36 LEFT BEHIND

Looking at the dark, heavy clouds on the horizon, Glax knocked back the Syratta's mead on his skin, feeling frustrated and humiliated.

"Of all the possible transmigrations, why did I have to be the husband of this selfish and arrogant, nasty woman?" He kicked the oily, compact sand under his feet.

"I didn't get it. Transmigration? It sounds like something taken from a cult or whatever. But... She should have taken you," Rasmus commented beside him, scratching his head.

Glax's friend had arrived in Athios in the morning. Rasmus had taken a long ride on a horse from Thyrale* where they left him, and then arrived on the island in a small boat from the nearest coast. But even his friend wasn't able to console his anger at not being heard about something so obvious.

"Of course she should! She intends to attack that mashup of a ferry with a low-budget mecha with harpoons and incendiary arrows. And common ballistas. She got only one ship, and she's completely intoxicated by the flattering words of that shrew pythoness!"

"Mashup… Mecha… Ferry…?! You are speaking a lot of strange words."

"Ah ... I meant ... Sillabot's front part resembles a giant man made of metal, and the back resembles a shallow barge where he puts all the wreckage and wood that feeds his furnace." He took the drawings he had made out of his bag and handed them to Rasmus. The big man examined them closely, frowning when he saw what the Sillabot was for the first time.

The warrior returned the drawings and said, "It seems to me as if a very bad sculptor had tried to make a centaur out of the remains of ships... But he thought that horses look like sea turtles."

Glax looked at the drawing again, and had to agree with that view as well.

"Do you regret letting Jolla go to the capital alone to fight a metal monster?"

Rasmus shrugged.

"Jolla told me she had a dream about Sillabot. And that I should be by your side." And like everything that involved Rasmus' perfect wife, he had a dreamy look when he spoke this.

Glax took another sip of the strong drink, wondering what to do next. He couldn't just stand and watch all this happen without taking any action. Despite his survival instinct telling him to stay where he was, and his pride telling him to let Chriseis be damned... The idiot inside him thought he needed to help.

The general had even offended the captain of Medeia. But the Imperial Officer left her talking to herself, since he didn't really have to listen to the Echelian general's rudeness. Laertes gave Glax an enigmatic look before leaving them.

Glax was embarrassed by his stupid situation and Chriseis' relentless reminders him he was lower in the hierarchy.

The general and her men left about 40 minutes ago towards Sillabot.

At the port, fishermen pulled their ships out of the water and locked the sheds. The sea birds were frightened and the beach was littered with living and dead animals, garbage, and smelly foam.

He crouched down to help a starfish get back into the water.

"So Jolla said we were going to fight the Sillabot and blow it up?" Glax sounded split between excited and suspicious.

"No. She said that if I really am your friend, I should be here because you would be frustrated and confused." Rasmus was really quite candid in his responses.

"...!"

But Rasmus's honest answer made Glax stand up, making up his mind.

Looking again at the horizon, he only saw darkness forming where the battle was destined to take place.

"Rasmus, maybe I will be expelled from the Kroton family before I even have a honeymoon. Are you really going to get into this?"

The big man frowned for a while, and then said, "What's the problem? They considered my father undisciplined for trying to do the right thing, which is why he became the Captain of Crona's Guard. Where else could they send us, but home?"

Glax, of course, didn't know that, but he ended up laughing.

"I still don't remember that, but if Valosia is the worst place they can send me... It doesn't sound so bad!"

"Well, they can also drag us down the streets of the capital tied up by chains on horses..."

"Enough, Rasmus. We've already wasted too much time here."

"Do you think the captain will want to help after the general accused him of smuggling illegal weapons?"

Glax sighed, "Yeah, I don't know. I will hope for the best. After all, Medeia is still moored."

Both of them ran for the port, and found Captain Laertes commanding the crew for the departure.

"CAPTAIN!"

The Pharysian captain's grim expression clearly expressed his mood this morning.

"Please ignore what General Chriseis said. Sillabot isn't going to be defeated only with stones and skewers," Glax pleaded.

"I know, and she does too," the captain replied, dismissively.

Glax was perplexed, "If she knows ..."

"Don't ask stupid questions, Glax. Just come up soon if you don't want me to change my mind by risking an imperial ship as valuable as Medeia in such stupidity."

