"So… What does your quirk do exactly?"
The tone of the question was friendly, which was in Stark contrast to the rest of the atmosphere.
Namely, it was thick as mud.
Having formed their human cavalry formation, they were now only waiting for the go signal for this entire round to start.
Mina at the front, with Uraraka behind on the left and Mei on the right, with Izuku being held by their hands.
He could feel the tenseness and underlying anger on his right side both in Mei's underlying anger directed at him and in Mina's anger towards Mei, both standing in sharp contrast with the Calmness of Uraraka.
He was rather grateful towards Uraraka trying to be the peacemaker. Unlike Mina, he frankly didn't have any strong feelings on Mei one way or another.
Other than confusion anyway.
"Oh it's a mixed quirk, I've got awesome hawk-like eyesight, and superhuman toughness like an invincible sandbag."
Another mixed quirk. How many of those were in their school anyway?
Uraraka, Todoroki, Mina, hell from what Mina told him, even Kaminari of all people had one.
It made sense that Yuei would be a gathering of those extraordinary few who were lucky enough to inherit two quirks from their parents, but it still seemed insane to have no less than 4 in one single class.
"That's seriously the metaphor you're going with for that? Sandbag? Not like… A steel wall or something?"
Mina didn't attempt to hide the anger in her voice. She really didn't like Mei.
By contrast, Mei really didn't seem to return her hostility at all. It seemed it was exclusively him she hated.
"Indeed! I don't possess superhuman strength whatsoever, so without my trusty babies, I am helpless! Thankfully, my gadgets are gloriously strong, able to rip apart steel like tissue paper."
The metal arms, two of whom were to his left and right, clicked in agreement. Their placement might make tactical sense, but they sure as hell didn't make him feel any better.
"Without any strength of my own, I am perfect for showcasing their incredible and amazing power to the world!"
"... You got a lot of faith in those things. So… Are those your masterworks?"
"Indeed they are Miss 10 000 000! I have nothing that comes close to their strength and versatility! Mikasa might have more range and power, but it is also incredibly likely to self-destruct! And Luke is more destructive, but it can't do anything else other than turn anything to ash and cinder! And then there's Eren, who'll just kill everything around it if it's not used carefully."
Izuku had a suspicion that Mei was planning to use "Mikasa, Eren, and Luke" against him during the next round. For now, though, she hadn't really brought out any more tech for this round, though she had given Uraraka her boots, which apparently contained some sort of air cushioning for high speed.
"In comparison, my beloved arms are so much more versatile, strong enough to lift 40 tons, yet capable of movements so delicate that they can handle frail glass!"
"AND NOW STUDENTS, GET READY FOR THE CAVALRY BATTLE! IT WILL BEGIN WHEN THIS COUNTDOWN REACHES ZERO, SO GET READY!"
Izuku tensed. He saw that a lot of the teams were already turning to face them.
"THREE!"
He could feel the center of gravity shift beneath him as two incredibly strong metal arms embedded themselves into the ground for better stability.
"TWO!"
Mina tensed. Uraraka did likewise. Mei seemed almost relaxed.
"ONE!"
"Let's rock!
"START!"
Immediately two teams came barreling towards them, and with a feeling of dread, he saw that Jirou was at the head of one of them, carrying Hagakure the invisible girl behind her.
Out of the entire class, she was far and away the biggest danger to Izuku himself, even more so than Todoroki.
While the boy's fire might be the more intimidating, the fact was that the fire would only affect Izuku where it hit him. Sound-based attacks on the other hand would travel through Venom's entire body, the same way that the shock of a hand grenade exploding underwater had no resistance as it ripped apart anything unfortunate enough to be beneath the water with it.
One hit from her earlobes and depending on how strong it was, Venom's mass would explode all over and Izuku would be horribly injured.
It would be catastrophic right now.
He made his decision with that in mind.
With a quick raising of his hand, he aimed straight at Hagakure's headband, where her invisible head had to be.
Then he let loose a web.
He hoped to God that he would manage this before Jirou managed to react.
He then jerked her forward and down, effectively making her head but Jirou from behind.
