Fifteen connection resets before I get to post this. Damn this country.

///

Well, guess I'm parentless at the age of 23 turning 24 years old. Some might notice a change in mood, a subtle change, maybe. Still job hunting, having six (job and skill match) of my applications rejected out of six. Hope I get hired by my 7th application. Damn you, Duterte, for kicking out my future employer in the Department of Foreign Affairs. I could have been working by now.

Damn this country. Funny, though, the fate I wish upon this country of mine is related to this story's backstory especially by the third, fourth, and final arc. Oh, yes. Just five arcs.

Here are the arcs to look forward to.

Bootcamp

Campaign

Conquest

Uprising

Revelation ← this one is a tentative title

Well, have fun.

///

[Ties]Campaign 6

"What I have in my hands is called an assault rifle, " explained Malachi, "just think of it as a fusil that can shoot many bullets quickly. Its capacity is larger than a repeater's, but its ammunition is smaller. However, small as they may be, one can bring as much ammunition as one could to battle."

The cadets and faculty could only stare in amazement at the power of Malachi's weapon. After Malachi finished his explanation, he turned to Remi for a request.

"Remi, get me a bunch of targets to shoot at, " he said, "just shooting the wall won't immediately convince the people here. Get some steam knight dummies, too. Just so I can show the difference in ammunition."

Remi, who was still drooling, immediately called upon a group of engineers to adhere Malachi's request. Five target plates were erected after a few moments at varying ranges, and two steam knight dummies were placed as well. It should be noted that the farthest target from where Malachi stood was 100 meters away and the closest was 20 meters away. Malachi reloaded his rifle and increased the distance between him and the targets.

Retreating at approximately 100 meters from where he was, Malachi was already next to a wall and took aim at the closest target. With this distance, what was previously 20 meters away became 120 meters away. Enough for the target plate to be as big as a baseball, not to mention the ping pong ball-sized target plate that was now 200 meters away.

Malachi took aim, and continued his demonstration.

"I will now show you the perks of rifling and cartridge bullets, " he said, "Target at 120 meters, firing!"

BANG! Ting!

As soon as one heard the gunfire, the target plate resounded and a small hole could be seen. An engineer went to the target plate, and put a finger through the hole. The hole was wide enough to accommodate the entire index finger. Malachi signalled to the engineer to clear out, then continued his demo.

"Next, target at 140 meters, firing!"

BANG! Ting!

Like the first target plate, the second received the same fate. A hole of similar size was seen through the plate, and Malachi continued until the last plate.

"Final target at 200 meters, firing!"

BANG! Ting!

Malachi lowered his rifle, and looked down.

"Frankly, I'm not even satisfied with this, " he said, disappointedly, "On my own, it can only amount to this much."

He looked at Remi.

"Hopefully, with Remi here, I can achieve what I want to do."

His surroundings became noisy. The skeptics amongst them could not quiet down as they conversed with the people around one another. The young cadets could only stare in awe, and those who held contempt towards Malachi could only clench their fists in frustration. The Eskurs around them, who held Malachi in high regard, continued to direct proud gazes towards his direction.

Malachi replaced his rifle with a larger gun. This gun had, rather than a small magazine, had a large box attached underneath. Malachi checked the box, and saw that it was filled to the brim with ammunition similar to what the assault rifle had. Malachi brought it to the range and signalled a nearby engineer to prepare a knight dummy.

"I'd like you all to direct your attention on the steam knight over there, " he announced, "Ah, do make sure that the shield is up as well."

The engineer propped up the knight's shield and returned to the safety of his station. Malachi aimed at the knight with the gun, and pulled the trigger.

BRATATATATATATATATATATATA!

A stream of bullets left the gun barrel for a long while. The roar of his gun seemed endless as the steam knight in the distance got pelted by countless bullets. Unlike how the others received the sight of the assault rifle, this new gun gave them incomparable shock and awe.

BRATATATATATATATATATATATA! Click!

Only when they were about to go into a hypnotizing stupor did it end. The barrel of Malachi's gun was red and steaming hot, and the knight on the range became swiss cheese. Of course, some parts were intact as some bullets ricocheted to other directions, but those that were penetrated were for all to see.

Malachi dropped the gun in his arms and took in a cold breath.

"Ouch, I need to deal with the recoil, " he commented, "Anyway, what you've seen just now is a light machine gun. This thing can deliver a large amount of bullets, greater than the repeaters, to your target. This is especially for sweeping the enemy before you, you don't necessarily have to fire at one spot, and just fan the entire horizon. There is also a heavier variant, but dang it, my shoulders hurt."

