Forging A Weapon Part 2/3
"Aaand done."
With that, Ruby stepped back from the work bench, admiring her work.
Zen then lifted the weapons off the bench and let them sit in his palms.
The pair of swords that he held, which resembled a combination between a claymore and a knightly sword, no longer had a dull brass appearance across the entire length of them.
After Ruby had reworked the basic training weapons, its blades now shimmered a brilliant silver.
The base of the hilt had a bronze colour to it , while the worn, faded handle now had a jet black appearance.
He swung lightly, letting them cut through the air with speed, yet having the weight of the wielder behind it. They felt slightly heavier with the internal mechanisms then they did before being remade.
"I must say Ruby, if my father where here to see your handy work, he would hire you as his weapons technician in a heartbeat."
"Oh this, nah, this is pretty easy. Plus I did have Zen's designs to go off of, and that just made me finish up in no time at all."
As Ruby replied to Penny's compliment, she produced a red blanket, indicating for Zen to wrap his new weapons so they could take them somewhere else to test the secondary function.
Stepping out of the work room, she saw the shop keep turn around upon hearing the door open.
"I don't suppose you have a firing range underground or anything like that?" She casually joked, garnering a smile from the old man.
"I'm afraid not. But if I ever get robbed again and you're here to stop them, then I might just comply with that request."
"So where to now?" Zen asked in an energetic tone, as they walked along Vale's streets.
No wonder Ruby is such a weapons geek. He thought, as he recalled how she reconstructed the weapons with ease and speed.
Seeing the pieces interlock and all come together in one seamless design which he now held onto, eager to test out their firing mechanism.
"It's that building just at the end of the street". Ruby replied, pointing in the general direction they were heading.
As the building grew closer, Zen could see the distinct snowflake emblem plastered just above the entrance.
Stepping inside was almost blinding, the entire interior had a brilliant white shine to it, resembling something of a clean room.
On one side of the room were a set of shelves lined with weapon parts, empty magazines and repair kits.
To the other was a set of various weapons on display in glass cabinets, each with hefty price tags next to them.
And finally, at the end of the building, which was sectioned off, was a counter and a pair of doors that went into another room.
That must be the firing range. Zen thought to himself.
"Hello welcome to the SDC, how may I assist you today."
The three were welcomed by a woman in a white and grey uniform, who stood behind the counter.
"Hello. So my friend here has just built his first weapon, and we would like to test it on the firing range Could we get some inert dust for it please?"
"Certainly, which type did you require? Projectile or energy? Single shot, automatic or sniper...?"
"Uh, could we have several of each please? " Ruby replied. The woman then reached under the counter, grabbing the requested munitions.
The three were then gestured to follow through to the testing range.
"Inert dust?" Zen questioned as they made their way to the far end of the range.
"It is a form of dust that is used mainly for testing or situational training.
Where in our case, if a weapon wasn't properly built, there is little risk in the operator being harmed, think of it like a practice dummy, you can shoot your gun at it without having to worry about injuring someone."
Penny responded, seeing how Zen pondered over the idea of dust having a state of inactivity.
"Which you won't have to worry about cause IIIII built it."
Ruby said, as she turned to them, beaming with a large grin, her thumbs pointing to herself.
Once they were at their section, Zen placed his weapons on the nearby table and looked down at the target, roughly some 20 meters away, it was a holographic projection of a beowolf.
"Alright so how bout we test the single shot from the swords in their dual gun stage." Ruby said, now just look at what I do.
With that, Zen watched as Ruby motioned her arms with the weapons in hand.
Her grip tighten before raising them above her shoulders.
She brought them straight down, as she did so, she pressed a small button on either side of the rain guard of each weapon, causing the blade to tilt, forming the outer barrel of the gun with the central ridge splitting open, allowing for the fuller to be exposed, making it the inner barrel .
The cross guard closest to her knuckles formed the trigger guard, the trigger itself emerged from where the cross guard met the handle.
The other cross guard made a basic sight.
She then indicated to Zen that the lower half of the blade just in front of the trigger guard, revealing a space for a magazine to be loaded.
The entire act of her motion taking only as much time as it did for Ruby to flick her wrists to start it off in the first place.
"Okay, now it's your turn." She said as she flicked her wrists upwards, causing both weapons to return to their original primary form.
With that, he held the weapons tightly and mirrored her actions, almost startling himself when the weapons opened and made an audible mechanical click.
"Alight now all you have to do is fire it up..."
Ruby said producing a single dust round, before she face palmed at what she just said.
Dammit Yang
Once being shown how to load a single round, Zen raised one his weapons, focusing his attention to his right, closing one eye he matched the sight with the wolfs heart and squeezed the trigger,
An audible clink could be heard as the round connected with its target's chest, the projection wavering a little before reforming the image.
Zen's arm jolted slightly, as if he were catching a fast moving tennis ball , looking down at his firearm and giving a small smirk.
Well it didn't explode... so that's good. Thetable next to him began to display essential stats on the weapon and its performance.
From the expression Ruby and Penny had, Zen felt that the pair were happy with the results, despite Ruby giving a slightly smug appearance at the details regarding accuracy of the user.
"Alright so now we can test the true power of your swords...in their rifle form!"
Ruby shouted in a gleeful tone, contempt with how the well crafted weapons performed, Grabbing the other sword and gesturing for him to hand over the other.
Zen nodded, handing it to her.
Then, indicating a button in the middle of the hilt. she gripped the handles of both swords tightly and activated them to form their secondary function as they were moments ago.
Then squeezing button on the rain guard a second time, she lowered her left arm.
She then slid the tip of the right sword into the back of the left.
