Chapter 194: The Fundamentals of Archery (4)

Taragon was impressed by Keter, but it only deepened his belief that tools were ultimately useless.

“To think even an orichalcum arrow tip can only leave a scratch... As expected, nothing works against the powerful.”

The soldiers and knights around him seemed to agree. However, Mizar and Volkanus looked at Taragon with disappointment because they understood—or rather, already knew—why Keter had chosen to endure the orichalcum arrow. It was a simple, powerful demonstration.

Keter placed a hand on Taragon’s shoulder and said, “Hey, I don’t hate those things about you.”

“You mean how I give up so quickly?” Taragon replied.

“No. I mean how you're not afraid to sound dumb. If you just kept those foolish thoughts to yourself, you would've been trapped in that bias forever, but you said it out loud. That takes courage,” Keter said with a wink. “Ignorance isn’t a crime, but refusing to learn and making no effort to understand is what makes someone irredeemable trash. And you’re not that. So I’ll teach you what archery really is.”

This was a forge, and arrows were everywhere. Keter grabbed a bundle of arrows and an empty quiver. He filled the quiver and held it up.

“Can you tell which one’s the orichalcum arrow?”

“Huh? No...”

From the top, only the fletchings were visible, and most of them looked nearly identical. Without seeing the arrowhead, there was no way to tell.

Keter filled another quiver the same way and handed both to the soldier and knight.

“Can you tell which quiver has the orichalcum arrow?”

“...I could guess and maybe get it right half the time, but honestly, no.”

“And that is the difference between archery and swordsmanship.”

“...?”

“...!”

Taragon and the others looked puzzled, but Mizar and Volkanus looked impressed.

Keter chose his next words carefully so even Taragon would understand.

“Archery isn’t a combat weapon; it’s a tactical one. Do you know what the difference between combat and tactics is?”

“Um... tactics sound like you think more?”

“So are you saying combat is mindless?”

“Well, no, but... tactics just feel more prepared and planned compared to combat.”

“Clumsy wording, but you’re not wrong. Do you know why archery is powerful? Because you get to strike first. That means you can deny your opponent the chance to strike at all.”

“...Oh... Oh?!”

Taragon’s eyes lit up as he realized what Keter was trying to say.

“Denying your enemy a chance to attack is a tactic, and since archers attack first from a distance, archery is a tactical weapon!”

“Exactly. But tactics don’t just limit attacking; tactics restrict your opponent’s every move.”

“I get the meaning of archery now. But what does that have to do with tools being useful?”

“Not knowing what kind of arrow is coming is also part of the tactic. What kind of arrow, where it’ll land—all of it is in the archer’s hands.”

Keter raised his palm. The wound from the orichalcum arrowhead was already gone, no scar in sight, but no one cared about that now.

“I stopped it with my hand to make a point, but what if it had hit my eye instead? Or my shoulder or leg? Sure, it wouldn’t have been fatal, but what if I was in a fight? Say I was in the middle of a battle with Rajis, and an orichalcum arrow hit my calf.”

“Your balance would break!” Taragon exclaimed, finally grasping the point.

“And you know what it means to lose your balance in a battle against someone that strong, right?”

“The match is already over by that point, and your life is probably in danger. Now that I think about it, even if you know an arrow’s coming, dodging or blocking it takes effort. That effort creates an opening Rajis could exploit!”

Snap!

Keter snapped his fingers.

“Exactly.”

“Ooh! Aaaah!”

Thud!

Overwhelmed by the realization that archery was not just a weapon but a strategic tool, Taragon dropped to the floor, letting out a strange cry. Moved by his revelation, tears began to stream down his face.

“Keter! I was wrong. So wrong! I watched you and the other Masters during the tournament and thought I was pathetic, but I misunderstood everything. The tournament isn’t everything. It’s not even a real battle; it’s just a tiny test! Ugh, why am I such an idiot!”

He was crying, but also laughing, his face a mess of mixed emotions. Volkanus gave him a warm smile.

“It’s enough that you realized your idiocy now.”

Mizar, shaking his head, murmured to himself, “What kind of life have you lived, Lord Keter, to understand the truth of archery that I only realized at the end of my career... and to have the leadership to help Lord Taragon understand too? I’m in awe.”

Keter gave a small laugh as Mizar bowed slightly toward Volkanus by mistake.

“Wrong way.”

“Ahem, the heat in here is distracting...”

Mizar turned back to Keter and nervously adjusted his collar.

“If I may add to Lord Keter’s point, no matter how invincible a person seems, they are still human. It might look like attacks don’t work on them, but they do; they are just trying to break your spirit. If all kinds of attacks were meaningless to them, why would any kingdom even bother organizing an army? A Transcendental, like one of the Four Lords, alone could handle everything.”

Keter picked up from there.

“Think of it like this: there’s a reason knights are ranked by stars. If you put a three-star knight against a seven-star Prime, the three-star doesn’t stand a chance, no matter how many there are. But a six-star Grandmaster might have a shot. A five-star Master could take on a Grandmaster, and a four-star knight could take on a five-star Master, and so on.

“A Prime could kill a three-star knight like a bug, but not a four-star knight. A three-star knight could never beat a Prime alone, but they could contribute to the kill. Of course...”

Volkanus jumped in to finish the thought.

“....Many of them would die. Dozens, hundreds may die just to create the briefest chance. Even if it’s hopeless, they’ll throw their lives into it. That’s what battle and war are.”

He picked up his dual bow and compressed arrows and continued, “And in war, archery offers far more opportunities than swordsmanship. You don’t have to throw your body at the enemy since it’s tactics, not combat. And what completes tactics are tools. Understand, Taragon? Never dismiss them again.”