"OWW!"
The two girls let out a cry of pain simultaneously, and Jirou stumbled, bringing the group to an immediate stop.
The web line disintegrated before Jirou could attack it with her lobes.
His ploy to bring his great enemy to a halt was a great success, but it also meant that the other team barreling for them hadn't been halted, and was free to act as they pleased.
Which they did.
The team, composed of members from class 2-B all had quirks which Izuku wasn't familiar with, other than the guy who was made of metal who had the headband around his head.
The one in front opened up the attack by stomping his foot down into the ground which turned to mush around it. Instantly, the ground beneath their feet did the same, and the entire group sank maybe a half meter into the ground.
Shit!
Izuku was about to webhook them to the wall just by and drag them up when suddenly, accompanied by mechanical sounds, two of metal arms of Mei shot up and embedded themselves into the wall behind them, and with no difficulty whatsoever it pulled them out and lifted them up and along the wall.
The two other arms had grabbed around Mina and Uraraka, lifting them up.
"Uraraka, weightless now!" The pink-haired tech wizard said with great enthusiasm.
Then 3 seconds later, with a burst of strength that crushed the spot on the wall they had just been attached to, they sailed through the air across the battlefield, leaving the two attacking teams in the dust with amazing speed.
Even with Uraraka's weight being the only thing that kept them linked to earth's gravitational pull, they still would have slammed into the ground with the force of a car crash, but with a burst of compressed air, they came to a stop right before the ground.
"What do you think of my babies girls? Really cute and versatile aren't they?"
Without thinking, Izuku, so used to being open with his praise, blurted out his thoughts.
"Yeah, they're really amazing Hatsume!"
"Your opinion is absolutely worthless to me Midori."
He flinched at the tone of her dismissal.
"New attackers coming from the left!"
All of them snapped around as sure enough, a new team was barreling towards them.
Though at first glance, "team" seemed an inaccurate description, for it seemed it was just Shoji running hunched over, with his wings going behind him and covering his back like a giant clam.
Izuku had to jerk his head backwards when a tongue shot out from a small opening of the giant clam with massive speed.
It barely missed his headband and quickly pulled back again.
In the frontal opening between the wings, Izuku saw that 3 students were sitting on top of Shoji's back. Mineta, Tokoyami, and Tsuyu.
Clever, they used his great strength and size to carry all of them at once, along with his wings to cover them for defense.
"We need to move, now!"
"No need," Mei said, in a cheerful tone.
Two metal arms shot forward, and closed their grip around the charging Shoji, and brought him to a sudden halt.
Then, with a whip-like motion, the arms lifted all four of them up into the air, then flung them across the arena.
Mina, Izuku, and Uraraka just stared after them for a moment.
"I'm kinda starting to feel redundant here." Uraraka said in an awkward tone.
Izuku's head exploded in pain.
He screamed.
He wasn't sure what happened next, but with a tug, he felt his headband be ripped from him.
Then, snapping of mechanical tendrils. Once he finally managed to see clearly again, his team was facing towards another team.
Bakugou's team.
"Getting pretty full of yourself, huh bastard?"
He saw their 10 million headband in his hand.
Anger and adrenaline suddenly surged through him, and he acted without any thoughts.
A black web line shot right into Katsuki's chest, and with a heave, Izuku ripped him straight through the air and towards him.
He was going to punch that punk's face in-
Katsuki ripped the webline holding him to pieces with an explosion.
He still sailed through the air towards Izuku though, and his hand went to his regular pull back before an explosion.
"HYA!"
Izuku didn't see what Uraraka did, but Katsuki stopped in the air like the oxygen had just gained mass and slammed into him.
Izuku saw the blonde boy get the wind knocked out of him, but he also saw him lose his grip on the headband.
The band was suddenly engulfed in a black line and shortly afterwards, it sailed through the air, before once more being attached around Izuku's black head.
He had hoped Katsuki would slam into the ground and be disqualified, but alas no. A large green, disembodied, flying hand gripped around his shirt and pulled him back towards his formation.
Said hand looked kinda like it belonged to a green, humanoid dragon, though in reality, it belonged to a girl with really dark green hair.
