Hello again, everyone. Well, this chapter was certainly a difficult one for me to decide on how to approach. The reason this chapter has turned out so long was because it was originally going to be split in half, but when I realized that this would have made for a chapter that was mostly following the events of the manga with Kolya barely doing anything, I just didn't feel right uploading the chapter that way, I felt like I would've been cheating you all out of some original content.

Needless to say, this part of the Forest Training Camp Arc has been a very hard lesson for me in terms of exactly what of the original manga to showcase and what not to. It just feels so hard to justify leaving out crucial character-building moments if they're ultimately going to end up contributing in some way to the later changes in this adaptation of the story.

So hey, as a result of the reasons I've just rambled to you all about, you all are essentially getting a two-chapter-in-one deal this way.

If you like what you read here today, please, please, please be so kind as to leave a review. I really don't understand why so many of you don't. I want to know whether or not people actually like what I've done here, whether the changes be big or small.

Another grateful shoutout to my two beta readers, Mizu Hikikomori and Jonny Sjölund. You two are always awesome, no matter the size of your contributions or feedback.

My Hero Academia is the property of Kouhei Horikoshi and Shonen Jump. I only own my original characters, the original events surrounding them, and the alterations of established events that occur as a result of their existence in this universe.

A/N: [[]] indicates that characters are contextually speaking Russian.

Chapter 43

Attack – Part One

(Атака - Часть Первая)

"Can't you just cut us some slack for one night, Sensei?! You said yourself that this was a carrot-and-the-stick situation, so enough with just the stick already!" Eijirou's exasperated pleas had been falling on nothing but deaf ears since Aizawa had started dragging him, Denki, Rikido and Hanta all the way back to the camp facility by the wrappings around his neck, like four pieces of human livestock.

"If you're all so tired of the harsh training, perhaps you should push yourselves harder during your daytime training hours so I don't find these supplementary lessons necessary. I could certainly use the extra time for some shut-eye, anyway. But unfortunately, we can't always get what we want, can we? Now listen close, since we're almost there: for this supplementary lesson, I'm going to be beating into you all how to properly conduct yourselves in the middle of a crisis. Getting in the way of everyone around you by being unaware of how you or your actions affect them will only continue to widen the gap between you and the others."

As Aizawa explained this, Denki and Eijirou's heads particularly sprang up in surprise, with the blonde spark plug sounding especially indignant at their teachers' implication: "Hold up, are you being serious right now, Sensei?! Kirishima and I have been in plenty of situations by this point! We both carried ourselves pretty damn good back at USJ and I-Island, I would think! And not even considering that, I was there with several of the others fighting that freakin' Vukodlak psycho! The fact we both lived through all that crap should say plenty of our abilities already! Why do we have to get dragged all the way to this? Or, hell, if nothing else, why didn't you just go the extra mile and drag Ashido out here with us? It's not like she's conducted herself that much better than us, by what you're saying; at least nowhere near as good as somebody like Midoriya!"

Denki was sounding especially impassioned at the unfair treatment he was perceiving from this, completely ignorant to the similarly indignant look now on Eijirou's face, as he looked at his classmate disapprovingly: "Dude, what the hell, Kaminari?! Trying to throw one of our friends right under the bus with us like that?! That is so unmanly; seriously! Not cool, man!"

As they finally emerged from the woods and back out to the clearing, with the camp facility right up ahead, Aizawa never stopped, nor turned back to address his student cargo with eye contact, but he did at least give them the courtesy of an answer: "You're not exactly wrong there, Kaminari; compared to students like Midoriya and Yaoyorozu at USJ, Ashido didn't exactly conduct herself professionally, going straight into letting her emotions make her decisions for her, instead of actually taking the situation as a whole into account. I understand it was only through everyone else talking her out of it, that she didn't just go blindly running into serious danger like an idiot to begin with.

"However, I was told in excruciating detail by hers and Bezpalovs' instructors from their internship, of just how seriously she managed to carry herself, even despite her emotions running rampant when he had been abducted; as well as when facing the threat of Vukodlak himself, especially when it came to working together sufficiently with you, Uraraka, Mineta and Tokage-san from Class B. I've also overheard from some of the other students, regarding the I-Island incident, how despite the overwhelming odds and great risks involved, that she was actually consistently brave and driven, and most importantly, never let herself resort to panic. That's quite a big leap in attitude development from USJ.

"Yes, she does still have a troublesome tendency to let her initial reactions control her decision-making when things get serious; case in point, the start of your practical test during the final exam. However, she was also able to maintain a sense of focus and awareness afterwards that played a huge role in your team succeeding in the end. So, for as reactionary as Ashido still is, she has still been showing some steady improvement in that field. That's why she isn't here with the rest of you right now."

Denki felt like basically stuffing his foot in his mouth for talking so irresponsibly after that series of hard-hitting reminders, while Aizawa lead them through the front doors and further down the halls. "If I had to take an educated guess what exactly brought on this drastic maturing, I'd have to say it's probably her constant exposure to Bezpalovs' attitude of never wanting to give up, paired together with her natural affection for her friends, and her devotion to helping and protecting others. All three of those things put together have made for a very positive influence on her development. That's forced her to learn how to be more thoughtful and considerate when faced with a situation that presents danger to herself and the people around her.

"You, on the other hand, Kaminari, still have a tendency to let your gut instinct reactions drive you the entire way, and it keeps leading to you going headlong into a situation half-cocked, and you continuously end up incapacitating yourself because of it, and leaving your classmates at a major disadvantage for it. As for Kirishima, Sero and Sato, you all are ultimately lacking in the amount of field experience that many of your classmates have accumulated by this point. As a teacher looking out for your safety, I would normally say that's a good thing, but coupled with your slipping grades and lack of essential development in your Quirks, that has led you down this path. So take those words as the advice you need to motivate yourselves into pushing yourselves over the boundaries you need to in order to lessen the gap with the rest of the class."

Eijirou was about to actually open his mouth to try and argue, but upon hearing Aizawa reach the end of his sudden lecture, realized just as quickly how correct the man actually was. Aside from USJ and I-Island, he really didn't have the same amount of experience that people like Tenya, Izuku, Shoto, Mina and Nikolay already had, and since his limited capabilities with his Quirk had cost him at his practical test, it ultimately did make sense now why Aizawa would be putting him and the others through this for all those reasons.

Of course, after having already gone through the grueling hell of Aizawas' training all day today, the fact that he now had to go through even more of it this late into the night, and potentially into the latest hours of it to boot, just sounded worse and worse.

Before he could ruminate any further, though, Aizawa had finally stepped through a door at the end of the hall, ushering him and the others through, only for them to be met by a voice so familiar yet grating, it couldn't help but make Eijirou instinctively flinch with annoyance.

"OHHH?! HOW STRANGE! THE SUPPOSEDLY SUPERIOR CLASS A HAS FOUR STUDENTS FAILING?! AND YET CLASS B HAS ONLY ONE?! THAT REALLY IS STRANGE, DON'T YOU THINK?! I COULDN'T IMAGINE HOW THAT MUST MAKE YOU FEEL!"

Indeed, sitting at the front row of the remedial class before the Class B homeroom teacher, Vlad King, was that same snarky-sounding, and even more so looking, blonde-haired loudmouth, Neito Monoma, with his blue eyes burning through all four of the Class A remedials like a flamethrower through a bunch of birthday candles, with that same shit-eating grin plastered on his face.

Of course, even his endless barrage of sarcasm and insults couldn't stop Denki from snickering to himself: "You know; no matter what you say, kid, you're still the only failure in your class. At least we actually have each other to shoulder the blame. You being here on your own just kinda seems to prove how much you suck by comparison to the rest of your class. Didn't really stop to think about that, did you? Ironic, after talking all that good shit before the bus ride and when you all got here, isn't it?"

The resultant psychotic-sounding laughter from Monoma was hard to discern, whether it was in an attempt to block out the implication of Denkis' comeback, or if it was from the bitter realization of just how right he was. Either way, the rest of the Class A remedial students ignored his laughing and returned to their same spots from the previous night, while Aizawa approached Vlad King: "Vlad, I want the students to go through some actual practice exercises tonight."

"I'm one step ahead of you, Eraserhead. I was actually already putting a plan together before you got here—"EVERYONE!"

The sudden sound of Mandalays' voice calling out inside the head of every single person in the classroom simultaneously got surprised jolts out of Monoma, Denki, and Hanta ("That's so frustrating when we can't even communicate back with her!"), while both teachers, Eijirou and Rikido had quickly realized just where the voice was coming from. What none of them understood, however, was the biting edge of seriousness in her tone.

"Two Villains have invaded the area! It's possible there are still more lurking in the shadows! Those who are capable, head immediately to the facility! If you should come face to face with the enemy, do not engage them in combat! Continue your retreat!"

A foreboding wave of alertness and confusion alike swept over the students, but while Monoma could only stutter out his confusion why Villains were suddenly all the way out here, Aizawa was already bolting out the door, calling back with grave urgency: "Vlad, keep an eye on things here for me! I've got to go protect the students that are still out there!"

Aizawas' heart was racing, his blood burning as it flowed through his veins; sprinting down the halls for the door as he instinctively exclaimed from sheer emotional overwhelm and worry: "THEY WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO FIND THIS PLACE!"

'I don't even want to think about how this happened!' This was what was racing through his head as he finally erupted out the front doors, only to find the quickly growing glow of a forest fire in the distance, right where he knew the section of the woods the students had gone for their game of courage was. His heart caught in his throat at the realization that the danger was quite literally right on top of those kids' heads. "This is not good."

Before Aizawa could proceed to keep sprinting towards the fire, he suddenly felt himself overcome with the reflexive sensation that could only come when one realized they were no longer alone. He could just feel the nearby presence of a truly malevolent new arrival right beside him; a young man with spiky black hair, punk attire, and a face and arms covered in shriveled purple skin patches sewn all over into his body, with one arm extended and pointed straight at his head.

"Your worrying got the best of you. That was a sloppy move, Eraserhead." Despite knowing the extent of the danger he now found himself in the moment he heard this strangers' voice, Aizawas' alertness took the reins as he already began to turn back for the facility: "VLAD-!"

FWOOOSH!

In an instant, Aizawa found himself completely smothered in a massive column of blue fire erupting from the black-haired young man's hand, while he simply watched the ongoing inferno with a cold indifference. "Keep your Pro Hero friends out of our way. You're not the ones we've come here for."

The sudden arrival of the two Villains that had taken down Pixie-Bob so effortlessly had left the remaining two members of the Wild, Wild Pussycats, Mandalay and Tiger, along with the remainder of the 1-A students behind them, stricken completely motionless with apprehension and fear. Nikolay couldn't keep his mind steady between the immediate threat that stood before them, and the fact that several of their classmates and the Class B students were still somewhere in the woods behind them, where that black smoke was only continuing to grow.

Sensing the tension in their targets, the humanoid lizard Villain dressed as a street ninja stepped forward with an exceptionally energetic bounce in his step: "Greetings, Yuuei Academy alumni! We are the League of Villains, Vanguard Action Squad!"

The mention of the League of Villains sent a shocked jolt through every single one of the students at once. Nikolay could feel that same chill go up his back, thinking all the way back to the confrontation with Tomura Shigaraki just a week ago. So he and his soldiers had finally decided to make their move again, but what was it they were aiming for this time if All Might wasn't here?

Before he could even think on it any further, the instinctive gasps of tension from Minoru, Kouji and Mashirao snapped him to attention, just in time to see the red-haired muscular Villain with the stubbled feminine face, planting the massive 2x4 weapon of theirs right up against the unconscious Pixie-Bobs' head. "It'd be an awful shame if my hand slipped and accidentally crushed this pretty little head, wouldn't it? Feel free to share your thoughts on the matter, hm?"

Neither Nikolay, Izuku nor Tenya could see a way to close the distance and get that Villain off of Pixie-Bob in time, but that same realization didn't stop Tiger from getting visibly fired up, practically rearing his entire body back in preparation to attack with everything he had: "OVER MY DEAD BODY, YOU SHIT!"

At the last second before he could pounce, however, the lizard Villain suddenly stepped forward in between his partner and the one male Pussycat. "Whoa, whoa, Magne, hold your horses there, toots! And you too, Tiger; chill out! Nobody's going to do anything yet…you see, the right over life and death…is all decided by the word of the Hero Killer, Stain!"

The dropping of the Hero Killers' name sent a chilling tremor through every single one of the students present, but Tenya was the only one with the strength of spirit to actually answer that claim: "Stain?! But we know he was arrested back in Hosu City! Is he somehow the one who's behind these guys?"

The class president expressing this dreadful possibility sent Nikolays' already tense mind into a grim whirlpool of speculation. If he was right, and Stain was somehow pulling the strings behind this sudden attack, and if the media was linking him with the League of Villains…then who was to say that Vukodlak wasn't somehow in a similar position, having been called here by the figure who even ruled over Shigaraki within the Leagues' ranks, and given a similar kind of team to command for this occasion?

And if that were indeed the case…then it was possible that whoever was here under Vukodlak's command was somewhere in those woods, and potentially had Mina, Ochako and Tsuyu in their sights. They could've been walking right into a deadly trap without even realizing it, and Nikolay was stuck out here, unable to help get them out of it! The young Russians' nerves were practically shot as his whole body was now visibly shaking to race off into those woods after them.

While this state of panic was raging in Nikolays' head, the lizard Villain had long since set his eyes on Tenya and Izuku among the youthful crowd, slowly stepping forward, and reaching for the two sword handles protruding from behind his shoulders. "Oh, I just remembered…you there! Yes, you two! The one with the glasses, and the curly-haired kid! You were the ones that brought Stains' reign of terror to an end back in Hosu City, yes? I don't think I've formally introduced myself. The name's Spinner. The one who carries on Stains' dream!"

With that declaration, he suddenly pulled at the handles, and before everyones' eyes, he now stood wielding a two-handled single sword, that was in fact made up of several dozen other bladed weapons either crudely welded together, or bound together under steel cables. Either way, it was the kind of weaponry that left ones such as Minoru and Kouji soaked in frigid sweat of pure terror, while Nikolay was actually chattering his teeth with fright, but still trying to find the first sign of an opening into the woods across from him.

And even in the face of such an overwhelmingly deadly-looking weapon, Tiger and Mandalay both simply stepped forward, both clearly at the ready to fight, as the one male Pussycat bluntly answered: "Tell somebody who gives a shit!"

In fact, glancing back down to the injured Pixie-Bob, Tiger was starting to shake from head to toe with increasing intensity. "That girl, Pixie-Bob, laying there unconsciously, has recently been all manic about marriage…saying she wanted to experience 'a woman's happiness'…even at her tender age, she's been putting her best foot forward. SO AS A MAN, YOUR BOORISH ATTITUDE AND BLATANT DISREGARD FOR SCARRING THE FACE OF A WOMAN IN THAT PREDICAMENT IS REPREHENSIBLE!"

The enraged fury that Tiger ended his declaration with practically shook the air around him, as well as the spirits of all the students watching and listening. However, Spinner only looked to be emboldened by this clear issuing of a fight: "Heroes don't have the luxury of seeing the world through rose-colored glasses!"

With it now being crystal clear that a fight was inevitable, Mandalay finally stepped forward to join her partners' side. "Tiger! I've given out the instructions! Let's leave the safety of the rest of the students to Ragdoll! You and I can and will hold this position together!"

Mandalay didn't dare take her eyes off their two opponents as she suddenly spoke out to the still-petrified students behind her: "Go, everyone! Combat is to be avoided at all costs, do I make myself clear?! Class president, take the lead!"

"Understood! Let's go, everyone!" Tenya immediately complied, already ushering Minoru, Kouji and Mashirao to follow him back the way they came. However, Nikolay and Izuku remained where they stood, as the young Russian turned back to his departing classmates: "We can't just go! We need to get in there and get our classmates and the Class B students out of those woods! On top of that, Kota-kun is still somewhere out there! We need to try and save him, too!"

Nikolay was too busy trying to convince Tenya and the others to stay to notice that Izukus' brow had furrowed with similar determination at the mentioning of Kota. However, Tenya was resolute in his own answer: "That's not a good idea, Bezpalov-san! Without Ragdoll-sensei here to tell us where everyone is within those woods specifically, we wouldn't know where to start looking, and we don't even know how many more Villains could be out there lying in wait for us or them! Going in there now would only serve to scatter our ranks further, and place us and our classmates in even further danger! Mandalay-sensei has given the order to evacuate to everyone, so we know they'll all be heading for the facility just the same as us!

"I don't like saying this anymore than you like hearing it, Bezpalov-san, believe me, but the fact is that right now we're completely outmatched, and right now we need to go! Now come on!" With that, Tenya once more turned to head further up the path to the camp facility, now with Nikolay starting to very reluctantly follow after him and the others, only to quickly realize Izuku was now the one not following, instead still looking back to the Pussycats.

"Iida-san, guys, you all go on ahead!" His sudden command brought the entire group to yet another stop, with Tenya looking even more incredulous now. "Midoriya-san, what on earth are you talking about?!"

Having taken a few steps after everyone had already stopped, Nikolay had ended up a step ahead of Tenya and the others, now looking back to see Izuku calling back to Mandalay: "Mandalay-sensei, I know what this is about!"

However, Nikolay wasn't listening further to what Izuku was telling their one present female instructor, as his mind was still spinning with worry over everyone still in those woods. 'This isn't right! They could all be fighting for their lives right now, and we're being forced to fall back and leave them on their own? Who knows what kind of Villains they could all be facing right now? We should be in there helping them, that's what Heroes are supposed to do, right?'

That one mighty word, 'Hero' kept echoing over and over in Nikolays' head as he kept looking from Tenya and Izuku, to the thick of the woods just lining the path they were leaving on. For all Nikolay knew right now, after this mess would inevitably (or hopefully) get sorted out, the consequences of his fight with Bakugo would finally come. For how unprofessional and violent his actions had ultimately been (just as Mina had expressed such worry over), for all Nikolay knew, expulsion was just a few hours away. His entire potential future as a Hero might as well have been screwed already.

And with that awful realization came a concrete idea that was unshakable in his head: 'If my future as a Yuuei student is already as good as over…then what else could Aizawa-sensei possibly do to punish me for acting against orders? If I'm gonna go, then dammit, I'm gonna go knowing I did something to save everyone. I at least did what a Hero is ultimately supposed to do in a crisis: I ACTED!'

And so, without a word of warning to anyone while their backs were still turned, Nikolay suddenly took off in a mad sprint into the woods, practically leaping from the edge of the road and into the thick of the brush, already mentally cursing himself for acting so recklessly with every beat of his heart against his ribs, especially when he could hear the already distant echoing calls of his classmates for him through the trees, having now realized he was long gone.

Nevertheless, he wasn't going to turn back now. He was going to save his friends and classmates and as many of the Class B students as possible, and to hell with the consequences. As he rushed deeper and deeper, thinking back on the black smoke, he hurriedly tore away a strip of cloth from the waist of his shirt and hurriedly tied it into a tight bandanna around his nose and mouth. It wasn't anything as secure as a firefighters' mask, but it would do for now, especially since he was beginning to see the start of a haze among the brush. It seemed different from the black smoke, but to him, that didn't matter.

All that mattered right now was saving as many people as he could, and all the while silently hoping and praying that not only would either Izuku or the Pussycats manage to save Kota somehow, wherever he really was; but also that Mina, Ochako and Tsuyu were indeed on their way back to the facility and out of harms' way, bracing himself for the possibility of running into the three girls out here.

It had only been a couple of minutes since Itsuka Kendo had taken to carrying the still unconscious Juzo Honenuki and the conscious yet silent Yui Kodai in the safety of both her enlarged hands, cupped together to keep the latter from breathing in the still thickening mist that was now seeming to fill the entire forest, as far as Itsuka could tell.

However, with no sign of the mist lightening up anywhere, and the fact that she had to use both her hands to carry and shield her classmates, Itsuka was beginning to find herself running short of space in her lungs to keep holding her breath. If she didn't find somewhere she could confidently call a safe haven soon, she was going to be at risk of either blacking out from holding her breath for so long, or she was going to have no choice but to try and breathe, and end up just like Juzo, with Yui surely not far behind.

"KENDO-SAN!" A gruff yet unmistakable voice suddenly called out from within the bushes, bringing Itsuka to a sudden stop, looking back to find, to her immense relief, the sight of the silver-haired and rim-eyed Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, carrying the vine-haired Ibara Shiozaki in his arms. They were both wearing clear-as-day gas masks, but Ibara looked like she was barely hanging onto consciousness, if at all.

