Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Avery was pinned down, broken, and moments away from having his tongue ripped out.

The battle had been arduous, and he had done his best, but in the end, he had lost to Iniquus' superior prowess.

There had been no doubt in Avery's mind that he was more skilled, but he simply could not overcome his enemy's enhanced physical abilities.

At the very end, his gaze had drifted towards Grtio, and he saw the young Baccigan struggling to grab the weapon laying in front of him.

When he had finally picked it up, Avery thought that perhaps he might be saved.

Yet, when he watched Grtio close his eyes, he had figured that it was over. He had fought the good fight, but he just had not been good enough.

Then there was a bright flash of light.

In a move not even an amateur would do, Grito had discharged the weapon he was holding without looking.

Nevertheless, by either some miracle or design, the beam struck Iniquus directly in his head and went through one side and out the other.

His brain was damaged well beyond being able to function, and Iniquus suddenly went limp and fell over. No matter how durable he was from the body augmentation he had received, no human could survive being shot in the head by a laser weapon set to maximum output.

'Fu*k he's heavy!' Avery thought as he tried to use his one good arm to push away the limp body that had just collapsed on him.

Eventually, he was able to squirm his way out, but the experience had been far from pleasant. In fact, it may have been the most grueling thing he had ever done. On account of his broken leg and arm.

"Grtio… could you-"

Avery was about to ask Grito for assistance patching himself up, but stopped part way through when he noticed Grito had dropped the gun he had just fired and had a vacant look in his eyes.

It was pretty obvious that the weight of what he had just done was crashing down on him all at once. This was the first time he had killed someone. A line he never wanted to cross.

Seeing as how he was not going to be getting any help, Avery bit down on the collar of his coat as he forced himself to move.

He had some emergency medical supplies in a pouch on his belt, but it was unfortunately on the side with his broken arm. Forcing him to reach all the way over with his good arm despite the immense pain he was in.

After a bit of a struggle, he pulled out some fast-acting pain relief pills and took them.

When the pain began to subside from the anesthetic agent being released into his body, he pulled out an injector filled with recovery nano machine and jammed it into his broken arm and leg.

Despite the pain relivers he had taken, a new wave of agony assaulted Avery as he felt his bones being knitted back together.

It was excruciating to say the least, but he fought through it for around a minute before all he could feel was dull soreness.

Slowly he stood back up and used his laser rifle as a crutch. The worst of the damage had been healed, but he would need some more extensive recovery in a medical pod to get back to peak condition.

During this entire time, Grito had not moved a millimeter. He just continued to stand completely still, unable to comprehend what he had done.

"I get that it's difficult for you. Taking a life is not an easy thing to do. For some it even feels impossible. But you did save me, Grtio. So, thank you for that."

"Don't thank me for this! I just killed someone! I've done so many awful things, but I swore I would never cross that line!" Griot yelled, throwing his frustration at Avery.

"Yes, it's true that you killed Iniquus, but sometimes that is the only option. Had you not acted, he would have torn me apart. Then he probably would have set his sights on you. And all of these people that he abducted and enslaved would have continued to be pawns for him to use and throw away. So don't think about the single life you took, but about all of the ones you saved."

Avery knew that while his words were true, they were still cheap. Grtio was essentially going through and emotional crisis right now, but he did not have the time to let him work through it. Just because the ringleader was dead, it did not mean that their work was over. There was still a lot of cleaning up to do, and enemies that needed to be dealt with.

"We still need to find your uncle. That's what you hired us for, so you need to see it through to the end. Now pull yourself up for a bit longer. If you want, you can collapse later, but this is neither the time nor place to do so."

Reminded of the reason that they were here, Grito pulled himself together. He and his uncle had been abducted by these people, and when it seemed like there was no one to help rescue his only family, Avery and his team had agreed to put themselves in danger for him.

Of course, they were not doing this for free, but Grito would have been hard pressed to find any other merceries willing to go against someone with as much power as Iniquus. And even if he had, there would have been almost no chance that they would have succeeded.

"Kasandra, Kaiden, what's going on?"

With his own fight wrapped up, Avery had attempted to contact everyone else, but only Kasandra and Kaiden had picked up. Both Ezra and Jasmine had remained silent.

The two Woest siblings hastily explained what had occurred to split them up, and Avery grimaced by what he heard. If Ezra and Jasmine could not answer his call, that meant that they were either locked in battle, or possibly worse.