Level Up Arcana

Hot Weapons

When the group reached the landing, Raiden immediately spotted the problem.

The armory door stood at the end of the hall. It was a thick reinforced steel with a digital keypad lock mounted on the side. This was not a simple wooden door that they could kick in. It was serious security.

"Of course it's locked," Kade muttered. "Nothing can be easy."

Raiden approached the door and examined it closely. The steel was at least three inches thick, designed to withstand both physical force and basic magic attacks. The keypad blinked with a steady red light.

"Any chance someone knows the code?" Raiden asked, glancing back at the survivors.

They all shook their heads. No one knew what the passcode was.

"We could try to guess it," Jace offered, scratching his head.

"Four-digit code means ten thousand possible combinations," Mira said flatly. "We don't have that kind of time."

Raiden ran his hand along the door's edge, feeling the heat-resistant coating. "I think we can burn through it."

Mira stepped forward, studying the door with a critical eye. "That's possible, but it'll take a while. This thing is built to resist fire magic."

"How long?" Raiden asked.

"Maybe thirty minutes to an hour. Maybe less if Kade and I work together."

Raiden nodded. "Do it. Everyone else, keep watch. If we missed any zombies and they come up those stairs, we need to know immediately."

Mira and Kade positioned themselves in front of the door. They placed their palms flat against the steel and began channeling mana.

"Ignis Continuus," Mira whispered.

"Flame Stream," Kade added.

Twin streams of fire erupted from their hands, concentrated into narrow, intense beams. The flames were bright orange bordering on white, hotter than normal fire spells.

The steel began to glow red where the flames touched it.

Time crawled by. Five minutes. Ten. Fifteen.

Sweat poured down Mira's face. Kade's hands trembled from the sustained mana output. But they didn't stop. Slowly, inch by inch, the steel began to soften and warp.

Twenty minutes in, the door started to buckle.

"Almost there," Mira gasped.

Five more minutes. Then, with a groaning screech of tortured metal, the lock mechanism gave way. The door swung inward with a heavy thud.

Kade and Mira both collapsed to their knees, breathing hard. Their mana reserves were nearly depleted.

"Good work," Raiden said, helping Mira to her feet. "Rest for a minute. We'll check inside."

He stepped through the doorway, Silvermoon Sword held tightly. Jace followed close behind.

The armory was divided into two separate rooms. The first was smaller, probably meant for storage and organization. The second, larger room was where the real supplies were kept.

Raiden pushed open the inner door. And stopped dead in his tracks.

"Holy s**t," Jace breathed beside him.

The room was packed with weapons. But not the swords, spears, and training equipment Raiden had expected.

These were guns.

Rows and rows of firearms lined the walls on metal racks. Assault rifles. Handguns. Shotguns. Each one gleamed under the dim overhead lights.

Raiden recognized some of them from movies and games — M16s, AK-47s, Glock 17s, SIG Sauer P320s. There were shotguns too: Mossberg 500s and Remington 870s.

But that wasn't all.

On a separate table sat boxes of hand grenades, their dark metal casings stacked neatly. Night vision goggles hung from hooks on the wall. Bulletproof vests were piled in one corner with various sizes available.

And in the back room that was visible through an open doorway, there was an entire storage area filled with ammunition. Boxes upon boxes of bullets, organized by caliber.

"Why does a magic academy have a military arsenal?" Jace asked, voice hollow with shock.

Raiden had no answer for that question. It didn't make sense. Arcana High was a school for teaching magic, not combat training with modern weapons.

Unless...

"Maybe for security," Raiden said slowly. "Or in case magic wasn't enough to protect the students."

The others filed in behind them, and similar reactions spread through the group. Their eyes went wide, and their mouths fell open.

Kade pushed past them, moving straight to the weapons rack. He picked up an M16, checking the chamber with practiced ease.

"These are real," he said quietly. "Fully functional. Military grade."

Everyone turned to look at him.

Kade noticed the stares and shrugged. "My father was a retired military General. I grew up around this stuff."

Raiden's mind raced. This changed everything. Magic was useful, but it drained mana quickly. Guns didn't require mana. They just needed bullets, and there were thousands of rounds in the next room.

"Can you teach us?" Raiden asked.

Kade looked at him, then at the group. Slowly, he nodded. "Yeah. I can teach the basics. How to load, aim, and fire. Safety protocols. It's not complicated, but you need to respect these weapons. One mistake and you're dead, or you kill someone else."

"Then let's learn," Mira said from the doorway, having recovered enough to stand. "We need every advantage we can get."

For the next hour, Kade ran them through a crash course in firearms.

He showed them how to hold a handgun properly. They needed two hands and a firm grip, fingers off the trigger until ready to shoot. How to check if a gun was loaded and how to aim using the sights.

He demonstrated loading the magazines, chambering rounds, and clearing jams. He explained recoil and how to brace for it. He drilled them on safety — on how you should never point a gun at anything you don't intend to shoot, always treat it as if it's loaded, and keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready.

Raiden absorbed every word he said. The Glock 17 felt heavy in his hands and foreign compared to the Silvermoon Sword. But he could see the potential. Just point and shoot, no mana required, and effective at range.

They couldn't practice firing as the noise would draw every zombie in the area towards the training complex. But at least now they knew the basics.