With just the slightest bit of its energy leaking through, an oppressive force began pressing down on every living thing in the vicinity.

Avery gritted his teeth and fought back against this strange power, but Kasandra, Jasmine, and Liesel all wrapped their arms around their bodies and started shivering uncontrollably.

They looked as if they had just been caught in a blizzard without proper clothing on.

Of course, none of them were cold, it was that the odious energy seeping its way through the area was unbearable and terrifying.

Any living thing that felt it would know that the entity emitting such a thing was malevolent and indomitable.

While Avery was able to keep his mind from being overwhelmed, the others were starting to fall into a panic.

The labored breaths of Kasandra, Jasmine, and Liesel resounded through the Dauntless’ cockpit.

And when Avery glanced over at them to see what their conditions were like, he saw all three of them hunched over and having broken out into a cold sweat.

This was a drastic change from their normal demeanors, but that was just how difficult it was to endure the energy pressing down on them.

If Avery did not possess special traits that allowed him to resist the unnatural force permeating the system, he would have been in the same state as his three lovers.

Frantically he rushed over to Kasandra and tried to shake her out of it, but she hardly reacted.

It was apparent from her reactions that she knew what Avery was trying to do, but the fear gripping her was too powerful to fight back against.

This proved the same for Jasmine and Liesel as well, and judging by the fact that all of his transmissions had gone without receiving a single response, it was clear that the rest of the team he had brought along were in similar conditions.

’I’m the only one that can retreat. The others are stuck here unresponsive. But I can’t just leave them here to die.’

There were a lot of good people he had brought with him and losing them was not an option.

Kaiden was Kasandra’s brother and only surviving relative. While she might forgive Avery considering the circumstances, he knew that she would probably never be the same again if he died. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Then there was Burke. A lot of the pilots and ships that were part of Avery’s mercenary company were absorbed from his team. If the man perished here, it could see the unraveling of a core part of Avery’s forces.

These were just a couple of reasons that Avery did not want to abandon anyone, and he certainly had plenty more valid ones.

As Avery toiled with what to do, the cracks in the asteroid were beginning to spread.

The space monsters that protected this system were doing their best to keep the entity sealed within at aby, but their battle appeared to be a losing one.

With only two of the five main species able to work together, and three commander types out of commission, it was impossible to keep the powerful creature fully contained.

While this was only in hindsight, Avery wished that he had come up with another strategy.

Unfortunately, he never could have predicted that something like this was going to happen.

’Maybe that could work. Still, can I pull it off? I’ve gotten better at controlling my own energy, but this won’t be easy.’ Avery thought as an idea came to mind.

Right now, they were not in any imminent danger since the systems space monsters were preoccupied, and the creature sealed inside of the asteroid had not fully escaped.

Nevertheless, it was only a matter of time until something gave, and Avery knew he needed to act before then.

His own extraordinary abilities were keeping him partially protected from the unknown being’s psychic attack.

This was not done from any conscious effort on Avery’s part, though, if when he tried focusing on strengthening the energy within himself, he felt the aberrant power being pushed back.

All of this was a bit incomprehensible, but he did not need to know why he was like this in the current moment. All that mattered was that his uniqueness could help everyone out of this predicament.

’I’m not great at doing this yet, but bring it out. Not like a blade like I’ve been using, but as if I’m creating a protective film around them.’

Avery concentrated on drawing out the latent psionic powers within himself and covering Kasandra, Jasmine, and Liesel with it.

Currently the three of them were paralyzed by the overwhelming aura of the sealed entity, so Avery was trying to give them some level of protection against it.

It was by no means easy. Eventually though, he managed to do so.

For Kasandra, Jasmine, and Liesel, it was as if some heavy weight that had been pushing down on their chests had been lifted.

All at once the three of them took deep breaths and their complexions that had gone pale started to return to normal.

"Sorry to put you all to work as soon as you recover but were running out of time. Jasmine, I need you to send a message to Zefield telling him what’s going on here and that he needs to hurry up with opening up a path to the hyperlane entrance even if the fleet needs to be a little reckless. We need to hurry up and get the hell out of here."

"Kasandra, I’m leaving you in charge of piloting and weapons. Liesel, handle any other subsystems and act as a supporter. I’m going to be too busy on protecting all of us to do anything else."

Avery then gave them a quick rundown of his plan.

They would go one by one to each ship and Avery would increase the size of the protective field he was creating. By the end he was hopeful that he could get everyone and they could all escape. So long as they could get out of the system, hopefully everything would turn out fine.