"Tetsutetsu-kun, Ibara-chan! Where did you get those masks?" Tetsutetsu hurriedly began rummaging through his pocket while still keeping a hold on Ibara, before producing three identical gas masks, hurriedly tossing them to Itsuka.

"Yaoyorozu-san from Class A happened to be nearby when the mist started coming in and made a whole bunch of them for us! Awase-san is leading more of our classmates and some of the other Class A kids to the Class B safe zone for aid! Go ahead and put them on!" At his order, Itsuka hurriedly applied them to Yui and Juzo before applying her own. It was an immense relief to finally be able to breathe again, and from the looks of it, being cut off from the gas seemed to already be stirring Juzo slowly back to consciousness.

"Thanks, Tetsutetsu-kun. Listen; let's head back to the facility. With no idea of where the Villains are, it's way too risky to be out in the open like this." However, while Itsuka was completely calm when stating this, and clearly rearing for them all to get moving, Tetsutetsu was visibly standing his ground, already in the process of setting Ibara down beside Juzo.

"No! I'll stay and fight. I'm leaving Shiozaki-san and Kodai-sans' safety in your hands." At this, the Class B representative couldn't even try not to look at her foolhardy classmate like he had a screw loose.

"What? I could've sworn Mandalay-sensei told us to avoid conflict!" To be honest, Itsuka had long since gotten used to Tetsutetsu acting this hardheaded and reckless, but this time, when looking closely, she could see no sign of that typical bravado his eyes usually had. Instead, Tetsutetsu for once actually looked very…contemplative.

"I think, deep down inside, you've always known it, Kendo-san; no matter how many times you tried to tell yourself otherwise…just how far ahead Class A is of us. I've definitely known, even though at first I didn't want to admit it. We all took the same test to get into the same academy, and now we're going through the same curriculum. So what's so damn different between us? It's clear as day! What they have that most of us haven't had…is exposure to danger!

"They've made the most out of their perilous situations, and turned them into invaluable experience! Hell, just look at how much Tokage-san has grown, just by being able to share in even one of those same dangerous situations alongside those Class A kids! She pretty much has become a star among us. If they were able to turn the dangers they've faced into experience, then we should be just as capable of doing the same! Besides, what kind of Heroes would we be if we turned a blind eye to those who would threaten the lives of others?

"Don't try to stop me, Kendo-san! After all, as part of Year One Class B of Heroics Studies, if I don't stand up for what I believe in here and now…then when?! I'm going to find them, and when I do, I swear I'm gonna pummel them to the ground!" There wasn't a single doubt in Itsukas' mind as she listened to this, that Tetsutetsu was resolute in this insane decision of his…an insanity that could only have been spoken from the bottom of his heart, rather than from his frankly childish conception of manliness. That was what kept her from completely shooting down his decision, instead now looking between him and her vulnerable classmates on the ground at her feet, currently being tended to by Yui. For a good moment, Itsuka Kendo found herself completely torn on what the truly right course of action was for them to take.

For the last few minutes, Nikolay had been going through the woods at breakneck speed, having since abandoned simply running in exchange for essentially ricocheting from tree to tree with minute blasts from his feet with every impact. The mist he had once mistaken for simply more smoke was only growing thicker the further he went, and it was clear to him by now this was not part of that black smoke from before, and not just because of the purple haze. His eyes were starting to sting from it, and with the shoddy attempt at a mask he was wearing, he could swear it was affecting him, since he was slowly but surely starting to find himself growing dizzy.

However, he refused to let that stop him, as he'd yet to find anyone from Class B, or any sign of Mina, Ochako, Tsuyu, or any of his other classmates for that matter. Surely they'd heard Mandalays' message, and they would've had to cross his trajectory if they were to be cutting through the woods to get to the facility. So then why hadn't he found anyone yet? That uncertainty only had his anxiety growing worse.

The nearby, unmistakable sound of rustling in the bushes brought Nikolay to a sudden halt, finally meeting solid ground again and looking cautiously in the direction he knew he'd heard it coming from. If it had been one of his classmates, or even anyone from Class B, they would've surely recognized the sound of his kinetic blasts and called out to him…so why hadn't they?

He knew Mandalay had said they were to avoid fighting, but if fighting would be the one thing keeping whoever was in those bushes from hurting any of his schoolmates out there, then it would be worth it. Honestly, what else did he have to lose right now besides his life?

Out of nowhere, he heard the sound of multiple projectiles zipping through the air right for him, and his instincts immediately took over as he brought his hands up and began firing one deflecting blast after another, aiming for the very first objects flying through the air he could get a bead on, regardless how fast they flew.

His deflecting seemed to be doing the trick, knocking them off course, but he could tell they were already coming back around for another go, and he was more than ready to keep fighting them off when…

"Whoa, Bezpalov-kun, hold up! It's me!" The urgent sound of Setsuna Tokages' voice diffused the tension and anxiety burning in Nikolays' chest instantly, as he realized the projectiles he'd been fighting off were, in fact, the floating appendages and pieces of the Class B students' body, already collectively floating back the way they had come.

Following them, Nikolay felt a wave of relief to see the familiar green-haired girl come stepping out of the bushes, quickly coming back together in one piece, save her left arm being gone at the elbow, and her right eye being completely absent from the rest of her head. She was wearing what looked to be a gas mask, but he could still tell from her one eye that she was just as happy to see him as he was her.

"Sorry about attacking you like that; I thought you might've been a Villain thanks to all this damn mist." Nikolay was simply too relieved to see a familiar face out here to chastise her for just acting like that without checking, before of course realizing he was essentially doing the same thing.

"I'm just glad to see you're okay, Tokage-san. You're the first person I've come across since I came into these woods. You…are okay, right?" he ultimately asked when remembering her missing pieces.

Thankfully, she followed his train of thought just as quickly. "Yeah, I'm fine. I had my arm and one of my eyes sitting on standby further down the trail for my groups' scaring tactic. But after this mist rolled in and knocked out my partners, Kinoko-chan and Reiko-chan, and then we got the warning from Mandalay-sensei, I decided to leave those pieces there in case any of the other students came across them, so I could help guide them back to the facility if they'd gotten all turned around. I've actually been having my eye do some scouting around that area just in case."

Nikolay was grateful for the explanation, as well as the reassurance that someone else was keeping an eye out for the others. If things turned out lucky all around, perhaps she'd be able to find Mina and the rest of the girls and lead them to safety remotely. Of course, checking again, Nikolay finally paid real attention to the gas mask on her face, just in time to find Setsuna had dug out a similar one from her pocket and was holding it out to him.

"This should work better than that rag of yours. Yaoyorozu-san made them for a lot of us once we got the order to evacuate back to the facility. My classmate, Awase-kun, is leading several of the Class B students and the Class A students to our classes' safe zone for now. But I realized not all of them were there, so I decided to come back here and see if I could find any of the stragglers and get them out of here."

As Nikolay hurriedly applied the gas mask to his face, thankfully feeling that building drowsiness quickly wear off, his sense of urgency came rushing right back. "The Class A students that were being evacuated with your class; please tell me, were Mina, Uraraka-san and Tsuyu-san with them by any chance?"

To his dread and fright, Setsuna regretfully shook her head. "I was hoping they had gone right back to the facility, since they were the last group to come into the woods before the Villains attacked, and would therefore be closest. Hell, I was hoping you might've found them earlier and sent them off to safety. Clearly that's not the case."

Nikolay was gravely silent, nearly hunching over with overwhelming worry once more. However, clutching his pant legs tight, he got right back up, and Setsuna couldn't have mistaken the fire in his green eyes for anything else. "C'mon, Setsuna-san, if they're still out here with the rest of both our classmates, then we're gonna find them!"

Setsuna couldn't have nodded in stronger agreement if she tried, as soon she and Nikolay were once more racing through the forest, with Nikolay once again launching himself off one tree after another, while Setsuna used her telekinetic tether with her floating pieces to accelerate her flight right alongside him.

"Kota-kun! Kota-kun, did you catch all that?! Return to the facility at once! I'm sorry, but I have no idea where you are at the moment! Where do you go off to all the time?! I'm sorry, Kota-kun! I can't come and help you! So please return to us immediately!"

Unfortunately, even if Mandalays' telepathic warning had gotten through loud and clear all the way to Kotas' Cliffside hideout, it was virtually falling on deaf ears, as the little boy found himself occupied with something much more serious.

It wasn't the quickly growing wildfire that now could be seen spreading rapidly through the woods below. No, it was the sensation of horrifying intimidation he felt once he had realized he wasn't alone up here anymore, and was now finding himself face-to-face with a colossal figure in a flowing cloak, wearing a crude white face mask. However, even with that mask covering their face, Kota could feel deep in his core that this stranger was staring straight through him. Frankly, it terrified the little boy beyond words.

"I was actually just looking for a spot with a scenic view, and what do you know; I find myself a face not listed with the ones from the archives. But never mind all that; you've actually got a pretty stylish hat there, kid. How about you trade me for this lame mask I've got? You see, as a newcomer, they're putting me through quite the hazing period, which includes but is not limited to wearing this ridiculously stupid-looking mask."

The cloaked behemoth had already started reaching for his mask, even continuing to speak, until a glimpse through the gap in his fingers made him realize the little boy before him had already started to turn tail and run for everything he was worth, yet surprisingly not breaking down into hysterical sobs like his face had made it look like he would.

Kota had no misconceptions as to whether or not he would actually be able to escape. Frankly, he was simply too terrified to even think that far ahead. All he knew was that his body was screaming for him to run, and he was prepared to do that for as long as he possibly could.

And that was before that gigantic stranger had suddenly come ripping right through the air next to him like a giant cannonball, ricocheting off the side of the mountain with explosive physical force and planting his feet right in Kotas' path.

By now, the stranger had removed his mask, as Kota could see a sadistic grin visible beneath his cloak. As the fabric flew in the wind from his sudden insanely powerful jump, Kota could make out what looked like expanded muscle fibers wrapping around their leg, just at the same time the stranger began to reach to remove the hood from over their head. "As I was saying, so to cheer myself up a bit for this stupid mask business…I'm gonna take it all out on you."

As the hood came off, Kota could see once more, numerous rapidly growing muscle fibers growing along the length of his aggressors' arm, but that paled in comparison to the face he now saw looking at him…except this time, it wasn't out of some present sense of fear.

This time, it was a fear of a much more foundation-shaking, historical sense. All at once, memories of words he had heard only a couple years ago came rushing back to him with full force; words that had hounded him nonstop ever since the day he'd lost his parents…words spoken on the TV the day they had died.

They had kept talking about the Villain responsible for the deaths of The Water Hoses, referred to only as 'Muscular,' since he had escaped and been on the run ever since, and it was a description even a five-year-old like Kota Izumi could never forget until the end of his days: a colossal man with a simple Strength Augmentation Quirk, with short blonde hair, and the most distinguishing feature to date: a deep scar that ran over his left eye, courtesy of The Water Hoses themselves; a final parting gift.

And that was exactly the face staring down at the trembling little boy right now, aglow in the light of the distant wildfire and the moon altogether: a towering man with the telltale sign of a Strength Augmentation Quirk adorning his arm and legs, with short blonde hair, and a single cold and sadistic right eye, with the left replaced with a frightening artificial one, courtesy of a large scar that ran down the left side of his face.

Kota nearly felt like he was either going to heave from sheer gut-twisting terror, or like his heart was going to stop in his chest from the exact same thing. There was no mistaking it, no matter how much his fear wanted to make him believe he was just seeing things:

Kota was gazing into the face of the very same snarling Villain that had killed his parents, Muscular! And it was that awful realization that finally pried out the very first words the now tearful Kota had spoken all night, as his body felt like it was weighed down with lead, unable to move, even as the Villain before him was clearly readying to attack him where he stood: "MOM! DAD!"

Just at the moment Muscular finally brought his fist straight down for the single blow it would take to kill him where he stood, Kota suddenly felt himself getting taken right off his feet by a speeding green blur, while the Villains' fist plowed straight into the solid stone of the mountain with a deafening CRACK!

Kota and his savior came to a rough tumble at the end, but it was over within seconds, and the little boy quickly found that it was none other than that curly-haired freckled boy (Midoriya, he could vaguely recall) that had come to his rescue, likewise picking himself up from his less than graceful landing. "W-why…?"

However, as soon as Kota had asked the very first question that came to mind when realizing what Izuku had just done for him, the green-haired boy instead instantly flipped back onto his feet, staring straight ahead at the smiling Muscular, who was already beginning to approach them with that same sadistic smile on his scarred face: "Hmm? You…I remember your face from the archive."

Izuku had to struggle to catch his breath; having used Full Cowl the entire way here after he'd told Mandalay what he knew of the Villains' plan off a hunch. He didn't dare take his eyes off this giant of a Villain, but even the slightest glance made him realize that, in his rush to save Kota, he had accidentally destroyed his phone in the process, as it lay broken beyond repair just mere feet away.

'Dammit…I came here because I was sure I'd avoid any direct contact with a Villain…but as luck would have it, of course one would just be waiting for me at this very spot! And to make matters worse, my phone is completely wrecked! The only other person besides Kota-kun and I that knows about this spot is Kolya-san…and he went into the woods to try and save the other students before I could even tell him or anyone else that I was coming here, which means I don't have the luxury of a backup like I did when facing Stain.

'No…maybe this is for the better. Kolya-san even said out loud that we needed to save Kota-kun…does that mean if he manages to get the others out of the woods, he might actually think to come here? He has no idea just what kind of threat he'd be walking into, even with me here to try and split the Villains' attention! No, nobody else should risk getting caught in the crossfire here. Please, just go back to the facility with everyone else once you've found them, Kolya-san!'

'But then that means…I'm all by myself on this one. All that's standing in this Villains' way…is me! Protecting Kota-kun is my top priority…whether I actually can or not is an entirely different matter.'

With his mind racing with the overwhelming notion that he was entirely on his own with Kota to protect from this gargantuan threat, Izuku instinctively looked back, and he could tell, even through the tears flowing from Kotas' eyes, that the kid was instinctively placing what trust he still had entirely on Izukus' shoulders.

With this realization, combined with the fact that he was facing an opponent clearly far stronger than any he had faced up to this point on sheer physical strength alone, Izukus' survival instincts could only echo one basic truth in his head: 'I am so screwed!'

But his heart was saying something far different, as even through the nauseating fear that was still rushing through every fiber of his being as the Villain before him stared him down, Izuku refused to back away even an inch, instead biting his lip in nervous anticipation, summoning the energy of Full Cowl through every inch of his body, producing that telltale glow, while Kota could only look on in confused wonder.

"It…it's gonna be alright, Kota-kun." Izuku finally said, as he slowly began to get back onto his feet, clutching his fists tight in an attempt to keep his spirit burning strong through his own fear, looking back at Muscular with eyes alight with Heroic determination. 'Right now…we're out of options. I'll handle this…MYSELF!' "I'M GOING TO SAVE YOU, NO MATTER WHAT!"

Ever since reaching the mid-point of the path for the game of courage where their cards were waiting to be picked, and subsequently receiving the telepathic instructions from Mandalay to evacuate back to the camp facility, Shoto and Bakugo had been steadily making their way down the rest of the path. Their pace was not helped by the fact that Shoto had saddled himself with carrying the short-haired, black-eyed Class B student he'd come to know as Kosei Tsubaraba, who'd been left in such a state with the onset of this strange gas that had started to emanate all across the forest.

However, even without the added weight of an indisposed student on their hands, neither of the boys could hurry more than they already were, since the gas seemed to only be growing thicker by the second, and every now and then, Shoto could either hear the sound of Bakugo coughing when trying not to accidentally breathe it in, or groaning in what was clearly pain from either somewhere in his ribs or his right shoulder.

"Goddammit…" Bakugo muttered angrily under his breath after feeling another pang in his shoulder joint, but Shoto didn't dare stop as he called back from ahead:

"Is this gas also the Villains' doing? I'm still worried about the others, but there's not much we can do. Let's back off of the goal point and head back to the facility. We'll leave things back at the midpoint to Ragdoll-sensei." While still laser-focused on the task at hand, Shoto still couldn't stop thinking about their other classmates and the other Class B students that, for all he knew, were still hopelessly trapped back down the trail. As much as he wanted to take matters into his own hands and go back, he knew with his wounded cargo and damaged partner; that would ultimately be nothing more than irresponsible and detrimental.

Speaking of whom, another untimely groan from the blonde hothead finally drove Shoto to speak up further: "Are you sure you're alright, Bakugo?"

With the suddenness of a muscle spasm, Bakugo instinctively snapped angrily: "Son of a bitch, I said I'm fine! Stop bringing it up, mind your own goddamn business and just keep walking!" Shoto let out an accepting sigh of his stubborn attitude and kept moving onward, while Bakugo let out a silent and infuriated grimace, thinking resentfully to himself: 'I can't believe this shit! I can't believe that goddamn coward actually left me still hurting like this…now of all times!'

Before he could stew over it any further, though, a momentary glimpse forward jolted Bakugo and Shoto to full attention, and a full stop. Just a ways up the path, there was a single figure crouched right in the middle with their back turned to the two boys. It was definitely no one they recognized, as in the moonlight, they looked to be adorned in a full-body straightjacket of pure leather.

It didn't take a genius for the two boys to realize they had to be looking upon one of the Villains responsible for this sudden turn of events, and with that realization came one that was even more distressing to Bakugo himself. "Hey…who was supposed to be ahead of us?"

Shoto could immediately tell where Bakugos' head was going with this as he immediately answered: "Tokoyami-san…and Shouji-san."

As if that answer alone weren't unsettling to the two boys as it was, knowing a Villain now potentially stood between them and two of their classmates, they could now actually hear said Villain mumbling to themselves in what sounded like a sick kind of euphoria: "So pretty…so beautiful…such fine pieces of flesh left lying about…ah, no, I mustn't…I have work to do. But I just can't leave them alone…ahh…"

As the Villain slowly rose to their feet, Shoto and Bakugo could both easily identify, thanks to the moonlight, the sight of two disembodied arms lying across the path. Who they belonged to, none of them could even hazard a guess right now. Because right now, they could tell the Villain had sensed their presence, turning at last to face them, revealing a monstrous face likewise wrapped in leather, save for a large opening for the mouth, where several belts ended with hooks wrapped around their head, and forcefully kept their mouth open. "Such beautiful smorgasbords of flesh…seduce me no longer. I HAVE WORK TO DO."

Shoto could actually feel a genuine sensation of a frightening chill run through his body, even for a split second, while Bakugo could actually feel his angered sneer turning into an almost likewise sick grin of anticipation, simply looking upon this clearly sadistic embodiment of evil that was now approaching him. "Pain or no pain…like hell I'm not engaging this sick asshole! To hell with orders!"

For the last few minutes, Nikolay and Setsuna had been unrelenting in their ongoing trek through these gas-filled woods in search of anyone still unfortunate enough to be stuck out here. So far, they hadn't found anyone, and the simply not knowing was really starting to get to Nikolay especially, as he refused to say anything, and yet Setsuna could easily tell his body language was growing further tense, as was the strength of his ricochet launches.

"Hey, Bezpalov-kun, you mind telling me just what you're thinking right now?" she finally asked, forcing Nikolay to finally come to a stop, with her quickly following suit.

"I'm thinking that I can only hope Mandalay-sensei's message actually got through to everyone, and they were able to get out of these woods already. Then when I think that, the only other thing I can think is how much I hope the Villains don't have someone among them with a Quirk that can actually disrupt long-distance telepathic messages."

Nikolay was clearly getting nerve-wracked with worry, but that still didn't stop Setsuna from becoming overcome by the desire to try and even partially lighten the mood for the sake of his stress, if nothing else. "Are you telling me you actually came across something like that before that we should be worried about? That was pretty specific."

Nikolays' sigh was thankfully less frustrated, but no less exasperated mentally. "No, I haven't. But after coming across so many people with so many widely diverse Quirks, the truth is that hardly anything would surprise me anymore, including the Villains having someone with a Quirk like that, just to make things harder for all of us. Now come on, we must be nearing the edge of the games' section of the woods by now."

As Nikolay began to take the first step forward to set himself into another launch, he realized Setsuna wasn't actually following him this time. Turning back, he could clearly see, even through the gas, that Setsunas' one eye was reflecting total shock and fear, likewise setting him right back into high alert. "What's going on?"

