Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Brixton followed up his first attack on Kasandra by rushing over and raising his right foot up to crush her against the wall.

With a loud shout he kicked with everything he had. Intent on finishing off one of the obstacles that had gotten in his team's way.

Yet, despite the force behind the blow, Kasandra easily caught it with both of her hands.

She had let her guard down earlier when Nianni had been thrown away, but she was the one with the greater physical strength between the two of them.

In a straight up brawl, she held the overwhelming advantage.

Twisting her arms, she spun Brixton's leg all the way around so that it was now facing the opposite direction.

Obviously, doing something like this had snapped his bones and tore his muscles.

Even used to a heavy degree of pain from injuries he had suffered in the past, what Kasandra had just done to him hurt like hell, and it took everything he had to only groan in pain rather than scream his head off.

When Kasandra's grip on him loosened, he jumped back with his good leg that was still planted firmly on the ground.

Though the fight was looking bleak for him, he still was not going to give up.

Hastily, he reached into a pouch on his belt that contained nanomachine medicine that would heal him.

Of course, Kasandra was not just going to let her opponent recover while standing around doing nothing.

Using her astounding agility, she jumped off from the wall she had been backed up against and grabbed one of the batons she had dropped when she had tried to catch Nianni.

Before Brixton could turn around thanks to his broken leg, Kasandra got behind the man and jabbed her weapon into his back.

The hit itself hurt, but the real pain was to follow.

Kasandra pressed the button that electrified the tip of the weapon and sent a powerful current coursing through her opponent's body.

This time, Brixton did scream in pain before it became too much for him, and he was rendered unconscious.

His body was still twitching a bit even as he fell to the floor.

Having dealt with her foe, and the impediment preventing her from saving, Niani, Kasandra turned around to find her.

Except, the scene that she saw was far from great.

Brixton had not tossed Nianni away just so that he could fight. It had been a calculated move to still win.

Where she had landed was right in the middle of Avery and Katarina's battle.

It was honestly a bit of a miracle that a stray laser shot had not hit hurt.

Unfortunately, she had landed closer to Katarina than Avery, and the calculating woman already knew what to do.

Even against Cerise, this method had been effective, and she figured that it would be again.

Reaching Nianni before Avery could, she pulled the girl up and jammed her laser rifle against the back of her chest. Using her as both a shield and a hostage.

"Back up and get the hell away from here! Otherwise, I'm going to put a hole straight through her heart!" Katarina shouted demandingly.

Naturally, Avery did not listen to her commands. Instead, he started analyzing the situation and was trying to figure out the best method to take down Katarina and rescue Nianni.

However, Katarina was fed up with how poorly things had been going and knew that she was far past the point of being able to easily get away.

Slightly shifting her laser rifle, she shot through Nianni's right shoulder. Causing the distressed look on the famous singer's face to twist into one of agony. And the only reason she did not scream was because of the device around her neck preventing her from making any noise.

"Do you think I'm joking?! If you and your partner aren't out of my sight in the next five seconds, the next blast goes somewhere fatal!

Backed into a corner, Katarina could only resort to a desperate gamble.

For a moment, she glanced down at her fallen subordinates.

Each one of them had bene with her for a long time. At this point though, she would have to leave them all behind and try and get away on her own.

Pulling Nianni along, she started to back up and head towards the original extraction site.

Avery and Kasandra hesitated with what to do for just a second, before turning around to leave. They could not risk Nianni's life.

From the look in Katarina's eyes, they could tell that she was willing to do whatever it took to get out of this situation. And that if she proved unable to escape, she would at least do as much damage as she could before going down.

'We'll just have to fall back for now and wait for a chance to get the drop on her.' Avery thought, signaling to Kasandra that they were going to head down a side hallway and track Katarina from a distance.

Yet, before they got far, something completely unexpected occurred.

As she was dragging Nianni along, the hand Katarina was holding her weapon with suddenly detached from her body and fell to the floor.

Katarina was the most shocked by this development, but so were Avery and Kasandra. They had no idea what had happened.

A moment later and this time it was both of Katarina's legs that had been sliced through. Forcing her to literally lose her footing and fall back against the ground. Now missing three of her four limbs.

No longer being restrained, Nianni immediately rushed towards Avery and Kasandra who she could see in front of her.

Considering that they had jumped into a fight with a group of armed brigands, she wanted to believe that the two of them were here to rescue her.

Now that Katarina and Nianni were no longer obscuring their view, Avery and Kasandra could see the figure farther down the hallway, and the one that had presumably sliced up Katarina.

Immediately they recognized the woman. Not only did she currently hold the top spot in the competition, but she was also one of the most famous people within the Dramid Alliance.

'Cerise Gunvald! What is she doing here?!' Avery thought,

Seeing that she was the only other person around, it was clear that she was the one who had intervened in Katarina's last-ditch effort to escape and the one that had freed Nianni from the woman's clutches.

While Kasandra administered some medicine to Nianni and removed her bindings, Avery walked forward towards Cerise.

"Thanks for helping us out with that. We ended up in a bit of trouble there."

"Yes, you certainly did. Now, I'm not sure how the two of you got involved in this, but please hand over Nianni Taador to me and surrender yourself." Cerise said commandingly.

These sudden demands took Avery aback.

He had figured that they were on the same side, yet Cerise was looking at him suspiciously.

Her attention was momentarily drawn towards the gauntlets on his hands and the batons now dangling on Kasandra's waist.

These two were obviously armed and had gotten their weapons past security. This automatically made them suspect in Cerise's mind.

For all she knew, they were not trying to rescue Nianni but were just another interested party trying to abduct the famous singer.

"I'm afraid that I'm going to have to decline on both of those requests. If the two of us are suspicious, you're even more so." Avery said, glancing towards the strange devices affixed to both of Cerise's hands.

The first time she had attacked Katarina he had not caught what was going on, but the second he had.

Some razor-sharp threads had sliced right through the woman's protective shield and through her limbs.

Whatever Cerise was using as a weapon as far more brutal than the armaments that he and Kasandra had on them.

"I'll ask one more time. Surrender yourselves and release Nianni to me. I'm a member of the Alliance Police. If you have nothing to be guilty of, then you have nothing to fear."

Avery considered what she was saying, but there was a hint of doubt in the back of his head.

There were so many conspiracies going on that he and his team had gotten wrapped up in that he was unsure if Cerise might be involved as well.

For all he knew, she could be a part of the same group that Iniquus had been a member of.

They had already figured out that this shadowy cabal had infiltrated the central government of the Dramid Alliance. Perhaps even a hero like Cerise Gunvald was at their beck and call. Nothing was certain.

"How about this instead. We can all go and find some of Nianni's security personnel and wait for the Alliance Police to show up. You say that you are a member, but if I remember correctly, you retired recently. That means you're in exactly the same position as us. You don't have any authority to order us around."