Stuck between a rock and a hard place–that was how Tanya described her current predicament. To complete the test, she had to uninterruptedly maintain an altitude of exactly 3000 for five minutes. The only problem was that as soon as the timer reached the first minute mark, Schugel's underlings would open fire at her. A dozen Aerial Mages with mana to spare were no laughing matter, and she had less than 30 minutes left to pull off a successful attempt.

Tanya couldn't risk taking a bad hit. If she lost consciousness, no one would come to her assistance at least until her failure was made official. Depending on Schugel's motive, she might not get a chance to get up at all. The letter she had received from her co-conspirator put her at odds with Schugel, who was likely aware of her plan to overthrow him.

Regrettably, the confrontation implied in the letter was also the only way forward. Schugel's exploitation has reached a new level now that the Audit Committee was spectating her progress. Tanya's success would further his agenda by demonstrating the effectiveness of the Elinium Type 95 Operation Orb while failure would put her in training hell. Regardless of the outcome, Schugel was sure to use her to score more funding for the madness to continue.

The Aerial Mages acting as volunteers from the Tactical Training Department were a means to an end for Schugel. The war must have been going well if they could spare a squadron to fulfil Schugel's demands. Tanya gagged at the thought of him making the requisition following her prolonged stay in hospital, pretending that her training regimen was his only concern. It was his fault that she had almost died in the first place.

Her current predicament was also his fault.

"Target altitude lost. Resetting timer," she heard the assistant's monotone over the headset.

"Dammit! Where's the Human Rights Watch when you need it?"

Nearly three minutes had gone by since the start of the test and Tanya has already worked up a sweat. The long-distance spells that the Aerial Mages stationed on the ground had been casting left lasting heat trails in otherwise cool air.

"If you have time for idle chatter, you must be sure you're doing well. I don't believe I can blame you, Second Lieutenant. Time is on your side, after all," Schugel chimed in.

In a way, Schugel was right because no one was firing at her for a change. The handicap surprised her. Tanya labelled it as a handicap because Schugel was mentally incapable of processing mercy and there was no other reason to give her a breather when the purpose of the test was to have her fail. She was almost happy about the way he underestimated her: thinking she'd otherwise go down too soon and leave the Audit Committee unimpressed. This overconfidence would serve as an opening for Tanya, but she was also aware that giving it her all would let Schugel reap most of the benefits.

The cards she was dealt left her short of good options. Dropping out early would leave a black mark on her career while Schugel would be able to cope with the collateral damage. Putting up a winning performance would result in Schugel tightening his grip of her by scoring big with the Audit Committee. Tanya wasn't sure if that was better than just letting the clock run out, which would give the volunteering Aerial Mages permanent residence at the testing facility.

Doing her best only to fall into a well-laid trap in the final stretch would hurt her pride the most, so the third option had the appeal of a compromise that left everyone dissatisfied. It would be evidence that neither Schugel's operation orbs nor Tanya were a match to standard Aerial Mage techniques performed by mere volunteers. However, this outcome was a wildcard Schugel had warned her about. The loon had accurately predicted her propensity to rationalise.

It came down to either yielding to Schugel's intellect or showing that he was wrong to underestimate her. Neither option would cause him the pain he rightfully deserved–a realisation that had Tanya's sanity howling in the back of her head–but she wouldn't let it break her spirit.

"Can you cut him off? You can cut him off, right? There should be a mute button on this thing…"

Schugel laughed, having likely realised that she'd be in trouble if she removed the headset, "Take it easy, Second Lieutenant. Think of all the Special High Intensity Training you'll be having from now on. Isn't it marvellous?"

So that was his game. Failing the test would weaken her hand in any negotiations and he made it obvious that letting the time run out would give him a new tool to torment her with, so-called Special High Intensity Training with his new puppets. The last thing Schugel needed was another way to magnify Tanya's misery.

Even if this was a form of reverse psychology on Schugel's part, she couldn't back out of the challenge. The Aerial Mages on the ground powered up once the clock reached the first minute mark again, locking Tanya's resolve into the attempt. The way forward was clear: she would take no prisoners.

"Ma-ma-marvellous? I'll show you marvellous, Schuuugel."

Tanya closed her eyes and evened her breathing to focus on the magic headed her way. Judging by the speed and distortion level, the shots would be no match for her agility. While she had to maintain a fixed altitude, Tanya still had nigh unlimited escape routes on a two-dimensional plane. The volunteers' shots targeting specific points on that plane were like mines in a game of Minesweeper. One had to be an impatient idiot to lose in that game.

