As I stood there, mouth agape, body trembling, eyes wide as they could go.

  CACHUNK CACHUNK

  I was taken aback. My brain paused all activity as that adolescent brain of mine failed to process just how immense that thing was.

  CACHUNK CACHUNK

  As my thoughts started to catch up to the reality of the situation at hand, I started to re-realize just what this monstrosity was.

  CACHUNK CACHUNK……..CACHUNK CACHUNK

  It was a king class mobile cog. It was massive. Easily twenty meters tall.

  CACHUNK cachunk

  I should feel proud of such a thing, for it was indeed my father's mobile cog. Kaziks Steelblood. One of the strongest human beings known to fight on a battlefield.

  Clunk clunk…..

  As the massive armored weapon of war finished its boot up routine, it started to make far quieter metal on metal sounds as the magically powered cogs in the machine hit the steady rate of rotation.

  My heart stopped for a beat or two as the Ars Metallica’s enormous metal crown angled lower, its silvery glowing eyes biting into my own ever widening gaze.

  “Now, son, act with some dignity” the harsh but indefinitely calm voice boomed out of the face plate, snapping me out of my panic instantly.

  I snapped into that salute. The one that I had been trained to complete when in the presence of a senior mage or higher ranking knight. Which is synonymous.

  Eyes forward, back straight and tall, legs straight, feet forward, left arm straight at the hip, right arm bent at the elbow, the forearm pointed upwards at a ninety degree angle and a fist made.

  “For the imperial will!” I shouted at the enormous metal plated big toe of the bipedal weapon.

  The next few seconds seemed to not even know what to do. The air ran heavy and not even a swearbird dared pipe its distinctive call.

  “Adequate”

  That voice. Even if I knew the human behind that magic proof face plate, it would be hard to describe that voice as how a human would sound. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that a killing machine just gave me a passing grade. Like an affirmation uttered through an enormous steel tube.

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  I dared not show any reaction. Hold the pose until dismissed! Those words shouted at me in my now clear and calmed brain as though it wasn't something said years ago but right next to me.

  “For the eternal service, at ease” those words made the hairs on my arms stand on end as I entered parade rest.

  “You may watch me depart, son” the being of calamity stated with an inhuman indifference “for this too will be a good lesson for your future, one I hold deep in my plans for this house and it's future.”

  The armored bipedal platform then did something my brain simply couldn't qualify properly. It took a step. The world around me seemed to protest as the unyielding titan lifted its left foot and stepped over me. With nary a sound. The only evidence being to the contrary was that that foot wasn't where it was in my field of view anymore.

  Then that step landed. Such a thing could only be described as a massive sheet of magi-steel landing broad face first after falling without warning for fifteen meters.

  CLUNK

  Metal on concrete.

  I knew to not show a reaction. I needed to seem calm and collected. I was being watched. Tested. Judged.

  I performed a perfect about face and turned one hundred eighty degrees to comply with the order.

  It took another step. Then another. As I stood there, perfectly reactionless, I couldn't help but admire the man or woman who put such a marvel of death together. As I stared, my eyes naturally wandered upward. My perceptive and slightly wonder filled eyes tracing the stowed sword on ars Metallica's back. 16 meters long pommel to tip. Plain, simple but deadly. Held there by a massive form fitting metal cable the thickness of a great steel oak that my family oh so love to plant outside of my family's estate.

  Also on the mobile cogs back was a coat of arms that consisted of black fabric featuring the hour glass in red over a silver great steel oak. The crest of the eternal service empire over the crest of my great noble family.

  The other mobile cogs, all knights of their respective ranks and positions, slammed perfect salutes.

  “FOR THE IMPERIAL WILL!”

  Such a display made my form perfect salute look like a child playing recklessly. Swinging around a twig while a full grown adult masterfully worked through the official imperial sword forms.

  Barely comparable.

  The tarmac, magically reinforced to take up to a frigate class magic floating ship and nary a crack be spied, was a sight to behold. A hundred one knights, all of differing classes, custom and stock, size and position went still.

  My father, the hero, the conquer of the barbarians in the North and the protector of all of Voloss, spoke.

  “Good men and good women, we are gathered here today for a simple yet vital purpose”

  “Her Imperial Majesty, the illustrious Emily Dohieron has a task we must complete”

  “In another few minutes or so, Pure steel will take us to the Serius coast in the furthest east our eternal empire is”

  “There, we will mediate a proper holding of the first ever mercantile expedition to the furthest continent east”

  Ars Metallica then snapped a clearly perfect salute made when someone of a lower station addresses someone of a higher station.

  “For the eternal service!” kaziks stated. Neither a shout, nor a whisper. Just a perfectly neutrally loud utterance.

  The tarmac exploded into motion. Every knight went into parade rest. Quiet as a hair growing.

  Every suit of unequally tall armor then about faced. A cacophony of metal on concrete.

  They all started marching at a pace deceptively fast, another apocalypse to the ears. Which ended as suddenly as it started.

  As the footsteps stopped in unison, another sight beheld its might in all its glory. The pure steel. It just appeared there as a snap sounded out, clear signs of displaced air that made my ears pop and my jaw threaten to unhinge itself, but I held steady, much to my internal amazement.

  The magic powered mobile cog combat transport. Also, the flag ship of house steel blood. It made nary a soft whisper as its bottom cargo doors split open, revealing massive hoists made from the same material holding Ars Metallica's sword on its back.

  Said mobile gear simply lifted off the ground without a warning, slowly floated up to the pure steel and put its domineering hand on the cable.

  The other class knights had to wait for the hoists to lower to their level, which each knight looped their arm through the snake like cables.

  They slowly raised to the Pure steel with the help of the hoists.

  Then, without further ado, the doors met each other as stealthily as they separated.

  If that wasn't enough, griffin class fighters and Phoenix class bombers all popped into existence in the same manner as the pure steel.

  In a manner belying a series of explosions, other class magic powered ships all popped into my view that I struggled to keep neutral with all my will.

  Just as my thoughts started to wander, the three hundred meter long, boxy and stout, multi level magical floating craft started emanating a low hum and a cloud of blackness surrounded the floating craft quickly as a fog rolling in from the Voloss mountains would. Then, with a crack of air re-finding its home, the Pure steel was gone along with the rest of the fleet.