Izuku was stood in the middle the arena, looking up at the crowd with a slight smile on his face. He'd just won, he beat dozens of people with quirks, but the real challenge was just about to start. Izuku was shaken from his thoughts by Uraraka running up to him saying, "Izuku, that was awesome!"
She was followed up by Iida mumbling to himself about his shame, having lost a race considering his quirk is all about speed. Uraraka then got uncomfortably close to Izuku saying, "First place! Man, I'm jealous." Izuku covered his head with his arms, shrinking inwards a little as Uraraka enthusiastically praised him.
Midnight, again standing on the stage and pointing at the large screen next to her, then said, "so it's finally over. Let's check the results!"
1st Izuku Midoryia - Class 1-A
2nd Shoto Todoroki - Class 1-A
3rd Katsuki Bakugo - Class 1-A
4th Ibara Shiozaki - Class 1-B
5th Juzo Honenuki - Class 1-B
6th Tenya Iida - Class 1-A
7th Fumikage Tokoyami - Class 1-A
8th Hanta Sero - Class 1-A
9th Eijiro Kirishima - Class 1-A
10th Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu - Class 1-B
11th Mashirao Ojiro - Class 1-A
12th Yosetsu Awase - Class 1-B
13th Tsuyu Asui - Class 1-A
14th Mezo Shoji - Class 1-A
15th Rikido Sato - Class 1-A
16th Ochaco Uraraka - Class 1-A
17th Momo Yaoyorozu - Class 1-A
18th Minoru Mineta - Class 1-A
19th Mina Ashido - Class 1-A
20th Koji Koda - Class 1-A
21st Kyoka Jiro - Class 1-A
22nd Sen Kaibara - Class 1-B
23rd Kosei Tsuburaba - Class 1-B
24th Denki Kaminari - Class 1-A
25th Kojiro Bondo - Class 1-B
26th Reiko Yanagi - Class 1-B
27th Hitoshi Shinso - Class 1-C (General Education Course)
28th Itsuka Kendo - Class 1-B
29th Jurota Shishida - Class 1-B
30th Shihai Kuroiro - Class 1-B
31st Yui Kodai - Class 1-B
32nd Hiryu Rin - Class 1-B
33rd Nirengeki Shoda - Class 1-B
34th Kinoko Komori - Class 1-B
35th Togaru Kamakiri - Class 1-B
36th Neito Monoma - Class 1-B
37th Pony Tsunotori - Class 1-B
38th Toru Hagakure - Class 1-A
39th Setsuna Tokage - Class 1-B
40th Manga Fukidashi - Class 1-B
41st Mei Hatsume - Class 1-H (Support Course)
42nd Yuga Aoyama - Class 1-A
"The top 42 from this qualifying round will move on!" Midnight announced, the screen next to her began spinning through options, "Now on to the second event! Next up is this..." She pointed to the screen which stopped on 'Cavalry Battle'.
"So we're teaming up, but how exactly?" Asui asked.
"Participants will, on their own, form teams of two to four members each and get into a horse-and-rider formation!" Midnight explained while the screen showed All Might being held up by Thirteen, Snipe and Present Mic. "The rules are fundamentally the same as those of an ordinary cavalry battle; snag your opponents' headbands while guarding your own but with one exception. Each of you has been assigned a point value based on your ranking in the last event!"
"We'll earn points like in the entrance exam? Sounds simple," Sato said.
"So the point value of each team depends on its members!" Hagakure exclaimed.
"I'm about to explain it, so shut up already!" Midnight shouted while cracking her whip, Ashido began laughing at Hagakure for causing Midnight's outburst. "Anyway yes! And your individual point values start at five, at the bottom. So the student who took 42nd place is worth five points, 41st is worth ten... get it? But our first place participant is worth... TEN MILLION POINTS!"
This caused everyone in the crowd to turn and look at Izuku, seeing their easiest way to get to the next round. Midnight continued her explanation with, "The higher ranked students are the ones to aim for. This survival game is a chance for a comeback. It's anyone's game!" Izuku began to sweat heavily under everyone's scrutinous gazes, he then clenched his hands into fists and lifted his head to meet the eyes of those looking at him. There's a lot of pressure on his shoulders right now and a lot of people looking to take him down and stop him getting to the next round of the festival, but everyone's always been against him.
Midnight continued explaining the rules, basically, the teams point total will be on a headband worn by the rider, any collected headbands must be worn on the riders neck or higher. The game will last for 15 minutes and even if you lose your headband your still in the game. The only way to be disqualified is for your rider to touch the ground. Midnight then said, "quirks are allowed, so it'll be a brutal battle. You've got 15 minutes. Time to form your teams!" She cracked her whip to emphasise her last command.
Izuku immediately walked up to the stage gaining Midnight's attention, "Midnight sensei, If no one teams up with me am I eliminated or can I still participate?"
"Why do you think you won't get a team?"
