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Chapter 30: The Monster of the USJ
🕑 Added 2024-12-02 15:18:08 +0000 UTC“Text” – Normal speech
‘Text’ – Thought
“Text” – Quirk Spirit speaking in the human world
“Text” - Attacks
“Text” – Radio/Communication lines
“Text” – None Japanese speech
(text) – Subtext/meaning behind a spoken word
Chapter 30: The Monster of the USJ
(Previously)
"It is quite immature to have a temper tantrum, villain? At least take your defeat with grace." Aoyama told him, not even reacting to the fact he might have killed someone, or was it not a person but a thing like Vlad-sensei said? His group wasn't sure.
“Nomu!!!” Shigaraki blew a casket and just yelled out to the heavens. “KILL ALL OF THEM!!”
“That won’t-!” Aoyama started, only to be interrupted by an unholy roar from his rear, accompanied by smashed concrete and ripping vines.
Line Break
Turning, he saw something that shouldn't be possible. The Nomu was getting up, but its body was grotesquely changing as its flesh seemed to bend, twist, and bulge in all directions. Its bones shattered as they took on a new shape, at times bursting out its muscles in a spray of blood, only some of them retreating back into the depths.
Letting out another screech so piercing that it rattled the ears of everyone, hero, student, and villain alike, as they reached for their ears or fell to a knee in pain. They continued to witness whatever atrocious evolution as its body, already large and muscular, started to grow…and grow…and grow.
It didn't stop even as the beast reached a height of 2.5 m, then 3m, then 4.5m. Its weight seemed to grow along with its size as the floor it stood on started to buckle, which shouldn't have been possible as it was concreated.
“What the hell is that?” Tetsutetsu yelled, falling on his ass as the Nomu’s screeches grew louder and more chaotic; it started forming more beaks along its body along with multiple legs and arms, but they were better described as tumors as they just sprouted randomly, some not fully formed with exposed muscle and bone.
“I thought you ran it through!” Honenuki yelled as he tried to bury the monster in mud before it could finish whatever was happening to it, but even as he made the mud deep, the beast’s size meant that it still had parts of it out, and those parts kept growing.
"I did!" Aoyama yelled back as Shiozaki acted, shifting focus to the most significant threat and trying to restrain it. Still, its many arms, legs, and mouths kept getting in the way, pulling, ripping, and biting at the vines she called upon to try and restrain it as it continued to screech for all the USJ to hear.
"Super regeneration…that…thing has super regeneration," Midoriya spoke up, breathing heavily as Asui helped him to stand, though she outright refused to let him get closer to the mass that was happening, as they heard Eraser already yell that he tried to cancel the thing's quirk, but that wasn't working.
"This goes beyond mere healing. Its cells are dividing uncontrollably. It's a walking tumor!" Yaoyorozu called out as she spent a considerable amount of her quirk to create a cannon, aimed it at the Nomu, and fired. The explosive might have blown a sizable hole in its side, but the bloody, blackened wound didn't last as it continued to mutate and heal.
At last, it stopped when the amalgamation of twisted, ill-formed limbs, mouths, and eyes stood before them. Even with it sunk in the ground, its body still was well over 7m tall, casting a sickening shadow over them as it roared before it pulled an arm back to strike.
"One that wants to kill us, so let's run!" Bondo yelled as the students and teachers didn't need any further prodding. They all ran for it right as the fist struck like a cruise missile, and the concrete exploded while the ground shook. Not done, the beast started to move, chasing after the closest person it could see. In contrast, the others tried to damage or take it down, but its size hindered such efforts as it walked through Honenuki’s mud, slowed but not stopped. Shiozaki directed all her remaining vines to restrain it, but they kept tearing under the strain.
That second quirk seemed to finally get into factor as their blows, such as cannon balls, kicks, or blood hammers, didn't so much as make it flinch, Vlad, yelling back that it was like he was hitting a pillow while Eraser was forced to fight quirkless as for some reason, his quirk had no effect. Aoyama and Midoriya suspected that it couldn't as, at this point, the body wasn't using a quirk. Still, the quirks were manipulating a glorified, if not horrific, meat doll, which meant that Eraser couldn't 'see' the quirk anymore.
“Yuga…you see it too, don’t you?" Aoyama turned to Midoriya, the wounded, pale-faced boy speaking French.
