The crowd cheered as we stood there in the open field, standing in front of the stage where one of the teachers would announce the beginning of the event. Eventually, the teacher that was looking after the first years walked out, causing most of the guys to go red faced or even start having nose bleeds.
Walking onto the stage, in a very inappropriate outfit for a school event filled with hormonal teenagers, was the pro hero Midnight. All the guys in the crowd instantly started drooling like idiots, some of the other students doing the same. One of them, a short boy with purple balls on his head, started bleeding from his nose so much that there was a pool of blood where he stood.
"Quiet everyone!" Midnight cracked her whip, causing the audience and the students to all hush up at her request. "And now for the 1st years representative, Clay!" I stepped up to the stage, walking in front of the microphone. I could hear some of the students behind me whispering about me being the rep, even some popping from who I'm guessing was the Bakugou guy.
I had been told about this part beforehand, how I would need to make a speech during the festival since I got first in the hero course examination. I had prepared a speech and even had it in my pocket, now I just needed to say it in front of all these peoples. I took a deep breath and spoke.
"We're all here to give it our all, we're all aiming for number one. Some are aiming for our spots in the hero course while others are planning to show off their inventions, but no matter what, we're all going to try to reach the top. No matter what obstacles you face don't give up and never back down, you'll overcome the problem eventually." The crowd started cheering for me after I paused, but I wasn't done. "Hey Vlad-sensei, how much of a handicap should I give them?"
The cheering from the crowd died down in an instant, replaced by an uproar from the students in the other classes. Class B didn't bother arguing with me, already knowing that no matter how hard they tried I would be able to beat them all in a heartbeat. From the teachers booth in the stands I was able to make out Vlad in his red costume standing up with his arm out. He had his thumbs up like a roman emperor from the gladiator arena.
Before the festival, I had asked Vlad if I should hold back at all, and he immediately agreed. Though we made a signal in case he decided that I shouldn't hold back, a symbol that used to mean death to the opponent. Something must have happened to Vlad that made him decide to have me show off.
I smiled and walked back to the crowd of students, most of them yelling at me or throwing insults while 1-B decided to shake their heads. Even Kamakiri was shaking his head, something that I was not expecting at all.
"Did you have to go make an enemy of everyone?" Kendo asked me while I just shrugged my shoulders.
"I could've held back like I've been doing in the hero course exercises, though that would've made me a hypocrite because of the speech I just gave. Besides, I need to stand out to make sure I get a good internship offer." I explained myself while the class nodded their heads in reluctant understanding. We turned our attention back to Midnight as she whipped her whip once more.
"Now with the pledge out of the way let's begin the first event. If you turn your attention to the screen it will show what the first round of the Sports Festival will be." Midnight pointed to the holographic screen behind her with a rectangle in the centre. The rectangle began changing, different events rolling past before it stopped on the one we would be doing. "The first event is an obstacle race!"
"All 11 classes will participate in this race. The course will be the outer circumference of this stadium, about four kilometres! Our school's selling point is freedom! As long as you stay on the course, it doesn't matter what you do! Now, take your places everyone!" All the students walked up to the starting line, a narrow corridor that opened up to the track on the other side. Looking at it, it's obviously too narrow for everyone to get out at once, so you should either be near the front or go over everyone.
I stuck near the back of the group, letting others get ahead of me. My class made their way to the middle of the pack, trying to get as far into the front as they could before they were blocked by other people. Some other people were at the back with me, most of the business course students, as they weren't going to bother participating in the festival, and another hero course student. His white and red hair was an obvious give away at who he was, Shoto Todoroki, son of Endeavour.
He must either have a plan for this event or is confident in his ability to reach the top from the back. Either way, I wouldn't let him stop me from winning this race.
"On your marks!" Midnight spoke out once more causing most of us to get into running positions. I activated my quirk, shredding the shirt on my body and creating a hole in my pants for my tails. Some of the other students were looking at me but I didn't let them distract me. "Get set!" The monster I decided to grab power from was once again [Number 107: Galaxy Eyes Tachyon Dragon]. He was my fastest monster and, in a race, speed is key! "Go!"
After hearing Midnight finish her word, I blasted off and jumped over the crowd blocking the entrance to the track. Because I still wanted people to be able to track me so they don't accuse me of going off the track, I went slow enough that they could see a blur. Landing in front of the crowd, I shot ahead and made my way to the first obstacle, a bunch of robots from the entrance exam.
There were rows of each of the different point robots, including the zero pointers that I destroyed in the exam. Because of the speed I was moving at, the robots were barely moving when I walked up to them, I decided that I should probably just ignore them and continue on with the race. Moving past the robots and to the next obstacle, it turned out to be a cliff with rock pillars in the centre and ropes connecting them.
