There were very few things that could threaten him anymore. Vanishingly few things that could put up a fight against him, that could challenge him, that could put up any amount of resistance. In the early days after his conversion, he was far stronger than before, but just about everything was still a reasonable fight. Gangers with big enough guns, Corporate samurai with monoblades, just about any combat vehicle, most cyberforms…
He was pretty sloppy back then, but his upgrade gave him enough staying power to always get through, to always learn from his mistakes, to always get better. He was built to endure, and endure he did.
By the time 2023 rolled around, he was stronger than just about everything that borgs were supposed to fight against. Meatbags, elite solos, other borgs, weaker ACPA. The only things that threatened him by the start of the fourth corporate war were other high-spec combat borgs, and ACPA. There was only one non-borg left in the world to beat at that point, only one left to kill and prove that he was definitively beyond meat at that point.
It still pissed him off that Blackhand pulled a fucking draw out of his ass.
After that though, he kept getting better, kept getting his frame improved. There were still challenges for decades to come. Kagekaze was good enough to kick his ass every now and then, and had him beat when it came to sneaky shit. Top-class ACPA were still something he had to pull out all stops for. Big enough groups of other combat borgs could still give him a hard time.
The decades kept passing though. Soon enough, there wasn't anything that could slow him down anymore. Open wars weren't really done anymore, and the shadow wars never deployed enough heavy metal to actually hurt him. All those concealable weapons and gimmicks just bounced off his armor, all those heavier guns were slow enough to avoid, and there were never enough units to beat him with weight of fire.
Eventually, he stopped pushing for frame updates. Eventually, he stopped bothering to try. Every mission was the same thing, go out and slaughter everything in a radius. That was incredibly fun, of course, seeing meatbags turn into splatters was always a good time. Still, there wasn't anything to take seriously. Taunting them was usually a good way to get them to fight harder, but it only helped so much.
The Unification Wars were the closest he had gotten to challenged in nearly thirty years by that point. Speedware had gotten majorly improved recently back then, and he was eager to see all the potential enemies and new tactics using it. They were not enough, and the first battle was a decisive rout on Arasaka's side. He was a bit let down, but the war was still going strong and he was optimistic that they would get better as time went on.
That was the only battle Arasaka participated in. Immediately afterwards a treaty was signed, and the NUSA Unification Wars ended, and he was back to business as usual.
The boy was the closest thing he had been to challenged since then. A highly experimental frame that was dogshit on its own, good enough speedware to compensate for the difference, and decently scrappy. It wasn't close to enough, but it was more fun than he thought he'd have.
Taking the boy in was the best decision he'd made in fucking decades, because all the fuckers that came out of the woodwork to have a go over it had been exhilarating. He's had more quality fights in less than a year than he's had in fifty years. All the annoying shit that he'd had to deal with on the side was completely worth it in exchange for those fights.
It's been years since he's had to try.
When the hundred-foot metal dragon exploded out of the massive hole in the ground, he had been annoyed at having to deal with shit like this while trying to get his apprentice back. When that same dragon destroyed two armored vehicles in the same second of emerging, there was a small part of him that started to get excited.
This kinda thing happens every now and then. Some corporate scientists convince the higher ups to spend billions on funding what was effectively just the scientist in question dicking around. Usually in the form of a giant robot that was shit at actually fighting, but had at least one major improvement somewhere in its systems, enough that the higher ups kept the scientist around instead of killing them.
Hijitaka did this all the time, the Cyberskeleton was one such example. The prototypes were always too gimmicky to bother with actually using, but there was enough learned from their designs that Arasaka kept him around.
The dragon lurched, and its form blurred for a moment. The jets mounted on its wings screamed to life. It moved as fast as some slower bullets across the quarry and shattered an APC underneath its bulk. That was a few hundred feet crossed over in perhaps two seconds.
It had speedware. That meant it had to be a cyberform, or a human underneath all that metal. He was going to put his bets on cyberform, because there wasn't a person alive who could handle that much who wasn't named 'Adam Smasher'. Speedware on a many-ton mass of metal and myomer with what looked like limited flight.
'…why does it have a sandy?' Uriel asked the obvious question. 'Wouldn't a kerry be way better on a cyberform? It's a cyberform, it's not like it can't handle it.'
Adam grunted in agreement before ignoring the question, he wasn't a scientist. It wasn't currently attacking any of his frames, and the defenders were much more focused on trying to run away from the dragon rather than attack him, so he and Uriel took the time to do a status check on everything. Down some ammo, the Oni was a bit roughed up from taking a heavy sniper round to the thigh, and that was about it.
