Author's notes will be at the end, please enjoy!
A thunderous clap from the distance filled the air, and the grey overcast skies above seemed to be getting worse by the passing moment, after teams 'Delta' and 'Foxtrot' had first shot the black flare into the air. Dust and static filled the dreadful air, and it was then that the last magnetic shot fired from Momo's railgun was fired; its shot tearing through the heavens as it nailed the large two-and-half meter tall armored man who had been seconds away from smashing Tenya Iida with his massive war hammer.
With his heart pulsating, Tenya immediately took advantage of the golden opportunity gifted to him to get back up to his feet. "That was too close… Way too close…" Tenya muttered under his breath, as he used his quirk's ability to swiftly propel himself toward where his sturdy large shield and BARBATOS sidearm had fallen in the midst of battle.
With the man, who was assumed to be a God Eater executive 'Einherjar', momentarily stunned after taking a shot from the railgun to his scale-armored chest, a magnetic shot that was powerful enough to destroy naval ships from kilometers away, Tenya quickly regrouped with Kirishima and Denki, who both had been taking cover behind the safety of a giant piece of rubble.
After seeing Tenya alive and well, Denki let out a sigh of relief, and a quick prayer under his breath, before collapsing to the groundz Meanwhile, Kirishima was just happy to see the mecha-looking hero in one piece.
"Hot damn, Tenya! I thought that Nordic bastard was about to smash you to kingdom come!" Kirishima joked with an uncomfortable laugh, before letting out a nervous chuckle. "But uh… Shit man, doesn't look like we're quite out of the woods yet," Kirishima commented, after looking from behind their cover to see Einherjar picking himself up, before patting away the dirt from his glorious red cape that he wore.
After dusting his armor made out of what looked to reassemble platinum, Einherjar took a moment to use his fingers to nonchalantly comb his well-groomed beard, before combing his fingers through his long and majestic blond hair.
"… That was perhaps the only actual attack you weaklings managed to inflict upon me that actually made me feel like this was an actual fight," Einherjar announced for all of those who were hidden to hear.
"My most sincere apologies for any damage that I might have caused here; it wasn't my intent to kill any of you. Teleporting from one place to another can be… Messy, needless to say," Einherjar said with a bit of amusement in his voice, as he looked down to see the smiling charred remains of what was once the Tapping Hero: Cellophaned; who went by Hanta Sero, to those who knew him.
Being the leader in charge of Foxtrot, Rikido Sato clenched his white gloved fist in rage, after hearing just how little the Nordic man thought of his deceased friend. "Bastard…!"
"Your childish squabbling here isn't of my concern, so proceed as you wish, or flee from me if that's what you chose to do; again, I could care less about what's going on between you and your opposition. In my eyes, you're all weak and cowardly," Einherjar said with a bored tone, while making it clear to everyone, both heroes and villains, that he didn't even consider any of them to be an actual threat to him.
"Although, be warned! Any of you who try to stand between me and Athrun Date will be dealt with accordingly… I'm of course referring to the guy who looks like he's dressed as a Gundam," Einherjar called out in a smug voice, while referring to Tenya, who made a throaty gasp after being spoken of by the man who had tried to kill him. "I know that your Prime Minister is hiding in the school that he's made into his fortress, and I've come here to kill him…"
"… With that being said, I feel like I have to say this again: I have no interest in killing any of you, so feel free to flee. I will not hunt you down, nor do I have any desire to hurt you or your loved ones. I'm not sure what that snake's told you about God Eater, but rest assured that what you've heard about their intentions are more than likely just mere propaganda; don't believe everything the government tells you… So, uh… Yeah, I'm going to start walking now, okay? Okay," Einherjar said without really knowing what else to say, before beginning to walk through the bloodied battlefield at a comfortable pace.
From the corner of their own cover, Ojiro and Mezo exchanged conflicting looks at one another as Einherjar made his way up the path and toward their hiding place. Being an honorable person who had just watched a group of his teammates die at the hands of someone as apathetic as Einherjar, Ojiro wanted nothing more than to confront the Nordic man in combat.