"That arm I left behind way down the path…someone's just come across it that I don't recognize. Definitely a Villain if I've ever seen one. But there's another severed arm lying just a few feet away. I can't tell who it belongs to, though." The moment Setsuna said this, Nikolay felt his heart drop into his stomach. This had just gone from bad to far, far worse. Now one of their schoolmates was seriously injured to boot.

"That's not what worries me, though, Bezpalov-kun. I can see Todoroki-kun and Bakugo just a little ways back…they've got my classmate, Tsubaraba-kun with them. Oh no…the Villain's noticed them now, too." Now, Nikolay could feel his worry firing up into determination. To hell with his grievances with Bakugo; right now those three needed help, and he was more than willing to provide it. "Okay…where exactly down the path are they?"

However, already well knowing what Nikolay was thinking, Setsuna wasn't nearly as gung-ho in demeanor. "It's way further down than you're thinking it is, that's for sure, Bezpalov-kun. It's a really long ways out of our way, pretty close to the exit of the trail, in fact. Based on where the different Class A groups would be along the trail by the time this attack started, if we were to both go rushing to where Todoroki-kun and Bakugo are, we'd run the risk of bypassing Mina-chan, Uraraka-chan and Asui-chan, and potentially leave them without aid if there are any other Villains near here."

The conflict in Nikolays' eyes as he processed this was unmistakable. He now found himself clearly torn between his two desires: that to save the three girls of his class that were still out here, and the more universal desire to save everyone he possibly could, while knowing he couldn't do both. "It's not just them, either. For all we know, even more of your classmates could be out in this section of the woods right now, too. We can't just risk leaving them all out here."

As Nikolay clenched his bruised fists with frustration, Setsuna placed a relatively calm and reassuring hand on his shoulder, forcing him to look in her eyes. Even with the gas mask on, he could tell she was smiling that confident fanged smirk of hers underneath it. "And we aren't going to, either. I'll head over to help Todoroki-kun and Bakugo. You stay here and keep on the course we've been going, keep your eyes and ears open for anything, be careful, and get our friends out of here and back to safety, Bezpalov-kun. I know you can do it."

The moment she saw that resolve return to his green eyes with a resolute nod, Setsuna let go of his shoulder, and with another confident wink, she proceeded to detach her arms and legs and send them flying back into the woods behind her, with the rest of her body quickly flying right after them, and within seconds, she was completely out of sight, and Nikolay once again found himself alone in this thick gas in the middle of the woods.

"She's right…out in these parts, it's up to me now. Don't worry, everyone…I won't let you down. Setsuna-san, Todoroki-san, Bakugo…be careful. Mina, Uraraka-san, Tsuyu-san…please be safe, wherever you are. I promise, everyone, I'm coming." With this solemn vow sworn to himself, Nikolay proceeded to aim his arms forward and fire a wide yet powerful kinetic burst from his hands, blowing away a large portion of the gas in front of him, clearing up his view of the path ahead through the bushes and trees.

With his heart hardened and his spirit driven, Nikolay proceeded to launch himself in a forward leap once more, ricocheting off one tree after another, and this time firing from one hand with each launch, clearing away more and more of the gas in a solid path.

Deep within the rolling banks of the encroaching gas in the forest, the Villain adorned in a middle school uniform and a gas mask was standing enraptured in the ever-expanding clouds of his Quirk, relishing in the fact he'd been able to incapacitate so many of the Hero students all at once without even having to break his sweat with the burden of an actual fight.

However, after several minutes of having had his role of their teams' grand plan uninterrupted, he was suddenly sensing a dispersion in the gas, and even more, it was actually expanding further in a plotted out line. Someone out there was actually foraging their way through his gas by force…and for him, that simply wasn't going to do.

"Dammit…I can't have someone getting these damn people out of here and getting them back into action. That's just gonna screw up everything! Oh well, not something a little contingency plan can't resolve." With this affirmation to himself, the Villain known only to his colleagues as Mustard began to determinedly make his way through the gas, using his Quirk to slowly but surely plot out the direction this ongoing gas-separator was going, so he could get one step ahead of them and efficiently cut them off for good.

Back at the entrance to the woods, after the handful of Yuuei students had finally fled the scene, Mandalay and Tiger now found themselves thankfully alone while face to face with their two adversaries.

Taking the students' sudden departure as his cue, the lizard Villain known as Spinner swiftly made an aggressive charge for Mandalay, his massive makeshift bastard sword of a weapon reeled back at his side and at the ready as he cried out in adrenaline-filled excitement: "Selfish Heroes like yourselves should all be PURGED!"

"That Spinner…even though he's a Villain, he's so coooool! And what a hunky face, too!"

The sudden blunt force intrusion of an admiring woman's voice (that of Mandalay herself) suddenly filling his entire head sent Spinner into a flustered tumble, easily allowing the brown-haired Pussycat to close the distance between them with an aggressive charge. "Something the matter, hon?"

Before Spinner could even react, Mandalay swiftly raked his left side with the claws adorning the ends of her paw glove, leaving him screaming in both pain and rage upon realizing what she'd just done to get him to lower his guard so easily, just as she dug her hands into the ground and brought herself skidding to a stop, already turning around to charge him head on yet again. "Th…that was such an underhanded move, you sneaky little bitch!"

However, before she could charge at Spinner again, Mandalay suddenly felt her whole body getting pulled backwards through the air, and not even by anything physical, either. It was as though the air itself was carrying her back against her will.

As her mid-air speed began to increase, Mandalay looked back in shock to find the Villain with the 2x4-like weapon, the one Spinner had referred to as 'Magne', was now aiming that very same weapon at her, while tauntingly calling out "Come here, little Pussycat." 'So that's what that thing is: a giant MAGNET!'

"I WON'T LET YOU PULL THE SAME TRICK TWICE!" Having realized this was in fact the very same trick by which the Villain had managed to take out Pixie-Bob in the beginning, Tiger was already on the interception, rushing in and ramming his fist at full force up the back of Magnes' head, forcing them to finally drop their weapon, and thus allow Mandalay back onto the ground.

As Magne was already beginning to recover from that sudden blow to the head, Tiger could only stare them down with sheer contempt, already readying himself to plant another fist right into them. "Hikiishi Kenji, Villain name: Magne. 9 counts of armed robbery, 3 counts of murder, 29 counts of attempted murder."

However, to Tigers' growing rage, the simultaneously masculine and feminine Villain could only chuckle in apathetic amusement. "Oh, am I really that famou-?"

WRAAM!

Tiger couldn't stand to hear their voice for a moment longer, as he already was bringing his fist straight into Magnes' face in a devastating uppercut…or at least, it would have been, if Magne hadn't actually managed to stop his fist dead in its tracks with one hand, still smiling that distant and cold grin. But the one male Pussycat didn't let that intimidate him: "What's a criminal like you doing in a place like this?"

However, before Magne could either answer, or simply taunt him back, Tiger was instead answered by an especially distressed-sounding Mandalay as she got up: "Tiger, something's wrong! I'm still not getting any response from Ragdoll! She always answers immediately!"

Tiger could likewise feel the same overwhelming worry begin taking a hold of him, too blinded by it to see the sadistically gleeful smile on Magnes' face at this particular news. With Ragdoll indisposed, one of the bigger portions of their overall plan could be pulled off so much easier now.

Back on the cliff, Izuku was refusing to back down, still glowing and sparking with the energy of Full Cowl as he stared the now-chuckling Muscular down; that scarred face now twisted into a truly amused yet cruel grin, as more and more dark red tendrils began coiling around his right arm and unfurling from his left, almost resembling some sick kind of organic armor for him.

"No matter what, you'll save him, you say? Excellent…just as expected, the true feel of a Hero candidate; ready to parade that face of justice anywhere, anytime." While Izuku didn't dare say anything lest it serve just that much of a distraction to allow Muscular to make his move, Kota couldn't even begin to speak, still stricken with that soul-shattering terror of just who they were up against.

With that silence as his answer, the towering Villain slowly pointed to the boy brave enough to stand defiantly before him. "You're the one called Midoriya, aren't you? What perfect timing. I had just been ordered to start things off by killing your sorry ass." With that excitement clearly building up in his tone, Muscular finally threw his cloak to the wind, now left in simple cargo pants and a tank top that truly complimented his already imposing physique, while his face was twisted with truly wretched glee: "RIGHT AFTER I TAKE MY TIME TORTURING YOU, THAT IS! LET ME SEE YOU BLEED!"

Izuku was already beginning to kick himself forward in a charge to get the advantage, but before his first foot was even able to leave the ground, Muscular practically phased out of his line of sight, only for the boy to instinctively look up to find his massive frame already descending right toward him with his right arm reeled back and ready.

Izuku was barely able to get his glowing left arm up to deflect Musculars' first punch, before the impact was finally made, hitting the boy with the sheer force of a massive wrecking ball against a matchstick. Izuku was sent slamming into the side of the mountain with devastating force rippling through his entire body; his left arm almost literally shattered from taking the full brunt of the Villains' attack.

Seeing the green-haired boy embedded in an almost perfect indentation in the solid rock, Musculars' one eye only slightly widened in delayed realization. "Ah, whoops. I almost forgot. If you know, then tell me…"

As Izukus' head finally stopped spinning and ringing, and started blocking out the pain engulfing his left arm, he caught sight of Muscular already kicking himself forward right for him again.

"…Where is the Bakugo kid? After all, first and foremost, I've got a job…" Izukus' already panicked mind now had sheer confusion ringing in it as he saw his chance for escape quickly shrinking. 'What could the Villains possibly want with Kacchan?!'

"…TO FINISH!" Musculars' closing words snapped Izuku back to full alertness, as he forced all of Full Cowls' energy to his legs in that remaining split second, and fired himself out from his indentation in the mountain, just in time to avoid Musculars' fist plowing straight into the mountain where he just was, narrowly escaping certain death.

'Why?! Why is Kacchan suddenly their target?!' Even for as fired up as his survival instincts were burning, this was all Izuku could continuously ask himself, even as the dust from the blow to the mountain finally cleared, revealing Muscular already setting his sights on him once again.

"You can just say 'I don't know,' kid. That okay with you? Then…LET'S PLAY!" In the blink of an eye, Muscular once again dashed faster than even Izukus' observant eyes could follow, and the boy found a massive foot planting itself hard against his entire torso, kicking him with such force that he was essentially turned into a human projectile, plowing with agonizing power right back into the side of the mountain, before crumpling into a writhing beaten pile on the ground.

As both his arms were now becoming engulfed in the red coils in preparation, the sight of Izuku bloodied and bruised before him left Muscular feeling downright giddy as he laughed. "HAAHAHAHAHA! BLOOD! THAT'S MORE LIKE IT! NOW WE'RE REALLY HAVING FUN! What was it you said earlier?! 'I'll save you, no matter what'?! Then why are you running away now?! Oh, people like you just crack me up, kid!"

It hurt like absolute hell to even move a single inch of his body after having been hit multiple times with such unbelievable force, but Izuku wasn't about to let himself just get laid out like this. 'No…I can't be worrying about Kacchan right now! That muscle-looking Quirk…it has such incredible speed…and strength…I've got to concentrate…on the enemy in front of me right now!'

The moment Izuku had gotten back onto one foot, he swiftly focused all of Full Cowl into his right fist, throwing it forward with all the strength and speed he knew he could muster within his threshold, and when he felt flesh meet flesh with his resounding battle cry of "SMASH", he actually felt an inkling of hope that he had at least been able to stun Muscular just enough to buy himself some breathing room.

"What's this? That supposed to be your Quirk? Have to admit, it's got some decent speed to it…BUT IT DOESN'T PACK ENOUGH PUNCH!" Before Izuku was even able to process the fact that his fully powered punch had literally no effect, he was met with the deafening and head-spinning impact of Musculars' open left hand smacking him straight across his head.

Izuku was sent bouncing and rolling down the cliff path while Muscular could only laugh at his listless display, and the still petrified Kota could only watch with blinding tears and a sickening twisting in his gut from overwhelming anxiety.

Musculars' face was the picture definition of sadistic glee as the fibers around his arms continued to condense and wrap over one another, leaving his arms looking more than twice their original size as he slowly approached Izuku like a predator to its prey. "My Quirk is Muscle Augmentation! It enables me to augment the muscle fibers that sit beneath the skin, granting me both speed and strength! What do you say to that, huh?! What else you got?! Nothing! Because you are a completely inferior version of me!"

Muscular finally came to a stop, staring down with unquenchable bloodlust at Izukus' nearly motionless body sprawled out on the ground. "Have you any idea how this feels?! Seeing you squirm powerless, I can only laugh! You'll save him, no matter what?! And how exactly do you plan to do that?! Don't just go spouting off hollow words just because you think they sound right, kid!"

As Izuku slowly rolled onto his back, staring almost absently back up at him, Muscular raised his empowered right fist for a hammering down he knew would finally put an end to the amusingly insignificant child before him. "You should really be worrying about…HOW YOU'LL STAY ALIVE YOURSELF!"

CRACK!

The sudden but insignificant tapping of a small rock against the back of his head froze Muscular right in his tracks, and the wide grin on his face instantly vanished as he looked back in curiosity, only to find that the trembling little boy from before now actually looked to have some fight in him, as his right arm had been extended, as though he were the one that threw the rock.

Kotas' face was still soaked with terrified tears, but there was also an unmistakable spark beginning to light in his eyes as well, as he finally worked up the wherewithal to say something: "Th-the Water Hoses…my Mom…and Dad…did you torment them like that before you killed them, too?!"

Izuku was stricken speechless as he could only look with silent fear, for the boy that had just drawn the Villains' full attention. Meanwhile, Musculars' contemplative face reflected sudden realization in his one eye, as he finally turned back to address the small child that finally decided to fight back. "What's this? Seriously? Those two Heroes…actually had a kid? Well now…this must be fate!"

By now, his look of wonder quickly returned to that unsettlingly excited grin, as he began purposefully approaching Kota, who was still trembling despite trying to stand his ground. "The Water Hoses…those were the two that gave me this artificial eye."

Suddenly, Kota hunched his shoulders up in a further show of defiance as he impulsively screamed out in response: "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! IT'S BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU…THAT THINGS ALWAYS TURN OUT LIKE THIS!"

However, all Kotas' impassioned outcry did was bring a bemused smirk to Musculars' face, as he kept staring the small child down like an insect. "That's typical: little snot-nosed punks like you are always looking to pass the blame. That's no good. You should learn to take some kind of example from your elders, little boy. For example, I'm not holding any grudges about this eye of mine. I simply wanted 'to kill,' and those two wanted to stop me. Our desires intersected, and what followed was simply the result of that."

Kota found himself already instinctively starting to try and back away as Musculars' towering height now blocked the light of the moon, rendering the Villain a terrifying silhouette in Kotas' eyes; a shadowy monster already reeling one of its massive arms to strike him down without mercy. "The ones at fault are the ones who try to act even though they're incapable of doing anything effective…THAT PRETTY MUCH SUMS UP YOUR PATHETIC MOM AND DAD!

"That's just how it goes! Isn't that right, you little raggedy punching bag?!" With this last taunt, Muscular suddenly took his eye off of Kota, and instead turned back with full expectation, just in time to find Izuku had not only gotten back up, but was now currently flying right through the air in glowing sparks, coming right for the Villains' face.

"THE FAULT…IS YOURS!" This was all Izuku could actually say out loud as he watched the distance between him and Muscular rapidly shrink, with his mind racing just as quickly: 'I fall behind him in speed, and I can't inflict the slightest amount of damage on him! He's out of my league! AND HELP WON'T BE COMING! In that case…'

With not a moment wasted on further words or cries of rage, Izuku did the only thing he could possibly think of, and proceeded to throw his busted left arm with all the force he could, just at the same time Muscular was beginning to bind even more of his muscle fibers around his right arm in an attempt to deflect the glowing fist coming his way.

With the speed behind him, Izuku actually managed to lodge his broken arm right under the new layer of muscle fibers just before they enclosed around him, leaving the freckled boy hanging helplessly from the Villains' arm, fighting his way through the crushing pain of the muscle fibers tightening around his decommissioned arm.

This was the one way he could think of to finally put them on equal fighting ground, and no matter how much pain it would put him through, he was going to see it through: "And now…I won't have to worry about the gap in our speeds!"

However, even despite the sheer mindless bravado behind such an action, even with his body in such busted up shape, this sight could only make Muscular laugh once more. 'He's trapped his useless broken arm in between my muscle fibers! That's ballsy, if not just downright suicidal, kid!' "And what now?! You gonna hit me with that other weak, inferior arm of yours?!"

From a distance, Kota could only watch dumbfounded, terrified that he was about to see Muscular finish Izuku off just like that. And yet, the green-haired boy before him only seemed to start glowing brighter and brighter, with more sparks emitting from his right arm as he began to reel it back for the one hit he felt any measure confident he could land.

"It's not a matter of what you can or can't do…for a Hero…RISKING OUR LIVES…AND WALKING THE WALK IS OUR JOB!"

With this devotion igniting in the depths of his heart, and with more power burning within his fist than ever before, Izuku threw forward with everything he had, with the very essence and drive of One For All controlling every fiber of his being as he declared what he knew deep down would be his finishing blow against this latest representative of evil: "ONE FOR ALL! 100%!"

Between the power visibly emanating from his approaching fist, and the incredible focus and intensity written all over Izukus' bruised up face, even Musculars' previous sense of absolute dominance was momentarily shaken by realization: 'What the hell?! He's totally different from before!'

SMASH!

The resounding sheer impact of fist upon muscle erupted through the air like a several megaton bomb, sending destructive fractures up and down and across the cliff face, and sending out a shockwave of pure reactive force so immense, that it inadvertently sent Kota flying as helplessly as a sheet of paper, right over the edge of the cliff.

However, just as soon as Kota realized he was now about to go plummeting into the forest below, and just before gravity could finally claim him, he suddenly felt the back of his shirt getting clutched hard, and as he now found himself dangling helplessly over a hundred feet above the trees, Kota looked back up to find, to his disbelief, that Izuku had thrown himself all the way here, and miraculously caught Kotas' shirt by his own teeth.

The pain in his eyes was immense, but that still didn't stop him from fighting through the agony to reassure the little boy hanging below him: "Sorry…didn't mean to send you flying." While Kota stuttered in an attempt to even find an answer, Izuku wriggled and writhed without the use of his arms, slowly but surely pulling him back onto solid ground.

As Izuku got back to his feet, Kota could only continue to look at the green-haired boy; especially his horribly discolored and outright mangled-looking arms; in speechless shock. However, Izukus' eyes were focused solely on the smoking crater in the side of the mountain he had managed to punch Muscular into. "Come on…let's get back to the camp facility. It's not too far from here…"

Suddenly, the sound of rocks rumbling and tumbling against each other froze Izuku in his path, immediately turning back to find, to his disbelief and blood-chilling horror, that Muscular was actually stepping out from the dust; his muscle fibers now almost entirely encapsulating his whole body, leaving him looking downright inhuman.

As the fibers all started to unravel from around the Villain, Izuku found himself in a state of complete shellshock, barely even able to string together a coherent sentence as he struggled to comprehend just what he was actually up against. "What…? No way…even…at 100%?!" 'But…that was the full power…of All Might himself!'

Now with his Quirk-augmented muscle fibers completely retracted into his body, Muscular hung his head, heaving for breath, his torso clearly already showing extensive bruising. However, this was once again completely offset by the deeply pleased smile on the Villains' face, which only replaced Izukus' fear with that same driven anger as before, as Muscular finally spoke: "Starting off with a little jab, huh? Not half-bad…Midoriya."

The moment he began to take his first step towards them, Izukus' body took the reins, as the boy hurriedly put himself between the Villain and the likewise shaken Kota. "St-stay back!"

However, this once again only served to deeply amuse Muscular. "Now, now…that'd be no fun. You're mine, after all. Both of you are."

The sheer fact this monster was still standing looking virtually none the worse for wear after such a hit, had Izuku genuinely shaking where he stood, his mind racing for some kind of answer or solution, and coming up bone dry. Ultimately, he did the only thing he could possibly think of that could even remotely buy them a little extra time: "Wh-why are you doing this?! What does the League of Villains want from us?!"

As Muscular continued to approach, he began rummaging blindly through one of his pockets; that sadistic smile never once faltering from his face. "Hell if I know. I just tear shit apart. As long as I can let loose with my Quirk and have some fun, I don't care! Did you forget already?! It's all just a game! A game! And we're just playing! I said it, right?! I did, didn't I?! Let's play! That's what I said!

