Chapter 102: Spider
"Stop!" QJ called out. He lay flat on the mat, his right wrist broke free with minimal effort. "Maya..."
"Sorry, it feels unnatural to go after your wrist when I'm one step away from the armbar." Maya apologized; overcoming her instinct to go for the submission immediately proved more challenging than she would have guessed.
"Go for the wrist-lock; I want your weight forward and your foot on the wrong side of my torso." QJ handed her a fresh towel; she made significant progress with her ability to attack 'Yamalee's' offensive moves.
"It's the setup; I need to do it repeatedly until she expects it." Maya took a long drink from her water bottle.
"Explain the steps involved and why, Maya."
Maya nodded. "After I countered a hip toss or ankle trip and assumed the top position. I go after the wrist-lock, deliberately leaving my right foot on the inside of your torso."
"Don't forget to move your weight forward, Maya. This is the smokescreen." QJ assumed the previous position on his back, with Maya locking his wrist. "Yamalee doesn't like to fight off her back; her instinct here is to rotate toward you because she's worried about defending the armbar."
Maya nodded. "By going after the wrists and keeping my weight forward with my foot placed on the wrong side of her torso, I'm encouraging her to rotate away from me."
"The details are important," QJ reminded. "It has to be a shallow foot placement every time. If it's too deep, your rotation into the armbar when it's time to spring your trap will be telegraphed."
"Do you think I can beat her, QJ?" Maya sighed heavily.
"Listen, Maya, we have a plan," QJ began. "You'll have one opportunity to spring the trap; if you can't do the setup properly, she won't take the bait."
Maya nodded. "Thank you for helping me, QJ."
"Remember the MMA video I showed you? This is where he kept kicking the hip; the head-kick knockout was only possible because the opponent knew they were going for the hip."
Maya assumed the wrist-lock with her weight forward and foot placed shallowly inside QJ's torso. "Can we walk through springing the trap? I know it's out of sequence, but perhaps seeing the end result will help me overcome my instincts."
"Sure," QJ replied. "Your weight is forward, and I can feel the shallow placement of your foot on my torso. Simulate that you've done this same thing repeatedly during a grueling match. The hay is in the barn; now spring the trap."
Maya nodded; "I turn counterclockwise, and the foot I've continually placed in the wrong position slides over your torso into the ideal position for an armbar attempt. At the same time, I shift my hands so I can lock your inside arm while throwing my weight back into the mat."
"This part is a race; finish the armbar before Yamalee can lock her wrists together." QJ stood up and squared off. "I'll do ten random attacks, choose the appropriate counter, and then set up so I decide to roll away from you."
Maya smiled. "Let's put the hay in the barn."
QJ frowned slightly. "Why does it sound cool when I say it but awkward when you do?"
"Hey! I sounded cool, too."
After a morning grappling session at TAP Academy, QJ returned to his workshop, taking out a drawing he started during the train heist. He placed a standard over/under 12 guage shotgun on the bench and cut both barrels to 46cm; after removing the stock, he replaced it with a collapsable composite.
"Shotgun barrels aren't usually rifled, but I'll run my grooving tool through the bottom barrel. The only other change I'll make is to increase the breech size to accept a 4-inch shell." Happy with the result, he began the arduous process of building a replica using one hundred percent Sakri steel.
The process was more time-consuming than challenging since QJ worked extensively with the pliable material on countless occasions. "Why make a shotgun from Sakri?" QJ asked himself out loud. "I need it to be ultra-lite."
He fabricated a six-inch tube lined with padding, wide enough for his lower arm to slide through, and attached it to the collapsable stock. "Once I slot my new armor, I can reach back and equip it with no worries."
He slid his arm into the modified collapsable stock; it locked perfectly around his forearm and was light enough to hold straight out without straining. "Perfect, I'll treat it with dragon blood and begin final assembly."
[System Message:] Your ingenuity has created a named weapon, [Silverlight].
[Silverlight] Shotgun (Grand Masterpiece)
Description: An over/under shotgun painstakingly crafted to be ultralight and durable. It features a slide-on handle essential for one-hand firing. The breach on this shotgun has been modified to fire four-inch shells.
Additional Bonus: This weapon applies [Hobble] whenever it inflicts a leg wound.
+10 Perception
+10 Agility
(Note) Hobble applies a 50 percent movement penalty.
After finishing his shotgun, QJ took a few minutes to slot his armor to accept an over-the-shoulder holster for [Silverlight] and a hip-draw for [Roll Credits]. He practiced getting them into action several times before setting them aside for his last task.
"Time to see what Turo sent me," QJ opened his hud and accepted a delivery from Ro-Ro's husband, one of the fishermen who worked for M & Q fishery in Q-Town.
"Perfect," QJ moved the miniature harpoon design Turo sent to his workbench hud before opening a second schematic featuring one of the Songbird Grappling devices.
"Now for my drawing," He slid that between the two displayed schematics and leaned back to study all three. "I increased the size of [Silverlight's] breach to fabricate a steel casing instead of the plastic ones standard shotguns use."
QJ used a small portion of Sakri steel to make a half-dozen four-inch casings for the munitions before customizing an ammo clip that would hold all of them.
"This breaks down into three components: the projectile, the line, and the mechanism."
