CHAPTER 296(Skyward Pt.II)

CHAPTER 296(Skyward Pt.II)

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CHAPTER START---

"Out of my way Icy-Hot!" Bakugo screams as he rockets past Shoto, making their way up the winding earth tendril course Horizon made.

"Watch it!" Shoto yells as he uses his flames to get out of Bakugo's way, intentionally slowing down to let Bakugo get past him.

As Bakugo takes the lead Shoto smirks, then looks back to see all the other students trying to catch up.

He sees Tokoyami closing in and waves his hand back, creating a blast of fire that ignites the grass behind him.

'That should stall hi---' Shoto's thoughts are cut short as Tokoyami uses Dark Shadow to dig into the cylindrical course and crawl along the underside, avoiding the flames.

'Attaching himself to the underside to avoid direct sunlight and my flames, looks like he'll be a bigger problem than I thought,' Shoto thinks as he keeps rushing ahead, using Ice to form a path and flames to push him forward.

'If I let Bakugo go first he'll trigger any traps Horizon has on this course, while all I need to do is be one of the first 16 people to touch the flag, no point in revealing any of my new moves this early.'

"Tokoyami Fumikage takes second place!" Shoto hears just before the announcement gets out of range.

As he completes the first loop Shoto looks over the side, seeing the stadium hundreds of feet below him, and among the course floating out of range are drones with cameras on them.

Looking above him Shoto sees flickering light and hears the explosions of Bakugo's Quirk on the loop just above him, and on this loop he sees a large red ring floating around it.

'So the checkpoint is a concentric circle with the track in the middle of it, allowing people crawling below it to pass that way if they want, a fight in all planes...'

As he realizes this he sees that directly above him Tokoyami is flying on the underside of the next loop.

"Tch, just because taking the lead isn't my goal doesn't mean I'll let you two embarrass me," he puts more power into his fire and ice, rocketing forward even faster.

Meanwhile, in the lead, Bakugo was enjoying the wind rushing past his face, not even feeling any pain or soreness as his explosions launched him ahead of the competition and up the track.

Enjoy his freedom to unleash his Quirk on the world's stage he quickly completes another loop, then reaches a junction in the course.

"What the hell..." he mutters as he comes to a complete stop, planting his feet on the dirt track and looking ahead to see it split into three parts.

Two made of earth on the left and right, and one in the middle made entirely of what smells like seawater.

Yet around each, he could see a checkpoint, all sharing the same number '3'.

'So I have to pick a path, and the middle is probably for people like Froggy who are faster in water, since flyers and regular people can use the normal track, whatever, I just have to keep moving...'

BOOM!

Bakugo launches up the left path, moving faster than before as he clears another loop.

This time instead of diverging paths, he's met with what appear to be UA Training Robots.

More humanoid in appearance but each was now 10ft -3m- tall, no longer inspired by animals they simply looked like big metal people.

"Tch, you'll have to do better than that to stop me!" Bakugo screams as he accelerates even more, moving higher, above the robots. "I'm not wasting my time on this piece of trash when the real fights are in the next stage!"

As he screams all the camera drones are focused on him, seeing him soar over the robots.

Then suddenly all their heads turn to him, and with one massive leap two of the robots leap the 15m -45ft- distance into his path.

Bakugo's eyes widen for a moment, never seeing UA's Training Robots acting like this before.

"Thanks Yaomomo!" Tokage yells from above.

"I don't suppose you're thankful enough to let me touch the flag first?!" Momo asks.

"Ha, not even with you bo---!" Tokage trips over her words as Momo glares at her. "Not even with the world watching!"

The girls get past the awkward moment as they rush into this swarm of robots, yet the moment they're in the middle of the swarm one of the robots swings its hand out to grab Momo.

"Look out!" Uraraka tackles her out of the way, sending them both rolling in the dirt.

"Tha---" Momo's words are cut off as she suddenly becomes weightless and gets thrown back down the track, losing her lead completely.

"I'll get you some snacks later as an apology!" she hears Uraraka yell as the robots begin engaging.

Momo creates a blade from her forearms and stakes it into the ground to anchor herself, looking up at the fight in time to see Uraraka touch a few of the robots, making them weightless and then throwing them into the air.

She sees Uraraka taking the lead and gets up, making roller skates on her feet with larger rubber tires for the dirt track, and begins rushing back to them.

'I don't get it, that EMP grenade should have short-circuited those robots, they never failed before, something doesn't seem right. They waited until we were close, playing dead so they could strike, did Nezu reprogram them for this game...'

As she's catching on to what Bakugo had instantly realized earlier, the robots move toward Uraraka, flying with no obvious assistance toward the girl.

One by one she sees all her friends quickly being overwhelmed, forced to work together, and when one of the robots is shattered to pieces and falls at her feet.

Momo sees the inside of it is completely hollow.

"Oh my god..." she mutters, looking around at over a hundred students fighting these robots all at once. "Horizon is controlling all of these with his telekinesis."

"Looks like another student figured it out folks!" Present Mic announces as Momo's shocked face is broadcast to the world. "Game Master Horizon is controlling all these metal puppets from his comfy spot in the stadium, that's why it seems like they can fly and have eyes in the back of their heads, pretty cool right!"

The crowd looks both astonished and horrified at the sight of one student simultaneously controlling a small army of puppets with apparent ease, only for Present Mic to snap them out of their daze as the broadcast changes.

"And looks like we've got another student at the flag!" he says as the screens show Bakugo rocketing toward the flag, on the final stretch. "Looks like he's had a rough journey but he made it after all!"

Making it to the flag Bakugo stopped in front of it, his clothes were slightly torn and burnt, caked in dirt from all the times he'd been sent rolling across the floor.

His hands were already aching, but nothing he couldn't deal with before the real fights began.

And looking back he didn't see anyone in sight, "guess I got a good lead on them after all," he says as he touches the flag, and instantly warps away.

As he arrives in the 2A seating area, he sees Midoriya and All Might sitting there watching the games as Present Mic announces his name.

"Katsuki Bakugo secures his spot in the next round!" Present Mic announces. "Well, Eraser Head, are you surprised the first people to qualify are from your class?!"

"I can't honestly say I am," Aizawa says. "I would have been more surprised if those three didn't qualify..."

Bakugo smiles at that, then a confused expression forms on his face, "Wait, what the hell does he mean 'those three'?"

Bakugo looks around, only to see Tokoyami sitting in the back, clearly exhausted.

His feathers were dirtied and slightly matted in some places, his beak had a small crack with a bandage on it, and his left arm was in a sling.

"What the hell happened to you?" Bakugo asks, more curious than angry or surprised.

"I don't want to talk about it," was all Tokoyami said before limping away from the observation area...

END CHAPTER---

The chapter was a bit later because tournament arcs are hard...