USJ PART II
Roll out the drums of war, roll up the cover of the killing floor. Roll out the drums of war, and let's speak of things worth fighting for.
Drums of War by Jackson Browne
Florence can spot Midroyia, along with Tsu, barely hidden by the rocks as they duck into the water as much as possible. She's almost surprised the teens made it back so quickly, but if Tsu managed to get transported into the water, she supposes that plans are a significant factor in their speed. Unfortunately, while she is glad to see that they are okay, she can't say she's pleased that they're so close to the action. Just outside of the battle zone that she and Aizawa have cleared to get to the leader - and the large monstrosity.
She shares a brief glance to Aizawa; he meets her gaze and it's enough for her to know that he saw the students too. The best that they can do for them right now, however, is pretend that they're not there and hope the kids don't draw too much attention to themselves. As much as it hurts that she knows that they're going to be witnessing a true villain fight. Just by looking at the large one, she can tell these two are not going to be ones to sneeze at.
"Eraserhead." The leader, who can't be much older than her own students, detached hands , obscuring his face. Young villains always hurt the most. She will stop them, she always does, but not after wondering what went wrong. The villain continues as he scratches at his neck, "You're not really suited for this, are you?"
On the contrary, Aizawa has held up well. But she can see the constant fighting wearing him down, slowly digging away at his stamina. She can't say she's in a much better state, more than a bit winded herself. But at the very least, neither of them are injured yet and that is already enough of an advantage. She hopes that it's the only one that they need. She's already spotted Iida running out, presumably to get help. They just need to last a little bit longer before the others arrive.
"And you -" He turns his attention to Florence herself, scratching at his neck vigorously, "What kind of NPC are you? Even we couldn't find out much about you, Phoenix. It makes me wonder if you're hiding something - or if you are just not a good hero. Whatever. It won't change what we came here to do."
Aizawa's eyes shift to her. It's hard to tell with his goggles, the only defense he has to hide when his quirk isn't in use, but she can feel them baring holes into her. Almost accusingly. It only lasts for a moment before the leader lunges himself at them. Clumsy at a first glance, but faster than she expected and surprisingly calculated.
Aizawa and her are forced to put distance between them to dodge, with him stumbling after them in frustration. She can't tell what his style of fighting is yet, or if he even has one. But his movements seem too calculated to be random or self-taught. She narrows her eyes sharply as Aizawa's scarf binds the villain, but the villain only grasps at it with one hand, seemingly unconcerned.
She can understand why when Aizawa's scarf begins to crumble away. The way it travels up the scarf feels unnatural, even as the villain breaks free from it, the decaying material still travels up, dangerously heading toward Aizawa as the scarf crumbles away to nothing.
They need his scarf - it's main support item - and moving fast, even as the villain starts to turn his attention toward her, she throws her knife. It cuts through the material just in front of the parts crumbling away and now departing from the scarf, it seems to have stopped its spreading as the fallen piece withers away to dust. His scarf will be shorter now, maybe even too short to be used the way he's used to, but at the very least he has something.
In the back of her mind, as the villain swipes at her with targets' open palms, she realizes that the villain is desperately trying to touch something more organic. Which means his quirk is, unfortunately, not as limited as she thought. It also means this hand to hand combat is much more deadly, with more of an intent to kill, than it originally comes across.
Aizawa recovers fast, seemingly not bothered by the loss of most of his scarf, as he jumps right back into the fight. The leader, unfortunately, does seem to be able to keep up between the two of them as he dodges their timed attacks, muttering to himself as he keeps a closer eye on Aizawa than on her. If the villain knows Eraserhead, knows his quirk, then she can understand why. Whatever the quirk is named, it is clear it has devastating potential, she imagines that the punk doesn't want that potential squandered in a moment's notice.
"Nomu. Two on one hardly seems fair."
He seems to be addressing the seemingly braindead companion he had with him. With a single motion, there's an unspoken command as the person - this Nomu - jumps her. The large being grabs her, its hands larger than her own body, squeezing her tightly. She lets out a cry of alarm when she hears the creaking of bones breaking under its grasp. Whatever strength it has is enough that she can't easily get herself out of its grip.
She can't even look at Aizawa's fight, more focused on trying to not let this thing crush her lungs. Fire whips around her frantically, spreading out desperately, but the grasp around her doesn't even falter. She doesn't even see its skin burn. You have got to be fucking kidding me. It's getting hard to breathe, but she looks at the thing's face and can see its eyes squinting in the flames. Bingo.
She targets her flames toward its face and while it doesn't seem to do damage, it does enough to its eye that it falters backward, letting her go in the process. She spits out the blood that was starting to fill in her mouth, coughing a bit more in the process, but stands her ground evenly. She recovers just fast enough to see Aizawa's elbow shatter into nothing under the villain's grasp.
To his credit, he doesn't cry out, instead leaping backward. She adds to the distance between them by feeling the familiar warmth in her palm as flames spread out from her skin toward the villain, preventing him from leaping after Aizawa. He turns to her, frustrated with a growl.
"You are an annoyance."
Florence grins. It doesn't reach her eyes, more menacing with sharp teeth covered in the blood of her mouth while all she can taste is sharp metallic. Standing hurts, she can feel the broken bones in her chest and she can only hope that she hasn't punctured a lung just yet. She can see that at the very least, the villain is taking damage; the scorched clothes tell her that he barely got out of the way of the heat before it had reached his skin.
"I've been called worse."
The leader turns back to her, lunging, as Nomu and him seem to switch places. She falters, not intending for the large beast's attention to shift away from her so quickly. She flips out of the way of the villain, holding back her flames for now, knowing that she doesn't have much time left. Not to mention that she will need what she can to help with minimizing her injuries. So when the villain lunges again, she has a knife ready to swipe at him.
He barely manages to dodge it in time, but she can see the swipe of blood that she drew. Her eyes flicker to Aizawa as a resonating thump shakes the ground. She sees this Nomu making quick work of him, slamming him into the ground harshly and repeatedly. Shit. She takes the knife in her hand and throws it without hesitation. She's not sure if it will puncture, but knowing that it is the only weak spot that she knows of, it's the only way she has to at least try.
The knife hits its target, cutting into one of Nomu's eye. It lets out a screech, rearing, but it doesn't let Aizawa go. Its arms lash out violently, one hitting her back in the process, her back slamming into the ground.
"You dumb Nomu," the villian hisses as he's forced to dodge his own companion in the process.
For a moment, it is almost hopeful that they landed a devastating hit. Until Nomu manages to get the knife out of its eye and she watches with blurry, blood red eyes, as the wound heals itself over. It fills her with a sense of dread knowing that neither she nor Aizawa are in any state to continue this for any longer. She glances over at him and can tell that he's conscious, if barely, stuck in a pool of his own blood with his goggles tossed from him to reveal bloodshot eyes. Her breathing comes out in short wheezes, her head spinning, knowing that now there is definitely a punctured lung. She can see the kids in the background - eyes wide with a realizing horror. Midoriya flinches and she can tell that he's ready to jump in. She wants to stop him, but when she tries to speak, her mouth is choking on its own blood. Aizawa doesn't seem to do much better, but the bitter disagreement with what Midoriya is about to do is clear on his face.
Midoriya jumps, heading straight toward the leader. The force of the blast blinds her, but when it clears, she realizes with great horror that his blow landed right on Nomu's chest. The beast looms over the student, and she stands, shaking under the weight of her own body as her bones creak, ready to do something - anything. Desperately. But before she can, there's a resounding boom as a familiar voice rings out loudly.
"I am here!"