So far, three teams from Class 1-C had taken the practical portion of the final exam. There were still seven exams left to go through. And for those in the monitoring room watching, it was clear just how difficult this exam was. Each team was purposely put into a disadvantageous situation, using some method to exploit a weakness of theirs.
Marcus and Fiona, having just passed their exam, walked into the monitoring room where the other two teams that had already finished were waiting, as well as Fujino and Recovery Girl. "Hey everybody." Fiona greeted.
"Hey you two." Dan said. "We watched your exam. Awesome job."
"Thanks." Marcus said. "It was really close though. Having Ms. Yamagori as our opponent really put us at a disadvantage."
"That seems to be a trend going with all the exams so far." Fujino explained.
"It's to test our bonds of friendship!" Rekka said.
"If only it were that easy. It's to see how we deal with our weaknesses." Kenta clarified.
"I don't envy the others then." Marcus said. "So who's up now?"
"Sakura and Hikari. They're in the middle of their exam right now." Dan told them, pointing up to the screen that gave them a video feed of the exam.
The field Sakura and Hikari were in was a mountainous industrial site. They had managed to get near the escape gate, but their path to it was filled with unstable terrain. Pitfalls were all over the place, created by the Quirk of their opponent Power Loader.
"What do we do?" Hikari asked.
"I'm not sure." Sakura said. "We could try traversing slowly and carefully, but there's no way Power Loader would sit idly by and let us."
As the two girls continued to think, they saw more pieces of the terrain crumble into holes. The number of places they had to stand was rapidly diminishing. They couldn't afford to waste any time. Sakura desperately looked around for anything they could use to get across safely. Her eyes caught sight of a truck with a crane lifted up tall and an idea crossed her mind.
"I've got it!"
"You have an idea?" Hikari asked. "What is it?"
Sakura held her left arm out. Using her Quirk, she manipulated the plants she had as part of her costume. One of them included a thick vine. She shot it out and had it wrap around the end of the crane with the other end still attached to her costume.
"We can't get across with a regular jump." Sakura said. "But if I shoot you from here, you should be able to make it. Think you'll be able to do it?"
Hikari gave her partner a thumbs up. "Hey, cats always land on their feet, don't they? This'll be no problem for me."
Sakura used the rest of the plants at her disposal on her costume to root herself into the ground. Once she was ready, Hikari pushed herself as far back as she could with the makeshift slingshot. It was a tricky angle, so Sakura eyeballed the trajectory and assisted her partner with how far back and to the side she needed to go. Soon, they were both ready.
"Go for it!" Sakura called out, struggling to keep herself rooted.
Hikari nodded and let the vine shoot her up into the air. Sakura watched as Hikari flew through the air, praying their plan would work. With Power Loader digging underground, they had practically no chance of capturing him so escape was their only option. And if this failed, their chances of success were far from good.
As she neared the ground, Hikari braced herself. She just prayed a pitfall wasn't awaiting her right by the gate. She landed with a roll and breathed a sigh of relief when she didn't feel the ground crumble underneath her feet. Lunging through the escape gate, Hikari exited the field and a buzzer sounded.
"Team Avalon and Akabane have passed."
Hearing the announcement, Sakura and Hikari both celebrated their victory as they jumped into the air with joy in their hearts. Hikari ran back over to her partner. "We did it Sakura!"
"Wait Hikari!" Sakura called out. "The field's still-"
The rest of Sakura's words died on her tongue as she watched Hikari fall right into a pitfall trap. The blonde girl groaned as she laid at the bottom of the hole. "Right. Forgot these were still here."
The fourth exam consisted of Alicia and Lilina up against Ectoplasm. The setting for their exam was the inside of a building filled with various halls and such to form a complex maze. There was no way for them to tell the exact way to go in order to reach the exit gate.
"Ready to rock, Alicia?" Lilina asked.
"Yeah." Alicia nodded. "Let's do this."
Soon the signal to start the exam sounded for the two girls. "Team Tsuki and Yoake, practical exam. Ready, go!"
Alicia and Lilina were about to start moving right at the start, but the second the announcement finished, a mist covered the area around them. Within seconds, the two girls were surrounded by clones of Ectoplasm. The two female students stood back to back as they looked at all of the clones.
"You should know, we teachers will be trying to crush you with everything we have." Ectoplasm told them. "So you'd best show how determined you are to win."
"You won't have to worry about that, we're plenty determined." Alicia said.
"It's nice that we're fighting a bunch of clones." Lilina said as she touched her gauntlets and changed them to a solid carbon alloy. "Cause I don't have to worry about hitting too hard now."
"Let's see if you're still saying that when this is over." Ectoplasm said as the clones all rushed at the two of them.
