Aurora Over a Dead World

Chapter 8: Tanya and Her Reaction

With a pained sigh, Tanya wakes up on the infirmary cot with a splitting headache, followed by a horrible chill from the infirmary’s air conditioning.

"...DAMMIT!" She immediately realizes what happened, punching the bed in rage, unable to believe she lost the fight. Even though she hadn’t used her full power, she had never been defeated like this before.

And the bitter, frustrating feeling that rises up fills her with anger, making her release heat in a low zone that causes the water in the glass beside her to boil before the glass explodes, breaking her concentration on her rage.

"[Current recovery status stable. It is recommended that you remain lying down for the next 3 hours before moving again,]" Nexus appears on the infirmary screen, speaking to Tanya, who glares at the technology as if it were her enemy.

"Quiet, you stupid machine! I’m going to call that cow out for a fight right now!! She’ll pay dearly for what she did!!! I-I just held back!! That’s why she won!! This time I’ll blow her to pieces!!"

"[Denied. Dangerous resistance will be canceled with anesthetics should you decide to proceed with this decision. The well-being of the other students is highly relevant to the academy.]"

"You think you can stop me? Don’t piss me off, you old piece of junk. That damn metallic woman doesn’t deserve to win like that!! I’ll crush her!! Boom!!" Tanya, with a cruel smile, stands up with conviction.

"[Naturally, my systems are not capable of stopping you, but I strongly advise against doing this, and I say as advice: do not try to fight your tutor Zenith again.]" Tanya, ignoring Nexus on the screen, begins to adjust her clothes back, ignoring her unsteady movements that came from having received an intense electric shock.

"[You will lose.]" Nexus, seeing such disobedience, quickly analyzes the data it has on Tanya and strikes at Tanya’s arrogant and pretentious character to make her listen to reason.

"What did you say? You’ve got to be screwing with me, right? Me?! Lose? I only lost before because I didn’t want to destroy everything!! This time I’ll wreck that broken woman!! I’m invincible!!! One of the strongest, if not the strongest, of this generation!!" Tanya, simply ignoring reason, boasts.

An attitude that seems like mere arrogance, but which came from years of praise from classmates, teachers, and important figures who greatly exaggerated the fact that her power was mighty, without caring about the person who owned that power.

"[In a relativistic rate of calculations, your current chances of defeating Zenith are 0.00001% in most scenarios, both day and night,]" Nexus uses data collected from years of Zenith’s battles to judge.

"Hahaha, you think I’ll listen to a government machine made to think it bosses students around?! Look at me!! My power could devastate this flying island! You think that broken woman can beat me, Nexus?!"

"[Should you actively attack Zenith, your survival chances are 2%. Contrary to what you currently imagine, in logical data, Zenith has more value than you, so no one will come to save you if Zenith decides to kill you.]" When Nexus says this, Tanya stops in front of the door without leaving.

"W-What did you say? Are you saying that broken woman is worth more than ME?!?! Since when are you so bad at lying?"

"[They are logical data from years of records, just as it is a fact that you are not capable of bringing down this island. You would be stopped long before, and just as you can destroy this city in a stable manner, Zenith can destroy this city in an unstable manner. Unlike you, she possesses experience, tactics, and a considerably high intellect.]"

"[The survival rates of human enemies who have fought against her are 25% in concrete data. A rate that is not perfect, but implies that almost no one who fights her comes out alive if she decides to kill.]"

"[Naturally, she is also of extreme importance, since... confidential information found, I regret not being able to say more than that.]" Nexus is shut down for talking too much, going against a directive due to a small error in judgment.

"What??!! Just leaving? Hey!!... damn stupid machine... s-she can’t be more important than me!!...." Tanya, despite her pride, does not continue with her impulsive rage-driven attack.

Because she was always aware of her own value, and knew that even if she killed one person or another, she would be protected because she is worth too much. It’s the first time someone tells her she has less value than another person, and that between her life and that other person’s life, the choice would be to protect the other person’s life.

"Seriously, what could be good about a broken woman!! Headmistress Astrid was the strongest of her generation and never received a permanent wound! But this cow lost her arms and her legs and clearly the movement of her spine!! How is she worth more than me?" Indignant, Tanya slams the infirmary door, running with unsteady, aimless steps.

She looks out the window, seeing that it’s already nightfall, and that she lost the entire day being unconscious in the infirmary.

"Nexus, where does she live? Tell me, or I swear I’ll blow this whole place up," Tanya asks, picking up a device that resembles a telephone, but which has direct access to Nexus, used by authority figures.

"[Lives about 8 blocks from the academy, 8th Street, apartment 459, 18th floor, room number 251,]" Nexus, which has fewer restrictions on the cell phone, simply obeys.

"I’ll show you who’s more important around here!" Tanya points through the window in the exact direction, a precision and a level of calculation worthy of a true elite genius. The aim of her heat blast goes exactly in the direction Nexus said.

"I’m going to evaporate her house, and you’ll see that this bitch won’t be able to do anything!!" Unlike what Tanya’s arrogance implies, to Nexus it resembles more a childish tantrum derived from the despair of losing a fight so easily.

Regardless of holding back or not, a single normal heat beam from Tanya beats the speed of sound and can melt the academy’s reinforced metallic structures, something most ordinary students and ordinary teachers can’t even react to.

Proof of Zenith’s tactical excellence, who not only reacted but predicted through calculations, seeing the variation of vectors where the direction of the attack would go.

"Bang." With the sound of a gunshot from her mouth, Tanya fires a beam the size of a house toward Zenith’s dwelling. The speed of the beam generates a sonic boom, bursting the nearby windows. However, unlike the thunderous impact Tanya expected, the attack is deflected into the sky with extreme ease.

"W-What... i-impossible!! Look at this distance!? How could she have reacted!! I just need one more! More power! More impact!! More speed!!" Like a terrible sore loser desperate to prove she is stronger, Tanya begins to charge more heat, the window frame melting under the elevated temperature.

"Ba-" But before she can fire the heat blast, a knife is thrown at a thunderous speed. Tanya barely dodges the knife that was aimed at her head, the blade embedding itself in the wall behind her. A simple kitchen knife piercing reinforced vector metal as the blade and the handle vibrate in the wall from the impact.

"..." Tanya falls backward to her knees from the clumsy dodge, seeing the blood drip from the light cut on her forehead. A lethal attack without any restraint to try to leave her alive.

"[According to collected data, your chances of dying were 50%. I strongly recommend a strategic retreat and a broader analysis of the situation,]" Nexus speaks, trying to make her give up.

"...Damn..." Frustrated, Tanya throws the device on the floor and stomps on it, running to her dormitory with disgust and hatred for her teacher, who not only reacted but struck back.