The entire testing group stood stock still… except for one hero hopeful. Seeming to be phasing in and out between the other students as a cloud of black smoke. And taking first place in the race to kill the bots was Izuku Midoriya, his pearly white mask and oversized hoodie disappearing into the distance as the other students finally realized what was happening.
Izuku wasted no time. A bright smile is hidden behind his mask as the burn in his chest flared. Dark energy pulled along the length of his nail, flickering like a black flame, seeming to lengthen the blade by inches. The dark energy around his sword reached its crescendo as Izuku slashed horizontally against the first small pack of robots. The black power, melting its way through the four one-pointers as Izuku leaped over them. Leaving them as small piles of halves.
Landing with a short roll Izuku kept his momentum. The Beating of his heart a war-drum on his one-man crusade. Quickly switching his grip on his sword, letting the blade point behind him. Izuku ran over to the side of a building, using his speed and the small cleat-like spikes on his shoes. Izuku jumped his foot finding, purchase on the concrete as his quirk's bone-like shoe spikes into the wall. And then he pushed off towards a group of three-pointers.
He landed on top of one, using his reversed grip to stab into the robotic monstrosity as he slid down its back. The moment his feet hit the road, the other three three-pointers attacked. Izuku's mind went into autopilot as he dodged the surplus of attacks, not paying attention to the sparkly laser that burned through one of his opponents. Swiftly cutting through the offending limbs of the robots, Izuku quickly finished off the two that were left.
Before Izuku could leave, he saw a robot had pinned down another contestant. He wasn't Katsuki, so Izuku ran over to the downed participant, easily prying the massive hulking machine off the other. Before the other contestant could speak, Izuku was sprinting again. Talking was a waste of time in the heat of battle... and his mask was up, so he couldn't if he wanted.
The song of battle inside Izuku played aloud as he ran into the brunt of the robot's forces. His heart was beating fast, and his brain was working overtime as the pool of heat in his chest grew. A flick of his hand and his sword was gripped regularly, the fiery feeling of his slash pooling double time in response to the hoard of mechanical beasts. He kept it pooling into the blade as he hacked through a large number of robots. Jumping on top of them, aiming for what he could guess was their heads making his way to the middle of the group.
Once he had managed to fight his way deep enough into the hoard, Izuku let the heat in his blade go. Spinning around, letting the attack out in a circle around him, slicing through his foes with pitch-black energy.
A wave of cold shot through Izuku as he caught his breath, standing in the middle of a robot graveyard.
Not a thought of doubt entered his mind as he carried on. His worries were forgotten at the gate as he pushed himself and his quirk further. He didn't count his points. He only left a path that spoke for him.
Izuku had just cut down another small clutch of robots as he saw another participant get pinned under another contestant's kill... and then the contestant left the other person under the robot. With a breath of dissatisfaction, Izuku headed over and pulled the other participant free. He had done it more than four times since the start of the trial. Everyone seemed to forget Hero's HELPED others first. Izuku got a small thanks from the other test taker as he headed back into the fray.
He couldn't tell how long he had been at it. The rhythm of battle and the tempo of his heart kept him too occupied to care. No matter how deep into the city he got, the robots seemed to keep coming from all sides. Izuku kept an eye on the other fighters near him as he cleaved into the crowd of robots. He couldn't let them get hurt while he was near. A grunt of pain alerted him to his right as a new fighter joined the fray. Their skin seemed to be a rock to a point. Their bright red hair made them easy to keep an eye on but, they were being swarmed fast by three-pointers.
Not wanting to watch a possible classmate get hurt, Izuku charged the hoard. Once again, he jumped on top of the closest robot. Izuku jammed his sword into where he could only guess a large number of wires laid. While punching another in its lenses. Pulling his blade from the downed bot Izuku used his arm, which was stuck in the other robot, as leverage to jam his sword into the ground. The blade pierced the concrete than using the new anchor Izuku pulled his arm from the robot, freeing him. A quick glance showed that Izuku's arm was covered in small white lines that burned lightly, most likely from where sharp metal dug in.
The two downed three-pointers were quickly replaced by two more as the other contestant behind him finished off another. With a hidden grin, Izuku struck. The fire, while running low, provided enough to paint his sword in dark blacks. Jumping forward at the first three-pointer, Izuku cut into it using the weight of the robot. Izuku kicked off it leaving his blade hilt deep.
An explosion of dark energy erupted onto the two three-pointers next to the first, his disconnection from physically the blade caused its built-up energy to be released.
Landing hard next to his partner in the fight, Izuku slammed his fist into the leg of one of the bots, messing with its center of gravity leaving it open. Izuku rushed to his blade and pulled it from its temporary hilt, and looked at the redhead. There were two left, the one with the broken leg and the one red was fighting. So Izuku carried on.
"Four Minutes Remaining!" Present Mic Screamed from his perch.
