The Monster of Kaon (Transformers Si): Chapter 34

Windblade struggled to keep up with the fight as the two powerful Cybertronians savagely fought.

With the help of her optics, she lined up a shot from her blaster, aiming for Fortress’s Energon circulatory system, aiming to ignite the lifeblood of her species and take the bot down.

However, the moment the energy blast left her weapon, Fortress instantly pulled up the shield, allowing the blast to wash over it harmlessly before he returned fire from his ridiculously powerful blaster.

Maximus was not idle during this time.

Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, he took a stance with his sword and slashed with raw power that would have cleaved even a combiner in two.

However, Fortress showed his agility and moved diagonally to the side. The grinding of his servos and the whine of metal showed that he had forced his body to take such a measure to avoid the powerful attack.

The moment Maximus overextended, Fortress shoved the shield into Maximus’s chest plate, forcing him back and creating enough distance for Fortress to bring up his cannon.

Windblade would not give him the time to do such a thing.

Pulling out her own blade, she ran towards the bot, slashing at his head.

But once again, Fortress avoided the blow and sent a devastating fist towards her faceplate.

Thankfully, Windblade dodged by half transforming and turning back to her bipedal mode, and creating a bit of distance.

“A mix of Metallikato and Diffusion? I take it that old Maximus has been teaching you Cybertron’s martial arts?”

Windblade did not reply to the bot and started firing her blaster again, forcing Fortress to pull up his shield again. But then, he was forced to dodge when Maximus started pressing him with his own blade.

Strike after strike, Maximus aimed to either maim or kill his enemy with his blade. Aiming for the Brain Module, Spark Chamber, the T-Cog, and sometimes even the Energon container.

His fast and precise strikes that looked as if they were made lightly hid his raw power behind each blow that would have been enough to bring down even an Omega Guardian.

“And now you are using Crystalocution? Are you trying to show off?”

Once again, the silver bot’s words went unanswered as Maximus only had eyes for his enemy, his brain module dominated by overwhelming rage that was channeled into his techniques and the mission at hand.

At this moment, nothing mattered to the old bot. The only thing on his mind was his current aim and the obstruction stopping him from achieving said aim.

This was the real Monster of Kaon. The unstoppable force that cannot be reasoned with, cannot be tempted, cannot be expected to pity anyone.

And yet, this famed warrior of old met his match in the young bot that was created in his likeness.

For every blow Maximus managed to land, Fortress would return in kind.

For every blade stroke that Maximus made, no matter the martial art he used, Fortress would strike back with its perfect counter or dodge the blow entirely.

This is how the battle had been from the very beginning, going on for more than an hour at this point.

Fortress took advantage of a momentary opening and quickly fired his cannon, causing its power to be reduced drastically due to how quickly he fired it, not giving it the time to properly charge.

However, the blow still had enough kinetic energy to push Maximus back by a few dozen feet.

The moment the blow connected, Maximus’s body rippled like water as his back sprouted the powerful thrusters he had in his alt-form, allowing him to counter the kinetic energy and boost himself forward, delivering a punch that threw Fortress back.

The cloned bot transformed mid-air, using the momentum of the transformation to his advantage and dispersing the kinetic energy of Maximus’s attack.

Once again, Fortress was not given the time to recover as Windblade was on him within the second. Her blade aimed for his Spark Chamber while her blaster aimed for his brain module.

Fortress was forced to dodge the blade and use the shield to block the energy blast while kicking Windblade away in his awkward position.

Due to his position, the force behind his kick was not that great, which meant that Windblade was only pushed back a little bit.

And then, Maximus boosted forward with his sword aimed at his arm, intending to take away the shield.

For the first time since the fight began, Fortress felt a little panicked as he realized that he was not as superior to Maximus as he had been led to believe all this time.

Once again transforming into his wheeled form, he took off for some distance, trying to put some distance between them and gain some time to gather his wits.

Yet, his adversaries would not allow him such time.

The two fliers transformed as well and easily overtook his land-based alt-mode. Maximus tore through the rust clouds at supersonic speeds in a matter of a second and dropping from the sky, using the gravitational force to his advantage as he aimed his blade at Fortress.

Instantly, Fortress transformed back to his Bipedal form and blocked the blow with his shield, forcing him to kneel on the ground at how powerful the blow was. However, he suddenly felt pain as another blade tore through his right arm, making him drop the cannon.

Turning in disbelief, Fortress saw Windblade glaring at him with her green optics as she brandished her blade again, this time aiming to sever his head.

This time truly desperate, Fortress pushed Maximus off him and activated the hidden function of the shield, creating a field of hard-light around it and giving it an edge that he could use.

Instantly, Maximus was incensed even further, but Fortress could not care less. At least at this moment, when his life was in danger.

With the hard-light active, he threw the shield at Windblade with his full might, hoping the cut her in half.

Thankfully, Windblade was far too agile to be hit by such a telegraphed attack and easily jumped over the shield gracefully while returning fire with her blaster, keeping the pressure on the Pirate leader.

Now, without his armament and cornered, Fortress chose the only option left.

Trying to transform into his alt-mode, Fortress made the mistake of showing his back to his enemy and paid the price for it.

Maximus showed no mercy and plunged his blade into his spark chamber, intending to end him then and there.

And yet, as fate would have it, Fortress managed to dodge the attack and transformed quickly, escaping into the rust storm.

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I felt my rage slowly subside as I saw the pathetic form of Fortress as he hastily fled into the rust storm.

I knew that I should end things here and now, without giving him the chance to return to cause problems again.

But I have other priorities that demand my attention more than this bot.

I picked up the ancient shield that Leviathan made for me all those millennia ago and gently stroked the dust off it.

“We should go after him. Given his power, we should end him before he becomes a problem again.”

I felt surprised at the cold words that left Windblade’s voice box, however, I quickly suppressed it.

It made sense. Windblade was trained from her infancy to be a city speaker while her Amita, Chromia, was training to be a Torch Bearer of Caminus. It would make sense that she would develop a proper mindset of a warrior despite her innate nature as a kind bot because of her training with her friend.

But like I said, we have other priorities right now.

“We could. But if we did, we would not be able to catch up to him right now. Especially with how thick the Rust Storm is right now. And even if we do, you are in no position to provide me with support as you are now, and I am not confident in taking him down on my own, given how his every move mirrors my own.”

Windblade looked at me with a questioning gaze as I used my shield to create a barrier around us and allowing her optics to see herself clearly.

Her body’s protective coating had long since been stripped during the entire fight due to the storm, exposing her Sentio-Metalico frame to the elements, which allowed the rust to slowly settle on her body.

She would not feel any adverse effects for a few hours yet, but I knew that the agony she would feel would multiply the longer she stayed in this storm.

That is why I decided to give up on chasing Fortress.

My revenge can wait because I refuse to pay the price for a momentary satisfaction with Windblade’s pain.

As for me, while I too was affected by the storm, it is but a simple matter to me since I just have to pulse my T-Cog a little bit so that the eldritch energies of the Artifact would cleanly remove all foreign matter from my frame.

“Come. We will plan our next move after we get to my lab.”

Not to mention, I will need some resources to create a Cybermatter bath for Windblade to cure her of this affliction.

We transformed into our alt-modes and flew towards the lab, where Windblade was still able to pick up another spark, even though it was very faint and looked like it would fade at any moment.

Time to see just what Fortress was up to in my old lab.