Midnight announced, "The 42 at the top have earned the right to advance. I'm sorry for the kids who failed, bu take heart. The festival's show-stopper is still being prepared. And now fro the post-preliminaries, the final selection! From here on out, even the press corps will teem in a white heat of excitement, so go all out. now then, onto today's heart-pounding second event! I already know what it will be but the suspense is killing me! And what will it be? Behold!" The sign displayed said "Human cavalry Battle" You can all form 2-4 person teams freely and form a horse-back configuration! Basically it's the same rules as a normal human cavalry battle: Swipe enemy riders' headbands and guard your own, except for one thing. Everyone will receive points based on their performance in the last trial!"
"Which means the point value of each team will change based on who's in it," said Ashido.
"DON'T INTERRUPT!" Yelled Midnight. "But yes, that's right, and the number of points you're worth will be 5 points if you placed 42nd, 10 if you placed 41st, 15th for 40th and so on, with the exception of 1st place, whose head is worth TEN MILLION!"
As if a collective whole, we all turned to look at him at these words. If you were to head for him, this will be the chance for the rest to supplant him. Midoriya looked absolutely terrified, sweating and nervous as though hit just now with the pressure of being #1.
"Those who reach th top merely encounter fresh new hardships. And the kids who have enrolled here will hear it countless times. Plus ultra. The time limit is 15 minutes. The point value of each group's headband is worth the total point accompiuation of each of the horse's members. The one to wear the headband will be the rider. Think of them as a standard bearer. Until time is up, you'll all be fighting and stealing as many of each others' headbands as you can. You may not equip your headband on any area besides above your neck. As more and more headbands are taken, maintaining control of the situation will become more and more demanding. And the most important aspect of the game is that even if you should lose your headband or break configuration, you're still not out of the game. Quirks are of course allowed," continued Midnight, "so I want to see some fine brutality out there! That being said, this is still just a human cavalry game! If you attack any other group to break them up on purpose, that's a read card and you'll be forced to sit out the rest of the game. All right, you now have 15 minutes. Start your teamups!"
Right away, my mind flew into action. I knew who I wanted for my team.
Firstly:
"Yaoyorozu," I said, finding her as quickly as possible and only hoping she hadn't already been taken. "Are you taken?'
"No," she said, and it seemed like she was smiling a little. "I would be honored to join your team, Todoroki."
Good. That's a start. I turned to find Kaminari, who wasn't far away, to recruit. "Join me," I said simply, and he nodded, looking excited. "Yaoyorozu, hey, we're on the same team again!" he called, joining her as I strode forward to my third choice. I had to be quick on the draw here to snag him, if I wanted to beat Midoriya to the punch.
Iida. The Class representative, the speedster.
"The reason I chose all of you is because I think this is the battle formation with the best balance. Kaminari, you're on the left. You'll send out some sparks to make sure the enemy never gets too close. Yaoyorozu, you're on the right. You'll be making us an insulator sheet, plus whatever defense and mobility you can provide. Iida, you're at the front with your engine power. You'll be our physical defense as well."
"And Todoroki, you can feint your attacks by using either ice or heat, right?" asked Iida.
"No," I said quickly. I looked over to the stands, where surely he was watching me, and saw him there. Fire across his face. "While in combat, I'll never, ever use my left side."
As we spoke, a voice called out Iida's name - the familiar voice from Midoriya. He had joined up with Uraraka already, and didn't seem to realize Iida was already taken. I watched as the two of them dragged Iida away and tried to guess his strategy. With Uraraka's floating power, his team could stay airborne, making it very difficult to catch up to him. But Uraraka had a limit on how long or how much she could float, so that strategy wouldn't work in the long run. Iida would perhaps, from his perspective, prove useful for his speed, but as he returned to my team, it wasn't clear what else Midoriya was going to do.
You're not going to win this one, Midoriya, I thought. This time it's my turn .
"NOW TIME'S UP! RAISE YOUR WAR-CRIES AND FIRE HTE SIGNAL" Boomed Mic's voice. "LET'S START THE COUNTDOWN! 3!"
We'd assembled. I was standing on their hands, one hand on Iida's shoulder, and my eyes on "The only target." Team Midoriya.
He'd added Tokoyami, the boy with the Dark Shadow quirk, and a girl I didn't recognize from another class, to complete his horse. They were all wearing some kind of support gear. I'd formed a longform strategy…but without knowing that girl's quirk or assets, team Midoriya was going to be hard to predict.
"2!" 1! Go!"
An all out rush began towards Team Midoriya. Every team in the yard was targeting him all at once.
"Now?" asked Kaminari.
