Secret Appearance, Giant War Chariot Revealed

The messenger stood at the edge of the raised platform, his throat bobbing as he lowered his voice to a near whisper. "General, the center of the enemy formation... is moving."

Chen Wuya was stuffing the last order into a bamboo tube. At the words, he looked up. He said nothing, merely slowly straightening as his gaze passed over the endless tents and settled on the wilderness shrouded in morning mist.

The horizon began to tremble.

It was neither hoofbeats nor the rhythm of infantry advancing. It was a dull, regular vibration threaded with the scrape of metal, like some colossal beast turning over beneath the earth, or iron hammers striking an anvil again and again. A faint numbness rose from beneath his boots.

"It's here," he said quietly.

Dust billowed up in the distance, spreading in an arc like the harbinger of a sandstorm. Within the dust, a black silhouette slowly emerged—first, two axles as thick as house pillars; then layers upon layers of iron armor plates; and above them, a towering structure three zhang high. Its surface was covered in rivets and dark grooves. At its summit stood a man in heavy armor and an iron helmet, both hands gripping a bronze control lever.

A war chariot.

Not an ordinary war chariot, but a gigantic engine of war forged and welded from whole blocks of black iron. With every step forward, the ground sank a little. Its axles ground over broken stone with a piercing scrape. The armor plates along its sides opened and closed slightly as it moved, as if mechanisms were turning within.

The soldiers below the platform were already stirring uneasily. Someone took half a step back and bumped into a comrade. Among the archers, a young soldier's fingers trembled, and his arrow nearly slipped