[quote=whizzball1]
Nevea was just as exasperated at inadequacy as Seth was. However, as she usually took the time to account for every sensibly possible outcome of a choice she made in a plan of hers, she was more inclined to noticing the inadequacy in others as opposed to problems that occurred in her plans. Since her plans usually involved manipulation, she had to put extensive thought into a plan, and so she always prepared them rather long prior to the execution of one. Nevea didn't notice Seth's glances at her, as she was processing the information and examining the parts that the Hephestan campers had brought out. Her mind momentarily went on a tangent that questioned why she had decided to learn more about Seth than other campers, but no definite answer came to her about why she had seen him as especially important. She would think more on that later, because Seth responded to her question. She listened to the Hephestan camper's plan and nodded. One of the campers activated the control mechanism. Then the first automaton came running. The horizontal shaft of the construct, hereby referred to as the barrel, was pointed away from the automaton, but the control module recognised the automaton as a threat. The rotation module activated and the construct swung toward the automaton, and then the control module pushed and pulled the two metal strips, which slid through the firing mechanism, changing the air pressure back and forth and causing it to fire ice shards at a quick pace. While the chilling effect was not currently activated, the shards of ice stopped the automaton quite quickly. It was at this point that a smaller automaton, whose head was lower than the barrel, came charging at the construct. The Hephestan campers realised too late that they had forgotten to get the barrel to move up and down, and the firing mechanism fired at nothing. Nevea's expression remained calmly serene, as she had accounted for this. She had not said anything, because she knew what would happen next. A stream of magic darted out from the construct and struck the automaton, causing it to fall back. The designers quickly stopped the test after that, and Nevea spoke. "You'll need to adjust the mechanisms such that it won't fire when an enemy is lower than the shaft. We don't want to waste humidity. I'd suggest you put detection for that in the firing mechanism." Those who had designed the firing mechanism went back into the cabin to add to the design.
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The response speed of the firing mechanism was acceptable, stopping the attacking automatons in their tracks before they could reach it to do damage. The only thing that he and the designers had apparently overlooked was giving the barrel the ability to move up and down, and Seth mentally smacked himself for not thinking of such a thing. The ability for it to do that would allow it to target threats a lot better, especially those that came from above or tried to avoid damage by creeping across the ground.

Still... his magic had compensated for that, so his initial ignorance of the machine's faultiness didn't bother him as much as it would have. Seth looked at the automaton that had been struck by the magic, letting out a small chuckle as he noticed that the brass metal it was made of was beginning to deteriorate. The energy that powered the thing also seemed to be taking on a new... "sickly" color if it could be described like that. Reaching his arm out to it, Seth pulled out the residual dark magic that was affecting it and absorbed it.

"Humidity detector? I hadn't thought of that, but it is a reasonable idea," Seth said after Nevea suggested for this to be added.

As of now, Seth couldn't really think of anything else that could be added to the designs. If everything went well, all that would be left was to begin creating the ice-crystal structures along the camp's borders and wait for the Hephaestus kids to place the final design of the firing machines into them. And after that was done with... what else? The complete defenses would be reliable and efficient in protecting the camp from monsters, so would they really have to worry too much? Sure, maybe a few dumb monsters would make it through, but the demigod defenses nearby would eliminate them quickly. 

He'd just have to wait.