Among the group, Head General Paul was the most surprised. After all, he was the only one out of the group to actually remember what a gun even looked like.
He easily recognized the gun to be modeled after some kind of a revolver, as shown by the cylinder protruding from the middle of the gun.
However, that wasn't the part that reallyastounded the Head General. It was the fact that the weapon was a hybrid weapon. As Leo had just demonstrated, it could switch between being a close-range dagger, and a long-ranged firearm.
And to be perfectly honest, it was a design choice that Paul could perfectly understand.
Once the cylinder's six rounds had been exhausted, it could still be used as a melee weapon.
In fact, if his memory served right, he recalled reading in an old history book about how a long time ago, guns used to have something called "bayonets" attached to the end of them for this exact same purpose.
Leo placed the Scordana Gunblade down on the table, and slid it over to the person next to him, who just so happened to be General Nathan.
"So this is a 'firearm', huh?" he asked, analyzing the weapon.
As a member of one of the younger generations since the start of the Dalki War, he had never seen a firearm before.
After all, why would he?
Bullets had proved to be pretty much ineffective against the Dalki, and making firearms out of Beast Crystals was a wasteful use of perfectly good Beast Crystals.
He continued examining it for another minute, before he then handed it over to Head-General Paul, who was seated to his left.
As Paul was actually somewhat familiar with firearms, he immediately noticed something was OFF with the weapon as soon as he held it in his hands.
Paul's eyes narrowed.
Seeing the look, Sergeant Faye narrowed her eyes as well.
"What's wrong, Head General?" she asked.
Paul's eyes tightened.
"This weapon," he replied. "It's weight is off. A firearm of this size should weigh nowhere near this heavy."
Looking down at the Scordana Gunblade, he saw a circular button protruding out on the body, just below the cylinder.
He pressed it, causing an audible "click" to be heard.
Immediately, the others in their seats, with the exception of Sergeant Leo and Sergeant Shizuka all jumped slightly.
The cylinder swung outwards, revealing that it was filled with six bullets.
Paul gripped his thumb and index finger around the bullet at the bottom of the cylinder, and began to slowly pull it out of the chamber.
He held the bullet up to his face, revealing it to the others.
To them, it just looked like a bronze-colored tube with a pointed spike coming out of the top.
"Wait," Paul muttered. "Isn't this…an armor-piercing round?"
He stared at the bullet for a moment, and then placed it down on the table, standing up.
He then pressed the cylinder back into place, causing another click to be heard.
Paul rotated his chair to his right, and stomped his foot on the ground.
A few feet in front of him, earth began to rise up from the ground.
The others all watched as the earth formed a crude, human shaped statue.
It was similar to those "silhouette targets" that they used to use in old-school firing ranges.
Paul pointed the gun's barrel at the center of the "chest"on the statue, and he pulled the trigger.
The sound of a gunshot echoed though the meeting room, and the bullet punched a perfectly circular hole in the center of the statue, before then continuing on until it reached the north wall, where it buried itself in the metal wall like a thumbtack.
Paul, Nathan, Dillion, and even Duke widened their eyes.
"Damn," Sergeant Dillon muttered under his breath, his sunglasses still down on his nose. "'Armor-Piercing' isright,"
Head-General Paul looked down at the Scordana Gunblade once again.
'The thing doesn't even have any RECOIL,' he thought. 'Is it due to its irregular weight?'
"In the early days of the war, we quickly realized that all our firearms were completely ineffective against the Dalki," Paul replied, still looking down at the weapon. "The bullets would simply rebound off of their scaly hides. If something like this would have existed thirty years ago, would we still have suffered such a high number of casualties?"
Shizuka glanced over at him.
"So the Dalki's skin really is as tough as the rumors say, then?" she asked.
Her words made everyone snap their heads towards her, a look of pure and utter shock on their faces.
"Wait," Sergeant Faye replied. "Sergeant Shizuka, have you…never fought a Dalki?"
Shizuka turned to her.