Glax fully understood Laertes' spiteful excitement. Commanding a warship turned into a messenger ship, destined to swipe its glorious past doing a monotonous and safe task ... While his memory must have been filled with bloody and exciting sea battles.

At the same time, Chriseis ignored the experienced advice and preferred to follow the code of conduct to the letter.

Even if it meant many lives lost, and even few chances of victory.

Glax wasn't going to let the captain change his mind with his indecision. He and Rasmus quickly climbed aboard, meeting the imperial officers and Malko on the deck.

Despite the resolute expression on their faces, the modern man in Glax imagined they were just as concerned as he was.

After they left the port, Glax showed his drawings to the officers, explaining his theory,

"Sillabot is a big metal monster. He doesn't feel pain, and we don't know if he feels fear or anger... We just know that he can think and make plans. We know he can see us. We are exactly what he wants! A heap of material that can feed him in one way or another. What he doesn't find useful, goes to his furnace and becomes energy. The pieces he finds useful should become part of his body. We have two challenges: avoiding sinking is the most difficult. The other challenge is to disable his furnace. The whole area of ​​his 'chest' and 'belly' is too hot to touch, and even water vapor can burn a man's entire body. We should avoid the entire area of his torso and back. In addition, it has a floating base much more stable than our ships ... Much more ballast. We have a viable alternative, and the safest. Break the floating base _ Sillabot's hull." Glax had explained that part the night before to Chriseis, even though she didn't want to hear it. He spoke of how it would be necessary to involve the two ships. He believed they must focus on splitting his body in two _ the base from the part that resembled a human torso from his 'barge'.

They nodded, understanding his explanations as he showed the points in his drawing.

"He will start to sink. Its 'mouth', which is also a furnace and produces the heat it needs to function, will eventually fill with water and will not produce enough heat to keep the machine running ... Perhaps it's the simplest, but most time-consuming option."

"And what is the fastest option?"

"We have fire strength capable of destroying the furnace. However, even using onagers, we would have to have precise aim to shoot and get the explosive balls as close to the core of Sillabot... Inside that big hole. Which will be very difficult because we would have to be in front of him, facing his belly."

He spoke with all the conviction he had. What did he understand about ships and navigation? Nothing.

He just understood how Sillabot worked. He knew that there was more than the steam engine giving life to Sillabot. But the machine couldn't cause damage if it lost the power needed to lift and move tons of metal and wood.

The captain looked over Glax's shoulder at the drawing and asked,

"You haven't tested these projectiles, how can you know they would be enough to destroy the furnace?"

He feared that question. "If they are in the right place, they will destroy the furnace in a chain action."

"How many chances do we have?" Laertes asked, and Malko answered this time.

"Eleven shots, sir."

"The maximum distance we can stay away from Sillabot?"

"At most 300m to avoid losing accuracy," said Glax, without blinking.

Laertes smiled. "We need to see how Lady Chriseis' attack is going. If she's not in the way, you can try to hit that damn monster's mouth!"

Glax didn't expect such self-confidence, but the captain preferred to follow the riskiest plan. Good, because Glax also preferred it!

The preparations took up all the sailing time until they again came close to the area where Sillabot lived.

The confluence of hot and cold air masses caused a sensation of pressure and suffocation. Furthermore, now that Glax understood better, he was sure that the air charged with electricity was a result of the huge machine's magnetism. The dark cloud, permanently ready to discharge lightning, must have been a constant.

Glax still had the impression that there was something inherently wrong with Sillabot. Like the first time, he suspected the machine was dysfunctional. Crazy, maybe?

He still didn't realize the reasons, just as he didn't understand why his cheat was to have the mind of an engineer capable of seeing the whole mechanism of a machine without even looking inside.

As Chriseis had said, more than understanding the machine, destroying it mattered the most. But Glax couldn't help wanting to understand what that energy that gave life to Sillabot was.

As they approached the stormy waters, the captain began shouting orders to his crew, and the ship began to sail in a zigzag pattern, cutting waves against its course with ease. Glax finally realized why the Medeia was such a special ship, especially if it had a trained crew and a captain capable of using all the resources of the 'flying ship'.

But soon, the scene in front of him drew all his attention from the expertise of the imperial crew in command of Medeia. Rasmus, at his side, looked up in amazement,

"WOW!"

What they saw was epic.