With the water level lowered, there was just one more level to go before they reached the very bottom. From here, the water was already thin enough to see what lay below—the Hex obelisk, emitting square-shaped perimeters of blue light around it that faded away with distance.

Sure, I could just leap into the water right now, and destroy it from there. But there was a problem—beside the obelisk, on either side of it, a Hex mech lay. One appeared to be a Praetor that wielded an enormous two-handed greatsword, and the other was some kind of… weird round humanoid being that somewhat resembled a ball.

But of course, thanks to the handbook the riversnakes left behind, we knew better. That was no ball—that was an Exorcist-class Hex, and a Healer subclass at that.

That was going to be a huge problem fighting them head-on, much less in the water. As such, we decided to just do things the normal way and clear out this floor first.

Once again, there were only a few troopers. The execution was the same as the previous floor—flank attack, take out the gate covers, then their cores. They were too focused on their own programming to notice what happened to their friends on the floor above, so naturally they had no way to counter or defend against us.

After that, Feng Mian once again found the trick to the pressure plate puzzle using Shadow Vision, and we solved the button mechanism with no problem whatsoever. The water level lowered, and soon, the only things standing in our way between the obelisk and us were the two Hex sitting on the ground beside it.

As the water was completely drained and the two Hex mechs were no longer submerged in water, their 'eyes' flickered to life, and their stood up. Well, the Praetor did, anyway. The Exorcist just kinda hovered in the air with its short, stubby legs, floating around.

Feng Mian, Qing Yue, Axilia, and I hid on the floor above, looking down at them. They didn't notice us here, which was good. We needed the jump on them.

The plan was quite straight-forward: we would all collapse on the exorcist first. Feng Mian will use Curse Magic to slow it down and weaken its resistances, Axilia will break the gate on its back, while Qing Yue will give me the speed I needed to circle around behind it and take it down. Then, with the Healer out of the way, we can all take on the Praetor together.

Unfortunately, plans don't always go as planned.

Feng Mian leaped down and did her part—applied the Curse Magic on the Exorcist. Axilia also did hers, throwing her scythe so it tore off the gate protecting the Hex's core. Qing Yue also gave me the speed boost I needed to circle around to behind the Exorcist while being invisible. Everything was in place, the Exorcist's back was exposed.

But right as I was about to pierce it with an arrow, a bulky figure suddenly dashed in front of me, and intercept my arrow with its greatsword.

"Wha-?!

" My eyes widened a bit at its speed, but there wasn't any time for surprise as the massive Hex mecha slammed its energy greatsword down into the ground in front of me.

"Ngh-!

" I wasn't hit directly by it, but was knocked backwards by the sheer force of the impact. The girls called out my name, but I couldn't respond.

After all, the Renegade Praetor wasn't done with me just yet, and the girls were busy trying to take down the Healer, who was now long alerted and protecting itself with shields and the like.

The Renegade's bloodthirsty red gleam in its berserk eye followed me as it dashed in my direction, energy sword glowing dangerously red. I evaded out of the way with a sideways roll, then launched a counterattack by attempting to blind it.

Level Three Shadow Magic—Dome of Nightmares.

Instantly, a hemisphere of surging black Shadow energy erupted around the creature as I circled it, trying to get to its back. However, it followed me with its heat-tracking sensors, and with immense computing speed as well. I couldn't get a clear shot on its back since it kept spinning to match me, and my blind field was going to run out soon.

I needed a new idea. This Praetor was far stronger than the previous one at first glance, but from what I've read in the handbook, each subclass has their own strengths and weaknesses. There had to be something about Renegades… I need to remember…

Suddenly, however, the massive mech tore its way out of my Dome of Nightmares, now having converted its massive greatsword into a drill.

"Woah-!

"

I just barely managed to dodge out of the way of being turned into mince meat, and quickly fired a few Chaos-infused bullets at it. Naturally, they didn't do any damage, since the Praetor used its other hand to create one of those stupid energy barriers that completely nullified my attack.

"Tch… how annoying,

" I muttered.

In the brief moment when it stopped to create the energy barrier, however, I noticed something that I previously didn't due to all the motion—the glow in its eye was becoming brighter and brighter, and for some reason, gave off a very unstable and dangerous feeling. I thought I was just imagining things earlier due to all the motion, but there's no doubt about it now—its eye was shaking. Violently trembling, like it was having some sort of spasm.

And it was that small detail that let me remember what was written about Renegades on the handbook.

They were berserkers. They were the fastest, physically strongest of the bunch, but they had one fatal flaw: overheating. The more they fought and the more intense their fights were, the faster they would go into overheat. The shaking of their eye displays were what signaled they were about to reach overheat. And when that happened… the Praetor would fall into sleep mode for several seconds, completely unable to do anything else.

And those several seconds… were all I needed.