Chapter 13
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After the Titan of Bone's destruction at the hands of my mechanical minions, the next thing on my agenda was to make my final preparations to deal with the brutal dictator oppressing the country I had appeared in once and for all. That said, I was distinctly worried about that dragon showing up again, and I wanted to take some extra precautions to ensure my own safety if things did not go as planned. With the need to reach a point of relative safety in mind, I quickly updated the plans for the Protonium rockets I used for thrust, ensured I had full three-dimensional RCS and enough linear acceleration to beat the local gravity, and boosted myself into orbit.

The way I said that made it sound a lot more straightforward than it actually was, all things considered. First off, I had done basically none of the math regarding required orbital velocity, and my only previous experience with flying a Titan ended in a crash that damn near killed me. Still, I knew on a gut level from countless hours spent playing Kerbal Space Program what was required to reach space, and I had every intention of following through, especially since I had effectively infinite delta v. It took a few hours of constantly adjusting my orbit, but I soon managed to reach a stable almost circular orbit about 1,200 kilometers above the planet's surface, according to the radar altimeter I had my Gremlins working on while I tweaked my trajectory. By my estimates, I was smack dab in the middle of a radiation belt, but I didn't give a shit since both my core and my Gremlins were properly shielded.

Once I was in orbit, I immediately began assembling a massive space station connected to my current Titan chassis, featuring rotating habitat cylinders kilometers across that could support tens of millions of Gremlins, more reactors than I could ever possibly need, and a winding deathtrap of a microgravity murder-maze surrounding my newly relocated core a cubic kilometer in volume, my instincts to maximize the amount of lethal traps between myself and death coming to the forefront.

Then, came the problem of adjusting my Titan chassis such that I could deploy it groundside separately from my space station body. Without my Dungeon interior providing internal support to the Titan's chassis, I needed to make several adjustments to convert it into a single massive Clockwork construct, able to significantly exceed previous performance benchmarks by replacing what had been effectively non-performing volume with major upgrades to the Titan's motor system, power plant, and onboard fabrication. That last one was especially critical, since I wanted that machine to be capable of self-repairing in the field, and I wouldn't be able to directly repair it using my Dungeon interface.

I still had my original surveillance UAV informing me of the location of Regno's capitol, the home of the murderous dictator who had caused his people so much torment. With target co-ordinates locked, I quickly deployed a constellation of thousands of spy satellites in order to gather any further information on the possible location of the dragon who had been the cause of my previous crash. I quickly discovered the colossal dragon on a return trajectory towards the city I was currently surveying.

Having decided my course of action, I quickly un-docked the Titan from my space station body, and sent it on a return trajectory, set to land directly in front of the Dragon's flight path in about twenty minutes. I kind of wished I had an appropriate heavy metal track to play for what was about to come next, seeing as it simply wouldn't be a proper mecha vs dragon fight without a rocking sound track.


Supreme Leader Corenzite was flying back to his capitol after a border skirmish with one of his rival Grand Dragons, wondering when that damned Titan would show up again, when without warning a massive fireball streaked across the sky directly overhead. Slowly, the incoming object slowed, and the flames mostly petered off to reveal an utterly massive metallic figure, standing in the air atop two pillars of flame jetting out of their feet.

The Grand Dragon almost immediately recognized this abominable construct as the Titan it had been unable to crush two weeks prior, but as he feared it had already made significant alterations to its design, as Titans were infamous for doing. The Titan was distinctly wider now, with a large yellow symbol of some sort emblazoned on its chest, and it was equipped with what could only be even more implements of murder. It had even apparently managed to get the hang of flying.

Corenzite did not waste any time beginning the fight, opening up with a blast of dragonfire even as he charged closer to the Titan, with the primary goal being to engage in melee combat. The Titan meanwhile simply allowed the shot to harmlessly spray over its chest armor, even as it fired three small projectiles from its shoulder directly towards Corenzite.

The Dragon disregarded such puny shots, being incredibly dubious that they would present a threat to one such as them. They were immediately corrected, as the projectiles erupted with blasts of dragonfire, scorching Corenzite's hide with tremendous explosive force. The barrage did not let up then, the Titan drawing its swords and firing twin streaks of artificial dragonfire directly at Corenzite.

The Grand Dragon was infuriated by this development; in the annals of history, ever since the Grand Dragons rose to ascendancy, never before had any being besides a Grand Dragon laid claim to dragonfire. With one final charge, Corenzite closed the distance to melee combat with the Titan, clawing and biting at the massive construct even as they felt one of those massive knives punch right through their left wing.

Then the Titan grabbed hard, and with a mighty heave the grappling pair of Titan and Dragon tipped end over end and began hurtling towards the ground. Spiraling through the air, Corenzite grabbed hard onto their opponent, and with a cleverly stuck out wing, they managed to put themselves on top of the pile just in time for the two of them to slam into the ground.

Supreme Leader Corenzite wasted no time, blasting a continuous stream of dragonfire onto the joint between the Titan's chest and hips even as the Titan tightened its grip further, clearly attempting to crush the life out of the wounded dragon. With what little freedom of movement he still possessed, Corenzite managed to get one of their forelimbs free, and they slammed their wickedly sharp talons directly into the joint for the Titan's right shoulder.

At this time, both parties received several severe injuries simultaneously; in the case of the Titan, the focused stream of Dragonfire finished burning through its spine, immobilizing the construct from the waist down even as its right arm was rendered useless. Corenzite, meanwhile, felt a massive crunch as part of their lower ribcage caved in.

Still, the Dragon's back was strong, and with one of the Titan's arms useless Corenzite was able to struggle out of the grapple. The Dragon flipped the Titan over on its front, and prepared to deliver the final blow, when suddenly the massive construct exploded in the biggest blast of dragonfire Corenzite had ever been exposed to.

When the dust cleared, the Supreme Leader was heavily injured, with a hide sufficiently charred that their skeleton showed in a few places, a partially collapsed ribcage, his dominant claw and left wing nearly severed, but still the Grand Dragon lived. With a mighty heave, Corenzite roared their defiance to the heavens, as if to say that they would never be conquered by something so mere as a Titan.

Hundreds of miles above, a certain Dungeon core was extremely glad it had thought to handle this fight by remote control, and was already taking notes on what would be required to finish the job.

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