The force of the attack threw Dhruv flying through the air as his red blood sprayed like a fountain.

"UGH...!" He groaned in pain as tears welled in his eyes, the entire right side of his body, especially his shoulders were in agony.

The tungsten penetrator ripped his entire right shoulder off!

’This f*cker... argh, goddammit!’

The extreme pain made his vision sway, becoming dizzy, but despite it his violet ADE flared. Dhruv’s survival instinct was as strong as a storm.

Bzzz!

Adaptive Armor!

He finally fell down and collapsed with a mighty thud, creating a small crater on the ground as he suffered more damage from the fall.

Dhruv coughed blood.

His head was spinning as he struggled to deal with the pain.

Behind him, the massive war machine was still charging towards him. Even in a world of pain, Dhruv could still hear the sound of its movement clearly, and his survival instincts still burned hot like a volcano.

An angry scream came out of the crater on the ground.

"F*CK YOUUUUUU!!!" Dhruv roared in anger, then it happened...

BZZZZZZZT!

Knight Exosuit- Ratel!

The terrorist leader held nothing back, he went all out immediately.

Inside the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame, Leon already closed the distance to his opponent completely. At the speed that the mech suit was moving at, it was hard to think straight but Leon had always been good at planning ahead.

He got ready for the second salvo, and that was when it happened.

Dhruv’s Ratel Exosuit appeared instantaneously, covering his body in its protective frame and led by his rage, the D Rank Cyber Gladiator counterattacked instantly with a perfect claw slash that seemed to severe the world in two.

SHWING!

His claw cut through reality!

The air squeezed and revealed slight cracks!

Despite the sheer power behind that attack, the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame didn’t stop moving forward, it was impossible to just kill the momentum when moving at such extreme speeds.

So instead of trying to stop to no avail, Leon improvised mid-run.

He didn’t back down at all as the Forearm Rail Cannons retracted inside, and then the mech suit pulled out the Retractable Plasma Blade.

The blade edge of the Great Sword glowed red, then the mech swung.

Leon met aggression with aggression.

Claw met blade, and the world groaned...

KABOOM!

CRKSH!

The sheer impact of that attack briefly squeezed space, and then a powerful shockwave spread out like a storm, leveling the ground across a few dozen meters around them even as both suits were briefly pushed back.

The red glow in place of the Bulwark MK’s eyes glowed brighter as inside the mech suit, Leon got prepared for the most brutal battle of his life.

Afterall, he already pushed the terrorist leader to his limit.

From storming his base to interrupting his student’s Trial, to killing his student, to now heavily injuring him, if he was Dhruv, he would have gone past his limit already. He wouldn’t think of escaping either and would rather stay behind to stage his last stand with all the fuel of his rage and anger.

But well, Dhruv didn’t do that.

Despite boiling with rage and pain inside, wanting to tear the Mechanist apart with his raw hands, Dhruv was still as rational as a robot.

Emotion had no grip over him at all, this was a terrorist that had been forged by decades of terrorism and slaughter.

This was a terrorist who’d learned long ago to kill his emotions when it mattered to survive and thrive.

Dhruv showed an uncanny level of self-awareness and self-control as immediately after that first clash in his Knight Exosuit, despite his rage, instead of pressing his advantage and going for another attack, he used the shockwave of the first attack to push back, turn around and run.

"..."

Leon stared in a daze. ’What?’

He couldn’t wrap his head around how Dhruv did it, was he even human? Well, technically he was not, but still...

Despite his shock at Dhruv’s reaction, this time, Leon snapped out of it quickly as he reacted.

Incendiary Gel Dispensers!

Bam... bam... bam...

From the chest area of the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame, Leon deployed special adhesive and burning compounds at the terrain while deactivating the burning agents ahead of time.

He didn’t want to burn the terrain, he wanted to turn the terrain into a trap.

Instantly, Leon turned the entire terrain into a quagmire!

And after just 3 steps, the escaping Ratel Knight Exosuit was forced to slow down before stopping completely.

Inside the Exosuit, Dhruv despaired.

His frustration and anger against the Mechanist rose up another notch to an extreme level. ’You f*cker, leave me alone!’

The Ratel Knight Exosuit turned around and slashed, but the mech suit was not there. Leon predicted his reaction to the adhesives ahead of time.

One disadvantage of Cyber Gladiators of the Exo Knight Specialization is that without mechanist constructs, they had no means of long-range attacks. And in a battle against a Mechanist, this is a fatal disadvantage.

Leon didn’t shy from exploiting enemy disadvantages.

Dhruv caught Leon off-guard when he stayed rational and decided to continue escaping, but after that, Leon finally understood his personality and the type of warrior that he was.

It was this understanding that also led him to predict the terrorist leader’s next reaction to the adhesives.

Dhruv counterattacking was not to stage a final last stand, but to buy himself time while he thought of another way to escape.

