Cavalry Battle...

Chapter 28 - Cavalry Battle...

There was a feeling of excitement among the first year students that many of them couldn't really explain, actually they could. They knew that the next event would bring the current forty students to a measly sixteen who would be competing in the annual one-on-one battles. The method in which they chose to thin the herd was always different for the second task, but it was always guaranteed that the students would put out their best performance, meaning a great show for whoever watched.

Izuku was regaining his breath after going all out on the previous task in the final moments of the race. It had been quite exhilarating for him, pushing himself to the absolute limit in order to achieve the top place in an obstacle race that the whole world was watching. Things were also made better by the fact that he recovered quickly and that he had essentially blown up the competition on the minefield after his little stunt. Hopefully everyone was alright and no one was hurt badly, but he couldn't really tell.

Deciding to take a seat on the ground and examine his hands as they were at the moment, Izuku couldn't help but cringe a little at the result of what he'd done. He had pushed them a little too much in the last handful of minutes and right now he thought that he could've been slightly more careful with the power output of these things. There was no doubt that when he went to talk to Recovery Girl she would give him a large scolding and lecture before even thinking about healing him, but that was expected.

So very clearly I'm going to need to get these bandaged up, and I'm probably not going to be able to use them until after we go on the lunch break. There's also the matter of the next task which I'll be ill suited for if it requires the use of my hands. The thing is that the next event is going to start pretty soon so I don't think I'll be able to even get them bandaged up, they'll just be weird and claw-like, I could be a T-Rex.

The speedster looked at his hands for a little longer wondering if he could get them to a place where they could be useful again, that was until he saw that the rest of his classmates were finishing up the race. Being a good sport, he picked himself from the ground and went over to congratulate them on their victory. He'd worry about his hands some other time, they'd still be there when he finished talking.

"Hey guys!" The green-haired boy raised his arm and waved a weird claw-like hand towards his classmates who were wondering what was up with his hand. "That was a nice event wasn't it?" Bakugou and Todoroki chose to avoid speaking answering his question. One of them out of anger for being beaten once again, the other was simply the silent quiet type who was surprised that his initial attack had proved ineffective against the speedster.

"Izuku! What did you do to your hands?" Having just finished the race in eight place the speedster turned to see Momo rushing towards him with a concerned look on her face. His hands were a bit messed up, but they retained their natural color for the most part, at least he thought that they did. "Let me see the extent of the-" She grabbed his hand carefully, but saw that he winced quite a bit.

The adrenaline from the run had come quickly and now it was gone just as quickly. This made it so that Izuku could finally feel the damage that he had done to his hands and boy did they hurt. There was no easy way of saying it, but he was sure that he had broken his hands this time. It was much worse than the sprain of last time, but it could have always been worse.

"You know what? It's actually fine if you just leave them alone for right now. I think that I-" He tried to take his hand back but Momo kept a firm grasp on it making him feel the pain even more than he already did. Sometimes, very few times, he hated how kind of a person Momo was, and how she would always try to help him no matter what.

"Come on, stop being a big baby, and let me help you." She put her arm out to the side and produced two hand braces and several bandages. If there was one thing that she knew it was that Izuku wouldn't pay much attention to himself until after the competition and it would be a good idea to prepare his hands just in case.

She placed the braces on his hands and then wrapped the bandages around his fingers in order to give him as much protection as possible from himself. From here she also saw the other injuries that had been caused upon his landing at the finish so she began applying bandages to his arms as well. Izuku smiled at this and for once was glad that he had injured himself enough to get medical attention.

"T-thanks for this Momo, I really appreciate the help. Also, if this whole hero thing doesn't work out for you, which I'm not saying it won't, then you would probably be a pretty good doctor as well." He said this with a laugh and got a light laugh back from his female friend who was trying to hide the increased temperature that had appeared suddenly of her face.

"Midoriya, why must you always hurt yourself in every activity that you take part of?" Shinsou arrived with what appeared to be a handful of people following mindlessly afterwards. There was a little blood coming from his nose, but Izuku just thought that it was from when he ran through knocking everyone who was crossing the minefield.

