Chapter 64: Crushing the Primeval Beast
"ROAR!!!"
A thunderous roar tore through the skies. Before the humans could even react, a colossal creature...its entire body glowing with a dark black light...leapt out from the abyss, smashing through a pile of wooden wagons.
"What is that thing?! It looks like a leopard!"
"A leopard? That thing's over eight zhang tall! It must be the fierce beast sealed within that underground city!"
"Look at the mark on its forehead! That's the sigil of the Energia You clan! I can't believe these Huns have released Energia You's kin! Brothers, even if it costs our lives, we can't let this monster escape...CHARGE!"
For some reason, these newly arrived human soldiers seemed hostile toward the Huns and harbored deep hatred for the Decepticon symbol.
When they saw the unmistakable insignia glowing on the black mechanical panther's forehead, they charged at the beast with their low-grade weapons, throwing themselves into battle with sheer flesh and blood.
"ROOOAR!!!"
"SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!"
Perhaps it was because the mechanical panther had been humiliated earlier by the robotic dinosaurs underground...now, when faced with a group of foolish humans, it vented its rage without restraint.
And what better way to release that fury than with these fragile punching bags?
With one mighty swipe of its claws, the panther ripped through the front line, killing more than a dozen elite cavalrymen in an instant.
The five or six leading riders...along with their horses...were shredded into pieces.
The panther's claws might not have been sharp enough to pierce the armor of the Dinobots, but against ordinary mammals, they were weapons of mass destruction.
No human blade could rival even a single claw from this monster. The outcome was inevitable.
Yet, strangely, the humans showed no fear of death. As one row fell, another immediately charged in...reckless, relentless, as if driven by hatred from generations past.
"Brothers! Aim for the horses! Blind them!"
The shout came from the young general, General Rylen.
Now clad in full iron armor and wielding a massive blade, he looked completely different from when Red Spider had seen him before.
He had gathered his troops and was ready for war...but fate had other plans.
Instead of clashing with the Huns he sought, he had encountered ancient tyrants that had risen from the depths of the earth.
Lockdown seemed utterly uninterested in dealing with these primitive mortals.
But the black mechanical panther was another story...it enjoyed their screams. Their pain seemed to bring it pleasure.
Just as the beast was about to finish General Rylen and his men, a sudden missile shot out from the crack in the earth...an air-to-surface strike that hit the panther squarely from behind.
"BOOM!!!"
"ZZZZZZT!!"
It was a risky shot...but Starscream had noticed a faint blue spark on the panther's rear armor just before it leapt.
Although the creature's regenerative ability was impressive, the Dinobot's earlier attacks had already weakened it, leaving part of its circuitry unstable.
Starscream's missile struck precisely at that weak point...causing the massive beast, once seemingly unstoppable, to crash heavily to the ground.
In truth, the main circuit board linking the panther's neural core to its spinal column had been damaged, cutting off 80% of its mobility.
It was now nothing more than a thrashing heap of metal.
Of course, the humans' primitive weapons couldn't even scratch a Transformer...not even one weakened to this degree. Against beings like Starscream or the Dinobots, they were utterly powerless.
"Well, look at that...you were trying to run, weren't you? And now you're here playing with humans? I'll never understand what goes through your head."
Dinobot Sludge was still too weak to continue fighting, so Dinobot Dart didn't pursue the enemy.
Instead, he stayed behind to help his companion, guiding him slowly back toward the underground palace.
Starscream...known by some as Red Spider...followed out of curiosity, having no prior connection to the Predacons but intrigued by their brutal behavior.
When he floated down near the humans, however, chaos erupted.
"Hey, who's that guy with the Energia You mark? Aren't they brothers? Why are they fighting?"
"Wait...isn't that the general, General Rylen? The one who spared us before? Did he change sides?"
Apparently, these humans judged friend or foe based solely on the insignia on someone's chest.
"Hah, silly humans. It's just a symbol. How about this?"
Seeing their fear, Starscream smirked and decided to have a little fun.
"System, change the emblem on my chest to Autobot. Let's see how they react. Don't tell me those Autobots actually played gods on this planet before, huh?"
Thanks to the Transformer System, Starscream could freely switch his chest emblem between Autobot and Decepticon at will.
To him, it was child's play.
When the humans below saw the transformation of his symbol, their reactions were mixed: shock, disbelief… and even reverence.
Some looked relieved, while a few elders actually knelt and prayed to the "heavenly warrior" above them.
It became clear then...these humans had an unusual reverence for the Autobots.
Perhaps, long ago, when the Autobots first arrived on this planet, they had protected these primitive beings.
That would certainly explain their strange devotion now.
(End of Chapter)