As this occurred, the lower halves moved forward, as did Ruby's left hand, moving the handle towards the blade and sliding it along the length of the blade, as it had become the fore-end used to steady the gun.
As it did, part of the bottom half of the blade near the trigger opened, so a magazine could be placed there, though this opening allowed for larger magazines to be used.
The upper half of the blade on the left sword remained fixed, while the right interlocked with the left, the base of the blade jutted outwards. The right handle remained as the grip and trigger,
Ruby stood there, beaming, then glancing over to Zen, who had blinked several times, confused as to how she did that so seamlessly
"Now it may look difficult, but you'll get the hang of it. The easy part is going from one rifle to two guns."
In saying that, Ruby pulled with her right, pulling the fore-end at the same time, until it resembled the handle for the left hand weapon. She then pull with her right, moving upwards as she did, when her right arm was at her side, she held the pair of weapons on either side of her. She repeated the act of flicking her wrists, and the guns became swords once more.
After two or three attempts, trying his best not to slice his fingers off, with Ruby's guidance, he held onto the third form of his weapon, a rifle, complete with a scope, which was hidden within the handle of the right hand sword.
And now it was time to fire it.
Being handed a magazine, which Ruby had produced seemingly out of nowhere, he slid it into place, pulling back on the charging handle, once it slid back into place, he squared up his target, focused the scope and squeezed the trigger.
It kicked back, causing Zen to flinch, his shoulder started to feel slightly uncomfortable from the force, but it quickly subsided as he readjusted himself.
He was then handed another magazine from Ruby, this time the munitions were energy based, or to be exact, the 'round' appeared to be a single dust crystal housed within a metal canister.
She smile before explaining the differences between the two types.
"These won't have as much kick as the projectiles, since they don't have much power behind them, but they do roughly the same amount of damage.
And you can fire a single cartridge multiple times before moving on to the next.
That being said, the projectiles are more effective at piercing the tougher hides, scales or exoskeletons of certain Grimm. The older the Grimm, the more likely a projectile round will take it out."
After firing several bolts of energy, Zen lowered the rifle, letting it rest in his hands, looking at Ruby and Penny, smiling with a look of amazement.
"This weapon is... AWESOME. And more importantly, this is my own, I have finally have a weapon.."
Was all he could say, as it clicked in his head that he had contributed in the design of this weapon, that, with the skill an expertise of Ruby, actually worked as it was planned out to be.
"Great. Now we can go and get you some much needed ammo for them."
Ruby said as she raced back into the shop, Penny and Zen following not too far behind.
"As part of my genius, I built the weapon in such a way that the ammo needed for it is the most cost effective for you.
The projectiles are not too costly but they have weight to them, so you may be limited to how many you can carry. But, they will do some damage to a Grimm as tough as a death stalker, if you ever run into one that is.
And as you felt them on the firing range, the energy cartridges are lighter compared to the projectiles, so it's good to have them on hand for missions that you may have to do on foot.
Plus, they have the added benefit of coming in a variety of dust types, each with different uses.
If you ever get the chance to see Weiss fight, you'll see what I mean.
As for effectiveness, you will be able to take down several beowolves all at once, with a well aimed shot that is."
She said as she took the necessary dust off the shelves, indicating to Zen the type and price.
"I guess you could say... I'm getting a bang, for a buck."
Zen replied much to Ruby's expression as he began to utter the phrase.
"I left you with Yang for only two minutes and you've already picked up her ways."
As Ruby finished loading up on the types of ammo Zen needed for his weapon, she set her eyes on grabbing supplies for her own precious.
Once she was done, she headed for the counter, but before she could, Zen piped up.
"Aren't you forgetting something, Ruby?"
"..."
"To grab Weiss' ammo for Myrtenaster...you even made a note of it on your scroll before we got on the airship."
"Ohhh, right. I'd better do that shouldn't I? Last time I forgot that, she froze me in a block of ice, it was summer at the time, so actually that was pretty good to be honest."
As they went up to pay for everything, Zen half heartedly spoke up.
"I can't really pay for any of these Ruby, kinda short in the lien department."
She smiled and replied as she handed Weiss' card as well as some lien to the cashier.
"That's okay, you can pay me back once you've gone on a couple of missions.
But don't be in a hurry to pay me back. I'm good on money and it's pretty rewarding to see how well you like your new precious.
Trust me, the day I built crescent rose was one of the best days of my life.
First thing I did once I built her, was take on an entire pack of beowolves, she fought good then and she fights good now."
As they stepped out of the shop, the natural light of the sun almost blinded them, they went towards the food district of Vale as it seemed fitting. While they walked, Penny spoke up, since she had been quiet since the firing range.
"Zen, I've been thinking. Since you have no real aura to protect yourself in combat, how reliant are you on your skills to keep you safe? It's going to be a very different experience for you once we begin missions compared to that of the training room.
I think it would be wise to re-assess your look and purchase some attire appropriate for you, so that you are combat ready."
"Penny's right. If you're ever going to fight a Grimm, or another huntsman, most likely you will be either overwhelmed or outmatched by them.
Yah going to want to protect yourself better than you are right now.
I saw that fight with you and Jaune and I have to say, Jaune is... a light opponent to combat compared to other combatants.
She paused before looking up and down at him.
"And it wouldn't hurt to get you something more...good looking."
"What are you saying about the way I'm dressed?"
Zen retorted, thinking he looked pretty good in his get up.
"You're dressed as if you were going to give a lecture or attend a business meeting or something... "
Ruby laughed as she poked at Zen's shirt.
"Okay fine, I need a better combat uniform. Just point me in the right direction and we can see what they got." He said, in an energetic yet defeated tone, as the other two laughed at her joke.