Chapter 16: Operation Eldrich Horror

"A cavalry battle?" Ituna hummed in thought about the newly announced event.

"Big problem," Mei started. "There are five of us but four people per team."

"Oh, Todoroki offered me a spot on his team. I'm sure I'll get through, but I get the feeling he doesn't understand my new skillset," Denki added.

"If you think you'll be okay. I'll trust your judgment. However, don't expect us to go easy on you. Try your best to steer Todoroki away from us," Izuku warned.

"I'll try to warn him of the support demons," Denki sighed, and with that, the electric boy ran off to his new team.

Point values were assigned based on students' placing in the obstacle course. First place was worth ten million points. The top three from the race were on the same team. They stood ominously at one end of the field. Izuku was at the front of the formation, Mei on the left, Ituna on the right, and Hitoshi on top. Hitoshi was far taller than his teammates, so they'd be off balance if he wasn't the rider.

"All the teams are ready!" Midnight announced. A buzzer sounded through the arena, signaling the beginning of the event.

"Operation Eldtrich Horror is ago," Hitoshi commanded.

Suddenly, dozens of tendrils of Black Whip shot from Izuku's wrists. They fanned out and obscured the other teams' view. Behind the fan, Hitoshi hastily dawned some of the support gear Ituna made for this plan. On the other hand, Mei was busy handing random devices to some of the tendrils.

Team Bakugou was the first to approach. The explosive blonde used his quirk to propel himself toward the fan, only to be grabbed by the ankle and tossed back at his team. That pattern continued until a mass of vines attacked the tendrils. It was like watching a war zone. The vines and black whip wrestled across a large expanse of the field. Any team caught in the crossfire lost their headbands. Then the explosions started, not from Bakugou but from the middle of the war zone. Massive plumes of flame erupted from the mass and burned the vines, forcing Team Tetsutesu to retreat. Mei brought grenades for every occasion.

In the meantime, team Todoroki was going around collecting headbands from the other competitors. His original plan was to go after the ten million. However, Kaminari strongly suggested avoiding that team due to the support students. After watching the battle between the vines and Black Whip, Todoroki understood why approaching was a bad idea. The new plan was to make Kaminari blast all the nearby teams with electricity and freeze them while they were immobilized. Kaminari refused to corporate with this plan. He refused to fry himself for the sake of a game. That was reasonable, especially since the electric teen had an easier way to use his quirk.

Yaoyorozu created two metal staffs—one for Todoroki's ice and the other for Kaminari. Kaminari was on the left, Iida in front, Yaoyorozu on the right, and Todoroki on the top. The heterochromatic teen preferred using his ice on his right, so Kamiari covered his left. Iida would rush a team, Todoroki would block their escape with his ice, and Kaminari would use his staff to tase the team while Todoroki grabbed the team's headband. It was a good strategy that worked on most of the random teams they encountered.

Then Iida revealed he had a secret weapon, and Todoroki went back to his plan for the ten million. Kaminari was not pleased with this decision, but the fire and ice user ignored him. Shortly after the vines retreated, Team Todoroki advanced. As they approached, Kaminari apologized to his teammates for their impending doom. The tendrils of Black Whip straightened as Team Shinsou turned to face them. The tendrils retreated to condense and wrap around Team Shinsou.

Shinsou looked Todoroki in the eyes and grinned. Todoroki couldn't see the insomniac's mouth from behind the mask he wore, but that wasn't enough to hide the sadistic glee glinting in his violet eyes. It was creepy and sent shivers down spines. Mechanical spider legs shot from the back of one of the support students, and the other support student cackled like a witch. This is what Kaminari had warned them about and why he apologized.

Iida told his team to hold on, readying his hidden technique. Then Shinsou spoke. The mask must have been a voice modulator because there was no way that layered voice was natural. It should have been irritating to hear the equivalent of at least half a dozen voices, but it wasn't. It was almost ethereal. The layered voices chuckled and bid them farewell as a pair of flashbangs were launched in their direction.

The blast pulled the group out of whatever funk had held them in place. Todoroki rubbed his eyes and looked for the team they were pursuing.