Sensing this, Mezo knew better than to try and fight an opponent who he knew outmatched every one of them, including the villains, so without giving Ojiro a chance to throw his life away, the masked hero mustered up all the courage he had in him before calming walking out from behind the destroyed sedan he and his friend had been hiding behind.
Seeing his white-hair friend raising his hands up to show that he was surrendering, Ojiro let out a shocked gasp before reaching out with his tail to try and pull Mezo back behind cover, but it was too late.
Seeing the slender and tall young man with his six grotesque arms up in the air disgusted Einherjar, yet it did well to grab his attention as he continued to calmly walk toward the direction of the school. "Do you wish to battle me, freak?"
Ignoring the insult, Mezo shook his head calmly. "No, I wish only to-"
"-Then you and I have nothing to discuss," Einherjar said dismissively, before turning his head away from Mezo while still heading towards his direction. "Carry on with your pitiful existence, worm."
Outraged that his friend had been insulted twice, Ojiro revealed himself from his cover, and ran over to put himself between Einherjar and the path he needed to take to get to U.A. High School.
"No one talks to my friend like that! I care not for your half-hearted apology in regards to your reckless behavior!" Ojiro shouted out in a righteous anger, while earning himself an uninterested stare from the Nordic man. "What you've done here is unforgivable…!"
"… If you feel so strongly about it, then do something, you vile creature," Einherjar yawned out while stretching his arms. "If not, then remove yourself from my path, or I'll remove you myself."
"Bastard…!" Ojiro muttered under his breath, before bracing himself for whatever fate awaited him. "You're going to pay for what you did!" The long-tailed man shouted with righteous anger, before taking up a fighting stance as Einherjar walked casually towards him.
Standing behind the muscular Nordic man, Mezo let out a gasp before sprinting towards his friend. "Ojiro! Don't do it!" The tall and slender man shouted desperately, before redirecting his attention to the blond man staring back at him over his armored shoulder. "Sir, please! We can-"
"-I warned you, cretin," Einherjar interrupted with an annoyed tone, before turning around with enough velocity in his movement that he had created a cloud of dust in the wake of his spin. In one swift movement that was too fast for Mezo to see coming, Einherjar raised his hand up before backhanding the six-armed hero with enough force that it caused his head to turn in a one-hundred and eighty degree angle.
A sickening snapping of bone caused all those who had been watching the interaction to cringe and gasp in horror, while Ojiro felt the air in his lungs escape as he saw Mezo's limp body fall to the ground. "M-Mezo…" Ojiro mouthed out in shock, while feeling his body tensing up as Einherjar stared down at his latest kill with an unimpressed expression on his bearded face.
"I wasn't even trying to injure you… By Odin, I've forgotten how fragile you tiny mortals were," Einherjar said with an amused scoff, and grinned a bit as he turned back around to continue on his mission. It was then that he was met with Ojiro's tail, that he had swung viciously sideways with the intention of avenging Mezo's death.
"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!!!" Ojiro screamed out in blind rage, after having landed his attack and immediately positioning himself to follow up with another blow to the Nordic's man's face.
Unfortunately, due to how emotional and unstable he had become, Ojiro hadn't noticed what everyone else did: his first attack did absolutely nothing to even phase Einherjar. However, what the enraged man did succeeded in was pissing the Nordic man off, after his tail had ruffled his groomed beard.
"… So you keep saying," Einherjar muttered with an irritated voice, before reaching up with both his hands to catch Ojiro's tail. Listening to the pitch in Ojiro's screams shift from anger to agony as his fingers penetrated deeper into the flesh and muscle of his tail, Einherjar chuckled a bit to himself before swinging his opponent over his shoulder.
Slamming Ojiro's body down with enough force to break his rib cage and jaw, Einherjar ignored the brutalized hero's moans of pain while he whistled a whimsical tune to himself, as he put his leather boot down on the young man's back. With his fingers still hooked into the flesh and muscle of Ojiro's tail, Einherjar completely severed the pro hero's appendage clean off the bone in one effortless motion.
Tossing the severed body part off to the side, Einherjar muttered to himself in his native tongue, as he bent down on one knee to wipe his fingers clean by using Ojiro's white karate, while the young man gurgled and shook violently. Upon standing back up to his feet, Einherjar was met with surprise after suddenly being decked in the face by Rikido.