"But we're done with that. Play time's over! You're stronger than I thought, so now it's time for…" as he paused, the Villain finally retracted his hand from his pocket before bringing it up to his face, only to now reveal an artificial eye nearly as dark as the night itself, terrifyingly complimenting the grin of pure bloodlust on his scarred face. "…my serious face!"

"KOTA-KUN, GRAB ON!" Izukus' terrified-sounding order came so suddenly that Kota had to backpedal to make sure he'd heard the boy right mentally, but physically he was already one step ahead of Izuku, as he hurriedly grabbed onto his shoulders.

The instant he felt those tiny hands, Izuku immediately made an about-face turn, summoned up the full power of Full Cowl across his entire body and launched himself forward with a kick for everything he was worth, just in the nick of time, as Muscular had already enlarged his entire body with the suit of his muscle fibers, and had driven his fist right where Izuku had just stood.

The freckled boy ricocheted off the cliff face just above the Villains' head, dashing for the path behind him so he could simply focus on getting as much distance between them as humanly possible. 'His speed and his strength…they are on a whole other level from before! He really has been just playing with us…as if it were just a game…he's been trying to kill us!'

Unfortunately, Musculars' reflexes had sped up just as much as Izukus', as his eye had already zeroed in on the fleeing boy mid-ricochet, and swiftly drove his fist straight into the cliff face, shattering it to the point that the surface gave out from under Izukus' feet, sending him and Kota tumbling helplessly back down to the ground, separated and now at the Villains' mercy once again.

"Ah, shit, I overdid it again." Muscular pretended to express regret as he began approaching his two young victims. Izuku was visibly hurt far worse than he already had been, barely able to even stand up straight anymore, his entire body almost completely discolored with countless bruises and lacerations from that near explosion of a punch. 'Damn it! I can't get scared now! Come on, think! Aizawa-sensei should be back at the facility by now, if we could just make it there! All he'd have to do is erase this guys' Quirk!'

However, even with the scraps of confidence he had in that idea, the pangs of realistic doubt quickly wormed their way into Izukus' restless brain. 'Can we really make it all the way back to the facility without him catching up with us, though? There's no way! Even under normal circumstances, and with all the training we've been doing, it'd be tough to make it back quickly…NO! There's no time to think about that! I have to fight! Here and now! I have to win! You've got no other choice, Midoriya Izuku! You are here to save people, right?! DON'T FORGET…WHY YOU BECAME A HERO!'

Even with this resolving fire burning as strong as ever in his heart, Izuku couldn't deny that agony and exhaustion completely filing every inch of his body. If it weren't for everything he knew he needed to do to make sure Kota would get out of here all right, he would've just let the exhaustion take him and keel over into unconsciousness.

But as long as a Hero had someone they needed to protect and save, they would never let that happen to themselves, and neither would he. Thus, Izuku said the very first semblance of an idea that finally got through to him: "Kota-kun…get back. Not too far from me, or he'll just target you…yeah, about seven steps back. When I clash with him, run back to the facility with everything you've got."

Even as Izuku got back to his feet and started slowly approaching the hulking form of Muscular ahead, Kota couldn't possibly stay silent: "Wait…you're not really gonna take him head on, are you?! It's useless! Your attacks didn't even have any effect on him last time…and now…both your arms…THEY'RE BROKEN!"

Even as Kota pointed out this agonizingly clear fact, Izuku didn't stop, and neither did Muscular, who was already in the process of kicking himself right for the green-haired boy like the worlds' largest human cannonball. At the same time, Izuku already began channeling every ounce of Full Cowl he could into his right fist, answering with a resounding "I'M OKAY! ONE FOR ALL, 100% DETROIT SMASH!"

Izuku drove his blazing bright fist straight into the center mass of the approaching Muscular, creating another resounding explosion of pure force that echoed all over. Izuku could feel the already broken bones in his right arm crumpling under the inhuman pressure even further, but he refused to lay off his attack until he knew for a fact he was able to keep the Villain away even for a moment, enough so that Kota could flee.

"You little shit…what's wrong?!" The sound of Musculars' voice from within the mass of muscle fibers didn't even sound remotely put-off, as the fibers actually began to part just enough for the tortured Izuku to see the smiling face within.

"THAT WAS EVEN WEAKER THAN BEFORE!" Muscular roared this with a psychotic glee to his laugh, as he suddenly grasped onto Izukus' head, and proceeded to put his entire body weight into the resulting push, sending Izuku into the ground below, forcing the freckled boy to bend at the knees, and refusing to relent to the growing pressure upon his whole body.

Even as he tried to put every last remaining ounce of his physical strength into trying to resist the insane power Muscular was putting into trying to crush him, Izuku could still feel Kotas' terrified eyes upon him; the single greatest motivator to keep fighting he ever could've asked for in that desperate moment. "I'm okay! It's okay…THERE'S NO WAY HE'S GETTING PAST ME! SO…RUN!"

The power of One For All was almost erupting from every pore in Izukus' body as he began using his entire body as a barricade to push back with ever greater strength against Musculars' overwhelming mass, fighting through burning tears as he kept placing one determined foot in front of the other, fighting with literally everything he had left to give. "RUN! RUN AWAY!"

Unfortunately, even as he found himself getting pushed back inch by inch, and even as Izuku was now taken to hammering his fist into him over and over again, Musculars' smile never even once began to falter. "You little shit…THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!" With that, he proceeded to start hammering his fists together on Izuku like a human nail beneath a hammer, unrelenting in his barrage of blows upon the small boys' body, screaming with bloodthirsty rapture with every single hit: "SHUT! YOUR! GODDAMN! MOOOUTH! BLOOD! I WANT BLOOOOD!"

Kota had long since fallen onto his backside in petrified disbelief and horror as he watched the boy he had once shown so much spite to, never once back down against this monster, and was now going through unending physical hell for it, and all for his sake. Even through his fear and tears, all Kota could possibly ask when watching this was a simple yet boundless "Why?"

All the while, as his body was being endlessly pummeled despite his continuous attempt at resisting, Izuku could feel his strength and consciousness fading, overwrought with a pain so much worse than any he had faced before. Even as his body kept trying to fight back and his mind tried to think of a way out, a way to turn this around…he couldn't think of anything that would actually work.

For once, Izuku found himself in a situation even he logically had no choice but to label as hopeless. He kept thinking back on All Mights' and Tunguskas' words of how Heroes always found their ways out of a pinch…but he just could not find that way here.

As such, deep within the subconscious of his mind, Izuku found himself approaching a grim sense of resignation: 'I'm sorry, Mom! Mom, I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Tunguska-sensei! All Might…All Might!'

However, thinking of his lifelong icon, just before finally slipping into the ultimate state of unconsciousness, Izuku could hear All Mights' voice echoing back from so long ago…the battle at USJ, in fact…the moment he and Tunguska had fought together to beat the Nomu…All Mights' final words, once so distant, now rang in Izukus' head as clear as a bell: "Villain, do you know what it means?! To put more than 100% into each and every punch!'

All at once, full consciousness had snapped back into Izuku with the speed and force inconceivable to the human mind, just in time to see Muscular now had his fists raised to deliver the coup de grace on his skull, his face the picture of nightmarish, sadistic euphoria: "DIE ALREADY!"

Just as those fists began to come right back down to finish pounding the human nail all the way into the ground, a sudden massive wave of water came roaring from out of nowhere, driving straight into Musculars' mass, stopping him mid-swing to look up in surprise to see who would dare actually interrupt his fun…

…only to find, to his surprise and amusement alike, that Kota had finally gotten back to his feet, and had his arms extended and hands joined, dripping with water from out of nowhere. Even without having seen it from the start, both Muscular and Izuku alike knew what this was: Kota Izumi had actually decided to stand up, and try to save Izuku through the use of his own Quirk.

Even with the fear still evident in his eyes, and the occasional trembling of his little body, Kota wasn't trying to flee anymore, even when seeing his Quirk had no actual harming effect on the Villain in front of him. In fact, his body was burning with such intense sudden courage, he instead only spoke up: "ST-STOP IT!"

Even when being crushed under Musculars' mass, Izuku could still manage to feel his heart grow with pride to see Kota actually stepping up, for him of all people. At the same time, however, Muscular could only once again laugh: "No need to rush! You're next, kid, okay?! Coming right up! Right after this! I'll smash the life right out of you next, so hang on-!"

All of a sudden, Muscular could feel the sensation of Izuku driving his fist against him once again, but this time something was immensely different: there was an entirely different feel about the boy beneath him right now, and the force with which he was striking against him was on an entirely different level, and even the Villain could feel it was rapidly growing stronger, to the point it was even matching his current level of strength, if not already starting to excel past it.

'What the hell's going on?! In just that one moment, I looked away…something happened?! There's something wholly different about his power now!' Even through the panic racing through Musculars' mind, he refused to simply sit back and do nothing, already proceeding to drive his fiber-bound fists right down into Izuku in kind. Even if it felt like he was now getting punched up into by the very hand of a god, he would likewise keep fighting back as hard as his Quirk could allow, and even beyond that. "What's the matter, Midoriya?! Can't stand?!"

"LIKE…I'D EVER…LET YOU KILL HIIIIIIIM!"

With that piercing cry of righteous fury erupting from beneath like an almighty volcano, Muscular suddenly felt a push of force from beneath that even his super-strengthened mass couldn't resist against, actually being pushed right off of Izukus' prone body with one hand.

And without even wasting another moment, even as the Villain already was proceeding to reach back to retaliate, the fully illuminated and sparking Izuku Midoriya reeled one open hand back, glowing like the sun itself as the words came right to him from the pit of his soul, driven by everything he had to make this the finishing blow: "ONE FOR ALL, 1,000,000%, DELAWARE DETROIT SMAAASH!"

The force with which Izukus' swinging palm smacked straight into Muscular was unlike anything conceivable to the human mind. It wasn't like getting hit by someone ten times the Villains' size. It wasn't even like being hit by the sheer force of nature itself. It was like he'd been stricken by the sheer unstoppable force of the very meteor that annihilated the dinosaurs themselves.

The explosion of pure energy as he was blasted straight back into the mountainside was near deafening, and the concussive force rippling through his body rendered the Villain long since unconscious, hitting him with enough raw force to even send his dark artificial eye popping right out of his socket, while the rest of him now stood motionless, and embedded helplessly into the solid rock.

As Izuku finally let that inhuman buildup of power dissipate from his body, collapsing to his knees in pure exhaustion and shellshock, Kota could only stand enraptured in the back, taking in not only what had actually played out before his eyes, but the sheer devotion and emotion that had gone into every last second of suffering Izuku had put himself through, all for his sake. To take it all in, in the aftermath of something so world-shaking, he could still only ask one question: "Why? You…y-you don't know a thing about me…why?! Why would you go this far…when you don't know a thing about me?"

As he asked that one most elusive question, in that one moment, the little boy suddenly found himself recalling words his aunt Mandalay had told him once; words that, at the time, he had paid no mind to out of his stubbornness and anger, but now rang true with so much weight he hadn't felt before:

"Kota-kun…your parents…The Water Hoses…they may have left you behind, but…with their sacrifice, they were able to protect the lives of others. One day, a time will come…when you face the same thing…and then you'll understand. I'll risk my life to save you. So that you can call me…"

As soon as he recalled those last words she had told him, it all finally clicked in Kotas' head, just at the same moment as Izuku had blindly gotten back to his feet, staggering as though he weren't even the one truly in control, but rather moving out of pure muscle memory.

Those final words Mandalay had parted unto him were now on the verge of escaping Kotas' mouth as he looked upon the inconceivable young man before him who had risked life and limb for nothing more than the sake of saving his life, even after everything he had done and said to him out of sheer spite.

No matter how many times Kota could only ask why Izuku had done what he had done, he already knew the answer, as those parting words kept echoing back and forth, until finally spilling out loud with all the pent up emotions Kota still had been holding in up to this very moment through his tears: 'This person…is without a doubt…' "MY HERO!"

And as these words echoed across the night, so too did the instinctive howling of near animalistic victory that erupted from within Izukus' throat, with the physically resonating knowledge that in all conceivable ways here and now, he had well and truly emerged victorious, having beaten the Villain, having saved Kotas' life, and having finally, finally reawakened that spirit within the young boy he had refused to give up on.

Elsewhere…

Within the depths of the League of Villains' hideout, the air had been considerably tense. Ever since their selection of ten new recruits had been painstakingly chosen and sent out on their inaugural mission, hardly anything else had been said. The instinctive feeling of faith in their capabilities had gone without saying, but that still did little to stop the likes of Kurogiri from still feeling a lingering sense of doubt, if not perhaps even a touch of worry.

He had not wished to say anything against Tomura Shigarakis' decision to send them out into the field from the onset, but after so much time had already passed with no notable word from them on their progress, the black misty Villain eventually found he could not keep his own feelings silent any longer, and he knew that, as their officiated leader, Shigaraki needed to hear what he had to say.

And so it was with this resolution in mind, that for the first time this night, Kurogiri had finally decided to step into the private bar that Shigaraki so often liked to pass the spare time in. He didn't even open with his typical pleasantries, instead opting to get straight to the point: "Do you really believe it'll be all right with just them out in the field, Shigaraki Tomura-san?"

As though he'd already been expecting his subordinate to express such concern, the white-haired Villain didn't even hesitate in his answer: "Yeah. It's not time for me to make my reappearance yet. The fact is that the game's changed. You see, at first I was playing this whole thing like it was an RPG. We had all our equipment prepared, but we tried to fight the final boss at Level 1. But really, I should have played it like a sim. As the player, I should manage what I can; using what pawns I have available to take down those who are up on high. If I can manage to arrange and use my available forces wisely enough, I could even be able to remove all of the final boss' most vital allies without even having to expend any of my own personal resources. Wouldn't that be a lucky break?

"For that reason, first I need to make a crack in this superhuman society. It doesn't even matter if the Vanguard Action Squad succeeds or fails. Their very action is already a blow to the Heroes. If society sees firsthand that the Heroes they trust so much can't even protect the very youths that are to one day inherit their roles in this society…then that once unbreakable trust will be frayed beyond the point of repair."

While Shigaraki sounded more than resolved in just where all of their current forces stood in his vision for the grand scheme of things, Kurogiri, by contrast, looked quite unconvinced. "So, essentially, the Vanguard Action Squad are little more than sacrificial pawns?"

"Don't be ridiculous! Do I look that heartless to you? Those guys, their strength is the real deal. I may have been stubborn in acknowledging it at first, but I see it clearly now. We may all have our differences, but they can be counted on." Shigaraki couldn't help but smile in anticipation and confidence to himself as he looked upon the single photograph he'd been pondering over ever since they had first come up with the plan to attack the training camp the Yuuei students would be attending:

A photograph of the foul-tempered blonde-haired boy who had won the Yuuei Sports Festival, Katsuki Bakugo, currently shackled and gagged against the podium like a rabid dog. The sight of such rage in those eyes couldn't help but leave Shigaraki feeling especially excited to see how this little plan of theirs would ultimately play out. "After all, in this society, which has shackled us with its rules, you and I aren't the only ones oppressed, Kurogiri-san. I want them to succeed."

Beasts' Forest

Nikolay had long since lost track of how long he had been launching himself down this same direction through these woods, only to find no sign of anyone around. Without Setsuna around to at least let him know he wasn't all alone out here, his anxiety and worry for the others was only further mounting.

To compound onto it all, he had since started to notice the glow of fire through the tree line to his right, meaning that black smoke had indeed come from what he feared it had, and it was very clearly spreading. He knew he couldn't even use his Quirk to try and forcefully blow the fires out, either. Wind would only serve to send embers and burning sticks alike elsewhere and simply cause the fire to spread that much more. 'Goddammit, what I wouldn't give to have Todoroki-san here right now! No, don't focus on hypotheticals now! It's just you, and there are people out here that need your help! Just keep going!'

The gas and the smoke combining together was making it harder and harder to see. This forced him to basically rely on his instinctive reflexes to keep from plowing face first into the side of a tree with every ricochet he launched himself from.

Even more, the continuous use of his kinetic bursts from his hands as well as his feet was finally starting to take its toll on his arms. After the whole day of training, sparring and then the fight with Bakugo before anything else, his arms were by now virtually screaming from mounting ache and pain the likes of which he had hoped not to feel again for a very long time.

Alas, here he was, in a situation rapidly growing more and more desperate, and he was not about to just turn back and retreat for the facility and hope for the best. With the gas and smoke alike already starting to encroach onto him again after having cleared the most recent spot he'd landed in, only to still find no sign of anyone else, Nikolays' sense of stealth had finally gone out the window, and he did the one thing he felt still had any chance of turning up results.

As Nikolay quickly leapt forward and propelled himself off the side of yet another tree, he finally called out through his gas mask: "MINA! OCHAKO! TSUYU! ANYONE! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?! PLEASE CALL OUT IF YOU CAN HEAR ME!"

As the last ounce of energy in Izukus' body left him by the end of his victory cry, all the tension still in his body left him slack and nearly listless, as gravity began to bring him face down to the ground, only instinctively saving himself by planting one foot forward. He could tell Kota had to be worried sick about him, seeing him in this nightmarish physical state, and therefore rushing to see if he could somehow help.

Izukus' words came by sheer reflex, not even truly thinking: "I'm fine. I…still have more to do."

However, even a small child like Kota wasn't having it, not this time, with his previous distaste now having long since been forgotten: "You're totally battered and bruised! What can you even do with your body all beaten up like that?!"

The penultimate amount of pain still encompassing his whole body was beginning to leave Izuku shaking from head to toe, but still the freckled boy kept standing through it all: "I knew I had to protect you…that's why I fought him. With that in mind, I thought I could handle him…but that Villain was way stronger than I expected."

Izuku slowly lifted his head, looking past Kota to the raging wildfire ahead, a whole new wave of determination beginning to overshadow the pain. "If all the other Villains attacking us tonight are as strong as this one, then everyone is in danger. On top of that, they might be targeting the students. I need to let Aizawa-sensei and the Pussycats know. As long as this body can move to save them…I have to keep moving."

Kota was no longer crying. In fact, he actually couldn't help but swallow an especially inspired lump in his throat to hear Izuku say this with such resolve, and to see that inextinguishable fire in his eyes; the fire of one driven by something pure and all powerful, to save everyone he could.

Izuku and Kotas' gazes soon fell upon the motionless form of Muscular, now lying in the piles of rubble from the godlike blow he'd been defeated by. His Quirk had long since deactivated, as his muscle fiber armor had retracted, leaving him looking just like any normal human being again.

"For now, we can just leave this Villain here. With my arms in this state, I don't have much power, but…even so…he took some serious damage. I don't think he'll be waking up any time soon, but even if he does, he's not likely to be able to go anywhere."

With this reassuring observation, Izuku finally turned back to address his young charge. "Above all else, though…I have to protect you."

For once, Kota simply looked confused, barely able to summon words, before Izuku continued on: "You can do something no one else can. With the fires spreading through the forest, all of the ways out will become dead ends. Do you understand? We need your Quirk, Kota-kun. I may have saved you just now…but now, we all need you to save us."

Izuku knelt down to meet Kotas' eyes as an equal as he reached his ultimate point. Even such a simple act of humility really seemed to resonate with the little boy, as even despite the clear nervousness on his face, he didn't back down. And for Izuku, that said more than any words could.

And so with that, he once again turned his back to Kota with exceptional urgency. "Hurry, get on! I need to take you back to the facility."

Looking over the myriad of bruises and lacerations all over Izukus' body, Kota couldn't help but hesitate before climbing onto his back again. "Can you really move with all those injuries?"

As if to answer the boys' question, the glow and sparking energy of Full Cowl began to emanate from Izukus' legs. "That's what I saved these legs for!" With that, he proceeded to launch himself with an all-powerful kick, flying as fast as he could across the ground towards the facility, with Kota hanging on for dear life the whole way.

However, that wasn't actually what was on Izukus' mind, as Musculars' words from before that troubled him the most continued to echo louder and louder, forcing Izuku to once again find himself thinking: 'Kacchan, where are you right now? I've got a really bad feeling about this!'

Training Facility, moments earlier…

Despite the overwhelming fire with which the burn scar-covered Villain, Dabi, had consumed Aizawa in, he never once heard the man scream as he'd expected. Perhaps it was that foolish sense of Heroic stoicism preventing him from doing so…or perhaps it could've been something a little less fortunate for Dabi himself.

