Heyo, another chapter, this one took a little more time, because I seriously hate writing the Cavalry Battle, because I have to mix and match a bunch of students which affects the next stage of the festival.
So please forgive me if I don't put too much effort into this chapter, but in terms of story, it's truly not as important as the one v one fights, which I'm way more excited about writing.
Anyway, let's get to it.
"-and first place is worth…10 million points!" Midnight announced the rules of the Cavalry battle to all participants of the sports festival.
"You have got…to be kidding me" Izuku sighed, closing his eyes, he pinched his nose as everyone turned to him, those with few points seeing him as an instant win to go for, and those who didn't know him seeing him as an easy target, because sure, he won a race, that didn't mean he couldn't be overwhelmed with numbers and strategy.
However, hesitance quickly made its way onto their faces when Izuku opened his eyes and looked back at them with burning determination.
The wraith noticed a few around them nodding to each other, there seemed to be a unanimous decision being made to target Izuku and his points.
This was proven when Midnight gave everyone 15 minutes to choose their teams and groups were immediately formed without words.
Izuku stood alone for a moment as people avoided him, though the reasons weren't as selfish as he thought.
"Sorry Midoriya, people are going to be gunning for you right away, and I can't defend you effectively" Ojiro explained before he added "though attacking you?…well we'll see" he finished with a smile as he left with Iida to find another group.
"What about you Iida?" Izuku called, the speedster turning with a grin.
"After your speech, there's a lot of eyes on you, It's clear that whoever you get on your team is a guaranteed winner, but they won't be noticed as much, I want to stand out and challenge myself" he explained as he clenched his fist competitively.
"Smart choice" the wraith commented on their answers while Izuku saw Bakugo talking to Ochako, she was nodding along as Bakugo talked, it seemed he had a strategy that he needed her for, shown when he pointed at Sero next to him.
"Yo Midoriya, you looking for teammates?" Kaminari walked up with a friendly smile.
"Yeah, you want to join?"
"Of course, I tried to join Todoroki's team but he's on the warpath, only getting long range offence, saw him chatting to some students from 1B" Kaminari explained as Izuku looked at Todoroki's group seeing him shaking hands with a blonde kid that didn't seem too pleased while the other seemed to be convinced by Todoroki.
"Midoriya? Can I join you?" A voice spoke up from behind, Izuku turned to see Tokoyami who was clearly new to asking for something like this.
"Of course! We can use you for ranged defence" Izuku strategized as more plans came to be mind, meanwhile his wraith walked out of him, observing the other teams.
'hmm, it's us vs everyone else…a fair battle' it turned back towards Izuku, and honestly, it nearly had a heart attack when it saw crossed pupils looking at it.
Back in the villain's lair, Chichi had calmed himself down enough to explain his fate to Shigaraki, who was understandably sceptical.
"So what? This kid or GraveWalker is going to kill you in the future?"
"Yup, I didn't quite believe it at first, but now I'm certain, he's my killer, but that means that you…" Chichi did finger guns toward Shigaraki "are what I've been looking for, the perfect villain, like the ones from the birth of quirks" Chichi grinned with both relief and resignation on his face.
While both the villains talked about this, another listened through the cameras with great interest.
"GraveWalker hmm?" They repeated the name before a screen showed up showing 'Izuku Midoriya' and his face, address and most importantly, his quirk.
A wide gleeful smile stretched their face as they read more and more about the quirk which seemed to be more powerful than his best healing quirks.
"What a wonderful quirk…I want it"
"So are we going for Midoriya?" Kirishima asked Bakugo as he sat atop his team with his arms crossed.
"No, we're going for everyone else, if he loses his band, he's gonna have to come to us" he snarled as he locked eyes with Izuku, who gave a competitive grin in return.
"Well I don't think we're the only ones not targeting Midoriya" Ochako said as Bakugo turned her way, seeing the two tone Todoroki glaring at them, his team consisting of Iida, and some 1B students, one being a blonde kid with a smug yet disgusted expression on his face, the other being more angelic, a girl with green and strange looking hair.
"Fuck's sake, that useless bastard is going to be annoying with speedy on his team" Bakugo grunted, "Blushy! If you see them approaching, aim for him"
"Blushy?"