A magic bullet zipped past Tanya's face as she manoeuvred out of the incoming cluster. The Aerial Mages shifted positions on the ground as they fired, so each spell had a slight variation that fit Schugel's description of noisy input. This also meant that they couldn't continuously bombard her with spells and, considering the mana reserves of the average Aerial Mage, flashy spells were a wasteful choice against a small and nimble target like Tanya.

"Your goons have been throwing long-distance spells at me all this time and it won't take long for them to run out of juice. They're not artillery you can resupply on short notice."

"There should be homing shots mixed in for good measure," Schugel replied.

Like on cue, less powerful yet more mobile interference spells registered on Tanya's operation orb. The engagement switched to a game of Pac-Man: Tanya had to avoid running into long-range spells while dodging the homing attacks. The heat and constant dodging were getting on her nerves, however. She decided that she would stand her ground from now on.

Tanya had been forced to use magic barriers creatively in the past, so this was a chance for the orb to show what it could do in a mage versus mage scenario. Schugel's volunteers would learn why they shouldn't have crossed a bearer of the Silver Wings Assault Medal.

Tanya had the mana to project a barrier thick enough to withstand most spells, but the feat wouldn't satisfy her. She wanted to make sure the volunteers learnt their lesson.

Pain was an efficient educator, a fact of life engrained in her during HR training. Since she was placed under Schugel's wing, this truth has been reaffirmed on a daily basis. When it came to pain, Schugel proved himself both tireless and inventive. Hence, she, too, would educate them through pain and dispel any illusions they might still have about the testing facility.

For example, the illusion that they could succeed to any extent by relying solely on brute force in the face of a stronger opponent. Unfortunately for them, Tanya was, in her humble opinion, such an opponent. And she had the high ground. The one thing holding her back from undoing the source of irritation with an act of peerless strength was the wildcard operation orb. If the volunteers had a different idea about the reason why she hadn't massacred them yet, they were wrong and it was too late to repent.

Their thoughts about the encounter didn't matter to her regardless. The volunteers were an expression of Schugel's strength, a tool meant to apply pressure on her, to break her, and so defeating them also meant defeating him by proxy. What better way to win than by subverting the opponent's strength?

Schugel was careless to entrust the execution to underqualified pawns, a mistake Tanya found too convenient to take at face value. Still, she had more than enough on her hands without him complicating matters in person, nor did it change her immediate objective: show the pawns their rightful place.

The protective barrier that Tanya erected in front of herself was made with the express purpose of being visible from the ground. It was her challenge to them. She'd take on everything they had and more.

Schugel's upstarts couldn't resist such bait. A single mage's barrier would yield to the unstoppable force of a squadron's coordinated attack. There was strength in their numbers, or so Tanya wanted them to believe.

A barrage of high-energy magic projectiles was their answer. The volunteers have outdone themselves by seizing the opportunity with gusto, as Tanya had to give up her superior mobility to maintain the barrier. In their view, she made a tactical blunder.

Providing too many inducements was bound to raise suspicion, so Tanya was glad they caught on quickly for pawns. Having committed a large amount of mana to the attack, they guaranteed her a few seconds of respite post-impact, if only to gawk at the results of their squadron shooting at a little girl. She wasn't going to hold that against them since it was a part of her plan.

Tanya would have accomplished her goal by demonstrating that her barrier was too thick for them to penetrate, but that could have encouraged them to try again rather than acknowledge her superiority. Hence, she took it a step further to really trip them up. The barrier's glossy sheen wasn't just for show; Tanya constructed it in such a way that it would reflect magic as well as light. Manipulating its shape at the anticipated points of impact to bounce individual spells in one combined destructive bundle was a cakewalk. She would give the volunteers a faceful of their own magic.

She grinned in anticipation of her opponents fuelling her counterattack while she kept track of all the parameters. Everything checked out. Lying lifelessly in a crater was the volunteers' future.

So this is clairvoyance, huh? Neat.

Just as the first spell collided with the barrier to be reflected exactly as planned, a message she received over the headset broke her focus thus affecting the barrier.

"Target altitude lost. Resetting timer."

"What? Why?!" By the time Tanya got herself together, she realised that the barrier had deformed too much during her lapse of concentration and she had to dodge to save her skin. One of the shots came too close for comfort, distorting the air in front of her face with a lasting heat trail.

"Pushback, Second Lieutenant."

Overconfidence had taken the best of Tanya and she was sure not to repeat the same mistake again. Different forces were in play in the air. In the absence of solid support, it was nigh on impossible to maintain a fixed position while taking fire. She had to consider a more direct approach if she wanted to see the volunteers beaten into submission.

"Push back, you say? Don't mind if I do! I am allowed to use any means at my disposal, right?"

"That is correct, Second Lieutenant."