Letting his blue fire dissipate, he was quick to realize there was no smoldering body where Aizawa had once stood, not even a smoking pile of ashes and charred bones. Instinct told Dabi to look up, and sure enough, the long-haired black-clad Hero had kicked himself up at the very last second, and was now hanging by the wrapping around his shoulders from a nearby railing, truly looking like an honest-to-goodness ninja. The sight honestly couldn't help but make Dabi chuckle with amusement. "Hmph…I guess that's just to be expected of a Pro like you."

With a kneejerk reflex, Dabi suddenly brought his hand back up to incinerate Aizawa where he hung, but the 1-A homeroom teacher was one step ahead of his new adversary. "That's not gonna work," he declared as he suddenly shot one extended wrapping forward, effortlessly ensnaring Dabi around the torso and arms, leaving the Villain unable to attack or even move freely.

With lightning-fast reflexes, Aizawa leaped from the railing, yanking on the line to force Dabi towards him. Still in mid-air, he proceeded to drive his descending knee straight into the Villains' face, before immediately following up with another well-angled yank on the line, forcing Dabi into a mid-air sideways spin, all before finally ending it with another driven knee straight into his back, forcing the still-tied-up Villain face first to the ground and pinned.

Aizawa already had that head of spiky black hair clutched tight in his grasp as he stared down coldly at his surprisingly easy assailant. "Your objective. Your numbers. Your positions. Now."

Despite the icy cold seriousness in Aizawas' voice, Dabis' eyes reflected no urgency or fear, instead only letting out an especially dry chuckle. "Why would I tell you?"

"Because I'll do this." Without another moment of warning, Aizawa swiftly snapped Dabis' left arm in half with a precise tug of the line, forcing an agonized scream out of the Villain below. "Next will be your right arm. Let's be rational. If I get to your legs, it'll be a pain to move you around."

Even despite the intense pain, Dabi still reflected no fear in those emotionless eyes, just barely glancing back to meet Aizawas' glare. "What's the matter? You in some kind of a rush, Eraserhead?"

SNAP!

And just like that with another precise tug, Dabis' right arm snapped like a twig. Aizawa momentarily looked back up to the inferno in the woods ahead, his already thin patience growing even more so. "Dammit…what is going on?"

"SENSEI!"

The sudden sound of Tenyas' urgency-filled voice perked Aizawas' head up towards the path into the woods. He felt himself become filled with a sense of great relief to see the class president, Minoru, Mashirao and Kouji come rushing up, seemingly no worse for wear. However, once he saw nobody else come rushing up the trail behind them, that relief once again turned to that serious air. "Are any more of the students catching up with you right now, Iida?!"

To his silent fear, the look on Tenyas' face was wrought with regret. "I'm sorry, Sensei! Bezpalov-san was with us, and so was Midoriya-san, but the latter went off elsewhere after informing the Pussycats of what he believed the Villains' plan was, and in that moment of distraction, Bezpalov-san ran into the woods to try and save as many of our classmates and the Class B students as possible. He was already too far gone by the time we'd realized it. Please forgive us, Sensei!"

Aizawa outwardly could only let out a deep grumble, but his mind was rife with particularly choice words. 'Dammit, Bezpalov…just when I think you're showing substantial improvement, it's right back to letting your emotions make decisions for you; you and Midoriya both.'

That momentary distraction proved enough for Dabi to gain enough wiggle room to suddenly roll himself out from under Aizawas' weight, forcing the teacher off as he hurriedly got back to his feet, but feeling the immense pain throughout his body all the same. 'I've taken too much damage…I can't hold out much longer…'

The Villain looked back to see Aizawa was already back on his feet, more than ready to reel him right back in with a single tug. An amused smile crept across Dabis' stitch-covered face. "I guess you're not a Hero instructor for nothing, after all. Say, Mr. Hero…"

Aizawa had no more patience for this young Villains' words, and thus gave a single strong tug to bring him in and shut him up…except this time, his Capture Tool tore right through Dabis' central mass like a wire through wet clay, splitting him clean in half…and yet, Dabis' expression never once reflected an ounce of pain.

In fact, the rest of his body suddenly began to come apart, as if he were a block of ice being hosed down in scalding water. "Your students…are they really that precious to you? If that's the case, I hope you can protect them all. Until we meet again…"

With that, Dabis' disintegrating body finally collapsed into nothing more than a quickly evaporating puddle, leaving Aizawa and his returned students looking downright dumbfounded at what they'd just witnessed, with Minoru shaking even more like a leaf than he already had been: "S-Sensei…what…what was that?!"

However, Aizawas' mind was on something far more serious, as he lifted his piercing gaze to the burning woods ahead. "All of you get inside. I'll be back soon."

Elsewhere in the forest…

Dabi had spent this whole time within the dark confines of the woods, waiting patiently for any word of progress from the rest of his soldiers as to the overall execution of their mission. So far, he'd received nothing, but he wasn't about to let that even remotely faze him. In fact, the very first notification of any kind of development he'd received was…

"AHH! DAMMIT, DABI! THEY GOT US! WHAT ARE YA?! SOME WEAK LITTLE SHRIMP?!"

This animated little outburst came from the latest of their numbers to have arrived, a single man in a pitch black skintight bodysuit that covered him from head to toe, with the only whites being that of his eyes, and the top half of his mask.

This latest addition to the Vanguard Action Squad had only introduced himself as Twice, and right now he was angrily making a throat-slitting motion with his thumb, and his reason for his anger didn't take a rocket scientist to guess on Dabis' part. "Wow, done already? Damn, I guess I really am weak."

Despite his previous anger, Twices' body language slackened almost instantly to hear their imposed leader say such a thing: "HUH?! What are you saying?! Don't go jumping to conclusions! You're strong! It's just that we were dealing with a Pro this time…!"

However, even his subordinates' reasoning did nothing to dissuade Dabi, instead simply focusing on the unseen horizon ahead, the horizon this missions' success would ultimately lead them to, according to Shigaraki at least. "Clone me again, Twice. I've got to take that Pro out of action."

Once again with the abruptness of flipping a switch, Twice's mood had skyrocketed with excitement: "I can make as many little shrimps as you need! Leave it to me!"

"We should almost be there." Izuku hadn't remotely slowed down even once after he and Kota had left the cliff. They were now racing through the depths of the forest. He was so singularly driven to get the child on his back to the safety of the training facility, he almost missed it when he heard the boy calling out with sudden urgency: "Look! Over there!"

Following Kotas' gaze, Izuku nearly came to a literally screeching halt when he recognized the black-clad figure he was seeing sprinting through the woods barely a dozen yards away. "SENSEI!"

"Midoriya?" The distant form of Aizawa likewise came to a sudden stop, looking right in Izukus' direction with genuine concern, before he ultimately saw the pitiful state the green-haired boys' body was now in, completely ignorant to the relief evident on his young face.

"Sensei…thank God! This is serious…there's so much I need to tell you…("Hold on")…but before that, I need to talk to Mandalay-sensei…" Izuku was completely deaf to Aizawa trying to speak to him, as he was already ushering Kota off of his back and gently nudging him to the teachers' side.

"Please, take care of Kota-kun for me, Sensei! He's got a water Quirk! You've got to protect him! ("I said hold on…") I'm leaving it to you! ("DAMMIT, MIDORIYA, HOLD UP!")"

Aizawas' sudden angry shout stopped Izuku in his tracks as he'd already started to sprint away again. Looking back, he could finally see the visibly pained, disapproving light in the teachers' eyes. "Those injuries of yours…you went and did it again, didn't you?"

The realization that flashed in Izukus' eyes, as well as the visible regret on his beaten up face, told Aizawa everything he needed to know. The teacher finally let out a regretful sigh. "There're some things you need to know right now, too. Mandalay has been managing to keep me informed in spite of everything, and according to her, Ragdoll hasn't been in communication. Without her around, there's no way for us to have a clear idea where any of the students are out there in the woods. I suppose it's pointless asking you right now, but have you come across any of the students from Class A or B on your way here?"

The fact that Aizawa was actually asking this, on top of the knowledge that something had happened to Ragdoll, had Izuku looking physically stricken with immense worry. Alas, there was no way he couldn't answer his teacher now: "I'm sorry, Sensei…we tried to rush back to the facility as soon as we were able. I haven't seen anyone else since then. Were Iida-san and the others able to make it back safe?"

Aizawa silently pulled Kota in closer, clearly resolved as to just where their situation was now going from here: "They did, but he also told me how you and Bezpalov had run off to try and save Kota-kun and the other students respectively. If you haven't come across anyone on your way, and only Iida and his group were able to make it back, that means Bezpalov and the others are still out there, and therefore are in serious danger."

Izuku could feel that protective resolve intensify in his chest once again. He'd been worried enough as it was, knowing Nikolay had gone off in search of the others, in spite of his own extensive injuries. Knowing now that neither he nor anyone else but Tenya and his group had managed to reach safety had Izukus' concern going through the roof…and with it, that very same Heroic drive, as he met Aizawas' eyes with no hesitation. "Don't worry, Sensei…I'll find Mandalay-sensei and tell her everything she needs to know!"

Aizawa had half a mind to tell Izuku to stop right there, that he was in no sensible condition to go even further out into the field against a number of opponents they still didn't know. But by this point, the homeroom teacher had come to recognize that specific spark that was now in the freckled boys' green eyes: that was the spark of one who couldn't possibly be talked down, no matter what one said to try and reason with them, and no matter what they could be threatened with. Come hell or high water, Izuku was going to the Pussycats if it would have any chance of helping save the rest of the students.

"Fine…but also tell her this for me."

The battle between Tiger and Magne, as well as between Mandalay and Spinner, had reached the closest it had come yet to a stalemate. Tiger was unrelenting in his assault, but Magnes' reflexes were nothing to scoff at, as they managed to almost effortlessly dodge or deflect every single strike thrown their way. Even Tiger was now beginning to find himself in need of a new strategy before he'd run the risk of starting to tire.

And as for Mandalay, the extreme range of Spinners' makeshift sword was now forcing her to go on the evasive, and his energy likewise showed no sign of waning. "Damn, you're a stubborn one!"

"YOU'RE THE STUBBORN ONE, YOU DAMN PHONY! HURRY UP AND GET PURGED ALREADY!" Despite Mandalay trying to kick herself back out of Spinners' attack range, the Villain had just a fraction of a moments' head start over her, as he was rapidly closing distance with his sword overheard, poised and ready to bring down on her.

In that moment just before impact, however, Spinner barely caught sight of a sudden green spark of energy amid a blur flying in from right over Mandalays' head, specifically coming right for him with incredible speed far beyond his own.

SMASH!

With the deafening clang of shattered metal, Izuku Midoriya came flying in and ran his Full Cowl-imbued feet straight through the bulk of Spinners' sword, destroying it right down to the hilt, while the lizard Villain couldn't even speak, looking at what had just happened with total shock. "W…W-WHAT?!"

All the while, Mandalay could only watch with similar disbelief, even as Izuku finally turned in mid-air to address her, before just as violently crashing and rolling to the ground, but still never missing a beat the moment he stopped. "MANDALAY-SENSEI, KOTA-KUN'S SAFE! I'VE GOT A MESSAGE FROM AIZAWA-SENSEI! USE YOUR TELEPATHY TO TELL EVERYONE!"

Elsewhere in the woods, moments earlier…

Mina, Ochako and Tsuyu, ever since receiving the instructions from Mandalay to return to the training facility, had cautiously tried to make their way down the path the way they had come. However, less than a minute after that, they had all three caught the unmistakable sound of Nikolays' kinetic bursts echoing through the trees.

It had grown closer at first, but had completely passed them by, as it was running almost parallel to the path. Despite their better judgment, knowing they all needed to evacuate, Mina had decided to take the lead, with her, Ochako and Tsuyu proceeding to follow the direction their Russian classmates' blasts had gone in, even if it was proceeding deeper into the woods and farther from the trail.

The further they had progressed, the more worried they had all gradually become, finding no visible sign of him or anyone else ahead, and with only the sound of those blasts in the distance straight ahead to lead them on.

"I just don't understand why Kolya-san would be moving away from the facility. I mean, we all heard Mandalay-sensei's instructions clear." Ochako finally spoke up as she and Mina trudged their way through the thickening brush.

"I agree, it's not like he could've gotten lost; there wasn't nearly enough time since we'd left for his and Iida-sans' team to come in here before the attack-kero. He would've still been with Midoriya and the others by then, so there's no reason for him to be out here." Tsuyu stated in agreement.

However, between them, Mina was actually the least confused, never taking her eyes off the route ahead, and never slowing down. It was only for the lack of an actual trail that she wasn't outright sprinting after Nikolay right now, in fact. "It makes total sense to me. He and the others know we're all still out here while all this stuff is going on. As long as they don't have any solid proof that any of us have made it back safe, Kolya-kun's gonna be out here combing the woods for anyone and everyone he can. Yeah, it's reckless and stupid right now…but it's exactly what a Hero would do in the end…it's exactly what he would do, no matter how much trouble he'd get in."

While Mina was trying so hard not to start letting the admiration in her tone overtake her genuine seriousness, Ochako was trying to maintain the same outward resolve, but still had a twinge of nervousness flash across her face. "It's been sounding like his blasts are getting more rapid in pace recently. You don't think he ran into a Villain and could be in the middle of a fight, do you?"

This idea only emboldened Mina to start hiking through that much faster, having half a mind to just melt down a path through the brush so they could hurry. However, compared to her and Ochako, Tsuyu was thankfully managing to stay completely calm. "I doubt it. The timing of his blasts may be faster, but it doesn't sound nearly as erratic and desperate and all over the place as a fight would have it be. It still sounds like he's going in the same direction, and it doesn't sound like he's getting too much farther ahead of us-kero. If we hurry, we might actually be able to catch up with him."

With the frog-like girls' confidence, Ochako and Mina likewise felt that intense fire of desire to protect and save burn bright in both their hearts; especially as Mina finally turned to address her two companions and friends: "Come on, Urara-chan, Tsu-chan! We're gonna find Kolya-kun, and everybody else in these woods, and we're all gonna get out of here and back to the camp together!"

Ochako and Tsuyu echoed almost the same sheer amount of enthusiasm with fists raised in the air in cheer and support…and this provided just enough of an opening for Mina to see past her friends, and feel a chill go up and down her back.

The moment Ochako and Tsuyu saw Minas' black-gold eyes widen with fright, they instinctively turned back, and found themselves stricken rigid with fear all the same, for standing right behind them, emerging from behind the trees and bushes, was a single girl who looked to be their age that none of them recognized, wearing her blonde hair in really messy twin buns, a school uniform they likewise didn't recognize, and a large black collar with a stitched on fanged grin adorning it, along with a black mask adorning her face, and an assortment of small tanks strapped to her back.

What the three girls found most frightening of all, however, was not only the manic intensity in her yellow eyes as she seemed to be straight-up staring at them, but also the fact she had a knife in one hand, and what looked like a large tube-fed syringe in the other, with the knife swiftly swinging in Ochakos' direction.

"OCHAKO, LOOK OUT!" Mina cried out, as she was already throwing herself forward and grabbing Ochako by both hands, practically throwing herself and the rosy-cheeked girl out of the way, but just a fraction of a second too late to prevent the blade from just barely nicking Ochakos' left arm, producing a pained cry from her as her feet met the ground again.

Neither Mina, Ochako (clutching her already bleeding arm) nor Tsuyu could even find the words to ask who this strange girl was. After that sudden attack, her once slack body language had intensified with an unsettling energy. In fact, the look in her eyes likewise looked as though she weren't looking at other girls her age, but rather personal playthings.

"Well…hi there. I'm so happy to finally meet you! I've wanted to meet you all for such a long time now…you two, especially: Ashido Mina-chan, Uraraka Ochako-chan! You made a really nice impression on the news, beating someone super cool like Vukodlak like you did! Oooh, this is so exciting! We're gonna have so much fun together!"

Nikolay was still firing himself repeatedly from tree to tree, no longer caring about the encroaching thickness of the gas and smoke together, blowing it away at almost rapid-fire pace by this point to try and clear any of the air around him. He was still calling out for anyone to answer, long since having had his voice go hoarse from the physical toll and lack of water. None of that mattered to him, though. It had ultimately only been just less than ten minutes since this whole Villain attack had started, perhaps even less, since his panic had skewed his perception of time, and he still wasn't about to just give up and retreat back to the facility.

Elsewhere in the woods nearby, the Villain known as Mustard had still been methodically making his way through the woods and his gas, sensing every unnatural movement within it. If there were other students out here moving about in these woods, which there most definitely were, then he was going to find them. They couldn't make a single move without him sensing it, and whoever the student was that was actually blasting his gas away in order to navigate was inadvertently putting the biggest beacon in the world on himself, and Mustard was already more than prepared for it, since judging by the trajectory they had been going in, he was just about to head them off just a few dozen yards up ahead.

Bracing himself for the confrontation that was to inevitably come his way, Mustard quickly pulled out the revolver that had been secure under his jacket, opening the cylinder to ensure all six chambers were loaded, and the one six-bullet fast-loader was within his immediate reach in case things turned a little more troublesome for him. Even if they put up a fight on the off chance he'd miss, Mustard knew he had more than enough means ready to put them down no problem.

At that solitary moment, all across the entirety of the Beasts' Forest, every single student felt the sound of Mandalays' voice echoing loud and clear for them all at once:

"Everyone, I bring a message to you from Eraserhead! 'Members of Classes A and B: I, Professional Hero Eraserhead, hereby authorize you all for combat!'"

As his intended message echoed out across the entire forest to all the students, Aizawa himself could only look on in grim observation, still continuing to move into the woods further, even with Kota now at his side. 'It sounds like their target this time really is the students themselves! We've got no choice; this is a matter of life or death! They have to defend themselves. As for the punishment…I will bear the responsibility alone. With all this madness around all at once…please don't go getting yourselves killed…my saplings!'

From the moment he had given Izuku leave to go and give his message to Mandalay, Aizawa had broken into a mad sprint back for the facility with the still teary-eyed Kota Izumi securely in his arms. His adrenaline was through the roof, as was his own sense of regret pounding inside his head, thinking of his driven students' abysmal physical condition. 'I forgot to tell Midoriya to come back immediately after telling Mandalay what I needed him to…dammit! I can't believe I dropped the ball like that! The only reason he can even move right now with those injuries is because he's loaded up on endorphins. Once he achieves his goal, he's going to crash and not be able to move anymore.'

"Hey, mister…do you think he'll be okay?" Kota suddenly asked through his sniffles, momentarily snapping Aizawa out of his own head, only for the child in his arms to continue on: "I…I punched him earlier…but even still…he got all beat up like that…just to save me! I haven't even…said sorry…or thank you…I haven't…he'll be okay, right?!"

Aizawa didn't even once take his eyes off the path ahead, but he could still feel the raw emotion pouring out of this small child, and with it, just how much he needed to know that he would be able to make up for his actions from before. That understanding was exactly why the answer came to Aizawa so naturally: "He'll be okay…he has no intention of dying. In fact, that's probably why he went and screwed himself up like that. But that's for me to scold him later for…and not just him, for that matter. Just…when all this fighting is over…tell him. Not that you're sorry. Tell him 'thank you'."

Kota said nothing in response to this, but Aizawa knew the boy didn't need to. He knew those words had hit him just where he needed them to. And it was with that, that he continued running as fast as he could to get the kid back to the safety of the facility, all the while continuing to silently hope his students would somehow manage to pull themselves through this the smart way, and not go getting themselves in the worst possible predicament without him there to save them.

Mandalay had managed to convey Aizawas' message through Izuku to all the rest of the Yuuei students across the forest in less than a heartbeat, but the weight of the teachers' declaration of allowing them to officially fight back was no less potent. It was simply the biggest indicator of just how widespread and serious this situation had well and truly become. Hers and Tigers' battle against Spinner and Magne was still ongoing with no visible signs of stopping, but even her constant need to stay on the defensive and offensive all at once didn't stop her from still conveying her immediate concerns to her surprise message-bringer: "Thanks for the message, Midoriya-kun, but seriously, go back right this instant! Those injuries are no joke!"

