Chapter 17
She had to act fast. The firing had stopped focusing on them, the attacker opting to cause as much destruction as possible and choosing to attack everywhere she could, and she had time to think for a bit. Naturally, they had to escape. She had no doubt that she'd be able to fight their assailant, but her classmates and the employees she was guarding had to be evacuated. She was not sure how she'd be able to fight against the enemy while keeping them safe. Furthermore, she had promised to not pick any fights.
"Girls, we need to run. It's dangerous, and we have civilians behind us. Yaoyorozu-san please call the Hero Association. Uraraka-san can you please clear the rubble?"
"I've already called them." She wasn't surprised at this. Momo was smart enough to realize that they were in grave danger and far outmatched. However, this was at best a stopgap measure. If a regular barrage caused this much damage, she found it hard to imagine most Pro Heroes being able to fight their attacker. Meanwhile, Uraraka was done with clearing the rubble, which was now floating, and had created a clear escape path.
"Great Uraraka-san. Now, Asui-san can you grab the staff and escape? We are going to be following right behind you." It was only natural to have Tsuyu grab the staff. Her frog-like characteristics meant that traversing the rubble filled environment would be far easier than for the others.
"Okay Misaka-san." She extended a hand to the first one who grabbed it quickly and tied the second one with her tongue. "I'm off, ribbit. Come back safe."
With that, only the girls of 1-A were left, and Misaka began to strategize their escape. She was continuously shielding themselves from the almost never-ending barrages, but the intensity of them had began to increase, to the point where she didn't know if her shield would be able to hold. The shields strength had not decreased, but the durability and power of the projectiles was slowly increasing, and her shield had a hard time shredding them in time.
"Ashido-san, can you make an acid wall strong enough to block these projectiles? The Heroes are here, so when they attack, we will make our escape. Thankfully the rest of the people here have probably been evacuated. But for some reason the Villain is focusing on us… so we have to run. My shield is not strong enough, so your quirk will be extremely useful." She hoped that Mina's Acid quirk would be strong enough to create an acid wall similar, if not stronger than her own shield. That way she could focus on their enemy and providing covering fire for their escape.
"I'm not too sure, but it's worth a try. Okay, I just need to calm down and focus." Mina was understandably panicking. She had never been in such a situation, and yet she knew that if she failed with this, she might die.
"Take your time. Yayorozu-san can you make some arcade coins?" Misaka understood that. The first time she had been in a life-or-death situation she had reacted just like that. Even if she was completely confident in her powers back then, she had been destroyed and scared for her life.
"For what?" Momo was intrigued. What was so important about arcade coins that Misaka needed them. Of course, she had already prepared them, but she couldn't help but ask. "Anyway, here you go."
"Thank you. Do you remember that attack I used in the first lesson?"
"The one with the ball?"
"Exactly that. I'm going to replicate it with the coins and provide cover fire as we make our escape."
"Ah, that is logical. Ashido-san are you ready?"
"Yeah, I think I am. What should I do now Misaka-san?" Misaka had become the de-facto leader of the group, and everybody was expecting her answer.
"Great. We are going to make our escape after the Heroes attack. Yayorozu is going to be in front along with Uraraka-san who will clear any rubble in the escape path, you Ashido-san will be in the middle to be able to shield us from the attack, behind you will be Jiro-san and Hagakure-san, and I will be in the rear in order to provide covering fire. That plan good with you?"
"Yeah." All 5 said at the same time and got in line just as Misaka had said. The sound of fighting, and a pause in the continuous barrage signalled the start of the fight between the Hero and the Villain.
"Look, they are fighting, it's time to escape. Let's get going."
With the urging of Misaka, they began to run, following in the footsteps of Tsuyu. As soon as Misaka stopped her shield, the Villain's attention snapped back to them, and an even more devastating barrage, stronger yet less accurate was launched. Thankfully, Mina's shield was prepared in advance, and had no struggle dissolving the jade like projectiles. The entire floor where they were had been already destroyed, and the floating enemy showed no sign of stopping her attacks. There were at least a dozen Heroes fighting her with all their respective quirks, but their attacks were ineffective to say the least.