The other teachers, however, we're sitting in the darkened viewing room. Watching the hundreds of screens that lined the walls. Most of the teachers were excitedly picking out the students that impressed them the most. Some eyes were firmly glued from time to time to the student with assault on their record. That one was constantly blowing robots to bits and yelling at other participants. While different eyes were set on the only student with a sword and never spoke a word. The two students had entirely different approaches to the test, but both worked well.
One chose to simply bulldoze through the enemy, going for both big and small amounts, blasting robots into bits even at the expense of their fellow test-takers. While the other went after the most abundant groups. While leaving smaller groups to the others. And even going out of their way to wound bots for those who were having trouble. And pull others from harm.
They were also the two tops of the leader boards.
And both had the attention of a very smart white rat.
"Four Minutes Remaining!" Present Mic Screamed from his perch.
It sent a surge of panic through all the testing grounds and echoed through the heads of those who feared they still hadn't made the cut.
Izuku, however, hardly heard the yell. He had climbed to the top of a building to search for people to help, as he seemed to be the only one doing that. Since he helped the redhead. He had pulled another three students out of the way of danger and becoming floor paste. And even had to take a sparkly laser to the back to stop it from hitting another. But if he was being honest? Izuku had never had more fun than the test.
He had never been able to let everything out, the training arena in the Dojo was too small to parkour around, and he couldn't fight in the city without it being illegal. His smile hadn't disappeared since he started. And then the ground began to tremble. A massive plume of smoke billowed from a point in front of him. Then, suddenly a gigantic hand gripped the tallest building in the faux city... and snapped it in half.
The smile on Izuku's face vanished as he watched the giant robot crush buildings under its massive treads and swat at others with its great arms. Izuku took a step back, then two. But he couldn't seem to go further as he fell to his butt, looking up at the beast dumbly.
And then he heard it.
"HELP!"
His headshot to look at who was caught near the great beast, and Izuku's heart stopped. He only saw a flash of pink as he got to his feet and sprinted forward. The pink had been nearly crushed by a large amount of rubble. Only one person in their entire area had any pink on them... much less were pink.
Izuku's mind worked a mile a minute as his feet pounded the pavement, bounding feet and cracking the cement under him, tearing his shoes as he went. The heat in his chest flared brightly within him, the pseudo cuts on his arm mending with every step.
The robot continued its path, closer to the only person in YEARS to be nice to him. He would be damned if they got hurt any worse. He wished he actually said anything during their conversations. Izuku wished he had met a kind person like her before the test. He could have used a friend.
The scream of absolute terror of the robot's size caught in his throat as he skidded to a halt next to the pink- Ashido. Grabbing desperately at the blocks, Izuku heaved them off, mentally questioning why she didn't melt them like the robots she had been fighting. Quirk overuse. Her hands were covered in cuts and raw as she helped push the blocks off.
By the time the final block came off, the robot was too close. The burning of Izuku's quirk and in his throat hurt to contain. So Izuku ran to the colossus. If he had learned anything, the burning meant something. She was free, not safe.
So he needed to make sure she was safe.
The fire clawed at his throat, pain cascading through his body as he made his way under the bot. The most insignificant movements of the robot shook Izuku as he neared it, the heat building as he pushed past his limits. His heat was nearly empty. His exhaustion was peaking, and he had only hope in the heat in his throat. Suddenly He came to a halt under the monster of metal and wire. Blood pooled in his mouth from biting his tongue, and he screamed.
The pain of releasing a thousand angry demons from his throat couldn't describe the agony he was in. He felt his vocal cords strain to nearly snapping as he howled in rage at the robot. Every ounce of energy he had poured out into the attack. For every moment, he felt hatred at Katsuki. Every tear and bruise and cut. For every moment, he absolutely hated his teachers and classmates. Every time, Izuku thought about giving up and moving to a different dream. All Might.
The shockwave of sound shattered glass and caved a pit into the concrete around him. The howl carried to all the testing zones drawing the attention of everyone to the spectacle above Izuku. Ethereal Shapes formed of dark energy slammed into the Zero-Pointer. The reinforced steel of its waist tore like paper as it was assaulted by wraiths of agony. Just as the apparitions finished their assault and faded, a second set seemed to form out of nowhere. Eviscerating the chest of the Zero-Pointer. And in an instant, a third wave eclipsed the entirety of the Zero-Pointer. Leaving only the massive treads stationary as any reminder it was even there.
The sheer lack of heat within the vicinity of Izuku caused frost to build on the massive treads. Taking a deep breath, Izuku stood the pressure of the attack had knocked him to his knees in the initial moments. His body was fighting for him to fall unconscious. But he had a friend to get to the medical team.
Walking and stumbling with nearly every step, Izuku came to a shocked Ashido. With pain blasting through his form Izuku leaned down. And with effort, picked up the taller of the two and walked them to the entrance gate.
Stumbling with every step as Ashido seemed to realize what had happened. Right before collapsing in front of Recovery Girl. Unconsciously tuning to take the brunt of the fall.