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MHA Paragon 2.0 Chapter 25: USJ Incident Finale
🕑 Added 2025-01-11 18:16:33 +0000 UTCThere was no room in my mind to scheme or plan. My battle with the Chimera was reaching its climax; there would be no more testing exchanges or last-minute reveals. Both of us were dedicated to seeing the other lying at our feet, defeated and bloodied, proving the superiority of our designs. Like a choreographed fight, we both lurched into motion simultaneously, committing to a full frontal assault.
Flying across the ground, I was before the Chimera in the blink of an eye, and its claws were already flying at my face. I deflected the blow with the blade strapped to the back of my right arm, letting it glide over my shoulder with a sharp shriek of nails on a chalkboard.
At the same time, I shifted my weight forward, punching with my other hand, intent on driving my other footlong blade into the Chimera's chest. While my newest armaments had been created in the heat of the moment as I desperately clung to life, It wasn't the first time I had designed something to cut.
The blades were carbon copies of each other, both a foot long and triangular with rounded edges at the very end, finishing with a fine point, meaning the blades could be used for piercing and slicing. The design was heavily influenced by the Indian push dagger, also known as a katar, but instead of holding onto an H-shaped grip, the blade was attached directly to my flux wrappings. Using the same design as my Impossible Tecnqiue: Stygian Divide, the edges of the blades were impossibly thin but sturdy, making them incredibly sharp.
Having already tested this fact with its tail, the Chimera knew its scales were useless, so it twisted its body to the side. My katar only managed to knick the monster, drawing a thin purple line across its scales as it dashed to the side.
For the first time in our fight, I was the one who pursued as the blood staining my blade was quickly consumed by my flux with another small surge of power.
Realizing I was gaining on it, the Chimera suddenly pivoted as the flat of its tail swept through the air. My left katar retracted back into my bindings, allowing me to raise my palm just in time to stop the powerful strike dead.
Twisting its agile body, the Chimera used my palm as a springboard, spinning itself back around as its talons lashed out again. I raised my other palm, blocking its talons, but now both my hands were occupied and stretched in either direction, leaving my midsection wide open.
With a vicious gleam in its eyes, the Chimera lunged forward, its jaw opening wide before clamping down on the side of my neck. But its teeth found no purchase in my skin as vicious liquid flux coated my neck and shoulder.
The Chimera's eye widened as it found its jaw entrapped by the non-Newtonian fluid. The harder it bit down or, the more it tried to pull away, the faster the flux converted from a liquid into a solid.
Deciding I might as well return the favor, my mask split open, the jaw unhinging to reveal razor-sharp teeth that I buried into the extended neck of the Chimera. A muffled roar of pain tore free from the monster's throat, making my ears ring, but I barely noticed as my flux gorged itself on an unending tap of liquid power that was the Chimeral blood.
My teeth must have nicked a vein as the blood continued to pour into my mask, and my flux even acted on its own, extending thin tendrils that burrowed into the Chimera's flesh and drinking its blood like a butterfly with its proboscis drinking sugar water.
Feeling its lifeblood drain away, the Chimera's eyes widened, and for the first time, I saw fear flash across its eyes. Realizing that death was indeed an inevitability, the Chimera underwent its own transformation, and before my eyes, I watched as its dark red eyes shifted hues, turning a dark purple.
Simultaneously, the spines along its back began to glow with a dark neon purple light starting at the end of its tail and traveling up its spine. Slowly at first but quickly gaining speed as a distant whirring sound rippled through the air like an arc reactor warming up.
My eyes widened in realization, and I quickly dismissed the flux entrapping the Chimera's jaw, which remained open as it glowed with the same malevolent purple light.
A second later, a concentrated laser pierced through the air from the Chimera's maw, missing me by mere inches. The purple beam of light was barely the thickness of a pencil, but I watched it disappear into the distance, melting through anything in its way.
My body broke out into a cold sweat, knowing beyond a doubt that nothing in my repertoire could have blocked such a powerful attack. But as I looked back to the Chimera as it snapped its mouth closed, I realized its transformation wasn't finished.
The muscles across its body bulged quickly, growing in size. Its old scales sloughed off in great sections, revealing a new, thicker plating beneath. When its body stopped growing, the slim, agile predator was replaced by a hulking monstrosity nearly six feet tall at the shoulders with a broad chest and two massive forelimbs powerful enough to topple buildings. Its neck had also shorted with a crest running along the ridge of its head, and as the Chimera flexed its jaw, I could see the muscles running up along the side of its head to the crest.
A deep, profound jealousy ignited in my gut as I stared at the result of the Chimera's transformation. I thought its design had been set in stone, its flaws fixed and exploitable, but now, as I gazed at the Chimera, I saw no new weakness I could exploit; even the hole I had gored in its neck was now only a faint scar outline by the mishappened scales.
