Chapter 49: Trial of Battle (VII)

Tenya knows very well that such a situation in which one loses concentration or mental state can prove to be fatal. This may be a friendly confrontation, but it didn't mean that such a situation had to happen, which is why he immediately looked at Shido.

He understood that he needs to know how to solve the situation in the best possible way, he cannot afford to move. He cannot help the others in the case where they would drag him down, but he also could not not help the others, since he was a 'hero' and shouldn't leave others behind.

Tenya was not even aware of the full strength of Shido, but he did not even need to since just that mere strength that was used against them was more than enough to take care of his teammates even without the use of any quirk.

Shido noticed Tenya's reaction and raised his eyes slightly, struck by the mature and cautious attitude in this situation. However, at the same time, he knew that in front of absolute strength, all tricks, plans and strategies would be rendered absolutely useless.

"Well well, I see that you guys are ready now?"

Shido noticed that Katsuki had recovered and ran back to his teammates but did not stop him.

The four students looked and nodded at one another. Suddenly, Shoto threw out a huge ice block which covered Shido's entire vision, causing him to temporarily lose sight of the four of them.

Still not using his quirk, he threw out a punch with his entire power behind it, and shattered the ice block into a million pieces. However, just as he was about to look around for the heroes, his instincts screamed at him to dodge down.

Trusting his instincts, he crouched down, dodging an explosion which came from his right but at the same time, a kick landed on his stomach from the front, causing him to take a few steps back.

Before he could say anything to them, another ice block was thrown at him again.

"The same old trick again?"

He punched the ice block again, but this time, there was the presence of a green haired boy.

"Full cowl: 10%!"

"Yoshinon! Ice wall!" Shido hurriedly asked his puppet.

The ice wall, however, did not appear in front of him. Instead, it appeared in front of the briefcase which Tenya was attempting to grab.

Banggggg!

Unable to stop in time, Tenya crashed straight into the thick ice wall head first, knocking him unconscious.

Meanwhile, a purple energy barrier appeared around Shido, and successfully blocked Izuku's punch which was aimed at him. The force and energy behind the punch, unable to reach its target, was dispersed into the surroundings, creating several cracks on the frozen ground and dispersing some of the mist, making it easier to see.

Excluding the unconscious Tenya, the other three now stood about three metres away from Shido, panting slightly.

"Wow. I'm impressed. So this is what you guys can do if you choose to work together." Shido looked at them and praised,"It would have worked against any other villain who would have missed Tenya over there, thus completing your objective. But playtime's over."

'So show me how much more you guys can do...' He added internally before summoning his quirk.

"Zafkiel! Aleph!"

Within seconds, an ancient clock appeared behind his back and he shot himself with the pistol.

And before any of the students could react, Shido immediately vanished from the students' sight.

Izuku seeing this, had a shocked expression, raised his head and started looking around with a drop of sweat running down the side of his face. The speed shown by Shido was not followable and visible at all. Although his quirk wasn't geared towards speed, comparing Tenya's speed-based quirk with Shido's speed, Tenya wasn't a match at all.

Just as he was busy observing around him, a voice came next to his ear along with a gentle breath which sent shivers down his spine,"You don't have to search, I'm here after all."

Without even hearing the entire sentence, Izuku immediately kicked back, only that it didn't hit Shido.

In fact, when Shido saw the kick coming towards him, he moved his head slightly so that the foot passed by her. Shido's face was one of pure fun, his red eye shining even brighter, as if to demonstrate Shido's emotional state.

Izuku was about to turn his head so as to look at the situation but just as he was about to do so, he felt like he was broken in two right on his stomach before flying back and crashing into the wall.

"You know that kicking a child isn't nice at all?" Shido said, this time in a higher tone of voice.

Only now did the other two realise what happened. Shoto immediately used his ice to reinforce his fist and started to throw a series of punches against Shido. Straights, hooks, uppercuts, only that every single punch went empty just like the kick from Izuku.

'Seems like his father had trained him in a bit of martial arts. A bit wobbly, but average for someone who focuses more on his quirk.' Shido analysed in his mind after seeing the basic martial arts which Shoto performed. Meanwhile, Katsuki also rushed towards Shido, or where he thought Shido would be since he was not able to see him, causing explosions to occur everywhere in the room near Shoto's position.

Between dodging Katsuki's explosions and Shoto's hand-to-hand fight, Shido had begun to back away slightly and in doing so, bending his own body slightly so as to dodge the various punches. While he could easily defeat him, that doesn't mean that he wanted to.

