Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Avery ducked under a laser blast and closed the distance between him and the man shooting at him.

With the swipe of his left hand, he batted the guy's laser rifle away and sunk his right fist into his gut.

The body armor the man was wearing folded in like a thin piece of cloth, and Avery smashed him into the wall behind him.

A groaning sound resounded from both the person Avery had hit and the metal panel he was being slammed into.

Without a moment to slow down, Avery grabbed the man by his clothing and spun him around.

Less than a second later, more laser fire came towards Avery. Fortunately, he had positioned the enemy he had just taken out in front of him to absorb the attacks.

His own shield generator could have held out, but there was no telling how many people that they would need to fight or what types of weapons they might have. That's why he was doing what he could to conserve the capacity of his personal shield generator.

"Here, you can have this guy back." Avery said, pushing the individual he was holding forward with all the force he could muster.

He could tell that the assailant's protective forcefield was going to reach its limit soon, and his physical body would only stop a few rounds of laser fire before being blown through.

There was no point in holding onto him any longer, and doing so would actually be a detriment.

'Looks like they have at least some comradery.'

When the man's shield gave out midflight, the other attackers stopped firing and a couple of them braced themselves to catch their comrade.

While they had been willing to sacrifice him before, it seemed that the chance to retrieve the guy alive had changed their priority.

Morally, this was certainly the correct choice, and Avery would have done the same. However, stopping their assault for even just a moment would prove to be fatal for them.

Though Avery had charged ahead, he was not fighting this battle alone.

Once he gave the signal, Kasandra, who had been lurking just around a nearby corner, rushed out into the hallway where the battle was occurring.

With fast and agile steps, she jumped from wall to wall and was soon nearly at the height of the ceiling.

"You really should keep your eyes over here!" Avery shouted to draw attention back to himself.

The attackers had noticed Kasandra's approach and were beginning to aim their weapons at her.

Except, they had taken most of their focus off of Avery to do so. Something he was not going to let stand.

Along with his shout, he jabbed his gauntleted hand into the wall next to him, and in one swift motion ripped out a few chunks of metal and flung them forward.

The impromptu projectiles were stopped by the enemies' shield generators, but Avery had provided enough of a distraction for Kasandra to have finished rushing over their heads and drop down behind them.

Using her ultra dense metal batons, she started smacking their legs.

Every time she swung, a sickening cracking sound echoed out, followed by a groan of pain from whomever she had just hit.

Kasandra moved through the group of armor-clad masked assailants like a whirlwind.

She had gotten too close for any of them to get a shot on her, and she was far too quick and strong for them to hold up in close combat.

Of course, they did not only have her to contend with.

Avery jumped into the chaos as well.

Throwing jab after jab, he relentlessly attacked without giving the clearly shady group a moment to rest.

Realizing that being bunched up was currently putting them at a disadvantage, the attackers tried to spread out so that they could take advantage of their numbers and ranged weapons.

Yet, Avery and Kasandra did not give them a chance to reposition themselves.

They kept up the pressure and incapacitated their adversaries before they could mount a counterattack.

"And that's another group down. I wonder how many more of them there are?" Kasandra said as she started collecting their defeated foe's weapons.

"Considering that there were thirteen of them in this group and including the ones we took out along the way here, I don't think there should be many left. Those sponsors could only bring so many people along with them as their entourage." Avery responded.

He had not paid too much attention to the bigwigs sitting in the same section of the venue as the competitors had.

Still, he could remember that each of the sponsors had at most about twenty-five others with them.

Using some simple math, if they were only dealing with one individual's group, that meant there were three or four more left at most.

Though it was too soon to say whether there was only one group up to no good right now.

"Dr. Raiti, it's safe now. You can come out."

Having been hiding around the corner of the same hallway Kasandra had been in, Mercedes popped her head out and rushed over to join Avery and Kasandra.

"You two really are quite strong. To think that you could so easily take out thirteen armed individuals just the two of you. And without proper equipment. Although, perhaps I should be praising myself instead. It's thanks to my augmentations that you're both so capable." Mercedes said, puffing out her chest proudly.

Avery wondered for a moment how she could be so shameless but did not voice any rebuttals since he did not want to get drawn into an argument.

Plus, it was difficult to completely refute what she had said. Avery and Kasandra's enhcaced physical abilities were a large part of why they had been able to take out a group of thirteen people armed with laser rifles, when the two of them only had physical weapons at their disposal.

For a moment Avery thought about shoving Mercedes into a room and leaving her there.

Still, he had not done so already because he felt that it would be riskier than just keeping her with them.

If their enemies found her, she would have few options being trapped within an enclosed space.

At that point, they could possibly use her as a hostage to stop Avery and Kasandra.

At least if she kept nearby, the two of them would have a chance to respond if she got into trouble.

Thanks to the personal shield generator they had swiped from the first guy they encountered, Dr. Raiti could block a few laser blasts, and she was fast enough to evade being physically caught so long as she had room to move around.

"I wish that we could interrogate them and find out what their goal is." Kasandra said, glaring down at the incapacitated group of attackers.

"Same. But we don't have time for that. There's no telling what they're planning, so we can't take the time. We'll just have to keep relying on your sharp senses to guide us."

Nodding her head, Kasandra closed her eyes and focused on listening.

Her species already had impressive hearing abilities, but Kasandra was in a league of her own.

Atop her head, her ears began to twitch, and Avery knew that this was a sign that she had picked something up.

"I think that there's five of them. They're moving in that direction hastily."

Following Kasandra's directions, the three of them ran after the nearest group of people.

'Most likely this group will be the last. We haven't found the sponsor who's the main perpetrator, and he should have at most four more people with him. I'd guess that he's trying to flee now that things have turned sour.' Avery thought as they pursued the people Kasandra had locked onto.

Within about half a minute, they had caught up.

As expected, Avery recognized the man in the middle of the group surrounded by guards on all sides as one of the sponsors.

He did not know the man's name, but that hardly mattered at the moment.

"Sh*t! There here! Kill them! Kill them!"

In a panic, the man in charge shouted orders at his four remaining subordinates.

Heading the command, they swiftly turned around and locked their weapons on Avery, Kasandra, and Dr. Raiti.

Immediately, Mercedes turned around and ran away to hide out of the line of sight, while Avery and Kasandra rushed in.

The results were as expected.

Avery and Kasandra used their speed to close the distance in just a matter of seconds, and most of the lasers fired at them never so much as grazed them. With the couple that would have hit being blocked by their personal shield generators.

After they got close enough, the fight turned completely one sided.

Each of them took on two of the four guards and crushed them with overwhelming physical might.

"You're not going to be able to get away."

Avery picked up one of the fallen individuals' guns and threw it at the sponsor that was trying to run for his life.

The impact of the fast-moving laser rifle against his back knocked him over, and he comically fell flat onto his face.

Catching up to the fallen man before he could get up, Avery grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and lifted him into the air.

"Now, your subordinates were well trained enough not to tell us anything when we questioned one of them, but I wonder if you're just as tough." Avery said tightening his grip.

For a bit of added intimidation, he nodded at Kasandra and she pressed the buttons on her batons that electrified them.

Seeing this, Kaliya audibly gulped and shook in terror. He realized what sort of situation he was in and knew what would be coming next.