Avery, Kasandra, and Jasmine arrived at the worst possible moment.
They had been following the tracking data of their companions and the sounds of battle happening nearby. Yet what they found when they finally arrived was a horrific scene.
Dozens of spiderlike robots were surging forward towards Grito and the ones trying to protect him.
Their sizes ranged from a little over a meter tall, to only a mere six centimeters.
Individually they were not all that threatening since the only weapons they possessed were their bladed arms, and these smaller ones possessed far weaker shielding than the original large one.
Still, there were so many that it would be difficult to deal with them. Especially since neither Avery, Kasandra, nor Jasmine had any weapons on them right now.
Naturally the members of the Alliance Police that had been tasked with protecting Grito were fighting back, but there simply were not enough of them to stop the surging wave of assassin drones.
Ezra and Kaiden were doing their best as well, but both of them were injured and slowing down.
As for Grito, he was clinging to Olivia's back while she ran around and did her best to keep him safe and prevent the spiderlike robots from overwhelming everyone else. Just like the larger one that had been carrying them, they had all been programmed to solely seek out and kill Grito.
"I don't want to, but we should probably get in there in help." Avery said, a hesitant look on his face.
Still, with members of his team in danger, he could not stand idly by.
He may not have had any weapons on him, but these robots were not particularly strong. He could at the very least kick and stomp on the smaller ones.
"Wait, just a moment. Let's prepare a bit first."
Kasandra stopped Avery from just jumping in and approached a nearby tree.
Being on a planet and in a subtropical area, there were all manner of ornamental plants being grown at designated places on the base.
Avery wondered what Kasandra was going to do. At least until he watched her snap off a branch from the tree that was as thick as his arms.
He knew that she had physical augmentation, but this sight showed off her immense strength despite her lithe frame.
In this moment Avery swore to himself never to make Kasandra angry. He could only imagine what might happen if he did.
With some branches that they could use as crude clubs in their hands, the three of them joined the fray.
Avery swung and kicked at the robots to keep them at bay.
His attacks hardly did any damage, but that was fine. All he really wanted to do was slow them down.
It had been nearly three minutes since the first spiderlike robot appeared. It was only a matter of time until the reinforcements from the Alliance Police showed up.
Except, before they could arrive, Avery found himself faced with one of the original four drones that had popped out of the larger one.
This was the last one of this type as the others had been destroyed already by concentrated fire from Lieutenant Laletta and her subordinates.
Avery did not think he could do much about it by himself, but he had to hold it here if he could. Grito and Oliva were behind him a few meters away dodging several of the smaller assassin robots. They would not be able to handle something else in their current condition.
'I've just got to do what I can. This is nothing compared to face down Iniquus.' Avery thought, psyching himself up.
Without a hint of hesitation, he jumped in front of the mechanical beast and slammed the tree branch he was using as a club against it.
There was a metallic sound as he hit it, followed by a loud snapping noise.
His sole weapon had just snapped as the spiderlike robot batted it away with one of its legs.
Avery stood wide-eyed for a moment, but he hardly had any time to worry about losing the bulk of the branch.
The assassin drone leapt towards him with incredibly agility, and he was forced to drop to the ground and roll out of the way to avoid ending up stabbed by its outstretched bladed arms.
When Avery got back up, he noticed that the drone was rushing right by him. Now that he was no longer in the way of it reaching its target, it had completely disregarded him.
Nevertheless, Avery was not just going to let it go and pushed off the ground as hard as he could and jumped forward.
He just barely managed to reach the mechanical beast and grabbed a hold of two of its legs as it tried to skitter towards Grito and Oliva.
With all his might he pulled and managed to unbalance the robot and knock it over.
Before it could get back up, Avery jumped to his feet and tried kicking the thing with all his might.
Yet its metal shell did not even budge a millimeter.
Though he worked out and was in good physical condition, he still only had the strength of a normal human. Unlike Urs, Kasandra, Kaiden, and Olivia, he did not possess the abnormal might necessary to damage these things with his bare hands and feet.
Having assessed Avery as an impediment to its mission again, the spiderlike robot jabbed towards him with two of its bladed legs.
Avery just barely avoided having his head pierced through by reflexively jumping back.
However, he had not fully avoided the strike, and now a deep gash ran along his cheek.
Blood poured down his face and Avery could feel some of it going into his mouth as he panted from exhaustion.
It had not been long since he joined the fight, but he had already exerted himself.
His inability to do anything but stall the assassin drones made him feel useless.
The other members of his team were faring far better than him.
Even injured as he was, Ezra was still tearing through the spiderlike robots with his immense size and strength.
Kasandra and Kaiden were working together seamlessly and using their speed to run around and crush the smaller drones which were in some ways more dangerous than the larger ones thanks to numbers and agility.
Avery was the leader of these incredible people, but right now he could not keep up with them, let alone give any direction. It was starting to make him feel inadequate.
Still, this was not the time or place to let negative emotions bring him down, so instead he threw all of his frustrations into holding off the single spiderlike robot in front of him.
For what felt like an eternity despite only being a couple dozen seconds, Avery kept the single drone's attention on him.
At some point he had picked up the broke leg of one of the half meter sized drones and was using it as a makeshift dagger.
He had managed to land a few blows on the robot and left some scratches in it. Though he was in far worse shape.
His combat clothes had protected him to a degree, but there were wounds all over Avery's body. For every hit he had landed, he had taken five more.
None of them had been fatal thanks to the evasive skills he had naturally developed during his brutal training with Urs. Still, the damage was racking up and Avery was uncertain how much longer he could last.
There was practically a pool of blood at his feet now, and every step was accompanied by a sloshing sound since his shoes had filled up with his own blood.
'Where the hell are our reinforcements. This is an Alliance Police base. They should have been swarming the second any trouble appeared.' Avery thought as he felt exhaustion overtaking him.
His single, deadly opponent took this moment to lunge, and he was unsure if he would be able to get away this time.
Yet just before he was about to be impaled, a bright flash shot past him and blew the assassin drone away.
A rain of fire followed the first shot, and the remining spiderlike robots were eliminated in one fell swoop.
Turning his head, Avery saw five flying armored vehicles coming this way. Each one with all of their exterior weapons aimed in the direction of the battle.
What had been a harrowing fight for Avery's team and the Alliance Police officers that had been with them was ended in only a couple of seconds by their reinforcements.
With a fully prepared and geared squad of combatants, the spiderlike robots had stood absolutely no chance.
It was almost a bit anticlimactic considering how hard the battle had been up until their arrival.
The tension drained from his body, Avery slumped over and allowed himself to fall to the ground.
"The first thing I'm doing after this is making the base commander agree to let us carry our weapons at all times. This is not happening again."