"What can I say? It's part of my charm." He responded with a small laugh and inspected the quality of his bandages thoroughly in order to see how much more he would be able to strain them until he did need to go and talk with Recovery Girl.

He thought about joking a little more with his classmates until Present Mic came back online informing everyone of how the event had ended. Of course he needed to do it as if he was announcing a racing match so Izuku was once again referred to as his horse name. He might even stick with it as a hero name if things kept going as they did.

"And the race is over with the Green Stallion stealing first place from the explosive wonder and the 50/50 cold/hot destroyer. Along with him he brought the small grape child so I think we are in for an interesting next round. Now let's give the mic back to Midnight so that she can explain what this next event is going to consist of. Present Mic out!"

For the most part everyone in class 1-A had made it in the top forty players with the threat of being transferred hanging over their heads. There was also the one student from general studies who had hitched a ride who had made it to the next round as well as one girl from the support course. No one from the business course seemed to care enough to put any effort into the event and thus none of them would be represented in the next round.

With the attention back in her hands, Midnight smiled at the crowd and waved at them as they cheered wildly for the first year students. Midoriya himself was feeling a bit of pride swell in his chest as he had finally been victorious in something this year, maybe things were finally looking up for him after so long.

"All right First Years, you did pretty well in the obstacle course race, but will you be ready for the…." The hero motioned to the giant wheel on top of the stage as if began to spin in circles. First it sped up quite a bit, then it slowed down to a complete stop. The crowd was completely silent in anticipaction and Izuku used his speed to slow down time as the wheel came to a stop.

The next event was to be a cavalry battle, and Izuku knew exactly what that meant. Every event that was put on the wheel, had been done at least once in the past, they recycled them often and did this so that the betting in the sports festival could be more predictable. For this reason Izuku had gone through every single sport festival ever broadcasted, and watched every single one of them. It would've been time consuming, but he had Cisco hook something up for him that played things at a much faster speed than it would've normally.

Essentially he had watched a sped up version of television and boy was he happy for that. He had finally been able to watch that one anime that had those small catchable creatures that fit in your pocket. Last time he checked it must've been that the series had something around 999 episodes, but that could've just been bad guess work on his part. Anyway, it was a great one to watch.

Getting back on track, Izuku had memorized the events and their rules which had been a fun exercise in the retention of information. From this he was able to conclude that the Cavalry Battle was an event played with groups of two-to-four players where one-to-three people were the "horse" and one player was the "knight". The rules were just that the "knight" couldn't touch the ground and that the teams couldn't go out of bounds, that was it. With this information already known by the enhanced individual, he began formulating a plan before any of the other players could even hear the instructions.

Alright, so obviously I will be useless as a knight given the state of my hands, I simply can't grab anything using a single hand so I will have to be the main horse, my speed will be the main tool in this. That makes it so the other people I choose have to be the riders or the remainder of the horse. For one I know that Todoroki will try at every avenue to counter me so I think that the best chance at victory will be to have someone that can create something that will serve as counters...Momo!

If she agrees then maybe I have a way out of of that dilemma. If not I can try to use the one support player in the game since they were allowed to bring whatever they created. The rider can be Shinsou if he agrees. The other choices would be Todoroki or Bakugou, but they simply won't accept my help at the moment so I think it's a bit useless to try to even approach them. Shinsou's quirk is one that will allow for the easy capture of the other player's headbands since he's quite good at getting responses out of people.

The fourth member of the horse will have to be someone that doesn't have any prior allegiances to other people and will play fair. They could also be a member of the opposing class since that would allow them to have personal information on the opponents and thus allow Shinsou to make more inflammatory remarks about people. If it's a person in leadership that will also prove to the teachers that the classes can work together and not kill each other….Itsuka Kendou!

This way we have the maximum efficiency on top with Shinsou's brainwash quirk, versatility in the situations that we can handle with Momo's creation quirk, and good defense and offense with Kendou's large fist quirk from class 1-B. This will certainly allow for an interesting performance out there, now I just need to slow down again…

Izuku's mind slowed down once again to be at the same speed as that of everyone else. He took a deep breath and smiled as he looked over the crowd of students that had made it into the next round, looking for a girl with orange hair. He spotted her and swiftly made his way over there before Midnight could announce what was going to happen now.

