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CHAPTER START---
"So, who's up first?" Horizon asks, staring down all the 2nd Year Students in this completely silent arena.
The crowd seems to hold a collective breath as the students share concerned glances.
The Hero Course students immediately have all eyes on them, and among them, 2A naturally gets the most attention.
"You're smart," Kendo says to Momo. "You must have thought of a plan to fight him, right?"
"Yes, live in a different hemisphere and send robots to deal with him," Momo says quietly. "Shoto, Bakugo, and Deku will likely move first, just wait until they get his attention and make a break for the flag, that's my plan."
Kendo eyes the flag standing behind Horizon, "mhm..."
"This tension is insane!" Present Mic says. "To think Horizon himself would be the first obstacle, looks like he found a loophole to participate in the games after all!""I can't imagine a more difficult obstacle than this," Vlad King says. "He's effectively forcing everyone to work together without fully trusting each other at the same time, all the team planning they did minutes earlier was torn apart in one move, done directly after they likely shared some of their unique skills with their presumed allies."
"Attacking the bonds between comrades! How devious!" Present Mic says. "What do you think Eraser, who'd you bet on?!"
"Horizon," Eraser Head says. "It's more than 100 versus 1, but, this is as far from fair as those students will ever face in their lives. Luckily the goal isn't to defeat him, but to get to the flag."
"I see some movement from the competitors!"
As the announcements went off, as if a silent agreement had been made, the students waited for Midoriya, Bukugo, or Shoto to make the first move.
Shoto and Bakugo had the same thought, wait for the others to charge forward, and in the moment Horizon responds to crush them, rush toward the flag.
They knew this was still likely impossible, but it was a better shot than a direct confrontation.
While they were somewhat confident in facing Horizon during the 1-on-1 section of the Sports Festival, at this stage there were no ring-out rules for them to use against him, so it was best to secure a spot in the next stage instead.
However, Izuku Midoriya had an entirely different thought.
With one brave step, he's the first person to cross the starting line.
The people watching unconsciously lean forward, excited to see what's about to happen.
"Izuku Midoriya from class 2A is the first to enter the course!" Present Mic announces. "This student made it to the final even last year before losing to Shoto Todoroki in an incredible clash of power. Now one year later everyone is excited to see how that explosive power provided by his Quirk, Super Power, has developed!"
Midoriya takes a deep breath, looking directly at Horizon, still standing there with his hands in his pockets.
'One For All: Full Cowling 45%!' Electricity begins dancing around Midoriya's body as his hair seems to move on its own as if it were in the wind.
His muscles feel tingly and his bones are almost creaking with each step, walking diagonally to Horizon so there isn't anything between himself and the flag.
Eventually, Midoriya stops and faces the flag, then crouches down into a sprinter's stance, yet Horizon hasn't done so much as turn his head toward the boy.
Bakugo's hands begin sweating, flexing his fingers to relax his joints and prepare for an onslaught of explosions.
Frost begins gathering on Shoto's right side, cooling his body in preparation for the flames he's about to unleash as a booster.
BOOM!
The air shatters as Midoriya launches at the flag in a green sparking blur.
The ground around him shattered just as the sonic boom broke the air, many people covered their ears and were startled at the sudden burst of power.
It all happened so fast that Bakugo and Shoto didn't even have time to take more than a single step over the starting line, before they came to a stop once more.
They were all amazed even and the crowd erupted into cheers, as "IZUKU MIDORIYA ADVANCES TO THE NEXT STAGE!" was announced.
Because there at the other side of the arena, Midoriya was sweating profusely, his entire body shaking uncontrollably, and the flag pole was in his hand.
The UA logo on the flag changes for a moment to show '1' before changing back.
He stakes the flag back into the ground before taking a few steps away, still shaking and sweating uncontrollably.
'That was too much,' he thinks to himself, tuning out the crowd. 'I can maintain 45% for a while, but pushing myself to 60% can only be done for one burst, but it was enough,' he sighs in relief.
Back with the students, Bakugo is furious while Shoto is completely confused, if anyone they'd expect Horizon to use the games as an excuse to beat up Midoriya, but yet, he didn't even more while the flag was captured.
He was still standing there, like a statue.
Midoriya, while still panting heavily, walks back over to Horizon.
"I doubt I was too fast for you, so I was right, about the puzzle," he says.
