Battle Trials (4)

Izuku glanced up the towering building, its concrete walls providing cover from the harsh gaze of the sun directly above. He hummed and scanned the windows, some boarded, some not, and the doors that were open, as if inviting them inside like an ominous passageway.

He was liking the mood already.

"So, Midoriya, I assume you have a plan?" Ojiro tapped him on the shoulder and Izuku's instincts blared red. He resisted the urge to sock the plain teen in the face, his right arm twitching slightly. "Or are we just going to wing it?"

The teen obviously didn't notice what could've happened to him and his plain face, probably making it even plainer or just outright ugly. At least Izuku had the self-discipline to control his actions.

Lordran taught him better than to swing haphazardly.

Looking back at Ojiro, and in addition to him, the other two students who they were going to be facing, Izuku grinned and brought him close by swinging his heavily armored arm around his shoulder ala Patches style.

Say what you will about the bald asshole, but he had a way with words and body language. He could probably seduce a Gwyn-damned hollow to do his bidding if he tried.

"Welp, to start with, we don't know much about our competition, except for sparkly cape over there." Izuku nudged his head towards the two following behind them. "So, we can't plan around what they'd do. Instead, let's focus on reacting. Place the bomb at the tippity-top of the building, then we wait."

"… Okay… Anything else?" Ojiro questioned Izuku with a slight frown, causing the armored teen in question to give off a hearty chuckle.

"Leave that to me, just guard the bomb and yell if they somehow get there." Izuku then patted Ojiro on the back, before gently pushing him forward into the gloomy, decrepit building. "Also, don't forget to hurry. I'm gonna make our five-minute prep time count."

By the end of his sentence, Ojiro was already out of earshot, leaving Izuku to his lonesome in the surprisingly well-lit building. Even looking as run-down as it is, it was still supplied with electricity in the form of hanging lightbulbs on the ceiling. He didn't know how, or even why Nezu decided to supply power to the various grounds across the entire campus, but hey, it was the rat's business, not his.

Another grin etched itself onto his face, and pumping his legs with energy, he propelled himself upward, before smashing the bulb to pieces with his bare fist.

The room descended into darkness as the pieces of glass shattered and fell to the whims of gravity. Izuku landed next, his metal armor clanking and creating an unholy sound of metal grinding against stone, right into the sharp pieces of glass, not that it did any harm to his durable armor.

Izuku dusted the bits of glass that clung to his armor off and then glanced around the dark room, the only source of light coming from the entrance of the building. His grin didn't fade, but instead, it grew only further.

"I can work with this." He then eyed the stairs, the concrete looking as brittle as aged concrete. The grin turned feral. "I can definitely work with this."

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Shoto was looking at the door, the five minutes of their prep time still not finished ticking. Not that his teammate noticed any change of expression on his already expressionless face.

It was like looking upon a desert with nary a thing within, just an unchanging desolate wasteland filled with nothing but sand.

Yuga was also looking at the door, but instead of the stoic manner of his half-toned teammate, he was all dazzle and sparkle. Fluttering his cape with but a simple gesture, Yuga approached the normally unapproachable Shoto and winked.

"Oui, mon ami, how do you propose we settle with these dastardly villains?" More winks and more flutters, plus add in some glitters and it was a wonder why Shoto didn't just smash the overly gaudy teen with his fist. Alas, Shoto didn't let temptation take over and instead, focused on the task at hand.

Preparing their assault on the villain team's hideout.

"Leave everything to me and stay put." His monotone voice caused the showy teen to sputter and do a double take. "I'll win this trial."

"You… Are you serious?" Yuga lost all showy demeanor and scratched his cheek, before he bounced back. "My, such arrogance! Are you sure you do not need my assistance, Ser Todoroki?"

A single side-eye was enough of a response to cause Yuga to deflate, before he bounced back once more with his showy persona. "Very well, if such is your request, then I shall leave the charge to you. But make no mistake, if complications arise, I will come to your aid."

Shoto really wanted to freeze him right then and there. The sun's glare was already irritating his eyes, now he had to deal with this idiot? Such a conundrum.

The time was spent in silence as the two waited for the timer to go down and go down it did.

"MISSION COMMENCE!" All Might's voice boomed within his ear, causing the half-toned teen eyes to twitch. Ignoring the slight pain in his ear, Shoto approached the building and laid his right hand on the wall just a few meters shy from the entrance.

With but a thought, frost seeped out from his palms and spread throughout the decrepit concrete. It continued creeping over, like a spread of an infection. A few seconds and the outer wall where he laid his hand on was covered with thick ice, some icicles jutting out with nary a pattern.

It crawled inside as well, sparing not even the interiors. It continued spreading with no end in sight. It didn't take too long for the entire building to be covered in thick ice, like it had been hit with a blizzard that turned anything it touched into ice-sculptures.

Behind him, Yuga gulped, witnessing the sheer power of the teen first-hand. And Shoto…

Didn't even break a sweat.

Glancing back at Yuga, the gaudy French blond trembling slightly, Shoto tilted his head to the door. Nodding, Yuga followed suit as Shoto headed inside.

The first thing they noticed that something was very wrong was that it was pitch black. Squinting his eyes, Shoto tried to adjust to the darkness, only to be rewarded by a sound coming from his right.

Grabbing Yuga's shirt, he shoved him down as he jumped back, narrowly avoiding a giant piece of rubble that was sent hurtling his way. It rolled past him and crashed into the wall just to his left, causing a loud rumble to echo through the dark halls.

Coughing slightly from the dust cloud that emerged, Shoto stood up and scanned the surroundings for more traps. Looking at the rubble that was used to nearly crush him and Yuga, he couldn't help but notice they were formed forcefully into some kind of giant ball.

