Chapter 74: The B Team Part 3

The remaining members of class 1B were back on the move, rushing through the forest as quickly, and quietly as they could.

"Stop," Kendo ordered, bringing the class to a halt. "Kuroiro, scout the area."

"Got it!" Kuroiro ran forward and jumped into a shadow.

"It feels like we're going in circles." Bondo groaned.

"I have to admit, it doesn't feel like we're making all too much progress without Setsuna, and the fact that we're in a forest and thus everything looks the same doesn't really help," Yanagi said.

"Come now! Don't despair my friends! We are the great class 1B of U.A.!" Monoma told his friends. "The greatest class U.A has ever seen! We will get through this!"

"Ego stroking aside, Monoma's right, if we give up hope then we've already lost," Kendo told them. "We can do this guys."

It was at the moment that Kuroiro came back, popping out of the closest shadow. "There are a bunch of those floating orb things up ahead. And to out left and right. But there's a path we can take northeast of here that clear."

"Alright, everyone we're heading northeast!" Kendo ordered.

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Eventually, the group made their way to another clearing, this one next to another cliff.

"I'm tired," Bondo complained as he tried to catch his breath.

"Yeah, I'm pretty tired too...any chance we could take a break?" Rin asked.

"Not here. We're too out in the open, any one of those flying things could spot us easily." Kendo said. "We need to-"

"Rah!" Screamed something from above.

Suddenly two Manticores dived down from the sky and got ready to attack.

"Like that!" Kendo shouted.

The manticores opened their mouths and started shooting fireballs at the class.

"Ahhhhh!" Awase cried out in pain as one of the fireballs hit him and sent him flying back.

"Awase!" Kendo shouted out in concern.

Tetsutetsu and Monoma got out in front of the class and defended the class from the fireballs.

Kendo ran to Awase to check up on him. "Awase!?"

"I'm fine. Agh." Awase groaned. He was covered in burns and had trouble getting up.

Rin and Pony started firing at the Manticores, but much like with the Hound, this did very little to their thick hides and armor.

"I can't get through!" Rin shouted.

"Tetsutetsu! I need to get closer! Cover me!" Sen shouted, getting behind

"Got it!" Tetsutetsu said.

The two started getting closer to the Manticores, with the two beasts focusing their fire on Tetsutetsu.

Eventually, the two reached the monsters, and then Sen jumped onto Tetsutetsu's shoulders, using them as a springboard so he could jump onto one of the Manticore's back.

Sen found an unarmored part on its back and started drilling into it, although its tough hide offered some resistance, he could get through it with enough time.

"RAHHHHHHH!" The Manticore was obviously not pleased by this and started thrashing about wildly.

Sen had to hold onto one of its horns, just to stay on as he kept drilling.

After unsuccessfully trying to buck Sen off on the ground, the Manticore took to the sky.

And if that wasn't bad enough, the other Manticore also took the sky, flying behind the one Sen was on, and started firing fireballs at him.

"AHHHH! Someone! Do something!" Sen pleaded to his classmates.

"Fire at their wings!" Kendo ordered.

Rin and Pony opened fire once again, this time aiming specifically for the wings, which was hard with them flying around the way they were.

However, with enough perseverance, they managed to shoot their wings enough to knock them out of the air.

"Juzo soften their fall!" Kendo shouted.

Juzo quickly ran out in front of them and softened the ground.

The two manticores fell into the mud-like ground and quickly got stuck in it.

"RAHHHHH!" Sen finally pushed through the hide and was now quickly drilling into the Grimm's insides.

"AGHHHHHHHHHH!" The manticore roared, as it started to die, its body fading away, into black smoke.

Pony sent out another horn to catch Sen by his shirt, to keep him from falling into the softened ground, before bringing him to the rest of the class.

"Good job Sen." Kendo praised him. "Now let's go."

"What about the other one?" Sen asked, looking at the Manticore that was currently struggling inside the mud.

"Leave it, it doesn't look like it can follow us," Kendo said. "We need to get out of here before reinforcements arrive."

And with urgency, class B fled back into the forest.

