Using imbuement for a golem's nervous system was the hardest way to do it because you had to go through metal weaving with enough wire to cover the entire golem, and you had to do it all at the same time so the parts would be the same amount of conductivity.
I set my two bars worth of iron in the infuser, they were coiled into wire already and ready to be weaved and inlaid into the golem. The metal weaving process was Eneru expensive but nothing more, I finished before the day was done.
"Tomorrow we land and give the Dragon its wings," I said to the crew, a small amount of exhaustion leaked into my voice.
'My horns are still in the first stage of the second cycle, so after this breakthrough, I should feel a lot less exhaustion when my Eneru is drained.' I thought.
"This model shows what we will be changing on the ship to make her suitable for the arrays," I said as I pointed to the sails. "The trees are already conductive so I can do the heavy lifting there, but we need a group to cut down the trees and attach the sails. Understood?"
"Yes, Captain!" I heard in response.
"Good, go get some rest. That means you Laveki." I made eye contact as she tried to sneak back into the workshop.
"Aww man, I just wanted to tweak some stuff."
"I know you, you'd stay up all night adjusting the smallest detail. We need you in tip-top shape for tomorrow, so go to bed."
"Fine." She dejectedly returned to the dorm.
I made my way back to my room.
'Time to sleep.' I thought groggily.
I laid in my bed, but instead of sleep taking me over, I started thinking.
'What if Laveki messes up and the scouts catch on? What if I take too long and the scouts find us? What if the scouts decide to take on the dragon tomorrow?'
I considered all of the things that could go wrong for hours.
'Ingen, calm down, you're going crazy.' Spirit repeated in my head for the umpteenth time.
I ignored him and continued writing down contingencies.
'You sent Laveki to bed because she is an integral part of the plan, so since you are integral, you need to sleep!' Spirit tried to appeal to my logic.
'No, if I go to sleep now these plans will never be drawn up.'
Orin stepped out of my shadow and took a direct approach.
'Why do I find myself in this situation so often?' I asked the giant furball on my chest through the mind-link
'Because you keep putting me in a situation that I have to restrain you.'
I resisted the pull of sleep for a while, but Orin curled around me and I had no choice.
The next morning I woke up stressed.
'We should be close enough that we have to go invisible or risk them seeing us once we land, so there is no more time for contingencies.'
I made my way to the dorm and played a wake-up note on a horn.
"Rise and shine sailors! We have a trick to pull!" I shouted. "Glider teams on me! We have to pull the scouts away so they can't use Detection to look for the ship!"
My people lined up behind me, Larry and dad leading their own squads.
'We are running solely on basic combat drills for training. The only ones worth their scruff in a scrap are me, dad, and Larry. The others are just so to make our unit looks strong. I'll have to keep them in check cause they all look bad when they fly.'
"Laveki, you're up!"
We collected all of the potions in a pile near the Laveki on the deck. My changeling armor assumed its wyrmling appearance and we jumped off the side of the ship.
'Now! Orin, tell Laveki to go invisible.'
I heard a howl which signaled our attack. We were to engage the scouts then retreat to a random location via spatial manipulation, from there we would fly to the Dragon on our gliders.
We dove in tight formation so I could smooth the ride for the others and as we got close the scouts noticed that we were locked onto them.
'What if there are more we haven't noticed?' One of the soldiers lost balance for a second.
'Focus!' Spirit shouted through the link.
Spirit's speech made me lose focus for a half-second and I had to recover, yet we still hadn't made any noticeable mistakes so we pressed on.
We soon made contact with the enemy and I pierced one of the scouts with my spear. I twirled it around theatrically to gain their attention.
"Look at me when I'm talking to you!" I said as I thrust my spear at another scout, who quickly dodged.
'They're focused on me, go invisible.'
With that, unbeknownst to the scouts, the ship disappeared.
"Shackle them with wounded!" I stabbed at the unprotected non-vital parts of a scout.
'They're regaining their wits, there are too many to fight off.'
We continued to wound them without killing them for a bit until they got organized.
"Retreat!" I gave the order and opened a portal with Rift Garden.
The filler troops went through first, Larry and dad made sure no one else snuck through with them.
Soon they were on the other side with only a few wounded.
"Alright, go through!" Larry and dad ducked through the portal.
I was about to go through the portal, but one of the scouts cast Dimensional Repulse.
'Fuck'
I set into overdrive, pouring on the Eneru into my Wyvern wings.
'I'm still the best pilot.' I repeated to myself as they gained on me.
'How are they gaining!?' I wailed internally, but then my mind was sobered by an arrow that glanced off of my armor. 'They're working together, just like I helped the weaker flyers, except they are all proficient.'
I dove directly down
'They can't work together if they're too focused on themselves.'
I pulled up so hard my feet were facing the ground, then I used my Airstepper boots to slow my fall and went flat in a different direction.
'This is going to be a hell of an escape.'