He then glanced at the area where the giant ball of rubble emerged and saw the stairs looking all smooth like a ramp. Checking even further, he found that the stairs were destroyed, cutting them off from the second floor with this particular set of stairs.

Not like it posed much of an obstacle.

"Aoyama, come here." Shoto looked at the French blond who was still sitting on his ass while staring in horror at the giant ball of rubble. "Aoyama, we don't have enough time."

This snapped Yuga out of his funk, and he scrambled towards Shoto. Once beside him, Shoto placed a hand on his shoulder and gripped tightly.

Wincing, Yuga was about to question why the need for sudden force, but a sudden loss of balance as they rose from the first floor and into the second floor thanks to a pillar of ice was enough of a reason.

The second floor wasn't too different from the first, in that it was dark, covered in ice thanks to Shoto's quirk, and probably laden with traps. As for what traps, Shoto didn't know, and he hoped he didn't have to.

Seeing that wasting time was detrimental to their grade, Shoto took the first step into the silent and dark hallway.

It also triggered another trap.

Shoto quickly backstepped and narrowly avoided a giant pillar that crashed into the nearby wall. Looking up, he saw that it was situated like a fucked-up pendulum. He couldn't see further due to there being little light in the form of sun rays filtering through the gaps in the walls.

It was frustrating.

"Aoyama, could you shoot a beam through the hallway?" Yuga was all too happy to finally be of use as he posed like he was in an action movie.

"Why of course, monsieur." Yuga thrust his belly and out from his support gear came a dazzling show of light that lit up the entire hallway and then some, the wall right at the end getting blown into bits while the lightshow ended.

What Shoto saw in the hallway made him want to throttle whoever was responsible.

He spotted at least four pendulums in front of them, another ramp that was no doubt hiding a giant ball of rubble like the one below, even more pendulums just after the ramp, and a fucking pitfall.

Who was the crackhead that came up with this shit? Shoto wanted to know, so he could let his ice do the talking for him.

"Aoyama, can you blow a hole through the roof?" Yuga made a frown at the question.

"I most certainly could, but that could backfire, monsieur Todoroki." Shoto glared at Yuga, and he waved his arm in surrender. "Alright, alright! I'll do it, but please, I implore you to defend my defenseless body while I'm blowing us our path to victory."

Shoto acquiesced to his demands with a nod and Yuga went to work. He laid on the ground, making sure that his stomach was facing up, and if the building had the same layout as the others during their own trials, directly above the two were just more hallways.

Light gathered on his belly once more, and another beam of dazzling light emerged. It met against the concrete above, tearing through it like paper. It did so for the next floor, and then another, before it finally teared through the roof, showering them with the brilliant radiance from the sun.

Shoto, meanwhile, was making sure none of the rubble from the devastating attack harmed both of their asses as he used his ice to bat them away like a bear protecting its cub.

As the debris hit the ground, dust clouds billowed outward. Shoto had to squint his eyes to avoid having dust gather in his eyelids. Coughing as he waved his hand around his face to shoo the dust away, Shoto glanced up and created another ice pillar that took them directly to the topmost floor within seconds.

"Well, didn't expect you to do that, but that's on me for expecting you to go through my little funhouse." Izuku's muffled voice behind him caused Shoto to swing around and launch an icicle or two towards the armored teen.

A hand casually batted the icicles away. "Also, good on you for turning the entire building into an ice-cube. Would've worked too, if you weren't fighting me, that is."

"Midoriya… Would you please get this over with…? I'm fr-freezing over here…" Ojiro shivered as the cold seeped into his bare skin, his worn gi not doing well to combat the dropping temperature.

"Alright, alright." Izuku sighed, then glared at Shoto. "I made a lot of fun traps just for the two of you, and you just ignored them… That kind of pisses me off."

Izuku then dashed forwards at inhuman speeds towards Shoto, who's eyes widened as he tried to react to the sudden speeding bullet that was Izuku.

An ice-pillar manifested itself from the ground and jutted upward, but Izuku stomped on it hard and caused it to shatter, the pieces of it flying in all directions. Yuga yelped and activated his quirk to beam the shards down into water and quickly aimed it at Izuku, who had no problem dodging it before the laser died down.

Ojiro, meanwhile, used his tail to smack the flying shards of ice to the ground, teeth chattering all the while.

Shoto manifested another pillar of ice, this time, coming down from the ceiling, and Izuku didn't have anywhere to go without losing his footing thanks to the debris.

So, he thought fuck it and smashed into the pillar with his fist. Metal gauntlet met thick, block of ice, and the block of ice lost. It shattered, and once again threw ice shards all over the place like shrapnel from a grenade blast.

Yuga, still reeling from using his quirk, yelped once more dived down to the ground. Ojiro used his tail again, but then slipped on solid ice, the back of his head bumping into an unfortunately placed piece of concrete.

Shoto nearly had his jaw drop at the display of strength, but reeled in his shock for another attack, only to widen his eyes when he saw Izuku right in front of him.

"Hello." The half-toned teen could imagine the grin Izuku had underneath his helmet as his fist cocked back, ready to kiss his face with it. Desperate, Shoto tried to block it with his left hand, only for the fist to suddenly swerve and hit him in the gut.

Spit flew out of his mouth as Shoto was sent flying into a wall, a grunt coming from his lips as his back ached. He was about to stand up and recover, only for him to see Izuku already right in front of him, his hands holding his capture tape that was… wrapped around his wrists…

What…?

"VILLAIN TEAM WINS!"

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