Malachi replaced his light machine gun on the table and massaged his shoulders. During this time, the broken knight was replaced by another knight dummy that also has a shield.

"Arlianne, please show them the performances of the current arsenal, " requested Malachi menacingly, "especially the fusil and handcannon. It would give a bigger impact for the sluggers."

Arlianne obliged and took aim with a fusil from the armory.

Bang! Ting!

The bullet curved a bit, hit, and ricocheted off the knight's shield. Afterwards, she did the same with the handcannon, except the bullet made a small depression on the armor. Arlianne stepped back, and Malachi held up another long gun with a tube on top of it.

"I should be using this one from further away, " he said, "but since this place is so small, I am unable to do much. Unless..."

Malachi turned to Remi.

"Yes?" asked the girl.

"Remi, have an engineer place the knight at the farthest end of the range, right up the wall, " he told her, "Also, open up the garage back there and remove the siege engines inside."

Remi tilted her head but shrugged. She ordered a group of engineers to do as Malachi requested. After that, Malachi went into the now empty garage, and took aim at the knight over a distance of 400 meters.

"Hmm, better than nothing, " he commented, "Well, then, taking aim!"

Malachi looked into the tube on top of the long gun, and saw a magnified image of the steam knight. Of course, only he could see it, and not the rest. Malachi aimed for the steam knight's head, and pulled the trigger. Except, once he pulled it, the rest had to cover their ears.

B A N G !

"Ah?!"

"Wuh?!"

The gunshot was loud, as loud as a cannon. Almost simultaneously as the gunshot, the steam knight's head blew apart. Those who were watching could only take in cold breaths. Around Malachi, the glass instruments shattered from the shockwave and he... he had to drop the gun in his hands.

"Grah! I need a dampener! Dang, that hurts!" He screamed.

Malachi had both of his arms hang limply by his sides. Looking at his long gun, the muzzle also blew open from the blast. Malachi frowned at the sight, and kicked it away.

"Tch, back to the drawing board for this one, " he groaned, "Well, at least it did the job. Howzzat!? Power! Sheer power! Hahahahaha!'

Feeling the blood flow back into his arms, he flailed around in excitement. While he was excited, Remi was still struck dumb staring at the blown off head in the distance. No longer salivating, she was trembling at the sight. Although, rather than fear, her eyes held the same excitement Malachi had. The same couldn't be said for the others.

Fear filled the eyes of the older generations. The youth were still stupefied, but the aged and unforgiving no longer held gazes of contempt but pure and utter fear. Seeing power, pure and sheer power before them, what else could they have felt?

Malachi grabbed the last gun on the table. It looked similar to a fusil, but had a strange handle underneath its barrel. Malachi pulled the handle beneath, and the gun was cocked. Malachi looked at the ejection port and found a chambered round. The round was big and thick, bigger and thicker than what the rifles used. Malachi went towards the headless steam knight with the gun.

At close range, about 10 meters, Malachi aimed his gun at the shield and pulled the trigger.

Click!

"Eh? Oh, sh—!?" He fumbled in shock.

A split second after pulling the trigger, the gun didn't fire but Malachi immediately threw it away. The audience was confused why, but their questions were answered when Malachi attempted to shield himself from the already bright red gun.

BOOM!

Malachi's gun exploded next to him, and he was blasted away from the shockwave. His body slammed onto the ground, and the shrapnel blasted everywhere, including Malachi, himself.

"Malachi?!" screamed Arlianne in fear.

She ran towards him, along with many other Eskurs, to help him.

"Lord!"

"Young Master?!"

Among the audience, Alexa bit her lip. Watching Malachi get hurt, she was hesitant in rushing to his side. The people around her, however, were smirking in pleasure seeing Malachi bleeding on the ground.

'Malachi... I'm sorry... I'm sorry...' she thought over and over, 'I'm sorry I cannot help... I'm sorry...'

Clenching her fists, she closed her eyes to avoid the scene.

"Lady Alexa, is something wrong?" asked a cadet.

Alexa shook her head.

"Nothing you need to pay attention to, " she replied, "I'm leaving."

Alexa turned away and left. Her class fumbled to follow her back, and a group of 40 cadets left the armory while Malachi was being resuscitated.

"Heh heh..."

Laughter suddenly rang out.

"Heh heh, hahahahaha!" laughed Malachi manically, "Hahahahaha!"

Malachi rolled his body and sat up, still laughing.