"Ok, clearly, everyone is going to attack us at first, however if we can evade long enough, people will eventually lose interest" Izuku shared his thoughts with his team who consisted of Kaminari to his left, Tokoyami at the front, and the pink haired girl who called herself Mei Hatsume to his right.
"And if they get close, I'll shock you with this?" Kaminari held up a metal rod, courtesy of Mei Hatsume who showed her value as she seemed to have brought the entire support department with her, outfitting everyone with rocket boots powered by Kaminari and even gave Izuku a jetpack.
"Yes, only me and whoever is touching me should be shocked thanks to Hatsume's shock absorbing shoulder pads" Izuku explained, though Kaminari still seemed hesitant.
"Don't worry Kaminari, I've been through worse, I can take a little shock" Izuku tried to ease his teammates worries, but he didn't think it worked as Kaminari looked away.
Before he could retry, Midnight began the battle with a flare.
"Start!" Midnight shouted, immediately Izuku activated the jet pack at 100% which was both a good decision as immediately his previous position was covered with students, scrambling to get him, though once they realised he was out of reach, they all turned on eachother.
Though Izuku didn't necessarily leave without a little bit of pain.
"Ahhh-ha-owww" Izuku shouted from the sudden heat that attacked his back due to the jetpack.
"Oh yeah, that's normal, it won't leave a mark, so you should be fine as long as you don't use it at 100% for too long or else it may explode and kill us all, I'd recommend 40% and let us use our thrusters, that should keep us up for a few moments before we have to land" Mei explained her invention now instead of in the 15 minutes they had.
"What! Now you tell me!" Izuku shouted as he tried to remove the jetpack, causing his team to swerve in the air.
"Why are you trying to remove it? Just twist the dial" Hatsume pointed to Izuku's shoulder, which had a rudimentary dial with numbers around it.
Following Hatsume's advice, he twisted it to 40, and the heat ceased a little, though they began to lose height.
"Incoming!" Tokoyami shouted as a bunch of small objects shot his way, a weird aura around them.
Regardless, he summoned Dark Shadow and used it to shield them from the onslaught.
But catching glimpses through Dark shadow, Tokoyami realised his error.
The team that sent the objects were in a mix of Class A and B, one girl seemed to be telekinetically controlling them, while the other was creating them.
And that person was Yaoyouozu, who knew his weakness.
The next thing he knew, it was too bright to see.
In Bakugo's peripheral, he noticed a flash, but he was also kind of preoccupied with something else as ice shot towards him.
"Fuck off!" Bakugo shouted as he let off explosions, the ice was controlled, no wasted energy and directed at him, so by the time it stopped, not even Kirishima at the front was touched.
"Damn Bakugo" he whispered as chunks of ice littered the area.
However, as they walked out the way of the ice, another came, way less controlled and weak.
"Pfft, hah? Is that it! Are you sure you're not adopted!" Bakugo shouted with a laugh.
"Oh I'm pretty sure I'm not adopted, because I'm Neito Monoma" they heard before ice came from 2 sources, one was controlled like before, the other was different, inexperience showed in its look, though one could tell there was improvement with every usage.
"What did you do? Why are they targeting us?" Sero yelled as Bakugo tried to create some distance, which proved difficult with Iida's speed.
But as time ran on, Bakugo noticed that the ice was showing up less often, even deteriorating in quality with the weaker ice being slightly stronger than a slushy.
"Now!" Bakugo shouted as he put his leg in front of Ochako, who immediately knew what to do.
Next, he shot up, the effects of Ochako's quirk being strange to get used to, though not impossible for someone like Bakugo.
He shot forward towards Todoroki's team, his speed unmatched as Ochako put her finger tips together.
"Release" she whispered as her finger tips glowed.
Bakugo had purposely went for Todoroki's left side, his reaction speed proving to be better as he left Todoroki with points on his neck.
"Too easy, and they say you were a recommended student? More like you used daddy's rep to get in?" Bakugo mocked, seeing smoke rising from Todoroki's left side, his ice dripping off his right.
Bakugo soon rejoined his group with more points than he had left them with, fortunately Midnight reiterated that riders can't touch the floor, so no rules were broken.
