Herald of Steel

Lord Kite had not expected the initial blow from the steel ram to be so fierce, jolting his entire ship to its core.

The small size of the weapon failed to betray any such capabilities.

Of course, he had here failed to take into account the fact his enemy used solid steel instead of the much softer bronze, since by eyesight both looked the same, especially when it was painted a striking red.

Not to mention the fact, Lord Kite did not even think such a solid, steel ram was even possible to make, both due to cost as well as sheer technological limitations.

All of this thus worked to allow the 'beam' to slam onto the hull without any real obstruction and then consequently snap the wooden hull with great ease, driving itself deep into the belly of the beast, and even making its way towards the keel, claiming a few of the rowers' lives on its way.

The shouts of panicked and fearful screams coming from the below decks due to the lethal attack soon reached Lord Kite's ears and the man's heart shook with palpable unease.

Even with his great experience in naval warfare, the large man could not recall the last time he had been crippled so badly, and in one shot at that.

Not to mention the much more incredulous fact of it being done in a single head to head collision.

This was almost unheard of as usually, you needed to get a few good hits in before the vessel was breached.

After all, although ramming was the act of hitting the softer wooden vessel with a much harder metal, it was still thick, heavy wood we were talking about.

Breaching it was not easy. You needed to work hard for it.

And this was not mentioning the fact that Remus had successfully attacked from the front, which was usually reinforced with wooden beams, designed as such to be able to hold the ship's own ram as well as to be able to bear the shock of ramming the other side, thus making it similar to the front of a tank- its 'tankiest' part, pardon the pun.

All these meant that in a contest between ships, such as in a naval battle, the initial rounds mostly consisted of charging at the enemy with your boats, trying to get a hit or two in, thus locking 'horns' with the enemy and hopefully immobilizing him.

That would then open up the opportunity for one of the other allied ships to properly ram him from the sides or rear, thus at last finishing him off.

And the reason for saying all this was to show that the phenomenon of immobilizing a ship by ramming it right at the start of the battle was truly once in a blue moon occurrence.

But it had happened to Lord Kite.

Then, during the damage analysis report, he was quickly informed by the captain that the ship was starting to take in water, who then suggested they stay locked with the other side for the moment.

"Bastards stabbed us in the heart! The girl is lost!" Were the old man's exact bitter words.

And this report felt like being slapped in the face for Lord Kite.

He could not believe such a midget of a ship had managed to damage him so much.

A ship that he had so looked down upon just a few minutes ago, but was now the only thing keeping him from going down, the very weapon that was used to 'kill' him, now acting as a cork preventing the water from gushing forth.

The man felt incensed at the situation, incensed at letting himself be hit so hard so easily.

"Bah! Then board the ship! Do not let them ram us again!" Thus, seeing little other option, he spat out these words in anger, wishing to pin Remus with him and prevent him from reversing.

This last concern was largely unnecessary though as Lord Kite's hit had done almost as much damage to Remus as Remus had done to him, and thus the man too was of the mind to stand and fight.

Hence while hooks and gangplanks were thrown toward him, securing the two ships together, Remus tried his best to organize his forces into a coherent fighting formation.

Before long, a deadly, bloody melee began to unfold on the decks, as legionnaires buttressed with crossbows and instantbows tried their best to hold against the enemy's outnumbering assault.

"Stand and fight! Men! Stand and fight to the last man!"

"Spread your feet! Stand while spreading your feet That will help you balance!"

"Close the shoulders! Stand together! Help your brothers."

"Crossbows! Shoot! Shoot at anything that's black and that moves! A regular grunt will get you ten ropals. An officer a hundred, and a noble a thousand!"

The officers cheered and encouraged their men to the best of their ability as such, with Remus even personally introducing a bounty system, all to urge the men to use all the tools they had under their disposal to defend themselves to the ship.

And it was here perhaps that the true worth of the instant bow was displayed for the first time, letting the world marvel at how its rapid fire capability proved invaluable in close quarters hand to hand type of fighting.

It did this by, first of all, helping fill in the most glaring weakness of the crossbow, i.e.- its slow reloading speed.

The crossbow was of course in general a great addition to the defense of the ship, being very easy to use, to the point even some of the novice, untrained servants, who were given the weapon as a measure of desperation managed to master it very quickly.

And then, even these green men began to soon prove surprisingly accurate with the shots, able to snipe enemies at distances of fifty to even hundred meters with reliable consistency, and that too amongst the chaos of the fight and the uneven, constantly shifting grounds.

Even if it did not kill, the shot from the heavy weapon would be certainly enough to crack bones and maim the target even through the armor.

The crossbow really was among one of the ultimate defensive tools.

Its only real downside was its slow reloading speed, requiring thirty seconds to even a minute for some verdant recruits to reload, during the entirety of which they were left largely vulnerable to enemy charges.

It was a vulnerability very easily exploitable unless properly prepared for, and this was where, the instant bow rapid firing capability without needing to reload came, perfectly complementing its sister.

The ability for a single man to hit two to even three men virtually simultaneously was a game changer, especially when that enemy outnumbered you, thus helping to somewhat level the playing field.

Then there was also the advantage that this weapon allowed for much more margin of error in terms of accuracy, as even if you missed your first shot, instead of going through the tedious and time consuming process of reloading and redrawing your shot, during which time your enemy could very well move, if not simply charge and kill you, you could instantly try again, having as many as four more chances to try and get your target in the span of any five seconds.

Such a convenience was almost irreplaceable, especially on an unsteady, constantly rocking surface such as this, where the natural swaying of the boat and the legionnaires being unaccustomed to it caused most to miss their first, second, and for some unlucky sods even their third shot.

Many times that too from very close range, such as less than 20 meters.

If they had wielded a regular bow or even a crossbow, such a thing would have been a death sentence, as the other sides could have been able to cross that distance and slice him in half before even the legionary could have finished nocking the next arrow on his sting for his retry.

But with the instant bow, this grim fate was actually turned on its head.

Because upon seeing the miss, many times the Heeat family soldiers would usually charge with a great grin in their face, looking covetously at the shieldless and thinly armored adversary, and thinking they had this kill already in the bag, only be to shoot in the face with that strange looking weapon moments later.

To most of the Heeat family soldiers, the instant bow seemed really just like any other bow, with the only addition being a wooden bar running through the middle, which they assumed to be only some kind of bizarre decoration, and not anything of import.

Thus when the utility of such a weapon would be made known to them, such as by shooting a metal arrow piece through their head, most would die with an incredibly incredulous look on their face, unable to process how they died even at the moment of their death.

'How can a bow shoot two times without reloading? Is this magic?' They would mumble to themselves, unable to make the connection even as the grim reaper extracted their souls.

It was like this that the instant bow proved itself to the world, and could even be said that without it, Remus would have fallen long, long ago, despite the the dogged defense of his men.