Chương 467: 461. Testing - I

A few interested guards were already there. Darora was bent over the assembled scorpion, checking something near the side mechanism. Two of his apprentices stood nearby to help. On one side stood a wheelbarrow with nearly 50 hefty scorpion bolts stacked in it. Kivamus smiled at that. The fletcher had clearly been busy. On the other side was a cart with dozens of planks kept on it to use as targets. With the sawmills running properly now, the village no longer treated every plank like treasure.

Even so, these were not good construction planks. They were either a little bent, rough, uneven, or rejected for some other small flaw by the longhouse construction team. They were not good enough for a building, but they were more than good enough to be shot at. Darora looked up when Kivamus approached. He stood and grinned.

"You're here, Milord. It's ready!" Kivamus nodded.

"So I heard. Good work. This time there are no iron parts in it, so there shouldn't be any problem with the steel components."

"That's what I'm hoping for," Darora said. He pointed toward the northwest corner of the wall, where three planks had been tied together and fixed upright as a target.

"I made the same kind of target as last time. Three planks together, roughly like a man standing there. Who tries it first this time?" Then he looked back at Kivamus.

"Why don't you do it, Milord? You didn't get a chance last time." Kivamus looked toward the target and estimated the distance. Somewhere around 100 meters, give or take. The scorpion was meant to shoot far beyond that, closer to 500 meters if everything worked properly, so this target was much closer than it would be in real use. But inside the village, this was the best they could do safely.

"Fine by me," he said. He walked up to the scorpion and bent over it. Once it was mounted on a watchtower, the operator would not have to bend like this. It would be fixed to the parapet at a proper height. For now, though, the frame sat low on its temporary support. He pulled the string over the notch, then began turning the small handle attached to the side gear. The smaller gear turned smoothly, driving the larger gear with it.

As the mechanism moved, the string pulled back, and the torsion springs on both sides took in the force. That was one of the improvements he liked most. The gear mechanism meant the scorpion did not need a particularly strong man to load it. Any trained guard, man or woman, could do it if they followed the steps properly. That mattered a lot if he wanted these weapons to be usable on multiple towers with whoever was on shift at the time. The string reached the marked point showing the safe maximum draw.

Kivamus stopped turning the handle and pushed the small lever that shifted the holding force from the gears to the nut. He looked at the apprentice holding the bolts.

"That one." The apprentice handed him an iron-tipped bolt. It was heavy and nearly three feet long. Kivamus took it carefully and set it into the groove. The scorpion was loaded. He adjusted the sights for a few moments, bringing the plank target into line. The mechanism was still rough by Earth standards, but for what they could build here, it was good enough. Once he was ready, he lifted one hand, gesturing for everyone to step back. The others gave him space. Kivamus pulled the trigger lever.

The nut rotated, releasing the trapped string. The torsion bundles snapped back toward their resting state, and the bolt shot forward with a hard twang. A moment later, a loud crack came from the target. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Kivamus stood straight with a grin and gestured toward the target.

"Let's see how I did." The guards and apprentices jogged ahead first, with Darora close behind them. Kivamus followed at a walking pace with Hudan and Duvas. By the time he reached the target, the result was obvious. Just like during the earlier test, the bolt had punched cleanly through all three planks. It had struck the log wall behind the target and fallen to the ground there.

"It works!" one of the guards cheered.

"Let's hope it doesn't break again this time," another guard muttered. Kivamus chuckled.

"Don't worry about that. We made all the metal components from steel this time. They're strong enough to handle the load. It won't break." He looked around at the group.

"Now, who wants to shoot next?" Every single person there raised a hand. Including Duvas. Kivamus looked at the majordomo in surprise. Duvas shrugged with a grin.

"What can I say? I would also like to try shooting it, now that I know it isn't going to break apart and kill me."

"That's the spirit," Hudan said, laughing. Kivamus laughed as well. He remembered the previous test clearly. Back then Duvas had wanted nothing to do with the thing, considering it far too dangerous for a man of his age to stand near. This time, seeing that the scorpion had survived the first shot and that the components were made of steel, he had apparently changed his mind. They went back to the scorpion. One by one, everyone began taking shots at the target. The process became quicker after the first few tries.

Darora corrected one apprentice's grip. Hudan leaned in with curiosity to look at the gears more closely. He took longer than most, fiddling with the sights for quite a while, but he still managed to load and shoot the weapon properly on his first try, and the bolt struck close enough to the centre line of the plank target that he looked quite satisfied with himself afterward. After a while, another bolt hit near the middle of the three planks, which were already full of holes.

The impact split the weakened planks apart, and the target broke in half. Darora had been expecting that though. His apprentices were already moving before anyone had to tell them. They took three fresh rejected planks from the cart and began tying them into place for the next round. The testing continued for a while. Kivamus stopped them after every shot and checked the metal components himself.

He looked at the nut, the side plates, the gear teeth, the pins, and the places where the force of the torsion bundles pulled hardest against the frame. If the conversion from iron to steel had not been done properly, there could have been cracks or bending after repeated use. That would make the weapon dangerous for the person operating it, not just for the target. Thankfully, Cedoron had done his work properly. There were no cracks. No bending. No sign that the metal was struggling under the load.

Duvas tried it too, after watching the others for a few rounds. His first attempt took a while, but at least it proved that one did not need to have muscles like Hudan to load it. The majordomo set the bolt carefully, leaned down to use the sights, adjusted his position, then adjusted it again. When he finally pulled the trigger, the bolt missed the target entirely and struck the log wall behind it. For a moment the old majordomo just stared. Then he started laughing.

Hudan laughed with him, and even Darora's apprentices grinned openly once they saw Duvas was not upset. Duvas shook his head, took the next bolt, and tried again. This time he took longer with the sights and did not let anyone hurry him. When he pulled the trigger, the bolt struck the target almost in the middle.

"That's better," Duvas said, looking rather pleased with himself. After several more rounds, Kivamus raised a hand.

"Alright. Stop there." Everyone quieted and looked toward him.

"We can be sure now that this scorpion isn't going to have any problem with normal use," he said.

"So now we'll test how it would do against a mounted knight." Hudan's expression sharpened at once.

"For that, make a new target," Kivamus said, turning to Darora.

"This time six planks thick. That is double the thickness of the current target, and I think it should roughly imitate the resistance of a knight's plate armor." He looked toward the planks they had already broken.

"In this case, the bolt doesn't need to pierce the enemy completely and come out the other side like it did with that target of three planks. It only needs to pierce the armor and go a few inches in. That would be more than enough to kill someone inside plate armor." He paused and then added, "Adzees are probably much tougher.

Unless the scorpion hits them from a very short distance of a few dozen meters, which might still happen if they get close to the wall, these three-foot bolts probably won't kill one in a single shot unless someone gets lucky and hits the head and punctures the skull. So against the adzees, our defense will be to keep hitting them until they are badly wounded enough to run away, or until the guards can finish them easily." Darora nodded and immediately gave orders to his apprentices. The old target was pulled down.

Six planks were tied together and fixed in the same place with ropes. It took a little longer this time because of the added weight, but the apprentices knew what they were doing and had it ready soon enough.