Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

""AVERY!""

Both Kasandra and Jasmine screamed louder than they would have thought possible as they watched the man they loved completely engulfed in the red light of a laser grenade.

This was like some sort of horrific nightmare that seemed unreal.

The battle had been going well for them up until this moment. However, none of them had anticipated a laser grenade being brought into the fray.

They were currently stuck in a confined space after all, and such a weapon would hit people indiscriminately. There was a good chance that Fahad could have killed himself and all of his men when the blast went off.

"Just go down already!"

Fahad pulled out another laser pistol with his good arm and fired at Kasandra. Aiming at her legs to prevent her from moving.

Of course, her personal shield generator was still fully operational and absorbed the first few blasts while she stood completely still in stunned silence.

Her passivity did not last long though.

With murder in her eyes and a rage that dwarfed anything she had displayed before, she turned towards the object of her fury.

A yelp uncontrollably escaped Fahad's lips as Kasandra glared at him. His instincts were telling him to run away.

He was not sure exactly why he felt so afraid in this moment, but some part of his subconscious must have realized what a threat Kasandra was, and how very soon his life would be in danger.

Without giving any other orders or retaining any semblance of his confident attitude from earlier, Fahad turned towards the emergency exit that had been their planned escape route.

They were currently stopped near a service entrance to the tracks, and on the other side a few vehicles were waiting for their getaway.

Yet, he was barely able to take two steps towards his escape when Kasandra lunged at him.

A couple of Fahad's men tried to get in her way, but they were easily tossed aside. Nothing was going to stop her from reaching Fahad and tearing him apart.

Realizing he was not going to be able to get away, Fahad wildly discharged his weapon at Kasandra.

Except, not a single one of his shots hit as she read the trajectory of his weapon and sidestepped out of the way each time right before he pulled the trigger.

Once she was in reach of him, she grabbed ahold of his arm and twisted. Breaking his bones in a more savage way than Avery had.

Then with her left foot, she kicked him in the stomach without a hint of restraint.

The blow had an immense amount of strength behind it and left a heavy dent in Fahad's torso. He could feel his internal organs being crushed.

Completely knocked off his feet, Fahad flew back for a moment before he was abruptly stopped.

Kasandra had not let go of him, and most of the force of her kick transferred to his arm that was keeping him anchored in place.

There was an audible popping sound as his shoulder socket was dislocated. Followed by a horrid tearing as his muscles and flesh ripped apart.

Fahad yowled in pain and coughed up blood. His entire body felt like it was on fire from the damaged caused by Kasandra's brutal attack.

A part of her wanted to continue to torture the man. To make him feel so much pain that it broke him completely.

Yet there was no time for that, and if she wanted to end him, she needed to do so quickly before anyone even thought about getting in her way.

With his shattered and dislocated arm still in her grip, she dragged the source of her ire a bit closer so that his head was right under her foot.

Thanks to her augmented body, she could smash through a man's skull with a single stomp with ease. And that was exactly what she planned to do.

But before she could, likely the only voice in the entire galaxy that could hope to stop her called out.

"Kasandra! That's enough. We need him alive to hand over to the authorities!"

Despite it being a bit raspier than normal, Kasandra recognized the voice calling out to her. How could she not. It was undoubtably that of the man she had chosen to give herself to.

There was still a bit of doubt in her face as she looked over, but the moment she saw Avery alive and standing with Jasmine supporting him, the rage that had been boiling inside of her disappeared in an instant. Replaced by a feeling of intense relief.

His hair was a bit singed, his clothes were in tatters, and there were noticeable burns on his body, especially his hands. Yet there could be no doubt that Avery was alive.

In fact, what should have been grievous wounds were healing at a visible rate. His blackened flesh was falling away and being replaced by new growth already. It looked like some sort of miracle.

Naturally, Kasandra knew about the special organ Avery had that allowed him to heal quickly and even regenerate lost limbs and organs.

Except from the details that she had read about it, and Dr. Raiti's explanation, Kasandra knew that it should not have worked this fast.

For a moment she thought that perhaps the regenerative cells were working in conjunction with a dose of nanomachine medicine, but that was not the case. Jasmine was about to give Avery some pills when she had also been surprised by his healing ability.

There was something else that was unexcepted as well. Not only was he recovering at a fast rate, but his injuries were far less severe than expected considering he had been hit by the blast of a high-intensity laser grenade.

The outside wall of the tram car he had been standing in front of had been absolutely obliterated by the blast.

He may not have been struck by the entire force of the grenade, but it still should have done a lot worse.

Still, no one was going to complain about Avery's condition being better than it should have been. Well, perhaps Fahad and his subordinates might, but no one cared about their opinions.

Kasandra rushed over to Avery and threw her arms around him. Considering she had thought that he was dead just a moments ago, seeing him alive and in relatively good condition had filled her heart with an unbelievable happiness. Never before had she felt such strong emotions.

"Ow! Ow! It still stings a little. Let's save the hugging for later." Avery said in protest.

Of course, he was not actually resisting Kasandra's embrace in any way. He understood that she needed to do this right now.

Thankfully, Jasmine got over her own shock and pushed a handful of medical nanomachine pills into Avery's mouth.

Just a couple seconds after he swallowed them, a soothing feeling spread through his body as the advanced medicine released an anesthetic agent that numbed the pain.

At an even faster rate than before, his wounds started to fade away. In just a few blinks of the eye, Avery was back to normal other than his now noticeably shorter hair.

While this was going on, the few remaining members of Fahad's squad tried to take advantage of the situation and fire on Avery, Kasandra, and Jasmine.

Unfortunately for them, Kaiden was not distracted and used this opportunity to attack. Ferociously finishing off their last enemies and bringing the battle to an end.