Tanya beamed in response, giddy to hear that her right to slaughter wouldn't be taken away when she was about to exercise it. With Schugel in charge, one could never be too careful.

Hence, her delight was a façade. Tanya knew full well that retaliating meant throwing caution to the wind. It was going to be the first time she used a Type 95 to attack and she wasn't even provided a gun to channel her magic. Having to rely on the wildcard operation orb in such conditions made her sick to her stomach.

She was uneasy about funnelling her mana into the orb's offensive mechanism. This put additional strain on the components currently in use while awakening whatever moving parts she hadn't been given the opportunity to test yet. For all she knew, it could blow her to smithereens.

But if she didn't take the risk of doing that to herself, the Aerial Mages acting on Schugel's orders would hand-deliver that result to her. Tanya was not going to let that happen. She would show Schugel that she could adapt to any situation.

"I don't need a weapon to focus this shot."

Perhaps, that was the adaptability he referred to at the start of the test? Tanya didn't have the time to dwell on the topic. She had a squadron of Aerial Mages to take care of.

Destruction would bring much-needed release. She had already analysed the spellcasting and movements of each assailant, so doling out the precise amount of magic to silence them was a matter of balancing her own fears. Too little mana and some of them would remain conscious. Too much and the orb could overheat. In the end, Tanya opted to bring them all down with one blast while she had the element of surprise on her side.

The volunteers didn't change their future as Tanya had foreseen it. They merely postponed the inevitable. She didn't care whether their own mana or hers made it happen.

Were the conditions any different, she could have enjoyed the prospects of wreaking havoc. Tanya checked her vitals for anomalies, steadied her breathing and let loose her magic to power the orb's offensive module. She had a reliable yet potent spell in mind, one she wouldn't have needed the additional cores to bring to fruition. This was a necessary precaution to manage both the orb and the magic that she'd have to guide by hand.

Despite these painstaking preparations, the moment she pulled the internal trigger to cast the spell, nothing happened. She pulled it again, adding mana in the process to overcome the orb's hunger, should it have been the culprit.

Her efforts were in vain. The spell wouldn't materialise and now she had a petulant operation orb filled to the brim with mana begging for release.

"Eh? Ehh?! Why won't it fire?" She tapped the headset to get the other side's attention. "Schugel, what's the big idea giving me this defective piece of junk? It won't fire!"

Schugel took his sweet time to respond while the assistant announced the end of the first minute in her current attempt. The progress she was making seemed to infuriate her further because it wasn't the outright victory she had been hoping for. Tanya's solution made her quandary worse because now she had to deal with a saturated operation orb as well as being on the receiving end of a turkey shoot.

"You are the defective component here, Second Lieutenant. This operation orb has been modified for defence only."

Her eyes squeezed shut as she grimaced. She was in deeper than she had imagined. "BS! I call BS! There's no way in a million years that would be useful on the battlefield." Tanya proceeded to expend the agitated mana on doping spells to manoeuvre around incoming fire. The volunteers pulled no punches when it came to shooting her out of the sky.

"That is something to be determined by the outcome of this test. I hope you didn't expect me to order you to simultaneously check defence and offence right after you've returned from hospital. I'm not a monster."

Schugel's reply was a bitter pill to swallow. The accusations she had fielded at him came back with a vengeance. This was his mercy.

"I've been cheated. I can't fight back. I can't take hits," she lamented to no one but herself whilst dodging; the volunteers paid no heed to her conversation and continued the bombardment.

To insure herself from more surprises, Tanya examined the level of the modifications done to her operation orb. She wasn't keen on doing it because it could have tripped unstable circuitry or activated more untested features that Schugel intended to adapt her to.

She found little of interest, much to her own chagrin. The operation orb had an improved scanner that crudely emulated GPS together with the ability to ping objects. It could potentially help Tanya keep track of Schugel and his volunteers' locations, but the obvious drawback was that Schugel's monitoring equipment could have been receiving a very precise measure of her location. The tracking data would be useful to Schugel to make inferences about her agility to construct harder tests in the future. If anything, Schugel taught her not to expect the worst outcome imaginable because her imagination would be outdone by reality.

"Three minutes remaining."

Tanya twitched in anticipation of more pain upon hearing the announcement. Her progress was up a continuously steepening mountain with no top in sight. She snorted at the idea of going so far up the exponential slope that she would see it curve backwards on itself like a snail. If the math allowed it, Schugel would have already put Tanya there. Not that reality could stop him from trying.

Precious seconds ticked by in silence. It was a bewildering change of pace, from having to dart around like a mad hummingbird to this uneasy stillness. The volunteers were clearly up to something. After all, Schugel had cooked up the test, so there was no reason for them to give her a breather other than to lull her into a false sense of security.