Izuku hadn't even lost one ounce of momentum from the moment he had destroyed Spinners' sword with a kick and effectively saved Mandalays' tail, skidding to a backwards stop, and then immediately rolling himself around and kicking off into yet another powerful forward sprint, like a literal human bullet. "Wait; sorry! One more thing: tell everyone…the Villains' target…or at least one of them…THEY'RE AFTER KACCHAN! PLEASE USE YOUR TELEPATHY AGAIN!"

With that, the sparking green-haired boy dashed forward into the woods where the biggest plume of the wildfire was still raging, not even heeding Mandalays' momentary confusion to who he was talking about, before immediately calling for him to wait.

At the same time, though, Izukus' declaration had also drawn the attention of Magne, who had momentarily managed to put some breathing room between them and Tiger, and was now zeroing in on the young boy specifically. 'That rumbling noise earlier…there's only two of us who have flashy moves like that…and given that kid somehow knows confidential info about our plan, well…it must've been that blood-crazed Muscular…did he seriously lose in a battle of strength…to that little runt?'

With a new sensation of focus overtaking them, Magne immediately proceeded to kick themselves off after Izuku. "This won't do, no, not at all. That kid needs to die!"

"NO-DON'T LAY A FINGER ON HIM, MAGNE!" Before the pursuing Villain could even stop to ask, they were suddenly halted dead in their tracks when a single knife flew straight across their path, barely missing their throat. They instinctively looked in momentary disbelief and rage to Spinner, who made no secret that he'd been the one to stop his colleague from giving chase. In fact, Magne by this point was too infuriated to even realize that Izuku had officially made his escape into the depths of the woods. "Just what exactly do you think you're doing, Spinner?! That boy's on to one of our objectives, not to mention he's on the priority hit list!"

"That's just Shigaraki-sans' personal agenda!" While anyone could hear the inflection of personal ideal and confidence in said ideal in Spinners' tone, Magne only looked that much angrier at the sound of it. "Spinner…did you just forget why we're even here?!"

"Stain saved that little kid back in Hosu City, in case you didn't know! He has personally deemed him worthy of shouldering the burden of being a Hero! I will respect that opinio-!"

BAAAM!

Mandalay planted one of her boots straight into Spinners' face, knocking him flat to the ground, with Tiger virtually acting in tandem, forcing Magne back as they continued their fight. With one of the Villains momentarily stunned, Mandalay immediately got into action, sending her Telepathy all across the forest and to the facility once more: "Everyone, we've identified one of the Villains' objectives: the student called 'Kacchan'! Whoever Kacchan is, as much as possible, avoid combat! Refrain from any solo movements! Got it, Kacchan?!"

Mandalays' message echoed loud and clear from end to end of the Beasts' Forest and the confines of the training camp facility. While she may have been confused just who she was referring to, for everyone else it was clear as day, and carried with it a whole new grave weight of worry.

Near the final third of the forest path, Shoto and Bakugo found themselves in the middle of a serious fix, as the leather straitjacket-bound Villain they had encountered was currently proving to be far more of a challenge than they had thought.

Their adversary had a horrifyingly powerful Quirk that was enabling him to extend each of his individual teeth and send them growing every which possible direction he could, seemingly with nary rhyme nor reason as to how far they could go and what angles he could reach. From the very beginning it had forced the two boys (and their one injured tag-along, Tsubaraba from Class B) to be constantly on the evasive.

Shoto had been trying to do just that right from the beginning, sending one massive path of icy columns after another to try and intercept the Villains' attack, but his reflexes for growing and moving his teeth was unprecedented, managing to either weave their way through, or simply slice or brute force their way through the ice.

The fact that Bakugo was continuously trying to throw himself into the fray wasn't helping make things any easier, as at the very moment Mandalays' message of Bakugo being the target had reached them, the explosive boy had already thrown himself straight into the open in an attempt to propel himself right for the Villain one-on-one.

It was only through Shoto sliding in on his ice, yanking Bakugo back by the collar with one hand, and creating another glacier of ice with the other to stop the oncoming teeth attacks all at once, that Bakugo had managed to avoid nearly getting skewered or sliced up in mid-air. "Bakugo, this is no time to be reckless! Didn't you hear?! They're targeting you specifically!"

However, the laser-focused, homicidal look in Bakugos' contracted red eyes, along with that vicious smirk, made it clear he was far from listening. "'Kacchan, Kacchan,' shut the hell up! Get out of my head! That little shit, Deku, must've done something! First they say we can fight, then they suddenly say not to fight? Make up your minds, goddammit!"

With his adrenaline peaking at the sight of the Villain ahead, Bakugo already got one hand reeled back as he started to make a run for it. "You know what? Screw it, I don't care!"

Had it not been for his own sense of awareness of his surroundings catching the sudden breakthrough of one of the Villains' teeth through a nearby spike of ice coming right for him, those would've been the last words Katsuki Bakugo had ever spoken without even realizing it. And had it not been for Shoto once again sliding in and yanking him back by the collar just as the one attacking tooth suddenly jutted out for Bakugos' neck, they would've been his last words, period.

The moment he knew he'd gotten Bakugo away, Shoto immediately planted his right foot forward, sending another colossal line of ice right for the Villain, only for the fiend to immediately leap out of the way and bounce off the side of a nearby tree, once again ending up entirely out of harms' way.

The fact they'd managed to go this long without landing a single hit on this guy had Shoto feeling more than a little frustrated. "This guy knows how to make good use of his surroundings and Quirk."

Despite this observation, Shoto could still make out the distinct grunt of pain hidden among Bakugos' infuriated growling as he clutched his right arm. "Looks to me like a gangly weak-ass who needs his teeth kicked in!"

Despite Bakugos' bravado, Shoto wasn't nearly as sure. If their enemy had truly been as weak as his partner was suggesting, they surely would've been able to beat him by now. Watching now, how the Villain actually used his extended teeth to suspend himself upside down above them, while still managing to extend the others to carry on his attack, it was all too clear to Shoto: 'No, this guy's seriously no pushover. He's definitely fought his share of battles and then some. With his Quirk, we can't get close to him, nor can we actually stop long enough to gauge our environment and come up with a strategy.'

Looking back the way they were supposed to be going, Shoto could see the same purple gas starting to fill in that he'd been seeing traces of minutes ago, right when the Villain attack had actually started. Before he could focus on a way through that, he could once again hear Bakugo growling angrily, and upon looking to his partner, could also see the wince of pain in his red eyes when trying to reel his right arm back for an attack, instinctively reaching for it only to then wince again and hover his hand over his left ribs.

All of these things together made it impossible for Shoto not to say what was clearly going on: "Bakugo, you need to stop. Your injuries from the fight are too extensive for you to use your explosions to their full effect. And besides that, if your explosions were to ignite the gas, you could potentially end up starting an even bigger fire all around and kill all of us."

"GODDAMMIT, I GET IT ALREADY; JUST SHUT THE HELL UP!" Bakugo roared, grinding his teeth to try and fight his way through the pain in his shoulder and ribs. It would be a cold day in hell before he ever admitted it out loud, but even Katsuki Bakugo knew the truth was that his little brawl earlier that day had taken more of a physical toll on him than he'd initially thought, and it was now affecting him in the one field he knew he far excelled everyone else at, and that realization made him even angrier than their actual predicament itself. 'That son of a dead bitch…I can't believe he actually put me in a state like this! I won, and he still left a crack in my armor! I swear to God, when we make it out of this, I'm gonna kick his ass even harder than before!'

All the while, looking between the ever-attacking Villain, his increasingly volatile teammate, and the encroaching gas behind them, Shoto for once found himself at a strategic impasse. The fact was, as much as he didn't want to admit it to himself, that they were well and truly in a bind.

At the same time…

Izuku didn't lose one bit of his momentum, no matter what may or may not have been going on behind him after Mandalay had given his message. He needed to cut through these woods if he was going to have any hope of reaching Bakugo in time, since he had no choice but to assume he and Shoto had ended up coming across a Villain by now. Hell, for all he knew, any other members of the Villains' forces could've been converging on him at this very moment.

BLAM!

The sudden sound of a deafening pop echoing across the woods drew Izukus' attention, even as he continued to sprint through the power of Full Cowl in his legs. 'A GUNSHOT?! It sounded pretty far away, though, no doubt far from where Kacchan could be! But still, that means somebody out there ran into a Villain! For all I know, it could've been Kolya-san! God, I should go back and try to help, but Kacchan could also be in serious trouble right now! I just have to hope whoever it is isn't alone and is able to handle themselves!

'Where is everyone?! If Kacchan was in the second group, and assuming he's actually staying put, then he shouldn't be too far from where I am right now!' This was what was last going through Izukus' mind as he could almost swear he could see the woods ahead beginning to thin out.

Just before a massive claw of what looked like pure darkness suddenly swiped out from behind the nearest tree, right for Izukus' head. His natural muscle memory was already preparing to have the freckled boy duck down out of the way, but at that very last moment, a jolt of unimaginable pain suddenly shot through his entire body, rendering Izukus' entire body virtually immobile and unwilling to move. Now he was essentially a sitting duck.

Suddenly, a massive object swept Izuku right off his feet in a heartbeat from the side, and most importantly out of the black claws' attack range, as it plowed straight into the ground he had just been standing on.

Izuku was still instinctively wincing his face in preparation for being taken down, and once it registered in his head that he was actually still alive, he finally opened his eyes, momentarily at a complete loss what had just managed to save him, until he felt the forest around him come to a stop so he could finally regain his bearings.

What he immediately found was himself, practically tied to the massive back of his masked, light-haired and tentacle-bearing classmate, Mezo Shouji, keeping Izuku bound to his back with one of said tentacles, and still in the process of heaving for breath after having rushed in so suddenly to save the curly-haired boy. "S-Shouji-san?"

Upon looking further, Izuku could see that Mezo was similarly in roughed up shape, as one of his left tentacles was noticeably quite bloody. Meanwhile, Mezo was still alertly checking their surroundings in these dark woods, while one of his tentacles bearing a mouth at the end finally turned to address Izuku: "You're gravely injured, Midoriya-san. That body of yours really shouldn't be moving anymore right now. Nevertheless, I'm amazed at the lengths you're willing to go to save your friends. I'm assuming you came this way specifically to save Bakugo-san and Todoroki-san."

However, instead of answering his classmates' question, Izuku was still far too shaken from the delayed realization of just what that hulking claw that had tried to attack him actually was. "Shouji-san…that claw just now…was that…?"

"Yeah. Tokoyami-san and I got ambushed by one of the Villains a couple minutes ago, right after we got Mandalay-sensei's telepathic message to retreat to the facility and battle restriction. However, the Villain got distracted by a severed arm on the trail, so we thought we could slip away, but I still offered to cover him just in case. Unfortunately, the Villain wasn't distracted for very long, and he ended up attacking us with these strange shape-shifting blades from his teeth. I tried to fend him off, and ended up losing one of my arms as a result."

"YOUR ARM?!" Izuku exclaimed in horror, once again looking to the bloody stump at Mezos' side.

"It's not exactly a shallow wound, but it's not like I actually lost an arm. With my replicant arms, even replicated portions can be further duplicated. The arm that got sliced off was just another duplicate, so all things considered, it's okay. We were still able to slip away behind the underbrush, since my arm drew the Villains' attention again, but the shock and adrenaline of the ambush still ended up triggering Tokoyami-sans' Quirk he'd been trying so desperately to control. If we want to go on past here, first we have to do something about that."

All at once, Izuku remembered a very foreboding passing comment Fumikage Tokoyami had once told him, back when they had first worked together all the way in the Sports Festival, regarding just how his Dark Shadow actually worked: "The darker it gets, the more powerful my Quirk becomes, but as a result, it becomes even more difficult to control."

Looking just up ahead from where Mezo now stood, Izuku felt his blood turn to ice with the horrifying discovery of just what they were currently dealing with: Fumikage nearly half consumed in the shadowy mass of a much more fearsome and ravenous-looking Dark Shadow. From the agonizing strain on the crow-headed boys' face, it was obvious that it was taking every last ounce of strength and willpower combined to even restrain his Quirk as much as he was, and it was just as clear that this was a battle he was quickly losing.

Seeing his two classmates ahead of him, watching speechless, Fumikage could barely string together the words through the strain: "GET…AWAY…FROM ME! YOU WILL DIE…IF YOU DON'T!"

The moment he had forced out his warning, Dark Shadow only seemed to grow that much more, clawing and slicing away at several of the trees around Fumikage, with Mezo just barely managing to jump back and duck out of the way, with the trembling and despairing Izuku hanging onto his back for dear life, even with another of Mezos' tentacles holding him secure.

All the while, the masked boy himself was only watching the rampaging Dark Shadow observantly. "Dark Shadow only seems to be growing more and more violent with time, and I don't think it's because of how dark it is, either. With the ambush, I'm pretty sure Tokoyami-sans' indignation and feelings of regret are probably intensifying the rampage, and Dark Shadows' anger subsequently intensifies it that much further and it's causing him to lose control over it more and more."

With surprising swiftness, Dark Shadow suddenly lunged across the area for the two boys, with Mezo practically diving to the side to avoid getting hit, before he and Izuku hurriedly scrambled behind another tree. Now with no other idea but to try and observe the out-of-control Quirk, even Izuku couldn't help but speak, albeit in as hushed a whisper as he could: "It looks like he'll attack anything that moves or makes a sound. Dark Shadow's really become a monster."

Even as Dark Shadow was dragging him about in its blind search for more things to attack like a puppet on strings, Fumikage could still feel Mezo and Izukus' presence, despite the obvious overwhelming danger. "DON'T…WORRY…ABOUT…ME…! GO…GO FIND THE OTHERS…! GO…AND SAVE THEM! QUIET YOURSELF…DARK SHADOW!"

Unfortunately, no matter how strongly he tried to command it, his Quirk simply would not listen, and instead only continued to howl in rage across the night sky, while Mezo and Izuku could both only watch their classmate continue to suffer helplessly.

However, even if they knew there was nothing they could do here immediately, Mezo and Izuku alike knew they still had an option, which the masked boy was the first to point out: "Light…fire. If we lead him back to the facility, we can calm him down. Midoriya-san."

Izuku was momentarily wrenched free from his own racing train of thought as Mezo slowly got back up strong and tall. After his encounter with Aizawa, he could only imagine what had to be going through the much stronger students' head, and thus he was quick to object: "It doesn't matter what condition I'm in, Shouji-san. I don't want to become someone who will turn their back on a friend who's suffering."

However, instead of a further argument, Mezo simply took in a breath, as if he had expected Izuku to say just that. "I know, Midoriya-san. Neither do I. It was out of concern for your friend, Bakugo-san, that you were able to push your body all the way over here, right? Well, if you can still move, I will distract Dark Shadow and open the way up to the facility for you."

The moment the gravity of what Mezo was suggesting hit, Izuku felt that very same described sense of concern take over just as fiercely for Mezo as it had for Bakugo. "Hold on; both the facility and the fires are pretty far away from here. Shouji-san, what you're talking about is very dangerou-!"

All of a sudden, Dark Shadows' mass whipped right back around, tearing down yet more trees in its path before driving right where Mezo previously stood; the tentacled boy and Izuku once again diving out of the way and back behind cover.

Mezos' sense of adrenaline was racing just as furiously as Izukus' as he kept his eyes open for Dark Shadows' next erratic movements. "I know. But to save someone means to embrace risks. That's exactly why the people who do are called Heroes. This situation is only growing more desperate by the moment. At this point, you can either try to save Tokoyami-san with me, or you can go and run to find Bakugo-san. Which will it be, Midoriya-san?"

Much to Mezos' detriment, he was only immediately answered with silence; a deep silence as Izuku couldn't take his eyes off the anguished form of Fumikage within Dark Shadows' writhing mass. It felt like forever before he finally found the resolve and confidence to finally give his masked classmate an answer: "I'm sorry, Shouji-san…can you listen for a second? If that thing just reacts to sound, then we might have a solution at hand, given where we are.

"If you use your replicant arms to create decoys, he'll attack those instead of your real body. If you do that, we can lead him where we want to go. We'll lead him right to Kacchan and Todoroki-san. They can use their respective Explosions and Fire to calm down Dark Shadow. If you're telling me I have to choose one…well, I want to save both!"

Mezo couldn't even find the words to express both his surprise at Izukus' idea in the face of such black-and-white options, and just how much he had expected the boy on his back to pick such an option. At this point, Izuku had given the irrefutable impression of someone who would brute force their way through even the most overwhelmingly solid set of choices in order to make one of their own that would save everyone possible. Honestly, it was something the tentacled boy deeply admired about his classmate.

And it was that admiration and expectation together that made it so easy for Mezo to step on board for Izukus' plan, no matter the risks involved. If it meant saving their classmate from the wrath of his own Quirk, then any risk would be worth it.

The conflict of Shoto and Bakugo against their tooth-enlarging Villain had shown virtually no signs of advantage in the two young Heroes' favor. Shoto kept trying to divert each attack with more and more ice, but it was about all he could do while still carrying the unconscious Tsubaraba on his back and keeping him from falling off and potentially becoming another target for their enemy. What was certainly not helping matters further was that the continuous use of his ice was slowly starting to have its frostbite effect on him, as it was becoming gradually harder to move the right half of his body.

After only a couple minutes of non-stop evasion and trying and failing to drive the Villain away or capture him, the entire section of the path had been transformed into a veritable glacier, and Shoto and Bakugo now found themselves well and truly at a stalemate, especially as the gas behind them was only continuing to thicken, lessening their area of effectiveness. All the while, the Villains' teeth were only continuing to grow and expand and branch off in every possible direction to catch his targets off-guard.

The realization of their overall situation ignited Bakugos' frustration the worst it had been since this battle had started: "AAAGH, GODDAMIT! WE CAN'T GET ANY CLOSER! THE ONLY CHOICE WE HAVE IS TO SHOOT A BIG-ASS FIREBALL AT THAT BASTARD!"

"No, you can't!" Shoto immediately denied, and the sound of being told no had Bakugo whipping his head to his partner at breakneck speed, his eyes reflecting pure bloodthirsty rage. "IF THE TREES CATCH ON FIRE, THEN JUST COVER THEM IN ICE, FOR GODS' SAKES!"

"That's not it! Explosions will only limit our visibility! What do we do if your attack fails to take him out immediately? The fact is, he has far more room and options available than we do!" As if to emphasize Shotos' point, the Villains' teeth suddenly proceeded to explode out in an infinitely growing cocoon in all directions, completely bypassing the entirety of the ice, and all converging together right at the point that he, Bakugo and Tsubaraba now found themselves at. It was essentially the ultimate pincer maneuver, with several even looming in from overhead and behind, so they couldn't even backtrack into the gas if they tried.

Suddenly, the sound of one of the teeth unexpectedly shattering caught both boys' attention, quickly followed by a couple more. Before long, nearly a quarter of the attacking teeth had suddenly gotten broken apart like glass from a multitude of indiscernible objects flying from out of the woods to their left. The Villain let out an animalistic shriek of pain and fury as he hurriedly retracted his remaining teeth to keep them from being destroyed as well.

What especially enraged, him upon looking further through the slits in his leather mask, was that one of the objects flying through the air at that moment was one of the severed arms he had found on the path just a few minutes ago.

As Shoto and Bakugo both looked in momentary confused surprise at what had suddenly just bought them some breathing room, the numerous flying objects seemed to form an organized formation as they quickly came flying back the way they came towards the woods, and towards the two boys themselves. "Hope you two weren't having too much trouble."

The sound of a quite familiar female voice struck Shoto with a sense of relief, and Bakugo with a natural sense of aggravation, as they both turned to find the smirking fanged face of Setsuna Tokage emerging from the underbrush, quickly reconstituting herself as each of the objects they now knew to be pieces of her body easily reattached themselves to her, finally making her whole again as her arm and eye came back into place.

"It's good to see you're alright, Tokage-san. How did you know we were here?" Shoto asked as Setsuna hurriedly got into a likewise defensive stance alongside them.

"I had my arm and eye set up on this part of the path for my groups' scare tactic, and once we started evacuating after the attack started, I decided to keep them here in case any of the other students came this way and were lost. Bezpalov-kun and I were looking for anyone who'd gotten left behind when my eye caught sight of you three, so I let my pieces fly me over here as fast as I could. Glad I got here before you really got in trouble."

Shoto was at once glad to have a third able body here to assist them whichever way she could, while at the same time he was now feeling a touch worried for Nikolay being out here in the shape he was in before.

On the other hand, Bakugo was just glaring at the green-haired girl like she was the definition of an unwanted pest. "Just take that unconscious dead weight with you and piss the hell off out of here! We don't need your damn help!"