With a tap on the shoulder, he caused the other president of the heroics department to yelp in surprise as her attention had been fully placed upon the turned around , prepared to smack Monoma once again, but was surprised to find a green-haired boy instead of a blonde one. He put his entire hand to his lips as he couldn't use just his pointer finger to indicate for her to be quiet.

"I have a strategy that can get you into the next round if you agree. Also think of this as both classes of heroics working together. Just find me afterwards if you are up for it." He whispered this quietly and then sped backwards to where he had been a few seconds ago. His friends had yet to notice his absence, but they did notice the breeze that arrived when Izuku did come back.

"...The Cavalry battle!" Midnight announced to the First years as the stadium broke it applause for this event that most had forgotten about. It had been a decade since it had been last done as an event so Izuku could see why they were excited for this. "Now allow me to explain the rules…."

"Let me guess Midoriya, you already know what is going to happen and have come up with a plan that somehow involves me?" Shinsou spoke only loud enough for Izuku, and maybe Momo, to hear which made the speedster chuckle. His friend had quite a sense of humor when it came to these things.

Izuku tapped Shinsou's shoulder as well as Momo's causing them to turn around. He then motioned to the giant wheel and then at the three of them to indicate that the three of them should be a group. He then spoke very quietly to them so that Bakugou and Todoroki couldn't hear.

"I have a plan, but it requires both of you to be successful, do you want to be part of my group?" Momo gave him a large and determined smile as well as a nod while Shinsou's smile was smaller but had the same nod in confirmation.

"All of you will have fifteen minutes to make teams of two-to-four people where you will compete in trying to collect the most points by removing headbands from other teams. The teams must be composed of at least one rider and one "horse" who can't allow their rider to touch the ground. The headbands will be marked with points as an accumulation of the total points of all the team members. Of course the points are to be determined by their placement in the obstacle course with the big bucks being awarded to Mr. Izuku Midoriya with ten million points. Now good luck and your time to make teams, begins now." Midnight gave her brief explanation and instantly the people of both classes looked to Izuku as if they wanted to eat him alive.

"Izuku, would you mind clueing us into what this plan may be?" Momo asked as she looked at all the people who were staring at Izuku. "You knew about this event beforehand, didn't you?" Midoriya couldn't really deny it so he just smiled and nodded.

"I knew of the event and its rules from previous sports festivals where they competed this event, but it was a decade since they last did this one so I had to go back a while to figure out how it worked. As for the plan, we just have to see if the fourth member to our little group decides to join us. His teammates looked at him in confusion, but he merely turned to look over to Itsuka Kendou who was coming over to them. "Here's the fourth member that I wanted for our group."

Midoriya gave her a smile and a nod, Momo did the same trying to be friendly. Only Shinsou refrained from doing this as he looked at the girl and tried figuring out why exactly Izuku had chosen her as the fourth member of their team.

"Ok, so I know that all of you are probably wondering why I chose you for this team since we'll most definitely be the most targeted team. The answer that I have for you is that together we can turn ourselves from the hunted into the hunters" He gave them a second to try to put the pieces together and was pleased when the girl from class 1-B was able to understand him quickly enough.

"I take it that you are planning to use your speed as a primary source of attack with my large fist as a form of defense and offense." That was mostly what she was able to put together as she didn't understand the quirks of her other two teammates yet. Seeing this Momo decided to chime in so that all the credit wouldn't go to the new girl, that was just a random thought that popped into her head.

"That would make me as the other section of the horse since I can defend from the other side and provide our team with different materials throughout the match with my creation quirk." She made a small notebook and pencil as she started writing down materials that would be useful for them in the upcoming match.

"That places me as the rider in this team, my Brainwash quirk will make it so that the other teams literally hand over their headbands to us. Not a bad plan that you came up with, especially since it was all before the rules were even announced." Shinsou teased Midoriya slightly as the fastest boy alive nodded as a sign of appreciation.

"Izuku, I've made a list of objects that we will most definitely need when fighting against the other teams. Can you look over it and see if you can add anything else?" She handed the notepad over to Izuku and he once again used his enhanced mind to look over the entirety of the list within a second.

