Avery exited the training room with pursued lips and a look of dissatisfaction.
He had tried his best, but eventually the simulated enemies had overwhelmed him, and he had been beaten.
Once his "death" had been confirmed, the program shutdown and the room went back to its normal state.
At the very least, upon exiting, he found Ezra already waiting in the viewing room along with Kasandra and Kaiden. This meant that Avery had lasted longer than him.
Of course, that hardly meant anything. They were not being assessed based on the amount of time that they could survive. Otherwise, no one would ever leave the first stage that only had stationary targets that could not fight back.
"A good showing. You’re far more tenacious than I was expecting. My uncle really must have put you through some hellish training." Ezra said, genuinely complementing Avery.
Still, it was clear to see from his expression that he was confident. Without a doubt he believed that he did better than Avery.
"Yeah, Urs doesn’t really know the meaning of the word restraint. I had to pick up certain tactics just to survive long enough to theoretically get away. I never once beat him in a fight." Avery replied while shrugging his shoulders.
Ezra’s smile became a bit strained as he remembered his own training with his uncle and admitted that he had never gotten one over on the man either.
With both of them having finished the course, the computer calculated their cumulative scores and posted them onto the large monitor in the room.
Each successive round was weighted more heavily than the last, since obviously it was more difficult to take down enemies that could fight back rather than simple targets.
"I guess that we both couldn’t get past the same stage." Avery commented, seeing that Ezra had been eliminated against the same group of simulated enemies.
"Yes, that’s a bit too much for most people to try and take on alone. At least with only guns to use as weapons."
Naturally, if they had been using their ships or had access to armored vehicles of their own, they might have been able to do something against the enemies on the round that they both lost on, but that would have defeated the purpose of the exercise.
This was ultimately a means to test their shooting ability under multiple different circumstances. At the end, it had certainly become a bit too much, but that was simply how the program operated.
"I guess you’ve beaten me on this one." Avery said, able to see at a glance that Ezra had received a higher score than him.
His was about thirteen percent lower. A good showing, but low enough to not be considered close.
Still, of all of the challenges, this was the one that Avery knew that he would be most likely to lose.
He had trained hard, but there was simply a large gap between the amount of experience that each of them had.
Ezra had been a mercenary for several years now, while he had only just started. Sure, he had pushed himself hard with greater than normal effort, and possessed a bit of natural talent, but that would only get him so far. Especially against someone that had worked just as hard as he had.
"Let’s take three hours for lunch, rest, and to review each other’s runs through the program. Then we’ll get to the next part of the competition."
With that Ezra took his leave from the room.
"I knew that this would be the likely outcome, but its still frustrating." Avery said, clenching his fists tightly.
For the last two weeks he had trained like hell for this, but he had not even been able to get within ten percent of Ezra’s score.
It almost made him feel like his efforts had been worthless.
"Are you going to start crying just cause you lost once? I decided to join you since I thought you were tough, but I suppose you’re not as good as I or everyone else believed."
Kaiden’s biting words hit Avery hard. Perhaps he was right. Or maybe, he was just a loud-mouthed cat that needed to know his place.
"Fine, why don’t we go at it? I’ll put you in your place again. Just like I did in training." Avery said, letting anger wash away his dissatisfaction.
"Those are some big words considering you only beat me one out of every four times. You should curb your ego until you can take me at least fifty percent of the time."
As the two counted to provoke each other, they made their way to the training room and started a match between each other.
Watching all of this unfold, Kasandra could only release an exasperated sigh.
After Avery and Kaiden had exhausted themselves fighting, the three of them finally headed off to get some food and review Ezra’s battle data.
"He really is proficient with those twin laser pistols." Avery said in between bites of a piece of pizza.
He had just finished watching Ezra easily blast through the first three rounds of the training program with ease.
Each time the targets appeared, he hardly glanced at them before landing pinpoint shots with both of his weapons at once.
This was a feat that Avery could not hope to recreate with his current level of skill. He could match one of Ezra’s weapons, but not both. To so seamlessly dual-wield guns like that was more than twice as difficult as using only one.
Despite his immense size, he was deceptively fast as well.
He moved more quickly than Avery, and his reaction speed was beyond what a normal person could ever hope to achieve. Without a doubt he had some high quality bionic or cybernetic enhancements. There had simply been no way that Avery could ever have beaten him. The fact that his score was as close as it was could be considered a feat worthy of praise.
"Do you still think you can take him in a head-to-head fight after watching that?" Kasandra asked, a hint of concern in her expression.
"Of course. While there’s only so much you can do to improve shooting skills, there’s plenty of ways to beat someone stronger than you in battle. Plus, I’ve still got my secret weapon ready to level the playing field." Avery replied, his eyes still burning with determination despite having lost the first part of the competition.