This prediction was why Leon stayed out of his attack range, and this also became the catalyst that motivated his next step.

Leon read the terrorist like a book and this was why from the sky above them, more than a dozen crates began falling on his orders- more airdrops.

Dhruv paid attention to the sky and his heart skipped a beat. ’What?!’

He was alarmed because the first time that an airdrop came from the sky, the Gun Drone descended with the 2 D Rank Ascended.

He didn’t know what these airdrops were bringing, but in his head, more than a dozen was always more dangerous than 1.

Mid-fall, all 12 crates exploded from inside, and from inside emerged different types of war machines- Doom Rover v0.2s- 5 Tank Class, 2 Skirmisher Class, and 5 Melee Class!

Command Link Network!

BZZZ!

Leon’s grayish white ADE flared, spreading from the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame like tendrils and connecting to all 12 Doom Rovers.

Thud... thud... thud...

As Dhruv watched, stunned, the war machines dropped around him and immediately moved into formation.

Of the 5 Melee Class Doom Rovers, 2 were Spear Variants, another 2 were Great Sword Variants, and the last was a Reinforced Gauntlet Variant.

Alongside the 2 Skirmisher Class Doom Rovers, the Melee Class Doom Rovers didn’t attack immediately, instead they positioned themselves in strategic positions to intercept the Ratel Knight Exosuit and stop it from escaping.

As for the 5 Tank Class Doom Rovers, they retreated alongside the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame, and then they aimed all their weapons at the Ratel Knight Exosuit that was in the center of their attack formation.

"...!" Dhruv’s heart skipped a beat.

Seeing this, he was smart enough to realize the Mechanist’s plan immediately.

With the melee war machines plus the adhesives on the ground around him, their aim was to intercept and prevent him from escaping, boxing him in.

And with those heavy artillery war machines, alongside the mech suit where the Mechanist was, their role was to bombard him with artillery till death!

Inside his Knight Exosuit, Dhruv’s eyes widened. ’I can’t escape!’

Then it started...

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Leon held nothing back as he went all out.

He didn’t think of money, he didn’t think of the expenses as with the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame and the Tank Class Doom Rovers, he unleashed hell on the Ratel Knight Exosuit and the D Rank Cyber Gladiator riding it.

The world groaned under the bombardment of his war machines!

In response, Dhruv no longer panicked as he locked in and went all out defensively.

He didn’t even try to escape anymore because rationally, with the kill box that the Mechanist set for him, escape by himself was impossible.

BZZZ!

His violet purple ADE erupted like a tsunami.

Kinetic Absorption!

Reinforced Frame!

Overdrive Mode!

Kinetic Shield!

Adaptive Armor!

Armor Amplifier!

Dhruv turned his Ratel Knight Exosuit into a turtle shell! He became an embodiment of defense itself as he stood in the center of the wasteland like a wall.

An immovable, unbreakable wall.

Yet, even this was not enough.

Against the full firepower of 5 Enhance-empowered Tank Class Doom Rovers and the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame, no amount of defense was enough to stop the world from burning and ending.

Any other target would have been destroyed in seconds, evaporated and blasted to oblivion!

But Dhruv lasted, showing the full defensive capabilities of a Cyber Gladiator of the Exo Knight Specialization. Still, within seconds, the Ratel’s bio-mechanic frame started fracturing, revealing numerous burns and holes inside.

Against this level of bombardment, at most, the Ratel Knight Exosuit would last 5 minutes and that was being generous.

And without his Exosuit, Dhruv would die in at most 30 seconds!

Inside the Knight Exosuit, under the bombardment of the mechanic as the world around him fragmented, Dhruv’s brain whirred in desperation and then an idea came, a last-gasp idea, an idea at the back of his mind that he never thought he was ever going to use.

Without hesitation, he executed it as he sent out an SOS signal for help.

The only way out of this kill box was outside interference.

The Mechanist was too well-rounded, too versatile, there was no escaping his kill box alone.

But instantly after he sent out the SOS signal for help, it couldn’t leave as Leon reacted with the Broadband jamming antennas integrated in the torso of the mech suit to intercept the signal!

"Goddammit...!" Dhruv despaired and cursed as he forgot all his dignity.

But even in his desperation, he was not out of options yet.

As a terrorist who was always on the run, he was used to having contingency plans. He tried his final gambit.

The slowly fragmenting Ratel Knight Exosuit raised its right hand and from inside, a physical red signal flare shot into the sky.

BAM!

Leon aimed at it and shot it down with a well-placed shot immediately after it was thrown into the sky, but destroying it didn’t stop the red smoke from spreading across the sky.

Inside the Bulwark MK, Leon’s eyes narrowed. ’What is this signal flare for?’

For more than 30 seconds, nothing happened as he bombarded the Knight Exosuit, pushing it increasingly closer to destruction and then, suddenly the wilderness awakened as a multitude of terrorists poured out like a tide.

It was an Exodus!