His frames burst into motion, and moved to places of cover outside of the dragon's line of sight. They'd let it rampage for a while, maybe some of the meatbags will weaken it in the meantime, and then he'd move in to confront it at the end.
Alright Uriel time for a strategy meeting. We have a multi-ton cyberform with speedware. Assume it's as armored as a superheavy tank, that laser only needed one shot to kill that VTOL earlier, it's far bigger than even the DaiOni, and probably stronger too. What weapons do we have that can hurt it?
'If you use the panzerknight trick against it, and that's about it.' Uriel replied grimly. 'A superheavy tank needs a tank-scale railgun to damage, and the EMG just isn't that big. The Hyperhammer might stagger it and damage the internals, but it would need to be a good fucking hit.'
'That's Samson, next.' A series of missiles smashed into the dragon's side, and a tail-swipe knocked over an APC and crushed the driver. A roaring 3-foot wide laser burst from its visor-like face and cut a wave of soldiers hiding behind shipping crates in half.
'Gemini has the monosword, it would need to be a perfect cut, but it's capable of cutting through with the ideal setup. The Hellbringer is irrelevant here, it's just a handgun and we'd need an opening in the armor for it to matter.'
'Next.' A hail of bullets from several VTOL rotary guns rained down on the dragon, putting thousands of superficial dents in its armored hide. In response, it blurred and jumped. A few seconds later crashing into a VTOL and throwing it bodily into the flight path of the second VTOL, destroying both in a circling ball of fire and scrap.
'Dragoon has the Helix, which is meant for wiping out waves of weaklings, not taking on a single heavy armor target. The micro missiles are also pointless against this much armor. It doesn't have any weapons that can actually damage assuming that much armor. It can do severe damage, but only if we can get that armor off.'
'Next.' The dragon screamed again, this time firing two of those very big missiles from its wings, which sped forwards and unerringly tracked the two attack helicopters attempting evasive maneuvers. That done, it spotted a moving APC in the distance and swooped down to crush it beneath its weight. The APC flattened as the claws turned it into a shredded pancake.
'Oni has an HMG, which isn't going to be very useful. Its lasers might be able to damage it's internals and slag the armor, unless it's graded for heat resistance. Might be able to warp the glass on its own laser if we hit it enough. The club isn't going to do jackshit to it.'
Adam considered all that, he was already aware of all that information but another voice saying it aloud helps one consider everything. At least, according to Uriel's memories.
The dragon focused its laser on a particular shipping crate, quickly turning it into liquid metal which fell on the meatbags hiding within. Their screams were a bit distracting while he was trying to think. Hey assholes, shut up and die quietly.
'Reserve sandevistan usage to dodging. We don't have a single frame that can handle being hit by that. Samson is to focus on trying to shoot those missiles. Dragoon is to remain out of the fight until we can get that armor opened. Oni is to focus on warping that lens, firing immediately after it does. You'll pilot the Gemini directly, focus on the parts I open up. Got it?'
Uriel spent a few moments rapidly updating the order priorities for the combat algorithm. The dragon flew up and fired another set of missiles, turning two distant cyberwalks on the quarry ledge into burning scrap. It roared and descended upon an armored truck, ripping it apart like a cat tears apart a baby bird.
'Frames ready.' he replied after a few more moments, the dragon rampaging all the while. '...I know it's a cyberform, but it might be possible to hack.'
'Uriel, it's a fucking robot dragon. This might be our only chance to fight a robot dragon.'
'...You're absolutely right. That was a stupid question.' Uriel's resolve was strengthened and a grin grew on the Gemini's face.
Adam grunted and stood up. Most of the base was killed at this point, both from his initial attack and the dragon's rampage. Mostly a field of burning rubble and corpses at this point. Just about his favorite sight in the world.
He stomped forwards with deliberate swagger, getting the attention of the dragon after a few moments of walking. His part of the plan was fairly simple. They had nothing strong enough to damage the dragon here. Nothing except itself.
So he was going to taunt it, dodging what he couldn't afford to take, and waiting for a chance to counter. Once its armor was broken in a few places, the other frames could start doing damage. It was a plan that was absolutely suicidal for anyone who wasn't him, and heavily relied on his ability to perform it. One wrong move and he would be crippled enough to be easy pickings for the immense cyberform.
He knew for a fact that he could pull it off. He could kill this thing completely alone if he needed to. He had the skill and the ability for it. Good job panzerknight, your trick has been serving him well so far, thanks for killing yourself on his fist.
