As Cael returned to his work, the words of the official re-entered the forefront of his mind.

  “You have been disqualified from the Ultimate Autobot Showdown due to excessive misconduct.”

  “Excessive?” Cael asked himself internally, almost stopping in place as he placed an ingot of metal into his crucible.

  Of course! These individuals were meant to stop the mechanics from going too far, but minor cheating was almost impossible to prevent unless they had cameras and drones surveying them from various angles.

  This was something they didn’t have, which meant they couldn’t be totally stopped.

  Cael just continued with his own exosuit design, working off the design hologram placed beside him to reference from.

  The hours soared by, and many more mechanics were eliminated due to their ‘excessive misconduct’. Trying to see how much cheating was allowed was almost playing with fire.

  However, the most desperate were more than willing to play with those flames to get even the smallest gains. At the end of the day, this event was player versus player.

  A minor benefit could pit themselves tens of places ahead right away.

  Even with his greater focus, Cael could not overcome his growing, encumbering sense of fatigue. 10 hours were allowed to them, and a little over five remained, but he simply sat into one of the comfy chairs available to them in his pod.

  Since most of the participants didn’t even have mana, many of them couldn’t spend hours upon hours standing up and working without a break.

  Cael had felt no physical tiredness, it was almost strictly mental.

  Standing ahead of his design, he could see the upper body and lower body frames, with the dense network of wiring flowing over the metal frames.

  Sitting down for about fifteen minutes, he decided to continue with his design and felt the time almost flow by. Giving a few glances to the other designs at hand, his keen eyesight meant that he could see quite a lot.

  From what he glanced at, he actually performed some minor improvements to part of his armour assembly and the internals.

  What he saw made a weird tingling feeling flow down his spine as he noted the technical skill of his competitors. Nobody here seemed to be a novice.

  Everybody used skilled assembly techniques and did so with precision and speed.

  This wasn't going to be an easy event to perform in in any way.

  After the long 10-hour creation process, the sun was starting to set across the horizon and his tall, 6’2 exosuit design was finally complete.

  It stood beside him, and he now had to install the programming modules that he had previously created for his bot.

  The modules were installed into Stormraider’s mind, and its dull eyes started to glow red.

  “Greetings, my creator.” The bot stated to Cael, with a nod toward him.

  “Greetings, stormraider.” Cael replied with a chuckle, taken aback by the robot’s human greeting.

  It felt weird talking to a being that he’d almost created from thin air. 10 hours before, the bot’s body was still just metal ingots and loose components. With his work, it was an intelligent, sentient being.

  The surrounding mechanics were similarly exhausted, with almost everybody lying almost lifelessly in their seats.

  Numerous stomach rumbles could be heard from within the hangar, and many of the mechanics looked visibly liberated by the time ending.

  In this time, the bots were ushered away by more military-esque officials, to prepare them for the upcoming events.

  “That is the end of your fabrication process. Please take the remaining time to rest, eat, and prepare for the gauntlet.” An official, looking back to the group of mechanics behind dark sunglasses.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Cael and the other mechanics were returned to a main centre of one of the stadiums within the complex. It wasn’t the stadium where the tournament's main events were going to take place. They were mainly here just to rest and prepare for the preliminaries.

  Upon arriving at this area, Cael was surprised to see Leon meet him soon after.

  “Hey there, Cael! How did your design go?” He asked, startling him as he approached him from behind.

  “Oh, hey, Leon! It went alright, to be honest. The workstation was a bit of work to get used to but everything worked pretty well. The furnace melted my alloys pretty quickly too.” Cael replied.

  The two just conversed about the whole creation process, with Leon clearly knackered from the whole process. Cael was, but was lucky to have a sturdy, durable body.

  The group of mechanics were dispersed across this commercial area, but there was one area with a dense collection of participants. Leon seemed to know exactly what was going on here, but Cael looked clueless.

  “What are all those people there for?” Cael asked, pointing in the direction of the large group.

  Leon looked almost startled upon seeing his overt movement, almost grabbing his arm to put it down.

  “Do you not know any mechanics at all? He’s Roman Kirschbaum. In the Aegis Confederation, he’s almost like a mini-celebrity. He made his first exosuit design at just 9 years old!” Leon loudly whispered in admiration.