However, even in the face of his constant hostility, Setsuna wasn't taking a step back, and instead only clenching her fists in preparation, as was Shoto with his right hand, just at the same time as the Villain was finally lifting himself back up into the air over the ice by his remaining towering teeth. "Well, whether you want or need it or not, you've got it regardless, Bakugo."

"That's right; Mandalay-sensei said to keep you out of direct combat as much as possible for your own safety, and that's exactly what we're going to do."

Ignoring the utterly incensed look in Bakugos' eyes at the sheer gall of their respective statements, Setsuna and Shoto immediately went on the move, with the red-white-haired boy swinging his right arm in a large arc, mounting an even great array of icy spikes all across the top of the glaciers he'd already made, forcing the Villain to propel himself even further up before extending several dozen more lines of teeth from those to try and attack the three kids.

Setsuna immediately flung herself forward, coming apart into several dozen similar pieces in midair and scattering them about through every nook, cranny and crevasse of Shotos' ice. At the same time, he likewise rose himself up by a column of ice from his right foot, and proceeded to start sliding his way across the rest, throwing his right arm or stomping down with his right foot in order to either create more icy spikes or towers or ridges in the path of each tooth line that got close to him or any of Setsunas' pieces that he could see while keeping himself moving.

Setsuna was keeping her central mass, her controlling mass, moving and out of the Villains' line of sight, while still making sure to keep him in hers in order to direct the pieces she intended to attack with, right for his blind spots. Granted, his teeth didn't stop growing and jabbing into every inch of the icy landscape he could see, thus she had to keep on the move faster than she had before.

After a few seconds of this cat-and-mouse game through the ice, the female Class B student finally managed to find an opening, sending both her disembodied hands flying out from behind a spire at the Villains' back, slamming hard into a couple of his remaining teeth, shattering them likewise. The Villain immediately set his hidden glare on the direction they had come from, before Setsunas' disembodied feet came flying out from within a particularly well hidden crevasse at his side, and managed to break another of his teeth, and slam hard into his side as well, quickly followed by a disembodied knee flying in from a distance overhead, and nailing him across the back of the head.

Every single successful strike filled Setsuna with confidence, and the Villain with further rage. The growth in his aggression, unfortunately, ended up gaining him an advantage, as he immediately started spreading multiple attacking stems from his remaining teeth in multiple directions at once with remarkable speed, forcing Shoto to double back to avoid getting tripped up. At the same time, Setsuna wasn't able to react fully in time. As a result, several of her pieces she had sent in to attack the Villain further, ended up either getting skewered or sliced up by the sudden influx of razor-sharp teeth stalks.

Setsuna ultimately came flying up from out of another crevasse in the ice a good distance from the Villain himself, and quickly tried to recollect the remaining pieces of herself she knew could reach her.

However, the Villains' alertness was at its sharpest, as he instantly sent another swarm of ever-growing teeth stalks right for her position, forcing Setsuna to instantly multiply herself once again, not only to get herself moving faster than her feet alone would have, but also to avoid several especially vicious teeth driving straight through the air where her heart was mere moments ago, driving deep into the solid ice like spears, only for yet more stalks to grow from them and pursue the fleeing young girl.

Setsuna had no choice but to send all of her pieces diving into several different openings all across the ice in order to try and separate the Villains' pursuing teeth, while at the same time, Shoto was still trying to fight his way through his frostbite and create yet more ice spires to either try and cut the teeth off from chasing her further, or simply entrap them, period. The duration of this fight had forced him to realize that latter plan wasn't nearly as effective as it sounded, but in these circumstances, it was the best he had.

Unfortunately, the Villain above had him spotted just as well, as Shoto soon found himself once again having to backtrack and slide for his life along the ice, as even more attacking lines of teeth were now giving chase to him as well. It was only through a few well timed stamps of his right foot creating a few obstructive spikes of ice behind him, that those pursuing teeth ended up getting broken.

While this was going on, Setsuna was still flying through every nook and cranny of the extensive ice as fast as her telekinetic tether could allow her to, with those damned teeth still giving chase no matter how many twists and turns she managed to slip through. Eventually she ended up flying right back out into the open, and was just as quickly flying low to the ice, hoping to drive at least some of the teeth behind her into some of the thicker parts in the hopes they'd shatter on impact and give her some breathing room. This Villains' Quirk was persistent if nothing else.

However, as she flew over one of the farther ridges of the entire ice buildup, she caught sight of Tsubaraba upon Shotos' back, having just returned to Bakugos' side; and she could see just clearly enough that the boy was actually stirring back to consciousness, and Shoto and Bakugo were just as quick to notice.

An idea immediately lit up Setsunas' eyes; possibly the only really effective plan they had left to play. "Todoroki-kun; set Tsubaraba kun on his feet in front of you and keep him steady!"

Before Shoto could even think about what she could've possibly been thinking, Setsuna suddenly dove into another opening in the ice, with all of her pieces flying right in after her, with every one of the pursuing teeth about to follow suit. Seeing this, Shoto instinctively planted his right hand and foot down at once, the freezing burn across his body flaring up as he created another colossal spike of ice that nearly destroyed half the original glacier, but more importantly, stopped the pursuing teeth from giving chase.

"Bakugo, help me get Tsubaraba-san on his feet," he hurriedly said as he already began shrugging the recovering boy from his shoulders before just as quickly supporting him by his left arm; Bakugo begrudgingly doing the same on his right while growling "How many time do I have to tell you not to tell me what to do, dammit?!"

CRASH!

All of a sudden, the entire spike of ice began to crack and splinter all across, practically from the inside out, before finally shattering into countless pieces, raining crystals and ice chunks all around the three boys, but neither of them dared to let go of their Class B tag-along.

As the last of the ice fell, the Villain let out another inhuman screech of "MEAT! FLESH! GIVE YOURS TO ME!" Using two of the teeth that were keeping him suspended to spring himself forward, he howled a bloodcurdling war cry as he flew right for Shoto, Bakugo and Tsubaraba head on, extending every last one of his remaining teeth right at them to skewer the trio like a bunch of human pin cushions.

What he never realized, however, was that from the moment he had come in for the attack, Setsunas' mostly collected body had come flying up from out of another opening in the ice right behind him, and had immediately started to fly up right behind him with her legs extended and leading the way. What nobody else but her knew, was that in her previous evasions through the ice, she had managed to spy a number of side crevasses leading out to the sides of the whole glacier. This time around, she'd sent a good number of her pieces through those crevasses, and right now they were all flying at full speed along the sides of the glacier, outside of the Villains' line of sight.

This was, by her own definition, one elaborate pincer maneuver, and her telekinetic tether to those distant pieces was helping add to her flying speed, as she was quickly gaining on the Villain up ahead.

'Forgive me for this in advance, Tsubaraba-kun.' Setsuna immediately thought this with all the sincerity she could muster the moment she could see Shoto, Bakugo and the now conscious Tsubaraba just over the quickly approaching edge of the glacier.

At that same moment, as soon as Tsubaraba had finally regained full consciousness and saw the oncoming sight of an obvious Villain approaching them, he immediately took the deepest breath he could on such short notice, focusing all his regained energy towards activating his Quirk.

And at that very same moment that his inhale had reached its peak, Setsunas' projectile pieces finally rounded the last corners of the glacier from both sides, flying at blinding speed to connect with both of Tsubarabas' sides; the penultimate end of her intended pincer strike. The combined force behind both sides of flying projectiles slamming into his sides at once, forced every tiny ounce of air out of Tsubaraba instantly, right in the direct path of the oncoming threat.

All of a sudden, every single extending stalk of the Villains' teeth shattered upon impact with the large invisible wall of solidified air that had been created through the combination of Tsubarabas' Quirk, and Setsuna forcing even more air out of him than he knew he had. And that wasn't the end of it, either, as Setsuna had already been planning.

The moment she'd heard the Villains' teeth shatter, Setsuna strengthened the pull of her telekinetic tether, driving her even faster at the same moment the Villain had started to slow down in reaction to the pain of his remaining teeth breaking apart. This caused her extended feet to drive at full force straight into his lower back in a devastating propelled drop kick; nearly folding him in half at the point of impact, but most importantly firing his body forward with exceptional force, face first into that very same invisible wall of air with an immensely satisfying and powerful impact.

WRAAAM!

Tsubaraba was still wheezing from the out-of-nowhere blow to his sides, but Shoto and Bakugo were both, for once, rendered genuinely speechless at the sight of the Villain hanging listlessly in mid-air after getting slammed face first into the wall in front of them, before his body ultimately slowly slid down to the ground, with not a bit of consciousness to be seen from him. As far as they could tell, they had actually finally managed to defeat him at last.

With the all-encompassing feeling of relief at achieving victory beginning to reflect on all their faces, Setsuna finally descended back down to the ground on her feet, allowing all of the pieces she had sent for Tsubaraba to finally reconnect with her; effectively making her whole again, save for the pieces the Villain had managed to destroy. Thankfully, she didn't look to be suffering from any pain for it, which for Shoto was a similar feeling of relief.

"Thank you for all your help, Tokage-san. I have to admit, that was quite an impressive plan you came up with," he finally admitted, even going so far as to offer a thankful handshake, to which the fanged girl couldn't help but chuckle and instead give him a hearty low-five in return. "Not exactly one of my more thorough plans, but things were too hectic for me to spend too much time thinking about it. I gotta thank you for your help, too, Todoroki-kun. That ice of yours really helped give me the time to even put this one together as much as I did."

Finally bringing her attention to her wheezing classmate, Setsuna finally stepped in to get Tsubarabas' arm over her shoulders. "Sorry about that, Tsubaraba-kun. I would've filled you in ahead of time if I'd had the chance. Just know we probably couldn't have pulled this off without you."

At this, Bakugo instinctively let out a spiteful 'tsch', drawing Shoto and Setsunas' eyes, but rather than let it get under her skin, the fanged girl just let out another wry chuckle n response. "Don't worry, Bakugo. No way you're gonna get sidelined the next time things get tough, I know it. Besides, at least next time you won't be too roughed up to fight at your best again."

Bakugo nearly looked like he was ready to blast both Setsuna and Tsubaraba alike to pieces for that backhanded compliment and what he felt she really meant by it. But she was right about one thing: no matter what, there was no way in hell he was going to even remotely allow himself to be kept out of a fight like this again. Once more, he felt his anger towards Nikolay in particular growing that much more intense; knowing the Russian boy had ultimately reduced him to the level of a damn benchwarmer tonight.

However, before he could start laying into her with another barrage of verbal vitriol, the sound of further snapping twigs from the edge of the woods snapped all three teens to full attention, only to be met with simultaneous feelings of surprise and further relief, at least as far as Shoto and Setsuna were concerned: the sight of Mezo Shouji rushing out of the woods with Izuku strapped to his back.

Of course, their relief went right back to immense surprise the moment the woods behind them erupted with a shadowy mass letting out a bloodcurdling roar from right behind the two boys, slamming its clawed hands every step of the way behind them, smashing and destroying everything around it. Now they could actually make out the urgency in Mezos' eyes especially as he called out to them: "BAKUGO-SAN! TODOROKI-SAN! ONE OF YOU, PLEASE HURRY! MAKE SOME LIGHT! TOKOYAMI-SAN'S GONE BERSERK!"

At that very same moment, as Izuku lifted his face from over Mezos' shoulder, as soon as he saw Bakugos' angry look of disbelief at his arrival, virtually still unharmed, he felt himself become overwhelmed with a sensation of gratitude and relief. The fact he had chosen to make his own solution that would save everyone, and it was actually unfolding before him, left a deeply emotional smile on his freckled face. "KACCHAN!"

The moment they were both able to see the gradually consumed form of the agonizing Fumikage Tokoyami within the mass of darkness chasing after the two new arrivals, Mezos' desperate words made it all click for Shoto and Bakugo, exactly what they were finding themselves faced with. "He's destroying everything indiscriminately. I'll try to calm him down, but get ready just in case, Bakugo." With that, Shoto immediately began to ignite his left arm with an immense flame, half ready to shout for Mezo and Izuku to get down to the ground.

"Wait, dumbass." Bakugo suddenly stated, not with anger, but a sharp tone of seriousness, stopping Shoto mid ignition. Spotting the edge in his red eyes, Shoto followed, and felt a momentary chill, right alongside Bakugo and Setsuna, at the sight of the Villain already regaining consciousness, heaving for breath as he actually grew his splintered and broken teeth from his mouth into the ground, pushing himself back onto his feet.

"No…meat…meat…Moonfishes' meat…my meeeeeeat. No good! No good! Unforgivable! THE ONLY ONE WHO GETS TO SLICE THESE KIDS' BODIES APART IS ME! I WON'T LET ANYONE ELSE HAVE THEM!"

With his own bloodcurdling cry, the Villain now known as Moonfish suddenly shot all of his jagged broken teeth right for Dark Shadows' mass as it emerged onto the path, every single one skewering right through its nearest arm like skewers through meat.

Except, instead of the horrified anguished screams he had been looking for, he was instead met with a cold and indifferent silence…a silence that was immediately followed by an even greater roar of pure, animalistic rage with actual words emanating out from it: "DON'T MAKE DEMANDS, SMALL FRY!"

Before everyone's shocked eyes, and Bakugos' thinly veiled grin of satisfaction, Dark Shadow immediately proceeded to whip its skewered arm up, hauling Moonfish right along with it, and with a single devastating swipe, proceeded to extended its arm with him still helplessly attached, through several dozen trees in a row, plowing Moonfish right through every single one.

By the time its arm had finally stopped, the leather bonds keeping Moonfishes' entire body restrained had all been frayed and torn away, and his once obscured eyes were wide and empty from the sheer physical shock his body had just been put through, now hanging limp like a worm on a hook.

Without another word, even after having leveled half the forest separating both halves of the path, Dark Shadow proceeded to whip its arm again, this time flinging Moonfish aside, listlessly to the ground. It didn't take a genius to see that the Villain wasn't going to be getting up again anytime soon. And even if he did, he was going to be in too much pain to do anything of concern.

"AAAAAAGH! I STILL DIDN'T GET TO HAVE MY FUN YET!" Dark Shadow bellowed this complaint with frightening volume and rage, already gearing up to start lashing out at everything around it, but this time, with Moonfish having been taken out of the picture, Shoto and Bakugo were much quicker on the uptake, and the call to action.

Without hesitation, both boys immediately raced in side-by-side, flames and explosions already flowing behind them, illuminating the entirety of the area in the blink of an eye, and reducing Dark Shadow to a much smaller and docile size and demeanor in just as much time.

As his Quirk receded back into his body, Fumikage fell to his knees, heaving for breath in an attempt to try and further calm his still racing heart, but still awash with relief that the others had managed to quell Dark Shadows' temper before it could hurt anyone he didn't want it to.

Seeing the crow-headed boy still reeling from having let his emotions take control of his Quirk away from him, even Bakugo couldn't keep his first thoughts to himself: "It looks like you and I share some real unfortunate chemistry."

At the same time, Shoto and a visibly shaken Setsuna (still hauling Tsubaraba by an arm over her shoulders) still couldn't help but look at the sheer levels of destruction to the forest Dark Shadow had managed to lay within seconds, on top of everything else. "To think, the Villain that had kept us all on the defensive for so long. In just a moment, he—"Whooped his sorry ass like it was nothing. Tokoyami-san's got one seriously terrifying Quirk, I've gotta give him that."

"I'm sorry…thank you all…for saving me…" Fumikage struggled to find the strength to answer, just as Mezo stepped forward with an extended hand to help him back to his feet.

"Tokoyami-san, are you all right? Fortunately, everything turned out like you said it would, Midoriya-san." As Mezo still kept his hand out for Fumikage while congratulating Izuku for the success of his plan, all Fumikage could think about then was the sound of Dark Shadows' voice inside his head, back at the peak of that original ambush, back when he had seen Mezo actually get hurt. That voice had sounded so inviting, so enticing, and his willingness to follow its advice and just let go of his restraints and give his body over to it had been exploited so easily. The thought of it left him with a twisting sensation in his stomach.

"Shouji-san…Midoriya-san…I'm sorry. My spirit was not prepared. When Shouji-san lost one of his arms, I gave in to my anger and released Dark Shadow. In the depth of the darkness, I was consumed with fury, further spurred on by Dark Shadows' own rage. It built up to a point where I could no longer contain it…and I hurt Shouji-san in the process."

Before Fumikage could say another word, Mezo suddenly knelt down so they could be as close to the same eye level as possible, with not a trace of resentment visible in the masked boys' eyes. "Save it. If I were you, I wouldn't be talking about that right now."

Hurriedly squirming his way so he could poke his head out from behind Mezos' shoulder, Izuku quickly chimed in with that same sense of urgency as before: "That's right! We've established that Kacchan is one of the Villains' targets!"

The news of this caused Fumikage to visibly perk up as he hurried back to his feet. "Bakugo-san? They're after his life? But why?"

"I don't know. But in any case, I think we'd be safest n the facility with the two Pros, Vlad King and Aizawa-sensei." As Izuku explained all this to Fumikage, neither they nor Mezo noticed how Bakugo was listening intently to the whole conversation, his eyes wide and pupils contracted with steadily building anger at the thought of being dragged out of a fight without even so much as a word to say for himself.

"Getting back to the facility may not be as difficult as we'd previously thought, either. The gas seems to have finally dissipated." Shoto suddenly pointed out, halting the whole conversation. Just as he'd said, the path behind them that had once been encompassed in the purple gas was now clear as could be.

"What, do you think that asshole with the messed up teeth might've had something to do with the gas, too?" Bakugo asked, only for Shoto to immediately shake his head.

"I highly doubt it. He didn't look to have any physical connection with it, especially since he was so focused on taking us out instead of spreading the gas if he did. If I had to guess, I'd say some of the other students still out here found the Villain responsible for it and took them down." The mentioning of other students suddenly made Izukus' head perk up with sudden distressed remembrance. He'd been so laser-focused on making sure Bakugo would be alright, he'd blocked out his second most pressing concern after.

"With the gas no longer an issue, our getting Kacchan back to the facility is going to be a lot simpler, since we can take a shortcut through the woods. Mandalay-sensei and Tiger-sensei may still be fighting the other two Villains by the path entrance, so avoiding another fight is currently our best bet. I also heard a gunshot on my way here before Dark Shadow attacked…I think that might have had something to do with whoever was fighting the gas Villain.

"Before I came here, Aizawa-sensei told me that Kolya-san had also gone into the woods, trying to save whoever was still out here. If we cut through the woods, we might be able to find him and any other students he might've come across. We could use the extra help to cover the rest of the journey back to the facility regardless."

The mention of their Russian classmate had Bakugo suddenly going stiff with barely stifled rage, and that was on top of already severely disliking where Izuku was apparently going with this train of thought. However, the green-haired boy was as oblivious to his old friends' indignation as could be in that moment. "I admit, we still have no idea how many more Villains could still be out there…and there's always the distinct possibility of an ambush waiting for us on our way to the facility. But Shouji-san has the ability to detect enemies, and then we have Todoroki-sans' Ice and Fire, as well as Tokage-sans' projectile body parts to both give us a distance advantage in the event of an attack, and if Tokoyami-san's all right, we could also still have a way to wield the unrivaled power of Dark Shadow. If we go to get Kolya-san and the others, that'll simply add onto our effectiveness for the rest of the journey, both for the protection of Kacchan and any other students we come across that might be hurt. Frankly, with such a lineup as what we have right now, not even All Might could scare us; and with the potential force we could see ourselves become along the way once we find him and the others, we could potentially become unstoppable, no matter what other Villains out there might try to throw in our way."

Izuku sounded absolutely resolute and unshakable in his confidence in their potential, and anyone could see that same confidence was reflected in the eyes of Shoto, Setsuna, Mezo and Fumikage alike. Bakugo on the other hand…

"Now hold on a goddamn minute! Who ever said I needed protection from any one of you!? I can take care of myself in a fight no problem, it doesn't matter what shape any of you assholes THINK I'm in! And I especially don't need help from that stupid vibrate-y piece of shit above all else! You can all go trudging through the woods for his sorry ass if you want, but I'll take my own way back!"

Bakugos' sudden outburst rendered many of the others silent, as they could see the sheer offense in his eyes at the implication that he actually needed protecting, and especially with any involvement whatsoever from the kid that had left him unable to fight at his fullest to begin with; a sleight he couldn't possibly just forgive and forget now.