I honestly wonder when they found the time to make something like this. Leaving that thought aside I backpedalled from the cliff and spread the wings on my back before running and taking a leap over the ravine. From the jump alone I made it to halfway past the ravine before needing to flap my wings at all. With one flap I stirred the wind behind me and shot past the rest of the ravine, landing a little aways from the next obstacle, a minefield.
I could probably just walk over this and outrun the blasts of the mines, but that would give whoever's behind me an edge over the rest of the competition, might as well just go over it. I flap the wings on my back and fly once more, going over the minefield and to the other side of the obstacle. Landing, I end up near the exit of the course, the light from the stadium shining brightly that it is hard to see the other side.
Walking out the other side of the tunnel that was the exit, I see that some of the students are still in the entrance way, ice sticking their legs to the ground and stopping them from moving. Todoroki, behind the students, is running through the crowd now after freezing them and taking them out of the competition.
I guess I arrived a bit after the competition started, seeing as the other students are only now making their way through the opening tunnel. I waited for the staff to notice me and announce me the winner, but Present Mic was too busy paying attention to the opening that he didn't bother paying attention to the end of the course. That was fine, I wasn't impatient.
"AND THEY'RE OFF, SHOTO TODOROKI MAKES A HUGE START FREEZING THE COMPETITION AHEAD OF HIM, STOPPING NEARLY EVERYONE IN THEIR TRACKS! BUT WHAT'S THIS? MOST OF CLASS 1-A HAS AVOIDED THE ICE AND IS RACING PAST THE REST! TODOROKI TAKES THE LEAD OUT OF THE GATE FOLLOWED BY THE STUDENTS OF 1-A AND 1-B!" Well now he's just telling a lie. I decided that I should go up to the booth and let him know that I already won.
Flapping my wings, I fly past most of the stadium and the crowd gasp when they see me. I fly right up to the commentator's booth where Mic and Eraser Head are watching the competition, knock on the window causing Mic to jump in fright and Eraser to look over with tired eyes.
"Uh, I already won the race." Eraser's eyes widen a bit as he pulls up the footage at the end of the course, seeing my blur pass the finish line and watch the rest of the students. Present Mic's jaw drops seeing my impressive display before he quickly recovers and moves back to the mic.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE ALREADY HAVE A WINNER!" Most of the audience is confused, but when the footage of me passing the finishing line is played on the screen everyone erupts in cheers. "FROM CLASS 1-B, YOUR FIRST PLACE IS CLAY!"
The announcement causes some of the students near the front of the pack to stumble, though the students that were in 1-B didn't and were able to pass some of their competition. Todoroki and Bakugou were able to keep their lead, though the rest of class 1-A all stumbled and went down a place from where they were.
"YEAH, THAT'S CLASS 1-B FOR YOU!" Vlad was screaming his head now that one of his students earned first place in the first event. Usually it was one of Aizawa's students that had that privilege, but not this year now that I was in his class.
I ended up flying down into the centre of the arena, waving to the crowd as they cheered for me and my first place. Even though they recognized me as the one who made an arrogant remark in the opening speech, they still acknowledged that I had come first and by a huge margin.
"I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS! CLAY HAS ABSOLUTELY BROKEN THE RECORD FOR FASTEST TIME IN THE OBSTACLE COURSE, EVEN BEATING ALL MIGHT FROM WHEN HE WAS STILL TRAINING HERE AT UA!" The crowd broke out into more cheers from that announcement.
Being able to beat All Might in speed was a huge achievement that no one had been able to accomplish. Having a student break the record, and by such a huge margin as well, how could the crowd not get excited. There were even some whispers from the crowd that I was only barely able to make out from the crowd using his dragon senses.
"I can't believe they didn't put this boy in 1-A, isn't that where they put all potential top 10 students?"
"Yeah, and from what I hear he got first in the entrance exam as well."
"Maybe we have the new All Might on our hands."
"Nah, it was probably just a fluke. 1-B is never usually that impressive in the festival."
That last comment about 1-B not being as impressive as 1-A really got on my nerves. Sure we didn't have quirks that were quite as destructive as the people in 1-A, me being an exception, but we still made it into UA! I took a deep breath and turned my attention back to the big screen, trying to find out how my classmates were doing.
Todoroki was still in the lead with Bakugou behind him, I don't see my classmates making it past them so I barely focused on those two at all. Behind them were Shiozaki, Shishida, Tokage and Tsunotori. There were some 1-A students in between those 1-B students, like their rep and Kirishima but eventually they would get outpaced.
I looked back to the front of the pack and saw that the two had made it to the first obstacle, the 'Robo Inferno'. Todoroki had stopped in place, taking some breaths before he took off into another sprint. One of the 0-pointers reached down to squash Todoroki but he froze it with a huge wave of ice, quite an impressive display of power.