"Well, I'm quirkless and have the most points so everyone's going to just try and take it off me assuming I'm not a threat, why would they want to team up to me?" Izuku said, stating very matter of factly.
Midnight looked away for a second, whispering through a headset to Principal Nezu. She then looked back to Izuku, "I guess you can compete alone if you don't get a team."
Hearing this Izuku walked over to the side of the arena away from everyone else, without even trying he came to the conclusion that no one would team up with him. He began planning and watching how everyone teamed up. He saw Iida join Todoroki's team, becoming the front horse, Uraraka ended up joining Bakugo after spending a few minutes looking around. Most members of 1-A teamed up with each other, similarly, 1-B did the same sticking to people they knew.
After the prep time was up, Izuku situated himself in the middle of the arena. Everyone's eyes were on him. People began muttering about him, "why doesn't he have a team?"
"Did no one want to help him?"
"It should be easy to take the 10 million off him now."
He stood in the centre and as Present Mic was counting down he began to undo his headband. At "go" he released the piece of fabric letting it blow across the ground in the wind.
"What's going on? He just gave up the 10,000,000 points." Present Mic announced.
"Hahaha. Is he just giving up? That's just pathetic," Monoma, from 1-B said.
Izuku ignored everyone's mocking and pitying. He assumed everyone would aim for his points so he got rid of them, his only task now was to take points from the smaller and weaker teams. He smirked a little and watched the headband fly over to the area Bakugo and Todoroki had set up, in his head Izuku sectioned off that area. No good was going to come from coming between those two powerhouses.
While everyone was still in stunned silence, no one knew what to do since Izuku had the most points and just threw them away, Izuku just started running around the arena. Izuku came up behind team Kodai and while they were distracted by explosions clashing with ice he grabbed their headband, ripping it free and running off behind another team to get away. That took his points from zero to 165. He continued sneaking around the weaker groups, attacking when they were distracted by the heavy-hitters performing super-moves to try and claim the 10,000,000 points he dropped earlier. He managed to steal points from Hagakure, who removed her jacket to make her upper body completely invisible. This brought his total up to 555.
Meanwhile, across the battlefield, Bakugo and Todoroki were fighting for the headband. Todoroki froze the other team to the floor, Uraraka used her quirk on Bakugo allowing him to fly at high speeds using the explosions from his palms to direct him. Kirishima was punching the ice while Ashido was melting it away. Bakugo was continually firing explosions around the other team, distracting them from planning and searching for an opening to get the headband.
Back with Izuku, he was about to go after another headband when he heard a condescending laugh behind him, "hahaha, you're all alone here and I'm taking those points."
Monoma then reached down trying to swipe his points from around his head, his fingers grazed over Izukus hair as he leaned away before pushing Monoma back. "Hahaha, do you know what my quirk is? I can copy quirks- wait..." Monoma looked thoroughly confused. The front 'horse' of Monona's team used his quirk to create a barrier of hard air in front of Izuku.
"I don't have a quirk for you to copy," Izuku stated before climbing the barrier and lunging off it at Monoma, grabbing a headband while he was stunned before running off behind a large section of ice.
"That's 860 points now and only a couple of minutes left," Izuku muttered to himself as he caught his breath. He decided to hide for the remainder of the time hoping he got enough points to make it to the next round. Across the battlefield, everyone else was now frantically searching for any points they could get. With only 20 seconds left Izuku watched Iida activate his quirk having blue flames burst out his exhausts as he rocketed towards Bakugo's team, this burst of speed caught everyone off guard allowing Todoroki to snatch away the 10,000,000 point headband. Meanwhile, Uraraka had made herself float around Todoroki's left side grabbing his original 615 point headband while he was preoccupied.
Midnight called the end of the round and Izuku turned to see a long tongue and two strands of tape heading towards him, only about a meter away. He ducked quickly and thanked Midnight for ending the round before he got eliminated.
Everyone gathered around the stage to see the results, Team Todoroki took first place having stolen the 10 million point headband in the last seconds. Bakugo's Team took second with 1240 points, Izuku then saw his own name with 3rd written next to it, he had 860 points narrowly beating Team Tetsutetsu who had 820 points. In fifth, and the final team continuing onto the next round, was Team Shinso with 810 points.
"Since 17 of you passed this round someone from Team Shinso needs to drop out, you can decide amongst yourselves," Midnight said.
Immediately Ojiro came forward and said, "I'll withdraw from the competition, I don't remember any of the last round and don't feel right continuing if I didn't earn my place."
The other members of the team; Hitoshi Shinso from Gen Ed, Mei Hatsume from the Support department and Yuga Aoyama from 1-A all had relieved looks on their face knowing that they made it into the next round.
After accepting Ojiro's withdrawal Midnight announced, "Now, as per tradition the final round will be a 1 vs 1 tournament! But before that its time for lunch and some recreational activities for any contestants that want to compete."
Izuku headed off to the cafeteria to get some food and plan for the next round, he's going to have to fight against people with quirks in an open arena with nothing to use but his own body.