Since the projectile needed to be the exact diameter of a 12 gauge round, QJ opted for a barbed design hardened with dragon blood. It needed to punch into any surface and retain enough anchor strength to hold two adults. After making a few design modifications to the projectile, he set those aside and continued to study his drawing.
"I need to save one inch of the casing for the ballistic launching, which means I have to fit the line and repelling mechanism into a three-inch by one-inch space."
QJ drew out the designs for the mechanism and hand-crafted the individual components using Sakri steel. The spool size for the line was smaller than he would have liked. "I'll scrap this idea if I can't get at least 25 meters of line."
QJ opted for a fluorocarbon after testing several different lines at the Exodus marketplace. The highest tensile strength he could find with an acceptable diameter was a 100-pound test/ .011 diameters. I could fit about 20 meters of line, but it would snap when my weight hit it.
Treating the .011 fluorocarbon with dragon blood increased the pound rating to 250. "Not bad, but it's still too limiting. Maybe I should shit-can this idea."
A soft knock at the hallway door derailed his thinking process as the door cracked open just enough for the visitor to peek in.
"Come in," QJ had put a do not disturb sign on his door, but that didn't apply to Ra.
Ra's white teeth flashed him a wide smile. "I don't wish to bother my favorite person."
QJ found her smile infectious; pushing aside his work, he grabbed her by the hand and walked to the couch. "You look like you're in a good mood today."
Ra nodded in agreement. "I'm going to be raiding with you today!"
"We need both you and Sarah on heals," QJ admitted.
Instead of sitting next to him, Ra opted to sit on his lap. "I like visiting your workshop," she held his face in both hands and touched her lips to his. I want you to visit Basara with me. There's more green every day, and new rivers and lakes are forming. Besides, the people should see the Water King."
"I'll visit tomorrow after roll call," QJ replied. "Oh... Braids, of course."
Ra's brown hand strayed to her braided hair. "You like them?"
QJ nodded. "I could take the .028 fluorocarbon line; it only has a tensile strength of 25 pounds, but if I braided three strands together..."
Ra tilted her head to one side, her dark eyes smiling into his. "I wanted to say that I like Lotte."
"Me too," QJ admitted. "You guys were grouping together recently?"
Ra nodded. "Robin says that people from the outworld need other outworlders, that it wouldn't be good to only be with LAIs."
"You recognize the term?" QJ asked.
"Yes," Ra replied. "I've been learning much about Exodus, the Outworld, Heroes, and LAIs."
"You guys have been talking about a lot of things. Who's your source? Robin?"
Ra shrugged. "Sometimes, but also Ren and your moms."
"You talk to my moms?" QJ asked.
Ra smothered him with kisses for several seconds before easing off his lap. "Tal taught me how to play dominoes..."
"Careful, she'll try to teach you complex mathematics next."
Ra's careful expression said that it had already happened. "She says you can be too standoffish."
"Stand fish?" QJ crossed his eyes and made a fish face.
"HAHAHA..." Ra's laugh showed all of her teeth. "She said you'd do that if I called you that."
QJ nodded. "It's an old game we play."
"Stay at Briar Rose tonight after the raid." Ra gave him a last kiss, lingering momentarily before walking toward the door. "You can join Robin and me in the spa."
"Sounds great," QJ grinned at her until she left, then he bolted back to his workbench. "Braided line... I should have thought of that right away."
QJ spent the next ten minutes testing different ideas. "Braiding three strands of .028 line sent the tensile strength to 180 pounds. Treating that same line with dragon blood resulted in a break strength of 450 pounds. Treating each strand individually, then braiding them and treating them again, resulting in a tensile strength of 930 pounds. The diameter of the braid was .09, which enabled him to spool thirty meters of line into the steel casing.
"That turned out better than I hoped," QJ held up the four-inch shotgun round. I need to field test this."
[System Message:] Lateral Achievement (Munitions). Do you wish to acknowledge?
"Yes," QJ replied.
[Guns and Gore Announcement: All Servers] Sandhealer Faction Leader QJ has been awarded a Lateral Gunsmithing Achievement (Munitions).
[System Message] Please name your munition.
"Spider," QJ replied.
[Guns and Gore Announcement: All Servers] Sandhealer Faction Leader QJ has created a new munition.
[Spider] (Munition: Grappling Round, Shotgun only)
Description: This grappling round has a range of thirty meters and a break strength of one thousand pounds. The [Spider] will disconnect when a reload is activated.
"By creating a grappling round, I can easily disconnect the previous grapple by reloading. The six-round clip will take up one of the shotgun inventory slots and won't have to be replenished."
[OP: Ringo] I have to see that in action.
[OP: QJ] Me too. :P I'm going to bail for a while, go for a run, and recharge.
[Whisper: Ringo/QJ] We're making an obscene amount of credits from the Mineral oil barrels.
[Whisper: QJ/Ringo] Caching! See you later.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
BotwaCazador
BotwaCazador In the interest of promoting GnG, I've returned TAP to webnovel. All our complete except the III, I'll finish that in the next few days. Please add them all to your library.
The Prodigal Musician: Exodus Book I
The Blood Hunt: Exodus Book II
The Chronos Mage: Book III
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