Aoyama thought that the time had passed but replied in his native tongue. "Yeah, you couldn't finish the job, were you?" He asked, as he could see it: in that mess of putrid flesh, limbs, and organs, the two quirks were lashing out.
“I was interrupted by the warp villain," Midoriya replied, though his eyes were downcast. That sounded like an excuse. He should have prepared for him; he knew he was there but forgot, and now he couldn't make up for his mistake.
“I see…then it’s up to me.” Aoyama turned to him, helping Asui and Toru tend to Midoriya’s wounds by using Synthesis to give him a boost of energy and help close the wound. He could try and use something stronger, but it would leave him drained. "But this thing… seems too strong to be a Gekiha.”
Breathing easier now that his wound pouring as much blood as possible, Midoriya gestured for the two girls to help him sit upright. His costume's top had been torn up and used as makeshift bandages as Yaoyorozu was too busy with the fight to spare the time to make some. "Yeah…that means we're dealing with a low Shishiha(Lion Fragment) at least…" Both Asui and Hagakure were left in the dark about what they were discussing, but they didn't interrupt them.
Whatever it was, it was severe as Aoyama let out a gasp before it groaned into his hand. "Heavens, and we can't call for backup. I'll have to handle most of it and leave the others." That wasn't ideal; neither he nor Izuku had ever faced a level 4 quirk spirit, and reports of how to take one down always had people working in teams of 3, something that couldn't be done even if they could call for Fuwa, she was still in class and would need an excuse to leave and rush over to the USJ, and by then, God knew how much destruction could have happened as the damned thing didn’t even see to know what it wanted to destroy, so it settled on everything.
“I’ll back you up.” Aoyama didn't need to stop Midoriya; Asui could not keep his foolish friend down.
"No, you won't. You can barely stand," Aoyama told him. Midoriya looked at his back, then at Asui, whose face hardly changed, but her eyes said enough about the chances of her letting him get back into the fight.
Still, he couldn’t just sit back. “I can provide you with buffs and weaken the threat-”
“Give me some buffs now, then you stay there. I won’t argue with this, Izuku.” Aoyama replied, his flamboyance ever present, but there was a will to his words; when he glanced over his shoulder, Izuku could see that this was one of those times when he just wouldn't win this argument.
“Good luck…” Midoriya stated, lowering his head and letting Asui move him to the safer position as far from the fighting as she could manage.
“Right,” Yuga replied, watching as she took his best friend to safety. He hoped she had been taking notes in Snipe's first aide classes, as Izuku's wound was severe. But he would need to focus on the task as he raised his blade, holding it horizontally at chest level and grasping its blade just above the hilt. Taking a breath, he, too, went full out.
“Dazzle and Shine, Ôxâ de paradî!” He pulled his hand up the blade, his blood fusing with it as it burst into a sphere of light that engulfed him. This caught the attention of the Shishiha, which turned just in them for a thrust of yellow sunlight and blue moonlight to stab into the creature's shoulder, burning a hole deep into its flesh, which bore a scream of pain and rage from it.
When the sphere of light faded, Aoyama stood changed much like his friend had been, taking on a form similar to what he appeared like during the entrance exam, only his feathers were larger, brighter, and more vibrant, his feet having shifted into those of a bird with large, sharp talons and a hind claw for latching onto prey. He now had 5 large rainbow-colored feathers atop his head, this feathery crown ever-changing color. His peacock tail was much like the rest of him, larger, with each feather having the mark of a yellow sun or a blue moon.
His blades had also changed. Instead of having a two-handed longsword in one hand and a dagger in the other, he now duel-wielded a saber and a rapier. Both blades seemed made up of blue and yellow light concentrated into a physical form.
"It's time for the curtain call, ladies and gentlemen." Yuga opened his eyes, revealing a kaleidoscope color nearly as bright as his smile as he pointed his rapier toward the recovering creature. "The monster has made its appearance. It's only proper that we, a merry band of heroes, stand against it and claim victory in combat."
Aoyama jumped into the fight, the Shishiha ignoring the rest, seeing him as the biggest threat as it sludged through the mud that Honenuki had buried, pulling back an arm before sending it crashing down on him. Eraser acted quickly, his capture scarf wrapping around Aoyama to pull him to safety as Shiozaki's vines latched onto the Nomu’s arm to slow its attack down just enough for the pro to get his student out of there.
