Chapter 38 Sports Festival 2

Dante rubbed his temples, muttering. "Who thought this would be a good idea?"

Still, Dante wasn't too worried. He had people he knew. He'd made some connections. He'd even fought along some of them. Surely—

He turned to Izuku with a smile. "You in?"

Izuku froze, looking around. "I uh… I already made a team! Sorry Dante."

Dante started at him with a blank expression, then it turned to disgust and his eyes started to glow red.

"You what."

"I—it's not personal! It's just… tactical!"

Dante grit his teeth and steam started to flow from his mouth, then he just sighed. "Fine. I see how it is."

Izuku flinched.

And just like that, Dante was alone.

'You would've held us back anyways, stupid bastard.'

He tried Bakugo next.

"LIKE HELL I'D TEAM UP WITH YOU, STUPID SLUDGE BASTARD! IM GONNA RIP THAT HEADBAND OFF YOUR CORPSE!!!!!!!!"

Guess not.

Next.

Todoroki didn't even reply, he just walked away with a shrug.

Next.

He asked Kaminari and Sero, but they made awkward excuses and slinked off.

Even Tetsutetsu ran away like Dante had the plague.

The whispers followed him everywhere.

"I'm not teaming up with him, we'll be targets!" "He's too dangerous." "He seems like an okay dude, but I'm not gonna go and get stomped because of him!"

Dante wandered through everyone, each rejection felt like a slap in the face. Literally everyone was avoiding him.

"…this… I swear to god…"

It had already been ten minutes.

He had no team.

He had no plan.

He had nothing.

His eye twitched.

The frustration started bubbling and the air around Dante started to heat up.

And then… snap!

Dante grabbed the nearest person by the back of their collar.

"Hey. You're on my team now."

"Wh—HUH?" The poor guy stammered. He was some random Class 1-B student, he had black hair and black eyes, normal looking guy.

"I said, You're on my team."

"I—I—i—uh…"

Dante's voice dropped low and his eyes glowed bright red.

"You've got two choices. Ride with me and win this whole festival… or stay here and fall behind with the rest."

The guy nodded so fast he nearly knocked himself out.

"YES SIR! I—I mean… yeah, great! Let's do this!"

Dante let him go, breathing heavily.

"Great, now that I've got a partner, we can win this."

After a while of making a plan, the countdown began.

"Ten…"

Across the arena, everyone's eyes were locked onto one target, Dante.

"Nine…"

Dante stood calmly in the center of the arena, arms crossed, looking utterly unbothered. On his shoulders was the only one who had the guts—or well, the one who was forced to say yes.

Dante had found out his name was Hiryu Rin, his quirk allowed him to cover his body in scales and even shoot them.

Dante could literally do that too but whatever…

They didn't have a flashy entrance or anything. They were just standing there, looking like they were about to fight off the entire world.

"Eight…"

Hiryu tapped Dante's head and leaned down. "Is this really gonna work?"

"We've already won." Dante muttered, his eyes scanning the masses like a hawk.

"Seven… six…"

Students flexed, adjusted uniforms and all prepared for the charge.

Dante just cracked his neck.

"Five… Four…"

Hiryu swallowed. "So…what's the plan exactly?"

"Three…"

Dante grinned eerily.

"To dominate, duh."

"Two…"

He crouched low.

"One—"

"START!"

A stampede erupted, explosions and bodies charged at them from every direction.

But Dante didn't move, he just smirked.

SHHHLLUUUUURRRGGHHHH—

In an instant, dark red sludge surged out of his body in violent waves, twisting and churning like smoke dipped in tar. It wrapped around Hiryu in a comfy dome of hardened sludge, completely sealed, fortified and immune to stray hands.

Then Dante let loose himself.

His body convulsed and warped, his limbs multiplied and twisted unnaturally. Sludge extended out from his body and retracted like actual muscle fibres snapping in and out of place, creating jagged claws, hundreds of eyes and a maw that split across his chest in a dark red toothy grin.

Tentacle like tendrils surged out, not to attack, but to twitch erratically, like nerves on fire, for the sole purpose of intimidation.

Everyone looked at him in horror.

He didn't look human.

He looked to horrifying to even be a villain.

This was something else entirely.

This was Dante's completely stealing-proof plan of victory.

The crowd gasped in horror.

Students halted mid charge.

Bakugo's team actually skidded to a stop. "What the hell is that?!"

Even Todoroki furrowed his brows, eyes narrowed as frost particles started to eminate from his arm.

Dante stood in the center of it all, monstrous, oozing and grinning wide.

The message was crystal clear.

"Come closer and see what happens."

No one dared.

Sero tried to fire tape on Bakugo's command, but it got sliced the instant it entered Dante's range.

Kirishima tried to charge, but he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the sheer number of tendrils.

Dante was truly a force of nature, unloving yet overwhelming. All around him, chaos unfolded, no one dared to get close.