He spread his arms wide, and stood straight up. The DaiOni was around 3.5 meters tall. This dragon was around… 13.5 meters at eye-level. That fact annoyed him greatly . He ignored that annoyance and focused instead on what his pose conveyed.
Well, what is it, dragon?
Its maw began to glow a furious red. He activated his speedware and stepped once to the right and twisted his torso. The instantaneous beam of molten red melted a hole in the stone next to him, the heat washing over his sensors.
Checking out its temperature, and comparing it to his internal notes about his armor… He was pretty sure the DaiOni could actually survive that most of the time, the armor was rated equally against heat and was thick enough to endure it at least once. No other frame would, however.
He calmly ran forwards and diagonally to avoid the sweeping beam as the dragon tried to chase him with it. Its speedware was lower grade than his, so it didn't matter that the laser was instantaneous, the dragon's head was not.
Someone with speedware would almost always beat someone without speedware. Someone with better speedware would almost always beat someone with worse speedware. Adam Smasher had some of the best speedware in the world. This thing didn't really stand a chance.
Despite his sandevistan being activated first, it timed out right after the dragon's did. It let out a synthetic roar and crouched, the wheels mounted on its clawed feet roaring to life.
A twinned set of lasers burst out from behind him, and crashed into the dragon's visor-plate, right where the laser had emerged. It began to turn, but a quick burst of auto-shotgun from his arm brought its attention firmly back to him. It continued his charge, and he waited for a moment.
Then, just before it pounced and crushed him with its weight, he threw himself to the side. He had to wait for an attack he could redirect, and that wasn't something he was sure about. No sense in being reckless here.
A railgun slug crashed into one of the missiles mounted on the left wing, and caused it to explode. The dragon screamed in fury as a massive fireball engulfed its left side. The remaining missiles on that half of its body went off in a colossal explosion. Next time, don't stop moving, dragon.
Actually… It's been a while since he's engaged in some good ol' fashioned banter, hasn't it?
"You're making this too easy, cyberform. It's pathetic." He declared.
Much to his surprise, the dragon actually responded.
"Insult recognized. Communication protocols engaged. I will devour you, little boy."
The voice wasn't quite what he was expecting. It was distinctly robotic, but raspy and feminine rather than massive and grumbling. It blurred, sandevistan activating again, and moved away from him in one massive leap.
He glared and activated his own, running to keep up with it…
He was not fast enough to prevent it from melting the Samson some hundred or so feet away. It crashed down on top of the slag, and as it turned to face him, his ATGM crashed into its face and caused it to stagger.
Uriel crashed into its side as it turned to face him, sword stabbing into the now-opened wing structure and slicing through something as he tore it out. It screamed and moved to roll and crush him beneath its bulk, but he leapt off and disappeared into the rubble and scrap mountains surrounding the battlefield once more.
Its speedware wore off as it was rolling, but his didn't. A 5-grenade burst fired out from his left arm, crashing against the dragon's right wing as it rolled. The missiles on those wings, filled with very nice explosives, promptly chain-burst and engulfed the right side in an explosion that sent it sliding for a few dozen feet with a furious roar.
Alright, no more easy damage, from here on out it would get harder. Still, only one frame down and it was the one without speedware. Good trade overall. Uriel, give it a taunt.
"That your dick-sucking voice? Get something more intimidating, lizard!" The Gemini called out from somewhere amongst the piles of rubble and bodies.
The dragon's visor glowed red and a laser screamed out from its maw, turning a pile of rubble into melted slag. "Intimidating enough it seems. Your cowering amuses me."
Another burst of twin-lasers from the distance crashed against its visor-lens, and it screeched furiously. As it's head turned, a burst from his auto-shotgun and the grenade launcher brought it's attention back towards him. The explosions and bullets crashed against its chest primarily, dealing little more than superficial damage.
It leapt again, once more trying to crush him beneath its immense bulk. A deliberate jump to the side at the right moment caused it to fail.
"Stay still, morsel."
He spread his arms in a mocking fashion. The dragon, taking offense to this and seemingly tired of him avoiding its leaps, took a swipe at him instead.
Something that he absolutely knew he could handle.
His claws dug into the stone of the quarry, rooting himself into the earth.
The claw crashed against his raised left arm.
His integrated monoblade on his right arm stabbed into its palm.
The dragon screamed as it's right claw, wrist, and half of its foreleg exploded.
His optics glowed red in malicious glee.
"Like I said. Pathetic."