" when fighting, use your whole body. What does this mean, in battle do not care about honor, when your life is in the line honor means nothing. This means that every part of your body is a weapon. A bite, a kick in the groin , an eye poke are all things that can possibly save your life in a situation where you have lost your primary weapon ". Damon said to the recruits who sat on the river bank listening intensively.
He then used his telepathy to bring a box to himself. He then opened it revealing two sets of revolvers . One was made out of regular steel with a polished wood finish and the other was made out of anti magic tungsten. Both were big frame revolvers and Alaric had ended up making them double action revolvers which meant that there was no need to manually pull back the hammer before firing. The bullets head was made out of a tungsten steel alloy while being copper jacketed.
Damon pulled out the gun and started inserting the bullets which after too many modifications turned out to resemble a .500 magnum .
Targets were then set from twenty meters, fifty meters,seventy five meters, one hundred meters and finally one hundred and fifty meters. The targets set were large water barrels filled with water .
Damon then started shooting at the targets, the explosion from the gun was so loud causing those close by to cover their ears.
The result of the shooting was massive splintering between 25m to 75m while the targets between 100m to 150m just had holes in them without massive splintering.
"Your instructors will show you how to properly fire these weapons and how to maintain them carefully." Damon said to the shocked and awed recruits before leaving.
The only drawbacks Damon had in making firearms was that Alaric had not yet mastered spring making. But this was being taken care of and even if he couldn't perfect the springs there were other ways to make weapons.
Over the course of the next two months the recruits were grilled in the use of firearms under many scenarios. They were also trained to use the firearms in conjunction with other cold weapons like swords, axes and Warhammers. Infact even as most of them were not on par with soldiers or knights who had been training all their lives, they were sufficient enough in the basics of the cold weapon of their choice.
For over six months Damon has spent time, money and energy training these recruits in different aspects like infiltration, sabotage, assassination and outright chaos warfare. Their method of killing was to be always quick and brutal regardless of how powerful or weak an opponent was. This was to make sure that they did not underestimate their targets. The mages were also trained to abandon the notion of spells and draw power from their selves afterall the power was theirs to begin with. This made some of the mages in the army to maximize their power.
Now at the graduation the recruits were now lined up at the foot of the new wall and after discarding their their white training garments they now wore new uniforms, black trousers , black combat boots and black and red breastplates reinforced with tungsten for the non mages and steel for the mages. On this breastplate was the new sigil of his house, a cross , a crow and a skull. And also they wore a dark overcoat.( Look at the cover photo as reference to the army's uniform.)
" When you all gathered before me the first time, I asked that you submit yourselves to God, and now you have been trained to serve as a deterrence against the evil of those world.
As you can see I have done away with the banner and sigil of my father and I have created a new sigil. Hear this now , the words of my house are not fickle which means you , men and women of this army are not fickle.
After this ceremony you will all be assigned to different branches, know that no branch is superior to the other and you will all serve to the glory of God." Said Damon to the soldiers who then performed a Roman salute before leaving ecstatically. It was the first time in months the recruits now turned soldiers had been into town .
They went off to be with their families and friends, each of them sharing stories of their experiences in the training camp and unintentionally spreading beliefs about God .
At the castle Damon hosted a banquet for all the knights for their help in the training and recruitment of the soldiers. All the knights were dressed in the new uniform of the army.
Before the night was over Damon promoted the fifteen knights to the rank of captain which was signified by two silver studs on their collar of their coats. Sir Barksdale was then given the rank of commander which signified by a gold stud in his collar.
The next day by noon Damon received a report on the army situation. He had five hundred and ten soldiers, one hundred and ten had the warrior composition while sixty were mages with different abilities.
Damon had also asked that those soldiers who showed good leadership qualities to be given the rank of sergeant which was signified by a steel cross on their coat collar.
One hundred of the soldiers were assigned to the city guard. Two knights, captains Edgar and Petrova were given command of this city guard who also acted as the police.
The remaining four hundred were divided into companies of hundred headed by two captains each.
The remaining were ten soldiers and nine knights who had been pre selected to join his personal guard .
Finally Damon was done with the organization of his military which meant that he would be able to defend his territory without over exerting himself that is if anyone was foolish enough to attack him.