“Alright, the final preparations should be done. Tonight we'll unveil the special automaton!”

The group of engineers I've been working with cry out in happiness. Months of toiling to finish this project. All culminating in the practice test tonight, finally able to show our work to everyone who's been waiting. It has been approximately 2 weeks since Wayne has been here, since he's left all of my attention has been on finishing this project before the war starts. Timeless nights I haven't even gone to sleep. Finishing parts, working on improvements and finishing the last minute changes needed to make sure that this will work… Just like my men, I am excited for tonight.

I give everyone who's been working on it the day off. I would have put a gag order about the project but I have no doubt that rumors will make it hard to determine the truth. I also think anyone close to the engineers should learn, it might ruin the surprise somewhat but it will drag some of the attention to my engineers. They were also a part of making this automaton, they deserve credit as well.

I spend the day preparing for the unveiling event. Sending out people to spread the word of what is going to happen. I even sent word for Darkclaw to come back… I want to hear his opinion on my automaton. The day starts winding down. With barely any sunlight left, the guest of honor arrives. Pirates have been trickling through the portal for the past 2 hours. Most head outside where I've set-up a seating arrangement for everyone to see the unveiling. I made a platform that continues to rise up to continually fit more people on, even while sitting, everyone should be able to see the fight. I say made but the idea was stolen from my memories of the coliseum.

The preparations have been done. Nothing can go wrong with this first test… I want to believe that. I really do but… I just can't. There is something eating at my stomach that says it wont work. I step in front of everyone and I can't control my stomach. It continues to churn and it feels as if something is alive. I wipe the sweat of my face as I go to explain this event.

“G-good evening everyone. Today is...”

I stop to catch my breath. I… I don't think I can do this. What if it fails in front of everyone? What if it explodes and everyone inside it dies!? I… I can't!! I throw up and start to feel dizzy before I even realize what is happening. Leaf is holding me up.

“Alright everyone, we're going to need to take a short intermission before we continue. Someone shouldn't drink before making these speeches.”

The crowd starts to laugh at the joke she is trying to pass off. If it wasn't for Leaf I doubt I would have made it off the stage before passing out. She drags me behind the corner of the fenced off area where no one can see us. She sits me down and I see a few of my other generals come to see what is happening. She looks down at me as I start to feel a little better, finally speaking.

“I-I'm sorry… I don't think we can unveil the automaton… It isn't ready yet. What if it fails?”

“It wont fail. Think about how much work you've been putting into this… Into all of these projects. You put your heart into everything you do. Even if it does fail… I don't think it will be as bad as you think. I'm not 100% sure, since I don't know what your project.”

She peaks under the cloth at the automaton. I hear an excited squeak come from her before she comes back up from looking underneath.

“Is it real!? Like can it really!?”

“Y-yea… That's what I'm worried about.”

“...Listen… We don't have to try it right now. I think just unveiling it would be enough… Does it do anything else besides fly?”

“Yea, it can shoot fire from its mouth… I think it can. We haven't gotten to test it yet.”

“Just try that then. We don't have to do everything… I think just the sight would be enough to convince people of how great the automaton is.”

Seeing the excitement in her eyes, I stop panicking. She's right. She's always right… I don't trust myself with a full show but the very least I can do is show it off. I wont try to fly it but at the very least we can test the fire cannon. I still have to explain what exactly is happening to everyone who is expecting a show. I get up and head back to the stage I made to make the announcement.

“Good evening everyone. Sorry about that, I had too much to drink so I'll keep this short. Today is the unveiling of months of work to create a new automaton. One that will be the linchpin in many of our future strategies in war. Sorry to keep you all waiting but the unveiling starts now!”

The engineers start slowly peeling back the cloth like they've done many times now. Slowly moving it inch by inch to make sure it doesn't snag on anything. The very front is revealed now. Painted a dark red to suit the color of the army, the very tip comes forth showing how gigantic this automaton is. Easily 4 times the height of a black turtle. The reveal is going so slow it is unintentionally building up the tension. More and more is revealed as people start to gasp and others explain exactly what it is to those who still can't understand with what is shown yet to their loved ones.

The last part of the cloth is removed and now everyone can clearly see what it is. A giant red dragon sits before them. Cries of excitement at seeing such an odd automaton start to blot out the sounds of everything else. Even just unveiling it has people excited. I know the numbers of children switching to engineers now are going to be far higher because of this invention. I jump inside and start barking orders at the now awaiting engineers.

“Alright everyone! Let's give them a show!”

Everyone starts doing their job. Some start loading in mana batteries to the power supply to power it. It takes 4 times as much mana to power this as it does a turtle. Then 4 times that in order to have enough mana to fly. At least theoretically. 4 engineers start loading in the firing ammunition of the automaton. At the very front is an opening where the mouth would be on the outside. They load in the giant ammunition it is going to fire while others move its head up. This makes it harder to stay and load the ammunition but it will clear the crowds as we turn the head away from them as well. The bullet is easily the size of a person, perhaps having heavy lifting men to load the shots would reduce the amount of people needed for each automaton if I decide to make more than one.

Preparations have been set. We're now ready to fire the shot… I start to feel nervous again as they await my orders. Everyone in the red dragon has stopped what they are doing and are now nervously looking at me for guidance. I take in a deep breath and say.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“It's now or never guys. Let's fire the flame breath!”