As it plopped Katsuki back on his seat, the hand both turned into a normal one, as well as reattaching to it's owner.
"Fuck that was too close."
"Yeah Bakugou, if you touch the ground it's all over for us man!"
"Shut the fuck up!"
Katsuki seemed to have recovered fast from what had just happened.
"Focus on the fucking enemy!"
Then, as the two teams stared each other down, another team, lead by a boy with blonde hair swooped in from behind and yoinked Katsuki's headband with no difficulty.
"You're way too easy 1-A." The blonde boy said with a cooky, mocking tone.
Venom burst out laughing.
Izuku himself suddenly felt incredible schadenfreude.
"Getting pretty full of yourself, huh bastard?"
Katsuki looked like he was about actually explode, but instead, he was distracted as the blonde boy began to explain in large, overly prose speech about how much he sucked, and how easy it was to take the band from him.
It was absolutely hilarious to see as all of Katsuki's attention shifted over at the blonde boy.
Izuku would gladly have stood there and watched the following chase with a smile at Katsuki's expense, but instead he was pulled out of it, as they were challenged by another team.
A team composed of Todoroki, Iida, Momo, and Kaminari.
Of course.
"Hey Mei, keep Izuku up for a second Kay?"
"Ok!"
A large, strong hand clasped around Izuku, keeping him upright as Mina let go of her left hand.
With a large, no massive spray from left to right, a large, green liquid shot forth from. Her hand, turning the arm of her gym shirt to absolutely nothing, and the ground it hit disintegrated pretty much in the spot.
The opposing team backed away, though the acid hadn't come close to hit them.
Instead it began burrowing down, down into the ground, turning the ground in front of them into a pitfall, roughly 8 meters from one side to the other, and 3 meters between them and Todoroki's team.
The green left her hand completely before she went back to hold up Izuku's foot.
Izuku had never realized before how quickly the acid disappeared from her skin before. He would have to ask her about that later.
"Can you jump that with that technique of yours Tenya?"
They spoke regularly, but Izuku had no problems hearing what they said.
"Probably, though if you wanna grab it with that move too, we have to do it right by the edge."
A bunch of other teams tried attacking from behind.
With a simple movement of his arm, a massive circular wall of ice formed behind them, protecting them from any attacks from behind.
Izuku realized then that Todoroki had more than just one band around his neck. He'd been busy.
I'd simply freeze the gap, but we need to be able to move, and those tentacles give them better footing than we would have.
"We need to prevent them from moving towards the edge," Izuku said to his team.
"Sure."
Then a fucking grenade, went sailing through the air.
Both teams, thrower, and receiver panicked at the sight as it landed, Momo acting immediately and created a barricade in front of them.
Then, rather than exploding into a ball of fire, the thing's popped into four pieces like a cleaved apple and ejected a bunch of small metal things on the ground, many of them falling into the pitfall.
It took Izuku a moment before he realized what they were. Caltrops.
"Caltrops? That's… A bit out of date isn't it?"
"Not at all Uraraka! The ancient Caltrop is an amazingly effective weapon to prevent the enemy from moving around. Why, this baby was requested by one of our Teachers, the black-haired one with the bandages around his neck!"
"Aizawa wants these?" Mina asked in a tone of despair, and Izuku had to agree. Aizawa with Caltrop's grenades was not something he ever wanted to imagine.
"Yeah, that was the name. I think. Anyway, I got the idea for this baby when I was 6 and I impaled my foot on a rusty nail once. Ever since then, I've realized just how awesome the power of impaling your enemies is. It's simple, practical, easy to use, and deadly, but it is also very, very personal. It's why I got razor-sharp knives in all of my four top babies!"
"That's… Nice."
"Also, these Caltrops are coated with a substance so they won't freeze easily. Aizawa's personal request."
"That's… Great for us, but… He could still just freeze the entire ground and 10 cm above it."
"Dont be such a goddamn nitpicker Midori!"
Though, as he watched on the other side, their enemies were taking their sweet time doing that. Or anything really, they just seemed to be discussing strategy.
