The soldiers in close proximity to the stone were incinerated. Worse still, the fragments of the stone scattered in a burst of shrapnel, mowing down even more men in the vicinity. Some of them were hit in their vitals, taking fragments of stone to the head or the heart, and died on the spot. More still were hit in their arms and legs, and while their wounds weren’t fatal, there was no chance they’d be fighting fit any time soon. In the end, almost every soldier that had been standing around the stone was taken out of the battle.
“Wh-What was that?! Explosive magic?! But that’s impossible!” Couran shouted.
Missian was the only one of the duchies with access to explosive magic─the others shouldn’t have been able to use it at all. Missian was the only region where explosive aqua magia could be manufactured, and its export to other duchies was prohibited.
A catapult stone exploded… Perhaps it wasn’t explosive magic, then, but rather some new form of weaponry? New and troublesome, indeed, Couran thought, just as the soldiers atop the castle’s walls began throwing stones down toward his men.
Couran realized the danger he was in at once and called for his troops to fall back─but it was too late. The stones thrown by the enemy soldiers exploded just as the catapult’s had, and though they─and their resulting explosions─were much smaller than that first blast, there were far, far more of them. A series of ear splitting pops rang out, and the front line of Couran’s force was decimated. The survivors who could still move fell into a panic and began to scatter, ignoring Couran’s attempts to stage a controlled withdrawal.
Ugh… There’ll be no reforming our vanguard after this. Best to ensure the rest of my men make it out in time.
The front lines, Couran decided, were lost. He chose to abandon the men who’d fallen into a rout and fall back with the remainder of his army.
○
“Haaah hah hah hah hah! Did you see that?! Bear witness to the glory of my greatest invention, a weapon that will turn the tides of battle: Bursting Drakestones!”
Bamba erupted in a fit of maniacal laughter as he extolled the virtues of his creation.
“Yes, they are quite impressive. I must ask, though─why ‘drake’? Is there some significance to the word that I’ve missed, perhaps…?” Boroths asked, giving Bamba an appraising glance.
“Hm? The significance is that it sounds fantastic, of course. It doesn’t mean anything,” Bamba replied.
“I… I see,” said Boroths. He did not think it sounded fantastic. He thought it sounded ridiculous, in fact, but chose not to broach that subject. “How do they work? I was under the impression that Paradille was not capable of creating explosive aqua magia.”
“Which is why explosive aqua magia is not among the components used to create them. These explosions are the product of black powder.”
“Black powder…? I’m familiar with it, conceptually, but my understanding was that the explosions it created weren’t that impressive,” said Boroths. While black powder had been discovered in this world, the fact that flame-aspected magic put its effects to shame had resulted in its use falling to the wayside in favor of magical means.
“I discovered that if you mix black powder and flame-aspected aqua magia together in just the right way, the resulting material is capable of producing powerful explosions. It’s an invention that only I could have ever managed to dream up─and, importantly, Paradille is capable of creating its own flame aqua magia,” Bamba boasted.
“Fascinating…and remarkable indeed,” said Boroths. “And the specifics of how this mixture is compounded─”
“Are, of course, top secret! We may be allies, but this is a craft that I would never share with another duchy without a very compelling cause.”
“I suppose that stands to reason,” Boroths admitted. He hadn’t expected Bamba to share his methods─he’d just figured it couldn’t hurt to ask. It came as no surprise when Bamba shot him down. “So then, how many of these Bursting…something stones do you have available to you?”
“Bursting Drakestones! Remember that name! We have a thousand that can be thrown by hand, and a hundred that are catapult-sized,” Bamba replied.
“I see…” Boroths said, an apprehensive look on his face. Would that, he wondered, truly be enough to drive Couran’s army away?
“Yes, I understand your doubts all too well,” said Bamba. “Indeed─that quantity may not suffice! Our foes were wise to withdraw when they did. When fighting at a numerical advantage some sacrifices can be afforded if it allows you to force through the enemy lines, but instead of pressing on, they turned back the moment they became aware of the threat the Bursting Drakestones posed to them. Clearly, their leader is an individual of remarkable judgment and insight.”
If Couran’s army had tried to force their way through, Bamba would have taken the opportunity to inflict as many casualties upon the invaders as possible, ultimately rendering them unable to continue their attack. The shrapnel effect that the Bursting Drakestones produced made them capable of inflicting tremendous casualties on a tightly-clumped mass of enemies. Most of those soldiers would survive, but wounding them was all it took to take them out of the picture. A wounded soldier, after all, would be of no use when it came to reclaiming the castle.
Couran’s decision to fall back at once, however, had taken the wind out of Bamba’s scheme’s sails. They wouldn’t attack again without some sort of plan to deal with his new weapon, meaning they’d lose far fewer soldiers than they would have if they’d tried to force their way through at once. That meant that it was unclear whether Bamba’s available stockpile would be enough.
“So it would seem,” Boroths agreed. “It appears that Couran has taken personal command of Missian’s army, at the moment.”
“Couran himself?! Hell’s bells! Then ordinary means won’t get us anywhere… But I suppose coming up with extraordinary means is our only choice, that being the case,” Bamba replied. It was a concerning development for him, but he launched into preparing for the next battle in spite of his worries.
It wasn’t long before Missian mounted a second offensive. They employed tactics designed to mitigate the effects of explosive magic, ensuring that no soldiers stayed clustered too close together and going into battle wearing heavier armor than typically employed when storming a castle. That heavy armor reduced Missian’s soldiers’ mobility, but also dramatically mitigated the damage inflicted by shrapnel from the enemy’s explosives.
However prepared Missian’s force was, maintaining command of an army while marching straight into a battlefield that was exploding every way you looked was a very tall order. Missian’s formation collapsed after a while, and when it became clear its soldiers were falling into a state of mayhem, the order to retreat was once again given and carried out.
That evening, Bamba took the very rare step of speaking out on his own initiative in a war council, the instant it was called to order.
“Well, we’ve lost. Let’s get out of here.”
Almost everyone present at the council was stunned by Bamba’s words.
“Wh-What are you saying, Sir Bamba?!” one of Paradille’s nobles exclaimed. “We’ve inflicted incredible damage upon the enemy forces thanks to your invention! If we just hold our ground, this battle is ours to win!”