“And what were you thinking, charging in like that?” Eraser demanded from Aoyama.
"I had a plan, sir. I can create shields," Aoyama replied, though he was just as frustrated as his teacher and had the means to counter it.
Before Eraser could reply, the creature ripped through the vines, keeping hold of it, not caring for the rope burns and vicious scars left by Shiozaki, allowing her vines to grow thorns that dug into its flesh. With its arm freed and still slowed by its lower body being trapped in mud, the rampaging monster instead targeted them with its massive but exceptionally quirk fists; most of the students and even Vlad needed to play evasion, a game made more complex as they were carrying off as many of their defeated opponents as they could to spare them being killed.
With another strike coming down, the entire plaza shook under their feet. "I doubt that they could stand up to the power of that thing before, but now," Eraser hated how little he knew, how much his students did know, and that disconnect. As they already had one injury, he would sooner drink bleach like an idiot than allow more of his students harm.
“Still.” Aoyama tried to argue his case, but Vlad cut them off.
"Better we don't risk it when you could be hurt. If you must, use them as distractions." Vlad needed them both to focus on the issue at hand. That agreed Aoyama demonstrated what his two new blades could do as he pointed his rapier at the beast, bright yellow sunlight building in its tip.
“Solar Beam – Rapid Fire." Aoyama's rapier unleashed a volley of blasts of yellow sunlight against the Nomu-turned Shishiha. They weren't nearly as strong as his opening strike, but they burned and dug into its flesh. More importantly, it drew its attention away from Hagakure and Yaoyorozu, the latter kneeling, her face getting sweaty as he rested against the cannon she made.
“Yaomomo, are you okay?” Hagakure asked. As the girl had already made ample use of her quirk before they ever got to the plaza, it couldn't have been good for her to produce a fully functional cannon and then the many explosive shots it would need.
"I'm fine; I can keep going," Yaoyorozu replied, though it took an effort to get back up. Sero and Tetsutetsu came in to lend aid, wrapping up the two girls to carry them to a better spot. At the same time, Tetsutetsu grabbed the cannon, neither being of much help against the monster, as Aoyama and Midoriya called it.
“Just what will it take to bring this thing down? Not even that flashy attack from Aoyama is slowing it down.” Bondo asked, nearly his wit's end as he sprayed it with more of his glue, trying to get it to stick in place. Still, when it did get in the way, like closing an eye or mouth, it just ripped the glue and flesh off its form and tossed it aside, forcing the yellow-skinned boy to stop just because of how disgusting the battlefield was getting from that complete disregard to self-harm from the beast.
“Maybe this will,” Honenuki hardened the concrete the Nomu was walking through. It seemed to work for a moment as Shiozaki again was quick to try and restrain its top half, Sero joining in now that Hagakure and Yaoyorozu were in a better spot. But this didn't work long as with a screech that made them feel like theirs would bleed, the Nomu broke free of the restraints on its limbs and neck and punched the now hardened concrete, shattering a large portion of it and sending those closest flying back or falling over.
Getting up as quick as he could, the lipless teen growled as he saw the Nomu crawling out from the now-damaged concrete, its legs torn to shreds. Clearly, it didn't free itself entirely before moving, but already, they were rapidly healing. Acting fast, he used his quirk again, sinking the beast back into the mud trap. “Crap, this bastard just doesn’t give up.”
Honenuki saw how fast the thing could attack and didn't want to give it a chance to prove that it could be just as fast on its feet. Because it was, then they were royally screwed.
"It is a formidable foe, but one that will fall," Shiozaki called out, stretching her vines to attempt to restrain the beast from two sides while Sero came swinging in to try and pull one of its smaller arms.
"Can't you bury it deeper, Honenuki?” Tetsutetsu asked, having rejoined the battle but having little he could do as he couldn't punch something like that, even if Honenuki allowed him a path.
"I can't; I haven't trained my quirk to that level," Honenuki replied, sensing the frustration in his classmate for how little he could do, but truthfully, he was just as frustrated as, despite being a recommendation student, he could only keep the damned thing largely immobile. There was a blast of light, along with Yaoyorozu's cannon barking as it let loose another explosive shell, but the damned monster just continued to heal. “Besides, you saw that thing walk through concrete; I don't think burying it would do us any good."
