by Eric Vall
“Let’s hope they see things the way you do,” Aurora muttered as she glanced uneasily in the rearview mirror.
I was already focused on piecing together the disconnector and sear for the pistol, but I sent the half-elf a wink before I secured these with a pin at the back of the trigger valve. Hulsan took a loud snort of pollen and continued his discussion with Haragh while Deya listened curiously, and with the hammer already in place, I gradually worked my way up the assembly line between Cayla’s thighs.
I could tell the princess was already noticing the differences between this design and the revolvers she’d helped me assemble before, and since she ended up rubbernecking my progress anyways, I decided to hand over what I’d finished so far and duplicated another pistol so she could follow the process more directly.
“No cylinder?” Cayla asked as she studied the framing.
I grinned. “Nope.”
“But what--”
“You’ll see,” I assured her, “and trust me, you’ll like it.”
Once both frames had their lead springs, main spring housings, grip safeties, and thumb safeties in place, I formed four grip panels out of silver and handed two to Cayla. The princess mirrored my work step for step as we worked through securing the barrel in the slide with the guide rod as well, and then we mounted this assembly to the frames and added a pair of slide locks within half a second of each other.
Eventually, the chinking of metal on metal caused Hulsan to glance over his shoulder, and he furrowed his bushy brows as he eyed our work.
“What are those?” he asked.
“More guns,” I muttered as I sparked my metal magic to secure Cayla’s barrel bushing for her.
“Like those ones you’re training the mages with?”
“Sort of,” I replied, and as the old man nodded and turned back to Haragh, I slid my fingers deep between Cayla’s thighs to get a recoil spring and plug.
The princess giggled as I lingered for a minute to stroke her clit, and I was half-regretting that I’d brought Haragh and Hulsan along as I felt how quickly her flesh heated for me. This was all it took to bring a blush to Cayla’s porcelain cheeks, and I grinned at her sigh of disappointment when I turned back to my work.
“Tease,” she muttered.
“I’ll make it up to you,” I assured her as I formed two rear sights and fused them to the top of our slides.
“With more than new toys,” Cayla clarified.
“Don’t I always?”
Deya nudged me and mouthed the words, “me too,” and when I caught Aurora’s eyes in the mirror a second later, I couldn’t help chuckling. We’d only been on the road for a little over an hour, and I could already tell they were having a hard time with the extra company. Still, the perks of having a half-ogre and an extremely experienced mage with us in Jagruel definitely outweighed the drawbacks in my opinion, and I didn’t doubt the new weaponry would more than appease them for the time being.
So, once Cayla and I both finished the final details, I set the two pistols aside and began forming three more sets of parts for assembling. Cayla didn’t even need a second demonstration, and it took me a minute to realize she was about to beat me at a race I didn’t know I was competing in. I smiled to myself as we silently locked pins into place and mounted our slides without pause, but when she couldn’t get her barrel bushing tightened, I smugly finished my assembly as she clicked her tongue against her teeth in irritation.
Then I leaned over as I sparked my metal magic, and while I worked my way down her slender neck, and along her collar bone, I finished fusing the last few parts into place on the pistol.
“You’re welcome,” I said, and Cayla narrowed her eyes as she grabbed the last frame from my lap.
“I don’t count that as winning,” she informed me.
“I do,” I chuckled, and I sat back to enjoy how quickly the princess could get the final pistol assembled.
Haragh and Hulsan had moved on to discussing some sort of fermented beverages the ogres exclusively drank, and when it came time for me to put the finishing touches on the last pistol, Cayla lined the other four complete designs along her thighs to admire.
“They’re beautiful,” she purred, “but I’m dying to know everything about them. What does the top part that slides back and forth do? Why is there no cylinder? Is this chamber at the bottom like the magaz--”
I smirked and pressed my finger to her lips to silence the curious woman, and when she cocked her brow, I gestured toward the front seat.
Cayla’s blue eyes flicked toward Hulsan and Haragh, and she nodded in understanding without continuing her list of questions. I could tell by the way she kept picking up and studying the pistols that she was getting impatient, but both of the men in the front seat were sounding more tired already. They yawned repeatedly during their conversation as they began slumping in their seats, and while Aurora chided Haragh about how nervous he was to be going back home for the first time in years, I pulled the book of runes from the floor and slid it onto Deya’s lap. Then I dropped my arm around her shoulders, and I pulled the beautiful elf closer until my lips brushed against her ear as I began murmuring the things I wanted her to work on.
I could see her pink lashes flutter in surprise as her eyes widened, and by the time I was finished, she had a mischievous grin on her face. Then Deya promptly opened her book of runes, and she leaned around me to whisper to Cayla.
“You are going to be a very happy woman,” the elf informed the princess.
“This is maddeningly frustrating,” Cayla sighed.
“Yeah, but it’s pretty cute to see you impatient for once,” I informed her. “I’m definitely doing this more often.”
“Doing what more often?” Haragh yawned.
“Road trips,” I replied as I sent Cayla a wink.