After all, these would-be heroes have to prove their skills to the others, but it doesn't stop him from having fun with them if they worked together to try and stop him.

Just at that moment, Izuku appeared again but this time from behind Shido. In fact, after recovering from the deadly blow before, Izuku ran after activating his quirk so as to get behind Shido in the shortest time possible.

Ten months of training has made him more flexible, stronger and faster than others, and within a minute after the kick, he was back to where Shido was, trying to land a hit on him.

Looking at the corner of his eyes while fighting Shoto and dodging Katsuki's random explosions which were quickly destroying the ice, Shido observed the actions of the green haired boy and after confirming what he was intent on doing, he quickly gave herself a push on the ground so as to leave the range of attack of the three young men.

"Oh~What a surprise~I thought that kick would be enough, but it seems that you have improved your defence since the last spar we had." Shido said jokingly.

"You bastard! Stop dodging and come fight me already!" Katsuki shouted in anger before charging towards Shido who, after seeing the straightforward and reckless actions of the boy, showed a smile.

"Do not do it!" Izuku tried to stop him, but Katsuki being Katsuki, ignored Izuku's advice and continued charging towards Shido. Seeing that there was nothing he could do, Izuku turned around and looked at Shoto, who was standing there shocked at his uselessness against Shido, and Tenya, who had fainted after crashing head first into the ice.

Seeing that they could not do anything more to help, Izuku turned his gaze back to Katsuki. The fist of his childhood friend had almost arrived at Shido's face and was about to explode. However, the fist suddenly froze in midair and with it, his legs were about to give in if not for the strength he had given himself through sheer willpower.

What Izuku saw was Shido hitting Katsuki's hip with the handle of the flintlock pistol. A direct hit and which, from the result, almost knocked out his childhood friend.

"Wow~I'm impressed." Shido said in a surprising tone of voice, which only appeared mocking to the student's ear,"You managed to hold out this long without fainting or giving up. That's really admirable, you know~?"

"But..." Removing that slight smile he had, Shido continued with a serious face,"The time for games is over."

"Aleph!" Shido repositioned his flintlock pistol at the Roman numeral 'I' and exclaimed.

He would never dare use the flintlock musket for such games, and only when his life was in danger would he use his flintlock musket for any of his abilities. After all, his time was calculated in hours with the musket while the flintlock pistol was calculated in minutes. And for these situations...

"...minutes are enough..." Shido whispered.

Seeing Shido's gesture, Izuku immediately whispered to Shoto,"Stay alert!" Tenya had fainted and Katsuki was out of breath from the strong hit on his stomach, leaving only Shoto and Izuku.

Shoto snapped out of his shocked state and paid close attention to Shido. Together with Izuku, he had seen what Shido was capable of once he made that gesture. His speed increases exponentially and there was no way to catch him with their eyes alone. His speed might as well be considered as teleportation.

Shido, without waiting for the remaining two students to do anything, immediately came near Izuku without him being able to see or hear him and lifted his knee as he rotated in a circular motion and, extending his leg, landed a kick straight on the boy's chest.

The kick was strong enough to send Izuku flying in the direction of Tenya, who had finally gotten up, only to be knocked back once again from the impact.

Only now that Shido had made his move, Shoto immediately ran towards Shido while Katsuki tried exploding the ground to remove Shido's stable footing. However, his actions were to no avail as Shido continued dodging each and every ice shards and explosions thrown at him perfectly.

The situation was by no means the best. In fact, it was the worst situation that could ever happen.

Shido, after kicking Izuku, immediately came sideways near Tenya and, with the gun handle, hit the boy's stomach, making both him and Izuku crash back on the ground.

Shido does not like to use his hands to fight, and if he must, he prefers to use his weapons and legs instead. It is much safer than putting yourself at risk by exposing your body too much. Legs have a greater reach than arms, and together with the great variety of weapons he has, they were a perfect match for Shido due to his fighting style.

Also, Shido mainly hits the stomach of the students because it is a non-lethal spot unlike the head, and doesn't cause too much damage compared to being hit in the leg bones or other parts of the body that have very important bones. Of course, he would still reduce the strength used against students because his base strength is high enough and together with a weapon, a hole in the stomach wasn't impossible.

Needless to say, it still causes severe pain throughout the body but after a short amount of time, the situation improves and it is possible to continue fighting shortly after.

