Guess who's back? Back again. I'm not finishing this reference because there's no time. Back to the fight!
"Well? You haven't answered my question. Or would you rather give your teammates a chance to fight me?" Said teammates flinched slightly against their better nature. It wasn't every day that you faced a man who just one-shot the number two hero. Granted Endeavor underestimated him.
"A walking fire hazard, a ninja, a rabbit, and a dragon. Quite the selection we have here. So, how was the scouting mission? Did that little demonstration with Endeavor give you an idea of how this will go down?" I tried to intimidate them further, after all, if I was going to take All Might's place then I might as well take a page from his book.
Put the fear of god into villains so that they don't even think about trying something in your presence. Of course, this wouldn't work too well on insane villains, villains of a certain power level, or heroes who faced overwhelming odds regularly. My current opponents were of the latter category.
"The hell it did! Did you think that just because the fire crotch went in half-cocked and got injured for it that it would mean we'd give up or get scared?! Heroes like that don't survive long!" Mirko regained her composure first and answered, though her words held little weight as the remaining heroes stayed where they were. Knowing that if they jumped in as Endeavor had then they'd soon join him.
For now, they needed to wait and see. Their opponent had the initiative.
And I was more than prepared to exploit it. "Full Cowling: 50% Reinforced!" Starting things off strong might have been poorly advised, however it would somewhat go against the point of this exam if I didn't. This was supposed to be a test of my limits and of the ability of top heroes to face someone on par with All Might. If I didn't go all out then it would have been pointless.
"Scatter!" The ninja ordered, jumping into the air and letting his quirk increase his altitude as his teammates followed his lead in various directions. Sadly, this was all for nothing against a man who could give All Might's speed a run for its money. The first to be targeted was the team's resident dragon.
"This is going to look so cool." My inner fanboy became my outer fanboy. And could anyone blame me? I was fighting a god damn dragon while being cloaked in green lightning and magical bling! This was every nerds' dream come true! The fact that the dragon was also a smoking hot heroine would be left unsaid of course.
"Handcannon Smash!" Clasping my fists together and ramming them both into Ryukyu's transformed body I immediately heard a crack of her scaly armor and maybe even a rib seeing that the dragon's torso caved in slightly before she retreated further into the sky. Too bad that at this level of combat, something as trivial as physics stopped mattering.
"You won't be escaping through the sky, time to clip those wings!" I say while keeping up to her in the air through consecutive kicks. I followed up by taking a simple piece of metal from my inventory, altering it into a more aerodynamic form, and giving it the 'sharp' quality. "Grit your teeth!" I warn and throw the freshly created projectile at faster than bullet speeds, easily putting a hole in one of Ryukyu's wings, causing her to quickly lose altitude.
"Thousand sheet pierce!" The ninja managed to sneak up on me and straight-up stabbed me through the neck. On anyone else this would have been a debilitating wound, knocking them out from the lack of blood flow to the brain at best or killing them from the resulting blood loss at worst. To me? This was a mild sting that would close up in seconds.
The same could not be said for the body part that Edgeshot used to stab me with.
"AAH!" Edgeshot's left foot was bent and broken in short order before he could loosen himself from my neck, his body crashing down as he partially lost control of his quirk from the pain. Of course, this was an experienced hero I was fighting, he quickly regained his bearings and activated his quirk once more, allowing him to float down to safety.
If he were any ordinary opponent I'd consider him out of the fight, but this was one of the top ten heroes I was talking about. He'd probably make a last-ditch effort attack sometime later, one I'd welcome head-on. But for now, I'll deal with the dragon first.
"Not so fast brat! PROMINENCE BURN!" A flash of light and wave of heat was all I could feel after the number two hero fired off his strongest move. I was certain that the pain would have been excruciating if the attack hadn't immediately burned off all of his nerves so there was that small mercy at least.
-2,000 Status gained: Heavily burned, blinded, smell-blind, and -10 burn damage per second until 80% maximum hp is regained.
'D-damn it, heat resistance or not I could actually die from this…' That's if I did nothing, of course, I did fire off a full-powered Detroit Smash at the epicenter of the flames, depriving them of oxygen and probably blasting Endeavor into another wall. Not that I could see any more, my eyes melted and I'd need at least a few minutes to heal from such severe injuries.
Thankfully, while my sight was long gone along with my sense of feeling, and smell from all the burning flesh, I still had my hearing to guide me around. At least for long enough to avoid fighting anyone until I healed up, staying in a random building and laying low should be fine for now. While this happened, I made good use of my time and began carving runes in the room around me, all but guaranteeing my concealment from the other heroes.
But...For the sake of being thorough, I also put on my recently acquired Hades Cap of Invisibility. Just to make sure. While I waited for my passive regen to deal with the damage I looked through my skill list for something that could help me in this fight. Endeavor already proved that my opponents had ample firepower, enough to take me down if I kept fighting recklessly.