I laid my head back on the seat to get some rest while the conversation up front dwindled, and I must have dozed off at some point, because the next thing I knew, Cayla was roughly shaking my arm. My eyes popped open immediately, and I glanced over to see Cayla was at her breaking point.
“Now, you have to tell me everything,” she ordered above the unbelievable noise of Haragh and Hulsan snoring in the front seat. “What is this weapon called? Is this hole in the bottom going to be a magazine like on the bows you made? Does it use the same ammunition as the revolver, but just loaded differently?”
“Have you not slept at all this entire time?” I asked as I straightened up to stretch the kink out of my neck.
“Of course, I haven’t,” Cayla said stiffly, and she handed a pistol over.
“How long was I asleep?” I yawned.
“Probably four hours,” Aurora said quietly. “I made her leave you alone as long as I could. Based on what Haragh told me, we should be crossing the border of Jagruel in another few hours, but that’s a very rough estimate since he’s never travelled there by car before.”
I nodded as I looked over at Deya, and she sent me a sweet smile from behind her book.
“None of you have slept at all?” I clarified.
“I’m too excited,” Deya giggled, and she lowered her voice a bit before continuing. “I found some runes that I think should do what you wanted, but why can the others not know about this weapon?”
“I’ll explain it all to Haragh,” I said with a shrug, “but I don’t know how Hulsan would react to something like this. He strikes me as a little set in his ways.”
“You could say that,” Cayla muttered, “but he’s already seen your other guns at the training fields.”
“Yeah, but those weren’t semi-automatic,” I explained as I gestured to the pistol in my hand. “It changes the whole game.”
“Then please tell me everything,” Cayla groaned, and I grinned as I handed both women a pistol.
“This is another weapon from my world, but it’s not exactly like the revolver,” I explained. “It’s called a 1911, and as you pointed out, there’s no cylinder, but there is a magazine w
ell in the grip. That makes it a semi-automatic weapon which cuts down on time, because one, you don’t have to load each bullet individually, and two, you don’t have to cock the hammer every time you want to fire.”
“I knew it,” Cayla said proudly, “but since the bottom is open, I assume the ammunition is loaded differently than the bow or the blowgun?”
“Correct,” I chuckled, “but let’s go over the basics of operation first. Now, this is a more dangerous weapon than the revolver, which is why it has what’s called safeties on it. This lever at the back of the grip is a grip safety. It prevents the trigger from being pulled without your hand in position around the grip. This little lever on the side is a safety too, and it’s very important, so pay attention. You see how my thumb rests naturally on this safety?”
Deya and Cayla nodded.
“That’s how you always hold this weapon, with your thumb riding on the safety like that. This way, every time you holster it, your thumb can easily flick up and lock the safety which means--”
“The gun cannot fire by mistake,” Cayla guessed.
“Exactly,” I replied, “but this brings me to a notable difference that you’ll have to adjust to with this weapon that has to do with the hammer. Like I said, you don’t have to cock it every time you fire, but you do have to cock it before you first pull the trigger. To simplify things, you’re gonna carry this pistol already cocked, which means you always, always lock that thumb safety when you aren’t about to fire. Make it a habit. If you keep the pistol cocked and locked, then, when you’re ready to fire, all you have to do is push down on the safety lever with your thumb, and you’re good to go. Does that make sense?”
Both women nodded and practiced with the thumb safety a few times, and I adjusted their grip a bit to be sure they had the proper thumb placement.
“Perfect,” I said once I was sure they had it down. “Moving on, this little lever lower down on the grip is the magazine release. Like Cayla pointed out, the entire magazine is removable. When you want to change out your magazine, press on the lever, and the magazine will drop out of the bottom. Then you can slide the next one in and keep on shooting. If the gun runs out of ammo then the slide should lock back, so you just need to hit this lever here to make it slide forward and load the next bullet in the barrel. You shouldn’t ever have to pull the hammer back unless it’s the first shot in a magazine and the previous action of the slide hasn’t done it for you.”
“How clever,” Cayla whispered. “The gunpowder of the precious bullet’s shot moves back the slide to operate the hammer for the next shot. I can see how it is an improvement over the revolvers we have been using.”
“You got it,” I said as I smiled proudly at my lover. “I’ll make sure we all have a means of stowing spare magazine for easy access, too.”
“Do the magazines carry the same bullets as the revolver?” Deya asked, but Haragh suddenly choked on his spit so loudly all of us jumped.
Both men continued steadily snoring, though, and after a minute of waiting to be sure they were still in a deep sleep, I lowered my voice a bit and continued.
“Normally, this weapon would fire similar cartridges,” I said, “but for our purposes, we don’t need the same bullet and case set up as the revolver. We’re using a bigger kick that’ll propel the bullets without the need for gunpowder, which will cut down production time considerably. Honestly, I’ve never seen a weapon like the one I have in mind, so I’m not positive about this idea yet, but after thinking over the things Dragir taught me, and considering the issues we’re facing with the possessed mages, I think I’ve come up with a hybrid that should be exactly what we need.”
“Like the bazooka?” Cayla asked, and her blue eyes glinted.