"IT'S TIME FOR SUGAR RUSH!!!" Rikido screamed out in rage, while staring back at his opponent, who he had managed to push back a meter through his sheer strength.
Cracking a wide grin, Einherjar couldn't help but to laugh to himself after having heard those words strung together in what was supposed to be a battle cry. "Y-You're joking, right?! No way that's what you'd actually say in a real fight, right?!" Einherjar asked, while trying to contain his laughter, even as he was forced to raise his arms up to defend himself from Rikido's crushing and rapid blows.
With his armor absorbing most of the destructive force behind each punch thrown at him by the berserked man, who had just watched two more of his friends and teammates die, Einherjar continued to try and catch his breath from laughing as Rikido's hypoglycemic reaction from his quirk began to kick in.
"'It's time for sugar rush,' haha, ha! Ah, by the Gods, that's the funniest thing I've heard in a while!" Einherjar mused with his cheeks becoming flushed, as he slowly lowered his arms while Rikido's punches became slower-and-slower, until the yellow suited hero finally collapsed onto the ground.
Looking down at the large man who was currently going into a diabetic coma, Einherjar smiled gleefully at him before pointing a finger down to him. "You sir, have just made my day! Just for that, I'm going to spare your life, just so my fellow champions can get a good laugh at you, when they inevitably visit this place!" The Nordic man bellowed out in a friendly tone, before kneeling down to give a good natured pat on the back to the lethargic hero.
"… Keep 'Sugar Rush' time alive, my friend," Einherjar said in a joking voice, before standing back up.
Although Tenya was saddened and angered after seeing what Einherjar had done to his friends, he continued to analyze the Nordic man's abilities, and had been searching for any weaknesses during the entire time he was ravaging the members of Endeavor's Foxtrot team. Unfortunately, Tenya had yet to discover anything that he could use to his advantage, other than knowing that Einherjar didn't take any of them as a threat, and wouldn't harm them unless they got in his way.
Kirishima, on the other hand, was more than ready to knock the Nordic man down a peg. "Why the hell are we still waiting, Tenya?! That sonofabitch just murdered our friends, and if we don't something real fast, then Rikido and Ojiro are done for!" The red headed man insisted, as he pointed over to where Ojiro was bleeding out, and where Rikido was lying motionless on the broken asphalt.
"I'm upset about this just as much as we all are, Kirishima…" Tenya said with an empathic tone in his voice, as the glowing green optic cameras of his helmet stared back at the look of frustration and anguish on Kirishima's face. "And as much as I'd like to see that monster get what's coming to him… As the leader of Delta Team, I cannot allow you all to throw your lives away in such a reckless manner."
Although Kirishima had been expecting Tenya to be cautious and analytical about the situation, the red headed hero was still outraged and disgusted at what he had heard. "That's… That's bullshit, Tenya! How can you expect any of us to let that shit slide?! Isn't that right, Denki?!" Kirishima asked the blond man who was kneeling down behind cover; expecting him to immediately jump aboard and agree with his point.
However, when he was met with reluctant silence from the electric hero, Kirishima found himself letting out a quiet gasp as a cold shiver went up his spine. "D… Denki? Hey man, you agree with me, right? That we can't just sit here with our thumbs up our asses?!"
Grimacing at how desperately he wanted to agree with Kirishima, Denki let out a shallow breath before looking up at him to reveal the look of despair and fear on his face to the other man, that shook him to the core.
"… It's suicide, man… There's no way in Hell that any of us can do shit to that bastard…!" Denki finally said, while openly admitting to Kirishima that he didn't have any desire in him to face Einherjar. "Look at what happened to Sero… I know that I ain't the smartest, but I know enough about electricity to understand the amount of voltage that it would take in order to vaporize someone… And that amount of electricity discharged isn't even remotely close to anything I can do myself… Nor is it something I'd even be able to handle."
"V-Vaporize…?" Kirishima asked with a stutter, while doing his best to ignore his own sense of fear by boasting a sharp-toothy smile on his face. "Sero wasn't… His body's still there, Denki; I think you're giving that asshole a little too much credit, no?"