Inside the protective dome, Hiryu blinked, his voice was muffled.

"…Are we winning?"

Outside, Dante's mutated form cracked his neck once more.

"Yup."

Of course, none of this would've been possible without little Dante helping out, it took Dante a while to convince him not to just kill everyone. But the simple fact of them being disqualified, thus losing the sports festival took that idea right out of his head.

And together, they became this… monstrosity.

Fifteen minutes, well thirteen minutes left.

But Dante didn't really want to use all thirteen.

He stood dead center in the arena, still unmoving, sludge writhing lazily across his form.

This form, it was very draining, Dante hoped he would have food after this. It drained him very fast. His limbs were throbbing due to the ache of the held tension. Every breath was rough.

But fear was doing enough, most of the work was done.

He looked over at the timer, 9:34. It had been a while, but it felt like years to Dante.

From within the dome, Hiryu's voice echoed faintly. "Most of them are backing off!" (Dante had given him a peephole.)

Of course they were backing off.

Dante didn't need to answer. He wouldn't waste any movements, no shifts. The less he moved, the longer he could hold this form.

He let his many eyes and his sludge sense track all of the smarter students, the baby hitters like Todoroki, Bakugo and even Izuku's team of Tokoyami, Uraraka and Mei, they were all stood still.

They seemed to be thinking.

Good.

Let them think.

No matter how much they thought, Dante was confident in always being smarter.

And the more they thought, the more time Dante had.

Instead, it was just the reckless dumb ones that came. The dumbass kids that passed the first trial with luck, deluded into thinking they'd be the ones to score ten million points in a blaze of glory.

They were really easy to deal with.

All Dante needed to do was flex a singular tendril, it cracked the ground like a whip.

To which, they scattered like bugs.

8:12.

His body twitched. The form wavered for just a moment, barely, but he could feel it. The burn in his muscles, his stomach starting to growl.

He shifted weight slightly and locked his knees, letting the excess mass solidify over him like armor. His version of "resting."

Let the form protect Hiryu.

Let them fear the idea.

6:46.

A team approached cautiously, it was someone from Class 1-B. Dante recognized them, they had basic quirks. One of them pointed, barking orders at his team. "He's not moving! He must be out of energy!"

It was a smart guess.

But it didn't really matter.

Dante rolled his shoulder just enough to crack the sludge casing, letting out a low gurgle from his throat. It wasn't a threat, it was just a sound.

But it was a pretty scary sound…

So they backed off for now.

4:28.

Dante's vision was starting to blur. He needed to focus.

"Keep calm. Slow breaths. Minimal movements."

That's all this was now. It was just a test of control. It was a test of patience!

From inside the dome, Hiryu tapped the surface lightly. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Dante muttered without even moving his lips. "Shut up."

Hiryu backed up. "Cool. Cool cool cool…"

Dante wasn't okay. This felt like doing a one handed plank for two weeks straight and being forced to do it for another fifteen minutes after thinking he'd completed it.

3:01.

Another team made a move. It was some blonde guy from class 1-B again, his team was solid and he had a cocky grin on his face.

Dante didn't flinch.

The moment they got in range, he flicked a tendril out.

The guy was knocked straight unconscious.

1:44.

Everyone had given up now, Bakugo and Todoroki's teams were just scraping up the points from everyone else.

No one dared to challenge Dante.

But Dante himself? Boy was he struggling.

But he couldn't let the form drop. Not yet.

Almost over…

0:38.

His head throbbed. His calves cramped. Sweat ran down his temple under the Eldrich horror created by sludge.

The price was building up.

So was the silence.

No one. Not a soul around him.

Just him and the echo of his own breath.

0:12.

He allowed himself a slow exhale. The dome flickered, just for a second, but it held.

0:06.

The form suddenly broke.

The sludge all retracted into Dante and he transformed back into his normal form.

This didn't go unnoticed.

A team immediately darted towards him.

Dante's eyes widened.

That's when Hiryu stepped in.

*PEW!*

A few green objects hit the shins of the approaching team, causing them to fall over and cause a pile of angry students.

Dante looked up to see Hiryu, who had shot some scales at them and grinned.

3… 2… 1…

Before another team could approach…

BUZZZZZZZTT!!

The buzzer screamed out across the stadium.

And only then did Dante collapse to the ground, all of the sludge retracted back into his body. He fell to one knee, panting hard, chest heaving. Down stumbled Hiryu, falling on his backside on the floor next to Dante.

"…We won!" He blinked. "Holy shit, dude you weren't lying!"

Dante looked up for a moment with a grin. "Jeez, thanks for that at the end there, you really saved me."

Hiryu rubbed the back of his head with a wide grin.

Dante kept grinning through the sweat, steam rising from his body.

Because TEN MILLION POINTS (and 55 extra) stayed exactly where they belonged.

And through that whole battle, not one person laid a finger on him.