Vlad aided in the attack, throwing spears of blood toward the creature as Honenuki kept it from bull rushing them; that was one of the only 2 things he could do. The other was co-ordinate as despite these being first years with little training, Vlad stepped up to the plate and led them, giving clear orders to anyone that could hear him, ensuring that despite their lack of success in landing a good blow, the mutated Nomu hadn't managed to injure or God forbid, kill one of them. However, there were close calls, and they were only getting closer.
Eraser, used to solo-combat in fights that were nothing like this, didn't try to lead aid on that leadership front. Instead, with his quirk seemingly useless against the current threat, he stuck to fighting with his students and saving them via his capture scarf when one made the wrong step, or the Nomu reacted in ways they didn't predict. With attention off them, Kurogiri turned to Shigaraki to offer him some advice.
"Master, I believe this would be a good time to leave. The Nomu isn't behaving as it was designed." The warp gate user stated that their foes had been so preoccupied with their Nomu that a simple retreat meant that not even the teachers focused on them. This would typically be an excellent time to attack, but his gut told him that their Nomu wasn't theirs anymore, and interrupting now could end poorly for them.
Shigaraki, despite how much he wanted to refuse, was getting that same feeling, he wanted to go after that Midoriya brat as he was the cause of this, him and that weird ass quirk of his, but that frog girl had fled somewhere into the tree-line that bordered the plaza. One of the other zones, and it would take too long to find them and score some kills.
"I hate it when you're right…You know what, screw it, let them deal with it, maybe it'll farm some XP for us." Shigaraki reluctantly agreed, as whatever game this was had to be buggy. The heroes are too distracted to notice the portal forming and the hand-covered villain leaving, followed by Kurogiri.
Another explosion rang out, this one taking out of the larger eyes of the beast, which screeched at the loss of the organ. As it regenerated, its tissues pulsated as they spat out blood through it all. Yaoyorozu fell to her knees, and the exhaustion from using her quirk for such an extended period finally caught up.
“I’m getting Yaomomo out of here!” Hagakure called out to the rest, helping Yaoyorozu stand and rush off.
“I can still help.” Yaoyorozu tried to fight back, but it was a testament to the woman's exhaustion. She didn't have the strength to resist her smaller, physically weaker classmate.
"No, you can't, Hagakure. Get her to where Asui is tending to Midoriya!" Eraser called out to her and pointed in the direction the frog girl who had taken Midoriya. Hopefully, they could help her treat their classmate's wounds.
“Got it, sir!” Hagakure replied as they made their way off, but the Nomu mutant wasn't done with them. While having no target, it saw everything as something to destroy after all the pain it had gone through; a long, thin arm sprouted from its shoulder and raced towards the two girls, the spontaneous limb growth catching the rest off guard.
“Incoming!” Honenuki called to them as Hagakure pushed Yaoyorozu to the ground and jumped atop her to offer protection.
“Reflect!” A hard light barrier formed between the two girls and the Shishiha’s latest attack; it buckled but held under the force of it. With his rapier, Aoyama pointed in their direction and yelled for them to move. "Get her out of here; we can keep this beast busy!" He didn't look their way long enough to see if they obeyed as he followed up his defense with an offense, sending a blue moonlight slash against the arm, severing it at one of its many elbows.
He sent out a few more, targeted at various points across the creature’s extended, thinner arm cutting it into 4 pieces which pissed it off as it turned its attention back to the rest of them. “I’m starting to question if we can keep this thing busy; we're already down 2 people and haven't made any progress." Honenuki voiced their building concerns over their chances.
"We're still breathing and in fighting shape; that's progress. So keep that chin up and keep this monster from hurting anyone. Is that clear?" Vlad reminded them, as one needed to have faith before they did anything.
"Yes, sir!" The students replied, putting as much of their confidence into their words as they could, though they didn’t dispel their doubts as with Yaomomo off the field, that was another of the precious ranged fighters gone. She left her cannon, but she didn't leave any shot for the damn thing.
“Mirror!” Aoyama created another hard light construct, but instead of a barrier, he tried something new and created a photorealistic image of his best friend dancing like an idiot. This was a scream of fury from the beast when it saw the person it wanted to kill the most before it promptly rashed the image. But then Aoyama just made another, and then another, keeping up and drawing its attention off the rest to give them some breathing room.
“You’re creating illusions?” Sero asked him, landing next to him.