"Man, I wish I was… But look over there, at the place where he teleported in; where all that lightning came from," Denki said, without even needing to look over to the aforementioned area for himself. Giving both men a moment to ease out of their cover to stare back at the large molten crater where the burst of lightning had exploded upon Einherjar's arrival, the memories of what happened the moment the first burst of energy blow apart the road and those who had occupied the area played in Denki's mind.
"… It takes over three-billion volts of lighting to vaporize a human body, which is the same amount of energy needed to melt through steel instantly… The only reason why Sero's body still has a shape and isn't just dust in the wind is because he wasn't in direct contact with the electricity or the blast zone… He was only near it," Denki described with a haunting tone in his voice.
"You guys must not have seen it, but… Koda was one of the people who… Who didn't make it… His body flew into the air and never came back down…" Denki said in a hollow voice, before once again resting his forehead against his crossed arms. "A lot of other people were caught in the first explosion too… Some of them were heroes like us, and some of them were bad guys; all of them are dead now… So believe me man, when I say that trying to fight him is suicide, I really mean it..."
"… U-Unbelievable," Kirishima said with a slightly trembling voice, as he immediately proceeded to look away from the baltant evidence of Einherjar's power that was staring back at all of them. "That's unmanly shit, dude…! I-I…! I ain't gonna allow none of this shit go unpunished, I'll…! I'll-"
"-You're going to regroup with Foxtrot and the rest of Delta Team, and organize a rescue mission to save our comrades," Tenya interrupted Kirishima, with a surprising amount of determination and focus in his words. "Do not pursue any of the retreating rogue villains; only use force to defend you and those who are entrusting their lives to you. Protect them, Kirishima; because that's the manliest thing you could possibly do right now."
Although a part of Kirishima took comfort in Tenya's confidence and the direction he was giving to him, the way Tenya talked to him also worried him. "… My underlings? What the… W-What the hell are you exactly planning, man?!"
"I'll be using the rebar and anything else conductive to separate me from him; electricity takes the path of least resistance, so if possibly is capable of expelling electricity from his body into projectiles, then anything like steel or copper will absorb it and ground it," Tenya answered back without an ounce of fear in his voice, and while Kirishima was trying to process the man's explanation, Denki was already one-step ahead of him.
"… You'll have to be airborne during that entire time, otherwise you'll risk charring up like Sedo," Denki advised while tearing up, as he felt a new wave of dread washing over him. "With that quirk of yours, that means you'll have to constantly be moving while firing pot shots at him… And what if you get struck by lightning? I know your suit and shield has special lamination on it, but I'm not sure how effective that'll be against that bastard…"
Nodding in response to Denki's critiques, Tenya continued to do a weapons check before replying with, "That's true, I'll have to be careful when I choose to ground myself. But so long as I'm not constantly within close-quarters range of him, I should be able to buy enough time for reinforcements to come, or at least distract him long enough for all of you to get to the academy and relay what we've learned about this… Whatever that man is."
"… Now just hold on, man," Kirishima interjected as he clamped his hand down on Tenya's armored shoulder. "You're forgetting something that's crucial as shit here: how the hell are you expecting to get out of that plan?! Sacrificing yourself, just to, what? Save some politician who sent us out here in the first place?! Since when the hell were our lives worth less than his?!"
"… Ignoring the fact that you just alluded to throwing the Prime Minister of Japan to the wolves, as though he were a sacrificial lamb, you're missing the point, Kirishima," Tenya said calmly, yet sternly. "That man… He can't be reasoned with, he sees us as beneath him, and clearly has no qualms about deciding our fates. He'll continue to slaughter anyone who gets in his way, unless we stop that from happening as soon as possible."
"And just who the hell do ya think is gonna do that?! If Denki's right, and he probably is, then what chance do any of us have?! Are ya really just gonna throw your life away like that, and just hope someone comes along who's strong enough to save you?!" Kirishima demanded with an exasperated look on his tear-ridden face. "Seriously man?! And on top of all of that, you just expect us to leave you alone with that monster?! D-Don't… Don't you realize what you're asking of us, man…?!"
