by N H Paxton
I chose to use a segmented barrel when I modified the schematic because it would allow for more modularity. It would also shoulder some of the recoil when it fired, improving the stability of the cannon. I took a perfectly manufactured barrel, about fifty-six centimeters in length and ten centimeters in diameter, with a small rivulet running along the inside, and placed a sturdy Darkshard spring inside. The spring was capable of handling loads of 22,000 KSM, or kilos per square meter, which was more than we needed, but I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t tear itself apart. I slid another barrel, slightly smaller, with an escapement on the outside, into the rivulet and compressed the entire lot.
I selected the action function within the crafting interface, and the barrel slid inwards and outwards without issue. We would need a lubricating agent to prevent internal damage, but it worked. I placed a cap onto the end of the barrel line to increase muzzle velocity, then fastened the entire barrel onto the framework with sturdy Darkshard rods.
The rods fit into another U-frame on the top of the barrel set, which would allow us to change the firing angle at will. The barrel pitch system was augmented with a crank that would allow the entire mechanism to be pitched or yawed quickly in order to change targeting procedures efficiently. This I attached next. It consisted of a screw-lock mechanism beneath the butt of the barrel that would use inverted rotational energy from an external round-crank that I mounted to the side of the Darkshard framework. To this, I fitted a rounded handle for comfort. Not because I had to, but because sometimes it is nice to have comfortable things.
I looked at the work I had done and sighed. It was not a sigh of frustration or anger, but a sigh of contentment. I was doing the very thing I loved on Earth—making weapons—but now I was making them for a purpose I believed in. It was a surreal experience.
I turned to the rapidly shrinking pile of components and pulled out the pieces I would need to make the firing mechanism. Due to the type of ammunition we were using, which was explosively charged arcane shadow energy, there was no actual reload system aside from energy coalescence. This needed to be hybridized in order to work in a low-umbra environment. Our miners had been blessed with rare drops from the Darkshard Ore, in the form of the self-same shadow crystal I had snagged at the beginning of this journey. We had exactly twelve of them, and I was able to craft them into condensers without too much of an issue.
I fitted one of them into a glass housing, which would operate as an amplifier for the incoming energy. Every good cannon needed a slide release system where the ammunition was stored in order to remove shells. We didn’t have shells for this, but the energy would work like one. I built a slider door for the crystal to prevent the energy from seeping out when it was fully charged. It would also allow the cannoneer to see when the weapon was ready to fire, as well as provide an energy influx for the crystal itself.
Once that was put together, I needed it to be fused to a solid platform. I connected it with molten Darkshard, sort of like welding, but very old-world. This entire small platform went into the ass-end of the barrel, set in the back, close to the top. I needed to seal off the remainder of the barrel, which I did with another panel and weld from the molten Darkshard. I needed to make sure the slider could be controlled easily and locked for firing. I added a lever to the slider itself and notched the cannon barrel with a place to lock the slider closed. The Darkshard metal itself worked as a dampener, so if the slider was locked, the crystal wouldn’t charge.
“How to make fire?” I cracked the knuckles in my fingers as I thought about the process involved in firing an actual cannon. Normally, one would use a primer, which would ignite a powder charge compressed inside a shell. This cannon didn’t use shells, so I had to really give it a lot of thought. How else did propulsion work for armaments?
“Could make pressure system,” I said out loud to myself as I stared at the nearly complete cannon sitting in front of me. “But how to condense pressure in order to make fire...”
I entertained the idea of using a pressure-based weapon I had designed in my youth. It used spray-paint aerosol and a slider gate to produce a high-pressure gradient, which would propel an object a considerable distance and with great force. I snapped my fingers and raised an eyebrow. That would work.
I put my hands on the actual, physical barrel of the cannon and activated Reconstruction, forming an image of what I wanted the barrel to now look like in my head. The metal yielded to my demands and reformed into the exact same component, but this time it had an internal channel for a slider panel.
I smiled as I set to work, making the firing mechanism complete. I clipped a series of small components together, making a quick-release trapdoor that would drop into the frame of the cannon when it was fired. To this I added a kinetic coupler, allowing the entire mechanism to be attached to a trigger. It wasn’t a standard trigger, like one would find on a rifle or a crossbow, but instead it was a lever, large enough to extend a solid meter from the top of the cannon. The kinetic coupler ran along the side of the frame, ducked under the frame, and connected to the trapdoor.
I nodded as I animated the entire process, watching the lever pull backward, the trapdoor instantly sliding down, and the barrel recoiling, the spring doing its job, and the framework absorbing the majority of the recoil. For safety purposes, I added a notch to the lever turned trigger, where one could lock the lever to prevent an accidental discharge of the weapon.
“Nearly done,” I whispered as I looked at the cannon sitting in front of me and the almost-gone pile of components I had started with. I had a few more pieces to add, but they were nice and simple.
The next item to be added was a crosshair on the end of the barrel, with varying marks cut along the inside of it for distance. They weren’t actually numbered, just “short, medium, long.” Would it be accurate? Hell no, this was a cannon! If accuracy mattered with cannons, there would have been much less time spent warring in the Middle Ages, and more time spent calculating distances, payload capacity, and range.
