Chapter 44: Water Cannon Spear Tiamat!

Feena finally delivered the prongs: seven curved blades of polished silver that gleamed under the sunlight.

Without wasting a second, Adonis and Alpis channeled dragon enchantment to inscribe the tiny, intricate runes Geles had provided, carefully synchronizing them with the hybrid rune system previously carved along the dwarven steel shaft.

When they finished, the claws looked breathtaking.

Beautiful and deadly, like the talons of an ancient sea beast.

The final step was integrating the [Core of the Nereids] into the center of the focusing array.

Mariella handled this personally. She’d spent weeks studying the core’s mana signature and knew exactly how to align it with the complex runic structure.

Next, she lowered the core into its housing.

This is delicate. If the alignment is off by even a fraction of a millimeter, the entire system will fail."

Adonis sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"If only Garm wasn’t still in that damn toilet..."

Mariella shot him a stern look. "Hey, I need whatever insights he gets for a serious project I’m working on."

Click.

The core locked into place. In an instant, the entire spear hummed with a deep, vibrating power. Everyone cheered and smiled at the shining masterpiece sitting on the workbench.

Almost an entire month of hardwork, forged into a spear.

Alpis pumped a fist into the air. "LET’S TEST IT!"

A testing range was set up in the abandoned courtyard behind the eastern side of the warehouse. Mariella and Geles placed a thick wooden target at the far end, reinforced with heavy metal plates to simulate real armor.

Adonis stood at the opposite end, gripping the magic spear. It felt almost alive, pulsing like a sea beast’s roar against his palms with the pure energy of the core.

"Are you ready?" Mariella asked.

"Yes."

Mariella nodded back, though worry clouded her eyes. So much blood and sweat went into this. With only three days left until the duel, a failure here meant total disaster. Moreover, now that she and Adonis were more than just unresolved sexual tension, she felt the added pressure of having to comfort him if things went wrong.

She still remembered how furious he got when they lacked the means to inscribe the runes earlier. Just thinking about his dark temper made her hands tremble.

’It has to work... have no other options left.’

She steeled herself by tightening her fists until she could feel her fingers pricking into her palms.

"Then... fire."

That was all she could manage.

Adonis channeled his mana straight into the spear.

The core glowed majestically. Runes illuminated along the dwarven steel as the claws of the focusing array spun rapidly like a rifle bullet, compressing ambient water mana into a dense sphere before releasing it.

BOOOM!

A jet of hyper-compressed water shot from the tip of the spear, slicing through the courtyard air in a seconds. It struck the target dead center, punching through the wooden boards and heavy metal plates like they were wet paper.

The target shattered into splinters and busted metal.

Prussia let out a mild whistle. "Not bad."

Adonis stared at the destruction in shock. "It worked!"

Mariella shoved him playfully.

"Hey! Don’t sound so surprised! I’m one of the best at what I do in Soron, after all. Or did you forget you practically begged for my help precisely because I’m the best?"

Adonis rubbed his chin, looking away thoughtfully.

"Etooo... ahh, ah, the best? I’m not so sure about that."

"HEEEYYY!"

Mariella whined like a little child as she rained a barrage of harmless punches onto his shoulder.

Prussia briefly glanced at the two of them flirty-bickering and simply said nothing.

Hm? Adonis paused, noticing the shaft was growing hot in his hands from the core’s pulsing residual energy.

He wasn’t the only one to notice it, Alpis stepped forward and used her dragon eyes to appraise the magic stone.

"The recoil seems like it needs a little work. But the heat itself isn’t coming from generating mana, per se. It looks like the core is trying to create another magical element, but it’s falling short. Using parts of the core must’ve reduced its overall effectiveness."

Both Mariella and Adonis blinked in surprise, caught off guard by her sudden sharp analysis. Alpis wasn’t too stupid but they were always surprised by little moments where she showed evidence of a brain her little head.

"So what can we do about it?" the Fifth Prince asked.

Alpis stared seriously at the spear, stroking her chin.