Pausing a moment, Tenya continued to stare back at Kirishima's distraught face before suddenly placing his own hand down on the buff man's shoulder, before suddenly bringing him into a brotherly hug. "… I know how selfish this is of me to do, but I'll be relying solely on you to keep everyone safe. Protect them, Kirishima… If I don't come back, then take my place," Tenya said in a determined voice, before shifting his gaze down to Denki, who appeared on the verge of a panic attack.
"… You'll help Kirishima take care of our friends, won't you?" Tenya asked in a brotherly tone, just like how his older brother would do to him.
Although Denki couldn't vocalize his reluctance to accept such a request from such a brave man, the blond hero eventually was able to slowly nod in response, which was good enough for the armored man.
"Then it's settled… I leave the rest to you two," Tenya said with a bit of solace in his voice, as he gently took his hand off of Kirishima's shoulder before pulling himself away from the weeping redhead. "Godspeed, gentlemen. And remember… Go beyond…! Plus Ultra!" Tenya roared out in the form of a battle cry, before using his quirk to expel a blast of air pressure through the ventilation system of his suit to launch himself into the air.
Following behind Deku and Bakugou as fast as she could, Rize was able to keep up with the two young men, even with the two of them using their quirks to propel themselves towards where the black smoke trail was originating from. With her metal armor set clashing against each plate as she sprinted slow enough to have them be in front of her, Rize gripped her fingers tightly around the handle of the claymore as she silently readied herself to face off against her first suspected God Eater executive.
While the young girl was planning out her own strategy on what to do when that time finally came, it was then that both Deku and Bakugou heard a voice popping up through their earpieces. "INGENIUM TO DYNAMITE OR ALL MIGHT, DO YOU READ ME?"
Although both the young heroes were caught off guard by the voice of the man they had already assumed died, it was Bakugou who was the first to reach his hand up to answer Tenya's transmission.
"Dynamite to Ingenium, All Might and I are en route towards the black flare…! What's your status, over…!?" Bakugou managed to reply back in a coherent sentence, even while trying to maintain balance as he used small explosions coming out of his feet and one hand to fly forward beside Deku.
"INGENIUM TO DYNAMITE, WE HAVE TWO CONFIRMED CASUALTIES. RED RIOT HAS TAKEN OVER LEADERSHIP OF BOTH DELTA AND FOXTROT, AND HAS BEEN INSTRUCTED TO REGROUP WITH SURVIVING DELTA AND FOXTROT HEROES. GOD EATER EXECUTIVE IS EN ROUTE TO HIGH SCHOOL, AND IS SUSPECTED OF PLANNING THE ASSASSINATION OF THE PRIME MINISTER…"
"… I WILL BE INTERCEPTING GOD EATER. I AM REQUESTING IMMEDIATE REINFORCEMENTS AND COVER FIRE FROM CREATI'S RAILGUN. BE ADVISED, PROCEED WITH CAUTION: THE GOD EATER EXECUTIVE IS CAPABLE OF ELECTROKINESIS, AND IS DEADLY IN CLOSE RANGE…"
"… Ingenium, over and out," Tenya said with a solemn voice, and found himself letting out an elongated breath of dread after he had finally found a spot behind cover where he could land. Knowing that Einherjar had spotted him just by the loud noise of his suit's exhaust pipes made while he had soared towards the vantage spot on top of a medium sized office building, one that had gotten caught in the crossfire from earlier, Tenya didn't even bother to try and be stealthy.
Breathing in deeply, the voice of Bakugou demanding him to remain hidden until he and Deku arrived were stressing Tenya out to the point where his hands were beginning to shake violently. Quietly muttering an apology to Bakugou, Tenya turned his helmet's commlink's receiver off, eliminating all communication from the rest of his comrades.
"If I'm going to die here, then your obnoxious voice is the last thing I'm going to want to hear, Katsuki…" Tenya chuckled humorlessly to himself, before momentarily setting his BARBATOS sidearm and shield down to access his phone's music library, via the touch-screen interface on his armored gauntlet.