It wasn't going to work. Tanya had stuffed her confidence where the sun didn't shine to keep it from getting the best of her. She would not allow herself the satisfaction of taunting them for being unable to break her. Going that far would be courting disaster. Tanya has learnt her lesson.

Schugel could have anticipated that, though, and purposefully put in a short break to mess with her. Tanya found herself conditioned to the unending stream of inhuman challenges, so a taste of peace appeared to have thrown her out of the comfort zone. It was a depressing revelation for the pacifist in her.

"Two minutes remaining."

"Maybe they're really out of it…" she mumbled and looked up for the first time in over a minute.

What she saw was both alarming and new: some of the magic bullets she had dodged were on their way back down. Had her fixation on the volunteers' actions on the ground continued any longer, she would have been unable to safely dodge.

"Hit me in a blind spot, huh? Not a chance! I dodged them going up and they can have it on the return."

Judging by the trajectory and intensity, the shots would cause a lot of damage to the testing facility, a lucky break as far as Tanya was concerned. She wasn't going to catch any, so the volunteers would have to deal with their own duds.

The volunteers remained idle, however, neither scattering nor raising protective barriers. The reason dawned upon her hard just as she got accustomed to not being in pain: they could afford to relax because the bullets were not going to reach the ground.

"… Timed explosives."

The first projectile exploded to her side, throwing her off balance. The second lit up right above. She cast a barrier to protect herself from the third, but it didn't matter in the end. The assistant's voice brought her the news: "Target altitude lost. Resetting timer."

She used to think that the absence of splash damage was the saving grace of this turkey shoot. Whoever set her up with her current life must have had a whale of a time proving her wrong. There were no saving graces to what she was doing. No saving. No graces, either. It was just her and this mountain of pain out to collapse on top of her and crush what remained of her humanity.

After returning to the target altitude, she cursed the accuracy of that image because the magic bombardment from above did not appear like it would end anytime soon. The occasional boom was followed up with an expletive-laden tirade on one end and a droning "Target altitude lost. Resetting timer" on the other. The shock of having to deal with a pummelling from above and below simultaneously left her out of breath more than her vitals would have suggested.

She hadn't crossed the first minute mark, so no one was firing at her from the ground, but the heap of challenges she had to keep in mind never stopped growing, taking a toll on her performance.

"Target altitude lost. Resetting timer."

"I demand a second opinion!" she cried out. There were too many to dodge. She'd have to fly a hefty distance away from her current position and even that would be a temporary reprieve because the volunteers would just start firing at her new position. Her current strategy was untenable, like bashing one's face against a wall in hopes of breaking said wall.

"Do you?" she heard Schugel on the line.

Give up? No. Never. Fighting on guaranteed pain until the sweet release of victory. Surrender guaranteed pain, period.

Tanya would fight and she would use her head to get around this predicament. She had discarded the idea of casting large barriers due to the pushback resetting the timer. Having a time limit put a squeeze on her brain, making it difficult to look more than one step ahead. She wouldn't make it if she limited her objective to dodging the next shot because she still needed to prepare for the inevitable surprise on Schugel's part.

The test was about fighting noise, chaos, random inputs that could not be explained with patterns. Since Schugel stood behind it, it wasn't a case of true randomness or white noise, but Tanya did not have the time to explain away his brand of chaos.

Since chaos was the problem, the solution would have to be order. Albeit the limited tools at Tanya's disposal brought bitterness to her face, she didn't have the time to waste by dwelling on it. However, she had enough time to sacrifice to bring order back.

After confirming that the timer has been reset and no one would be firing at her from below, she turned her attention skyward to give the operation orb a stress test of her own. There were too many falling projectiles left to count, so there was no point in counting. Or targeting. Or moderating herself.

The facility's safety crew taught her a valuable lesson about barriers early on. For a crafty mage with an operation orb to match, possibilities were defined by mana reserves alone, leaving the desired shape, size and other properties up to the imagination. In Tanya's case, this was an opportunity to see how far she could go.

As far as the four cores would take her. Tanya removed her goggles and glared at the incoming projectiles while channelling her mana into the operation orb until it got so hot it was about to set her clothes on fire. This was her signal to let it rip and project a barrier big enough and thick enough to suppress any magic heading her way downwards.

She gazed at her creation with disbelief, the magic equivalent of an artillery-proof bunker. Unlike the real thing, though, hers could move. Pushback wouldn't be an issue if she pushed the barrier itself back– away and into the sky. The magic would quickly dissipate without an immediate connection to maintain its form, yet Tanya was sure it would last sufficiently long to block the remaining shots.