Having gotten rid of Momo's barricade, the opposing team didn't seem to be in all that hurry to move.
He glanced over at the holographic clock showcasing how long the match would go on for. 4 minutes left.
Todoroki was a massive, massive problem. That firepower of his was just ridiculous.
That said…
If they were going to be so indecisive, then they would have to take the consequences themselves.
"Hey Hatsume, can your arms carry us up on the wall for 4 minutes?"
"Are you a sorry, deceitful, excuse for a man?"
"Alright then, here's what we-"
Their enemy made their move with incredible speed.
With a wave of his hand, Todoroki froze the ground, all the way to the edge, making the Caltrops useless.
Then, Momo created a… Giant piece of flat wood, which they slammed into the ground in front of them.
Izuku understood what was about to happen, as they jumped on it, then both Kaminari and Momo crouched and Jumped up in the air as Iida was still moving.
Iida's legs burst with flame.
It was Mina who saved them.
The punk girl with the amazing reflexes and speed suddenly burst leftward, dragging Izuku's head out of the way of Todoroki's hands, which had just almost gotten his hand around it.
The band was still safe around his head.
It was still far, far too close for comfort.
Time to go.
"URARAKA, WEIGHTLESS! HATSUME, ON THE WALL NOW!"
Both thankfully obeyed without any objection, and once more the power of 4 mechanical arms sent them flying through the air, this time flying into the wall instead of away from it.
Then, they began moving along the wall held up by the tentacles.
As they moved in a way no one else could Izuku thought to himself that they probably should have used this tactic from the start. 4 meters above everyone else, the wall put them out of reach of most of their enemies, and Mei's arms moved them at amazing speeds.
The fact that no one managed to engage them before the round ended was proof enough of the viability of the strategy.
"TIME'S UP!"
"Seems we actually made it, huh guys?" Mina said cheerfully. The pink girl wore a big, adorable smile on her face.
Izuku felt happy seeing it, though truthfully, he just felt relief. Sheer, total relief that they had actually made it.
"Yeah." Mei said in her usual, easygoing manner.
Then, she unceremoniously dropped Izuku without a word.
He had not expected it, but thankfully, his instincts, drilled into him over hundreds of hours in woods and mountains meant he had no problems landing on his feet from the four meter drop.
He sighed.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!" Mina screamed above. The cheerful mood had evaporated like mist before the desert sun.
"Our 15 minutes alliance is up, thus any reason I had to suspend him midair are gone."
Without another word, Mina landed besides him, having jumped rather than being carried down by Mei as she began scaling down the wall.
"You okay Midori?" She said in a very soft voice.
"Y-yeah. It was just a four meter drop. It's fine."
"It's not fucking fine! You could have broken your neck!"
She placed a hand on his shoulder in a very protective manner, as she turned around to look at Mei, with clear absolute disgust in her eyes.
Mei on the other hand completely ignored Izuku as she very gently placed Uraraka on the ground.
"Well girls, it's been fun! And I've got tons of times for my babies to shine! If you two are interested in using tech to help you out, just come to our department, and I'll help you out!"
"Um… Ok…" Uraraka said in a very awkward tone.
Mina's response was short and to the point.
Namely a simple hand gesture.
"AND THE 4 WINNING TEAMS WHO WILL GO ON TO THE FINAL PART OF THIS FESTIVAL ARE…"
Izuku blinked. Oh yeah, they were still in a tournament.
"AT FIRST PLACE, WE HAVE TEAM MIDORIYA! A TEAM OF RIVALRY THAT SPLIT IMMEDIATELY UPON VICTORY! "
"AT SECOND PLACE, TEAM TODOROKI! THE MOST STABLE TEAM TODAY!"
"AT THIRD PLACE, TEAM BAKUGOU! WHO MANAGED TO TURN THEMSELVES AROUND AT THE VERY END!"
Yes, of course Katsuki Bakugou had made it into the finals. Of course he had.
"AND FINALLY, WE HAVE THE GREAT DARK HORSE TEAM OF THIS ROUND, TEAM SHINSOU!"
Who?