Now that I'd figured out my plan for this fight, all that was left was to actually carry it out. The Renegade Praetor swung at me with its massive drill, tearing the walls and floor apart, but thanks to my own agility and Qing Yue's speed boost, I was able to evade all of its attacks—not with ease, of course.

Thankfully for me, the Renegade Praetor's programming was especially very strict, even amongst the Hex. Once it got into a battle, it would not stop until it destroyed that opponent, before going for someone else. In other words, the girls were completely safe from the Renegade, and only had to deal with the Healer.

Suddenly, the Renegade Praetor stopped mid-attack, and its entire body froze up. I stopped moving as well, thinking it had finally overheated and gone into its 'sleep' mode. But just as I was about to approach it to make sure-

"WRRRRRRRR!

"

Its eye display suddenly flashed wide open once again, shining the brightest red its ever been. A terrifying fire made of energy erupted from its eye, filled with murderous intent, as a wrathful shockwave of energy was released all around it.

To the right, the Healer Exorcist the girls had been fighting froze momentarily as it was hit by the wrathful red energy, before its display suddenly turned red as well from its initial blue. Then, energy erupted all around it, its power having been amplified tenfold. It suddenly began attacking the girls aggressively, taking them by surprise and striking Qing Yue in the stomach.

"Ngh-!

" She cried as she was sent flying backwards into a wall, and my eyes widened.

"Qing Yue!

"

"Hngh… I'm fine, Big Brother Xuan Kai,

" she groaned, struggling to her feet and using the stone wall beside her for help.

Now, things were looking bad.

This was never written about in the handbook. Nowhere in the manual did it mention anything about a Renegade Praetor emitting an energy wave of fury that empowered nearby Hex and caused them to begin attacking relentlessly.

But it was too late to be complaining about that now.

It was a mistake to rely completely on the book in the first place—an oversight on my part. I should've been more careful, and considered all possibilities. And now we were paying the price for my mistake.

"Tch…!

" I gritted my teeth as I barely managed to evade the Praetor's attack, still trying to turn me to mince meat with that massive whirling drill. It came at me even faster and stronger than before, full berserker mode.

However, I believed the overheat thing was still the truth. After all, although the glow on the Praetor's eye display was brighter than ever, it was also shaking more violently than ever. At this rate, it should be able to last about another minute or so.

All I needed to do was stall for another minute—but the question was if I could even do that.

"Flight!

"

I flew into the air in a panic, and shot down various red streaks of lightning from my two white wings. Can't catch me up here, can yo-

Right as I was about to smirk in cockiness, however, the Praetor angled its head up at me, single eye expressionless on the surface yet rage-filled deep down, and it took off from the ground like a goddamn ninja. Its legs folded back into its body as a downwards thruster replaced them, and throttled the massive mech upwards into the sky to match me.

"Goddammit—you can do anything, huh?!

"

But this was fine. At least in the air, I had more movement options.

50 seconds.

I dodged out of the way of its drill, then flew upwards, as far as I could go, nearly all the way back up to the surface. The Praetor followed, far faster than I was. Right as it was going to hit me, however, I suddenly used Blink to teleport a short distance away.

And the faster you were, the harder it would be to control your direction.

Because I waited for the perfect moment, the Renegade Praetor ended up slamming its drill into the stone ceiling, and getting it lodged there. I smirked. Perfect for stalling time.

40 seconds.

Things were not quite done yet, however, as the Praetor suddenly sped up the intensity and strength of its drill, breaking the stone ceiling completely and dislodging itself. Then, turning to me, it gave chase relentlessly like a predator seeking its prey or an assassin chasing their target.

30 seconds.

Once again, I used the same trick. The Hex were highly 'intelligent', but they weren't very smart, being robots. This time, rather than the ceiling, the Renegade Praetor slammed into the side wall of this underground cavern area, and once again found itself stuck.

"Heh.

" I smirked from a few meters away, hovering in the air with my wings, a smug look on my face. My arms were folded, patiently waiting for its next attack. It couldn't do much more at this rate, and I still had plenty of mana left to keep using Blink.

20 seconds.

But what I did not expect, was that from above me, a chunk of the ceiling would give in and collapse.

This was due to the Renegade slamming into the side of the cavern too hard, of course. I had factored in everything—or at least I thought I did—but I did not consider my environment.

I looked up, but it was already too late.

"Ngh!

"

The heavy chunk of ceiling slammed into me and brought me down into the ground, rendering me unable to do anything. The Renegade Praetor used the same strategy to free itself from the wall, and it immediately turned to me, drill in hand.

10 seconds.

"Tch… damn it…!

"

It was too heavy. Breaking out would take some time, which I didn't have. With this on me, I couldn't channel mana throughout my body to use Blink or anything that would get me out of this situation.

9. 8. 7. 6.

The Praetor dove downwards from high above, drill in front. I was about to get impaled, my insides turned to dust—and there was no way out.

Did I have to call upon my Battle Soul so quickly? Really? Ah… but I couldn't even do that. After all, Xuan Yu wasn't here.

5. 4. 3. 2.

I could see my death coming towards me, and I lost count of the minute. All I could think about was the drill, and how painful it would be to get hit by that thing.

1.

The drill filled up my entire vision, right in front of my face, and I closed my eyes, bracing for what was to come.

I closed my eyes, but…

But…

… Nothing happened.