Misaka was annoyed by this enemy. She was sure that they were not a quirk user. If she had to take a guess, they were a magician. However, she had no idea what had prompted this attack. Maybe they were from a rival organization than the one that had approached her; she quickly erased that thought from her mind. The prospect of having organizations fighting over her disgusted her, especially because she would reject them all. She hated magic and magicians. What they had done to her was unforgivable, and even in another world that hate was with her. Yet, she understood that magic was her only hope of returning to her life, so she had accepted the offer from the two that had visited her this morning. If the Heroes weren't able to defeat this enemy, she would have to do it herself, and she no problem doing that, especially if she was able to capture her.
Yet as she constantly fired the <
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They were almost out. The arrangement had worked out perfectly and they had escaped relatively unharmed. They had agreed to immediately leave for their own houses after they answered any attack that the police or the Heroes might have. Outside, sirens were ringing, and the emergency services had gathered outside to transport anyone with heavy injuries to the hospital and to secure the perimeter. With a final use of her quirk, the heavily panting Uraraka, who had become exhausted from her constant use of it, cleared the last rubble, and they quickly ran outside, hurrying to find Tsuyu. Before they could do that though, they were stopped by the police, who began to question them. They hurriedly gave their statement, asked where Tsuyu might be, and went to find her. She was apparently in an ambulance, and they were getting ready to take her to the hospital. Apparently, it wasn't anything serious, but they wanted to make sure there was nothing wrong.
"Asui-san, are you okay?"
"You're finally here. I'm okay, ribbit. Some rubble fell on me. Thankfully it was nothing serious, so I was relatively unharmed. Some bruises and some scratches here and there. What matters though is if the ones are carried are okay. Are they fine?" Tsuyu's voice sounded tired, and she was in somewhat of a terrible shape, her clothes being ripped in various places. Yet they made no mention of that.
"We visited them before we came to you. They were in much better shape than you."
"It's thanks to your plan Misaka-san."
"Thank you Asui-san, but it's also our expertise with our quirks that allowed us to escape. If we hadn't trained so hard to become so strong, I dread to think of the outcome of this battle."
"I mean of course, but you took control of our group and guided us like a true leader. Without you, we'd all have panicked I believe, not to mention I'm not sure if we'd have even survived that first attack."
This was met with affirmative nods from all the girls, and Misaka remembered that these were teenagers who had never done any serious fighting. They had not had the opportunity to becom accustomed to fights with opponents of a similar level. In comparison to them, she was a seasoned veteran of fights. Slowly more people trickled out of the mall, carried by Rescue Heroes, and they too were put on ambulances, that were now starting to leave the area. Tsuyu's was one of the last ones to leave, mainly because in comparison to the other injured people she was fine. Misaka offered to take Uraraka back, but she insisted on taking the tram, so Misaka could go and inform Mr. Haru.
They separated, and each one went on their way. Misaka had no intention of leaving. The fight was still raging on, and the destruction was now reaching the first floor as well. She had to act, and she knew no better way to fight the magician other than to use the A.A.A to fight them. She ran to the underground parking that was thankfully still intact, and she booted it up.
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The fight was going terribly. The Heroes were being pushed back. When the news of an attack reported by U.A students reached the Association they decided to declare a B-rank emergency. That had now been promoted to an S-Rank one. That meant that most available Heroes were now gathering in the mall. In an unfortunate series of events, both All Might and Endeavor were out of town, and as such they were left without their strongest fighters. No matter the numbers they threw at the Villain, the monstrous difference in power meant that the Villain was still fine. Their only hope of stopping the rampaging Villain right now were either any Villain that wanted to fight them, for example the black-winged person who had rampaged earlier in the year, or the Vigilante who had become exalted in the media in recent times for their reveal of the corrupt Heroes.
The top ranked heroes had now arrived. Hawks, Best Jeanist, Mirko, every Hero of the top 10 except All Might and Endeavor had come. They began launching attacks. They tried to restrain and attack the Villain but ran into the same problem Misaka had, and even worse, as they had no way to shield themselves. Kamui Woods tried to shield everybody, but the general lack of cohesion between them, and the fact that his trees were not durable enough to adequately protect them from the barrage, rendered that plan moot.
Their best bet right now was Hawks. Mirko and Edgeshot had no way of reaching high up in the air. Kamui Woods was simply outmatched, and Wash's bubbles were popped before they were able to do anything. It was frustrating. Their enemy was making fools of them, the 8 strongest Heroes, only through one simple, yet devastating attack.
The hope they had entrusted to Hawks was quickly dashed as well. His feathers were unable to do any harm, because even if they managed to destroy the projectiles of the attack, by the time they reached the Villain they were far too weakened to do any real damage or if they were powerful enough, were stopped by the Villain's shield. It was a hopeless fight, and in no time, they had fallen back, the constant barrage not doing them any favours and having brought them to their knees.
