Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

An almost imperceptible smirk formed on Clarien's face as he imagined dozens of heavily armed troops storming onto the ship and gunning down Avery.

Normally he was indifferent even towards people that he considered his enemies, but Avery had caused him more harm than anyone else in his life ever had. He could not deny that he would feel some joy as he watched the man being killed.

Yet, the loyal subordinates that he was expecting were not the ones to come out of the air lock and board the ship.

Instead, it was only a single woman, who had long brunette hair and distinct feline ears twitching atop her head.

Obviously, Clarien already recognized who this was.

In the files provided to him by Delilah, she had shown up the most after Avery.

She was not only his first crew member and copilot, but also the man's lover.

How she had arrived here though was a complete mystery to him.

The only plausible explanation he could come up with was that she had been hiding in the air lock. Except that hardly made any sense at all. And it also did not explain where the reinforcements from the vessel he had ordered to come retrieve were.

"You're right on time. I just beat the boss and his goons. Let's take him and get out of here before anyone else shows up." Avery said, a smile on his face as if he was expecting praise for his good work.

However, Kasandra did not respond as she gracefully leaped over the gap in the floor that Avery had created by slamming Clarien's two trusted adjutants into the ground.

When she got close to Avery she briefly looked down at his arms before smacking him in the back of the head.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

Kasandra merely glared at him for a second before pointing at his arms.

"Didn't we already have a talk about this. You did something stupidly reckless again. You may be trying to play it off, but I can tell that your hands are broken, and you have severe burns all the way up to your elbows. Surely there was no need to fight in a manner that caused you to have injuries this severe." Kasandra said admonishingly.

"But I need to finish this quic-"

Avery started to defend his actions, but he was silenced by a single glare from Kasandra.

It certainly had not been necessary for him to fight in such a brutal manner that caused injuries to himself.

Frankly, he had not really been thinking about the harm he was doing to his own body and instead was focused on winning as soon as possible.

Thanks to his regenerative ability, he had become a bit less cautious about getting hurt. Already his hands and arms were beginning to heal at a visible rate.

Still, to have been able to have injured his incredibly tough body to such a degree, it proved just how rash he had been.

"I've noticed during the competition that you've been slipping back into your bad habit. I didn't say anything since there weren't really in stakes, but this was different. When it is truly necessary desperate situation, like with your nearly insane plan to infiltrate this ship, I won't offer any complaints. Especially since you conferred with me first. Just be a bit more careful with yourself." Kasandra said, before giving Avery a quick peck on the cheek.

Having been watching this display, Clarien rolled his eyes and felt like he would start feeling sick from the sweetness.

Nevertheless, he was grateful for the time it had bought him.

He had been unable to move for a bit, but this had given him long enough to activate an implant within his body that released medical nanomachines, and a powerful anesthetic agent that almost entirely eliminated his pain.

His eyes turned towards the laser pistol he had dropped that was only about half a meter away.

All he needed to do was grab it and fight for just a little longer. His armed crew members would already be on the way soon to deal with Avery and Kasandra.

When he felt the moment was right, Clarien lunged forward with his broken body and grabbed the weapon in front of him.

In an astoundingly swift movement, he aimed it towards Avery, prepared to fire.

Except, Clarien was unable to get a single shot off.

Before he had even started moving, Kasandra had noticed the man's elevated heartrate and breathing.

It was easy to tell that he was planning something, and she had been ready to respond when he made his attempt.

After Clarien had grabbed his weapon and was in the process of getting ready to attack, she had rushed over to him and slammed her foot down on his arm.

While he only felt the dullest of pain, his bone was shattered and the gun in his hand tumbled back onto the floor.

It did not matter if he could force himself to move thanks to the lack of pain if his body was not mechanically able to move.

"We should hurry up and go. More people than I can count have swarmed onto this deck and are rushing this way." Kasandra said as she grabbed Clarien and threw him over her shoulder.

With the boss of this criminal operation secured, the two of them headed back to the air lock that Kasandra had just come from.

Just as they opened the doors, the first members of the ship's crew that were hunting them appeared.

Clarien had initially directed them away from this area since he knew what would happen if they found out he was trying to escape alone.