Once the barrier started ascending, the timed explosion spells were out of her hair. She could look down at the volunteers on the ground, whose trickery she had effectively dismantled.

Tanya ran her hand through her hair waving in the wind. "I rest my case," she said in response to Schugel's question. "Still, I don't see the point of this test."

Schugel said nothing in defence, leading her irritation to swell.

"I could have stood in a shooting gallery or, you know, fought on the front. Like I did when I got my medal. This doesn't even pass as a shitty endurance test."

The volunteers had resumed fire, but it left Tanya unimpressed. Her barrier was holding out nicely in the distance despite magic bullets exploding against it from both sides. The light show was so intense it was probably hard for them to aim. When the conditions were right, Tanya's shadow blocked out the flashes, thus leaving an opening for a good shot.

She was on a roll. "What's the matter, Schugel? Talk to me!"

"Two minutes remaining," the assistant said.

"Oh, so that's how it goes. He switched off, so I don't hear him crying. That's fiiine, I-" she paused upon realising that the explosions stopped. The volunteers weren't firing anymore, nor were they on the ground. A second later Tanya found them flying towards her, weapons in tow. "Why are they moving?"

Short-range spells were the answer she received. Having dodged the first few, she found herself cornered in the sky as the squadron took position to pepper everything in her general location with fire and fury.

"I wasn't told they'd be moving!"

"One minute remaining."

Dodging that many magic projectiles up close was even more impossible. Scattering blasts hurt like hell and she could only take so many to the face until she was out cold, forcing her to cast conventional barriers–the very same that caused pushback and cancelled the progress she has made.

"Target altitude lost. Resetting timer."

Tanya groaned about returning to square one. The volunteers also took their cues by withdrawing. The altitude and timing have been calculated precisely to allow them to reach the surface to resume bombardment a minute later as scheduled. From their perspective, everything was going according to plan. It was pissing her off.

"How much time do I have left?" Tanya asked the assistant.

"Just under seventeen minutes."

"Still safe…." Arms folded, she pondered her situation. They opened fire at the first minute announcement. Two minutes in, whatever shots passed by returned to Tanya's level as timed explosives. Another minute and they took flight to surround her.

The result of their actions was also the same. Tanya had neither a weapon nor an operation orb that could cast attack spells. The unfairness was infuriating. The only way she could win was if she could fight them off, but she could only use defensive spells. The condition to maintain a fixed altitude threw a spanner in whatever plan she concocted.

"This is impossible! I can't fight them and keep the timer going."

Instead of tearing at her hair in frustration, Tanya blinked and repeated to herself what she just said.

"That's right. I can't fight them while the timer is going. Heh-heh. That is absolutely right!"

Tanya spun around her axis, cackling like a lunatic. It was a glorious revelation in her present mental state. She was attempting to do two mutually exclusive things at once. Had she acknowledged that error in judgement earlier, she would have saved herself the embarrassment, but there was no use to cry over spilled milk. Tanya would come out of this encounter a wiser man…child? She made a mental note to address the looming identity crisis at a later date.

For now, she had a pressing matter to take to her oppressors.

"Time?"

"Twelve minutes remaining, Second Lieutenant."

"Hold that thought," she said and zipped down.

"Target altitude lost. Resetting...timer?" The assistant's monotone broke in the end, likely confused by the changing altitude reading. That didn't stop her, though. She continued her descent. "Second Lieutenant? Where are you going? You don't have the time to fool around!"

"It is precisely why I'm doing this. I can't fight and keep the timer going at the same time. You can guess what I'm going to do next…"

"But-but. This is suicide. You're defenceless!"

"Butt out. That was suicide." She pointed at the sky. "As for my defence skills… I am feeling very confident right now, not quite defenceless. Calling me unarmed would also be inaccurate."

Tanya took an excited breath once she levelled with the volunteers, who looked bewildered by what they saw. The little girl they had been shooting at descended from the heavens to talk to them even though she was about to run out of time.

She waved at them bashfully and threw a half-innocent smile. The other half of that innocence had fallen in a pit of seething rage and she wasn't feeling too motivated to pick it up. The volunteers did volunteer for this.

"Hi! Fancy meeting me here, huh? So, I saw you firing at me…yes, would you kindly cut that out?" Tanya gave them her best little girl impression, going as far as adding a cute fluttering blink in the end. She wanted the disconnect to sink in because they had been making her life difficult for the last twenty minutes and she has not only held her own, but also managed to bring the fight to their turf. If that was not clear to them yet, the inevitable future would catch on to them quickly.

"I've permission to hurt people and I don't want you guys to get caught in all of the…hurting…that is about to begin. So, how about this: you stop attacking me and I leave you as you are, happy to be alive. All right?"

