Death

by tmb1112

Death is a Quirk that can only kill. A perfect Quirk for a villain, but what if the boy who manifested that power just wanted to be a hero? Enrolling in U.A. might not be enough when all your Quirk can do is kill people. Follow Zach Sazaki from his first day in Class A on a story that spans years, as he learns to be a hero, finds out more about his Quirk, and too much to summarize!

57. Chapter 57

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 57:

"Well normally they'd have the first place from the previous year do the pledge," Jirou said. She turned her head and looked down a few people in their second year class before adding, "Guess they figured Bakugo'd make a mess of it again though."

"Can't go wrong with the diligent Iida," Kaminari remarked with a laugh as Iida stood up in front of them all to recite the pledge before the Sports Festival could start. "Plus they can give the excuse of class rep of the first class, like it was always supposed to be that way."

Zach grinned on Kaminari's left and then glanced over towards Bakugo himself. His eyes widened a bit then he turned back forward and stared at Iida with a more determined expression on his own face. Bakugo doesn't care about this at all. He's already focused on winning everything. I should be too. They all got me this second chance. I can't get knocked out early, and let all their feelings go to waste. They were willing to back out, even though it means so much to all of them. Zach's fists clenched at his sides and he took in a deep breath right as Iida finished his speech. Everyone's stronger now. I am too, even without Nightmare. I learned that best while trying to teach Kaminari some moves. I know what will work best on my classmates now, know what moves to use on people not familiar with my new fighting styles. And I've planned moves against all of you, just in case you were spies. Even though I'm pretty sure now, it's gotta be someone in Class B. Zach shook his head to wipe the smile from it even as he thought about the potential spy. He was in too good a mood though, and he clenched his fists harder while looking around at the stands full of thousands of cheering people.

Time to show everyone what I can do. Even without my Quirk. As just Zach Sazaki… And as… Zach's smile faltered a little but he shook his head again and kept a steady gaze on his face. Lifebringer. Lifebringer. People are watching just to see me. I know that. I know people want to see me in action. I need to show them me acting heroic. I can't lose. For them. To help people. To save people. If I could create a symbol, like All Might… Zach refocused and turned around with the others near him to head off of the field to prepare for the first round.

Up at the top of the stands on one section of the giant arena, All Might stared down towards Class A and specifically a boy with curly green hair. He sat on Snipe's left side and Power Loader's right, and he was leaning forward with a smile on his face. Show them, Young Midoriya. All Might's hands clenched down on his knees and he was getting excited already just from the look he saw on Izuku Midoriya's face down during the pledge. All Might's eyes shifted over to the right a little from the boy he had been watching, and his mouth lifted into a different kind of smile. I'm glad, you were allowed to take part.

"Wonder what the first round is going to be," All Might said while leaning back in his seat.

"You don't know?" Snipe asked the man next to him in surprise. He and Power Loader both looked in to see the scrawny man with pushed-back blond hair reach up and scratch the back of his head.

"I have been a little busy recently," All Might replied sheepishly as he knew he should have been more prepared for this. Young Midoriya was very intent on speeding up his training… Though I should not let that get in the way of my duties as a teacher. However it is a good excuse too! If I had learned what was coming in advance, I may have subconsciously been preparing him for specifics that his classmates would not have known! That's it! All Might nodded his head as he rationalized it to himself, then Power Loader spoke up.

"Well you're in for a treat then. Thought everybody knew about it already, but check this out," Power Loader leaned forward and looked down towards the arena where Mother Russia was floating off the center of the stage. A new teacher who was acting as a referee during her first year at U.A., Mother Russia sensei wore all red including a red bandanna at the top of her long whitish-blond hair. She looked up towards Power Loader and nodded at him, and All Might watched the exchange in confusion as to what Power Loader was going to do. The woman floating over the arena headed after all the students and flew into the tunnel they just went down.

"Where do you think you're all going?" Mother Russia called down in a thick Russian accent. She landed down on the other side of the second years almost outside of the stadium and forced all the students to stop.

Iida stared at the tall, muscular, broad-shouldered woman in front of him in a bit of confusion. Ashido leaned forward around some general studies' students in front of her and called out, "Aren't we going outside? You said to leave the arena-"

"Just the arena, not the entire stadium," Mother Russia said, and all the students started turning around at that same time. They turned, because of the loud clanking they heard coming from behind them and then the loud cheers and shocked voices of the audience back in the main arena. "Last year your obstacle course was around the outside of the stadium. The first event this year is going to be a little different." The students started heading back towards the exit of the tunnel into the arena, but none of them could leave the hallway they all just stood at the edge of.

The very end of the tunnel started to get wider, with the walls just at the end of the hall pulling back into the wall around the entire circular arena past them. All around the arena the walls started pushing back, though the audience in their seats did not move even if the walls started pulling away right below them. People in the front rows leaned forward and looked down in even more amazement as the ground was vanishing from beneath the bleachers. Everyone else though, was focused straight into the arena's center that was also pulling apart. A circular gap opened in the middle of the arena floor, the stage sank down into the floor and then started sliding back along with the metal plates that turned out to be beneath the stadium, and everyone gawked towards an opening that grew ten to a hundred meters in diameter in a few seconds.

"What is, going…" Zach could finally move up enough to see as the students who had been behind him at the start of the tunnel spread out to start moving around the outsides of the arena. He walked right up to the tunnel's exit and stared into the huge hole that had almost spread to the edges of the arena, or what the edges used to be and where they were for the bleachers. The walls on the first level of the arena stopped pulling back after fifteen feet, and the floor where those walls had just been was marked every ten meters with a black 'X.' Zach glanced around the outsides of the new arena floor that was so thin and narrow compared to the black hole in the center, and he focused on some of those black 'X's only to get even more confused. If there's one for every person… that's not enough space-

BrrmmBrrmmBrmBrmBrmBu-Du-Bu-Du-Bu-Du… Everyone standing near the edge of the tunnel or around the edges of the hole from near it started leaning forward even more as these sounds came out of the black hole in the ground. All the people on the bleachers, families, pro heroes, and even a member of the U.A. faculty who was as amazed as everyone else leaned forwards. They stared into the center of the hole where it became visible first. Anyone leaning in at the front rows of the bleachers started pulling back, and all the students at the ledge pulled away too, as the thing rising from the ground was doing so fast. The middle shot up first, a flat square surface thirty meters long by thirty meters wide. Then the drops, steep descents for over thirty feet down where it looked difficult to climb shot up past the people trying to get good looks at this massive formation surfacing in the middle of the arena.

All Might's bottom lip lowered, and his eyes started rising as the top of the form lifted even above him at the top of the bleachers. It was thin enough at the top compared to the size of the arena, and the descent was sharp enough for a long enough distance down, that the creation for the first round of the tournament was no longer a structure. It's, a mountain, All Might and a few million other people thought while staring at the rising mountain coming out of the ground.

"That's U.A. for you, huh?" A sheepish boy in general studies muttered to his best friend on his right side.

Zach heard them behind him but was staring with such wide eyes at the still-rising mountain in front of him that he was barely listening. The boy's friend on the other side of Zach's back muttered in a deeper voice a response, "There's a limit to how crazy they can get. It's the first round, but they know we all have to go at it… Still probably won't make it more than a quarter of the way up though."

Zach's eyes narrowed and he stopped staring in as much awe as the people around him. That's right. Focus. Everyone thinks this is crazy, but everyone's still going to climb it. What was that metal section below the steep drops? There were lines cutting through it looking like they could open up. Something's hiding inside the mountain. Or maybe it's just traps? Could they pour slimy substances out of there and try and make us slip? Or maybe robots? I could totally see… robots… Zach's eyes opened wide again as he stared up towards the top of the huge mountain in front of him. A loud clank and the fact that the edge of the outer ring was now connected with the start of a rocky ascent meant that the mountain was at its full height now, more than two and a half times as tall as the stadium itself. As soon as it reached that full height though, all of the metal panels on the section of the mountain wrapping around it at three-quarters of its height started opening up, and large metal hands reached out and grabbed the mountain outside.

The two boys behind Zach took steps back, bumping into others who had similar looks on their faces as they stared up towards the robots. People in the audience were staring up at them with wide eyes too, and Endeavor narrowed his own from where he was standing up at the top of the bleachers in one section. "Those aren't…" he muttered, and he hummed as he stared at the design of the blue and green robots that looked similar to monsters he had fought before. His head turned to the right and he looked up towards the U.A. staff box.

All Might's eyes widened too as he stared towards the robots coming out of the mountain to protect its summit. He turned to Power Loader, and he said, "Have you finished them?"