  For Leon to call another person a genius in such a way was almost scary to Cael. He already believed Leon to be one of the smartest people he’d ever seen. If Roman was even on a greater level than that, how smart was he, really?

  Judging from the amount of attention he’d garnered here, he could tell there was something about him.

  During his constant gaze toward him, he met eyes with the green-haired man. He looked young but was slightly older than them both, being 19 years old. Compared to the mechanics admiring him, he had a better physique.

  Cael could almost tell that he had mana from his musculature. He was still almost skinny compared to Cael, but was still athletic and muscular.

  The people surrounding him retreated, letting Roman stare the seated mechanic down. His gaze was controlled and exuded anger and utter confidence.

  “What are you looking at?!” He asked, with his arms crossed.

  He was clad in ripped jeans, with an expensive designer shirt, gleaming green tracksuit top and sleek, white trainers.

  Across his left arm was also a crystal green watch that scintillated under the bright lighting of this area.

  “Nothing, man.” Cael replied, nonchalantly.

  His voice had not the slightest bit of fear in it, and he continued looking at Roman after saying this. Some of the spectators, including Leon, were terrified by this situation at hand. Leon’s cheeks started to redden, and he awkwardly readjusted his position in his seat.

  Roman slowly walked forward, continuing to try and stare into Cael’s soul. As he approached, Leon almost reflexively retreated back in his seat but Cael didn’t move an inch.

  There would be no need to.

  Roman stopped until they were both just an arm’s length from one another.

  “Keep looking at me like that and I’ll get your position in this tournament revoked. Do you not know who I am?” He asked, staring down at him boldly.

  Cael stood up, now towering over the boy that tried to previously scare him. His raising even caused the bench he sat on to creak due to his size.

  “I’m sorry, I’m from the Soburg Empire so I didn’t know much about you or anything in this place. I do apologise for my ignorance.” Cael replied, as Roman retreated by a step.

  His eyes did not look off his target, and Roman seemed to shudder slightly upon taking his next breath.

  “Fine. I’ll let you off for now. Don’t annoy me again!” He ordered, turning away with his arms crossed.

  After an hour of resting and getting a nice meal to rejuvenate, the mechanics were then given another announcement as to what was to happen going forward.

  “For the first event, the gauntlet, each mechanic will be directed to a specific indoor arena where their own autonomous bot will begin facing the various level threats that we have on offer.” A message called out from speakers in the dining area.

  Checking the various billboards and touchscreens littered across the stadium, the mechanics were able to find out where they had to go next. Cael was directed to the ‘INDOOR ARENA 018’, which was in one of the minor buildings of the complex.

  Each of these arenas had a capacity of probably around a thousand people; these events weren’t watched very much. The only individuals that received great traction were some of the more venerated mechanics taking part, like Roman Kirschbaum.

  With Cael in a provided front-row seat, he was given a clear view of what was about to go down in the arena. Only a few hundred people scattered around this arena were sat, and didn’t look very enthusiastic about the upcoming event.

  This was a given, it was clear that Cael was going to be the most excited about what was to happen. It did actually mean something to him, whilst the other spectators were just here to be entertained.

  “Alright, ladies and gentlemen, Cael Breckenridge’s WM Stormraider autonomous bot will be taking part in the gauntlet. Let’s see how far this thing goes!” One of the commentators announced, as his bot was revealed to the crowd.

  There was a customary applause as the bot revealed itself, clinging tightly to its electric baton. The area was slightly dim, illuminated by the dimming sun and the white lighting over the arena.

  The arena consisted of a flat, dusty surface, with a cage protecting the spectators from anything occurring in the ring.

  “Come on, Stormraider!” Cael whispered, rubbing his hands together.

  This was it. After designing his autonomous bot and working so hard to create the design, he couldn’t wait to see what it was capable of.

  Ahead of Stormraider were several gates that lifted, revealing the darkness behind them. Cael looked on with trepidation of what was to come but Stormraider felt no such fear. It held its baton even more tightly and entered a battle stance, solidly awaiting what was to come.

  “Let the show begin!” The announcer shouted, as the gates were fully lifted.