A massive thirteen-meter figure stepped out from the shadows of a village building.
The dark, predatory chassis and the overwhelming pressure radiating from it caused the soldiers behind Epps to raise their rifles instinctively, their fingers trembling against the triggers.
Bumblebee's optics flickered in shock. "Skygnaw... it's you!"
He could hardly believe it. When he first encountered Skygnaw, the Decepticon was merely a High-Class warrior. In the blink of an eye, he had ascended to the rank of Commander.
"It's me, Bumblebee."
Skygnaw's chest plates shifted outward, revealing a thick, flared cannon muzzle at the center, glowing with the ominous dark-red light of built-up energy—like the mouth of a miniature volcano. As he walked, he retracted the Fusion Cannon, allowing the reinforced armor to slide back into place.
Bumblebee was about to speak when his expression suddenly changed. "Skygnaw... you've jammed the communications in this entire sector?"
"Haha... noticed that, did you?" Skygnaw chuckled. He had deliberately let the Horsemen lure them here and waited until the last possible second to intervene precisely to ensure the Autobots were isolated from reinforcement.
"We're in for a hell of a fight," Sideswipe muttered, crossing his twin alloy blades in front of his chest. This time, he didn't twirl them.
"What do we do?" Epps asked, his voice tight. He realized they had walked straight into a trap.
"Epps, take your men and retreat!" Bumblebee deployed his wrist-mounted laser blades. "Get out of this interference zone and call for help immediately. We can't beat a Commander on our own. You're our only hope."
"Go! We'll hold him off!"
Hearing the words "Commander-Class," Epps' pupils shrank. He understood the situation was now a matter of life or death. "I got it, Bee. Good luck!" He turned and waved to his team. "Fall back! Move, move!"
Skygnaw's optics turned cold as he watched the humans flee. "Carnage, go. Intercept the humans. Don't let a single one escape."
"With pleasure, Master," Carnage hissed, shifting into his Seeker flight mode and screaming over the heads of the Autobots toward the retreating soldiers.
Ironhide and Bumblebee couldn't afford to worry about the humans; their primary focus was the silver giant looming over them. Skygnaw slowly drew the Black Hell Blade from his hip. He had hoped to take one of them out with a surprise shot, but Ironhide's durability had thwarted that. Fine—he would use them to test the limits of his new power.
"Bumblebee, watch that sword!" Ironhide warned. His own chassis wasn't equipped with melee weapons, and having taken a heavy hit earlier, he retreated a few steps to provide cover fire with his heavy cannons.
"I see it, Ironhide," Bumblebee lowered his battle mask, his optics burning with unprecedented focus. "Sideswipe, we hit him head-on. Jolt, keep your distance and look for an opening."
"Understood!" Jolt snapped his electric whips, the blue arcs of lightning crackling against the pavement.
Despite facing a Commander, the three Autobots launched a proactive strike. Skygnaw dragged his massive sword behind him, walking calmly to meet them. A hundred meters vanished in seconds.
SHING!
Bumblebee ducked under a diagonal upward swing of the giant blade and lunged forward, thrusting his stinger blade with full force at Skygnaw's knee joint.
SPARK!
The strike, which usually would have crippled a foe, merely left a shallow gouge in the Orion Live-Metal. Bumblebee froze for a micro-second in shock, only to see the Black Hell Blade swinging down toward his head.
CLANG!
Sideswipe slid in, parrying the blow with both his blades, but the sheer kinetic force sent him skidding back several meters. Bumblebee used the distraction to land a kick and retreat.
"Annoying..." Skygnaw muttered, shifting to a two-handed grip on his sword. While his victory was mathematically certain, he didn't want to lose a limb to a lucky shot.
He moved to crush the slightly weaker Sideswipe, but his chest plate suddenly took a heavy hit.
BOOM!
A high-temperature lead slug scorched his left breastplate red. Ironhide was firing from the perimeter.
Bumblebee and Sideswipe seized the opening, swarming him from both sides with coordinated strikes. Even Jolt lashed out with his whips from a distance. The four became a blur of clashing metal.
Truthfully, Skygnaw's melee skills were average—nothing close to the thousands of years of combat experience the Autobots possessed. But his Orion Live-Metal chassis gave him a margin for error that was practically infinite.
CLANK!
Sideswipe's short blade struck his back. Skygnaw ignored it, swinging his giant sword in a wide arc that sent Bumblebee flying. The scout hit the ground hard, a deep score mark carved into his shoulder plating.
"Hey, Skygnaw! You want Bee? You gotta go through me!" Jolt rushed in, snapping his whips to bind Skygnaw's arms.
"Get lost!" Skygnaw roared, swinging his sword with savage power.
CRASH!
Jolt barely dodged. The sword slammed into the ground, carving a trench through the concrete and sending stone shards flying like shrapnel. Before Skygnaw could recover his swing, his chest was hit again.
BOOM!
A liquid nitrogen shell. If not for the extreme environmental adaptation of his armor, the rapid shift from searing heat to freezing cold would have shattered his chest plates like glass.
"Ironhide!" Skygnaw growled. The veteran was a pest, constantly disrupting his killing blows. He needed to break their formation.
During the next exchange, Skygnaw intentionally "tripped" after a cannon blast from Ironhide. He fell to one knee, letting the Black Hell Blade "clatter" away from his grip.
Seeing the "opening," the hot-headed Sideswipe charged forward, his tires screaming against the asphalt.
"Sideswipe, wait! It's a trap!" Bumblebee shouted, but it was too late.
Sideswipe's blades lunged forward, only to be caught in Skygnaw's massive mechanical hands. Skygnaw gripped both of the Autobot's wrists with crushing force and slowly looked up, a cruel, metallic grin spreading across his faceplate.
"You took the bait, Sideswipe."
"What?" Sideswipe looked down in horror.
Skygnaw's chest plates retracted. The Fusion Cannon muzzle was glowing white-hot.
"Goodbye."
KABOOM!
Sideswipe was blasted backward like a ragdoll. The two arms Skygnaw had been holding were ripped clean off his torso, leaking neon-green Energon as they fell to the dirt.
"Aaargh!" Sideswipe hit a building and slumped to the ground, unconscious and smoking.
"Skygnaw, you coward!" Bumblebee roared, charging in a blind fury.
"Coward?" Skygnaw scoffed, tossing the severed arms aside like trash. "Is that meant to be a compliment, scout?"
Bumblebee lunged, but Skygnaw performed a side-roll, retrieved his sword, and fired a localized EMP pulse from his right hand. The blue wave hit Bumblebee, paralyzing his servos for two crucial seconds.
In those two seconds, the Black Hell Blade drove through Bumblebee's chest.
CRUNCH.
Skygnaw kicked the scout off the blade, sending him tumbling away. Two Elites down.
Ironhide, seeing his friends fall, went into a frenzy. His heavy cannons roared in a continuous barrage. Skygnaw took the hits, his chassis barely shuddering as he marched forward. Jolt tried to block his path, but with a few brutal swings, Skygnaw caught a whip, yanked Jolt into range, and severed his arm in one clean stroke.
"Aagh! Skygnaw... Optimus will... he'll melt you for this!" Jolt collapsed.
"He can try." Skygnaw drove the Black Hell Blade through Jolt's torso, pinning him to the ground like an insect on a board. Then, he turned his gaze to Ironhide.
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