"That's right," the hero with a big yellow helmet over his head said. "Principal wanted them done by the new school year, but it took us a little longer. Trust me though, those things don't just look like Nomus." All Might turned his head back and looked up towards the robots that had muscular appearances forged into them, their joints were barely visible, and their eyes glowed red with scanners built into them that made each of the robots that just appeared lower their heads down towards the edges of the mountain's base. They all looked down, and then the robotic creatures of different sizes between seven and twelve feet tall started marching down the metal slope they had appeared on. One of them started running down, but it came to a stop and skid on steel feet that brought up sparks from its speed, stopping right at the edge of that steel section and glaring down towards the main tunnel where over a hundred students stared back into its eyes.

"Our Anti-Nomu-Terminators, or Ants," Mother Russia called out while flying back over the students and hovering above the base of the mountain on the south side where they were all standing. She continued while turning her head and looking up towards them, "Have been programmed to target only you students. They have safety parameters, of course," she added, then she narrowed her eyes down and flexed with a smirk on her face. "But if you enter their territory thinking lightly of them, you will not come to regret it," she said it and grinned down at the children whose eyes opened wide at that threat. Most of the people not considering their chances of making it to the second round suddenly no longer had any urge to try to get past halfway up the mountain. It already looked hard enough to climb with barely any places to just run up the mountain, too many jutting rocks and steep surfaces no matter what path one could try to take up.

Outside of the arena, Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods looked up over the top of the stadium's exterior with wide eyes themselves. They were on security duty along with a lot of other heroes, and Kamui Woods, or Shinji Nishiya, said as they looked towards the metal section visible even without looking at the screens, "Ants?" He thought of what an ant looking like compared to the beasts he had fought in Camino Ward, and then he wondered what the metal ones that looked similar but with brighter colors yet still scary could possibly do. Why make them look like the Nomus?

"Ohh," Mt. Lady whispered worriedly after looking back at the huge tv screen on the outside of the stadium. The woman in her fully purple uniform with purple horns and a matching mask put her hands together in front of her chest as she saw one of the camera angles focus back down on the students staring at their daunting first challenge of the day. She focused on one boy who was at the front of the main area at the edge of the tunnel, and she added with a small smile, "You can do it."

"Picking favorites?" Kamui asked the woman on his side.

"Don't worry," Mt. Lady said, smirking and turning back to the man next to her. She winked at him and said, "You'll always be my second favorite hero."

Kamui Woods sighed and shook his head, "We're on security. Let's focus." He turned the other way as the big tv screen and kept his eyes open for any possible villain attacks. Yu Takeyama humphed on his side while turning herself, then Shinji smiled behind his wooden mask. Though I suppose I will also be rooting for the boy who brought you back.

Inside the stadium, Mother Russia flew down so she was floating just in front of the pack of students. When she spoke, her voice echoed around the stadium and around the country, as well as everyone overseas who was watching this as well. The U.A. Sports Festival had become bigger than the Olympics, and millions around the world were invested in what they were seeing. The stations that were recording knew that more people than ever before were tuning in, watching the greatest hero institution in the world's biggest public event of the year. Even though they did not know for sure though, the U.A. faculty and most of its students realized this as well. "The rules of the first event are simple. If you reach the summit quicker than your competitors, you will make it into the second round. If you are too slow, you will fail. If you do not make it, you will fail. If your partner does not make it, you will fail."

Everyone nodding their heads along with her got confused by that last part. Zach's eyes darted back to his right, and he hummed as he thought about the number of black 'X's before he thought did not add up. If we all have partners though… Alright. I like this. A smile spread on Zach's face as Mother Russia paused her thickly-accented instructions for a moment. She continued after the students reacted to her last statement, "That is right. You will all be choosing a partner to complete the course with."

Bakugo frowned and grumbled under his breath in annoyance. He was already liking the idea of this race as he could see he had a clear advantage over the competition, just as Mother Russia would have thanks to her flight capabilities. It's just about getting past those robots, he thought, reminding himself it as he started looking around at the others near him. But, his lips twisted back into a smirk, it doesn't have to be…

"You have five minutes to grab a partner and find an empty space around the arena. The longer you take to pick a partner, the worse a spot you will get, and all of you should be able to see that there are places that are disadvantageous to begin at." Mother Russia said it, and then the giant television screens on all four sides of the top of the bleachers turned on a five minute timer. "Go," she said in a deep, husky voice.

Up in the commentator's booth, Present Mic shouted, "And look at them go! Not even started with the first round yet and they're already pushing and shoving just to get to the starting lines! YOWW!"

"In previous years there was a focus on pushing competition back because heroes needed to do the same in the real world," Aizawa said, and Mic turned in to look at his fellow commentator for the second year in a row. "With more hero teams forming, less rookies are having trouble sticking out on their own, instead joining up with other heroes. Two of the events for first year students last year were individual activities. But things change. Those who struggle at working in groups are going to find it more difficult to get by after graduation these days."

"Which is why both members of a team have got to get to the flat top of the mountain!" Present Mic shouted in agreement with Aizawa's commentary. "Working together, getting it done fast, and both making it through! Focus on that 'fast' part though, who knows how many of you are going to be moving on to round TWO!?"

"Come on, over there," Zach pointed to an 'X' as he ran around the outside of the mountain's base.

Kaminari lifted his head and looked in from the spot Zach pointed to, then he spun back and called forward, "You sure? There are better spots still open!"

"It's not as much about what's above," Zach said, and he ran around a couple of girls jogging the exterior in not-as-rushed a way. They both looked in at Zach in surprise as he darted by them only to stop at the next marking over like he was worried they were going to try and take it. They both looked up and then got even more confused as the mountain looked steeper just in front of them without many easy routes to take without moving to the sides first. Kaminari ran up behind Zach who turned to him and said, "Mother Russia sensei said there were spots that are disadvantageous, but I don't think she really means the geography on the way up. Or, at least not mainly."

Zach glanced to his right, then his left, at the two spots on the sides of the marker he stopped at which already had students at them. Kaminari looked both ways too and his eyes widened before he grinned at what Zach was saying. "Got some randoms around us," Kaminari said in a lower voice, not wanting the four guys from the general studies' classes to hear him. "Don't have to worry about fighting anyone off this far down?"

"Exactly," Zach replied. He leaned back a little and looked around the students in blue uniforms stretching it out near them, and Kaminari did the same to see who else was visible from their position around the mountain base. Zach's eyes narrowed on his left, thinking about a group they would probably bump into as the mountain got narrower the farther up they went. Hatsume and, probably someone from her class, Zach did not recognize the other person, but he started grinning after a second. Alright who else? Who is that past them… too far around the bend. I should be speaking aloud, "Hey Kaminari," Zach began. He turned the other way and continued, "We should move up and to the left. There's not going to be as much of a problem as if we get near the others on the right."

Kaminari nodded in agreement with a glance back to his right side, then he turned to Zach who reached down and pulled a grappling gun off of his right side. "They really let you bring it in then?" the blond asked.

"Had to prove I made it myself, and there was some argument since students in the hero course get special training," Zach began. "But when I told them I wouldn't be using my Quirk at all, they allowed it."

"You told them?" Kaminari asked in surprise. He glanced up towards the commentators' booth where he knew Aizawa was, and he added, "What'd they say?"

Zach opened his mouth to respond, but his eyes darted away from that booth and towards one of the tv's still counting down the last minute and a half they had to set up around the mountain. On those screens were the same countdowns, but those got smaller as the bottom halves of the screens started showing a different number. Kaminari looked up too, and most of the others around the mountain who were already situated lifted their gazes as well before Mother Russia called out over the speakers. "You will have twenty minutes to complete this round. If the time limit runs out and you and your partner have yet to crest the summit, it will not matter what place you are in, you will be disqualified."

"Twenty minutes, huh?" Kaminari said and hummed to himself. He glanced in at Zach to see what he thought of that, but his eyebrows lifted up and he looked at his friend in confusion at Zach's wide-eyed look. "You don't think we can do it in twenty?" Kaminari asked, a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face.

"It's not…" Zach began. He stopped himself and darted his gaze from the screens over to the area all the teachers were sitting at, then to the commentators' booth. What are they thinking? "We'll have to," Zach finally replied. What if no one makes it that early? What do you plan to do in a situation like that? Show everyone that the new class of heroes can't handle… Or do you have that much faith we'll be able to do it? Even up against, those? Zach's eyes narrowed closer to the mountain's top and around the metal surface covering from almost three quarters of the way up to the steepest drops just around the flat summit. We'll just, have to do it.

Kaminari nodded after Zach's expression got really determined, then he said, "So how are we doing this?"

"I've got an idea," Zach responded, and Kaminari nodded as he already expected as much when Zach asked him to be his partner. Didn't think you'd ask me just 'cause we're pals, Kaminari thought with a grin, a grin that started lowering as Zach explained his idea.

