"You're still here?"

Gamma looked up, seeing Jimmy, one of the guards who had saved his life five days earlier.

Without him and his comrades, he would've been dead by now if they hadn't shot the Mountain Dragon with the ballista. Said ballista was also the reason why he was here right now.

"Yea, I'm still not completely done with the new entry…" He showed the young guard his diary, a new drawing having been added to it recently. The new page featured an almost perfect copy of the siege weapon Gamma was standing next to, a few notes written around it.

"The description isn't done yet, and the drawing needs a bit of adjustment, but…"

"Are you sure that you should be working on stuff like this again? I still can't believe that you got out of that dragon fight without any permanent injuries…"

"Well, I wouldn't consider head trauma an optimal outcome," he replied with a chuckle, patting the bandage around his head. "It did send me a few days into the infirmary after all…"

"Nevertheless I was informed by Anturia that I should be fine as long as I relax for a few days." He added, remembering the conservation he had earlier when he was released from the infirmary. "…and personally I find nothing more relaxing than looking over some interesting technology."

"Well if you're so sure about that… but please try to rest anyway and don't strain yourself any more than necessary."

"Will do." he agreed with a nod, before continuing with his entry.

"I honestly doubt that…" came the reply before the guard left again.

[Later]

Gamma entered back into his workshop, looking at the newest entry in his diary. Well, that was until he ran into the nearest table, causing him to finally pay attention to where he was going.

He considered stopping for the day and going to sleep, but that thought was quickly forgotten again when he picked up his tools.

"Alright, let's see if we can do this…"

A bit later the sounds of steam-powered tools could be heard throughout the streets.

—000—

"I knew it… that guy just can't help himself…" Jimmy chuckled, taking another sip of his tea. "Now should I tell Anturia or not?"

—000—

"Alright, this goes here… and this needs to be connected to this…" Gamma mumbled, attaching the swingarm to the skein, before connecting the drawstring.

After that he took a step back, comparing the result to the blueprint in his diary. He had made a few modifications in order for the weapon to be more efficient, which included a winch and multiple capstans.

He looked up when he heard someone enter.

"You're keeping the entire neighborhood awake again…" Robin said sleepily, entering. "Also, you should rest, your head trauma as well as the fact that… what is that?"

"A combination wrench."

"No, that thing behind you!"

Gamma turned around towards the contraption he was currently building.

"Oh, that's a modified version of the ballista you guards have. After that attack a while ago, I thought it would be better if we had a few more of these in town."

It took a moment for the words to register in Robin's mind.

"Gamma, that's amazing!" Robin finally exclaimed and started walking around the weapon, inspecting it. "Does it also work?"

"Well, I don't have the time to test it yet, but I'm pretty sure it will. We can test it on the dragon scales we got from that Mountain dragon that attacked me on the marketplace… We have quite a few of them after we butchered it not too long ago. Seriously, dragon meat tastes weird…"

Robin nodded. "Yea, but why let it go to waste when we have it? Even the poorest peasants were eating like lords for a few days."

With that, he turned back towards the weapon. "Anyway, when can we try this out?"

"Well, it will take a bit before we can utilize it, but…"

He was interrupted when the door opened, revealing an angry figure in the moonlight.

"You, Bed!" Anturia said in a tired, but firm voice that left no room for arguing as she glared at them from the doorway, Gamma in specific. "Now!"

[The next morning]

Gamma is an early riser. Even though he went to bed quite late at times, he was still always on his feet at daybreak, not bordered by his below-average resting periods.

Today was an exception.

"Noon already?" He mumbled sleepily, looking out of the window. "Not how I planned things to go, but at last I properly rested like I was told to."

He rubbed his throbbing head, the bandage still wrapped around it. "Still feel like I've been run over by a truck trough. Head-butting a wall sure wasn't healthy…"

He lay in bed for another few minutes, before finally deciding to get up.

An interesting day was waiting for him should everything work out as planned.

—000—

It was late afternoon when he prepared to head towards the guard barracks, the newly designed weapon lying dismantled on his work cart, being too big for him to move it in one piece.

Robin arrived shortly afterward, leading a horse with him to transfer the load.

Giving one another a quick nod, they got to work, and not too soon after, they were heading their way, gaining curious glances from the good amount of people who were still present in the streets.

Gamma decided to ignore it and instead pushed the cart through the crowd (which luckily let him past) and towards the rendezvous, where Robin had already prepared the scales of the slain dragon, hanging it onto a target.

A few guards were also there, watching him with a hint of both curiosity and suspicion, Robin likely having informed them.

"Alright, we're here. Should we start?" Robin asked while Gamma was already unloading the pieces in order to assemble the weapon.

"Are you sure that it will work?" one of the guards replied, expressing his doubt. "We already tried before to recreate the weapon, but all attempts failed so far. We just can't get it to be able to pierce a dragon's scale and those that do require too many people to operate…"

"Trust me, I'm sure it will work," he replied. "I even added some modifications to increase efficiency and effectiveness. For example, I added a special winch so that fever individuals can load the device without sacrificing any impact power."

Multiple groans were the response to that, as well as money changing its owner.

'And that's why you should never bet against me.' Gamma thought with an amused chuckle, before loading a spear onto the slider and pointing the now fully assembled ballista at the target, which was in this case a large, plate-sized scale from the Mountain Dragon that got killed a few days ago.

Angling the weapon, we noticed that a small crowd of curious people had gathered by now, watching him work, so this was either ending in a glorious success or epic humiliation.

'Well, no point wasting any more time.' he thought before firing. 'This is the moment of truth… Let's hope everything works out as planned…'

He could feel a bit of recoil and had to steady the ballista as the bolt was shot out of the weapon, sizzling through the air for a second before making an impact with the scale… and punching straight through it. Everyone watched in surprise as the projectile went through both scale and target, losing only minimal velocity, before hitting the wall of a house, forming cracks around the impact hole.

It was quiet for a second before someone in the crowd started clapping, and others quickly followed until the entire crowd erupted in applause.

It was then that the guard captain came towards him. "I got to say, I'm impressed. You didn't only manage to copy one of the most advanced weapons on the continent, but also to improve it." he offered Gamma a hand. "Say, you think you can make more of these? We really could use them in order to defend the town…"

Gamma smiled. "You bet I can. In fact, I have an additional design coming up. The one I'm using right now is the heavy ballista meant to be stationary and used by a small crew, but I also got a light ballista that can be used by only one person and is light enough to be moved by carriage, although you won't get the same level of penetration you can see right now."

Looking at the siege machine he chuckled. "Still can't believe this all started with only a pair of tools…"