Chapter 9
Justin thought about the risks of what he was about to introduce, but thought it would probably be put away and forgotten after the war. Guns and bullets would never go away on earth, but that was because everyone could both make and use them.
Here, he planned to use a magical equivalent that few people could duplicate except mages. And really, why would mages put such weapons in the hands of others without an urgent reason to? It would after all, even the playing field. Mages liked having more power than everyone else for the most part. Plus, with his powers he could easily neutralize such weapons.
He also had several other ideas, so he got to work. Or rather, he put his ladies to work. Their first stop was the smithy where he grabbed all the scrap metal, then took it to the side. He made a quick drawing of a rifle, obviously without internal moving parts, he wouldn't need them, but with sites and a stock to help aim.
"Sally, can you make what is on this diagram please? This long tube is hollow, and it leads to a chamber in the back here."
It took a few corrections that he pointed out and Sally fixed on the fly. Then he had her make bullets that would fit the barrel, just a few for testing. Lastly, he asked Nora if she could set a small jet of air on the back of the bullet, to be activated on command, until then it should store the magical energy.
It took a few false starts, but they eventually got it working so just the bullet in the chamber would fire if the trigger was depressed. They got an earth and air talent from the army, showed them what it was and had them get started. He wanted a lot of them, to arm as many soldiers as they could with the equivalent of modern rifles.
He had them get jars of oil, and showed how deadly they could be if flung by a telekinetic, burst by an air talent and lit by a fire talent. The key of course, was to get all that done before the the jar was closer than ten feet to the target.
He also filled jars with sharp metal shavings for a very crude mine. The explosive power would come from a very dense small pocket of air at the bottom of the jar. When the enemy soldier ran toward it, the magic holding the air together would fail, and push out. No conventional explosives needed.
He worked with the earth talents on creating similar traps, open holes with stakes at the bottom, the very top of the earth held together with magical support. The key being the loss of the magic causes the cave in, not the presence of it. He encouraged them all to think of other ways the removal of magic could trigger a trap.
He worked with the telekinetic talents, only telling them to gather things that could be used as weapons, then launch them at speed, even without the magic for the last ten feet, that shouldn't matter. He had Nora cut some trees then Sally put together a catapult that could fling many large rocks. As for defense, he told the Earth talents they needed to raise the walls to forty feet high, and fifteen wide.
The enemy would not have magic to knock down walls after all, and forty feet would be far outside their anti-magic aura.
Not that they would be fighting at the capitol. If they tried that he was sure the bastard would burn down every southern town and rape every woman there before moving north. He wouldn't let that happen. But just in case they failed, he wanted to leave behind a viable defense.
He just hoped they had time to make enough rifles, bullets, fire bombs and mines. They had to start moving south soon, there was no telling when Riese would be ready. Still, it should take Riese time to recruit the soldiers at each town, and kill those who didn't convert, as he made his way across Egeria. But he had decided three days was all they would dare. They could always make more on the fly at night in camp, after all, it was all done with magic, no machinery or even a blacksmith required.
He encouraged the mage talents to use lightning storms, from up in the air if they could shift to a bird form. The enemy wouldn't be able to reach the mage, or the storm, to stop the attack. He had a few other theories, but they had enough to do already, and a few more tricks wouldn't really help, just split their focus too much.
Last thing of the day, he called all the military leaders of the rank lieutenant or above, up to Anton, to explain the necessary tactics for the weapons and to inform them they only had two more days before they marched south for the Egerian border. The ones being left behind as the last defense could train the Uleni contingent on the tactics when or if they got there. He was a bit flustered by how everyone listened to him without question, but he needed to get over it and make this all happen.
He ended with, "The Earth talents may have the most important job. Obviously, the enemy cancels magic at closer than ten feet, that means our new rifle weapons, or more accurately, the bullets will be rendered useless if they get within range of us. It is imperative that we avoid that for as long as possible. The good news is there will be no earth talents or mages blocking you from doing anything.
