[@Pirouette] [@Saint Girralo]

The Mage-Knight didn't follow up his shoulder check with another attack, it wasn't really sure why he did so, maybe it was out of a sense of fair play due to the extreme disparity between his opponent and himself? Or caution due to realizing that Roy was an amateur at swordplay, meaning that he's very likely do something dangerous and unpredictable, further exacerbated by his desperation and willingness to die for the mission.

The Knight didn't show it thanks to his helmet, but he regarded the Alchemist before him, even as battered and bruised as he was with genuine respect; at the very least he will honor his memory and sacrifice by not going after his men, not when they were already on the run after that abominable witch's threat and what he had done to the rest of them along with the fact that his Captain needed his help. At Roy's egging on, the Knight fought the urge to scoff at his claim; but still entertained him with a response even as he parries the powerful slash with a seemingly casual swipe of his longsword, which combined with the amount of power Roy put into his slash, would probably make for a very unpleasant sensation on the Alchemist's arm as well as leaving him wide open.

"Agreed, it would be a disservice otherwise."

The time for talk over, the knight makes his move by following up his parry with a quick step forward and preparing to run the officer through with a two-handed thrust of his enchanted blade, but once again; fate decides to ruin his chances at earning glory when he notices a flash of energy from the corner of his eye that was followed up by a far-too-big sword coming down towards his head like the judgement of God. In a superhuman feat of speed, the knight suddenly whips around and with a desperate block, arrests the incoming digital blade just in time with a resounding "CLANG", its edge coming mere millimeters from making contact his helmet and probably making Roy feel a smidgen of schadenfreude at the having Knight feel what he had done to the Alchemist's dominant arm.

Tired of being denied again and again, there was no string of curses and colorful insults to be said to the foolish girl who dared interfere in his fight, just a deafening, rage-filled howl of utter frustration that didn't sound like it could ever come from a Human being. Pushing the blade aside with monstrous strength, the Knight then lunges towards Red, closing the distance in an eyeblink despite the fact that his armor looked like it weighed more than she did in order to make properly utilizing her sword awkward in such close quarters and then attempted to smash her face in with a savage punch from his armored gauntlet; the punch packing enough power to leave a deep, ugly dent on modern tank armor.

[hr]

[@Mtntopview] [@Nightknight]

As Optimus broke through the defenders and out into no-man's land, he'd notice something very wrong with the current picture... The rather sizable part of the battlefield he escaped into was eerily silent for what is supposed to be the most hotly contested part of the warzone, empty and full of ash, smoking corpses and piles of cooling slag and lastly, kneeling right in the middle of the bizarre and horrifying spectacle is what seems to be some sort of knight in sliver-gold armor that has seen far better days and whose head and upper body was wreathed in flames yet seemed completely unaffected by his state of immolation, more concerned by the fact that he seemed to be bleeding from his torso, on his side lay a red-hot sword and on the ground surrounding him were the carbon "shadows" of what seemed to be his attackers.

Hearing the roar of Prime's engine, the Knight grabs his sword and using it as a makeshift cane, forces himself to his feet in order to look at what he believed were reinforcements; the moment the flaming warrior realized that the vehicle coming for him was not relief but rather one of the Resistance's most dangerous and talented commanders, Prime could literally taste the man's despair and disbelief as he sinks to one knee and starts grip the handle of his sword so tightly that it shook like a leaf.