Chương 403: 398. Testing - IV

The others looked at him in confusion, so Kivamus explained, "Did you all forget that this scorpion was designed to shoot a bolt for around 500 meters? We're only testing it at a range of just around a fifth of that, which is why it feels so powerful. It's like shooting someone with a crossbow bolt from just a few feet away."

"Oh…" Darora nodded slowly.

"In the excitement of seeing it work so well, I'd forgotten that we were using it at a much smaller distance than what it was meant for." Kivamus continued, "Assuming my estimate of three planks providing the same resistance as a human body is correct, then this bolt will still be able to pierce through any bandit at around 500 m, although it'll be very difficult to target a person accurately at that distance. However, with the extra momentum associated when using it from a watchtower…" He paused.

"I mean, with the force the bolt will still be carrying because of its heavy weight, and because it'll be moving downwards from the height of a watchtower, it'll easily be able to pass through more than one body before stopping. Especially the iron-tipped bolts."

"If the bandits are closer," he added, "at… let's say half that distance, then this bolt will carry enough power to go through three or four bodies easily, and even more if they're closer."

"The bandits really don't stand a chance against us anymore, do they?" one of the guards asked with a grin.

"It's only the first step though," Kivamus replied, "since we need to build five more scorpions and place them on each watchtower. Preferably two of them on the four corner watchtowers. That'll take time."

"There's also the problem of targeting accurately," Hudan said.

"It's one thing to shoot at a sitting target of planks and from this close, but it won't be this easy when shooting from the height of a watchtower, and when the bandits are running at us."

"Of course, although practice will help in that." Kivamus grinned and looked at the guard.

"But yes, once we've placed at least one scorpion on each watchtower, then the bandits really don't stand a chance against us. If they're coming in a horde, screaming at the walls to give them our gold, then a single scorpion bolt going through three of their men—and you can imagine the kind of gore it would spray around—will put the fear of the goddess back in their heads."

"You're right in that much," Hudan snorted.

"Even if the crossbow women—or rather, scorpion women, as they might like to be called in the future—manage to shoot a single bandit in a group, and assuming there's enough light for the bastards to see what's happening, they'll break immediately once they see their partner's body butchered like that. If they're close enough, it'll be like the body has just… exploded. Only hardened veterans, or mercenaries, will have the guts to keep coming after that."

"Or an army," Kivamus muttered under his breath. Duvas looked upwards and mumbled a prayer of thanks to the Goddess.

"Can I try next?" one of the guards asked. Darora nodded.

"Let me check the iron parts first." He spent a few moments looking at the scorpion from different sides and frowned. After giving a quick glance to Kivamus, he looked back at the guard.

"Yeah, you can try now. I think you should try a standard bolt without an iron tip this time, so we can see how that works against the plank target." Kivamus had noticed the carpenter's glance, and was going to ask about it when the captain started to speak.

"What about knights though?" Hudan glanced at the others nearby who were listening in curiosity. He quickly added, "Or rather, a bandit or mercenary who has stolen plate armor and is wearing it when coming to attack us?" Kivamus shrugged.

"I have no way to give the answer without actually testing it, but I estimate that four planks should be able to provide a similar target as a man in plate armor. Unlike this first target, we don't need the bolt to go through them completely—which would need five to six planks to simulate a knight wearing his armor, in my estimate. That's because the bolt just needs to go in deep enough to kill the man, and four planks will simulate it well enough.

Of course, we'll likely be shooting at a farther distance than this when the scorpion has been placed on a watchtower, but after seeing this result, and when using an iron tip, this scorpion bolt will easily be able to kill a knight in a single hit, as long as they can be targeted properly. Their plate armor doesn't stand a chance against this." A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Hudan nodded slowly.

"It'll certainly need some practice, but knights often rush in a straight line when riding their warhorses. If they're coming directly at the wall, it won't be that difficult, but then it depends on the person." He glanced at the guards.

"Of course, what matters more to us is what would happen if a mercenary is coming at us in plate armor, but the result should be similar enough."

"Hells yeah!" one of the guards cheered, before he was joined by the others. The man who had asked to try it next had just finished reloading and was targeting the scorpion now. Once ready, he pulled the trigger, and again the bolt went out too fast for eyes to follow. Immediately, there was another cracking sound as the bolt hit the plank target.

"Well, let's check again," Kivamus said, and Duvas and the guards started to follow him, although the carpenter stayed behind to check something with the scorpion. Once they reached the target, they found the result to be the same. The bolt had completely passed through all the planks—marking a wide crack in the first plank—and had fallen near the palisade wall. Kivamus checked it and found that its wooden tip had broken off, which was why it didn't get stuck in the log wall.

The plank target was still standing, although one of the four ropes tying it to branches planted in the ground had snapped off from the impact. So even a practice bolt made just of wood will be enough to kill a bandit, more if they are behind each other. Killing knights would need an iron tip though. The guard who had tried it this time was grinning in satisfaction, while the apprentice started to reattach a new rope to get the target ready again.

It already had two holes in it, but the plank was big enough that it would work as a target for many more times before it needed to be replaced, or broken into smaller parts. As they started walking back to the scorpion, Kivamus looked at the majordomo.

"You wanna give it a try this time?" Duvas immediately shook his head.

"It's not for me, Milord. The scorpion looks way too dangerous for my old bones to even go close to it—just like it were a real scorpion ready to sting me with its poisonous tail. This wooden scorpion will certainly kill you just as fast as a living one if you stand on the wrong side of it." He grinned.

"I guess you named it accurately enough."

"True that," Hudan snorted. Kivamus chuckled at that, before the majordomo shrugged, "I'll leave the task of killing our enemies to the guards. I'm just fine dealing with ledgers and revenue numbers."

"Well, in that case I guess I should give it a try too," Kivamus said as they reached back to the scorpion. Darora was still checking up on something. Noticing him, the carpenter with the cropped black hair stood up and looked at him in hesitation.

"Milord, uh…" Kivamus frowned.

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure what has happened, but I don't think this is gonna last too long." Darora pointed at two different components made of metal.

"I'm not a blacksmith, so I don't know exactly what's gone wrong with this piece of iron, but…" He shook his head.

"Take a look for yourself." Kivamus bent down and peered at a small metallic part which was vital in holding the tension of the torsion springs when loaded. In the bright light of the sun, it was easy enough to recognize. It was metal fatigue. One of the parts was nearly close to snapping and would break within the next few reloading attempts, while the other component should hold out for maybe a dozen more tries. But no more.

"Shit..."

"What's wrong?" Hudan asked, bending down to look at the same component Kivamus had been staring at.

"Wait, what happened here? It looks like it's gonna break pretty soon." He frowned.

"I can't believe Cedoron could have forged a part in such bad quality."

"No, it's not his fault." Kivamus looked at the component again. Because of the cycling loading—high stresses caused by the powerful torsion springs when the scorpion was loaded, and then low to no stress when it was unloaded—the iron was close to failure, likely by inclusion-initiated fatigue. He had no way to check the microstructure of the metal here, but while wrought iron was more malleable, it also meant it couldn't stand the same level of stresses as steel could.

"Dammit…" He had made some manual calculations when designing the scorpion, and they had shown that the forces involved would be pretty close to the failure point of iron. Because everything was being hand-made here, it wasn't possible to calculate the exact values in advance, but he had still hoped the forces involved would end up just below the threshold of what iron could withstand. But it seemed like it couldn't... He stood up again.

"Did I make some mistake while assembling it?" Darora asked with worry in his voice.

"I'm sure I followed the blueprint exactly..."