Chapter 27 - Grounded
The one-on-one matches continued for the U.A Sports Festival; some students continued on, while some were eliminated. Either way, the number of competitors was starting to drop rapidly, while certain students stood strong and were able to hold their own. One student who was holding her own was Adena, as she wanted to defeat Cain for what he did to Todoroki.
She first went up against Yusuf, and was able to defeat him. During the opening of the battle, was able to burn through the pieces of ground, which he threw at her with his 'Weight Change' quirk. Then she was able to surround him with a ring of fire and make it close in on him. Not wanting to get burned, Yusuf realized his predicament and admitted defeat, as there was no way out for him. Now, Adena was going up against Cain, who was her next opponent.
"Introducing first, from Justice High, and representing Team America, Adena Drake!" Present Mic announced. "And her opponent, from the Nazareth Hero Academy, and representing Team Israel, Cain Shemesh!"
The crowd cheered wildly for the two competitors, to which Simba raised his hands to quiet them down. Present Mic was readying to do a play-by-play of the battle, while Simba raised his left hand into the air.
"Let the battle commence!" Simba announced, throwing his hand down in a knife motion.
Adena then stepped forward and said, "You will pay for hurting Shoto Todoroki! By the power of the Eternal Flame, I will punish you!"
She then struck a pose, like from the anime Sailor Moon. Cain's only response to this was just to roll his eyes, and hold out his hand.
"In the words of your gothic friend, enough of your drivel." Cain replied, his tone annoyed.
Cain closed his hand hard, but Adena instantly knew what was happening, and jumped out of the way! It was a good thing that she did that, because Cain's dirt would've grabbed her feet, and she would've been caught! Cain then quickly knelt to the ground and put his hands on it, causing dirt to begin going all over the fighting platform! To avoid touching the ground and getting caught, Adena created platforms out of her purple flames, and stayed out of Cain's reach by keeping to them.
Adena then created spears out of her purple flames, throwing them at Cain to try and force him to go out of bounds. Cain wasn't intimidated by this, and he used his dirt in order to block these attacks. When Adena stopped to make more of her spears, Cain made the dirt ground rise up quickly and consume the platform she was on! Adena jumped to another platform, but Cain was now coming after her, sending her on the defensive as each platform she jumped to was consume!
All the platforms were consumed except for one, and when Adena landed on it, she created a wall of fire to block Cain's view of herself. However, Cain stomped on the ground, and a large tidal wave of dirt came at her, going right through the flames! Fortunately, Adena was using the wall of fire as a distraction, and she was able to get out of the way of the dirt wave. Her hair then turned bright blue, and she fired a stream of blue fire at the dirt covered ground, vaporizing the dirt and allowing her to land on a safe spot.
Using one hand to keep the dirt ground at bay, Adena used her other hand to fire a stream of blue fire at Cain's dirt attacks, vaporizing them instantly and preventing them from reaching her. But since she was in the 'heat' of battle, and because Cain's attacks were getting more fierce, she accidentally fired a blast of blue fire, which came close and burnt Cain's left side, arm, and shoulder! Cain let out a yell of pain, as Adena stopped suddenly, realizing that she accidentally hurt him deep!
"Sorry…" Adena spoke, her tone small and apologetic.
However, the look on Cain's face was one of pure fury, and his response was equally angered! He raised both of his hands into the air, and a large mountain of dirt began quickly piling up behind him, reaching up to heights that blotted out the afternoon sun! He then brought it crashing down with a loud yell, right on top of Adena, who couldn't prepare a blue fire blast in time to stop it! The dirt completely covered her, and she didn't even have to time to let out any type of noise. The crowd reacted in horror upon seeing this, especially Adena's fellow classmates and friends, who were all hoping that she wasn't dead.
"Apology accepted, Adena Drake." Cain snarled, his tone satisfied.
But the look on Cain's face then switched from satisfied to horrified, as not only did he remember what Eon told him, but he also probably killed someone who burned him on accident. Deep in his mind, there was a silent hope that she wasn't dead as well.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake, and everyone looked confused at what was happening. Then, much to everyone's relief and surprise, Adena burst out of the dirt pile, turning the dirt and area around her into a lava pit of rock and magma! Her emerald eyes were blazing, and she had a look of pure anger on her face! This surprised even Cain, who didn't think she was capable of this kind of anger!
"YOU WILL NOT EXTINGUISH ME!" Adena roared.
The ground around her sprouted eight lava whips, like kraken tentacles from the sea! Despite the shocking sight before him, Cain liked a challenge, and a somewhat villainous grin spread over his face. He quickly grew ten dirt tendrils from his back, the dirt covered his face, rendering him faceless, and the dirt made his limbs extend, turning him into the four-legged creature with ten tendrils! He then fell on all fours, and began racing at Adena, tendrils flailing wildly as he charged at her!
"That was a close one." said Charlotte, her tone relieved. "I thought Adena was dead for sure."
"Don't count out our fiery friend, Charlotte." Melody replied, her tone somewhat proud. "Adena's still got some tricks up her sleeve; she won't be defeated that easily."
Murdock, who was watching the battle with Todoroki sitting beside him, then asked in a playful tone, "Heard what Adena said before the match? I think she's got a thing for you, Todo."
"All we did was get lunch together." Todoroki replied. "It's not as if we actually were dating, Dock."
"If that ain't a courting thing, I don't know what is." Murdock spoke. "Besides, I think you two would be a good match; she's got fire, you got fire and ice, she's perky, you're silent; she completes you."
Todoroki let out a small scoff at Murdock's words, though it was more of a friendly scoff, rather than one that was petty. Maybe his western friend did have a point; Adena would be a good match for him. And if it wasn't for his knowledge of his father and 'quirk marriages', he actually would be kind of interested in going out with her.