Arlianne held a gaze full of worry, and the others held disturbed gazes. A young man, recently injured from a blast, was laughing like an idiot with the degree of his injuries.

"Hahaha! I was wondering when I'd slip up!" he said, joyously, "I wonder what happened."

Malachi stood up, still bleeding, and bandaged himself by ripping apart his uniform. He didn't remove some of the shrapnel embedded in his flesh, and limped towards the broken gun. Kneeling next to it, he held it up and inspected the damage.

"Damn, guess the choke was too tight, " he commented, "I should reduce the powder, or should I increase the size? But that would make it burdensome... Damn pyrocite."

Malachi stood up and faced his audience.

"Well, the show's over!" He declared, "As you can see, I'm bleeding like hell, go back to class!"

Malachi suddenly fell back, and slammed on the ground, snoring.

"Zzz..."

Arlianne could only cover her face as she went towards Malachi. She turned to one of the Eskurs and asked for help. The anxious Eskurs rushed forward and some had a bundle of medicine with them. As soon as Malachi was carried out by Arlianne and the Eskurs, another person appeared on stage to deal with the remaining audience.

"Well, that was a nice way to end the show, " said Eleazar, "Now, as Headmaster... Disperse, all of you!"

The cadets and faculty saluted and filed out of the armory. Class 13 also left with them. As Remi was about to leave with her engineers, Eleazar stopped her.

"Oh, and Remi, come to my office for a while, " said Eleazar, "I need to talk to you about the boy's weapons."

"Yes sir!" she affirmed.

///

"What do you think?" asked a Class 13 cadet.

"What about?" asked back Patrick.

"You know, that guy, " clarified the cadet, "Malachi Skaria."

"..." Patrick remained silent.

It was a day after Malachi's demonstration and mishap. Class 13's classes went on as usual without Malachi and Arlianne. Most the Eskurs in their class were also absent since they were busy mulling over Malachi's wounds. The only one to attend the class was Levi.

"Ya know, that Malachi kid is really different, " commented another Class 13 cadet, "I mean, he's not as... antisocial... as the other Eskurs. He doesn't keep to himself as much as his kinsmen would when dealing with us."

"That's just a ploy to make us drop our guard, " said another Class 13 cadet, "Remember, he IS a Skaria. If there was one thing I've learned in war, the worst enemies are the ones next to you. His veins carry the blood of the traitor that gave his existence. A dirty half like that, pah!"

While they were chatting mindlessly, the door of their classroom slammed open.

"Let go of me, already!" roared Malachi, "If you really wish to serve me, then at least follow this order to leave me be!"

"Young Master, as the servants of Skaria, we must adhere to your every need, " retorted Dinah, "You were grievously injured yesterday, and you suddenly ran out of the infirmary. Of course we will do our utmost to help you."

"You really want to help?" said Malachi, "You can do so by stripping and giving your body to me! Guh! Ar...lianne... it was... a joke... kuh..."

Maalchi entered the classroom being held up by a blushing Dinah and Isaac, followed by Arlianne, Genevieve, Reuben, and Asher. As usual, with Malachi's insensitive jokes came Arlianne's punishments. Levi frowned and sighed at the sight, and the others could only stare at Malachi clenching his gut.

Malachi, having been recently injured, was covered in bandages and reeked of medicine. He struggled to bring himself over to his seat, and pushed the others away to their respective seats.

"Hah... So, where's Teach?" he asked.

On cue, Carlos walked through the open doorway to answer his question.

"I'm here, Skaria, glad to have you back, " said Carlos, "Eh, not much happened since your accident, but I hope you're prepared to be deployed immediately."

"Eh? Wait, already?" said Malachi, "Can you give more details?"

Carlos went to Malachi's seat and dropped a stack of papers on his desk.

"The full details are there, " said Carlos, "Long story, short: you are deploying for a monster subjugation. The deadline is next week. So the earlier you deal with it, the better."

Malachi flipped through the pages.

"A Hell Worm? What's that?" asked Malachi.

Carlos was surprised.

"You don't know what a Hell Worm is?" he said surprisedly, "Where did you live before coming here?"

"I lived with Levi, " answered Malachi, "Levs, do you know about it?"

Levi sighed.

"A Hell Worm is a large multipedal insect monster that lives underground, " he explained, "Well, since the last Hell Worm outbreak happened over a decade ago, we shouldn't be surprised he knows nothing."

"I see, thanks." said Malachi, "Guess I should go to the library soon."

"You should, " added Carlos, "Also, you need to get used to working with your class. I'd suggest having them go through familiarization with your new weapons."

