The Heroes’ Reincarnation

Whiirrr-

The Death Knight crashed with the mech. Motors clicked and whirred as the mech struggled to remain upright, however the Death Knight completed its mission and managed to tackle the mecha to the ground. Dirt sprayed outwards as the two large fighters landed harshly.

The undead player raced towards the mecha and raised their machete. Aiming for the gaps in its helmet they thrusted forward. 

Breem~!

The light within the helmet flashed and the undead player jerked back. A laser shot upwards and scorched some of the skin on the player's face. Stepping back they instead aimed to decapitate the mecha, but found their machete simply bounced off its hard surface. The Death Knight pinned it down with its foot as it stood back up. Raising their battleaxe they attempted to swing downwards, yet the mecha suddenly slipped away. Boosters deafening loud as they cranked up to their full thrust.

Sliding away from the Death Knight their back opened up with several rocket boosters. Igniting with full force the mech stood back up without much effort. Extending a hand out it released a certain frequency that vibrated through the air. Their longsword quivered before jerking and returning to the palm of the mecha. Like a small metal piece helpless to a powerful magnet. 

"Tiny General, this one is strong."

The undead player patted the leg of the Death Knight, "So are you big guy. The rot will slowly make it weaker, then we take out the other ones too."

"Of course Tiny General."

Bree~!

The red laser shot forth and the player leapt to the side to dodge. The Death Knight lacked such nimble movements however and was forced to block it with the wide end of its battleaxe. The metal turned red hot and nearly broke from the constant abuse. If it wasn't for the undead player flanking the mecha and attacking its knee joint. The mecha's knee collapsed and it knelt in response. The sudden unexpected movement caused the laser to divert and leave a series of molten earth in its path. 

Attempting the climb the back of the mecha the player aimed their machete for the gaps in its armor for the thrusters. However the mecha suddenly released flaming hot jet of flames which knocked the player back and into the ground. Raising up they felt their rotted skin healing the burns.

Wiping off some of the char on their face the undead player complained, "This fight should've been over the moment I killed their general!"

The Death Knight swung its battleaxe towards the mecha's head. Upon making contact the axe shattered, a mixture between it suffering damage from the laser and also the rot affecting it. In response the mecha raised its longsword and swung horizontally. Barely catching the blade the Death Knight stopped itself from being split into two pieces. Despite its efforts however the longsword still managed to embed itself halfway through its waist. 

The undead player ran to the side and leapt up. Landing on the long sword they held their machete to their side and flung it forward. It rotated like a boomerang and was nearly a perfect throw to hit the mecha's helmet gap!

Brrt-!

Several bullets rang forth and knocked it off-course. It fell apart into pieces and scattered across the dirt. The undead player looked towards the source of the bullets and hissed through their rotted teeth, "Coming back is cheating."

"What? You get a lot of retries but I can't?", Torch asked incredulously 

"Ever fight a boss in a game before? Despite you healing it's immediately unfair when the boss does it."

"I appreciate the compliment."

Brrrrt-!

Bullets rang forth and the undead player scrambled to the side. They weren't willing to take the damage now that the Territory shifted away from their revival. Additionally with their current buffs their strength was enough to reasonably dodge the bullets. Granted some still landed.

Flicking his wrist Torch closed the machine gun located in his arm. Swinging his arms through the air he ejected two wrist blades. One was a chainsaw that spun violently. Torch's prototypes had various quirks about them. His previous body was a sort of all-rounder with many different solutions to different problems. This body was a physical only battle type. He lacked the compressed machines, or any of the mana technology. Truthfully it wasn't his first option, but his backup program ran automatically to the nearest available body so he couldn't manually choose.

Additionally with the rot slowly affecting his body he decided that it would be pointless to swap bodies. Meaning this was a one-shot only chance to defeat this undead player! 

Thrusters began to whir to life in his body. To make up for the lack of options Torch used the space to fit various thrusters to increase his speed and agility. However this made the suit far too heavy with his available alloys, so he had to forgo a lot of the armor. It was essentially a thief build! Quick, vicious, but as fragile as paper!

Not that it mattered, the undead player's strength had surpassed his previous armor anyway!

Briii~

Fwoom-!

Torch was jettisoned forward, the thrusters massively increasing his speed. The Death Knight hollered, "Tiny General!"

The thrusters on his back angled slightly and Torch's movement took on a curve. Sliding past the Death Knight he approached the undead player. His shoulders extended revealing several moderately sized missiles. They shot forth without any hesitation, Torch was not conserving ammo this time!

D-d-d-doom-!

Several explosions decorated the ground as the undead player tried to avoid any damage. Rolling to the side the glowing mark on their palm flashed and a skeleton arm shot through the ground. Picking up the replacement machete in its hand the undead player brandished it. 

Angling the boosters Torch gained some upwards momentum to leap across the ground. Machine parts clicked and whirred as his arms revealed several machine guns. Bullets sprayed out viciously and without cover the undead player was forced to receive several of the projectiles!

Twang~!