Twenty spaces down on Zach's left, around the side of the mountain on its west side, Izuku Midoriya and Ochaco Uraraka prepared themselves with Uraraka grabbing onto Midoriya's sides. The boy in front of her had his knees bent and a determined look on his face as he stared up the mountain, much more focused than the girl with a pink face who had just made herself weightless and was getting ready to make Midoriya as light too. It'll be an instant, Midoriya thought, his whole body tensing up as he saw the countdown reach forty seconds. Mother Russia called out that as soon as the first countdown hit 0, the other one would start and they all had to make a break for the summit.

To be first place. To tell everyone I'm here. Midoriya let out a deep breath and his fists unclenched at his sides even as he bent his knees some more. Uraraka looked in at the side of his face from his back and her eyes opened wide at how serious and ready he looked. She shook her head around and lost the shade to it, getting a determined one as well even as she held onto her crush's sides. "Let's win, Deku!" Uraraka called out.

"Yeah!" Midoriya agreed in a firm and loud voice.

On their right one space away, Jirou and Koda looked towards the two of them and Jirou's eyes widened a bit at how intense the two of them both looked. Her eyes widened more as she realized what they were about to do, and Jirou muttered, "How are we supposed to beat that?" She glanced at Koda who shrugged his shoulders and held up his palms with a look saying 'No idea.'

Jirou and Koda were not the only two who paired up with their partners from the final exam the first term. Across the mountain from their group, on its east side and just a little to the south of middle, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu were setting up and looked serious with the twenty-five seconds they had remaining. Yaoyorozu's skis finished forming. she had boots on her feet, and she had a flame retardant suit on over most of her body with her lifting the helmet now and shoving her ponytail into it. The ground around the base of the mountain in their area was already full of ice, though it did not spread out from under the bleachers yet. It was encroaching on the spaces to either side of them though, and a pair from the support course and one of a Class B student and general studies' kid were hating that they took too long to pair up and wound up getting stuck next to Todoroki.

Shihai Kuroiro grimaced and glanced in at the boy next to him with indigo spiky hair who had just as annoyed a look on his face. "Oi, Todoroki," Hitoshi Shinso called over to the boy in the hero course. "I heard you like boys."

Todoroki's head snapped to the right and his eyes widened a bit. Yaoyorozu lifted a hand and covered his mouth quickly, shaking her head at the boy who nodded back at her. He was more surprised than anything at Shinso's attempt, and he stayed silent while looking back straight forward. The spiky haired boy who failed frowned and shrugged at Kuroiro who sighed as it was a last ditch effort with twenty seconds left. Shinso grimaced as the main weaknesses of his Quirk had been revealed in the previous Sports Festival. Each of the hero course ones I managed to get all got 'accidentally' bumped by their classmates. Shinso glanced next to him at the boy with the Black Quirk who was the one to come up to him finally after half the preparation time had passed already.

"If we get past the first leg," Kuroiro said softly, and Shinso saw the dark boy's thin mouth open just a bit as he spoke. It was not loud enough for the teams on their sides to hear, and Kuroiro finished, "It'll work better. Everyone can see it coming right now. You have to call out fake warnings before they see you."

"Hmph," Shinso grunted, but he nodded his head afterwards and bent his knees as well, then stepped a little farther away from where Todoroki was standing.

Directly on the northernmost side of the mountain's base, Bakugo and Kirishima were standing ready with thirteen seconds left until the round began. They had sped around the mountain to be the first ones on the complete opposite side of the tunnel, and no one had wanted to get near their spot except for one team who came close and set up with only one gap on Bakugo's right side between them. Sero and Ashido were grinning towards the other two who had been members of their Cavalry Battle team the previous year. We'll follow their path right through the ANTs, the two of them thought while turning away to avoid Kirishima's gaze as the redhead looked over past a pair of general studies students from different classes with terrible powers who had to match together in the final minute and had to get right up next to the previous year's winner.

Deku's with Uraraka. It's going to be an instant. "Alright, now," Bakugo said, and he bent down to one knee.

"Let's do it," Kirishima said, and he climbed up on Bakugo's back while the others around them all looked towards them in confusion. Bakugo grunted but shifted to get Kirishima in a good position over him, then Bakugo pointed both of his palms down at his sides and his fingers started curling in.

"Oh crap!" Sero shouted, right as the timer reached zero.

The general studies' students who were close to Bakugo and Kirishima on either side sprinted for cover, while Sero fired one line of tape out of his left elbow around Ashido, and the other up at a rock above them sticking out of the mountain he had planned on going to first. He shot the two of them off the ground with Ashido gasping as she was suddenly yanked away, then yelling out like everyone around them as Bakugo fired a huge explosion to throw him and Kirishima straight up in the air. The blast was not so massive that it blew away everyone else in the starting area, but the second one made Sero release the tape he had fired forward and for him and Ashido to crash down on the mountain as Bakugo's biggest explosion got in the way.

Bakugo felt his wrists hurting, but he smirked and shouted, "Do it!"

They were already flying up like a rocket, and Kirishima yelled back, "GOT IT!" His mouth and eyes were flapping in the wind, but they suddenly stopped as the boy looking straight up hardened his face as well as his arms he rose from Bakugo's shoulders and crossed over his head. Bakugo grabbed Kirishima's legs with his hurting arms, but he kept grinning as Kirishima yelled, "UNBREAKABLE MISSILE!" His legs stayed feeling the same as did most of his body, but his arms hardened to a point that he knew he would smash right through the ANT directly above them.

"And two teams have already passed the halfway point!" Present Mic shouted, making ninety percent of the people who just ran forward from the starting point drop their jaws.

"Seriously?!" Kaminari exclaimed.

"Focus on the landing!" Zach yelled out in a more strained voice than his blond friend. Kaminari glanced up and saw Zach's face scrunched up, and it got worse when Zach tugged his left arm up right as they were reaching the hook that he had fired and locked in a rock sticking out of the top of the steep part just in front of them. "You're heavier than I accounted for," Zach muttered as they each grabbed onto the ledge and started pulling themselves up. "Or I overestimated my strength outside of Nightmare," he muttered while standing back up on the little ledge and swinging his grappling gun to dislodge the hook.

Zach lifted his head up as Present Mic shouted about Team Mido-raka and Team Baku-shima about to be reaching the ANT region. It had only been a few seconds, but both of those teams were already higher than the top of the bleachers so most of the audience was focused up on them. "How are we supposed to catch them?" Kaminari said while shaking his head. He started jogging forward and then reached up to grab a section above to climb onto as the mountain was only gradual for a small part of the slope near them.

"Don't worry," Zach said, running up himself and jumping to his right, kicking a part of the brown rocky mountain sticking out then pushing all his weight against it to bounce up to the part Kaminari was already standing on instead of using his arm muscles to climb up to it. "Come on, let's do another jump," he said, holding his left arm out.

Kaminari nodded and reached back to grab high up on Zach's arm, and Zach grabbed around the top of Kaminari's arm too. Zach pointed the grappling gun up and fired, while Kaminari asked, "What do you mean?"

At the same time Kaminari asked, the two teams farthest up just reached the Anti-Nomu-Terminators. One group was lifting up far away from the actual slope of the mountain, but that did not matter to the robot that fired jets out of the soles of its feet and shot over where Midoriya and Uraraka were rising. The other that Bakugo and Kirishima were flying straight at scanned how fast they were moving and how hard Kirishima was, and it moved out of the way in a swift movement that had Kirishima turning his head to the right below his arms with wide eyes. Bakugo grit his teeth but the corners of his lips curled up, Obviously. He let go of Kirishima's legs and yelled, "Land!" Kirishima realized he was being released and listened to Bakugo, hardening the rest of his body though not as hard as Unbreakable, and not as hard as his usual Hardening which he could not do while using his Super Move on only part of his body. The ANT that moved to the side slammed a fist down towards Kirishima's back, but an explosion slammed the robot in the stomach as Bakugo swung his right hand over immediately after dropping Kirishima.

A steel fist flew through the flames, but the other explosion Bakugo fired not an instant after was aimed at Kirishima and blew his hardened back farther from the arm that was barely slowed by Bakugo's first blast. Bakugo's consecutive blasts also worked at pushing him backwards and he landed right at the edge of the metal section but below it on a tall rock sticking out. He grinned and blasted small explosions from his hands a couple of times while glaring at the robot that started flying with jets coming out of its feet, then his eyes opened wider as that robot shot down towards him passing right over the line splitting regions. "Whoa!" Present Mic shouted. "What gives with that?!"

"Seems once you've been targeted, it doesn't matter if you retreat below their initial range," Aizawa replied. "It's not good for a team to be separated like this so early on. It should also be known that if a contestant is taken out of commission, their team loses. No carrying unconscious teammates over the summit."