Hawks had carried most of the knocked out Pro Heroes out of the mall, having stopped his constants attacks after seeing their ineffectiveness and opting to carry out the Heroes who were already out of the fight. In the meantime, the other 7 were strategizing a way to even the battlefield. However, all their ideas were impossible. It was clear that only someone on the level of Endeavor and All Might would be able to fight evenly with this opponent, and they were not that.
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Hawks was ferrying out the knocked-out Heroes when he noticed a silhouette in the air. He put the Heroes down and went to investigate the silhouette. He had no time to do that, as the figure blew past him. He only had a brief glance, but the figure reminded him of a winged demon. Yet the girl he had seen inside, for just a moment, reminded him of nothing like a demon. He had no time to dwell on this though. He gave a rough outline of the situation to the Hero Association officer that was down on the ground and hurried to follow the girl to the mall, in order to ascertain the situation.
As he entered the mall from a hole that had been opened on the roof, he held his breath. The stance of the girl could determine their fate. If she was hostile, they had to retreat immediately. If she was friendly, they had to help her in her fight.
He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the scene in front of him. The girl had approached the Villain and had begun to launch attacks. They seemed to be driving the Villain to the wall, and he silently cheered the girl on.
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Misaka was mad. For all her effort, her enemy was still not yielding. They seemed to be in a trance, uncaring about what was happening around them. It was like she was fighting an emotionless robot. Even now that with the help of the A.A.A and her true power, they were being pushed back, they showed no reaction. Misaka knew that she could the magician anytime she wanted, but that was against her plans. She wanted to capture this magician and interrogate them. Why had they decided to attack her right now? Who were they? Were they affiliated with the ones who had visited her the morning?
She realized that her Railgun attacks were largely ineffective the hundreds of gems orbiting the magician stopping any attack, at the cost of them breaking. Thus, she decided to stop with them and to use the conventional weaponry she had, and of course lightning, which she had somehow forgot.
She quickly began cycling through her weapon options. Any form of close-range weaponry was discarded. She didn't know what the magician had at close range and didn't want to risk it. She also wanted to avoid using any weapons that would cause too much destruction, as that would paint a target on her back. As she crossed out weapons, she arrived on one of the weapons she had modified, the armour-piercing drill. This was the perfect weapon to use. Originally a close-range weapon, Misaka had devised a way to make it able to be launched. The drill, that was able to break into underground silos and destroy military bases, would be the perfect counter for an opponent that relied so heavily on shielding themselves.
Without hesitation she attacked, and to her great happiness, the attack seemed to be ultra-effective. The magician, that she could now make out to be a teenage girl, struggled to defend against it, and had to focus wholeheartedly on defence. Now, she would be able to attack from a close range, and she got ready to do just that.
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Down on the ground Keigo Takami was in a dilemma. As the only Hero still in the scene he had received orders to attack and detain the girl fighting the Villain. He had accepted these orders, but inside his head he was cursing at the fools who had ordered this attack. The girl had sided with them, and had single-handedly turned the battle around. It felt wrong, like a stab in the back, but he could not refuse.
A blood curdling, high-pitched scream sealed what he was going to do. Though he didn't want to admit it, the girl was probably injuring the Villain, and protocol stated that the Villain had to be captured. With his keen eyesight, he silently scouted the armour the girl was wearing in hopes of finding a weak spot.
Doing that though was much harder than it sounded. To say that the armour was impenetrable would be an understatement. Every part of it was covered in plates thick enough to stop probably even the attacks the girl had been launching. He, who was nowhere close to the strength of All Might and Endeavor, would have no chance in bypassing it. Yet he pressed on, intent on finding the Achilles heel of this demonic armour.
The Villain's screaming continued, all of their being focused on not only blocking the girl's attacks, but also the drill that was ever so slightly inching closer to their body. This pressed Keigo on. And at last, he discovered it. Where the engines connected with the armour, he found exposed wire. He betted on the fact that he could cut some measly wires in half and threw the strongest barrage he could without compromising his ability to fly.
The attack was super effective. The ensuing blast caught both the girl and the Villain, causing them to fall from the air. He evacuated the area. He had other places to be, and he was sure that the police would now be able to apprehend them. Yet, as he went to leave the scene, in the corner of his eyes he saw something truly demonic. Something that scared him far more than the previous battle.