Alicia and Lilina sprung right into action, meeting Ectoplasm's challenge head on. Alicia fired off blasts of sunlight from her fingertips, piercing any clones near her. As they hit, the clones dissolved and vanished. Lilina was also busy dealing with the multitude of clones, hitting each one with powerful punches that took them out in one hit. With carbon being one of the hardest materials she could make, her gauntlets were currently at their strongest level of offensive power. Normally, this would cause her punches to risk shattering bones on impact, but since she was merely fighting clones right now she didn't need to worry about that.
Barely ten seconds passed before Alicia and Lilina took out all of the clones around them. But before they could celebrate their victory, another group of clones appeared around them, practically double the previous number.
"Ok… this could be a problem." Lilina said.
"We can't just stick around fighting these things." Alicia told her partner. "We'll only tire ourselves out."
"Agreed." Lilina nodded. She took notice of a corridor through some of the clones that led out of the room they were in. The two girls glanced at each other and both gave a silent nod of agreement.
Not wasting any more time, Alicia and Lilina rushed to the corridor. Alicia fired off a few blasts with her Quirk to thin out the clones blocking their way. The few that were left were taken care of by Lilina as she took them out with a couple of punches. Once they were free, they ran out of the room and began hurrying to find the exit gate.
As they ran and searched, Alicia and Lilina found clones of Ectoplasm getting in their way at every turn. Each time, they managed to deal with them and continue on, but each battle drained away their stamina bit by bit.
At the exit gate for the field, the real Ectoplasm stood and waited for the two students. He could sense that many of his clones had already fallen, but from that he was able to get a sense of where Alicia and Lilina were.
'Both of them have powerful offensive Quirks. But they have their limits.' Ectoplasm thought to himself. 'Tsuki needs to be in contact with sunlight to recharge her Quirk. But in an enclosed indoor place like this, she can't do that, meaning her reserves are limited. Yoake's Quirk on the other hand doesn't suffer from such a weakness, but the effect of her Quirk only lasts a short while before she has to use it again. And each use saps away stamina for her. In a drawn out fight like this where they're forced to keep using their Quirks, they're at a clear disadvantage. Now how will they deal with that?'
About ten minutes passed as Alicia and Lilina fought their way through Ectoplasm's onslaught of clones while moving through the maze-like field. Finally, the two of them arrived near the exit gate. But they wouldn't be able to pass through it without getting through Ectoplasm himself.
"Not bad. You kept the usage of your Quirks until this point to a minimum." Ectoplasm told them. "However, will you be able to deal with this?" Spewing out a fog from his mouth, Ectoplasm created a clone of himself unlike any of the others they had seen before. This one was huge, practically the height of the room itself.
"Holy crap! I didn't know Ectoplasm could do this!" Alicia exclaimed.
"Admire it later! We need to move!" Lilina warned.
The giant clone came down at the two of them. Alicia and Lilina quickly dodged, lunging to the side in opposite directions. The clone was massive, but there was only one of it. If they went in different directions, it couldn't chase both of them. Alicia seemed to be the victim it chose as it turned in her direction.
"Bad choice." Alicia smirked as she skidded to a halt. She held out her hands and gathered a large amount of sunlight stored in her body, concentrating it all into one powerful blast. "Take this! Solar Cannon!"
Firing all the energy at once, a large beam of light shot from Alicia's palms. It hit the large clone of Ectoplasm. But rather than destroying it like she had expected, it only knocked it back slightly. The black haired girl gasped in shock.
"No way…"
Meanwhile, Lilina made a breakneck run for the escape gate. Standing in her way however was Ectoplasm. Not a clone, but his real body.
Lilina changed the material of her gauntlets to iron in order to avoid hurting the teacher too much. With Alicia keeping Ecoplasm's clone busy, it was up to her to make it through the escape gate. Passing the exam rested entirely on her shoulders now.
Ectoplasm began the fight with a kick from his left leg. Lilina ducked under the kick as the prosthetic leg of her opponent flew over her head. She went in with a punch, but to her surprise Ectoplasm managed to dodge it. His left leg hit the floor and he spun on it to deliver a kick right to Lilina's gut, knocking her back.
"Damn, he's not a pro for nothing." Lilina muttered to herself as she endured the pain from the kick. "But I'm not giving up that easily!"
Lilina ran towards Ectoplasm and the fight between them continued. It quickly became an exchange of blows, with neither one managing to land a solid hit in. Lilina was thankful that she had interned with a hero that specialized in hand to hand combat, helping her hone her combat skills over the week. It was due to that that she was able to fight toe to toe with Ectoplasm like this. But she could tell that she was slowly losing ground in the fight.
As Lilina battled against Ectoplasm, Alicia found herself backed into a corner against Ectoplasm's clone. She was low on sunlight, having already used a lot so far in the exam. And none of her blasts so far had been enough to defeat the giant clone. And now she had nowhere to run. The clone of Ectoplasm came down at her, engulfing her entirely. The next thing Alicia knew, she was immobilized, stuck to the clone.