Even though he knew that it could pose a risk, Tenya figured that the sounds of motivating orchestrated music and choir voices from his favorite mecha anime would be a lot better than listening to sounds of Einherjar undoubtedly trying to kill him. "I'll be damned if I'm not going out in style… My sacrifice here will immortalize my family name, and I can take comfort knowing that my friends will be safe…"
"… Who knows? I might just be able to do this myself…" Tenya mused to himself, as he reached over to his Q-Gear to momentarily raise it up to his helmet's optic sensors. "Haven't had a chance to use this contraption yet… Wasn't hoping it'd come to that, but here I am…"
Picking his shield up in his left hand, and preparing his sidearm with his right, the soundtrack playing in his built in stereo system was reigniting the same determination he had felt earlier, from when he gave his last orders to Kirishima.
Knowing that Einherjar's eyes were still glued onto his location, more so out of curiosity than out of caution, Tenya's hands gripped tightly around his equipment before letting out one more breath to prepare himself for what assumed was going to be the hardest battle of his life thus far.
"… Tensei, lend me your strength."
Using his quirk, Tenya was able to send himself flying backwards and away from the metal rebar sticking out of the side of the building, just in time to avoid the enormous bolt of lightning that blew apart the upper portion of the six-story building with its heat alone.
Before needing to retreat, Tenya was able to fire back at Einherjar using his BARBATOS sidearm, and had managed to land two powerful plasmic bolts from the barrel of his Q-Gear, straight into the Nordic man's chest armor.
Being too busy flying behind what remained of the destroyed building to use it for cover, Tenya wasn't able to appreciate the fact that his marksmanship and the gun in his right hand had been enough to inflict enough damage to melt Einherjar's chest plates off.
"Oh wow…! That actually felt painful…" Einherjar chuckled out loud to himself, while quickly tearing the molten piece of armor off of himself to avoid it burning more of his skin than it already had. After discarding the armored plates from his chiseled chest, Einherjar had only but the thick padded coat he had worn underneath his armor to cover his torso, as he found himself becoming excited at the thought of engaging in a battle that would perhaps challenge him.
"… I've underestimated you, 'Gundam'; it would seem as though there is some fight inside you after all," Einherjar mused to himself, as the rushing thrill of his next fight caused his quirk to illuminate his eyes in a bright white light, while the rest of his body begun to become enveloped in white arcs of lightning.
"Very well… I, Einherjar, shall be your opponent," the Nordic man announced for all to hear, as he gripped the handle of his mighty warhammer. Crouching down, the white lightning surrounding his body began to grow more intense; arcs of it striking at nearby conductive rebar and telephone wiring, while Einherjar's body began to levitate several meters up from the ground.
"In the words of my people… ODIN OWNS YE ALL!!!" Einherjar roared out in a thunderous voice that echoed through the destroyed streets of Musutafu, before launching himself at high speeds straight through the ruined office building; crumbling down, all the way to its foundation.
Forced to take evasive maneuvers to avoid being hit by Einherjar's swung hammer, Tenya propelled himself upward while raising his shield up to test its mettle against the bolt of lighting that the Nordic man had prepared for him in his free hand.
From behind the specially laminated shield that was able to disperse the bolt, Tenya's momentary thankfulness of Mei's latest invention was quickly short-lived, as he was forced to once again use his quirk to change direction, in order to avoid being once again hit by the Nordic warrior who continued to pursue him.
"Amazing reaction time for a mortal like yourself, 'Gundam'," Einherjar congratulated with an enthralled look on his face, while momentarily suspending himself in the air to praise Tenya's performance. "Before I inevitably defeat you in combat, I'd like to know your name; you stand out amongst your cowardly flock of pee-"
Using the prideful man's ego to allow himself to regain his stamina, and to allow his suit's cooling system to aid with his overheated vents, the moment Tenya caught his breath was the same moment he raised his BARBATOS sidearm up to take aim directly at the smug look on the bearded man's face.
Having been ready for Tenya's plan already however, Einherjar immediately flew towards the armored man and swung his hammer up at him. Moving his Q-Gear up to protect his head out of a reflex, due to it being lighter than the shield Mei had designed for him, both Tenya and Einherjar were then shocked at what they saw happened next.
Not only was the BARBATOS sidearm unharmed by the mighty blow of his hammer, but the black and red-veiny material it had been made up of completely absorbed the kinetic power behind Einherjar's attack; completely protecting Tenya without even so much as his wrist moving from the hit itself.