I shook my head. I was getting off track. I needed to get this cannon finished or the rest of the crew would be wasting time. I hated it when people waste time.
I looked at the schematic I had created, which was updating as I modified the cannon itself. The prototype was looking so very close to what I had in mind; it was beautiful. I needed to add the kill switch, but I simply wasn’t sure how to make it work without destroying the entire cannon.
I checked the schematic again for a place where I had a component that would be easily replaced, but would make the entire system fail if it was fired. The spring would do it, but that would potentially cause harm to the individual who attempted to use the cannon. I would hate for there to be a Crimson Alliance member who accidentally misused the cannon, only to get themselves killed.
I tapped a finger on the barrel of the cannon absently, looking at all of the moving parts and the components necessary to make the product work.
“Crystal shutout?” I tilted my head as I stared off into space, working through potential options. I could make a system that would completely enclose the crystal in Darkshard metal, but that could be undone. Something that would need to be completely replaced in order to be workable would be ideal. “Destroying barrel would be expensive repair.”
I pushed my index fingers into my temples, as I could feel the edge of a migraine coming to bear. I had been working nonstop since we arrived in the Shadowverse, casting components, modifying a schematic, and creating an entirely new one for the micro-cannon I wanted to create. The components for that particular build were calling to me, but I needed to finish this before I could even start working on my personal pet project.
I was pressing my fingers against my upper eye ridges, trying to reduce the pressure in my head, when it clicked. Pressure! If pressure couldn’t build inside the firing chamber, then it wouldn’t be able to fire.
I rotated the image of the cannon over in my interface, checking to make sure the compone
nts of the firing mechanism were where they should be, then I made a change. I removed one of the clips that held two arms together and replaced it with a rod. I attached that rod to a high-density wire of Darkshard, which I ran taut around the side of the barrel, but not so much so that it would hinder firing. At the end of that wire, I attached a small pulley system, which I miniaturized using my ability. I fastened that to the side of the barrel, placed a box around it to protect it from damage out in the field, and then attached a switch mechanism to the pulley body.
I used the animate option within the crafting interface to make sure everything was working properly, and then I made the interface test the kill switch. The switch flipped, the pulley spun, and the pin was ripped from the arm, causing the trapdoor to slide out of the frame and fall to the ground. It wasn’t perfect, by any means, but it would work. In the insanity of battle, who was going to be looking under a several-hundred-kilo cannon for a small piece of flat metal?
I looked the entire machine over, admiring it before I closed out of my crafting interface. It was finally complete. I had created the prototype of the first mobile Arcane Shadow Cannon.
Bond Stronger than Steel
“GOT YOURSELF A HELL of a cannon, there.” I felt a firm hand land on my shoulder, weighted by metal. I turned and saw Eberand standing there, staring at the work I had done. He seemed in awe, his mouth a twisted smile, slightly hanging open.
“Will do job.” I looked over to the guard detail, who seemed to all be staring at my new project. I shook my head, then rolled up the schematic. I handed it to another engineer and gave the command to mass produce, exactly as the schematic showed.
“So, are we ready to roll out?” Ken was spinning his daggers in the air dangerously. I didn’t understand Rogues.
“Dude, there’s a lot more to be done. There are still all of these engineers working, there’s some shit that might still go down. We can’t just leave.” Garret was leaning against a large, square table made of a fine grain of wood. It seemed a bit out of place in the industrialized room.
“Alright, fine. But if Vlad says it’s cool, I say we book it.” Ken stowed his daggers with a quick shove and jerked his head in my direction.
I looked hard at him, thinking deeply for just a moment.
“No.” I tilted my head at the word. “Go wait at table, bring weapons, yes?” I waved my hand lazily in the air as Eberand saluted, the rest of my newfound men-at-arms following him.
I had piled up some other components nearby when the engineers were done crafting them, putting them at my station in order of their intended use. I had created a Micro-cannon schematic during some of the downtime earlier—which was looking more and more like a heavy crossbow—and I was dying to make it a reality.
I stepped over to the table where Eberand and his gang were waiting, all of their weapons lying on the table in a circle. I looked them over, then fixed each of the fighters with my gaze. Each of them straightened up as my eyes fell on them.
“You,” I started, still preparing the conversation in my head. “You did good, prevented many deaths. Lost Zeno, yes. But sacrifice kept engineers and miners alive. Result was success of mission. You will be rewarded. Your weapons here, I have idea for them, but will need permission.”
“But what about Zeno?” Garret was still visibly upset, his face wrinkled into a frown of the highest order.
“Will reward Zeno as well, but not now, is not here.” I shrugged. There was nothing I could do to fix that, as there was an eight-hour respawn cooldown, and we were in a place where time moved much faster than in the outside world.
“I accept.” The young Templar had placed both her sword and shield on the table. For Templars who followed a shield specialization, as Anya did, their shield was just as much a weapon as their sword. “Lord Vlad, bless me with your gift.” She was starting to kneel as I recoiled, my hands up in a halting way.
