"THUNK"
A large Bolt Pierced the target, A tree. It was about the size of a large spear. The Bolt just quivered in the ground.
Said had always been Khemris centre of learning, being remote and secure as it was. With the Invasion of Khemri, attention was turned to war and devices to win it. The Gorinese were a great help in this regard. It was a wonder to discuss with them, philsoophy, maths, sciences. Well educated as a whole. Khemri could only afford to have a small elite educated to such a high standerd. Educating the Largest Population on Earth would almost drain Khemri Dry.
However, Prince Alexander was here to watch this new invention being tested out. A Ballista.
Quirm, Funny name one might say. But others would remark that the scary thing was that he was an eccentric genius, mad probably, but a genius. He had many things jotted down in his notebooks. The compilation was bizzare. Here was a portrait of himself, showing aquiline nose, and high set brow. And up in the corner was some massive contraption which was proposed to shoot fire. Of course the picture then went on to show what such a burning man would look like. What was truly bizzare was that Quirm had jotted down that the contraption actually fired a liquid. The Prince frowned and flicked onward. An undersea going machine. What looked to be a large bird. Fish and a study of them...
"Prince Alexander, Quirm has finished finallising details on his ballista, if you could come this way,"
Prince Alexander, with some obvious trepidation, walked outside and onto well a testing range. In front of him stood this Wooden and Bronze Contraption. What looked like a Massive Bow at 90 degrees to its normal firing position, mounted upon a wooden base.
"Ah Sire, So good of you to join us, this is my ballista. One of my more succesfull pet projects, the others tend to kill my helpers more often than not. This merely killed my Khemrian Helpers. Well in the early stages, got some Gorinese Helpers now. You see the Khemrian ones didn't think about the force that hits them when they fire the bow, naturally one got flung across and hit into the wall behind you there, Broke his back, the Poor fellow..."
Prince Alexander was overwhelmed by a torrent of talk.
"Ah uh The ballista?"
"Yes of course of course, should have got round to it sooner. Now this thing can pivot, as shown," Quirm promptly pivoted the ballista round till it almost pointed towards Prince Alexander. The Prince literally jumped and moved round a bit. "The degree of pivot is obviously limited, but it should serve for the battlefield, and now the firing,"
This time the bolt not only cleaved through the small tree, but buried itself halfway up into the soil behind it.
"Impressive power, we'll take it,"
"Right right, now I was wondering if you wanted to take a look at these other designs I've drawn up, they might intrest you greatly."