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After a bit more running through the forest, it was clear that the class needed to take a break. All the fighting and running was taking its toll, and they wouldn't be able to go on much longer if they didn't sit down for a while.

Kendo found a particularly dense part of the forest, covered in shade, and they all sat down to take a rest.

"Oh...I hate Nezu...I hate him so much." Kosei said. "I hate him and his smug little rodent face. Probably laughing his ass off as we speak."

"It's improper to say such things bout your teachers…" Shishida said. "That being said...I can't disagree with you."

"Kuroiro, please take a look around the area," Kendo asked her classmate.

"Ugh. Fine." Kuroiro groaned, before sinking into the shadows and moving away.

"These monsters only grow stronger the more we travel." Ibara pointed out. "As if we're descending further into hell itself."

"Yeah, and we still haven't seen that dog thing in a while." Sen pointed out.

"Ugh, don't remind me! I don't wanna have to deal with that THING again." Awase groaned.

"It wasn't just stronger than all the other ones it was smarter too," Kendo said. "If we run into it, we'll have to throw everything we've got into killing it."

"Yeah, I'm gonna get payback for what it did to the others!" Tetsutetsu swore.

XXXXXXXX

"Damn Setsuna, she had to go and get taken so now I have to do all the damn surveillance," Kuroiro growled.

He moved through the shadows created by the trees, looking around for Grimm that his class might run into.

"And of course that means I can't take a freaking break" Kuroiro grumbled to himself. "Because no one else can-"

FWOOSH!

Suddenly fire shot down from above, a few feet in front of Kuroiro, lighting up the area, dispelling the shadows, causing Kuroiro to pop out of the ground.

"What the hell!?" Kuroiro quickly got, and as he was about to dive for another shadow, he felt a cool hand on his shoulder, and he froze up in fear.

He turned his head, and behind him, was the Hound.

"Oh shit."

XXXXXXXXXXX

"Kuroiro hasn't come back yet." Shoda noticed, looking worried. "You don't think something happened do you?"

"No way!" Manga said. "How would those things even be able to see him!?"

"Unless he was talking to himself none of them should have noticed him," Sen said. "You know how slippery it is."

"I'm...sure he'll be fine," Kendo said, not sounding too sure herself.

"Guys!" Suddenly, from deeper in the forest, they heard Kuroiro's voice but didn't see him. "More enemies are coming! We have to move now! The only safe path is straight ahead! Come on!"

"What? Damn it! Everyone get up, it's time to move!" Kendo shouted as she quickly ran up.

The class got up quickly, and made a run for it, going straight ahead like Kuroiro told them.

Eventually, they arrived at a dead end. A steep cliff, from where you could see the house from.

"Woah! It's there! It's the center of the forest!" Pony said with elation.

"That is a rather large house," Shishida noted.

"Guys! Focus! We just got backed up onto the edge of a cliff with monsters chasing us!" Kendo pointed out, before looking back at the forest. "Kuroiro get out here!"

A few moments passed...and Kuroiro came out...unconscious, and in the hands of the Hound.

Class 1B's eyes widened in shock and fear, and they all backed up a bit, only to realize that there was a cliff behind them, and backing up much further would cause them to fall off.

"It took out Kuroiro!" Awase shouted.

"It must have got him while he was surveying the area!" Kendo decided. "And it mimicked his voice to lure us into a trap!"

Tetsutetsu and Shishida jumped out in front, ready to fight it, however, the Hound had other plans.

Suddenly, the ground started to shake, and a Blind Worm popped out of the ground, breaking up the ground on the cliffside, and causing it to become unstable.

The ground around 1B quickly collapsed, and they started falling to the ground.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" They all screamed as they plummeted.

Pony shot out four horns, putting two under her feet, so she could fly, and using the other two to catch Sen and Rin.

Tetsutetsu activated his quirk, with Monoma copying it.

Yanagi used her quirk to move some nearby rocks, and grabbed onto them, allowing them to float slowly towards the ground.

Shishida went full beast, hoping his bulk would protect him.

Manga looked down as shouted, "Boing!" creating the physical word boing, that went to the ground, waiting to catch him.

And for Kendo, she enlarged hands and held them out in front of her.