Bakugo snarled and fired big explosions behind him to send him flying straight at the robot, then he pointed his hands down and maneuvered around it, firing himself farther up towards Kirishima who got to his feet on a shiny silver slant only to snap his head left and right seeing speedy eight-foot tall ANTs zipping towards him on wheels that scraped up sparks on the metal surface. The twelve foot tall one spun around with a wave of its right arm that fired yellow flames out of it, and Bakugo darted his gaze over his shoulder to see how fast the big one redirected itself. "Keep going!" Bakugo shouted, while flying straight at Kirishima's back.

Disadvantage of being first, Midoriya thought while he stood panting with Uraraka clinging on his back, in the middle of a circle of ANTs. There are so many of them, and no one else up here except Kacchan and Kirishima! I thought it would only be a few… Some of the ANTs charged, while others moved farther up in the path between of the team at the front and the summit.

"They're called Anti-Nomus," Zach said as he and Kaminari landed again. Zach swung his left arm around in a few circles then reached out for Kaminari to take it again, despite that arm already feeling sore. The grappling gun was doing most of the work so all he had to do was hold Kaminari's weight for the ride up, but his right arm was straining a bit too just holding onto the gun. Kaminari nodded while grabbing Zach's arm, though they both looked back towards one of the big screens again at the sight of two main camera angles showing the front two teams being swarmed by the Nomu-lookalike robots. "Robots designed to fight Nomus. If that's actually their real purpose, then we shouldn't have a chance against them. Most of us anyway," Zach corrected himself.

"Even Bakugo and Midoriya?" Kaminari wondered, right before Zach fired another precise hook up into a snag farther up than the previous two. Kaminari and Zach both grinned, then Zach ran to the left a little before jumping off the ledge and pressing a button on the gun in his right hand at the same time.

They swung up and to the left, as Zach had noticed another team rising fast below them and on the right. "Bakugo and Midoriya, probably could," Zach said quietly. Kaminari's eyes widened, and Zach added afterwards, "But even then, I'm talking about if the two of them were just facing one. They were too busy trying to be first-"

"Everyone wants to be first," Kaminari said, then he grabbed Zach's arm harder as it felt like his friend was losing some grip on his arm. Zach winced as he felt Kaminari's weight worse with the swinging around too as well as rising. Kaminari continued after strengthening his grip, and lifting his left hand and both knees to get ready for landing on a gently sloped surface. "Don't you too?"

"I do," Zach said. "But rushing it would kill my arms, and probably us too," he added in a more serious way, as the first part was just a joke to try and relieve the pain in his arms as he and Kaminari took a few breaths down on their knees. He lifted his head after saying it, and he said while looking higher up the mountain towards where he saw Iida and Juroda Shishida from Class B racing up the mountain near each other. They were up ahead and to the left, and Zach knew they must have been a few places out of his sight back around the base considering they were not even halfway up yet. Zach looked past them, then added as he saw a huge spike of ice rise up above and on his right. Momo's already at that section, Zach thought, a slightly worried look forming on his face that he shook away after a second. "Listen Kaminari, they made this out to be a race. Present Mic added that bit about making extra sure we were fast, but I'm pretty sure he did that to mess with us."

"I don't get it," Kaminari said. "Why would they-"

"Remember what Aizawa sensei said?" Zach asked.

"Hey Zach!" A voice called up from down below and on Zach's left. He looked down with Kaminari, and they saw a girl with long pink hair and a pair of goggles on grinning as she stared up at them. "And the other guy," she added, and Kaminari dropped his bottom lip as Hatsume had helped him improve his costume not that long ago. "Think you can take a break without me catching up? My babies are too fast!" Her jetpack shot out more flames that brightened and turned blue as she held down buttons in her hands.

She shot up to their level, and Zach looked down below her before sweatdropping just like Kaminari. Knew it. Hatsume's always been a bit, selfish. "You gave your partner some of your equipment to help her out?" Zach called over right as Hatsume Mei was passing by.

"Of course!" Hatsume called back, before looking down and lowering her smile as she saw her classmate struggling with the four spider-legs she was trying to use to race up the mountain. They were meant to be all-terrain, and the girl in them was not falling, but her actual legs were dangling off the ground and she had a look of panic on her face as she stumbled to the right and then the left while trying to lean her body up and forward. "Suzuki! What are you doing?" Hatsume spun around and flew back down the mountain, yelling out instructions to her classmate who was using this gear for the first time.

Saw her taking it off before to give to her teammate. That means she meant to have both of those on her, and together and being used by their creator, you'd probably be flying ahead of us right now. "What Aizawa sensei said?" Kaminari repeated what Zach said, turning and looking up towards the commentators' box at the top of the stadium. Present Mic was shouting out about all the different kinds of ANTs and the different battles going on up at that section, and Kaminari's eyes shot open wide before he spun back to Zach. "You mean-"

"Yeah," Zach said, nodding back at his friend. "Come on, let's start moving up on our own. We'll run and climb up to there," he pointed towards a flat surface right next to what looked like an 89 degree angle it was so almost-straight-up. "I'll fire a hook at the top of it, and we shouldn't be too far from the ANT section after." Zach was running before he even finished talking, and Kaminari started running with him. Present Mic shouted out that a minute had passed, the crowds cheered all around the stadium, and a huge explosion went off on the other side of the mountain that made Zach and Kaminari pause to steady themselves for a second from.

"Think Bakugo could destroy the mountain for us?" Kaminari joked, while he was on his hands and knees at a seventy degree angle climbing up using the best handholds and footholds he could grab.

"The inside is hollow," Zach started. "At least a bit of it, if those robots came from inside." He shook his head around, continuing to climb and thinking, But they would have planned for any attacks we could use. This mountain won't break- oh crap! "Crap, they caught up," Zach said, darting his eyes down and to the right where another team was almost at them and practically right below. Their paths had gotten closer together with the mountain now less than half its width from the base where they were climbing.

"Let's do it early," Zach said. "I can make the shot," I hope. Zach stopped climbing and tried steadying himself on the steep-slanted surface. He reached his left hand out while focusing his right with the grappling gun in it, right as a girl hopping up the mountain jumped up to the flat surface he and Kaminari had been heading to themselves. He fired, Kaminari grabbed him by the hand, and they shot up towards the top of the steep wall in front of Tsuyu.

"Gero," Tsuyu Asui lifted her head and Kaminari looked down and winked at her.

"See ya," he said with a grin on his face.

The boy on Tsuyu's back frowned up at Kaminari, and he reached to the top of his head, letting go of one of the purple balls stuck on Tsuyu's back. "I don't think so," Mineta said, aiming carefully before throwing the Pop Off ball up the steep slope.

"Wonder why Tsuyu let Mineta ride along?" Kaminari wondered as he and Zach grabbed onto the ledge the hook was connected just above.

"He's small and light," Zach reasoned, while struggling to pull himself up after just carrying Kaminari up there and having to hoist him a little higher to the ledge. He was panting while holding on, but he bent his elbows and grit his teeth, ignoring the pain as he pulled up. To ignore it better he kept thinking about Kaminari's question, and he added, "Tsuyu alone has great mobility, ah, so not having to rely on a partner's ability to keep up," he paused again while pulling himself up more, then Zach's eyes opened wide and he stared down at the sharp hook jammed into the ground in front of them.

"What is- oh man," Kaminari was on his knees but he brought a hand up into his hair, then he turned and glared down calling out, "Not cool!"

"Hahaha!" Mineta shouted, while Zach struggled to pull his grappling gun up while the hook was stuck on the floor by one of Mineta's Pop Off balls. Mineta did not throw a bunch to mess with the competition that much, but without Zach's grappling hook the short boy figured they would pass them easily. "Eat our dust!"

Zach lifted his gun while standing up fully, and he clicked a button on the side of it that released the hook from the wire and made the wire retract the rest of the way into the gun. Zach reached back and to his waist, and he pulled out a folded-in hook that he pressed a button on the bottom of that made three sharp prongs stick out. Mineta's eyes widened while Tsuyu hopped them up on a slightly gentler slope to the right of where Zach and Kaminari were standing. "You had more?" Kaminari asked in surprise too, though he was grinning from it.

"'Course," Zach replied, while darting his eyes after Mineta and narrowing them in a threatening way. Mineta's eyes bulged and he snapped his head forward, calling out for Tsuyu to go faster. Zach grinned after Mineta started panicking, then he turned back to Kaminari and said, "Let's move." He turned and pointed the fixed grappling gun up the mountain and also farther away from Tsuyu and Mineta who were their biggest competition around.

"Sure you can keep carrying me?" Kaminari asked.

