"Are the golems ready!?" I asked the technician impatiently while tapping my boot up and down. Letting its golden bottom clang for all to hear as I hugged my arms close to my chest. This situation was getting worse and worse by the moment. Luckily, we might have something that could ease the problem.
"No, Spire-Lord Ho, they are not, we haven't even gotten these out of the testing phase! This technology is still very new to us!" he told me as he hurriedly stood up. His arms were maniacal as he swung a clipboard about with little care to my proximity.
"Then consider this the field trials phase, we don't have time anymore!" I told him before I put my gloved hand to my face. Breathing into it harshly as I considered what was happening. Project Gladiator had just for all intents and purposes failed and the home city had been attacked again! The goldhands and their weapons have failed and our options were drying up...
The technician looked like he wanted to protest but he relented, "Fin-" he began to say.
"IISHAR!" roared a distant creature that has been on my mind a lot. And as I saw it in the distance moving so freely, I felt my heart stop. How had this thing escaped!? We blew the entrance!
"GOLEMS, ATTACK!" I then ordered with a scream before my personal guard began to escort me out of here. Several of them lingered behind so they could shoot at not one, but two creatures! But once the golems came to life, it seemingly ended with so little effort...
"THESE WON'T SAVE YOU!" the creature roared out while clearly recoiling in pain at the magic blast the golem's shot out. Like all magic we had access to, it was based on thunder-gold. So, unlike the incident preceding this creature's appearance, it was safe to be exposed to. In the right circumstances, of course, which this was not.
"Spire-Lord, go!" one of my guards demanded of me as I was dragged away from the battle and shoved into a vehicle. Watching what I could from the window as more and more began to join the battle. Yet, despite the initial hope, those golems gave me... They were quickly torn apart once those creatures got near them.
One with its claws and the others with weapons we fashioned as it had lasted so long...
"Take me to the main armoury." I then ordered the driver as I glared at the road ahead. Watching as it changed from rough to paved in but a moment as he silently followed my orders. And, as the Civil Mountains filled with the echoes of alarms and battle, I moved towards a large building. One that housed something we had been working on for a while with the utmost care.
"Facility is on lockdown, turnback..." the gate guard began to say before he saw me, at which point he opened up for us. Such was the power I had and the authority that my position held. Even in situations like this, we override everything!
"Is Defender out of maintenance?" I then asked of the closest engineer or technician as I marched towards the thick steel door. Holding my hands behind my back as it began to open to the backdrop of panicked workers.
"I-I don't know!" I was told which left me in a foul mood indeed.
"NOT GOOD ENOUGH!" I yelled at him as I impatiently slipped through the opening doors. Breathing a sigh of relief once I saw that Defender was, in fact, fine and as ready as it could be. Albeit, the lack of certain parts on it had me worried. This was meant to be the most revolutionary weapon we had next to the Magic-Exposer yet it was incomplete...
It would have to do in this case, though, my home was under threat on multiple fronts. The city-states around us may have been reporting similar problems, but they had their eyes on us. Our city has been gutted by an unknown force and they saw the wounds it left. Even the reputation our forces had may not be enough to keep their weapons holstered...
"Alright... Armour is fine, additional limbs are fine, main rifle is fine... Alt-form cannon is fine, flight systems are a no... You will just have to do, Defender..." I muttered while looking through all the chaotically arrayed technical data. Bouncing between various white and black boards as I quickly gathered all the information up. Then I began to strip naked without a care in the world that I was being watched. Feminine embarrassment had no place in this time.
Then, with my body exposed to the cold, I shivered before I rashly rushed to the pilot lockers. I used the strength gifted to me by the various thunder-gold laced foods and other things and tore one open. Taking out the black, skin-tight bodysuit before then attaching various parts to it. Each one was covered in various sockets and empty holes, all of them gold while the main body was silverish.
"Do your jobs!" I ordered the technicians around me as I hopped into Defender and let it attach itself to me. What I wore was a suit designed to hook me up to this machine, to treat it as an extension of my body. Far more complex than the golems that were also piloted, but also far more deadly. This thunder-gold was truly something and this machine was largely made of it for both armour and munitions.
It was not a single-colour machine, however. Its darker, blue-steel components contrasted a lot with the varying purities of thunder-gold we had used. Despite my requests, we have not been able to get a very consistent delivery of higher quality stuff. I had tried altering prior logistics, but even that left me with an inconsistent machine.
"This will certainly do." I said to myself as I moved on to testing the machine's link to me. Watching through various screens and small hatches how it was working out. I could feel it too! I could feel how this machine I have tested before reacted to my movements...
It truly was as if I had grown into a metal giant powered by divine ore!