Ok, roller skates so that they are able to be moved at my speed without difficulty, an electrical blanket to counter Denki's blast, goggles for me and the team, a staff for Shinsou, arm bracers for Kendou, a staff for herself. Wow, that was a pretty comprehensive list, she's done her research as well.

"Wow Momo! T-this is pretty great, it has everything that we need and things that'll make us better prepared against everyone else. Glad I chose you for the team." He smiled as he handed back the list and turned to Itsuka before he was able to catch a slight blush form on Momo's face.

Shinsou and their new teammate noticed this even when Midoriya didn't making them both realize that the speedster needed to slow down just a little bit to catch the small things. Though he would probably figure it out in the future at some point, he was bound to realize it eventually.

Upon the return of the notepad, Momo Yaoyorozu began making the items on the list as quickly as she could, after all there was only fourteen minutes left now that their team was clear on what their plan of attack was going to be. Right now it seemed that they were going to have a difficult time keeping the ten million point headband on themselves so Izuku proposed a very interesting Idea.

"What if we lose it on purpose? What if we throw the heat off ourselves and then come back for the headband if we can at the end. This way we don't have to fight the entire time." Izuku's teammates looked at him and then one of them began to voice her thoughts on the matter.

"How will we lose it? You are the fastest person present, it won't exactly be believable if we lose it right away. Though it could be about five minutes in, that way it won't look like we were purposefully trying to lose it. From here we can on the offense and take the headbands from other people who will probably be trying to get the headbands from the team who took it from us." Momo shared her two cents as finished producing the tools needed.

"This seems like a risky strategy, but it can work as long as our offense is good. I think that I can get a rise out of our teammates, but class 1-B will be a bit tricky to deal with since I don't know anything about them besides appearances, think you could give me a hint President of class 1-B?" Shinsou asked because at this point in time he did need the help. Another headache was coming larger than the last and he needed to be able to come up with sufficient provocations in order to get himself an easier time.

"Yeah I have a few, but some comments on basic appearances might also work in this case."She then went over to Shinsou directly and began explaining to him how her classmates operated as Izuku and Momo began adjusting the bandages on Izuku's hand so that Shinsou could stand on them. Time wasn't up yet, but the teams had been made and by the looks of it they were going to be trouble.

Izuku looked at the teams that Todoroki and Bakugou had made, visibly gulping as he saw what type of power they were packing behind them. Todoroki had recruited Iida, Tokoyami, and Ochako to join him. Iida was the fastest person in the class after Izuku making the best candidate to attempt to catch up to him, Tokoyami his quirk worked more in darkness so the ice produced by Todoroki could be used as a cover from the sun and as a boost to his power. That left Ochako whose quirk seemed to be a bit left out in this case which troubled Izuku.

Bakugou's team was also very different composed of Seto, Kirishima, Ashido and of course the main man himself. This made it very easy to see that Kirishima was for offense and his other two teammates were for mobility, but that didn't let him know as to how this was going to work in Bakugou's favor.

"And your fifteen minutes are up, please take your teams and line up around the arena." Midnight yelled to the crowd and the students as the timer marked zero, indicating that things were about to get intense.

Izuku's team looked at the rest of the teams present and instantly regretted having so many points to start with. Just about every team had their eyes on them, each just wanting to grab the ten million points for themselves and advance on to the next round. The look in their eyes was that of a predator looking at their next meal, and they were that meal.

"And Start, fifteen minutes begins now!" Midnight yelled to the crowd and within seconds Izuku's team was being swarmed from all angles. He slowed down enough to see what angles they were coming from, just enough to…..

Izuku sped off with his teammates holding on tightly to him, the advantage that they had right now was Izuku's speed as Shinsou wouldn't be able to use his quirk fully till they lost their points first. As for Ituska and Momo, both of the were going to have to try their best to fight the oncoming teams while Izuku weaved his way through them.

Izuku would have said that he liked this feeling, the walking through water and watching everyone else walk through syrup. His movements felt a bit slow and exaggerated, but everyone else he saw was even more so. It was fun, and it was in the now, it was something that he was enjoying very much. Maybe he should even change up what the other teams were doing…..

