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pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (30+ chapters ahead)
CHAPTER START---
Entering the same arena from the combat stage, Horizon immediately sees a swath of destruction. Collapsed buildings and rubble all around.
The entryway and a few areas directly around it were clear of any debris. And directly in front of the entrance was a massive green circle, marked by a glowing line.
Currently the students were looking around trying to get a grasp on the situation, and Horizon was off to the side simply waiting for instructions.
"Welcome to the final stage," the announcement says. "999 of you advanced to this round, your goal is simple. We've placed actors to play the part of civilians that are trapped in the debris and rubble. You have to find and rescue them, when all the civilians are relocated to the safety area at the entrance the exam is complete and we'll calculate your scores.
Your job will also be to keep the civilians safe within the safety area as well. The scenario is a simple terrorist attack. Alright, begin..."
The moment the voice stops almost everyone rushes forward to begin searching for civilians, desperate to get some points.
Horizon takes out one of his cards and looks around, finding a nice open spot to begin warping people to.'I'll just warp them out of the debris and let everyone else deal with the first aid crap,' thinks literally the only doctor in the arena.
He sees a few students nearby looking at him expectantly, coming to the same conclusion as him and ready for some easy points.
ROOM!
He opens a modest room of 300 meters. Immediately locating some civilians.
After rescuing the first dozen civilians without saying a word he's already bored, just waiting for the exam to be over.
BOOM!
The arena shakes as part of the wall crumbles, and out floods men in black body suits and grey masks with large blaster-looking devices on their left arms.
Everyone in the area turns to see the newcomers with worried looks, and those looks become horror when Gang Orca and Mirko step out of the dust cloud, dozens of their footsoldiers running out and charging forward at the safe zone.
"I get it," Horizon says, causing everyone nearby to look at him. "They said we need to keep people in the safe zone, these are the villains that are trying to challenge that. If you can't fight just focus on treating them..." he says before casually walking toward the villains.
Horizon walks toward the villains with both hands in his pockets, even as he's standing only thirty meters away with their footsoldiers flanking his sides, all aiming their weapons at him.
Orca glares at him, and raises an arm to the side to stop Mirko from charging in, causing her to shoot him an annoyed glance, tapping her foot in excitement to fight.
They come to a tense standoff for a moment as both teams analyze each other.
'Gang Orca and Mirko...they shouldn't be that big of a problem,' Horizon thinks while creating a new ROOM, spanning 100m around him, just enough for the upcoming fight. 'I can't Amputate them, that would end the fight too quickly and I wouldn't learn anything.
This is a good chance to test out my new style of more direct confrontation. Of all the heroes Mirko is physically second only to All Might, at least when it comes to striking power. And Gang Orca is also a brawler with raw power like Shishido...I can't waste this chance.'
On the other side Gang Orca is the only one of the Pros doing any strategic thinking, Mirko is much more like Bakugo, completely instinctual. He looks at Horizon as menacingly as he can, yet Horizon doesn't react.
'Fearless...his Quirk is powerful, but he's a bit too cocky...' he looks past Horizon to see other students in a quickly cobbled-together combat formation a hundred meters away. 'Well at least he inspires confidence in others, they're willing to bet on him to deal with most of us and are waiting to deal with whatever gets past him...a good plan in this situation.
Fighting beside Horizon isn't good if you don't know what he can do. Once we get in too close for him to use that sword we'll be fine...' Orca decides as he raises a finger to scratch his head.
"Alright, fire," he orders, and all the villains with weapons do exactly that.
In the first wave, two dozen people fire shots of liquid cement out of their Cement Guns. A capture tool used to restrain Power Types from a distance. A cement-like liquid which begins expanding when it hits the air and then hardens.
As each of the shots is only 3 meters away from their shooter, en route to hitting Horizon.
SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES SHAMBLES
All the shooters swap with their projectiles, and because his warping doesn't cancel momentum, they shoot themselves in the back.
Seeing what happened and his men stumbling forward as it hardens on their backs Orca raises his hand to stop them.
'He doesn't need to move to activate warping, that's problematic, so his quirk really doesn't have any tells.'
"Let's just kick his ass already!" Mirko yells from beside Orca, her patience running thin.
"Ranged attacks don't work," Orca announces, "just leave him to us, go test the other students!"
As he says that Horizon begins rushing forward, surprising everyone as he doesn't even draw his blade.
Gang Orca's men do as they're told and rush past him, a mob of villains moving like a wave moving around a boulder.
"FINALLY!" Mirko yells as she rushes forward, spinning into a roundhouse kick aimed directly at Horizon's face.
SHAMBLES!
'What!' Gang Orca is surprised as they swap places, leaving Horizon standing a few meters away and Mirko all the way back where Horizon was.
BOOSTER SHOT!
Horizon swings out with a strong right, boosting it just before the moment of impact.
"Too cocky," Orca says as he swats the punch away, countering with a hard left jab.
