"You're weird," the girl, who Nox had now learnt was named Ayla, said.
"You're one to talk," he said...or rather wanted to, but there was no way he would.
The feeling of dread had subsided or rather, he had completely compressed it. The trick to it was to allow his SE to freely flow within him and that feeling just disappeared.
Though, it was still subtly there every now and then.
A couple of minutes with her and he had learnt a few things, one, she was ridiculously strong.
All the tier one and two primals that had come their way had easily been taken care of by her and she didn't even seem to be trying.
And two, she had no idea what personal space meant, after all, she had refused to step back the moment he started circulating his SE.
"Can you.... step back a bit, please?" He requested.
"Hmm?" She let out before looking at the space between the and saying, "oh.."
"The headmistress did say something about personal space," Ayla muttered thoughtfully, "am I in it?"
"Yes," Nox nodded.
"Oh,"she muttered before taking one step back.
…Then another.
…Then three more.
She stopped only when she was like ten meters away, she then looked at him before asking,
"Am I out of it?"
He speechlessly stared at her wondering what the hell was wrong with the girl.
Maybe she was trying to be amusing because she noticed he had been a bit afraid of her.
No, that definitely wasn't it and the look on her face told him so.
"…That's too far," he said after a while.
Ayla looked down at her feet, then back at him.
"So… here?" she asked, taking a small step forward.
With an exhausted sigh, he took a few steps towards her before stopping and saying, "this is fine."
"Right," she nodded.
"So," Nox started, "what do you want from me?"
"You are interesting," she said without hesitation, "your energy and the smell is different."
"Sme—" he froze before taking a whiff of himself.
Yes he came from the slums, but he ensured he showered everyday. Besides, he remembered taking a shower earlier today so there was no way he gave off whatever scent she was picking up.
***
Back in the sky box, the headmistress chuckled as she observed the two. The first interaction between light and darkness was going completely different from what she expected.
She had 'seen' the way dread overcame Nox when he first met Ayla, but the kid had been smart enough...well, more like instinctive enough to let his Solar Energy circulate and suppress the natural fear response.
"Your kid is weird," Astra muttered with a frown as she focused on the screen showing Nox and Ayla.
"Well, she hasn't had much interaction with people besides me," the headmistress replied calmly, there was a small smile on her face.
As the two continued speaking, one of the technicians, unseen by the eyes of most in the room, subtly moved his hand to a button he definitely shouldn't press, at least not in an entrance test anyway.
Hesitating for only a few seconds, he tapped on it and the screens of all the other technicians changed, displaying the same thing.
[UNAUTHORIZED COMMAND RECEIVED]
[ECLIPSED BEHAVIOR PARAMETERS OVERRIDE]
[COMPLETE SIMULATION LOCKDOWN]
[THREAT LEVEL: ESCALATING TO TIER 3]
[SIMULATION SAFETY LOCKS DISABLED]
"What was that?" Astra's gaze immediately moved towards the screens as soon as that warning was heard.
The headmistress didn't answer immediately, instead she turned towards the technicians, her eyes, hidden behind the white cloth glowed as she scanned each of them.
Her gaze fixed on one of the technician, the one now sweating bullets as he tried and failed to look calm.
"Interesting," she muttered which immediately caused the man to freeze.
But she didn't call him out, not yet at least. The headmistress just calmly watched the panic settle on the faces of the other technicians.
Garron Boar, however, was the opposite of calm.
His massive hand slammed onto the console near the technician as he barked, "Who the hell authorized a Tier 3 override during an admission test?!"
"T-The system… it must be a malfunction—" the head technician stuttered but was cut off.
"Don't lie to me," Garron let out an angry growl, "how the fuck does the system just malfunction when we have the best technicians controlling it?"
He grabbed the technician by the collar, effortlessly lifting him off the ground like he weighed nothing.
Before the terrified man could respond, the headmistress raised a hand.
"Radiant Boar," she said calmly. "Set him down."
Garron hesitated for a moment, before he then obeyed, dropping the man back into his seat.
But her next words caused the entire room to freeze in shock.
"Let it continue."
Astra turned to her with a glare, "the hell do you mean let it continue?! A Tier 3 will tear those kids apart. Half of them don't even know how to use their tech properly!"
"They'll be fine," The headmistress simply responded.
Astra froze for the second time today doing a double take to make sure she heard the blind bat right.
"Did you hit your head on the way here?" she asked flatly. "Because there is no universe where throwing Tier 3s at a bunch of fifteen to seventeen year olds counts as fine!"
"They'll be fine," the headmistress repeated, keeping that annoying smile on her face, "besides, the teachers from the Stealth division can step in if things goes south."
"Also," she added, "even if you wanted to, there's no way to stop the override in time or even enter the simulation."
"Watch me," was Astra's answer as she walked out of the sky box and down the elevator which led to the door of the simulation room, which was tightly sealed.
"Let's go rescue my lab rat," she said as she pulled her fist back and slammed it on the door.
BOOM!
***
While Astra tried breaking the door down and entering the simulation room, Nox and Ayla froze at the new notifications on their watches.
Well, mostly Nox since Ayla was just curiously looking at it.
Before he could say anything, a low growl was heard behind him...well, rather than one, he heard multiple so he stiffly turned around only to realize that they had been surrounded.
"Shit."