"Wait," I replied. As we watched, just like I'd predicted, Team Midoriya took off and was airborne - though assisted by the support gear, as well as by Uraraka's float quirk. Thanks to Dark Shadow, there was pretty much no touching them.
They landed and were assaulted again - parried, moved, dodged. Went airborne again, only to dodge an attack from Bakugou. Once again, Dark Shadow countered.
"HAVE AL OOK, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! NOT EVEN TWO MINUTES HAVE ELASPED AND ALREADY WE HAVE A MELEE OF TUMULTUOUS PROPORTIONS ON OUR HADNS! ANYWHERE YOU REST YOUR EYES, THERE'S TWO TEAMS VYING FOR AND STEALING EACH OTHER'S HEADBANDS! AFTER ALL, IT'S A FINE STRATEGY TO AIM FOR 2ND TO 4TH PLACE INSTEAD OF THE BIG 10, MILLION!"
"THAT'S RIGHT, WHETHER IT'S THE FIRST PLACE WHO'S BEING CHASED, RO THE REST OF CLASS A, NOW DOING THE CHASING THIS HERE'S A VERITABLE CONGREGATION OF TOP DOGS! LET'S BRIEFLY CONFIRM THAT BY CHECKING THIER POINT VALUES!"
There was a gasp. "WHOA, DAMN! JUST ONE GASH SECOND! YOU MEAN CLASS A AREN'T TAKING IT BY A MILE? WELL, APART FRMO MIDORWYA, AND BAKUGO U - WHAT HAPPENED?"
I could see that Midoriya, who had landed again, was watching Bakugou's team. His eyes fixed on that one rival, the one he was always thinking of, as Class 1B's teams seemed to have him cornered. Big mistake, Midoriya, I thought, echoing in my mind the same words Bakugou had said to me before. You've declared war on the wrong person.
Our team stood in his way.
"Guess we won't be getting such an easy ride after all, huh," murmured Midoriya as we faced each other off.
"The time has come," I murmured, to my team as much as to Midoriya. "I'll be taking that."
"IN THE MISDT OF CLASS B'S ASCENDENCE, THE TITLE FIGHT COMES TO THE FORE! UPON WHOSE HEAD SHALL REST THOSE TEN MILLION POINTS?" Called out Mic.
I faced him now. I'd underestimated you before. That won't happen again. He had locked eyes with me, a stern and steady glare to match mine. My rival.
"Iida," I told him. "Advance."
"Got it!" he replied.
"Yaoyorozu," I told her. "Prepare our guard and conductor."
"On it!" she said promptly.
"Kaminari," I concluded.
"Yeah, man, I know!" he said with a grin. "Hang tight!"
Guarded by Yaoyorozu's newly created shield, we were blocked from the Indiscriminate discharge, which was released all around us to freeze the surrounding teams in place - the others heading for Team Midoriya. Unfortunately, Tokoyami's Dark Shadow was able to guard their team from the discharge, preventing the plan from working quite perfectly.
"There's less than six minutes left on the clock," I said, as Yaoyorozu handed me the grounding rod she'd created to enact the completion of our plan. "There's no going back."
Dangerous for the other teams…they were still people and classmates after all. "Sorry about this. Just endure it for a little while," I said, as I unleashed my ice along to the ground alongside Yaoyorozu's creation, the skates she and the other two were wearing keeping our team from being frozen along side the others.
"WHAT'S THIS?" announced Mic. "TODOROKI HELD BACK THE MOB OF HORSES IN ONE FELL SWOOP!"
"He used Kaminari's electricity to stop everyone firmly in their tracks so he could be sure to freeze them all," chimed in Mr. Aizawa. "He's looking back on the obstacle race, where too many were able to dodge his ice for his liking."
"NICE COMMENTARY!" called Mic.
We sailedo n past the other teams and I took a moment to grab the headband from one of Class 1B's students.
"I'l be taking these," I said swiftly as we charged on ahead towards Team Midoriya.
Dark Shadow went on the offensive attack, swooping in towards us.
"Yaoyorozu!" I called, as she put up a shield in between the incoming creature's hands, just in time to stop it. From a distance, it looked like Midoriya was starting to get nervous. The ice around us provided an excellent barrier, meaning that nobody could get in. We were the only team that could end up with the 10 million. Down to just the two of us now.
We headed forward towards him. He moved then, suddenly with confidence, to my left.
"THERE'S ONLY ABOUT A MINUTE LEFT! AND TODOROKI HAS SET HTE FIELD! ALL THAT'S LEFT NOW IS TAKING THOSE TEN MILLION POINTS! IT'LL BE SWIPED IN AN INSTANT! OR SO I MIGHT HAVE THOUGHT FIVE MINUTES AGO! BUT MIDORWYA HAS KEPT AWAY DURING ALL THAT TIME, EVEN IN THIS CONSTRICTED SPACE."