Aoyama started to sweat, but despite his building exhaustion, he smiled as he made his 7th illusion with their foe showing no signs of catching off, and why would it? It was acting like a mindless beast. “Looks like it’s still pretty made at Midoriya if just seeing that pisses it off that much.”
“Which I can use,” he ceased, breathing as he gathered a substantial amount of his light reserves. His two blades started to glow brightly enough that others couldn't look directly at him, not even their opponent, who roared in confusion, its dozen eyes closing as it turned its massive, ugly, mutated head away. “Everyone, be ready for a dazzling light show, House of Light!”
Aoyama called out as he used a fusion move that combined elements of Mirror and Reflect and multiplied the result. The light from his two blades shot up into the air before making a hard right turn toward the Shishiha. They didn't strike it; instead, they stopped directly over its massive head, where the ball of light burst into dozens of small ones that threaded themselves out, thinning themselves into mirrors.
He willed it so that they could go through the mirror dome, but to the beast, all it saw was dozens upon dozens of dancing Midoriya's silently taunting it. As Yuga had predicted, it was incensed to a whole new level, its cry so piercing that it could feel it in his bones, but it was also overwhelmed as it didn't know where or how to start.
That meant that it was entirely unprepared for Shiozaki, Sero, and Tetsutetsu as the vine-haired girl's quirk burst out of the area that was still solid around the Nomu, going through the gaps of the mirrors and latching onto the beast, wrapping onto its arms while Sero's tape shots in and went around its neck several times. Still, the boy, with the aid of Tetsutetsu, started to pull, forcing his head closer to the ground.
The monster struggled against this, but this left it wide open for another move as Aoyama shattered the mirrors, using its confusion at the loss of all its prey to hold up his saber and charge it with as much moonlight as he could before he brought it down like a strike from above.
“Moonblast: Bleeding Blue Crescent!” Aoyama's possible most potent attack yet, the massive crescent of pure blue moonlight, was almost as large as the beast and just as powerful. It managed to cleave through its entire body, tearing through muscle, bone, and organs before coming out the other side, whatever blood and tissue was on it burning up from the light.
Such a grievous wound, even to a monster that could regenerate, couldn't be brushed aside as it let out a cry of pain, its strength dropping as Yuga saw that he had done some real damage to the quirks at its core. This weakened state meant that those trying to restrain it and drag it face-first into the mud where it would hopefully drown were having an easier time of it. They had managed to get its chin beneath the mud, its body covered not by closing the gaping wound but by going a much more macabre route and sprouting arms that locked together, holding the two sides like chains.
The sight of such had even the teachers gagging in their mouths as Honenuki, Shiozaki, and Aoyama threw up at such a ghastly. In their revulsion, their efforts slacked, and Shishiha, not healed but in fight shape, took advantage as it let a roar that seemed to shake the entire USJ, this being the latest one that people in other zones could hear and couldn’t help but turn towards.
Back in the plaza, it ripped free of the restraints as Aoyama wiped his vomit from his lips with the back of his hand. “Not even that can put you down, you foul beast? Well, then we as the leading actors…” He got hit by a dizzy spell and would have fallen if not for Vlad catching him, the man immediately noticing how pale the kid looked.
"Aoyama," , are you good, son?" Hehe asked. Aoyama took some breaths to clear his head and vision, slowing down to get his feet back under him.
"Just…just a little winded. Truth be told, I've never had to use so much light or stamina. Just give me a second to absorb some sunlight." Aoyama replied, trying to reassure the man with a confident smile, but it made him look worse. Aoyama could tell as much with how Vlad looked him over, and he couldn't blame him. Even in training, he had never pushed himself this far; already, he could feel Ôxâ de paradî reminding him that he didn’t have much time before she separated from him for his own good, with or without his permission.
“And your stamina?” Vlad asked, deciding to not bench him for practical reasons.
"Well, we're all in the same boat on that front, sir," Aoyama replied as he looked up at the dome that left plenty of light in from the sun. Holding his arms out wide, his blades held, he closed his eyes as he felt the rays on his skin. “Synthesis." He called out, and immediately, the teacher and the others could feel the light flowing into his body like water down a drain; as it did so, his pale complexion faded as color returned to his form; only now did they notice that even his bright plumage had faded somewhat, a side effect of exhaustion of his quirk.