And for a moment he and Todoroki just stared, both waiting on the other to move, until Todoroki simply turned towards another group of teams.
"Looks like we scared them off? Where to now?"
"Now…we go for De-" Bakugo turned towards Izuku's location, and had to do a double take at what he was witnessing.
Izuku had truly gone from the frying pan into the oven in the time Bakugo was occupied, because although he saw Izuku's team, Izuku was nowhere near them.
Dark shadow screeched as its weakness to light was exploited by a flashbang, Izuku leaned forward to move the rest of the team out of the line of fire, unfortunately the flash left his team blinded, their thrusters sending the group spiralling out of control.
"We have to land!" Mei shouted, doing her best to navigate the air while blind, however it proved fruitless since Tokoyami and Kaminari were both out of sync.
Izuku lowered his team to the ground, conjuring the bow to keep the others at bay, he needed to get back in the air, which would be difficult with his team being unable to see, therefore making air manoeuvrability a challenge.
A team rushed his way, however swerved when he shot an arrow at them, even if it hit them, it wouldn't do any physical damage unless he wanted it to.
"How is everyone? Have you recovered yet?" Izuku asked as he aimed threateningly at any approaching teams, keeping them at bay.
"Still trying to get the dots out of my eyes" Kaminari answered, rubbing his eyes as Tokoyami recovered, followed by Hatsume, who put on some darkened goggles.
"Ok, get ready, we're going back up" Izuku informed, setting the jetpack to 50%.
And after a moment, Izuku realised something rather troubling.
His group was stuck in the ground, like quicksand.
"Behind!"
Izuku ducked forward, feeling his hair being brushed across as a hand just missed his points.
He looked up, seeing that purple haired guy from before, his team looking…strange to say the least, eyes glazed over and faces showing nothing.
"I assume that ghost of yours is capable of warning you of attacks out of your view, must be nice" he said, a mixture of condescending jealousy in his voice.
"It has its uses-
Suddenly Izuku stopped talking, his eyes glazing over and his mind being overcome with fog.
"Do me a favour and hand over your points"
The order was the only thing Izuku could hear and try as he might, he just couldn't resist following the command.
"Now why would I do that?" Another voice spoke, the wraith, now controlling Izuku's body and stopping him from continuing on with the request, surprising Izuku and the boy.
"What? How are you not affected?"
"Oh Izuku is affected, me however…" Izuku leaned forward, tapping Kaminari on the shoulder, "Get ready to shock me".
"So you possess some sort of mind control, interesting, but you only seemed to control Izuku when he responded, is that your quirk? So taunting and mocking is your trick?" The wraith deduced, looking to their team, all under his spell.
"And so the question is, how does one break out?" The wraith asked as it gripped Kaminari's shoulder.
"Sorry Izuku, this is going to hurt you more than it's going to hurt me"
"Now Kaminari!"
Bzzzt!
"Ahhh!" Izuku couldn't stop himself from screaming, his vocal cords hurting from the action, "Son of a b- thanks Kaminari, but also, screw you" Izuku regained control of his body, shaking off the shock quick enough to see that in the time he wasn't in control, multiple teams had begun to come his way, and they were too close to be evaded with the jet pack.
Rather conveniently, he saw Bakugo flying out of his team, an action that didn't get him disqualified.
And so, Izuku did the first thing he could think of.
He jumped off his team, and onto another.
One advantage of his half wraith physiology was he had perfect balance and was light enough to hop across teams like rocks in a river.
"Sorry!-Deepest apologies!-My bad-Forgive me!"
People grabbed from all angles, forcing Izuku to turn and twist in the air as he hitched rides from anyone who got close enough.
A barrier of air appeared in front of him, preventing him from progressing any further as he crashed into it, what's worse? It disappeared, leaving Izuku to fall towards the ground and towards disqualification.
He didn't have time to activate the jetpack, so instead he spun and aimed upward, and just as the arrow was released, he hit something.
"What would you do without me?" The wraith smirked as he held Izuku bridal style.
"Hmm, I'd probably still win this" Izuku grinned back as he disappeared and reappeared above everyone.
