Chapter 18: Fight?

Although not everyone decided to join, almost everyone decided to at least watch the fights. Because of this, some of the students were in their P.E. uniform while the others were on their normal school uniform.

Those that joined were most of the physical combatants. This include Kirishima, Iida, Izuku, Ojiro, Shoji, Denki, Asui, and Ashido.

Everyone gave way to Araki and Bakugo as they would be fighting. While many thinks that this is just a simple sparring, some of them know what Bakugo wants. The two combatants readied themselves as they do some stretching.

Denki mediates the fight and walks between the two. "Three! Two! One! Fight!"

As soon as he declared the start of the fight, Bakugo blasts off and flew to the air while gathering his powers. While he was doing it, Araki is still standing, yawning and cracking his neck.

Bakugo then flew to Araki's direction before throwing his hands towards the latter. This, of course, is accompanied by a big explosion that engulfs Araki's whole body.

The attack surprises every one as they thought that this was just a sparring. They were expecting Araki's body flying from the force of the explosion. However, only his voice came out of the smoke cloud.

"What? Is that it? Felt like a breeze of wind to me." Everyone was surprised to see Araki's figure through the smoke. Given by how big the explosion was, they assumed that he was almost or maybe even knocked out. But he not only tanked it but also mock it as if it's a weak move from Bakugo.

"You Bastard! Eat this!" Bakugo wastes no time and charge again hoping for a close quarter fight rather than a bombardment. As he was about to send a boosted kick on Araki, he just raised his right arm nonchalantly and catches Bakugo's right kick. This irritates him as he realizes Arak does not only have enhanced durability that can receive his explosions but also super strength.

With his quick wit, he makes a small explosion on his left hand enough to give him momentum to easily twist his body and send a left kick to Araki. To his surprise, he catches it again with his left hand. Realizing that Araki's grip is tight, he decides to just force through but before he can do anything, Araki attacks.

Araki twists Bakugo's body, changes his grip to his legs, before slamming him into the ground. Bakugo felt a pain in his face but he recovers well and immediately made a blast to propel himself away from Araki as soon as the latter released his hand.

Everyone watching were just surprised in awe. They didn't expect Bakugo to be on the losing end – at least not that effortlessly. Focusing intensely on the fight, no one spoke a word except Denki.

"Damn, he really is good at fighting. Just from the fact that he suppressed and read Bakugo's moves in such a fast fight, he is better at close combat than most of us." Denki said.

"Despite Bakugo's fast paced offense and unpredictable attacks that most of us would be unable to defend from, he countered it nonchalantly. That affected Bakugo quite a bit that he decided to pause his attacks and think of a strategy." Shoji, who is watching the fight from different angles, also commented.

"Even I would feel that." Kirishima remarks.

As they talk about what happened, a muttering can be heard on their side. It was of course, Izuku, muttering while noting many things in his notebook. Although none of them can understand it, they heard some key words to deduce what he is doing.

He was trying to analyze what happened to Bakugo and how Araki did it. He is also noting what the capabilities of his quirk was given that he thinks that their powers were the same.

Back to the stage, Bakugo was already out of ideas. Most of the time, people are overwhelmed by his attacks. Even if they aren't none of them are like Araki who is also great at close combat. He felt like he has really found a person stronger than him… or at least someone who counters him greatly.

He spoke no words and decided to attack again and bombard Araki with explosions. If he's not a match at close combat, he thought that he can just win through attrition.

Bakugo created explosions to propel himself but what Araki did surprise every one. He ran towards him too. As soon as the two reach a close distance, Bakugo send another explosion making a smoke cloud before trying to fly sideways.

Before he can even escape, a hand grabs his left arm and before he knew it, his vision was flipped upside and he was already on the ground.

Everyone was aware of what happened. After Bakugo attacked, Araki was unfazed and grabs his opponent's arm to slam him on the ground.

"What… happened?" Bakugo was stunned after being slammed to the ground. He was surprised because every time Araki attacks him, or slam him, he would feel the pain but it would disappear immediately.

Realizing it, anger took over his body again before sending flying towards Araki while keeping his distance and sending massive explosions.

*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*

The continuous barrage would be overkill to any of his peers. He even felt the straining of his arm as the recoil of the explosions were sent back to his body.

"Bakugo! Stop! That's too much!" Yaoyorozu said. Along with her are their other concerned classmates. After more than a minute of continuous explosions, Bakugo landed on the ground, sweating and panting. His exhaustion were caused not only by his quirk but also the mental stress he didn't know affected him.

The results of this bombardment were the big cloud of dust, and massive damage on the floor. Seconds pass as the dusts start to disappear and a figure appears on the middle. It was Araki with tattered clothes. Luckily, it was mostly on his upper body.

There they see his body and some of the girls even covered the eyes of their classmates as a joke. Because Araki was currently facing them, his abs, chest, and arms, were almost on full display. He has no other choice but to remove the remaining cloth on his body.

What welcomes them isn't a voluptuous, amazing, chest, but a chest with a big stab scar on the middle. Araki turns around to the restroom which shows his back that surprises the students again. There's an exit wound bigger at least as big as the one on his chest.

"*Gasp*, how did he get that kind of wound?" Ashido asks to herself.

"The question is… How is he alive? At the very least, that's were his spine is." Asks Mineta.

However, before another can ask a question, Yaoyorozu chimes in. "Guys, let's not ask him questions about his scar unless he talks about it. It may be a traumatic experience for him."

Yaoyorozu, remembering how Araki treated the villains last time, thought of a connection. 'He probably experienced a traumatic experience with a villain before, maybe even as a kid.'