Having absorbed the seasoned wisdom from Keter, Mizar, and Volkanus, Taragon’s gaze sharpened. His eyes blazed with new determination. The passion that had once gone cold now burned hotter than the forge’s flames.

“I will never again doubt archery or that the bow is the greatest weapon. I swear on my name.”

Voong...

An unfamiliar aura radiated faintly from Taragon’s body. This was the world itself responding to his enlightenment and his genuine vow. Though Taragon himself didn’t notice it, the others did. They smiled in satisfaction. No one in that room was unhappy to see Taragon’s growth.

* * *

Volkanus had prepared three new weapons, but Keter left after seeing only the dual bow and compressed arrows. That was because the third weapon was a crossbow.

“I’m not interested in crossbows,” Keter said.

“But I put a lot of effort into it. The least you could do is take a look.”

“No thanks. As promised, I’ll make sure the blacksmiths are replenished. I expect the final products within two months.”

Keter declined gently but firmly and walked away. Mizar, saying he was tired, also returned to his quarters.

Though Mizar’s wariness of Keter hadn’t completely disappeared, he at least no longer considered him an enemy of Sefira. For now, he intended to keep watching him.

And so, the only one left in the forge was...

“Lord Volkanus, I’m curious about something.”

...Taragon.

Volkanus looked disappointed for a moment, but glanced at Taragon and grinned slightly.

“I think you will like this.”

The third new weapon was the crossbow. Even at a glance, it had a cleaner design than traditional ones, and it had extra mechanisms that were unknown.

There were three types of crossbows: a small one the size of a child’s forearm, a standard-sized one, and one as large as a person’s torso, like a compressed ballista.

“Wow...”

Taragon let out a sincere gasp of admiration. The moment he saw the crossbow, something clicked. A chill ran down his spine, as if he had fallen in love at first sight.

“Heh. You’re a descendant of Sefira, yet you don’t seem to mind using a crossbow.”

In Sefira, only a traditional bow and arrow were considered true archery. Crossbows weren’t archery in Sefira, but Taragon never bound himself to such conventions. His mindset was only possible because he had little attachment to traditional archery, even during training with Keter.

“If it makes me stronger, I’ve decided I’ll climb even a cliff, not just a set path.”

“That sounds dangerous. Are you saying you would even learn dark magic to gain strength?”

“No, that would mean straying entirely off the path. I won’t leave the path of archery.”

“You’ve grown up, Taragon.”

“Right now, I really want to hold that crossbow. Haha.”

“...

Hmph

!”

Volkanus turned away with a huff, his pride slightly wounded.

Did I almost smile? Damn it.

Suppressing the twitch at the corner of his mouth, Volkanus began explaining the crossbows.

“As you can see, I modified traditional crossbows to make them far more convenient. And I’ve achieved something bows can’t do: rapid fire. I incorporated the technology from the compressed arrows.”

“Ooh...!”

Crossbows usually required less training and could be pre-loaded, but they lagged behind bows in most other ways, such as having a shorter range and being harder to reload. The draw weight was so high that even knights needed to use aura to enhance their strength, and regular soldiers required special reloading motions.

But Volkanus’s crossbow was a masterpiece that maximized advantages while eliminating the downsides.

“The square box attached to the crossbow is the magazine. It’s detachable and allows continuous firing.”

“The small one doesn’t have a trigger. How do you fire it?”

“Hehehe, watch this.”

Volkanus fixed the small crossbow to Taragon’s wrist. It had a cord-like attachment that connected to his index finger.

“Aim at the fifty-meter target and curl your finger.”

Taragon’s heart thudded.

Can this really fire just by moving a finger?

Thunk!

He curled his finger. Even with just a slight motion, the crossbow mounted on his wrist fired. The bolt, a crossbow-specific arrow, didn’t hit the target at all and veered off wildly, but that was expected.

“Hmm, when I tested it, I had to curl my finger fully. But with you, even a slight movement works. Is this a personal difference? Or is it because you’re human? I’ll have to experiment more.”

“Uh, Lord Volkanus... may I try again?”

“Heh. You liked it, didn’t you? It’s loaded with ten bolts, so go ahead and fire them all.”

“I can shoot ten consecutive shots?!”

Thrilled, Taragon began curling and releasing his finger repeatedly.

Thunk thunk thunk!

Having never used a crossbow before, and with the disorienting sensation of firing from his wrist, he missed every single shot, but he was overjoyed. Something was boiling in his chest.

Seeing Taragon’s reaction, Volkanus too got excited that someone recognized the value of his invention.

“Try the others too. This one is a standard crossbow, but it is more stable and also has rapid-fire capability. This ballista is the real gem. It fires bolts the size of a forearm! Sure, it’s a bit heavy and you have to carry it on your back, but that’s a minor flaw.”

Taragon, now fully engaged, tried out all of Volkanus’s crossbows: the giant ballista on his back, the small crossbow on his right wrist, and the regular one in his left hand.

His mind started spinning with strategies.

“I could limit the enemy’s mobility with the wrist and rapid-fire crossbows, then finish them with the ballista.”

“That’s up to you. Your range is clearly limited because of the bolts’ nature, but in close combat, I swear it’s more useful and destructive than a bow. Though the patriarchs and elders are so against crossbows, they will probably never use them.”

“Lord Volkanus... You know Sefira’s history well, right?”

“Hm? I guess you could say that.”

“In all of Sefira’s long history... has there ever been a crossbow marksman?”

“Nope. Didn’t I tell you? Sefira has a deep aversion to crossbows.”

Hearing this, Taragon looked determined. And so began the founding of a new group: the Crusaders, a band of crossbow marksmen that rivaled Sefira’s strongest military force, the Order of the Galaxy.