They weren't given time to ask as their foe hadn't been idle. At first, it had been trying to attack Sero and Tetsutetsu, but at the last second, he jumped onto some vines and turned to crush Shiozaki.
“Shiozaki!” Eraser called for her, throwing his capture scarf her way, but the distance was too great, and he could see he wouldn't make it. He spared Aoyama a glance, hoping to see him creating another light barrier, but he remained stationary, still charging up and probably unaware of what was happening around him.
Time sped back up to normal as the fist came crashing down where Shiozaki had been with earth-shaking force, leaving the group slack-jawed at that was their first loss—"I got you, Shiozaki. Are you unharmed?" They turned their necks so fast that they could have snapped them, but there to the side stood Iida, still wet from having to swim through the artificial lake, and in his hands, he held Shiozaki bridal style.
“Iida?” The vine-haired girl seemed just as confused about her fate as the rest. She had genuinely regretted that she would perish before she could do any of the good deeds she wished to be a good person as the excellent book taught. She had hoped for the Lord to send aid. And it would seem he did, in the form of a speedster who was just the vanguard of their backup.
“What the hell is that thing?” Mineta yelled as he and the rest of those sent to the flood zone arrived, the shortest among them screaming his head off as he tossed as many of his balls as he could at it. “Why’d we come towards it?!”
"Because they needed our help, you perv, so shut up and help me fight," Ashido yelled at him, though she was just as horrified and petrified by what they had seen as they approached. That fear only rose as she saw that the globs of acid she threw made contact, even melted away flesh, or the eyes, ears, noses, or beaked mouths that covered its grotesque form, only for those wounds to rapidly heal as it turned on them.
“No good, that thing’s healing faster than you can melt!” Awase yelled, seeing how little they could do and hating that again. He was next to useless in this battle, with the group noticing the mud that the beast was waist-deep in and still towering over them like an adult over a kindergartener.
“It has some sort of regenerations quirk, but it’s gone out of control and turned into…well, that!” Tetsutetsu yelled at them.
“What about physical attacks to stun the beast?" Shishida asked, as he could probably clear the distance and land some hits or throw someone like Tetsutetsu.
"We tried some earlier; the damn thing didn't even react!" Honenuki replied, as that was why Yaoyorozu had to use explosive shots rather than straight cannon balls; the best guess they got came from Aoyama that the beast had 2 quirks, one that mutated out of control into this hardcore mode video game level boss, and another that seemed to decrease shock from impact. However, he couldn't say if he negated, absorbed, or did something else, and with how crazy things were, they just decided to trust him.
Before anything else could be said, the temperature dropped as a jet of cold air came flying in from the side; a second later, a massive wave of ice crashed into Nomu’s side, spreading across its body, the frost seeping deep into its muscle until muscle, blood, and nerves froze over.
"You all seemed to have been having trouble with that…thing," Todoroki announced himself, along with the rest of his ground, as the red and white-haired boy still knelt with his right hand to the floor, the ice originating from him.
"Crap, Yaoyorozu, and Tsu weren't kidding about the thing being big." Kirishima whistled, as once they had escaped from the fire zone, they moved towards where they heard the worst fighting and happened upon where Asui, Hagakure, Yaoyorozu, and Midoriya had made camp. However, the latter had been unconscious when they found them, a nasty wound on his back.
Yaoyorozu advised that only Todoroki and Rin get involved, saying that, in her words, the monster was too much for the rest of them. He had been skeptical of that, so while Ojiro and Shoji had followed her advice and remained to help tend to Yaoyorozu's exhaustion and Midoriya's injuries, he had gone with the rest and could see she hadn't been kidding.
"Kirishima, stay focused," Todoroki told his classmate, who turned to him confused.
“Wait, why? You froze half its body.” Kirishima's question was answered when they heard the half-frozen beast start to shake, cracks forming across its frozen body as its mouth began to squawk, moan, and howl.
“Because,” Todoroki narrowed his eyes as the monster shattered free of the ice. Because he hadn't just covered it with ice but froze it to the bone, that meant those pieces snapped off, leaving iced-over wounds that shattered in a shower of ice and blood as they started to regenerate rapidly. “If it was that easy, they would have defeated it by now.”
“Oh heavens, that is just unnatural!” Shiozaki felt sick just watching it as bones, muscles, and blood formed at an accelerated pace. The creature's already unstable body wasn't creating its lost pieces correctly, making it look worse. It even sprouted a third arm out of its now-regrown shoulder. Todoroki was about to try and freeze the entire thing, but then a shadow fell over him and the rest.