However, that confidence in Izukus' strategy didn't dim worth a flicker, as Shoto instead simply answered his partners' latest tantrum with a blunt: "You just make sure to keep walking in the middle of all of us, Bakugo."

Without wasting another moment waiting for him to come up with yet more colorful ways of telling them all to leave him alone, the self-proclaimed (in thought) Bakugo Bodyguard Brigade was officially on the move through the woods, with the silently fuming blonde boy begrudgingly following along, hands clenched into white-knuckled fists in his pockets as he was already imagining what a mother of an explosion he was going to unleash on that Slavic pantywaist that forced him into this position in the first place.

All the while, Izuku kept his eyes focused on the metaphorical path ahead from over Mezos' shoulder, silently hoping that not only would they catch a lucky break and not run into any more Villains on their way to the facility, but also that Nikolay had actually gotten lucky and managed to evacuate the rest of the students from the forest and was on his way there now, too. He could only keep wishing to himself that the gunshot he had heard earlier wasn't some kind of foreboding omen of what they were to ultimately find along the way. 'Please be all right, everyone. We're on our way!'

Minutes earlier…

Nikolays' adrenaline had started rushing through his veins faster than it already had been from the moment he had received Mandalays' latest telepathic message of Bakugo being the Villains' specific target. As much as he wanted to stay his original course in the hopes of finding Mina, Ochako, Tsuyu and the rest of the Class B students, he couldn't stop his heart and mind from descending into a downward spiral of numerous emotions at the news.

'Oh God, this is terrible! If my understanding where the different teams would've been along the path by the time the attack started is correct, there's no way for me to get to Bakugo and Todoroki-san in time! Plus, even if I did go, I could be risking other students' lives out here right now! This damn gas is so thick, there's no telling how badly turned around some of them could be! Oh no, and Setsuna-san even said that Villain by her arm had spotted them! There's no way they can avoid a fight! I could even see it on Bakugos' face; our fight this afternoon left him with some injuries of his own! He's not able to fight at his best anymore, and it's all because of me! Goddammit, what should I do?!'

Nikolay felt like his head was about to split with the conflict raging inside while he tried to continue his onward launching trajectory through the trees. However, at the very moment he had emerged from an especially thick bit of brush and out into a small clearing, he suddenly felt a huge amount of weight come crashing into his left side, plowing the dumbfounded and now-winded Russian boy straight to the ground.

"I got you now, you asshole! Your gas couldn't take all of us out!" Nikolay immediately found himself being yelled at by a very distinct gruff and aggressive voice, and just as soon as his vision cleared enough from the impact for him to see the distinct beady eyes with silver frames and the matching silver hair, he immediately realized just who it was that was currently pinning him to the ground, with a single fist raised to clock him right in the face.

Nikolay immediately began to raise his hands up and scream for him to stop, before another now-familiar female voice suddenly called out from a short ways away: "TETSUTETSU-KUN, STOP! THAT'S BEZPALOV-SAN, NOT A VILLAIN!"

The surprise and desperation in Itsuka Kendos' voice thankfully managed to get through the iron-skinned boys' adrenaline-infused state enough for his aggression to fade upon realization of just who was actually beneath him. Tetsutetsu immediately deactivated his Quirk, returning his skin to normal before quickly getting up and offering his hand to pull the now much calmer Nikolay back to his feet. "Sorry about that, Bezpalov-san. Kendo-san and I have been searching through these woods for other students to point back to the facility, or at least for the Villain responsible for all this gas."

As soon as Nikolays' heart had stopped racing, he was immediately overcome with that long-overdue relief from finally seeing two familiar faces all this way out in this sickening purple haze. "I was out here for the same reason, trying to find and rescue any other students that might've gotten turned around in all this. I ran into Setsuna-san earlier; she said one of your classmates; I think she said 'Awase-san', was helping my classmate, Yaoyorozu-san, evacuate everyone to your classes' safe zone, but since Mandalay-sensei gave the order for everyone to go back to the facility, I imagine they're all trying to head that way now, too.

"Unfortunately, Setsuna-san had even said that not everybody was there to get evacuated when she'd gotten there, hence why she came out here to look for the others. She had to head across the forest to the other end of the path, cause she caught sight of a Villain near Todoroki-san and Bakugos' last position with her scouting eye. I've been looking for anyone who might've gotten to this part of the woods since then. How about you guys? Have you seen anyone else since the order to return to the facility? Have you seen Mina, Uraraka-san and Tsuyu-san by any chance?"

It nearly physically hurt Itsuka to have to shake her head in denial when hearing just how much hope was in Nikolays' voice after having run into them. To see that same hope in his eyes fade hurt even worse. "I'm sorry, Bezpalov-san, but we haven't. Last time we saw other faces was a few minutes ago when my team and I ran into Tetsutetsu-kun and Ibara-chan. My teammate, Yui-chan, is probably helping her and Honenuki-kun back to the facility as we speak. We haven't seen anyone since then until you."

Nikolay had to suck in the shakiest breath through his teeth, instinctively clenching deeply frustrated fists. Lifting his head back up, however, it was a relief to see the despair had changed to a much stronger determination now that he had two allies to work with. "Well, at least if we're all together, we have a better chance of finding anyone still out here. We must be near the edge of the section of forest reserved for the game, so if we double back, we might have a chance of running into other students that had to take the long way by following the path all the way back. I hardly diverted from my own course once I got into the woods, so I know we must be essentially running parallel to it."

Itsuka looked pleasantly on board with the idea, as did Tetsutetsu, except his eyes were still looking at their incredibly obscured surroundings. "It's not gonna be easy, though. This gas hasn't been dispersing in all directions like it normally does. If anything, it just seems to be coalescing in this part of the woods alone."

"That's right, when Mandalay-sensei gave the order for us to retreat, she didn't even mention the gas, which meant it hadn't spread to the portion of the woods where she could even see it. In fact, the gas was actually the slightest bit thinner back the way we came than it is here, which leads me to believe it's swirling around a fixed point of origin, kind of like a typhoon. That's why we came to the conclusion a Villain had to be behind it, especially since it knocked out our teammates in seconds. You must've been using your kinetic blasts to try and clear a path for yourself in order to make it this far in without crashing into a tree, huh?" Itsukas' guess made Nikolays' eyes light right back up as he looked to his hands.

"That's right. I was letting my panic occupy so much of my head, I was just doing it on impulse, but the sound surely must've carried to some of the other students around. If anything, they might be following it to where we are now. That's both good and bad, depending if they have anything to keep them from breathing in this gas." Nikolay sounded so much more hopeful upon this realization as he already started aiming his hands outward to his sides.

Tetsutetsu likewise brightened up with anticipation as soon as he figured out where his new Russian comrade was going with this. "Hey, yeah, that's a great idea! Not only would clearing the gas out allow us to catch sight of any of our schoolmates wandering around, but the constant noise will draw them to us, and also help clear the air so they're not as much at risk of breathing it in and getting knocked out. Plus, if the Villain is hiding somewhere out there, we might even catch sight of them before they get a chance to try anything!"

By now, even Itsuka looked to be fully on board at last: "Plus it'll really help us in case we end up in a fight with this Villain. There's still a time limit to the filters on these masks, and the thicker the particulates in the air are; the shorter their effectiveness span will be, so either way, we're on a time limit, but Bezpalov-sans' Quirk will help buy us some extra time, and reduce the Villains' Quirks' immediate area of effectiveness."

At the same time as the three students were now discussing this, none of them realized that a fourth figure, the eponymous Villain they had been looking for, only introduced to his peers as Mustard, was already there, hiding crouched behind the bushes, listening to their chatter while slowly drawing the revolver from under his jacket.

'Damn suckers, with all their big bravado and talk about finding me while I hide right under their noses. Admittedly, the fact the little gas separator ran into a couple others was exactly what I was hoping to avoid, but it won't make a difference. As long as I time and aim my shots right, I've still got plenty of rounds to take down all three. I just gotta take out the one spreading my gas away first. With him out of the picture, I can navigate my way around the others no problem. They won't be able to make a single move without my sensing it. But dammit, which one is he? They're clustered so close together, I can't differentiate them.

'It is a bit of a shame to have to take out people who were able to figure out the essence of my Quirk so quickly…but in the end, it doesn't matter. No matter how exceptional their Quirks are, they're all still only human.' With no other feasible option, Mustard proceeded to start leveling his gun, simply relying on the sound and direction of the three voices to help his aim.

BWOOOM!

With a powerful sound of bursting bass, the blanket of purple gas suddenly blew away from the center of the clearing with a gale-force-level wind, effectively revealing Nikolay, Tetsutetsu and Itsuka right in the open, with the single foreigner dead center with his arms extended.

However, at the very same moment they had inadvertently revealed themselves to Mustard, so too had the Villain been revealed to them, with his helmet and gas mask-adorned head poking out from behind the bushes.

"THERE YOU ARE!" Tetsutetsu immediately roared as he wasted not a single moment rushing for Mustards' position, while the Villain just as quickly brought his gun up in a quick draw and instantly pulled the trigger, firing his first shot straight at the charging boys' head at next-to point blank range.

BLAM!

KRAKKK!

With a piercing splitting sound, Tetsutetsu immediately reeled back at the deafening sound of a single gunshot, momentarily stabbing Nikolay and Itsuka simultaneously with a dagger of ice in the gut at the sight of their ally having just been shot.

However, that horror was quickly extinguished when they both saw, once Tetsutetsu had landed on his back, that he didn't look to be hurt, but instead his gas mask had been destroyed. And just as quickly as their fear had left, did their mutual anger and determination come racing right back as their eyes fell upon Mustard alone.

At the same time, Mustards' mind was racing the moment he realized the boy he'd just shot wasn't bleeding. In fact, in what seemed like no time at all, he had actually managed to turn his skin to iron the moment he saw the gun being aimed at his face. 'Ahh, that's right…the archive did say there was one student who could harden his body. I guess this gun won't work on him after all. No matter; inside this gas, it becomes a matter of just how long he can hold his breath.'

BWOOOM!

At the very same moment Tetsutetsu had actually managed to flip himself right back onto his feet, hand over his mouth and nose and all, Nikolay had similarly finally charged into action, catching Mustard by surprise at how quickly he was already closing the distance. It was only through sheer reflex on that draw that he managed to adjust his aim and fire another shot right at the Russians' center mass.

BLAM!

Seeing the barrel coming his way and hearing the very beginnings of that second gunshot, Nikolay likewise acted on impulse and fired his right hand at his side, flinging himself sideways to the ground and narrowly avoiding the bullet. Without missing a beat, Mustard swiftly brought his aim back and fired a third shot into Tetsutetsus' chest, once again ricocheting off his iron skin, but still packing enough of a punch to knock him back down, and the moment the boy was down again, quickly popped off a fourth shot right in Itsukas' direction, forcing her to dive down in reaction as the bullet just barely nicked a few hairs off her ponytail.

BWOOM!

The same bass noise erupted again, but Mustard was still just as quick on the reflexes, already aiming in the direction his one foreign target was coming from, having practically kicked himself forward upon landing.

BLAM!

Another resonating gunshot reached Nikolays' ears as he saw the plume of smoke from the barrel, but this time he was ready. The moment his right foot got off the ground, he fired from his left with a slight jump, lunging himself aside from the bullets' trajectory, while never breaking his momentum while charging Mustards' location.

BLAM!

With just as much suddenness, an immediate following gunshot suddenly rang out, and Nikolay felt a tearing pain across the side of his left leg, knocking him off balance and crashing to the ground. He could already feel the warm wetness of his blood soaking into his pant leg from the grazing wound he'd just received, quickly followed by the intense burning pain.

Mustard, upon realizing he'd just fired his last bullet, hurriedly tucked his revolver back into his uniform, just as Tetsutetsu and Itsuka both realized he was now out of ammo. "NO CHEAP SHOTS LEFT FOR YOU, YOU BASTARD!"

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

Three sequential gunshots rang out in response, and Tetsutetsu found himself repeatedly hammered away and ultimately flat on his back once again, feeling three aching impact points across his chest, once again only miraculously saved by the immediacy of his Iron Skin Quirk. However, even with that, he could tell the resistance of his iron skin was starting to wane from the sudden influx of punishment on it.

When Mustard had been tucking his revolver into his uniform, none of the still standing Hero students had realized he'd been keeping a second revolver just within reach for just such an occasion, and had just emptied half its load into the iron boy, and now had the barrel centered on the visibly furious Itsuka, who realized she was still just outside a good enough range to quickly enlarge her hand and smack that damn thing right out of his.

"What is wrong with you three? What do you think this is: some stupid game of capture the flag? You think you can bum rush somebody with a gun and actually accomplish anything? Hardening or not, kinetics-aided speed or not, just rushing in like that? You've gotta be kidding me! You're all supposed to be from a prestigious school, right? Highly educated, no? Can't any of you put a little more thought into your attacks? If you don't, you won't even be worth killing."

Without a word of warning or a visible tell of what he was about to do, Mustard proceeded to fire a fourth shot right at Itsuka, thus giving her no chance to read his movement and prepare her own counter.

BWOOM!

At virtually the exact same moment as the gunshot rang out, Nikolay had seen what was about to happen from the ground, and hurriedly tried to push his own pain aside and fired himself towards Itsuka from both feet. Opening his arms, he drove his entire body weight straight into her left side, knocking Itsuka right out of the bullets' path, and putting himself in it in her place.

However, as the bullet neared the Russian boys' torso, his absorption/refraction ability had once again started enacting itself out of sheer instinct. Nikolay could feel the disruptions in the air of the bullet flying through it, and he could just feel that incoming concentrated physical impact coalescing into one equally concentrated spot on him, and that's where all of the rebounding energy was already collecting itself for the moment physical impact would finally be made.

BWOOOM!

The moment the tip of that bullet touched him, a nearly equally massive, yet no less concentrated, burst of pure kinetic force shot right back out from Nikolays' body from the moment of impact, sending a bullet-sized concentration of that invisible yet physical energy flying right back at the same trajectory that bullet had come from, and before Mustard even realized what was happening, he felt his revolver suddenly explode in his hand from the moment that ripple in the air itself flew right into the barrel.

The echo of that burst rang through the air, as Nikolay and Itsuka both collapsed to the ground, and Mustard now found himself without a loaded weapon. The fact he'd now been efficiently disarmed and left without an alternative, left the gas mask-wearing Villain shaking with both anxiety and anger, as he hurriedly reached for his first revolver in one hand, and pulled out a speed loader with the other, anxiously ejecting his spent rounds and loading in the new ones.

"It's not right…it's just not right! Stupid meatheads like you who just go charging into a fight without any sense of self-preservation or strategy have no right to call yourselves Heroes! The ones deserving of that title are supposed to be smart; to be able to think several steps ahead of their opponent! But you go around thinking dull Quirks like hardened skin, speed and fancy vibration powers make you worthy of being Heroes?! Those with sheer advantage in physical powers get the privilege of becoming Heroes while the smart ones are left behind in the shadows…there really is no justice in the system! Dull Quirks shouldn't be the ones getting the spotlight; that privilege should go to the ones with Quirks that require smarts to come out on top in a fight!

"Not that any of that matters. Even with your dull Quirks, neither of you can possibly close the distance in time to stop me, and your idiotic hardening friend's clearly been reaching his limit after getting shot five times! Typical of those thickheaded hardening types who think they can win any battle by sheer attrition. I'll just kill all three of you here, and then I can finally have one up on all you privileged Hero-types!" With that, Mustard had finally finished loading his revolver and pulling the hammer back, ready to follow through on his word.

Listening to Mustards' continuous rambling on top of everything else had now left Itsuka similarly fuming. "You talk a big game about Quirks with smarts being more valuable than Quirks with strength…but the type of Quirk isn't what matters…what matters is how you use it!" With that, Itsuka suddenly enlarged her hand to practically the size of Mustard himself, and hurriedly swept her hand straight up into the air, creating enough of a wind current to send the already building-up mist of gas straight up into the air, clearing out the area around them once again, and leaving the Villain completely in the open.

The burst of pure wind friction from that sudden attack forced Mustard to bring his arms up to keep from being blown back any. 'Holy crap, this wind pressure! How can a Quirk like growing hands have such power?!'

By the time the wind had finally died down enough for him to start lowering his arms, Mustard suddenly found himself being attacked with that same massive hand, now wielding a sizeable tree branch like a bludgeon in a swinging arc, sufficiently closing the distance between them that Itsuka wouldn't have been able to close on foot. It thankfully managed to be enough to knock the gun right out of the Villains' grasp, now leaving him well and truly unarmed. "The real idiot is you, schoolboy! Holding a pistol like that…you're basically saying you don't have the confidence to really fight!"

Mustard knew that without his guns, he no longer had an immediate form of defense, and there wasn't nearly enough time to dispense enough of his gas to give her the slip. His mind was racing as he began to back away into the bushes from whence he came, unable to take his shaking eyes off of her and the Russian boy still on top of her. He could just feel the intensity of her eyes staring him down through her gas mask…and something else.

"But above all, Yuueis' 'simpleminded' Heroes you talk about, well…at times when one would normally give up…" All at once, Mustard felt that jolt that only came when they felt another pair of eyes on them. It wasn't the girl in front of him. In that instance, in the wake of her own gas dispersal maneuver, did he realize his own mistake. 'Dammit, when the gas got thinner, I didn't even think-!'

Mustard immediately turned around and froze to find the iron-skinned boy not only behind him and back on his feet with his cheeks puffed out while holding his breath, but heaving his shoulders aggressively with an especially enraged fire in those beady pupils of his.

Before Mustard could even conjure up the beginning of a thought, Tetsutetsu immediately met him with a devastating single downward iron-coated punch straight into his mask, plowing the Villain head first back down to the ground and shattering his gas mask to pieces on impact, leaving Mustard lying slack and unconscious beneath his fist. Just as quickly as the Villain had been taken down, the gas began to finally thin out and disperse, allowing Tetsutetsu to exhale, and Itsuka to finish her grand statement with a swelling of pride in seeing her group emerge victorious: "…we find a way to overcome."

Tetsutetsu was downright heaving for breath by this point, looking down at the already swollen, bruised face of the middle school-aged boy lying beneath him amid the fragments of his mask. "To think…I took five bullets…from a damn middle school kid! But you didn't turn out so tough like you thought you did, did you, punk? To be going around wearing a damn gas mask like that…of course I'd end up breaking it!"

With the physical toll of his own injuries finally mounting up, Tetsutetsu rolled over and lay on his back, not in pain, but in relief, and an overwhelming sensation of hard-earned victory. "For attacking our camp like that…you're gonna pay…you little brat!"

"Bezpalov-san? Hey, get up, we won! Bezpalov-san?" Tetsutetsu could hear Itsukas' voice across the clearing changing from that similar air of relief, to a very distinct worry. This spurred him to get up from where he lay, to see his classmate trying to nudge the Russian boy off of her, but not only was Nikolay not saying anything, but he wasn't moving either. Then, even from this distance, Tetsutetsu could see the blood on Itsukas' hand when she pulled it away.

"Hey! Kolya-san, get up! Can you hear me?!" By now, Itsukas' voice was wrought with a mounting fear as she finally managed to get out from under Nikolay, and the moment she and Tetsutetsu saw the blood all over her clothes, all those feelings of victory went right out the window, now replaced with skyrocketing panic, as the Class B boy practically sprinted and slid on his knees to Itsukas' side, rolling Nikolay onto his back.

They both felt their hearts momentarily stop, and their blood go cold, when they saw the single pronounced bullet hole in Nikolays' chest, just an inch or two above where his heart would be, blooming red with blood, with no signs of stopping. Nikolay himself looked to have long since fallen unconscious; whether from the shock of actually being shot or the blood loss made no difference.

"I didn't see an exit wound on his back! That's gotta mean the bullet's still in there somewhere!" Itsuka noted between her urgent panting breaths, while Tetsutetsu immediately tore away a strip of his shirt and started trying to apply pressure to the wound, with Itsuka quickly following suit with her now only slightly larger hands. However, a deeply worried exchanged glance between them, made them realize that they were on the same page about this: they couldn't afford to stay here, and neither could Nikolay. One way or another, they needed to get him back to the facility, or he was going to die.

And there you have it, everyone, the massive two-in-one chapter for this week. I hope you all enjoyed it, and if so, please tell me so, that's really all I'm asking for.

Have a nice rest of your week, stay safe, and I will see you all with the next chapter on 10/09!