"So be creative on slowing the enemy down, trenches, stakes, walls even. Just make sure you make it happen before they are ten feet away. If they get close to overrunning those obstacles we will have to retreat. Worst case if they fall upon us switch to swords. It should be mostly even that way skill wise, outside of their leader Riese anyway. The idea of the weapons is to even the numbers or make them in our favor, he will probably have more people than us. Of course, if we can kill them all from a distance that would be great, but that's probably not realistic.
"We will probably need to chase down Riese once his people are down. This is very important, we need him to die to win and push this unwanted god off of our world. I can handle that part, but only when Riese and his army is dead."
He answered a few questions, and deflected a few, keeping the knowledge he needed to keep secret a secret. He had given his oath, and although mentioning Riese needed to die to get the god away from their world, it didn't really touch on the parts he had to hide.
They returned to their rooms for a late dinner, there really wasn't much else he needed to do, just give the military time to build what they would need. He planned on just spending time with his family for the next two days, minus anything else that came up of course, he wouldn't hide...
---
Sara's stomach fluttered as she glanced toward Justin. She had talked to his mates, and they had been all for her plan and let her have tonight with Justin, none doubted he would say yes if she asked him, but all of them had wondered if she was up to it.
She was wondering that herself, since she hadn't asked him yet.
He made her feel out of control, like her emotions were in charge, and she ached for him. It made her feel vulnerable. Out of control and vulnerable were hard for her to deal with considering her past, but she trusted Justin. With determination she got up and walked over to him, took his hand and led him to the second bedroom. She really hoped she wouldn't faint as her breathing picked up.
She said softly, "Would you take me, or really, let me take you with the intentions for more?"
She felt his concern when he said, "Are you sure you're ready? I'm sure you can feel I would love too."
She blushed at that, she could very much feel his lust at the idea, but again, like with his mates it was tied up with tenderness and love.
"I think so, it would help if I was in control."
He started stripping and then laid out on the bed, looking into her eyes he winked and said, "Is this good? You on top? Or... if you want, you can get some rope, that might be fun actually..."
She grinned and said, "Maybe next time," and started getting undressed. He looked really good, his body was in shape, his muscle definition obvious but not exaggerated.
She felt his eyes on her, and his lust rise as he looked over her body. But when she looked over at him, she could see how in control he was, and patient, just lying there waiting. Her breasts weren't as big as Nicole's, but at eighteen her generous C cups were still perky and sticking straight out, firm and supple. Her nipples were hard, whether from his gaze or the room's temperature, or both, she wasn't sure.
Her fair skin was flawless, with the exception of a freckle on one cheek, adding to her beauty as her long strawberry blonde hair framed her face and teased the curves of her body down to her ass. She had always hated how attractive she was, it made things... harder for her. But she loved the way he was looking at her now, despite the feeling of vulnerability it engendered. She realized after a moment she had just been standing there, letting him stare at her naked body, she blushed and moved toward the bed.
Her body tingled as she straddled him, and the feeling of her warmth as it brushed against his tool shocked her body with pleasure. Her breasts felt very tight as her nipples grew even further. Her skin touched his as she moved to kiss him. Strangely it occurred to her as their lips met, that this was their first kiss. She was tentative and he didn't try and rush her, letting her set the pace.
She moaned as she felt him harden between her pleasantly tingling core and his stomach. She kissed him deeply and moved her hips forward and back, the sensation of his hard length running across her silken folds caused her to gasp. She deepened the kiss even further, sliding her tongue into his warm mouth and realized he was being so cautious his hands were still on the bed. She needed to feel him touch her, her breathless request sounded more like a desperate plea.
"Touch me. I want your hands on me Justin."
She felt him softly squeeze her breasts, then arched her back and ground herself on his shaft as she felt him brush her nipples with his thumbs. She reached under herself, pulling his length to the right angle, then slowly lowered herself down. He was so big, it took time for her body to accommodate his length. She ground herself against him when she felt their bodies come together.
The feeling of pleasure was so intense, both from feeling so full, and the wondrous sensations running through her body from her core. As well as the feelings that came from Justin as her hot silken warmth welcomed and pleasured his manhood. She couldn't feel what he felt of course, just the emotions themselves. She was drowning in the pleasure they were both feeling.