Kaminari sighed. "That was our warning. We should not go after them again. Unless Iida's secret move makes him move at Mach twenty, there's no way you'll be faster than that team's reflexes. Their quirks and training are stacked against speedsters."

Iida looked pale. "Are you exaggerating that Mach twenty estimate?"

"No. The only one of them that isn't trained to work against speedsters is the pink-haired support student, but her quirk lets her see you from a mile away, and she has net cannons," Kaminari informed. "I'd save that special move for the one-on-one battles."

"When did you become so smart?" Todoroki asked with suspicion. He was adding another part to his conspiracy theory.

"I'm not smart, but Izuku told me I'm good at making fast decisions. He said I'm their genius of Improv," Kaminari beamed at that remark.

Todoroki filed that information for later. So all the Outcasts are geniuses of some kind.

The team unanimously agreed not to go after Team Shinsou again. That was a horror story they didn't want to face again.

Back in the observation booth, Aizawa sighed. "I don't think Shinsou even used an active part of his quirk."

The microphone wasn't on, so Yamada could talk with his co-host without broadcasting it to the entire arena. "What do you mean?"

"Shinsou's quirk, Brainwashing, is response activated. The move he pulled stunned the team it was directed at," Aizawa started. "My guess is it has something to do with his quirk-related mutations. You know how your quirk affects your vocal cords. Hitoshi has something similar, making his voice easier to listen to. That voice modulator seems to overlap that effect, making the voice too easy to listen to… if that's even possible," Aizawa speculated.

"Jeeze… talk about an exploit," Yamada sighed. "That was made specifically for Shinsou. Is he friends with the support students?"

"They call their group The Outcasts. From what I've gathered, the group was initially formed in middle school. Midoriya, Shinsou, the white-haired support student, our new AI face of security, and a guy they call Keigo, who is apparently a daylight hero. Hatsumei and Kaminari were added early in the school year, but the group is taking after their name and becoming distant from their new classmates."

"They sound like a tight-knit system."

"They're practically family, and most of the founding members have trust issues."

"I wonder what hero Keigo is." Yamada gained a pensive expression. The voice hero was brought out of his thoughts by what could only be described as an arcnifobe's worse nightmare. Leaping across the field was a mixture of black and mechanical limbs that resembled a massive spider with way too many legs. At the center of the spider was Team Shinsou, the cackles of the Support Witch Mei radiated from the group.

A buzzer rang out across the stadium.

Yamada pushed the button to turn the microphones back on. "That's the end of the second event!" he announced. "The teams moving on to the final round are…" He cleared his throat for effect. "TEAM SHINSOU with TEN MILLION SIX HUNDRED AND FOURTY-FIVE POINTS! TEAM TODOROKI with SEVEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY POINTS! TEAM BAKUGOU with SIX HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-THREE POINTS! And TEAM TETSUTETSU with THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOUR POINTS!"

The crowd cheered at the declaration and for the sixteen students moving to the final event.

A new display appeared on the screens lining the stadium along with Ritzu in her Present Mic outfit. Midnight retook the stage to prepare the matches for the next event.

A tournament bracket took shape on the screen with some sparkles. Then the first match-ups popped onto the screen.

FIRST ROUND: [Denki Kaminari (Class 1A)] vs [Mei Hatsume (Class 1F)]

SECOND ROUND: [Shoto Todoroki (Class 1A)] vs [Hanta Sero (Class 1A)]

THIRD ROUND: [Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu (Class 1B)] vs [Mina Ashido (Class 1A)]

FOURTH ROUND: [Hitoshi Shinsou (Class 1A)] vs [Tenya Iida (Class 1A)]

FIFTH ROUND: [Izuku Midoriya (Class 1A)] vs [Itsuka Kendo (Class 1B)]

SIXTH ROUND: [Ituna Horibe (Class 1F)] vs [Momo Yaoyorozu (Class 1A)]

SEVENTH ROUND: [Ibara Shiozaki (Class 1B)] vs [Ejiro Kirishima (Class 1A)]

EIGTH ROUND: [Katsuki Bakugou (Class 1A)] vs [Reiko Yanagi (Class 1B)]