"You'll be pulling the weight once we reach the ANTs," Zach replied, as there was no need to wonder about Kaminari's question. It was not about whether or not he could do it, but that the time was running down and they needed to keep moving. "We waited for long enough," Zach added, as he saw Mineta and Tsuyu reaching a point that was going to be beyond what their next stop with the grappling gun was. Last sharp hook, the other two are for combat. Was stupid not to have both with both costumes, he thought, then fired his hook up again.

Farther around the west side of the mountain slope and lower down, Koda paused for a second and put Jirou down next to him. The large boy backed up while Jirou crouched and pressed her palms into the floor and stuck her earphone jacks into her forearms. She smirked and called out, "Heartbeat Fuzz!" The mountain up from them had gotten steeper, but there were still three other teams above the halfway point that they had yet to reach. Most of those teams lost their balance and started falling off the loosened and cracking pieces of mountain, though at the front of the pack, a blond boy and green haired girl both jumped up right before the ground would have cracked.

Monoma and Shiozaki swung their thick vines of hair up and grabbed onto a piece of the mountain beyond Jirou's range, pulling themselves up to it just before the metal section started. Monoma turned his head back to taunt the girl far below for not reaching them, but Koda picked up Jirou again and the large boy was jumping forward using the easiest to stand on chunks of rock that dislodged from the mountain, occasionally dodging rocks rolling down around them. Monoma decided against taunting the Class A students who were gaining on him, and he refocused up on a single ANT that was taller than all the others they had seen so far.

"What shall we do about this Monoma?" Shiozaki questioned in a soft voice. She looked left and right to see who else was around them, and there were two other teams who had yet to enter the steel area above where they would be targeted by ANTs from then until the end of the round.

"No one's made it through yet," Monoma began softly back to her, as he glanced to the left and saw a team of Class A students reaching the section not far from them. He tssked at the sight of them, We can't stay here for long. He looked up and frowned more though, at the sight of Midoriya and Uraraka getting separated by a ten-foot tall ANT that had cannon arms firing jets of water out at the students. "The Anti-Nomus have various abilities, likely because the Nomus have shown to have several Quirks themselves. Try to locate ones we can use your Quirk against best…"

Around the mountain on the exact opposite side, a steel shield dented in and a girl yelled out in pain. "Yaoyorozu!" Todoroki called out, spinning his head and lifting his left arm towards the robot that snapped its head to him seeing the flames rising on his palm. The robot shot back higher up on the mountain, while Todoroki forced ice out of his right foot and down below where Yaoyorozu was falling. He formed it in a curve so that when the busty girl fell she slid down into a slower stop. His eyes widened and he started turning his head more to the left as the wall of ice he had created cracked all the way through, then all he could do was make a thinner wall of ice in between him and those chunks that also shattered though slowing the bigger pieces. He crossed his arms as the ice crashed into him, and he stumbled backwards landing on a rough patch of rocks that he barely had time to glance at to check his footing.

"Got it," Sato called out down below, running up in front of Shoji and then yelling out as he punched his fists forward rapidly into a rolling huge piece of ice. Sato smashed through it, but Shoji still had to smack his right three arms to the side to knock away a piece of icy debris. Sato started panting after he finished smashing, and he reached down and pulled out another sugar cube from his pocket to toss in his mouth. "RaaaAAAA!" Sato flexed in his blue gym uniform and then started sprinting up the mountain again, grabbing handholds so hard he sometimes ripped them right out and smashed through the rocks.

Shoji lifted his left top arm and an eye formed at the end of it, darting around past Todoroki and Yaoyorozu, to see another two teams had gone past them. Those teams of Class B students tried sneaking by as all the ANTs in the area focused on Todoroki and Yaoyorozu, but most of the ANTs turned back to focus on students farther towards the summit, and the rest of them shot higher up now too as Todoroki had gone even farther down to check on a wounded Yaoyorozu.

"Hold on Sato," Shoji began, a mouth forming on the arm below where his eye just appeared. "I think I-" Shoji's eyes widened and his arm mouth grimaced, as a sugar-crazed Sato kept sprinting up the mountain. "Listen for a second," Shoji called out and ran up after him.

"Bakugo above you!" Kirishima called out, and he jumped backwards while crossing his arms in front of his chest. His arms hardened, and the ANT punched even harder because of that.

Bakugo caught the ANT's speed increase out the corner of his eyes right before it hit Kirishima. They have them holding back against us, Bakugo blasted two explosions, one in front of him to throw him backwards, the other on his left side to dodge the follow-up from the ANT that went flying by him instead. They're still just dumb robots though. Or not that dumb, Bakugo thought, as one of the robot's arms was pointed behind its back after it flew by him. A jet of flames shot towards him, and Bakugo needed to use another explosion to push his body away from it. "Damn it!" Bakugo yelled, and he pointed both arms behind him, flying towards the ANT coming up for Kirishima's back.

"Behind me!" Bakugo yelled at Kirishima. The redhead turned from the enemy in front of him blocking the path farther up the steel surface. They only had three ANTs in their area now, as more teams kept making it up and drawing the attention of the robots away, but three was still a lot. Kirishima turned and he ignored the ANT closest to him about to attack him, instead jumping up and making his right arm incredibly hard as he moved to the side of the robot. Bakugo slammed both hands into the back of the green robot, then he fired one of his massive explosions that made him yell out in pain, and blew a hole straight through the front of the robot. The other one that started swinging a fist down at Bakugo's back pulled to the side to dodge Kirishima's sharpened arm, only for its head to snap down and its red eyes to focus on Kirishima's right leg that cut into its side harder than the rest of the boy's body.

The one Bakugo blew a hole through was thrown backwards and rolled away on the mountainside, sparks flying out of it with its red eyes flickering. The other that had its side cut through fell to the side of where Kirishima landed and it twitched a couple of times with all its inner circuits showing. Kirishima and Bakugo landed back to back with a few feet in between them, both panting as they turned their heads in and upwards towards the final ANT. "Let's smash through and get to the top first!" Kirishima shouted, as they still had yet to hear anyone making it.

A pile of rocks blasted up from around the mountain on Bakugo's right side, and on his left he saw another large wave of ice only it was curving the opposite direction as him. There were others who just passed onto this section closer than the main opponents he had been focusing on, and he ground his teeth in anger and frustration as the extras were catching up. "Move," Bakugo said, agreeing with Kirishima and turning his body to face the robot farther above him.

"Die." Bakugo and Kirishima froze, and they turned their heads towards the robot that Kirishima slashed through which had looked on the verge of total collapse. Its red eyes got darker, but the sparks stopped coming out of the cut through its side and it lifted back up its arms. Then Bakugo's eyes shot open wide, as he heard clanking behind him of steel on steel, and he turned to see another robot getting up to its feet even with a massive hole blown through its stomach.

"Oi oi," Kirishima said, a bead of sweat coming down the left side of his face even as he tried to keep smiling. "They can still move?"

Bakugo's arms were aching and he bit down hard in pain but lifted his arms and smirked again with little explosions coming out of his palms. "Thought this was going to be too easy," Bakugo said, but Kirishima could hear in his partner's voice there was an urgency behind the cocky attitude. Kirishima's eyes darted up to a screen and he saw over a quarter of the time was done, and they were no closer to the top than they were after ten seconds in. And there are more of these things that can cut us off if we get any higher. Are we really, supposed to be able to get past these things?

"Come on, Mineta!" Kaminari yelled up in a frustrated way.

Zach was panting as he looked back at the blond behind him, and he grit his teeth as what he thought that shout was for turned out to be true. He looked at the purple ball beneath Kaminari's right foot sticking him to the mountain, then he looked up farther towards Tsuyu and Mineta who were only twenty meters away from the start of the metal section now. There were two other teams just above already facing off against the ANTs, and Zach could start to see more around the east and west sides of the mountain too, with a better view on Todoroki and Yaoyorozu who were more southeast than east now.

"They're getting so far ahead of us," Kaminari said, as he could barely hear Mineta's taunt back down at them for his perfectly placed Pop Off ball. There were too many explosions and shouting people around them to hear their competitors, and there was no one else really around them anymore.

"Don't worry about that," Zach told his partner. Kaminari looked towards Zach who took a break, leaning back on a protruding section of rock separating two equally difficult paths to climb up on all fours. Zach took in a deep breath, then he said to Kaminari calmly, "Take off your right shoe. Careful not to touch the ball with anything else as you do." Kaminari nodded back at Zach, calming himself down at the look on Zach's face showing he felt he had this under control.

