it from falling to the ground, and eventually steadied the orb.
“This thing contains a million mana? It feels like a feather.”
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“Well, energy doesn't really have mass, so…” Sam said. He at least remembered that much from high school.
“Right. Well, let’s get this back to the city then. What about the cannon? We just going to leave it here?”
Sam eyed up the cannon, and then spotted the other faction members who had come here with Eduardo.
“That depends. How many people came with you?”
“About five hundred. Why?” Eduardo asked as he shifted the orb to a more comfortable position.
“What levels are they?”
“They were all between level 30 and 40.”
“Huh. This might just work,” Sam answered.
“What might work? What are you even talking about?”
“You’ll see.” Sam ran towards the nearest group of soldiers, and instructed them to gather up all their fellows next to the cannon. It took a few minutes for the small army to form up in front of Sam, and he waited until the very last one was there before addressing them.
“You all see that cannon? It is our spoil of war, by right of conquest. It’s useless if we can’t get it into the city though. Even I cannot lift it on my own, but if we work together, perhaps we can achieve more together than alone. You see what I’m getting at?”
“Yes sir!” The army shouted in unison.
Sam smiled and moved over to the back of the cannon. The crystalline spikes poking out of the cannon at random angles made great handholds, and Sam seized two of them in a firm grip. His right hand burned as he gripped the handle, and he was forced to adjust his grip, taking the brunt of the weight on his left arm. All around the cannon, the others did the same, and when every last soldier had their hands on the cannon, Sam began to lift. His muscles groaned as he began to pull, and the people around him started as well. The motion spread like a wave around the cannon, and soon it was beginning to lift off the ground. Sam’s arms were being pulled out his sockets by the strain, as he had purposefully taken the heaviest part of the cannon.
With a grunt, he used his armor skill, feeling a new surge of energy enter him. Sam’s feet sunk into the ground, and he pulled them out one by one,setting them down again. As he took a step, the others followed. The weight on his muscles was still painful, but not tortuous, and Sam started to guide the others towards the gate. Eduardo paced alongside them, holding the orb in both hands. It took them a half hour to reach the nearest gate, and then Sam realized something. From the distance that he had regarded them, the gates had looked large enough to fit the cannon, but in reality the cannon was far too large. The gates were twenty feet in width at the widest point, and the cannon was almost double that. Even worse, it was taller than the gate as well. Short of breaking the wall down, there was no way to get the cannon into the city.
“Wait a minute,” Sam thought, spotting the burgeoning spaceport. “We don’t need it inside the city, just inside the force field.”
“Hey! Let’s find a good spot for it within the force field! It doesn't need to go into the city,” Sam called out, his strident voice carrying to everyone holding the cannon.
They began to turn to the right, and soon they were able to find a suitable place to put the cannon down. There was about five hundred feet of space between the edge of the wall and the edge of the force field, and that was plenty of space for the cannon. Sam would have someone build some fortifications around it with the Metropolis Core, but it was secure for now.