The crowd of other racers just arrived at the first obstacle, and there were a few that decided to follow the 'path' that Todoroki created, but it turned out to be a trap. The giant robot fell to the ground, luckily everyone managed to get out of the way.
'Wait, why is there a banging sound coming from the robot?' I focused on the fallen robot, and from the head of the robot came Kirishima with his arms in the air and his body entirely hardened. Not 3 seconds later, Tetsutetsu appeared from the robot's head as well, the two hardened boys looking at each other and complaining about something.
The race continues, Todoroki keeping his lead while others from 1-A go over the robots and avoid combat. I see the bird head boy, Tokoyami I believe, using his quirk to climb over them, Boomie using his quirk to fly over them and Sero launching his tape and pulling himself over.
The other contestants are all using their quirks to destroy the robots, teaming up with one another in case they don't have a quirk that allows them to safely destroy them on their own. Rin is at the back doing his best to assist other contestants, losing time but showing his willingness to help others.
One contestant though, the one that was afraid of Kuriboh, isn't using his quirk for some reason. Instead he is using a scrap piece of a destroyed robot to destroy the robots in his path. I wonder why he isn't using his quirk, it would be a breeze to destroy the robots with his quirk.
Shiozaki has made it past the robots, Honenuki has also made it past the robots, creating a somewhat safe path for the other competitors to make it past the first obstacle though other robots are moving to fill in the gap that his quirk made.
Todoroki has made it to the fall, no other contestant really close to him. He jumps onto one of the cables connecting the pillars and freezes it behind him, causing himself to shoot forward at a decent speed and disabling other contestants from using the cable.
It's when he makes it to the halfway point that some of the other contestants start making their way to the fall, Boomie being the first of the group followed by Tokoyami then Shiozaki. Boomie makes use of his quirk to fly over the pit, not slowing down at all, while Tokoyami ends up going across the cables until his quirk can drag him to the other side.
Shiozaki, though, is able to grow her hair and anchor herself onto the ground and onto one of the pillars. This lets her effortlessly go from one pillar to the next with barely any slowing down. She passes Tokoyami without much trouble, but Boomie is still ahead of her at the halfway mark while Todoroki is just about to make it to the other side.
Not long after the class president of 1-A arrives at the fall, Iida going across the cables using his engines to surpass Tokoyami. The rest of the contestants follow not long after, then something interesting happens, one of the support course students uses her inventions to launch across the fall, ignoring the cables completely.
Todoroki has made it to the mine field ahead of the other contestants, Boomie only just passing the pit when Todoroki begins crossing the field. The ice and fire boy makes his way carefully through the course, not wanting to set off any of the mines.
It isn't long before Boomie makes it to the mine field and becomes tied with Todoroki for second place. Boomie blasts his way past the boy, causing a desperate reaction from Todoroki who freezes the path in front of him so he won't set off any of the mines while crossing.
The other contestants have made it to the start of the minefield as well, also being careful at the start. Except for one boy, the green haired one who instead starts digging the mines up and stacking them into a pile, I wonder what he's up to.
Shiozaki is doing well for herself, making it to the mine field and using her vine hair, crab/spider walker to make it past the field without much trouble. I also see Honenuki at the start, but only for a moment as he disappears into the ground, presumably to go under the field instead of over like everyone else.
I look back to Todoroki and Boomie, they're fighting for the first place position, Todoroki freezing Boomie's arms and Boomie trying to set off an explosion to his face. Not long after there is a massive explosion at the start of the field, getting everyone's attention.
I look and find that it's the green haired boy, flying through the air on his piece of metal that he was using in the robot fighting area. He's gained a lot of speed and height, enough that he's actually passed the previous front runners of the race.
The two stop caring about one another, breaking out into sprints blasting more explosions behind them to gain on Greenie, and they eventually do, but then Greenie decides to smack to ground with his piece and blow up the field again, giving him another boost and blasting Todoroki and Boomie away for a moment.
With that last boost, Greenie makes it past the mine field and makes a mad dash to make it to the finish line, Todoroki and Boomie following suit. It's close, but Greenie manages to make it through the finish before the others, securing second place, followed by Todoroki and then Boomie.
The crowd breaks out into cheers and applause, more so than they did for me, probably because they actually saw what it was that those three did in the course. The three students in question all begin panting heavily, placing their hands onto their knees to stabilize themselves.
Todoroki casts a glance towards Greenie, before casting another at me. I return his glance with a smile, something he doesn't return before walking away. Shrugging my shoulders I turn my attention back to the finish where more students are racing through.
Still with her crab/spider walker active, Shiozaki makes it through the line next, followed by Honenuki who appears out of the ground before sprinting across the line. Not far behind was the class rep of 1-A Iida looking discouraged about something, though I don't care enough to find out what.
More and more students cross the line, mostly 1-A students with a few 1-B students spread throughout the mix or at the back of the pack. Surprisingly, there were actually 3 students who made it before the last hero course student crossed the line.