How many people have realized it? No one seems to be doing anything about it yet, and I don't want to give out any hints. Not while we're this far back. Still probably a hundred meters to the ANT area. If I wait too long though, what if those top teams get taken out of commission? Zach hummed while looking up again, but he grinned as he watched a wave of ice rise up to Todoroki's left side. It looked at first like he was moving more to the south with his partner and heading up at the same time, trying to find a good path through the ANTs. Zach saw the actual team that the ANT which was blocked by that ice wall was going for though, and he nodded while turning back to Kaminari, "Pick up the pace. Sorry about your foot, but we have to move fast."

Zach started scrambling up the mountain, and Kaminari panicked and ran after him before using his hands to climb up quickly as well. "What? I thought you had a plan!" Kaminari called out, then he winced as despite his sock he felt his toenails scrape against the rock surface under his right foot. His right shoe was left behind on the sticky ball, and Kaminari was more on the lookout now for other Pop Offs that could be lying around.

Zach kept his eyes darting around too, but he could tell Mineta was using his Quirk sparingly in preparation for when he would really need them up against the ANTs. Mineta's Quirk will work good too. The problem is the power and speed of these Ants. They seem to be intelligent too or the other teams would have gotten by them already. Maybe not Artificial Intelligence, but just combat-trained. Or they've been watching past videos of us and know each of us. Or they just watched us from the start of the round alone and already know! It doesn't matter, but if they know Mineta's Quirk and can move fast enough to dodge him… "We'll catch up to them in a little," Zach said, and he glanced behind him and up at the big screen above the south side of the bleachers that the top of was just a little lower than them in elevation now. "No one's going to make it up there, fighting like they're doing. Aizawa said it."

Kaminari nodded and calmed himself down too, glancing back at the screen and seeing they still had around two thirds of the time remaining. Zach was saving back up his strength, trying to give his arms a bit of a break before he got to the next area, though he knew they would still be sore up there. "How are we going to do it though?" Kaminari asked. "It's not like everyone's wearing earpieces."

"I'll think of something," Zach assured, though he was thinking about that himself at the moment. Aizawa sensei made it clear when he spoke up before. The Sports Festival is focusing on something different this year. It's not about pushing back the competition, Mineta. The others who rushed ahead thinking solely about being the first ones there, they weren't thinking of what the purpose of this event is in the first place. Of course it would be too difficult to make it, even with a partner. They made it difficult enough that with a dozen teams already there, still no one's getting up. And the reason why… Zach looked up towards the metal surface that Mineta and Tsuyu just ran onto.

Up ahead of them and to their left, Iida and Shishida were running around being chased by two ANTs. Zach thought he saw Iida get past those robots before with a Reciproburst, but Shishida's fastest moves were not enough for him to do the same, and his partner from Class A ran back down to help him fight off the robots. Zach spotted another two people from Class B who he did not really know also up there, and those two pointed towards Mineta and Tsuyu as they were running up. Iida and Shishida crossed above the path of the two smallest people in Class A, and one of the two ANTs chasing them down diagonally turned down. Iida and Shishida kept racing off towards where Todoroki and Yaoyorozu were crossing in, but they tried pulling up after seeing one of the robots leaving them. Unfortunately, Team Todo-rozu was bringing a group of Terminators after them and the other teams running below the crest of the wave of ice Todoroki had formed.

Togaru Kamakiri and Kosei Tsuburaba ran by Mineta and Tsuyu with a closer cross than with Iida and Shishida. The two Class B boys smirked as they looked down at the smaller figures racing up, and both Mineta and Tsuyu's eyes opened wide while their heads turned to the ANTs chasing them. Zach shook his head as he looked up towards Tsuyu who had to leap backwards but was still chased by an ANT even as she left those robots' region.

"We haven't gone up there yet," Zach said while turning his head to look back at Kaminari. He lifted his right hand and climbed up on a rock surface next to him that was rounded but he managed to get his balance on. "Come here, let's do this," Zach said, and he aimed his gun up towards the ANT chasing the other two down. Mineta started throwing Pop Offs up at it, but the robot lifted its arms and fired streams of water out of cannons. That water pushed Mineta's balls back and Tsuyu had to dodge away, and she slapped her tongue out towards the robot to try and pull an arm away to give Mineta a better shot. The robot got a tongue wrapped around its arm, but it reached its other hand in and grabbed Tsuyu around her tongue before yanking towards itself.

"Shit, wait a second," Zach said. Kaminari stood at his side, and Zach bit down hard but he fired anyway. "Shout!" He yelled, while thinking in panic, Fuck! I hope I was wrong about them only targeting once we've gone up there! Come on, focus just because I'm attacking- YES! The robot that a hook just slammed into and got lodged in a joint of it turned its head. Tsuyu was wincing in pain as she was yanked towards the robot, and Mineta was yelling out on top of her while holding on with one hand and throwing his Pop Offs with the other. Both of them widened their eyes in surprise though, while the robot holding Tsuyu by the tongue let go of it and turned its body fully towards the boys yelling towards it and that just caused damage with the sharp-pronged hook.

Zach waited until he saw Tsuyu's tongue fully unwrap from the robot's arm after it let go, and while the other two were still falling to the side of the mountain, Zach slammed the gun into Kaminari's open right hand. "Do it!" He yelled, and Tsuyu and Mineta shot their eyes open even wider, right before a huge jolt of electricity shot from Zach's grappling gun down the wire and into the robot that stopped moving with sparks coming out all around it. Kaminari smirked through an electric veil, and Zach leapt off the rock surface that was starting to shock him just being next to Kaminari. He jumped onto the slope and started running up, and he called out, "Let's move Kaminari. No telling how long it'll last. I saw them recovering on the screens!"

Kaminari ran after him, and Zach called up to Mineta to stick the ANT to the ground. Mineta blinked his eyes a few times, then he started nodding and he pulled the Pop Offs from his head rapidly while jumping off of Tsuyu's back. He stuck them to the unmoving robot's feet, flinching as the metal creation was still static-charged. He made a whip the second time and connected more of the balls to the robot's body in case it started moving again before sticking other balls to the ground. Zach and Kaminari caught up and stopped near them as Mineta was finishing, and Tsuyu walked over too with a hand up rubbing the side of her face.

"You okay?" Zach asked the girl who stopped rubbing her face to turn her head to the side at Zach's question.

"Do you really have time to be asking me that, Zach-chan?" Tsuyu asked.

"I have to-" Zach began but got cut off.

"Half the time remains folks! Still no one's reached the summit! Are these Ants just too much?!" Present Mic yelled it, then he started calling out about the fights going around near the top of the mountain which had the audience cheering and giving their support for the aspiring heroes.

"Ten minutes left," Kaminari said, turning to Zach and then looking up the mountain again. "There are less things for your grappling hook to grab up there too. Just flat, steep surfaces."

"If you two are just going to plan it out here," Mineta began, turning back to Tsuyu as they needed to get going themselves.

"Hold on," Zach said, lifting his left hand as a palm for the other two to wait for a second. "Let's work together."

"Huh?" Mineta spun and asked, his eyes wider than a second ago.

Tsuyu put a finger up to the corner of her mouth and tilted her head again, but she started to look more thoughtful after a second. She turned her head and looked up the slope, and she started nodding at what she was thinking about. "It's true, we shouldn't be worried about who else makes it at this point." Mineta turned to his partner in confusion, then his eyes widened too and he spun to look up at all the carnage above them and explosions going off around the mountain. Tsuyu finished, "It almost seems like whoever makes it to the top will make it into the next round."

"If anyone does make it there," Zach added, and the other three looked in at him only to see Zach with a worried look on his face. He turned his head to the side and looked down the slope towards the bleachers, able to see more of them than ever from this spot. Everyone who came here, everyone watching around the country and the world, we can't let them down. The teachers expected us to overcome this hurdle. They have faith in us. It's halfway done though, and people are still sabotaging each other to try and be first. The idea that first place is still open makes the people who always want to be first, and just everyone striving to be the best here, it's making them not think straight. "Listen," Zach said, looking back and around the three with him after he saw the timer getting closer to nine minutes. "The robot behind us is-"

CLank- Crash! The group spun and looked down towards the robot Mineta had stuck to the ground. It used its jets to try and pull itself off the floor, but instead of ripping apart the rocks beneath it, the robot's joints connected with Pop Off balls and to various parts of the floor all ripped apart. The bottom half of the robot along with its legs ripped off, and the top half fell to the floor with the red eyes still glowing.

"That's," Zach muttered, and his breathing sped up while the others panted while looking down at that robot. "Forget about it!" He shouted, his voice getting louder towards the end while he spun to look up the mountain himself. The other three preparing to fight the top half of the robot lifting its arms towards them turned towards Zach, then they just started running after him towards the metal part of the mountain they were almost on already. "Kaminari, when I say, blast the metal with a powerful blow but make sure you can keep running afterwards!"

