The Fields of Fire

Chapter 19: Arthus Adana

All the kids ahead of him stopped in their jog, Arty caught up to them before he stopped too. They were all bent over panting, none worse than Arty who sucked down air at an inhuman pace.

Krent could barely get out a coherent sentence between his heavy breathing, "Is- this- the- place?"

Arty looked around. They stood on a path next to what he assumed was the far end armory, a building of red brick and large steel girders for support, There were sandbags and targets set up by a wall, and large small crates stacked in an orderly pace. Arty could see their commanding officer standing off by the wall of the Armory.

"If he-" Zaben gasped, "Makes us run again-" he sucked down air , "I'm gonna turn him into a popsicle."

Commander Malfanzo walked over to the students and they all stopped talking. His reputation on sundays as the officer who was supposed to condition them into soldiers was fierce. The first day of every week had soon become everyone's least favorite day and North Point Naval Academy was by far their least favorite place. "I think we're done with conditioning for today." there was an audible sigh of relief from the students, "Instead, you have live fire weapons training. With Raido Kintma."

Arty looked over to see an Alzcan man walk over towards them. He was in green and brown camouflage fatigues, and a small metal rod at his side. His green skin contrasted with a thick black handlebar mustache beneath his nose, though he carried a serious look on his face. Arty was very confused why an inferior kind had come to teach them about guns, "Good morning children. How many of you know how to shoot a gun?" About 5 hands went up, Arty's included, "It doesn't matter, these will be different from the weapons you're used to." He pulled open the top of one of the wooden crates, and from atop a set of packing felt he pulled out a strange looking contraption. It was a rectangular piece of metal with a hole, a bar, and a large section of it cut out, dangling from it was a thick leather strap rounded by two metal strips that gave it support. He reached into another of the crates and pulled out a belt of ammo, that he fed it onto the side of the metal block, and then he pulled out a piece of metal that sort of looked like a tiny spatula with two steel wires sticking out of it.

He stuck the block on top of his wrist and then wrapped and cinched the leather strap around his wrist securing the piece of metal. He slid the spatula looking piece onto the bottom of his wrist, with the flat metal end extending out underneath his palm, he then clicked both the wires into place, one wire he threaded into a small hole in the metal block on top and the other wrapped through the leather securing it in place but leaving a bit of looped wire dangling slightly near his thumb. Then he tapped a button on top of the gun, and an ironsight popped up at the top up for the block. He tightened the leather again and then fed the belt of ammo into the side of the gun, wrapping the ammo around the leather strap that held the contraption to his wrist.

When he was done, he gestured to the students, "This, is a model Z-21 Alzcan Iron Works wrist gun, the first of its kind. This was specifically commissioned for you children on order of Queen Mara of the Red Throne. Its design is to allow a sorcerer to fire a weapon without it obstructing their ability to do magic." He faced his wrist palm forwards towards the crowd of children,"First you must disable the safety," he clicked back a switch on the gun, "The Wrist gun will not fire, unless your fist is firmly clenched around the firing mechanism." his fingers were open wide as his thumb, which had been looped through the dangling wire, tugged laterally away from the wrist gun. Despite his thumbs jerky movements on the wire, nothing happened. "And with fist clenched," He clenched his fist, "The gun will not fire so long as wrist is inclined upwards" He clenched his fingers around the firing mechanism, and once again moved his thumb to the side, but it was a dud.

He lowered his wrist down from Arty and the other students and turned towards the targets, "Only with the saftey off, wrist lateral, and fists clenched around the firing mechanism may you pull on the firing line with your thumb." he pulled his thumb to the side and with a small flash of light and a loud bang, the gun had fired, "At which point the bullet is discharged." He pulled back his hand, and clicked the safety back on, "Any questions?"