Shido did not stop there, after Izuku and Tenya fell to the ground from the hit before, he dashed near Katsuki and before Katsuki could even react, he felt an impact from his back, making him fall onto the sharp fragments of ice that were all around the place.

The only one who was still standing is Shoto who was panting heavily, too tired to even scream and explode. However, his eyes had changed. Before, they were filled with arrogance and pride, disdaining everything and everyone that was before him. But this time, there was the presence of something new. A fiery spirit that burns, a spirit that wanted to win, a spirit that wanted to arrive first.

Of course, pride was still present in his eyes, but every little change is considered a change.

'Seems like the will to improve finally appeared.' Shido thought to himself before observing Katsuki's last ditch effort.

Shoto's face had a huge smile on it, a smile full of confidence and pride in his own abilities. That face now gave off a burning desire to win against the impossible.

The area around them was already cleared from fog and most of the ice had already either shattered into pieces or melted under the heat from the explosions.

Immediately from under the sole of Shoto's shoes, ice began to emerge, that cold in contact with the surrounding air created fog, and from that small icy area that rushed in the direction of Shido, icy pillars began to emerge, from small to large, larger and larger, reaching very high heights, piercing through multiple ceilings in a few seconds.

Shido didn't even bat an eyelid at that show of power. Instead, the boy's classmates were amazed as well as those who were watching the battle from the screen, even All Might was quite speechless but he did not show it. He remained there with that big smile of his printed on his face.

Shoto didn't flinch and continued observing Shido. As soon as he saw that Shido disappeared, he immediately crouched on the ground stretching out with all his limbs. From every single limb, he created ice on the surface of the surrounding area up to tens of meters in diameter.

[A/N: In case you were wondering how big the area was, it is as big as a normal building floor. There are no walls to separate the areas, similar to a construction site, there are only pillars and windows and walls in the perimeter, so the entire playing area is pretty big.]

"Frozen mirrors."

"So this little game is supposed to control my speed?" A voice arrived in Shoto's ear to which the boy responded with a foot sweep kick in the direction of the voice. Unfortunately, the kick hit nothing but thin air.

Not far away, Shoto heard a hard thud, so, turning his gaze, he observed how his classmates were hit one more time. But if one looked carefully at Izuku's face, he would be able to notice a slight smile, a smile with a slight grimace from the pain, but a firm smile.

Suddenly, Shido appeared next to Shoto, or rather, it was as if he was floating in the air.

Shoto immediately brought his hand forward and released ice from the palm of his right hand which took the shape of a bullet, but without a consistent shape.

"Icy zap."

This kind of bullet, once it touched Shido, was as if it had dispersed. But in reality, once it came into contact with Shido, it entered his body, blocking his movement. It's a great move when it comes to inducing pain and blocking the enemy's movement without getting too close.

However, even though this shot from Shoto hit Shido in full, Shido stood there with a smile. Shoto had no intention of approaching Shido, his instincts were telling him to stay away from Shido.

"Interesting...I have to say, if I didn't block it, maybe you would have landed a blow on me, you know?" Shido said in Shoto's direction,"But do you also know what happens when the predator goes hunting for his prey?"

Shoto immediately felt overwhelmed with pain, pain so severe that he nearly passed out. His legs gave in and as he fell on fours, he began coughing heavily with saliva between coughs.

"Cough...cough..." Shoto constantly tried to breathe in air between one cough and the next.

"This is what happens...before killing...the predator has fun with his prey..."

The entire building was shaking, and the ice pillars which Shoto created came shattering down. The other three students, although not as close to Shido as Shoto, could also feel something in the air, forcing them to fall on their butts or on four, panting for air similar to Shoto.

Seeing the situation, All Might immediately announced through the microphone,"That's enough! The test ends here."

'So this is what the so-called 'pressure' or 'aura' does?'

Shido himself had no idea what happened. When he thought about releasing some 'pressure' onto the students like he read in some novels and manga to scare them, he never thought it would actually work. After all, that was fiction, and this was reality.

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A/N: This is the end of a seven part action chapters! Never thought that writing fighting scenes would be so tough. Truly, without writing yourself, you wouldn't know how hard it is to actually write and be an author.

Was it really just 'pressure' or 'aura' that Shido was releasing? Or was it something else?

And Happy New Year! May all of you start the new year well!

And wow, I just realised my rating just became 5.0 stars lol. Thanks a lot guys!

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