She fell onto her side, and Cael almost reflexively rushed to her side. However, as he advanced, he could see her roll onto her back, seemingly okay.

  She heaved in and out with exhaustion whilst blankly staring at the ceiling, then she looked back to the approaching Cael.

  “I’m.. fine...” She insisted, struggling to even utter such words.

  Over the several hours that he ended up spending analysing the design, he couldn’t find much to tweak on it.

  Whenever he theorised some adjustments that could help his design, they wouldn’t amount to much in terms of overall improvement.

  Only days remained before he’d have to head over to the Republic of Tecros in the Aegis Confederation.

  He spent the remaining part of his night planning his stay there.

  The entire event would last a week, with participants being gradually eliminated from four days onwards.

  Booking a spaceport flight and 5-star hotel for a week, the nerves took form again. The event was even longer than he’d anticipated. It wouldn’t be long at all before he’d see his Stormraider bot take to the arena to show off its abilities.

  During these last few days, Cael used every extra minute that he could to improve his work. Making sure it entered the ring as optimised as possible was a must.

  Every time he found himself with nothing to do, it was almost like a reflex for him to spawn up the holograms to his design.

  The more he augmented and worked on it, the more confident he became.

  This was it. After all this time, he’d have to rise to the occasion and relish the challenge.

  Informing Arlo of the upcoming proceedings, he was once again proud to hear of the news. The military’s flag was situated just behind Arlo, blowing in the slight breeze through the open window.

  Behind him were the towering skyscrapers of Carlo City, along with the thick contrails of aircraft.

  “You really are something, Cael. A rising star in the field of combat but also a proficient mechanic. Remember me when you make it big.” Arlo jokingly said, bringing Cael to laughter.

  “If I make it there, of course.” He humbly replied.

  Behind this humility, though, was teeming confidence. There was no arrogance; he knew individuals remained above him.

  However, he knew that he had the ability to succeed. it was almost a given to him.

  “Seriously, the growth I’ve seen from you is something I haven’t seen from anyone else before. The man that you’ve grown to be shadows even the version of you from months ago. The sky is the limit with you, Breckenridge.” Arlo said with admiration.

  His voice was more solemn now, with true intent behind his words.

  “Thank you, sir.” Cael said earnestly, bowing in his presence.

  Even after receiving compliments from him before, he couldn’t hide the odd feeling that it gave him every time he heard this praise.

  The feeling was still novel to him.

  In a few days time, Cael packed his things and prepared himself for the departure to Tecros. Upon arriving, every mechanic would be given the same facilities to fabricate their designs into something great.

  The ethos of Tecros and the entire Aegis Confederation for that matter was based on giving people equal opportunity. With that, they could really see those with talent and not just those with a strong, successful background.

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  He boarded a similar spacecraft to what he was used to but boarding a different airline this time. This was Eastern Aegis Airways. He could feel the aircraft was a little smoother than the others he was used to, and it was slightly faster.

  This was harder to gauge when just flying through the abyss of space, though. To him, it was light the spaceship wasn’t even moving, really.

  The flight was the longest he had ever taken, totalling to 44 hours before it reached Aesica, the capital of Tecros. The population of this city was a whopping 140 million; below him was almost a sea of skyscrapers and urbanity.

  He arrived in the late evening, when his body was used to it being the morning. There were several dazzling lights illuminating the area, that was totally jaw dropping.

  Some skyscrapers reached just a few hundred metres below the spacecraft, that was more than 1 mile tall.

  He soon arrived at the spaceport and navigated through the complexity of the hallways to arrive at the aircar taking him to his hotel. The main thing he took away from his experience was the accent that surrounded him.

  It was totally different to what he was used to back in the Soburg Empire. The accent seemed smoother, more elegant and posher.

  There stood a neo-futuristic structure, with several swirling, smooth substructures that elegantly intertwined and flowed together. Around edges were several plants and other greenery, adding to the aesthetic of this place.

  At its top floor were five glowing stars, illuminating the building within this growing darkness.

  Just below it was the title ‘Elysium Resort’

  It was very luxurious, and he was ushered by several suited men to his room, wearing clean, white gloves.

  The ground had not even a speck of dirt on the ground, something Cael was not used to seeing with his sharp vision. After increasing his mana volume, objects just looked dirtier to him.

  Arriving at his room, it resembled that of a pod. It wasn’t very capacious, but it certainly made up for that with a sleek, futuristic appearance.

  He opened up to a superking bed, with window doors that opened up to a wide balcony. In this balcony was a small pod, with multi-coloured fish happily splashing around in it.

  There was a soothing warmth trickling up his body as he entered, almost calming him from the cooler exterior he had just walked through.

  “Enjoy your stay.” The man behind him commented, with the new accent he was still acclimatising to.

  He gave himself an extra two days for him to get used to the jetlag that he knew was coming. It didn’t take long before he felt close to his best self, and he spent the evening of the last of these 2 days to explore the vast city before him.

  On his balcony, as the sun reddened and approached the horizon, he just spent this time taking in the view and being taken aback by it.

  Even through the dense network of skyscrapers and towers were dense collections of trees and greenery. Even vines flowed down many of the skyscrapers and towers, giving this place quite the unique aesthetic.

  The first place that he arrived at was the history of the area. He found himself enthralled by how the entire area came to be.

  It was one of the earliest states established as Earth started to explore past the Earth’s dubbed local group. They stood close to the principals that Earth had gained, fond on the ideas of altruism, equity and kindness.

  “Looks like the Soburg Empire needs to learn some lessons from them.” Cael humorously commented to himself, exploring the displayed history all around the place.

  As he did so, he was almost startled by who he saw.

  “Leon! I didn’t think I’d see you here!” Cael said, dapping up his friend.

  The smile on his face only intensified once he caught note of his classic rainbow socks.

  “I didn’t think I’d see you here, either. I didn’t know this place had so much history. Compared to the Soburg Empire, it really is ancient. They’re talking about stuff that happened before we even had teleportation, it’s so crazy!” Leon said.

  Spending some more time in this museum, they coalesced into a group to explore the city even further. They found themselves at restaurants, enjoying the international cuisine. It was different, but still amazing to try.

  It seemed like there was just good food everywhere that he was missing out on.

  To end off the day, they arrived at some of the science centres of the city, showing off the cutting edge technology the world had to offer.

  “Here, the new and improved autonomous bot engineered by the Alnwick Foundation. The Phoenix Mark V!!” An announcement stated, with a man pointing his hands to a pristine, gleaming bot.

  Its surface seemed almost glossy, and there were feathered wings that extended outward slightly after this announcement. Its main frame was lean, but extremely compact to the point where it didn’t even seem possible.

  The several abilities of this bot were showcased, like its overwhelming strength, speed and agile flight. As the two watched, those around them stood there in fascination whilst they subconsciously pieced apart the design, trying their best to understand how it functioned.

  “These Alnwicks are always stealing the show. Who would’ve known their business expanded all the way to Tecros?” Leon commented, with his arms crossed.

  After their nice day in the city, Cael took this time to really take in the situation he was placed in. The nerves were getting to him, making his nightly slumber a little rougher than usual.

  At midday the following morning, he’d have to arrive at the NovaPlex. This was a site of various stadiums -including the largest in all Tecros- and other smaller sites used to host the Autobot Showdown.

  To host the various parts of this event, the entire complex had to be expanded past its already vast size.