Kaminari's eyes opened huge, and Mineta and Tsuyu slowed down as they no longer wanted to reach that metal area first. They each looked over their shoulders though and then picked up the pace as water cannons fired behind them and splashed hard right where they were just standing. "That's crazy!" Mineta exclaimed while running up on Zach's right side and jumping up to throw a Pop Off behind them at the robot torso on their tail. "He'll zap everyone!"

Zach took in a deep breath, and he held his head up while waiting for a perfect moment when the sound had gone down. He lifted his right palm up for Kaminari whose eyes opened wide but mouth curled into a grin, and then the moment of silence came. "EVERYBODY JUMP ON THREE!" Zach screamed, cupping his hands to his mouth and yelling at the top of his lungs. At that same moment, a wave of ice that had been coming around the southeast side of the mountain was nearing them, now with Iida and Shishida below the wave too. There were five teams total chasing after the front of Todoroki's ice wave, and a girl in a black outfit who had her helmet off after fighting the ANTs for a while jumped up at the sound of that shout. They were high enough up on the mountain that most of the teams around them could hear it, and everyone spun towards the group of four running towards the bottom of the metal section who just shouted that up at them all.

"Run faster than us Kaminari," Zach said quickly, then he yelled, "ONE!"

"What are they…" Iida began, then his eyes widened as he saw Kaminari sprinting ahead of the other three who slowed down. Kaminari lifted up both of his hands, and everyone on the metal area dropped their jaws and shot their eyes open huge.

Todoroki started forcing out more ice from the wave he had going around, though he made sure to avoid all of the robots chasing them and only spread it in the areas directly in front of where the groups around them were running. There's Kaminari, Todoroki thought. Zach picked up on it already though, he thought with a small grin, mainly just glad he did not have to waste more time explaining a similar plan he and Yaoyorozu had come up with.

Great thinking, Yaoyorozu thought, then she called out her partner's name and tossed him an insulation blanket. She had already created hers on the way around, and she wrapped it around herself right as Zach yelled, "TWO!"

Monoma and Shiozaki stopped running up the slant as they heard that shout, but not from Zach. They spun to the right and saw Tetsutetsu and Honenuki running their way, their eyes huge and their mouths wide open after shouting that. The two of them looked at Monoma and waved their arms up before taking in deep breaths and yelling, "THREE!"

The first two numbers came in succession of normal seconds, and Zach knew, or at least he had hoped people would join in with the shout, making it go all around the mountain. By the time he yelled 'Three,' Mineta, Tsuyu, Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, Iida, and a dozen other people all shouted it at the same time. One person did not shout it who was as ready as everyone else though, and he slammed his hands down instead while everyone standing on a metal surface on the mountain jumped up in the air screaming, 'JUMP!' Anyone who did not realize what was going on with that countdown leapt in the air after either seeing classmates do it or hearing that giant yell of 'JUMP' afterwards.

Zach, Tsuyu, and Mineta all stopped before reaching the metal surface. Todoroki and Yaoyorozu stayed on it above their ice, but most people who were following behind their wave decided to avoid getting shocked at all and pulled back off the surface in those three seconds they had, though two groups had to dive off at 'Three' as they barely made it away. Iida and Shishida tried running up and jumping though, and the two of them sped up as much as they could before leaping at the last possible second, and the ANT standing in the way between where the two of them were running stayed completely still with its whole body sparking as they shot by on either side of it.

Electricity ran through the mountainside with ease. The current passed through the metal and up into the metallic bodies of all the ANTs currently touching the mountain surface, short-circuiting something inside them that made sparks go flying as students who rose up in the air started coming down. A cluster of ANTs were already in the air and did not get zapped, but the people facing off against them were not involved in jumping up anyway as they were already in the air anyway. "WHOA!" Present Mic yelled, right before over twenty students dropped down with hard and painful landings.

The students who dove off the metal surface at the last second, and all the ones who jumped only to land on a still electrified ground, felt pain as they hit the ground or got zapped. Iida and Shishida slowed down, then collapsed down to their knees as the electricity coursed through them. "Let's move," Zach said after a few seconds, running forward after turning left and right at the two still with him. He ran right towards Kaminari who lifted his right arm and wiped it under his nose before smirking ear to ear at his attack that just stopped ANTs in their tracks all over the place.

A huge chorus of cheers rang out down below that could be heard up the mountain, and Todoroki turned to Yaoyorozu and nodded, then the two of them started racing forward too, though Momo no longer had her skis so Todoroki could not make it as easy. They dropped down to the metal surface and started sprinting up, and Todoroki turned his head to the right as he saw one of the Anti-Nomu-Terminator's head twitching. He darted his gaze to the left and saw Mineta and Tsuyu running up right behind Zach, and they ran by Iida and Shishida who turned their heads slowly and grimaced at the sight of the others running by them. They're not breaking off their alliance yet. Did they figure out how long Kaminari's attack would last first?

Todoroki paused and he looked around, then he bit down and planted his right hand on the ground below him. He had to be precise with his attack, and all the others who had just started running up from the edge of the area started to panic as ice shot out from Todoroki's hand in different directions. Zach got nervous as some ice shot in a trail towards him, but as Kaminari and Mineta yelled out in panic, Zach relaxed at the sight of the trail's path. The four of them paused and turned to the left, following the ice path over to a sparking ANT that was slowly lifting its right arm up again. "Todoroki has the right idea," Zach said, turning to Mineta who realized he was the one being talked to.

"If I do it again, I'll just wind up doing everyone more harm," Kaminari said, shrugging at the shorter boy who lowered his bottom lip at the idea.

"But we're the farthest ones up now!" Mineta exclaimed.

"Do it Mineta-chan," Tsuyu said to her teammate, while she kept running just as the other two taller boys did. Mineta ran forward after the girl who slowed to allow him to jump back on her back, grabbing the four Pop Off balls still attached there. Mineta shook his head as he did not see the merit in doing this, but he started throwing his Pop Offs towards the robots Todoroki did not hit with his ice. Todoroki had not attacked all of them himself, but the boy with half red hair and half white did not say a thing against Mineta's actions as he and Yaoyorozu kept running forward.

"Ready?" Todoroki asked, without glancing back to Yaoyorozu who was just about finished with a small round plastic dish. It dipped down in the middle, and Yaoyorozu nodded her head as she finished popping it out of her chest, the reason Todoroki kept his eyes averted, (and why none of the cameras broadcasting the event that were pointed at Yaoyorozu currently had their recordings being televised). She jumped up, Todoroki froze the ground below and above them, and Yaoyorozu slid the small makeshift sled beneath her while throwing a leash towards Todoroki. It was a leash like one attached to surfboards to prevent them from getting away from the surfer, and Todoroki slid his wrist into the end of it before pointing his left hand behind him.

"This is it," Zach said as he sped up more at Kaminari's side. Mineta and Tsuyu were still behind them and on the right, and Zach darted his eyes their way for a second before back to the top of the mountain. He spoke in a quieter voice, "Everyone's going for it right now. Ants are moving for us because we're almost at the top of the area. Listen to Present Mic. We're not the only ones rushing it." Kaminari glanced in at his friend and saw a furiously determined look on Zach's face as he grit his teeth and dug his feet in more. The corners of his lips curled up, and he turned in towards Kaminari, "Everyone's about to try and get first. Let's do it."

He spoke quietly so as not to alert the other two they had teamed with, then he whipped back out his grappling gun and pointed it towards the top of the mountain. One shot at this. Factor in the wind and the distance. Todoroki's using both his flames and his ice. I don't know how much he's mastered that, but if he uses the flames to propel them while creating ice in front of him. Present Mic shouted for Bakugo's team too on the other side. They destroyed two of the ANTs with some other teams, now they're going for it. Zach focused in on the top of the mountain. He stopped thinking about the other teams, even the ones in his vision who were about to reach the top of the steel section with him. There was one flying ahead of them, and Zach grinned as he slowed just a bit, allowing the flying ANT to choose a target easier.

"Todoroki," Yaoyorozu started warning. Todoroki needed a direction to aim his flames anyway though, as he could not point his hand straight back where Yaoyorozu was being pulled.

A single blast, he thought, pointing his left hand straight out to the left as the ANT came flying towards him. He breathed out a cold breath of steam, and out from his right side emerged an enormous ice wall that curved around and forward like a massive wave missing a bottom for most of it. It only curved in a single path, yet it was huge to give room for error considering how big this blast was going to be. Yaoyorozu held onto the sides of the sled tightly, calling out that Todoroki could do it as she knew how difficult controlling his ice and flames simultaneously was for him.

