"Levers pulled and steady, target locked!

Release arrows in 3... 2... 1... Fire!!!!"

~Woosh!

The arrows flew murderously as they looked onto their targets with no mercy.

The rabbits, as if suddenly feeling their deaths, stopped what they were doing and first trembled, shaking their fur, looking left to right in fear before trying to flee.

But too bad, they were a few seconds late.

~Pap!

~Creeeeewww~

One of the rabbits opened its pitch-black eyes in shock as its body divided itself in half, instantly killing the terrified fur ball.

The same arrow that killed it, split right through it and cleanly passed on, killing a few more behind the first furball!

~Creeeeewww~

~Woosh!

~Spack! Splack! Splack! Splack!

The snow was instantly dyed red, as several intestines, heads, limbs and severed bodies filled the fenced regions.

Right from here, they could see the redness of the place since it created a contrast with the white snow all around them.

"F***!

Those rabbits didn't have a chance!"

"Bro, you're talking about rabbits? What about our enemies? Just looking at how much damage this thing caused, I can only say R.I.P to them."

"Unbelievable! Such a contraction could do something like this? Dammit! I must be living in a fantasy world!"

"Tch! Just look at the size of these arrows? Just its size alone is enough to tell anyone that we mean business!"

"God!!! Those rabbits went out in a sinister and gut-wrenching way. Just look at how decapitated they are? I can already imagine how much of a surprise these contraptions will give our enemies!"

'Heh. They better not come over now, or they'll wish they were never born!"

"Guys... Am I the only one who thinks this was just overkill on the rabbits?"

....

Everyone watched excitedly, giving their own 2 cents on the matter here and there.

But no matter how they thought, they were still glad that such a powerful weapon belonged to Carona and Pyno.

As soldiers who had been trained in Baymard before, they had a true sense of measure, knowing their purpose as Caronian soldiers and brothers of the neighbouring empires.

Even though the Ballista was created by his majesty Landon, it was perfected by everyone else. 

And, the other monarchs also created the catapult, also suggested and made a different type of Ballista used at sea, as well as came up with different ideas too.

So everyone had come this far due to the joint efforts of all the empires!

Yes! This was indeed a good thing for Pyno.

For them, this level of destruction was good as well.

Now, all enemies would have to think twice before coming at them.

"Hahahahaha! Amazing! You, youngsters, have really done well!" Adrian said while clapping merrily.

Santa puffed out his chest happily: "Of course, Grandfather-in-law! How can we disappoint you?"

Adrian froze and looked at Santa speechlessly.

Wasn't this the person who destroyed the first batch of ballistas and catapults created?

If the researchers heard him, it would definitely choke out blood from anger.

Penelope shook her head wryly and raised her hands to signal for the show to continue.

.

Up next, using the same Ballistas, they widened the middle section used earlier on to place the arrow in it... Opening its width to fit the size of a basketball.

That was the maximum spherical size the object could take now.

From there, they made a few adjustments and also placed a sizable net for the ball/stones to sit on when retracted back.

After all, they were going to spring the stones back before launching them to their targets.

So it needed a bigger surface area support system when compared to the arrow.

Very quickly, they placed the stone at the center and rotated the lever anti-clockwise, pulling the stone back, making everything work like a slingshot.

And when they were ready, they fired towards the rabbits in a few other fenced regions that weren't attacked earlier on.

"Fire!!"

~Swish! Swish!

~Bam!!

Once again, the result was as expected.

But how could this be the end of it all?

They also changed things back into arrow form and tied long tubes of black powder on them, giving a very gruesome ending.

~Boom! Boom! Boom!

(^0^)

Awesome!

At this point, it would be a lie if the audience said that they weren't impressed.

The amount of destruction that these ballistas had caused was enough to make any enemy run in the opposite direction.

They also shot burning tar, flamed arrows and so on.

It was all just too incredible!

And finally, they got to see the big guy!

The Catapult!

.

Just from looking at the massive boulders at the side, they knew very well that this was the big one.

And beside each catapult was another invention that wasn't per day a war object.

Apparently, it had also been invented as well.

It was a boulder lifter!

This invention was good because now, they might even be able to transport heavy stones when building castles too, rather than carrying rocks and transporting them here and there.

They typically stood in lines and passed on stones when constructing.

But this was an architectural breakthrough as well!

It was such a simple design that many felt like fools for not thinking of it earlier.

And wouldn't you know it, the 2 people who thought about it back in Baymard were Henry and Santa.

Yes. The clumsy Duke Benjamin.

Well, that's what the rumours say, but the researchers refuse to believe Santa had any part of it!

The machine was called the Picker.

And honestly, it worked like a chicken picking grains from the ground to eat.

The stone would get secured by a net-like safety, and then there at the back would rotate the many levers that lowered or raised the net.

So without knowing it, they had distributed the force load amongst each lever.

And when the stone was raised to an acceptable height, its head would get turned towards the catapult.

Obviously, it would get dropped onto the Catapult and then launched towards the enemies.

As for how these weapons and even The Picker moved, they had wheels as well as what one would call safety breaks too.

In short, it was just a metal latch or something like an anchor at the bottom of the devices that kept the weapons in place during battle.

.

"Fire!"

~Boom! Boom! Boom!~~

~Rumble. Rumble. Rumble.~~

The ground trembled greatly with vibrations as several rocks stomped the targeted regions, creating chaos wherever they landed.

Everyone looked at the scene in reverence.

Indeed. These were the big guns!

Penelope smiled. 

Good. 

A war is coming, and they need to be prepared!