"Hmmm..."

Then she closed her eyes and shrugged. "Meh. I forgot."

"Surprise..." Adonis shook his head and sighed.

Geles, who was busy taking notes, piped up.

"Mhm, mhm, mana consumption is extremely high. You can probably fire twenty, maybe twenty-two shots before you’re completely depleted."

Twenty shots didn’t sound like much, but royals possessed the highest mana pools in the kingdom. To put it into perspective, a high noble would only manage five or six shots before suffering mana exhaustion, while a commoner would pass out after just one.

Mmm, Mariella tilted her head side to side discontentedly.

"The compression ratio was excellent, and the penetration was superior to pretty much any water-based attack I’ve ever seen. The only issues are the recoil and mana cost. There must be a way to reduce them..."

Adonis shrugged, heading back toward the warehouse with the spear casually rested over his shoulder.

"We can fix the recoil with a stabilization enchantment on the handle. I don’t think there’s a way around the mana cost, even with my reserves, so I’ll just have to make every shot count."

He didn’t look the least bit bothered.

After one more full day of testing and refinement, the water spear was officially complete.

The only problem left? They couldn’t agree on a name.

"It should be called the Great Water Dragon King!"

Alpis shouted, slamming her hand onto the wooden table.

"That doesn’t even make sense! The spear has nothing to do with a dragon OR a king!" Mariella yelled back.

Prussia scoffed from the corner. "Like yours was any good."

Mariella pointed a finger at her defensively.

"OH, NO YOU DIDN’T! Water Lance of the Nereids is a great name! Show some respect!"

"... Whatever."

Prussia just folded her arms and rolled her eyes.

Meanwhile, Garm, who was out of his dwelling period, and Geles were locked in their own ferocious debate, typical of dwarves and elves.

"We’re calling it Tidebreaker!" Garm roared.

"No! Water Fang is way more menacing!" Geles shot back.

"Tidebreaker!"

"Water Fang!"

"Tidebreaker!"

"Water Fang!"

The two slammed their fists, shouting over each other without sign of stopping.

Standing off to the side, Adonis watched the chaos with a nervous smile. His original pick had been Water Dragon Spear since it was literally a spear carrying dragon enchantments, but only Prussia and Alpis had voted for it. Mariella and the rest hated the whole "dragon" theme.

He could at least understand their frustrations, it reminded him of Xianxia novels that had a habit of naming items with names too grand for what they actually did.

As the screaming match worsened, Adonis hit his limit.

"GUYS! GUYS!"

Everyone instantly shut up and turned to him.

Adonis flashed them a bright, non-negotiable smile.

"I’ve already decided on a name. It’s the Water Cannon Spear Tiamat. No room for any opinions, okay?"

"Fine..."

Everyone else groaned and rolled their eyes except Prussia who liked the name but stayed expressionless, but there’s no dragon theme so she’d dock some points.

"Dragons are the best..." she mumbled.

Two days left until the duel.

...

[WATER CANNON SPEAR - TIAMAT]

[Classification: Magitech Weapon (Prototype)]

[Grade: Platinum (estimated)]

[Length: 180 cm]

[Weight: 2.8 kg]

Materials:

- Shaft: Mythril core, dwarven steel casing, silver coating

- Focusing Array: Silver claws, Dragon inscription

- Core: [Core of the Nereids] ( low rainbow water relic)

- Handle: Leather-wrapped dwarven steel, stabilization enchantment

Runic System:

- 49 runes total (7 layers × 7 runes)

- Hybrid system: Several Utility, Elven, and Dwarven runes all enchanted by Dragon inscriptions

- Activation: Mana channeled from hands through mythril conduits

Performance:

- Maximum Range: 200 meters

- Effective Range: 100 meters

- Projectile Speed: Supersonic (estimated)

- Penetration: Capable of piercing gold-tier armor

- Fire Rate: 1 shot per 3 seconds ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

- Ammo Capacity: 20-22 shots before mana depletion