"Heads up!" Looking up, they saw what looked like a giant piece of debris floating overhead, Uraraka peeking out atop it, waving at them while looking green-faced. They wondered how she was doing that, as her quirk granted her gravity control. Still, it couldn't manipulate objects like that, with it being Eraser or saw Yanagi first, the girl having her hands pointed to the boulder, her face sweaty under the strain of it as she shifted it right above the target.
"Is this good?" Yanagi called Uraraka, who jumped back.
“It is, release!” Uraraka brought her finger and thumb tips together when Yanagi released her hold on the boulder. It returned to gravity's influence, crashing into the Nomu’s head as it lifted an arm to protect itself.
"Uraraka, Yanagi!!" Kirishima called out as the two girls landed close to Vlad. Both looked strained from pulling off that stunt.
"It was not just us; we saw the commotion from the stairs and couldn't stand by!" Uraraka explained that Tsuburaba, Kamakiri, and Kodai had all arrived on the scene.
"We're also after that warp bastard. Is he here?" Kamakiri asked when the rest realized he and that hand villain were gone.
"Worry about them later. Where's Thirteen?" Vlad asked as they had thus far only seen students.
"She's injured, but Tsunotori, Sato, and Koda look after her. Also, Tokage managed to get out, so we should be getting help any minute now!" Yanagi explained, which relieved the students.
“Oh, that is some good news, the best damn news I’ve heard all week.” Tetsutetsu felt a weight off his shoulders. As if the teachers were heading this way, All Might was also on his way. That celebration was cut short when the Nomu roared, throwing the boulder off itself to the side.
“What the? But I dropped-” Uraraka was stopped by Honenuki.
“Summary, it has 2 quirks. Super Regeneration, which turned it into a supercharged tumor that wants to kill us, and another that basically means that you can rely on the shock to hurt it!” He gave her the rundown of things, which left her pale as that shouldn’t be possible, only One for All-
“Two quirks?” Yanagi asked in disbelief. It was one thing to watch things turn to chaos from the stairs; it was another to learn that the threat was multi-quirked.
"Just roll with it. You'll live longer!" Sero yelled as he and others had to dodge an attempted swing.
"Well, then, what do we do?" Uraraka asked, as she felt that she could use One for All for this, but if shock couldn't do the job, then all she'd do was wreck her arm. Even that boulder had been hard to get, as there weren't many loose rocks. She had found the biggest one they could and had Kodai enlarge it.
Vlad was also considering the situation. Aid was on the way, but considering the distance to campus, even if Tokage went full speed, she wouldn't be able to get help for another 10 minutes, maybe shorter if she had a phone, but he wasn't sure about that.
He thought about how they had fought against the Nomu creature so far, before and after its transformation, which is when he realized something and turned to Aoyama, who had just come out of whatever trance he was in, his body glowing.
"Aoyama, besides Midoriya, your quirk is the only one that can damage it, " he asked. The ground shaking from another dodged the punch, followed by a screech they had to soldier through.
"Yes, sir." Aoyama nodded, taking in their new faces on the field. It's good; they would need help.
“If we get you an opening, can you end it?” Vlad asked him, which made him frown. He worried about that. He had used a large attack earlier, which hadn't done the job, as it would have weakened Gekiha. He had never faced such a threat.
"Maybe, but I'll need time to prepare, and I'll probably need to use all I have left if I miss or fail-”
Vlad stopped him. “Then don’t; that thinking is the first step to defeat.”
"When you defend against an attack, it shouldn't get killed. When you attack a villain, you shouldn't fear hurting them. When you defend someone else, you shouldn't fear them dying. You start thinking like that, allowing fear and doubt into your heart, and then you've already failed, a useless hero." He told him, his words carrying a level of assurance that could only be born from hard-earned wisdom, from a man who had seen those who hadn't heeded those words fail and die.
“When you defend, it’s because you won’t get hit. When you attack, it’s to end the fight. When you defend, it’s because you will protect those behind you. Getting your blood pumping, hold up those blades of yours and engrave it into your heart that you WILL land the blow when we give you an opening." Vlad turned to him, his eyes burning with a determination that lit a spark in Aoyama, whose frown shifted into a smile of determination.