Looking over, Lilina gasped when she saw her partner. "Alicia- oof!" The red-haired girl was cut off when she was hit by Ectoplasm.
"Do you really think you can afford to be distracted right now?" Ectoplasm asked.
The situation was growing worse by the minute. Alicia was trapped, and Lilina couldn't take Ectoplasm in a fight. Her Quirk only allowed her to change the elemental property of objects. Even if she transformed Ectoplasm's cloak to something heavy, he would simply remove it, slowing him down for a second at best. What else was there that she could change?
And then it hit her.
'That's it! That might just work!' Lilina thought. A grin came to her lips as she brought her fists up. 'Here goes nothing.'
"You're in no position to smile!" Ectoplasm told the girl as he sped at her. He swung his leg at her for yet another kick.
To his surprise however, Lilina made no attempt to dodge. Instead, she brought one of her arms up to block the blow. As the kick slammed against her, Lilina dug her feet and stood tall, grabbing Ectoplasm's prosthetic leg with her free hand before he could pull it back.
"I disagree." Lilina said. She quickly used her Quirk and the prosthetic leg in her grip began to change. She forced Ectoplasm's leg back, causing the teacher to stumble slightly. When his leg hit the ground, part of it snapped off.
Ectoplasm gasped as he lost his balance and fell over. "What?!"
"Fun fact about silicon. It's a very brittle material." Lilina explained. "Doesn't take much force for it to break apart if it's not at super hot temperatures." Not wasting any more time, she ran past Ectoplasm, who now was unable to even stand up. "Don't hate me for this. You tried to exploit our weaknesses. I'm just doing the same."
Ectoplasm watched Lilina run through the gate and sighed. 'That girl's more clever than she lets on. Though I wish she had gone with a method that didn't involve destroying my leg. It's not easy to get it fixed on a teacher's salary.'
Soon a buzzer was heard and an announcement sounded. "Team Tsuki and Yoake have passed."
With the exam over, Ectoplasm released his clone, freeing Alicia. The two female students ran to each other and shared a high five. "That was awesome, Lilina." Alicia said.
"Heh, well I wouldn't have been able to do it if you hadn't kept his clone busy as long as you did." Lilina told her.
"Congratulations, you two." Ectoplasm told them. "You both soundly defeated me."
Alicia and Lilina looked at each other, grinning happily at passing the exam.
Ten minutes after Alicia and Lilina's exam had ended, the next exam began. This one featured Shiro and Jill. Their opponent was Principal Nezu. Those in the monitoring room watched as it started. The field Shiro and Jill found themselves in was a vast industrial area that resembled a factory plant.
"Is the principal really up for the task of combat?" Fujino asked. "His Quirk is just a rodent-type mutant Quirk, isn't it?"
"Not exactly." Recovery Girl explained. "You see, he was a rodent from the start. He ended up being experimented on, giving him a Quirk that makes him extremely intelligent."
Fujino widened her eyes. "He was… experimented on?"
"I don't know much of the details. As I'm sure you can imagine, it's not something he likes to talk about."
Fujino knew all too well how much the principal probably didn't wish to talk about whatever horrible experiences he must have gone through. Even she preferred not to discuss the details of her time in Paradise's facility. Talking brought those memories to the surface of the mind, bringing all the pain and trauma of them with it. She recalled when she first met Nezu and he spoke of going through a situation similar to hers. Now she realized just what he was referring to back then.
The group continued to watch the exam for Shiro and Jill. They walked through the plant, doing their best to stay hidden. But Nezu had yet to make a move. A full ten minutes passed by as the duo walked through the field.
And then all hell broke loose.
Out of nowhere, part of a building collapsed right in front of the two students. They turned and ran, realizing Nezu's assault had begun. At each and every turn, Shiro and Jill found themselves attacked by falling debris, all of which was caused by Nezu, sitting a safe distance away on an industrial crane, knocking things around and causing a chain reaction.
"Geez, I never knew the principal could be so… ruthless." Dan commented.
"He's not attacking indiscriminately either. Each of his attacks are slowly blocking off their routes to the escape gate." Kenji noted.
Things slowly got worse for Shiro and Jill. Before long, the two ended up under a mountain of wreckage. Finally, the buzzer sounded for the thirty minute mark. "Team Cryki and Suzuki retires due to running out of time."
"Tough break." Marcus said.
"The weakness he exploited was the fact that they tend to act without thinking. With how smart the principal is, they couldn't win without a solid plan and being able to adapt quickly." Fiona realized.
"So which team is next?" Rekka asked.
"Daiki and Satoshi, I believe." Marcus said. "I hope they do better than those two just did."
Six teams had finished the final exam. Now only four remained. And it was impossible to tell if there would be anymore failures among the class. All they could do was hope.
A/N: Only four matches left in the final exam arc. Plenty more to come so look forward to it. Also, sorry for the posting and reposting of this chapter. The site was giving me issues with it.