2 general studies students, and the support course girl who crossed the pit with ease. Weird, you'd think that all the hero course students would've made it since this is practically a showcase for them.
"AND THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS, THE END OF THE FIRST ROUND OF THE UA FIRST YEAR SPORTS FESTIVAL!" The crowd erupted into cheers again, excited about continuing the festival and watching more action.
"ONLY THE TOP 42 STUDENTS WILL BE PASSING ONTO THE NEXT ROUND. IF YOU DID NOT QUALIFY, PLEASE LEAVE THE FIELD AND GOOD LUCK NEXT YEAR. NOW, TURN YOUR ATTENTION TO THE SCREEN AND LET'S FIND OUT WHAT OUR NEXT EVENT FOR THIS YEAR IS!"
Midnight, the first year referee walked up to the stage and drew the attention of every competitor on the field. With a flick of her whip the screen started cycling through events before finally settled on one, the event called 'Cavalry Battle'.
"For this event you must split into teams of 2-4 contestants. Each team will be assigned a point value based on who is part of the team and the position they acquired in the obstacle race. 42nd place will be worth 5 points, 41st 10 points and so on. All for the exception of 1st place who will be worth 10,000,000 points!"
Midnight finished explaining the rules and the entirety of class 1-A, the 3 non-hero course students and Kamakiri for some reason, began staring at me with greed. 1-B though just sighed in defeat before shaking their heads.
"The round will last for 30 minutes, in that time you must steal the headbands of other teams to proceed to the next round. Contestants will have 15 minutes to make their teams, good luck!" And with that all the contestants split up into groups.
Class 1-B, with the exception of Kamakiri, broke up into 3 groups of 6 and started rolling dice. No idea where they came from but there were cheers after people rolled the dice. The three who cheered walked up to me with stars in their eyes, clearly excited about something.
"Clay, we want to join your team!" Komori was the one who spoke out for the group, Rin and Kodai nodding along vigorously.
"Ah, so that's what the dice rolling was about. Sure, why not." I shrugged my shoulders and agreed instantly, getting cheers from the others except Kodai who remained as stoic as ever. There was still a twinkle in her eye though.
"So what are we going to do for the positions. I recommend that we have Komori on top, her height will make it hard her for to be a horse. No offense Komori." I give my suggestion before looking over to Komori who shrugs her shoulders.
"That's fine, I can place mushrooms on the headband, hopefully that will stop people from taking it from us." Komori gave her suggestion and we nodded.
"Alright, where do you two want to be stationed? I'm a jack-of-all-trades so it doesn't matter where I go." I turn to Rin and Kodai, Kodai looking at Rin to make his decision.
"I think it will be best if I'm in the front. I'm sure you have stronger forms for defense, but my scales are better for defense than attacking in this round because we can't attack our opponents." Rin gave his reasoning, Kodai nodding her head in agreement.
"Alright, guess you and me are the back horses." I point to Kodai and she nods her head. "Do you want me to summon any monsters for this round? Or do you want me to be a support player?"
There was a pause before I got an answer, but it was Kodai who answered for the group.
"We need to prove to everyone that we aren't just riding off of your success, I would ask that you don't interfere unless it is absolutely necessary." She did a quick bow, the others following suit.
"Got it, I'll only help out when we need help. But can you allow me to restrain Yanagi?" I agree with them but make a request of my own.
"Sure, but why only Yanagi and not any of the other people in our class?" Komori answers this time, tilting her head in confusion.
"Because her quirk could take the band off of your head without her being anywhere near us. I'm sure some other people can do that but hers is the only one I can see we don't have a counter for besides me." I give my reasoning and the others eventually agree.
I look at the countdown on the screen, seeing that we only have a few minutes left before the start of the cavalry battle.
Obstacle race placings:
Clay
Izuku Midoriya
Shoto Todoroki
Boomie (Katsuki Bakugou)
Ibara Shiozaki
Juzo Honenuki
Tenya Iida
Fumikage Tokoyami
Hanta Sero
Eijiro Kirishima
Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu
Mashirao Ojiro
Yosetsu Awase
Tsuyu Asui
Mezo Shoji
Rikido Sato
Ochako Uraraka
Momo Yaoyorozu
Neito Monoma
Mina Ashido
Koji Koda
Kyoka Jiro
Sen Kaibara
Kosei Tsuburaba
Denki Kaminari
Kojiro Bondo
Reiko Yanagi
Hitoshi Shinso
Itsuka Kendo
Jurota Shishida
Shihai Kuroiro
Yui Kodai
Hiryu Rin
Nirengeki Shoda
Kinoko Komori
Togaru Kamakiri
Mei Hatsume
Pony Tsunotori
Toru Hagakure
Setsuna Tokage
Manga Fukidashi
Yuga Aoyama