Then everyone hit the ground.

CRASH!

Most of the class hit the ground hard.

Pony was fine as she gently floated down on her horns, setting down Sen and Rin who she saved from the fall.

Yanagi floated down as well, and Manga bounced off his boing.

Tetsutetsu, Monoma, and Shishida took the hard fall in stride. It hurt like hell, but they were mostly fine.

Kendo's hands took the worst of her fall, and she grit her teeth as she was almost definitely sure she bruised them.

But it was worse for everyone else, who had nothing to soften or slow their fall.

"Ugh." Kendo groaned as she shrunk her hands back down, feeling a horrible stunning pain in both of them. "Ohhh...everyone?"

The class rep looked over her class. Of them, only Pony, Sen, Rin, Yanagi, Tetsutetsu, Monoma, Shishida, Manga, and herself were still capable of continuing.

Bondo, Shoda, Ibara, Kosei, Awase, and Juzo had all been knocked out by the fall.

"Damn it." Kendo cursed, blaming herself internally for having been tricked by that Grimm.

As the remaining members of the class recovered, suddenly the ground started shaking again, and a Geist in a rock golem body followed by two Deathstalkers and two Goliaths.

They blocked their only way to escape, meaning they would have to fight them to get out.

Monoma looked at the unconscious Juzo, who had fallen nearby, and touched him to copy his quirk, before running out in front of everyone, and touching the ground, and softening it.

The Grimm all began to sink down into the mud-like ground, with the Deathstalker becoming completely immobile, while the Geist and Goliath slowly trudged their way towards them.

"Alright, our only way out is forward! Yanagi blind that golem thing, and Shishida, attack its face that looks like a weak spot! Everyone else focus on the elephants!"

Yanagi used her quirk to grab all the tiny pieces of rock that had come with them from the fall, and brought them up the Geist's face, blocking its view.

Shishida shrunk down again and turned to Pony. "Miss Pony, could you bring me to its face?"

"Okay!" Pony said, shooting out a horn that Shishida grabbed onto, as it carried him up to the Geist's face, who couldn't see him because of all the rocks in the way.

Once Shishida was above the Grimm, he let go of the horn, and went full beast, and dived onto the Geist.

Yanagi stopped blinding the thing, so Shishida could land on its body.

Shishida then grabbed both sides of its mask and started pulling as hard as he could. "Grrrrrrrrr!"

It was hard, but slowly, Shishida started pulling the Geist Grimm out of its stone body.

The Geist brought up one of its stone arms over its face and smashed Shishida against its body.

"GAH!" Shishida cried out in pain as the massive boulder smashed into him, but grit his teeth, and continued to pull the Geist out of the golem. "Plus! Ultra!"

With a final cry, he pulled the Geist out of the golem, and immediately crushed its head in his hands.

Meanwhile, Rin was firing his scales at the Goliaths, which as with all the tougher Grimm, did nothing.

Pony also tried firing her horns at it, which was equally ineffective.

"Get me onto it!" Sen said.

Pony sent out another horn, and Sen grabbed onto it, and let him lift him into one of the Goliaths.

He tried to drill into the unarmored spots on its back, but unlike the Manticore, he wasn't making a dent here. "I can't drill through! It's too tough!"

Shishida jumped off the now falling rocks of the Geist's golem, and onto a Goltaith's back, and tried attacking it, but to no avail.

"We can't hurt it." Kendo realized, before trying to come up with another plan. We can't run away when all the ground in front of us is softened like that. But if we unsoften it they'll come straight for us...then again, those things were slow even before we used Juzo's quirk on the ground. Maybe we could just run away.

The class rep looked down at her fallen classmates. We have six down. Pony can carry four of them with her horns, but we'll have to carry two ourselves, and that'll slow us down. Still, we don't have much of a choice.

"Monoma! Turn the ground solid we have to run!" Kendo ordered.

Monoma nodded, and touched the ground again, turning it solid again, and trapping the Grimm in the dirt.

However, the Goliaths immediately broke out, and the Deathstalkers were working their way out as well.

"Everyone run for it!" Kendo shouted. "Pony grab whoever you can! Shishida grabs the two she doesn't!"