Tanya accentuated the offer with her pearly whites. Those were the teeth of a shark preying on a group of baby seals, presented first-hand for the aforementioned seals' convenience.

Judging by their indifferent attitudes, the seals failed to understand their role thus sealing their collective fate. They didn't even acknowledge her offer.

What they were doing wasn't bravery, only foolishness. Tanya had offered them a means to avoid the inevitable future. She may have done it in a perfunctory fashion, since anyone clever enough to volunteer as Schugel's pawn deserved having their brains forcibly donated to science, yet a chance was still a chance–nothing to scoff at when the alternative was a luxurious, unforgettable lesson in pain taught by an expert.

"No? I see. How about I give you another chance? Have a long, hard think. Your body will thank you for it!"

Tanya has gone out of her way to avoid bloodshed and, by doing so, got a pass on any criticism from the members of the Audit Committee observing in the background. It was a matter of shifting the blame for the collateral damage on the volunteers' shoulders, provided they had shoulders to speak of by the time Tanya finished with them.

"And your final answer is?"

Their negative response appeared to have disappointed her. Tanya lowered her head until they couldn't see her changing facial expression. The sound of guns cocking in sequence compared to shackles being removed from her arms and legs, setting Tanya free from her ardent pacifism. They must have imagined that they were preparing to fight her while, in reality, they were preparing her to fight them.

She sprang into action as soon as the first volunteer took aim at her.

"Wrong. You lose!"

The Elinium Type 95 Operation Orb made short work of their weapons. Tiny mobile barriers that Tanya materialised pressed and mangled the guns, causing a few to misfire and blow up in the volunteers' hold.

Surprise merged with shock and terror, showing that they were beginning to understand what was about to befall them: the inevitable future. It was the proper reaction Tanya had been eager to see. Not anymore, though. They had to try harder to compensate for wasting her kindness.

"They say offence is the best defence. I can't disagree more! There's no offence like defence. With great prejudice!"

Upon finishing her speech, Tanya rose above the volunteers and put her arms out, focusing. The first invisible barrier that she cast sliced a ring shape into the pavement. It was the sole hallmark of a dome-like enclosure she projected to prevent anyone from escaping the second barrier, manifesting inside the first. The second barrier caused a visible distortion to give the volunteers an impression of where their insistence on fighting her would take them: straight to the ground.

Tanya lowered her arms with a laboured grunt, bringing the pain by having the second barrier smash downwards, crushing the volunteers underneath. Albeit they had cast protective spells and tried to remain upright, the force and speed with which Tanya attacked were too great to offer meaningful resistance to.

Within seconds, the volunteers were laid prone in a crater dug out by their own foolishness. They were yelling obscenities to make Tanya stop, but Tanya knew well what it meant: if they still had the energy to raise their voices, they were not quite broken yet.

She let her actions speak for her by lifting the weight ever so slightly off the volunteers' prone bodies, fortifying the barrier and adding a less smooth surface texture, and bringing it down with zest.

The cries were louder and less intelligible. Tanya took it as a sign that the volunteers were learning their place.

"Can any of you still move? Honest answers only. No takebacks!"

The barely audible verbal abuse she got from them was worth applauding. Schugel struck gold with those try-hards: fighting to their last breath as if this wasn't a mere equipment test. Such commendable spirit belonged on the front, not in a team-killing madman's lair, and Tanya would do her best to return said spirit to its rightful place.

"Are you sure?" she asked again in a deliberate, mocking manner.

The pressure exerted by the barrier was beginning to cause fractures, and even support spells couldn't help them inhale properly. They were down on the ground, dominated by her completely, and yet they had the outstanding foolishness to cast support spells on themselves. Magic signatures were a dead giveaway of an Aerial Mage's threatening presence. They were better off playing dead than encouraging their opponent to get serious.

She sighed in exasperation as she manipulated the barrier to move back and forth, emulating a full-body smash against the pavement until the last magic signature fizzled out. Once all of them lost consciousness, Tanya contemplated offing them just in case. Fanatics were dangerous to have around, which explained how Schugel managed to recruit them.

In the back of her mind, Tanya was screaming at the horrors Schugel was subjecting her to. Sending her own compatriots to intensive care over an equipment test was sick. They weren't foreign spies, and even if they were, their treatment would have amounted to illegal torture. However, the moral quandary of her actions never reached the surface of her consciousness because Schugel had been the one pulling the strings and the string he pulled this time happened to be connected to a mental grenade pin.

The adrenaline-laden excitement of besting her taskmaster in the most egregious stress test yet clouded her judgement, but she was fine with her faculties as they were. This was a defensive mechanism she needed in order to survive. It protected her mind from the madness of war and the implications of her own actions.

