The three-minute action time quickly passed. Since the objective had been sufficiently achieved, I gave the order to retreat.

“Everyone, withdraw from this place immediately! I’ll cover the rear!”

“Miss, I’ll stay behind too,” Damien offered.

However, I felt it would be easier to fight alone, so I ordered him to retreat with the others.

Standing firmly between my retreating comrades and the enemy forces, I blocked their pursuit. Swinging my naginata, I cut through the enemies while releasing electric shocks from the small wings on my back, attacking those further away.

“Miss! You need to escape soon too!”

Damien urged me to withdraw early out of concern for my safety. However, looking around, I saw that the retreat had not yet been fully completed. As long as there was danger, I couldn’t leave this place.

Though I held firm like a solid wall, the attacks became fiercer. My stamina and mental strength were steadily depleting, and I was starting to breathe heavily.

Just as I was beginning to consider retreating, an enemy machine clad in a powerful aura appeared. Its overwhelming presence made my instincts scream danger. I tensed, but after fighting so many enemies, I was too exhausted to muster my full strength.

“I am Gawain Doft, one of the Sixteen Divine Generals of Radl! You seem to be a formidable warrior, but can you stop me?”

It wasn’t uncommon for enemies to address me through external speakers, and most of them did so by announcing their names like this. Personally, I found it a nuisance—I preferred not to know the names of those I was about to fight.

Despite his grand declaration, Gawain didn’t seek a one-on-one duel. Instead, he attacked alongside a squad of spearmen, striking in coordinated assaults.

While I was occupied fending off the spear unit’s charge, Gawain lashed at me from a distance with a weapon resembling a steel whip. Unable to read the trajectory in time, I took a direct hit to my shoulder.

However, thanks to Juonji’s cheat-level armor, my machine took little damage. Strangely, though, I felt a piercing pain in my body—like a thick needle had been driven into me.

“Ghh…!”

At first, I thought it was just muscle strain, but the pain was deeper, heavier—something I had never experienced before. Then, a similar sharp pain shot through my back. Looking back, I saw that I had been struck by a spear.

Could it be…? Am I feeling the damage to my machine?!

The thought seemed all too real. Each time I was hit, I felt pain coursing through my body.

Well, considering this was a machine that Rafshar had practically forced me into, I should have expected something unusual. But if this level of pain was all there was, I could simply endure it.

Besides… perhaps it was just my imagination, but every time I felt pain, Juonji’s power and speed seemed to increase. Not only that—my battle awareness itself was sharpening.

It was an odd sensation. I was starting to find the pain exhilarating. Alongside it, my fighting spirit flared up more and more.

“Come at me! I’ll take you all down!”

I slashed through the approaching enemies with my naginata, then stomped on Gawain’s steel whip, pinning it down. While keeping it restrained, I advanced toward his machine and decapitated it with a clean swing of my naginata.

The sensation of severing his head resonated through my hands. I could feel my excitement rising. I wanted to defeat more enemies. I wanted to sever more heads. And, more than anything… I wanted to feel more pain.

“Miss!! What are you doing?! Please retreat already!”

Damien’s voice snapped me back to reality. The madness creeping into my mind was pushed back as I regained my composure.