Cain had been using his tendrils to deflect Adena's lava whips, and he moved rapidly to try and get closer to her. But her lava whips were about as quick as him, so the two were currently at a stalemate. It was then that Cain decided to use the finishing move that he used to defeat Todoroki, and he formed a protective wall over himself using his dirt tendrils.
"Dirt Attack: Field of Thorns!" Cain roared, his voice somehow amplified to sound monstrous.
Several dirt tendrils shot out of the ground, with razor sharp points intent on stabbing into Adena and incapacitating her! But Adena used the fiery whips to vaporize the dirt tendrils, instantly destroying them and rendering Cain's attacks useless. She then fired a blue fire blast at Cain's protective wall, vaporizing it instantly! However, Cain was gone, as he was on the move once again!
The battle was really starting to 'heat up', as Cain moved in for another attack with his tendrils, which now had sharpened points at the ends! Adena switched her blue fire to purple fire, creating fire walls to block the tendril attacks! Cain saw that his attacks were no longer affective, so he dissipated his tendrils and retracted the dirt on his arms, standing back up on two legs. He then created two large waves of dirt on both sides of Adena and sent them at her, which she blocked with the fire walls! With his opponent know focused on not getting crushed again, Cain ran at her and leapt into the air, intending on punching her and knocking her out!
But Adena ducked and jumped forward at the last minute, causing the purple fire walls to dissipate, and for Cain's own dirt to come crashing down on top of him and burying him! Adena rolled and recovered back to her feet, still ready to 'open fire' on Cain, along with whatever tricks he had up his sleeve.
All was still for a few seconds, when the pile of dirt that Cain was buried in began shifting, turning into a large mass made up of hundreds of arms and hands! The mass of arms and hands then shot out at Adena, who hit it with her lava whips, which burnt it instantly! It continued moving at her, but it was now stiff moving and breaking apart, since it was now burnt into a clay sculpture!
Cain then burst out of the clay sculpture, and charged at Adena, getting close with her and attacking with a variety of different combat maneuvers! Adena had been trained with close quarters combat, so she was able to block most of Cain's attacks, though he still got in a few good hits in on her. As for Adena, her fire-based attacks were doing no good on Cain, as the dirt covering him was acting like protective armor! The dirt would dissipate after several hits, but then Cain would dodge and it would reform over whatever part got hit.
Realizing that his dirt hardened whenever it was burnt, and that it would also get hotter in temperature as well, Cain came up with a plan to use Adena's quirk against her. He dissipated the dirt covering over his body, and began using dirt walls to block Adena's normal fire blasts. When some the dirt became hardened, and started to become hotter in temperature, Cain used the non-burnt dirt to break the burnt into pieces, and then began firing it at Adena like fiery shrapnel!
Adena then used the fiery whips to block the shrapnel, but it provided enough of a distraction for Cain to run up, leap into the air, and land on Adena! He then pinned her to the ground, but the fiery whips were about to come crashing down on his back! With one quick motion, he spun and held Adena up into the fiery whips, with her back getting hit by four of them! Adena let out a loud yell of pain as she was hit by her own attack, and then Cain threw her to the side.
Cain got back to his feet, and covered her with some of his dirt; this was an act of mercy, as the dirt was cooling the burns on her back, but it was also to prevent her from getting up. Adena tried to get back up, but she couldn't, as Cain's dirt was pinning her to the platform.
"Answer truthfully, Adena; can you move?" Simba asked.
Adena let out a low groan and replied, "No, I can't."
"Adena is immobilized." Simba announced. "The winner, Cain Shemesh!"
Some of the crowd cheered, while others just stood in there in shocked silence at what had just occurred. Deciding to act chivalrous for once, Cain used his dirt to help Adena back onto her feet. Despite the pain that Adena was feeling, the burns she had on her back were mild, and were not going to cause any permanent damage or scarring. However, she still was going to the medical area to get a check up, just to make sure.
"So, Adena's eliminated." said Joshua, his tone dark. "I don't like this Cain guy; he reminds me too much of myself before I turned good."
"At least he showed some form of mercy." Koton spoke, his tone calm and collected. "He used his dirt to cool Adena's burns, even if it was just to immobilize her."
"Yeah, but if he makes it to the finals, I pity the poor guy who has to go up against him." Joshua replied. "I've seen that look in his eyes before, sometimes in my own reflection, and I know that it's the look of someone with killer instinct."
"Who you think's going to make it to the finals?" Jiro asked, as she was sitting beside Joshua.
"My money's on Matthew." Joshua replied, his tone confident. "I bet he's going to win the Sports Festival."
"The Quirkless Wonder?" Koton asked, his tone confused. "You're really that confident he's going to win?"
"He said he was going to win, and I believe him." said Joshua. "You don't want to underestimate Matthew Noble; he may not have a quirk, but he can hold his own with the best of them. This may surprise you to know, but he fought against Endeavor and really took him on. Sure, Matthew lost that fight, but he left a reminder of how he was able to stand up to him."
"So what you're trying to say, is that we shouldn't count him out, just because he doesn't have a quirk." said Koton.
"Exactly." Jiro spoke up, before looking out to the fighting platform and saying, "Hey, looks like Matthew's up next to fight."
"And who's he fighting against?" Joshua asked, as he and Koton also looked out.
"He's going up against…" Jiro replied, her tone suddenly turning dark. "Bakugo."
"Oh boy." Joshua groaned out. "This is going to get messy."
Author's Notes: Special thanks to 'Bluebarnowl' for the fight scene idea between Adena and Cain. And remember, make sure to read and leave a review; your opinions and ideas matter!
R&R,
Heroboy005