"What do you mean?" asked Malachi, "I only have a few of my guns made."

"You should go to the armory, later, " answered Carlos, "For now, class time."

///

"Remi, I LOVE YOU."

Malachi was hugging Remi's small body. They entirety of Class 13 was in the armory with Remi and her engineers. Around them were stacks of weapons and ammunition. Weapons and ammunition that were just like what Malachi made and designed before.

Assault rifles, light machine guns, sniper rifles, shotguns, handguns, magazines, belt ammunition, high explosive grenades, concussion grenades, flash grenades. Almost everything that Malachi had drawn and written had come to fruition before them. It was also the reason why Malachi was squeezing the life and love out of the little girl.

"You really are a genius! You really deserve it!" praised Malachi, "You were able to produce this much in less than a day! Heck, you even improved upon some of my designs! Wonderful, truly wonderful!"

"Yes, yes, praise me more!" gleefully cheered Remi, "We took a look at your busted shotgun, and learned from that. The tests were all positive and we made sure that the accident yesterday won't happen again."

Malachi tightly hugged the little girl, and Remi smiled like an idiot as she received praise. Arlianne stepped in and tapped Malachi's shoulder to bring him back to his senses.

"Malachi, it would be best to distribute them to the class, " she suggested, "Also, even if Remi seems happy, she's turning blue from the lack of air."

Malachi immediately let go of Remi, and the little girl gasped for air with a smile on her face. She repeatedly mumbled, 'it was worth it, it was worth it,' as she breathed in and out. Malachi tidied himself and turned to his classmates.

"Well, since Remi here said so, the trouble from before won't happen, " he said, "This is the wonderful thing about innovation and invention. You learn from past mistakes to prevent any reoccurrence of said mistakes. One by one, I will show you how to operate each. Then, from there, you will choose two types of weapons to specialize in. At least two, and at most four."

Malachi picked up the assault rifle.

"This here is the assault rifle. Like the one from before, it is fed by large capacity magazines, these ones here, and shoots a lot of ammunition." He explained. "Unlike a repeater that none of you have any idea what's inside, we can disassemble this to clean or repair it. These are the barrel assembly, the moving parts, the receiver, the handguard, the magazine well, the hammer plate, and the butt plate."

Malachi disassembled the rifle in 10 seconds with deft hands all the while explaining what each part was. Never mind the fact that some parts were also made up of smaller parts, the number was enough to make some of his classmates dizzy.

"And now, we reassemble it."

What took him 10 seconds to break down only took him an additional 2 seconds to build up. In a span of 12 seconds, the rifle seemed as good as new.

"This rifle also has a selective fire mechanism. If you would look at this switch, it has four options. A safe option, for when you don't need to kill something; a semiautomatic option, for single fire; a burst option, for firing three rounds at once; and a fully automatic option to spray and pray. Here, I placed it on the safe option. Try pulling the trigger."

Malachi handed the rifle to a fellow cadet, and the cadet pulled as instructed. The cadet was met with difficulty as the trigger was stuck in place, refusing to move. Malachi asked for it back, and loaded a magazine into the gun.

"This is semiautomatic, firing!"

Bang! Bang!

"Only single shots would be fired with semiautomatic. The next one is the burst option, firing!"

Bababang! Bababang!

"Three shoots per pull. It helps when you need precision and power, or when you're in the middle of a panic. Lastly, the fully automatic option, firing!"

Brrtatatatata!

"Whatever is left in the magazine will be emptied for as long as your squeeze will be. As for its ammunition, each one has a different type. This one uses this type of ammunition. Because of the pyrocite ratios, I needed to compensate. This rifle uses 6x27mm ammunition. Use anything else, and it will jam or be broken, so take good care of it."

Malachi moved onto the handguns.

"You could think of these as smaller handcannons, but with a greater ammo capacity. Unlike the rifle, these only have three firing options: it doesn't have full auto capabilities but it can fire in bursts. Handguns are your best friends in a pinch, like having your main running out of ammo in a firefight and you want some leeway to retreat into cover to reload."

Malachi took aim with one hand at a far away target. He squeezed the trigger and the gun fired its bullet.

Bang! Ting!

At a distance of 100 meters, the bullet hit the target dead center. Malachi flipped a switch and aimed at the target again, this time the gun was held with both hands.

Bababang! Tititing!

Three shots, three bullets, three hits on target. Due to the burst fire, the bullets spread out on the target, the first had landed dead center but the other two diverted a bit.