Pony did as ordered, grabbing Ibara, Juzo, Awase, and Kosei with her horns and running past the Grimm with her friends.

Shishida jumped down and grabbed Bondo and Shoda, and made a run for it as well.

The Goliaths charged at them, but the class was able to jump out of the way in time.

They were approaching the trees, and it looked like they could make it…

And then three Beringels jumped out, blocking their path.

"Uh oh!" Manga shouted.

"RAGHHHHH!" One of the Beringels charged at Pony, jumping at her with terrifying speed, before smacking her aside with its huge arm.

"AHHHHHHH!" Pony cried out in pain, as she was knocked aside like a rag doll, breaking her concentration, and causing her horns to drop, and her classmates to fall to the ground.

Shishida dropped his classmates and charged at one of the Beringels. "Rah!"

The two clashed, locking arms as they engaged in a contest of strength.

That Shishida was quickly losing.

The Beringel shoved him to the ground and started punching him down into the dirt.

"Get off him!" Tetsutetsu charged at the Beringel that was beating Shishida.

"Tetsutetsu watch out!" Kendo shouted to try and warn her classmate.

"Huh!?" Tetsutetsu turned his head and saw that a Goliath was charging right at him. "Oh sh-"

Tetsutetsu couldn't dodge in time as the Goliath hit him in the back with its tusk, sending him flying. "AGHHHH!"

Meanwhile, the Deathstalkers were finally pulling themselves out of the ground and getting ready to join the fight.

And while that was happening, one of the Beringel's had jumped onto the weakened Pony, and punched her in the face, knocking her out immediately.

Monoma charged at the Beringel still beating up Shishida, using Tetsutetsu's quirk, intent on stopping it,(making sure to watch for Goliaths), but something else came to stop him.

SLAM!

The Hound jumped down from the cliff, landing right in front of Monoma.

Monoma only had a moment to look at it in horror, before it grabbed his face, and its hands glowed yellow.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Monoma screamed as the Hound shocked him with electricity, which ran all around his steeled-up body, knocking him out as soon as it stopped.

As Monoma dropped to the ground, the Hound turned its attention to Yanagi, who stared it at completely terrified.

She quickly reacted, picking up whatever was around, tree branches, rocks, whatever, and throwing it at the Hound, which did absolutely nothing.

The Hound's arm extended, shooting out and grabbing Yanagi's face from a few yards away, and giving her the same taser treatment Monoma got.

"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Yanagi gave out a ghastly scream, as she felt electricity course through her body before it suddenly stopped, and she lost consciousness.

"AHHHHHHH" Meanwhile Manga was running away from two Deathstalkers that were hot on his tail, only for a Beringel to come in from the side and close-line him, knocking him out immediately.

Rin tried to shoot at Beringel, but to no avail, as the monstrous ape quickly grabbed him with both hands, and started crushing him in its grip. "AGHHHHHHH!"

Sen gave a desperate charge at the Hound and shoved his drill arm right through the beast.

He took his arm out and saw that he made a huge hole right in its chest, and for a second, he thought maybe he killed it.

That thought was quickly proven wrong, as the whole patched itself up, as the Hound regenerated in seconds.

Kendo heard the screams of Sen getting tased and knew she was now the last member of her class left.

The Grimm closed in on her, surrounding her with the Hound staring her down.

Did we ever stand a chance? Kendo wondered.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

As Izuku watched the last member of 1B go down, he gave his order. "Alright, bring them all to the infirmary. Quickly."

"They made it surprisingly far," Nezu commented, having watched on his own Seer that Izuku sent him. "I honestly expected them to fall as soon as you sent out the level 3 Grimm. But they didn't go down easily."

"No, they didn't. Hmm." Izuku took a moment to think about all this. "They got farther than I'd like, but at the same time it's a group of 20 U.A. students so maybe that shouldn't color my opinion of this too much, and they didn't even make it to level 4. Then again I don't want anyone to make it to level 4…"

"I recommend we see what 1B has to say about the system, and then we'll decide if it was adequate or not," Nezu told him.

"I guess...that's best," Izuku said. "I just have to wait for them to wake up."