"HOLD ON!" Bakugo shouted, as Kirishima was slipping down Bakugo's legs as the blond boy blasted them forward. Just one left! He thought, ignoring all the people behind them and the other ANTs that were starting to move again. Everything was happening in a few seconds since the electric attack blasted around the mountain, but it was weakest on the opposite side even though it had still traveled over there. Bakugo knew he couldn't use a big blast to shoot them past the robot ahead right now, as Kirishima would fall for sure, but they were at the top of the metal section and at their elevation, they were already above the steepest part just past it too. ALMOST THERE!

"Don't let go Uraraka!" Midoriya called out, while leaping his highest up in the air. The girl on his back had a bloody scratch on the left side of her face, and her right arm was badly bruised with the whole right sleeve missing. She felt sick and her cheeks puffed out as Midoriya flew them high in the air before flipping them over. He heard a puking sound over his shoulder and tried not to grimace at the feeling of it, then he kicked his legs behind him to create as much wind pressure as he could.

Zach clasped his left hand with Kaminari's right, and he pressed the trigger of his gun. Then he retracted the wire, and both he and Kaminari ducked down while planting their feet on the silver surface. A huge blast of flames shot over their heads, blowing apart an ANT, and they felt the heat singeing their backs as they barely made it under before it expanded into a huge mass too large for them to have been able to pass beneath. The two boys pushed off their feet and Zach pulled the trigger harder as they left the steel section, and as they rose off the ground they were also yanked up towards the top of the mountain where Zach's hook had barely caught the edge of.

Todoroki shot to the right, and he clenched his left hand into a fist to stop the flames from coming out as Yaoyorozu swung to the side and behind him on the icy path. They shot up the ice wall that curved while moving up the mountain, and Yaoyorozu leaned with the wall's curve to provide zero resistance. She and Todoroki looked to their lefts and up in the air as something came flying down, then they looked farther straight ahead as an explosion sent two other figures flying up in the air flipping around. One of them righted himself with another blast, shooting himself straight towards the other who was unable to hold on, but at least grabbed hold long enough for the force to send him flying up too.

Bakugo crashed into Kirishima and yelled, "HARDEN!" He fired a blast behind him while grabbing Kirishima with his other hand, sending them flying full speed down towards the summit of the mountain.

Midoriya spun around as they were nearing the ground, and he kicked his legs the other way as they were coming in too fast. He lowered their speed, and yelled, "Release it!"

"Release!" Uraraka held her arms around Midoriya's neck and touched her fingers together, dropping the two who had just stopped plummeting.

Todoroki pointed his left hand over his head since the curve of the wave they were at was higher than the summit itself. "Hold tight," Todoroki warned, before firing off another blast straight through the rest of his wave that shattered from the forceful flames. Yaoyorozu held onto the sled, curling it up as she already saw Todoroki's plan. He swung his right arm after they were flying down towards the summit, creating a new wave right at the edge of the mountain that they hit and skid down. Yaoyorozu winced as the sled hit the wall, but Todoroki had made the curve well and even at their speed she went straight into a slide. The boy sliding down his curve stumbled after the ice ran out and he was on the flat surface of the summit, and the sled yanked in behind him pulled Yaoyorozu on after him only for her to jump up and off the sled at his side.

The two of them were panting, but they turned and looked towards the north side of the mountain where Bakugo lifted up to his left leg, then his right with a trail of blood coming down the left side of his forehead. He reached down with his right hand and yanked Kirishima out of a small indent in the summit. "Conscious?" Bakugo asked, and Kirishima's legs lifted and stomped down on the ground. The two of them, and Todoroki and Yaoyorozu looked towards the west side of the mountain where Midoriya fell to a knee after landing, and Uraraka stumbled around off of him before putting both hands up to her mouth again, this time managing to hold back her puke.

Midoriya put his hands down on the ground in front of him, but he winced as he was finding it hard to stand back up on his right leg. I went above the limit too early on. I didn't want to go higher than twenty-five percent at all, but I thought I could smash through that ANT… It must have been the strongest one, at least compared to all the others we were fighting. It was the only one, close to the worst kinds of Nomus. Midoriya forced himself up to his right foot, and he winced in pain but straightened that leg out anyway to get steady on his feet. He looked around at the others and thought, Did I make it?

"YOWWW! WHAT IS THIS!?" Present Mic shouted. "It was so close, I thought it was a tie! But, what the?!" Present Mic leaned in and looked to his right at one of the big screens since the one across the stadium from him was now blocked by a mountain. "Four teams have made it to the summit! And the team in first…"

The three teams at the top of the mountain spun their heads around, but Todoroki and Yaoyorozu looked the correct direction first. They both looked to their lefts, to the southernmost part of the mountain not too far from part of Todoroki's wave. Bakugo, Kirishima, Midoriya, and Uraraka all turned towards that side too, and their eyes started opening wide at the sight of two sets of hands over the edge of the mountain's southern ledge with only their fingers holding on, right behind a hook jammed into the ground by a sharp steel point.

Bakugo's team had to evade the final ANT, as did Todoroki's which cost them time as they came in fourth overall. The team that came in third could not crash into the mountain at the speed they were going and needed to redirect, wasting an important second where Bakugo and Kirishima crashed into the summit, and where two people had reached their hands up to get at least parts of their body up on the summit as quickly as possible. Zach and Kaminari were both looking over their shoulders, down the slope of the mountain, all the way to the giant screen above the south bleachers where the leaderboard just appeared with four teams on it listed in order of arrival.

"Haha, hahaha," Kaminari started laughing.

"Come on," Zach said, nudging the boy next to him with his left elbow. Kaminari looked in, and Zach was smiling wide as he motioned his head up to the summit they were hanging off of. Everyone down below them was still racing up, lots of teams, many of whom still had a few ANTs to worry about that were not frozen or stuck by Pop Off balls, or incapacitated in other ways by students who had realized they only had one chance to avoid facing all those robots again.

Zach pulled up his left arm first, putting his elbow over the ledge and then yanking his left arm and his head over too. Kaminari was a little slower, but he did a pull up too and then dragged his feet down on the wall in front of him to struggle his way to the mountaintop as well. The two of them got up on their knees, then to their feet, and they stood there with three other teams looking their way. Zach grinned at his classmates side by side with Kaminari, right as Present Mic shouted, "TEAM SAZAKI AND KAMINARI, FIRST PLACE! TEAM BAKUGO AND KIRISHIMA, SECOND PLACE! TEAM MIDORIYA AND URARAKA, THIRD PLACE! TEAM TODOROKI AND YAOYOROZU, FOURTH PLACE!"

The cheers were immediate after 'First place' was shouted, and they were so loud that the teams at the summit thought they were hearing them from down at ground level. Zach kept smiling as he stood there, and he turned back to Kaminari and said, "We did it."

Kaminari looked back at him and grinned too, and he said, "Yeah we did." Then he saw something in Zach's eyes that made his widen a little. What is he, thinking about?

Not a month ago, the two of us beat Shatterer together. I know that's what everyone's thinking about right now. Zach kept smiling and he closed his eyes for a second before turning and looking off the edge of the mountain they were standing on. He stared down at the arena below, but then up above the bleachers and into Musutafu City. He looked around it, and even farther since they were the tallest thing other than some skyscrapers for hundreds of miles. I never thought I'd win. I wanted to. Of course I wanted to. But to make it a reality. Last year, 'We did it' just meant we managed to sneak into the final round thanks to Shinso's team backing out. 'We did it,' means so much more now though. I won. We won. We beat Shatterer, we, we have people looking to us! Zach's fists clenched at his sides and he kept a determined look on his face while still smiling, and he thought, I won't let them down. I'll live up to the expectations people have for me. I'll be, your hero!

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A/N First round of the Sports Festival down! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the climb! It's my final day in Japan today, probably no chapter tomorrow as I do my flights back... though I will get a lot of writing done on the plane! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Zach and Kaminari make it in first, we see a couple of the other teams that make it too, though the first round is not over so we'll see who else makes it within the twenty minute time limit. Leave a review below telling me what you think and predictions/questions about the Sports Festival!

LordOfTee chapter 56 . 23h ago

Oh man, I think that's the first time I've seen Zach get super angry and frustrated, it seems like he curses a lot when he's angry.

Oh yeah he was pissed, and pretty sad. Sports Festival means a lot to all of them, tried showing how much Zach had been looking forward to it in the previous chapters leading up to 56 too. And yeah he curses a bit more now too, Midoriya actually mentioned it a bunch of chapters back, think Zach replied that he did spend a bunch of time surrounded by villains so... XD Thanks for the review!

Guest chapter 56 . 22h ago

When will the Big 3 make an appearance?

They actually did pop up back in chapter 50 I think. It was at the start of the Kaminari rescue arc, 'cause graduation was at the end of the term before Kaminari went on vacation, and Mirio Togata had his speech thing. Anyway they graduated already, but we'll see if they appear more in the story again! Thanks for reviewing!