Mallyjax's Crossbow

Classes had been going well for the first week, the only one that posed a real challenge to actually passing the class was Magic Engineering. Mallyjax had been helping them out in his free time though, which had been just enough to keep up with the pace of the class.

Professor Min'Kin wasn't too keen on making the students do any tests or paperwork, as long as they were able to draw runes properly, she was fine with their performance. That said, most of the class had still failed to draw any properly functioning runes, Kaos being one of them. Only once did he actually get something to happen, but instead of emitting a blast of wind, the stone gushed out black smoke.

Mallyjax's tutoring after classes was extremely helpful for Vasai though, who seemed to have gotten a pretty good grasp on how to consistently draw functioning runes, although they took a lot longer and were less potent than when Mallyjax drew them.

This afternoon was a lot like most of the others for Kaos and Vasai, they had just finished grabbing some dinner with the rest of the gang, and were headed back to Mallyjax's room/workshop to try and get caught up on Magic Engineering homework.

Mallyjax was interesting to Kaos, he seemed quiet and a bit nervous around people, but still had a wild look in his eye and excitement when it came to rune carving and magical machinery.

Much like the other walks to Mallyjax's workshop, Vasai did most of the talking until he got to the subject of magic engineering, where Mallyjax would take over and monologue about some dangerous machine he was working on.

As they approached Mallyjax's door, Kaos noticed that it had changed in appearance yet again. Mallyjax took a small metal disk out of his pocket and touched it against the center of the door. It seemed like almost every week the door changed in some way due to Mallyjax's tinkering.

After a moment they could hear many metal clanking sounds coming from the door, and it swung open, revealing Mallyjax's large room that had almost entirely been converted into a working space full of various tools and workbenches.

"So Kaos, I've been working on something for you!" Mallyjax said excitedly, running over to a workbench on the far side of the room. Where he had found time to work on some extra gadget was beyond Kaos, but he at least appreciated the thought and was a little interested as to what Mallyjax had built him.

"I know you've been training with crossbows," Mallyjax continued, finding what he was looking for, "and I figured this one might give you a bit of an edge over the competition."

Mallyjax handed Kaos a hand-crossbow littered with intricate designs that, upon closer inspection, were actually etched runes connected in a web all around the dark wooden frame. Kaos took the weapon and looked more closely, trying to deduce based on the runes what it did, but to no avail, most of the runes he had never even seen before.

"It reloads itself!" Mallyjax said triumphantly, taking the crossbow back and pointing it at one of the workbenches. He pulled the trigger and the arrow disappeared from the crossbow and made a loud thud, sinking into the wooden workbench. Kaos looked back at the crossbow, as the string seemed to pull itself back, and an arrow that had been mounted on the side of the crossbow slid upwards and into place.

Kaos's jaw dropped, he was sure that Min'Kin could probably make something like this given enough time, but for a student to build something like this so quickly, just the thought seemed impossible.

He took the crossbow back from Mallyjax who was still beaming at Kaos's reaction to his creation, and pointed it at the same bench Mallyjax had shot it into moments ago. The small arrow fired, and just like clockwork, the arrow and string reloaded themselves for another shot.

"Oh this is gonna help bigtime" Kaos said with a smile.

"I figured it might!" Mallyjax laughed back excitedly, "You mentioned you were going to try and use a crossbow for the arena games, but they take so long to reload that they're really kind of useless except for the first shot. This one has a little bit less power, but as long as you keep a few arrows stocked on the side there, it'll always reload itself in a second or two!"

"If this is the standard, we're going to fail Magic Engineering." Vasai chuckled, getting a few laughs from the other two.

"There's a scrimmage tomorrow" Kaos said, looking at Mallyjax thoughtfully, "I have to have a team of four people, and it's just me, Vasai, and Nolly right now. If you want to join the team, I'm sure that with your gadgets you wouldn't fall behind in the slightest, and we'd love to have you on board!"

Mallyjax thought for just a moment but then shook his head, "I get that there's some more prestige from the Dek class and stuff, but I'm a magic engineer and I'm just not really into the fighting stuff. I guess I just like my gadgets!"

"Fair enough!" Kaos replied with a smile, although he was now just hoping there was a random lone contestant that would show up tomorrow looking for a team.