Rixon shot at Beelo with his pistol, making him block and buying time for Relisis to sprint up and begin short-range combat. Beelo smirked, saw Relisis coming, and caught his arm against the front of his shield. He spun, using Relisis's momentum to send him toward the ground, but before he met the ground, Beelo sent a strike to the back of Relisis.

  One that Rixon could tell Relisis felt deep in his bones.

  Rixon followed behind him and dropped his pistol, attacking Beelo with his sword. Beelo went to block with his rifle, but it got split in half, the two pieces clattering to the ground. Beelo dropped the remains and got on the defensive, his movements suddenly more calculated, more dangerous.

  Velo, on the other hand, was handling his group. Kiala was shooting at him with all she had, but he was deflecting the shots with his swords, making a wall of sorts. Four blades spinning in intricate patterns that seemed impossible to penetrate.

  When Lo tried to go and make an opening for them to get a shot off, Velo took him out with a quickness. As it showed that Lo still had much work to do with the art of sword fighting.

  His enhanced aggression made him predictable, and Velo exploited it ruthlessly, disarming him and sending him sprawling with a series of calculated strikes.

  Masinon tried moving in angles to create the opening but didn't realize that Velo was manipulating his angles by moving closer to Kiala and him, putting them in the same firing path. Masinon tried to do something bold and rushed up.

  But when he did, he found a sword in his stomach that was thrown by Velo. The blade had appeared from nowhere, moving so fast Masinon didn't even see it coming.

  Rixon heard the impact and saw it. He jumped back from Beelo and looked around the room. Lo and Masinon were bleeding out, and Relisis was getting up with little strength in his bones, his movements sluggish from the strike he'd taken.

  Rixon locked back onto Beelo and noticed that Velo was about to push Kiala into a corner where she'd have no escape.

  "Relisis, swap now! Kiala, shoot him up one more time! We need to retreat, and I need you to pull them out now!" Rixon said with passion and understanding of the situation.

  With instinct and blind trust, Rixon ran from Beelo and picked up the pistol he'd dropped, firing two shots at Velo to buy Kiala time to retreat and recover Lo with her tail. At the same time, Relisis sprinted at Beelo and went into hand-to-hand combat with him. Relisis was getting destroyed, taking hit after hit, but he was only doing it to buy time.

  Each punch he absorbed was a second for the others to regroup.

  Then out of nowhere, Kiala shot him with the syringe, and his eyes lit up for a second, glowing with renewed energy. The fight became intense and turned into a stalemate with the new energy that he was given. His punches came faster, harder, and Beelo actually had to work to defend.

  Rixon, on the other hand, was hanging on by a thread. Velo had him on the defensive the entire fight. His sword strikes would get parried, and Velo would have him opened, so he had to do an elusive escape every time just to dodge death. The four-armed Legzla was a nightmare to fight.

  Every angle was covered, every opening was a trap.

  When he saw Kiala grab both Lo and Masinon and take them outside the first door where the medic bots were waiting, he knew he had succeeded on half of the mission.

  "Aye, Reli, I need you to get out that door. I will hold them both off. Just trust me, I'm not being a hero. But we need a clean retreat, and I need to go full out without worrying about watching the room." Rixon said as he defended for his life against Velo.

  "Beelo, you told me he was cocky, but my word, he literally can't get a clean hit and is talking like he can take me and you on at the same time." Velo said with anger as he swung with more force, his now three swords becoming a whirlwind of death.

  Reli, without a word, punched Beelo in his guard that protected his face, then kicked him in his thigh and returned with a jab-uppercut combo that allowed him time to turn and run. He didn't look back, trusting Rixon completely.

  Rixon noticed he had the room with the two and jumped back from Velo, pulling out a syringe and stabbing himself with it. His eyes glowed a light gold for a quick second.

  "Oh, this idiot thinks getting juiced up will save him. Time to teach him it doesn't work like that with us, little dude." Velo said as he charged Rixon.

  Rixon parried the two swords that were coming down on him, then spun and sliced Velo's stomach slightly, drawing first blood.

  Then Beelo, not allowing him to rejoice in that small victory, came up and kicked him in the back.

  Rixon stumbled back into Velo's range. He pulled out his pistol, shot Velo in his foot.

  Velo didn't react and launched a combo that left Rixon stumbling with a slight concussion as the force came back through his shield onto his head. His vision was slightly blurry, and he was stumbling. He fell over a droid's body that was slain by Kiala and her sword.

  He regained himself enough and dodged the incoming attacks from above, rolling to the side. He noticed that he had Velo on his back and Beelo in front of him. His boost was starting to wear off. All he could think and say under his breath was

  Ti-uda.

  Ti-uda.

  Ti-uda.

  He swung with both his sword and shield in a desperate manner, only for Beelo to dodge and bring down Velo's guard for a second. As he spun, he threw the sword into Velo's chest, and the Legzla fell back to the ground.

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  He began to pull it out with a roar of pain to follow it.

  Beelo, in shock and anger, went in for an attack.

  "Hey, punk, now it's just me and you, and I told you I'm no 'Little dude.' Learn my name or die now." Rixon said as he cut Beelo off from the swords laying behind him.

  Beelo smirked and stretched out his arm with his shield in it "Well, let's get to it, little dude."

  Rixon charged. They fought for five minutes, parrying and countering, neither gaining ground. Rixon's movements were sharp but desperate. Beelo's were controlled, testing him but losing their effectiveness. Every clash of metal rang out in the empty ballroom. Sweat poured down Rixon's face inside his mask.

  His arms burning, His ribs ached from old injuries. But he didn't stop.

  He couldn't stop.

  Ti-uda.

