Although he understood the reasoning, Megatron, who had been proud all his life, still felt stifled.
His optics were dim, and his entire armored frame radiated a resentful air that warned others to stay away.
He possessed combat skills that overwhelmed others at his level and hard-earned experience from countless years of life-and-death battles, yet in the end, he had been brought down by the innate limitations of his frame.
Losing because of how he was built rather than because of his strength was harder for him to accept than being blasted apart by Optimus Prime ten thousand times in a head-on fight.
Rimuru, hovering nearby, saw it all clearly and couldn't help drifting gently down onto Megatron's broad armored foot.
His soft little hand patted Megatron's cold, hard metal shell as he prepared to offer considerate advice like someone who had been through it himself.
"Come on, don't be emo. Your long metal face looks awful."
Rimuru shook his head and leisurely offered a compromise.
"Your jet frame really can't handle full-coverage heavy expansion armor and a heavy weapons case like Optimus Prime's. Forcing them on would only weigh you down."
"But I can tailor a set of lightweight external armor just for you."
"You won't be able to stack as many layers of buffs, but you can still stack rune arrays and nano-augmentations to the greatest extent possible."
He paused, then laid out the most important trade-off, his tone especially sincere.
"But I have to make the cost clear beforehand!"
"Your Dark Star Saber can't be miniaturized to the extreme like the Marvel version. Given its size, there's only so much it can be compressed."
"And with this lightweight external armor mounted on top of that, your top speed, maneuverability, and streamlined aerodynamics in jet form will all