Then, I turned on Defender's speaker systems, "Send out a call, rally all available troops to the signal of Defender." I ordered the few of my personal guard who stuck with me. Letting them get on with their new task while I finished up with getting Defender online. Rolling my shoulders about along with its own once I was done.
And as I bent this machine down to pick up its main rifle, I nearly growled anger. Errors were already cropping up on my displays and now was not the time for them! I needed this machine to function until we had the problem here contained! Thankfully, I was not alone in my efforts so those who would fight with me can fill in for my current faults.
With this acknowledged, I would march out to face my opponents just as more troops drove by. Then, a damaged golem came rolling down the sloped road. One I stopped with Defender's right foot before I picked the golem up. To me inside Defender, it might as well have been a toy.
It was not, though, so I would aid its return to battle before I did one final check. I made sure I remembered how to work this machine and I charged up the main gun. Feeling its magical power course through the entirety of Defender whilst I tried to line up a shot. Then, when I believed that I might have an opening, I fired the gun.
And the world around us lit up and took on a golden colour as a thick beam of light shot out. Something that caused Defender to dig into the ground and be forced backwards while it also trembled. When the gun went quiet, however, I was left disappointed by what had happened. The gun had left a large searing hole in the mountain, yes, but I had also missed.
"ERROR!?" I would then scream in fury as Defender notified me of the fact the gun had now failed. I was now down a powerful weapon and practically crippled power wise. Had I overcharged the weapon or was the engine for Defender too weak!? Was it not fueled properly!?
"IISHAR!" that creature would roar again as it slammed an arm into the front of a jeep. Ejecting its occupants across the mountain while making the vehicle attempt a flip.
"DIE!" I would simply respond with as I began to fire off Defender's lesser weaponry. Forcing the escaped gladiator into hiding as bursts of thunder-gold machinegun fire scared it. I would need to redirect one arm to the other gladiator, though. Our most prized one was likely more dangerous given its thunder-gold weapons.
I then let out a gasp of shock when I suddenly lost connection to one of Defender's arms. That other creature had somehow carved open its limb as if it were a suicidal teen. Growling at first until I began to charge the creature in order to make sure I gunned it into mincemeat. Something that I was no longer able to do when the ammo drums suddenly burst open.
"NO! NO! NO! GOLDHANDS!" I would call out as I suddenly backed Defender away in order to lose the busted machine guns. And as I tore them off, more and more troops began to pour into the area. With aircraft soon making runs across the area before they began to fire very brief bursts. It was a meagre aid I could not complain about...
The winds these mountains experienced tore our aircraft apart if they went too high! So if these creatures were to be killed then it was a ground-pounders battle. And as I was one of the few with the means to decently harm these creatures, I began to get more reckless. My guns were failing one after another so I needed to be more brutal.
A brutality I emphasised through metallic fists that would send the closest one flying. With our most esteemed gladiator quickly being knocked out of the fight when I took her tail and used it as a sling. Our newest gladiator, however, would prove to be an issue. No matter how much I knocked it about with Defender, it kept getting back up as if nothing had happened.
It was even starting to show signs of heavy magic use as the air around it was set alight. This arcane fire would lash out at Defender like it was a new combatant and it shielded it from lesser munitions. It would roar over and over again until its fist collided with that of Defender. And the destruction was immense as it led to the mountain fracturing under the creature.
"WHY WON'T YOU DIE ALREADY!?" I yelled at the creature with my voice being as loud as it could be.
"I WILL NOT DIE AGAIN! YOUR LIES WON'T LEAD TO MY DEATH AGAIN!" it cryptically roared back as it began to climb onto me. With its claws digging into the weaker steel parts of Defender before it would tear them off. But, my actions would save Defender from its mad fury as I was able to toss it off. But the damage was great and I would be forced into the last resort...
"Defender, your alt-form better not fail me..." I said with a panicked tone as I began to flick switches over and over. A mechanical snap was then heard and Defender dropped dead as the cockpit moved about. And when it was done, I gripped the altered controls and started firing what was hopefully a much safer weapon system. Defender shook slightly with each burst and it rumbled with each cannon shot it fired.
The mountains would light up with fire and shrapnel as more and more troops joined us. The destruction on a single point would keep on growing until a blue light began to stick out. This light was coming from arcane fire and then, all of a sudden, Defender would be overturned as I was suddenly slammed against the walls. I would scream in pain as my head went about and slammed various parts.
And, when it all stopped, I tried to get Defender to move again but it was now dead. Our greatest machine was now inoperable and I was stuck in it. Something would come for me and I think it might have been a golem as I could see thunder-gold in the light. But then, I saw it, I saw the face of Gladiator-12...
"HEL-"