With a swift kick across the dirt floor, a cloud of dust arose into the air concealing Izuku's team enough for them to avoid the other teams and gather their thoughts once again away from everyone else. Izuku's took a breath or two and then allowed his breathing to return to normal as his speed had to be monitored and released at the same level for a minute.

"Oh ok, so we need to find a way to deal with this and man….that's tiring." Normally when Izuku ran he just ran from point to point without putting thought into it, slowing down required mental effort, lots of it when it meant that he could only allow small amounts of it to come through. For this reason he needed to experiment a bit in way to siphon off speed, but that was a task for another time.

"Using the dust wall we bought ourselves a little time, but-" a giant sheet of ice spread itself all across the floor of the arena making Izuku think for a second. " With his hands occupied at the moment he didn't think that he would be able to deal with it personally. "Momo can you make a flamethrower or something else to melt this ice?" With a nod from his teammate Izuku turned to the other part of the horse and sent an instruction her way. "While she does that, Kendou we need you to get rid of this ice directly in front of us."

Without hesitation she punched the ground next to them and the ice shattered, sending bits of it and dust into the air. With this opening Izuku stepped forward through the dust once again hoping to avoid the onslaught of people that would be coming for them. The speed could be maintained for a while longer, but it would be a strain on himself and would make him a bit slow in the later part of the match, maybe even slow enough for Iida to be a few steps behind him.

Momo pulled out the flamethrower that she had made, and started to use it to melt the ice that had been produced by Todoroki. She looked visibly strained as the device required several components in order to make the machine functional. She'd almost couldn't do it since she'd previously promised herself she wouldn't produce any guns and this was just bordering that line.

Meanwhile, within the cloud of dust, the teams stuck inside were done with this speedster running away from them so they decided to use their quirks on the track instead of each other. This began with another sheet of ice being placed above the arena, this was clearly an act by Todoroki, but even he couldn't make his ice defy gravity. That meant that this was the reason that Todoroki chose Uraraka, as a way to get a large shadow up on the stadium so that his next team member could be all that more effective.

"Dark Shadow! Grab the headbands!" From the side Izuku's team saw a larger version of Tokoyami's Dark Shadow emerge from the cloud of dust and charge towards one of the other teams plucking a headband with almost no effort. This version of his quirk was angrier, more powerful, and overall more dangerous in terms of the protection of their points. Overall, it was perfect for them to make it a believable case that they could lose the points to them.

"Shinsou, do you know what I'm thinking right now?" The rider seemed to have been looking at the display of power just exhibited, so he nodded slowly. He loosened the headband slightly and then questioned Izuku one last time before confirming his readiness.

"Are you sure you don't just want to try to keep it the entire time? It would make us that more noticeable to the heroes." Izuku nodded and prepared to launch them into the frey. "Alright if you must, then let's get our points taken from us."

Without further warning, they launched themselves into the large cloud of dust and it could truly be said that this was complete and utter commotion. One team had the girl from class 1-B with the vines for hair that was trying to avoid an attack from a Bakugou who had launched himself from his group. Meanwhile Tokoyami, was continuing to attack members of the class from 1-B as he had no personal connection to them and it was easier than those from class 1-A who knew of his quirk. That made it quite easy to stop right in front of Todoroki's group and smile.

Both groups looked at each other just waiting for the other to do something and it was Iida who began to run forward. Part of the ingenious part to Todoroki was how he compensated losing Yaoyorozu to Midoriya. He'd wanted her combined with Iida as a counter for Midoriya, but he had to make due. Instead he just created a pair of ice skates onto the back part of his team and had Iida run in front of them while he formed the ice just behind him.

Now that the two groups were staring at each other, they couldn't help but think about how this was going to be an entertaining game. Izuku looked at Todoroki's hand and saw an ice attack coming, thus he acted preemptively by charging straight at them hoping that Itsuka could see what was happening. He didn't have any time to yell out, but she knew as she tried taking a swing at the rider of the opposing team. Her enlarged hand got very close, it was almost upon them when the creature made of darkness emerged from Tokoyami and grabbed her one hand with a dark smile.