Hearing that everyone is confused, but Horizon just chuckles and turns to face Midoriya, leaving his back to the other students as they all begin rushing to the flag, "the first to move is often who life rewards the most, honestly you could have just walked over here while they were all frozen in place..."
Midoriya's shoulders relax, "I guess my usual overthinking came in handy this time."
While they spoke the other students already began rushing toward the flag, eventually parting like water around an immovable object when they got to Horizon and Midoriya, harmlessly moving around them.
"Strategy and problem-solving is part of life," Horizon says. "And this game reflects all aspects of life...or at least the ones I could fit within it. If you aren't the first to move, things usually get exponentially harder."
As he said this and it was announced through the speakers and broadcasting systems, Bakugo had already made it to the flag, with Shoto flying via flames a few meters behind him.
But when his fingers were millimeters from touching the flagpole.
The entire thing simply disappeared.
Bakugo skids to a stop as everyone else begins looking around the arena, then not finding the flag they look to Horizon.
"Didn't you hear me?" He asks. "Things get exponentially harder if you aren't the first to move, remember to stick to the course, you've got 1 Hour to get to the flag."
"So it's at the end of the course?" one of the General Studies students asks.
"Something like that, but I'll give you a hint, the name of this game," Horizon takes a hand out of his pocket and points to the sky. "Is 'Skyward', so..."
TAKT!
The entire arena along with all of UA begins shaking as massive chunks of earth are ripped from the ground just outside the arena.
The surrounding fields of UA are excavated, forming massive looping paths curling like a spring above the arena and toward the sky.
Over 10km of track, uphill, on what seems like a massive floating spring made of earth and trees.
As if he stretched out a small mountain and simply hung it in the air, the shadow cast was both awe-inspiring and terrifying, and a moment later massive rings appeared around certain sections to act as checkpoints.
Each of the massive paths was at least 150ft -50m- wide and they intertwined and crossed over each other, and the small bits and pieces of earth that fell from them simply hung in place as if they were stuck in the orbit of the track.
"And one last touch," Horizon mutters as part of the earth directly outside of the stadium lifts to connect to the floating track, acting as a ramp so everyone can simply run to the track.
As soon as this happened Shoto wasted no time and began skating on ice through the tunnel and past the first checkpoint.
BOOM!
Bakugo's explosions seem to snap everyone out of their trance and get them focused back on the event, "don't think you're beating my icy-hot!" he screams while trying to catch up.
Both Horizon and Midoriya are warped away as the crowd stampedes through the tunnel, ready to truly begin the first event Skyward.
"Oh, right, I'm the only student here until someone else touches the flag," Midoriya says as he appears in the almost empty seating area of 2A, above the civilian seats, high above the arena.
"Well done Midoriya!" Yagi says, waving his one arm for Midoriya to join him at the front row.
"All Might, what're you doing here?" he asks while taking a seat beside his mentor.
"Well, I knew this is where he'd send you after you passed, so of course this is where I'd be..."
"What an insane course!" Present Mic says as the students take off. "Eraser Head, how confident are you in this not going terrible for us, considering where we are?!" he says while looking up at the massive track floating above their arena.
"I don't doubt that Horizon can hold up a mountain with his brain, we'll be fine," Eraser Head says.
"I'm more worried about the other students," Vlad King says. "If this is the course, I can't imagine what traps he has laid out on it for them..."
Meanwhile, in Horizon's viewing area, he has his feet up while scrolling on his phone, seeing the social media response to his latest spectacle.
All the members of Team Horizon were fully suited up in their Hero Costumes, minus their masks, sitting on couches and seats nearby watching the games.
"Where'd you even come up with this idea, seems insane, and unsafe," Sero asks.
"Oh, I was looking up ideas for interesting race tracks and found one that everyone hated from this super old game, the thing came out over 300 years ago," Horizon says.
"Was it called 'Rainbow Road' or something like that?" Juzo asks.
"Oh, you've heard of it?" Horizon asks. "That's surprising."
"I like looking into old stuff," Juzo says.
"What's more surprising is you letting Deku advance that easily," Shinso says.
"Well he solved the little riddle part of it, and if I'm going to be so critical of him, the least I can do is be fair," Horizon says. "Besides, I'm excited to see what else he's capable of..."
END CHAPTER---