Chapter 329 - Warrig

The days on the ship passed quickly, Mercury was mostly working on his plan to destroy the weapon that had been based in Ode, but he found time to flirt with Julia and Marie too, soon they arrived at their midpoint destination the War-rig, Mercury looked up from the deck of the ship at the massive rig that could best be described as an oilrig repurposed to be mobile sea fort, it was one of five that had been towed into position to blockade the sea routes to Ode while staying outside the range of the ancient superweapon, the entire rig was more than 3 kilometers across and featured well over a hundred magic powered cannons, these so-called War-rig's were not only mobile forts but also featured a standing marine army of about 2 thousand men per rig, these War-rig's were a true testament to the naval power of Juliantia, that said, they weren't normally in these waters and were taken from the border of Jliantia to blockade Ode and as time passed they bordering countries would enviably notice that there were a few War-rig's missing on the border

"...And then they might do an attack of opportunity huh…"

"Exactly, so having them here is only a temporary solution"

Mercury nodded, then he patted Ben on the shoulder, he had explained the situation about the War-rig's to Mercury

"Well then, let's get aboard…"

Ben nodded before he asked Mercury

"Are you really planning to do… 'That' to infiltrate Ode?"

Ben had been helping Mercury over the last couple of weeks with his hashing out his crazy infiltration plan so he was the most familiar with the plan besides Mercury himself, as for the girls he had not told them yet, Mercury nodded

"Yeah, it's the best plan I currently have"

Ben sighed before he complained

"You are one crazy bastard…"

"I'll take that as a compliment"

Soon the group boarded the War-rig named Samantha and was met with a middle-aged man with tanned skin that wore a sleeveless jacket that exposed his bulging arm muscles that were covered in scars

"Hello and welcome aboard Samantha, I am the Rig master, my name is Andreas"

Mercury shook hands with Andreas before he spoke

"This is an impressive War-rig… I'm told you have a forge here?"

Andreas nodded before he gestured for the group to follow after him, as they walked he spoke to Julia with respect and greeted the others as well, the War-rig was like a small town that even had an inn, Mercury asked Andreas about this and apparently, it was for merchants entering the waters of Julinatia that would have their ships checked for weres to calculate a toll while they stayed the night on the rig as well as for crews of ships needing repair that could be performed after the ships had docked on the rig, soon the group reached the maintenance district where the forges were located, the maintenance district took up about half of the limited space on the War-rig, but this space was also calculated with the homes of the workes in mind, for reference the parting of the space on the War-rig Samantha was a quarter for military training, a quarter for the standing marine army's housing and the last half for maintenance facilities as well as housing for the workes

"Here we are, you are free to use this workshop as per orders of the king, the assault on Ode will begin in five days so whatever plan you have you better get working on it quickly"

"Yeah, I'll begin at once"

"Okay, I'll show the rest of the group to their quarters then"

Mercury was soon left in the workshop along with Marie who would be assisting him in the forging, she looked at him with slight suspension in her eyes and asked

"So are you finally telling what we're going to be making?"

Mercury nodded and spoke straightforwardly

"Well, a rather large mana-powered cannon… And a custom shell designed to open up mid-air, at around 200 meters of altitude where it will deliver a payload"

"And what's the payload?"

Mercury looked to the side slightly

"Well… Me..."

Marie looked blankly at Mercury before she picked up a nearby hammer and spoke with a wide smile and cold looking eyes

"If you want to cripple yourself further I can do it for you, you know?"

"Well… The plan is to parachute down under the cover of night, then find and break the weapon"

"Ah… In that case, it doesn't sound as crazy… It still sounds crazy though"

Mercury nodded before he asked

"So will you help me with this?"

Marie sighed before she nodded and asked

"What else do we need to make?"

Mercury showed a smile and took out a blueprint which he had drawn while they were on the ship and showed it to Marie, the blueprint was two new types of shells for the currently in use magic cannons, Marie looked at them before she became slightly stunned and looked over at Mercury and asked

"Where do you get ideas like this?"

Mercury showed a smile and spoke

"Well I am a genius"

Marie sighed before she looked over the blueprints in detail, then after a bit, she spoke

"This could work… And if it does it could revolutionize warfare…"

Mercury nodded looking quite proud

"Of course, now let's get to it, we only have five days to work"

Marie nodded and clapped her cheeks before she spoke, slightly fired up

"Let's do it!"

Five days passed in a flash and soon the two new shell types, as well as the new magic cannon and the custom shell, was completed, Mercury currently stood on the deck of a ship in the middle of the night and looked at the small lights in the distance, it was the city of Ode he could see, he was wearing leather armor, he wore the aluminum gauntlets and on his back was a parachute, he nodded to himself and spoke

"Let's do it"

Then he walked over and opened the side of the shell and squeezed into the small interior before he looked out to Julia and Marie that looked slightly worried, he showed a reassuring smile and spoke

"It'll be fine, as soon as I send up the signal be sure to follow after me though, oh and fire the new shell types as soon as possible too"

The two nodded before Mercury signaled a sailor that sealed the shell with him inside, some time passed before he felt the shell being loaded into the cannon, then he could faintly hear the countdown

"Firing in, 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… FIRE!"

Next was a loud bang followed by a feeling of gravity being doubled as the shell accelerated through the air, Mercury could feel his hammering heartbeat in his chest, and then after a few seconds later the shell casing opened up and he was suddenly weightless in the night sky, he was in a free fall, the few lights under him signaled that he was above Ode, Mercury spread out his arms and legs and stabilized in the air before he quickly opened his parachute, feeling himself slow down Mercury breathed a sigh of relief, about half a minute later he landed in an alleyway in the city of Ode without having raised any alarms by the sound of it, he looked out towards the sea and saw the flashes of the mana cannons on the ships open up and showed a smile before he began moving stealthily through the city streets, he moved towards the lord's manor as that was where the weapon was presumed to be stored

One of the new shell types was loaded into a mana powered cannon, moments later it was fired into the air, as it spun through the air the outer casing of the shell peeled off like from the air pressure, as the mana powered cannon was rifled the shell spun through the air for about half a kilometer before small 'bullets' shot out from the shell that then hit the walls of Ode, the defenders assumed it was a dud as it didn't explode, little did they know that the shell had already delivered its payload, about 15 model Sparrow that had been ejected out of the shell now flew through the air searching for Mercury to assist him in his objective, two more 'duds' hit the walls before the second new shell type impacted on the top of the wall before the dust settled the shell opened up and revealed a single model Hound that opened its maw and quickly emptied its internal spike gun magazine on an unfortunate guard, the frist spike hit the stomach of the guard, after the internal auto-loader did it's thing another spike shout out and hit the guard in the chest, then after another half a second of screaming the final spike was fired and hit the head of the guard ending the screaming, then the model Hound let out a roar and pounced on another guard, meanwhile numerous other shells hit both the wall and ontop of it

Mercury stopped in the shadow of a building as the alarm was sounded on the sea-facing walls of Ode and showed a smile as he looked up and spoke in a quiet voice

"Seach, priority target"

Then he hunkered down for a few minutes before a model Sparrow flew in front of his face and let out a metallic-sounding voice

"Priority target, located"

Mercury showed a smile and quickly kicked off the ground following after the model Sparrow through the empty streets