"ALLLLLLRIGHT, here's the play-by-play!" Present Mic boomed, leaning forward in the booth. He turned to Shota. "Come on, Mummy Man! Aren't you going to help me commentate?"
"You forced me to come."
"Well, what should we pay attention to in the early stages?"
"This part right now."
š¦¹š¦¹š¦¹
The first years of UA crushed together in a great mass, fighting to push forward through the crowded tunnel. People were getting stuck, trampled.
"Already, the first culling has begun," Todoroki Shoto said calmly, behind all of them.
Then, he stomped his foot down.
A great hill of ice surged out through the tunnel and beyond, creeping up the walls of the arena. Shoto slid forward on it, going up and over everyone, placing more ice behind him as he emerged at the front.
"What the hell? It's freezing!"
"Hey, I'm stuck!"
He ignored their pleas. Just keep going.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE TRYING TO PULL, ICY HOT?" Bakugo shouted, using explosions to fly over the ice.
"Naive, Todoroki-san!" declared Yaoyorozu, vaulting over with a metal pole.
"Wink!" Aoyama declared, winking and shooting out over the ice, propelling himself with his laser.
Tokoyami was using Dark Shadow to propel himself. Ashido was sliding along the ice on her acid shoes, slipping for a moment before finding her footing and cracking a smile. "It's gonna take more than that to count me out!" she shouted.
Shoto had expected some of his fellow classmates to avoid it, having been in a villain attack and all. But many from other classes had dodged as well, more than he'd expected. "At least I'm still in firā" Huh?
"GRRR, ICY HOT!" Bakugo was yelling. "AFTER I BEAT YOU, I'M GONNA OBLITERATE THAT CRACKHEAD!"
Shoto turned, not understanding who he was talking about. Thenā¦ his eyes widened.
Kagamine was flashing forward around the first turn, a few meters at a time. Each time he would warp back into existence would be like a running step, then he would leap and flash forward again. He had a regular rhythm going, continuing to get further and further ahead of everyone else. And he had a determined expression on his face. Of course, thought Todoroki. I haven't really paid attention to him, but his Quirk is made for doing well in events like this.
I may have to adjust my strategy.
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"OHHHH!" Present Mic was shouting. "TODOROKI SHOTO MADE A BIG OPENING STATEMENT AT THE TUNNEL, BUT KAGAMINE LEN IS ALREADY PULLING AHEAD OF HIM!"
Len blinked, confused. He was going around the first turn when he realised that he didn't see anyone ahead or around him. I knew I was fast, butā¦Ā
He looked back and saw a great ice structure covering the first section of the course. At the front of it, Todoroki was sliding towards him. Bakugo and other Class 1A members were not far behind. Everyoneā¦ got caught in the tunnel. But I flashed ahead and avoided the crowd, as well as Todoroki's attackā¦ I'mā¦ in FIRST?
He couldn't believe it. Shaking his head hard, he continued to make his forward warps to finish out the first turn. JUST DON'T THINK ABOUT IT! JUST KEEP GOING! JUST KEEP GOā¦Ā
Something hard swiped him in the side of the head, and his rhythm was shattered. Len went flying into the dirt, his head pounding. He sat up, confused. Whaā¦Ā
The entrance exam robots loomed down over him, blocking the way to the rest of the course and victory. Their metallic green bodies clashed with the glow of their red eyes. Beyond, the rest of the race's frontrunners were arriving at the scene.
"Targets found," said a robot. "LOTS of targets!"
"The first barrier!" Present Mic exclaimed. "A robo-rampage!"
Len's eyes became saucers as the shadow of a robot leg grew in size over him. He half-flashed, half-rolled out of the way, trying to regain his footing.
Todoroki came running forward and brought his right hand low to the ground, creating two ice pillars at onceā¦ that expanded into a great ice wall. The freeze travelled up the legs and sides of the robots, halting them where they stood. The one swiping at Len stopped, as Len warped backward away from it.
"He froze them!" a student shouted as Todoroki went running off past the bots. "We can go under the legs!"
"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" the ice user's voice called back. "They're unbalanced in that positionā¦ and they'll fall."
Sure enough, the robots began to collapse in a great wave of dust and smoke. Len warped out of the way of one falling, and the dust cloud blinded him. I have to know which way is forward! He'd gotten disoriented by Todoroki's attack, distracted. And nowā¦
"TODOROKI SHOTO TAKES THE LEAD! ATTACK AND DEFENSE IN ONE ELEGANT MOVE! AMAZING! It's practically unfair, honestly."
"He made use of strategy." Aizawa's voice. "Despite being a recommended student, meaning he'd never seen the entrance exam robots before, he was able to analyse the situation and make the best of it."
"WOW!" Present Mic rumbled.
Len coughed, trying to see which way to go through the dust. There goes my lead, I guess. One thing became clear in his vision. Well, multiple things. Huge dark things. The robots, having formed a wall. As the dust cleared, Len saw that he was on the wrong side.
One of the robots began to rumble. "Huh? Someone's in there!"
"WHAAAT? Can people die during this competition?"
Kirishima burst out of the robot angrily, his body hardened. "LIKE I'D DIE!" he roared.
"EIJIRO KIRISHIMA FROM CLASS 1A WAS UNDERNEATH! THAT'S CRAZY!"
Another boy burst out next to him, also angrilyā¦ and shiny metal. "THAT CLASS A BASTARD DID THIS!" he roared. "IF IT HADN'T BEEN ME, SOMEONE MIGHT HAVE DIED!"
"TETSUTETSU TETSUTETSU OF CLASS 1B WAS ALSO UNDERNEATH! THAT'Sā¦ CRAZY!"
"Wow, you can do better than that, right?" Aizawa's bored voice chimed in.
Someone from Class B began to speak. "We should work together to clear a paā¦"
"As if I'd wait around for someone to get ahead of me!" Bakugo snarled, using explosions to propel himself upward over the robot barrier.
"Come on, Kagamine!" Len whirled. It was Sero. "Don't stand around!" His black-haired friend was using his tape to swing up onto the top. Tokoyami was following, using Dark Shadow as a hitch.
"Hurry up, Len!" Mina slid forward and began trying to burn a hole through the robot rubble with her acid. "Ribbit!" Tsuyu was leaping past as well, using different flat parts of the fallen robots as platforms to leap up and over in steps. She hopped from surface to surface, using her tongue to swing up onto the top.