At the crack of dawn, all the soldiers were gathered up, and had formed neat lines. Jassim stood that the helm. Jim carefully inspected them before ordering them to be at ease. Staring at each of them, Jim hoped that they would perform as well as they looked.
"Bring the first chest over," he ordered. Two soldiers stepped forward carrying a large chest and placed it before the platoon. Jim stepped forward and opened the chest, exposing the contents within.
"Everyone, come forward and pick on," Jim said as he grabbed one of the objects. In the box, there was exactly one hundred and one of these metallic objects.
The soldiers each stepped forward and picked a single one of these objects and held it as they saw Jim handling it. The item was surprisingly light and comfortable. They all wondered what this was.
"What you are holding it a mighty weapon, the first of many presented by the Goddess," Jim stated. Since he had told the Queen all about him being the son of the Goddess, he decided to run with it. After all, he had the tech to back his claim."
"A weapon?" Jassim gasped, "surely you jest." He could not understand how this thing could be called a powerful weapon, while it looked more like a hammer, a small one at that.
"You think I am jesting?" Jim chuckled. He then raised the gun and pointed at Jassim, before saying, "This weapon is known as a gun. Never point it at someone unless you mean to use it. It may look harmless, but I assure you, it is very dangerous."
Jim then lowered his gun and pressed a button, releasing the magazine. "This of this weapon as a bow," he said, "and this is the quiver."
"Commander Jassim, you are correct. Right now, this is little more than a hammer, but once you load it with bullets," Jim said as he opened a compartment in the chest. In there, there were what seemed like thousands of bullets.
"Count with me," he said as he scooped a handful of bullets. One by one, he loaded then into the clip until ten bullets were lodged in there. Once done, he slipped the clip back into the gun and asked Jassim, "Commander, what do you say, do you still think it is a harmless metal?"
Jassim saw the confidence in the man's eyes and held fast, eager to see what the "gun" would do. Jim turned around and moved away from the platoon aways before turning to a plank he had nailed on a tree. It would serve as his target practice.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Jim fired three rounds in quick succession, much to the shock of the soldiers watching. The loud report of the gun shook them, but they also noticed the marks on the target board. Three holes had appeared on it.
What shocked them the most was how fast the said bullets travelled. They did not see anything except the loud bang, and suddenly, the board had holes on it. Suddenly, everyone was looking at the weapon in their hands with apprehension.
Jim scooped more bullets and presented them to the soldiers but did not ask them to collect them just yet, "Each of you will receive twenty bullets to practice with, after you have learned how to use the weapon."
"Bring out the next chest," the soldiers were eager to start shooting, but Jim had already moved on, so they could only hold their peace. Jim's next chest was much larger since it required four men to carry it. When it was opened, mysterious looking metals were stacked next to each other.
Jim pulled out one and showed it to the people. With a smile, he asked, "What do you think."
"Lord, now that looks like a weapon," Jassim commented, noting the other soldiers wouldn't speak so easily." He also spoke his mind. This weapon was different from the previous. It was longer and had a sharp edge. The closest thing he could compare it with would be a short spear. However, he knew it would be much more, given how powerful the previous weapon was.
"This is known as assault rifle. It has one purpose, to win wars!" With that introduction, Jim proceeded to remove the magazine, which was visibly bigger than the previous one. "Count with me," he said, and proceeded to load thirty bullets, which were also bigger than the previous bullets into the magazine and loaded it back into the rifle.
"Shall I begin?" He asked, then took a firing position. "The rifle comes with three firing modes. The first, single shot," He explained as he started firing.
Ta! Ta! Ta!
He fired three shots and then secured his weapon. All bullets had penetrated the practice board. The soldiers made sure to observe every movement he made. They were mesmerized by the weapon and how he handled it.
"This mode is slow, but accurate. The user can take time and aim properly." He slowly explained, "as you can see, I have scored every shot. Sometimes though, you don't have the time to slowly aim and fire, so then we use the second mode." Jim flipped a switch on the rifle and started firing once more.
Tatata! Tatata! Tatata!
"Three shots per every trigger press," He explained, "As you can see, not very accurate, but will get you out of a jam." The soldiers laughed, getting familiar with the weapon.
"This last mode, we save it for desperate situations. It is called: 'spray and pray!' All out firing when you are surrounded and cannot see a way out." Jim went ahead and demonstrated by firing multiple rounds.
The soldiers were in love with the weapons. They could not get enough of them. The only downside was that they did not have unlimited bullets, otherwise they would keep firing all day long. They loved that they could destroy their enemies before they drew close enough to hurt them.
After a day of training, Jim introduced a new ranking system where they would compete to see who the best at firing was. The top five would receive a prize.
After just a day of training, there were several promising marksmen, many who had been archers in the team. Jim only had six sniper rifles, and one was his. Therefore, once the results were out, the top shooters were rewarded with the sniper rifles.
To Jim, these would be his scouts, his hidden trump cards.
As all this training was happening, Jim was also in communication with Shana. After the first video, he replied to her by asking her to provoke the emissary into anger.
On the day of the meeting, Shana had kept the emissary waiting for hours before arriving. She barely gave the man a chance to speak before she brutally rejected the proposal, going so far as to call the Zithilite King an uneducated pig who was beneath her.
Lord Masila and his cronies were in total panic mode, but the Queen was not holding back. She said to the emissary that he had one day to leave her Kingdom, and if she saw him lingering, she would have him thrown in the dungeon.
Lord Nakhim smiled wryly, having suspected this would happen. Some of the Queen's supporters were also in agreement but silently worried for their kingdom. After such a public shaming, just what manner of vengeance would the Zithilites rain upon the kingdom.
When Jim heard Shana's account of what happened, he couldn't stop laughing at how daring the woman was. He also found himself liking her more and more. For someone he was choosing to hitch for the rest of his life, he could do worse.
Meanwhile, one of the surveillance-drones he had flying over the Zithilite border suddenly started squawking. A horde of barbarians was on the move, guess where.
Seeing this, Jim's blood boiled as he anticipated combat. He'd never been in a war before, and he wondered what that was like. Time to find out. A creepy smile appeared on his face as he stared that the horde, he asked the void, "You couldn't keep still, let me teach you how."