“Aye,” Aoyama flamboyantly bowed to them before jumping back, again taking a stance to start taking in light. It would leave him exhausted, but he would just need one hit. "I'll start gathering light; give me 20 seconds, and I'll end it."
"We'll keep it distracted while you work; I assume that Yanagi, Todoroki, Uraraka, Kodai, Shiozaki, and Honenuki will give our opening." Eraser was a quirk on the uptake, which Vlad appreciated as it saved precious time.
“The rest will keep them off us,” Eraser told them. The students sighed, but despite the odds, not a single one of them backed down.
"No rest for the wicked; let's get into this," Honenuki grunted as he poured all he had into trying to make the mud pit even deeper. The Nomu screamed as it sunk lower, confused about this, as its arms grabbed the ground that was still stable to try and stabilize itself, which was what they wanted.
"Hey, you ugly bastard, you can regenerate, right? Well, I'll just keep cutting at you till you tiny little bits!" Kamakiri yelled as he grew blades from his forearms and leaped for one of the arms, landing several large and deep cuts on the limb, which didn't get through but weakened its grip. Rin was quirk to assist, firing scales into those wounds as they healed, which caused the Nomu to scream in pain from the foreign objects cutting into its nearly healed flesh from the inside.
Its arm bulged before bursting as the flesh containing the scales was violently ejected, but Rin, despite wanting to throw up at such a sight, just fired more into the wounds. To the other arm, Kirishima and Tetsutetsu were punching at it with reckless abandon, jumping off platforms made from air.
“Thanks for the platforms!” Tetsutetsu called to their classmate who, from a safe distance, was blowing solid air surfaces for them to stand on.
“We need to stay out of Honenuki's way.” He called back before taking a breath to make more as the Nomu smashed through half a dozen of them, but luckily, he didn't manage to hit either as Sero and Shiozaki came in to try and restrain it, pulling its third arm till it lost grip and forced the beast to stumble a little. Eraser once more acts as support, pulling students out of danger or, in the case of Ashido, tossing her above so she can spray acid as many angles as possible, only for the girl to be caught by Sero and then passed back to the underground hero.
Iida also helped get people out of them while drawing attention to himself when he used the air platforms to launch kicks as Shishida roared back at the Nomu and slashed at it with his claws. But for all their efforts, it wasn't dealing any lasting damage; it was just keeping it occupied, which was enough for now.
As the others did that, Yanagi turned towards her teacher. “What are we doing?”
"Those last two attacks did some real damage. It slowed its healing." Vlad explained to them, getting Todoroki to nod as he suspected he knew where their teacher was going.
"So we need to strike it again like that and let Aoyama handle it, " Todoroki said, ignoring how the others looked at him like he was a genius. His father had drilled him on situational awareness since he was 10. “That’s possible, but should I freeze it?”
"Not entirely. This will be a team move. Here's the plan." Vlad started to explain things.
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It's December, the actual month of festive cheer, despite the fact every store in about 30km of me put up Christmas décor all the way in late October. However, that sadly means a break from regular uploads until January as I'll spend time with family. Of course, I meant upload to my other stuff, which has gone untouched for a while, but I can't see myself adding more than 2 chapters a piece if even that.
And is it weird that I dread watching the final Art of Arcane? That second-act ending really sets things up for some severe trauma and needs A LOT of explanations. While Riot has said Arcane would be the basis of the new law, let's just say some characters really don't act or look like the champions they used to be, and it's jarring.
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Well, I wanted to make things longer, just to finish this fight, but alas, even with the chapter going on for an extended time, I couldn't do it. I'll see you all next year. But I managed to get a lot done in this, as the fight is not over despite how hard they're attacking. It does upsell the idea that this is a threat unlike any we've seen thus far.
Also, Vlad taking charge of Eraser is deliberate, as he seems like the type that would and could guide and rally others in the field. Eraser is too much like Batman and is used to working alone or with people who don't need his direct supervision and moral support.
Vlad's words to Aoyama were based on Kisuke's words to Ichigo when he first trained him to banish fear from your heart and focus only on fighting and winning, even if that means killing your foe. Still, of course, I had to change them to match what a hero, not a warrior/scientist, would say.
Ôxâ de paradî is Franco-provençal for 'Bird of Paradise' as giving Yuga a quirk whcih has a Japanese name felt off.