Izuku's team knew that at this point they were going to lose the headband, but Izuku wasn't going to lose it without putting on a show for the audience. He began to run around them as Tokoyami's Dark Shadow maintained his hold on Kendou's hand. At first this was so that the construct of darkness could let go, but then it was so that Iida would copy him which he did surprisingly well.

Iida tried running around him as best as he could, which was increasingly difficult as Izuku picked up the pace little by little. Todoroki maintained the thin sheet of ice in order for the speed to be maintained, just as quickly as Momo melted the ice of the floor as to not allow Izuku to slip on it, though it was getting more difficult as he started to increase his speed.

In the middle of the entire ordeal were Tokoyami's Dark Shadow and Itsuka Kendou who were both maintaining their grip on each other trying to push back against their opponent. Kendou with brute strength, Tokoyami with mental command of his construct, but not enough as to overdo it. The difficulty of doing this increased for both of them as their team members increased the speed and they became the point of turning.

Izuku would've continued running faster and faster if he could, but there were other players involved in this game besides the eight of them. This display that they had put up for the audience was entertaining, but it also allowed everyone to see who they were. It was also because Shinsou was their rider with ten million points around his head that they were targeted. Thus it was particularly entertaining when several purple balls found their way onto the ground in front of Izuku, who wasn't paying any attention to the floor, big mistake.

From here he started to fall forward, but Iida maintained his speed unaware that there had been anything wrong in the first place. Momo noticed this a little late as well, and thus was only able to drop the flamethrower and make a small shield to deal with the impact, which was quite a strong one.

As Iida ran into the shield, Tokoyami's Dark Shadow let go of Itsuka's hand and focused his efforts in stopping the momentum of his team. As for Izuku's own team, they were busy at the moment as they lost mobility, but needed to fend off multiple attacks from all sides which proved to be difficult as they truly only had two people who could do that.

"Hey Ingenium knock-off! Why don't you pick your own name and leave your brother's legacy alone. It wasn't even that good to begin with." Shinsou spoke harshly to Iida and activated his quirk knowing that he would do anything to defend his brother's name and honor.

"How dare you disrespect the heroes that came-" His eyes glazed over as he answered the purple haired hero in-training. He knew at that moment that he had messed up, but there was nothing that he could do about it at the time, no one really knew what to do about it.

"I think you should go and find the explosive boy's team and run into them full speed." Shinsou smiled as Iida pulled his team with him in the direction of Bakugou which none of them knew how to stop. He wasn't just going to allow himself to be a sitting duck, his team needed help, but they still had didn't have eyes on the person who had stopped Izuku dead in his tracks.

To the surprise of everyone, Shoji rushed behind the team with his hands held up high covering a large something that was riding on his back. Whatever was in there simple launched it's tongue, hitting Shinsou in the back of the head as it wrapped itself around the headband and pulled it off before bringing it back to where the tongue had emanated from.

Izuku watched as Shoji jumped over them and kept going which meant that they were officially at zero points. It was a pretty big loss, but the heat would be off from them now that they weren't a guaranteed win anymore to the other teams. Now, his shoe would have to come off as he stared at the purple ball that was attached to the bottom of it. That had been twice that this kid had trapped him using his quirk, but Izuku still couldn't figure out where he was.

"Ok team, looks like we've lost our headband, but now I would suggest that we go for the rest of the teams." Izuku fazed his foot through the shoe and sadly looked as the newest pair of shoes that he had bought came to their natural end. Normally he would burn through the soles, but this time someone had taken them from him. "Hey Momo, can you make me a new shoe after we're done?" He didn't let her answer though as he knew she didn't like doing things that would ruin the economy, instead he ran to their first target.

Izuku's team recovered quickly as Shinsou's quirk immobilized entire teams after he'd pissed them off enough. This probably made him the most hated student in the entirety of the First Years, but it was just how his quirk worked, there was nothing else to it. Even Kendou had to laugh as she saw many of her classmates respond to the simplest things and then hand over their points. It was almost too easy with their combination of quirks working hand in hand.

