Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Avery and Cerise continued to stare each other down. Both of them unable to reach a resolution because of their doubts.

For Cerise's part, she had been a bit suspicious of Avery since the start of the competition.

He was someone that had only recently become a prominent mercenary that was a rising star in the organization.

However, it was strange how quickly he had risen through the ranks, and him somehow coming into possession of a thought to have been stolen experimental vessel from Storren Corp. was questionable.

It was only speculation on her part, but she had considered the possibility that he might be an agent of some group. Perhaps he was even involved in what Cerise had entered this competition to investigate in the first place.

There was also the fact that he was armed with a strange exoskeleton armor she had never seen before.

The fact that he had come to this place armed with a weapon that got past security was already fishy.

Naturally, Cerise had identified herself as a member of the Alliance Police, hoping to resolve things quickly and without a fight, but her own cover story had come back to bite her.

To prevent any leaks, there were only three people in the Alliance Police that knew she had not really retired from her position.

As for Avery, he had gotten wrapped up in too many machinations of shady organizations and people that he found it difficult to implicitly trust someone that might be involved. Especially during such a volatile situation as the one that he currently found himself in.

For all he knew, the moment he surrendered himself, Cerise might just kill him and Kasandra.

With her renown, she could just claim that the two of them had also been working with Katarina and the Alliance Police were almost certain to believe her. She was the Dramid Alliance's current greatest hero after all.

Just the faint possibility that the other person might be working against them was enough for Avery and Cerise to not trust each other.

Swiftly glancing down at her terminal, Cerise checked to see if communications were still being blocked.

Unfortunately, they were. The devices that had been set up to prevent anyone from contacting the authorities was still somewhere within the building.

If only she could get a call out to the Alliance Police, Cerise would feel more assured about her next move.

"Fine, we can wait right here for the police to respond. But I want Nianni Taador to come over to my side. I will keep her safe." Cerise said, willing to compromise this much.

She still felt uncomfortable allowing Avery and Kasandra to remain armed, but their weapons were only useful at close range. Figuring that with her threads she held the overwhelming advantage in a fight; Cerise was willing to begrudgingly let the two of them do as they pleased for now. At least until backup arrived.

What she was really worried about was Nianni being used as a hostage again. If that happened, she would be put on the backfoot again. Something she wanted to avoid at all costs.

Except, even after Cerise beckoned Nianni to her side and said she would protect her, the famous singer continued to desperately cling to Kasandra instead. Showing no signs leaving.

Nianni was truthfully a bit terrified of Cerise.

Certainly, she knew who Cerise was, but watching her so easily kill so many people in such a brutal manner had horrified her.

There was also a matter of connection. Kasandra was someone that she could sense the surface emotions of since they were on similar wavelengths. Nianni could tell that the woman that had just rescued her was doing so simply because that was what she wished to do. There were no other ulterior reasons.

On the other hand, she could not feel anything from Cerise. The two of them were not compatible.

"It appears that Nianni feels safer with us. Why don't you just let this go. From one hero of the Alliance to another." Avery said, pointing to the gleaming award pinned to his jacket.

His Silver Cross of Heroism paled in comparison to the Platinum Cross that Cerise had received for her service, but it at least showed that Avery had achieved amazing feats in the protection of the Dramid Alliance. Enough so to be recognized as a hero himself. Albeit, not on the same level as Cerise had.

He was hoping that this might have been enough to sway Cerise to back off. At least if this matter was merely one of misunderstanding.

However, though she relaxed her guard for a brief moment, Cerise felt that she could not take any more risks. She had no way to truly know Avery's and Kasandra's intentions, so the only way to guarantee Niani's safety was to protect her herself. Letting her stay in the clutches of people that might possibly have nefarious plans was not something that she could allow.

"I'd wanted to resolve this amicably, but you leave me no choice but to retrieve Nianni by force."

After saying this, Cerise swiped her right hand and sent her threads flying towards Avery.

Since she was not certain that he was involved in all of this, she aimed to slice through his muscles and tendons instead of outright killing him or cutting off his limbs.

Yet, to her surprise, Avery responded to her attack.

Using his gauntlets, he moved with just as much speed as Cerise and deflected her threads away.

"I really didn't want to fight you, but you're not really giving me much of a choice." Avery said before rushing towards Cerise.

He had recognized the danger of her attacks already and knew that he needed to get close to prevent her from swinging her threads around as she pleased.

If he had the option to retreat, he would have though. That was just how dangerous Cerise was.

Yet, with Kasandra and Nianni behind him, he knew that getting away would be impossible.

It was obvious that Cerise had some top-of-the-line augmentations of her own and would be able to catch up with them easily if they tried to flee.

"This is the first time in a while that someone had been able to block my threads and decided not to run away from me." Cerise said, astounded by Avery's ability.

There were not many people that could even see her attacks, let alone react to them.

Seeing that Avery could, Cerise's evaluation of him went up by a large margin.

Except, this also meant that the level of threat he presented was much greater. And that she did not have the luxury of going easy on him any longer.

Using both of her hands, Cerise struck with her threads, aiming to do maximum damage with them.

Notching the sudden shift in the intensity of the attacks coming at him, Avery was forced to slow down and tighten his guard. Unlike before, Cerise was going for the kill now.

'Damn, she's strong! I can't get close to her!'

While she was normally the one to press the attack and have people running away from her, Cerise showed no hesitation in backing up herself and whipping her threads around to keep Avery at bay.

Considering the lethality of her weapons, all she needed was one opening to turn the entire battle to her favor.

Avery was also dealing with another problem.

He had been using his gauntlets made out of high-density metal to deflect Cerise's strikes, but every time he did, small cuts were notched into the metal. It would not be too long before his weapons and means of defense were worn down.

'Guess I'm using it.' Avery thought, quickly pressing a button on the chest of the exosuit he was wearing.

The instant after he did, he rushed towards Cerise without hesitation.

Figuring that he could not block all ten of her threads this time, Cerise swung her hands and aimed for ten different spots on his body. She knew that at least one of them would hit.

But the moment she initiated her attack, something unexpected occurred.

A blindingly bright energy field suddenly surrounded Avery and deflected Cerise's threads.

Activating this defensive function took a lot of energy, but the barrier created by the exosuit Grito had made was far more powerful than a typical personal shield generator. Though, the trade off was that it could not activate automatically nor could it be used for any extended period of time.

Once he had reached Cerise, the energy field had already dissipated, and the power source that it had been using was nearly exhausted.

Still, Avery had gotten close enough to attack, and he threw a punch at Cerise with all of his might.

Crossing her hands in front of her, Cerise absorbed the blow with the disks on the back of her hands that stored her threads.

At the same time, she bent her body backwards and jumped away. Expertly disperse a great amount of the force of Avery's attack.

'When was the last time that someone's attack actually reached me?' Cerise thought as she landed.

Immediately she checked to make sure that her weapons were still functioning.

Regrettably, using them to take Avery's punch had damaged the one on her right hand. It could only expel two threads now and the functions that assisted Cerise with manipulating them were disabled.

Nevertheless, she had escaped without taking any damage herself and was confident that she could still win. Avery was quite skilled, but he lacked experience compared to her. She was already close to figuring out his movement patterns and exploiting them.

Yet, before of them could continue their fight, a squad of a dozen Alliance Police Officers fully decked out in combat equipment stormed into the area. Leveling their weapons at Avery and Cerise who were both clearly suspicious.