“Not exactly,” I told her. “The bazookas need to be loaded with individual rockets, but that takes two people if you’re trying to be quick about it. Aside from this, if I follow the same system as Dragir did with engraving the rockets, I’d have to engrave every bullet which would take even longer and make it inconvenient long term. I wanted a weapon that, in the field, wouldn’t cost us more than the amount of time it takes to slide a magazine into this well, but that could be formed in mass more quickly without worrying about technicalities like powdered propellants or excessive engravings. The ammunition we’ll be using here relies solely on rune magic and metal, which is something I can work with anywhere.”
“That’s precisely what I’ve been wanting,” Cayla said with a sigh of relief. “I just want to shoot lots of people I don’t like with lots of bullets.”
“I know,” I chuckled, “I saw the look on your face when you were testing the Defenders for the infirmary. That’s when I first got the idea, actually. The way I see it, we can’t rely solely on the possessed mages wearing out their abilities in battle, because they’re too deadly for us to hold them off for that long. If we’re slowed down by reloading the revolvers and shotguns, that puts us at a greater disadvantage. Plus, if we’re relying on standard bullets alone, that would require every one of our mages to have aim like Cayla or me.”
“That’s not likely,” Aurora muttered. “They’re doing well with their training, but there’s a difference between firing at a target and fighting in battle. I think it’s more difficult to be accurate if it isn’t muscle memory to you yet.”
“I agree,” I said. “So, the ammunition we need has to not require as many reloads and be effective without hitting a specific point on a creature’s body, like the heart or the head.”
“How do you account for that?” Cayla asked in confusion. “What bullet could kill on impact at any point of the body?”
“One that’s laced with rune magic,” I said with a roguish grin.
“I love you,” Cayla blurted. “Everything you’re saying right now is turning me on. I’m dripping wet.”
“You’re so cute about weaponry,” Deya giggled. “You make me feel like I am with the elves again.”
I grinned when Cayla’s hooded gaze stayed locked on my lips, and I decided to oblige her with a long, deep kiss before continuing. She refused to loosen her grip on my neck for longer than I expected, but when I forced myself to pull away on account of the two men snoring loudly in the front seat, she let out a moan that made my spine tingle.
“I love you, too,” I chuckled, “but I’m not done explaining, yet.”
“Tell me what the runes do,” Cayla said in a husky voice, and she bit at her lip and started to wiggle her hips as if she was looking for friction on her pussy.
“They deliver a hefty dose of elemental shock that will kill any creature of any size from any point of impact,” I told her, and her lashes fluttered as she let out another soft moan.
Both Aurora and Deya had to work to quiet their giggles, and I couldn’t help but notice my stoic princess’ heartbeat was suddenly elevated as her icy gaze locked on Deya.
“What runes did he ask you for?” she demanded.
“Hold on a moment, I am still confused,” Deya said as she furrowed her pink brows. “How are you avoiding having to engrave each bullet?”
“With the magazine case and contact points,” I replied. “Same system Dragir used, but I’m taking it a step further. Like I said, I’m not positive it’ll work, but in theory, it lines up. So, I’m gonna give it a try, because if the trigger rune can power the bazooka through the metal, then it’s infusing its power directly from these copper contact points. Potentially, having a magazine casing that’s infused with elementals would then transfer its powers into the metal it’s contacting as well, which in this case, is the bullets it’s housing.”
“Gods,” Aurora chuckled. “If this works … ”
“We’ll be trumping any advancements the Master could imagine making with his weaponry,” I finished for her, and I gestured to Deya’s book. “And the best part is that he won’t be able to figure it out just by looking at the bullets. He’d have to get the gun and the magazines, and then figure out the runes. He just won’t
be able to do it.”
Deya slid the open book of runes into my lap as she shifted closer, and we all stooped around Aurora’s flame to take a look as she flipped to a few marked pages.
“There are three for fire that I have marked because I wasn’t sure which kind you would require,” Deya explained, and Aurora let out a giddy gasp in the front seat. “This first one is a flame spurt, kind of like Aurora’s.”
“Not quite what I need,” I said. “I want the flame to burst on impact and consume them.”
Cayla’s fingers tightened around my bicep at the words, and I glanced over to see her cheeks flushed with arousal.
“I fully support this,” Aurora informed us. “Is there a rune like that?”
“I think so,” Deya said as she flipped through a few more pages. “This one creates a fireball, but it doesn’t have the added enchanted effect of the one Dragir used for your rockets. That rune is … this one over here.”
I flipped back and forth to get a mental image of both runes side by side, and then I nodded.
“Let me think about this for a minute,” I muttered as I closed my eyes, and I focused on laying the image of both runes on top of one another. Then I laid this overtop the degree mapping Dragir had made me memorize to find out the name of each element used. “Okay … I think I can use the fireball as the base, and if I add two of the elemental degrees from the other, it should behave the same way on impact.”
“Be careful to balance the new rune differently when you’ve finished,” Deya warned. “Remember that fire is a very erratic element, and the cohesion lines in this book are in place for the purposes of this specific arrangement.”