The Chimera tilted its triangular head to stare down at me, its purple eyes reveling in its newfound strength.
Gritting my teeth, I prepared to engage the hulking monstrosity only for a shrill whistle tone to cut through the air from the direction of the central plaza. The Chimera's body stiffened as if subjugated by an irresistible force.
In the blink of an eye, the Chimera took off its massive form, displaying a frightening speed and agility as it answered the summons. Without hesitation, I ran after the monster, my eyes burning with envy as I tried to figure out how the creature had shed its flaws and improved its design.
---
"Enough!!" Shagariki roared as he moved his ungloved hand near Eraser's neck, causing Midoriya, Bakugo, and Tsu, who had joined in the fight after Midoriya's ambush, to freeze, "One more step and your precious teacher crumbles to dust!"
"Don't listen to him!" Eraser roared back, "You have him right where you want him!"
"SHUT UP!!" Shagariki screamed, unable to resist, as he punched Eraser in the face, sending the already battered hero reeling as his face contorted into a mask of pain.
"Stop it!" Midoriya screamed, tears threatening to spill from his eyes as he was overcome with how useless he felt at that moment. "Don't you lay a hand on our Sensei!"
"I'd say we rush him!" Bakugo growled, "I can get to the creep before his quirk can take full effect!"
"We can't take that risk! You're not at your top speed right now!" Tsu countered sternly
"Well, we can't just keep on standing here with our thumbs up our ass!" Bakugo huffed as her hands sparked, though, in the back of her mind, she knew just how dangerous Shagariki's quirk was having to favor her right leg as the other sported a gruesome wound from when the villain had grabbed onto her ankle, disintegrating her skin and exposing the muscle beneath.
Floating closer to Shagariki, Kurogiri leaned in to whisper, "We should leave; it won't be long before the rest of the teachers arrive."
"We can't leave without achieving our purpose!" Shagariki hissed back, "All Might hasn't shown his face!"
"And we have lost our only weapon against him," Kurogiri replied calmly as his body started to ripple and expand, "We are leaving. Call back the Dread Beast."
Shagariki snarled but reached into his pocket, pulling out a silver whistle that he raised to his lips and blew. A sharp tone ripped through the air, and a few seconds later, the ground started to rumble, and everyone in the plaza turned to look and stare at the hulking monstrosity that barreled into view.
"What the hell is that!" Bakugo cursed as the creature came to rest behind the two villains, who stared at it with equal amounts of shock.
"The doctor did not mention anything about this," Kurogiri muttered as his body expanded, creating a portal large enough to fit the massive creature.
"We need to do something!" Bakugo roared as Kurogiri formed a portal that moved to encapture the villains, the monster and Aizawa, but she didn't move, frozen in place by the massive creature looming over them.
"Wait, where's Kenji!?" Midoriya shouted as he suddenly remembered why the beast had been torn away from their fight in the first place.
Before anyone could answer, a dark streak shot across the ground, arriving in front of the Shagariki holding Aizawa hostage as they started to disappear into Kurogiri's portal, "NO!!"
A raw, ragged voice tore through the air as the masked figure thrust out their hand, sending a length of cloth shooting through the air that wrapped around Aizawa and pulled him back in the blink of an eye just as the villains vanished into thin air.
Silence rang through the air as the masked figure caught Aizawa before collapsing to the ground, their chest heaving with labored breaths.
The three students rushed to reach them as soon as the threat passed. Tsu was the first to arrive as the mask concealing the individual's identity melted, "Kenji!?"
Tsu asked in surprised as she took in his appearance. His costume had been ripped and torn in several places, exposing the skin beneath, but the most shocking change was the massive set of freshly healed scars decorating his chest, including a painful-looking mark over the right side of his chest and the jagged X-carved into his skin.
Tsu gasped as she cupped her mouth and imagined what Kenji had suffered facing down the monstrosity alone, "Kenji...Kenji can you hear me!"
A dull groan of pain escaped Kenji's lips as his quirk deactivated and Bakugo and Midoriya caught up, "What the hell happened to him!?"
Bakugo exclaimed, seeing the vicious scars decorating Kenji's body, "Is he still alive!"
Before anyone could answer the question, there was a loud boom as a massive man suddenly appeared in the plaza. Despite not wearing his hero costume, All Might was impossible to not recognize, though his signature smile was gone, replaced by a grave look as he stared at the brutalized state of those he had sworn to protect, "Where are the Villains?"
Tsu and Bakugo remained stunned by the sudden appearance of the No. 1, leaving it to Midoriya to respond, "T-they're gone...they managed to escape less than a minute ago."
