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MHA Paragon Version 2.0 Chapter 20: USJ Incident Pt. 2
🕑 Added 2025-01-03 04:02:44 +0000 UTCMy face warped into an ugly mask, hearing the unspeakable evils the villains threatened my classmates with as they corralled them like animals. Instead of charging forward, I held my position unnoticed as I prepared. The flux around my feet and right arm flowed across my body before gathering into a sphere in my outstretched hand. Anyone in my class would have recognized the sphere as the same technique I used during the ball toss.
Grabbing a handful of loose pebbles in my free hand, I thrust it into the sphere before pulling my arm back halfway as I picked out my first target, 'I hope this hurts as much as I think it will.'
With an exhale, I let go, and the flux snapped into shape. A second later, a sharp crack rang through the air, followed by a hissing whine as the improvised buckshot sliced through the air.
"What the hell was that?!"
"I don't know, it sounds like a-"
"ARGH!!!"
The villain's questioning mutters were cut off by a blood-curdling scream as arcs of crimson blood soared through. The cry of agony came from the villain I targeted, who collapsed to the ground, his back torn to shreds by stone fragments traveling with the speed of a major league fastball.
"Sniper!"
"Where?!"
"I don't know. It came from the-"
CRACK!
"FUCK!! I'M HIT!"
I tisked as my second shot went wide, only managing to clip the villain's leg, leaving him limping but still in the fight.
"There!! From the canyon!"
With my position compromised, I traded accuracy for output, firing as many shots as possible as the Villains closest to me converged on my locations. Ultimately, it made them easier to hit. However, without the element of surprise on my side, the villains proved why they had been recruited as they activated their quirks, allowing them to shrug off the stones or avoid them altogether.
'A viable design, but it needs more implementation and optimization,' I noted absently as I armed myself, covering my arms and shoulders, increasing my defenses while reducing my mobility.
"You little shit! I'm going to crush your skull with my bare hands!" The ground rumbled as I stared down the absolute monster of a villain bearing down on me. His quirk gave him the features and stature of an elephant, complete with thick, leathery grey skin, tusks, and massive hands that could probably deliver on his death threat.
With blind rage, the villain planted his feet and punched down at me with a fist the size of my entire head. Moving into the punch, I thrust out my left palm, stopping the villain's fist cold, much to his apparent surprise.
"What the?!"
Before he could finish his thought, my right fist buried into his stomach without enough force to send a visible shockwave through the villain's body, making his skin ripple like water. As I pulled my fist back, the elephant villain began to collapse, the whites of his eye showing and foaming at the mouth.
But he was only one of many, and the next villain was on top of me before I could even take a breath. The fight started with me desperately trying to avoid a hail of razor-sharp wind blades from the sky. I managed to protect my face behind my arms but the rest of my body wasn't so lucky.
I winced as I felt a myriad of cuts open up across my upper body and even my legs, where the razor-sharp wind managed to cut through my pants. Fortunately, the wind blades weren't strong enough to cut deep, though that didn't mean I would sit back and take it.
I peeked out from behind my guard just in time for a swooping dive and a taloned hand to latch onto my arm, attempting and failing to pierce through the liquid flux coating my arm. Turning the situation around, the flux latched onto the villain's talons, quickly crawling up their feather-covered arm.
The eagle-themed villain flapped the pair of feathery wings on his back, trying to take off o the sky once more, but I bent my knees, grounding myself as I cocked my hand back to deliver a punch.
Before I could even shift my weight to deliver the blow, a high-pitched sonic attack hit me with the force of a physical attack, and I nearly lost my footing. My head felt like a steel vice was squeezing it as my eyes vibrated in their sockets, and my ears buzzed like an angry swarm of needs.
My hold on the eagle villain loosened, allowing him to escape while I collapsed to my knees, with my hands shooting up to cover my ears as blood trickled from my nose. Through clouded eyes, I looked over at my sonic attacker, a gaunt woman with greasy black hair, razor-sharp nails, and an unnaturally large mouth that was unhinged, unleashing the devastating sonic wave.
I watched a cruel light ignite in her eyes as she closed in on me, increasing the potency of her attack, nearly driving me to the ground as blood continued to pour from my nose. As the villain got within striking distance, the banshee raised her razor-sharp nails high into the air, ready to bring them down on my flesh.
'Gotcha.'
The mask of agony vanished from my face as I spun around and planted the heel of my palm into the banshee's jaw, snapping her mouth shut and revealing the thin layer of flux covering my ears, 'Sound is just another form of kinetic energy meaning I can absorb it block it and redirect it like any other attack.'
The banshee's jaw snapped shut with a sickening crack, and she collapsed to the ground, crumbling like a house of cards. But the damage she had dealt wasn't negligible, and as I rose to my feet unsteadily, I realized I could still hear a faint echo of the banshee's scream as my ears rang.
'This isn't good,' I thought darkly as a shadow fell over me, and I turned around to see the eagle villain form before swooping back down the edge of his wings glowing, ready to send another hail of wind blades at me.
Just then, a weighted net was cast through the air, closing around the villain, who dropped out of the sky like a stone with a squawk of surprise.
"Kenji!"
My name sounded distant and muffled, but I pinpointed the source and turned around to see Yaoyorozu holding an empty net launcher hefted over her shoulder. Kaminari and Jiro were flanked to either side of her, also dispatching villains as Kaminari shocked people with a mere touch, and Jiro jammed her earphone jacks into the temples and ears of her opponents, concussing them with potent sonic attacks.
Having just suffered one myself, I almost felt sorry for the villains, and before long, the four of us were the only ones left standing.
"IS THERE ANYONE ELSE HERE BESIDES THE THREE OF YOU?!" I asked, though judging by how Yaoyorozu, Jiro, and Kaminari flinched, I might as well have been screaming.
"Dude, why are you shouting at us?" Kaminari asked.
I blinked as I could barely make out what Kaminari said, "WHAT?!"
"Oh, for the love of-" Jiro muttered before one of her earphone jacks shot out and jammed into my ear.
"OW WHAT WAS THAT-oh I can hear now," A broad smile spread across my face as I gave Jiro a thumbs up, "Thanks!"
"Anything to stop you from screaming," Jiro replied as she glanced away
Before I could reply, Yaoyorozu stepped in front of me, her face grave, "Kenji, what's going on? What happened to the rest of our class."
"I don't know. I managed to avoid being grabbed by that shadow villain. He told me that you had all been teleported to different zones for his comrades to pick you guys off. You guys are the first ones I've found," Kenji answered, his face reflecting the gravity of the situation, "We need to get moving."
"Yeah, but where?!" Kaminari asked just before a massive explosion rang through the air, followed by a mushroom cloud rising into the air above the urban zone. The four of us shared a glass before we took off towards the source of the explosion.