Horizon raises his left hand as if to catch the punch, "Curtain!" his barrier forms and blocks the hit.
As he blocks Orca is already rearing back his right arm to strike again, and Horizon does the same.
BOOSTER SHOT!
He amplifies his strength multiple times, a stronger punch than he'd ever done before, intent on testing himself against Gang Orca.
Horizon drops the barrier and his right fist clashes with Orca's.
'FUCK!' he feels all the bones in his hand and wrist shatter on impact.
Orca reaches out to grab his neck.
SHAMBLES!
He swaps with Mirko who was already behind him to surprise him with a kick, causing her to hit Orca and send him rolling across the floor.
"Crap," Mirko sees Orca try and fail to catch himself in a controlled roll. Turning around she sees Horizon standing up and flexing his right hand, the bones already healed as if they were never damaged.
'How do I get close to him, outspeed him?' Mirko actually stops to think, growing more and more annoyed every time he warps her.
"Stop warping me away you coward!" She screams at Horizon. A moment later she hears Orca getting up behind her and walking toward them.
"I'm just testing out some new things, so fighting both of you at once is annoying," Horizon says.
"Don't stop rushing him," Orca says, already standing beside Mirko and dusting off his white suit. "His warping must require some focus, even if it's minimal, we can use it to stress him out."
"Good plan, won't work, but good plan," Horizon says jokingly.
"Arrogant child, and if we beat you?" Orca asks.
"Yeah...if," Horizon's response pisses off both Pros.
SHAMBLES!
He swaps with Mirko, already swinging a punch directly at Orca's face, making full contact.
Orca stumbles back, 'I actually felt that one, his file didn't say super-strength...'
Mirko turns around and rushes the duo, only to be swapped with a nearby rock. And every time she'd get too close he'd do the exact same thing, all while brawling with Gang Orca.
Sitting in the stands, already having repositioned to be closer to Horizon's fight Eraser Head is looking at it with very critical eyes.
Seeing Horizon and Orca brawling, admittedly a one-sided brawl.
For every three hits Horizon lands, Orca would come close to landing one, only for Horizon to either avoid it, block it, or parry it.
'Gang Orca clearly fights like a boxer, but Horizon is a lot more technical than any one martial art can make you....'
Eraser notes Orca being pushed back, but Horizon's hits are carefully placed to inflict as much pain as possible, even at the cost of an opening to perform a knockout hit.
All while constantly warping Mirko to the edge of his room.
'I see, he's using the pain to make it difficult for Gang Orca to focus, he's scared of his Sonic Wave attack. He wants to keep the brawling going. He's using two of our strongest heroes as practice dummies, intentionally holding back to test...something, I wonder what.'
After a few rounds, Eraser sees Gang Orca with cuts and bruises all over his body, and the knuckles of Horizon's gloves worn down just a bit.
BOOSTER SHOT!
Horizon rears back for a strong right, landing it directly in Orca's face and causing him to take a few steps back.
"Heh, you're out of steam," Orca catches his footing and smiles viciously at Horizon, glaring at the boy. "That hit was a lot weaker than the others, you're getting tired huh..."
"How about you come and find out?"
Taking a deep breath Orca straightens up, then steps forward and throws a strong right.
'Sonic Wave!'
Using the punch as a distraction he barely tilts his head down and releases his sound attack, the sonar of an orca amplified to absurd levels, enough to shatter concrete with one attack and nearly grind it into gravel.
The clothes on this right arm gets caught in his own attack, destroying his entire right sleeve and causing massive cuts on the skin.
Had it not been for that arm Horizon would not have warped away before the attack even hit.
But the fact that the fabric of his sleeve was destroyed was also a warning, otherwise, the invisible sound wave would have hit and possibly given him a small opening.
The moment the fabric was destroyed Orca and Horizon swapped places, and the stone in front of Orca was completely pulverized by his Super Move.
He cuts it off, ready to turn around and swing at Horizon, but freezes, feeling a hand holding the dorsal fin on his back.
"Counter Shock!"
"ARRRGHHHG!!" Orca's smoking and twitching body crumples to the floor.
And in the stands, the scouts for Hero Agencies, Pro Heroes, and exam proctors all gape in horror and amazement.
All aside from Eraser Head, who completely expected this from Horizon. But he can't help but smile as Mirko stops running and just takes a casual walk toward Horizon.
Her face nearly turned purple from how pissed off she was.
Turning to look at her Horizon sighs, 'shit...Gang Orca was physically tougher than expected, if I couldn't finish him with just physical power then Mirko is out of the picture...guess I'll test out how good Incision is.'
"Finally ready to get your ass beat?!" Mirko drops into a fighting stance, eyes focused on Horizon.
He just draws his sword without taking his eyes off her, "show me what you've got, bunny girl..."
Mirko grinds her teeth in rage as she rushes forward, the ground beneath her feet cracking as their fight begins...
END CHAPTER---