Meeting

June 12, 1521 a month later after the battle in Mactan.

It's been quite a while since he got this body and he was still adjusting to his environment.

"Elders."

Lapu-Lapu addressed the group of men who sat on a matted floor of his wooden house in front of a large traditional table similar to that of the Nihonjin's, around the table are men in their peak, his most capable and trusted elders and family leaders of the Maharlika. All of them wore gold bracers, anklets, rings and earrings adorned with precious stones. Wearing gold as a noble is like a requirement for a person of high societal status, not having gold on one's person is frowned upon in their society because even the slaves have plenty of them.

"Ulupong I want everyone to hear about the post battle logistics."

Lapu-Lapu looked at a slender looking man wearing a traditional putong (a long, thin strip of cloth used to bind their forehead), a robe called 'marlota', and a matching colored silk pants. His arms and legs are heavily decorated with 'calombigas' (armlet, anklet) inlaid with precious stones of different colors, hanging on his chest is a golden necklace as thick as the arms of an infant and his ears are dotted with rectangular golden earrings that clearly shows his status in society.

(Ancient Philippines has many levels of social class depending on the region they originated from. Most of the time the caste system is as follows: The Royal family, the rich, the free men, and the slaves. The slaves are further devided into namamahay which are slaves that has certain rights and the saguiguilid who are mostly prisoners of war turned into slaves, they do not have rights whatsoever.)

"We have lost a total of fifty men in the battle, five have severe wounds and are presumed to be crippled, and twenty-five suffered from minor injuries. From the enemy we have killed thirty-two before they began their retreat, about thirty people made it to one ship and was able to escape. We have looted four of their ships containing supplies, weapons and six thousand catties of gold (1 catty =. 6 kg so 6000 catties is equal to 3600 kg. This Unit of measurement was adapted from Chinese merchants)."

"We have lost some good brothers this time. How goes the compensation and the burial of these brave hunters and noble warriors?"

Most of Mactan's adult men are capable hunters but not everyone is part of the Maharlika who are a class of noble warriors who answers solely to the Salip.

"The ritual for the dead is already done and they are now in their ancestral tombs with ABBA, may he guide them to his eternal kingdom."

Ulupong paused slightly seemingly in prayer for those who departed and the people around him did the same.

"The compensation is already given to the l families who lost their loved ones but since we have looted a bit this time then we will have to decide how the spoils are to be split between these families."

"Split half of the gold loot equally amongst those who participated, those who lost their loved ones will be taken care of according to our new policies. I want the weapons we looted delivered here for storing until we can decide on how to properly utilise them. Give me a proper accounting of the loots that isn't gold in your report."

Ulupong nodded his head coupled with a slight bow as the Salip turned to the other elders.

"I'm quite sure that those pale monkeys will return someday. They will want our gold, our women, perhaps even our lives... we have to prepare for their arrival, and as for those who will chose to grovel under their feet, we shall see how ABBA will deal with them."

There was a numbing aura around Lapu-Lapu at this time, his expression was grave and the others knew why he would feel like so. They have only won the battle this time because the enemy is tired, outnumbered and unfamiliar with their capabilities. The next encounters will be much more dangerous and bloody than this initial clash.

"Yes Salip."

The heads of the Maharlika answered in unison. All of them faught the hard battle in the shores of Mactan against the invaders with metallic skin who can command the power of thunder to kill their enemies. If not for the sacrifice of many of their people, they would have lost the battle in the first few minutes.

"Pick up those scrolls in front of you and read them carefully, it will be the new guidelines that everyone in the territory will follow."

"We will do as instructed."

"I've been quite busy these past few days looking for a solution to improve our lack in firepower and with the help of woodworkers we managed to come up with this."

He placed a weird looking eighty pounder recurve bow on top of the table for everyone to see. They have the puzzled look that seems to say 'what was so special with this bow'? Almost every capable adult male in the village who can hunt has one. They looked at Lapu-Lapu more intensely, Salip wouldn't be wasting their time. Lapu-Lapu's lips curved after seeing their reaction, seemingly satisfied.

"I will not put you in any more suspense, this here is crossbow with something called a 'magazine', using this... we can theoretically shoot arrows much faster."

From a compartment under the table Lapu-Lapu took out a magazine inspired by the German inventor who likes to shoot arrows on UTube.

"Let's move this meeting to my backyard I have prepared for a little demonstration to show everyone how this new weapon works."

They all followed their Salip to the backyard where they saw what looks to be a target with concentric circles on it.

The Salip readied the bow by connecting the magazine and then loading it with a handful of short arrows.

"Alright, as you know my shoulder is still on recovery so let's have Bayi try this new weapon. Let me demonstrate first so listen well, all you need to do is pull aim and release repeatedly. This magazine here will automatically do the loading of the arrows for you. So, do it as fast as you possibly can until you run out of arrows. That's very easy right?"

Of course he was lying with a straight face at this moment in time. His shoulder injury healed weeks ago before he began making things roll into place but nobody knows that and no one will question the Salip's claims. In truth, he couldn't rely on Lapu-Lapu's experience on the use of bows just yet.

"Yes Salip. It is my honor."

Bayi respectfully received the crossbow looking bow and began feeling it in his hands. Despite the different look, it was comfortable to handle and not as heavy as he first imagined. He did as instructed, bringing the bow close to the handle the string was caught by a mechanism, pulling the handle, it slid along the body of the magazine and with a 'clicking' sound the bow is fully drawn. Now he just have to press the thumb release for the arrow to shoot.

He looked a little awkward in his shooting position but his shots were still accurate, the thing that surprised them was the speed at which he was able to shoot them.

Tack*

Click*

Tack*

Click*

Tack*

There are seven arrows that flew towards the target in a span of less than six seconds. The shots are made more comfortable and more accurate that Bayi began to believe even his five year old son can use this thing and not miss a single shot. He looked and marveled at this simple yet powerful new addition to the bow and began to imagine how this would affect a battle against invaders. His eyes began to gleam as he looked back and forth from Salip and then to the new bow. He looked at his fellow elders, they didn't get the chance to use it but from the demonstration alone, they knew just how powerful this new bow is.

"This is an amazing weapon dear Salip if the men can be armed with this weapon then I think defending our Mactan from those foreign invaders wouldn't be an issue for now. Even going as far as to be able to conquer Cebu is possible if things work in our favor. What shall you name this new form of weapon?"

Lapu-Lapu noded at Bayi's claim, this weapon could effectively increase the might of his men by a couple of times. They will be feared in the whole archipelago.

As a transmigrator/regressor, he had a little cheat that he brought back with him in his crossover.

Every night when he dreams he has access to the Internet.

Yes.

The Internet.

The bank that stores almost all of man's ingenuity and foolishness.

The source of his invention. Well plagiarised, but since the guy wasn't even here, and there was no such law to stop him he could only close his eyes and say sorry to the man.

"This will be called Sprave repeating bow."

'In honor of its original design inventor. Thank you so much Joerg Sprave for your ingenius design and instructions. Sorry for stealing your design. I'll make it up to you somehow. Maybe. Most likely not.'

'Sprave'

The elders repeated the name in their heads and engraved it in their hearts, although it was a little difficult to pronounce and sounded odd, it was issued by the Salip so everyone can only nod their heads.