Unfortunately "oh you gotta be kidding me?!" Izuku cried as a net trap, some thorny vines, a tongue and a pair of ear jack's attacked.
Izuku activated the jetpack, avoiding the initial strikes, though the second volley came quicker than the jetpack could ascend.
Izuku grabbed the tongue first to pull himself out of the way of the other attacks, looking for his team, which proved harder than expected since they were so far away, just getting out of the ground.
Izuku aimed his bow, however he was knocked off balance by the tongue, followed by the thorns which quickly wrapped around his arms, and his legs were caught by the jacks, both pulling him in two directions, the only positive is the thorns didn't scratch, so if he was ripped in two, he'd at least have that.
He landed just above the ground, acting as a bridge between the two teams.
In this position, Izuku found the source of the vines, a girl with green vines for hair.
And Todoroki was the rider, great.
Suddenly Todoroki got up and began running along the vines towards Izuku, who could only struggle against his bindings in hopes of making Todoroki lose his balance.
However, just as he reached his arm towards Izuku's points, that same air barrier appeared, blocking his grab.
"I'd admit this feels cheap, but all's fair in battle" a voice said out of Izuku's view as a hand grasped his points.
Todoroki froze the area behind Izuku, trying to reclaim the points he nearly had.
Though judging by his hasty retreat, the ice didn't work.
The vines loosened around Izuku's arms, he looked up, seeing the vines user giving a kind smile as she gestured him to use his arrows to disappear, he guessed that she didn't want her team to be disqualified for making him touch the floor.
Izuku knew he didn't have much time left, nor did he have enough arrows to stay away from his team.
"It looks like Midoriya has no points, though what a display am I right!" Present Mic commented as Izuku rejoined his team via 2 arrows.
"He took advantage of the rules to avoid having his points taken, though it would've been more advantageous to stick to his team" Aizawa added as the timer reached 5 minutes.
"Don't worry Midoriya, we'll get our points back" Tokoyami encouraged as Kaminari and Hatsume agreed.
"There's not enough time, and I don't know who has them except that there's someone who can create 'shields' in the air on that team, we should play more aggressively now" Izuku said as he jumped off his team again, grabbing someone else's points before jumping back with a second wraith jump to clear the distance.
"Can you stop doing that! You're stressing me out everytime you do that!" Kaminari worriedly shouted.
"Sorry man, but we have to take risks now, I refuse to lose now" Izuku said as he looked at the points, only 50.
"Shit" he cursed, observing the other teams like a hunter.
He led his team into a crowd of teams, they were all going after the 10 million but there were too many to know who had it.
"Kaminari! Use your weapon to shock those nearby, Tokoyami! Use Dark Shadow to grab others points, Hatsume! The same to you" Izuku ordered as he sent his Wraith to grab other's points, even jumping again to grab all the points he could.
It seemed that although some of class A and B were working together the non hero classes were left on their own, with only that mind control guy and Hatsume as exceptions.
The next few moments could only be described as chaos, most people didn't notice their points were taken until they looked at Izuku holding a bundle of points in both hands.
Chichi sat silently as the Cavalry Battle ended, with Izuku's team just making it through.
He had already made peace with his destiny to die by Izuku Midoriya's hand at this point, there was closure in the unavoidable he found.
"Well if I'm meant to be killed by an unkillable kid, I guess I can fuck with him a bit" Chichi voiced his thoughts as he stood up.
"Hm?" Shigaraki looked at Chichi, seeing the man's face filled with confidence.
"I was told I'd find what I've been looking for, but you aren't there yet, which means I won't die until you are" Chichi explained as he approached Kurogiri.
"Yo Kurogiri, can you do me a small teeny tiny favour?"
Heyo, just so you know, I also think this chapter could use some work and more proofreading, but Jesus Christ I hate writing the Cavalry battle, so many different groups to put together and so much characters to write, I spent so long planning teams and who goes where and honestly, I don't even care enough anymore to do that, I don't even plan on showing all the fights next chapter because it got so messy
I'm just gonna stick with Izuku's and maybe some of Bakugo's, apologies but I just want to be done with the Cavalry Battle and the sports festival.
Anyhoo, see you next chapter.