"My Lord, something's not right," Dirge muttered, his voice laced with hesitation. He had sensed it too—the unsettling state of this Cybertronian. He couldn't tell if the enemy before them was truly alive or long dead.
"I know," Skygnaw replied, his expression grave. "It's a living corpse... a husk. Something must be controlling it. Go. Test his strength."
Without a Spark or an internal energy signature, Skygnaw couldn't accurately gauge the creature's power level.
"Yes, My Lord."
Dirge deployed a scimitar and lunged without a second thought. The three other Horsemen followed close behind.
The husk's joints seemed stiff, as if it hadn't moved in eons. Its reactions were half a beat slow; it only raised an arm to block when Dirge's blade was inches from its neck.
Thud.
The blade struck the neck with a dull, heavy sound—not at all like the ring of metal on metal. The husk was jolted back a few steps but remained completely unmarked.
"What...?" Dirge stared at his weapon, then at the creature closing in on him. His shock was evident; his full-strength strike had felt like throwing a pebble into an abyss.
Swinging again to clear space, Dirge shifted to his ranged weaponry and fired a point-blank blast. Carnage and the others circled from three directions, their weapons spitting fire to provide cover.
Engrossed in the fight, Dirge failed to notice that the husk's reaction speed was accelerating. The distance it was knocked back grew shorter with every hit. As Dirge prepared a second cannon blast, the creature suddenly surged forward with a burst of unnatural energy.
Slam!
Caught off guard, Dirge was tackled to the ground. The husk unhinged its jaw, revealing rows of jagged alloy teeth, and lunged for Dirge's throat. Just as Dirge braced for the tear of metal, a black-and-red blade flickered into his vision.
Clang!
With a resonant ring of steel, the blade plunged into the creature's gaping maw, and the force of the strike sent the husk flying into the air.
"My Lord." Dirge scrambled up, realizing Skygnaw had moved to the front.
"Don't talk," Skygnaw said, his optics locked on the twitching husk.
He had put seventy percent of his power into that strike. Even against a Commander-class warrior like Starscream, a hit from his blade wouldn't leave them unscathed. Yet, this husk was like a diamond—nearly impossible to cut.
Skygnaw noted that the creature fought entirely on instinct. Its defense was astronomical, but its offensive patterns were primitive; it hadn't shifted into any weaponry, relying solely on its limbs and teeth. Its raw power sat somewhere between an Elite and a Commander, but its durability made it an undying nuisance.
The husk stumbled to its feet again. Skygnaw didn't reach for his sword this time. Instead, his chest plates shifted, and he leveled his Fusion Cannon.
BOOM!
The blast sent the husk tumbling a hundred meters away, capped by a massive mushroom cloud. But once again, under the silent gaze of the five Decepticons, the creature stood up. The bloodlust in its optics hadn't dimmed. It felt no pain.
"No consciousness at all?" Skygnaw mused. Seeing the creature remain unharmed, he decided to stop wasting effort. "Dirge, take the others and find the Iacon relic. I'll keep this thing occupied."
If he couldn't kill it quickly, he would pin it down.
"Yes, My Lord," Dirge answered, leading the others back toward the spire.
"Now then... let's see if you're truly indestructible."
Truth be told, since his promotion to Commander-class, Skygnaw hadn't faced a worthy opponent. This husk, while technically below his level, was the perfect sandbag.
The creature's movements were fluid now, like an athlete who had finished their warm-up. Skygnaw sprinted forward, dragging his Black Hell Blade along the ground. Sparks flew as the sword carved a deep trench into the red soil of Rubicund.
Closing within thirty meters, Skygnaw fired a photon pulse to throw the creature off balance. He sheathed the cannon, gripped his sword with both hands, and spun into a devastating horizontal cleave.
Squelch!
The Black Hell Blade bit deep into the husk's arm. Skygnaw wrenched the blade free, pulling out a spray of thick, pitch-black liquid.
"Tsk."
Skygnaw looked at the pool of black energy—so dark it seemed to absorb the ambient light. He didn't have time to ponder it before the husk lunged again, acting as if the wound meant nothing.
Skygnaw handled the encounter with ease at first, even using the creature to practice his new combat forms. However, after nearly being bitten once, he became noticeably more cautious. He had no intention of finding out if this black fluid carried some kind of "zombie" infection.
The two traded blows, with Skygnaw maintaining the upper hand. Yet, as the husk continued to grow more resilient, Skygnaw's concern deepened. Finally, four jets appeared on the horizon—Dirge and the others were back.
[My Lord, the Iacon relic is not there.]
Not there?
Skygnaw frowned and fired a parting shot to knock the husk back. If Dirge said it wasn't there, then it was truly gone. The relic was not in the spire.
[Understood. Retreat.]
Skygnaw transformed into his assault ship mode and soared away from the plains. The husk, seemingly unable to transform or use ranged weapons, roared at the sky before wandering aimlessly back toward the spire. Only the stains of Dark Energon remained on the soil.
...
"My Lord, what's the move?" Dirge asked as they landed on a nearby ridge.
"Find Eri, the Cephalon leader. He knows something."
Skygnaw had previously dismissed Eri as a footnote, but now he suspected the leader was the key. If the relic was supposed to be in that spire—which belonged to that husk—then only Eri and his people could have taken it.
He input the coordinates he'd locked onto during their previous transmission and led his team across the unchanging red landscape. They reached the destination shortly after.
Before they even landed, they saw a familiar sight: a total war between the mechanical insects and the Cephalons. This was no small skirmish; thousands were engaged on both sides.
While the "Black Shucks" had the numbers, most were small. Only a few dozen matched the Cephalons in size. At the rear of the Cephalon army, standing before a crumbling fortress, a tall figure barked orders to his soldiers.
It was Eri.
From this height, Skygnaw realized Eri was over two meters tall and far more robust than the clone soldiers. He watched as the Cephalon leader struggled to hold the line.
"Leader, we can't hold them! We have to move!" a soldier shouted. The mechanical insects could fly, giving the clones no terrain advantage.
"Move where?" Eri snapped. "This is our last stronghold! If we retreat further, we have to go underground, and you know that's that woman's territory now!"
The battlefield was a slaughterhouse. The clone weapons couldn't pierce the carapaces of the larger insects, while the bugs devoured the soldiers whole. With every meal, the insects grew larger, their bodies swelling in real-time.
Eri's hands trembled over a hidden device. Just as he wavered, a voice drifted from the shadows behind him:
"Leader Eri, looks like you could use a hand..."
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