She levitated above a dozen unconscious Aerial Mages, her terse grin reflecting in pools of their blood. If anything, this was proof that she managed to adapt and evolve as a soldier. She defeated her opponents through defence alone. A killing blow would secure this victory, yet she did not feel that she had the luxury of time to carry it out. The presence of the Audit Committee limited her choices to what was truly necessary to win.

"Good. Stay put. I'll be back in five," she said while keeping her eye on the Audit Committee chairman. He signalled that she has made her point clear.

The spectators' cries for a medic were the last thing she heard before flying back to the target altitude. Schugel would pay dearly for the chaos he forced her to spread while she would reap the benefits. The test has gone too far for him to be off the hook. Even the morally vacuous oversight he answered to would buckle under the weight of the evidence. There were too many witnesses, too many bodies. The surviving volunteers would surely speak out.

"Lalala. All is well in Lalaland."

A glorious comeuppance! The timer was ticking away in the refreshing peace of Tanya's altitude of 3000. She observed the people scurrying on the ground like ants. Medical crews rushed to the scene and Tanya's orb caught intense radio chatter coming from the testing facility. News was probably beginning to break out.

"One minute remaining." The assistant's monotone kept her company, reminding her that this wasn't a dream. She was winning. Schugel was losing. Without his pawns, he had nothing to throw at her.

"I've got to hand it to Schugel's volunteers. They make excellent punching bags. I-" Her boisterous speech was interrupted by a pre-emptive warning: the operation orb picked up an incoming target.

Instinctively, Tanya cast a barrier to block the shot. She wasn't done analysing the projectile or its trajectory yet, so it was a case of standard self-defence rather than a countermeasure for this type of ordnance.

The projectile exploded in a tight cluster of black clouds before it could hit the barrier, catching Tanya off guard when a part of the cluster went over the barrier's edge. The feedback was instantaneous: she was struck by a blast wave, thick smoke and shrapnel. Despite her best efforts to remove all threats, Schugel found a way to bring out the pain. Tanya was reeling from the humiliation, especially from the fact that the rugged clothes Schugel had provided her with absorbed most the splinter damage.

Unfortunately, they did not save her from hearing the bad news. "Target altitude lost. Resetting timer."

Another setback sent her back to square one. This world knew no kindness and there was no winning against it. Successes were fleeting and far-between, their existence–bait to keep her playing a rigged game. And yet, she had had this in the palm of her hand. Victory was so close she could taste it. That was why it hurt so much to see it taken away.

"No! You are kidding me! Time! How much do I have?"

"Five minutes and thirty seconds."

"That's not enough. Urgh. Where did that shot come from…" Upon returning to the target altitude, Tanya removed the now-ruined clothes she wore over her regular uniform and waited for the wind to dispel the smoke.

The explosion had the hallmarks of a particular type of ammunition Aerial Mages despised, fired from an 88 mm Flak cannon. Schugel obviously wanted to save this dirty trick for last, but he miscalculated. Tanya still had time left whereas he has lost the element of surprise. The volunteers were defeated and the cannon she had previously seen hauled out of the testing facility sang its swan song, a one-note melancholy in A minor.

"Ah hah!" she exclaimed once she located the cannon's location. It was too far to reach in the time that she had, but that didn't matter. Tanya's chest rose in excitement as she ruminated her opponent's pathetic state. "Unlike Aerial Mages, AA guns are predictable, static. Nothing you can throw at me can surprise me anymore. I've a hard counter for every piece of ammunition out there."

To make her point clear, Tanya cast a wide barrier that she pushed forth to creep to the Flak cannon's location and added several layers of protection at close range. With her alertness maxed out and the heart pumping from adrenaline, she demonstrated complete confidence in her control of the battlefield.

"You. Can't. Touch. Me."

A wicked grin spread across her face when the Flak cannon fired at the final minute announcement. The shot didn't make it past the first barrier. It crumbled into pieces way out of reach, not enough to make her budge. Tanya's words were thus vindicated.

Silence was her prize. Precious seconds trickled down without sight of danger.

"Ten seconds remaining."

The announcement made her laugh. It was a delirious laugh, a strange mixture of disbelief and euphoria about having surmounted the insurmountable. It was now too late for Schugel to intervene. The assistant's voice brought her closer to deliverance with each announcement.

"Five-"

"Yes!"

"Four-"

"Give it to me!"

As if beckoned by her call, the Flak cannon fired again. Schugel was obviously desperate, and insane, if he thought he'd get a different result by trying the same thing again. It was a clear indication that Tanya had the upper hand.

"Three-two-"

"Useless!"