"It has lesser ammunition per magazine, but it packs a punch. These use 10x20mm varying ammunition. By varying, it has full metal jacketed, and hollow points. Full metal jacketed rounds are self explanatory, but these are hollow points."

Malachi reloaded the handgun, and took aim at a slab of meat prepared by Remi. Squeezing the trigger, the meat was shot, and the entry wound could be seen. Except, the engineer standing nearby gasped in surprise.

Malachi signaled to the engineer to flip the meat slab the other way to let the others see. On the other side was a large exit wound, larger than the entry wound. Malachi had the meat slab disposed of and had the bullet, or what was once a bullet, brought to him.

"Hmm, good chicharon. As you can see, the bullet turned into a flower. Hollow points are best used against fleshy or minimally armored targets. Beasts are also the best targets for this type of ammunition. To clean this gun, we disassemble it like so. Here are the slide assembly and the barrel assembly, and now we reassemble it."

Malachi then moved towards the light machine gun.

"This big guy here is, like yesterday, the light machine gun. Just imagine it to be a larger assault rifle that can fire near infinite bullets. It doesn't have selective fire aside from safe and full auto. LMGs are belt-fed with box or drum magazines. Here is a belt of 7x27mm ammunition. I also have a heavier variant in mind, but I still have to finalize the dimensions and pyrocite ratios. To load the ammunition, we open up this part on top. Slip in the first few bullets, slam it shut, pull the charging handle, and let it rip."

Brrrrrrrrrtttttttatatatatatatatata!

"Hah, now, to clean this beast, we have the barrel assembly, the buffer, the driving rod assembly, trigger housing and cover, the feed tray, and the receiver. Now, we reassemble it."

Malachi then moved to two similar looking rifles on a table. He picked one up, and demonstrated its use.

"As you can see, there are two guns that look like one another. The only differences between the two lay in their ammunition and action. The one I'm holding onto is a semiautomatic rifle, and the scope on top is a sniper scope. This is called a sniper rifle, the scope allows the user to magnify targets at long distances to accurately shoot it. Here, look into it."

Malachi detached the sniper scope from the rifle and handed it to a cadet. The cadet looked into the scope and found Malachi's red eyes suddenly come into full view. In surprise, the cadet dropped the scope but Malachi caught it and reattached it on the rifle.

"For the moment, I can only magnify an image 10 times. With practice and improvements, I can increase the magnification up to 40 times, enabling one to shoot from more than a kilometer away. Like I said, there are two types of action. This is semiautomatic, single shot but easily sustainable; and bolt action, a need to pull the charging handle to replace the cartridge. The semiautomatic variant uses 8x32mm ammunition, and the bolt action variant uses the bigger 12x36mm ammunition. If you need to take out light infantry, the semiautomatic variant is advised, but if you want to take out knights, the bolt action variant is the best option. The one I used before was the bolt action variant. You've seen what I've done with the knight, yes? Cleaning these rifles will be similar to how we disassemble the assault rifle."

Without additional demonstrations, Malachi moved onto the shotguns. Malachi grabbed onto one shotgun and a smirk was seen on his face.

"I know Remi said so, but that memory is still fresh in my mind. Of course, it was just yesterday, but my wounds have mostly been healed thanks to Eskur medicine. Anyway, as I was unable to demonstrate the power of this demon, let's do it now."

Malachi walked towards a lone knight dummy that had its head intact. Once again, at a distance of 10 meters, he took aim and pulled the trigger. Unlike yesterday, the gun fired correctly.

Bang! Ding!

A large slug left the gun barrel and catapulted towards the knight like a mad bull. The slug, that could be seen with the naked eye, crashed onto the shield and left a very deep dent. It was so deep that any deeper would rip it apart. Malachi nodded in satisfaction despite massaging the pain on his arm.

"The shotgun has two types of ammunition: slug and buckshot. What you see before you is the slug type. It shoots 20mm slugs at whatever you point at. As for the buckshot, it looks like this. Get me another slab of meat, Remi."

Malachi replaced the shells in the shotgun with another type of shell. An engineer placed a slab of meat in the range and ran for cover behind a thick wall. Malachi watched in delight as the engineer ran. Having loaded the buckshot ammunition, he took aim at the slab of meat and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Rather than a single bullet, countless small balls erupted from the barrel of the shotgun and peppered the slab of meat. Unlike the slug which was expected to create a gaping hole, the buckshot sprayed a blast of metal on the meat slab. The amount of holes was so much that the meat ripped itself from its weight.