Torch nearly flinched if it wasn't for his mechanical body devoid of emotion. He wasn't entirely positive but the undead player was. . . deflecting his bullets? Swinging madly the undead player shattered a few of the projectiles but it seemed more like dumb luck. 

No matter, Torch was used to seeing stuff like this! 

Click-

Frowning Torch retracted his machine guns, his ammunition wasn't depleted just yet. Rather the rot had caused the guns to jam. Instead of trying to unjam them Torch figured it would be faster to ignore them. Landing on the ground his thrusters whined as they provided extra thrust. Sliding across the ground he began to travel in a circle around the undead player.

Several small circular explosives bounced out and rolled across the ground. They exploded and fragmentation scattered around, smoke rising to blind the undead player. With a grunt they tried to wave away the smoke, some of the fragments from the explosives started to fall out of their body.

Whirr-!

Swinging towards the sound the undead player's machete crashed with Torch's wrist blade. Sparks flew out from the sudden crash. Thanks to the rot both of their weapons chipped from the contact, although Torch's wrist blade gained a nasty-looking crack from the point of impact.

The spinning of the chainsaw on his other hand became louder as Torch thrusted it forward. Raising their arm the undead player sacrificed their hand to block it. Eating through the rotten flesh it whirred violent in their palm. Retracting their weapon hands the undead player aimed for Torch's head while Torch aimed for the undead player's torso.

Thanks to the thrusters Torch was faster! Lifting up the player caused them to miss their swing. Torch raised them up before slamming them downwards onto his knee. A sickening crunch could be heard through the whirs of the chainsaw and the undead player slumped to the ground. With their torso exposed Torch was able to see their shocked expression.

"The spine breaker?!", the undead player cried out.

Stepping onto their arm Torch raised his chipped and cracked wrist blade and aimed it towards the undead player's head. Barely gripping their fallen weapon they swung to clash with the blade. More metal parts flung outwards as the two blades further became chipped. With a grin the undead player instead swung towards their arm and cut it clean off. Rolling free they rapidly regained their footing and threw the chipped machete forward.

It sunk into Torch's palm and rendered his forearm useless. Ripping the machete free Torch tossed it aside with his good hand and increased the rpm of the chainsaw. Retrieving another spare machete the one-armed undead player bent their knees, "Gotta say, out of all the players I guess I should've expected a machine to fight similarly to I."

"Similar to I? No, we're not quite the same.", Torch brought the thrusters to a high-pitched whine.

"Really? I dunno!"

The two shot forward, aiming to end it here! With the damage taken the undead player grew in strength! Yet as the rot overtook Torch's body he found his effectiveness dropping! Yet he still had a few cards up his sleeve!

The two swung with their only functional arms. The machete met the chainsaw and sparks violently spread across the dirt as the two weapons struggled to make way. The thrusters whined as Torch put more thrust into his swing. With the spinning chainsaw and the thruster he was able to rip apart the machete! His swing continued forward and the chainsaw impaled the undead player's chest!

Instead of trying to avoid the damage the undead player welcomed it entirely! Using their elbow they slammed Torch's arm joint and caused it to bend. Pushing forward the undead player tackled Torch and repeatedly slammed their fist against Torch's helmet. 

Torch increased the rpm of his chainsaw to its utter limit and continued to tear through the undead player, yet the rot and the rotted flesh was starting to take its toll on the mechanism! The blade began to slow and the undead player's grin grew wider.

A hoarse laugh escaped the undead player's lips, "I told you! We fight the same!"

A final punch caused the undead player's hand to be crushed, but also Torch's head. The chainsaw finally came to a stop as the lights began to dim on Torch's wiring. His voice module cracked as he responded, "Except. . . my pockets are deeper."

"What?"

The torso of Torch flicked open and a bright blue light blinded the undead player. The source of power that was Torch's lifeblood suddenly exploded, a massive blue explosion rang across the battle. The Death Knight became distracted, "Tiny General!"

Severing the Death Knight's body into two the mecha's red glow in its helmet seemed to flash in satisfaction. 

Torch's eyes began to respond as another carrier spider revealed his other backup. The rot had already affected a lot of his core systems and the body was far from combat ready. Feeling the slow movement of his mechanical fingers Torch shook his head, "Victory at a very expensive cost. Oh well."

Pressing several buttons on his interface Torch spread out his arms, "Mutually assured destruction!"

Across the battlefield Torch's mechanical army started self destructing. The explosions taking a sizeable amount of the undead army with them. It was a terrifying thing to hear, yet Torch basked in its light.

His arms began to fall apart from the rot, the more fragile components were the first to fail. Since the magic circle Kan'na gave him wasn't on this body he wasn't able to communicate his victory. Although he felt the fireworks should be enough.

Torch didn't have any other back up bodies, although if he did they too would've fell apart from the rot. Despite him being unable to see this raid until its end, he felt pleased with what he had accomplished. It was a massive expenditure and the time it would take to replace all the lost mechanical soldiers was making his head hurt. So he put aside such thoughts and simply spent his last moments appreciating the destruction he was causing.

Thus Torch fell, and not a single mechanical soldier remained.