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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.
One of them spins to kick him in the side, and in response, he raises his right hand toward it while still flying with his left.
As the explosion is about to go off directly into the robot, a piece of rock slams into his forearm, directing the blast upward and allowing the kick to connect to his side.
"Argh!" he feels the metal foot slam into him, but before he can go hurtling into the ground below the second robot that leaped at him grabs his face and drags him down.
Slamming him into the dirt and pinning him down with its weight.
"What the hell," Bakugo groans as he's pinned down. 'Since when did these pieces of trash fight like this?'
As he thinks that, he flips his hand up, palm facing the sky, and releases a massive explosion to blow the robots holding him down apart.
Before the smoke could clear Bakugo moved through the cloud, getting behind his third target and swinging with an open right palm.
As he's about to connect the explosion begins to form, and without looking the robot crouches down and spins, kneeing him in the gut and sending him out of the smoke.
"Gah..." he tries to catch his breath after he stops rolling, then looks up to see the five remaining robots sprinting at him.
"Damn it!" Bakugo punches the ground as he gets up, taking a runner's stance with his arms behind him ready to activate his Quirk.
'So much for saving this for the next round, but since I'm fighting Horizon, then I may as well use it right now...'
He feels his arms becoming warmer, his muscles bulging, flexing, his bones creaking for a moment before they adjust.
His months of training came together once again for him to shine brighter than anyone else on this course.
CLA-CLA-CLA-BOOM!
Instead of his usual explosions, this time as he rockets forward at a new top speed, the explosive sweat is much more dense and concentrated, forming bright spherical explosions in his palm before they release the energy outward to push him forward.
Each explosion is like a white-orange star as it explodes behind him with more power than one of his Super Moves from this time last year.
Bakugo blitzes past these robots and is onto the next loop before the spectators can ever realize what's going on.
He makes it to the next section of the track where the paths converge, and two dozen robots are standing guard, but notices some scattered pieces about.
'Who the hell was already here, then must have gotten past me during that fight, freaking Icy-Hot!'
"Out of my way trash!" Bakugo screams as he rushes into the next swarm of robots.
With each destroyed robot he feels his body become lighter, his muscles get hotter, and his mind becomes clearer and more focused.
'One year,' he thinks as he clears this section and rushes on to the next. 'One entire year since Horizon and I first fought, and now I'm getting my rematch.'
He makes it to the next junction and sticks to the left path.
'But I'm not the same person I was back then,' Bakugo clears some more robots, taking some hits that set him back slightly but still not disappointed by his own pace.
'I'm not delusional enough to think I can beat a monster like that. Someone who can make an entire track like this appears with a thought, someone who can fight all the competitors at once without even being here...
I'll use him as exactly what he is, an insurmountable obstacle that pushes me to keep surpassing my limits and climb to heights that Deku and Icy-Hot could ever get me to reach!
That's your purpose for Nezu bringing you here after all, isn't that right, Horizon...'
---Many Loops Below...
Finally making it to the section of the course with the robots, Momo is leading the pack by riding a bike, followed closely by the weightless Uraraka and Asui duo as well as Tokage floating as a collection of body parts.
"I don't have time for Nezu's toys," Momo mutters as she creates a small grenade-like device in her right hand and throws it forward, directly into the middle of the robots.
As the group is about to reach the robots her grenade goes off, setting off an electric shock that seemingly powers them all down.
"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...