Shinsou himself looked to be in good shape, but his nose had started to bleed again which concerned Izuku slightly. If he'd truly did injure his nose in a drastic way then it would probably be a good idea to get him checked out before it worsened. This made Izuku feel a bit guilty believing that he'd been the one to cause the injury to his friend back in the first round. Besides that his team was in pretty good shape, as far as Izuku could tell with the limited vision that he had of them.

After looking at the scoreboard, Izuku had seen that apparently, the team that had taken their points had been Mineta's. This meant that the small grape kid from the first day of school was under the tank-like protection of Shoji as well as of Tsuyu. The fourth member of their team was Mei Hatsume from the Support course which puzzled Izuku as to how she'd gotten chosen on that team.

So far, the favorites to pass where: Mineta's team with the ten million points headband, Izuku's with several headbands collected from other teams, Todoroki's with a handful of headbands collected as well, and Monoma's who had decided that pissing off Bakugou was a good idea. Right now the team composed entirely of class 1-B students were entirely focused on not dying by Bakugou as he launched himself at them destroying every defense that they put up against him.

Looking at the scoreboard as it was, many people started to believe that Mineta's team might not actually be able to hold their lead for much longer. Although there was only a minute left, Todoroki's team was putting more and more pressure on the "tank" team. Iida kept pursuing Shoji as Todoroki encapsulated both teams in a dome that darkened the atmosphere and made Dark Shadow even more of a threat.

With half a minute remaining, the stadium turned to look at the teams inside the dome who were barely visible. Only a few were able to spot Bakugou's violent capture of all of team Monoma's headbands, it truly was a frightening vision. Not only had he secured victory for his team, but he had also done it at the expense of traumatizing four students. As for team Izuku, it seemed that all they were doing now was avoiding other teams with a barefooted Izuku running around.

Within the dome it became obvious that something was going to happen, so teams made their way their trying to break the ice to no avail. They had tried their best in this competition, but some team leaders just had an edge when it came to strategy. With twenty seconds remaining, they heard a loud roar come from within the dome and saw an extremely large flame emerge from within the dome, through the other layer of floating ice and into the air where everyone could see.

Then, just as everyone thought that the Dark Shadow had eaten Mineta, a small purple person wearing a jetpack flew straight into the air. One time beforehand this small unlikely hero had won the hearts of the audience, this was now the second time. Wearing the ten million point headband proudly on his head, he smiled to the crowd as he flew high above the arena, and then the stadium. He had done it once more, done the unbelievable.

The students, obviously shocked, looked at the one kid from general studies and pinched themselves to make sure that they weren't dreaming. As the ice dome was melted, it could be seen that a certain girl with pink hair and goggles was holding a very large and modified flamethrower that she'd found on the floor earlier in the game. Hatsume had just used it to make an escape route for their points as well as to fend off the giant shadow which had so easily unmade their cover by holding Shoji's arms to their sides

"And the match is over! In first place we have team Mineta who will have to come down eventually or we're going to have to send someone to bring him back. In second place, with a bold attempt to steal the ten million points is team Todoroki. Third place we have my Green Stallion who, just speculating, totally lost that ten million points on purpose, Team Midoriya. In fourth place and the last to qualify for the one-on-one battles is team Bakugou who only secured their place by stealing their headbands from team Monoma after losing their encounter to team Todoroki. Well folks that is it for right now, but there will be more after lunch and the fun games that are for those of the students who didn't quite make it to the next round. So lunch time!"

With that Present Mic cut off his announcements and went off to be the first to get food. The students themselves fell off their "horses" and laid on the floor just a bit as they tried recovering from what had just gone down. Izuku let Shinsou get off his hands and then stretched just a little as he smiled to his teammates. His plan had worked out well for the most part and that was all that he could ask for at the time.

Looking over his team, Shinsou had a bloody nose, Momo looked to have some minor burns on her hand and Kendou had a few cuts along her arm. That was without counting Izuku's messed up hands. Maybe it would be a pretty good idea to go get them all healed up before going out to lunch and resting a bit before everything started up once again.

"Hey guys, want to go see Recovery Girl with me? I think we all got pretty injured." They all nodded to the question and began heading to the temporary office of the healing hero. It had been a good event, but things were about to get a whole lot more difficult in the following round. At least eventually someone was able to get Mineta down, but that was a story for another time.