"...This is way more fun than I thought it would be." While I wouldn't call myself a battle maniac, I also wouldn't deny that I was growing bored with the relative lack of challenges I have had recently. Stain was a fluke and I could only get crushed by All Might so many times before it got boring. Facing multiple weaker but still powerful heroes though? This was what I needed.
'Ok Izuku, think. Endeavor is the biggest threat among them but he's a one or two-shot wonder, and he'll overheat himself. Edgeshot is thankfully neutralized for now so they just lost their most mobile member. Ryukyu should be unable to fly and I got her pretty good in the ribs back there so she'll be out for at least a minute or two. That leaves Mirko…'
I smirk my best villainous smirk and chuckle a bit. Time to pay her back for kicking him in the face back in the Stain incident. All the times before were just good clean fun but doing it after missing such a big fight while I was missing an arm? That demanded retaliation.
Waiting out the last few seconds I let myself go up to 90% health before leaving my cover, my attention was immediately taken by the sound of voices somewhat close by. Now I could technically just leave and head for the exit, but where was the fun in that? I rush onto the rooftops and head towards the voices, careful not to let myself be seen.
The heroes were coordinating with each other quite well. Endeavor, who was still cooling down helped patch up Edgeshot and Ryukyu's injuries while Miruko played scout, though they didn't move very far from each other for obvious reasons. Not that it mattered.
"Hades smash." I said in a monotone voice as I rushed up behind Mirko and joinked her into a random part of the city, cutting off any help from her allies. And of course, I sent a burst of mana into her communication device to completely isolate us from any prying ears.
"Really? Hades smash?" In fairness, Mirko didn't know about the Cap of Invisibility. Not that the name mattered, she was far too busy desperately trying to dodge my punches with every shred of agility she had. A decent 700 I may add. Easily making her faster than myself...So long as I don't use any of my reinforcement abilities.
"Release restraints level one." I bullshit just to see Mirko's reaction, adding a basic reinforcement spell to pretty much double my stats on the spot.
"Level wha-Ugh!" That was all Mirko could say before she was slammed into the ground by her former intern turned opponent. A direct hit to the stomach knocked the wind and stomach acid out of her and the incoming impact with the ground would have surely taken her out of the fight if it weren't for me breaking her fall with a quick Delaware smash air cushion.
"Wha? Why did you break my fall? I thought you said you wouldn't hold back you green bastard." Was that disappointment? From me not slamming her down into the concrete? I thought I was supposed to be the masochistic one? "Don't you dare look down on me!" Ah, she was pulling a Kacchan. Makes sense.
I would have to flex a little before she was satisfied with her loss. Hopefully, she could take it. "I'd rather not kill you on accident Mirko-san. But if you don't want me to hold back at all I suppose I should at least give you a taste of my strongest attack." An attack that I just made up. There was only so much variety you could put into punching people really really hard.
Pumping as much prana as I could through my body I then push OFA to its limit, 60% through my whole body and 100% to my right arm for maximum effectiveness. Finally, I activate Power Attack, one of the first skills I ever gained just for the little extra oomph that it would give.
Now. Most normal people that saw someone all but glowing and casually ripping their clothes through sheer aura would be right to run away as quickly as humanly possible. However, my opponent was Mirko so of course, she did the exact opposite.
'*Sigh, I should fire it off now before she gets into lethal range.' I breathed in, aimed a punch downward, came up with another name on the spot, and yelled it out at the top of my lungs. "Gustav Smash!" Was it presumptuous to name the attack after the largest gun ever designed? Perhaps. Did it make the impact any less deserving of the name? Hell no!
Even compared to something All Might could pull off this attack was impressive. Sheer power at the cost of serious injury and a lack of control, dozens of times stronger than what I could pull off regularly. To be honest it was overkill. No. It was beyond overkill for a fighter of Mirko's level, but hey. She asked for it.
The moment the air pressure hit her Mirko collapsed, completely unconscious from having the equivalent of an ICBM go off mere meters away from her. She likely would have straight-up lost a limb if it weren't for the downward and indirect nature of the attack, forcing the nearby concrete to take most of the energy before it got to her.
'There, now she can't complain about me holding back.' I thought while catching her before she split her skull open hitting a building or something. Grabbing her with my good arm I hid the body in a nearby building before heading off to hunt for the other heroes…
"Wait, am I the villain?"
Apologies for the short chapter, but I've decided to keep this one short since I plan to get on with the catalyst story after such a great response that I got for Izuku's Element and Origin. I thought about it long an hard and now I just have to put my choice down in writing in a way that makes sense.
Anyways, thanks for reading, and as something to look forward to, I may be writing yet another new story in the coming weeks depending on how those days go. I feel that it will help me reignite my creative juices once again which will hopefully reinvigorate my current stories. We shall see, until next time.