Again we moved - and again, infuriatingly, Midoriya moved out of my range.
He always puts his distance to my left. He's seen through me. Now, even if I use ice for a short distance, I'll catch Iida. And if I use it recklessly, i'll be ruining my own chances. Kaminari's lightning can be fended off by Tokoyami. Only a minute left! I saw him, eyes locked on me, deadly calm. Damn you.
"Guys," said Iida. "We have less than a minute. I'm afraid I'll be useless after this, so I'm counting on you."
"Iida?" I asked.
"Hold on tight," he said. "Take it, Todoroki! TORQUE OVER RECIPROBURST!"
A sudden jet of speed from Iida's engines caused us to move faster than I had ever been moved in my life, faster than I had thought possible before this. I had enough of my wits about me to reach out, as we flew past Midorwya's team, so fast they seemed to stand still in comparison, to reach out and snatch it from atop his head - the 10 million points, my hand just brushing across his wild green hair as the headband came to me, and we sped to a halt like a car.
"WHAT HAPPENED? IN AN INSTANT! WHY DIDN'T HE USE THAT SPEED IN THE PRELIMS?" said Mic, and agreeing with him I asked "What was that?"
"I can forcibly rev up my torque to explosive proportions if need be," said Iida. "However, as kickback, I'll suffer from Engine stall in short order. That was the trick up my sleeve I had never told my classmates." He turned to smile at Team Midoriya. "I thought I told you, Midoriya" he called out "I'm challenging you."
Mic Announced "THE BACK AND FORTH HAS ENDED AND THE ONE HAVING THE LAST LAUGH IS…TEAM TODOROKI, WITH THE 10 MILLION! AND MIDORIYA HAS CRASHED DOWN TO 0!"
Midoriya wasn't standing still. His team was running towards us, and I remembered what Iida had said: that he couldn't move after using this special move. We were stuck in place. We had all the headbands, and we couldn't move anymore.
Midoriya was heading for us at an unprecedented speed and had lifted his arm. There was a passion in his eyes, a terrifying determination as though he were about to destroy me. My heartbreak skipping up in terror I realized what he was about to do.
That power of his, that arm destroying full power quirk I'd only seen him use in offense once before - when he'd blown up an entire building with a single punch - he was aiming straight at me.
Without even thinking, I threw up my left arm in front of me and activated my left hand side.
I hadn't used it since I was very young, a child, a week or so before the burn. Since then I had never used my flames for anything except a dissolving agent on the ice. Never to attack.
They activated, perhaps, without my even realizing it. A reflex of sheer terror as Midoriya's arm came at me.
He didn't hit me. He didn't unleash the full force on me, simply swatted his hand in front of my face, creating air pressure that threw me off balance. I turned to stare at my own body, reacting on instinct. What am I doing?!
Midoriya had grabbed a headband from around my neck - but not the 10 million…he'd simply grabbed the one on top, perhaps assuming that was the right one.
"Pull yourself together, Todoroki!" Iida told me. "That was too close!"
"We switched the order, just in case," Yaoyorozu was saying to Midoriya. "That was naive, Midoriya."
"IT'S NEARLY OVER! NOW FOR THE COUNTDOWN! EVERYBODY SAY HEY!" Cried Mic's voice. As the countdown began, Midoriya was headed for us once again.
"10! 9! 8!"
Blasting through the other side of the ice came team Bakugou.
"7! 6!"
Yaoyorozu put up a guard forKaminari's electricity as team Midoriya flew our way again.
"5! 4!"
Midoriya headed for us once more. Yaoyorozu trying to create something new. NO time. Nothing to do
"3 - 2 - 1! TIME UP!"
At last, we could breathe again.
"NOW SHALL WE SEE WHO ARE TOP 4 ARE? IN 1ST PLACE, TEAM TODOROKI!"
As I dismounted, I murmured to myself "Dammit." We'd won, but at what cost? I'd had to resort, it seemed, to using that damn fire power, to win.
"IN 2ND PLACE, TEAM BAKUGOU. IN 3RD PLACE, TEAM TETSUTETSU - WAIT? HEY, IT'S TEAM SHINSO! AND IN 4TH PLACE, TEAM MIDORIYA!"
I wasn't entirely sure how that had happened…it seemed Tokoyami had used the space Midoriya made to snatch the headband I'd taken from an earlier team, putting them into 4th place.
"THE 1ST FOUR TEAMS WILL MOVE ON TO THE FINAL EVENT! NOW STEP FORWARD!"
I said I'd never use it to attack. I made that promise to myself. But when I was driven into a corner…I can't let it go on like this. At this rate, that bastard will win.
