The Spell Gem would take time to attune, and Dominic wasn’t about to strip down and change clothes in the middle of a battle, but he did take the time to strap his [Cogwork Plate] armour over his uniform.
"Oh, now that’s nice. Where did you get that?" The Sergeant asked.
"I made it. I likely should have put it on before we fought the Ogres, but I don’t think it would have saved me anyhow. There’s no helmet." he replied.
The other soldiers near him laughed at his understatement. No helmet would have prevented him from having his head driven into his chest cavity by that blow if it had landed.
The squad moved forward toward the Ogre with the fancy blade, which had driven all the guards away from it with its long reach, allowing the Goblins to run under its feet and advance in an attempt to swarm the guards.
"How do we deal with this?" One of the guards asked.
"Call up the gunners and bowmen. We just need to stop it for a moment, and they can shoot it down. Sound the trumpet for Noble Officers, we are going to need some Rare weapons." The Sergeant decided.
The guard sounded a series of notes on the horn, and a few seconds later a small group of men in shining armour came charging their way with fancy rifles over their shoulders.
"What’s the problem, and who is that?" The Noble asked.
"We need that Ogre Lord dealt with from a distance, we can’t get close enough with the goblins charging. This is the new Apprentice Weaponsmith from the Royal Forge, his cart is right behind us." The Sergeant replied.
"Where did you get that Magitech Sword?" One of the other Nobles demanded.
"Also from the Smith’s Apprentice." The Sergeant declared.
"Give it here, it doesn’t belong with the commoners." The Nobleman decided.
"Sir, that weapon is up for auction soon, it’s not available for trade at the moment. If you speak with my Master, he might be able to arrange something." Dominic informed him.
The Noble gave him a disgusted look, then a greedy look at the weapon.
"I will pay your master for it. Now turn it over. Rare weapons don’t go to the commoners."
Dominic took out his notebook and wrote up a receipt.
"If you will just put the imprint of your Noble Signet here, the weapon is all yours, at the standardized price determined by the Forge master for a Rare Magitech Blade, with a single open Spell Gem socket." he agreed.
That made the Noble hesitate. The Forge Master didn’t like him at all, and the old man would certainly gouge him for at least twice what the blade was worth.
One of the others took advantage of his hesitation to take the notebook from Dominic’s hand and stamp it with a bit of wax heated on the recently fired barrel of his rifle and the signet on his finger.
"You snooze, you lose. I’ve signed for it, and I’ll talk to Pops about payment tonight. Now, if you would." The rifleman laughed.
The Sergeant reluctantly turned over the blade, which the Noble deactivated and put into his holster, replacing an Uncommon short sword, which he tossed over to the Sergeant.
"I’m assuming that your primary weapon was broken, since this was on loan. Here, it’s from the Royal Armoury anyhow, they won’t mind if it’s reassigned." He explained.
"Thank you, My Lord." The Sergeant agreed.
The riflemen set up in a row, still mounted on their mechanical steeds, and unleashed a volley into the Ogre Lord. It staggered a bit, and the spearmen took the chance to hurl a dozen weapons into its thick flesh.
Then another volley from the riflemen had the Ogre Lord coughing up blood, and the Nobles smirked in satisfaction. With Rare Quality rifles and powerful Enhancement Gems, they had no problem taking out the beast while the guard held it off, but the enlisted guards could only dream of such luxury.
None of the Nobles had fought for the majority of the cores they used to enhance their gems and Magitech Orbs, they bought them all from the Royal Treasury after the enlisted guardsmen brought them back from combat.
"Superb. It was a pleasure doing business with you, young apprentice. I will see you this evening, but for now, we shall take our leave." The Noble who had bought the blade announced, and the horsemen rode back to the wall.
"Bunch of pompous assholes." The Sergeant muttered once they were well out of earshot.
"But you know what they didn’t do? They didn’t check its body. That seems like a leader who should have valuable information on him to me." Dominic suggested.
The Guards grinned at each other.
"And since they didn’t claim it, then the reward for any information that we find is split between the guards in the zone." The Sergeant agreed.
While the other guards in the area fought the Goblins, Dominic cut a path for the Sergeant with [Arcane Blast] and the rest of the team blocked for him as he rushed forward to loot the Ogre Lord.
As soon as he had it, he retreated with a huge smile on his face and a leather satchel in his hands.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I do believe that we have the enemy’s official deployment orders. Let’s get these to the Duty Commander and get back to work."
Dominic patted him on the shoulder. "Hop in the wagon, it’s faster than walking, and I’m headed back into the city anyhow, now that the weapons are distributed."
The Sergeant motioned for the others to rejoin the fight, and climbed into the cart.
Dominic spurred the mechanical Donkey up to its programmed trot and headed for the closest gate, where the officers could be seen planning deployments, smoking and lounging around waiting for the call to deploy at a potential breach of the line.
"Sergeant, what takes you away from your deployment?" The Guard Officer at the gate asked.
"We have recovered enemy intelligence that needs to be brought to Command." He replied.
"Understood, proceed."
They slowly rolled through the camp until the Sergeant pointed at a tent. "That’s the spot. I’ll put in the good word for your performance, but you should stop at the shower tent and rinse off quick. You’re filthy."
Dominic chuckled. "At least Ogre blood doesn’t smell as bad as Goblin blood does. Thanks, I’ll get clean before I go back and get in trouble for fighting during the delivery."