She feigned a yawn as she watched the projectile approach the first barrier, light up and break right through it. At that very moment, she felt her stomach back up while her pupils shrank in fear. She saw the second barrier fall right after, followed by the third.

Tanya's operation orb became erratic, more so than a mere reflection of her state of mind. The operation orb was reacting to something.

"One-"

She realised what it was only when she noticed crimson sparks dancing at the tip of the shell. Schugel has indeed saved the best for last, a miniature version of the elinium-tipped explosive that had blown up a mountain. He threatened a little girl with a weapon capable of causing nuclear fallout! After subjecting her to what a firing squad in all but name!

Tanya's instinct was to flee, but the shock of the revelation slowed her reaction time to a point that made escape impossible. Hence, she braced for impact, putting as much magic protection between herself and the threat.

It sliced through barriers like butter while inching towards her. The readings she got off the operation orb showed that if she didn't immediately come up with a plan, the shell would continue on its path and leave a gaping hole where her chest was.

She couldn't use offensive spells. She had to adapt, no, evolve her method to survive this, just like she did with the volunteers.

A knight's shield could do more than block and pound an opponent. Provided an opening and sufficient brute strength, the shield could become a blade.

Tampering with the elinium tip was out of the question. However, if she separated it from the rest of the shell, she would have a lighter, more manageable threat. Divide and conquer.

A wedge-shaped barrier was set in motion to break through the shell's casing. Tanya cast it at an angle to make a massive tear, well aware that the fissile material could ignite from the impact. It was a choice between potentially burning to a crisp and gaining an extra hole. As far as Tanya was concerned, she already had one too many. Existence X would pay for the humiliation.

Fear morphed into anger and then returned to its original state. The weaponised barrier came across an obstacle it couldn't cut through in spite of Tanya's tremendous strength. With a clinking sound, it bounced back, giving Tanya an inkling of the hole in her plan: it was not an elinium-tipped shell, but one containing an elinium penetrator rod. Unlike depleted uranium used in armour-piercing shells from her previous life, elinium needed barely an excuse to detonate.

"No! This can't be! I was this close!" Tanya screamed at the top of her lungs while a blinding light tore through the shell from the inside, flashing out from the fissure Tanya made before engulfing everything in her view. She was pissed at herself for discarding the goggles she had been issued. Her sight was effectively shut down, as was her hearing.

Tanya put out her arms and shifted on the spot to reduce her footprint facing the elinium explosion. The operation orb flickered from the interference caused by the blast, reducing the stopping power of any barrier she cast while the bright flames blossomed.

Caught by the blast wave, she thrashed like a leaf in the wind. The defensive spells that she knew couldn't possibly contain the feral power she unleashed. The air around her heated up to an intensity that she stopped breathing to avoid scolding her lungs. Her hair singed and clothes charred as the explosion thrust her into the distance.

Her eyes were closed the entire time, but it wasn't enough to obscure the fireball's expansion. The desert sun at noon paled in comparison and Tanya was supposed to offer resistance to that.

She remained perfectly still until she noticed the fireball contracting. It took her another good moment to realise that the contraction didn't happen yet and it was a matter of distance: she was being blown out of the sky, plummeting to the ground.

The target altitude was invariably lost and she was out of resets.

A steady stream of expletives fielded at Schugel and his ilk came out of her mouth while she waited for the damning verdict.

And the mocking laughter. Schugel deserved to rub it in her face; it wasn't beneath him. In fact, since it was Schugel, he was bound to exceed his own scumminess sooner or later. So, why not now while the iron was hot?

"Is the operation orb intact?" she heard the assistant's voice.

Tanya blinked. It hurt to blink, but she was able to. Huzzah!

The explosion had begun dissipating and Tanya was aware of it. She just needed to pull herself together. It would be bad to hit the ground at her present velocity. She also had to remind herself to breathe. The cooling air offered due refreshment. It beat inhaling the smoke tailing her. She must have been on fire.

"Yes. I think." Her own response seemed to confuse her. The underlying message was too simple, too gratifying to be true. After ordering the operation orb to stop her fall, she put out the parts of the uniform that were burning while she gathered the courage to ask the definitive question: "Does this mean I pass?"

"I'm not sure. The Engineering Director isn't answering."

Come to think of it, the assistant hadn't announced the loss of target altitude while the timer was running, suggesting that the explosion happened too late to affect the result. Moreover, the scientific method required a hypothesis to be rejected rather than approved, meaning that a lack of rejection pointed to the contrary: Tanya has won.

Tanya managed a smile and did her best not to let her lingering confusion show. "He must be biting his nails since I passed."

"No, Second Lieutenant. He's…missing. Please, hurry back."

"Eh? Ehhh?!"

Author's note: Feel free to review and follow, so you don't miss the finale.