  Kiala came back for Rixon and found them both barely standing, and Velo regaining himself, pulling the sword from his chest with a grunt. She shot at Beelo, making him deflect and protect himself, then grabbed Rixon with her tail and dragged him out of the simulator.

  Rixon passed out in her grasp and felt his grip of his sword become light.

  When Rixon finally came to, he saw his team acting as if everything was normal in their room. He got up in pain and walked over to Kiala. He asked Kiala how long he was out, and she told him he was out for two weeks. And that they wanted to talk to him about something. As soon as she said that, they all surrounded him.

  Rixon looked confused. Then they spoke.

  "We want you to lead the team." Masinon said it with a smirk and no ill intent behind it.

  "Why?" Rixon said as he looked at the entire group.

  "Because you're the only one making sure that we don't go kill ourselves. All of us thought of it as our last stand, but you look at us as comrades and weigh what would happen if we lost each other. And honestly, none of us thought that far ahead." Lo said as he lit another smoke and blew it toward the ceiling.

  "Y'all sure? I just got here, and y'all had a system before I came." Rixon was trying his best to understand.

  "Yeah, we're sure. Now accept, and let's train. I need you to teach me how you fight." Relisis said as he turned to lay on his bed.

  "Yeah, and also, what you did was reckless, but you survived, and so did the team, so I'm down. Seems like you still want to live, so I say you're the best person to be in control of my life. I'm ready to die, honestly, but I don't mind living a little longer with some entertainment. I may not look it, but these eyes have seen a ton of death and wish to join those in the place past this plane." Masinon said as he went up to Lo to also get a smoke.

  "Well, if that's the case, we are not doing this forever, so get ready to know peace because that's all I want for me and mine." Rixon said as he walked back over to his bed so he could stop feeling the pain of standing up.

  "Yeah, please go lay back down. You and Beelo went to extreme limits to not lose. I'm surprised I didn't see each of you die from the next hit." Kiala said as she helped him back to his bed.

  The day passed, and Kiala tended to Rixon and his recovery. He felt better as the day went on, but all he could think about was how what was meant to be training was very real and how they all could have died if a head went off a body.

  The next day, Beelo and Velo paid the team a visit. They let them know that training like that against them was over and that from now on, they would be going against just the droids, as the boss felt that they were ready for the missions she would be assigning them in two months upon her arrival.

  They also told Rixon that where the pool room was, that room had been moved to a different part of the building. His ship would now be down the hall through that door. Whatever he needed to fix or work on could be obtained, he just needed to request it from the droids, as they could make it here in the building.

  Along with that, another room had been added down the hallway around the corner. It was another training room for if they wanted to work on any skill or train against each other. The last thing they told the group was that they needed to come up with a uniform that concealed their identity and also left no trace they were with the family. But a rogue group that was just like the other up-and-coming crime families or organizations in the galaxy.

  They all were stoked, as they knew that meant they could leave this planet and didn't have to be in solitude anymore. But see other species and more than four walls and experience something other than death.

  Over the next two months, Rixon developed his ship to what he believed his team would enjoy and what he'd always wanted. He had twenty-three cabins, and that wasn't including the captain and vice-captain cabins near the pilot cockpit. He would take inspiration from what their areas looked like now to make sure it accommodated them.

  When it came to Kiala's space, he made sure she had a room that was close to a storage area where she could possibly turn it into an infirmary and lab. He installed medical-grade storage units, reinforced counters for her equipment, and even a small surgical table that folded out from the wall. The lighting was adjustable, and he'd added extra ventilation for when she was working with chemicals.

  For Lo, he made sure that his space was one of the bigger cabins because of how much he loved to work out in his spare time. He installed pull-up bars, resistance bands mounted to the walls, and even a small weight set that was magnetically secured to the floor. The room had extra reinforcement to handle the impact of Lo's training.

  For Relisis, he noticed that in his space it was very clean and minimal. He gave him a room near the small training room that was on the ship. The room was sparse by design. It was just a bed, a small desk, and storage built into the walls. Relisis seemed to prefer it that way, and Rixon respected that.

  And for Masinon, he noticed he just loved to eat, so he got him a room closest to the café area that had a very light kitchen setup. Something that held food and could serve twenty-five people over three months. But it had a small prep area, a cooling unit, and enough counter space for Masinon to experiment with whatever strange food combinations he enjoyed.

  He left the vice-captain space for his little sister, Oyric, as he wanted her close to him when she finally rejoined him. The room was next to his own, connected by a small shared common area. He made sure it had everything she'd needed: plenty of storage, good lighting, and a small desk where she could study or plan. He even installed a small viewport so she could see the stars.

  Other than the ship, though, Rixon would be having six-hour training sessions with the team, going over multiple scenarios and also one-on-one combat to learn from each other. Rixon felt that this was the best for the team, as he really did want everyone to live and come back safely on their journeys.

  He drilled them on close-quarters combat, on how to breach different types of doors, on how to extract under fire. He had Masinon teach everyone how to read a battlefield from a sniper's perspective. He had Kiala teach everyone basic field medicine. He had Relisis teach everyone hand-to-hand fundamentals from his planet. And he had Lo teach everyone how to use explosives properly.

  They became more than a squad. They became a unit. Something that reminded him of his old squad members from Delisus.

  The day came, and the boss arrived.

  She came on a tiny ship with only ten members of her family with her. As soon as she got settled, she called for them, and Velo and Beelo escorted them.

  They walked through corridors they'd never seen, past labs and armories and rooms filled with equipment they couldn't identify. The building was far larger than they'd realized, far more complex.

  Finally, they reached a massive door at the end of a long hallway. Beelo and Velo stopped.

  "She's waiting inside," Beelo said, looking at Rixon. "Don't fuck this up, little dude."

  Rixon smirked. "Stop calling me that."

  Beelo grinned. "Make me."

  The door opened.