"Gunblades," Maria said, with the sudden bright-eyed enthusiasm of a fanatic asked to proselytize, "are a weapon that fuses a gun grip with a sword blade, such that when the trigger of the grip is pulled, the firing mechanism causes a shockwave to run down the blade, resulting in both significantly increased damage to whatever the blade is hitting at the time and recoil which can be used to enhance maneuverability in combat. Originally developed as an upgrade to the basic melee weapons of soldiers, the gunblade was abandoned as a mass-produced, mass-equipped weapon once large-scale armed combat diverged into melee and ranged conflicts -- gunblades just took too much skill to wield properly, so it was ultimately easier to just train soldiers in both rifles and swords. However, the superior strength and versatility of a gunblade make it an extraordinary weapon for small-unit tactics and organizations like SeeD that focus on a small number of highly-superior troops rather than mass conflict."