"Yeah, I haven't," she replied. "By the time I was old enough to enlist, the Ceasefire was already in effect. I've fought Beasts up to the Legendary-Tier, High-Level Ability Users, and even Agents of Pure, but I've never actually faced a Dalki."
Leo's grip tightened around his sword.
'You don't know how lucky you are then, girl,' he thought, as his mind flashed back to the war.
General Duke's eyes narrowed.
"Head General, aren't you overlooking something?" he asked.
His words caused Paul to turn to him, a hard look on his face with his left eyebrow raised in confusion.
Duke pointed at the weapon in Paul's hand.
"Doesn't that weapon seem a bit complicated to be made by a Beast Forger?" he asked. "Beast Gear is usually just simplistic weapons and armor."
Sergeant Faye's eyes tightened at Duke's words.
"General Duke has a point," she replied, turning herself into the center of attention, as everyone shifted their gazes to her. "Beast Forgers are blacksmiths, not watch makers. I don't think that even the legendary Forger who forged the Supreme Commander's Demon-Tier Sword could make such a weapon. Let alone some First-Year Beast Forger."
Paul's face scrunched up, as he began to think about this. General Duke and Sergeant Faye brought up a valid point.
'Just who DID make this?' he thought.
***
Back in Logan's room, Logan let out an intense sneeze, causing Tsukuru to glance back at him.
At the same time, Quinn was looking at Galina the same way one would look at an alien.
Over the course of the last ten minutes or so, the two of them had explained what had happened right before Quinn had stepped out of the VR Pod.
"So, she's that blob that you're always carrying around, Tsukuru?" he asked, his head tiled in confusion.
While the little girl in front of him, had the same liquid metal texture as Galina, she looked like a nine-year-old girl, while the Galina he was familiar with looked like a basketball-sized blob.
Almost immediately, Galina's face morphed into a pout.
"Uncle Quinn is so mean!" she replied, before then raising her arms high into the air, her eyes closed with a look of anger on her face. "Galina is not some 'blob'!"
Quinn's eyes widened, and a look of shock came over his face.
"Un-Uncle?!" he shouted in disbelief, his body jerking back.
Tsukuru burst into laughter.
"Oh, don't blow a bloodvessel, Quinn!" Tsukuru wheezed out between laughs, a tone of amusement in his voice. "Little kids always call friends of their parents 'Aunt' or 'Uncle'!"
***
Back in the meeting room, Head-General Paul continuedexamining every inch of the Scordana Gunblade.
"You two may be on to something," he replied. "I've never seen a weapon like this before. Be it a regular weapon or a Beast Weapon."
A wide smirk crept across Sergeant Shizuka's face.
"I have," she replied, a certain smugness in her tone.
General Duke's head snapped towards her.
"Bullshit!" he shot back. "Where the HELL would you have possibly seen a weapon like THAT before?!"
Shizuka's expression developed a look of amusement.
"In a show I once saw little Tsu-Tsu watching when I went to visit him in the Green Family Estate," she replied.
Duke's eyes widened to the point that his pupils became pinpricks.
"So it was Hikiko!" he roared, slamming his hand flat on the table, making the whole thing shake.
He then turned his attention to Sergeant Faye, and pointed his index finger at her.
"I knew it! I fucking KNEW IT!" he replied, carrying on like a raving lunatic. "I told you that this whole meeting was his FUCKING FAULT!"
Everyone else at the table all let out a collective exhale.
Sergeant Faye turned to Paul.
"Student Hikiko does seem like the likely owner," she replied. "Due to his Ability, he's likely the only person who wouldn't have to worry about the 'ammunition problem'."
Head-General Paul nodded.
He had to agree.
Hikiko Tsukuru could simply just create new bullets once the gun ran out.
He already knew full well that Tsukuru could create Beast Weapons. Those thirty Basic-Tier Daggers that were currently still in the Storage Room where Sergeant Faye had taken him to create the 'salvaged resources from Pioletic'.
Paul turned to Sergeant Leo.
He was the only person who could give them all a definitive answer.
"Sergeant Leo," he replied. "You said that you 'came across' this weapon during today's Beast Weapon Class. Exactly who did you obtain this from?"