A giant mana crystal on a stick is dragged across the back of the ammunition igniting it. The ammunition takes longer to fire as every single scroll starts to ignite the next. If a single person or even a group of people were making this ammunition it would have taken months if not a year to make each shot. With my new invention that speeds up the process of making scrolls I have hundreds of high level scrolls inside now. I think the inside of the metal tube is 100 tier 5 flare scrolls. 50 tier 6, 20 tier 7, 10 tier 8, 5 tier 9 and 3 tier 10 scrolls. Altogether it would take thousands of tier 3 scrolls to make all of these. Maybe even in the tens of thousands now. As the spark ignites, it shows the full power of the scrolls.

As each fires off you can see the difference in each. The tier 5 scrolls ignite first. Making the bulk of the fire now, as each continues to ignite and go down the line it changes the fire slightly. Making it bulge out more and shift in color slightly. The entire process takes almost a minute as the mana burns out. Finishing with the 3 strongest scrolls. The fire finally shifts from a darkish red color to an extremely dark blue. The firepower of this attack would be 2 or 3 times as strong as the breath attack I used against the meat giant Gold had made. There would be no army that could stand against the destructive force of this blast… I think this as I look through the eye slots along the dragon at the front of this automaton and see it has also caught on fire.

I rush forwards and start pulling water out of thin air to put it out. Blasting it with several times more water than what was needed to put out… I will have to stay on this automaton or have Blue ride along if we plan on doing any fighting. The damage is quite minimal for the sheer destructive power of the attack. We had fired at several walls strengthened with warden magic to reduce magic damage… The walls are now completely gone. Everything we were facing is completely gone as well… A huge section of the forest is also missing… The treant that lives in the forest is going to be pissed about this… That is if we didn't just melt him along with the forest. Even so, the test was successful.

I wipe the sweat off my face and breath a sigh of relief as the engineers now start cheering at a successful first test. Even inside the automaton we can now hear the cheering of the crowd outside. Then I start to hear chanting. It starts outside but then slowly, even the engineers start to chant it.

“Make it fly. Make it fly. Make it fly! Make it fly!”

The panic starts to sink back in. We haven't tested flying on any automatons this size yet. Even the far smaller prototype had to be altered several dozen times to finally fly properly. While they had worked with the prototypes, an automaton this size has far more variables… I bite my lip. I'm the only coward afraid to try this! I yell out.

“PREPARE TO FLY!”

I say this loud enough for even the people outside to hear. Then I say.

“Only high enough to prove that it can fly.”

The second part was said only loud enough for the engineers in this automaton to hear. The several engineers who were just standing around during the firing process now start to work on their job. We've tested the wings out already during the dead of night to make sure there were no problems. So we should be able to make it into the air. The rok feathers beat down intensely as the wings begin to flap. Each side of this dragon contains an entire roc worth of feathers. Roc's don't weigh much, most of their bones are hollow and underneath the foot thick layer of feathers is only enough meat to barely keep the roc alive. For a giant bird, it doesn't eat as much as you would think it would. Because of this, our dragon weights even more… After several variations on making this ship lighter. I think we finally have one that can make it into the air.

The wings beat down faster and faster. The crew working on the wings start going into double time to get more mana into the machine. The automaton drains the batteries completely within the same minute of being added as a fuel source. This is what I was worried about. It is going to take constant work to keep this machine in the air as it is currently… I'll need to find another fuel source for it to use.

It happens! The feeling of the automaton lifting off the ground happens. Some of the engineers fall down at the new sensation. Many of these men have never flown before. It is certainly a different feeling than riding a tiny dragon or being a dragon feels. It is a feeling of pure uneasiness, like the ground could be ripped out underneath you… Finally the cheers start again. As if the first test was a practice run, the screams are now so loud that they start to cover up the sound of the gears grinding against each other. If I had to guess, we are only 20 feet (6 meters). It is impossible to tell while in the automaton… I'm going to have to add cannon ports to the bottom in order to see out and also attack. Adding them to the sides would be pointless because of the wings.

The feeling of fear I had before starts to form in my stomach as I feel a weight start pulling me down. I already know what this feeling is, it is the feeling of quickly dropping! I start to cast levitate on as many people as possible. I start to fill the bottom of the dragon, as much as I can in the few seconds it's going to take to hit with water to brace people's fall. I start to, even with control blood lift people up and away from dangerous machinery. I try to-. SLAM! We hit the ground. The levitate I cast on everyone only slowed their falls slightly. Everyone slams against the ground hard, the few lucky ones to have their falls cushioned by water immediately get up… Some others who weren't as lucky, including myself, stay down.

Fuck… my arm is broken, I slammed against a cog as I went down and my arm took the full brunt of falling. It honestly isn't bad, I've broken the bones in my body enough to barely care when it happens… Everyone else though, these men aren't built for fighting. Out of the crew of 20 engineers, only about 8 got away with no injuries… After doing a quick check… A single person had died… Why!? Why did he have to die!? I put in so much preparation to cause the least effect in case of an accident. We barely fell, I put in so many spells that everyone should have lived! WHY! WHY DID HE DIE!? DAMN IT! I KNEW, I KNEW THIS WAS A MISTAKE!