Yet now the people he had already planned to abandon were his only hope.

Heavy laser fire rushed towards them as Avery and Kasandra slipped into the air lock.

Fortunately, the entrance to the Dauntless which had been docked here was still opened and they swiftly jumped inside.

Kasandra unceremoniously dumped Clarien on the ground before rushing to the cockpit to take over the controls.

At the same time, Avery accessed the panel that controlled the air lock and closed it just as a heavily armed security officer appeared.

"Oh Sh*t!" Avery yelped as he jumped to the side as a small laser cannon blast flew towards him through the closing air lock doors.

He was not fully able to avoid the explosive impact from the shot and was thrown hard against the Dauntless' bulkhead.

Thankfully, the air lock doors closed before another blast could be fired, and Kasandra disconnected from the enemy ship and shot away.

"That hurt. And that's going to be expensive to repair."

Though it was a tough ship, the Dauntless' interior was not heavily armored of shielded.

The laser cannon blast had damaged the area around the air lock pretty badly.

At the very least it had not destroyed anything critical to the ship's function, but their long-range communications no longer functioned, and waste disposal system had been breached.

More concerning though was Clarien's status.

He had gotten caught up in the blast himself and had been tossed around a bit.

In the condition that he had been in, there was a real possibility that he was dead.

"Not sure if you are lucky or not to have survived all that. But it seems you won't be dying easily." Avery said after checking that Clarien still had a pulse.

Immediately he administered an injection of nano machines and dragged the man over to the Dauntless' small sickbay.

He then tossed their captive inside the medical pod and set it to heal him and keep him in a state of unconsciousness.

"That was a lot more than I was expecting today."

Avery slumped down next to Kasandra in his usual pilot's chair, but he did not move to take over the controls.

She had things in her capable hands, and there were no more enemies to worry about anyway.

Those that had been capable of fleeing had already left a few minutes ago after Clarien had given the order to retreat.

The only ones that were left were on disabled ships that were hardly any threat.

Around a hundred seconds ago, the first wave of Alliance Police had finally arrived and were already securing the scene.

"Do we know what happened to the others?" Avery asked, glancing at what was displayed on the viewscreen.

"Well, Liesel is fine. We managed to sneak back into the hangar after we split off from you and got her ship and the Dauntless out thanks to an assault vehicle that had been left behind that was equipped with a high-intensity laser cutter. I thought I would have to risk using the plasma launchers, so that worked out well."

Once Kasandra and Leslie had forced their way out of the command ship's hangar, they had flown around and destroyed the corvette that had come to retrieve Clarien.

At that point it was the only functional enemy craft left, so there had been no worry of reprisal when Kasandra had docked with the air lock instead.

"As for our fellow competitors, two of them are missing along with their vessels." Kasandra said, her lips turning into a slight frown as she relayed this news.

The two test dedicated test pilots that had been in seventh and eighth place had been captured and absconded with by the retreating thieves.

Obviously, Atlas and Jack Huxley had also made their own escapes, meaning that half of the competitors were just gone now.

As for Cerise, her ship had been disabled and captured, but the people onboard the vessel had been unable to suppress her.

She had apparently either killed or captured every single one of them and taken over the entire craft herself.

It was honestly terrifying to think that just a single woman had been capable of such a feat, but if anyone could do so, it would be Cerise. She had obtained her title as the Dramid Alliance's greatest hero for a reason.

"We're receiving a call from the Alliance Police flagship. It's a little shaky though since our communication array is damaged." Kasandra informed Avery.

Despite just wanting to rest and recover, Avery knew that it would be necessary to coordinate with the authorities. Otherwise, he was bound to lose out.

Once the call was connected, Avery answered the questions of the commander that had contacted him and revealed that they had captured the enemy leader.

Naturally, the Alliance Police were ecstatic to hear this, as they had been worried that all of the highest-ranking perpetrators had gotten away.

Avery had no plans of just handing the man over without gaining anything though.

He made sure to have his claim to the ships he had disabled secured. Including the enemy command vessel. For all of the trouble that he and Kasandra had just gone through, he did not plan on walking away empty handed.