“Eh, no, no, not lord. Just Vlad, is good enough.” I rolled my shoulders as her smile took on a sheepishness. She looked to the floor as she blushed.
I took several ingots of smelted Darkshard and placed one next to each of the weapons. I then pulled up my crafter’s interface and began the process of improving their gear with the high-level metal. It took quite a bit of effort, as the weapons, a few of them lower level, resisted the metal at first. After a few moments, the equipment rendered itself to my powers as a Weaponeer, changing into great things.
<<<>>>
Greatsword of the Ebenguard (Augmented)
Weapon Type: Large Bladed; Greatsword
Class: Epic, Two-handed
Base Damage: 67
Primary Effects:
25 points shadow damage + (0.5 x character level)
+20% to large bladed weapon damage
Strength bonus: 0.15 x character level
Constitution bonus: 0.25 x character level
Secondary Effects:
5% chance to release Shadow Tendrils on strike, ensnaring your target for 5 seconds, cannot occur more than once every 2 minutes.
That which mauls also protects; that which destroys also raises up—thus is the power of life and death.
<<<>>>
Shadowed Blades of the Ebenguard (Augmented)
Weapon Type: Bladed; Daggers
Class: Epic; Paired
Base Damage: 45
Primary Effects:
18 points shadow damage + (0.25 x character level)
Dexterity bonus: 0.25 x character level
Stamina bonus: 0.1 x character level
Secondary Effects:
5% chance on hit to engulf target in Shadow Flames, dealing 10 HP/sec shadow damage for 30 seconds, cannot occur more than once every 2 minutes.
May the blades of darkness shroud you in obscurity, may your knives never fail to find their fullest purpose.
<<<>>>
Shield of the Ebenguard (Augmented)
Weapon Type: Shield; Heavy
Class: Epic; Off-Hand
Base Damage: 22
Primary Effects:
When successfully blocking, increases armor rating by 25% for 10 seconds
Constitution bonus: 0.25 x character level
Armor bonus: 0.1 x character level
Secondary Effects:
Performing a Perfect Block restores 25% of your maximum Stamina, cannot occur more than once every minute
Armor is nice, but a good shield? Aye, that’s the true defensible bulwark.
<<<>>>
Cutlass of the Ebenguard (Augmented)
Weapon Type: Bladed; Longsword
Class: Epic, One-handed
Base Damage: 41
Primary Effects:
15 shadow damage + (0.25 x character level)
+5% damage to all bladed weapon attacks
Strength bonus: 0.15 x character level
Secondary Effects:
15 shadow damage + (0.25 x character level)
+5% damage to all bladed weapon attacks
15 shadow damage + (0.25 x character level)
12.5% chance to inflict Shadow Miasma on target, reducing targets total Strength, Constitution and Vitality by 5% for 1 minute, cannot occur more than once every 5 minutes
The edge of the blade glows a gentle purple; are you sure this is what you’re after? It looks... tainted.
<<<>>>
Greataxe of the Ebenguard (Augmented)
Weapon Type: Large Bladed; Greataxe
Class: Epic, Two-handed
Base Damage: 64
Primary Effects:
25 points shadow damage + (0.25 x character level)
+10% damage to large bladed weapons
Strength bonus: 0.15 x character level
+1 to level of all Battle Warden skills
Secondary Effects:
5% chance on hit to trigger Abyssal Shatter, reducing the target’s armor value by 25% of its max for 30 seconds. Cannot occur more than once every 2 minutes.
The abyss calls, th
e axe quivers, the mind rejects the truth, history repeats itself again.
<<<>>>
Each individual collected their equipment in turn, a look of awe on their faces as they read the stats.
“The Ebenguard...” Eberand stared at his greatsword, giving it a few practice swings. “I like the name. Hey guys, how about it, eh?” He sheathed the blade on his back and put his fist up in the air.
“Yeah, alright. I can deal with it.” Ken spun his twin daggers in his hands, then skillfully jammed them into the sheaths at his hips.
“It sounds great.” Anya hoisted her shield and sword, then set them on her back.
“It’s perfect.” Garret gripped the haft of his greataxe so hard that it creaked.
“So, is to liking?” I looked around at the newly improved gear, and the smiles of those who had gratefully accepted their charge.
“It’s amazing, Vlad. And, in case it wasn’t already clear, we’re your personal guard now.” Eberand pounded a gauntleted fist on his chest plate, filling the room with a heavy clang.
“Personal guard? Is not necessary.” I waved a hand, dismissing the idea entirely, as though it were smoke.
“Nope, you’re not getting out of this one, boss.” Ken was immediately throwing his arm around my shoulder, leaning on me like we were friends.
“Derr’mo, you give people new weapon, immediately they think is job offer.” I rolled my eyes so hard I thought my head would fall off my neck. “Okay, fine, is good.” I smiled a bit. It felt nice to have friends, especially people who were willing to fight for me.
I set them to helping with the heavy labor, moving larger components for other cannons and helping prepare the equipment that was no longer in use for travel. Satisfied with the results of the situation, I turned my attention to the micro-cannon turned crossbow I was dying to create.