While Einherjar was still in a trance-like state, visibly trying to understand and comprehend how on Earth his hammer had been blocked by something that looked so fragile, Tenya quickly shoved the man's hammer-wielding hammer away before using the vents in his shoulder to power up his arm, as he swung the Q-Gear sideways as hard as he could; causing the seemingly invincible man's cheek to bust open and bleed out a golden-yellow liquid.
With Einherjar recoiling from the surprise attack, Tenya pushed the man back with a kick from both of his armored boots, and blasted him away using the thrusters underneath their soles. With enough space between him and his opponent, Tenya was seconds away from facing the wrath of Einherjar's lightning bolt developing in the man's hand, but a quick point-blank shot from his BARBATOS sidearm was enough to cause the Nordic man to let out a painful yelp, as he was sent flying backward from the hero's follow up combo attack.
Feeling as though his situation wasn't going to be as hopeless as he thought to be initially, the sight of seeing Einherjar crashing into the side of a building by his own doing filled Tenya with hope; hope that he would be able to return to his friends, and hope that he would be able to save the day in honor of his brother.
"I-I… I can do this… I can do this…!" Tenya told himself under his own breath, while breathing heavily as his adrenaline coursed more-and-more through his veins. Raising his shield up in front of him, Tenya's exhaust pipes and his suit's thrusters launched him forward towards his opponent; letting out a war cry as he parried a bolt of lightning, before raising his weapon up to clash with Einherjar's hammer.
As their two weapons clashed, one representing the ways of the old world, and the other encompassing the possibilities of mankind's future, a thunderous boom emitted in their battle's wake; alerting Deku and Bakugou who had stopped in their tracks to stare off towards the direction of where they had unknowingly heard their friend battling for his life, and the lives of them as well.
Rest In Peace, Mezo, Sero, and Koda. Ojiro and Rikido aren't dead yet, so there's hope for them.
The themes I wanted to encapsulate in this chapter were fear of the unknown, and trying to take on a hopeless situation. The heroes only know what they were told when it comes to God Eater, and just immediately assumed that Einherjar was a member of it, simply because he fit the description correctly and wasn't interested in answering any questions with those who he saw as weak.
Einherjar translates to 'One Man Army', and the way I had him introduced and the way he headed over towards U.A. High School was inspired by the Female Titan chase seen, back when I liked Attack on Titan.
The reason why Einherjar called Tenya 'Gundam', in case it wasn't clear, was because to him, he looks like a mecha. This was meant to show that even though he's an embodiment of ancient Vikings, he's not a ignorant of what he considers to be modern culture. So to be clear, Einherjar is not a Viking, but is more akin to being an MHA version of Thor.
The reasons why Kirishima didn't just immediately just rush after Einherjar was because, despite wanting to stop him, deep down he knew that he wouldn't fair very well against him. He was afraid; a lot of people were afraid, especially since they had been fighting in a brutal battle with villians who were giving them enough trouble as it was.
Just to put into perspective, imagine barley being able to go against a group of opponents who immediately retreated the moment an intimidating tall musclar man appears, after unintentionally killing groups of your comrades. If that wasn't discouraging enough, the same man ends up showing everyone that he's more than capable of tanking a railgun shot, was easily able to take out those who tried to stop him, and on top of all that, you still don't know how much more he's capable of.
To the heroes, Einherjar might as well have been a god himself at that point.
Anyway, apologies for not wrapping this arc up in one chapter; I predict that I'll have to write one or two more chapters to wrap it all up. Those who've read my other stories know that I tend to write longish chapters, and my arcs usually end up being two-to-five chapters long on average.
Speaking of other stories, thank you to the guest who was an avid reader of my Tokyo Ghoul fanfiction!
To answer your question, I'm actually not discontinuing it, I have chapter forty-two mostly written. I'm just taking a bit of a break from it to work on this for now, before coming back to it later.
Feel free to read this though; this essentially is a crossover fanfiction with Kaneki/Haise as a main protagonist, while other similar characters from Tokyo Ghoul will be in here as well. Including Eto.
Anyways, that's all I have for now! Thank you, and please have a good rest of your day!